Archive for May, 2007
Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Oops! Check for millions misdirected to woman
A single typo erroneously sent a $2.6 million state check to a Hopkins High School employee who is charged with four felonies for allegedly spending much of the money on luxury cars, a U.S. treasury bond and an individual retirement account.
When Sabrina Walker, 37, appeared in Hennepin County District Court on Wednesday, she did not enter a plea. A warrant was issued for her boyfriend, Charles Lockhart, who authorities said helped spend the money.
The check was intended for the Hennepin County Medical Center, one of 17 hospitals receiving payment at the time, said Tim Wilkin, assistant Human Services commissioner. A single digit was typed wrong in the vendor number, and the check went to Walker. The typing was proofread by another employee, but the error was not spotted, Wilkin said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Doh! | No Comments »
Thursday, May 31st, 2007
‘Guru of Ganja’ Convicted on Marijuana Charges
Ed Rosenthal, the self-proclaimed “guru of ganja,” was convicted again Wednesday in federal court of illegally growing hundreds of marijuana plants that he said were meant to treat sick people, which state law allows.
Rosenthal was convicted of three cultivation and conspiracy charges after U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer prohibited the marijuana activist’s lawyers from telling the jury Rosenthal was working for a pot club sanctioned by Oakland government officials. The decision underscored the tension between federal law and laws in 11 states that have legalized pot to some degree.
Posted in Drugs, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Immigrants left floating in sea
TWENTY-SEVEN illegal immigrants spent a day at sea holding on to buoys around a giant tuna net as the Maltese and Libyan governments argued over who should save them from drowning.
They were picked up eventually by an Italian patrol vessel. The men – Africans of various nationalities – had paid for a passage from Libya to Europe in an open boat that foundered on Saturday.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Nautical Nightmares | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Naples’s trash is a challenge politicians are flunking
Business at Pizzeria Napoli Nord is down 70 percent, and no one has the slightest doubt why: The reasons include egg shells, fermenting teddy bears, garlic, hair that looks human, boxes for blood pressure medicine, scuzzy wine bottles – all in an unbroken heap, at places two meters high, stretching the length of a football field along the curb to the pizzeria’s door.
It smells bad.
“If you see all this trash, you don’t have much desire to eat,” said the pizzeria owner, Vittorio Silvestri, 59, who, like most people in and around Naples these days, is very angry at the city’s leaders.
For a dozen years, Naples and surrounding towns like this one have periodically choked on refuse, but the last two weeks have flared into real crisis, as much political as sanitary. The trash began piling high in the streets as places to dump the region’s refuse officially filled up. The last legal dump closed on Saturday.
Posted in I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Guinea pig ‘fried for dinner’
A German bricklayer, who accused his girlfriend of liking her pet guinea pig more than him, killed the pet and turned it into a “romantic” dinner for two.
Lara Hochner, 23, from Darmstadt only found out what had happened when she went to her beloved pet Rudi after the candle-lit meal, to make sure he had enough food and water.
When she realised he was not there, her 29-year-old boyfriend Werner Brenner admitted that the couple had just eaten the animal.
Posted in Doh! | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Charles Manson denied parole for 11th time
The infamous Charles Manson, whose led his cult in the 1969 murder of film star Sharon Tate and four other people at her Beverly Hills mansion, was denied parole Wednesday for the 11th time in his 38 years in prison, the California prison administration said.
“The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Board of Parole Hearings today denied parole for convicted mass murderer Charles Manson during a hearing at Corcoran State Prison,” it said in a statement.
“The denial was for five years, the maximum allowed by law,” it said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Brits cheer as German towels burn
In a story that seems to confirm every national stereotype you could possibly hope for, a Welsh coach driver was cheered on by British tourists as he set fire to the towels that German holidaymakers had left on sunbeds.
Glyn Bowden, 55, was then arrested by the Italian police, only for them to let him go a few hours later after local hotel bosses intervened.
Bowden was the driver for a coach party of 55 Brits holidaying on the Italian Riviera. He became frustrated when German holidaymakers kept trying to reserve the best sunbeds at the private beach and pool at the Viana Marina.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, Fire | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Process this: A kaput-critter computer
With more and more companies allowing employees to bring their pets to work these days, it’s not unusual to find a furry animal occupying a cubicle near you. And now an artist/inventor has taken this idea to a new high-tech level by putting a personal computer inside a dead beaver.
The Compubeaver, designed by Los Angeles resident Kasey McMahon, took three months to build and is literally stuffed full of the latest computer technology, including an Intel Core Duo processor, 160 gigabyte hard drive, and even a DVD burner so you can record your favorite TV programs off the National Geographic channel.
Posted in Ars Gratia Artis | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
UFO Buffs To Offer ‘Proof’ Of Aliens, UFO Buffs To Offer ‘Proof’ Of Aliens At Fall Conference In W.Va.
Proof that a 12-foot creature with fiery red eyes spooked Braxton County schoolchildren in 1952. Proof that aliens crashed a spaceship near Roswell, N.M., in 1947. Proof that the U.S. military engaged alien spaceships in battle over the Atlantic Ocean more than 50 years ago.
“You’re going to see some hard evidence” at the Flatwoods Monster 55th Anniversary and Flying Saucer Extravaganza on Sept. 7-8 in Charleston, said promoter Larry Bailey. “That’s a promise. That’s not just promotional talk.”
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Man Clad in Underwear Wrestles Wild Leopard
A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.
“This kind of thing doesn’t happen every day,” said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. “I don’t know why I did it. I wasn’t thinking, I just acted.”
Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch’s small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Weekly Piracy Report
22.05.2007: Posn 07:45N – 102:02E, Gulf of Siam, Thailand
The master of a tanker carrying 100,000 ltrs of fuel oil, to supply fishing vessels at sea, was ordered by a pirate, who used to be a crewmember to come alongside his vessel. Once alongside the pirate hijacked the tanker. On 24.05.2007 at 0200 LT the pirates shot and killed the master. Three crewmembers jumped overboard. A passing fishing boat later picked them up. The fishing boat contacted the Thai navy and police. The police dispatched two marine police boats and a navy aircraft to locate / detain the vessel. The police caught the pirate who tried to escape, in a fishing boat. The police located the tanker with the remaining three-crew members and took it to the marine base for investigation.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Pirate Update | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
Korean-style Socialism
Korean-style socialism is invincible socialism which treasures man most and glorifies man’s dignity and value, declares Rodong Sinmun in a signed article Monday.
It goes on:
The historical practice of socialist construction proves that only man-centered socialism built with man, the popular masses, in the center is the most superior socialism which can truly ensure man’s dignity.
Our socialist motherland is the genuine bosom of life in which the dignity of man is glorified.
Our socialist state defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and glorifying man’s dignity is an invincible independent powerful country shining with great Songun politics. The DPRK is defending the sovereignty of the nation with credit, delivering decisive counter blows to the high-handed interference and aggressive moves of the U.S. imperialists, depending on its mighty military force. It is thanks to Songun that the DPRK is throwing its rays as a bulwark of independence and its people are displaying their dignity all over the world. Songun is immediately the life and dignity of the Korean people.
Korean socialism represents a man-respecting society in which the popular masses are put up as the foundation of society.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, N. Korea | Comments Off
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007
Airbus bosses ’sold shares after hearing of jet delay’
SENIOR managers at Airbus’s parent company, EADS, knew of delays in aircraft production when they sold their stock options in March 2006, shortly before the firm’s shares crashed, it was reported yesterday.
While the A380’s delays were not officially mentioned during the board’s meeting on 7 March, 2006, members did discuss “significant” hold-ups to the programme, as well as “serious industrial difficulties”, the French business newspaper La Tribune has reported.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Monday, May 28th, 2007
Poland targets ‘gay’ Teletubbies
A senior Polish official has ordered psychologists to investigate whether the popular BBC TV show Teletubbies promotes a homosexual lifestyle.
The spokesperson for children’s rights in Poland, Ewa Sowinska, singled out Tinky Winky, the purple character with a triangular aerial on his head.
“I noticed he was carrying a woman’s handbag,” she told a magazine. “At first, I didn’t realise he was a boy.”
EU officials have criticised Polish government policy towards homosexuals.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Monday, May 28th, 2007
Elephant robs motorists in India
An elephant in eastern India has sparked complaints from motorists who accuse it of blocking traffic and refusing to allow vehicles to pass unless drivers give it food, a newspaper has reported.
The Hindustan Times said Monday the elephant was scouting for food on a highway in the eastern state of Orissa, forcing motorists to roll down their windows and get out of the car.
“The tusker then inserts its trunk inside the vehicle and sniffs for food,” local resident Prabodh Mohanty, who has come across the elephant twice, was quoted as saying.
“If you are carrying vegetables and banana inside your vehicle, then it will gulp them and allow you to go.”
If a commuter does not wind down his window or resists opening the vehicle door, the elephant stands in front of the car until the driver allows him to carry out his routine inspection.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Monday, May 28th, 2007
Mystery emu escapes from police
A mystery emu sparked an international incident after it went on the run from police.
The emu was first spotted in Germany, but after several hours of failing to catch the bird with officers in patrol cars, vets and local zoo staff, the police called in Swiss reinforcements.
But even with the combined efforts of both German and Swiss police, the emu which was clocked running at 30mph through some areas still managed to avoid capture, and in the end had to be shot by German hunters.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Sunday, May 27th, 2007
Swarm of Bees Turns Back British Plane
A thick cloud of bees was sucked into the engine of a passenger plane en route to Portugal, forcing the airline to abandon the trip and grounding passengers for 11 hours, a company executive said Saturday.
David Skillicorn, managing director of Palmair, said the swarm was spotted off Britain’s Bournemouth coast shortly before the Boeing 737 left on Thursday. “Some witnesses claimed there were around 20,000 bees,” he said.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Sunday, May 27th, 2007
Man uses pigs to trash own house after foreclosure
Police in Clackamas County are looking for a man they say locked three live pigs in his house in the hopes that they would trash the place. All because he was upset the home went into foreclosure.
Police say the 33-year-old homeowner intentionally locked three pigs inside his home after it went into foreclosure.
Detective Jim Strovink with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said deputies are trying to find 33-year-old Shane Lovett.
Lovett bought a home on SE Wildcat Mountain Drive in Eagle Creek a few years ago. In January the house went into foreclosure. Neighbors told police that Lovett was extremely distraught over the the situation. He apparently told several that he had put the animals inside the house over a week ago and even joked about the fact that they did not have any water.
Posted in Doh! | No Comments »
Sunday, May 27th, 2007
Arrests at Russian gays protest
Two West European MPs and a Russian gay rights leader have been arrested in Moscow, as violence broke out at a banned protest by gay rights activists.
Anti-homosexual protesters threw kicks, punches and eggs at the gay rights group, chanting “Moscow is not Sodom”.
The gay rights demonstrators were trying to deliver a petition to the mayor of Moscow, demanding the right to stage public marches.
