Archive for April, 2007
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Rubik’s “speed cubers” earning celebrity status
There’s an old game in town that is creating a new class of celebrities: “speed cubers” who can solve the Rubik’s Cube puzzle blindfolded, one-handed or even with their feet.
Tyson Mao, perhaps the biggest name in speed cubing, taught actor Will Smith how to solve the brightly colored cube for the film “The Pursuit of Happyness.” Shotaro Makisumi is a math prodigy so dexterous he can juggle seven balls at once. And Leyan Lo, a senior at California Institute of Technology, was featured on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
“Those three guys are among the biggest names in the business,” said Chris Hardwick, 23, who lives in Raleigh, North Carolina. He holds the record for speed solving the Rubik’s Revenge Cube and the Professor’s Cube, two advanced models, while blindfolded.
Posted in Toys! | No Comments »
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Guyana Woman Accused As Vampire Lynched:
A crowd of Guyanese villagers lynched an elderly woman they accused of being an evil spirit who drinks the blood of human babies, police said Monday.
Authorities in the South American country said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behavior and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an “Old Higue”—the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals.
The woman, who has not been identified, was beaten to death and her remains were found on Saturday in a village 15 miles east of Georgetown, police said.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Poisonous Snakes Found in Express Mail
Postal workers in a Brazilian border town knew there was something suspicious about the shipments from Argentina and were stunned to find scorpions and poisonous snakes in the express mail.
The contraband animals, which also included iguanas, tortoises and lizards, were discovered when the workers had the boxes X-rayed.
A spokesman for the federal police in Foz do Iguacu, the town on the border with Argentina and Paraguay where the incident occurred, said animals shipped into the country often end up in Europe “where they charge three, four, five times as much.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Monday, April 30th, 2007
DIRTY ‘TRICKS’
The bombshell sex probe of a Washington, D.C., madam that already has caught one Bush administration official with his pants down may soon focus on well-known political pundits who have appeared on TV.
“There are several thousand names, tens of thousands of phone numbers, from administration officials to lobbyists to advisers who are well known, people who appear on television,” said ABC News’ Brian Ross, to whom alleged madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey turned over her little black book.
In an interview with CNN, Ross refused to identify any more of the customers of Palfrey’s “escort service” and did not indicate whom he might name in a segment of ABC’s “20/20″ scheduled to air Friday.
The explosive revelation of the list has had powerbrokers quaking in their boots since Palfrey was pinched by the feds last month.
Posted in Politico Follies, Se7en Deadly Sins, Sexual Deviants, Sinners in the hands of an angry God | No Comments »
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Today is Tax Freedom Day®:
The Tax Foundation has announced that today (the 120th day of 2007) is Tax Freedom Day® — Americans will work four months of the year, from January 1 to April 30, before they have earned enough money to pay this year’s tax obligations at the federal, state and local levels.
April 30 is the national average — the Tax Freedom Day® in individual states range from the state with the highest tax burden — Connecticut (May 20) — to the states with the lowest tax burden — Oklahoma and Alabama (April 12).
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Do you really want to hurt me?:
A MALE escort told of his terror last night after claiming he was kidnapped by Boy George.
Auden Carlsen, 28, said: “It’s ironic that his biggest hit was Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? — because I’m sure he did want to hurt me.
“I was convinced I was going to die.”
The Norwegian spoke out as George, 45, was bailed by detectives probing assault and false imprisonment allegations.
Carlsen said he was grabbed by the singer and another man and chained to a wall after the star invited him to his pad in Shoreditch, East London, to pose for photos.
The escort fled in his pants after wrenching the hook from the wall.
Posted in Idiot Celebrities, Sexual Deviants | No Comments »
Sunday, April 29th, 2007
New toys read brain waves
A convincing twin of Darth Vader stalks the beige cubicles of a Silicon Valley office, complete with ominous black mask, cape and light saber.
But this is no chintzy Halloween costume. It’s a prototype, years in the making, of a toy that incorporates brain wave-reading technology.
Behind the mask is a sensor that touches the user’s forehead and reads the brain’s electrical signals, then sends them to a wireless receiver inside the saber, which lights up when the user is concentrating. The player maintains focus by channeling thoughts on any fixed mental image, or thinking specifically about keeping the light sword on. When the mind wanders, the wand goes dark.
Posted in Toys! | No Comments »
Sunday, April 29th, 2007
Study: Prehistoric Man Had Sex for Fun
He may have come down from the trees, but prehistoric man did not stop swinging. New research into Stone Age humans has argued that, far from having intercourse simply to reproduce, they had sex for fun.
Practices ranging from bondage to group sex, transvestism and the use of sex toys were widespread in primitive societies as a way of building up cultural ties.
According to the study, a 30,000-year-old statue of a naked woman — the Venus of Willendorf — and an equally ancient stone phallus found in a German cave, provide the earliest direct evidence that sex was about far more than babies.
Posted in Paleontology Update, Sex | No Comments »
Sunday, April 29th, 2007
Tanker fire destroys part of MacArthur Maze / 2 freeways closed near Bay Bridge:
The heat of a dramatic gasoline tanker fire destroyed an overpass and closed two major roadways in the MacArthur Maze at the East Bay access to the Bay Bridge early this morning. A section of the roadway taking traffic from the Bay Bridge onto eastbound Interstate 580 fell onto the connector that brings East Bay traffic from Interstate 80 to Interstates 880 and 580. Lanes of 580 near the East Bay Municpal Utility District sewage treatment plant at the maze are draped like a blanket over the northeast edge of the freeway below with the corner tip touching the ground below that. The tanker, which was full of vehicle-ready gasoline, seems to have disappeared. One Caltrans worker at the scene held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart to describe how big the tanker is now.
