Coozer-Bits.

Yipes: Hezbollah forces collapse of Lebanese government.

Travel: 41 places to go in 2011.

Creepy: Belgians urged not to shave.

Sad: Corruption raised Haiti's death toll.

Sad: 170 killed in landslides near Rio.

Man shot in head sneezes out bullet and lives.

From BBC:

Darco Sangermano, 28, had been taken to hospital in Naples for emergency treatment after being hit by a stray bullet during New Year's Eve celebrations.

The bullet passed behind his right eye and lodged in his nostril, but miraculously did no serious damage.

He is expected to make a full recovery, doctors say.

Mr Sangermano had spent New Year's Eve with his girlfriend in Naples.

As the city sky exploded in a traditional celebration of fireworks, firecrackers - and the occasional high-spirited blast of firearms - he was wandering the streets when a stray .22 calibre bullet struck him on the side of the head, behind his right eye.

Bleeding heavily, he was rushed to hospital.

But while he was waiting for doctors he sneezed - and the bullet popped out of his right nostril.

Doctors say it had been slowed down when it hit his skull - which almost certainly saved his sight, as well as his life.

Mr Sangermano is expected to undergo laser surgery on his right eye's damaged retina.

1 in 3 NYC supermarkets will rip you off.

Ridiculous (but not surprising). From NY Post. Thanks Jen K!

Supermarkets socked with $380,000 in fines five months ago for violating city regulations haven't learned their lesson: A new blitz by Department of Consumer Affairs inspectors found the compliance rate actually went down from 48 to 33 percent after the penalties were issued, officials said yesterday.

More shockingly, Consumer Affairs Commissioner Jonathan Mintz said that based on the experience of its inspectors, New Yorkers can expect to get ripped off one of out every three times they pass through the supermarket check-out counter.

"The industry is really thumbing its nose at New York City consumers," declared a furious Mintz.

In a sweep over the last four months, inspectors visited 408 supermarkets -- 83 of them twice -- and issued almost 750 new violations totaling $310,000 for infractions that included inaccurate checkout scanners, no prices on individual items, taxing merchandise that's not taxable and not having produce scales available to customers.

Inspectors have now issued $690,000 in fines since August.

But, as Mintz put it, "The real story is the overcharging."

He said his inspectors would typically pick 25 or 50 items off supermarket shelves -- about 20 percent on sale -- and run them through the register.

In nearly a third of the cases, Mintz said, inspectors were overbilled for at least one item -- a rate he described as "appalling."

Overall, only 33 percent of city supermarkets are in compliance with all city regulations.

During a previous sweep in August, the compliance rate was 48 percent -- a record low at the time.

Asked if supermarkets were deliberately cheating their customers, Mintz said: "I can't answer that. In all my interactions with the heads of supermarkets and the heads of the supermarket industry, the one thing I never heard from any of them is acknowledgement they have a problem and are working to fix it. I think that speaks volumes."

Industry officials questioned the city's methodology, claiming Consumer Affairs has refused to share the raw numbers.

"All we want to do is see the information," said John Rogers, president of the Food Industry Alliance representing 800 markets here.

"We have no reason to believe -- and we believe it's an overstatement -- to say one out of three customers are being overcharged. We believe that's not the case at all."

Pat Brodhagen, the group's vice president, said that if an inspector bought 25 items at three locations and was overcharged for only one item, that one-in-75 instance would meet the national industry standard of a 98 percent accuracy rate.

"It's still a violation and needs to be corrected," Brodhagen said. "It's hard to achieve 100 percent. Most stores give the item away for free if the price is wrong."

Mintz attacked that reasoning as a "diversionary tactic," pointing out that his agency encountered the rip-offs by sampling just 25 to 50 items from shelves usually lined with 30,000 to 40,000 products.

Mintz argued that, if anything, the latest findings understate the extent of the overcharging problem.

Mintz also said industry representatives don't have to look far for the data they're demanding since the violations are in the hands of their members.

Coffee spill causes terror panic, diverts flights.

From CNN:

A United Airlines flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, was diverted to Toronto this week after the pilot dumped a cup of coffee on the plane's communication's equipment. The unwanted liquid triggered a series of emergency codes, including one for a hijacking, according to Transport Canada, the agency that regulates transportation in Canada.

