First pic of giant hornets that killed 28 people emerges

Hundreds of people have been stung by swarms of the flying insects in Shaanxi province, with more than 230 people being stung in the city of Ankang alone, where there have been 18 deaths.

The Asian Giant Hornet's sting is highly toxic and can lead to anaphylactic shock and renal failure.

Pictures of the creature have been uploaded to Imgur.

According to The Sun, the insect can grow up to four inches long. People who have been killed include a mother and son who died after being surrounded by a swarm, reports the Metro.

A 68-year-old man was also killed after a nest was knocked over by a strong gust of wind, A large number of attacks have been reported on villagers who work in rural areas.

Residents in the village of Sanping have been warned to remain 'vigilant' over the threat, especially when out in the woods. Thousands of hornets can live in a single nest at one time.

Many of the victims were chased for hundreds of yards by the hornets before being stung up to 200 times.

Czech "Pastafarian" wins right to wear kitchen utensil

A man who claims his religion requires him to wear a sieve on his head has been granted permission to use a photo of himself wearing it – on his official ID card.

Lukas Novy, a follower of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, says the plastic kitchenware is a crucial part of his “Pastafarian” faith, and he must wear it at all times to respect his deity; a monster made of spaghetti and meatballs.


Czech officials ruled that rejecting his request would be a breach of the country’s religious equality laws, and have subsequently turned the other cheek as the 28 year old, from Brno, updated his ID card with the controversial image.

The Church of the Spaghetti Monster first emerged in the USA in 2005 as a mockery of organised religion. Now the thousands of online followers insist that “Pastafarianism” is a genuine religion, and refer to their almighty as “His Noodliness”.

Followers claim that that universe was created by the ball of noodles after “drinking heavily”.

In a statement from Brno City Hall, spokesman Pavel Zara explained: “The application complies with the laws of the Czech Republic where headgear for religious or medical reasons is permitted if it does not hide the face.”

Fellow “Pastafarian”, known as Soorej Jones Pothoor, said he feels discriminated against because of his unrecognised religion: “They (people of other beliefs) tell that the Lord Jesus is the one who’ll save you, not a ball of Spaghetti you moron.” And I say, “How dare you call my lord a ball of spaghetti, what proof do you have that Jesus will save you, a book? We don’t even need a proof, it’s all around us.”.

The Czech Republic is the second country to accept the cooking utensil as official religious head gear, following Austria when businessman Niko Alm won the right to wear a similar sieve on his driving licence photo. Many countries still refuse to accept the pasta strainer as such, and other people in counties such as Poland have failed.

GALLINIPPER

These huge Florida mosquitoes are described by today's younger generation as 'The Mother of all Mosquitos'. As adults, they can bite through a variety of clothing, and are known to go after both humans and pets.

"It's about 20 times bigger than the sort of typical Florida mosquito that you find," Anthony Pelaez of Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry added. "And it's very mean. It goes after people, and it bites, and it hurts. A bite from a gallinipper is so painful “it feels like you’ve been knifed.”

BUT TO PUT IT IN PERSPECTIVE .............................................

NOT QUITE SO SCARY NOW ........................................ IS IT ?

X FILES

Scientists find new kind of bacterial life in hidden Antarctic lake.

An enormous lake that has lain buried under Antarctic ice for millions of years is home to a new kind of bacterial life, Russian scientists claim. The researchers found evidence for the unidentified organism in water samples brought up from Lake Vostok, the largest subglacial lake on the Antarctic continent.


The Russian team found seven samples of the mystery species in water that had frozen on a drill head used to reach the lake that lies beneath an ice sheet more than two miles (3.5km) thick.

The scientists extracted strands of DNA from the organism, but said the genetic code was never more than an 86% match with any of the species listed in global databanks. Sergey Bulat, a researcher on the team at the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, said that anything less than a 90% match usually indicated that the organism was unknown.

"We call it unidentified and 'unclassified' life," Bulat told the state news agency, RIA Novosti. "If it were found on Mars, people would call it Martian DNA. But this is DNA from Earth," he added.

