Fosil Murah dari eBay Itu Ternyata Spesies Baru

Seorang ilmuwan yang membeli secuplik fosil serangga dalam resin yang membatu (amber) tak pernah menyangka bahwa hewan tersebut spesies baru. Apalagi, ia hanya membelinya seharga 20 Poundsterling atau sekitar Rp320.000.

Dr Richard Harrington, wakil presiden Masyarakat Entomologi Kerajaan Inggris membeli fosil tersebut dari seseorang di Lithuania. Melihat keunikannya, ia kemudian mengirimkannya kepada koleganya, Profesor Ole heie, pakar fosil serangga di Denmark untuk dipelajari.

Setelah diidentifikasi, baru diketahui bahwa serangga tersebut merupakan spesies baru meskipun telah punah saat ini. Serangga tersebut kemudian diberi nama ilmiah Mindarus harringtoni.

"Ia menemukan bahwa serangga tersebut belum pernah dideskripsikan sebelumnya," ujar Dr. Harrington. Serangga tersebut memiliki panjang tubuh antara 3-4 cm dan diperkirakan telah teperangkap dalam amber selama 40-50 juta tahun lalu.

Selama hidupnya serangga tersebut memangsa tumbuh-tumbuhan jenis Pinites succinifer. Tumbuhan tersebut juga sudah punah saat ini.

New rules make China's Bao world's tallest again

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Guinness World Records has returned the title of world's tallest man to China's Bao Xishun after Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk refused to be measured under new guidelines.

Bao, who stands at 7 feet, 8.95 inches (2.36 metres), held the title for a year before losing it in 2006 to Stadnyk, who is 8 feet 5.5 inches (2.57 metres) tall, Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records, told Reuters.

While Bao has been measured by Guinness, which required him to be measured six times in one day -- both standing and lying down -- Stadnyk has refused. His title was awarded based on a statement from his doctor.

"We realized there was such interest and excitement in these categories to do with height that it was too important a category for us to leave it to a doctor alone," Glenday said. "So we decided to tighten things up completely to make sure there was no doubt."

Glenday said Guinness had been asking Stadnyk since about 2004 -- when the organization first heard of him -- if they could measure him, offering to fly officials to the Ukraine or fly him to Britain.

"He has gone on record saying he doesn't want to be bothered. Basically he doesn't want the fame and publicity that comes with being the world's tallest man," he said. "Whether or not that's the real reason ... I'm not sure, but that's what he's told us."

Stadnyk, who lives with his mother in a tiny village in central Ukraine, told Reuters last year he doesn't "need glory. I just want a normal life under normal conditions."

MORE BURDEN THAN BLESSING

Stadnyk said he sees his height more as a burden than a blessing, saying "the world is built for medium-sized people." He and his mother were living off a pension of about $100 (54 pounds) a month and whatever else they earn from growing tomatoes and cucumbers and raising chickens, cows and pigs.

Bao, however, loves the publicity that came with his title and "was a bit gutted" when he found out he had lost it to Stadnyk, Glenday said. The Inner Mongolian livestock herder has not yet learned he is again officially the world's tallest.

Bao is recrowned in the Guinness World Records 2009 edition, which will be released on September 17.

"He was a bit of a recluse. He looked after goats. Then the fame that he got from being a Guinness World Record holder meant that he found himself a wife, his life improved," said Glenday, adding that Bao and his 5 foot 6 inch (1.68 metre) wife are expecting a baby later this year.

Bao hires himself out for publicity stunts and his wedding last year was sponsored by at least 15 companies. In December 2006, Bao saved the lives of two dolphins by reaching deep into their stomachs with his 3.47-foot (1.06-metre) long arm to pull out pieces of plastic, according to Chinese media.

Bao reached his height in a seven-year spurt that began in his teens which doctors have yet to explain, according to Guinness, while Glenday said Stadnyk's growth is said to have been caused by a tumour on his pituitary gland that stimulated over-production of a growth hormone.

The tallest man on record was Robert Wadlow from Alton, Illinois, who measured 8 feet 11 inches (2.72 metres) and died in 1940, according to Guinness World Records.

Guinness has also crowned a new shortest man under the new rules -- He Ping Ping, who stands 2 feet 5.37 inches (74.61 centimetres) tall and lives just a few hundred miles from Bao in Inner Mongolia, Glenday said.