"With the help of their company dispatch staff, the flight crew was confirmed the problem to be a NAV(navigation)/communication issue and not a valid code 7500 (for a hijacking or unlawful interference)," Transport Canada said on its website.

Flight 940 initially was going to return to Chicago, but then diverted to Pearson International Airport in Toronto where it landed without incident around 10 p.m. Monday.

United had little to say about the coffee spill that led to the diversion, and did not acknowledge that the caffeinated beverage had anything to do with it.

"Our review of the communications issue encountered on flight 940 continues, so it's too soon to comment on any particulars that led to the captain's decision to divert," United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said late Tuesday. "But important to note the crew did maintain contact with controllers, and the decision to divert to Toronto was the captain's."

The Boeing 777 had 255 passengers and crew aboard. United retrieved them from Toronto and took them back to Chicago where they were put on another plane to Frankfurt Tuesday afternoon.

Tourists in Rome to face new tax.

From CNN:

A new tax on tourists to the Eternal City is causing controversy, with hotels expressing fears it could hurt their business and scare tourists away.

As of January 1, nonresidents of Rome must pay the extra charge when staying at a hotel or visiting any tourist site, such as a museum, that charges admission.

Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno introduced the tax law last year after the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi cut funding to Italian cities, including Rome, as part of austerity measures.

The new tax will cost 3 euros ($4) per person per night for four- and five-star hotels and 2 euros ($2.70) for lower categories. Small children are exempt.

The tax will also see an extra 1 euro ($1.35) charged at the city's museums and other tourist attractions.

The new law applies not only to foreign tourists, but also to Italian tourists and business travelers who are not Rome residents.

Rome had a similar tourist tax law in the past but it abolished it 20 years ago.

The city of Rome says the tax will generate around 200,000 euros (nearly $268,000) a day, for a rough total of 80 million euros ($107.2 million) a year. It has said it hopes to invest the money in improving its cultural heritage and other city infrastructure without taxing its citizens.

Rome gets about 30 million tourists per year.

Meat products to get nutritional info.

From WebMD:

Important nutritional facts aimed at helping consumers know more about what they’re eating will be required on labels of 40 of the most popular cuts of meat and poultry under a new rule from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The rule, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2012, requires nutritional labels on the meat and poultry packages to list the number of calories, grams of total fat, and saturated fat.

In addition, says a news release from the USDA, products will be required to list a lean percentage statement on labels, such as “76% lean,” and also the cut’s fat percentage, making it easier for consumers to understand the amounts of lean protein and fat in the packages they are considering buying.

The USDA says food panels will give consumers the information they need to determine the nutrient content of the cuts of meat and poultry they see in stores, helping them develop a healthy diet to meet individual or family needs.

“More and more, busy American families want nutrition information that they can quickly and easily understand,” Agriculture Department Secretary Tom Vilsack says in a news release. “We need to do all we can to provide nutrition labels that will help consumers make informed choices.”

He says the USDA will “work hard to provide the dietary guidelines for Americans every five years,” and that the new rule will give consumers informational guides.

Major cuts of raw, single-ingredient meat and poultry products include whole or boneless chicken breasts and other pieces of chicken, and beef whole cuts such as tenderloin steak or brisket, according to the USDA. Examples of chopped meat and poultry products include ground turkey and hamburger.

Ground Zero workers win Mega Millions.

From the NY Daily News:

Hardworking Ground Zero hardhats struck gold on Christmas Eve, hitting a $250,000 lottery jackpot.

The 18 workers on the transit hub at the World Trade Center site were winners of the Mega Millions drawing that night by picking five of six numbers.

"It's a great way to start off the new year," said foreman Patrick Hickey, 44, of Westbury, L.I. "We are all ecstatic."

The guys - who work for a number of different trade unions - have been running a workplace pool for a year-and-a-half, each tossing $5 into a pot once a week.

Until Dec. 24, they hadn't won a dime, but that night, they almost walked off with a $168 million bonanza.