The Russian team broke through to the lake under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet last year. When the ice cover was pierced, water burst up through the borehole. The huge body of water stretches for 150 miles and is 30 miles wide in places.

African American Man Tries To Return Ownership of Self To White Family.

NP- Jasper GA.

In what some African American comunity leaders call a disgusting spectacle beyond words, a local black man Henry Simms tracked down the decendants of slave owners who owned his ancesters in an attempt to return himself as 'lost property' in order to collect room and board.

"Times are hard.Henry said as he set up a tent on the vacant lot across from the home of Fred and Lara Duncan.I lost my job last year at the factory,and had to live out of my car." Things looked bleak until Henry saw an episode of ROOTS on BET last summer and decided to track down his family tree.

"I learned that my great,great,Grand father was a slave owned by the Duncans,he told our reporter pointing at the home across the street.I figured 'what the heck' I'll just return myself to them."

The Duncans would not return our calls,but put out a statement which read "We do wish for any troluble,and the actions of Mr.Simms are very disturbing."

Police were called an Mr.simms recived a restraing order keeping him 50 feet from their home. Henry decided to pitch a makeshift camp on the edge of that boundery in a vacant lot.

"They will take ownership of me! If I have to wait all winter out in the cold I will." Henry replied in a determined voice.

DID YOU KNOW ................

In 2010: Bayern Munich lost the Champions League final, Manchester United finished second in the league, Chelsea won the FA Cup, Tottenham snatched fourth place, Blackpool won the play-off final and Atletico Madrid won the Europa League.


Just saying ....................

DID YOU KNOW ................

In 20 -30 years from now, one of the hardest things our kids will have to do will be finding a screen name that hasn't already been taken.

2coolMower
BooshT40
ComfyNumb3r1
TeenieTh3hibiki

All taken I'm afraid

DID YOU KNOW ................

THAT 'TORCHWOOD' IS AN ANAGRAM OF 'DOCTOR WHO' ?

DID YOU KNOW ................

We have Shakespeare to blame for the modern solecism 'My Bad'

SONNET 112 - YOUR LOVE AND PITY DOTH TH' IMPRESSION FILL

Your love and pity doth the impression fill
Which vulgar scandal stamp'd upon my brow;
For what care I who calls me well or ill,
So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow?
You are my all the world, and I must strive
To know my shames and praises from your tongue:
None else to me, nor I to none alive,
That my steel'd sense or changes right or wrong.
In so profound abysm I throw all care
Of others' voices, that my adder's sense
To critic and to flatterer stopped are.
Mark how with my neglect I do dispense:
You are so strongly in my purpose bred
That all the world besides methinks are dead.

DID YOU KNOW ................

Lobsters may live forever !!

Recent research suggests that lobsters may not slow down, weaken, or lose fertility with age. In fact, older lobsters are more fertile than younger lobsters. This longevity may be due to telomerase, an enzyme that repairs DNA sequences of the form "TTAGGG". This sequence is often referred to as the telomeres of the DNA. It has been argued that lobsters may exhibit negligible senescence and some scientists have claimed that they could effectively live indefinitely, barring injury, disease, capture, etc. Their longevity allows them to reach impressive sizes. According to the Guinness World Records, the largest lobster was caught in Nova Scotia, Canada, and weighed 20.15 kilograms (44.4 lb).

Feb 23 - The biggest lobster ever caught in Maine, a 27-pounder (12.25 kg) nicknamed "Rocky" with claws tough enough to snap a man's arm, was released back into the ocean on Thursday after being trapped in a shrimp net last week, marine officials said.

ROCKY WITH HIS HANDLER MICKEY GOLDMILL

The 40-inch (one-meter) male crustacean, about the size of a 3-year-old child, was freed in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, said Elaine Jones, education director for the state's Department of Marine Resources.

"All the weight is in the claws," Jones said. "It would break your arm."

