Pigs still can’t fly, but this winter, the mayor of Moscow promises to keep it from snowing. For just a few million dollars, the mayor’s office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city. Authorities say this will be a boon for Moscow, which is typically covered with a blanket of snow from November to March. Road crews won’t need to constantly clear the streets, and traffic — and quality of life — will undoubtedly improve.

via Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow.

In Panama, a group of local teenagers were reportedly terrified when a hairless, slimy creature appeared from behind a nearby waterfall at Cerro Azul and approached them. Thinking that it was going to attack them, the teens pelted it with rocks, which killed the creature. Then they tossed it in the lake and fled the scene.

Later, the body washed up on the shore and was picked apart by buzzards. Local authorities speculate that it might be some sort of mutated sloth.

Gollum Lives! Well, “Lived”, Anyway | Manolith.

U.S. military create live remote-controlled beetles to bug conversations

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:18 PM on 19th October 2009

Spies may soon be bugging conversations using actual insects, thanks to research funded by the US military.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has spent years developing a whole host of cyborg critters, in the hopes of creating the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’.

Now a team of researchers led by Hirotaka Sato have created cyborg beetles which are guided wirelessly via a laptop.

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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1221438/Ssh–conversation-bugged-cyborg-beetle.html#ixzz0URGtXzU0