Galactic Suite

The proposed Space hotel in orbit.

A Spanish-based company is planning to set a three-bedroom hotel in space by 2012. Space tourists wanting to check-in in the hotel will be charged $4 million for a three-day stay. But before they could avail of the service, the guests will need to undergo eight weeks of intensive training. Then they will be flown by a private shuttle into orbit. Hotel guests would see the sun rise 15 times a day and use Velcro suits to crawl around their pod rooms by sticking themselves to the walls like Spiderman.

Thousands line up for last Big Mac in Iceland

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – Thousands of Icelanders lined up at McDonald's restaurants to order their last Big Macs before the U.S. fast-food chain abandons the crisis-hit island at midnight Saturday due to soaring costs.

The world's largest fast-food company said earlier this week that all three of its restaurants in Iceland, operated by franchisee Jon Ogmundsson, would shut down October 31.

Calvin Klein USB Memory Frame

A high-tech fashion trend from Calvin Klein. A product that makes daily life slowly adapting James Bond's style. The Calvin Klein USB Memory Frame as it is called, has a 4GB USB port hidden in the right temple of the shades. A high-tech fashion way of carrying your digital data, images or videos along anywhere you go. This is available in two shapes and a variety of colors. It costs about $199.

Scientist tweaks Xbox 360 to detect heart disease

A computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England has devised a way to use an Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks. The new tool has the potential to revolutionize the medical industry because it is both faster and cheaper than the computer systems that are currently used by scientists to perform complex heart research.

The system, detailed in a study in the August edition of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry, is based on a video-game demo created by Simon Scarle two years ago when he was a software engineer at Microsoft's Rare studio, the division of the U.S.-based company that designs games for the Xbox 360. Scarle modified a chip in the console so that instead of producing graphics for the game, it now delivers data tracking how electrical signals in the heart move around damaged cardiac cells. This creates a model of the heart that allows doctors to identify heart defects or conditions such as arrhythmia, a disturbance in the normal rhythm of the heart that causes it to pump less effectively.

9-lb, 9-ounce US baby born at 9:09 on 9/9/09

LA CROSSE, Wis. – No doubt. The nines have it. Chuck Berendes of La Crosse said he will never forget the birthday of this third child, born Wednesday on the ninth day of the nine month in the year 2009.

Nor will Berendes and his wife, Polly, forget Henry Michael's arrival time — at 9:09 a.m. by Cesarean section at Franciscan Skemp Medical Center in La Crosse.

But they got the biggest laugh when the newborn was placed on the delivery room scale following his birth.

Berendes said it was metric scale so the doctor did the math in his head, but to make sure, he had the nurse also do the conversion. Berendes said they broke into laughter when the nurse told them Henry weighed 9 pounds, 9 ounces. - AP

NYC's skinniest house has a fat price tag

NEW YORK – It's 9 1/2 feet wide and 42 feet long and is billed as the narrowest house in New York City. But there's nothing small about its asking price: $2.7 million.

Located at 75 1/2 Bedford St. in Greenwich Village, the red brick building was built in 1873, sandwiched between 75 and 77 Bedford.

It's famous for other reasons, too. Corcoran real estate broker Alex Nicholas says anthropologist Margaret Mead and poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once called it home.

The three-story structure boasts plenty of light with large windows in the front and back, and a skylight.

The current owner bought it in 2000 for $1.6 million.

Nicholas says it's a place for someone who wants a little history.

Rat-eating plant discovered

A team of British Botanists recently discovered a pitcher plant that eats rodents in the deep jungles of Palawan, Philippines. Stewart Mcpherson and Alastair Robinson found the plant in 2007 but their findings were published only this year in the Botanical Journal of Linnean Society.

The rodent eater is among the largest of all pitcher plants. According to McPherson, “The plant produces spectacular traps which catch not only insects, but also rodents. It is remarkable that it remained undiscovered until the 21st century."

The rat-eating shrub dissolves its prey with acid-like enzymes inside its pitcher-shaped leaves. The pitchers measure 30 x 16 cm, double the size of usual pitcher plants found in the area.

Its funnel shape, a form usually associated with aerial types of the species, is distinct from its counterparts, which have a more rounded bottom. A terrestrial species, it has a red-lipped mouth topped by a smaller leaf called a lid.

The plant is now known as Nepenthes attenboroughii, named after British nature filmmaker Sir David Attenborough.