New bridge at Hoover Dam

Creeping closer inch by inch – 900ft above the mighty Colorado River – the two sides of a $160 million bridge at the Hoover Dam in America slowly take shape.

The bridge will carry a new section of US Route 93 past the bottleneck of the old road which can be seen twisting and winding around and across the dam itself. When complete, it will provide a new link between the states of Nevada and Arizona.

In an incredible feat of engineering, the road will be supported on the two massive concrete arches which jut out of the rock face. The arches are made up of 53 individual sections – each 24ft long – which have been cast on-site and are being lifted into place using an improvised high-wire crane strung between temporary steel pylons.

Nintendo DS glucose reader plugin for kids with diabetes

This is the pre-launch page for the Bayer 'Didget', a blood glucose meter which plugs in to the DS / DS Lite's Slot-2. Consistent glucose testing by the diabetic child (or adult, presumably) is rewarded with points in a game that can be used to buy items or unlock levels.

As with the the 'iPlayer' hardware video decoder for the DS which Cory recently posted, the downside is that the new DSi doesn't have a Slot-2. Bayer's DIDGET meter was developed in conjunction with Paul Wessel -- the parent of a child with type 1 diabetes.

Paul noticed that although his son Luke was constantly losing his blood glucose meter, he could always find his Nintendo Game Boy. It was this observation that inspired Paul and Bayer to work together to develop the first and only blood glucose meter that connects to the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite gaming systems to reward children for good testing habits.

Cartoon-figure shaped Ecstasy pills

Drugs shaped like Snoopy, Transformers and President Barack Obama’s head recently showed up on Kansas City area streets, adding to a trend that worries police and health experts.

Colorful Ecstasy pills started showing up last year shaped as Homer and Bart Simpson, Ninja Turtles and other characters. As more of the pills that look like vitamins or candy go out locally and nationwide, they put children at great risk, police and experts said. “Someone leaves this around.. kids pick them up and boom,” said H. Westley Clark, director of the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

The result could be seizures, a spiked blood pressure and heart rate and even death, he said. Last month, Drug Enforcement Administration officials in Nevada sent out warnings that the cartoon pills were in Las Vegas. Dealers there call Ecstasy “Thizz” and market it to minors, the DEA warned. They also said they had found pills shaped like Ninja Turtles, Transformers and other Simpsons characters.

The mind-controlled wheelchair

You may not have the psionic power of X-Men’s Professor X, but Carmaker Toyota and research lab RIKEN have created the closest thing in real life: a wheelchair that can be controlled by thought.

The device scans brain waves through sensors in a cap. In 125 thousandths of a second, the brain-controlled wheelchair can turn a thought into a command to turn the chair left or right or to move it forward. To stop, however, the user must puff out his or her cheek, activating a sensor placed there.

To best pilot the wheelchair, don’t try too hard, suggested RIKEN scientist Andrzej Cichocki, leader of the project. "It works best if you imagine playing the piano with either hand while turning the wheelchair or, for instance, jogging, to [make the chair] move forward," Cichocki said. "After two to four weeks of training, the accuracy is nearly perfect and it becomes effortless."

That's my team!

Dead Gnomes: idiotically grinning ghastly garden gnomes

Out of the Blue's "Dead Gnome" line features garden gnomes with pistols in their mouths, or holding up the dripping heads of decapitated brethren.

That's not all: they're industriously sawing their own hands off, hanging from a gibbet, grinning glassily at the arrow that's pierced their heads, and so on. It's the wet, happy grins that get me. And the ever-present bunny.

Ever wondered what you would look like bald?

Well, I for sure did. And since I'm curious like.. that which is most curious known to man, I decided to shave my head. Yes, I did.


I've been wearing my hair pretty short for a few years now and I like it to bits. But bald, that's the final step so to speak. And as I'm off from work for two weeks, I can easily experiment: it'll be back before work starts. Hopefully.

