Fourteen-month-old toddler trapped in bank vault for four hours

It took four hours for rescue workers to rescue the toddler, a branch employee's grand-daughter, who wandered off as the Wells Fargo branch in Conyers, Georgia, was about to close.

The little girl wandered off and into the vault unbeknownst to her grandmother. The vault, which has a time lock closed, trapping the toddler inside.

After unsuccessfully searching for the baby, the bank concluded that the baby may have gone into the bank vault. Cameras inside the vault confirmed their fears.

Emergency services were called and, initially, fresh air was pumped into vents connected to the vault.

Complete story.

Horny Elephant has sex with car

This horny Dumbo mounted a car he mistook for a mate leaving the passengers inside with a jumbo-sized problem.

The randy elephant got on with the tusk and went bumper to bumper with the saloon car before tyring of the chase and rolling the vehicle on to its back into the bushes.

Irishman John Somer and terrified friend Carina Lowers were driving the Volkswagen Passat through the Pilanesberg Game Reserve in South Africa when they came across the five-ton bull, called Amarula.

John, 66, who lives in nearby Rustenburg, said: "I never thought I would be killed by an elephant. When I turned the corner there was another vehicle in the road in front of us.

"The driver started reversing and stopped next to us. I'm Irish and he was speaking Afrikaans, but I could make out the word 'elephant'."

John was unable to back up out of a ditch so turned the engine off hoping to avoid Amarula's attention.

But the elephant came straight for them and began rubbing up against the car.

John, who was visiting the reserve to celebrate his 66th birthday, said: "It really did seem to regard the car as a female elephant and was making advances on 'her'.

Complete story.

ShadowEbike

In 2010, they pushed the bar even higher by designing and developing an innovative technology driven bicycle, the 'SHADOWEBIKE,' world's first wireless power-assist electric bicycle.

They are focusing 100% of their attention on technology, designing and building the most innovative and technologically advanced electric bicycle in the world. Whether consumers 'ride to live,' or 'live to ride,' they will experience a cycling experience unlike any other on the Shadow Ebike.

For 2011, Daymak Inc. brings new meaning to the words experience and performance for the power-assist electric bicycle market. They have built the world's first wireless power-assist electric bicycle, the 'Shadow Ebike.' There are no brake cables, no gear cables and no electric wires from the motor, the batteries, the controller or throttle visible on the bicycle.

• Wireless Power 'On/Off'

• Wireless Magnetic Regenerative Brakes

• Wireless Throttle

• Wireless Pedal Assist

They designed a bicycle wheel that completely houses a 250W or 350W motor, 36V 10AH Lithium battery, wireless Daymak Drive controller, charging port and a LED battery power display.

More on SHADOWEBIKE.

The Heart Beats of Animals

The heart of a typical blue whale beats 20 times each minute. This may seem like a pretty large number...until you consider that the average hamster's heart beats 450 times a minute! Normally, the larger the animal is, the slower its heartbeat. An elephant heart beats 30 times per minute.

Check out the heart beats of different animals.

Facts About Dinosaurs

How do scientists know whether dinosaur fossils are male or female?

One of the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex fossils in the world is named Sue. But no one really knows whether Sue is a boy or a girl -- the fossil got its name from the paleontologist who found it. As it turns out, figuring out the sex of a dinosaur is harder than it sounds, since the relevant parts of the body are all gone by the time someone finds the bones. But a few scientists have succeeded.

Can scientists clone dinosaurs?

If you believe what you see in the Jurassic Park movies and books, cloning dinosaurs is as easy as taking blood from a mosquito and mixing it with DNA from a frog. But reconstructing dinosaur DNA is more like building a ladder to the moon with only enough rungs to reach the top of your house. And it turns out that birds might be a better match for dino DNA than frogs. With recent discoveries of dinosaur mummies and soft tissue in fossils, has it become more likely that scientists could create a dinosaur clone?

Could dinosaurs swim?

Most cats don't swim by choice. But if one falls into the water, it can usually swim well enough to try to make its way out again, which is also the case for many other animals. Did this rule of thumb hold true for dinosaurs, or did some steer clear of water at all costs? Finding the answer is easier said than done — there aren't any eyewitnesses, and swimming dinosaurs didn't leave much evidence behind. But researchers have found a few clues about whether dinosaurs took to the water.

