The Oldest Known Tree On Earth In Honor Of Arbor Day

This 9,550-year-old Spruce tree is the oldest single tree in the world. It is located on Fulufjället Mountain in Sweden. The tree was discovered by Lief Kullman, a professor at Umeå University, who nicknamed it Old Tjikko, after his late dog.

Andrew Petro/Flickr

An example of a tree in a "krummholz" formation.

Tjikko is considered the oldest known living clonal tree. There are however many examples of older clonal colonies of trees, which are a series of trees with a common root system and identical DNA.

Tjikko has stayed alive for so long because of a process called "vegetative cloning." When the trunk of Old Tjikko dies, the root system stays alive and sprouts a new trunk. Most trunks of the tree live for hundreds of years.

The tree was photographed by Rachel Sussman, who has been documenting the oldest living things on Earth for the last decade. Her work is now collected in a book released last week.

Sussman calls the tree "a portrait of climate change" because of how it has changed in recent years. For thousands of years, the tree appeared in a stunted shrub formation called a "krummholz" formation, due to the harsh environment. In a krummholz formation, the tree appears twisted, stunted, and deformed, to protect itself from strong, freezing winds.

Over the last century, the tree has sprouted a tall spindly trunk, caused by higher temperatures in the area. Many have attributed the temperature changes to climate change.

Explosion rocks natural gas plant in Wyoming

An explosion rocked a natural gas-processing plant in southwestern Wyoming on Wednesday, April 23, 2014, causing no injuries but prompting the evacuation of the facility and a nearby town, a company spokeswoman said.

The explosion in an apparatus called a turbo expender at the Williams Companies plant in Opal, Wyoming, touched off a fire that was still burning several hours later, company spokeswoman Michele Swaner said.

She said all 42 employees of the plant had been accounted for and were not injured. The Lincoln County Sheriff's Department referred calls regarding the incident to Williams.

The explosion marked the second safety incident for Williams Companies Inc in the last few weeks.

The town of Opal has a population of less than 100 people.

On March 31, a pipeline within its liquefied natural gas facility in Washington exploded and shrapnel from the blast caused a leak in one of two liquefied natural gas tanks, prompting evacuation orders near the plant outside the rural town of Plymouth.

Williams operates two natural gas processing plants in Wyoming which remove liquids and other impurities from natural gas to allow it to be transported in large pipelines.

Gas comes to the processing plants from Williams gathering system, a network of 3,500 miles of pipelines which collect gas produced in the region.

The Williams' system has a capacity of more than 1 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) and has more than 3,500 receipt points serving the Wamsutter and southwest Wyoming areas.

The Opal and Echo Springs processing plants have a combined daily capacity of more than 2.2 Bcf/d of natural gas and nearly 125,000 barrels per day (bpd) of natural gas liquids.

Jodie Foster Marries Alexandra Hedison

Jodie Foster married girlfriend Alexandra Hedison over the weekend, her rep has confirmed.

Word that the Oscar winner, 51, had quietly wed the 44-year-old photographer first came via E! News, with the Associated Press then confirming the news with Foster's rep. 

The low-key nature of this "big event" is par for the course for the "Elysium" and "The Silence of the Lambs" actress, who famously, finally, sort-of came out publicly in 2013 in a rather rambling speech delivered when she accepted the Cecille B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes.

Foster never used the words "lesbian" or "gay" in the speech, but did smoothly name-check former partner Cydney Bernard, calling her "one of the deepest loves of my life, my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life... Thank you Cyd, I am so proud of our modern family," which includes sons Charlie and Kit. She hadn't previously hidden their relationship, but had been private about it. At the time, Foster told the audience she was single. She and Hedison started dating last summer, according to E!.

Foster and Bernard reportedly met in 1993 on the set of "Sommersby" and split up in 2008 after 15 years together. They have joint custody of the boys, now 15 and 12, respectively. 

Hedison previously dated Ellen DeGeneres for about three years in the early 2000s, after DeGeneres and Anne Heche were together but before the talk-show host got involved with now-wife Portia de Rossi.

16-Year-Old Survives Unharmed Stowed Away In Wheel Well Of California To Hawaii Flight

Amazing: This is the first picture of the 16-year-old boy who traveled from San Jose, California to Maui, Hawaii on Sunday

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A 15-year-old boy found his way onto an airport's tarmac and climbed into a jetliner's wheel well, then flew for five freezing hours to Hawaii — a misadventure that forced authorities to take a hard look at the security system that protects the nation's airline fleet.

