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The very first photograph ever uploaded to a newly-invented marvel known as the Internet is celebrating its 20th Anniversary!
No, the photo isn't of dancing hamsters or LOLcats, nor is it of a geek singing "Numa Numa", but rather a photograph of a surprisingly comely quartet of female scientists from the Large Hadron Collider project in Switzerland known by the acronym CERN.
Yes, those super-intelligent people responsible for discovering the much-anticipated "God Particle" AKA Higgs Boson are also responsible for the very first image to be uploaded online for the entire world to see and enjoy.
The photograph was uploaded by CERN IT technician Silvano de Gennaro and is a mock-up of an album cover featuring the faux all-girl band called Les Horribles Cernettes.
"My colleague asked me for a few scanned photos of the CERN Girls to publish them on some sort of information system he had just invented called the World Wide Web," Gennaro explains. “I had only a vague idea of what that was, but I scanned some photos on my Mac and FTPed them…how was I to know that I was passing a historical milestone as the… first picture ever to be clicked on in a web browser?”
20 years later, the photograph still endures, giving all of the millions of people tagged in those "Epic Fail" photographs a good reason to cringe knowing their humiliation will live on...in perpetuity!
A 72-year-old Michigan woman kept the dead body of her male companion in her home for over 18 months so she could have someone with whom she could watch NASCAR racing on television!
Police found the mummified remains of 65-year-old Charles Zigler seated in a barcalounger in the home belonging to Linda Chase of Jackson, Michigan. Authorities believe Zigler passed away of natural causes around December of 2010, although Chase claims he only died this past December.
Chase told police that she kept the body clean and dressed in fresh clothes, in a scene right out of the 80s B-movie classic Weekend at Bernie's. She often carried on conversations with the corpse, especially during NASCAR races being broadcast on television. "It’s not that I’m heartless... I didn’t want to be alone. He was the only guy who was ever nice to me," Chase is quoted as saying.
Chase has not been arrested for keeping the body of Zigler in her home, but she is being investigated for insurance fraud after admitting to cashing Zigler's benefit checks that were mailed to the residence. The police were alerted that something was amiss after Zigler's son tried numerous times to visit with his father, with Chase refusing to let him inside the residence each time.
A street in Germany confirmed as the world's narrowest by Guinness is in jeopardy of relinquishing its title, as the wall of a near-derelict half-timbered house is starting to bulge outwards because water has seeped into the ancient beams, making the street impassable.
Spreuerhofstrasse Street in the town of Reutlingen in the German region of Swabia has held the record of the world's narrowest street since 2007. The street measures only 12.2 inches (31 centimeters) across and is only 12.5 feet long, but it has become a top tourist draw for the small village, as people flock from across the world to photograph and walk the Spreuerhofstrasse.
However, the street might possibly have to surrender the record, if one of the old houses located on the street continues to bulge outward, making it impossible for people to pass through. "A street is no longer a street if no one can get through it," a city official has pointed out. If the house is torn down, that would then make the street too wide, which would also take away the world record.
Local experts warn that if nothing is done, the street will become impassable by next year and will have to be closed down for public safety reasons. The city owes its world record to a devastating fire and a city official who was either unfamiliar with his town or extremely thin. The conflagration tore through the city in 1726, prompting local authorities to rule that buildings should have gaps between them in order to prevent fires from spreading too quickly. Then, in 1820, a town hall administrator decided to elevate the status of this particular crevice to that of a full-fledged public street.
Yes, the talking alien-like creature that was all the rage in the late 1990s is making a grand return to a store near you. An updated version of the animated doll that caused people to riot during the Christmas rush of 1998 will soon be available to purchase.
The new Furby will have softer, more touchable fur that will hide sensors, with a more expressive face, twitching ears and backlit LCD eyes with mechanical eyelids that blink in response to movement or sound picked up by a tiny implanted microphone. It also comes with a fairly hefty new price tag at $60 per toy.
There will also be an app available to make your new-found bestie more interactive with your iPad or smart phone. It will also have the ability to "communicate" better with other Furbies, so you'll have to invest in a whole passel of the toys to keep him (and you) entertained! The toy will pick up more and more language and words as it communicates with other Furbies as well as people.
The updated Fur-Monster created by toymaker Hasbro will hit the stores by September, just in time for all of the holiday madness.
If you thought the past few weeks were incredibly hot, you haven't been imagining things. A new report states that the past 12 months have been the warmest ever in the United States since records have been kept!
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the climate report today, which took into account skyrocketing temperatures for June as well as an extremely abnormal early Spring, which saw March temperatures surge into the low 90s in many parts of the nation.
