Charity phone number on cereal box leads to sex hotline.

From the Chronicle of Philanthropy:

A misprinted phone number cereal boxes meant to lead consumers to a phone number where they can donate to charity connects them instead to a phone-sex business, ESPN reports.

The phone number was printed on boxes of cereal that bore the name and image of the Cincinnati Bengals football player Chad Ochocinco.

The phone number was printed on the boxes to connect callers to Feed the Children, a charity that benefits from sales of the cereal. But because the box has the wrong toll-free prefix, callers hoping to donate to the charity instead hear a sultry woman's voice making suggestive comments and then requesting the caller's credit-card number.

Apologizing to the public for the mixup on his popular Twitter page yesterday, Mr. Ochocinco wrote, "Awe man I'm bummed about the cereal number mixup on the cereal, trying to do good and got messed up, of all numbers why that one!!! Sorry."

Titanium foam builds Wolverine bones.

From New Scientist:

Eat your heart out, Wolverine. The X-Men superhero won't be the only one with metal fused into his skeleton if a new titanium foam proves suitable for replacing and strengthening damaged bones.

Bone implants are typically made of solid metal – usually titanium. Though well tolerated by the body, such implants are significantly stiffer than bone.

This means that an implant may end up carrying a far higher load than the bone it is placed next to, according to Peter Quadbeck of the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials Research in Dresden, Germany. In a worst-case scenario, the decrease in stress placed on the bone means it will deteriorate, while the implant loosens and needs to be replaced.

Now Quadbeck and colleagues have created a titanium implant with a foam-like structure, inspired by the spongy nature of bone. The titanium foam does a better job than solid metal when it comes to matching the mechanical properties of bone, such as flexibility, and this encourages more effective bone regrowth.

What's more, the foam is porous, so the bone can grow around and within it, truly integrating the implant with the skeleton.

The titanium foam is made by saturating polyurethane foam with a solution of titanium powder and binding agents. The titanium clings to the polyurethane matrix, which is then vaporised away along with the binding agents. This results in a titanium lattice which is finally heat-treated to harden it.

Segway tycoon killed in accidental scooter plunge off cliff.

From the Yorkshire Post:

Tributes have been paid to a "remarkably selfless" Yorkshire millionaire and philanthropist who died while out riding a two-wheeled electric Segway scooter which plunged off a 30ft cliff and into a river.

Jimi Heselden, a former miner turned wealthy entrepreneur who owned the Segway company, was found in the river Wharfe at Boston Spa, near Wetherby, not far from his home in Thorp Arch.

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances and Mr Heselden had died at the scene.

A Segway, believed to be an off-road version of the electric scooter, was found close by.

It is understood a member of the public saw him riding the Segway and was watching as both he and the machine toppled over the edge of Jackdaw Crag, which has a sheer drop of up to 40ft.

A police spokesman said 62-year-old Mr Heselden was pulled from the river near to Leys Lane at about 11.40am on Sunday. He was pronounced dead by paramedics.

Joey Ramone street sign most stolen in city.

From NY Post:

Nine years after his death, punk legend Joey Ramone has gone to an even higher place.

The ceremonial street sign placed in his honor at the corner of Bowery and East Second Street had to be raised a full eight feet because thieving fans kept snatching it, city officials told The Post.

"Joey Ramone Place" is perhaps the most stolen of the 250,900 street signs in New York, according to the Department of Transportation, which recently asked contractors to install the sign for the fourth time since 2003.

He would have appreciated the distinction, said the group's longtime drummer, Marky Ramone, sole survivor of the Ramones' longest-running lineup.

"But maybe they should find a better way to attach it," he said. "Now you have to be an NBA player to see it."

Although most street signs are about 12 to 14 feet off the ground, Joey Ramone Place was raised to 20 feet, an oddity first noted on the blog EV Grieve.

Though he wasn't aware so many thieves had given the sign the "Hey Ho," Marky said he can't think of a better tribute.

"Every time I turn down Second Street, I look up and say, 'Hey Joey, you belong up there,' " he said.

The Bowery has become much more sedate since the death of the original three Ramones. And with CBGB -- the Bowery venue where the Ramones, and punk, started -- closed for good, the sign has become a crucial reminder of the corner's role in music history, Marky said.

"It's a really nice tribute to a frontman who started the genre we call punk rock," he added.

The other highly sought after street sign souvenirs are a little less edgy: Broadway, Wall Street, and Love Lane, DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow said.

Colorado ghost town marks 100th anniversary.

From the Denver Post:

DEARFIELD — All that remains of the house where Albert Groves once lived is a pile of weathered lumber close to the still- standing home of the man who founded this long-dead African-American farming community.

"I learned to drive a car up and down this dirt road," Groves, 83, told a small group of people who came to help celebrate the ghost town's 100th anniversary.

On Sunday, re-enactors dressed as Buffalo Soldiers — African-American soldiers who served in the Southwest and the Great Plains during the Indian Wars — assembled at the settlement to help unveil a granite marker in honor of its history.