Posted in Fire | 1 Comment »
Sunday, April 29th, 2007
Slaughter: Horror at Sony’s depraved promotion stunt with decapitated goat
Electronics giant Sony has sparked a major row over animal cruelty and the ethics of the computer industry by using a freshly slaughtered goat to promote a violent video game. The corpse of the decapitated animal was the centrepiece of a party to celebrate the launch of the God Of War II game for the company’s PlayStation 2 console.
Posted in Modern Narcissism | No Comments »
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
Mouse brain simulated on computer:
US researchers have simulated half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer. The scientists ran a “cortical simulator” that was as big and as complex as half of a mouse brain on the BlueGene L supercomputer. In other smaller simulations the researchers say they have seen characteristics of thought patterns observed in real mouse brains. Now the team is tuning the simulation to make it run faster and to make it more like a real mouse brain.
Posted in Mad Scientists | No Comments »
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
Estonia blames Russia for unrest:
Estonia has accused Russia of provoking two nights of rioting over the removal of a Soviet war memorial in the centre of the capital, Tallinn. Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said Moscow had made provocative statements and meddled in Estonia’s internal affairs. Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced serious concern over the removal of the World War II monument. One Russian protester was killed during the violence and 153 people were injured and some 800 arrests made.
Posted in Anarchy | No Comments »
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
New Noah’s Ark ready to sail
The massive central door in the side of Noah’s Ark was thrown open Saturday — you could say it was the first time in 4,000 years — drawing a crowd of curious pilgrims and townsfolk to behold the wonder.
Of course, it’s only a replica of the biblical Ark, built by Dutch creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible.
Reckoning by the old biblical measurements, Johan’s fully functional ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That’s two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.
Life-size models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold.
“The design is by my wife, Bianca,” Huibers said. “She didn’t really want me to do this at all, but she said if you’re going to anyway, it should look like this.”
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
Bag back from Battle of Bulge
Henry J. Roth cheated fate in 1944 when severely swollen feet earned him a coveted seat on a train to an English hospital, weeks before his Army division was pounded by advancing Germans in the Battle of the Bulge.
Sixty-three years later, a faded relic from his foxhole arrived at Roth’s home in Catonsville.
Roth, an 85-year-old retired accountant, received the package this week from Belgium. As his mailman and wife looked on, Roth opened the box and pulled out a dark green canvas duffel bag, emblazoned with stenciled lettering: “Henry J. Roth 33383648″
It didn’t take long for Roth to recognize the bag. It had once contained some of his Army gear and a picture of his wife. He had left it with the other members of the 395th Regiment of the 99th Infantry Division in a foxhole near the Belgian-German border as he went to wash up in a nearby farmhouse.
Before he could return, doctors diagnosed his trench foot – a condition that afflicted scores of soldiers during the war – and sent him to England.
Posted in Historical Oddities | No Comments »
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
Scotty finally sent to the stars:
The ashes of Star Trek actor James Doohan have been successfully launched into space from a site in New Mexico, watched by cheering fans. Part of the remains of the actor, who played Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, were sent about 70 miles above the earth on a private SpaceLoft XL rocket. His widow Wende was there to witness her husband going on his final voyage. Doohan’s ashes were accompanied by the remains of former US astronaut Gordon Cooper and those of 200 other people.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Student arrested for essay’s imaginary violence
A high school senior was arrested after writing that “it would be funny” to dream about opening fire in a building and having sex with the dead victims, authorities said.
Another passage in the essay advised his teacher at Cary-Grove High School: “don’t be surprised on inspiring the first CG shooting,” according to a criminal complaint filed this week.
Allen Lee, 18, faces two disorderly conduct charges over the creative-writing assignment, which he was given on Monday in English class at the northern Illinois school.
Students were told to “write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing,” according to a copy of the assignment.
According to the complaint, Lee’s essay reads in part, “Blood, sex and booze. Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab, s…t…a…b…puke. So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did.”
Officials described the essay as disturbing and inappropriate.
Lee said he was just following the directions.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Quake Raises WWII Ship From Sea Floor
Wreckage from a World War II torpedo boat was tossed up from the sea in the Solomon Islands after a powerful 8.1 earthquake hit the area in early April, an official said Friday
Jay Waura of the National Disaster Management Office said the explosive-laden boat was exposed when reefs were pushed up 10 feet above sea level by the April 2 quake, which caused a devastating tsunami in the western Solomon Islands that killed 52 people.
The Solomons’ coastline is still littered with decaying military wrecks from World War II, including the torpedo patrol boat commanded by U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
“My team members believe that this boat could have been one of those U.S. torpedo boats such as the famous PT-109, which the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy had served aboard during the war,” said Waura.
Posted in Historical Oddities, Restless Earth, War | 2 Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Dead Man Travels Unnoticed on Train
A dead passenger traveled unnoticed for at least half a day on an executive passenger train, an Indonesian newspaper reported Friday.
Anxious family members found the body of Edy Haryanto, 55, sitting in a locked lavatory on Thursday afternoon, more than a day after he had boarded with a group of friends in the central Javanese town of Tegal, the Warta Kota newspaper reported.
His family became worried when Haryanto didn’t get out at the station in Jakarta at the end of the 6-hour journey and his cell phone went unanswered.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Bull Wanders Into Garage, Attacks Car
A woman pulled into her driveway and spotted something big inside her garage. That something turned out to be a bull. And an angry bull at that.
Mabel Washburn says she drove to a nearby relative’s home in rural Washington County to call police after coming face to face with the bull on Wednesday afternoon. When she returned to her home near the Vermont border a few minutes later, the bull was still there.