Using the automatic Quick Pick option, they correctly had the numbers 15, 16, 27, 40 and 52, but 18 for the Mega Ball - which was two digits off from the winning number 16.

"I can't even think about that," said carpenter John Kennedy, 47, of Richmond Hill, Queens, who purchased the $90 block of tickets at a newsstand in the shadow of the fast-rising Freedom Tower.

"This was still pretty amazing," he said. "It's a great little Christmas present."

The pool later swelled to $380 million, the second-largest jackpot in U.S. history. It was won by two people in Tuesday's drawing - one in Washington State and the other in Idaho.

University of Texas accused of mutilating animals.

Disturbing if true. From here.

GALVESTON — Dogs, monkeys, sheep and mice were neglected and denied veterinary care and pain relief after being burned, cut open and mutilated in medical experiments at the University of Texas Medical Branch, an unnamed whistle-blower alleges, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Based on the whistle-blower’s statements, Norfolk, Va.-based PETA filed a complaint alleging violations of the Animal Welfare Act with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is charged with enforcing that law.

Medical branch officials declined Wednesday to address specific allegations, but issued this statement:

“As a leading research institution committed to advancing the treatment and prevention of illness and injury, UTMB strives to adhere to the highest ethical standards and to follow all federal, state and campus regulations in every aspect of its research enterprise,” according to the statement.

“Our animal facilities are regularly inspected and approved by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the institution’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.”

Citing fear of retaliation, PETA officials declined to divulge the identity of the whistle-blower, who presumably is or was a medical branch employee.

Among other things, the group said a researcher subjected sheep, pigs and mice to third-degree burns on up to 40 percent of their bodies using a Bunsen burner or a scorching-hot metal rod and forced animals to inhale smoke.

Several sheep and a pig in one laboratory suffered “serious injuries — including a broken leg and an unknown trauma that caused a sheep’s intestines to penetrate her chest cavity and required euthanasia — because husbandry staff forced the animals to jump over gates instead of using ramps to remove them from enclosures,” according to the complaint the animal rights organization filed with federal regulators.

The whistle-blower also contends that medical branch faculty members cut open dogs and surgically implanted tubes into their colons for research on irritable bowel syndrome. The whistle-blower asserts that the researchers did not provide anesthesia to the animals, PETA said.

One dog died during surgery; another suffered in pain following surgery when staff didn’t provide painkillers, PETA said, citing the whistle-blower.

Federal animal welfare regulations require that research facilities establish and maintain programs for adequate veterinary care.

“Being burned and cut open in experiments is upsetting enough, but if animals are also being denied basic care and pain relief, UTMB must answer to the law,” Kathy Guillermo, PETA vice president, said.

The organization is calling for the Department of Agriculture to investigate and hold the medical branch accountable if allegations of animal abuse are borne out, Guillermo said.

Medical branch researchers long have experimented with animals. Of them, 97 percent are rodents, primarily rats, 3 percent are sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs and dogs, medical branch officials told The Daily News in 2005.

In 2009, the medical branch faced criticism by The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine for using dogs in trauma training courses. The group, which claims 7,000 medical doctor members, has for years tried to persuade the medical branch and other university medical schools and programs to replace live animals with lifelike human models.

In an interview about the trauma training courses, medical branch spokesman Raul Reyes said the island campus attempted to use as few animals as possible: “All surgery is performed under general anesthesia administered by a certified veterinary anesthesiologist, so they feel no pain.”

Vaccine-Autism study called "an elaborate fraud."

Thanks to this study and stupid parents, we now have outbreaks of once-eradicated diseases. From WebMD:

The medical journal BMJ has declared the 1998 Lancet study that implied a link between the MMR vaccine and autism “an elaborate fraud.”

Fiona Godlee, MD, BMJ's editor in chief, says in a news release, “The MMR scare was based not on bad science but on a deliberate fraud” and that such “clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare.”

MMR-Autism Study In 1998, the Lancet published a research paper by Andrew Wakefield, MD, and colleagues suggesting a connection between the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine and bowel disease and autism. It received worldwide media coverage and led many people, especially parents, to question the safety of the vaccine.

In 2004, 10 of the 13 authors of the research paper retracted their interpretation of their findings.