Don't worry, it's a one-time thing probably, and the great thing about hair is; it grows back. But then again, it doesn't look that bad. It just makes me look like a convict, or a hooligan, or something..

The bleeding billboard

To remind drivers to drive carefully during the rain in Papakura, New Zealand, the local government put out a rather disturbing billboard that bleeds when it rains.

The billboard may be terrifying, but apparently it’s effective: there hasn’t been a fatality since. And that makes one effective, though creepy, billboard.

Missing cat found on TV

A cat named Tango became the accidental star of the BBC TV show Question Time, hosted by David Dimbleby. One-year-old Tango became the star of the discussion programme after finding his way into the school hall where it was being recorded.

He ducked under a desk and headed towards the panel. At first, Dimbleby and guests including employment minister Jim Knight and Tory security spokesman Dame Pauline Neville-Jones were oblivious to his presence.

But as he pawed under the table he caught the eye of LibDem MP Julia Goldsworthy, who in astonishment mouthed the word ‘cat’ at the production team. Meanwhile, Jackie Ellery of Newquay, England hadn’t seen her cat Tango in hours. As she wondered about his whereabouts, she sat down to watch TV.

She said: ‘My friend phoned me to say, “Have you seen your cat on the telly?” And there he was. ‘It’s lovely - he’s a mischievous cat anyway and because we live so close to the school he’s often in the school grounds.' Tango, who returned to his owner that night, has since become something of a celebrity. Mrs Ellery said: ‘I’ve even been asked for his paw-tograph.’

Strange sewer creatures

This sewer-cam video from Raleigh, North Carolina has been inspiring nausea all over the web. Deep Sea News contacted experts to find out what kind of creature this could be.

They are clumps of annelid worms, almost certainly tubificids (Naididae, probably genus Tubifex). Normally these occur in soil and sediment, especially at the bottom and edges of polluted streams. In the photo they have apparently entered a pipeline somehow, and in the absence of soil they are coiling around each other.

Read more about annelid worms and see more videos, if you have the stomach for it.

Fatal monorail collision at Walt Disney World

The operator of a monorail at Walt Disney World died Sunday morning when two monorails crashed.

About five or six guests were on the monorail at the time of the accident, but they are not seriously injured.

It happened at the Ticket and Transportation Center station. A person who was on the scene reported to the news stations that they head a loud explosion and saw the mangled trains in the station.

They tried to run to get people out of the front of the crashed train. The monorails involved were the pink and purple trains, according to Local 6 in Orlando; pink was moving and hit purple, which was stationary.

Now that's service: the solar birdhouse

Even our fine feathered friends are getting into alternative energy!

This birdhouse design from Studio Oooms has a solar panel on the roof, and a translucent perch that lights up at night. The idea is that the light will attract bugs that the bird can feast upon. Genius!

Taking too long in the bathroom? Get divorced!

You know the honeymoon is over when this happened: when the husband found out that his new wife took too long in the airport restroom, he decided to get on the plane without her!

The woman in question, a teacher, had gone to use the facilities at the airport before boarding a flight back in Saudi Arabia. Quite how long she stayed in the toilet remains unclear. What is certain is she emerged to discover her husband had vanished without trace.

The woman, who had paid for the holiday, began a desperate search of the airport and grew increasingly concerned that something terrible had happened to him. When he arrived at his destination, he calmly told relatives his new wife was still in Malaysia. His bride was not so calm about his behaviour. She has demanded an immediate divorce.

557,000 Miles, driven in one car - you too can do that, if you take good care of it!

90-year-old Rachel Veitch of Orlando, Florida has been driving the same 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente since it was new. Now she has racked up 557,000 miles on the odometer -and it’s still going great!

Unlike her three husbands, Veitch says, the Mercury has “never lied to me, never cheated on me, and I can always depend on her.” Veitch is on her seventh Midas muffler, and thank you, gentlemen, for the lifetime warranty. She’s had three sets of Sears shock absorbers, also through a lifetime warranty.