MPs from Germany and Italy were reportedly among those arrested.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Sunday, May 27th, 2007
Severed Head of Mexican Politician Dumped Outside Newspaper’s Office
The severed head of a town councilman was dumped outside the offices of a newspaper in Mexico’s Gulf state of Tabasco in what the paper’s publishers said was an attempt to intimidate reporters.
The head, left outside Tabasco Hoy’s offices in Villahermosa, was wrapped in newspaper inside a cooler and left by a man who stepped out of a sport utility vehicle early Saturday, the paper said on its Web site.
Police and soldiers said the head belonged to Terencio Sastre, a councilman from the nearby municipality of El Cedro, whose body was found on the side of a road Friday.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Saturday, May 26th, 2007
Body found in duct at Phoenix school
The body of a man who apparently tried to break into an elementary school was discovered Friday in an air conditioning duct on the school’s roof, police said.
The body at Sierra Vista Elementary School was found as a plumber investigated a foul odor noticed by cafeteria staff earlier in the day, said Roosevelt School District Superintendent Mark Dowling.
Authorities think the man tried to climb through the duct, got stuck and died. It wasn’t known how long the body was there.
Posted in Idiot Criminals | No Comments »
Friday, May 25th, 2007
Alabama Boy Kills 1,051-Pound Monster Pig, Bigger Than ‘Hogzilla’
An 11-year-old Alabama boy used a pistol to kill a wild hog that just may be the biggest pig ever found.
Jamison Stone’s father says the hog his son killed weighed a 1,051 pounds and measured 9-feet-4 from the tip of its snout to the base of its tail. Think hams as big as car tires.
If the claims are accurate, Jamison’s trophy boar would be bigger than Hogzilla, the famed wild hog that grew to seemingly mythical proportions after being killed in south Georgia in 2004.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Friday, May 25th, 2007
Nazi Germany achieved its technological advantage with aliens’ help
Adolf Hitler and other Nazi bonzes heeded predictions of pagan priests and astrologists. But little is known about the interest of the Third Reich in aliens. Ufologists in the West think that the issue was purposefully kept secret because a great share of the classified army and technology heritage of Nazis had been seized by countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.
Much of what is said by western historians and ufologists may sound too fantastic and even absurd.
Nazi researchers succeeded in development of nuclear bombs, other up-to-date armament and achieved a very high technological level in general. It is supposed that the success was thanks to contacts with aliens that were quite regular.
Before Hitler came to power national socialists had been developing projects meant to find the origins of the legendary Aryans and the location of legendary Shambala. They expected to obtain some secret super knowledge to seize the domination over the world. Secret expeditions were sent to Tibet and the Himalayas. The number of such expeditions considerably increased when Nazis came to power in 1933.
Posted in Aliens, Nazis, Pravda | No Comments »
Friday, May 25th, 2007
Ape escapes, goes on 3-hour rampage
An orangutan chewed through her cage and went on a three-hour rampage at a Taiwan entertainment park until authorities subdued it with a stun gun, a park employee said Thursday.
The 19-year-old primate, named “Little Blackie,” turned over iceboxes, garbage cans and motor scooters near the ticketing gates of Santao Mountain Entertainment Area in Kaohsiung County after her escape Wednesday, said a park worker surnamed Hsu.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
When Half a Brain Is Better than a Whole One
You might not want to do it, but removing half of your brain will not significantly impact who you are
The operation known as hemispherectomy—where half the brain is removed—sounds too radical to ever consider, much less perform. In the last century, however, surgeons have performed it hundreds of times for disorders uncontrollable in any other way. Unbelievably, the surgery has no apparent effect on personality or memory.
Posted in Mad Scientists, Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
Mugabe Army runs out of cash to pay, feed or arm its soldiers
The Army and the state youth militia, organisations crucial to President Mugabe’s continued grasp on power in Zimbabwe, are demoralised and fast running out of money.
The Defence Ministry has already exhausted its budget of Zim$32 billion for rations this year, Trust Maphosa, the Secretary for Defence, told a parliamentary committee this week. The sum was worth £10 million when it was allocated at the beginning of the year but its value has been shrunk by hyperinflation and the collapse of the currency to about £400,000.
A private’s monthly pay in February mounted to Zim$300,000, he said, worth nearly £50. The figure was the result of a sharp increase in army salaries after alarming reports of officers resigning and troops going absent without leave. The 35,000-strong Army is now in a significantly worse position. A private’s pay is equal to about £4.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
Man survives grizzly attack at Yellowstone
A park visitor was attacked by a grizzly bear Wednesday and hiked miles to safety with severe facial injuries, park officials said.
The man, in his late 50s, was taking photographs of bears when he was attacked, according to a statement from the park. He told rangers he had been attacked by a sow with a cub.
After the attack, he hiked two to three miles and was discovered by other park visitors around 1 p.m., the statement said. He was hospitalized, but officials declined to release his condition Wednesday evening.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Kara's Classics | No Comments »
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
Raid on spy’s home ‘reveals details of Chirac’s secret £30m bank account’
LONG-STANDING rumours that the former French president Jacques Chirac holds a secret multi-million-euro bank account in Japan appear to have been confirmed by files seized from the home of a senior spy.
Papers seized by two investigating magistrates from General Philippe Rondot, a former head of the DGSE, France’s intelligence service, show Mr Chirac opened an account in the mid-1990s at Tokyo Sowa Bank, credited with the equivalent of £30 million. It is not known where the money came from, nor whether it is connected to various kick-back scandals to which Mr Chirac’s name has been linked over the past decade.
Last year, Mr Chirac “categorically denied” having a bank account in Japan.
