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It won’t come with the ocean views, but you can still catch some thrills from riding your very own Ferris wheel, straight off the Santa Monica Pier.

The nine-story wheel that’s been at Pacific Park since 1996 was put up for sale Tuesday on eBay.

The wheel overlooking the Pacific has 20 gondolas and is outlined in 5,392 light bulbs. It has provided some 3 million rides and has been seen in movies, on television and in numerous photos.

Next month, however, the Pacific Wheel will be replaced by a $1.5 million modern model.

The old wheel is operational and still in “great” shape, said Cameron Andrews, a spokesman for the amusement park.

The wheel cost $800,000 when it was built. It was modified in 1998 to become the world’s first solar-powered Ferris wheel.
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A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA’s estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth after spotting the boffins had miscalculated, a German newspaper reported.

Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a one in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid would collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported.

NASA had previously estimated the chances at only one in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizz-kid had got it right.

The schoolboy took into consideration the risk of Apophis running into one or more of the 40,000 satellites orbiting Earth during its path close to the planet on April 13, 2029.

Those satellites travel at 3.07 kilometres a second, at up to 35,880 kilometres above Earth - and the Apophis asteroid will pass by Earth at a distance of 32,500 kilometres.

If the asteroid strikes a satellite in 2029, that will change its trajectory making it hit Earth on its next orbit in 2036.
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Associated Press news agency reports today of a miraculous survival in Switzerland.

Swiss police say a baby suffered little more than a bump after being blown onto railway tracks and being run over by a train.

The incident happened Wednesday in the northeastern Swiss town of Moehlin, close to the German border.

Police say the six-month-old was in a buggy when a strong gust of wind blew it off a platform and into the path of an oncoming train.

Luckily the infant fell between the rails. Rescuers heard the baby’s cries and found it lying beneath the train, virtually unharmed.

The child and its mother were taken to hospital and treated for shock before being released.

“There wasn’t much left of the buggy,” said Bernhard Graser of the Aargau cantonal police.

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A housewife in the Philippines today cut off her husband’s penis while he was sleeping in their house because she suspected he was having extra marital affairs, a police officer said.

Police officer Rolly Lipata said 37-year-old Lenly Bayabado had long suspected her younger husband’s infidelity, prompting her to cut off his organ.

Lipata said neighbours rushed the screaming victim, 32-year-old Joelito, to a nearby hospital in the Manila suburban city of Pasig after the attack.

Bayabado underwent several hours of operation so his organ could be re-attached, but hospital sources said there was no guarantee he would still be able to perform sexually.

Bayabado denied he was cheating on his wife and said he will not file charges against her because he wants to keep the family intact for the sake of their four children.

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Thai health authorities are banning “cosmetic castrations” of underage boys, after parents complained about teenagers seeking out the operation as a first step toward a sex change.

Thailand last week imposed a total ban on the procedure pending a review by a medical board.

Under the new rules, boys under 18 will only be allowed to receive castrations to treat medical conditions, such as cancer.

The Medical Council of Thailand, a professional association that sets standards of practise for doctors, said adult men could still undergo castrations as part of a sex change operation.

But men will also now be required to undergo three psychiatric checks by different doctors before being allowed to begin gender reassignment surgery, the council’s president, Somsak Lolekha, told government-run NBT television today.

Somsak warned it could be difficult to enforce the ban, which takes effect immediately, at all the country’s clinics, where castrations can be performed in as little as 20 minutes for a cost as low as 4000 baht ($A140).

“Castrations of minors must be halted now,” he said.

Amnaj Kussalanand, Medical Council secretary general, said the organisation would meet tomorrow to consider penalties for doctors who violate the ban.

Thailand is famously tolerant of transsexuals, known locally as “kathoey,” or the third gender.

While they have traditionally been allowed roles in festivals and cabarets, they have in recent years sought to make inroads into mainstream society, and surgical sex changes have become more common.

AFP

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