Meet Yoda the cat with FOUR ears

If Batman had a cat, it would probably look something like this.

The household pet, named Yoda, was born with an extra set of ears.

Valerie and Ted Rock took him in two years ago after visiting a bar near their home in Chicago, where he was being passed round by curious drinkers.

He was one of a large litter and the owners were looking for a home for him.

A good listener: Two-year-old house cat Yoda was born with four ears

The couple immediately fell for the freaky feline and asked the owner if they could adopt him. He agreed and the couple named the cat Yoda, after the pointy-eared Jedi knight in Star Wars.

Valerie, 65, said: 'We were at a pub on the south side of Chicago with a group of friends when we noticed a small cage sitting on the bar and people passing around a kitten.

'He had been part of a large litter and the owners were looking to find a home for him.

'Ted and I had just lost a cat that was our pet for over 20 years, and we were sure we were done with cats.

'When he was passed around he reached for Ted, crawled up into the crook of his neck and fell asleep - Ted was a goner.

'It was a done deal when the kitten made himself at home on Ted's shoulder.

'We decided to name him Yoda. I understand the Star Wars character was based on George Lucas' cat.'

After adopting the eight-week-old kitten into their Illinois home, Valerie decided to have Yoda checked out with the local vet.

Owner: Valerie Rock found Yoda being passed around a Chicago bar and took him home with her

But the vet was mystified by his unique appearance.

'The vet had never seen anything like it before,' explains Valerie. 'He immediately went to the internet and found the four-eared cat in Germany.

'We have spoken with other vets in our acquaintance, and they likewise had never encountered anything like this.

'We began to realise that we had something very special.

'As a result, he has been an indoor cat and has a chip installed in case he gets lost. Yoda is so different that we were concerned that he might be catnapped.'

Yoda's extra 'flaps' are separate to the base of his skull, with one placed slightly behind the other.

Yet despite his unusual looks, Valerie is sure Yoda's behaviour - and hearing - are quite normal.

'Yoda's hearing is normal as far as we know,' says Valerie. 'People do a double take when they see him or his picture. It is great fun showing him off.

Yoda: The wise Star Wars character the cat was named after

'We have actually had people ask if we had his ears cut to look this way.

'But he is a perfectly normal affectionate, curious cat and is a joy to have around.

'He is not afraid of anything and is very sociable unlike some of the other cats I have owned.

'But he does have an interesting obsession with bread - I can't leave bread on the counter for a moment.

'And when he purrs, it is not audible. The only way I know that he is purring is to put my finger on his throat to feel the vibration.

'He also is not very vocal. He meows, but only softly, and not very often which is a good thing.'

Man tries to commit suicide by swallowing spoons

A Romanian man says he was trying to commit suicide by swallowing five teaspoons.

The man had intended swallowing some bottle caps and another two teaspoons. However he stopped after the fifth teaspoon.

The doctor that treated the man said: "The ostrich man, as we call him, is one of our regular clients He was brought here for swallowing pills, pieces of string or plastic but the spoons is something new".

After the man was treated he was transferred to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation.

Dog saves abandoned baby from forest

The dog was looking for food for her newborn puppies when she reportedly saved a 2-week-old baby girl from a forest in Kenya.

The dog found the baby in a forest south of the capital Nairobi. She then took the infant, wrapped in a dirty, black cloth, and carried it across a busy road and through a barbed-wire fence and placed it close to her own puppies.

A witness, Stephen Thoya says: "I heard the sound of a baby crying, (when) I looked closely, I saw a dog carrying a baby as it crossed the road."

The owner of the heroic dog, Mary Adhiambo says her dog lay next to the baby and cared for it until it was spotted by human rescuers. Ms Adhiambo washed the baby who's umbilical chord was covered with maggots. After cleaning the baby Mary Adhiambo rushed it to hospital.

At the hospital, the 3.3 kilogram child was christened Angel. Doctors confirmed the newborn baby girl had been out in the open for at least two days after being abandoned.

Dr Jonathan Micheni said: "An infant of such a tender age, having spent two nights in the cold, is likely to develop respiratory infections and we have put her on a treatment to prevent any bacterial or fungal infections."

These kinds of incidents in which babies are abandoned are very common in East African countries like Kenya, where over 56% of the population lives on less than US $1 a day.

This is ultimate proof that dogs realy are a man's best friend!

