San Bruno Neighborhood Flattened by Gas Explosion

A massive explosion leveled a neighborhood in San Bruno (a suburb close to San Francisco), California, yesterday night:

After the initial blast, flames reached as high as 100 feet as the fire fueled itself on burning homes, leaving some in total ruins and reducing parked automobiles to burned out shells. At least 120 homes also suffered serious damage.
Witnesses heard the explosion miles away and said it shot a fireball more than 1,000 feet in the air, sending frightened residents fleeing for safety and rushing to get belongings out of burning homes.
"I thought a 747 had landed on us," Barringer told the Times. "It shook our station right to its foundation."

What could’ve caused such an explosion? 

A ruptured 30-inch steel gas pipeline is suspected. 

Full Story

The human brain is shrinking

"Over the past 20,000 years, the average volume of the human male brain has decreased from 1,500 cubic centimeters to 1,350 cc, losing a chunk the size of a tennis ball.  The female brain has shrunk by about the same proportion... "This happened in China, Europe, Africa - everywhere we look."  If our brain keeps dwindling at that rate over the next 20,000 years, it will start to approach the size of that found in Homo erectus, a relative that lived half a million years ago..."

An excerpt from "The Incredible Shrinking Brain," by Kathleen McAuliffe, in the September 2010 issue of Discover Magazine.

Paul McCartney's son debuts own album

Paul McCartney's son debuts own album

The star's son, James, is just the latest of the Beatles' kids to launch a music career.  

See the resemblance 

Also: 

• Find Dhani Harrison
• Willow Smith inks deal
• Variety sues punk band

One-of-a-kind homes

Amazing, one-of-a-kind homes

This "earthship" sells for $265,000 and has a fishpond, a fireplace, and features for off-the-grid living.

10 odd dwellings 

Also: 

• $35 million glass house
• Don't invest in housing?
• How to pick paint colors

World's most expensive book up for sale

World's most expensive book up for sale

A rare 3-foot-long tome that's the envy of every collector could fetch up to $9.2 million at auction.  

What's inside 

Also: 

• Peek at book's pages
• Man behind the book
• $690 for rocker's memoir

Rare vivid blue diamond up for sale

Rare vivid blue diamond up for sale

A two-stone ring with a stunning 10.95-carat triangular-shaped blue diamond is headed for the auction block in New York City.

Four worst ways to buy a new car

Four worst ways to buy a new car

Heading into the dealership without first setting up financing is a major mistake.

'Confusion is a car dealer's weapon' 

Also: 

• Fewer auto incentives
• Priciest cars to insure
• Tips for buying used

Real Life Keystone Kop Pepper-Sprayed Self, Got Tased by Partner

A routine call turned out to be something straight out of Keystone Kops for two Cornwall policemen. It all started with a report of disturbance …

Police constable Jason Mepham was responding to a disturbance call in Redruth last month when things took a turn for the slapstick.
The officer, confronted by Jason King, whipped out his pepper spray and doused the suspect. Then a second blast blew back into the cop’s eyes, temporarily blinding him, according to The Independent. A second officer grabbed King, but another perp at the scene punched Mepham in the face, dislocating his jaw.
The other officer released King and fired his Taser at the new assailant. One of the electrodes hit the perp, but the other struck Mepham. Mepham collapsed and King allegedly kicked him in the face — strangely relocating the cop’s jaw.

Full Story

Bad Cops

Bad Cops

Wheelchair-bound man alleges that Alabama police struck and Tasered him

Diary of comatose Pennsylvania inmate fingers guards for allowing and encouraging brutal inmate-on-inmate beatdowns

Former NYPD cop pleads guilty in fatal DUI crash — gets 90 days

Rhode Island ex-cop gets 40 years for raping woman inside police station

Canadian cops call in friends and watch as two women have sex in the drunk tank

Texas police officer indicted on felony charges of evidence tampering

Utah school cop who arranging a sexual encounter with an undercover officer posing as a 15-year-old boy gets a year of home detention

Woman pulls gun after volleyball match

Full story

Police said a woman believed to be a suburban San Antonio middle school parent pulled a gun on members of an opposing volleyball team after her school lost a match.