Interested in knowing answers to all such questions see here.

Red-Eyed Tree Frog

Red-eyed tree frogs, despite their conspicuous coloration, are not venomous. They are found in tropical lowlands from southern Mexico, throughout Central America, and in northern South America. Nocturnal carnivores, they hide in the rain forest canopy and ambush crickets, flies, and moths with their long, sticky tongues.

These iconic rain-forest amphibians sleep by day stuck to leaf-bottoms with their eyes closed and body markings covered. When disturbed, they flash their bulging red eyes and reveal their huge, webbed orange feet and bright blue-and-yellow flanks. This technique, called startle coloration, may give a bird or snake pause, offering a precious instant for the frog to spring to safety.

Find out more.

Egyptian Man Names His Daughter Facebook

An Egyptian father has reportedly named his newborn daughter "Facebook" to honour the social media site's role in Egypt's revolution.

A young man in his twenties wanted to express his gratitude about the victories the youth of 25th of January have achieved and chose to express it in the form of naming his firstborn girl "Facebook" Jamal Ibrahim (his name.) The girl's family, friends, and neighbours in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook. "Facebook" received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name. A name (Facebook) that shocked the entire world."

Complete news. 



Types of Dinosaurs

From the smallest to the largest, from plant eaters to meat eaters and from the famous to the not-so-famous, we've got all the dinosaur information you crave.

• Brachiosaurus           One of the Largest Dinosaurs

• Carcharodontosaurus     The Shark Lizard

• Deinonychus             One of the Deadliest Dinosaurs

• Diplodocus              Longest Animals to Walk the Earth

Find out more.

Largest Prehistoric Organisms

Basilosaurus was once recognized as one of the largest known extinct cetaceans at 18 metres (59 ft) in length.

The largest fossil Odontocete ("toothed whale") was the Miocene physeteroid whale Livyatan melvillei which was estimated to be 13, 5-17, 5 meter in length. One notable feature of L. melvillei was its teeth which were 36 cm long and is unmatched by any other animal extinct or alive.

The largest monotreme (egg-laying) mammal ever was the extinct long-beaked echidna species Zaglossus hacketti, known from a couple of bones found in Western Australia. It was the size of a sheep, weighing probably up to 100 kg (220 lb).

The largest extinct marsupial was Diprotodon, about 3 m long (10 ft), standing two meters (6 ft) tall and weighing up to 2,786 kg (6,142 pounds). The two largest carnivorous marsupials were the Marsupial Lion and Thylacosmilus (larger than the Tasmanian Tiger), both about 6 ft long (1.8 m) and weighing 100–160 kilograms (220–350 lb). The largest kangaroo ever was Procoptodon, which could grow to 3.0 m (10 ft) and weigh 230 kilograms (510 lb).

Read more about all such prehistoric organisms.

Orangutan Facts

1. In Malay orang means “person” and utan is derived from hutan, which means “forest.” Thus, orangutan literally means “person of the forest.”

2. Orangutans’ arms stretch out longer than their bodies – up to 8 ft. from fingertip to fingertip in the case of very large males.

3. When on the ground, orangutans walk on all fours, using their palms or fists.

4. From the age of thirteen years (usually in captivity) past the age of thirty, males may develop flanges and large size.

5. When males are fighting, they charge each other, grapple, and bite each other’s heads and cheekpads. They sometimes look like Sumo wrestlers.

6. For the first few years of his/her life, a young orangutan holds tight to his/her mother’s body as she moves through the forest canopy.

7. Like humans, orangutans have opposible thumbs. Their big toes are also opposible. Unlike humans, approximately one third of all orangutans do not have nails on their big toes.

8. Orangutans have tremendous strength, which enables them to brachiate and hang upside-down from branches for long periods of time to retrieve fruit and eat young leaves.

9. Although in the wild, females usually give birth to their first offspring when they are 15-16 years of age, in captivity females as young as eight years old have given birth. Likewise male orangutans in captivity as young as eight years old have fathered offspring.

10. Bornean and Sumatran orangutans can breed together in captivity, producing viable offspring.

Read more.