Russia is offering a honeymoon out of this world

The Americans put the first man on the moon and the first tourist in space. Now the Russians could make one wealthy couple the first members of the 240-mile-high club.

In its latest attempt to develop space tourism, Russia is offering a pair of newlyweds the chance to swap Venice or Paris for a cosmic honeymoon on board the international space station.

For $65 million - the cost of a pair of space return tickets - the couple could become the first to experience the uncharted joys of sex in zero gravity.

"It would bring the mile-high club to new heights," said Rob Volmer of Space Adventures, the company that has teamed up with the Russian Aviation and Space Agency to offer the trip.

"The international space station is as large as a football field. There are plenty of nooks and crannies where a couple could hide. If Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck want to get away from it all on their honeymoon, we have the perfect solution."

Sergei Gorbunov, of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, said the chosen couple would have to be in good physical condition and prepared to undergo a rigorous 10-month course to train for space travel.

The pair could be blasted aloft aboard the Soyuz spacecraft that was used by Denis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth, the wealthy businessmen who paid $25 million each to become the first tourists in space.

Space Adventures and the Russian agency have signed an agreement for up to four more space tourists to go into orbit. Officials said the first newlyweds could be in space by 2006.

Sex has long been a space taboo. A US married couple spent eight days as cosmonauts on Russia's Salyut space station in 1992, but one always slept while the other worked.

But as regular stints on the international space station can last up to six months, the chances of cosmonauts becoming sexually involved have increased.

In his book Living in Space, G. Harry Stine, a NASA technician who died in 1997, wrote that agency staff at the Marshall Space Flight Centre in Huntsville, Alabama, had used a buoyancy tank that simulated low-gravity conditions to test the possibilities of weightless sex.

"It was possible but difficult," he wrote, "and was made easier when a third person assisted by holding one of the others in place."

Pierre Kohler, a French scientific writer, claimed in another book that NASA had tested 20 positions by computer simulation and then arranged for two people to try the best 10 in zero gravity.

Only four were possible to reach without "mechanical assistance", according to Kohler. An elastic belt and an inflatable tunnel, like an open-ended sleeping bag, were needed for the other six.

"One of the principal findings was that the classic so-called missionary position, which is so easy on earth when gravity pushes one downwards, is simply not possible," he wrote.

NASA denied such tests had taken place.

It is unclear whether the Russians have carried out research on sex in space. Valery Polyakov, who holds the space endurance record for a 14-month stint on the Mir station that ended in 1995, denied he had had space sex with his wife and fellow cosmonaut Yelena Kondakova.

Blind owl gets contact lenses Madison, Wisconsin - A great horned owl found starving in the wild because it had gone blind could be released this spring after having new eye lenses implanted.The owl, named Minerva by medical personnel, underwent two hours of eye surgery, and Dr. Chris Murphy said she was in good condition during a follow-up exam. "Perfect," said Murphy, a board-certified veterinary ophthalmologist. "Ounce for ounce, this is considered one of the toughest birds on the face of the earth." Minerva was found in a pretty bad condition in early December, after someone told wildlife rehabilitators Sue and Jerry Theys an owl had been sitting on a fence for three days. Sue Theys, who netted the owl, said she suspected the owl had cataracts. After a local veterinarian confirmed the diagnosis, the Theys brought the owl to Murphy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine. Murphy had a pair of lenses on hand that had been custom-made six years ago for another great horned owl that proved to be an unfit candidate for the surgery. The lenses were designed by Murphy and Dr. Chuck Stuhr. With Murphy supervising, Dr. Renee Carter and fellow resident Katie Diehl implanted the new lenses. "To the best of my knowledge, this has not been done anywhere," Murphy said. The Theys, who operate Wildlife of Wisconsin wildlife rehabilitation, paid for $300 of the $1800 procedure, with the veterinary school donating the rest. During her recovery, the Theys have been giving Minerva antibiotic eye drops three times daily and feeding her rats and an occasional rabbit. In April, they will move the owl to a much larger flight cage and release live rats into the straw-filled enclosure to see if she can successfully hunt. If so, she'll be released back into the wild. Great horned owls are the largest owls in North America, with females obtaining a wingspan of 1.5 meters and weighing up to 2.5 kilograms. They use night vision and an acute sense of hearing to find prey in the dark. "She's extremely feisty," Sue Theys said. "She can't understand why we're messing with her. She can see and she wants to take off and fly."