SUBWAY SHARKS!

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Sharks have been spotted on New York City subways!

Tiger sharks, bull sharks, blue sharks and hammerhead sharks have all been spotted riding the New york subways in recent weeks.

Shocked conductors and passengers have seen the sharks on subway platforms, cars and even in elevators that lead to the street.  The sharks seemed to be fond of the “A Train” the most.

Juan Verdon, of Brooklyn, New York, said he smelled something “fishy” when he boarded the 6 Train by Astor Place and then he looked down and saw a shark in the subway car, under a row of seats.  ”The car was packed, so I didn’t notice the shark at first, but then when we got going I looked down and there it was.  It looked dead, but it wasn’t,” said Verdon.

Most New Yorkers responded to the shark with a “whatever” attitude, not wanting to get involved with the sharks.  ”Hey, they’re not biting anybody, so just let them be.  I’m late for work anyway,” said Jessica Langdon of the Upper West Side.

Why are the sharks on the subways?  Experts are looking into it but Mayor Bloomberg said it obviously has something to do with Global Warming.

BAT BOY SPOTTED WITH “THE DRIVER”

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Bat Boy was spotted on South Beach reading the hot new comic thriller, The Driver!

Bat Boy finished the book in record time, which was tough because he had lot of beautiful women interrupting him.  Women like these fans:

The Driver is a quirky comic novel following an innocent’s escapades escorting “dancers” on their nocturnal rounds in Hollywood in his family’s faded Cadillac. THE DRIVER is the semi-autobiographical debut novel of writer/comedian Greg D’Alessandro.

THE DRIVER is an irreverent, summer getaway that puts the reader in the shoes of unlikely protagonist and struggling screenwriter, George Donato. No one is less qualified – but George perseveres, awkwardly navigating the sexual desires of Hollywood’s glitterati and the needs of his visiting mother, while befriending a coterie of beautiful, idiosyncratic dancers. George is truly tested when the death of a recent high-profile dance patron locks him in a navigation struggle while his moral compass batteries are low.

The Driver was inspired by a friend who held a similar job:

PINK PLANET

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Astronomers have discovered a pink  planet and have identified it as… Planet Zeeba.

NASA scientists have been searching for Planet Zeeba for decades.  And now they have found it orbiting a star like our sun, just outside the Milky Way. Astronomers were not surprised to learn that Planet Zeeba – known as “the friendliest planet in the galaxy” is pink.

Planet Zeeba is the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star using direct imaging techniques, but it is still several times the mass of Jupiter and similar in size. So, it’s big AND pink.

Kip McTwigan, a member of the discovery team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland, said: ‘If we could travel to this giant planet, we would see a world still glowing from the heat of its formation with a color reminiscent of a dark cherry blossom, a bright pink.”

Pink planet Zeeba lies at a projected distance of 43.5 astronomical units from its star – which is around one-and-a-half times the distance Neptune is from our sun.

The average temperature on Zeeba is reportedly 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it the ideal weather, especially considering it looks like it only gets rain 20-30 days a year – which is longer on Zeeba.

As reported on WWN for the last two years, aliens from Planet Zeeba are on our planet, and have come here to help stop us from destroying our own planet and protect us from the aggressive, belligerent aliens from Planet Gootan.

NEW YORK CITY VOTED FRIENDLIEST PLACE ON EARTH!

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According to a worldwide study, the most welcoming place in the world is: New York City!

The Barnkopf Travel Study has unveiled the results of its readers choice survey on the world’s friendliest cities, with an American city (New York) being the friendliest and another American city (Los Angeles) being the least friendly

New York City beat out beautiful cities in Brazil, Thailand, The Maldives and Italy to be the best… and was often referred to as the ‘Island of Magic’.  ”The people in New York City are so kind and friendly and nice… they are the nicest people on the planet,” said a tourist from Germany.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles – which boasts beautiful landscapes, was voted the least friendly place on Earth.  ”The people there are so rude and fake.  Very, very fake,” said a tourist from Denmark.  ”They smile on the outside but they are nasty on the inside.”