In January 2010, the UK's General Medical Council (GMC) ruled that Wakefield had acted “dishonestly and irresponsibly.”

The Lancet retracted the paper in February 2010, accepting that the claims made in it were false.

In May 2010, Wakefield was found guilty of serious professional misconduct by the GMC and was struck off the medical register.

In a series of three articles, the BMJ reveals what it says is the true extent of the scam behind the scare. The series is based on interviews, documents, and data collected during seven years of inquiries by award-winning investigative journalist Brian Deer.

Thanks to the recent publication of the General Medical Council’s hearings transcript, the BMJ was able to peer-review and check Deer’s findings and confirm extensive falsification in the Lancet paper.

Seven years after he first looked into the MMR scare, Deer shows how Wakefield was able to manufacture the appearance of a medical syndrome, while not only in receipt of large sums of money, but also scheming businesses that promised him more.

The first of the BMJ articles says Wakefield’s fraud “unleashed fear, parental guilt, costly government intervention, and outbreaks of infectious disease.”

Elderly man punches teen passenger for refusing to shut off phone.

From NY Daily News:

Russell Miller, 68, has been charged with misdemeanor battery after a Southwest flight crew and fellow plane passengers say he socked a teen who hadn't turned off his iPhone as the Las Vegas to Boise flight began its descent.

Miller defended the swipe, telling police he "felt he was protecting the entire plane and its occupants."

But the plane's crew and local authorities felt otherwise, and Miller was arrested with the plane landed.

The 15-year-old passenger was playing games and listening to music when flight attendants announced that all electronic devices should be turned off for the plane's approach to land, Boise's KBOI2.com reports.

Miller took matters into his own hands when the teen sitting in front of him failed to switch off his iPhone, punching him in the arm.

"He punched him so hard there was a mark on the teen's arm .... That gave us probable cause to believe the reports from the other passengers," police Lt. Kent Lipple told KBOI2.

Lipple was one of several law enforcement officials called to the scene to await the plane's arrival to arrest Miller, who was booked into a Boise jail.

The teen, who was not identified, is not a Boise resident and was flying alone, according to KBOI2.

Koran written in Saddam Hussein's blood poses dilemma.

This sounds like a Sam Raimi movie in the making. From the Guardian, sent in by Coozer-Phile Duff.

It was etched in the blood of a dictator in a ghoulish bid for piety. Over the course of two painstaking years in the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein had sat regularly with a nurse and an Islamic calligrapher; the former drawing 27 litres of his blood and the latter using it as a macabre ink to transcribe a Qur'an. But since the fall of Baghdad, almost eight years ago, it has stayed largely out of sight - locked away behind three vaulted doors. It is the one part of the ousted tyrant's legacy that Iraq has simply not known what to do with.

The vault in the vast mosque in Baghdad has remained locked for the past three years, keeping the 114 chapters of the Muslim holy book out of sight - and mind - while those who run Iraq have painstakingly processed the other cultural remnants of 30 years of Saddam and the Ba'ath party.

"What is in here is priceless, worth absolutely millions of dollars," said Sheikh Ahmed al-Samarrai, head of Iraq's Sunni Endowment fund, standing near the towering minarets of the west Baghdad mosque that Saddam named "the Mother of All Battles". Behind him is the infamous Blood Qur'an, written in Saddam's own blood.

Even to get to this point - the last step before entering the forbidden vault - has been a tortuous process.

On one flank had been the government, doing all it could to prevent access. The Shia-led regime is highly sensitive to the re-emergence of any symbols that might lionise the remnants of the Ba'athist rank and file, which still orchestrates bombings and assassinations every few days.

And then there are the Sunnis themselves, who are fearful of government retribution if they open the doors and of divine disapproval if they treat this particularly gruesome volume of the Qur'an with the reverence of a holy book.

"It was wrong to do what he did, to write it in blood," says Sheikh Samarrai. "It is haraam [forbidden]."

Despite this, Sammarie says he acted as the document's protector during the mayhem that followed the US-led invasion in 2003, hiding pages in his house and moving others among the homes of his relatives.

