Odd News

[mutepointe]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/2 ... 87659.html

[fearfaoin]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/2 ... 87659.html

"When he plays the violin, there is pain
but he says nothing like the pain that
would've come without his music."

Dude, that's hardcore. Could you imagine
if every time you played it would hurt?

[Whistlin' Will]

Wouldn't it be great if every musician was that dedicated?

[Denny]

Plasma space-drive aces efficiency numbers: Set for ISS in 2014

Top boffins working at a NASA spinoff company are thrilled to announce that their plasma drive technology – potentially capable of revolutionising space travel beyond the Earth's atmosphere – has checked out A-OK in ground tests.

According to the Ad Astra Rocket Company, building the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), the firm's VX-200 prototype engine has just completed its latest round of trials with flying colours.

[Denny]

Elderly man accused of whacking deputy with cane

CALLAWAY, Fla. – Authorities say an irate 84-year-old man hit a deputy in the stomach with his cane when the officer warned him to leave a clinic where he had been cursing at an office manager.

The News Herald newspaper reports that the northwest Florida man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting an officer.

[Denny]

Conservative Croatia hosts its first 'erotic fair'

ZAGREB (AFP) – An international erotic fair, the first such event in this largely conservative, predominantly Roman Catholic Balkan country, opened here Friday, with hundreds of people flocking to see the offer.

Despite heavy rain and snow, several hundred people came to the Zagreb trade fair to enjoy live performances by some 15 international lichen stars, male strippers, topless DJs or buy some of the sex toys offered at dozens of stands.

[Denny]

Spanish woman claims ownership of the Sun

MADRID (AFP) – After billions of years the Sun finally has an owner -- a woman from Spain's soggy region of Galicia said Friday she had registered the star at a local notary public as being her property.

Angeles Duran, 49, told the online edition of daily El Mundo she took the step in September after reading about an American man who had registered himself as the owner of the moon and most planets in our Solar System.

[Denny]

Russian Scientist Working To Recreate Ice Age Ecosystem

CHERSKY, Russia — Wild horses have returned to northern Siberia. So have musk oxen, hairy beasts that once shared this icy land with woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. Moose and reindeer are here, and may one day be joined by Canadian bison and deer.

Later, the predators will come – Siberian tigers, wolves and maybe leopards.

Russian scientist Sergey Zimov is reintroducing these animals to the land where they once roamed in millions to demonstrate his theory that filling the vast emptiness of Siberia with grass-eating animals can slow global warming.

[s1m0n]

Russian Scientist Working To Recreate Ice Age Ecosystem

CHERSKY, Russia — Wild horses have returned to northern Siberia. So have musk oxen, hairy beasts that once shared this icy land with woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. Moose and reindeer are here, and may one day be joined by Canadian bison and deer.

Later, the predators will come – Siberian tigers, wolves and maybe leopards.

Russian scientist Sergey Zimov is reintroducing these animals to the land where they once roamed in millions to demonstrate his theory that filling the vast emptiness of Siberia with grass-eating animals can slow global warming.

Its a cool story, and an entirely plausible idea. Its also not implausible that we'll soon be able to clone a woolly mammoth; the process of working out the mammoth genome is well advanced, using frozen mammoths from siberia. It might well be possible to use a modern elephant to carry a cloned mammoth baby.

Here's a paper in which Zimov describes his plan:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/308/5 ... siteid=sci

[dwest]

I'm confused, are they talking about a habitat that includes Eurasian Elk or North American Moose or both or are they talking about Wapiti? Isn't the wisent an extirpated species from Russian Asia? Why use Canadian Bison? What's wrong with good old American Bison? I vote for cloning an Irish elk and giant beaver, beaver tail soup is great! One giant beave would be enough to make gallons! Two beaves could feed thousands.

[Denny]

Leslie Nielsen of 'Naked Gun' fame dies at age 84

LOS ANGELES – Leslie Nielsen, who traded in his dramatic persona for inspired bumbling as a hapless doctor in "Airplane!" and the accident-prone detective Frank Drebin in "The Naked Gun" comedies, died on Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He was 84.

The Canadian-born actor died from complications from pneumonia at a hospital near his home at 5:34 p.m., surrounded by his wife, Barbaree, and friends, his agent John S. Kelly said in a statement.

[dwest]

Leslie Nielsen of 'Naked Gun' fame dies at age 84

I guess Odd News is the most appropriate place for this, Neilsen always seemed somewhat timeless to me, can't believe he's gone.

[MTGuru]

In my book, Forbidden Planet (aka The Tempest) may be the best SciFi movie of all time. R.I.P.

[s1m0n]

Isn't the wisent an extirpated species from Russian Asia? Why use Canadian Bison? What's wrong with good old American Bison?

Yes.
Because they're a lot like wisent used to be. Also, because they're cool.
No idea, but presumably because he's talking about Wood rather than Plains Bison. US herds tend to be the latter, whereas the herd at Wood Buffalo National Park, in Alberta, are presumably the former. Also, this herd is one of only two thoroughly wild herds in the world. All others are farmed or 'managed' by humans at some time in their lives. If you're looking for bison to rewild in Siberia, it makes sense to look here, at a northern population already capable of living in the wild. There are bison in Alaska, but they're semi-farmed.

[Denny]

Pa. woman rescued from pickup stuck in tree top

EVANS CITY, Pa. – Rescue crews had to use ropes and ladders to retrieve a western Pennsylvania woman from her pickup truck after it ran off a road and landed in tree tops about 30 feet above ground in a ravine.

Police say they'll be citing 33-year-old Dana Bowser for driving too fast for conditions on Route 68 near Evans City. That's about 25 miles north of Pittsburgh.