You may have seen this posted on Yahoo or Google, but I was sent this through an email. I couldn’t believe what I saw! I thought this would be a funny for everyone to see. Ok, not that funny since he was hurt, but I just didn’t see it coming! A mountain biker in Africa is jumped by a native antelope.
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Posted by hebenzin
93 year old Rochus Misch, the last remaining body guard is Hitler calls it quits to answer fan mail from around the world after 65 years. Misch served as Hitler’s telephone operator and courier aswell. Surprisingly mail that Rochus recieved was not negative. He would answer all that he could and he also sent out signed photos of himself, to fans all around the world.
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Posted by sewise6
Given the fact that environmental activists don’t cause much serious damage in the world, it is astounding that governments spend so much effort to infiltrate the groups. The Brits seem to be working to uncover the undercover cops who have infiltrated UK environmental protest groups. This story reveals that one of the undercover cops married and had kids with one of the activists he was “surveilling.”
The cops defend the undercover agents as necessary given a small number of members ”intent on causing harm, committing crime and on occasions disabling parts of the national critical infrastructure”. Alas, they don’t offer up any examples of such criminal activity.
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Posted by John Krygier
This first video…well, ha ha, I don’t know what is really going on. These people must really like their trees. Were people this crazy in the 90s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka4sTfySkFo
This second video I think is not really on topic. But, I found myself holding onto my desk really tight when watching this video. There’s a small camera attached to the top of a guy’s helmet. The video is filming his climb to the top of a tower…not just any tower, but one that is several thousand feet off the ground. Watch it full screen to enhance the feeling. It’s incredible. My hands hurt from gripping onto my desk so hard.
Now for the real news:
http://www.enn.com/lifestyle/article/41449
It’s an older article from June 2010, but it’s still ongoing issue.
Greener cities.
The EPA will be working with the 50 state capitals (hitting all 50 would be unlikely) to create regulations that restrict usage of certain things that would harm the enviroment.
Each year, starting in a few months, three to four cities will begin their projects to go “greener”.
Many non-capital cities have already begun green projects such as:
“Oakland, California uses renewable sources for generating energy and plans to be oil independent by 2020.
Eugene, Oregon with its Emerald Express, the first hybrid public transport system was the first city in the 1960′s to embrace the Green revolution.
Cambridge, Massachusetts dubbed as the “Best Walking City in US”, has most city vehicles fueled by B20 biodiesel or electricity.
Berkeley, California is recognized as a leader in the incubation of clean technology for windpower, solar power, biofuels and hydropower.
Seattle, Washington runs an extremely successful incentive program where residents are encouraged to install solar panels on their homes for energy conservation.
Chicago, Illinois — The windy city has gone green. The “Chicago Green Roof Program” has ensured that more than 2.5 million square feet of city roofs support plant life.
Austin, Texas with 206 parks, 12 preserves, 26 greenbelts and more than 50 miles of trails plans to go carbon neutral by 2020.”
Pretty soon some cities may look like this:
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Posted by Bobby St. Clair
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/09/07/herorats.detect.landmines/index.html?hpt=C2
This is awesome. I really don’t like rats, but somehow I think they are cute little furry things. So in Mozambique, a company called APOPO is training these rodents how to sniff out…no not bombs, but land mines. Mine sniffing rats? Hecks yea!
Bart Weetjens is the “brains and buddhist monk” behind the mind sniffing rats. I get the “brains” part, but what does being a Buddhist Monk have to do with this?
Anyway, so these rats are native to Africa, so they are immune to the tropical diseases in Mozambique and in Tanzania (where they are used to detect uh…tuberculosis? <<–CNN didn’t say anything about these rats.
They begin training at like 4 weeks old, just when they begin to see. Now, the price to train just ONE rat is…drum roll – $7,700!! PER RAT!! But apparently that is only half the cost of training a mind sniffing canine, which is the most common animal used for this type of job. But $7,000 for a rat is a lot of money.
Why would you use these rats in the first place? Mr. Weetjen said that they are so light in weight, that when they step on the mines, the triggers aren’t, well, triggered. Therefore, if you don’t want your Labrador Buddy blown to pieces, then get a rat to do the job (I apologize if any of you actually had your Labrador named Buddy blown to pieces, and did not mean to offend you).
Now what does this article have to do with the environment?
The Geneva International Center for Humanitarian Demining has been optimistic about using more rats to detect the mines. These rats have been trained to sniff in holes, and when they detect TNT, they are taught to scratch the ground with their paws (is that what they are called on rats?) which then notifies the team that there is an active mine in that hole.
Africa has seen decades of war, of who knows how many land mines are still hidden all over the vast continent? Although Mr. Weetjen said that convincing the public to use more rats for this purpose isn’t going well, I think that eventually they will catch on to how awesome these rats are. In just one day, one of these highly trained special ops rats can uncover an average of 17 mines. Wow.
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Posted by Bobby St. Clair
Source: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/31/concrete-eating-acid-at-former-california-mine/
Frank Springer Comics
So in California, there is a plant that has been closed off to the public for the past 45 years. For the past 45 years, concrete eating acid has been leaking. The EPA has spent $20 million to clean it up. It is still leaking. (BP?) That’s pretty much the story.
I like how they said that the scientists have been “trudging through the steamy, toxic sludge” in order to clean up what obviously can’t be cleaned. Although the acid has been contained to the site (somehow) the potential hazards that it can have on the environment are astounding. The EPA, in order to minimize the potential hazards, created a facility that monitors the nearby river to make sure that the continually (and growing) 2% leak of acid stays out of the waters.
Rick Sugarek “…it’s like battery acid coming out of the mountain”
yuck. I wonder why they decided to write a story on it now, when it has been a problem for the pasty 45 years. Way to go EPA
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Posted by Bobby St. Clair
Here’s an interesting storieng regarding the hazardous chemicals in iPhones. This is something I would have never thought of, and may be over the top, but is still just as interesting. Take a look.
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Posted by jpfranz
Nuff said. From Boing Boing via somewhere else.
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Posted by John Krygier
“Happy, little green parrot who calmly burrows through the still-living flesh of sheep and dines upon their kidney fat while they lay bleating in terror.” More stuff to worry about from mother nature. Info and video here.
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Posted by John Krygier
News of the WeirdTM
(c) 1999-2001 , Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
| Check out previous News of the Weird Columns
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<!–CHUCK SHEPHERD’S NEWS OF THE WEIRD by Chuck Shepherd–>
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 27, 2009
LEAD STORY
A male Swedish college student, Ragnar Bengtsson, 26, has begun pumping his breasts at three-hour intervals in a 90-day experiment to see if he can produce milk. If he succeeds, he said, it could prove “very important for men’s ability to get much closer to their children at an early stage.” A professor of endocrinology told the daily Aftonbladet that male lactation without hormone treatment might produce “a drop or two,” but suggested that men instead consider offering their breasts to babies as a matter of comfort and warmth, rather than as food. Bengtsson, who will report regularly on his progress via Stockholm’s TV8 channel and the station’s Web site, acknowledged that his timetable would sometimes require that he pump during classes. [The Local (Stockholm), 9-2-09; Aftonbladet, 9-2-09]
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Posted by 0ats
