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Scientists have discovered the world's largest known bacteria, reaching up to one centimetre (0.4-inches) in length. The species, called Thiomargarita magnifica, was discovered on sunken leaves in the waters of a mangrove swamp in Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. It appears as thin white filaments like vermicelli pasta, and contains microscopic sulphur granules that scatter light, giving it a pearly gleam. The 'giant' organism is thousands of times larger than most bacteria and can therefore be seen by the naked eye. Thiomargarita magnifica 'challenges the prevailing view of bacterial cell size' and the assumption that microbes are only visible...

As you know, Joe Biden loves kids. He loves sniffing them, caressing their hair, whispering softly into their ears, and holding them close as pictures are taken. According to the former VP, he also loves it when kids reach into the pool and rub the his hairy legs. We've all seen the infamous video of him bragging about this encounter. Sadly for Joe, President Trump is not letting the American people forget about his creepy remarks from the past. In fact, the Trump campaign put the video on the BIG SCREEN at his New Hampshire rally today!

It’s no secret that Buzz readers have some pretty amazing pets as seen in our Neighborhood Tails column each month. Now you can cast your vote for the 2013 Memorial Buzz Pet of the Year. Voting deadline is midnight, December 31, 2013. Limit of one vote per person. The winner will be announced January 6, 2014 on our website and will receive the following prizes from our sponsors. (Please click through for prize descriptions) Please vote for Ditter's dog Hairy!

Washington, DC – Nevada Senator Harry Reid released the following statement today: “House Republicans’ vote to deny nutrition assistance to hungry, low-income Americans is shameful. The Senate will never pass such hateful, punitive legislation. “Under the leadership of Chairwoman Stabenow, the Senate forged a bipartisan compromise that saves $23 billion without taking food out of the mouths of hungry Americans. Whenever the House gets serious about passing real legislation, they should follow the lead set by Chairwoman Stabenow.”

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It sounds like a horror movie: Biting ants invade by the millions. A camper's metal walls bulge from the pressure of ants nesting behind them. A circle of poison stops them for only a day, and then a fresh horde shows up, bringing babies. Stand in the yard, and in seconds ants cover your shoes. It's an extreme example of what can happen when the ants — which also can disable huge industrial plants — go unchecked. Controlling them can cost thousands of dollars. But the story is real, told by someone who's been studying ants...

To be ready for Election Day, savvy shoppers already have stocked up on sympathy cards from the Capitol Gift Shop. Current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, will be most in need of cheering up, as she is unlikely to wield a gavel next year. The only question, according to the polls, is whether Republicans can defy the odds and sweep the tight races needed to wrest control of the Senate, too. Either way, it's best to have a card prepared for current Majority Leader Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who's trailing Republican challenger Sharron Angle in the most recent...

Fayette county officials arrested a Junction City, Oregon woman Sept. 29th , in West Union for Failure to Comply with the Iowa sex-offender registry. Fayette County Sheriff’s Office received a tip from a citizen, and found Tammie Sue Benson-Whitehead, 48, to be staying at 101 Jones Street, Suite B, in West Union. Benson-Whitehead is listed as a sex-offender for two counts of 2nd degree sexual abuse in 2003.

China's hairiest man, a wannabe pop star who calls himself King Kong, wants to carry the Olympic torch on its journey to Beijing in 2008. Yu Zhenhuan, from the northeastern province of Liaoning, told the Xinhua news agency that his fame and extreme hirsutism qualified him to be one of the 21,880 people who will carry the torch on its roundabout, 85,000-mile voyage next year. "It would be a great honour to join the Olympic torch relay," said Mr Yu, a 30-year-old rock singer who was recently deposed as the world's hairiest man by a pair of Mexican brothers. "The...

A strange ugly sea monster was cast ashore in Guinea.

Some people who feed birds sometimes wish they'd never see another woodpecker, particularly the downy and hairy species. The little critters often are the ones who find wood house siding as appealing as a dead elm tree. Cedar siding is particularly interesting to them and other species - even the crow-sized pileated woodpeckers. Seven types of woodpeckers are common in Wisconsin: sapsuckers, flickers, pileated, downy, hairy, redheaded and red-breasted. "I live in a cedar-sided house and have an issue with woodpeckers," wrote a Poynette man. "They seem to think my house is a great place to hang out and pound...

