lazylocomotives writes "Lo Wung, 42, trains monkeys to entertain people near a mall in China. Said monkeys bested their surprised master in front of an amused crowd in Nshi, China. 'I saw one punch him in the eye — he grabbed another by the ear and it responded by grabbing his nose. They were leaping and jumping all over the place. It was better than a Bruce Lee film,' said Hu Luang, a photographer."

Benaiah writes "In something seemingly out of a Keanu Reeves movie, an Australian driver was unable to make his freeway exit when his car failed to slow down as he applied the brake. For those of you too lazy to RTFA he tried everything to stop the car including turning off the ignition but to no avail, the computer was in control. Police at one point escorted him down the wrong side of the road at 80km/h(50mp/h) until he eventually was able to stop it by repeatedly stepping on the brake pedal. Ford Australia spokeswoman Sinead McAlary said there has been a recall on that make of car but for a different reason."

Elizabeth Poblete, a Chilean Olympic weightlifter, got a big surprise when she gave birth to a boy while she was training in a Brazilian gym. Poblete didn't know she was 6 months pregnant and had even consulted a doctor a week previous. Head weight trainer in the gym, Horacio Reis, said: "It was a surprise for me. A week ago I acted as a judge in a competition in Chile and this girl was competing. All went well and she won the competition. I could see she was a big girl, round and strong. That's all I noticed." Both mother and child were brought to the hospital after the surprise delivery. The boy remains in intensive care and it is reported that he can already clean and jerk a full 10oz bottle.

Italy's five top pasta makers are in hot water over allegations of price-fixing. Barilla, De Cecco and Divella were among the companies raided by officials. Authorities began investigations in 2007 after consumer complaints and allege that the companies have formed a pasta-makers cartel. He who controls the pasta, controls the future.

zerothink writes "American student Lily Sussman, 21, upon entry into Israel from Taba (Egypt, Sinai) caught Israeli border police in grumpy mood — after two hours of questions and searching through her belongings they decided to put three bullets through her laptop. Explanation? 'I'm sorry but we had to blow up your laptop.' Haaretz also covered the story." All three bullets missed the hard disk.

garg0yle writes "Scientists are repurposing Wiimotes as scientific sensors to help measure wind speed or evaporation from lakes, among other things. At about $40 per unit, the controller is much cheaper than specialized sensors. The scientists are still considering how to add storage and extend the battery life."

sonamchauhan writes "A Londoner helped his wife deliver their baby by Googling 'how to deliver a baby' on his mobile phone. From the article: 'Today proud Mr Smith said: "The midwife had checked Emma earlier in the day but contractions started up again at about 8pm so we called the midwife to come back. But then everything happened so quickly I realized Emma was going to give birth. I wasn't sure what I was going to do so I just looked up the instructions on the internet using my BlackBerry."'"

An anonymous reader writes "We are able to be the first to report that the practice of “bed jumping” has been banned by most major US hotel chains. From the article: 'The new internet sensation of bed jumping has cost the hospitality industry almost $52,000,000.00 in the last quarter alone. Most customers are not aware of the high cost of commercial mattresses. While manufactures are prepared for children to “bed jump,” the mattresses are not designed for jumpers over ~100lbs. Preliminary tests show that a mattress needs to be replaced after only 10-15 adult jumpers. In the current economic market, it is not feasible for our members to absorb this high cost. The ban is meant to prevent hotels from adding a “jumping charge” to every room they book, which would increase the rate an average of $4 for every night.'"

anticlone writes "Note to self: When traveling abroad with your spouse remember keep it quiet in the UK: 'A woman who was given an anti-social behavior order banning her from making loud noises during sex has admitted breaching the order.'"

klwood911 writes "What do you get when you combine a former Disney imagineer, Guitar Hero, a house and 21,268 Christmas Lights? Probably one of the coolest light displays you will see. Ric Turner turned his house into an interactive Guitar Hero Display. As he explains: 'Christmas Light Hero is using 7 light controllers from Light-O-Rama built from kits to control 21,268 lights and LEDs. Each controller has 16 outputs and 2-3 TTL level control inputs that are used by the game system to fire different programmed light sequences depending on what happens in the game. It relies on the fact that the game sequence is very consistent. If the game and the lighting sequences start together, they will stay in very good sync through the length of the song. The light program allows branching and overlays for fail, star power and "ready." I have some ideas to automate the initial show/game sync, but for now you have to push doorbell buttons at the right moments.'"

