Pothole Gardens !

Drive around just about any major city and you’re bound to get jostled by a few potholes.
The city of London is no exception, and artist Steve Wheen decided to highlight this growing problem by turning bits of broken road into miniature gardens and nature scenes.

The project was originally started as part of his college coursework, but has since grown into a labor of love, injecting a little bit of beauty into the most unlikely places.

Think slot cars are just toys? Okay, well maybe you’re right, but enthusiasts in Finland take it pretty seriously, racing modified cars on giant track

The Nose Hair Notification Service !

 Everybody knows that one person, be it a coworker, friend, or significant other (I hope not) that has a literal forest growing out of their nose.
It used to be that the only way to inform someone of this grievous grooming oversight was to actually tell them yourself, and endure their resulting cold shoulder treatment for the rest of the day because you had to open your mouth in a crowded elevator.

Thankfully, now there’s Chololi, a Japanese nose hair notification service that allows you to anonymously inform someone that it’s time for a trim.

It’s quite simple; you just head over to their website and fill out a simple form with the person’s name, email address, and a description of the offending nose hair.
Chololi then sends Chewbacca a message in the tone of your choosing, from “mild” to “scornful”, yikes.

World’s Largest (pre-chewed) Gumball

Enough nicotine to kill a horse.

This is Barry Chappell and his 175lb, 62 inch diameter ball of pre-chewed Nicorette gum.
Barry’s been adding to it for six years, starting with a single piece he wasn’t able to throw away on a European flight.
Barry’s ball has even been recognized by Ripley’s Believe It Or Not as the world’s largest medicated gumball.
Hopefully 175lbs of Nicorette was enough to get Barry to quit smoking, but he still has a nasty habit…

NEW PAPER CUT !

Dream Paper Concept looks at the possibility of having intelligent paper that prints, auto cuts and folds 3-D paper projects.
A lot of folks indulge in 3-D scale models and it is an interesting hobby.
 Mac takes the idea a step further by suggesting that what if we could control “where and how far to fold and also when to fold via Bluetooth or WiFi,
it means you could move paper as you like without touching it.
(It’s like embedding Javascript in paper!)” Building models from Google 3D Warehouse would be child’s play even for the non-devout! Awesome!

Designer: Mac Funamizu

The idea of turning invisible could be closer to 'science fact' than 'science fiction'.

Scientists discover new clue to the chemical origins of life

York UK (SPX)

Organic chemists at the University of York have made a significant advance towards establishing the origin of the carbohydrates (sugars) that form the building blocks of life.
A team led by Dr Paul Clarke in the Department of Chemistry at York have re-created a process which could have occurred in the prebiotic world.
Working with colleagues at the University of Nottingham, they have made the first step towards showing how simple sugars -threose and erythrose-developed. The research is published in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry.
All biological molecules have an ability to exist as left-handed forms or right-handed forms. All sugars in biology are made up of the right-handed form of molecules and yet all the amino acids that make up the peptides and proteins are made up of the left-handed form.
The researchers found using simple left-handed amino acids to catalyse the formation of sugars resulted in the production of predominately right-handed form of sugars. It could explain how carbohydrates originated and why the right-handed form dominates in nature.
Dr Clarke said: "There are a lot of fundamental questions about the origins of life and many people think they are questions about biology. But for life to have evolved, you have to have a moment when non-living things become living - everything up to that point is chemistry.
"We are trying to understand the chemical origins of life. One of the interesting questions is where carbohydrates come from because they are the building blocks of DNA and RNA. What we have achieved is the first step on that pathway to show how simple sugars -threose and erythrose-originated. We generated these sugars from a very simple set of materials that most scientists believe were around at the time that life began."

Related Links University of York Life Beyond Earth
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science

The most poisonous animal !

Not all beautiful frogs depicted here are poisonous, but those who are - can be very deadly indeed.  
The most poisonous animal is not a snake or a spider. 
It's a beautiful little frog!
"Most frogs produce skin toxins, but the dart poison frogs from Central and South America are the most potent of all.
The golden poison frog, called terribilis (the terrible), is so toxic that even touching it can be dangerous.
A single terribilis contains enough poison to kill 20,000 mice or 10 people.
It is probably the most poisonous animal on Earth.

The Beatles and Mohammad Ali, 1964

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates

Life-Size Tetris !

The blocky styling of the To Gather series of furniture is more than just a little reminiscent of the famous puzzle video game Tetris!
The modular sofa engages the user with individual elements that can be pieced together to form countless seating combinations that will never get old.
A convertible loveseat/sofa, chairs available with or without arms, and a variety of colors offer even more personal customization.
Designer: Studio Lawrence

WiFi Fireplace, Seriously !