Amazon Horned Frog

The first thing that stands out about the Amazon horned frog is its size. These rotund amphibians can grow to 8 inches (20 centimeters) in length and would cover a good-size tea saucer. They are found in freshwater marshes and pools throughout the Amazon Basin, from Colombia to Brazil.

They are aggressively territorial and voracious to a fault. Some have been found dead in the wild with the remains of an impossible-to-ingest victim still protruding from their mouths. Their ravenous appetite and huge mouths have earned them and other horned frogs the pet-trade nickname "Pac Man frogs." Indiscriminate eaters, Amazon horned frogs can grow to about the size of a small plate.

Learn more.

Leif Erikson Day

Leif Erikson Day is an annual American observance occurring on October 9th. It honors Leif Erikson, the Norse explorer who brought the first Europeans known to have set foot in North America.

October 9th is not associated with any particular event in Leif Erikson's life. The date was chosen because the ship Restauration coming from Stavanger, Norway, arrived in New York Harbor on October 9, 1825 at the start of the first organized immigration from Norway to the United States.

Learn more about this day.

Egg Facts

• The edible part of a chicken's egg is approximately 74 per cent water, 12 per cent protein, and 11 per cent fat.

• In Macedonia, an egg can mean the difference between life and death. According to local lore, if you share a birthday or even a birth month with a dying relative, your days are likewise numbered. The only way to cheat fate is to share the yolk of an egg with this relative while standing on opposite sides of a stream. Similarly, a dying man might save himself if he finds someone to share a sugared egg with him on the threshold of a house.

• In Mergentheim, Germany, if someone falls gravely ill, that person ties a white thread around an egg and places it into a fire. If the shell turns black in the flame, death is not far off.

Check out the list to find out more interesting facts about this popular food product that might surprise you.

World's Oldest Lightbulb

Burning bright: The world's oldest lightbulb, which has been glowing almost continuously since 1901.

The world's oldest light bulb has been burning for 109 years - so little wonder it has a fan club with thousands of members and its own website.

As EU rules deny householders the right to use traditional filament bulbs, the so-called 'Centennial Light' has been on almost constantly since 1901.

It holds pride of place in Fire Station 6, in Livermore, northern California.

Read more.

Watermelon

Most of us automatically assume that a watermelon is a fruit, but technically it is counted as a vegetable (The Oklahoma State Senate passed a bill on 17 April 2007 declaring watermelon as the official state vegetable, with some controversy surrounding whether a watermelon is a fruit.). It is related to the cucumber, squash and pumpkin plants. The watermelon is classified as Citrullus Lanatu. Regardless of whether the watermelon is a fruit or vegetable, it is known to be very healthy.

Adding watermelon to your diet is now recommended by the American Heart Association because of the healthy amounts of lycopene that are a natural part of this vegetable. Lycopene is proven to help reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men. It is also healthy because it is low in sodium and fat free.

Watermelon is a very low calorie veggie, (disguised as a fruit), and is also full of vitamins such as vitamin A, C and B6. A full cup serving of watermelon only contains around forty calories and is almost entirely made up of water. The benefits of the vitamins in watermelon help the eyes and can also boost the infection fighting white blood cells in the body

Read more about watermelon and its benefits.

Acids in Popular Sodas

Root beer could be the safest soft drink for your teeth, new research suggests, but many other popular diet and sugared sodas are nearly as corrosive to dental enamel as battery acid.

Prolonged exposure to soft drinks can lead to significant enamel loss, even though many people consider soft drinks to be harmless or just worry about their sugar content and the potential for putting on pounds, the study says.

The erosive potential of colas is 10 times that of fruit juices in just the first three minutes of drinking, a study last year showed. The latest research, published in Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) journal General Dentistry, reports that drinking any type of soft drink hurts teeth due to the citric acid and/or phosphoric acid in the beverages.

Here's a chart comparing different kinds of soft drinks by pH level.

Spotted Salamander

Despite being fairly large and having an extremely broad range, the spotted salamander is actually pretty hard to, well, spot.

They can reach 9 inches (23 centimeters) in length and are prevalent in mature deciduous forests from eastern Canada throughout the eastern and midwestern United States. But these secretive salamanders spend almost their entire lives hidden under rocks or logs or in the burrows of other forest animals.