Americans support tax increases for those making over $250,000

No matter how many times Boehner and Faux News hammer away at the issue it won't change the fact that Americans are fine with Obama's tax plan.

It's good to see the team holding firm.

A majority of Americans favor letting the tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration expire for the wealthy. While 37% support keeping the tax cuts for all Americans, 44% want them extended only for those making less than $250,000 and 15% think they should expire for all taxpayers.

What people forget about Reagan and taxes

What people forget about Reagan and taxes

Ronald Reagan may be the patron saint of lower taxes and smaller government.  

But he found ways to raise taxes, too 

The LARGEST TAX INCREASE in US history until the shrub's that is.

Disparities

Officials in town of 90 earn $1.6 million

Vernon joins a controversial list of California cities accused of extravagant payrolls.

'Absolutely unjustifiable'

Also:

• More about Vernon
• Feds probe L.A. suburb
• Biggest CEO pay cuts

Non Sequitur

Culinary DeLites

Culinary DeLites

10 best regional foods in the U.S.

San Francisco's unique climate gives the city's signature bread its tangy bite. 

Wisconsin's 'squeaky' snack 

Also: 

• Top hot dogs in America
• Best 24-hour hotspots
• Stay well while traveling

Six odd weight-loss tricks that really work

Sitting down for meals and eating from a real plate can help you feel satisfied.  

Why you should pay for food with cash 

Also: 

• Dieting success stories
• Maintaining weight loss
• Tips for safer running

8 ways to sneak more fiber into your diet

Try adding a nearly tasteless superfood to shakes, salads, or a bowl of cereal.

How much fiber is enough? 

Also: 

• Oatmeal bread recipes
• New cure for garlic breath
• How to love leftovers

The World's Hottest Chili Pepper

Fire Foods of Lincolnshire, UK, has unleashed the world's hottest chili pepper, a fearsome beast clocking 1,176,182 on the Scoville scale. The company has created this weapon of culinary destruction on the form of its Infinity Chili Sauce.

Helpful Hints

Helpful Hints

Laundry products not worth the money

You probably don't need a washer that claims to stop odors or reduce vibration.  

Detergent that's no better than water 

Also: 

• Get out five tough stains
• Washers & dryers
• How to ease laundry day

False Waistlines

The truth about men's pant sizes

Some companies are knowingly selling jeans with waist sizes larger than the label describes.  

Their reasons 

Also: 

• Men's pant tips
• How to care for pants
• Jeans under $50

Rock Lobster

 

The B52s party anthem played by a robot

Italian Mudslide

Mudslide slams tiny Italian village

Dramatic amateur video captures the destruction of a picturesque coastal town.  

At least one person missing 

Also: 

• Causes of mudslides
• Indian villages flooded
• Pakistan rescue efforts

Martian lake has water-ice

"This is a giant patch of frozen water inside an unnamed impact crater on Mars. The existence of this water-ice patch on Mars makes life a more likely possibility and raises the prospect that past or present life will one day be detected.

The crater with ice disc is on the Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of Mars’s far northern latitudes. The crater is 35 km wide, with a maximum depth of about 2 km. The image was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA’s Mars Express.

Scientists believe the water-ice is present all year round because the temperature and pressure are not sufficient to allow it to change states and vaporize into the atmosphere. It is not frozen carbon dioxide, because this type of ice had already disappeared from the north polar cap by the time this image was taken.'

From 2005, so I must have missed it when it was first reported. I don't understand why this doesn't sublimate, like the frozen CO2 did.  If the crater is 35 km wide, then the ice is about 12 km (7.5 miles) across.  Fascinating.

Text and photo from the Flickr photostream of the European Space Agency. More information at the ESA website.