October 21, 1999

The internet gambling company NASA International is offering odds on Y2K-related disasters. At www.inventabet.com, you'll get these odds: 1,000 to 1 that a Y2K glitch will shut down the Federal Reserve for 24 hours or more; 300 to 1 that an airliner will crash due to Y2K malfunctions; 100,000 to 1 that aliens will land in Washington on January 1, 2000; and 1,000,000 to 1 that the world will end next New Year's Day. Those are great odds for doomsday, but how will you collect?

STORIES WE'RE SORRY TO HAVE MISSED

A collection of actual news headlines from around the world, courtesy of Fortean Times: "Deadly centipede chases postmen" (Daily Telegraph, Nov. 1/90); "Testicles on sale" (The Namibian, June 24/98); "Chaos as a dead rat makes a break for it" (Manchester Evening News, July 9/98); and, "Man fights ravenous moth with sex" (Victoria Times-Colonist, July 14/98).

Researchers in Texas report that the combination of caffeine and alcohol seems to protect laboratory rats from suffering brain damage following a stroke. (UPI)

Fifth grade students at Highline Community School in Aurora, Colorado, were so concerned about children being sold as slaves in Sudan, that they decided to raise money to buy slaves and set them free. Publicity from this well-intentioned act has led to similar programs in about 100 other schools, with thousands of slaves having been bought and set free. Unfortunately, Stephen Lewis of the United Nations Children's Fund, would like to stop these programs. He says "if you can pay for more slaves, undoubtedly more slaves will be provided for you." According to anti-slavery experts, the "buyback" programs have led to dropping prices, showing an excess supply and increasing competition among slave traders. (Denver Post)

In order to reduce the chance of babies being switched, Lutheran General Hospital in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois, has started issuing matching barcoded bracelets to new-born babies and their parents. (UPI)

Billionaire Donald Trump is considering running for president, but told NBC's Dateline that he will not be shaking any hands. "I'm not a big fan of the handshake," he said. "I think it's barbaric...you catch colds, you catch the flu...you catch all sorts of things."

If an asteroid doesn't take us out, maybe our own sun will. Scientists have documented nine cases in which stars very similar to our sun have erupted superflares that would wipe out all life and sterilize any planets that orbited them. Bradley Schafer of Yale University, says "why are we so confident that the sun will continue to burn...sun-like stars have spewed out bursts of light big enough to melt ice on Saturn." (BBC News)

A team of scientists have hatched a plan to extract DNA from a 23,000 year old frozen adult male mammoth, in order to clone the animal by putting the DNA into the egg of an Asian elephant. (ABC News)

A nuclear accelerator designed to replicate the conditions of the Big Bang is under investigation by international physicists due to fears that it might cause "perturbations of the universe" (or, as Obi-Wan would say, "a disturbance in the force") that could destroy the Earth. The experiment, scheduled for November at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., will create a a tiny, fleeting version of the conditions that prevailed milliseconds after the Big Bang, or, if all does not go well, will create a "mini" black hole that could consume our entire planet. I'm no nuclear physicist, but that can't be good.

From Rio De Janeiro, a city plagued by violent crime, comes the newest crime-fighting weapon: a lifesized fibreglass security guard with cameras for eyes that are monitored by real security guards for about US$500 per month. Or, for half that cost, you can get a fibreglass Rottweiler or Doberman that barks threateningly at intruders. (Reuters)