Visually striking, these stout salamanders are bluish-black with two irregular rows of yellow or orange spots extending from head to tail. Like many other salamanders, they secrete a noxious, milky toxin from glands on their backs and tails to dissuade predators. Their diet includes insects, worms, slugs, spiders, and millipedes.

Read more.

Elephant Trunk

Probably one of the most interesting morphological features of the elephant is its trunk. The trunk is an extremely flexible muscular organ which can be used with the finest touch. It is an important part of an elephant's life by being used as an exploratory organ, for feeding, for drinking and for friendly wrestling matches.

At the first hint of danger and elephant will raise its trunk to smell any reason for the threat. It is also used for a whole range of smelling tasks as one of the elephant's primary sensory inputs (along with hearing). Whether it is to smell to see if a female is sexually receptive, or to explore the food in another elephant's mouth, the trunk plays a vital part in its life. In fact, it is almost impossible for an elephant to survive if its trunk becomes damaged.

An elephant calf can lift about 4.5% of its own weight with its trunk. In the case of an elephant bull it ranges around 270kg. It is estimated that the trunk contained 40,000 muscles!! Amazingly, the entire human body only has 639 muscles.

Read more about elephant trunk.

Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots

Material Beliefs is a team of engineers and designers who reckon that, over the coming years, robots are destined to play a significant part in our daily lives.



Mousetrap Coffee Table Robot



These researchers aim to take domestic robots beyond the mundane current reality of robotic vacuum cleaners and imitation dogs, into a possible future where humans live side-by-side with stylish, self-powered bots.

With this in mind, James Auger, Jimmy Loizeau and Alex Zivanovic designed the Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots: five prototype machines that harvest hapless pests (flies and mice) from the home environment and convert them into energy via their microbial fuel cells.

The first of the Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robot prototypes is the lampshade robot. The lightshade cover has holes inspired by those of the insect-catching pitcher plant, luring light-loving bugs inside and trapping them there. When the trapped insects expire, they fall into the microbial fuel cell beneath the robot's lampshade. This generates the electricity to power a series of LEDs located at the bottom of the shade.

Another prototype is the mousetrap coffee table robot. A mechanised iris is built into the top of a coffee table. This is attached to a infra red motion sensor. Crumbs and food debris left on the table attract mice who gain access to the table top via a hole built into one over size leg. Their motion activates the iris and the mouse falls into the microbial fuel cell housed under the table. This generates the energy to power the iris motor and sensor.

Read more.

 

The Bonobo

The Bonobo also called the Pygmy Chimpanzee and less often, the Dwarf or Gracile Chimpanzee, is a great ape. A bonobo is an ape that is closely related to the common chimpanzee. 

The Bonobo is an endangered animal and is found only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Along with the Common Chimpanzee, the Bonobo is the closest extant relative to humans.

The species is distinguished by relatively long legs, pink lips, dark face and tail-tuft through adulthood, and parted long hair on its head. Bonobos are generally understood to be a matriarchal species. The reason Bonobos are perceived to be a matriarchal species is that females tend to collectively dominate males and commonly engage in casual sexual activity, as well as significant homosexual contact. They are mainly frugivorous, but supplement its diet with leaves and meat from small animals.

Find out more about this great ape.

Cancer-Sniffing Dog

Dogs can already sniff out bombs, drugs, and contraband foodstuffs. Now, researchers think they can train them to sniff out colorectal cancer.

Japanese scientists trained a black Labrador Retriever, named Marine, that they say can sniff out colorectal cancer with up to 98 percent accuracy. Better yet perhaps, her abilities are more accurate than some tests currently used to diagnose the cancer, namely the fecal occult blood test, which accurately predicts the cancer only 10 percent of the time.

Complete news.

Aromatherapy for Lions


 Aromatherapy for lions and massages for tapirs. It might sound like something you'd only see in a Disney cartoon but the luxury answer to animal care is happening for real in a Devon zoo.

Indu the female lion is responding well to the aromatherapy trials at Paignton Zoo, while Misha the tapir thinks having her back rubbed with almond oil is to die for.



