17.Mar.2010 An Ode to St. Patrick
I am 25 percent Irish, so its only right I pay homage..Cheers
16.Mar.2010 The Rocket Powered Helicopter
nstead of using a fixed motor attached to the body of the helicopter to drive the blades, the rocket powered helicopter using small rocket motors install at the tips of the blades to power it. There is no engine installed on the Dragonfly DF1, the hydrogen peroxide rockets produce no pollution and with less vibration and improved stability. The Dragonfly can stay aloft for 50 minutes and has a maximum speed of 40 mph. Watch the video!
Kids Complain About Pluto’s Declassification out of the Solar System
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Rare All-Black Penguin Spotted
King Penguins are notorious for their prim, tuxedoed appearance — but a recently discovered all-black penguin seems unafraid to defy convention. In what has been described as a “one in a zillion kind of mutation,” biologists say that the animal has lost control of its pigmentation, an occurrence that is extremely rare. Other than the penguin’s monochromatic outfit, the animal appears to be perfectly healthy — and then some. “Look at the size of those legs,” said one scientist, “It’s an absolute monster.”
The under-dressed penguin was photographed by Andrew Evans of National Geographic on the island of South Georgia near Antarctica. As the picture circulated, some biologists were taken aback — including Dr. Allan Baker of the University of Toronto. His first response was disbelief:
15.Mar.2010 The World’s Shortest Man, He Pingping, Dies Aged 21
The world’s shortest man, He Pingping, who was just 74.6cm (2ft 5in) tall, has died in Rome. He was born in 1988 in Wulanchabu, China, with a form of primordial dwarfism, and was officially recognised as the world’s shortest man in 2008. He was admitted to hospital two weeks ago after suffering a chest complaint and died on Saturday, but his death has only just been announced. Guinness World Records said he had made a “huge impact around the world”. “From the moment I laid on eyes on him I knew he was someone special – he had such a cheeky smile and mischievous personality, you couldn’t help but be charmed by him,” said Craig Glenday, Guinness World Records editor-in-chief. World’s shortest man in September 2009″ For such a small man, he made a huge impact around the world,” he added. Mr Pingping was in the Italian capital to take part in the filming of a television programme called The Record Show. According to the TV production company Europroduzione, he had already filmed two episodes of the programme when he complained of feeling unwell. “He started to feel slightly ill and we decided to take him to hospital. He entered hospital two weeks ago and had all kinds of tests, being a very special person he had to go though all sorts of tests. He went into intensive care three days after he was admitted,” said Marco Fernandez de Araoz, communications director for Europroduzione. He said that Mr Pingping died on Saturday afternoon and, at the request of his family, his body would be returned to China to be buried.
Teacher Writes ‘Loser’ on Student’s Assignments
AOL News (March 14) — The mother of a sixth-grader in Buncombe County, N.C., is upset about name-calling in her daughter’s classroom — but the students aren’t the ones slinging the mud.
Patty Clement is debating other parents in Candler, N.C., over Rex Roland, a teacher who sometimes writes the word “loser” on the assignments of his 11- and 12-year-old students.
Clement first noticed Roland’s notes in November, when he wrote “loser” in the margin of her daughter’s paper. The principal at Enka Middle School assured Clement it would not happen again, but it did, recently, when Roland wrote, “minus 20% for being a loser” on her daughter’s assignment.
“This is wrong,” Clement told Asheville’s WLOS-TV. “The techniques need to change.”
Other parents defend Roland’s progressive teaching methods, saying he is fond of giving nicknames to students and using the word “loser” in jest, as a way of relating to students.
“A lot of the students he has are academically gifted students, and so one of the ways that he would joke with them would be if they scored a 110, he always gave extra credit, so if they scored a 110, 120 on a paper, he would have a joke on it — ‘loser’,” one parent, Kathy Andrews, told WLOS. “That’s what he engages in … he gets on their level and their words and tries to relate to them.”
Her son, Ian Andrews, a former student of Roland, described him as “the cool teacher that people wanted to be in class with.”
Clement said the difference in opinion over Roland, a 12-year veteran at Enka Middle School, has made her daughter a target of bullying and harassment. She told The Associated Press her daughter received almost 100 threatening text messages last week, forcing Clement to keep her home from school.
New Jersey Mother Aiming to be Fattest Woman in the World
Donna Simpson, from New Jersey, weighs 273kg but told the Daily Mail newspaper
she had her heart set on reaching her goal weight of 1000lb (450kg) in two years.The 42-year-old already holds the title of the world’s fattest mother after giving birth
to her daughter in 2007 when she weighed 241kg.“I’d love to be 1000lb … it might be hard though, running after my daughter keeps
my weight down,” Ms Simpson told the Daily Mail.Ms Simpson, who needs a mobility scooter to go shopping, eats huge amounts of
junk food each week and tries to move as little as possible so she doesn’t burn off
as many calories.“I do love cakes and sweet things, doughnuts are my favourite,” she said.
Ms Simpson said she also loved eating sushi and would often eat 70 big pieces in
one go.Her 49-year-old partner Philippe — who she met on a dating site for plus-size
people — was encouraging her to reach her goal, she said.
13.Mar.2010 11 Siberian Tigers Starve to Death in Zoo
BEIJING – Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China’s frigid northeast, state media said Friday.
A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease.
Siberian tigers are one of the world’s rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild.
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