Facebook can now save lives.

Rodney Bradford, 19, from New York City was arrested for robbery charges and was freed 12 days later from Riker’s Island after a Facebook message he sent proved that he was nowhere near the scene when the crime was committed.

He was accused of robbing two people in Brooklyn where he lives. Rodney at the time of the robbery was in his father’s apartment in Harlem, Manhattan sending a message to his girlfriend in Facebook. He was asking his girlfriend where his pancakes are.

The prosecution dropped the case after they have contacted people at the famous social networking site. The staff confirmed that the message was sent from the IP address at Bradford’s father’s home in Harlem, which is 13 miles away from where the robbery took place. The confirmation verified Rodney’s alibi.

Rodney’s story is being hailed as a victory for today’s youth’s addictiveness in the Internet. However, this raised concern on how much can law enforcement trust what’s posted online.

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Facebook Message Clears Up Robbery Suspect

A sixth grader from Chesapeak, Virginia, who sneezes as much as 12 times per minute and 12,000 times a day, has baffled her family and doctors.

12-year-old Lauren Johnson caught a cold roughly two weeks ago. The cold eventually went away, but the sneezing stuck around. It only stops when she’s in deep sleep.

Lynn Johnson, Lauren’s mother, says she suffers every time she hears her daughter sneeze. Despite visiting several doctors (including a hypnotist), and taking different medications, the mysterious condition continues.

One neurologist said that Lauren’s condition could be “irretractable psychogenic disorder,” which could be triggered by stress.

During a five-minute interview on the Today Show Lauren sneezed hundreds of times, her speech interrupted every few seconds.

WATCH:

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Lauren Johnson: The girl who sneezes 12,000 times a day

Geysi Villa Nova Arruda, 20 was expelled from Universidade Bendeirante (Uniban) in Sao Paolo, Brazil after outraged university students violently protested her wearing of a short dress in campus.

Uniban stated in local newspapers that they have expelled Arruda on the grounds of “flagrant disrespect of ethical principles, academic dignity and morality.”

A video shows Arruda sitting in a classroom wearing mid-thigh length dress then being escorted by the military police officers wearing a white jacket while students stood in line chanting “whore”.

Some critics however don’t agree with the University’s decision labeling it as pure hypocrisy. They think that the decision is unfair for a nation that is obsessed with physical beauty. They also pointed out that once festivals arrive, like the Carnival Festival, people would even dance naked “and no one will find it abnormal.”

Brazil, though known for its tiny bikinis and beautiful beaches, is a largely dominated Roman Catholic country. The 2000 Census shows that 74% of the country’s 190 million people (fifth largest in the world) are Catholics.

For full details, go here.

UPDATE: Geisy Arruda – No Longer Expelled?

Post from: Daily Contributor

Brazilian Student Expelled for Wearing Short Dress

This is one of the most unusual things you can expect to see at a Premier League match.

A fan was spotted brushing his teeth at Stamford Bridge during the top-of-the-table clash between Chelsea and Manchester United last night.

The guy was caught on film cleaning his pearly whites as Chelsea striker Salomon Kalou was getting ready to come on for Didier Drogba.

The Blues went on to beat the Red Devils 1-0, thanks to a 76th minute goal from John Terry, but some people claimed the toothbrush man was the real hero.

WATCH:

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Fan spotted brushing his teeth during Premier League match (video)

These newspaper carrier bags are made by an NGO whose main objective is to provide education and shelter to street children. These bags are eco-friendly since they’re made from laminated and recycled Indian cinema posters.

Support for this wonderful project means that these children can enjoy going to school and playing, rather than pulling rickshaws, shoe polishing, rag picking and worse.

According to The India Shop these items are now supplied to many shops across the United Kingdom in place of shop plastic bags.

The organization behind this is still looking for established distributors for all countries.

[via bb]

Post from: Daily Contributor

Bollywood Poster Carrier Bags

An 11-year-old schoolboy from Boston, Massachusetts has been made the head of a Buddhist sect in India after he was recognized as the reincarnation of a high-ranking lama who died more than 750 years ago.

Jigme Wangchuk has been anointed as the Rinpoche, the second reincarnation of Gyalwa Lorepa of the Drukpa sub-sect after going into a trance and describing a Buddhist monastery in detail.

His parents say they discovered their son was not like other kids two years ago when he started talking about his “past life”.