Lioness Indu on her scented pillow



Lavender and peppermint induce a state of relaxation and calmness in humans ,but for lions, it makes them excited and stimulated. Zookeepers at Paignton Zoo added peppermint and lavender to a sack of hay, and gave the sack of hay to a female lion named Indu. She started licking the sack of hay and resting her head on it, and getting really excited, like a cat wit catnip!

Complete news.

Radioactive Bananas

A banana equivalent dose is a concept occasionally used by nuclear power proponents to place in scale the dangers of radiation by comparing exposures to the radiation generated by a common banana.

Many foods are naturally radioactive, and bananas are particularly so, due to the radioactive potassium-40 they contain. The banana equivalent dose is the radiation exposure received by eating a single banana. Radiation leaks from nuclear plants are often measured in extraordinarily small units (the picocurie, a millionth of a millionth of a curie, is typical). By comparing the exposure from these events to a banana equivalent dose, a more intuitive assessment of the actual risk can sometimes be obtained.

The average radiologic profile of bananas is 3520 picocuries per kg, or roughly 520 picocuries per 150g banana. The equivalent dose for 365 bananas (one per day for a year) is 3.6 millirems (36 μSv).

Bananas are radioactive enough to regularly cause false alarms on radiation sensors used to detect possible illegal smuggling of nuclear material at US ports.

Read more.

Exploding Animals

The explosion of animals is an uncommon event arising through natural causes or human activity. Among the best known examples are the post-mortem explosions of whales, either as a result of natural decomposition or deliberate attempts at carcass disposal. Other instances of exploding animals are defensive in nature or the result of human intervention.

Natural explosions can occur for a variety of reasons. Post-mortem explosions, like that of a beached whale, are the result of the build-up of natural gases created by methane-producing bacteria inside the carcass during the decomposition process.

Natural explosions which occur while an animal is living may be defense-related. A number of toads in Germany and Denmark exploded in April 2005.

Others are altruistic, or at the expense of the individual in defense of its colony. Several species of ants seemingly explode at will to protect their nests from intruders. Likewise, many species of termites have members, deemed the soldier class, who can split their bodies open emitting a noxious and sticky chemical for the same reason.

Various military attempts have been made to use animals as delivery systems for weapons. During World War II the United States investigated the use of "bat bombs".Other attempts have included the so-called kamikaze dolphins, intended to seek out and destroy submarines and enemy warships.

Read more about exploding animals.

Elephants

Elephants are large and grey and have big ears and long trunks, right? If all elephants seem the same to you, take a closer look. There are two different kinds of elephants: African and Asian. Here are a few ways to tell them apart.

African elephants Loxodonta africana— Have large ears that are shaped like the continent of Africa, both males and females have visible tusks, their skin is very wrinkly, their backs are swayed, and the end of their trunk works as if they have two fingers there to help them pick things up.

Asian elephants Elephas maximus— Have smaller ears, usually only the males have visible tusks, their skin is not as wrinkly, they only have one "finger" at the ends of their trunks, and their backs are dome-shaped.

At birth, a baby elephant, called a calf, may stand three feet (one meter) tall. A calf is usually quite hairy with a long tail and a very short trunk. It uses its mouth to drink its mother's milk, so it doesn't need a long trunk to feed. Calves are clumsy at first with their trunks, but they learn to use them as they grow older.

Elephants' ears are a little like air conditioner. As elephants flap their wet ears on a hot day, the blood flowing through the many blood vessels there is cooled. This in turn cools their large bodies.

Wild elephants eat all types of vegetation, from grass and fruit to leaves and bark—about 220 to 440 pounds (100 to 200 kilograms) each day.

The largest elephant on record was an adult male African elephant. It weighed about 24,000 pounds (10,886 kilograms) and was 13 feet (3.96 meters) tall at the shoulder! Most elephants don't get that large, but African elephants grow larger than Asian elephants.

Read more about elephants.

Acid Rain

First identified in 1872 in Sweden and studied in the U.S. beginning in the 1950s, acid rain is precipitation in the form of rain, snow, hail, dew, or fog that transports sulphur and nitrogen compounds from the high atmosphere to the ground. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NO, NO2) are bi-products from burning fuels in electric utilities and from other industrial and natural sources. These chemicals react with water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and sunlight in the atmosphere to form sulphuric and nitric acids. The acids reach the ground and change the chemistry within the environment.

