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Frugal teen buys house with 4-H winnings

Lindsay Binegar was 14 the first time she spent any winnings from years of showing hogs. She bought a purse. The second time, at 18, she splurged. She bought a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house with a two-car garage. And she paid in cash.

"I've never heard of a teenager buying a house," said Nikki Gasbarro, spokeswoman for the Ohio Association of Realtors. "Smart girl."

The Greenfield teenager has been saving money since she was 4 years old and won $100 showing a hog. "I didn't get the money; it went to the bank," said Binegar, now a 19-year-old freshman at Ohio University's Chillicothe branch.

And so the pattern began. She'd raise a few hogs every year on the family farm in Highland County, show them at competitions and add any winnings or sales proceeds to her savings account.

"She's pretty tight," said Lindsay's dad, Gary. "She's always been big into 4-H, and every penny she made she just banked." More

Somali sea gangs lure investors at pirate lair

ISomalia - In Somalia's main pirate lair of Haradheere, the sea gangs have set up a cooperative to fund their hijackings offshore, a sort of stock exchange meets criminal syndicate.

Heavily armed pirates from the lawless Horn of Africa nation have terrorized shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and strategic Gulf of Aden, which links Europe to Asia through the Red Sea.

The gangs have made tens of millions of dollars from ransoms and a deployment by foreign navies in the area has only appeared to drive the attackers to hunt further from shore.

It is a lucrative business that has drawn financiers from the Somali diaspora and other nations -- and now the gangs in Haradheere have set up an exchange to manage their investments. One wealthy former pirate named Mohammed showed off the small facility and said it had proved to be an important way for the pirates to win support from the local community for their operations, despite the dangers involved. More

Cash-strapped states go online, hoping to tax sales

For years, consumers have counted a legal quirk that allows many Internet retailers to forgo charging sales tax as one of the perks of shopping online. But as states face yawning budget gaps, there is a growing movement to lay claim to the billions of dollars lost through the loophole each year.

In most states, the burden is on shoppers to track what they buy online, calculate the sales tax owed and then pay it. In reality, few consumers fess up -- many do not even know such a requirement exists. That will result in $9 billion in unpaid state and local sales taxes this year, according to a study at the University of Tennessee.

Now, states are eyeing those dollars. About a dozen, including Maryland and Virginia, this year have considered legislation that would force online retailers to collect the tax, though only a handful of bills have passed. Some states have even taken the unusual step of asking sites such as Amazon to provide lists of what residents have bought and how much they've spent, sparking concerns over consumer privacy. More

The world's only immortal animal

The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.

Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life).

The key lies in a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Some animals can undergo limited transdifferentiation and regenerate organs, such as salamanders, which can regrow limbs. Turritopsi nutricula, on the other hand, can regenerate its entire body over and over again. Researchers are studying the jellyfish to discover how it is able to reverse its aging process. More

‘Cannabis crown' coming to Aspen

A version of Amsterdam's “Cannabis Cup” is coming to Aspen, in which medical marijuana growers, providers, patients and others in the industry will convene over one weekend in April.

The First Annual Western Slope Cannabis Crown, organized by Glenwood Springs resident Bobby Scurlock and the owners of High Country Caregivers, will be held April 17-18 at The Gant.

The conference is open to the public and will include speakers, live music, information booths, and most notably, a competition among providers that showcases their best strains. Growers and providers will vie for the “cannabis crown.”

Scurlock said he hopes to draw about 50 dispensaries from around Colorado and their strains will be tested by Denver-based Full Spectrum Laboratories. The marijuana strains will be diagnostically tested for their THC levels and how it matches up with patients' ailments. More

Study: Men Slack Off More Than Women

DENVER -- Researchers have confirmed what wives have long suspected: Men slack off more than women.

Each day American men on average have an extra 38 minutes of leisure time compared to women in the United States, according to a study of Western countries by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

Over the year that adds up to 13,870 minutes -- or almost 10 days -- of extra time off for American men compared to the chores that women toil through on a given day.

But Italian men are the world's slacker kings. Italian men have an average of almost 80 minutes more leisure each day than Italian women do. That's double the U.S. level, according to the OECD. More

Confucius says no to ‘subversive’ blockbuster Avatar

Here is the choice: a blockbuster involving noble aliens, evil humans and stunning effects that is breaking cinematic records all over the world. Or a patriotic film featuring the life of Confucius.

In China the public may not be given the choice at all. Despite long queues for tickets to see Avatar — which was expected to earn more than 500 million yuan (£45 million) at the Chinese box office — reports claim that the film will be removed from screens for being subversive.

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily reported that the state-run China Film Group had instructed cinemas nationwide to stop showing the 2-D version of Avatar from January 23 on orders from Beijing’s propaganda chiefs.

It is not just the desire to entertain the masses with a Chinese movie that has prompted the censors to step in and pull James Cameron’s hit from 2-D screens. The Government fears that too many citizens might be making a link between the plight of Avatar’s Na’vi people as they are thrown off their land and the numerous, often brutal, evictions endured closer to home by residents who get in the way of property developers. More

Placebos getting more effective. Drugmakers wonder why

Merck was in trouble. In 2002, the pharmaceutical giant was falling behind its rivals in sales. Even worse, patents on five blockbuster drugs were about to expire, which would allow cheaper generics to flood the market. The company hadn't introduced a truly new product in three years, and its stock price was plummeting.

In interviews with the press, Edward Scolnick, Merck's research director, laid out his battle plan to restore the firm to preeminence. Key to his strategy was expanding the company's reach into the antidepressant market, where Merck had lagged while competitors like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline created some of the best-selling drugs in the world. "To remain dominant in the future," he told Forbes, "we need to dominate the central nervous system."