iamapizza writes "New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article; 'The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-center, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-center cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighboring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?' This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of 'sharing' a pizza."

a3buster writes "This clock does not actually have a man inside, but a flatscreen that plays a 24-hour loop of this video by the artist watching his own clock somewhere and painstakingly erasing and re-writing each minute. This video was taken at Design Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach 2009."

In an attempt to curb water pollution, farmers in southern Taiwan have started to potty-train their pigs. Farmers have set up special pig toilets in the area to keep from having to pay a planned pollution fee. Pig farmer Chang Chung-tou says, "The pig toilets on my farm help me collect about 95 percent of all pig waste, making cleaning much, much easier." Now we just need them to learn how to cure and smoke each other.

A study at Queensland's James Cook University has proved that removing a band-aid quickly hurts less than taking it off slowly. Scientists found the pain involved with removal to be more of a psychological issue than a physical one. "It's fascinating that if you had a preconception that slow was going to be more painful in fact it was, so it also suggests that pain is not just what you perceive but what you think you will perceive when you get the painful stimulus," Researcher Dr Carl O'Kane said. The study also proved that researchers have an abundance of free time at the university.

adeelarshad82 writes "Pavel Valkovich of Sherman Oaks, CA has pleaded guilty to solicitation of murder, admitting that he attempted to hire hit-men to kill witnesses working with Federal authorities in their investigation of Valkovich's ID theft activities and subsequent crimes. According to the Justice Department: '...Valkovich and others had stolen personal identifying information and used that information to transfer funds from victims' bank accounts to PayPal accounts.'"

44-year-old Carolyn Brown took some marriage advice from the trolls and poured hot grits on her boyfriend. The two had spent the day arguing about various things. Should they break up? Which was better, Emacs or Vi? Authorities arrested Mrs. Brown and have alerted a zombie-fighting Natalie Portman of a possible petrification attempt.

xbeefsupreme writes "Frederick and Gerrit Braun of Hamburg, Germany began working on 'Miniatur Wonderland,' a massive model train set, in 2000. Although it is not complete yet, it covers 12,380 square feet of space, has six miles of track and so far has six sections representing different countries. Landmarks within the set include Mount Rushmore, the Matterhorn in Switzerland, and a 4-foot-long passenger ship floating in a miniature Scandinavian fjord."

Duke graduate student Ken Ilgunas has come up with a plan to make it through school debt free. He plans on living in his 1994 Ford Econoline van. He showers and exercises in the campus gym, and knows where all the 24-hour buildings are so he can keep warm, and connected to the Internet. "I'm rarely in the van. Just to eat and sleep. Generally it's not the most convenient place. The closest bathroom is a quarter-mile away and there's no source of water nearby. But with that said, I live pretty comfortably. I bring a water jug to campus and fill it up," he said.

Tony Callaghan, Executive President of the World Pie Eating Championships, won't have the integrity of his sport sullied like baseball's — so he's introduced random drug testing to this year's competition. He says, "Gravy has traditionally been the performance-enhancing drug of choice amongst pie eaters at this level, but since we banned it after a series of questionable concoctions were created by contenders, they've been trying to find other ways of generating lubricative advantage — and we're hearing rumors that cough mixture is the new Bisto. In tests we've found this can take around two seconds off the time taken to eat a regulation Championship pie."

Want to give someone a gift this Christmas that they won't forget? Why not give them a ring embedded with your teeth? Artist and super fan of the macabre, Polly van der Glas, can offer you custom made jewelry set with teeth. The 28-year-old says she got interested in the body from her grandfather who was a professor of microbiology. She says, "I have been collecting hair, teeth and fingernails for years, they line the shelves of my apartment in beautiful jars, where the textures and color variations are amazing. Fingernails actually look like delicate shells when collected together in a jar."