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.'"

Gerald Ford may have said, "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration." But he was never stupid enough to make this.

bizwriter writes "This may seem like a joke, but it's not. The US Patent and Trademark Office will not accept patent filings faxed in if they arrive upside down. That's right, the home of innovation of the federal government is incapable of rotating an incoming fax file, whether electronically or on paper."

SilverTooth writes "Often, when watching a science documentary or reading an article, it seems that the scientists were executing a well-laid out plan that led to their discovery. Anyone familiar with the process of scientific discovery realizes that is a far cry from reality. Scientific discovery is fraught with false starts and blind alleys. As a result, labs accumulate vast amounts of valuable knowledge on what not to do, and what does not work. Trouble is, this knowledge is not shared using the usual method of scientific communication: the peer-reviewed article. It remains within the lab, or at the most shared informally among close colleagues. As it stands, the scientific culture discourages sharing negative results. Byte Size Biology reports on a forthcoming journal whose aim is to change this: the Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results. Hopefully, scientists will be able to better share and learn more from each other's experience and mistakes."

FiReaNGeL writes "Could humans one day walk on walls, like Spider-Man? A palm-sized device invented at Cornell that uses water surface tension as an adhesive bond just might make it possible. The device consists of a flat plate patterned with holes, each on the order of microns (one-millionth of a meter). A bottom plate holds a liquid reservoir, and in the middle is another porous layer. An electric field applied by a common 9-volt battery pumps water through the device and causes droplets to squeeze through the top layer. The surface tension of the exposed droplets makes the device grip another surface — much the way two wet glass slides stick together. To turn the adhesion off, the electric field is simply reversed, and the water is pulled back through the pores, breaking the tiny 'bridges' created between the device and the other surface by the individual droplets."

astroengine writes "Assuming you had an interstellar spaceship, how would you navigate around the galaxy? For starters, you'd probably need a map. But there's billions of stars out there — how complex would that map need to be? Actually, Samuel Arbesman, a research fellow from Harvard, has come up with a fun solution. He created the 'Milky Way Transit Authority (MWTA),' a simple transit system in the style of the iconic London Underground 'Tube Map.' (Travel Tip: Don't spend too much time loitering around the station at Carina, there's some demolition work underway.)"

Whether you want to join with your sweetheart in a perfect union of physical beauty, or just give the cute neighbor a "Brazilian Coffee Filter," Mildred's Temple Kitchen would like you to do it in their bathroom this Valentine's Day weekend. The restaurant's website asks: "Have you given any thought to moving beyond the bedroom? Check out Mildred's Sexy Bathrooms throughout the weekend of Big Love." You get the picture.' Chef and co-owner Donna Dooher says, "We've always had little trysts in our bathrooms. We're taking it to the next level on Valentine's weekend."

theodp writes "'You have a lot of missing images, in the TV, in the news reporting,' explains billionaire Jimmy Lai. It's a gap that Lai's Next Media intends to fill with its animated news service. Artists lift details from news photos while actors in motion sensor suits re-create action sequences of stories making headlines. Animators graft cartoon avatars to the live-motion action, and the stories hit the Web. When news agencies didn't have footage of scenes from the Tiger Woods car crash, Lai's team raced to put together animation dramatizing the incident that became a YouTube sensation. Thus far, Lai has been denied a television license, but with or without his own station, he thinks his animations are headed for televisions worldwide. His company is currently in talks with media organizations to churn out news animations on demand using Next Media's graphic artists and software tools."

A new pseudoreality show, Bump, will follow three actresses pretending to have unwanted pregnancies, and whether or not they decide to get an abortion is up to the viewers. Executive producer Dominic Iocco said the idea for the show came after President Obama's commencement address at Note Dame University last year where he said he wanted, "to find ways to communicate about a workable solution to the problem of unintended pregnancies." I bet this is exactly what he had in mind.