Spain's Messy La Tomatina Festival Never Fails To DelightOn Wednesday, August 27th, over 20,000 revelers literally painted the tiny town of Bunol red, by pelting each other with thousands of pounds of tomatoes. This was of course no ordinary food fight, but the world's largest one that is staged annually on the last Wednesday of August - Welcome to Spain's messy La Tomatina festival!...
Read news articleRare Superman Comic Book Auctions For An Astounding $3.2 MillionOn Sunday, August 24th, comic book lovers across the world watched with abated breath to what avid collectors would pay for a rare Superman comic book. Though bids above the initial asking price of $1 million USD had been coming in gradually since the pristine copy was placed on auction site eBay on July 14th, things really started to heat up during the final minutes when the price jumped from $2.5 to $2.6 and then $2.7 million, before shooting up to $3,207,752. Just when everyone thought it was over, an unknown buyer sneaked in the winning bid - a mind-boggling $3,207,852!...
Read news articlePssst . . . Peter Pan, Sherlock Holmes & Queen Victoria Wish To Speak To You!Let's be honest, historical statues can get a little boring. After all, how many times can one admire the intricate carving or read the plaque etched below? It is therefore no wonder that most people just whiz past them, as they go about their daily lives. But what if they had a story to tell? Would passersby spend two minutes of their precious time to listen?...
Read news articleAt Toronto's Aptly Named 'Signs' Restaurant All Orders Fall On Deaf EarsAt first sight, Toronto's newly opened 'Signs' restaurant appears like any other casual dining establishment. However the difference starts to become apparent as soon as diners walk in and the host or hostess welcomes them using American Sign Language (ASL). That trend continues throughout the meal as everyone, from the wait staff to the busboys, communicate only via hand gestures....
Read news articleCan Giant Walls Deter The Formation Of Destructive Tornadoes?Tornados in the Midwestern and Southern United States have always been a troubling yet fascinating phenomenon - just think of Dorothy's whirlwind adventure in the Wizard of Oz! Occurring predominantly in the area east of the Rocky Mountains dubbed 'Tornado Alley', they form during severe thunderstorms called supercells that occur when cold dry polar air comes in contact with warm moist tropical air....
Read news articleModern-Day Amelia Earhart Circumnavigates The Globe Successfully!In 1937, America's beloved aviatrix, Amelia Mary Earhart, set out to break yet another record by embarking on a 29,000-mile flight around the globe. However, her plane disappeared over the South Pacific without a trace, giving birth to one of the biggest mysteries in the history of aviation. Seventy-seven years later, her namesake, Amelia Rose Earhart set out to attempt the same feat. Fortunately, she was successful!...
Read news articleSouth Africa's 'Pavement Bookworm' Wants Everyone To ReadMost homeless resort to panhandling to make ends meet. However an enterprising young South African man has come up with an interesting alternative - he spends his days spreading the joy of reading and selling books written by his favorite authors. Meet Philani Dladla aka 'Pavement Bookworm'....
Read news articleHong Kong Invaded By 1600 Paper Mache Pandas!On June 9th, even the most rushed traveler at Hong Kong's International airport paused to admire the mesmerizing sight of 1,600 pandas, each the size of a human baby, some sitting, others standing - all eager to be whisked away to the city's numerous landmarks. As you may have already guessed, they were not live animals but replicas made from recycled materials by French sculptor, Paulo Grangeon....
Read news articleNational Ice Cream Month Starts Today!While most of us don't need an excuse to devour one or even a few scoops of ice cream, it is always nice to have one. And what better reason than helping fulfill one's civic duty, which is what United States residents will be doing when they eat the creamy treat this month. That's because July happens to be National Ice Cream Month!...
Read news articleNewsflash! Adorkable Is Now A Legitimate Word!With the increasing popularity of text messaging and social media sites like Twitter, which allow limited characters, people have become increasingly innovative with conventional English words. Laugh out loud has transformed into lol and even the simple ok is now better recognized as just k. It is therefore not surprising to hear that HarperCollins, one of the world's largest publishers has decided to start legitimizing the new language by adding it to the 12th print edition of the Collin's English dictionary....
Read news articleAre Cat Owners Smarter Than Dog Owners? This Study Certainly Thinks SoThe fact that dogs and cats dislike each other is no secret. Now the results of this new study may evoke a similar feeling between the animal owners. That's because it asserts that cat owners are generally smarter than dog owners!...
Read news articleThe Tiny Kiwi Bird's Colossal CousinJudging by their looks, one would never guess that New Zealand's national bird - the tiny flightless kiwi and the colossal African elephant bird that roamed Madagascar until the 17th Century, had much in common. While the kiwi is roughly the size of a modern chicken and weighs between three to seven pounds, the elephant bird loomed a massive ten feet tall, and could weigh as much as 600 pounds! In addition to the difference in size, the two species lived 7,000 miles apart, making any connection between the two almost impossible....