Designed with intelligent mobility in mind, fireplace manufacturer Escea’s handsome new line of gas fireplaces give users the ability to control all aspects of the fireplace directly from their iPhone or Android smart phone. 
Simply download the app and in a jiffy you can control the temperature, flame, and manage the timer.
Like the ultra wide, see-through DX1500 model featured here, the line is not only smart but incredibly stylish!
Designer: Escea

Olympics: 25,000 troops and police to protect London

Around 25,000 troops and police officers will be deployed in London during the Olympic Games to prevent attacks, a Scotland Yard official told AFP on Thursday. "The whole purpose of our policing operation is to try and deter terrorists, to deter those wish to do ill to the Games," Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison said during a security demonstration on the River Thames. Around 100 Royal Marines and 50 police officers rehearsed a series of drills in patrol boats as a Lynx Navy helicopter flew ahead. The drills, which the Metropolitan Police said would continue for a week, are aimed at familiarising troops and police ahead of the summer -- when Britain will launch its biggest ever peacetime security operation. Major Paul Stitson of the Royal Marines said the police and military were working closely together. "We have been developing our local knowledge and assessing threats," he said. "We always prepare for the unknown." London's £553-million ($856-million, 664-million-euro) security operation for the Games will also involve warplanes, two navy ships and surface-to-air missiles. .

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World's largest emerald up for auction

A 57,000-carat emerald, which is said to be the world's largest, will be sold on January 28 at Western Star Auctions in British Columbia, Canada.
The giant jewel weighs 11.5 kilograms and is around 12 inches long.
 The gem was appraised at $1.15 million since it is only a rough cut stone.
But Western Star Auctions owner Mike Odenbach told Huff Post Canada he thinks it could fetch more at auction. "It's not unusual for gemstones to sell a lot higher than their appraised value, just depending on who wants to possess the largest emerald in the world," he said. Odenbach described the dark green emerald as "nothing short of spectacular."
The emerald was discovered in Brazil and cut in India. Rare gem dealer Regan Reany of Calgary got an email about the stone and thought it was too good to be true. But the emerald is, in fact, very real and heading to Kelowna, British Columbia with armed security. The auction house has ensured the jewel will be heavily guarded until the auction later this month.
"The gemstone is named 'Teodora' and rough translation is 'God's Gift,'" Odenbach told Huff Post. "To me we're being given an opportunity to expose ourselves internationally as an auction company that can handle items like this. You know, it really does feel like a gift."
Can't afford the $1.15 million asking price? Another ultra-expensive, but far smaller emerald is missing in Hong Kong. The Daily Mail reports that Swiss jeweler Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele took off her 16 carat emerald and diamond ring while washing her hands in the bathroom of the Four Seasons Hotel's Harbour View ballroom. Once she realized her error and ran back seven minutes later the ring was gone. The missing ring is valued at over $1.5 million and the owner is offering a $62,000 reward.
Perhaps the world's largest emerald isn't worth quite as much, but at least you'll never lose it!
 By Joanna Douglas, Shine Fashion and Beauty Editor

Indian teacher stunned by $10bln bank balance

AFP 

KOLKATA, (AFP) - An Indian high school teacher, with a monthly salary of around $700, was astounded when a routine online check of his bank account showed a balance of almost $10 billion.
Parijat Saha, from the town of Balurghat in West Bengal state, said he had checked his State Bank of India account online last Sunday to confirm reception of a 10,000 rupee ($200) interest payment.
"Instead I saw this astronomical amount," he told AFP by telephone.
The account showed a balance of 496 billion rupees.
After recovering from the initial shock at becoming an overnight billionaire -- at least on paper -- Saha, 42, said he immediately called a friend he knew at the bank to point out what was obviously a major accounting error.
The State Bank of India said it was not immediately clear how the amount came to be registered in Saha's account.
"We are trying to ascertain what went wrong," said local branch manager Subhashish Karmakar.
"We have informed our regional headquarters in Kolkata and national headquarters in Mumbai," he said.

Actress banned from Iran over nude photo

 London, Jan 19 (IANS) Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani has been banned from returning to her homeland after appearing naked in a photoshoot.
Government officials have reportedly told Farahani she is no longer welcome in Iran after posing naked in French news magazine Madame Le Figarom, reports contactmusic.com.
"I was told by a Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guide official that ... you may offer your artistic services somewhere else," contactmusic.com quoted the 28-year-old as saying.
Based in Paris, the actress left Iran last year. She did a cameo in "A Separation" - a film that has been nominated in Best Foreign Film category in Oscar awards. The movie won the Golden Globe award for the best foreign language film.
--Indo-Asian News Service