The man who has bankrolled the production of the world's first lab-grown hamburger has been revealed as Google co-founder Sergey Brin. The internet entrepreneur has backed the project to the tune of €250,000 (£215,000), allowing scientists to grow enough meat in the lab to create a burger – as a proof of concept – that will be cooked and eaten in London on Monday.

Brin, a computer scientist who set up Google with university colleague Larry Page, is one of the wealthiest men in the world and has a history of backing projects that sound as though they belong in science fiction movies.

The pair have teamed up with film director James Cameron and others to investigate mining asteroids, and Brin is an investor in the private spaceflight company Space Adventures, which is selling $100m (£65m) trips to the moon. Google is also developing driverless cars and its philanthropic arm, Google.org, has invested in green energy projects.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/05/google-sergey-brin-synthetic-beef-hamburger

OLATHE, Kan. - The FAA believes it now knows how many flights at KCI were delayed abruptly on Saturday afternoon due to spiders.

There may have been as many as five flights delayed about 15 minutes after air traffic controllers were bombarded with an infestation of spiders.

Three employees were bitten by the spiders last week at the Air Traffic Control Center in Olathe, Kan., which controls the air space around Kansas City.

Read more: http://www.kshb.com/dpp/news/local_news/spider-infestation-delays-five-flights-out-of-kci#ixzz2bIspV4Ct

The machine, which has been created by scientists at the University of Edinburgh, was designed to generate its own witty one-liners following a simple set of rules.

The system was programmed to exploit one of the most successful and popular components of comedy, where a statement is followed up with a surprising comment.

Some comedians, such as Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson, used this style with great affect.

However, like some of its human predecessors, the computerised comedian has developed a rather politically incorrect approach to humour – the jokes it produces can be rather sexist.

Others veer more into the surreal rather than the genuinely funny.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10225501/The-unPC-PC-computer-writes-sexist-jokes.html

EVERETT — A Snohomish woman under investigation for allegedly using her espresso stands as drive-through brothels is demanding that cops give her back the $250,000 in cash they confiscated.

Carmela Panico, the owner of Java Juggs and Twin Peaks coffee stands, recently filed a lawsuit against Everett and the city’s police chief. She alleges detectives wrongfully seized a quarter of a million dollars and a 2012 Ford Expedition. Panico, 51, is asking a Snohomish County Superior Court judge to order Everett to return her property and to award her legal fees.

The lawsuit was filed after the city officials notified Panico that they planned to keep the cash, alleging that it was proceeds from criminal activity, including money laundering. Detectives allege that Panico is “living a lavish lifestyle” financed through “organized crime.”

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20130805/NEWS01/130809935#Espresso-stand-owner-in-sex-case-wants-her-$250000-back

A German highway near the Belgian border turned into a circus on Sunday when an escaped zebra strolled into the road with local police in hot pursuit. The animal decided to catch its breath -- perhaps thinking it wouldn't be seen? Police from the nearby town of Bitburg recaptured the animal shortly thereafter and it was returned, safe and sound, to its home in a local circus.



http://www.spiegel.de/international/a-915020.html

Drunken driving charges have been filed against a southern New Jersey man who authorities say was driving a box truck that was on fire and missing its front tires.

Lakehurst police tell the Asbury Park Press that 36-year-old Michael Newmon of Manchester was hanging partially out of the cab window because of a shattered windshield when he was stopped around 3 a.m. Saturday.

Authorities say the truck had tree branches caught in it, with fire and smoke coming from below.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/08/police_man_drove_15_miles_in_flaming_truck_that_had_no_front_tires.html

The two girls, who are cousins, are suspected of robbing a hamburger store in Halmstad, southern Sweden, in late March. During the robbery, the thieves had a large kitchen knife that they used to threaten the staff at the restaurant.

"Give me the money otherwise I'll stab you," they said, according to the restaurant chef account of the robbery, wrote the Aftonbladet newspaper.

"Calm down, I'll open the till," he responded.

The pair managed to get away with 2,420 kronor ($370), but were traced by police sniffer dogs back to their grandparents' apartment, outside which a bag was found with the knife and balaclavas. The girls were arrested on the scene.



http://www.thelocal.se/49260/20130725/

A Christian puppeteer who regularly used his long-running Christian Television Network show to warn children about the sin of pornography was sentenced this week to 20 years behind bars for possession of child pornography.

More troubling still is Largo, Florida resident Ronald William Brown's involvement in an alleged conspiracy to kidnap, cook, and eat a child whom he met through his affiliation with the Gulf Coast Church.

Brown, 58, was a leader in the church's Puppet Ministry program for kids, and would regularly interact with the congregation's youngest members. Local authorities say Brown and his co-conspirator Michael Arnett chatted online about targeting a specific child for their sinister cannibalistic plan.

"I imagine him wiggling and then going still," Brown reportedly told Arnett in one of their many chats.

http://gawker.com/christian-childrens-entertainer-who-wanted-to-eat-kids-1003995633

An Orange County Sheriff’s deputy is facing jail time after being accused of pepper spraying a teen's pizza without his knowledge during a traffic stop last year, prosecutors said.

Juan Tavera, a six-year veteran of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at the time of the alleged crime, faces one year in jail if convicted of spraying the pizza and ultimately sickening five people who ate it, according to a release by the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

Tavera, 30, allegedly pulled over a 19-year-old named as John Doe for a traffic violation on Sept. 8, 2012, when he noticed a pizza in the back seat and pepper sprayed it without the teen noticing, the release stated.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/OC-Deputy-Accused-Pepper-Spraying-Teens-Pizza-218209672.html

Stealing a pair of pants apparently wasn’t an option.

A 19-year-old man is charged with stealing a Bobcat front loader from a Halls landscaping nursery early Sunday morning and drunkenly attempting to drive it home.

The suspect, Joseph Michael Hall, had a perfectly good explanation for it all, though, when authorities caught up to him rolling along Maynardville Highway shortly after 7 a.m. — he was naked.

“Mr. Hall stated that he was drunk and that he was trying to hide his nudity by taking the Bobcat,” the arrest warrant states.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/aug/04/a-case-of-criminal-cover-up-naked-man-allegedly/