After the family visited a Buddhist monastery in Mysore, Southern India and told the monks there of their son’s past life tales, it was decided that he was the reincarnation of the high priest.

Wangchuk, who has followers in Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, told the Daily Telegraph: “I will miss my school days but I am happy in my new role.”

Post from: Daily Contributor

11-year-old US schoolboy named Buddhist high priest

A Buddhist bank robber has pled for the right of his cat to visit him in prison, saying the animal is the reincarnation of his deceased mother. However, the court has declined his request and said he has to prove his claim first.

Peter Keonig, 46, is serving five-years for armed robberies in Whirl, Germany. He went to court to demand for visiting rights for his cat named Gisela because he’s certain she’s the reincarnation of his dead mum. Buddhists believe that people return to life as animals after they die.

“I know it is mummy. She looks after me just the way she did. I need to see her like other prisoners see their wives and children,” the Daily Telegraph quoted Keonig as saying.

The court turned down his application, arguing that he had no proof that it was his mother. Fortunately, the court did say he would be allowed to write to the cat.

Post from: Daily Contributor

Jailed Buddhist wants cat visit

Bizarre. Looking at a distance, the disc cloud, which is outlined by an unusual ring of sunlight, appears to resemble an alien craft. It was like a scene from the mid 90s movie, “Independence Day”.

Experts in meteorology explained that the phenomenon that took place in Moscow was just an optical effect by some rare weather conditions, but the latest clip – apparently filmed at the end of last week – has again set news to break all over the place.

Click here to watch  the video

One user the video-sharing website Live Leak where the clip was first posted wrote, “How come I have never seen clouds that look like that. Now we get two in a matter of weeks in different places.”

Others are starting to speculate – as usual individuals who enjoy sci-fi movies – that the consecutive bizarre formations could mean an alien invasion in the not so far future.

Another user commented, “Run the two videos and put them beside each other… It’s very strange… are they here?”

The two clips appear to show a formation known as a “fallstreak hole”, which occurs when moisture in the air cools below 0C but is unable to turn into ice.

A fallstreak hole (also: hole punch cloud and punch hole cloud) is a large circular gap that can appear in cirrocumulus or altocumulus clouds. Such holes are formed when the water temperature in the clouds is below freezing but the water has not frozen yet due to the lack of ice nucleation particles. When a portion of the water does start to freeze it will set off a domino effect, due to the Bergeron process, causing the water vapor around it to freeze and fall to the earth as well. This leaves a large, often circular, hole in the cloud.

It is believed that a disruption in the stability of the cloud layer, such as that caused by a passing jet, may induce the domino process of evaporation which creates the hole. Such clouds are not unique to one geographic area and have been photographed from the United States to Russia.

While most of the “supercooled” water remains suspended in the sky, rings of ice do form and plunge to earth, leaving doughnut-shaped holes in the cloud layer.

The luminous effect visible in the Russian and Romanian videos is due to the the sun being low in the sky. I think they “are” already coming to invade us. BEWARE!

Post from: Daily Contributor

Bizarre Cloud Filmed Over Romania

Denmark-based designers GamFratesi have created a prototype for an egg-shaped work environment that they call Rewrite.

The screen is upholstered and covered with textile because of its visual and acoustic characteristics. It has a cave-like shape and creates a secure and intimate sphere, which partially closes out disturbing light and sounds. It has a double sided acoustic function that protects against noise from the outside as well as from the inside.

What can you say about this design? Is it futuristic, or just plain silly?

[via Dezeen]

Post from: Daily Contributor

Rewrite: Workspace that looks like a giant egg

A model inside a model. The record has been broken for the world’s smallest working model train set. It was unveiled – measuring just 1/8th of an inch by 1/4 of an inch.

Mr. Smith, 55, from Toms River, said: “This model train set is going to be part of the larger train set I have at home.”

“I am creating a fictitious village called James River Branch and this model train is going to be placed inside the model shop I am building as part of the re-creation. It is going to be a model train village inside a model, so it is very postmodern”.

Having a scale of 1-35200 to a real train, the five-carriage model train manages to travel around an oval route. The model even includes a tunnel through which the train goes through and a clear sky as its background.

Created by David Smith, a New Jersey model train enthusiast, the model was built using nothing more but a craft knife and his steady hand. Powered by a standard two-inch-long rotating motor head and carved out of mouldable plastic, the model train cost Mr Smith just over £6 to make.