The seized documents have been described by the magistrates as “explosive” and are believed to contain copies of the former president’s bank statements.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
A worldwide push to bring back chariot racing
On a drowsy May day in the country, tractors and combines were lumbering down dirt roads when, suddenly, a cloud of dust rose up on the horizon. Birds scattered. Rumbling across the green landscape came seven racing chariots, each pulled by four horses.
Riding in the chariot decorated with an engraving of Alexander the Great was Luiz Augusto Alves de Oliveira, a 50-year-old sugar-cane farmer who has an epic plan: returning chariot racing to its ancient glory.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, Historical Oddities | No Comments »
Thursday, May 24th, 2007
Wealthy NY Couple Charged With Slavery
A millionaire couple accused of keeping two Indonesian women as slaves in their luxurious Long Island home and abusing them for years have been indicted on federal slavery charges.
Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 35, and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, operate a worldwide perfume business out of their home, contracting with overseas factories to manufacture the fragrances.
The two were arrested last week after one of their servants was found wandering outside a doughnut shop on Long Island, wearing only pants and a towel. The woman was believed to have fled the home in Muttontown, a tony community on Long Island’s north shore, when she took the trash out the night before.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Female Sharks Can Reproduce Alone, Researchers Find
A team of American and Irish researchers have discovered that some female sharks can reproduce without having sex, the first time that scientists have found the unusual capacity in such an ancient vertebrate species.
Their report that sharks can reproduce asexually through the process known as parthenogenesis is being published online today in the British journal Biology Letters. Researchers have observed parthenogenesis in certain species of birds, reptiles, amphibians and bony fishes, but the new finding suggests that vertebrates’ ability to reproduce without sex evolved much earlier than scientists had thought.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
France financed Genocide,German tells Mucyo
A financial expert has told the Mucyo commission that the French government used French pensioners’ money to secretly finance the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. Martin Marschner, a private insurance broker told the seven-man panel of commissioners that the Paris establishment diverted social security funds into procurement of arms that were sent to Rwanda.
“I became aware of what was taking place on January 12, 1994, when I found out that at least one billion French francs (about Frw 108.75 billion) of my clients’ money had disappeared mysteriously,” he alleged.
The German-born was testifying to the commission on Monday at Telecom House in Kacyiru on Monday. The panel is charged with gathering and documenting evidence depicting the role of France in the Genocide which claimed the lives of an estimated one million Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities, War | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Italian city faces rubbish crisis
Residents of the Italian city of Naples have been torching piles of rotting rubbish in the steets amid a worsening refuse crisis.
Most of the area’s landfill sites are full, meaning that rubbish collectors have not been doing their rounds.
The streets are stinking, piled with thousands of tonnes of rotting rubbish in sweltering temperatures.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Man Sleeps Through Gunshot to the Head
Michael Lusher apparently is a sound sleeper. A small-caliber bullet struck the 37-year-old Altizer man in the head as he slept Sunday morning, but he didn’t realize it until he awoke nearly four hours later and noticed blood coming from his head, said Cpl. R.H. McQuaid of the Cabell County Sheriff’s Department.
The bullet that struck him was one of five that someone sprayed across his mobile home and truck at about 4:20 a.m. Sunday, McQuaid said. The one the struck Lusher apparently lost velocity as it traveled through two walls.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Human Oddities, I hate it when that happens, You lucky bastard | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Genghis Khan, warrior… and sex god
Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan was notorious for his sexual as well as his territorial conquests. But the extent to which he captured women’s hearts has now been revealed with research suggesting that he has 16 million Asian descendants.
Mongolian horsemen, Genghis Khan, warrior… and sex god
Mongolian horsemen: Research suggests that Genghis Khan has 16 million Asian descendants
Scientists traced a genetic trail believed to originate from the ruthless leader, who established the biggest empire the world as ever seen.
Posted in Historical Oddities, Sex | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Golfer dies after cart plunges off cliff
A golfer died Tuesday after his golf cart plunged 75 feet off a cliff and crashed onto a road below, authorities said.
The 65-year-old man teed off with three friends on the second hole of the Pala Mesa Resort Golf Course about 50 miles north of San Diego at around 10 a.m. and then got into his cart.
The vehicle veered off the concrete pathway, traveled down a 25-foot embankment and went over the edge of the cliff, California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Kerns said.
Posted in Doh!, I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
‘Wopburger’ to stay on menu
In what might be called political correctness v. menu tradition, round 2, the Blue Parrot restaurant in Louisville has decided not to rename the 88-year-old item it has always called a wopburger.
“We’ve had so many people coming in and calling us, telling us ‘I can’t believe you’re changing the name. Please don’t change the name,’” said Joan Riggins, who owns the restaurant with her father, Joseph Colacci and her brother Richard Colacci.
Riggins says her family knows that “when certain words are used a certain way, they can be derogatory in context.”
“But that was never meant to be that way with us,” she said. “We used the word to mean ‘Italian.’ It was a name we used without any meaning as a term of a endearment.”
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
Over a dozen pirate attacks last week, including:
15.05.2007: 0840 UTC: Posn 01:10N – 049:00E, 210 NM from coast, Somalia.
While underway, five pirates armed with guns boarded and hijacked a fishing vessel. They sailed the vessel to a new location and moored in Posn: 04:30N – 048:10E. The 13-crew members are held hostage onboard.
14.05.2007: 1530 LT: Posn 01:19.62N – 048:51.92E, 180 NM off Somalia.
