Egyptians head to France to fetch stolen mummy hairs

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt sent an archaeological team to France on Thursday to retrieve 3,200-year-old strands of hair from the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II, who presided over an era of great military expansion in Egypt, state media said.

The existence of the hair came to light last year when some of the strands were offered for sale on the Internet for between 2,000 and 2,500 euros ($2,668 and $3,336), in addition to tiny pieces of resin and embalmed cloth taken from the mummy.

The seller had said he obtained the relics from his deceased father, who had worked in a French laboratory entrusted with analysing and restoring the body of Ramses in the 1970s. He had offered to provide certificates of authenticity to buyers.

French archaeologists had reacted with horror to news that the hairs were on sale and French authorities arrested the suspected seller in November...

--Reuters

Blood sprays out of sewer, on city worker

A Minneapolis city worker is worried about blood in the sewer system because he said, while he was cleaning the system, blood sprayed out of a hole and got all over him.

"We could tell it was blood, I mean large amount of blood," said Minneapolis Sewer Maintenance Worker Ron Huebner.

It happened about two weeks ago in Northeast Minneapolis near a lab that does medical testing and dumps blood into the sewer. It is allowed but the city is now making changes to help protect workers in the future.

"Blood just all over my face, in my mouth, I could taste it. It was terrible. I had it in my mouth and I kept spitting and I couldn't get rid of it," said Huebner...

--WCCO

Owners reclaim snake left in rental car

Sammy the boa survives two weeks chilling in chill in Dodge Charger

MILWAUKEE - A snake and his owners were reunited this week after the missing reptile was found in the glove compartment of a rented car.

Sammy, a 4-foot red-tailed boa constrictor, disappeared two weeks ago after his owners left him in the car while they went into an east side video rental store.

Richard Houston and Rosanne Burks were puzzled — their CDs and other items were still in the car. They searched the vehicle, looking under the seats and in the trunk. Finally, puzzled, they concluded Sammy had been stolen...

MSNBC

Fake volcano bursts into real flames

DULUTH, Minn. - An imitation volcano in a hotel and water park’s swimming pool developed delusions of grandeur, forcing guests to flee to the parking lot in their bare feet and swimsuits.

The 20-foot-tall plastic volcano at the Edgewater Hotel and Waterpark started belching black smoke and shooting flames Thursday. The hotel manager said a malfunctioning internal speaker ignited the fire.

Firefighters helped put out the fire, but not before part of the volcano melted...

--MSNBC

Family turns father's ashes into diamond

The family of a Blackpool man who died suddenly shunned traditional memorials in favour of a novel alternative - turning him into a diamond.

Mick Egan died of a brain haemorrhage last year and his wife of 30 years, Susan, wanted a fitting memorial.

The stone took 24 weeks to create but was completed in time for her daughter Celeste's wedding - allowing her to go down the aisle with her father.

"We think he would have loved the idea," she told BBC News. The family wanted a unique way to remember Mr Egan and turned to an American company to create the synthetic diamond...

BBC News

Bizarre hexagon circles Saturn's north pole

A deep, hexagon-shaped feature lies above Saturn's north pole, newly released images from the Cassini spacecraft reveal. The strange structure appears to be nearly stationary and may be a wave that stretches deep into the giant planet's atmosphere.

NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft glimpsed parts of the feature nearly 30 years ago, but because of their viewing angle, they were not able to see the whole thing. Now, Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer has captured the entire hexagon for the first time, thanks to a series of infrared images it took as the spacecraft flew over the pole in October and November 2006 (see Cassini snaps Saturn from a dizzying height).

The hexagon spans nearly 25,000 kilometres – the width of two Earths – and appears to be a clearing in the clouds that extends at least 75 km below the planet's visible cloudtops. Watch a movie of clouds whipping around Saturn's strange hexagon (4.2 MB, gif).

"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," says team member Kevin Baines of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet"...

--New Scientist Space

N.J. beach closed after WWII-era explosives found

SURF CITY, N.J. -- A mile-long stretch of beach in Ocean County was closed after an unseen danger was unearthed: bombs and other munitions dating back to World War II.

Several unexploded fuses and artillery shell adapters were found in sand recently pumped into Surf City.

The explosives were found in newly placed beach fill in the area between 17th and 24th streets. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers halted the project and closed the beaches after the discovery was made three weeks ago.Authorities have posted danger signs at the beaches and blocked off the entrances. Security guards patrol the area around the clock...

--NBC10.com

World's tallest man (and saver of dolphins) gets married

BEIJING, China (AP) -- After searching high and low, the world's tallest man has married a woman two-thirds his height, a Chinese newspaper reported Wednesday.