The 81-year-old woman says the animal then rammed its horns into her Ford Escort a couple of times. She blew her horn at it, but the bull chased the vehicle as she drove away.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Porn Slipped Into Wash. Time Capsule
There were a few surprises for the University of Washington’s Class of 1957 when they opened a time capsule sealed 50 years ago. Among audiotapes and copies of the yearbook and school newspaper were 1980s-era porn, a condom and some dirty underwear. Alumni opened the capsule earlier this week in preparation for a public unveiling Saturday during a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the university’s communications program. The capsule had been placed in an interior wall of the then-new Communications Building in 1957.
Posted in Doh! | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Pregnant cow runs riot across German city
A pregnant cow being chased by police and firefighters caused 25,000 euros (US$33,900) of damage on a three-hour rampage through the German city of Hanover. Uschi escaped from a farm late Monday and became increasingly violent as she encountered shocked drivers and pedestrians in the city.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Philadelphia shuts down psychics
They never saw it coming. City inspectors shut down more than a dozen psychics, astrologers and tarot-card readers after learning about a decades-old state law that bans fortune telling for profit. Inspectors did not make arrests or issue fines, “but they will if these people try to return to work,” said Dominic E. Verdi, deputy commissioner of the city Department of Licenses and Inspections.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Foreign Aid Head Resigns Amid ‘D.C. Madam’ Scandal
Randall Tobias, head of the Bush administration’s foreign aid programs, abruptly resigned Friday after his name surfaced in an investigation into a high-priced call-girl ring, said two people in a position to know the circumstances of his departure.
It was Tobias’ own decision to resign, according to one of the people, who said the issue came up only in the past day or so. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way.
Tobias submitted his resignation a day after he was interviewed by ABC News for an upcoming program about an alleged prostitution service run by the so-called D.C. Madam
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Sex | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
When teenage partygoers go bad:
The danger of MySpace turning teenage parties into apocalyptic gatecrasher magnets has had parents scratching their heads. But even with security guards, wristbands, and a strict guest-list a party can still end in carnage, writes Monica Fuller in our reader’s column.
Posted in I hate it when that happens, Myspace Classics, Teen Antics | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Weekly Piracy Report
05.04.2007: Afternoon: Posn: 00:25.00S – 042:34.00E Off Kismayo Port, Somalia Gunmen in a speedboat opened fire on a dhow. Luckily, the speedboat experienced engine trouble, giving the dhow time to escape.
03.04.2007: Evening: Posn: 02:03.00N – 045:20.00E, Off Mogadishu Port, Somalia. Gunmen in two boats approached a dhow at anchor and opened fire. The master contacted authorities for assistance who sent a speedboat and thwarted the attack.
Posted in Pirate Update | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
EU green targets will damage rainforests
European union green fuel targets will accelerate the destruction of rainforests in South-East Asia and threaten the habitat of endangered species, such as the orang-utan.EU green targets will damage rainforests Seeds of palm oil are harvested at a plantation in Rokan Hilir In March EU leaders agreed to set a binding climate change target to make biofuel – energy sources made from plant material – account for 10 per cent of all Europe’s transport fuels by 2020.
But the European Commission has admitted that the objective, which aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions, may have the unintended consequence of speeding up the destruction of tropical rainforests and peatlands in South-East Asia – actually increasing, not reducing, global warming.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Snoop Dogg banned from Australia:
Rapper Snoop Dogg has been banned from entering Australia after failing a character test, according to officials. The star – real name Calvin Broadus – was due to co-host the MTV Australian Video Music Awards on Sunday. The 35-year-old had his visa cancelled after recently pleading no contest to gun and drug charges in the US.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Idiot Celebrities | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
AK-47 Receipt at Scene Leads to Suspect
Sheriff’s deputies tracked down a suspect in an armed robbery with a receipt he left at the scene of the crime, authorities said.
A man wearing a mask robbed an Orlando Hess station Monday, stealing $75 and two cartons of cigarettes, the sheriff’s office reported.
When deputies arrived at the gas station, someone noticed that the robber had left a gun case against a display rack. Inside the case, deputies found a receipt for a new AK-47 assault rifle.
Posted in Idiot Criminals | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Man Accused of Mailing Bombs Well Liked
Authorities say Tomkins sent pipe bombs to two investment firms in an effort to drive up stock prices in two small companies he had invested in. The bombs, which would have been live had a single wire been connected, came with threatening letters signed “The Bishop,” authorities have said.
After months of investigating, Securities and Exchange Commission experts pinpointed Tomkins because of his ownership of a combination of stocks and other securities in Navarre Corp. and 3COM Corp.
Investigators also said a car in a photograph sent in one of the packages fit the type Tomkins drives, and that his handwriting matched that on some of the envelopes.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Anarchists Burn Athens Police Vehicles:
Suspected anarchists threw gasoline bombs at cars parked outside a central Athens police station on Thursday, destroying 12 vehicles in the latest in a series of arson attacks, authorities said.
Police said two patrol cars, four unmarked police cars and a police motorcycle were among the burned vehicles. There were no injuries or arrests.
The attack reportedly was carried out by a group of 30 to 40 masked youths in the capital’s Exarcheia district, a traditional stronghold for anarchists. The youths escaped on foot.
Posted in Anarchy | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Polish PM: More gays bad for society
Poland’s conservative prime minister rejected European Union criticism Thursday of a proposal to fire teachers for “homosexual propaganda,” saying it was not in the interest of society to have more gay people.
Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said homosexuals did not face discrimination in his country, responding to an EU parliament vote to send a mission to Poland to investigate recent anti-gay comments by senior officials.
“Nobody is limiting gay rights in Poland,” Kaczynski told reporters hours after the vote.
“However, if we’re talking about not having homosexual propaganda in Polish schools, I fully agree with those who feel this way,” he said. “Such propaganda should not be in schools; it definitely doesn’t serve youth well.”
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Friday, April 27th, 2007
French said to outpace Americans in French-bashing
The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans dislike them, according to an opinion poll published on Friday.The survey of six nations, carried out for the International Herald Tribune daily and France 24 TV station, said 44 percent of French people thought badly of themselves against 38 percent of U.S. respondents who had a negative view of the French.