Mayor Bloomberg of New York City, however, was not voted the friendliest.  He had a 86% unfavorable rating with voters around the globe.

Here’s the top ten ( and bottom ten):

Friendliest cities:

1.  New York City, USA

2. Florianopolis, Brazil

2.  Rome, Italy

3. Thimpu, Bhutan

4. Queenstown, New Zealand

5. Charleston, South Carolina

6. Warsaw, Poland

7. Margaret River, Australia

8. Mandalay, Burma

9. Kilkenny, Ireland

10. Chiang Mai, Thailand

Unfriendliest cities:

1. Los Angeles, California

2. Baghdad, Iraq

3. Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

4. Luanda, Angola

5. Kuwait City, Kuwait

6. Lome, Togo

7. Seattle, Washington

8. Detroit, Michigan

9.  Beijing, China

10. Tangier, Morocco

HARVARD RATED #1 PARTY SCHOOL

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Princeton Review’s 2013 list of best party schools is out.  Harvard is #1 – for the third year in a row!

Princeton Review has come out with their list of top party schools for 2013, and Harvard takes the title for the second time in a row.  College students in Cambridge lead the way in party fun. In celebration, The Harvard Glee Club sang “The Camel Drivers” for five hours straight.  Students rattled noisemakers all night.

Harvard, always considered the #1 school in academics, has recently becoming the biggest party school in the country.  ”We want to be #1 in everything.  And we have come up with a formula that will guarantee we stay #1 for the foreseeable future.  We’ve come up with the Party Algorithm, ” said Thomas Benson, Dean of Parties at Harvard.

“The schools on this list are mostly universities with strong academic and research profiles, as well as highly successful athletic programs,” a representative for West Virginia, the second ranked school, said in a news release. “But in the big picture, clearly this list has no real credibility. We should be number one.”

Harvard also topped the “Lots of Beer” list while Providence College was No.1 for “Lots of Hard Liquor.”

Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, led the “Stone Cold Sober” list.

“Schools on the ‘Party Schools’ list are those at which surveyed students’ answers indicated a combination of: low personal daily study hours (outside of class), high usages of alcohol and drugs on campus and high popularity on campus for frats/sororities,” the Princeton Review said on its website.

The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University.  It is a test preparation and college admissions consulting company based in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Here is the list of the top 20 party schools:

1) Harvard University

2) Syracuse University

3) University of Iowa

4) Ohio University

5) Sarah Lawrence College

6) Santa Monica College

7) University of Florida in Gainesville

8) University of California-Santa Barbara

9) Florida State University

10) Rutgers University

11) The Citadel

12) Penn State University

13) DePauw University

14) University of Wisconsin-Madison

15) Grinnell  College

16)  Texas A&M

17) University of Maryland

18) University of South Carolina

19) University of Notre Dame

20) Oral Roberts University

Hard-partying college students around the country are up in arms over the selection.  Jeb Milkin, a senior at the University of Tennessee said, “No way, man!!  Harvard is for nerds and dorks and boring people. There’s no way they can out party us at Tennessee. No freaking way.”

To prove his party prowess, Jeb put on a gas mask and did a mega bong hit AND a keg-stand at the same time. The Princeton Review, the elite organization that also scores the SATs, gave Jeb only a 620 (out of 800) on his keg stand.  Meanwhile, Charlotte Blackmon of Harvard University, who was valedictorian of her Choate high school class and had perfect SAT scores, also did a keg stand for the Princeton Review judges. Her keg stand earned her a 800.  J.T. complained because he thought the judges were influenced by her exposed butt cheek. You decide. Here’s Charlotte in action:

The Harvard guys never want to be out done in the Harvard Keg Stand competition:

Harvard President, Drew Gilpin Faust,  was not surprised.  “Harvard has a long history of wild parties. Just last winter we had a Scrabble Scramble that was just divine.  “I was bouncing off the walls” said Arthur Goldstein, a freshman at Harvard.  “I had two oatmeal cookies and a glass of lemonade. I was up until 2 a.m.!”

