Man-Eating ‘Psycho’ Fish Found In UK

A savage fish more terrifying than a piranha has been caught in Britain for the first time — sparking fears of a deadly invasion.

The vicious giant snakehead eats everything it comes across and has even been reported to kill people.

The monster — from south-east Asia — has a mouth crammed with fearsome teeth, can “crawl” on land and survive out of water for up to four days.

Source: The Sun

Bandage That Mimics Lizard’s Power to Cling

 

The science that allows a gecko to cling to a ceiling has been harnessed for use in medicine.

Inspired by the sticky pads on the lizard’s toes, scientists have invented a bandage that can repair internal injuries without the need for stitches or staples.

After a few weeks, the bandage dissolves, leaving the wound repaired.

The surface of the bandage has the same kind of microscopic hills and valleys that help give gecko feet their uniquely adhesive properties.

Layered over this is a thin coating of glue that helps it stick to wet surfaces - including heart, bladder or lung tissue.

Source: DailyMail

Daredevil’s Super Skydive

A daredevil ex-SAS soldier is to attempt a record - breaking skydive — from 120,000ft.

Movie stuntman Steve Truglia, 40, will jump from a hot air balloon 24 miles up on the edge of space.That is three times the cruising altitude of a Jumbo jet. Only a Space Shuttle flies higher, shedding its rocket boosters at 150,000ft.

He will freefall for seven minutes before opening his parachute, and could break the 770mph (1239 km/h) sound barrier as he hurtles towards the ground. No human has ever travelled at such a speed outside an aircraft — and Steve has no idea how his body will react.

He will need a pressurised space suit in temperatures of -100°C and risks going into an 800 revolutions per second spin.

Source: The Sun

Musharraf’s Party Accepts Defeat

Pakistan appeared on Tuesday to be heading for a transition to an elected civilian government after President Pervez Musharraf told visiting United States senators that he accepted the resounding defeat of his party in elections and would work with a new Parliament.

Many Pakistanis expressed relief that the overwhelming victory of the two major moderate opposition political parties in the parliamentary elections on Monday signaled a change in direction after eight years of military rule under Mr. Musharraf, even though in the past the parties had rarely produced models of stable government.

NYTimes

Crane Clips Power Lines; Thousands In Dark

A crane on a barge hit power lines over the Sacramento River, leaving thousands of people without power Thursday evening.The barge was turning around in the Deep Water Channel at about 6:15 p.m. when the crane hit the lines, the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said.The transmission lines went into the water, PG&E said. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the uncharged lines don’t pose an immediate threat to boaters.

PG&E estimated power wouldn’t be restored for about 5,600 customers until early afternoon Friday. Power for another 3,000 customers might be back late Thursday night.At about the same time as the crane’s crash, a vehicle hit a pole in the 3000 block of Peter Island Road. Officials initially said the car crash caused some outages, but PG&E later said the crane was to blame.

KCRA

Some fool attacked screens, door hinges and broke a window trying to get into the building where I work during the power outage, but someone is around almost 24/7 in “Area 52″ so they got scared off.

Driving ban for ‘human pelican’

A postman who claimed he was a human pelican who stored alcohol in a pouch in his gullet has been banned from driving for 18 months.

William Harvey had said he failed a roadside breath test because of his unique medical condition. However, a sheriff rejected the claim his alcohol reading had been affected by the “balloon” in his throat. An expert witness told the court he had never seen a case like Harvey’s in 40 years as a forensic toxicologist.

Perth Sheriff Court was told that the postman was seen speeding off in the opposite direction after being passed by a police car in September last year. He admitted that he then crashed the car into a ditch about 400 yards down the Strathtay to Weem road and was climbing out of the window when police arrived.

He said he had only had half a bottle of wine, but had an extremely rare medical complaint which meant he coughed fluid back into his throat. The former nurse claimed he had choked because of a panic attack and wine he had drunk earlier had returned to the “balloon-like” sac in his neck.

Harvey, 45, from Aberfeldy, admitted in a joint minute that his breath smelled of alcohol when the officers spoke to him. He admitted giving a positive roadside breath test but disputed having a reading of 99 microgrammes.

He told the court he had been diagnosed subsequently with laryngocele and had an operation to have a sac the size of a tennis ball removed.

“The balloon was being filled up by mucous coming up from my lungs and the contents of my stomach. It’s a balloon I can inflate in my own throat. We all have it but in most people it lies dormant. Anything I cough or choke up can inflate it. If it burst it would drown me straight away. I walked about with a time bomb in my throat.”

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said that regardless of the medical complaint, he had no doubt Harvey was driving while more than double the legal alcohol limit. He found Harvey guilty of the charge and fined him £600 along with the 18-month ban from the road. - BBC

Invisible dots left by printers ‘breach privacy’

European Union justice watchdogs are concerned that “Big Brother” computer printer technology that allows security agencies to track printed documents might breach privacy laws. Most consumers are unaware that many popular colour laser printers, including those made by Brother, Cannon, Xerox and HP, embed almost invisible tracking dots onto documents, uniquely identifying the machine that printed them.

Franco Frattini, European Commissioner for Justice and Security, has launched an investigation after receiving official complaints from Euro-MPs.

“To the extent that individuals may be identified through material printed or copied using certain equipment, such processing may give rise to the violation of fundamental human rights, namely the right to privacy and private life,” he said.

“It also might violate the right to protection of personal data.”

Satu Hari, a Finnish Euro-MP, has taken up the issue of “forensic tracking mechanisms” after consumers “unsuccessfully asked manufacturers to disable this function”.

She has highlighted research by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) finding that technology originally designed to prevent currency counterfeiting might end up as catch-all tool for general surveillance.

Danny O’Brien, a spokesman for the EFF, an organisation that defends “digital rights”, believes the technology could be used by authoritarian regimes, such as the Chinese, to repress dissent.

Source: Telegraph

Video Spawns Largest Beef Recall in US

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Monday that it would step up oversight at 900 slaughterhouses in the USA to check for inhumane handling violations like those that led to the biggest meat recall ever on Sunday.

“I don’t have reason to believe this is widespread. But the extra checks will give us a better handle on it,” said Kenneth Petersen, USDA assistant administrator.

 

RECORD BEEF RECALL: Staggering 143 million pounds targeted; some went to school lunches

Pakistanis Deal Severe Defeat to Musharraf in Election

Pakistanis dealt a crushing defeat to President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections on Monday, in what government and opposition politicians said was a firm rejection of his policies since 2001 and those of his close ally, the United States.

Almost all the leading figures in the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the party that has governed for the last five years under Mr. Musharraf, lost their seats, including the leader of the party, the former speaker of Parliament and six ministers.

Official results are expected Tuesday, but early returns indicated that the vote would usher in a prime minister from one of the opposition parties, and opened the prospect of a Parliament that would move to undo many of Mr. Musharraf’s policies and that may even try to remove him.

Get your free Xenophilia bumper sticker

To say thank you to our loyal web visitors for making this site so popular that you took down a server: Free while supplies last: Get your Xenophilia bumper sticker.

It looks like this, but bigger, more shiny… and more sticky on the back.

This free bumper sticker costs only $1.33 shipping and handling ( the minimum I could figure out using PayPal.) There is a link to the PayPal FREE Bumper Sticker here.

Some people will also win a CD or a chupacabra tooth.

2/28/2008: Sold out. Sorry.