June alone saw more than 170 all-time high temperatures broken, with thousands more records falling to the wayside as the heatwave continued into early July. The NOAA reports South Carolina and Georgia hit all-time highs last month, with scorching temperatures of 113 degrees and 112 degrees, respectively. June was also the 10 driest month on record, as a crippling drought took hold of a large swathe of the country.
A temporary respite has arrived to some parts of the country, as a cold front brought temperatures from the mid-100s on Saturday to a more comfortable mid-80s today.
Ernest Borgnine, the beefy Academy Award winning actor of stage and screen, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 95.
An unlikely movie star, Borgnine captured the Oscar for his performance as a lovelorn butcher in the 1955 film Marty. His longtime spokesman, Harry Flynn, told The Associated Press that Borgnine died of renal failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with his wife, Norwegian-born cosmetics entrepreneur Tova Traesnaes and his children by his side.
Borgnine started out in tough-guy roles, playing the character Fatso Judson who beat Frank Sinatra to death in the classic WWII movie From Here to Eternity. He also starred in The Dirty Dozen, The Wild Bunch, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Poseidon Adventure and Escape from New York.
One of his most popular roles came on the 1960s television sitcom McHale's Navy, which ran from 1962-1966. Borgnine played the title character, the commander of a World War II PT boat with a motley crew of misfits aboard.
He continued working until the very end, earning a Golden Globe nomination for the 2007 television movie A Grandpa for Christmas, making him the oldest nominee for the award at the age of 90. He also gave his voice to the character of Mermaid Man on the popular Nickelodeon cartoon Spongebob Squarepants.
Borgnine was married five times, including a brief, six-week-long marriage to Broadway star Ethel Merman. His fifth and final marriage to Tova Borgnine brought an interesting partnership, with Ernest even modelling for Tova's skincare line and appearing in television infomercials hawking the anti-wrinkle moisturizers.
A carnivorous species of fish known for munching on male genitalia has been found in an Illinois lake popular with swimmers and campers.
The exotic fish—complete with a set of human-like chompers—has been identified as a pacu, a species of fish from the South Pacific known as "The Ball Cutter", after a series of attacks caused the deaths of two men from intense blood loss after the fish bit off their testicles.
One of the pacu was discovered in Lake Lou Yaeger in June of this year, while a second fish was discovered only two weeks later. The fish were initially believed to be piranha, but were later identified by the Department of Natural Resources to be pacu. Although related to the piranha, the pacu has wider, sturdier teeth, unlike the piranha's deadly sharp, serrated teeth.
The pacu were more than likely illegally dumped into the lake—thousands of miles away from their native habitat.Originally from the Amazon basin of South America, the species was introduced to Papua New Guinea decades ago in order to increase fish stock. Officials say swimmers and people fishing should not be concerned and should take simple precautions to avoid being bitten by the fish, such as wearing swimming trunks at all time while in the water.
While a majority of the United States withers under a record-smashing, sweltering summer, the United Kingdom is suffering through its "worst-ever summer", as cold weather and torrential rains and flooding continue to put a damper on things.
The wet weather already made the Queen's Jubilee a wash-out in June, and now threatens to do the same to many upcoming events for the Summer Olympic Games in London. The UK meteorological office has already issued its advance forecasts, which calls for a continuation of the heavy rains and cool temperatures, meaning summer is effectively over for the island nation.
Gloomy forecasts suggest dire weather will continue as officials last night put Britain on flood alert after torrential downpours yesterday wreaked havoc. The meteorological agency last night issued 51 flood warnings after monsoon-like downpours drenched 85,000 music fans at the T In The Park festival in Kinross, Scotland, and 28,000 Formula 1 spectators camping out for the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone.
The meteorological office has predicted that the dank, dreary weather will continue through at least August, meaning many events planned for the Summer Olympic Games could be adversely affected by the inclement conditions. The Games are set to begin Friday July 27, running through Sunday, August 12.
A man in Washington State has been charged with fraud after allegedly filing a phony insurance claim for a dead cat that never existed.
Yevgeniy M. Samsonov, 29, was involved in a minor fender-bender in 2009, when the car he was driving was hit in the rear by another car while he was stopped at a red light. Samsonov would later file an insurance claim for soft tissue damage to the face that allegedly took place at the time of the accident. He was eventually awarded $3,452 from the other driver's insurer, PEMCO.
