Weird News

[xoxoxoBruce]

To lick off the pasta sauce, silly.

[classicman]

Tiny, long-lost primate rediscovered in Indonesia

On a misty mountaintop on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists for the first time in more than eight decades have observed a living pygmy tarsier, one of the planet's smallest and rarest primates.

Over a two-month period, the scientists used nets to trap three furry, mouse-sized pygmy tarsiers -- two males and one female -- on Mt. Rore Katimbo in Lore Lindu National Park in central Sulawesi, the researchers said on Tuesday.

They spotted a fourth one that got away.

The tarsiers, which some scientists believed were extinct, may not have been overly thrilled to be found. One of them chomped Sharon Gursky-Doyen, a Texas A&M University professor of anthropology who took part in the expedition.

"I'm the only person in the world to ever be bitten by a pygmy tarsier," Gursky-Doyen said in a telephone interview.

Cute ugly little thing

[ZenGum]

Don't tarsier me, bro.

[classicman]

here is the pic

[Pico and ME]

Looks like it could have come from Star Wars.

[classicman]

Experts call for end of flushing toilets on World Toilet Day

AS the world celebrates World Toilet Day today, sanitation experts have called for the end of the flushing dunny to save water and provide fertilizer for crops.

Leading health advocates have called for the use of "dry" toilets which separate urine from faeces and remove the need to flush.

Speaking at the recent World Toilet Summit in Macau, World Toilet Organisation founder Jack Sims said the concept of the flushing toilet was unsustainable.

Mr Sims said a culture where people flushed their loos but disregarded the thousands of litres of wasted drinking water each year was one of sanitation's greatest challenges.

"This 'flush and forget' attitude creates a new problem which we have to revisit," he said.

Damn those Aussies!

[Cicero]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMDFz...eature=related

These swings won't stop swinging, they called scientists in, and now it looks like they put a fence around them. lol!

[ZenGum]

Swings: Those swings are pretty weird. For one afternoon I could believe it was wind at just the right angle/frequency, but long term?

Toilets:
I'm interested in permaculture and have spent some time on (kind of) self-sufficient farms, and learned about toilets there.
Shit only really stinks if it breaks down anaerobically. Hence mixing shit and water/piss is bad. Piss in one place (err, the bushes, usually ) and shit in a special bin with a carbon rich sprinkle (sawdust, mulch, grass clippings) on top, and it breaks down wonderfully with only a mild smell. After a few months it can be composted or fed to worms, and the end product is ideal fertilizer.

[classicman]

Swings - The video keeps you from seeing the top bar very much - I think they may be motorized in some fashion.

[Cicero]

There are several videos. The cops were actually called to stop the swinging. People couldn't take it anymore. Then they found that it's a safety risk? And erected the fence. Huge magnet? The scientists were called in....Now they have given up and called ghost hunters.

Another vid.

[glatt]

They erected a fence instead of just taking the swings down? Stupid waste of money there.

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

Swings: Those swings are pretty weird. For one afternoon I could believe it was wind at just the right angle/frequency, but long term?

Wind. The sound on the second video posted here shows how windy it is there. And after all there is such a thing as a prevailing wind in some areas - you just need to look at trees in windy areas.

I agree that it's bizarre to fence them in rather than remove them, but perhaps it's a short-term measure that's quicker to arrange.

I remember when swing seats were wooden, and I know more than one kid that caught one full in the face by not being careful walking behind them. It was character building!

[glatt]

There were these two tall buildings near an old apartment I had. The buildings were oriented towards each other so that their corners were pointed to each other from different sides of the walkway between them. Like a funnel. On a perfectly calm day, there was always a breeze right between these two buildings. On a windy day, you had to literally lean into the wind to make it through the gap between these two buildings. It was really remarkable and a pretty cool effect.

I wonder if these swings are in the courtyard of an apartment complex with similar buildings.

[HungLikeJesus]

There is at least one building being designed to use a similar effect to power an integrated wind turbine.

[Cicero]

Last video and article about the swings:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...icle385529.ece