Only 14 percent of Germans, 25 percent of Italians, 29 percent of Spaniards and 33 percent of Britons had a negative view of the French, according to the Harris/Novatris poll, which questioned more than 1,000 people in each country.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Power returning to Colombia after nationwide blackout
Colombia’s electrical grid collapsed Thursday, causing a nationwide blackout that briefly halted stock trading, trapped people in elevators and left authorities struggling to determine the cause.
President Alvaro Uribe told journalists in the southern city of Cali that the blackout, which began at midmorning, “appears to have affected the entire country.”
Luis Alarcon, manager of state-controlled electricity distributor ISA, issued a statement that the power outage apparently began with an undetermined technical glitch at a substation in Bogota and quickly spread to the rest of the country.
He said work crews had re-established power to about 20 percent of the country and hoped to reconnect the rest in a few hours.
Posted in Technological Travesties | No Comments »
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Intelligence: Horny Troops Succumb to Chinese Vamps:
Japan has discovered a widespread Chinese effort to use sex to steal military technology. Attractive Chinese female intelligence agents are marrying members of the Japanese armed forces, and then using that access to obtain military secrets. The situation has been complicated by the military attempts to keep these “embarrassing incidents” secret. The government was particularly anxious to keep the Americans in the dark about all this, since the Chinese apparently got their hands on Aegis anti-aircraft system technology via their lady spies.
Posted in Cloak and Dagger, Sex, Treason is as Treason Does | No Comments »
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Drunk deposits horse in bank for night
A German man called on his bank for an unusual service when he was too tired and drunk to go home — he bedded down there for the night with his horse.
The man, identified as Wolfgang H. by German media, went to sleep next to cash machines in the local branch of the Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse in Wiesenburg southwest of Berlin after unsaddling his horse Sammy and closing the door.
A spokeswoman for the bank said that aside from an undesirable deposit made by his horse inside the building, the 40-year-old account holder had not breached any house rules.
Posted in Fun with Alcohol | No Comments »
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
India court orders Gere’s arrest for “obscene” kiss
An Indian court ordered the arrest of Hollywood star Richard Gere on Thursday for kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS campaign event this month saying it was an obscene act committed in public.
Gere’s repeated kisses on Shetty’s cheeks at an event to promote AIDS awareness in New Delhi sparked protests in some parts of India, mostly by Hindu vigilante groups, who saw it as an outrage against her modesty and an affront to Indian culture.
The order by a court in the northern city of Jaipur came in response to a complaint by a local lawyer.
The judge watched a video recording of Gere kissing Shetty and found him guilty of violating Indian laws against public obscenity, the lawyer, Poonam Chand Bhandari, said.
Posted in Idiot Celebrities | No Comments »
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
How to prepare for alien invasion
When the aliens finally invade Earth, you may wish you had listened to Travis Taylor and Bob Boan. And if the invasion follows the plot of a typical Hollywood blockbuster, they might also be the guys called in at the last minute to save the day. After all, they have written An Introduction to Planetary Defence, a primer on how humanity can defend itself if little green men wielding death rays show up at our cosmic doorstep.
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’:
Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits. A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Idiot Celebrities | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
‘Kryptonite’ discovered in mine:
Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes. A new mineral matching its unique chemistry – as described in the film Superman Returns – has been identified in a mine in Serbia. According to movie and comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap Superman’s powers whenever he is exposed to its large green crystals. The real mineral is white and harmless, says Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London’s Natural History Museum.
Posted in Most Mysterious | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
Man cuts off penis in restaurant:
A man cut off his penis with a knife in a packed London restaurant. Police were forced to use CS gas to restrain the man when they entered the Zizzi restaurant in The Strand on Sunday evening. A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said the man was aged between 30 and 40 and that his injuries were self-inflicted.
Posted in Doh! | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
“Full-Scale Riot” At Indiana Prison, 2 Prison Staff Members Injured, At Least 2 Fires In Courtyard:
A “full-scale riot” broke out Tuesday at a medium-security men’s prison, according to the mayor, and pictures taken by a television helicopter owned by CBS affilliate WISH in Indianapolis, Indiana, showed at least three burning fires set around the facility.
Indiana Department of Correction spokeswoman Java Ahmed confirmed there was a disturbance at the New Castle Correctional Facility, about 43 miles east of Indianapolis. She said more than one cell house was involved, and two staff members were injured.
“The situation is being stabilized as we speak now,” said Sgt. Rod Russell with the Indiana State Police. “The staff from the correctional facility is all accounted for at this time.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
Potentially Habitable Planet Found:
For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for “life in the universe.” The planet is just the right size, might have water in liquid form, and in galactic terms is relatively nearby at 120 trillion miles away. But the star it closely orbits, known as a “red dwarf,” is much smaller, dimmer and cooler than our sun.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
Gunmen ‘kill Chinese in Ethiopia’:
Nine Chinese oil workers have been killed in Ethiopia’s remote Ogaden region, Chinese state media reports. A Chinese oil exploration firm manager told Xinhua news agency seven more Chinese workers had been kidnapped. Xu Shuang said their base had been attacked by about 200 gunmen. There are also unconfirmed reports that dozens of Ethiopian workers had been killed.
Posted in Anarchy | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
Coast guard sends icebreaker to aid trapped vessels:
The Canadian Coast Guard sent another icebreaker to help break up the ice that has trapped sealing vessels off Newfoundland and Labrador for much of the past five days. The coast guard said the additional icebreaker was dispatched from Halifax to help break up the ice field that trapped 100 vessels trying to return home after the end of the seal hunt on April 13.
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Man arrested for naked Hitler birthday event
A Canadian man has been arrested after he was found walking around naked with a swastika taped to his body to mark Adolf Hitler’s birthday, police said on Friday.