Pirates, armed with machine guns and rocket launchers, approached a general cargo ship underway from her port quarter. The pirates ordered the ship to stop and started firing towards the bridge. D/O raised alarm, SSAS alarm activated, master took evasive manoeuvres, and fired rocket parachute signals on the boat when he saw the pirates preparing to fire rocket propelled grenades. The ship was hit and the accommodation caught fire and was extensively damaged. The crew extinguished the fire and took preventive measures to stop the fire from spreading. The master continuously maneuvered the vessel to prevent the pirates from boarding. The attack lasted for one hour before the pirates aborted the attack. No injuries to crew. PRC relayed message to coalition navy for assistance.
Posted in Pirate Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
German authorities use scent tracking to keep tabs on G-8 protesters
German authorities are using scent tracking to keep tabs on possibly violent protesters against next month’s Group of Eight summit – a tactic that is drawing comparisons with the methods of former East Germany’s secret police.
Scent samples have been taken from an undisclosed number of people believed to be a possible danger to the upcoming summit so that police dogs can pick out the perpetrators if there is violence, the Hamburger Morgenpost reported Tuesday.
Andreas Christeleit, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, confirmed the report but would give no further details.
Posted in Anarchy, Idiot Activists, Idiot Authorities, Mad Scientists | No Comments »
Monday, May 21st, 2007
Cover your ears: U.S. Midwest readies for emergence of 17-year-old cicadas
Coming soon: Brood XIII.
It sounds like a bad horror movie. But it’s actually the name of the billions of cicadas expected to emerge this month in parts of the Midwest after spending 17 years underground.
The red-eyed, shrimp-sized, flying insects don’t bite or sting. But they are known for mating calls that produce a din that can overpower ringing telephones, lawn mowers and power tools.
Brood XIII is expected across northern Illinois, and in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. Cicadas live only about 30 days as adults, and their main goal is mating.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Monday, May 21st, 2007
Ohio Clerk Finds $10, Buys $1M Ticket
Kristina Schneider tried to persuade a customer at the BP station where she works to buy the last ticket on a roll of the Magnificent Millions lottery game.
“I always joke that the last ticket is the winning one, but he said he only had enough money for three tickets,” Schneider said.
This time, her advice was no joke.
The single mother _ with nine maxed out credit cards and $8,500 in debt for her associate’s degree _ bought what turned out to be a $1 million winning ticket with a $10 bill she found in the store Friday.
Posted in You lucky bastard | No Comments »
Monday, May 21st, 2007
Pirates halt Somali aid shipments
Deliveries of food aid to Somalia by sea have been halted, after an attempt by pirates to seize a ship chartered by the UN food relief agency.
The head of the World Food Programme said their programme to feed one million Somalis is under threat.
The WFP-chartered vessel was attacked on Saturday off the Somali port of Merka after it had just delivered 4,000 tons of food.
Posted in Pirate Update | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Diamonds tell tale of comet that killed off the cavemen
Scientists will outline dramatic evidence this week that suggests a comet exploded over the Earth nearly 13,000 years ago, creating a hail of fireballs that set fire to most of the northern hemisphere.
Primitive Stone Age cultures were destroyed and populations of mammoths and other large land animals, such as the mastodon, were wiped out. The blast also caused a major bout of climatic cooling that lasted 1,000 years and seriously disrupted the development of the early human civilisations that were emerging in Europe and Asia.
‘This comet set off a shock wave that changed Earth profoundly,’ said Arizona geophysicist Allen West. ‘It was about 2km-3km in diameter and broke up just before impact, setting off a series of explosions, each the equivalent of an atomic bomb blast. The result would have been hell on Earth. Most of the northern hemisphere would have been left on fire.’
Posted in End of the World Update, Fire, Paleontology Update | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
One-shooter bullet analysis in JFK case ‘flawed’
A research team that includes a former top FBI scientist is challenging the bullet analysis used by the US government to conclude that Lee Harvey Oswald alone shot the two bullets that struck and killed president John F. Kennedy in 1963, reports said yesterday.
The Washington Post said an article in the Annals of Applied Statistics claimed the “evidence used to rule out a second assassin is fundamentally flawed”.
The researchers’ re-analysis involved new statistical calculations and a modern chemical analysis of bullets from the same batch Oswald is said to have used, the report said.
The researchers reached no conclusion about whether more than one gunman was involved, but urged that authorities conduct a new and complete forensic re-analysis of the five bullet fragments left from the assassination in Dallas, the paper said. The reseach was co-authored by former FBI lab metallurgist William Tobin.
Posted in Cloak and Dagger, Concentrated Criminality, Conspiracies, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Japanese worked to death
A record number of Japanese literally worked themselves to death last year, the Government said, despite campaigns to ease their country’s notoriously long office hours.
The 355 workers who fell severely ill or died from overwork in the year to March was the highest number on record – up by 7.6 per cent from the previous year, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour said. Of that total, 147 people died, many from strokes or heart attacks.
Death from overwork grew so common during Japan’s post-World War II economic miracle that the country coined a word for it, karoshi.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Cultural Oddities, I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Rodong Sinmun on Crafty Character of Japanese Reactionaries
Japan still now is a past master in the art of deceiving others, and it is unfaithful and stoops to any crafty means to draw water to its mill, says Rodong Sinmun in a signed article today.
Terming this slyness the inborn nature of the Japanese reactionaries, the article goes on:
It finds expression, first of all, in Japan’s approach to the issue of redressing its past.
When the crime in recruiting “comfort women” for the Imperial Japanese Army was laid bare, the Japanese reactionaries stubbornly denied it, knowing of it. Later, when clear materials and testimonies about the crime were brought forward, they pretended to “admit” it. But at present they are totally denying it.
Lurking behind this is the craftiness peculiar to Japan which seeks to avoid the government’s responsibility and compensation for the crime at any cost while convincing the public at home and abroad that the crime related to the “comfort women” was not an organized crime.
