$54,000 See-Through Public Restrooms Installed in Texas

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America’s first ever public restrooms made entirely from glass have been unveiled in Sulphur Springs, Texas. The two glass restrooms cost $54,000 to design and resemble a large mirrored box. They take pride of place in the revamped public square in downtown Sulphur Springs.

For anyone concerned that people might be able to see you doing your business, fear not they have been constructed from special mirrored glass that enables people on the inside to look out but doesn’t enable nosey people to see in.

Locals are excited about being home to this unusual first and hope the mirrored bathrooms will become something of a tourist attraction. ‘Bathrooms are typically ugly no matter what you do, how can you make them disappear?’ city manager Marc Maxwell told ABC News. ‘You cover it with mirrors, that’s how, and why not make it a one-way mirror while you’re at it.’

After some initial uncertainty about how safe it is to use a glass bathroom, residents have quickly fallen in love with the quirky loos that enable you to see everything going on around you, even who is next in line. ‘I stood around the bathroom for a long time to make sure you couldn’t see inside and you couldn’t,’ said local resident Merrideth Caddell. ‘Once I went in, it felt strange that four men were looking into the bathroom, but they couldn’t see me.’

The structure works because the designers worked to devise the right combination of glass and lighting. For the illusion to work properly, the outside of the structure must be more lit than the inside, explained David Gideon of the Commercial Glass & Mirror Company. The bathrooms have no lights on the inside and in order to see at night, LED lights have been placed on the outside of the structure, so that the illusion remains intact.

Read more from this story HERE.

Videos: Turkey Attacks on the Rise; Residents Try to Defend Themselves

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By Bobby Sisk. Neighbors are on the offensive in Brookline after what some residents are describing as aggressive turkeys. “They were attacking the vehicle,” Karen Halvorson said outside her home in the Aspinwall Hill neighborhood.

After getting in her truck, a neighbor came and ran the birds off but it didn’t stop there. “Then, the turkeys came and started attacking my front door,” she said.

A second run-in came a few weeks ago as she walked nearby. “I looked back and three of them charged me,” she explained.

She moved to the center of the street to avoid the animals, but it wasn’t enough. “The turkey flew in my face and scratched my neck,” she said. Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the video of the CBS affiliate news report:

And here’s a video of a reporter freaking out as she’s attacked by a turkey:

Six Million Dollar Man One Step Closer to Reality With Giant Leap in Mind Control of Computers

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The science fiction behind the Six Million Dollar Man took a step closer to science reality yesterday when researchers announced a breakthrough in thought control of computers.

Researchers from Stanford University in California have developed an algorithm that translates the neurological signals for movement with greater than ever speed and accuracy. The system, which relies on a silicon chip implanted in the brain, has been used to allow monkeys to control computer cursors – but could one day control prosthetic limbs.

‘These findings could lead to greatly improved prosthetic system performance and robustness in paralysed people,’ said Krishna Shenoy, who led the team that carried out the research.

When a paralysed person imagines moving a limb, cells in the part of the brain that controls movement still activate as if trying to make the immobile limb work again, the researchers explain. Even where a neurological injury or disease has severed the pathway between brain and muscle, the region where the signals originate often remains intact and functional…

Previous research into the field of neural prosthetics has begun to develop brain-implantable sensors able to measure signals from individual neurons, interpret them, and use them to control computer cursors using thoughts alone.But the new algorithm developed at Stanford, known as ReFIT, vastly improves the speed and accuracy of the control, the researchers reported on the November 18 issue of the Journal Nature Neuroscience.

Read more from this story HERE.

Self-Service Marijuana Machine Stock Soars 3000% After Washington, Colorado Legalization

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Medical marijuana company Medbox saw its stock soar an astonishing 3,000 per cent as investors seek to get in on the ground floor of what they think could be America’s next boom industry.

In the wake of this year’s elections in which both Colorado and Washington residents voted to legalize marijuana, investors began buying up MedBox shares as quickly as they could. On Monday, MedBox shares sold for $4. By Thursday they were at $215.

Medbox is an automated medication dispenser for medical marijuana accessible with fingerprint recognition or or a medical marijuana card. Using a touch screen, patients can select up to 50 different varieties of pre-weighed medical marijuana sealed in standard medication vials.

The machines do not use cash, but rather a pre-paid card that alerts the customer when the balance is low so that each purchase can be documented.The company operates 130 dispensers and is scheduled to install 40 more before 2013.

Read more from this story HERE.

Now that’s a mobile home! Inside the $500,000 ‘expedition vehicles’ with solar panels and 2,000-mile gas tank (shame it looks like a garbage truck)

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Most people probably wouldn’t want to live in a garbage truck, but then again most garbage trucks don’t have the amenities this one does.

Unicat Amerigo – which bills its models as the ‘ultimate family Expedition Vehicle’ – are so huge that despite being built as exploration vehicles they’re often mistaken for garbage trucks in photos.

The vehicles are so rugged they were chosen by Jalopnik as one of the best places you could ride out a zombie apocalypse.

Starting at more than $500,000 they may cost more than your average home but then again few homes can drive from coast to coast.

For that you get, depending on the model, a 2,000-mile range and enough supplies to keep people alive for months if need be.

Read more from this story HERE.

Videos: Girlfriend Claims Lee Harvey Oswald Was Hero, Actually Tried to Help JFK

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There are a seemingly unlimited amount of conspiracy theories as to what happened on the cool November morning in Dallas nearly 50 years ago. The former girlfriend of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who is widely accepted as President John F. Kennedy’s killer, is adding to the list.