Read news articleIngenious Design Transforms Cardboard Boxes Into Backpacks And DesksFor most kids, the end of a school year means the opportunity to start creating a back-to-school shopping list that includes amongst other things, a new backpack. However for many students in rural India where parents can barely afford school fees, owning even one backpack is a luxury that very few can indulge in....
Read news articleGloucestershire's Hilarious Cheese Rolling Event Attracts ThousandsThe annual 'Cheese Rolling' in Gloucestershire, England, has to be amongst the most hilarious events in the world. As the name indicates, it involves contestants running or as is normally the case, tumbling down a steep 200-meter incline in pursuit of an 8lbs wheel of Double Gloucester cheese....
Read news articleHow Matt Damon's Water. Org is Helping Transform Lives In Third World CountriesThough access to fresh water has always been an issue for many residents that live in third world countries, it has become even more so now, thanks to the increase in population as well as climate change, which is causing many previous sources to dry up. According to water. org, a non-profit organization founded by Hollywood star Matt Damon and social entrepreneur Gary White, over 750 million people around the world have no easy access to clean water - This means that they spend copious amounts of time collecting this liquid gold, that most of us obtain, by simply turning on a tap....
Read news articleThe Significance of Memorial DayHappy Memorial Day weekend! With summer vacation around the corner, it is often hard to remember that the purpose of the extra day off from school, is not to lounge at the pool with friends or check out sales at the mall. It is to honor the brave men and women who have died serving our country in the United States armed forces!...
Read news articleArtist Creates Mobile Homes Made From Recycled Materials For Oakland's HomelessMost artists aspire to create masterpieces that can be admired and collected by the elite few, who can afford them - not Gregory Kloehn. He focuses on art that can be lived in, by people who have no homes to call their own. The best part is, that each structure is built from recycled materials that the artist finds inside dumpsters....
Read news articleNewly Unearthed Titanosaur May Be A Strong Contender For The Biggest Known DinosaurA team of paleontologists in South America recently announced that they have found the remains of what may be the biggest dinosaur found yet. According to their estimates, the unnamed giant, a new species of the Titanosaur, weighed at least 77 tons, stood 65-feet high and measured 130-feet long, from head to tail. In contrast, the previous record holder, the Argentinosaurus, which stood a slightly taller 70-feet, is believed to have weighed just 70 tons and measured 115-feet in length....
Read news articleDeep-Sea Explorer May Have Found Christopher Columbus' Ship Santa MariaIn August 1492, Christopher Columbus and a crew of 90, set off aboard three ships to find a new trade route to Asia. However, around Christmas of the same year, his flagship vessel, the Santa Maria, hit some reef off the coast of Haiti and was badly damaged....
Read news articleAncient Tomb Painting Provides Answer To Pyramid Building MysteryEver since the discovery of the first pyramid, scientists have pondered over how ancient Egyptians built these monumental structures that are visible even from space. Though there are some theories about the construction technique, the question that was always left unanswered is how workers were able to lug the giant limestone bricks that weighed as much as 2.5 tons, from the quarry to the pyramid sites that were located hundreds of miles away....
Read news articlePrank Proves That Being A Mum Is Truly The 'World's Toughest Job'!The listing for the 'Director of Operations' position advertised online and in national newspapers by Rehtom Inc., sounded like a really hard charging corporate job. Candidates were required to have a PhD in psychology or real-life equivalent, crisis management skills, the ability to juggle a minimum of 10-15 projects at any given time, and work unlimited number of hours per week....
Read news articleHelp The Smithsonian Save The World's First Endangered Song (And The Sumatran Tigers)On Earth Day (April 22nd), The Smithsonian National Zoological Park and Conservation Biology Institute, released the world's first endangered song - One that will disappear forever, unless people make the effort to digitally reproduce the single that was released on just 400 polycarbonate records that will degenerate, after being played a few times....
Read news articleIt's Earth Day - Today And Every Day!Earth Day was born on April 22nd, 1970, when 20 million people across the United States took to the streets to demonstrate support for environmental protection. Today, it has transformed into a global movement, one that is observed by billions of people around the world who annually pledge to undertake a 'green' initiative set by the Earth Day Network (a consortium of 22,000 partners across 192 countries), to help our planet....
Read news articleAnd The World's Favorite Number Is . . .Everyone always talks about the dreaded number 13 and the lengths millions of people go through, to avoid it. However, nobody has ever bothered to ask if there was a common number that thousands loved enough, to call it their favorite. But now, thanks to London-based author Alex Bellos, it appears that such a number does indeed exist and it is . . . drum roll please . . . the one and only, number seven!...
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