Fast forward two and a half years later, and Samsonov then files a second claim, stating that his beloved pet cat Tom had been killed in the accident. The insurance company initially wrote him out a $50 check for the claim. Samsonov, however, insisted that this was hardly enough restitution money for the loss of his cherished pet feline, claiming he had paid over a thousand dollars for the animal and that he was "like a son" to him.
Samsonov also sent photographs of "Tom" to the insurance company, asking for $20,000 to cover the loss of the cat. Before forking over another check, the insurance company decided to do a little bit of investigating, googling images of white cats with blue eyes, as in the photograph Samsonov had sent them. They quickly discovered that Samsonov had submitted photographs of "Tom" to various web sites. They also discovered that the photographs were actually of two entirely different cats.
Samsonov has been charged with first-degree attempted theft and felony insurance fraud, with an arraignment scheduled for next week.
San Diego's annual 4th of July "Big Bay Boom" was just exactly that this year, after a malfunction turned the celebratory event "supernova"!
In one incredible moment, all of the fireworks being carried on three separate barges on the city's ocean front ignited at one time, creating a spectacular and thunderous explosion that sent enormous mushroom clouds into the sky! From certain angles around the city (for a few scary moments), it looked as if the city was under a nuclear attack. The massive explosion created a deafening blast that shattered nearby windows and caused the entire ground to shake, which was felt miles away. An intense blast of heat quickly followed the explosion.
So many of the explosives ignited at once, the display—meant to last for almost an hour—ended up being only a few minutes long. Hundreds of thousands of people who had lined up hours before the event began once the sun set were left hugely disappointed by the truncated annual fireworks display.
Garden State Fireworks, the New Jersey-based company that was hired for the fireworks display, is blaming a timing signal sent to the four barges in the harbor which triggered a simultaneous detonation of all of the fireworks on three of barges.
Fortunately, no one was injured in the powerful blast.
A copy of an extremely rare 500-year-old map that depicts a strange new continent called "America" as a small, boomerang-shaped island has been discovered between the pages of a book in Germany.
The map, drawn by the famous German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller, is credited as the first document to attach the name "America" to the New World. It was thought that Waldseemueller had only made four copies of the American "birth certificate" until the recent discovery of the fifth copy amid the pages of an unrelated 19th century manuscript on geometry at the Munich University Library.
Waldseemuller named the new continent America after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, whom he believed had discovered the continent before Christopher Columbus in 1492. A larger copy of the map can be viewed at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, which was a gift from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the United States in 2007 to mark the 500th anniversary of the naming of America.
German researchers are set to make the map, which is printed in clear black ink on yellowing paper, available to view online beginning July 4, American Independence Day.
Beloved actor Andy Griffith has passed away at the age of 86.
The star who endeared himself to millions the world over with his portrayal of Sheriff Andy Taylor in the fictional Southern hamlet of Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show passed away at his Roanoke Island, North Carolina home Tuesday morning after an illness, said a statement from Griffith's family. "Mr. Griffith has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island," the statement continued.
Most critics consider The Andy Griffith Show one of the Top 10 best American television shows of all time. It was Griffith's simple, Southern charm that made the show such a huge success. The program has never left the air since it originally aired during the 1960s, and continues to be popular in reruns today. Griffith brought to life the town of Mayberry, where he watched over colorful characters with the help of his Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife, played memorably by the late Don Knotts.
Much of the action centered around Andy Taylor's home life, which consisted of young son Opie (Ron Howard) and the much-loved Aunt Bea. The show captured the true essence of small-town Americana, which Griffith knew intimately, as he grew up in quaint Mount Airy, North Carolina, which he is believed to have been the basis for the town of Mayberry. Mount Airy is now the home of the Andy Griffith Museum and also hosts the "Mayberry Days" festival each September.
Griffith would experience more success later on in his life, with the hit drama series Matlock, which ran from 1986 through 1995, first on NBC then later on ABC. The show featured Griffith as crotchety criminal defense lawyer Ben Matlock, who was so good that he charged $100,000 to take on a case.
Griffith graduated from the University of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with a degree in music. He started his career acting and singing in musicals, scoring Tony Award nominations for his turns in the plays "No Time for Sergeants" and "Destry Rides Again" on Broadway. He made his big screen debut with legendary actress Patricia Neal in the film A Face in the Crowd, where he played a singer who turns into a monster after experiencing great success.
Griffith never forgot about his musical roots. He received a Grammy Award for best Southern, country or bluegrass gospel album for "I Love to Tell the Story: 25 Timeless Hymns," in 1997.
He had been plagued by health problems in recent years, including a quadruple heart-bypass surgery following a heart attack in 2000 and hip surgery after a fall. He was also diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that can cause sudden paralysis.
