What weird news stories make you either laugh out loud, or just say "huh?'

[LadyStitch]

I'm glad they didn't put it in Branson. So much of the area's natural beauty has been destroyed by devlopers in the 1980's & 90.  I can see what they are trying to do, and would make a great show piece.  Worst case, if this doesn't work they can turn it into a retreat location for conventions and such. 
I mean think about it what Clan/Family wouldn't give to have a house that size available to hire out for a weekend?  14 bed rooms , 13 bathrooms,  all surrounded by beautiful natural beauty. 
Given that Brad Pitt is from Springfield, and DOES own a community just south of Springfield that he and a few other stars have been known to have getaways to, it isn't a big surprise for people to speculate that the house might have belonged to them.

[dbaldock]

  Time for a road trip.  *sigh*

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/mystery-mansion-rises-in-the-ozarks.html

If you want to see a really BIG mansion, visit the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC.  It's 100,000 square feet larger than the one that's being built in the Ozarks.  It's been 116 years since it was finished (built from 1889-1895), and it is still the largest privately-owned home in the USA.  While the estate is currently 8,000 acres, it was originally 125,000 acres.

[redkimba]

A study published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that soldiers carrying armour in Medieval times would have been using more than twice the amount of energy had they not been wearing it.   

website has a short video of someone walking and running the armor:  http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/2259/heavy_metal_hardens_battle

**
this may not be the 'correct' thread but I laughed with a slight 'duh' observation...

[Lady Kett]

A study published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B shows that soldiers carrying armour in Medieval times would have been using more than twice the amount of energy had they not been wearing it.   

website has a short video of someone walking and running the armor:  http://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/2259/heavy_metal_hardens_battle

**
this may not be the 'correct' thread but I laughed with a slight 'duh' observation...

LOL, yes, definitely a DUH moment.

[Dragonlord]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20072270-71/japanese-scientist-creates-poop-burger-surely-not/

[LadyStitch]

http://www.ky3.com/news/ktvi-80-year-old-woman-shot-in-face-with-arrow-20110726,0,5099202.story?track=rss

She is one lucky, and tough old lady that is for sure.

[Rowan MacD]

     There are plenty of humans that will do this for free......and no bears will be harmed!

Bears saved from forced vodka drinking (Reuters)

Wednesday, 03 August 2011 09:47


KIEV (Reuters) – Ukraine's Environment Minister Mykola Zlochevsky vowed on Wednesday to free all bears kept in restaurants for entertainment purposes and often forced to drink alcohol, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday.

Captured and tamed bears were often used for entertainment in the Russian Empire, which included Ukraine, turning the animal into a national symbol.

The practice appears to have also survived Ukraine's emergence from Soviet rule, but Zlochevsky said it was inhumane and unacceptable today.

"On television, they keep showing bears suffering in restaurants and roadside hotels," Interfax quoted him as saying. "How long can we tolerate animal torture in restaurants where drunken guests make bears drink vodka for laughs?"

Zlochevsky said his ministry was building a large enclosure in a wildlife sanctuary where it would place about 80 bears it planned to liberate.

[Archer]

This one speaks for itself . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYjtCDp8Yxg

[arbcoind]

I watched this on CNN two nights ago.  Scary stuff.

Gina

[Rowan MacD]

  Full story here:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2011/08/10-year-old-vogue-model-pretty-or-pretty-weird.html
 This quote says it all: "There's something more than ironic about all this, coming as it does just after an international crackdown on child pornography led by the U.S. Justice and Homeland Security departments."

 These pictures are ridiculous.  I don't care what Vogue says; these pics are of a child tarted up to look like she was going to a nightclub, and that's just wrong.
  There should be minimum age for fashion models preferable older than 16.  I guess they can't find enough boy-like waifs to model their 'women's wear'.  
  Heaven forbid models should have breasts and hips, it just ruins the line of the clothes.

[Merlin the Elder]

I've quit paying attention to any female that is either not gray-haired or showing some other indication of age. I started this procedure many years ago when one of my band-mates brought a girl to rehearsal with him. I ogled her until he told me that she was his 13-year-old daughter (luckily, he didn't see the ogling). She wasn't wearing a lot of makeup, but she was definitely handling herself as someone much older...I had her pegged as being 20-ish.

There's enough bad stuff happening in this world to youngsters without fanning the flames. Think back a few years to the case of JonBenét Ramsey. You look at a head shot of her, and she looks like a gorgeous 19yo model. I cannot shake the idea that the reason she was murdered at the age of 6 was somehow related to this. I view with disdain any parent that would do this to a young child. I don't think any child should be subjected to the rigors of competition until the teens, and then very controlled. That puts me in a very tiny group, I know...

[arbcoind]

Not a tiny group.  I agree with you Merlin.

WTF are this child's parents thinking?  What is she selling?  Who is her audience?  I don't get it.  It's no wonder I stopped reading/looking at Vogue magazine a long time ago.

Gina

[Rowan MacD]

   I can't watch 'Toddlers and Tiaras' for longer than 2 minutes for the same reason.  It just creeps me out.   It makes me acutely uneasy to see babies in makeup, spray tans and hairpieces, winking at the judges and wiggling their butts at the audience.   
  I just keep imagining there is some sicko out in the TV audience who is enjoying that show for all the worst reasons.
 The Moms have the audacity to say that the kids 'want this' and all but demand to be allowed to compete.....um....sure.  

[Archer]

Orange goo washing up on shores in Alaska

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/05/orange-goo-kivalina_n_919182.html

       Hmm. Not petroleum based.  Travel time by ocean current via Japan ?

[Sir Ironhead]

 Full story here:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2011/08/10-year-old-vogue-model-pretty-or-pretty-weird.html
 This quote says it all: "There's something more than ironic about all this, coming as it does just after an international crackdown on child pornography led by the U.S. Justice and Homeland Security departments."

 These pictures are ridiculous.  I don't care what Vogue says; these pics are of a child tarted up to look like she was going to a nightclub, and that's just wrong.
  There should be minimum age for fashion models preferable older than 16.  I guess they can't find enough boy-like waifs to model their 'women's wear'.  
  Heaven forbid models should have breasts and hips, it just ruins the line of the clothes.

Beyond creepy.  And apparently in France there are photos that were published with the girl topless except for some beads hiding well... yeah, as well as the girl topless in bed with an adult male.  Way beyond creepy.