Everyone owns a plane in US’ Top Gun village
London: A village, Spruce Creek community of Florida, has residents almost each of whom own a plane.
The driveways of the homes in the village are filled with planes after around 5,000 residents made the former military base their home, Daily Star reported.
Signs dot the streets of the village, particularly near the 18 hole golf course where teeing off can be hazardous because of the low-flying planes. Prices for properties in the village can range from 100,000 pounds for a small condo to millions of pounds for a hangar mansion. (ANI)
Story of a comic strip writtenon single string of hair
Wellington: A tiny comic strip called ‘Juanita Knits the Planet’ had been engraved on a single strand of human hair by Claudia Puhlfurst. When zoomed in through a microscope, a perfect smooth human hair looks like a strange creature so a focused ion beam was used to create ten micron-tall Juanita and her friends onto the hair, Stuff.co.nz reported. The minute comic strip was produced for the Exceptional Hardware Software Meeting, which is a gathering for open source and DIY enthusiasts in Germany. (ANI)
‘Bigfoot’ spotted wandering in Canadian mountains
London: The legendary ‘Bigfoot’ was sighted in the wilderness of 7,000ft up, Tantalus mountain range in Canada. The large two-legged hairy figure was caught on camera by a hiker named Myles Lamont, walking around the snow covered mountain top in British Columbia, Canada, Metro.co.uk reported. The video, which was taken three years ago but recently uploaded, received nearly 500,000 hits on YouTube. The hiker said that he did not think this supposed Yeti, which was moving evidently bipedal with impressive speed without any snowshoes or a backpack and was wearing all one colored clothes, could be a bear or a wild animal. (ANI)
Meet man who didn’t shower for one whole year
London: A US man did not take shower for an entire year and dipped into rivers, lakes and even waited for rains to clean himself up. The 27-year-old adventurer and big environmentalist, Rob Greenfield, had earlier planned to go 100 days without using ‘manmade sources of bathing’ during a lengthy bike ride, but he later decided to go further with the idea as he enjoyed it completely, the Daily Star reported.
The California-based man used just two gallons of water a day for the year compared to 100 gallons a day that an average American uses. He said his mission was to motivate people to start considering their surroundings and to be conscious of how their simple actions influence the world around them.
Greenfield’s projects has been documented online and has earned him 25,000 followers on Twitter. (ANI)
First editions of Bronte sisters up for grabs for 80k pounds
London: An entire set of first edition novels penned by the Bronte Sisters, namely Charlotte, Emily and Anne, will soon go under the hammer and is expected to fetch around 80,000 pounds. According to the Daily Express, the auction will be held at Dreweatts and Bloomsbury in London on 19th May. The books, which were published under the sisters’ pseudonyms, include Emily’s `Wuthering Heights`, ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Bronte and Anne’s ‘Agnes Grey’. (ANI)
US man wants to get hitched to his ‘porn-filled’ laptop
London: Officials in Utah recently denied a marriage license to a man who wants to tie the knot with his ‘porn-filled’ laptop. Chris Sevier, a former lawyer, wrote in his 50-page motion that he was discriminated against when they rejected his request to marry his machine-spouse, Metro.co.uk reported. Sevier, who admits to being a porn addict, added that his object of affection was outside the scope of the narrow definition. Sevier had previously blamed Apple for his porn addiction because they hadn’t put a ‘safe mode’ on his laptop. (ANI)
Now, online TV channel devoted only to cats
London: There is good news for cat lovers, as there’s now an online TV channel devoted entirely to cats. Cats 24/7, which comes to us courtesy of web service Pluto.tv – which offers almost 100 channels worth of entertainment – pretty much does what it says on the tin, offering a range of round-the-clock programming for those of us who just can’t get enough of feline internet action.
Those who tune in will be treated to such shows as Putting Up With Humans – a compilation of cats dressed up in wacky costumes by their owners – Cats Gone Viral, featuring top kitty videos of the week, and Kitten Zone.
And there’s Famous Felines, which showcases some of the web’s best-known cat celebrities, including Grumpy Cat, Keyboard Cat et al. (ANI)
5ft 4inches ‘Pie-scrapper’ becomes world’s first monster sized burger
London: A 5ft 4inches tall tower sized burger filled with bacon buttes, sausages, steak pies, pizzas and spaghetti Bolognese has been named the world”s biggest burger. John Clarkson and his wife Corinne have created a super-sized beast that has 11 and a half pounds of beef with a cheeseburger in-between each layer and has been named ‘Pie-scrapper’, the Daily Star reported.
The tall tower of fast food, which contains 30,000 calories, stands on show at Mister Eater”s Eating Emporium, in Preston and the owners are eyeing a Guinness World Record for the burger as they believe that nobody else has done it yet. (ANI)
China steps up tobacco control efforts
Beijing: China has stepped up its efforts to draft a law on tobacco control, National Health and Family Planning Commission spokesman Yao Hongwen said Friday. Yao said the commission has completed its first draft of the law, Xinhua reported. “We hope the law will be conducive to controlling smoking and maintaining public health,” Yao added. (IANS)
Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Plaza coming up in Texas
Washington: A seven-foot tall bronze statue of India’s freedom movement leader will be the centrepiece of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial of North Texas with walls inscribed with some of his quotes.
After four years of planning and fundraising, ground was broken at Thomas Jefferson Park in Irving for the memorial last Saturday, according to dallasnews.com.
Two groups, the Indian Association of North Texas and the Indian American Friendship Council, raised $250,000 for the project, which is estimated to cost $700,000. South Carolina’s Indian-American governor Nikki Haley, Consul General of India Parvatheneni Harish and Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne attended the groundbreaking.
Haley, daughter of Sikh immigrant parents from India, gave the keynote address at the event. She talked about how Gandhi’s principles of peace and love were just as important in the US today as they were in India during the independence movement.
She also commented on how it was appropriate for the memorial plaza to be funded entirely through private money, as the Indian American population is the demographic least dependent on government subsidies.
The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Plaza will be officially dedicated on Oct 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.
According to the memorial team, the 7-foot tall, 30-Inch wide, 1,500-pound bronze statue with powder coated weather resistant material will be installed on a 6-foot tall pedestal in Thomas Jefferson Park spread over 18 acres.
The statue was sculpted by the well-known national award winning sculptor, Burra Varaprasad from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. (IANS)