The lobster was caught near the seaside village of Cushing and brought to the Maine State Aquarium in West Boothbay.

Sony raised price of Whitney Houston albums after death

Sony Music has come under fire after it increased the price of a Whitney Houston album on Apple's iTunes Store hours after the singer was found dead.

The music giant is understood to have lifted the wholesale price of Houston's greatest hits album, The Ultimate Collection, at about 4am California time on Sunday. This meant that the iTunes retail price of the album automatically increased from £4.99 to £7.99.


Makes you wonder .... are people who download music illegally more or less moral than those in the Music Industry ?

Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy

BUT DON'T FORGET TO TAKE IT

SAY WHAT ?

The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia (Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning "fear"). The latter word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953.

DID YOU KNOW ..........

"Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is recommended."

"Some people refuse to go to work on Friday the 13th; some won't eat in restaurants; many wouldn't think of setting a wedding on the date."

Legend has it: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, one will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven.

It has been proposed that fears surrounding the number 13 are as ancient as the act of counting. Primitive man had only his 10 fingers and two feet to represent units, this explanation goes, so he could count no higher than 12. What lay beyond that — 13 — was an impenetrable mystery to our prehistoric forebears, hence an object of superstition.

Twelve gods were invited to a banquet at Valhalla. Loki, the Evil One, god of mischief, had been left off the guest list but crashed the party, bringing the total number of attendees to 13. True to character, Loki raised hell by inciting Hod, the blind god of winter, to attack Balder the Good, who was a favorite of the gods. Hod took a spear of mistletoe offered by Loki and obediently hurled it at Balder, killing him instantly. All Valhalla grieved. And although one might take the moral of this story to be "Beware of uninvited guests bearing mistletoe," the Norse themselves apparently concluded that 13 people at a dinner party is just plain bad luck.

As if to prove the point, the Bible tells us there were exactly 13 present at the Last Supper. One of the dinner guests — er, disciples — betrayed Jesus Christ, setting the stage for the Crucifixion.

Did I mention the Crucifixion took place on a Friday ?

Legend has it: Never change your bed on Friday; it will bring bad dreams. If you cut your nails on Friday, you cut them for sorrow. Don't start a trip on Friday or you will encounter misfortune. Ships that set sail on a Friday will have bad luck, as in the tale of H.M.S. Friday. One hundred years ago, the British government sought to quell the longstanding superstition among seamen that setting sail on Fridays was unlucky. A special ship was commissioned and given the name "H.M.S. Friday." They laid her keel on a Friday, launched her on a Friday, selected her crew on a Friday, and hired a man named Jim Friday to be her captain. To top it off, H.M.S. Friday embarked on her maiden voyage on a Friday — and was never seen or heard from again.

STOP AND HEAR THE MUSIC

In Washington , DC , at a Metro Station, on a cold January morning, a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, approximately 2,000 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After about 3 minutes, a middle-aged man noticed that there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds, and then he hurried on to meet his schedule.

About 4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

At 6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

At 10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped, but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head the whole time. This action was repeated by several other children, but every parent - without exception - forced their children to move on quickly.

At 45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace. The man collected a total of $32.

After 1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed and no one applauded. There was no recognition at all.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before, Joshua Bell sold-out a theatre in Boston where the seats averaged $100 each to sit and listen to him play the same music.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell, playing incognito in the D.C. Metro Station, was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people's priorities.



This experiment raised several questions:

*In a common-place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty?

*If so, do we stop to appreciate it?

*Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made . . ..

How many other things are we missing as we rush through life ?

BELIEVE IT OR DONT

Try this, if you can pronounce all the words correctly then you can speak English better than 90% of the world's English speaking population ...


Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how its written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciations OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.
Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.
Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.
Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.
Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.
Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Wont it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
Its a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Finally, which rhymes with enough,
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up !!!

99-year-old divorces wife after he discovered 1940s affair

An Italian couple are to become the world's oldest divorcees, after the 99-year-old husband found that his 96-year-old wife had an affair in the 1940s.