Though Groves' home has been destroyed, at least three of the buildings that remain have been stabilized. Some restoration work has been done on the home of founder Oliver Toussaint "O.T." Jackson, said Bill Garcia, chairman of the Dearfield Centennial Committee.

The committee — composed of representatives from the Black American West Museum, the city of Greeley, the Greeley Museums, Weld County, Colorado Preservation Inc. and others — has worked to illuminate Dearfield's history.

The Black American West Museum has been working to stabilize and restore the few remaining structures in the town, which sits about 30 miles east of Greeley off U.S. 34.

Six buildings still stand, Garcia said.

Jackson filed a homestead claim for 320 acres in Weld County in 1910. Dr. J.H.P Westbrook named the colony Dearfield, saying the fields and homes "will be very dear to us."

The first settlers arrived in 1911. By 1920, as many as 300 people lived in the area.

The population began to dwindle after World War I, when men who went off to fight chose to move to larger cities rather than return home.

The Great Depression and the drought that created the Dust Bowl in the nation's heartland dealt the death blow.

Gifted children are just as likely to fail in life.

Ha! Take that, kids who are smarter and more talented than me! Or should I say... LOSERS! Item!

Exceptionally talented children are just as likely to fail in life as succeed according to a new study.

In one of the most extensive studies carried out, research found that out of 210 gifted children followed into later life, only three per cent were found to fulfil their early promise.

Professor Joan Freeman, said that of 210 children in her study, 'maybe only half a dozen might have been what we might consider conventionally successful.'

'At the age of six or seven, the gifted child has potential for amazing things, but many of them are caught in situations where their potentials is handicapped.'

Professor Freeman tracked the development of children who had exceptional ability in fields such as maths, art or music from 1974 to the present day.

Many of those who failed to excel did so because the 'gifted' children were treated and in some cases robbed of their childhood, the study found.

In some cases pushy parents put the children under too much pressure, or they were separated from their peer group, so they ended up having few friends.

UFOs have been deactivating nuclear missile sites.

So... are the aliens destroying our defenses or saving us from ourselves? From the Daily Mail:

It may sound like a Spielberg movie plot, but if senior U.S. airmen are to be believed, this scenario is not science fiction.

They claim that since 1948, aliens have been hovering over UK and U.S. nuclear missile sites and deactivating the weapons– once even landing in a British base.

Furthermore, they warn, our governments are hushing the activity up.

Captain Robert Salas, who, along with six others is to break his silence on the subject, said: ‘We’re talking about unidentified flying objects, as simple as that.

‘They’re often known as UFOs, you could call them that.

‘The U.S. Air Force is lying about the national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases and we can prove it,’ he said.

The former officer said he witnessed such an event first-hand on March 16, 1967, at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.

‘I was on duty when an object came over and hovered directly over the site.

‘The missiles shut down – ten Minuteman [nuclear] missiles. And the same thing happened at another site a week later. There’s a strong interest in our missiles by these objects, wherever they come from. I personally think they’re not from planet Earth.’

Man convicted in karaoke bar murder.

Once again, karaoke causing havoc. From the Orange County Register:

A 24-year-old man was convicted Friday of second-degree murder for the shooting death of an Orange County man who tried to intervene in a fight outside a Koreatown karaoke bar.

A Los Angeles Superior County jury found Louis Woo Lee guilty of the June 7, 2009 slaying of Michael Kim, 36, outside M2 Café & Karaoke Bar, along with assault with a firearm involving another man who suffered a head wound.

Kim was an innocent bystander who was shot once in the head after trying to intervene in the fight, according to Deputy District Attorney Kennes Ma.

Authorities believe the shot was aimed at the second victim, not at Kim, said Ma.

According to the prosecutor, Lee had gone to the bar to back up his friends, who had been involved in an earlier verbal dispute that escalated to a physical fight outside, the prosecutor said.

Judge Craig E. Veals ordered Lee — who had been out of jail — to be taken into custody immediately after the jury's verdict.

Lee is facing 55 years to life in state prison, with sentencing set for Oct. 13.

Karaoke World Champion takes home 1 million dumplings.

I wonder if he sang Sweet's "Ballroom Blintz." From The Epoch Times:

The Karaoke World Championships were held last week and the most unusual prize, a million Russian dumplings, was taken home by US resident Edward Pimentel.

Pimentel, a telephone company engineer from Albuquerque, New Mexico, was named the audience favorite, and took home the food prize, according to the CBC.

If he were to eat 100 of the dumplings a day, he wouldn't be able to exhaust the supply in 27 years, experts say.

The judges didn't favor him but he gained audience support in his rendition of R&B classics.

"You have to be like the artist, but you have to put your two cents in," Pimentel said on the ABC show. In the final round, Pimental did a rendition of Usher's "DJ's Got Us Fallin' In Love."

The intensively competitive annual event kicked off in 2003, and has attracted singers from around the world.

Finnish resident Sam Moudden got first place in the men's competition. Maria Saarimaa-Ylitalo, also Finnish, took home the top prize in the women's competition. They both were awarded karaoke machines.