"I knew this would be much sought after and we made the decision to protect it. But to see this now is not easy. There are three keys and none of them are held in the one place. I have one, the police chief in the area has another and there is a third in another part of Baghdad. There has to be a decision of a committee to let you in."

Spider-Man falls into orchestra pit.

Hope the guy is okay, but who else thinks Kraven is sabotaging this thing? From CNN:

A performer was injured in a fall during a performance of the stage musical "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark" in New York on Monday night, a representative of the show said.

Christopher Tierney, 31, fell 20 to 30 feet and is listed in serious condition, said Bellevue Hospital spokesman Steven Bohlen.

Jonathan Dealwis, a tourist from New Zealand who was in the audience, told CNN the person portraying Spider-Man in the scene fell "about six meters," or about 20 feet.

Reeve Carney is the actor who normally plays Spider-Man, but nine people perform Spider-Man's stunts when the character is masked, show spokesman Jaron Caldwell said. He did not confirm who the injured performer is.

Dealwis said the accident happened near the end of the show.

"Spider-Man was on a bridge, and Mary Jane was dangling from it," Dealwis said. "She drops down, as is meant to happen. Spider-Man went to the end of the bridge there. I think he was meant to sort of swoop over there, but he just fell off. ... The harness, you could see it just flick off his back and fly backward."

Afterward, Dealwis said, "it just went black, and the producer came on and said we're going to pause for a moment. You could hear Mary Jane weeping."

A producer then came by and said the show was over, Dealwis said. Some people "clapped awkwardly," and one girl "laughed mockingly," drawing "disapproving glances" from others.

Dealwis said the performer was wheeled away in a neck brace and was alert when he was taken to Bellevue hospital.

Rick Miramontez, another spokesman for the show, issued a statement confirming that the performer fell from a platform and the show was stopped.

"All signs were good as he was taken to the hospital for observation," Miramontez said.

The show, with music and lyrics by U2's Bono and The Edge, is the most expensive in Broadway history by a significant margin, but production has been beset by cast injuries and technical problems.

Monday night's performance was a preview -- the show is not officially open yet. Opening has been delayed repeatedly.

Caldwell declined to say whether the next scheduled performance will take place as planned.

Ultra-rare lunar eclipse tomorrow.

From AOL News:

As many as 1.5 billion people worldwide will be able to watch when the Earth's shadow creeps across the moon's surface early Tuesday morning, the first time in hundreds of years that a lunar eclipse will fall on the winter solstice.

With the full moon high in the winter sky, the lunar eclipse will be visible from four continents, with the best views from North America and Central America if weather permits, scientists say.

"It's a really democratic event," Andrew Fraknoi, the chairman of astronomy at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "because you don't need an expensive telescope or any other sophisticated equipment to enjoy the spectacle -- just your eyes or, if you like, a pair of binoculars."

Unlike a solar eclipse, eclipses of the moon can usually be observed anywhere in the hemisphere where the moon is above the horizon.

This particular lunar eclipse also may be seen in totality from northern and western Europe, some of northeast Asia, Hawaii and New Zealand, according to Space.com. In total, some 1.5 billion people may have a chance to see the full eclipse, the website reported.

Total lunar eclipses during winter in the northern hemisphere are fairly common, NASA says. However, a lunar eclipse falling precisely on the date of the solstice is quite rare.

Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years for NASA.

"Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21," Chester said, according to NASA. "Fortunately we won't have to wait 372 years for the next one ... that will be on 2094 DEC 21."

UK's chocolate bars shrinking due to cost.

From Daily Mail:

Some of the biggest confectionery firms are shrinking their biggest brands to protect profits.

Companies such as Nestle and Cadburys have reduced the size of some of their most popular brands at the same time as increasing prices to shelter profits from the rise in VAT, looming in January.

Poundland offers a typical example. Chief Executive Jim McCarthy said he’s agreed to cut the size of Toblerones by one triangle so he can keep the price at £1.

Dairy Milk bars will lose a couple of chunks in February, following to the reduction in the weight of a bag of Maltezers from 140g to 120g.

Bourneville, which was called a Scrooge for removing the expensive chocolates from tubs of Heros two years ago, has taken more cost-cutting steps, under its new owner, Kraft.

