December 2007
''Holy smoke'' in nunnery tops 2007 weird news →
By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) - From a Greek nunnery turned into a marijuana farm by two men posing as gardeners to a South African man with a gunshot wound told by a doctor to ”walk the pain off,” the world was full of weird news in 2007. A…
Wired News - AP News →
Ancient pyramid found in central Mexico City →
By Miguel Angel Gutierrez MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously…
Telephone turf war may change history - Phones... →
WHO confirms human-to-human birdflu case →
Uh-oh…
A far from cracking surprise - a dead mouse →
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - A New Zealand woman who pulled apart a Christmas cracker got more than the party hat and joke she had expected, finding a dead mouse. Betty Lawrence, a grandmother from the South Island city of Invercargill, made the discovery…
Pantone cranks up the whalesong →
The Top 10 New Organisms of 2007 →
It's Sir Michael after paper talks up Parky... →
About bloody time, too.
Arm bot wins Robot of the Year - Technology -... →
I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords…
Police raid penis enlargement spammer - Security -... →
Man fatally mauled at zoo - World - smh.com.au →
Energy law pulls plug on Edison's light bulb →
By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The light bulb Thomas Edison invented 125 years ago is getting more than a make-over. The government is pulling the plug on it. The landmark energy bill President George W. Bush signed into law on Wednesday…
''Virgin'' birth stem cells may offer tissue bank →
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Human egg cells can be tweaked to give rise to valued stem cells that match the tissue types of many different groups of people, U.S. and Russian researchers reported on Wednesday….
Snakey smells help squirrels stay safe →
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It’s scary being a little, tasty squirrel, but some species of the rodents have come up with an intimidating camouflage — snake smells. California ground squirrels and rock squirrels chew up rattlesnake skin and smear it on…
Foster care boosts IQ of children in orphanages →
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Abandoned children in Romania who were removed from orphanages and put in foster care had far better reasoning, language, and other intellectual skills than those who remained, U.S. researchers said on…
Whales may have evolved from raccoon-sized... →
CHICAGO (Reuters) - In the search for a missing evolutionary link to modern whales, scientists have come up with an unlikely land cousin — a raccoon-sized creature with the body of a small deer. Prior molecular studies have proposed the hippo as…
University to scrap relic of atomic age →
By Lewis Krauskopf NEW YORK (Reuters) - One of the oldest artifacts of America’s first experiments with nuclear power, a 70-year-old atom-busting machine, will be junked, Columbia University said on Thursday. The 60-tonne machine, called a…
China raises sunken merchant ship after 800 years →
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - An 800-year-old merchant ship was raised from the bottom of the South China Sea on Saturday, loaded with artefacts that might confirm the existence of an ancient maritime trade route linking China and the West. The 30-meter…
Chinese police dog may teach pandas to fight →
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Scientists in China may use a police dog to teach pandas to fight after the first artificially bred panda released into the wild was apparently killed after a battle with other animals, local media reported on Saturday. The…
German chicken tests positive for H5N1 flu strain →
BERLIN (Reuters) - A third case of a chicken testing positive for the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in the northeast German state of Brandenburg was confirmed by state authorities on Wednesday. A police spokesman in Neuruppin, north of Berlin,…
Regular flu vaccine may help against H5N1: study →
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ordinary seasonal flu vaccines may provide a small amount of protection against bird flu, Italian researchers reported on Wednesday. Their study is among the first to support the idea that getting an annual flu shot may help…
Egyptian woman dies of bird flu →
CAIRO (Reuters) - A 25-year-old Egyptian woman has died of bird flu, Egypt’s Ministry of Health said on Wednesday. It is the first human death in Egypt from the virus since June and the 16th since the disease arrived in early 2006. The…
Passport office in need of spellcheck →
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s national passport office could have done with a good spellchecker. First it stamped ”Ministry of the Intrerior” in English in new batches of passports. Then it advised Israelis of the misspelling in a jumbled newspaper…
Funeral director charged with ashes fraud →
It’s surprising anyone still thinks the ashes they get are of their loved ones.
