I think we’re all familiar with colony collapse disorder (CCD) here — bees be dyin’, trouble be brewin’, etc., to use the scientific terms. (But seriously, bees pollinate a ton of our food, and their unexplained, massive die-offs are ominous and straight out of The X-Files.) So it’s cool that Washington State University researchers are trying to create The One in bee form, the super-bee that can survive CCD. It’s even cooler that they’re creating a bee sperm bank to do so, because sperm is one of our favorite topics:

The researchers plan to mix the strongest Italian bee semen with the best American bees have to offer, in a sort of bizarre World Cup of reproductive juice. Researchers have two weeks to “inject [the semen] into the selected queen bee’s oviduct,” which is an incredibly romantic turn of phrase. Here’s hoping the plans for the super-bee are a success. Because CCD is a real buzzkill.

http://grist.org/list/bee-sperm-bank-developed-to-fight-colony-collapse-disorder/

A rare blue lobster was caught in waters near Antigonish on Friday.



The odds of catching a blue lobster are about 1 in 2 million.The odds of catching a blue lobster are about 1 in 2 million. (Courtesy of Sheldon Trenholm)

According to research based out of the University of Maine, the odds of catching a blue lobster in North America are about one in two million. The blue colouration is caused by a genetic defect that causes the lobster to produce an excessive amount of a particular protein that gives the lobster the unique colour.

Sheldon Trenholm of South River, N.S. was the lucky lobsterman who caught the brilliant blue crustacean near Monks Head.

Trenholm said at first he didn't know what it was thrashing in the trap with seven or eight other lobsters.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/06/09/ns-blue-lobster-caught.html

If you thought you'd mastered the Game of LIFE, think again.

The American board game classic is being adapted into a real-life rat race on Japan's Southern island of Yoron, and participants need only pay a $5 entrance fee to join the month-long match.

The inaugural Game of LIFE will feature all the signature pieces of the board game – a life-sized roulette, 18 square foot boards, and a bus parading as a game piece, shuttling players from marriage to retirement…or in this case, one end of the island to the other.

A remote Japanese island and the all-American parlor game may seem like an unlikely fit, but Takanori Iwamoto, who is helping organize the event, says it only seemed natural, considering the eight-square-mile island bears a striking resemblance to the game's oddly shaped spinner.

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/real-life-game-life-played-japanese-island/story?id=19346793#.UbefL5z1V8E

Academics at Oxford University pay to be cryogenically preserved so they can be 'brought back to life in the future'

The belief that death is the only certainty in life is a concept senior academic staffs at an Oxford University Institute are hoping to dismantle, by paying to be cryogenically preserved and brought back to life in the future.

Nick Bostrom, professor of philosophy at the Future of Humanity Institute [FHI] and his co researcher Anders Sandberg have agreed to pay an American company to detach and deep freeze their heads in the advent of their deaths.

Colleague Stuart Armstrong is instead opting to have his whole body frozen. Preserving the full body is technically more difficult to achieve and can cost up to £130,000.

Bostrom, Armstrong, Sandberg are lead researchers at the FHI, a part of the prestigious Oxford Martin School where academics complete research into problems affecting the globe, such as a climate change.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/academics-at-oxford-university-pay-to-be-cryogenically-preserved-so-they-can-be-brought-back-to-life-in-the-future-8651133.html

Notts Police say an investigation was under way and the claims referred to their Professional Standards Directorate.

One man, who asked not to be named, saw an officer go into the building on Monday.

"I saw the policeman there, he went in the doors, came out, then I saw him talking to someone else," he said. "I could see there was cannabis in there – it was full of it, it was all in the passageway. Then the officer left."

He said he had glimpsed at least 30 plants.

Another man, who also asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals, said: "About 11pm or 12ish a car pulls up in the middle of the road, and then another one, the doors are opened and men are taking black bags in and out in and out," he said. "They were quite quick with it, but I'd say the whole thing took 20 to 40 minutes. They drove off and that's the last anyone saw of them. I think the police haven't done their job properly. This is a normal street with families."

The first man said he then described seeing "five or six" officers raiding the building the next day, and added: "I think the police messed up – to allow them to come and get it like that."

Read more: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Drugs-stolen-nose-police/story-19249368-detail/story.html#ixzz2VvSHqOqI
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A probe has been launched after a body taken to a hospital mortuary showed "potential signs of life".

The man had fallen from the Kessock Bridge at Inverness on Friday and, after attempts to resuscitate him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

An undertaker took the body to Raigmore Hospital where, during routine checks, staff became concerned that the man was showing "potential signs of life".

However, the man was later pronounced dead.

The incident is being investigated by the procurator fiscal and NHS Highland.

The Scottish Ambulance Service said it was reviewing the case.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-22853621

PHILADELPHIA, June 7 (UPI) -- A former prison in Philadelphia said visitors during the weekend will be able to sample meals from three periods in the facility's 142-year history.

Eastern State Penitentiary officials said the menu for the weekend includes "Indian Mush" from the 1830s, hamburger steak with brown gravy and Harvard beets from the 1950s, and Nutraloaf, a product still used in many prisons to this day, the Philadelphia Daily News reported Friday.

"It's one thing to talk about how the food changed over time. It's another to sample it," said Sean Kelley, senior vice president and director of public programming and public relations at Eastern State Penitentiary.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2013/06/07/Former-prison-serving-historical-prison-food-to-visitors/UPI-38951370645901/

South African clown Norman Pudney has won a defamation suit against men's magazine FHM after it printed his picture with a report likening jesters to cross-dressing drug addicts.

A court ruled that FHM used the image of Mr Pudney, known as Puddles the Clown, "intentionally and maliciously".

It awarded Mr Pudney, a clown for about 30 years, $6,000 (£3,900) in damages.

He told the BBC he sued FHM to defend a "profession that is meant to be well-received".

Its South Africa edition used a stock image of Mr Pudney in 2007 with an article, which said clowns and car guards often resembled "grown men with long-term tik [a local word to describe crystal methamphetamine] habits, dressed like transvestites from hell."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-22800086

LIHUE, Hawaii -- A Hawaii man who drove his pickup into the ocean has been arrested on drunken driving charges.

Police on the island of Kauai (kuh-WEYE') say 38-year-old Norman Akana Jr., of Lihue, was driving his truck along the beach Saturday behind the Wailua Golf Course when a wave pulled the vehicle into the surf.

Akana was not injured.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/norman-akana-jr-arrested-_n_3417892.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

Want the world's smallest waist? It's a cinch!

Michele Koebke has worn corsets for three years to shrink her 25-inch (64 cm) waist to a mere 21-inches (54 cm), Barcroft TV reports.

The 24-year-old from Germany told The Huffington Post in an interview that she only takes her corset off to shower -- she even sleeps in it.

"I started binding at the end of 2009," Koebke said. "I can bind [my waist] down to 41 cm (16 in). I want to get to 38 cm (14.9 in)."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/michele-koebke-worlds-smallest-waist_n_3415070.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news