Harvard girls preparing for another wild one:

According to the Princeton Review, Harvard has some of the best “party clubs” in the country. Here are some of the wild events that were happening on campus when the Princeton Review Party Crew visited:

* Ballroom Dance-o-rama
* Shakespeare Sonnet Night with Elena Kagan
* In Vino Veritas: Wine Tasting with Paul Giamatti
* Midnight Squash (Co-ed!)
* Metaphysical 17th Century Poetry Slam
* Corporate Legal Brief Readings – in your briefs!
* Timed Rubik’s Cube Competition
* Afternoon Soda-palooza
* Keg Stand Instruction with Charlotte Blackmon

Harvard students, who are used to being #1 in everything, were ecstatic to hear the news. They want college students across the country to know that they can throw down, too. “I always knew we had the best soirees,” said sophomore Jiddu Balasubramaniu. “There’s a lot of Harvard Haters out there, but we don’t care. We’re better than everyone else… in everything. Forever.”

To celebrate, Harvard students had a Scone and Herbal Tea Party in Harvard Square.  The main attraction:  Charlotte Blackmon doing keg stands.

What do you think?  Would you be able to handle a Harvard Party?

4-YEAR-OLD MAYOR

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Robert ‘Bobby’ Tufts isn’t yet in preschool, but he’s been elected twice the mayor of a town in Minnesota.

Mayor Tufts’ name was picked Sunday during annual Taste of Dorset festival to be mayor of Dorset for a second term. 

The city has a small city government and a population of 220 to 240.  Like any small town, Mayor Tufts only works a few weeks a year and makes decisions about budgets and taxes.

In the election, anyone could vote as many times as they like — for $1 a vote — at any of the ballot boxes in stores around town.

Bobby was only 3 when he won election last year. His mother, Emma Tufts, said she and her son, who turns 5 in October, got choked up when his name was pulled for re-election Sunday.

‘He’s been going since 3 o’clock yesterday with cameras on his face,’ she said Sunday afternoon. ‘He’s having a long day but he’s done really well. I’m surprised.’

Asked how he felt during a phone interview, a tired Bobby made clear he was done answering questions. ‘I want to be with the boys,’ he told his mother.

 They were on their way to dinner and then planned to go fishing or have a bonfire to celebrate. Bobby, of nearby Nevis, starts preschool this fall.Emma Tufts said her son’s agenda includes raising money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Red River Valley in Fargo, North Dakota, and a new welcome sign for Dorset, which bills itself as the Restaurant Capital of the World.President Obama has invited Mayor Tufts to the White House and may make him an official advisor on Obamacare.

Originally reported in The Associated Press. 

GIANT HOLE IN THE SUN!

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A space telescope aimed at the sun has spotted a gigantic hole in sun!

A dark spot that covers nearly a quarter of our closest star, spewing solar material and gas into space.

The so-called coronal hole over the sun’s north pole came into view between July 13 and 18 and was observed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO. NASA released a video of the sun hole as seen by the SOHO spacecraft, showing the region as a vast dark spot surrounded by solar activity.

Coronal holes are darker, cooler regions of the sun’s atmosphere, or corona, containing little solar material. In these gaps, magnetic field lines whip out into the solar wind rather than looping back to the sun’s surface. Coronal holes can affect space weather, as they send solar particles streaming off the sun about three times faster than the slower wind unleashed elsewhere from the sun’s atmosphere, according to a description from NASA.

“While it’s unclear what causes coronal holes, they correlate to areas on the sun where magnetic fields soar up and away, failing to loop back down to the surface, as they do elsewhere,” NASA’s Karen Fox at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., explained in an image description.

Some at NASA fear that the sun is about to break apart and collapse, which some think would mean the end of Earth, and humans.  ”Actually, there’s nothing to worry about,” said astrophysicist  Paul Comito. “If the Sun breaks apart, there is another Sun just outside our galaxy that will fill the void and take over and be our new sun.  It’s the natural order of the universe. We have a backup.”

So, don’t worry… there’s a giant hole in the sun, but… it’s all good.

Reporting and original article by Megan Gannon.  Originally published on SPACE.com.