A Cadburys spokesman claimed they increasing the price of packs due to rising ingredient costs, according to the Guardian.

Mintel analyst David Jago said the first wave of changes in confectionary value went largely unnoticed. Changes in the sizes of bars such as Mars and Twix were not obvious to most consumers, but now that companies are changing the price of bars as well, people are seeing a change.

Jago said the changes are a tactic being used by confectionary companies to keep profit margins stable when VAT is expected to rise and the price of sugar and cocoa are also increasing.

He also said manufacturers had been asked to alter the size of packs to help tackle the obesity epidemic.

The cost of chocolate has been rising since 2007 when cocoa prices hit a 33-year high over £2700 a tonne.

Customers are already seeing price rises at newsagents. Cadburys and Nestle have boosted recommended retail prices of Kit Kat, Yorkie, Wispa and Dairy Milk by a noticeable 7% – more than twice the rate of inflation.

A Nestle spokesman said the company ‘occasionally’ made changes to prices due to a change in formation or packaging.

The Office for National Statistics has said that food inflation is nearly 5%, in part due to Russia’s ban on grain and wheat exports following the summer droughts.

Dead: Captain Beefheart.

RIP Zig Zag Wanderer... From UPI:

TRINIDAD, Calif., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Accolades poured in Saturday for Don Van Vliet, the avant-garde rocker known as Captain Beefheart, after his death in Northern California at the age of 69.

Van Vliet died Friday of complications from multiple sclerosis while living and working as a successful painter in the small town of Trinidad, according to Gordon VeneKlasen, a partner in the New York gallery where Van Vliet often showed his paintings.

There was no immediate word on memorial services; however Van Vliet was never forgotten by music critics and rock historians. His eccentric album with the Magic Band called "Trout Mask Replica" is considered a classic.

The New York Times said Saturday that Captain Beefheart's music career, which stretched from 1966 to 1982, put together a unique body of work that had a strong influence on the punk and new wave generations.

Van Vliet had little in the way of formal musical training, but he fell in with fellow Southern Californian Frank Zappa in the 1960s, adopted the name Captain Beefheart and with the Magic Band. The Times said his singing style resembled blues great Howlin' Wolf: "a deep, rough-riding moan turned up into swooped falsettos at the end of lines, pinched and bellowing and sounding as if it caused pain.

Van Vliet quit the music business in 1982 after releasing "Ice Cream Crow" and devoted his time to his painting while living a reclusive lifestyle.

ATM spits out gold.

From Jen C! Item!

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Shoppers who are looking for something sparkly to put under the Christmas tree can skip the jewelry and go straight to the source: an ATM that dispenses shiny 24-carat gold bars and coins.

A German company installed the machine Friday at an upscale mall in Boca Raton, a South Florida paradise of palm trees, pink buildings and wealthy retirees.

Thomas Geissler, CEO of Ex Oriente Lux and inventor of the Gold To Go machines, says the majority of buyers will be walk-ups enamored by the novelty. But he says they're also convenient for more serious investors looking to bypass the hassle of buying gold at pawn shops and over the Internet.

"Instead of buying flowers or chocolates, which is gone after two or three minutes, this will stay for the next few hundreds years," Geissler told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The company installed its first machine at Abu Dhabi's Emirates Palace hotel in May and followed up with gold ATMs in Germany, Spain and Italy. Geissler said they plan to unroll a few hundred machines worldwide in 2011. He said the Abu Dhabi machine has been so popular it has to be restocked every two days.

A bank in Vietnam installed its own brand of the machines in a country with a much poorer population but one that values gold more than paper money.

The gold-leaf-covered machine at Boca Raton's Town Center Mall sits outside a gourmet chocolate store and works much like the cash ATM beside it. Shoppers insert cash or credit cards and use a computer touch-screen to choose the weight and style they want. The machine spits out the gold in a classy black box with a tamperproof seal.

Each machine, manufactured in Germany, carries about 320 pieces of different-sized bars and coins. Prices are refigured automatically every 10 minutes to reflect market fluctuations. On Friday, a two-gram piece cost about $122, including packaging, certification and a 5 percent markup. An ounce cost about $1,442.

