Video: The most dangerous intersection in the world

Have a look at this shocking compilation of accidents captured by surveillance cameras from one intersection in city of Heze in China.

It started out as a public service announcement to promote road safety, but it has not gone viral. Chinese sharing site Youku had over 2 million views of the video.

One Trillion Stars – Andromedea Galaxy

This image from the Spitzer Space Telescope (not to be confused with Elliot Spitzer of call girl fame) shows the Andromedea Galaxy in infrared and x-ray wavelengths. The infrared light from dust shows up as red and old stars as blue. The huge spiral galaxy is 2.5 million light-years away, a stone's throw when compared to other celestial distances and is over twice the diameter of our own Milky Way.Andromeda holds around 1 trillion stars, compared to 4 hundred billion for the Milky Way. See more at the Daily Galaxy.

I'm setting course for Rigel 5!

Wrongfully convicted man spends 20 years in prison, freed, gets engaged and then dies in freak accident

This is just a sad saga. Joseph White has had a lot of very bad breaks and the last one cost him his life. White was wrongfully convicted of a1985 rape-slaying and spent 20 years in prison for it. He was freed after DNA evidence cleared him in 2008, the first person in Nebraska to have a murder conviction overturned through DNA testing. White's life finally was getting on track. He got a job in a coal processing plant, was set to marry his high school sweetheart he proposed to 30 years ago and was owed $500,000 from the State of Nebraska for his wrongful conviction. The stars were finally in his favour. Not quite. On Sunday he was crushed to earth by heavy machinery moving coal.

“You'd think he was in line for some better luck,” White's attorney, Robert Bartle. “It's a very sad and tragic life.” White was 48.

MIT creates 'Holy Grail' of science: The artificial leaf – ten times better than real thing

Image by bitzcelt via Flickr

MIT professor Daniel Nocera says he has created an artificial leaf that is ten times more efficient at photosynthesis than the real thing. The artificial leaf has been the 'Holy Grail' of science and could theoretically turn every home into its own power station.

Described as an "advanced solar cell the size of a poker card," the leaf device is made of silicon, electronics, and inexpensive catalysts made of nickel and cobalt. When placed in a gallon of water under direct sunlight, the catalysts break the H2O down into hydrogen and oxygen gases, which are then stored in a fuel cell.

"A practical artificial leaf has been one of the Holy Grails of science for decades," said Daniel Nocera, Ph.D., who led the research team. "We believe we have done it. The artificial leaf shows particular promise as an inexpensive source of electricity for homes of the poor in developing countries. Our goal is to make each home its own power station," he said. "One can envision villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology."

Related articles

• Scientists find 'Holy Grail' of science as they mastermind the world's first artificial leaf (dailymail.co.uk)

Funny Video: "Yo, I'm From Windsor Dude" (which is across from Detroit!)

This is the Cry Baby's home town, so I have a soft spot for Windsor, which is in Canada dude. It's polluted, economically depressed and actually, just kind of depressing. The two biggest industries these days appear to be gambling and stripping (as in strip clubs – which abound). Like Detroit, Windsor is an auto city, except the auto industry has not been doing so great lately. There is an island in the Detroit River across from Windsor that glows at night with from the Ford foundry furnaces, looking like a scene from Hell. Back in the day, my day that is, it would spew out a caustic ash that would coat the cars on Windsor's west side and eat away the paint. Well, you get the picture, now watch this funny video.

Man makes quilt from women's panties

Meet Vietnam vet Louis Garrett aka Shovelhead. Louis had a brainstorm: Make a quilt out of women's panties. The idea for the quilt came from a magazine, which makes me wonder what magazines he subscribes to. He also has a mannequin collection, and dresses them in lingerie.

This is one very well rounded gentleman.

Anne Frank Center to move across the street from Ground Zero mosque

Anne Frank via Wikipedia

The New York Post is reporting that the nonprofit Anne Frank Center USA, a partner of the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam,is poised to sign a lease in the building across from the proposed Ground Zero mosque in New york City. "Board members at the Anne Frank Center said they harbored no concerns about their odd juxtaposition with the mosque, whose proximity to the 9/11 site has sparked outrage."

Read more in the Post here.

Related articles

• Anne Frank Graphic Novel Launched (prathambooks.org)

Natalie Portman's double says she did most of the dancing in "Black Swan"

Believe who you want on this one. My bet is on the double, Sarah Lane. Having just watched the film last night,  I wondered how much of the dancing Portman could have actually done. My intuitive answer was "not much." Maybe yes,  then again according to Black Swan” dancer – choreographer Benjamin Millepied, who is expecting a child with Portman, maybe no.  (see Wall Street Journal excerpt at bottom of post)

This from Entertainment Weekly:

"The ballerina who served as a dancing double for Natalie Portman’s Oscar-winnning role in Black Swan tells EW she has been the victim of a “cover-up” to mislead the public about how much dancing Portman actually did in the film. “Of the full body shots, I would say 5 percent are Natalie,” says Sarah Lane, 27, an American Ballet Theatre soloist who performed many of the film’s complicated dance sequences, allowing Portman’s face to be digitally grafted onto her body." 

