The! Biggest! News! of! the! Day! - Not IBM, Sears Holdings, ImClone Systems, or Apple and Macworld

Here are some of the contenders for today's biggest...news...of...the...day...

• Better-than-expected earnings from International Business Machines (IBM) that is giving a boost to the stock...
• A warning from Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) that "earnings per share may fall as much as 51% from last year's levels"...
• Skepticism on ImClone Systems (IMCL) as it is said that the company "has bet virtually everything on its only product" but "some analysts are skeptical as to whether ImClone will continue its advance in 2008"...
• A move by General Motors (GM) to take a stake in Coskata, "a private Warrenville (Ill.) company that claims it has developed an advanced process to make ethanol cheaply"...
• Chatter about what the annual Macworld Expo may bring from Apple (AAPL)...
• A look at how economic weakness is expected to hurt retailers...
• A look into the uncertainty around bank earnings...
• Signs that the Fed may be willing to offer "a more aggressive response to the increasing risk of recession"...

While those are all stories worth watching, I think it is obviously clear that the biggest news is this pair -

• Scientists create beating hearts in lab - "U.S. researchers say they have coaxed hearts from dead rats to beat again in the laboratory..."
• Man accidentally hangs self in amateur stunt - "A man was recovering in a Vancouver-area hospital after an attempt to film a mock hanging as a stunt accidentally became the real thing..."

Great, just great - as if the world didn't have enough problems, researchers have now begun the first steps to create zombies. I know it is being developed to help people, but as the second story illustrates, people do dumb things so it is only a matter of time before some distraught scientist brings back his deceased loved one. Brain consumption and horror soon follow, see this list of zombie movies for various plots...

While I believe the looming zombie threat is the biggest news, I should mention that my colleagues Jocelynn Drake and Elizabeth Harrow both sent me the story below as a contender for creepiest news of the day...

• Twins separated at birth met and married - "A couple discovered after they had married that they were twins who had been split up at birth and adopted by separate families..."