Police in Nanaimo, British Columbia, on Canada’s Pacific coast, said they were called to the scene by concerned residents, and the man told them he was “honoring Hitler’s birthday.” He was detained and will undergo a psychiatric assessment.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
Man Gets 5,000 Calls After Posting Number on YouTube
Ryan Fitzgerald is unemployed, lives with his father and has a little bit of time on his hands. So, he decided to offer his ear, to anyone who wants to call. After posting a video with his cell phone number on YouTube on Friday, the 20-year-old told The Boston Globe he has received more than 5,000 calls and text messages. Fitzgerald said he wanted to “be there,” for anyone who needed to talk. “I never met you, but I do care,” a spiky-haired Fitzgerald said into the camera on his YouTube posting.
Posted in Modern Narcissism | No Comments »
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
Mets fan charged for flash of light
A 40-year-old man arrested at Shea Stadium on Friday night is accused of trying to distract an Atlanta Braves pitcher and shortstop with a high-powered flashlight.
Frank Martinez was charged with interference with a professional sporting event and second-degree reckless endangerment, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Saturday.
Authorities said Martinez flashed the powerful light at the players in the bottom of the eighth inning from his seat behind home plate. He was quickly ejected from the game.
”The defendant’s alleged actions recklessly endangered the lives of players and spectators and caused a temporary delay to the game,” Brown said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
Speak Dutch or be fired
A Belgian auto parts supplier has forbidden its workers to speak any language other than Dutch, even during their lunch break, and employees could be fired if they disobey.
“We have people from Italy, India, Poland, Algeria here. It’s to avoid cliques forming here and there,” said Geert Vermote, human resources manager of HP Pelzer in the town of Genk in Belgium’s Dutch-speaking Flanders region.
Language is a sensitive topic in Belgium, particularly in Flanders where locals and politicians are keen to promote the use of Dutch and prevent the encroachment of the country’s other main language, French.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
Scientists Offer Frightening Forecast
The international panel of scientists predicts the global average temperature could increase by 2 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100 and that sea levels could rise by up to 2 feet.
Scientists have even speculated that a slight increase in Earth’s rotation rate could result, along with other changes. Glaciers, already receding, will disappear. Epic floods will hit some areas while intense drought will strike others. Humans will face widespread water shortages. Famine and disease will increase. Earth’s landscape will transform radically, with a quarter of plants and animals at risk of extinction.
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
Prisoner wrongly freed after officials get phony, typo-filled fax:
Officials mistakenly released a prisoner from a Kentucky facility after receiving a phony fax that ordered him freed, and it took them nearly two weeks to realize it.
The fax contained grammatical errors, was not typed on letterhead and was sent from a local grocery store. The fax falsely claimed that the Kentucky Supreme Court “demanded” Timothy Rouse be released.
Rouse, 19, is charged with beating an elderly man and was at the Kentucky Correctional & Psychiatric Center in La Grange for a mental evaluation. He was released April 6 after officials received the fake court order.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
The End of a 1,400-Year-Old Business:
The world’s oldest continuously operating family business ended its impressive run last year. Japanese temple builder Kongo Gumi, in operation under the founders’ descendants since 578, succumbed to excess debt and an unfavorable business climate in 2006.
How do you make a family business last for 14 centuries? Kongo Gumi’s case suggests that it’s a good idea to operate in a stable industry. Few industries could be less flighty than Buddhist temple construction. The belief system has survived for thousands of years and has many millions of adherents. With this firm foundation, Kongo had survived some tumultuous times, notably the 19th century Meiji restoration when it lost government subsidies and began building commercial buildings for the first time. But temple construction had until recently been a reliable mainstay, contributing 80% of Kongo Gumi’s $67.6 million in 2004 revenues.
Posted in Historical Oddities | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Hawaii Park rangers: Please don’t feed the volcano:
Rangers at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park are launching a program to stop people from leaving religious offerings at the summit of Mount Kilauea — including food they say attracts rats and cockroaches. Visitors leave 45 pounds of offerings from Halemaumau Crater each week, including flowers, bottles, money, incense, candles and crystals, park rangers say.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Robo-falcons used against pigeons
A flock of robotic falcons has been dispatched to tackle an influx of obese pigeons that are increasing in number and size thanks to an unnatural diet of fast-food.
The mechanical birds — called “Robops” — have been placed on rooftop locations around the British city of Liverpool and will flap their wings and squawk loudly to scare the problem pigeons away.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Clerk inadvertently wins $200,000
A Conover convenience store clerk inadvertently won a $200,000 Powerball prize after she rang up duplicate lottery tickets. Wadburn Allen accidentally printed the two tickets for a customer Tuesday. At the end of the day, after she was unable to sell the second ticket, Allen paid for the ticket herself.
Posted in Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Teenager lost in the rainforest survived on TV bushcraft tips:
A SCOTS teenager relied on TV bushcraft techniques to survive two nights in an Australian rainforest after becoming lost while trekking.
William Bliss, 19, from Plockton, ate watercress and kept warm using bracken fronds while waiting to be rescued in Otway Ranges national park in Victoria, South Australia.
He had picked up such knowledge from watching survival expert Ray Mears’ BBC programmes.
Posted in Teen Antics | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Pyongyang Declaration, Banner of Victorious Socialist Cause:
The Korean people and world progressive humankind have hardened their confidence in the victory of the socialist cause over the last years.
This year the Nepal Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) and People’s Liberation Front of Sri Lanka and others signed the Pyongyang Declaration.
Kim Jong Il, with his energetic ideological and theoretical activities, has published famous works including “Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable” and “Socialism Is a Science” to clarify the scientific accuracy and truth of socialism and indicate the tasks and way for the resurrection and victorious advance of the world socialist movement.