“To get a sense of scale you have to remember that the River Branch project is being built to the scale of 1-220,” Mr Smith added. “It has taken up two and a half years of my life and is going to be very impressive once it is finished.”

Post from: Daily Contributor

World’s Smallest Working Model Train Set Unveiled

How would you ask your girlfriend to marry you in a romantic way? I think this is the best and effective way for you.

A techie man proposed to his girlfriend by spelling out “LISA WILL YOU MARRY ME?” using a level-editing program called Lunar Magic to create the unique proposal. This is the video of Lisa playing the game and accepting his offer.

The man asked her girlfriend to play a little Mario on their old Super Nintendo console last week. Well, “Lisa”, the techie man’s girlfriend doesn’t know that she’s being recorded. Luckily for him she said ‘Yes’. Unfortunately, Techie man did not identify himself in the clip.

Techie man’s Blurb:
“On October 15th 2009, it was out 5 year anniversary so i decided to propose. Using a program called lunar magic I was able to spell “lisa… Will you marry me?” she may not look too surprised in the video but you should of seen her afterwords, she couldn’t sit still!!! And no it wasn’t staged, but I did sit her down told her to play some Super Mario World, but she totally didn’t know she was being recorded!!”

Isn’t this too romantic or what?

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Super Mario World Marriage Proposal

A nine-month-old child born in a small Russian village has left doctors bemused after passages from the Koran allegedly began appearing on his skin.

The parents of Ali Yakubov claim the phenomenon began when the word Allah showed up on their son’s chin when he was a few weeks old. The couple did not tell anyone about this until they saw the inscriptions saying “Show these signs to people.”

The boy was also diagnosed with “second-stage ischemic disease of the heart” and cerebral palsy but, after he allegedly began to show phrases from the Muslim holy book, he was said to have been pronounced completely healthy.

His family also claims the old markings vanish before the new passages arrive and this happens twice a week.

What’s even more interesting is that medical experts deny the condition is a result of someone writing on the child’s skin.

Watch the Russian video report below:

A miracle or a simple hoax? What do you think?

Post from: Daily Contributor

WATCH: Koran inscriptions appear on infant’s body

The body of man who had been shot in the head was left decomposing on a patio for several days because neighbors thought the corpse was a Halloween decoration.

Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed, 75, had apparently been dead since Monday of a self-inflicted gunshot to one eye. He was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his Los Angeles apartment, the L.A. Times reported.

Neighbors say it was a bloody scene, but they didn’t bother calling the police because they thought the lifeless figure was just a “Halloween dummy“.

Halloween is often celebrated in the U.S. with intricate displays outside houses featuring Jack O’Lanterns and gory decors.

[Image via flickr]

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Neighbors thought dead man was Halloween dummy

‘Angel Shark’ — they are not normally aggressive, they do bite when stepped on or handled. If they are left alone they will not attack.

An investigation is under way after a 23-year-old aquarium employee was attacked by an angel shark at the city’s Deep Sea World aquarium and he suffered more than 15 lacerations on his arm. An ambulance was sent to Deep Sea World in North Queensferry in Fife, near Edinburgh.

The victim was bitten while diving in the same tank as the shark. The man has been treated by paramedics after the incident.

A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said: “We got called at 2:45pm advising us that a 23-year-old male had been bitten on the arm by an angel shark. The sharks are around one-and-a-half metres long.

“He had 15 to 20 puncture wounds on his arm.

“A crew attended and treated his arm. The patient did not travel to a hospital.”

A statement released by Deep Sea World said: “A member of staff had received an injury while diving in the aquarium’s main ocean display.

“Initial reports would indicate the male member of staff received cuts to his hand after apparently being bitten by an angel shark – a native shark species which is also known as a monk fish.

“The member of staff was treated at the aquarium but did not require hospitalization. A full investigation is currently being carried out into the incident.”

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Man Bitten by Shark at Scottish Aquarium

A beer ad has reportedly ticked off Disney because it features Snow White blowing smoke rings while lying in bed with seven semi-nude dwarves. Oh, and she’s got a new name – Ho White!

The creators said it was designed to convince Aussie drinkers the fruit-flavoured beer was “anything but sweet.” However, the advertisement has drawn the attention of the entertainment giant’s legal department, according to Australia’s Daily Telegraph.

A website promoting the new campaign had reportedly been set up at anythingbutsweet.com, but now the site could not be accessed.

[Photo: adelaidenow.com.au]

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‘Ho White’ beer ad angers Disney