His plan hinged on the success of an experimental antidepressant codenamed MK-869. Still in clinical trials, it looked like every pharma executive's dream: a new kind of medication that exploited brain chemistry in innovative ways to promote feelings of well-being. More

Jesus-Shooting-Santa Display Riles Neighbors

A Christmas display featuring Jesus shooting Santa Claus and a run-over Rudolph is riling some residents of a California neighborhood, KCOY-TV in Santa Maria, Calif., reported.

Homeowner Ron Lake said his Christmas display in Nipomo is an expression of his repressed creativity, and that Santa represents the commercialism of Christmas.

His neighbors disagree and they're upset -- they say the disturbing display will upset children. A school bus stop is just outside the fence that separates the display from the town's main roads.

"I know it's freedom of speech, but it's pretty disturbing and there are lots of children. That's our main concern," one neighbor said. More

Russian missile failure sparks UFO frenzy

MOSCOW -- The failure of a new Russian intercontinental ballistic missile during testing was the cause of spectacular spiraling blue lights in the skies over northern Norway, analysts said Thursday.

Russia's defense ministry said a Bulava missile was launched Wednesday by a nuclear submarine submerged in the White Sea and its third stage suffered an unspecified failure.

Photographs and amateur video footage of the bluish-white in the Norwegian skies have been circulating on the Internet since Wednesday and spawning speculation of UFOs. The ministry did not confirm the lights were the result of the failed launch but military analysts said they clearly came from the Bulava explosion.

"This kind of light show comes from a failed missile launch," said Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military analyst. "Russia has run free fireworks for the Norwegians." More

Overdue Library Books Returned Half Century Later

PHOENIX -- A high school librarian in Phoenix says a former student at the school returned two overdue books checked out 51 years ago along with a $1,000 money order to cover the fines.

Camelback High School librarian Georgette Bordine says the two Audubon Society books checked out in 1959 and the money order were sent by someone who wanted to remain anonymous.

Bordine says the letter explained that the borrower's family moved to another state and the books were mistakenly packed. More

Worldwide Slump Makes Nigeria's Online Scammers Work That Much Harder

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Online swindling takes dedication even in the best of times, the scammer said earnestly.

The spinal cord aches from sitting at a desk. The eyes itch from staring at a computer. The heart thumps from drinking bitter cola to stay awake for chats with Americans in faraway time zones. The wallet shrinks from buying potions that supposedly compel the Americans to pay.

Succeeding in the midst of a worldwide economic meltdown? That, he said, takes even firmer resolve.

"We are working harder. The financial crisis is not making it easy for them over there," said Banjo, 24, speaking about Americans, whose trust he has won and whose money he has fleeced, via his Dell laptop. "They don't have money. And the money they don't have, we want."

Banjo is a polite young man in a button-down shirt, and he is the sort of guy on the other end of that block-lettered missive requesting your "URGENT ASSISTANCE" in transferring millions of dollars. He is the sort who made Nigeria infamous for cyberscams, which experts say are increasing in these tough times. More

Look Ma, No Brakes!

What a profile they cut, slicing through the city: gorgeous, exotic, dangerous. You see them parked like emaciated steeds outside the coolest clubs.

They don't make much sense, yet for one more fleeting season at least, they are the rage in certain circles. Sort of dumb and super hip: the twin characteristics of many things in life.

We are talking about a bicycle. A very special kind of road bicycle, called a fixed-gear bike, or fixie for short.

A fixie has one speed, which makes it difficult to pedal uphill. A classic fixie has no brakes, which makes it difficult to slow on the downhill.

A fixie has no freewheel, the part that makes coasting possible. Instead, the chain directly drives the rotation of the rear wheel, which means the pedals always turn while the bike moves. More

CVS drops Obama Chia pets

CVS/Pharmacy said this week that it won't be selling the popular Chia pets depicting President Barack Obama anymore, becoming the second major franchise to drop the product.

Joe Pedott, the owner of the Chia franchise, said he's baffled by the drugstore chain's decision.

Walgreens removed the terra cotta heads in April after some complained that the product was racially insensitive. The issue made the round of blogs, talk radio and TV over the summer.

Walgreens' decision cost him millions of dollars, Pedott said. Nevertheless, the product's popularity has consistently grown -- especially after the controversy, he said.

"I can't think of any reason a store like CVS would want to stop selling it," he said Wednesday. More

How the Food Industry Has Made Bacon a Weapon of Mass Destruction

Among my fondest childhood memories is savoring a strip of perfectly cooked bacon that had just been dragged through a puddle of maple syrup. It was an illicit pleasure; varnishing the fatty, salty, smoky bacon with sweet arboreal sap felt taboo. How could such simple ingredients produce such riotous flavors?

That was then. Today, you don't need to tax yourself applying syrup to bacon -- McDonald's does it for you with the McGriddle. It conveniently takes an egg, American cheese and pork and nestles it between pancakelike biscuits suffused with genuine fake-maple-syrup flavor.

The McGriddle is just one moment in an era of extreme food combinations -- a moment in which bacon plays a starring role, from high cuisine to low. More

Cats Do Control Humans, Study Finds

If you've ever wondered who's in control, you or your cat, a new study points to the obvious. It's your cat.

Household cats exercise this control with a certain type of urgent-sounding, high-pitched meow, according to the findings.