Acid rain is linked to both natural and man-made sources. Nitrogen oxides are formed through the extreme heating of air when a thunderstorm produces lightning. Also, sulphurous gases are discharged from erupted volcanoes and rotting vegetation. Man-made sources of acid rain include the burning of any fuel that contains sulphur and nitrogen compounds, including public utilities, industrial broilers, motor vehicles, and chemical plants. Electric power generation accounted for 69 percent of total sulphur dioxide emissions in the U.S. in 2007 and 20 percent of nitrogen oxides, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

For detailed information on acid rain see here.

Amazing Shark Facts

• Great white sharks off the coast of Seal Island, Africa, are known to jump almost 10 feet (3 meters) in the air to catch unsuspecting seals ... or anything else, for that matter.

• Sharks living in frigid waters can heat their eyes using a special organ next to a muscle in their eye socket. This ability enables them to keep hunting their prey in extreme temperatures.

• Every once in a while, a female shark can reproduce without any contact from a male, an act known as parthenogenesis.

• Almost 50 different species of sharks have light-emitting organs called photospheres. Sharks use the light that comes from these organs for camouflage and to attract mates.

• Sharks respond to a sound known as a "yummy hum." It's not an actual hum, though. It's an infrasonic sound (one that's too low for humans to hear) that injured fish make, drawing sharks to an easy meal.

• The average shark lives to be 25 years old, but some can get as old as 100!

Learn more about sharks.

Rapunzel Syndrome

Rapunzel syndrome is a rare medical condition resulting from trichophagia, the disorder in which one eats their own hair. Rapunzel syndrome and trichophagia are sometimes associated with the hair pulling disorder trichotillomania.


Rapunzel syndrome is a rare presentation of a trichobezoar (human hair ball) in which patients commonly present with abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and signs of obstruction. The end of the bezoar may be in the jejunum, ileum or the colon, and resembled a long tail. Approximately 37.5% of individuals with trichophagia are at risk of forming a trichobezoar.

Know more about Rapunzel syndrome.

Clean-Cut Look for Japanese Bureaucrats

If you live in the Japanese city of Isesaki, you must shave your beard in order to get a public service job. Isesaki authorities have ordered their staff to shave off beards and moustaches after complaints from public.

Authorities in Isesaki, have ordered all male employees to shave off their facial hair, and banish all thoughts of growing any, following complaints from members of the public who said they found dealing with bearded bureaucrats "unpleasant".

The ban, the first of its kind among Japanese public officials, applies to any manifestation of facial hair, from lovingly cultivated full beards to trendy goatees and designer stubble.

Complete news.

Human Brain Facts

How much does human brain weigh? Or what are the average dimensions of the adult brain. Here are some interesting facts about human brains.

• Average dimensions of the adult brain: Width = 140 mm/5.5 in, Length = 167 mm/6.5 in, Height = 93 mm/3.6 in.

• How much does human brain weigh? At birth our brains weigh and average of 350-400g (about 4/5 lbs), as adults the brain averages 1300-1400g (about 3 lbs).

• If stretched out the cerebral cortex would be 0.23 sq. m (2.5sq.ft), the area of a night table.

• Total surface area of the cerebral cortex is 2,500 cm2 or 2.69 sq.ft.

• The composition of the brain = 77-78% water, 10-12% lipids, 8% protein, 1% carbs, 2% soluble organics, 1% inorganic salt.

• The cerebellum contains half of all the neurons in the brain but comprises only 10% of the brain.

• The cerebral cortex is about 85% of the brain.

• There are about 100 billion neurons in the human brain, the same number of stars in our galaxy.

• The left hemisphere of the brain has 186 million more neurons than the right hemisphere.

• 750-1000ml of blood flow through the brain every minute or about 3 full soda cans.

• In that minute the brain will consume 46cm3 (1/5 cups) of oxygen from that blood.

• Your brain is about 2% of your total body weight but uses 20% of your body's energy.

• The energy used by the brain is enough to light a 25 watt bulb.

Interested in knowing more about brain, read here.