 .... and this from a Wall Street Journal story:

"“Black Swan” dancer/choreographer Benjamin Millepied, who is expecting a child with Portman, told the Los Angeles Times this week “Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie.” (Lane says that if she had to quantify it, Portman did “about 5%” of the on-screen dancing.)"

Beautiful video of northern lights in Russia

I'm not sure where this came from, but have a look at this stunning video of the northern lights in Russia.

"Fat Ho Burgers" has Texans stompin' mad

Waco, Texas native Lakita Evans, 23, decided to fulfill her dream and open a restaurant. The locals did not take well to it. It could be because her restaurant is named "Fat Ho Burgers." Evans says the name is in good fun and people shouldn't get upset. “It’s not calling people a ho. It’s just like they say, 'Oooh that ho is big,' or, 'That ho is tight!’” said restaurant’s owner Evans."Look what's going on in Japan. It's clear this world is not gonna get any better. Why cry and be depressed? ... Somebody's gotta keep a sense of humor around here." Patrons of the Gospel Cafe, volunteer-run religious café and bookstore around the corner are not amused. “Would’ve been nice to think a little more sensitively,” said Pastor Marsha Martie.

'Fat Ho Burgers' Opens in Texas: MyFoxDFW.com

Nuclear fears prompts Chinese man in Japan to turn himself in to police

Lin Jian Ming, 48, came to Japan on a 90 day visitor's visa in 2000 and liked it so much he decided to stay on – illegally. Fast forward to the nuclear crisis at Fukushima. Lin, fearing for his safety from radiation, turned himself in Nagasaki Prefectural Police Saturday afternoon asking to be repatriated. Lin said he had fled from Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, one week earlier to avoid radiation contamination. He apparently thought he would be safe from leaked radiation if he traveled to Nagasaki. Police have arrested Lin for staying illegally in Japan.

Fukushima reactors

Oops: Reports that Fukushima radiation 10 million times above normal was mistake

Things were looking extremely bad at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant when officials said that radiation levels were spiking at 10 million times above normal on Sunday. This led to an evacuation of the workers at the plant. Turns out the reading was a mistake. Oops. 

MySpace loses 10 million unique visitors in a month

MySpace

In 2006, MySpace was the most popular social networking website in the the United States, likely the world. Now, they are barely clinging to life, hemorrhaging over 10 million unique users between January and February, according to Tech industry analysts comScore. Year over year the site has lost almost 50 million users, down from close to 110 million in February 2010. Rupert Murdoch must be cursing under his breath having bought MySpace for US$580 million in 2005, only to wake up and realize he bought the now defunct "Friendster" by accident. Remember them?

Made irrelevant by Facebook, MySpace decided in 2010 that is was not a social networking site competing with Facebook, but a music site targeting young people. BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield said, "Most investors have written off MySpace now."

It appears to be a case of too little, too late. With a new round of layoffs MySpace seems to be in a death spiral. I think the music focus is a great idea, albeit likely too late. Had they focused in this direction earlier, they may have pulled it off – there is a huge market for indie music but unfortunately a lot of competition for it now.

Do I have a MySpace page? Yes. When is the last time I accessed it? Can't remember.

Useless: Forget about designer vaginas – woman invents the camel toe guard

camel toe (Wikipedia)

I can't wait to see the infomercial got this product. A British woman invented a camel toe guard, that is essentially a small piece of plastic that goes into womens' underwear. The name of the product: "SmoothGroove". From the SmoothGoove website:

"Women can rejoice - our very last wardrobe malfunction has now been addressed! At last, there’s a product that sensibly alleviates the most embarrassing taboo there is for us girls – the crudely named Camel Toe. SmoothGroove is the brainchild of north east businesswoman Susan Laurie, whose love of wearing figure hugging clothes was often blighted by this imperfection.  After finding no credible solutions, Susan’s ongoing frustrations led her to determinedly produce a product that would finally improve the confidence of thousands of women like her.  After all research has shown that a staggering 55% of UK women, irrespective of age or weight, will suffer from Camel Toe at some point .... Many females in our increasingly image obsessed society have even gone to extreme lengths to rectify the problem, resorting to expensive and risky surgery to create a ‘designer vagina’."