The revolutionary people across the world are venerating him as the leader of the world socialist movement who has wisely led the Korean people with the great Songun politics to frustrate all sorts of challenges of the imperialists and reactionaries and to defend and develop the socialist cause.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, N. Korea | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Novelty Phone Causes Stir at Post Office:
Telephones typically ring, not tick, so a man who went to the post office to pick up a novelty phone he ordered over the Internet was alarmed that the package was ticking.
It turned out that the phone shaped like Winnie the Pooh had a feature the customer didn’t know about: An incoming call causes Winnie’s head to spin, and the feature apparently had been activated during shipping.
The ticking that prompted evacuation of the Wright City post office Thursday morning was Winnie’s head repeatedly hitting the side of the package, said Cpl. Julie Scerine, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Police and members of the bomb squad were called about 6:45 a.m. when the man retrieving the package noticed the unexpected sound. Wright City is about 45 miles west of St. Louis.
“It was pretty distinctly ticking,” Police Chief Don Wickenhauser said. “And he didn’t want to pick it up.”
Posted in Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Zoo Says Don’t Stare at the Chimps
We all know not to feed the animals when visiting the zoo. Now the Antwerp Zoo has urged visitors to, please, stop staring at the chimpanzees.
New rules have been posted outside the chimp enclosure at the city zoo urging visitors not to form a bond with a particular male chimp named ‘Cheetah.’ He was raised by humans but is now bonding with the seven other apes at the park, a zoo official said Wednesday.
“We ask, we inform our daily visitors and other visitors that one of the monkeys is particularly open for human contact,” zoo spokeswoman Ilse Segers told AP Television News. “He was raised by humans in a family and therefore we are trying to integrate him, to try to get more social integration with the group.”
She said Cheetah’s continued interaction with humans was “delaying the social integration of the animal in the group,” and isolating the ape from the others.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Why gangs of youths buzz off when they hear the hum of a Mosquito
For years the hooded youths of Britain have been free to roam the country’s shopping streets. In the evenings and at the weekends they have loitered outside the shops of their choice.
But that is all beginning to change, and no thanks to ASBOs. Across the nation a mysterious high-pitched whine has been driving the youngsters from their natural habitats outside supermarkets, stations and leisure centres.
The source of the sound is a high-frequency ultrasonic device called the Mosquito that is inaudible to anyone aged over 25 but intolerable to anyone under that age.
More than 3,000 Mosquitos have been sold since they went on the market last year and they are being used by a growing number of police forces, shops, train companies, banks and local authorities to move on troublesome groups of youths. The devices cost £495, have a range of 15 to 20 metres and are harmless, according to the manufacturer, Compound Security Systems.
Posted in Wunderwaffen | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Armed Miss America 1944 stops intruder
Miss America 1944 has a talent that likely has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle’s tires and stop an intruder. Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.Ramey said the man told her he would leave. “I said, ‘Oh, no you won’t,’ and I shot their tires so they couldn’t leave,” Ramey said.
She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.
“I didn’t even think twice. I just went and did it,” she said. “If they’d even dared come close to me, they’d be 6 feet under by now.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, April 20th, 2007
Hitler party ‘distasteful and offensive’
White supremacists are holding a rock concert in Wellington tonight to commemorate Adolf Hitler’s birthday. The plan has appalled Jewish and anti-racist groups but they say, though the event is offensive, it is not illegal. The concert, organised by local branches of skinhead gang Hammerskins and neo-Nazi organisation Blood and Honour – which has been banned in parts of Europe, will bring Australian “viking rock” band Blood Red Eagle to play in Wellington tonight. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Friday, April 20th, 2007
Malaysian Prosecutors Charge Dead Man
A Malaysian judge scolded government prosecutors for filing a corruption charge against a policeman who died two years ago, a news report said Thursday. Sessions Court Judge Noradidah Ahmad, who was presiding over a bribery case, was surprised Wednesday when she noticed court documents stating that one of two policemen accused in the case had died after a stroke in 2005, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Friday, April 20th, 2007
Sudan man forced to ‘marry’ goat:
A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his “wife”, after he was caught having sex with the animal. The goat’s owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders. They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi. “We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together,” Mr Alifi said.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Friday, April 20th, 2007
‘Ghost ship’ puzzles rescuers
Australian rescuers were on Friday trying to solve the “Mary Celeste” style mystery of a yacht found floating off the coast with its engine running, food on its table ready to eat, but no crew.
The 12-meter (36 feet) catamaran was found 80 nautical miles off Townsville on the northeast coast, but there was no sign of the three crewmen who had set sail from Queensland state bound for Australia’s west coast on Sunday.
“What they found was a bit strange in that everything was normal, there was just no sign of the crew,” Jon Hall from emergency management in Queensland told local radio on Friday.
Posted in Most Mysterious | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
SHARPTON’S JUST A LEADER TAWANA-BE: KOCH
Former Mayor Ed Koch surprised an almost exclusively black audience yesterday by telling the Rev. Al Sharpton he had spoiled his chance to become “a crossover leader” by refusing to apologize for “the Tawana Brawley hoax.” Koch was speaking at a conference sponsored by Sharpton’s National Action Network when he brought up his relations with Sharpton.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
Donkey Becomes Witness in Dallas Dispute
The first witness in a lawsuit Wednesday between two neighbors was a real ass. Buddy the donkey walked to the bench and stared at the jury, the picture of a gentle, well-mannered creature and not the loud, aggressive animal he had been accused of being.
The donkey was at the center of a dispute between oilman John Cantrell and attorney Gregory Shamoun that began after Cantrell complained about a storage shed Shamoun was building in his backyard in Dallas.
