Thursday, November 1, 2007

Boy playing with matches began fire in California





A boy playing with matches has confessed to starting a wildfire that destroyed 63 structures near Los Angeles, officials said. The unidentified youngster, believed to be a pre-teen, was questioned by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators on October 22, a day after the Buckweed fire started rampaging across 38,000 acres (15,000 hectares) in the Santa Clarita area, 50 km north of downtown Los Angeles.

The boy “admitted that he had been playing with matches” said sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore yesterday.

The Buckweed fire was one of about 24 conflagrations that ravaged sothern California last week.

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

World’s oldest animal found





British scientists have found a 400-yr old clam, the world’s longest-living animal, off the coast of Iceland, which may reveal the secret of longevity.

The scientists say the discovery of the quahog clam, a bivalve millusc, aged between 405 and 410 years old, might allow them to get a better understanding of the ageing process, as well as revealing the secrets of a long life.

The creature was nicknamed Ming, after the dynasty which ruled China at the beginning of the life.

“When the animal was a juvenile, King James 1 replaced Queen Elizabeth 1 as English monarch. Shakespeare was writing his plays – Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth – and Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for espousing the view that the sun rather then the earth was the centre of the universe,” Bangor University said in a release.

The scientists calculated the age of the animal by counting the annual growth rings on the shell, a technology similar to that of estimating a tree’s age.

Vegetable And Fruit Bra







Well designing yourself with toilet papers!! Is that not enough .. people have now come up with a new bizzare idea ..Which is called a vegetable bra??
Really amazing and amusing when i have a glance of it.. Designed with carrots, cabbage leaves and a hint of fruits like cheery and grapes really make it delicious ... According to me :-)

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Giant of dino world





Argentine and Brazilian paleontologists claim to have found a giant plant-eating dinosaur, Futalognkosaurus dukei, that roamed the earth some 80 million years ago. The dinosaur measured at least 32 m (105 ft), making it one of the tallest dinosaurs ever found, said Jorge Calvo, director of the paleontology centre at the National University of Comahue, Argentina.

“This is one of the biggest (dinosaurs) in the world and one of the most complete of these that exist,” he said.

Its name (pronounced foo-ta-long-koh-sohr-us) is derived from the Mapuche Indian words for “giant chief of the lizards” and from Duke Energy Argentina, a company which helped fund the excavation.

Scientists believe the skeleton discovered in Patagonia represents a previously unknown species because of the unique structure of its neck.

Calvo said the dinosaur’s remains possibly washed into river, creating a barrier that collected remains of other nowfossillised animals, fish and even leaves found at the site.

Since the first bones were found on the banks of Lake Barreales in Neuquen, Argentina in 2000, paleontologists have dug up the dinosaur’s neck, back, hips and the first vertebra of its tail.

Calvo said the skeleton also showed signs of its owner having being eaten by predators.

Alexander Kellner, a researcher with the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, said the fossilized ecosystem pointed to a warm and humid climate in Patagonia, which had forests during the late Cretaceous period. The area is steppe-like now and almost bare of vegetation.

“It’s among the biggest dinosaur finds and the most complete for a giant dinosaur finds and the most complete for a giant dinosaur. The accumulation of fish and leaf fossils, as well as other dinosaurs around the find, is just something fantastic. Leaves and dinosaurs together is a great rarity. Its like a whole lost world for us,” said Kellner.

The study appears in the journal Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, reports the BBC.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Human race will split into two different species: report



IN 1900, experts made predictions for the 20th century. They got much of it wrong, but a lot right - housework never became fun, but we did get the Internet and the nuclear bomb.
If the accuracy of 1900 is a guide, researchers in Britain may be right this time. They have predicted that the human race may be split into two different species in 100,000 years' time - an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures.
"The human race would reach its physical peak by the year 3000. People would become choosier about their sexual partners, causing humanity to divide into sub-species. The descendants of the genetic upper class will be tall, slim, healthy and attractive from the underclass humans.
"But in the near future, humans will evolve in 1,000 years into giants between 6ft and 7ft tall while life-spans will have extended t0 120 years. "Men will have symmetrical facial features, deeper voices and bigger penises. Women will all have glossy hairs, smooth hairless skin, large eyes and pert breasts." according to lead researcher Oliver Curry of London School of Economics.
Curry has also said that 10,000 years later reliance on technology will have begun to dramatically change the appearance of the human race.
"while science and technology have the potential to create an ideal habitat for humanity over the next millennium, there is a possibility of a monumental genetic hangover over the subsequent millennia due to an over-reliance of technology reducing our natural capacity to resist disease."he said.