Bao Xishun, a 7-foot-9-inch (2.36-meter) herdsman from Inner Mongolia, married saleswoman Xia Shujian, who was 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 meters) tall, several days ago, the Beijing New reported.

Bao's 28-year-old bride is half his age and hailed from his hometown of Chifeng, even though marriage advertisements were sent around the world, it said.

"After a long and careful selection, the effort has been finally paid off," the newspaper said...

--CNN

Marijuana not kosher for Passover

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Marijuana is not kosher for Passover, a pro-cannabis advocacy group says, advising Jews who observe the week-long holiday's special dietary laws to take a break from smoking the weed.

The Green Leaf Party announced Wednesday that products of the cannabis plant have been grouped by rabbis within a family of foods such as peas, beans and lentils that is off-limits to Jews of European descent during Passover.

The Green Leaf Party, which has made several unsuccessful attempts to win election to parliament on a platform urging marijuana's legalisation, said it was issuing its advisory as a service to Jews who don't want to break ritual law...

--Reuters

Maryland dog does Heimlich maneuver on owner

CALVERT, Md. (AP) — Toby, a 2-year-old golden retriever, saw his owner choking on a piece of fruit and began jumping up and down on the woman's chest. The dog's owner believes the dog was trying to perform the Heimlich maneuver and saved her life.

Debbie Parkhurst, 45, of Calvert told the Cecil Whig she was eating an apple at her home Friday when a piece lodged in her throat. She attempted to perform the Heimlich maneuver on herself but it didn't work. After she began beating on her chest, she said Toby noticed and got involved.

"The next thing I know, Toby's up on his hind feet and he's got his front paws on my shoulders," she recalled. "He pushed me to the ground, and once I was on my back, he began jumping up and down on my chest"...

USA Today

Marmosets may carry their sibling's sex cells

If your testes or ovaries contained the sperm or eggs of another individual, how would you feel about reproducing? This extraordinary situation is experienced by marmosets, which have now been discovered to exhibit "germ line chimerism". It is a condition in which some of the sperm or eggs in their gonads come from another individual, and so do not contain their own DNA.

Marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii) are unusual in that most pregnancies result in non-identical twins, and a high proportion of those result in chimerism. Genetic analysis of these twins shows that all tissues - including skin, hair, brain, lung and muscle - may contain cells derived from the sibling twin...

New Scientist

Group captures dog-sized ‘monster’ toad

DARWIN, Australia - An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a “monster” toad the size of a small dog.

With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer.

“It’s huge, to put it mildly,” he said. “The biggest toads are usually females but this one was a rampant male ... I would hate to meet his big sister”...

MSNBC

France puts secret UFO archive online

PARIS — France's space agency is opening up its secret X-Files— three decades of research into UFO sightings, including police reports, witness sketches and maps that scientists used to search for logical explanations behind mysterious phenomena in the skies.

The first batch of archives went up on the agency's website Thursday, and the pages have had so much traffic that the site has been tough to access since.

Only about 9% of France's UFO cases have ever been fully explained, the group says, while experts have found likely reasons for another 33% of cases.

The agency, known by its French initials CNES, said it went public with the documents to draw the scientific community's attention to unexplained cases — and because their secrecy generated buzz, with many people suspicious that officials were hiding something...

--USA Today

Trees cut to shed light on turtles, sex addicts

MAZOMANIE, Wis. -- Trees are being cut down near Mazomanie's nude beach as a crackdown on sexual activity, reported WISC-TV.

The state Department of Natural Resources said willow trees lining the nude beach have been removed...

--WISCTV.com

Stray cats enter home, attack women, boy

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. - Two stray cats attacked three people after they got into a house in North Platte. "I thought I had seen it all, but I have never seen anything like this," Chief of Police Martin Gutschenritter said Tuesday. A call for help Monday took animal control officer John Pettit to the home of Melissa Breva, Gutschenritter said. Breva told Pettit she had captured two cats in a bedroom.

"She said the cats had gotten into the house when the front door was open," Gutschenritter said, then attacked two women who were visiting Breva.

One, Wendy Holliday, suffered scratches, the chief said, and she was bitten on both ankles, both knees and on her left calf.

"She told the officer it happened when the two cats entered the residence and attacked her for no reason," Gutschenritter said...

--Yahoo News

Missouri man shares golf cart with bobcat

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. Mar 9, 2007 (AP)— It's best not to get between a predator and its prey especially when they're in the passenger seat of your golf cart.

Water plant worker Mitch Walter would offer that bit of advice and bears the scratches of one who speaks from experience.

As Walter was inspecting the Cape Rock Water Treatment Plant property Tuesday night, a rabbit leaped into his golf cart followed by a 25-pound bobcat. The rabbit then jumped back out, leaving Walter alone with a large, frightened feline...

--ABC News