Bus Stops - January 3, 2012

10 school kids perish in Ambala bus tragedy (Daily Pioneer) 

(In a tragic road accident, ten school children and driver of the school van were killed and 23 others injured when their van collided head-on with a truck amid heavy fog on Saha-Shahabad Road here on Monday morning. Seven children and van driver died on the spot while one died at the Government Hospital Shahabad and two breathed their last in the Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh’s Sector 32.)

Bus misery: Tens of thousands likely to be stranded due to standstill in service (The Star) 

(More commuters numbering tens of thousands are likely to be stranded today following the standstill in stage bus service as people return to work from the year-end holidays. The scenario is a moment of truth of sorts as thousands of schoolchildren also begin their new term tomorrow, adding to the huge number of stage bus users already affected by the suspension of more routes in several states, including Selangor, due to heavy losses.)

Turtle nests saved as bus gets stuck in sand at Morjim (Times of India) 

(A tourist bus carrying a picnic group got stuck in the sand on Morjim beach, barely 60 m from the site of turtles nests on Sunday evening. Wild life lovers, who are irked by the lack of monitoring on Morjim beach, alleged that the bus had ventured into the area designated as turtle nesting site. "But there is no marking or demarcation to indicate, it is a no-entry zone for vehicles," a villager alleged.)

States say it's time to rethink medical marijuana (CNN) 

(Medical marijuana advocates are hoping state governments can succeed where their efforts have failed by asking federal authorities to reclassify pot as a drug with medical use. Shortly before Christmas, Colorado became the fourth state to ask the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify marijuana as a narcotic in the same league as heavyweight painkillers including oxycodone. The governors of Washington and Rhode Island filed a formal petition with the agency in November, and Vermont signed onto that request shortly afterward.)

US police release CCTV footage of man in connection with car arson attacks (Telegraph UK) 

(Police in Los Angeles distributed DVDs on Sunday featuring surveillance video of a man wanted for questioning in connection with a rash of suspicious car fires in the city. The person of interest is a white male between 20 and 30 years old with a receding hairline and a shoulder-length ponytail, according to Officer Sara Faden. The man was seen on video on Saturday after emerging on foot from inside an underground parking structure on Hollywood Boulevard that was the scene of a car fire.)

Frozen dead guy celebration gets a new owner (Denver Post) 

(Nederland's Frozen Dead Guy Days celebration is continuing under a new owner. Amanda MacDonald tells the Boulder Daily Camera ( http://bit.ly/ve5YUl) she bought the rights because she wants it to stay in Nederland. Bredo Morstoel's corpse has been packed in dry ice in a shed at the mountain town since 1993. He died in 1989 at age 89 and his Norwegian family preserved his body in hopes technology will be developed to bring him back to life.)

On the border of China and Mongolia, you can find two dinosaurs french-kissing (iO9) 

(The greatest sculpture of all time? Perhaps! Outside of the 20,000-person Chinese town of Erlian on the Mongolian border, you can find this statue of two amorous sauropods making out for all the world to see. Built to showcase the region's reputation as a fossil hotspot, this reptile snog session instead is a stark reminder that if you build a tourist trap, it's never guaranteed that anyone will show.)

Year-long exposure of Toronto skyline produces 'dreamy' image (Toronto Star) 

(A year ago, Michael Chrisman placed a pinhole camera in Toronto’s Port Lands and aimed it — as best one can aim such a camera — at the city skyline. For 365 straight days and nights, light has crept through the pinhole, slowly building an exposure on a piece of photosensitive paper. Ponder that.)

Victim of bullying is winner at poles (The Sun UK) 

(A WOMAN who was bullied at school over her acne and flat chest has been crowned the UK's top pole dancer. Annie Norris, 26, was so self-conscious as a teenager she hated getting changed for PE. She later blossomed into a busty blonde beauty and has now won the national pole dancing contest despite breaking her foot days before.)