The boy, who lives in Santa Clara, Calif., hopped out of the left rear wheel well of a Boeing 767 on the Maui airport tarmac Sunday, according to the FBI. Authorities found the high school student wandering the airport grounds with no identification. He was questioned by the FBI and taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was found to be unharmed.

Miracle at Kahului Airport: The 16-year-old boy managed to survive for almost 6 hours in freezing temperatures at 38,000 feet during his stolen flight

FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu said the teen climbed into the left rear wheel well of the first plane he saw in San Jose.

"He got very lucky that he got to go to Maui but he was not targeting Maui as a destination," Simon said.

He passed out in the air and didn't regain consciousness until an hour after the plane landed in Hawaii, Simon said. When he came to, he climbed out of the wheel well and was immediately seen by airport personnel who escorted him inside where he was interviewed by the FBI, Simon said.

It was not immediately clear how the boy stayed alive in the unpressurized space, where temperatures at cruising altitude can fall well below zero and the air is too thin for humans to stay conscious. An FAA study of stowaways found that some survive by going into a hibernation-like state.

On Monday, authorities tried to determine how the boy slipped through multiple layers of security, including wide-ranging video surveillance, German shepherds and Segway-riding police officers.

Kraft recalls thousands of pounds of hot dogs

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Federal officials Sunday, April 20,2014, announced Kraft Foods is recalling of 96,000 pounds of hot dogs because packaging labels were incorrect.

The Oscar Mayer Classic Wieners packages may have contained cheese dogs, but the packaging does not advise consumers that they contain milk, a known allergen.

According to a release by the USDA, a consumer spotted the problem and notified the company April 18th. Kraft notified federal officials April 19th.

The 16-ounce packages were produced on March 2-3, 2014, and bear the establishment number “Est. 537H” inside the USDA mark of inspection. The products were distributed to Kraft distribution centers and in retail stores nationwide.

Consumers with questions about the recall should contact Kraft Consumer Relations at (855) 688-4386.

Woman Finds Dead Body During Easter Egg Hunt

A Tennessee woman says she made a grisly discovery while hunting for Easter eggs in her back yard with her 3-year-old son: a dead body.

Tara Hanouskova said she had noticed a foul smell but didn't find the source until Wednesday, when she noticed tennis shoes in the crawl space under her deck while hunting for eggs with her son.

Her son didn't notice the man's body, and police investigated discreetly, she said.

"They were very respectful; they tread lightly," Hanouskova said. "My son has no idea what happened."

She said she doesn't know how the man got there.

Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk told media outlets that the man had been dead about two weeks. The autopsy, however, did find that the man suffered from a medical condition that could have led to his death.

The death will be listed as natural causes unless something different is found in the final autopsy report, DeBusk said.

Meanwhile, police are still trying to determine who the man is and why he was under the deck.

Kids React to......

. .

In case you're not feeling old today, this should help.

This week, TheFineBros sat down with a few kids to show them an ancient artifact: The Walkman.

The kids are baffled by the sight of this bizarre object, but are even more confused when they try to get it to work. "I feel like I'm Indiana Jones or something," one child said after actually getting the cassette inside.

Try not to laugh too hard at the video because you might throw out your back, you old, old person.

Cher's Retiring, Right After She Finishes ANOTHER Farewell Tour

It's hard to really define a Cher show in the way one does a traditional pop concert. Sure, there's singing. Spectacle abounds. A great live band is present to bring decades of hits to life. But everything one sees is in tribute to something greater than the sum of these parts: Cher.

Pushing 70, apparently no one has told the perpetually youthful icon what it means to be a senior citizen. More likely, Cher just doesn't care. She's currently on theDressed to Kill Tour, jokingly described as a "farewell farewell tour." Emerging on-stage to the pulsing EDM of "Woman's World," Cher has an ability to wear up-to-the-minute trappings of contemporary culture with the same ease as every outlandish costume she dons. Not that it's her best choice, but we'll get to that later.

