According to local news sources, astronomers have found a hole in the universe.  That sounded interesting, but there’s actually nothing to it.  There’s no actual “hole” — someone just looked out in space and found an area with nothing there.  An excerpt from the article :

Astronomers have stumbled upon a tremendous hole in the universe. That’s got them scratching their heads about what’s just not there. The cosmic blank spot has no stray stars, no galaxies, no sucking black holes, not even mysterious dark matter. It is 1 billion light years across of nothing. That’s an expanse of nearly 6 billion trillion miles of emptiness, a University of Minnesota team announced Thursday. … It could also be a statistical freak of nature, but that’s probably less likely than a giant void, said James Condon, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. … “It looks like something to be taken seriously,” said Brent Tully, a University of Hawaii astronomer who wasn’t part of this research but studies the void closer to Earth. … Retired NASA astronomer Steve Maran said of the discovery: “This is incredibly important for something where there is nothing to it.”

So if there’s a spot in the universe with nothing there, it’s a hole?  I can look in the night sky and see lots of empty spots.  The retired NASA astronomer’s statement is puzzling, also.  He said there’s “nothing to it”, yet it is also “incredibly important”.  What does that mean?  Is it important because this new “discovery” (or lack of discovery) might result in additional millions of dollars in research grants?  I hope not!

This seems like one of the biggest non-newsworthy discoveries ever.  They put their news-sounding verbiage to it, but consider it this way : “I was looking around the sky with my telescope and radio transmissions receiver, and I found this big spot where nothing is there.”  Since when is it big news when there’s an empty patch of space?  Are there supposed to be stars in every single part of the universe?  If so, who decided that?

If there are missing stars out there, that would be newsworthy, because it would mean something — or someone — was stealing them.  But the article did not imply that at all.  So what’s the big deal?  Can anyone explain why this is news?

Here’s a few links to some random stories or news that you might’ve missed, including a video clip and a movie trailer that you’ll probably want to watch.

A 1,500 pound wrecking ball broke loose from a demolition crane and rolled nearly three-quarters of a mile downhill, damaging multiple cars.  It finally landed in the trunk of a car at an intersection, and it pushed the car forward about 20 feet, causing it to crash into two other vehicles.

Have you ever wondered how insects look up close?  You may be surprised.

There’s been numerous movies based on video games, and most of them have siphoned.  Think of Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter, DOOM, Mortal Kombat, etc. — none were nearly as good as the game.  None of them could really capture what it was like to play the game.  Well, someone has decided to make a movie on one of the most famous games of all time, and it’s something original.  It’s Minesweeper : The Movie.  Follow the link to see the live-action trailer.

Some guy hacked the Nintendo Wiimote to measure g-forces and acceleration of his car.  That’s very nerdy, yet it’s cool that the Wiimote has that much technology in it.

I saw an article saying pigeon dung contributed to Minneapolis bridge collapse, but I think that’s a load of crap.

You might’ve seen this one already, as it’s making the rounds via e-mail forwards.  Miss South Carolina from the Miss Teen USA 2007 competition tries to answer a question about why one-fifth of Americans are unable to locate the United States on a world map.  I’m sure she was extremely nervous, but it sounded like her answer was a collection of catch-phrases.  What does Iraq and South Africa have to do with Americans not being able to read a map?  Anyway, it’s very much random, but that wasn’t the right place for it.  Do you feel sorry for her, or is it her fault for not being prepared enough or for being too stupid?