This meow is actually a purr mixed with a high-pitched cry. While people usually think of cat purring as a sign of happiness, some cats make this purr-cry sound when they want to be fed. The study showed that humans find these mixed calls annoying and difficult to ignore.

"The embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of eliciting a response," said Karen McComb of the University of Sussex. "Solicitation purring is probably more acceptable to humans than overt meowing, which is likely to get cats ejected from the bedroom." More

10 Quirky Economic Indicators

Everyone is scrambling to get their fingers on the pulse of the economy. When will it turn around? Have we seen the worst? The answers may not be as elusive as you might think.

You’ll find all sorts of clues in everyday life to help determine where the economy really stands. The racks of dry cleaners, for instance, may seem a bit more cluttered these days, and it’s true—many people are stalling an extra week before shelling out to pick up their clothes. And to paraphrase a famous quote from other troubled times, don’t shoot back into the market until you see the whites of their eyelids: Eyeliner sales have surged during the recession.

When times get tough, people go to the movies. Box-office sales have increased in all of the last five recession years. According to the National Association of Theatre Owners, the number of movie tickets sold in the first quarter of 2009 increased more than 9% from last year. More

Amsterdam considering bank help -- for prostitutes

Amsterdam city council is turning its attention to a pressing problem for one of the city's key business sectors -- banking and credit for prostitutes who can't get accounts from mainstream institutions.

The city's red light district is famed the world over for its women in tiny windows and even tinier clothing, but despite the trade being legal, many banks shy away from taking the ladies on as customers.

As part of the city's "Project 1012" to remake the De Wallen neighborhood, which includes the sex district, the city council has been asked to find a way to help bordello owners and sex workers gain more access to banks.

"Up until now, it's been very difficult for people in the sex industry to get credit with the banks," a city council spokesman said on Friday. "For them it is a hazard that they can not get regular credit or help or mortgages or anything from a regular bank." More

Astronaut says we're not alone

Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, the sixth man ever to walk on the moon, has a message for all citizens of Earth: We are not alone.

"We are being visited," the 79-year-old grandfatherly "spacefarer" told 100 or so UFOlogists gathered at a National Press Club conference called by the Paradigm Research Group (motto: "It's not about lights in the sky; it's about lies on the ground").

"It is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence," said the astronaut who made the longest moonwalk in history. "I call upon our government to open up ... and become a part of this planetary community that is now trying to take our proper role as a spacefaring civilization." More

Two Buck Chuck Wins Award

Vin d'Expensive? Meritage Snooty? If that's the kind of name you were thinking would grace a winner of the California State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, get ready for a shock.

Try "Two-Buck Chuck," more formally Charles Shaw, the brand beloved of bargain but palate-sensitive wine shoppers. It's sold by Bronco Wine Co. exclusively through Trader Joe's.

Shaw's California Chardonnay took first place for Best Chardonnay from California. To some in the clubby California wine community, that must seem like a Michelin's Red Guide giving three stars to a roadside hamburger stand. More

Spain's Bullet Train Changes Nation -- and Fast

CIUDAD REAL, Spain -- To sell his vision of a high-speed train network to the American public, President Barack Obama this week cited Spain, a country most people don't associate with futuristic bullet trains.

Yet the country is on track to bypass France and Japan to have the world's biggest network of ultrafast trains by the end of next year, figures from the International Union of Railways and the Spanish government show.

The growth of the Alta Velocidad Española, or AVE, high-speed rail network is having a profound effect on life in Spain. Many Spaniards are fiercely attached to their home regions and studies show they are unusually reluctant to live or even travel elsewhere.

But those centuries-old habits are starting to change as Spain stitches its disparate regions together with a €100 billion ($130 billion) system of bullet trains designed to traverse the countryside at up to 218 miles an hour.. More

'Financial Crisis Created By White People With Blue Eyes'

Brazil's President, while meeting Gordon Brown, has said the global financial crisis was caused by "white people with blue eyes".

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva made the comments after talks with the Prime Minister to try to forge a global consensus on how to save the worldwide economy. Sky News' Joey Jones said it was an "uncomfortable" moment for Mr Brown.

"The President does not mind using fairly flamboyant language. He likes to give extensive answers to journalists.But some of it was rather awkward for the Prime Minister, who was standing there listening to the President. More

Ryanair mulls charge for toilets

Irish budget airline Ryanair has said it is considering charging passengers for using the toilet while flying.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary told the BBC that the Dublin-based carrier was looking at maybe installing a "coin slot on the toilet door".

Consumer group Which? said the airline was putting "profit before passengers".

Ryanair's PR chief Steven McNamara later played down the idea, saying: "I don't think it's going to happen in the foreseeable future".

"Will it happen long-term, I'm not really sure," he said. More

Being dead a big pain for Cottonwood woman

Kathrine Neubauer was declared dead several months ago. She's had nothing but trouble ever since. The 81-year-old Cottonwood resident lost her Social Security benefits. She's been unable to get bank loans or financing. Often, she can't even make common purchases.

"It's getting annoying and embarrassing," Neubauer said. "When I go to buy something, I don't know whether or not I am going to be dead." Neubauer's partner died three years ago.

Their finances were comingled in a trust, she said. In October, the Social Security Administration cut Neubauer's benefits, believing she had died with her partner. More

Pranks Involving Electronic Road Signs Stir Worry

Pranksters in at least three states are messing with electronic road signs meant to warn motorists of possible traffic problems by putting drivers on notice about Nazi zombies and raptors. And highway safety officials aren't amused.

The latest breach came Tuesday during the morning rush hour near Collinsville, Ill., where hackers changed a sign along southbound Interstate 255 to read, "DAILY LANE CLOSURES DUE TO ZOMBIES."

