Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Two-snouted, three-eyed piglet born in China

Hot in the (many) footsteps of the six-legged cow and the three-legged duck comes another animal you won't find on Old MacDonald's farm - the two-mouthed, three-eyed Chinese piglet.
· How About That? Because news doesn't have to be serious
· Digger eats his way to being Britain's biggest horse
· In Pictures: More animal oddities
Born in Huimen village, Menla County, China, the piglet was unable to take milk from its mother, forcing farmer Yang Qiaofen to feed it using the mouths it had on either side of its head.
As well as the extra mandibular equipment, the puzzling porcine was blessed with an extra eye in the middle of its forehead, earning it the nickname "Cyclops".
The seventh of seven in its litter, young Cyclops was the only abnormal birth.
While it is able to feed - "both mouths can drink at the same time," noted a surprised Yang, who is feeding it on powdered milk - it is unable to stand properly.
· UK to sell pigs' trotters to China Cyclops' mother was artificially inseminated, and local vets are nonplussed as to the origin of the genetic mutation.

Aquaduct: Mobile Filtration Vehicle

About This Video
The Aquaduct is a pedal powered vehicle that transports, filters, and stores water for the developing world. A peristaltic pump attached to the pedal crank draws water from a large tank, through a filter, to a smaller clean tank. The clean tank is removable and closed for contamination-free home storage and use. A clutch engages and disengages the drive belt from the pedal crank, enabling the rider to filter the water while traveling or while stationary. The Aquaduct is the winning entry in the Innovate or Die contest put on by Google and Specialized. The contest challenge was to build a pedal powered machine that has environmental impact.
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Free At Last


This thing is huge (it's an earth mover)

Specifications:
The mover stands 311 feet tall and 705 feet long.
It weighs over 45,500 tons
Cost $100 million to build
Took 5 years to design and manufacture
5 years to assemble.
Requires 5 people to operate it.
The Bucket Wheel is over 70 feet in diameter with 20 buckets, each of which can hold over 530 cubic feet of material.
A 6-foot man can stand up inside one of the buckets.
It moves on 12 crawlers (each is 12 feet wide, 8' high and 46 feet long).
There are 8 crawlers in front and 4 in back.
It has a maximum speed of 1 mile in 3 hours (1/3 mile/hour).
It can remove over 76,455 cubic meters each day. (100,000 large dump trucks at 40yds. each)

University gets $590k to study belching cows?

A Swedish university has received $590,000 in research funds to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch.
About 20 cows will participate in the project run by the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences. Cattle release methane, a greenhouse gas believed to contribute to global warming, when they digest their food. Researchers believe the level of methane released depends on the type of food the eat. » Full article here

Girl, 3, wanders away from school

When faced with pork chops for her school dinner, three-year-old Leonie Terry was not a happy pupil. But instead of simply asking for something different, Leonie decided to take herself home for lunch almost half a mile away. She wandered out of the school gates and down the street towards her house before crossing four roads on her own. Leonie had walked around a quarter of a mile and was heading towards a busy dual carriageway when luckily a passer-by spotted her and escorted safely back to school. Now a major inquiry is under way to establish how a young child was permitted to walk out of a busy school at lunchtime. There's a news video on this page.

Bits of News

Grandma Arrested For Not Pulling Car Forward
A 75-year-old woman was arrested at a Clearwater McDonald's drive-thru, because police say she wouldn't pull her car forward.
Authorities said Jean Merola, a grandmother of eight, was arrested for disorderly conduct after she refused an officer's orders to move her car while she waited for the coffee and fries she ordered at the drive-through window.
Click Here To Read More

Elderly Dallas Business Owner Takes Down Burglar
It's unusual for a business owner to catch a burglar in the act and take that criminal down. It's even more remarkable when that business owner is 87 years old.
Before Friday, Al Brewster was known as the owner of one of the city's oldest real estate companies and the largest billboard in Dallas. Now, he's also a proven crimefighter.
Click Here To Read More

South African man jailed for stealing shoe polish
A man who stole a tin of shoe polish so his little brother would look smart at school has been jailed for a month. Noise Siwela, 29, of Rolle, Limpopo, was found guilty in the Mhala magistrate's court on Thursday for stealing shoe polish worth R12,99 from the Score supermarket in Thulamahashe the previous day. "I stole it for my younger brother as he had no polish for his school shoes. I wanted him to look nice like his fellow pupils because his shoes are ugly," Siwela told the court. He asked for a lenient sentence as he was unemployed. Our parents both live in Gauteng, so it's up to me to look after him," he said. He was unable to pay the option of a R150 fine and was sent to jail.