Buy Alec Baldwin’s Hairy iPod READ MORE: alec baldwin, ebay, ipod, music Celebrity memorabilia collectors are no doubt filled with joy at the latest gem to hit eBay: what would appear to be an iPod once belonging to actor Alec Baldwin. Or an iPod belonging to someone else named Alec Baldwin, or perhaps the iPod of a weirdly misguided fan of Alec Baldwin. No explanation on how the seller came to aquire the item, but some info on Baldwin’s tastes: This is Alec Baldwin’s 4th Generation 20 GB Apple iPod (Black & White). The iPod is engraved on the back...

A study of DNA from ancient farmers in Europe shows sharp differences from that of modern Europeans — results that are likely to add fuel to the debate over European origins. Researchers led by Wolfgang Haak of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, argue that their finding supports the belief that modern residents of central Europe descended from Stone Age hunter-gatherers who were present 40,000 years ago, and not the early farmers who arrived thousands of years later. But other anthropologists questioned that conclusion, arguing that the available information isn't sufficient to support it. Haak's team used DNA from 24...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

PHOENIX, Dec. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Rob Gott got the surprise of his life when his wife Tammy-Jo gave him the ultimate gift for the holidays: a free hair transplant that she won for him in an online essay contest at the Hair Loss Learning Center.org (http://www.hairlosslearningcenter.org). The prize of a free hair transplant is being donated by one of America's leading Hair Restoration Physicians, Dr. Scott F. Alexander of Phoenix, Arizona. Tammy-Jo Gott could see how hair loss was wearing heavily on her husband Ron's happiness and decided to enter the contest to describe her husband's plight. "I could see...

<p>PARIS, France --Flights are expected to be severely disrupted Tuesday in France as air traffic controllers walk off the job to protest government plans to reform the country's pension system.</p> <p>Air France, the country's national carrier, said it would cancel 65 percent of short- and medium-haul flights during the one-day strike, which comes after a series of transport strikes earlier this month that brought much of France to a standstill.</p>

France's Teachers Go On Strike Over Minister's Conservatism [Minister Bashes Leftists, Wants Local Control of Schools] By Hugh Schofield in Paris French teachers have embarked on their fourth national strike since the start of the school year in an atmosphere of increasingly bitter recrimination against the country's centre-right government. Teaching unions warn of mounting exasperation To the grievances over funding and jobs that kick-started the movement last autumn are now added anxiety over pensions and opposition to the government's programme of decentralisation. More generally, many in the educational establishment - a body closely aligned with the political left - are...

France's Islamic heartland by Hugh Schofield The wooded hills of deepest Burgundy are the unlikely setting for a place that could play a key role in the development of a European Islamic identity. The sound of Arabic mingles with the birdsong The unhelpfully-named European Institute for Human Sciences (IESH) is in fact a theological college, which for 13 years has been training up a new generation of indigenous imams for France and the rest of the continent. In the heart of what the French call "La France profonde" (deepest France) - amid the herds of cream-coloured cattle and the breathtaking...

Guide to French TV channels The French think they have the best TV in the world, just like every nation does - and like everyone else, they're wrong! There's the usual over-abundance of game, talk and variety shows - but in which other country could you find a prime-time programme on culture? This is a guide to the six national terrestrial channels. TF1 This privately-run media is one of the two most popular channels (the other being state-run France 2), and fills up most of its programming with game shows (it bought the rights to Who wants to be...

French anti-Semitism reports surge Attacks on synagogues have increased since 11 September 2001 There was a dramatic rise in reported racist and anti-Semitic acts in France last year, according to the French Government's human rights watchdog. The National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH) said there had been more than 300 registered instances of violence, and almost 1,000 cases of abuse or threats. Two-thirds of them were anti-Semitic - six times as many as in 2001. If the increase in the number of attacks aimed at the immigrant community is significant, the quantity of attacks aimed at the Jewish...