Despite the intense effort that has to go into such involved showmanship, Cher keeps an amusing distance from the whole affair. It's the sort of devil-may-care persona only an entertainment legend can pull off without seeming glib. Immediately following the show's intro, she launched into a full discussion of Dr. Pepper. The concert would simply have to wait to continue until she finished explaining to the audience how her assistant was watering down the carbonated beverage with Perrier.

After the long-winded monologue, we were off into the wild world of Cher. Aerialists soared above the stage with the showmanship of Cirque du Soleil performers while erotic vampire-beings stalked the floor with trademark over-the-top choreography. Then there was Cher, fending off a strapping 20-something while singing the tour's title track. Yes, she could be his grandmother, and he's probably gay. But damn it if Cher didn't infuse the situation with every ounce of sexual tension the number demanded.

I noticed not a ton of people around me were dancing. Thinking there was simply no way a soul was bored, I realized most were fixated on the stage with reverential awe, hanging to Cher's every word and movement. They laughed, clapped and cheered reflexively at the slightest provocation. During the megahits "I Found Someone" and "Heart of Stone," the multi-generational crowd seemed dangerously near spontaneous combustion from joy.

Not to say the show's perfect. Way too much time was spent on costume changes and archival footage. Granted, the woman has built a video archive that probably deserves its own library by now. From TV movies to family pictures to her memorable Oscars speech, it was all here. Perhaps the absolute best use of such archival footage was her duet with Sonny Bono. She explained that after initially rejecting the idea, closing out her final (wink) tour with Sonny was an opportunity she couldn't pass up. In a visual effect that's been alternately described as disturbing and endearing, he stared right at Cher and sang "I Got You Babe." She sang it back with the sincerest expression of the evening.

It was the first point of the evening where Cher the human emerged, a welcome guest given Pat Benatar had been blowing the roof off with husband Neil Giraldo just prior. Why the insanely charismatic and talented duo with a bevy of hits is opening for anyone remains a mystery. Aside from the strength of Benatar's own catalog, the couple had a refreshingly contemporary awareness and youthful energy that found a not-necessarily-rock crowd on their feet, fists in the air. This is a duo that loves music and just wants to share it with the audience, no frills necessary.

All that to say, being genuine is a winning formula. Cher's strongest material was the most personal. The bonkers dance tracks are fun. But watching a talented musical storyteller just emote from a place of sincerity is even more enjoyable. "You Haven't Seen the Last of Me" was a stand-out. She jokingly warned the audience the song didn't always turn out so well live. Then she sailed through the toughest parts with power and control. "Just Like Jesse James," despite Cher's animosity toward the track, is a consistently rewarding campfire singalong. And her rendition of "Walking in Memphis" shows a vulnerable, uplifting side of the singer we don't see enough of when producers bury her under studio wizardry. Granted, she obviously thinks the song is about Elvis. But it's Cher, so who's going to say anything? Even Marc Cohen might become convinced he wrote the song as an Elvis tribute after seeing her delivery.

By time the night drew to a close with a cover of Miley Cyrus' "I Hope You Find It," Cher had managed to encapsulate five decades of her dizzyingly successful career as a cross-platform entertainer. It's hard to look at the enduring persona of Cher and not be impressed. Most hit artists that got started well after she did faded long ago.

Like her career, a Cher performance can't exactly be described as even. When vampire lore morphs into the Roman Colosseum making way for a Skrillex-inspired dubstep breakdown in space, one knows not to bother asking questions. But if you're that talented and survive this long, doing whatever tickles your fancy is almost an earned right. Besides, we're talking about Cher.

Story by Chris Sossa

Did actor Dwayne Johnson die filming a stunt for Fast & Furious 7

Claim:   Actor Dwayne Johnson died filming a stunt for Fast & Furious 7. 
FALSE
Example:   [Collected via Facebook, April 2014] 

I'm seeing this on Facebook. Did Dwayne Johnson die while filming Fast and Furious?

Origins:   In April 2014, Facebook users began seeing viral posts teasing the story that actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson had died filming a stunt for Fast & Furious 7 (which recently began production four months after the death of series star Paul Walker) and offering links to a video report on the subject:

RIP Dwayne Johnson 1972 – 2014

Watch how DWAYNE JOHNSON died filming a stunt for FAST & FURIOUS 7

Such viral posts are part of a series of celebrity death hoaxes, clickjacking scams that typically take users who click through on them to Facebook look-alike sites for the purpose of tricking them into downloading malware, installing rogue Facebook apps, or filling out surveys. Users who take the bait often end up enabling rogue apps that request permission to access to their Facebook profiles and post under their accounts; those who incautiously grant such permission end up seeing the original post spammed to everyone on their friends list. 

