Video: Stunning Video of Earth from 240 Miles Up

Here's the best space video we've ever seen: 18 time-lapse sequences of photos taken from the International Space Station, gorgeously processed and edited by Michael König. There's so much going on it's hard to know where to focus while you watch—the North and Southern Lights? The flickers of lightning in the clouds? The cobwebs of settlement light stretching across continents? A list of the locations being passed over can be found here; the first two sequences were taken above the United States. We published a similar video a few months ago, but this one's the real deal.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space | Fly Over | Nasa, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

[via Kottke]

Nun Sues Disney For Stealing 'Sister Act'

We always knew Sister Act was too realistic to be fiction. Delois Blakely, a nun in Harlem, is now suing Walt Disney and Sony Pictures for basing the film on her real life. According to Blakely, she wrote an autobiography over 20 years ago about her life as a singing nun and brought it to Tri-Star Pictures. In her account, the project was then taken to Disney and produced as Sister Act in 1987 without her consent or involvement.

Blakely is now suing the studios for breach of contract, misappropriation of likeness, and presumably, permanent association with Whoopi Goldberg. When she isn’t singing in habit, Blakely is busy running the Occupy Harlem protests.

[Guardian]

Biting, Groping Vampire Woman Terrorizes Convenience Store

On Monday evening, an unidentified woman allegedly walked into a Denver convenience store, groped a male customer and bit him on the neck, then allegedly bit the clerk on the neck after asking for a hug. Police consider her armed to the teeth ... with teeth!

Unlike the 500-year-old Vampire Teen of Texas, Madam GropeyFangs hasn't publicly announced herself as a vampire. (She also wears clothes.) But she probably is one, so Denver police are referring to her as the "vampire bandit" until they spot her and her big beverage (Blood in a Can) and capture her.

"We have no pattern of vampires in the area," Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson told News 9. "This is highly unusual, highly bizarre." Nevertheless, visitors to Denver convenience stores—particularly the Barn Store, where Monday night's attack took place, and where the alleged vampire lady frequently lurks—should put on a garlic bulb necklace upon entering. If you encounter her in the aisles you could probably grab a garlic-flavoured snack food and fend her off that way, but this method hasn't been tested and might not work if the garlic flavouring is artificial.

[Channel 9]

City of Halifax Shuts Down Occupy Site

Halifax mayor Peter Kelly has evicted Occupy protestors from Victoria Park citing numerous complaints about their tent city. Kelly said they could continue to protest but had to obey the park’s bylaw against camping and against staying in public parks between 10pm and 5am.

The mayor also said the protesters were trying to create a permanent site in the park, and that it was unfair to others who wanted to enjoy that space as a community. Protestors were given two hours notice before the eviction, and police arrested the 14 people who refused to leave.

Halifax is now the second city to evict Occupiers after London, Ont. removed protesters on Wednesday.

[AFP]

Video: The Most Random World Record You’ll See Today

In 30 seconds, Brian Pankey took 77 bites out of three apples while juggling said apples and balancing on a rola bola. His parents must be so proud.

Penn State Has At Least One Protester

After the embarrassment of Wednesday night's riot, in which thousands of Penn State students took to the streets to protest the firing of longtime football coach Joe Paterno for helping to cover up assistant coach Jerry Sandusky's alleged rape of several young boys, you'd think Penn State fans would have learned their lesson. As it turns out, not all of them have.

Penn State and Nebraska played a football game yesterday, the first since Paterno was fired, and oddly, only one protester showed up—Penn State alum John Matko, who drove to State College from Pittsburgh carrying signs urging the university to follow Paterno's successor Tom Bradley and to cancel the rest of the football season. "The Kids Are What This Day Is About," read one of his signs. Apparently not everyone agreed:

A beer showered Matko. One man slapped his stomach. Another called him a "p–-."

[...]

A burly man wearing a "JoePa" T-shirt strode up, wrestled away the sign urging abused kids be put first from Matko's right hand and slammed it to the ground.

[...]

"Not now, man," one student said, shaking his head. "This is about the football players."

Now, in Penn State's defense, last night the university held a candlelight vigil attended by as many twice the number of students who rioted on Wednesday. And today was "Blue Out," a child abuse prevention-centered variation on the university's traditional "White Out" event that raised tens of thousands of dollars. Maybe Penn State can spend some of the money it raised on educating its fans?

[Washington Times, image via AP]

Video: Canadian Ad Agency Makes The Move To Catvertising

To stay on top of the ever-changing advertising landscape, john st. has opened the world's first cat video division. With production, filming and seeding all in-house. Ask yourself, what can cat videos do for your business?



[YouTube/AdWeek]

Video: Surfing Goat Hits Waves

Celebrating his birthday in style, Dayna McGregor took his goat surfing for the first time in Grover Beach, California.

“She did pretty well,” McGregor said of Goat-ee. “She got up on a couple waves. Got up? We put her on a couple waves and she was pretty successful.”

McGregor told KSBY News (news!) that he had originally purchased the doe to kill weeds but became attached to the animal, and now the two are inseparable.

[KSBY]