A day earlier in Indiana's Hamilton County, the electronic message on a board in Carmel's construction zone warned drivers of "RAPTORS AHEAD — CAUTION." And signs in Austin, Texas, recently flashed: "NAZI ZOMBIES! RUN!!!" and "ZOMBIES IN AREA! RUN." More

MP3 player guides rescuers to lost tourists

ZURICH - The light from an MP3 player saved two lost tourists from a chilly night stuck out in the snowy Swiss mountains, rescue authorities said Saturday.

The two -- a skier and snowboarder, both from France -- had got lost late in the day Friday outside marked runs near the resort of Savognin in southeast Switzerland, said Gery Baumann, spokesman for mountain rescue service Rega.

They were able to alert authorities using a mobile phone, but it then ran out of battery power, Baumann said. "The two winter sports enthusiasts were found by the crew of the Rega helicopter shortly after midnight -- thanks to the faint light of their MP3 player," he said. More

One artist's determination brings historic Native masks home for a visit

Helen Simeonoff doesn't look like Indiana Jones. She's bespectacled, quiet-spoken, not given to sudden moves and will turn 67 this month. Yet this smallish Sugpiaq woman from Kodiak is now receiving credit for discovering -- insofar as most Alaskans are concerned -- one of the most important troves of old art from her Native region.

She found it in France, among the towers of a 13th-century fort. Hundreds of items. Bowls, spears, bidarkas. And what may be the largest collection in existence of aged dance masks, witnesses to the era before Russian hunters claimed the area for the czar and Sugpiaq ways began to fade.

Her mind reeled as she stood among the artifacts, she said, the first Sugpiaq to view them in more than a century.

"I saw a beaded headdress from my mother's village of Old Afognak," she said. "And I thought, 'It could have been one of my ancestors who made that.' ". More

Santa is coming - to a Pub

It is the season to be jolly and Christmas revellers around the world don't need to be told twice. As Christmas fast approaches, the cheer has started flowing.

Thousands of Santas across USA who take part in the Running of the Santas pub crawl each year are just one example of the fun to be had when the tinsel is out.

Crowds of thirsty guys and girls dressed like Santa charge through towns drinking as much as they can in the name of raising money to help out children with cancer.

But the antics have raised the bushy white eyebrows of those in the Santa know.

Tim Connaghan, founder of the International University of Santa Claus, while talking about the pub crawl that he was all for raising money for charity, but said Santa’s image needed to be respected. More

Arabs find a hero in Iraqi shoe thrower

BAGHDAD — Calling someone the "son of a shoe" is one of the worst insults in Iraq. But the lowly shoe and the Iraqi who threw both of his at President George W. Bush, with widely admired aim, were embraced around the Arab world Monday as symbols of rage at a still unpopular war.

In Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported that a man had offered $10 million to buy just one of what has almost certainly become the world's most famous pair of black dress shoes.

A daughter of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy reportedly awarded the shoe thrower, Muntadar al-Zeidi, a 29-year-old journalist, a medal of courage.

In the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, people calling for an immediate U.S. withdrawal removed their footwear and placed the shoes and sandals at the end of long poles, waving them high in the air. And in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf, people threw their shoes at a passing U.S. convoy. More

Births fueling Hispanic growth

Births, not immigration, now account for most of the growth in the nation's Hispanic population, a distinct reversal of trends of the past 30 years.

The Hispanic baby boom is transforming the demographics of small-town America in a dramatic way. Some rural counties where the population had been shrinking and aging are growing because of Hispanic immigration and births and now must provide services for the young.

"In all of the uproar over immigration, this is getting missed," says Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. "All the focus is on immigration, immigration, immigration. At some point, it's not. It's natural increase."

This natural increase — more births than deaths — is accelerating among Hispanics in the USA because they are younger than the U.S. population as a whole. Their median age is 27.4, compared with 37.9 overall, 40.8 for whites, 35.4 for Asians and 31.1 for blacks. More

Is it Illegal to Drink and Vote?

For a brief moment recently, Albuquerque, N.M., police officers wondered if it was illegal to drink and vote. Why? A woman had passed out while casting her ballot at an early-voting site.

Bernalillo County Clerk Maggie Toulouse Oliver doesn't know if the woman completed her ballot — she was subsequently transported by ambulance to a local hospital, which has no record of admitting her — but said it will be counted.

Poll workers called police after the woman began yelling and screaming at them. When the officers arrived, she had lost consciousness with a bottle of vodka tucked into her waistband.

A little checking determined that it was not illegal to be drunk when casting a ballot, but election laws do prohibit liquor at voting sites and creating a disturbance. Charges have not been filed. More

Portal to mythical Mayan underworld found in Mexico

MEXICO CITY - Mexican archeologists have discovered a maze of stone temples in underground caves, some submerged in water and containing human bones, which ancient Mayans believed was a portal where dead souls entered the underworld.

Clad in scuba gear and edging through narrow tunnels, researchers discovered the stone ruins of eleven sacred temples and what could be the remains of human sacrifices at the site in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Archeologists say Mayans believed the underground complex of water-filled caves leading into dry chambers -- including an underground road stretching some 330 feet -- was the path to a mythical underworld, known as Xibalba.

According to an ancient Mayan scripture, the Popol Vuh, the route was filled with obstacles, including rivers filled with scorpions, blood and pus and houses shrouded in darkness or swarming with shrieking bats, Guillermo de Anda, one of the lead investigators at the site, said on Thursday. More

US Government owes Indians $455 million in trust case

A federal judge ruled that American Indian plaintiffs are entitled to $455 million in a long-running trust case, a fraction of the $47 billion they wanted.

