Humor

Stuart police are looking for someone who robbed a local bank while wearing a bright green dress, officials said.

It wasn't the average traffic stop on the Baltimore Beltway Tuesday morning.

Police in Spain said they arrested a man accused of breaking into a fortune teller's home to recover the $212,000 he paid for a love spell that didn't work.

A student petitioned to make 10^27 a 'Hellameter' so that the universe would be 1.4 hellameters wide The universe is vast. No one will dispute that. It encompasses galaxies upon galaxies and as far as we know, everything in existence. Scientists actually have estimated the universe's diameter. As you may imagine, it's a very large number. It is even greater than a trillion trillions or 10 to the 27th power. In fact, it is 1.4 times larger than that. Kind of difficult to fathom or even talk about considering there is no unit of distance nearly that large. This is why, in 2010, UC Davis physics student Austin Sendek petitioned the International System of Units to name 10 to the 27th power one "hella." Multiple units of this distance would be "hellameters." Sendek felt it was about time that large units of measurement got their own names and what better one than "hella?" If his petition goes through, people can officially declare the universe 1.4 hella meters wide. That's hella big. (Source)

There are stars in the universe that are cold enough to be touched by the human hand! When you think about stars, you think about burning gas. You may imagine the intense heat of our closest star, the sun. And you would be right--the sun's surface temperature is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. However, not all stars are this hot. NASA has discovered certain astral bodies that are much cooler. In 2010, NASA discovered 14 "brown dwarfs," which were 14 of the coldest stars it had ever found. Then in 2011, it found some that were even cooler. NASA calls these 6 stars "Y-dwarfs." These "Y-dwarfs" are even cooler than the human body. Scientists designate these cool orbs "failed stars" because they cannot fuse atoms at their core like regular stars. They also gradually fade until their light is no longer visible to the human eye. In order to find them, NASA developed a special infrared telescope and attached it to a satellite. (Source)

One of the strongest predictor of a rise in obesity in the US is the decline in cigarette smoking! Obesity is a national problem in the US. Some estimates say 30% of Americans are currently obese (defined by having a body mass index of 30 or more). This is a huge increase from just 25 years ago. So what is causing this increase? People gain weight by consuming more calories than they burn--what is influencing them to do this? Fast food? An increasingly sedentary lifestyle? The National Bureau of Economic Research studied a number of socio-economic factors related to weight gain to see which had the most effect. Some of the factors they considered were food prices, employment, physical activity at work, urbanization, cigarette smoking, and prevalence of restaurants. Surprisingly, they found that cigarette smoking had the largest effect. A decline in cigarette smoking, which can hinder weight gain, accounts for about 2% of the increase in obesity. (Source)

The Devil's Kettle waterfall empties into a sinkhole. Nobody knows where that sinkhole leads to! Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes. It's also home to some other bodies of water, some of them rather odd. One such odd formation is the Devil's Kettle, which stems off of the Brule River. About 1.5 miles from the river's mouth, it split into two over a mass of rock. The eastern part flows over a 50 foot waterfall and continues on. The western flow falls 10 feet into a hole and then disappears into the ground. The source of this has yet to be found. Some believe the water rejoins the river later or has a separate outlet to Lake Superior, but this has not been confirmed. Researchers have tried to locate the outlet by putting colored dyes and ping pong balls into the Devil's Kettle but to no avail. There is even a legend that a car disappeared into the sink hole but this is highly unlikely. (Source)

A 15-year-old boy stole a giant Caterpillar earthmover and took it on a 12 mile joy ride through Tucson On June 2, 2005, 15-year-old Duncan Dresner stole an earthmover from a construction site in Tuscon. He then proceeded to drive 12 miles through the city. He led police on a chase as he swerved from lane to lane and ignored their commands. At one point, he hit a utility pole and caused a power outage. In a final attempt to stop Dresner, police officers stood in front of the earthmover with their guns drawn. The earthmover reversed toward the officers, and they fired on it. A bullet hit Dresner in the spine and paralyzed him from the sternum down. Dresner pleaded guilty to eight counts of endangerment. While Dresner and his attorneys argued that this was a stupid decision by an upset boy, police officers were infuriated by the fact that Dresner carelessly put so many citizens in danger on his joy ride. (Source)

So you think you’ve seen some amazing latte art on the Internet? Believe me, if you miss this post, you’ve seen nothing at all.