Is a super-volcano just 390 miles from London about to erupt? (Daily Mail) 

(A sleeping super-volcano in Germany is showing worrying signs of waking up. It's lurking just 390 miles away underneath the tranquil Laacher See lake near Bonn and is capable of ejecting billions of tons of magma. This monster erupts every 10 to 12,000 years and last went off 12,900 years ago, so it could blow at any time.)

Another syringe found in Walmart clothing in Ga. (SF Gate) 

(Authorities say another syringe has been found in clothing from a Walmart store in Georgia, bringing the number of cases to 15 at the same store since late November. Sheriff's officials in Bartow County. North of Atlanta, say they're investigating what appeared to be a broken piece of a syringe with the needle intact. The Daily Tribune News reports (http://bit.ly/9IsA2e) that it was found in a pair of brown slippers purchased from the store in December.)

Thousands of dead fish wash up on beach (Mirror UK) 

(Thousands of dead fish washed up on a beach in Norway on New Year's Eve leaving experts baffled. Residents of Kvennes, in the north of the country, were left astonished as around 20 tonnes of dead herring carpeted the beach. One theory is that larger, predatory fish such as the pollack may have scared the herring towards the beach, leaving them stranded when the tide went out. A bad storm and disease are also possibilities.)

TJay and Silent Bob Bring anarchy to Manchester, 17 February (Whats On Stage) 

(The popular Film-maker Kevin Smith is coming to the UK for a short live tour of his podcast Jay And Silent Bob Get Old. He is joined by collaborator Jason Mewes for the three shows in London, Manchester and Edinburgh in February. Their cult characters first appeared in Smith’s 1994 film Clerks, and went on to appear in Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma as well as 2001's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.)

Anne Hathaway talks Catwoman role in 'The Dark Knight Rises' (NME) 

(Anne Hathaway has spoken out about her role as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises by insisting her interpretation of the character is not influenced by previous big-screen portrayals. Hathaway, who will play Selina Kyle in the conclusion of director Christopher Nolan's trilogy of Batman films, told Total Film that her character would be different from earlier incarnations to be featured on television and on film. )

Deep-Voiced Men Don't Have 'Macho' Sperm (Live Science) 

(A low-pitched voice in a man is associated with a litany of masculine traits: dominance, strength, greater physical size, more attractiveness to women, and so on. But new research strikes one trait off that list: virility. An Australian study looked at male voice pitch, women's perceptions of it, and semen quality. Their first finding was no surprise: Women like deep voices and consider them masculine.)

Would you smell a pair of jeans worn-in and unwashed for three months? (News AU) 

(EVER wondered what happens if you wear the same pair of jeans five days a week for three months straight without washing them? Melbourne researcher Tullia Jack recruited 30 volunteers to do just that - and will soon exhibit the grimy garments at the National Gallery of Victoria so the public can put them to the pong test.)

Flushing Can Spread Diarrhea Disease (ABC) 

(Flushing the toilet with the lid up can spray diarrhea-causing bacteria into the air, according to a new study of hospital toilets. Researchers from Leeds Teaching Hospitals in the U.K. detected C. difficile — a germ that can cause diarrhea and even life-threatening inflammation of the colon — nearly 10 inches above the toilet seat after flushing lidless hospital toilets. C. difficile is frequently found in hospitals and long-term care facilities were antibiotics are common.)

Star Wars saber-master dies aged 89 (AFP) 

(Bob Anderson, Olympic swordsman and the man inside Darth Vader's helmet during many iconic lightsaber battles in the Star Wars films, has died aged 89, the British Academy of Fencing said. Anderson, who represented Britain in fencing at the 1952 Games, "passed away peacefully" at 0400 GMT on Sunday in an English hospital, the fencing organisation announced. "He was truly one of our greatest fencing masters and a world-class film fight director and choreographer, and both the fencing community and film world will miss him," said Philip Bruce, president of the academy.)