Baby Spirit

More on Guman Thong: The Black Lotus Sect is rumored to operate also in Louisana.

Gym advert warned 'fatties' would be eaten by aliens

Telegraph.co.uk-- The advert was meant to encourage people to join up and lose those excess pounds put on over Christmas - but it has had the opposite effect.

The sign, which features a green alien, read: "Advance health warning! When the aliens come, they will eat the fatties first."

It then goes on to urge people to take up a special offer to join the health club and spa attached to Cadbury House hotel in Bristol.

But it prompted an angry reaction from some people in the local community, with residents saying it is offensive to those struggling with their weight.

The club, which is one of the largest independent health clubs in the UK, has two purpose-built studios along with a spa, salon and bistro. It employs a team of personal trainers and offers more than 100 fitness classes each week.

Vicky Palmer contacted the health club to complain after seeing an advert similar to the sign in a local newspaper. Mrs Palmer, who had an eating disorder as a teen, said the sign and adverts should be removed.

"I am not overweight yet I still find this extremely offensive and patronising, but how much more so to someone genuinely overweight?," she said.

Yatton councillor Tony Moulin described the sign as "tacky". Mr Moulin said: "I think this sign is insensitive, tacky and could cause offence to some people."

Manager at the health club Jason Eaton said: "The alien campaign has been developed as a tongue in cheek look at the fact that people, generally, over the Christmas period do put on a little weight.

"We do not intend to cause any offence to anyone."

Ship Wreck Graveyard

[Gallery at io9.com]

Remarkable Styrofoam Planet Is Among Five New Exoplanet Discoveries

NASA's dedicated exoplanet hunter, the Kepler space telescope, has turned up five new planets. One of the planets is bigger than Jupiter but as light as styrofoam, and the findings only get crazier.

All five of the exoplanets are bigger than Earth, and four of them are significantly bigger than Jupiter. As the diagram up top indicates, all five are hotter than molten lava, and two of them are even hotter than the melting point of iron. Indeed, those two planets are actually hotter than the stars they orbit, which is completely unprecedented. The planets also have incredibly quick orbits, with some taking as little as three to five days to complete a revolution around their star.

The low densities of the planets has been of considerable interest to astronomers. The four massive exoplanets are much lighter than Jupiter, including one whose amazingly low density has given it the nickname "Styrofoam World." It looks like this kind of ultra low density planet might actually be the norm, with our solar system's denser gas giants being the exception. However, the process that would create such planets is still unknown.

Taken together, all of this pretty much rules out any chance of life on these planets. But some of Kepler's other data is more promising on that score, as it has already detected dozens of Sun-like twins, suggesting the average star in the galaxy is similar to our own in terms of size and stability. That bodes well for the chances of finding an Earth-like exoplanet in the near future, and there is still months' worth of Kepler data for astronomers to pore through.

[The Washington Post via io9.com]

Mystery: Thousands of Dead Octopuses Wash Up on Portugal Beach

Thousands of octopuses have washed up on the shore of northern Portugal and scientists are stumped about why. They're calling it an environmental disaster, and are issuing a rather strange warning.

BBC reports that while no cause is known, officials are warning the public not to eat the animals. Because staring at thousands of mysteriously dead octopuses would cause people rush to assume they make a safe dinner?
At this point, we don't have much information, but we'll keep an ear to the ground for what is going on.

Here is a video showing the beach where the octopuses were discovered.