UFO debate invades politicians' space →
TOKYO (Reuters) - A debate over flying saucers has kept Japanese politicians occupied for much of this week, ensnaring top officials and drawing a promise from the defense minister to send out the army if Godzilla goes on a rampage. ”There are…
Feuding Korean clans end 400-year fight over... →
PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - After nearly 400 years, a few killings and scorned pleas from a king, two powerful clans have settled one of the longest-standing feuds in Korean history, over ancestral burial grounds. The clash between the Yoon family…
Maradona wants to meet Iranian president →
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Former Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona says he wants to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a leading U.S. foe, local media reported on Monday. Maradona, an outspoken critic of the administration of U.S….
Can GPS system track my dog? Putin asks →
MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he was keen to use Russia’s planned global positioning system GLONASS to look after his black Labrador Koni. ”When can I buy hardware to equip my dog with so that she won’t run away too…
Go ahead, egg my Hummer →
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Hummer owner in Russia’s second city St. Petersburg has given antiglobalists the green light to pelt his oversized vehicle with rotten eggs, Russian news agencies reported on Wednesday. ”Peter Antiglobalist” activists told news…
Dalai Lama ''is not a call girl'' →
OTTAWA (Reuters) - When Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to explain in a year-end interview why he’d met the Dalai Lama in his Ottawa office, it was clear he wanted to show respect for the exiled Tibetan leader. Unfortunately, it didn’t…
Moon is younger and more Earth-like than thought -... →
Lawmakers and consumers ask FDA to delay cloning... →
By Christopher Doering WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Food and Drug Administration should delay a decision on whether milk and meat from some cloned animals are safe to eat until additional safety studies can be conducted, a Democratic lawmaker and…
Italians crack open DNA secrets of Pinot Noir →
By Ben Hirschler LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters Life!) - Italian scientists have cracked open the genetic make-up of Pinot Noir, responsible for the great red wines of Burgundy, in a breakthrough that may lead to hardier vines and cheaper fine wines. The…
Gene engineering corrects Fragile X in mice →
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Genetic engineering can correct the worst symptoms in mice of Fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental retardation and autism, U.S. researchers reported on…
Deer-like fossil is a missing link in whale... →
US budget cuts a 'body blow' to particle... →
Got fleas? Get the vacuum →
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vacuum cleaners kill fleas just as well as any poison, surprised U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They said a standard vacuum cleaner abuses the fleas so much it kills 96 percent of adult fleas and 100 percent of younger…
Magna Carta fetches $21.3 million at Sotheby's... →
By Christopher Michaud NEW YORK (Reuters) - A rare 710-year-old copy of the Magna Carta, among the most important historical documents ever to hit the auction block, sold for $21.3 million on Tuesday at Sotheby’s. The document was bought by a…
100 arrested for not having toilets →
KAMPALA (Reuters) - Local authorities have arrested at least 100 Ugandans for failing to build toilets in their homes in the midst of a cholera epidemic that has killed 8 people and infected 164, state media reported Wednesday. ”We cannot watch as…
Carbon electrodes could slash cost of solar panels... →
North Sea cod quotas raised against scientific... →
Bamboo road bridge can support 16-tonne trucks -... →
'Painkiller' gene turned off in mice - health - 18... →
Spy planes to recharge by clinging to power lines... →
ET too bored by Earth transmissions to respond -... →
''Bully'' black hole blasts nearby galaxy: NASA →
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A ”death star” galaxy is sending out a powerful jet of particles and magnetic radiation that is likely obliterating any possible life in its broad path, notably in a nearby galaxy,…
More to find in Indonesia's ''Lost World'':... →
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Many more species are probably yet to be found in pristine jungle in Indonesia’s Papua province, where two mammals believed to be new to science were discovered in June, an Indonesian zoologist and a conservationist…
Disco babes bring Saturday night fever to Sundays →
By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - The lights are low, the groove is grinding and the disco ball is flicking over flashes of brilliance on the dance floor. But it’s not 2 a.m., Saturday, at one of the capital’s super-chic nightclubs. It’s 2 p.m.,…
Yes UFOs do exist, government spokesman says →
Of course they exist, the contention is what they actually are.