As Facebook notes in their list of "Security Tips":

Never click suspicious links, even if they come from a friend or a company you know. This includes links sent on Facebook (ex: in a chat or post) or in emails. If one of your friends clicks on spam they could accidentally send you that spam or tag you in a spammy post. You also shouldn't download things (ex: a .exe file) if you aren't sure what they are.

Dwayne Johnson himself remains alive and well. 

How did April Fools' Day Originate?

For the eager prankster, nothing beats the centuries-old tradition of April Fools' Day.

"A lot of people think [April Fools' Day] is just obnoxious, and just wish it would stop," said Alex Boese, curator of the Museum of Hoaxes in San Diego, California.

"But people who love pranks really love the day and refuse to give up the tradition. They're the ones who keep it alive."

Boese notes, however, that the number of pranks in the home and at the office has decreased in recent years in the United States, and has been replaced by large institutionalized media hoaxes, he said.


April Fools' Day Origins a Mystery

The origins of April Fools' Day are shrouded in mystery, experts say.

The most popular theory is that France changed its calendar in the 1500's so that the New Year would begin in January to match the Roman calendar instead of beginning at the start of spring, in late March or early April.

However word of the change traveled slowly, and many people in rural areas continued to celebrate the New Year in the spring. These country dwellers became known as "April fools," the story goes.

Boese, who has studied the holiday's origin, disagrees with that interpretation.

"[The French] theory is completely wrong, because the day that the French celebrated the beginning of the year legally was Easter day, so it never really was associated with April first," he said.

"Traditionally it was only a legal start to the year—people in France did actually celebrate [the New Year] on January first for as long as anybody could remember."

Boese believes instead that April Fools' Day simply grew out of age-old European spring festivals of renewal, in which pranks and camouflaging one's identity are common.

April Fools' Day: The Joke's On Us

Joseph Boskin, professor emeritus of American humor at Boston University, has offered his own interpretation of the holiday's roots—as a prank.

In 1983, Boskin told an Associated Press reporter that the idea came from Roman jesters during the time of Constantine I in the third and fourth centuries A.D.

As the story goes, jesters successfully petitioned the ruler to allow one of their elected members to be king for a day.

So, on April first, Constantine handed over the reins of the Roman Empire for one day to King Kugel, his jester. Kugel decreed that the day forever would be a day of absurdity.

Kugel, incidentally, is an Eastern European dish that one of Boskin's friends had been craving.

The news agency was less than thrilled about the gambit, Boskin said. "I thought I should have been complimented for a quacky, quirky story that was fitted to the occasion."

Humor and pranksters can offer society some much-needed perspective, he added.

"Good humorists are basically secular shamans—they both heckle society on one hand and heal it on the other."

Boese of the Museum of Hoaxes also points out the day is an outlet for social inequalities to be openly confronted. For example, street urchins used to play April Fools' Day tricks on London gentlemen in the 1800s.

Stranger Than Fiction

However, fictional humor is slowly giving way to factual absurdities in popular culture, experts say.

One needs to look no further than the Ig Nobel prizes awarded every year for scientific research.

The 2007 Ig Nobel prize for medicine went to researchers who published an article on sword swallowing and its side effects—in the eminent British Medical Journal, no less.


"We keep inventing fewer things simply because we keep finding it is impossible to compete with reality," said Marc Abrahams, creator of the Ig Nobel Prizes and editor of the Annals of Improbable Research.

In March 2008 the journal described Philip M. Parker, who has invented a book-writing machine that scours a database of information to churn out a book in 20 minutes. The device has helped him author more than 300,000 titles—85,000 of which are for sale on Amazon.com, including the 2007-2012 Outlook for Lemon-Flavored Water in Japan and Webster's English to Zarma Crossword Puzzles: Level 1.

"The real stuff is funnier simply because it is real," Abrahams said.

"In that sense, the things that are real and funny are a superior form of an April Fools' joke, because you can tell them and people will think you are making it up."