The craftiness of the Japanese reactionaries also finds manifestation in Japan’s push for the permanent membership of the UN Security Council. They are trying to obtain UNSC permanent membership and lay the foothold for overseas aggression of the Self-Defence Forces with the help of money and through cooperation in “anti-terrorism war”.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, N. Korea | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Tot safe after night trapped in car
Two-year-old Adonis Ribott started the night as the fawned-over birthday boy at a party in his honor. He ended it trapped inside a car alone.
The Clifton boy was found dehydrated but safe yesterday morning, nearly nine hours after his father parked his car at an auto body shop and unknowingly left the toddler in the back seat overnight, police said.
Police said the father, Danny Ribot, 32, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child following a bizarre sequence of events that sent the 2-year-old to the hospital and Ribot to jail.
Posted in Bad Parents | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Burglarly Suspect Leaves Wallet at Scene
Police say a man suspected of burglarizing several vehicles left a key piece of evidence at the scene of the alleged crimes – his wallet, with identification and his parole card.
Christopher D. Hasty, 22, was arrested after he was pointed out by apartment complex residents who said they saw him flee a car in the parking lot. Several cars had been burglarized in the lot where officers found the wallet.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Criminals | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Gangland murder case wrapped up
In an interesting twist on gangland killings, a group suspected to be hitmen from a Maxican drugs gang shot a man dead – before wrapping him up in Christmas wrapping paper.
The unidentified victim, thought to be in his 40s, was murdered in the border city of Tijuana. He had been shot twice, and his body also showed signs of strangulation and torture – common elements of gangland killings.
His body was then taped up in gift-wrap with little pictures of Christmas trees all over it.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Marijuana shipped to school by mystery sender
A school principal received a surprise delivery of 12 pounds of marijuana from a mysterious sender whose address was traced to a vacant lot in California, police said.
The package was addressed to Joan “Pinserton,” a misspelling of the principal’s name, Pinkerton. It was delivered Thursday to the Kent Primary School by Federal Express. Pinkerton was immediately suspicious because of a strong odor from the box.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Drugs | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Meatball art made from human fat
Last year, Chilean-born artist Marco Evaristti mixed fat removed from his body by liposuction with ground beef to make meatballs, which he fried in olive oil and displayed in a public gallery.
This year, he plans to climb Western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border, color the summit pink and declare it an independent state, with himself as president.
His work has been slammed as disgusting, publicity-seeking and immoral but Evaristti says he is simply trying to highlight some of the double standards he sees in the world around him.
Posted in Ars Gratia Artis, Cannibal Update | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Rite Aid Cleveland 10K takes a wrong turn
A wrong turn sent between 200 to 300 runners off course in today’s Rite Aid Cleveland 10K race. So instead of running 6.1 miles some of them ran close to 9 miles. And now the results of the 10K race are in chaos.
According to racers and race officials, a police officer at the two-mile mark of the race (see a map of the route) diverted the lead car guiding 10K competitors through the course. Highway cones had been misplaced in the area, and some racers in the Cleveland marathon who were walking the area had also created a bottleneck.
Posted in I hate it when that happens, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2007
Gorilla escapes zoo, bites woman
A 400-pound gorilla escaped from his enclosure and ran amok in a Rotterdam zoo Friday, biting one woman, dragging her around, and causing panic among dozens of visitors before he was finally subdued, officials and a witness said.
The Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo was evacuated and the 11-year-old gorilla, named Bokito, was eventually contained in a restaurant within the park, police spokeswoman Yvette de Rave said.
Four people were injured, including the woman who was bitten, zoo director Ton Dorrestijn said.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Kara's Classics | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2007
Helmet Saves Cyclist After Truck Runs Over Head
Ryan Lipscomb lived to tell how it felt to have a truck run over his head. “Really strange,” he said.Lipscomb, 26 of Seattle, suffered a concussion but was otherwise unhurt. He was shaken up, especially after he saw his mangled helmet.
Posted in You lucky bastard | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2007
Dog and Tiger Alliance
It’s a dog’s life for three newborn tiger triplets in eastern China. The cubs, whom officials at the Jinan Paomaling Wild Animal World in Shandong province are so far just calling “One,” “Two” and “Three,” have been nursed by a dog since they were rejected by their tiger mother shortly after birth, said Paomaling manager Chen Yucai.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Kara's Classics | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
Will the Sun be stolen by another galaxy?
Our Milky Way galaxy is headed for a sedate collision with its neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy, billions of years earlier than was previously thought. The earlier date means that the Sun will still be alive when the two collide; and a new computer simulation shows what could happen to our star.
There’s a good chance that it will be flung towards the outer edge of our galaxy, researchers say, and a tiny chance that it will be ‘kidnapped’ by Andromeda.
“The merger will take place before the Sun burns out, so that future astronomers within the Solar System can witness it,” says Abraham Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Although this will be tens of millions of lifetimes from now, it is conceivable that humans may still exist when the two galaxies finally meet.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
Panama: Toothpaste killed 51 people last year
Health experts confirmed Tuesday that two brands of toothpaste pulled from shelves contain the same chemical that killed at least 51 people in the Central American country last year.
Authorities seized about 50 tubes of toothpaste labeled “Excel” and “Mr. Cool” from a Panama City store last week after a customer noticed their labels said they contained the chemical diethylene glycol. Experts at the University of Panama confirmed through tests that the toothpastes contained about a 2.5% level of the chemical.
Health Ministry General Secretary Francisco Sucre said that the levels, “as far we know, don’t cause damage,” but the ministry urged consumers not to use the products.
