The last speaker of an ancient tribal language has died in the Andaman Islands, breaking a 65,000-year link to one of the world’s oldest cultures.
Boa Sr, who lived through the 2004 tsunami, the Japanese occupation and diseases brought by British settlers, was the last native of the island chain who was fluent in Bo.

Perhaps a little tart in the bathroom?

Mildred’s Temple Kitchen is inviting customers to have sex in its bathrooms. The Valentine’s weekend promotion takes uncomfortable but electrifying sex from the close confines of an airplane and transfers it to the unisex stalls of the Hanna Ave. restaurant.
The Liberty Village restaurant proposes its modern bathrooms become one [...]

India: fast food nation
Live and let live, right? We’ve all heard the phrase a million times, and it connotes that true-blue American sentiment of accomodation and freedom of choice. But what about when our choices are trashing the earth? Then it seems the only remedy is pointing out our own foibles again and again until [...]

Straight out of China comes “The Machismo!” – billed as “the world’s hottest cigarette lighter mobile phone.” Does that mean there’s more than one? Like, are there other, lesser, not-as-hot cell phones with built-in cigarette lighters? Nothing would surprise me after seeing this.
According to the product description on Chinavasion.com…

Just what we need. Murray Hill Incorporated has just announced its intention to run for Congress in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.
Murray Hill Inc. is believed to be the first “corporate person” to exercise its constitutional right to run for office. As Supreme Court observer Lyle Denniston wrote in his SCOTUSblog, “If anything, the decision in Citizens United [...]

Forest in Maryland.
Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a [...]

New research identifies the ’speed gene’ contributing to a specific athletic trait in thoroughbred horses.
Groundbreaking research led by Dr Emmeline Hill, a leading horse genomics researcher at University College Dublin’s (UCD) School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine has resulted in the identification of the ’speed gene’ in thoroughbred horses.

A shocking story took place in China. A nine-year-old girl gave birth to a healthy baby in Changchun Hospital in China’s northeastern province of Jilin. Doctors performed Cesarean section on the little mother after she started having contractions.
The baby-boy was born weighing 2.75 kg. Medics said that both the mother and child were “fine,” China’s [...]

Zero Rupee banknote
Special zero rupee banknotes have been issued by an anti-corruption campaign to challenge India’s bribe culture.  Campaigners from the Fifth Pillar charity, which confronts corrupt officials using freedom of information legislation, have issued notes bearing the image of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of its freedom struggle.
 

There is a strong link between heavy internet use and depression, UK psychologists have said. The study, reported in the journal Psychopathology, found 1.2% of people surveyed were “internet addicts”, and many of these were depressed.
The Leeds University team stressed they could not say one necessarily caused the other, and that most internet users did [...]

These are three rotting fish heads.
Decaying corpses are usually the domain of forensic scientists, but palaeontologists have discovered that studying rotting fish sheds new light on our earliest ancestry.

Ten Word Wiki describes itself as “an encyclopedia for the ADD generation.” The site is like Wikipedia, but all entries are limited to ten words. Since there aren’t that many entries yet, you may want to browse the “recent changes” tab and then take a stab at some entries of your own!
Here is the entry [...]

Stealing Goosey was just way harder than he thought
The week began with a lonely button lying on the side of the road. Then the stock market went crazy, the economy jumped up and down, many people lost their jobs, and the President made a series of speeches about things that no one cared about. Throughout [...]

UK citizens can claim a cash reward by attempting to peacefully arrest former prime minister The Reverend Tony for crimes of aggression.
Newspaper columnist and author George Monbiot has launched a website offering guidelines for people seeking to undertake a citizen’s arrest of Blair, as well as accepting donations to reward those who try.

Here’s chewing at you!

You know how they say eyes are the windows to the soul? Well apparently a Pyrex plug is the window to your teeth and gums. Who knew?

…presumably refraction of transmitted light explains the visualization of both top and bottom teeth through the plug.

Puff, puff, Puffin and away!!!

NASA is developing an aerial vehicle that will probably come as close to the personal jet-pack we were looking forward to.  The “Puffin” features Vertical Takeoff and Landing, an electric engine, and a face-melting top speed of 300 miles per hour.  They are already fine tuning its performance values for military use:
The rather [...]

An environmental campaigner protesting against the grim outcome of GM crops.

Fresh fears were raised over GM crops yesterday after a study showed they can cause liver and kidney damage.
According to the research, animals fed on three strains of genetically modified maize created by the U.S. biotech firm Monsanto suffered signs of organ damage after just [...]

Scott Allen over at Mental Floss posted a very timely piece about the warm climate countries that participate in Winter Olypics.

The Winter Olympics are traditionally dominated by athletes from countries where winter brings freezing temperatures and snow, but that hasn’t stopped a number of athletes from more tropical climates from infiltrating the ranks of the [...]

Even though he had a heart of gold, literally, the rest of his wiring was totally shot
Our lives happen one incident at a time. If some incidents were somehow able to overlap other incidents, then we could finally learn to be in many places at one time. And we would catch ourselves coming and going. [...]

Yoga Heals The Mind and Frees The Body

Prisoners in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh are being freed early if they complete yoga courses.
For every three months spent practising posture, balance and breathing the inmates can cut their jail time by 15 days.
The authorities say the lessons help to improve the prisoners’ self-control and reduce [...]

Norway is blowing away other countries in wind power.
Norway already boasts the world’s first floating wind turbine, and is apparently the windiest coastline in Europe, making it perfect for even more turbines. Or a turbine city, like On Office’s proposal which shows a stunning vision of the future.The Turbine City concept from the architectural firm [...]

Too much to choose from
Modern life is making us miserable because we have too much choice, claims new research.
 

The six most vunerable areas for colleges
After looking at all the signals, there is no other way to describe it. Colleges are under attack.
Several legs of the financial stools upon which they are sitting have been kicked out from under them, forcing higher tuition rates on an already cautious base of consumers. But money is [...]

Attacking Low Birth Rates In South Korea Is Now Routine

South Korean government workers are being given an unusual instruction – go home and multiply.
At 1900 on Wednesday, officials at the Ministry of Health will turn off all the lights in the building.
They want to encourage staff to go home to their families and, well, make [...]

Oh so Tiny!

A Taiwanese artist has created what he claims is the smallest sculpture of a tiger ever made – so small it could fit through the eye of a needle, and can only be seen properly with a magnifying glass.
Chen Forng-shean, who has been sculpting as a hobby for around 30 years, carved the [...]