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!

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, a local animal protection agency, was quoted by the China Daily as saying 11 of the zoo’s tigers died of malnutrition in the last three months after subsisting on a meager diet of chicken bones.

Two others were shot dead by police in November after the hungry animals attacked a zookeeper, the report said.

Iron crates
The Liaoshen Evening Post, a local Shenyang newspaper, reported on its Web site that the company that owns the zoo was trying unsuccessfully to auction the zoo property, and many staffers complained they hadn’t been paid in 18 months.

Wu Xi, one of the managers of the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo Co. Ltd., told The Associated Press that “various kinds of diseases” had killed 11 tigers at the zoo over the past three months.

Wu said the animals were kept in iron crates indoors because it was an unusually cold winter and the zoo had no heating. He refused to specify what diseases the animals had or respond to allegations they starved to death.

The China Daily said the zoo was mainly privately owned, though the Shenyang municipal government holds a 15 percent stake.

Xie Yan, China director for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, said many Chinese zoos and wildlife parks have more tigers than they can afford to keep.

The animals are expensive to take care of because they require a lot of food and space to roam and ticket sales generally aren’t enough to support them.

INTERACTIVE

Caring for zoo seniors
The Golden Years have arrived at the nation’s zoos and aquariums, taking veterinarians and keepers, along with their animals, into a zone of unknowns.
‘Massive blow’
Xie said Chinese zoos began breeding tigers in the 1980s and captive populations increased rapidly in the 1990s. There are now about 6,000 captive tigers of various species in China, she said, but it’s not clear how many of those are Siberian tigers.

“In the past two or three years, people have started to realize it’s become a problem,” she said, referring to zoos that have more animals than they can afford to keep.

Xie said the government should do more to regulate zoos and enforce standards for animal care. She also said birth control is needed to keep the captive tiger population at manageable levels.

Chris Chaplin, a spokesman for WWF International’s Beijing office, said the news was “a massive blow” to conservation efforts.

WWF colleagues in Changchun, the capital of Jillin province, which neighbors Liaoning, were investigating the allegations, he said.