UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News

Canadian lounging in briefs a Web hit

TORONTO, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- A Canadian man is using the Internet to let people watch him pad around his house in his underwear to raise money for cancer awareness.

The man, identified only as a 38-year-old University of Toronto employee named Mark who is a testicular cancer survivor, has set up www.guyathome.com. If he stays at home for 25 straight days and gets 25,000 "likes" on Facebook, underwear maker Stanfield's Canada will donate $25,000 to the Canadian Cancer Society for testicular cancer awareness

Through Day 5, Mark had more than 16,000 "likes," the Toronto Sun reported.

"It's been gangbusters, the support that we've got," Mark said Sunday. "It's been surprising and overwhelming. For me, it's just getting used to this world of living in a fishbowl and having everything you do be meaningful to people.

"As a testicular cancer survivor, it is important to me that young men are aware of the risks, especially because it can affect guys as young as 15.

"Hanging out at home in my underwear all day sounds great, but doing it for 25 days straight is going to be a challenge. I'm hoping to bring some awareness to a worthy cause that affects men of all ages in Canada."

Marathoner's done with exercise for now

CHICAGO, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- One runner in Sunday's Chicago Marathon -- whose shirt read "Beer Me" -- said it was his first and would be his last.

Mike Colonna, 29, of Chicago told WBBM-AM, Chicago: "This is a little scientific experiment. I haven't trained at all. So I'm going to see if I can do it. And then after that, I'm done putting forth physical effort and exertion."

Colonna said he rides his bike to work, and that's about all the exercise he gets.

"I don't think the human body is a house made of glass," he said. "I think that if you push it, you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. So I'm going to finish."

Colonna did finish, in a little more than five hours, 52 minutes.

Look: Google is driving with no hands

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Researchers at Google Inc. said driving would be a lot safer in the United States if the driving were left to a robotic system rather than a human being.

To prove its point, Google has driven a Prius 140,000 miles using a Light Detection And Ranging sensor on the roof of the car -- and with minimal help from a human driver, InformationWeek reported Monday.

"This is all made possible by Google's data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain," explained Google software engineer Sebastian Thrun in an online post.

Google said the LIDAR system could cut the U.S. traffic mortality rate in half, which would save 600,000 lives a year.

It would also allow commuters to catch up on their reading -- or on their work -- while scooting to their jobs, saving untold hours each year given the average commuter sits behind the wheel 52 minutes per day, the report said.

Among the hurdles to overcome before robots become America's chauffeurs is a legal system geared toward homo sapiens and an autocratic attitude towards driving, InformationWeek said.

Artist seeds gallery floor with meaning

LONDON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The artist who designed the stadium for the Beijing Olympics has covered a London gallery with 100 million hand-crafted ceramic sunflower seeds.

Ai Weiwei's installation at the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall contains 150 tons of sunflower seeds made of porcelain and individually carved by artisans in Jingdezhen, China, Sky News reported.

The seeds were molded, fired, hand-painted and then fired again over two years.

Ai's previous work includes the design of the Birds Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

He says his work represents China's Cultural Revolution, when propaganda images depicted Chairman Mao as the sun. The seeds signify the masses of people turning toward him.

Ai says he remembers the sharing of sunflower seeds, a popular snack in China, as a gesture of compassion and kindness in a time of extreme poverty.

"He's put up with a lot in his life," art critic Karen Wright told Sky News. "He grew up on a work camp in China with his father, a famous poet who was incarcerated, and he has learnt from that to be generous to people rather than mean."