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Dumb Laws in Michigan

Persons may not be drunk on trains.

It is illegal to kill a dog using a decompression chamber.

Sydney’s iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge went dark

as the world’s first major city turned off its lights for this year’s Earth Hour

Most businesses and homes were already dark as Sydney residents embraced their second annual Earth Hour with candlelight dinners, beach bonfires and even a green-powered outdoor movie.

13.73 Billion Years - The Most Precise Measurement of the Age of the Universe Yet

NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has taken the best measurement of the age of the Universe to date. According to highly precise observations of microwave radiation observed all over the cosmos, WMAP scientists now have the best estimate yet on the age of the Universe: 13.73 billion years, plus or minus 120 million years (that's an error margin of only 0.87%… not bad really…).

Sun-Earth second Lagrangian point (L2)

Man Kills Himself With 'Suicide Robot'

The man, who lived alone, left a suicide note saying he was unhappy at being forced by relatives to move into care home.

The 81-year-old, from Queensland, set up the machine to remotely fire a semi-automatic pistol.

Taking a bath on water tax

BUDGET | Revenue from new fee far below what was expected

Are Chicagoans trekking to the suburbs to buy cases of bottled water -- and avoid a new nickel-a-container tax that adds $1.20 to the price of a 24-pack? Or are they making the switch to tap water to save money?

The design of the controversial new headquarters for oil giant Gazprom in St Petersburg - which, at 396m tall, will become the tallest tower in Europe and a major new landmark in the Russian city

Designed by UK-based architectural company RMJM

the building will in fact be one of the most environmentally sustainable high rise buildings in the world

Jack Kevorkian

he will run for the U.S. Congress.

announced his bid to run as an independent less than a year after being released from prison

In February 2007, he asked when exactly the company intended to begin delivering the ZAP-X. "Gary Starr told me, Well, it may be two years out, it may be four years out, it may never happen.'

ZAP has taken millions from investors and dealers eager to see the company's line of green cars hit the road. But that line has never materialized. Of nearly a dozen groundbreaking eco-vehicles ZAP has promised in public announcements and on its Web site, only the Xebra and its sibling, a truck version, have ever made it to market. As a result, fans of electric cars have grown disillusioned, while individuals like Youssef have been financially devastated. What's more, investment firms around the country have become cautious about financing electric vehicles after being repeatedly misled by one of the industry's most visible companies.

former Pentagon official pleaded guilty in court Monday to an espionage charge over the disclosure of secret data to an alleged Chinese agent in the US. Gregg Bergersen said he was unaware that the Taiwan-born businessman was passing the information to China.

Pentagon revealed that it had sent nuclear fuses to Taiwan by mistake in 2006

raised eyebrows over US safeguards on nuclear-related technology

Communist Cuba is opening up unused land to private farmers and cooperatives as part of a sweeping effort to step up agricultural production.

Raul Castro, who vowed when he took over from his brother Fidel to remove some of the more irksome limitations on the daily lives of Cubans

Cubans snapped up DVD players, motorbikes and pressure cookers for the first time since the new government loosened controls on consumer goods.

Food price inflation changes how we shop

Steadily rising food costs aren't just causing grocery shoppers to do a double-take at the checkout line - they're also changing the very ways we feed our families.

Bush administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the way the U.S. financial industry is regulated.

to deal with the problems highlighted by the current severe credit crisis, the new plan would give major new powers to the Federal Reserve

designate the Fed as the primary regulator of market stability, greatly expanding the central bank's ability to examine not just commercial banks but all segments of the financial services industry.

Brown criticised over embryo bill

Cardinal O'Brien, who is the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, also wants Catholic ministers serving in the Cabinet to stand down rather than support the bill.

The prime minister has said the bill would improve research into many illnesses.

Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher

High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

If you’re older than 65 and enjoy sipping more than one glass of wine with dinner or a few drinks in a single sitting, brace yourself for a sobering thought.That’s too much alcohol for a person your age, according to new research that could put a crimp in senior center happy hours.

one in 10 older U.S. adults is an “unhealthy drinker,” according to a study published this week in journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Unless they curb their ways, they’ll be at risk for medical problems, social trouble and falls, all of which make the normal hazards of aging even worse,

At a cost of nearly $42 million, the IRS wants you to know: Your check is almost in the mail.

Internal Revenue Service is spending the money on letters to alert taxpayers to expect rebate checks as part of the economic stimulus plan.

doesn't include the tab for another round of mailings planned for those who didn't file tax returns last year

Google Caves To Pentagon Wishes

But the images were taken from public streets, where anyone could walk and take the same pictures and/or video and post them to the Internet.

Google complied with the governmental order, even though the images were taken from public streets

More Expensive Placebos Bring More Relief

In marketing as in medicine, perception can be everything. A higher price can create the impression of higher value, just as a placebo pill can reduce pain.

Now researchers have combined the two effects. A $2.50 placebo, they have found, works better one that costs 10 cents.

A vast array of pharmaceuticals -- including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones -- have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.

To be sure, the concentrations of these pharmaceuticals are tiny, measured in quantities of parts per billion or trillion, far below the levels of a medical dose. Also, utilities insist their water is safe.

But the presence of so many prescription drugs -- and over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen and ibuprofen -- in so much of our drinking water is heightening worries among scientists of long-term consequences to human health.

Voters in two Vermont towns on Tuesday approved a measure that would instruct police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," local media reported.

The nonbinding, symbolic measure, passed in Brattleboro and Marlboro in a state known for taking liberal positions on national issues, instructs town police to "extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."

Vermont, home to maple syrup and picture-postcard views, is known for its liberal politics.