Curious
Times No. 373
November 2, 2006
X-MEN
WANTED
Hey you, crazy freak-of-nature with the bizarro telekenetic powers...
it’s time to break out of the asylum and go earn your riches.
Uri Geller has announced the creation of a reality show in which
he will seek an up-and-coming “paranormal protege” to
follow in his footsteps as a “world-famous celebrity psychic”.
Geller says the TV show, to be produced in his home country of
Israel, will follow the format of “American Idol” and
the winner will be the person with the most “riveting and
amazing” performance. In fact, the act doesn’t even
have to be paranormal in any way, and simply impressing Geller
with a cool party trick might be enough to win. “This is
not a show where people have to prove to me that they are for
real,” Geller said. “I just want to be amazed.”
(Reuters)
IN THE FUTURE -- ROBOT CARS AND SPACE ELEVATORS
If you’ve been planning to win some money this year with
your mad skills as a science geek you might want to shift your
work away from robot-driven cars and move into the field of space
elevators. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
announced last week that a $2 million grand prize which was awarded
last year to the winners of a robot race through the Mojave desert
will be replaced by three shiny trophies for the winning teams.
What a thrill! But there’s still a chance to win some money
if you can figure out how to build a robot which can climb up
60,000-mile long space elevator at a minimum speed of one meters
per second. The winning robot will win $150,000. (AP
/ NewsTarget)
SMELLS LIKE SWEET ROYALTIES
Elvis Presley has finally been knocked off the throne as the world’s
top-earning dead celebrity. The new champion is Kurt Cobain, who
managed to earn $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006
despite being completely dead. Forbes Magazine has compiled the
list for the past six years with Presley taking top spot for the
first five years. Cobain’s win came thanks to Courtney Love
selling off 25 percent of Nirvana’s song catalog to the music
publishing company Primary Wave (and I, for one, am looking forward
to hearing Kurt’s great tunes in a spaghetti commercial).
After Cobain and Presley, the next highest-earning dead folks
were Charles Schulz, John Lennon, and Albert Einstein. (Forbes.com)
IS GOOGLE GOD?
It must be nice to have too much time on your hands. Like whoever
it is that has started the Church of Google, at TheChurchOfGoogle.org.
According to these uber-nerds “a convincing argument can
be made stating that the search engine Google is the closest mankind
has ever come to experiencing an actual Deity. It is the ultimate
bridge between people and information.” Check out the “PROOF!”
page, which claims that Google is omniscient, omnipresent, and
immortal, answers prayers, remembers all and can do no evil. Proof
No. 8 also claims that “there is more evidence for the existence
of Google than any other God worshiped today.”
ALL BLOGS ARE EVIL, EXCEPT FOR MINE
Hypocrisy is funniest when it’s so obvious you’d need
an IQ smaller than your shoe size not to see it. Which makes an
article called “Blogs and God’s Youth” truly hysterical.
In this blog entry Kevin D. Denee of the Restored Church of God
Ambassador Youth site argues that expressing your opinion on blogs
leads to evil. At one point in his lengthy post Denee lays down
the law. “Let me emphasize that no one — including adults
— should have a blog or personal website,” he says.
You can read his blog at Thercg.org
SLUTTY BEE-HAVIOR
Scientists have discovered that the queens of bee, ant, and wasp
colonies that have the most sex with the largest number of males
produce the strongest and healthiest colonies. The research found
that promiscuous and lengthy sex marathons undertaken by a queen
created greater genetic variations in their colony which helps
protect them from debilitating diseases. (New
Scientist)
FASTING IS BORING
A Russian man has claimed to have broken the world record for
fasting by going for 50 days without food. After the 50th day
Agasi Vartanyan held a press conference in order to berate reporters
for not covering his world record breaking attempt. “`I feel
offended because my efforts did not attract much attention,”
he complained. (AP)
I-READ-IT-ON-THE-INTERNET-SO-IT-MUST-BE-TRUE FACT OF THE WEEK
A single U.S. F-22 Raptor could wipe out the entire North Korean
air force in about 15 minutes.
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