“This toxic substance should not be in the contents … of a dental product,” the ministry said in a statement. It noted the substance, which is apparently used as a substitute for a more expensive sweetener and thickener, “is prohibited for use in cosmetics, foods and pharmaceuticals.”
Posted in I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Sunday, May 13th, 2007
Dear friends,
I have just moved to a new home and hence have been unable to report for the last couple of days while I have been boxing and unboxing my life. Rest assured that I will resume once all the boxes are gone, hopefully in a day or two.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Bear Kills Moose in Alaska Driveway as Residents Watch
Odd sounds outside their home woke Gary and Terri Lyon early Sunday morning, so Gary got up to check it out. He looked outside and saw a 500-pound grizzly bear killing an adult moose in their driveway.”I saw this wildlife spectacle of a full-grown brown bear on a moose and the moose fighting for its life,” Gary said.
The couple put their dog inside, grabbed their cameras and started filming the attack as the grizzly battled the moose down the driveway, finally killing it. They posted the video on YouTube.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Kara's Classics | No Comments »
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Monkeys, capybaras are zoo’s odd couple :
They’re Japan’s odd couple. Capybaras and squirrel monkeys, unlikely neighbors in the wild, are living in the same enclosure at a zoo outside Tokyo and so far, they’re loving it.
The monkeys ride on the capybara’s backs and kiss the world’s largest rodents, who tolerate their tricks. But in the wild, their paths do not cross — capybara’s live on river banks while the monkeys live in forests..
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Burglar leaves behind explicit pictures of himself
Vancouver police on Wednesday were searching for a rather bold burglar who left behind a key piece of evidence at the scene of the crime. Investigators said the man took explicit photos of himself with the victim’s camera.
The man is accused of following two girls home from Rieser Park on April 19. According to police, he made sexually suggestive requests and went inside the girl’s home. That’s when they say he grabbed a camera and snapped the explicit pictures.
Posted in Idiot Criminals | No Comments »
Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Human sacrifice cult battles with police
Once hailed as an untouched Shangri-La, the mist-shrouded highlands of Papua New Guinea are undergoing a dramatic resurgence in sorcery and witchcraft.
Police reinforcements have been rushed to a remote part of Papua New Guinea after officers clashed with a shadowy cult accused of beheading villagers and offering them as human sacrifices.
Several people were reportedly killed and many injured after gun battles broke out between police and members of the cult, based in the mountains of Morobe province on PNG’s north coast.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Alien Nation, Raelians Moving Headquarters to Las Vegas:
You’ve heard the old cliche that Las Vegas has more churches per capita than any other city in America? Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t, but we’re about to get another one.
The Raelians are unlike any other religion in the world since they do not believe in God at all. But it’s their other beliefs that are more likely to raise hackles among other faiths.
It’s just a coincidence that Raelians rhymes with aliens, but it’s telling. Although they’ve been called a cult, they are far removed from any religious cult you’ve ever heard of.
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
California Man Cuts Off Mom’s Head With Saw, Dies Trying to Cut Off His Own
An Orange County man cut off his mother’s head with a circular saw and then died after trying to decapitate himself, authorities said.Police answered a 911 report of a family dispute at a Pinehurst Avenue home just after 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, entered a locked bedroom and found the body of 60-year-old Guadalupe Ruiz on a bed, police spokeswoman Cindy Knapp said.
Arthur Ruiz Jr., 32, was on another bed with the saw nearby. He had died of neck injuries, police said.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Kara's Classics, Suicidal Tendencies | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Man Survives Garbage Truck Crushing
A homeless man who had fallen asleep in a trash bin to escape the rain was dumped into a garbage truck and survived being crushed repeatedly before a worker saw him.
Robert Baswell, 44, said he screamed as the load of trash was crushed against his body at least seven times and was sure he would die. He tried to cushion one blow from the truck’s compressor with a dead opossum, he said.
“I screamed one last breath,” Baswell told the Palm Beach Post. A trash collector finally saw him as he tossed in a box and called for help.
Posted in You lucky bastard | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Arctic Seal Dies After Swimming to Florida
An Arctic seal found in a Fort Lauderdale canal – far from its habitat near the North Pole – died Tuesday, a day after it was captured.
The bearded seal was thin and dehydrated, though it was not immediately known what killed the animal. Dr. Christopher Dold, a staff veterinarian at SeaWorld, said the park would examine it Tuesday to try to learn more.
However, Dold said it may never be known why the animal came so far south.
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Man decapitates himself with chainsaw
A man cut off his own head with a chainsaw after stabbing his 70-year-old father to death in their apartment in the German city of Cologne, police said.The body of the offender, 24, was found headless when police raced to the apartment after an emergency call, apparently from the dying father, had been broken off in mid-sentence.
Alf Willwacher, a senior prosecutor, said an electric chainsaw was next to the son’s body.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Suicidal Tendencies | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Vegans murdered baby with soy milk and apple juice
An American vegan couple were sentenced to life in jail today for the murder of their malnourished six-week-old son, who weighed just 3 1/2 lbs when he died.
Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31, fed the boy, who was named Crown Shakur, a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice, the Atlanta court heard.
The baby boy was born in a bathtub in the couple’s home and never taken to see a doctor. He was dead when his parents took him to a hospital across the street from their flat on April 25, 2004. He was so emaciated that doctors could count his bones through his skin.
The couple maintained during the trial that they did the best they could for the boy while adhering to their vegan lifestyle, a strict form of vegetarianism which does not allow the consumption or use of any products linked to animals.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Several attacks last week, including:
03.05.2007: 0300 UTC: Posn 03:59N – 007:17E, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Armed pirates in four boats attacked a FPSO and tried to board it via the anchor chain. There were eight security personnel on the FPSO. The pirates were successful in their attempt. Five persons from the FPSO kidnapped. .