But U.S. District Judge James Robertson did not say how the government should award the money, writing that his opinion "leaves for another day the question of how and to whom the award should be distributed."

Robertson's final number is close to government estimates and far from the billions sought by plaintiffs in the 12-year trial. The lawsuit — filed on behalf of a half-million American Indians and their heirs — claims they were swindled out of billions of dollars in oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887. More

Wal-Mart Gets a New Logo: Resembles a Sphincter

Something's up at Wal-Mart. Visitors to walmart.com will notice that the logo consumers have become accustomed to over the past 17 years is gone. Gone, too, are the sharp, uppercase letters spelling out the name of the Bentonville (Ark.) company and the pointy star that served as a hyphen. In its place: a new logo made up of rounded, lowercase characters. The hyphen has disappeared. And in place of the star is a symbol that resembles a sunburst or flower. It appears after the "Walmart" name, like an asterisk begging for a footnote.

On June 30, Wal-Mart officially unveiled the new logo, issuing a statement that in the fall, "Walmart's U.S. locations will update store logos as part of an ongoing evolution of its overall brand." The updated logo made its start online on July 1, although the old logo still appears on the site of Wal-Mart's parent company, walmartstores.com. More

Rat sales soar as Vietnam seeks cheaper meats

FARMERS in Kandal province have seen skyrocketing profits from exports of rat meat to neighbouring Vietnam, where cheap meat is in rising demand.

Exports have reached 10 tonnes per month, Governor Ly Marong said, with profits rising to as much as US$15,000 per month in Kandal's Kho Thom district.

"In addition to exports, local people are buying rat meat more than ever before," he said. "Grilled rat meat, or spicy, fried meat with basil, is delicious."

Live rats sell for about 6,000 to 6,500 riels per kilogram in Vietnam's Long Bin market, across the border from Kandal province, but traders purchase rats from Cambodian farmers for about 4,500 to 5,000 riels per kilogram.

The governor said that because heavy rains flood forest areas, rats swarm to nearby farms. High inflation and the rising cost of other meats - as high as 20 percent in recent months - have led farmers to harvest the rats for their own use and for export. More

Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon

Turns out, it is a small world.

The "small world theory," embodied in the old saw that there are just "six degrees of separation" between any two strangers on Earth, has been largely corroborated by a massive study of electronic communication.

With records of 30 billion electronic conversations among 180 million people from around the world, researchers have concluded that any two people on average are distanced by just 6.6 degrees of separation, meaning that they could be linked by a string of seven or fewer acquaintances.

The database covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network in June 2006, or roughly half the world's instant-messaging traffic at that time, researchers said. More

Miracle fruit: A tiny berry that tricks the tongue

The world is getting fatter. One billion people are overweight, and 300 million of those are clinically obese.

The search is always on for replacements for those things that, eaten in excess, make us obese - fatty and sugary foods. There is no miracle pill that can replace either. Nearly four decades ago one man came close to providing a tablet that could reduce our love of sugar. In the 1960s, Robert Harvey, a biomedical postgraduate student, encountered the miracle berry, a fruit from west Africa which turns sour tastes to sweet.

"You can eat a berry and then bite into a lemon," says Harvey. "It becomes not only sweeter, but it will be the best lemon you've tasted in your life."

But Harvey's sweet dream of making the world healthier came to an abrupt end. On the eve of the launch in 1974, the US Food and Drugs Administration unexpectedly turned against the product.

Legal advice and contact with the FDA had led Harvey to believe that the extract from the berry would be allowed under the classification "generally recognised as safe". Having been eaten before meals for centuries in west Africa, without anecdotal reports of problems, it could be assumed not to be harmful. But the FDA decided it would be considered as an additive which required several years more testing. In the poor economic climate of 1974, this could not be funded and the company folded. More

We Lost George Carlin!

The brilliant comic and social commentator George Carlin has gone on, and left behind all of his stuff.

Carlin, who made his name in the United States in the 1970s as a hip counterculture comedian in the tradition of Lenny Bruce, has died of heart failure in California. He was 71. He won four Grammy Awards for best spoken comedy album and was nominated for five Emmys.

An excellent mimic, he started his career as a relatively conventional comedian in the 1960s before becoming bored with what he called "wearing the dumb tuxedo and entertaining middle-class morons". He turned his attention to the satirical treatment of political and social issues - liberally laced with four-letter words in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine - and found a new lease on life.says. More

George Carlin audio clips 2:45

Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil

One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru.

The Brazilian government says it took the images to prove the tribe exists and help protect its land.

The pictures, taken from an aeroplane, show red-painted tribe members brandishing bows and arrows.

More than half the world's 100 uncontacted tribes live in Brazil or Peru, Survival International says.

Stephen Corry, the director of the group - which supports tribal people around the world - said such tribes would "soon be made extinct" if their land was not protected. More

Subway Bans Homeschooled Kids from Essay Contest

Subway -- the multi-national fast-food sub-shop giant -- has shot themselves in the foot. Again. The goal of their latest promotion was to win the loyalty of parents of grade school-aged kids -- to increase market share, revenue and profits. It was supposed to be a simple exercise in business marketing and promotion.