Buyer beware: A gram of the heavy metal is much smaller than you think, about the size of a fingernail. An ounce is a little larger than a quarter.

Caterpillar whistles to ward off birds.

From Jen K. Item!

The walnut sphinx caterpillar has a trick up its sleeve -- er, side -- to keep birds from chomping on it. The clever bug can make an odd whistling sound, which startles birds enough that they usually just leave it alone. Researchers didn't know how it managed to make this sound, so they set up cameras and began experimenting. The results are rather strange.

Live Science reports that neuroethologist Jayne Yack at Carleton University in Ottawa has for the first time have revealed that walnut sphinx caterpillars (Amorpha juglandis) can make music from their sides.

The team used high-speed videos, latex to cover each pair of the caterpillar's eight sets of abdomina spiracles, or breathing holes, and a pair of pincers. They systematically tried out each set of holes and discovered it's the eighth set that makes the noise when the caterpillar contracts its body, forcing air through the holes to whistles when it senses a threat. The whistles can last up to four seconds each, and range in frequencies from what is audible to humans all the way up to ultrasound.

When they introduced a bird into the situation -- a yellow warbler that coexists in the same habitat as these bugs -- they found the sound definitely works to startle the birds into going away.

Rush snubbed.

They let in boxcar hobo Tom Waits and yet Rush still snubbed? Shenanigans, I say. Although I do love Tom Waits. From CBS:

The 2011 class of inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced Tuesday, and Alice Cooper and Neil Diamond were among the rockers chosen.

Darlene Love also made the list, along with New Orleans musician Dr. John and singer-songwriter Tom Waits.

Piano man Leon Russell was honored with a musical excellence award, previously the sideman category. Executives Jac Holzman and Art Rupe were given the Ahmet Ertegun Awards.

Others will have to try again next year. Bon Jovi, nominated for the first time, was turned away from music's prestigious club, as was LL Cool J, the J. Geils Band, the Beastie Boys, Donna Summer and more.

Diamond, whose hits include "Sweet Caroline," had been eligible for the Rock Hall for several years. But he was never really worried about getting an invitation.

"I thought about it occasionally, but I kind of figured they'd get around to me at some point," he said in a phone interview.

Like Diamond, Cooper said he hadn't been anxiously waiting for his Rock Hall invite, though his name has been mentioned in conjunction with the institution for years.

"You know it crosses your mind, but then you think of all the guys who aren't in there, some of them before you, and you go, 'Wow.' ... You realize that it's a waiting game," the heavy metal rocker, known for his dark eyeliner and shaggy hair, said in a phone interview. "I don't think you sit around holding your breath on it."

Terrible Hairy Fly rediscovered in Kenya.

From BBC News:

Scientists have rediscovered a bizarre insect in Kenya, collecting the first Terrible Hairy Fly specimen since 1948.

Since then, at least half a dozen expeditions have visited its only known habitat - a rock cleft in an area east of Nairobi - in search of the fly.

Two insect specialists recently spotted the 1cm-long insect, known as Mormotomyia hirsuta, living on the 20m-high rock.

They point out that it looks more like a spider with hairy legs.

The fly was found by Dr Robert Copeland and Dr Ashley Kirk-Spriggs during an expedition led by the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE).

"The rediscovery of the species, which has been collected on only two occasions before, in 1933 and 1948, has caused excitement in insect museums world-wide," the team members said in a statement.

Unable to fly and partial to breeding in bat faeces, the fly is thought to live only in the dank, bat-filled cleft of the isolated rock in Kenya's Ukazi Hills.

It also has non-functional wings that resemble miniature belt-straps, and tiny eyes.

Jumping squid caught on camera.

Check out the photos here.

These remarkable photos show one of the most bizarre sights in the natural world.

A British photographer captured a particular type of squid which use jet propulsion to leap out of the sea and fly up to 65ft.

The flying squid swim in shoals and leap from the surface of the water and are often mistaken for the more common flying fish.

The squid actually fly looking backwards, with their tentacles dangling behind them and fins acting like wings, keeping them balanced in the air.