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
Sleepy Crew Delays Flight for 13 Hours
Passengers on a British Airways flight from New Delhi to London were delayed about 13 hours when members of the cabin and flight crew reported they were too sleepy to fly, a company spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday. Crew members said they had not slept enough because of noise at their hotel, said Laura Goodes, a BA spokeswoman. A report Monday in the Hindustan Times had quoted airport officials as saying the pilot “felt sleepy.”
Posted in Doh! | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
Smoke Break Saves Woman From Falling Tree
Smoking just might have saved Brenda Comers’ life. She said she had just finished washing dishes Monday and stepped outside to smoke a cigarette when an 80-foot oak tree crashed through her roof, landing across the sink where she had been standing just seconds before.
Posted in Drugs | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
Caught On Tape: Alec Baldwin Rips 11-Year-Old Daughter On Answering Machine
Actually he’s not quite sure if she’s 11 or 12. He’s angry that she’s not there to pick up his scheduled call. This is nearly Paul Anka territory — “I’m gonna straighten your ass for you… you are a rude, thoughtless little pig.” Except it’s worse. Because, you know, it’s his 11 (or 12? who can know such things?) year old daughter.
Posted in Bad Parents, Idiot Celebrities | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
Woman registers a .47 blood-alcohol content, possibly a Washington state record:
A woman arrested following two car crashes last week registered a .47 blood-alcohol content on a breath test – nearly six times the legal intoxication threshold and possibly a state record. Deana F. Jarrett, 54, was taken to Evergreen Hospital as a precaution following her arrest April 11, the Washington State Patrol said Wednesday. No one was injured in the accidents.
Posted in Fun with Alcohol | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
Massive System Failure Affects Blackberry Users
NewsChannel 4 learned of a massive system failure that affected all blackberry users in the western hemisphere late Tuesday.
The RIM Company, which stands for Research In Motion, developed blackberry technology and said its infrastructure failed around 8 p.m. Tuesday and was until about 7 a.m. Wenesday.
E-mails were not being pushed to portable blackberry devices.
Officials with RIM said they tried to reset the system and they were concerned that the backlog of data, which could cause a bigger problem as it rushes through now that the system appears to be online.
Posted in Technological Travesties | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
Molten steel shower kills 32 workers in China
At least 32 workers were killed and two injured Wednesday when they were engulfed by molten steel at a metal factory in northeast China, the government said.
The accident was triggered when a steel ladle, with a capacity of 30 tonnes of liquid steel, sheared off from the blast furnace, spilling molten metal onto the factory floor some three metres (three yards) below.
The molten steel then engulfed an adjacent room where all the victims were gathered for a routine shift change, the State Work Safety Administration said in a report.
Posted in I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Monday, April 16th, 2007
No, it’s not about gerbils this time:
Protesters burn effigies over Gere’s kisses
Richard Gere’s repeated kisses on the cheeks of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in an event to promote Aids awareness sparked protests in India with demonstrators burning effigies of the actors.
Footage of the Hollywood star sweeping Shetty backwards in a dramatic embrace at the Sunday night event in New Delhi was repeatedly aired on news channels.
Many saw the act as an outrage against Shetty’s modesty and Indian culture, though Shetty herself angrily dismissed the protests as an “over-reaction” that made India look silly.
Groups of men burned and kicked effigies of the actors in protests across India, including in the northern Indian cities of New Delhi, Kanpur, Meerut and Varanasi as well as in the central city of Indore.
Posted in Idiot Celebrities | No Comments »
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Old Sample of Acid Detonated in Wis.
It’s not often that a bomb squad is asked to help clean up a pharmacy. But experts say a 2-ounce sample of picric acid in the basement of Sharrow Drug Store packed the punch of nearly half a stick of dynamite. Store employees found the sample Thursday as they were cleaning out old chemicals. Store owner Nick Sharrow is relieved that the local bomb squad safely destroyed the sample Friday, saying its explosive capability was stunning.
Posted in Fun with Chemistry | No Comments »
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Seattle Man Charged in Bizarre Duck Case
A Seattle man has been charged with a slew of crimes that involved an alleged shoplifting, assaults and a pet duck named Mr. Peepers. Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Stern on Thursday charged Kenneth Blaine Quinlan, 35, with two counts of third-degree assault and one count each of vehicular assault and hit-and-run.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Hungary: 5,000 rabbits block traffic on major highway:
Five thousand rabbits blocked a Hungarian highway Monday after the truck that was carrying them crashed. The animals came free after the truck collided with another vehicle and overturned, police officials said.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Single-pixel camera takes on digital:
Researchers in the US are developing a single-pixel camera to capture high-quality images without the expense of traditional digital photography. Being developed by a lab at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the single-pixel camera is designed to tackle what its developers see as the “inefficiencies” of modern digital camera.
Posted in Technological Travesties | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Serial Killers Cleared by Iranian Supreme Court as Victims’ Activities Were Un-Islamic
The Iranian Supreme Court has vacated the murder convictions of a group of serial killers because their victims were engaging in un-Islamic activities, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.
The men were convicted for a series of grisly killings in the southeastern city of Kerman in 2002. The vigilantes were said to believe that Islam condoned the killing of anyone engaged in illicit activities if they issued two warnings to the victims, the BBC reports.
At least 18 people were killed on the murder spree, but the men were only tried for five of the deaths. Some of the victims were stoned, others were suffocated and at least one man was buried alive, according to the vigilantes’ confessions.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities, T.R.O.P. | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Dynamite Surfing:
These guys in Copenhagen surf a wave created by a huge stick of dynamite thrown into the water. Viral for sports gear.
Posted in Doh! | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Police: ATM thief’s fake leg falls off in escape bid
A man accused of using a chain and pickup truck to yank a 1,500-pound ATM from a market failed to escape police when his prosthetic leg fell off during the getaway. Gregory Daniels, 48, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of burglary for the attempted heist from Pomona Ranch Market, police said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Dozens of animal carcasses dumped
It was a surprising discovery in South King County when dozens of animal carcasses were found along the side of the road near Black Diamond.