The outcome, however, was far different. By banning homeschooled kids -- children who are educated at home, as an alternative to public schooling -- Subway has ignited a firestorm of opposition from a vocal segment of the marketplace. Homeschoolers, offended by the ban, spontaneously -- and almost literally overnight -- organized a national Subway boycott that already has Subway's corporate spokesman hunkering down. All this happened over a holiday weekend, a time when people usually have better things to do. Imagine the impact today when millions of homeschooling parents are back in front of their computers, and discover what Subway has done to them. More

Swiss scientist who brought the world LSD takes his final trip

ALBERT Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD and thereby gave the psychedelic generation the pharmaceutical vehicle to turn on, tune in and drop out, has died. He was 102.

Hofmann, who died on Tuesday at his home in Basel, also identified and synthesised the active ingredients of peyote mushrooms and a Mexican psychoactive plant called ololiuqui. He developed at least three related, non-psychoactive compounds that became widely used in medicine.

Those other feats would have been little remembered, however, had he not accidentally got a trace amount of an experimental compound called lysergic acid diethylamide on his fingertips and taken the world's first acid trip.

Hofmann was a talented synthetic chemist working in the Basel research centre of Sandoz Laboratories in the 1930s when he began studying the chemistry of ergot, a fungus that grows on rye, barley and other plants. Although ergot is poisonous, midwives had for centuries used a crude extract to induce labour in pregnant women. Researchers in the US had recently identified the primary active ingredient of ergot, a chemical called lysergic acid. Hofmann, having devised a technique to make a series of derivatives of lysergic acid called amides, began systematically looking for medically useful compounds. More

Raped by lookalike wines

Energy executive and wine collector William Koch has taken his personal crusade to clean up the collectible wine business to the Windy City, filing a lawsuit on Friday that accuses both the Chicago Wine Company and Julienne Importing of selling him counterfeit wine.

Koch claims that from 1987 to 1990, the Chicago Wine Company, a retailer and auction house, sold him 15 bottles of counterfeit wine for $150,000, including a bottle of 1787 Ch�teau Branne Mouton (now Mouton-Rothschild) that may have been owned by Thomas Jefferson. The lawsuit also alleges that 14 bottles of wine Koch purchased for $63,000, which were imported by Julienne and sold by the Chicago Wine Company and other retailers, are also counterfeit. Ironically, Koch was a major investor in the Chicago Wine Company for seven years.

�We have been going through our cellar with our experts and we have found a lot of counterfeits sold via Chicago Wine Company,� said Brad Goldstein, Koch's spokesman. �They told us they would cooperate on getting to the sources for these bogus bottles but when push came to shove they provided very little�we were left with no other option.� More

New way to hike credit card rates

When the House Financial Services Committee meets again next week to discuss credit card reforms, they'll have something else to talk about -- a new way for credit card firms to raise your interest rate.

Discover announced recently that there's a new penalty for cardholders who exceed their credit limit, in addition to the $39 fee -- a higher interest rate.

Many consumers might not even realize that they can exceed their credit limit, and in fact the term has largely become meaningless. Card issuers give consumers what some call a "nominal limit," which is the credit limit printed on monthly bills. But nearly all allow consumers to exceed that limit by 10 percent or more (precisely how much is a secret), and then charge fees of $30 to $40 for each month the balance exceeds that limit. More

Fiorana Launches Line of Latino-Cut Bootylicious Jeans

Advertising Age's Laura Martinez comically comments on the launch of a line of jeans from Fiorana which are cut to accommodate the stereotypically Latina butt such as the ones attached to Jennifer Lopez, America Ferrara or Vida Guerra.

Fiorana President Mike Braden tells us, "The Latina body is different in waist and hip structure. When wearing Anglo cut jeans, there is always a fit problem around the waist area." Martinez ponders the point by wondering why she, who is of Latina descent, does not possess the bootylicious qualities Braden seems to believe all Latina women possess

.Latino celebrities here are more often than not defined by their daring derri�res. Think Salma Hayek, America Ferrara and the mother of all Latino-heavenly butts: Jennifer Lopez. More

Gaulish coin hoard is France�s biggest ever

France�s biggest trove of Gaulish coins has been unearthed in Brittany. Archeologists found them while searching along the route of a bypass under construction in the C�tes d�Armor. The coins are in the hands of specialist restorers and will go on display in the d�partement.

The trove consists of 545 gold-silver-copper coins: 58 staters and 487 quarterstaters. �Stater� is the generic term for antique coins. They lay a foot beneath the earth�s surface near Laniscat, 64km south of Saint-Brieuc, at a known Iron Age manor house or farm site, and date to 75- 50BC. They are very well preserved.

Inrap, the national institute for preventive archeological research, which has the right to investigate sites ahead of infrastructure work, reports similar finds in the 1930s at Guingamp and Perros-Guirec, but says the latest trove is the biggest yet. Searching ahead of construction work, an Inrapled team found a single coin about 30cm down, then began a systematic search. They found another 50 coins the same day, then brought in metal detectors and found the rest. They believe the coins were all buried together but were disturbed over the centuries by ploughing.

The hoard represents a fortune for its period and is priceless to archeologists. Most deals in Gaulish times were by barter: coins were for the mega-rich. More

Dallas hospital room where JFK died now stored in Kansas

A piece of JFK assassination history now lies buried in the most unlikely of places: a former limestone quarry in Kansas.

It is the end � at least for now � in the long and sometimes strange journey of Parkland Memorial Hospital Trauma Room No. 1, where President John F. Kennedy died on Nov. 22, 1963.

The entire room was purchased by the federal government 35 years ago, when Parkland officials decided to modernize their emergency facilities.