The Italian man, identified by lawyers in the case only as Antonio C, was rifling through an old chest of drawers when he made the discovery a few days before Christmas.

Notwithstanding the time that had elapsed since the betrayal, he was so upset that he immediately confronted his wife of 77 years, named as Rosa C, and demanded a divorce.

Guilt-stricken, she reportedly confessed everything but was unable to persuade her husband to reconsider his decision.

She wrote the letters to her lover during a secret affair in the 1940s, according to court papers released in Rome this week.

The couple are now preparing to split, despite the ties they forged over nearly eight decades – they have five children, a dozen grandchildren and one great-grand child.

The couple met during the 1930s when Antonio was posted as a young Carabinieri officer to Naples.

Who’s busiest ?

Mexicans work longer days than anyone else in OECD countries, devoting 10 hours to paid and unpaid work, such as cleaning or cooking at home. Belgians work the least, at 7 hours, compared with an OECD average of 8 hours a day.

These are among the insights in the latest edition of Society at a Glance, which gives an overview of social trends and policy developments in OECD countries. Using indicators taken from OECD databases and other sources, it shows how societies are changing over time and compared with other countries.

A special chapter in the report looks at unpaid work, such as cooking, cleaning, caring, and shopping, in 26 OECD countries, as well as China, India and South Africa.

Spain's Equivalent of April Fools' Day is Dec. 28

So ....... if you read stories that link Fernando Torres to Barcelona .... you've been had.

From http://www.mundodeportivo.com/20111228/fc-barcelona/fernando-torres-barca-chelsea-montoya-roberto-cuenca_54243406823.html

The Barça and Chelsea have closed will be, undoubtedly, the highlight of the market operation in winter. Fernando Torres , who still does not perform to their highest level in Stamford Bridge, will land in the next few hours at the Camp Nou, while three of the most promising homegrown Catalan club, Martin Montoya , Sergi Roberto and Isaac Basin , follow the steps of Oriol Romeu and travel to London next Saturday, 31.

The original idea was technically 'blue', André Villas-Boas , after learning that David Villa will be low at the club for four to five months. The Portuguese, who want to rejuvenate Chelsea and last summer and wanted to take Roberto Montoya and spoke with executives and asked them to London offered Fernando Torres in exchange for both homegrown and Pedro .

Saw Chelsea welcome the proposal to his coach and athletic director last week, Michael Emenalo , met secretly with Guardiola in Brescia. Pep, who has always publicly praised the 'Child', do not hesitate to accept the idea, but refused to lose to Peter and included instead in the operation to Cuenca.

Fernando Torres , who returned to be booed by the fans at Stamford Bridge during the match against Fulham on Monday, will bid farewell to Chelsea having scored only five goals in a year. In recent days, speculation about his possible return to Atletico, but eventually put on Barca until June 30, 2021. The setting of the player says he is very happy.

For his part, Montoya, Roberto Cuenca and cost them more accepting of change. It was Oriol Romeu who got personally telephoning each. The only condition imposed by the three youth players is to play the Catalunya on 30-Tunisia, for which they have been called by Johan Cruyff . After the game, will travel to El Prat airport, will travel to London on a private flight and day 31 and will debut for Chelsea against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge.

LIKE YOU'VE NEVER WONDERED

The Penis Size Worldwide map

Check it out here -> http://www.targetmap.com/viewer.aspx?reportId=3073

DID YOU KNOW ................

If you are logged-on to your Facebook account and surfing the Web, your session cookie conducts this logging. The session cookie additionally records your name, e-mail address, friends and all data associated with your profile to Facebook. If you are logged-off, or if you are a non-member, the browser cookie conducts the logging; it additionally reports a unique alphanumeric identifier, but no personal information.

Thilo Weichert, data protection commissioner in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, expressed alarm at how Facebook's technology could potentially be used to build extensive profiles of individual Web users.

"Whoever visits Facebook or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years," Weichert said in a statement. "Such profiling infringes German and European data protection law."