by friver ~ July 24th, 2008

These two barn swallows are conjoined twins, joined at the hip by skin and possibly tissue. They fell out of a nest and were found by a landowner in White County. On of them later died and the other was euthanized.
Unfortunately for the birds, they wouldn’t have stood a chance in the wild even if they were separated, because they never learned to fly.
by friver ~ July 22nd, 2008

Photographer Kem Mc Nair was taking photographs of surfers at New Smyrna Beach in Florida, USA when, by pure chance, he captured this startling image.
In the picture are two surfers in the water, while behind them a spinner shark leaps out of the water, seemingly just at the spot where one of them had been a few seconds earlier.
Did Mc Nair catch on film a near miss of a shark attack? Spinner sharks have been known to occasionally attack humans, with 13 unprovoked attacks on record. None of the attacks, though, have ever resulted in any human fatalities.
by friver ~ July 19th, 2008

A young adult black bear broke into a Circuit City electronics store in Colorado, USA yesterday. Explain.
- It was checking out the HD plasma TV sets.
- It was looking for a job as store mascot.
- It couldn’t wait for the iPhone 3G.
- It loves the taste of circuit board
It bear was later scared off by an alarm it had set off in a nearby restaurant.
by friver ~ July 18th, 2008

Avis Blakeslee was tending her flower garden when she was attacked by a wild fox. Despite receiving seven leg and arm wounds, she clamped the fox’s mouth shut and held it down on the ground until help arrived. The animal was shot by Blakeslee’s teenage son.
After four days in hospital, Blakeslee was sent home ans is now recuperating.
by friver ~ July 17th, 2008

For hundreds of years, Bigfoot has eluded those trying to find him. But who would’ve known that conclusive proof of Bigfoot’s existence was just an Ebay account and a mouse click away?
So claims Ebay seller “tpeterson6969″, whose is offering his Sasquatch-finding expertise up for auction on the merchant website. Starting bid is $150,000 if you’re interested. So far there has been no bidders.
by friver ~ July 16th, 2008
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Old story: wandering koala bear gets hit by a speeding car.
New story: koala’s head goes through the grille and is dragged for seven miles in that position.
Strangest Science News blog story: Koala survives and is mostly unscathed.
The eight-year old Aussie marsupial, not surprisingly named Lucky, is currently recovering at the Australian Wildlife Hospital. He is also being treated for a chlamydia infection.
by friver ~ July 12th, 2008

Check out this assortment of ghouls and nasties, all working for the benefit of medicine.
They’re medical training manikins (not mannequins, which you find in shop windows), and they range from creepy to out-and-out slasher film gory, to kinda SF cool (as in the example above).
And while you’re at that site, you can vote for the most disturbing one, too.
by friver ~ July 11th, 2008

If you have a thing about hypodermic needles and all that injection stuff, you’re going to love this. Researchers have developed a type of salmonella bacteria that, when dripped into the mouths of rodents, can trigger the mouse’s immune system without causing further harm. Why? Because it basically kills itself shortly upon arrival.
Hopefully the technology can be applied to viruses, fungi and other baddies soon. How soon? Human tests are expected within a year.
by friver ~ July 10th, 2008

I think the only thing cooler than seeing this 207-foot cruise ship grounded in practically zero water is seeing how freakishly well-balanced it is. How is that thing not tipping over?!
What’s also unclear is just how it ended up beached. Right now it’s still unclear if human error or mechanical malfunction is to blame.
by friver ~ July 8th, 2008

That’s Kent Couch there in the picture, pretty typical 48-year-old gas station owner, relaxing in his pretty typical lawn chair, about to embark on an absolutely non-typical midlife crisis adventure.
Last week, Couch completed a 200-mile flight (you read right, flight. All those balloons weren’t for decorative purposes only) across the Oregon desert. He flew in the aforementioned lawn chair, which to which was attached a crapload of balloons, filled with helium gas.
He took off at dawn from his home town of Bend, Oregon, USA and landed nine hours later in
Cambridge, Idaho. His landing was done by shooting down a number of his balloons using a BB gun.
It was Couch’s third such flight, but it was the first time he went out-of-state.