It was dismantled and the contents � all of them, the examination table, clocks, floor tiling, lockers, trash cans, surgical instruments, gloves, cotton balls, even a towel dispenser � were placed in a locked vault in a Fort Worth warehouse run by the National Archives and Records Administration. More

Bear's Activity in Woods Documented

Woods Near You - Speculation about whether bears have bowel movements in wooded areas has been settled with the release of a photograph.

An unidentified correspondent has provided photographic documentation of an unidentified bear relieving itself near a stand of trees in a rural area. The bear paused in that location for nearly a minute before looking around and leaving. An inspection of where the bear stood revealed nearly two pounds of fecal material.

Other lines of speculative questions include inquiries into whether the Pope residing in the Vatican is a member of the Catholic religion, and if country singer Dolly Parton sleeps on her back. StaggerOn.org is actively seeking photographic evidence of the latter question.

Mexico City starts grope-free buses for women

MEXICO CITY - Mexico City has started a women-only bus service to protect female passengers from groping and verbal abuse common on the city's packed public transportation system.

Millions of people cram into subway trains and buses in the Mexican capital, one of the world's largest cities, and women have long complained of abuse from men taking advantage of overcrowding to sneak in an inappropriate grab.

"One time a man stuck his hand up my skirt. They grab your butt ... It's gross," said 27-year-old office assistant Lourdes Zendejas, who waited 20 minutes during the evening rush hour to catch one of the new buses. More

Mitt Romney Demonstrates Campaign Promises

Attorney Installs Shark Tank in Office

BOZEMAN, Mont. - It started out as a joke - a lawyer putting a shark tank in his office. "I said, 'What would it take to put a shark in a lawyer's office?'", and it kind of took off from there, said attorney Christopher Gillette.

On Monday, a crane hoisted a 1,000-gallon aquarium up to a second-story window in Gillette's new office.

"I can't watch," Gillette said as half a dozen workers guided the roughly 8-foot-long, 4-foot-wide and 4-foot-tall tank through the window.

Gillette plans to fill the saltwater tank with a miniature marine ecosystem, including at least two sharks - a blacktip reef shark being flown in from the Caribbean Sea and a bamboo shark that will be hatched from eggs in the tank. More

Santa in G-String Arrested on DUI Charge

Some gifts from Santa Claus are better kept wrapped.

A man dressed as Kris Kringle was arrested Sunday night for investigation of drunken driving after he was spotted outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood wearing a wig, a red lace camisole and a purple G-string.

"We are pretty sure this is not the Santa Claus," police Deputy Chief Ken Garner said.

Rick Carroll, 53, of Long Beach, was booked into jail after his blood-alcohol level measured just above the state's legal limit of .08, police said. He was later released on $5,000 bail.etup. More

Police say woman groped Santa

A 33-year-old woman was charged with fourth-degree sexual assault Saturday after allegedly groping a man playing Santa Claus at the Danbury Fair mall.

Sandrama Lamy, 33, of Danbury, is charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, according to Danbury Detective Lt. Thomas Michael.

Two messages seeking comment were left on Lamy's answering machine.

Details leading up to the alleged fondling are sketchy.

"I don't know what the deal was. It was just bizarre," the mall Santa told a reporter, referring all other questions about the incident to Cherry Hill Photo, the company that runs the Danbury Fair mall Santa photo setup. More

Stocking Stuffers Courtesy of TSA, and Your Pocket

If you get your prized pocketknife snatched by airport security this holiday season, you might want to put in a call to Dexter Dobbins. He's the Transportation Security Administration's lost-and-found guy�or something like it, anyway.

Dobbins is a flea-market scavenger who's collected, in his estimation, between 7,000 and 10,000 knives taken from passengers at Washington airports. He gets his goods from the Auburn Retail Store, located inside a warehouse in a World War II�era compound south of the SuperMall. Here, Dobbins rummages through two dozen bins of knives, scissors, and other implements of terror to pick out winners such as 1980s Buck blades. If you're still looking for cheap, albeit potentially blood-letting, stocking stuffers, Dobbins says markdowns average around 75 percent.

"Most of the stuff I get is pretty good," says Dobbins, a 56-year-old Puyallup resident who sells his TSA treasures on eBay. "I go every time they open. I don't miss a day." More

Microsoft Shuts Down Santa For Talking Dirty

SEATTLE, WA -- Microsoft Corp. quickly shut down Santa Claus' Web privileges after it found out the automated elf it created for instant messaging with kids was talking naughty, not nice.

Last year, Microsoft encouraged kids to connect directly to "Santa" by adding northpolelive.com to their Windows Live Messenger contact lists. The Santa program, which Microsoft reactivated in early December, asks children what they want for Christmas and can respond on topic via instant messaging, thanks to a bit of artificial intelligence.

Microsoft's holiday cheer soured this week when a reader of a United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to bring up oral sex.

One of the publication's writers replicated the chat Monday. After declining the writer's repeated invitations to eat pizza, a frustrated Santa burst out with, "You want me to eat what?!? It's fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else.". More

Historic Whiskey Could Go Down Drain

Here's a sobering thought: Hundreds of bottles of Jack Daniel's whiskey, some of it almost 100 years old, may be unceremoniously poured down a drain because authorities suspect it was being sold by someone without a license.

Officials seized 2,400 bottles late last month during warehouse raids in Nashville and Lynchburg, the southern Tennessee town where the whiskey is distilled.

"Punish the person, not the whiskey," said an outraged Kyle MacDonald, 28, a Jack Daniel's drinker from British Columbia who promotes the whiskey on his blog. "Jack never did anything wrong, and the whiskey itself is innocent."

