Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Fields of watermelon burst in China farm fiasco

Watermelons have been bursting by the score in eastern China after farmers gave them overdoses of growth chemicals during wet weather, creating what state media called fields of "land mines."

About 20 farmers around Danyang city in Jiangsu province were affected, losing up to 115 acres (45 hectares) of melon, China Central Television said in an investigative report.

Prices over the past year prompted many farmers to jump into the watermelon market. All of those with exploding melons apparently were first-time users of the growth accelerator forchlorfenuron, though it has been widely available for some time, CCTV said in the report broadcast on May 16th night.

Chinese regulations don't forbid the drug, and it is allowed in the U.S. on kiwi fruit and grapes. But the report underscores how farmers in China are abusing both legal and illegal chemicals, with many farms misusing pesticides and fertilizers.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Indonesian Book on Obama Sets Record for Thickest Book

Timed to coincide with President Barack Obama’s visit to Indonesia, on November 9th, 2010, was a book launch for what has become the world’s thickest book, “Obama and Pluralism.”

The book is a whopping 5,247 pages, and a record-breaking 34 cm (13.4 inches) thick. It compiles the works of almost 40 people, written over five days and took less than one year to publish.

The author of “Obama dan pluralisme,” the book’s Indonesian name, is Damien Dematra. This is his seventh book about the American President. Dematra is a highly accomplished and prolific novelist, screenwriter, director, producer, photographer, and painter. He has written 62 novels in both English and Indonesian, 57 scripts for film and TV, and produced 28 films, including “Little Obama.” During his career as a painter he once produced a painting every day for one year.

The previous world record for thickest book was set in 2009 by Agatha Christie’s “Queen of Crime,” the complete collection of Miss Marple stories—12 novels and 20 short stories. That book is 4,032 pages with a spine measuring 32.2 cm (12.6 inches), according to the Guinness World Records website.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Saturday, January 8, 2011

An electric battery that is more than two thousand years old?

Archaeologists in Iraq have found what appears to be an ancient electric battery. The object, dating from roughly 230 BC, was found in an excavation of a Parthian village in 1936. It consists of a small vase containing a copper cylinder surrounding an iron rod. Sceptics insist that it is a scroll case. However, it cannot be denied that if an acid, such as lemon juice, is poured into such a vase, an electric current is created. In fact, the current is sufficient to be used to electroplate metal objects suspended in the correct metal solution.

If the battery was indeed used for this purpose, it may mean that much of what modern museums classify as ancient gold objects may only be gold plated objects...

Vending machines that kill

Between 1983 and 1988, five American servicemen were killed and thirty-nine injured by a hitherto unknown menace: soft drink vending machines. The accidents usually occured when soldiers attacked the machines, either hoping to get a free drink, or trying to take revenge on the machine for eating their money without delivering the requisite refreshment. In most cases the machine then fell on the assailant.

Drinking to excess

One night in 1990, a woman of Van Nuys, California, USA, stepped out of her bed and onto something large and apparently asleep on her rug. It turned out to be a burglar, who, overcome by the twenty cans of beer which he had drunk to fortify his courage, had passed out.

Gender imbalance

The death of thousands of goldfish in the ponds of Britain in the spring of 1977 has been attributed to sex-crazed toads. That spring, male toads found themselves in a ten to one majority over female toads. The resulting dearth of breeding partners left the males mating with anything: water-lilies, sticks, and also pets. The grip of a mating male toad is easily sufficient to crush an average goldfish.