Three one-month-old red panda (also known as lesser panda) cubs were shown to the public at the Giant Panda Research Centre in Fuzhou, East China’s Fujian Province on August 27, 2007. This is the second triplet in the center.
Cute red panda cubs (Image courtesy of
Chinadaily)
Red panda is a mostly herbivorous mammal with the same taxonomic classification of the giant panda. The red panda is native to the Himalayas in Nepal and Southern China. The Red Panda is classified as an endangered species with an estimated population of less than 2,500 mature individuals in wild.
A freaky natural phenomenon was witnessed over the weekend at Yamba Beach, New South Wales, Australia… with foam swallowing an entire beach and nearby buildings.
Cappuccino beach (Image courtesy of
Dailymail)
Scientists explain that the foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed. All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles.
These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore. As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam.
The first McDonald’s store, in Des Plaines, Illinois…
The first McDonald’s (Image courtesy of Eurovancation – Hat tip to Neatorama)
Optical illusion… read the words between the blocks. If you can’t read it, just get off your chair and try reading it a metre (or two) away from the screen.
A 1.2 metre long fossilized baculum (penis bone) from an extinct walrus is sold for $8,000 on Sunday (August 26) at a natural history auction in Beverly Hills, California.
Fossilized penis bone from extinct walrus (Image courtesy of
Sfgate)
The item was sold to the company that runs the Ripley’s Believe It or Not museums. The price will run $9,600 when auction fees are included. [Sfgate, via Boingboing]
Baculum is a bone found in the penis of most mammals (not in human though). A male walrus’s penis is completely internal but it has one of the largest penis bone in the animal kingdom.
The auctioned walrus’s balculum was found in northern Siberia, and is from a species of walrus that went extinct 12,000 years ago. It is believed to be the largest known mammal penis fossil.
The man with the largest hand in the world will be looking forward to a normal life after undergoing radical plastic surgery at Shanghai No. 9 People’s Hospital.
Liu Hua shows his abnormal hand (Image courtesy of
Shanghaidaily)
Liu Hua, a 24-year-old Jiangsu Province native, was born with a left thumb, index and middle finger much larger than normal.
Liu was suffering from a rare disease called Macrodactyly, a birth defect in which toes or fingers are abnormally large. The cause of the disease is unknown but bone and soft tissue grows at an extraordinary rate.
On July 20 surgeons began a seven-hour operation to reduce the size of Liu’s fingers and thumb. Doctors removed 5.1kg of flesh and bone in the procedure. A second operation is scheduled in six months to reshape his left arm and shoulder.
Fantasy football is set to become reality with MyFootballClub.
Members of the website pay a £35 joining fee, plus a similar annual subscription. The members will vote on which English club and players to buy, and pick the team each week. Only decisions made just before, or during, a game will be purely down to the coach.
The website is created by ex-football journalist Will Brooks, 36. When it went live in April, 53,000 people declared an interest in joining. Brook is thought to have raised more than £500,000 since the fund-raising stage started this month.
According to Brooks, 4 clubs have expressed interest (to be bought) even before the fund-raising begins.
The most popular take-over targets for MyFootballClub based on forum suggestions are Leeds United, Nottingham Forest and Cambridge United.
Cambridge United’s chairman, Lee Power, is fast to assure fans that his club is not one of the 4 interested in a website buy-out. [Thesun]
It should be interesting to see how the fans perform if the plan becomes a reality. Imagine their club doing well and getting promoted to higher league… it could be one of the greatest tales for the next few decades.
Google has launched ‘Sky in Google Earth’, where you can now explore the universe from the comfort of your chair; there are 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies waiting to be discovered.
Screenshots of ‘Sky in Google Earth’ (Image courtesy of
Google Latlong)
You need to download the latest Google Earth (free) to use the feature.