Investigators are also looking into whether some of the bottles had been stolen from the distillery. No one has been arrested. More

Bra-maker to turn Japanese women into bag ladies

Environmentally concerned Japanese women will soon have an option to accepting plastic bags, their bras!

A lingerie maker, in a bid to discourage Japanese from using plastic bags, on Wednesday unveiled a bra whose cup padding unfolds to become a handheld shopping bag.

Lingerie maker Triumph has regularly designed bras aimed at drawing attention to social issues and to raise its own profile.

Last winter it unveiled a bra that can be heated in a microwave so as to help save on indoor heating costs.

The �Bra Rangers� � named after the television characters that morph into superheroes � come with matching underwear whose pocket has the inscribed message, �No more plastic bags!�. More

Possible human remains in Disney's 'pirate' ride

ANAHEIM, CA - Those animatronic skeletons drinking wine and steering a ship may not be the only dead ones inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

A suspicious powder that may or may not have been cremated remains was spotted in the water in the popular attraction, forcing the ride to close briefly Friday afternoon. Security officials were unable to determine what the substance was or find the female visitor who was seen sprinkling the powder.

"A witness described the substance as baby powder that quickly dissipated. We reopened the attraction after determining that there was no danger to our guests," said Rob Doughty, a Disneyland spokesman, in a prepared statement.

While Disney officials deny this is a recurring problem, a Disney watchdog blog said that this isn't the only incident of visitors possibly scattering the ashes of loved ones in the rides, specifically dark attractions. More

Was Communism created by Acne?

LONDON - Karl Marx, who complained of excruciating boils, actually suffered from a chronic skin disease with known psychological effects that may well have influenced his writings, a British expert claims.

Sam Shuster, professor of dermatology at the University of East Anglia, believes the revolutionary thinker had hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in which the apocrine sweat glands -- found mainly in the armpits and groin -- become blocked and inflamed.

"In addition to reducing his ability to work, which contributed to his depressing poverty, hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem," said Shuster, who published his findings in the British Journal of Dermatology.

"This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing." More

Russia schools ban 'cult of death' Halloween

MOSCOW - Moscow schools have been ordered to ban students from celebrating Halloween despite the widespread popularity of the imported festival to Russia.

Halloween is being forced underground because it "includes religious elements, the cult of death, the mockery of death," a spokesman for the city's education department Alexander Gavrilov said on Wednesday.

Pumpkins and images of witches are widespread across Russia, with many bars organizing special fancy dress parties, despite the efforts of the Kremlin, and especially the Russian Orthodox Church, to curb enthusiasm for non-native festivities. More

Forget Hooters - Twin Peaks, a new place to pitch your tent

Albuquerque, NM - Twin Peaks is located in the building that used to house Rockfish, in the sprawling restaurant metro area of Albuquerque. Diners are immediately greeted by an enormous outdoor mural of a buxom cowgirl proudly showing off her wares, next to the phrase �Come and Get It!�

A server, Gina, was clad in the regulation uniform of a tiny red-and-black checkered flannel tie-top with an open front, the shortest shorts imaginable and cutsie faux-wilderness-whacking boots. As expected, you can really see more meat on these ladies than on the chicken wings they�re hawking, and the wings are pretty meaty.

The indoor dining area is decorated with apropos fake hunting lodge furniture and lots of wood and plaid. Walking through the bar, in between the multitude of flat-screen TVs blaring ESPN, the tables were packed with so many military guys in uniform it looked like Fort Bragg..

And, of course, there were the ladies. From a purely shallow standpoint, the servers were all pretty hot. Blondes, brunettes, short, tall, shy, sassy and even a smoky-luscious tattooed goth girl. A person does not get a tawdry strip-club feel from the place, the restaurant isn�t quite a nudie bar, but not quite Applebees�something in between. More

Military mistakenly recruits on gay Web site

The Army, Navy and Air Force unwittingly advertised for recruits on a Web site for gays, who are barred from military service if they are open about their sexual orientation.

When informed Tuesday by USA Today that they were advertising on GLEE.com, a networking Web site for gay professionals, recruiters expressed surprise and said they would remove the job listings.

�This is the first I�ve heard about it,� said Maj. Michael Baptista, advertising branch chief for the Army National Guard, which will spend $6.5 million on Internet recruiting this year. �We didn�t knowingly advertise on that particular Web site,� which he said does not �meet the moral standards� of the military.

Most of the military jobs posted were "hard-to-fill" positions requiring advanced training, although some ads sought to fill core combat slots at a time when the Iraq war has challenged recruiters to meet goals..More

Commuter Dudes Mount Skateboards, Ignore Wives

Fred Mahe, a 36-year-old software salesman, twists his tie into a neat knot while riding his skateboard up Madison Avenue from his home in the Financial District to his office at 42nd Street and 3rd Avenue. �It�s like a magic carpet,� he said of his trusty transport. �You just kind of stand on it and it goes.�

Mr. Mahe doesn�t ride to work every day (�Some days it�s all you can do to find your way to the train,� he said), but he has joined a contingent of late�20-something and 30-year-old skateboarders who are riding the concrete waves of New York and Brooklyn on planks of wood atop polyurethane wheels.

These aren�t the young skate punks of Union Square, grinding on railings and clattering down concrete steps at bone-breaking speed. These are guys with mortgages, iPhone bills and maybe wives and children, who find time to skateboard to and from work or cruise through Central Park on the weekends. They�re indulging in nostalgia for a childhood pastime while convincing themselves it counts as cardio.ppears the it is not just American presidents who accumulate wealth after "serving" the public. More

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