Griffith was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2005. Bush was an admitted fan of Griffith and his show of simple, homespun values.
Who would have thought a mere second could cause so much trouble?
Some of the world's most popular web sites crashed on Sunday after a "leap" second was added to the clock by international timekeepers, it has been revealed.
Sites such as Reddit, FourSquare, Yelp, LinkedIn, Gawker and StumbleUpon all experienced problems simultaneously on Sunday after the extra second was added to Universal Coordinated Time (UTC). The extra blip in time played havoc with the sites' source code and also caused servers to crash, leaving the sites down and unaccessible for hours, experts reveal.
The extra second is added to UTC—the benchmark time agreed internationally—every few years to keep it in line with the time as determined by the wobble in the Earth's rotation.
Working on the assumption that every minute always lasts 60 seconds, computer applications tend to go haywire when an extra leap-second is inserted into the code, much like the problem computer programers faced during the dreaded "Y2K" debacle over a decade ago.
The sites were back up and running later on in the day, after tech experts sorting through the problem.
The intense heat wave that has caught a majority of the US in its unrelenting grip continues today, as weather records keep falling.
Brief respites in the incredible heat came again last night—by way of dangerous thunderstorms brought on by the heat. Powerful thunderstorms struck across parts of Indiana and Kentucky—which did provide some much-needed rain —while storms in North Carolina left three people dead and thousands without power.
This follows a series of storms on Friday that rolled through parts of Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia, which left at least thirteen people dead and cut off power to over three million people. Millions of people in the Washington, DC, area are still in the dark, as thermometers are set to hit the century mark once again today.
Between June 24 and Saturday, more than 1,928 record-high temperatures were broken or tied across the country, which does not include new records expected from Sunday that are not yet listed in the National Climatic Data Center's official count.
Emergency services have been overwhelmed with calls in major metropolitan areas with people overcome by the intense heat. Excessive heat alerts have been issued across a wide swathe of the country, and authorities are asking citizens to check in on elderly neighbors often. Many 4th of July celebrations have been curtailed or cancelled in certain locations, due to dry conditions and the oppressive, dangerous heat.
There is little relief spotted in future-casts from the National Weather Service, which predicts that the heat wave will continue relatively unabated through at least next weekend.
If you are driving near Missoula, Montana, and you happen to notice a 12-foot-long dinosaur moping around, police ask that you not panic and to notify them of its whereabouts.
Seems some prankster thieves made off with the giant fiberglass dinosaur that had been located outside of the Hi-Noon Petroleum gas station in Missoula. Nicknamed "Dino"—after The Flintstone's loveable "mongrel"—the large statue had been the unofficial mascot for the filling station. Now, the station's owners are offering a $250 gas card for information leading to his safe return.
Dino is pretty hard to miss. He stands over six feet tall, is twelve-feet long and is a bright shade of green. He's believed to be a brontosaurus, but there has been no confirmation from a dinosaur expert regarding what type of dinosaur the statue actually is.
Dino had been situated on a hill overlooking Interstate 90 for the past five years, occasionally making appearances in University of Montana Homecoming parades. Passing tourists would often stop and take photographs of the dinosaur.
Anyone with any information regarding the missing dinosaur may contact the Hi-Noon Petroleum station or the Missoula police department.
It seems that in recent years more and more of the flaky, buttery crescent-shaped pastries sold in boulangeries—pastry shops—are frozen and then heated up on-site and sold to unwitting customers believing they are purchasing freshly made croissants.
“Around one viennoiserie [croissants and other puff pastries or cakes] in two in our ‘traditional’ bakeries is now industrial,” Philippe Godard, spokesman for the French bakery and patisserie business federation told The Telegraph last week.
Apparently, there is a little French law loophole that has allowed this to happen stating that while boulangers can only call themselves such if they actually make their own bread, no such rule applies for the viennoiseries they sell in their shops.
Gastronomic purists are certainly up-in-arms over the claims, as fresh baked goods are an important part of the unique and beautiful French culture. Now, bakeries who do make all of their pastries fresh are going out of their way to announce that all of their viennoiseries are fresh-baked every day on site. The baker's federation union of France is now devising a plan to print up and distribute "home-made viennoiseries” labels local bakers can stick on their shop windows to announce to their customers they sell only fresh-baked goods.
Other makers of true French croissants complain they cannot compete with the lower prices of industrially made croissants, which are sold at around 20 cents apiece in bakery catalogs and shipped frozen to the bakeries.