And though the number seems high, she claims to have had 16 free batteries, courtesy of J.C. Penney and Firestone.

“She’s demonstrating the perfect way to take care of a car,” says Mike Hardie, director of global quality and productivity for Ford Motor Co., and that’s what makes her a menace.

“If everyone did that,” he says, “we’d never sell another one, so don’t spread it around too far.” If the engine ever goes out, Veitch may be in trouble, because they are no longer manufactured.

No, it's not 'just a small x3'; it's the X1!

BMW has finally revealed the first official images and video of its new compact SAV.

The entry level offering, which will slot below the German automaker's X3, was designed to appeal to younger buyers that require a bit more space but don't want to sacrifice driving pleasure.

Virtually identical to the X1 showcar unveiled at the 2008 Paris motor show, the latest addition to BMW's X range reinterprets the design cues and practical aspects of its SAV siblings but in a compact package.

Measuring 4450mm long and riding on a 2760mm-long wheelbase, the X1 is a more contemporary design than both the X3 and larger X5, a testament to the younger buyer BMW is targeting.

BMW claims the X1 has a 'sporting and youthful appearance' inside, with the main controls and displays angled towards the driver. The instrument panel is subdivided by horizontal lines continuing into the door panels, which accentuates the width of the vehicle.

With an elevated seating position, multiple storage compartments and a split folding rear seat allowing for variable loading configurations, the X1 will easily offer the amenities sought for in this segment.

Happy 4th of July!

Ad of the Week: Toysdirect.com - Batteries

Hitler finds out Michael Jackson has died.. (I know, it's not politically correct, but damn it's funny!)

Life imitates 'Final Destination': woman who missed Air France Flight 447 dies in car crash

It’s like that movie Final Destination. An Italian woman who didn’t get on Air France flight 447 because she arrived late to the airport was killed in a car crash just two weeks later.

Johanna Ganthaler, a pensioner from Bolzano-Bozen province, had been on holiday in Brazil with her husband Kurt and missed Air France Flight 447 after turning up late at Rio de Janeiro airport on May 31.

All 228 people aboard lost their lives after the plane crashed into the Atlantic four hours into its flight to Paris.

Apparantly Ms Ganthaler died when their car veered across a road in Kufstein, Austria, and swerved into an oncoming truck. Her husband was seriously injured.

Yay Sweden! Swedish women won the right to bathe topless

Hooray for the feminists! Fighting what they deem as a sex discrimination of sorts, women of all shapes and sizes in Malmö bared criticisms to win the right to bathe topless in the city’s public swimming pool.

The breast issue has proved divisive, with political wranglings leading to the question being struck off the agenda at an earlier meeting in April.

These political cleavages remained on view right up until Wednesday’s meetings with disagreements on both the left and right sides. According to Forsberg, some on the council had lobbied for wording which would have required women to keep their nipples covered, but Forsberg explained that attempting to enforce such a rule would have been too complicated.

"We don’t define what bathing suits men should wear so it doesn’t make much sense to do it for women. And besides, it’s not unusual for men to have large breasts that resemble women’s breasts," he said. Uhm.. OK?

Church turned graveyard into a parking lot for Wimbledon

It seems that the St. Mary’s Church in Wimbledon village has maneuvered itself into a rather tight spot: church officials let tennis fan park their car on top of graves for €20!

The Church later apologized:
Reverend Mary Bide said that although the cars look ‘odd’, they were only parked in the oldest part of the graveyard and funds raised would make a ‘valuable contribution to the Church and the Diocese’.

But the church has since apologised for the car parking arrangement and has stopped the use of the churchyard. Over many years, during the Wimbledon Championships, the parish of St Mary Wimbledon has offered this service to the public,’ a church spokesman said.

Each year three designated charities benefit from some of the money raised by allowing the cars to park and the rest goes towards work within the parish. Sadly, this year, some cars were parked in inappropriate places.’