In a new explosive memoir, Judyth Vary Baker argues that Oswald could not have murdered the 35th President of the United States in Dealy Plaza.

‘Lee Oswald was a hero,’ Ms Baker began, speaking at an Oregon bookstore earlier this week. ‘I’m here to tell you that when you find out who did it, you will understand more about who took over our country and why we are in the position we are in today,’ according to KVAL News.

The author, who lives abroad due to what she claims are safety concerns, is going on a limited tour this month and onto December to promote her book ‘Me & Lee: How I Came To Know, Love, And Lose Lee Harvey Oswald.’ She will also make several other appearances via Skype.

Ms Baker was a whiz-kid, carrying out complicated cancer research in New Orleans in the early 1960s at the age of 19. ‘I was assigned to make cancer more deadly,’ she told KVAL. ‘Can you imagine?’ She said that she met Oswald in 1963 during this internship working under Dr Alton Ochsner, the former president of the American Cancer Society and they became involved…

In her 600-page book, Ms Baker argues that her then-boyfriend was a deeply undercover intelligence agent who was actually trying to prevent Kennedy from being killed. She said that Oswald was framed for the murder, which she said he could not have committed from his sniper post at the Texas Book Depository. She told KVAL: ‘We have a lot of information that Kennedy was shot from the front,’ noting that the book depository was behind Kennedy’s motorcade.

Read more from this story HERE.

Study: If You Don’t Want to Appear Elderly to Others, “Shop Until You Drop”

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Do Americans associate old age with telltale physical signs like wrinkles and crow’s feet? Or do they believe that passing a certain age defines a person as ‘over the hill’? According to a new study, neither – a person is defined by how old they act, and how independent they are.

For instance, consumers who can no longer shop for themselves, complete housework, or drive their cars are considered ‘old,’ the study claims.

According to the new study by Oregon State University researcher Michelle Barnhart, activities that define one’s independence are the most important markers of age. In much of America, a person’s independence is closely tied to their ability to drive, shop, and cook for themselves. Because of these unwritten adages, those who are too feeble to carry shopping bags or operate their vehicle are looked at as someone in their twilight years.

To conduct her research, Ms Barnhart conducted in-depth interviews with consumers in their late 80s, as well as their caregivers and family members – often the subject’s adult children in their 50s and 60s.

She found that the Baby Boomers, who are aging themselves, did not wish to be seen as old, but often treated their own parents as ‘old people’ – not allowing them to exercise independence where they could and assuming they’re scatterbrained as well as slow.

Read more from this story HERE.

“Gone With the Wind”: Odor Eating Undies Hide Embarrassing Smells

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It’s the nightmare scenario in any confined space – breaking wind, only to discover it smells rather more unpleasant than expected. But these cringeworthy moments could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a new brand of odour-eating underwear.

The Japanese textile company selling underpants claims they neutralize the smell of flatulence. The pants are said to be a big hit with Japanese businessmen, as it means they can break wind without getting caught. But there’s also a pink pair for women, too.

The odor-absorbing range, known as Deoest, effectively kills odor from wind. It does this using ceramic particles in the material fibers, which are said to absorb and neutralize gassy smells.

A word of warning, however: there is no word on whether they might mask any sound.

Read more from this story HERE.

Energy Drinks Linked to Heart Attacks, ‘Spontaneous Abortion’

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You know those little vials of who-knows-what that TV bills as a healthier alternative to energy drinks. Turns out they might make you die. Or to be more specific, the flavored energy shot “has been mentioned in some 90 filings with the F.D.A., including more than 30 that involved serious or life-threatening injuries like heart attacks, convulsions and, in one case, a spontaneous abortion,” according to a New York Times investigation.

Don’t worry, 5-Hour Energy fans, Monster Energy drink is a culprit, too. Following a review of FDA records, The Times found that 5-Hour Energy was implicated in at least 13 deaths over the last four years, while Monster was cited in five deaths in a review last month. Both the paper and the FDA are careful to point out that correlation does not equal causation in these horrifying examples of pick-me-ups gone wrong. Nevertheless, we’re pretty sure coffee will remain our stimulant of choice for the foreseeable future.

The scariest thing about the Times report isn’t necessarily the threat of heart attack or spontaneous abortion. It’s the fact that nobody really knows what’s going on with energy drinks — or in 5-Hour Energy’s case “dietary supplements” — that become implicated in fatalities. Even scarier, is that the companies making these potions know that it’s happening. They’re required by federal law to report cases that link their products to fatalities to the FDA. They don’t want to talk about it either. “I am not interested in making any comment,” Manoj Bhargava, the chief executive of Living Essentials, the company that makes 5-Hour Energy. (Go ahead and let the irony of that company name sink in.)

Read more from this story HERE.

Video: Police Tase Man While Putting Out Neighbor’s Fire to Keep Him From “Hurting Himself”

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Daniel Jensen did what he believed anyone else would do after seeing his neighbor’s house on fire. He turned on his garden hose and started spraying.

The home next door was ten feet from his outer wall, and the wind was causing the flames to scorch his house.

“They were billowing up in the roof and starting to catch the fence on fire,” Jensen said. That’s why he is angry and confused about the actions of Pinellas Park police the night of November 8.

Jensen said when police arrived at his neighbor’s house, they ordered him to stop spraying. Jensen claimed that police told him not to bother fighting the fire, and to “let the house go.”

“I couldn’t believe what I heard,” Jensen said. “That it was an insurance problem. Let the insurance company handle it.”