by Claudine Zap

Paul the Octopus may have predicted the World Cup winner. But he never could have seen this coming: Being denounced by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The president of Iran blasted the cephalopod for spreading "western propaganda and superstition."

If anyone should get the blame for spreading the word to the world about the sea creature's mad skills, it should be Paul's PR team from the German Oberhausen Sea Life Center, where Paul resides. Paul simply predicted the winner of the German games correctly. 

The octopus did this by pointing to the flag of the winning country when both teams were presented to him. He became the beloved mascot for Spain when one of his arms accurately predicted that country as the winner of the World Cup.

Paul made a splash with football fans and the Web. A wave of Yahoo! searches for "paul the octopus" surged over 60,000% in the month of June. Still, all the cheers for the soccer-loving sea creature seem to have left the head of Iran cold.

We're not sure what led the Iranian leader to finger the 8-armed mollusk as enemy number one, but the sea animal better not have plans to travel to Iran anytime soon. According to the Telegraph, Ahmadinejad mentioned Paul "on various occasions during a speech in Tehran" over the weekend. He called the soccer soothsayer a symbol of "decadence and decay."

The octopus oracle has yet to comment — or predict the future of the Iranian president. Outlook: Not so good.

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by Claudine Zap

Everyone knows the image: Celebrating V-J Day in Times Square back in 1945, a sailor dips a nurse into a passionate kiss and is snapped into icon status by Life Magazine. But the identity of the sailor has remained a mystery.

Over the years, several men have claimed the mantle of the man in question. Now, there's one more who says he's the one.

The vet is one Glenn McDuffie. The 88-year-old has photos of himself in his sailor suit, can ID the other people in the famed photo, and has even submitted to multiple lie-detector tests. One woman who believes him told his story to CNN.

Whether he's the real deal or not, he sure is one adorable guy. Check out pictures of him here.

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by Claudine Zap

First, you could check in online. Then you could print out your own boarding pass. Now, Continental Airlines is testing a self-board option. Some travelers at Houston Intercontinental Airport can now come to the gate, swipe a bar-coded ticket, and walk themselves onto the plane.

A story on USA Today described it as similar to riding a New York City subway (we hope, the only way): Once the ticket is swiped, a turnstile door will open to allow the passenger entry to the airplane. While automated boarding does not require the human touch, an attendant will be on hand to deal with the usual customer service problems.

And we can imagine plenty of problems. Does anarchy rule in this experiment? No longer will passengers be called by row or color coded boarding pass, but expected to instead make a dash through a turnstile. Actually, this is sounding more and more like the subway. Let's hope there isn't too much pushing and shoving.

Amazingly, the TSA is on board, as it were, with self-boarding. The practice is already in place at many international airlines, like Air France and Air New Zealand. Humans are still required to fly the plane. For now.

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by Mike Krumboltz

It hasn't gotten the press of the "Retina Display" or "Facetime," but the iPhone 4's tethering capabilities are nothing to sneeze at.

Tethering, for those who don't know, allows a person to use their cell phone's signal to get their Wi-Fi enabled laptops online. It's pretty cool. Unfortunately, it isn't free. AT&T wants $20 a month for the feature. But a 15-year-old named Nick Lee found a way around the fee.

Lee created an app, called "Handy Light," for the App Store. It looked like a simple flashlight, but it was actually a tethering application in disguise, available to users for the low, low price of 99 cents. The app has since been yanked, but you can about the undercover operation at Gizmodo...

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