Suspended Animation

Chinese artist Li Wei creates images of himself and his friends being thrown off buildings, dangling from bridges and hanging off cars, all in the name of art. Li's photos can take up to six months to set up and involve huge crews organizing props such as smoke, mirrors, wires and cranes. After the photographs are taken the father of one removes traces of the wires with a computer. Li, from Beijing, said: "One of the most difficult and expensive shots was where myself and 12 people were flying behind a car and we had to use a lot of cranes to keep us all suspended" "The images can involve me getting battered around a bit - most times I will pick up an injury from the stunt wires, one time I got my head stuck in a pane of smashed glass"
One of Li Wei's images is shown and it was taken with the help of cranes holding the people in position. 

Stop that Rodent

Alton Towers theme park in Britain has been forced to ban a squirrel from one of its rides, the Sonic Spinball, as its antics pose a health and safety risk. The rodent was said to be causing problems for operators at Alton Towers by getting in the way of improvement work on an attraction at the resort. Workers noticed it riding a revamped roller coaster as it was tested in the mornings and joining visitors who were offered an early go on it before the official opening. Alarms were installed that emit a warning noise inaudible to human ears but designed to ensure the squirrel, nicknamed Sonic, avoids the ride in future.
''Unfortunately Sonic's behavior is a danger both to our guests and himself and so we're doing all we can to ensure that he stays away from the ride," Alton Towers sales and marketing director Morwenna Angove was quoted as saying.

Facebook Hero

A New York teenager narrowly avoided a 25-year jail term for armed robbery thanks to a Facebook status update he posted about pancakes. Rodney Bradford was held by police for 13 days, accused of breaking into a Brooklyn residence, but was able to corroborate his alibi thanks a posting to his Facebook page that showed what he was doing at the time of the crime. Bradford's comment, teasing his girlfriend about not having joined him to eat pancakes and accompanied by a time-stamp, was probably instrumental in the district attorney's decision to drop the charges, his lawyer Robert Reuland said

Save Scooby-doo

Cartoons should be given movie-style age ratings to protect children from the violence shown in programmes such as Scooby Doo and Batman, a child safety expert has warned. A senior lecturer at Lincoln University, USA, said that risky behavior which would normally lead to injury is rarely shown to have negative consequences in cartoons. She claims to have found evidence that there children who watch violent programmes are more likely to engage in risky behavior and injure themselves. Among the programmes she deemed to contain the most risky behavior were Scooby-Doo, Batman, X-Men and Ben 10.
There have been some protests among children against this but they have failed to bring any change as thet are very localised, being limited to households and neighborhoods.