"Proof of creation" dino drawing turns out to be mud stain

The pictogram at the Kachina Bridge formation in Natural Bridges Natural Monument

Image via Wikipedia

An ancient cave drawing on a rock formation in Utah has had creationists saying it's proof that man and dinosaurs lived together. Not so, say saner people –– namely scientists. The pictogram in Natural Bridges Natural Monument has drawn the curious for years. The image can be found on several creationist websites and is part of an exhibit at the Creation Museum. Many have said, it appears to be a hand-drawn plant-eating dino.

Phil Senter, a biology professor at Fayetteville State University, viewed the drawing for the first time two years ago. "We got there and I couldn't believe it," Senter said. "It looked just like a sauropod." Intrigued, Senter asked author and archaeologist Sally J. Cole to examine the drawing. She declared that it was actually a composite of two separate drawings, one being a snake or serpent. The dinosaur "legs" were actually natural mineral or mud stains.

Contacted by Discovery News, officials at the Creationist Museum criticized the report  noting that Cole examined the drawing with binoculars rather than getting close up.

The scientist failed to explain nearby drawings of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble.

Read more on Discovery News.

Help wanted: Sex, booze and sleeping on the job

Image via Wikipedia

A small water park in Illinois allegedly became a playground for staff who drank, had sex and napped for hours at a time –– all while on the job. The events, as well as the theft of thousands of dollars in cash, were captured on video surveillance cameras. The cameras were installed in a pool office as part of a probe into theft at the Cermak Aquatic Center.

“This included surveillance video of employees consuming alcoholic beverages and providing the alcohol to minors, engaging in sexual relations, improper physical contact between supervisor and subordinate, employees lounging and/or sleeping for hours at a time,”  Patrick Blanchard wrote in his report to Cook County Board President.

My only question: Are they hiring?

Two students sentenced to make a YouTube video for making bomb

You've heard of the hanging judge – now there is the YouTube judge. Two university students decided to make a bomb to create an 'effect' with explosives and capture it on video for a school project. Humphries joked about it on YouTube in an "Antoine Dodson-style" song. Donald Richard Lorge, 20, and Christopher Humphries, 23, each pleaded guilty to one count of disorderly conduct and one count of possession of a caustic substance.

The sentence:  Produce a YouTube video public safety message about the dangers of bomb making! Well, they also received jail terms of 12 months in jail for each count –– all of it suspended and a whopping 20 hours of community service. As well they were ordered to pay a total $6,035.64 in restitution to the City of Norfolk.

Looking forward to seeing that video boys!

Christopher Humphries (left) and Donald Lorge

Einstein theory proven correct - again

As if it needed further proof, NASA provided this information on two new studies proven Einstein right again:

"Two new studies have put Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to the test like never before, using observations of galaxy clusters to study the properties of gravity on cosmic scales. These results, made using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, show Einstein's theory is still the best game in town. Such studies are crucial for understanding the evolution of the universe, both in the past and the future, and for probing the nature of dark energy, one of the biggest mysteries in science."

But all that is really an excuse to use this stunning image!

Image Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/SAO/A. Vikhlinin; ROSAT), Optical (DSS), Radio (NSF/NRAO/VLA/IUCAA/J.Bagchi)

Criminals: Dumb and dumber

Osceola County Jail

A Florida mother served as the getaway driver when her 20-year-old son robbed a convenience store. Police in St. Cloud say Cindy M. Willison, 47, waited in the parking lot of a Cumberland Farms store and picked up her son, Angelo J. Palmieri, after he held up the shop.

Austin Police Dept.

 Johnathan Washburn, 23, allegedly hit a man on the head with a skateboard after he took a picture
of his bizarre Mohawk hairstyle.

Hernando County (Fla.) Sheriff’s

Police  in Florida arrested Thomas Gannon, left, and Tina Cash on charges of misdemeanor domestic battery after the couple allegedly got into a fight over Facebook. Gannon, 35, reportedly told police that the couple got into a physical altercation after his 31-year-old girlfriend “unfriended” him on Facebook and changed her relationship status.


More dumb criminals here on AOL.

Bomb sits for three weeks in lost and found in Detroit Federal building

Image via Wikipedia

McNamara Federal Building

You would think by now that when a security guard finds a suspicious package they would have a pretty good idea how to respond,  if from nothing more than from watching TV.

Not so with a guard at the McNamara Federal Building in Detroit. A guard found the package outside the building, and instead of alerting police, he brought it to the lost and found. There it sat for three weeks, until someone got the bright idea to x-ray the package. Behold, a pipe bomb!

 Detroit Police  bomb squad was finally called in to remove the device.

Related articles

• Michigan Man Arrested in Detroit Bomb Case (abcnews.go.com)
• Man Accused of Trying to Damage Federal Building (abcnews.go.com)