jockeys writes "In a hilarious prank, two Norwegians chased the Google car while wearing spearfishing attire." Remarkable people, the Norwegians aren't they? Beautiful dry suits!

angry tapir writes "Japan's Index Corp. plans to launch an iPhone adaptation of the 'Bowlingual' dog emotion translator. The original device, first offered in 2002 by Takara Tomy, coupled a microphone that goes around a dog's neck with a handheld receiver with LCD screen for the owner. The app can also be used to tweet the 'translation' and a picture."

Hugh Pickens writes "The Raw Story reports that terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. The 'Subversive Activities Registration Act' passed last year in South Carolina and now officially on the books states that 'every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State.'"

Charles Gill and Ryan Knight are facing felony charges for allegedly throwing snow at a plow and an undercover police car. The pair were charged with throwing missiles at occupied vehicles. If convicted, the men face 1-5 years in prison, and a maximum $2,500 fine. In addition to the snowball throwers, a group making snow angels was detained, but no charges were filed.

An anonymous reader writes "Save the planet by blogging. EnergyAustralia and Sydney Water have opened a tender for a family to live rent-free for a year in an energy-efficient house to be built in a 'smart village' in Sydney's west. Smart Village houses are equipped with in-house displays driven by home-area networks connected to the utility's smart grid that has sensors at sub-stations and elsewhere on the network to manage power use. 'The home will provide a real-life laboratory, integrated with the intelligent electricity grid, for testing products that will help minimize energy and water use and greenhouse gas emissions,' EnergyAustralia said."

eldavojohn writes "Prepare to wax (or groan) theological at The Church of Google. The site offers not one but nine proofs (in the loosest sense of the word) that Google is, in fact, the closest thing to god that humans have ever interacted with. The site has Google prayers and a sufficient amount of information to sustain one in becoming a follower of The Church of Google including something no religion can exist without: hatemail!"

Millionaire Karl Rabeder has decided to give away his £3 million fortune because it's made him miserable. "My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he said, "Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come." Rabeder plans on selling all of his properties as well, and giving the money to his microcredit charity, which offers small loans to Latin America and builds development aid strategies to self-employed people in El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

garg0yle writes "A group of Jedis in England are seeking a new leader after their previous one was forced to step down due to health concerns. Prospective candidates should have a martial arts background and be steeped in the teachings of the Force. I'm assuming you just send your resume to Coruscant to apply?"

A study conducted by researchers at University College London shows that boredom can kill you. The researchers found that people who reported feeling a great deal of boredom were 37 per cent more likely to have died by the end of the study. Martin Shipley, who co-wrote the report said, "The findings on heart disease show there was sufficient evidence to say there is a link with boredom."

An anonymous reader writes "On February 2nd, a group was started entitled 'Can this Onion Ring get more fans than Stephen Harper?', and just a few days later, the group has almost triple as many fans as the Canadian Prime Minister. The group has over 86,000 fans at the time of this writing, and Stephen Harper has only 30,000."

A Polish newspaper, The Gazeta Olsztynska, has mistakenly reported that Pedobear is one of the mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics. An image of the notorious internet meme, who loves to love children, was shown alongside genuine Olympic mascots Quatchi, Sumi, Miga and Mukmuk to illustrate a feature about the Games.

With the oh-so-dreaded Hallmark holiday on the horizon we are flooded with tips and tricks (mostly designed to sell us things our mates cannot live without) of how to please/capture/sedate the ones we care for. One writer even suggests ways to capture the interest of a geeky girl. That said, what are some of the crazier romantically inspired, geeky V-day stunts or activities that you or someone you know has executed to terrible success or failure?

Jim Henderson, a 62-year-old evangelical Christian, wants to know what people who aren't Christians think of church services, so he created ChurchRater.com. Now he just needs non-Christian "Mystery Worshipers" to go to any church and rate their experience. His Craigslist ad reads in part: "Need people who aren't Christians to review church service...Who: Age 20-35. Do not currently believe Jesus Christ is God. Not mad at Christians. What: Attend a church service (anonymously) and complete a survey." The going rate for a church rater is $50. Henderson says, "We say it's our mission to reach out, including to nonbelievers. So why would we not want them to tell us what they think of our efforts to influence, change or even convert them?"

McBacon writes "After Leonardo Da Vinci's resume was transcribed, Wired asked Gordon Chesterman, Director of the Careers Service at the University of Cambridge, if Da Vinci would get hired today. 'What about commercial awareness? No mention of any budgetary control, meeting financial targets or a good return on capital. Few companies can afford "blue sky" stuff at any cost these days.'"

An anonymous reader writes "Following worldwide attention after being caught looking at pictures of Miranda Kerr at work while a colleague was being interviewed on TV, a petition to save David Kiely's job has started. Stated motives: He seems like a nice bloke, the pics weren't hardcore, he has suffered enough, and, maybe more important, there's just too much political correctness in this world anyway. Showing class and sense of humor, miss Kerr said she will sign the petition."

An anonymous reader writes "In reality, it's yet another randomly-generated paper that got into a conference with no meaningful criteria for peer review. In the world of humor, two dogs may be up for tenure soon."

French artist Celeste Boursier-Mougenot has finally answered the question, "Will 40 birds play Skynyrd if left in a room with a guitar?"

siloko writes "A German walker, stranded on sea ice after abandoning the beach in favor of a better picture of the sunset, has been saved after flashes from his camera were spotted by a tourist webcam viewer hundreds of miles away. After darkness fell over the seaside town of St Peter-Ording, the walker became disoriented and couldn't locate the coast. In desperation, the walker, who hasn't been named, started using his camera flash to attract attention, which was noticed by a woman watching a webcam of the area. She notified the police, who located the man and escorted him to safety."

After the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to allow unlimited corporate funding of federal campaigns, Murray Hill Inc. announced it was filing to run for US Congress and released a campaign video.

garg0yle writes "It's known that animals in nature (including fruit bats) will seek out fermented fruit in much the same way humans seek out anything containing alcohol. But do they get drunk in the way that humans do? Researchers in Canada decided to find out, and the results were surprising. Even with enough alcohol in their bloodstream to make most humans wobbly-kneed, the bats were able to fly through an obstacle course without difficulty. From the article, 'the authors think that it is more likely that they are simply hard drinkers.'"