Now the Department of Fish and Wildlife, which spent a good part of the day removing them, is trying to determine how exactly they got there.
Cindy Sizemore made the startling discovery on her morning walk Wednesday. Dozens of animal, frozen dead, were placed along rural 257th Avenue SE in Black Diamond.
“I’ve been on for 20 years and this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this,” said Officer Shane Brazier.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Important Medical News . . .
I am right now on the phone, on hold, waiting to talk to Dr. Johannes Aas, a prominent gastroenterologist from Duluth, Minn. Dr. Aas has been paged. I am calling him because I have just received a copy of a medical paper he has written, and as a serious journalist I consider it my duty to bring this matter to the attention of the public.
Dr. Aas is a busy man, and this is taking a while, so I’ll use the time to warn you that if you are currently having breakfast, or contemplating having breakfast, or ever plan on eating again, you might wish to skip over the remainder of this column. Ah, here we go.
Posted in Mad Scientists, Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Brazil breaks up ‘killing firm’:
Brazil’s police say they have broken up a gang suspected of carrying out about 1,000 contract killings in five years.
At least 20 people, including police officers, businessmen and hired gunmen, were arrested in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco.
Police described the gang as “Murder Incorporated” – a professional business operation hired to kill people over small debts, and out of revenge.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Human waste to plug extinct Auckland volcano
Auckland has come up with a novel plan for getting rid of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of human waste – use it to fill one of its many extinct volcanos, then turn it into a regional park.
Local authority-owned Watercare Services announced this week that it had signed a $25 million, 30-year deal with Puketutu Island’s owners to dump the 61 tonnes of biosolids – cleaned, treated and dried human waste – produced by its Mangere treatment plant each week.
The waste would be dumped on a side of the volcanic island that had been extensively quarried in the past 50 years. The island’s original volcanic cone formation could also be rebuilt using the biosolids, subject to public opinion, spokesman Clive Nelson said.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Quantum secrets of photosynthesis revealed:
Through photosynthesis, green plants and cyanobacteria are able to transfer sunlight energy to molecular reaction centers for conversion into chemical energy with nearly 100-percent efficiency. Speed is the key – the transfer of the solar energy takes place almost instantaneously so little energy is wasted as heat. How photosynthesis achieves this near instantaneous energy transfer is a long-standing mystery that may have finally been solved.A study led by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) at Berkeley reports that the answer lies in quantum mechanical effects. Results of the study are presented in the April 12, 2007 issue of the journal Nature.
“We have obtained the first direct evidence that remarkably long-lived wavelike electronic quantum coherence plays an important part in energy transfer processes during photosynthesis,” said Graham Fleming, the principal investigator for the study. “This wavelike characteristic can explain the extreme efficiency of the energy transfer because it enables the system to simultaneously sample all the potential energy pathways and choose the most efficient one.”
Posted in Weird Science | No Comments »
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
Guard in Hot Water for Bible Belting
A jail guard has been suspended after allegedly thumping an inmate with a Bible. James Lee Sheppard, 56, has been charged with two gross misdemeanors for allegedly swatting a Blue Earth County Jail inmate with the book, grabbing him by the throat and slamming him against steel bars on Feb. 8, according to the criminal complaint.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
Suds Fill Streets in Idaho, Alaska
City streets got an unscheduled cleaning as a sudsy citrus-scented foam erupted from manhole covers like geysers.
The bubbles spewed from a three-block stretch on the city’s east side Thursday after American Linen accidentally released detergent into the municipal sewer lines. The combination of gravity and churning water whipped the soap into a sudsy foam.
“We have never had a situation like this before,” said Vince Trimboli, the public works spokesman.
Posted in I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
Terrorists Hijack Satellite:
Sri Lankan officials were shocked to learn that the local rebels (the LTTE, representing separatist among the Tamil minority) had hijacked two channels on a television satellite, and were broadcasting anti-government (and pro-terrorist) programming to anyone in Sri Lanka who had a small DTH (Direct to Home) satellite dish.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
German army in ‘racist video’ row:
A video aired on German TV has shown an army recruit on firing practice being ordered to pretend he was in New York’s Bronx facing hostile African Americans. In the grainy 90-second video, the instructor tells the soldier to swear as he fires his gun. US civil rights leader, Al Sharpton, said it was outrageous to depict blacks as “target practice”.
German speakers can read more and watch the video here.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
If it’s in Pravda, it must be the truth!
In a clear sign of its intent to reign in dissident American media personalities, and their growing influence in American culture, US War Leaders this past week launched an unprecedented attack upon one of their most politically ‘connected’, and legendary, radio hosts named Don Imus after his threats to release information relating to the September 11, 2001 attacks upon that country.According to European reports of the events surrounding Don Imus that have gripped the United States this past week, it was during an interview with another American media personality, Tim Russert, who is the host of a television programme frequently used by US War Leaders, wherein while decrying the state of care being given to American War wounded stated, “So those bastards want to keep these boys [in reference to US Soldiers] secret? Let’s see how they like it if I start talking about their [in reference to US War Leaders] secrets, starting with 9/11.”
Unable to attack such a powerful media figure as Don Imus, directly, the US War Leaders, and as we have seen many times before, resorted to a massive media attack against him using as the reason a racial slur against a US woman’s basketball team, but which has been pointed out by other media outlets was not by any means a rare occurrence for the legendary radio icon to make.
But, to the US War Leaders, Don Imus represented the most serious threat, to date, of the growing assault against them by America’s media personalities threatening to expose the truths behind the events of September 11, 2001 and the Iraq/Afghanistan Wars; and to such an extent that another American media personality, Rosie O’Donnell, has expressed concern that US Military Leaders could actually imprison Mr. Imus.
Posted in Conspiracies, Pravda | No Comments »
