Friday, August 10, 2007

One Spaced-Out Teacher

· "Class is in session," Mission Control announced after teacher-astronaut Barbara Morgan and her crewmates soared into space aboard the shuttle Endeavour Wednesday night.

The shuttle is scheduled to dock at the international space station this afternoon.

Morgan, the first teacher on a shuttle since Christa McAuliffe died in the 1986 Challenger explosion, will be talking with students back on Earth during Endeavour's 11- to 14-day mission and will help operate the shuttle's robot arm. Endeavour's crew includes D.C. native Benjamin A. Drew Jr.

· A panda once thought to be a male has given birth to two cubs.

The panda, named Jinzhu, had the cubs on Monday at the Wolong Nature Reserve in China.

For years, her keepers thought Jinzhu was a male because her reproductive organs were in the wrong place. After the problem was discovered, she had surgery to make her a "normal girl," according to a Chinese news agency.

· An 8-foot-tall Lego man was fished from the sea at a resort in the Netherlands. Onlookers said the toy (shown at right) came "from the direction of England."

· A crocodile dove out the 12th-floor window of an apartment in Moscow, Russia. He lost a tooth but was otherwise okay. Now here's the really weird part: It's the third time the croc has fled the apartment this way! Hmmm -- maybe the owner should think about moving to the ground floor.

· A New Zealand couple wants to name their newborn son "Superman"-- but only because the government won't let them name him "4Real." Officials said numbers aren't allowed in names.

· Police pulled over a man driving erratically in Estonia and discovered that he was blind. A passenger had been helping him with directions. (This is never a good idea!)