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.

Cockfighters seek Congressional seat

A group of cockfighting aficionados in the Philippines is seeking a representation at the House of Representatives through the party-list system, which provides representation to the marginalized and underrepresented sectors of the society.

Alyansa ng Sabungero on Monday joined more than 200 party-list organizations in filing for accreditation before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the 2010 national elections.

In its four-page petition, the group claimed that their purpose in seeking representation in Congress is to help poor workers in the cockfighting business.

Comelec is questioning the application for accreditation because, “A group of cockfighters. Why are they marginalized when they hold the money?" -GMANews

Mona Lisa smiles on after Russian teacup attack

A russian woman attacked Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa by throwing a teacup at the world's most famous painting but emerged unscathed due to it's bullet-proof glass protection.

The Louvre museum said that the woman took the cup from her bag and threw it over the heads of other people who were looking at the painting. The cup smashed on the bullet-proof glass which was slightly scratched.
The woman put up no resistance when museum guards apprehended her after the incident. She was handed over to police who said the woman "did not have all her mental faculties and has been transferred to the police psychiatric infirmary."

Illinois man faces 6 months in jail for yawning

JOLIET, Ill. – Drowsy spectators in one suburban Chicago courtroom might want to stifle their yawns from now on. Clifton Williams, 33, of Richton Park, is facing six months in jail for making what court documents call a yawn-like sound in Will County Judge Daniel Rozak's court last month. The yawn happened as Williams' cousin, Jason Mayfield, was being sentenced for a drug charge on July 23.
Rozak found Williams in contempt of court and sentenced him to six months in jail. However, Rozak could free Williams after a status hearing Thursday, if Williams apologizes and the judge accepts. By then, Williams will have served 21 days. (AP)

Faster than calculator

Shakuntala Devi is a calculating prodigy who was born on November 4, 1939 in Bangalore, India. Her calculating gifts first demonstrated themselves while she was doing card tricks with her father when she was three. They report she "beat" them by memorization of cards rather than by sleight of hand. By age six she demonstrated her calculation and memorization abilities at the University of Mysore. At the age of eight she had success at Annamalai University by doing the same.

Unlike many other calculating prodigies, for example Truman Henry Safford, her abilities did not wane in adulthood. In 1977 she extracted the 23rd root of a 201-digit number mentally. On June 18, 1980 she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She answered the question in 28 seconds. However, this time is more likely the time for dictating the answer (a 26-digit number) than the time for the mental calculation (the time of 28 seconds was quoted on her own website). Her correct answer was 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730. This event is mentioned on page 26 of the 1995 Guinness Book of Records ISBN 0-553-56942-2. - source Wikipedia

Mouse builds nest in Oregon ATM with $20 bills

LOUISIANA GRANDE, Oregon — A mouse found inside an automatic teller machine — along with a nest it had built with chewed-up $20 bills — gave an Oregon gas station employee the surprise of her life.

The mouse, discovered Thursday, had thoroughly torn up two bills and damaged another 14 to line his nest. Employee Millie Taylor says she screamed and slammed the machine's door shut.

The bank replaced all the money that wasn't extensively damaged, and the ATM has continued to work just fine. The mouse also got a reprieve: He was evicted from his nest but set free outside the station.

Other workers at the Gem Stop Chevron in La Grande in eastern Oregon say they're mystified about how the mouse got inside the machine. - AP

Widow killed after figuring in 2 road accidents in a row

This widow was literally followed by death.

Alma Lo, a 51-year-old widow, succumbed to multiple injuries after being hit by a pickup truck, and then by a passenger bus, said the Visayan Daily Star.

The oddest thing is that an ambulance dispatched to take her to a hospital also figured in a three-vehicle collision while on its way to the scene as reported by the police.

Investigation showed that Lo was crossing Lacson Street at about 10 p.m. Tuesday when a pickup hit her. The impact threw Lo to the left side of the road, where a passenger bus hit her a second time.

Lo was eventually rushed to a hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

On the other hand, an ambulance that was supposed to take the victim to the hospital figured in a three-vehicle collision at Gatuslao Street.

The ambulance collided with a motorcycle, which then hit a police patrol van.

Bird experiment shows Aesop's fable may be true

NEW YORK – From the goose that laid the golden egg to the race between the tortoise and the hare, Aesop's fables are known for teaching moral lessons rather than literally being true. But a new study says at least one such tale might really have happened.
It's the fable about a thirsty crow. The bird comes across a pitcher with the water level too low for him to reach. The crow raises the water level by dropping stones into the pitcher. (Moral: Little by little does the trick, or in other retellings, necessity is the mother of invention.)
Now, scientists report that some relatives of crows called rooks used the same stone-dropping strategy to get at a floating worm. Results of experiments with three birds were published online Thursday by the journal Current Biology.
Rooks, like crows, had already been shown to use tools in previous experiments. (AP)

Earth seen from space 4 billion miles away

Part of the first ever "family portrait" of the solar system taken by Voyager 1 in 1990, this image of Earth was captured from a distance of more than 4 billion miles. Pictured here as a dot only 0.12 pixels in size, the Earth is, as described by Voyager contributor Carl Sagan, "...a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish this pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known." - www.space.com

If we could only realize that we are just tiny "bacterias" thriving in a tiny speck of dust floating in the vastness of space, we just might learn how to take care of this fragile planet and live amongst ourselves peacefully.