03.05.2007: 0700 LT: 12 miles Off Mogadishu, Somalia. A group of Somali pirates armed with guns boarded a general cargo ship underway. They hijacked the ship and took it to Hobiyo anchorage. Negotiations with the pirates are going on.
Posted in Pirate Update | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
HBO Head Takes Leave After Arrest:
HBO chief executive Chris Albrecht said he was taking a leave of absence to regain control of his alcoholism following a weekend assault arrest in Las Vegas.
Bill Nelson, HBO chief operating officer, will take over Albrecht’s duties “pending resolution of the police incident,” the company said.
…
“Two years ago, I decided that I could handle drinking again. Clearly, I was wrong. Given that truth, I have committed myself to sobriety. I intend to take a temporary leave of absence from HBO effective today, in order to go back to working with AA.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Gas Station Owner Told to Raise Prices
A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices.
Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon.
But the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says those deals violate Wisconsin’s Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Man Dies in Parking Lot Dance Competition
A man died while trying to outdo a rival with an acrobatic move while “battle dancing,” police said. Robert Stitt, 48, and his rival were competing in a parking lot Monday night when he tried a forward flip and landed on his head. “It was just two guys dancing. Everybody was laughing,” Stitt’s friend John Boxley said.
Posted in I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Arrests, arson mark third-straight night of anti-Sarkozy protests
Arrests were made for the third night in a row in France as violent protests broke out in Paris, Toulouse and Lyon over the election of conservative Nicolas Sarkozy as president, police said late Tuesday.
The local office of Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement in the central city of Villeurbanne also caught fire in what police called arson.
In Paris, clashes between police and mainly leftist protesters occurred after about 150 demonstrators blocked access to Bastille Square. They chanted slogans such as ‘Sarko, fascist’ and ‘Police everywhere, justice nowhere.’ As police moved in to disperse the protesters, violence broke out.
One demonstrator was hurt and a number were arrested, mainly to identify the people involved in the violence, which has occurred each night since Sarkozy’s win in Sunday’s election, police said.
Posted in Anarchy | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Armed police drag leading lawyers on to lorry for public beating
Armed police violently broke up a demonstration of lawyers yesterday, subjecting them to punishment beatings as passing motorists stopped and watched in horror.
One group was corralled on to a truck and taken to open grassland in a suburb of Harare, where they were assaulted as they lay on the ground.
The victims included Beatrice Mtetwa, president of the Law Society of Zimbabwe and winner of a 2005 press freedom award given in New York by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Lawyers were confronted by police with rubber truncheons, automatic rifles and shotguns as they gathered outside the High Court to protest against the arrest of two prominent human rights lawyers.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Crazed Dictatorships | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Biggest stellar explosion detected
Kaboom indeed.
In a cascade of superlatives that belies the traditional cerebral reserve of their profession, astronomers reported Monday that they had seen the brightest and most powerful stellar explosion ever recorded.
The cataclysm – a monster more than a hundred times as energetic as the typical supernova in which normal massive stars end their lives – may be an example, they said, of a completely new type of explosion.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Injuries after political punch up
Fight, fight, fight. We all like a good punch up – especially when it involves politicians.
Rival lawmakers exchanged punches, climbed on each other’s shoulders and jostled violently for position around the speaker as Taiwan’s Legislature dissolved into chaos over an electoral reform bill.
The scenes recalled past legislative brawls in Taiwan, which began a gradual transition from dictatorship to democracy in 1987, and remains riven by passionate fighting between its two major political blocs.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Politico Follies | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Annie Lennox’s girl hit by the Internet gatecrash yobs
Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox might well be feeling, as in the words of her hit song, just like she’s walking on broken glass today.The popstar, 52, has been hit with a hefty repair bill after her 16-year-old daughter became the latest victim of gatecrashers who get wind of a party on the internet.
The mayhem happened after Annie’s teenaged daughter Lola innocently let slip she was having a get-together at home while her film producer father Uri Fruchtmann was away.
But the email which was meant to get to just 30 close school friends ended up frenziedly circulating to hundreds of others. It is understood that the information about the party spread on websites like MySpace.
Their £2 million family home in north London was trashed when more than a hundred youngsters forced entry.
Party-goers daubed graffiti on walls, broke pictures and lampshades, tore apart books, urinated and vomited on carpets, flooded the kitchen and had a pitch battle in the garden.
Posted in Myspace Classics, Teen Antics | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Couple Who Stole From Mob Got Whacked
Thomas and Rosemarie Uva were not exactly criminal geniuses.
The couple liked to rob Mafia-run social clubs in Little Italy and elsewhere around the city, which, as just about everyone knows, is a really good way to get killed.
They even had the audacity to force mobsters to drop their pants as they swiped their cash and jewelry and cleaned out their card games.
The holdups proved predictably hazardous: The Uvas got whacked on Christmas Eve 1992.
Posted in Idiot Criminals | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Student tries to make roadkill pretty
For the past several weeks, drivers near Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville have been noticing odd things about some of the roadkill on the sides of the area’s highways.Some of the dead possums and raccoons have been dressed in pet or human baby clothes and have had their claws painted with nail polish. The carcass of a deer has been adorned with gold paint.
Posted in Ars Gratia Artis | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Man tried to sell blank ‘money’:
A man from Liberia is charged with trying to unload a bag of white paper he claimed was $4 million in cash at a New York hotel. The criminal complaint against Calvin Swen claims he was trying to find buyers for eight bricks of white paper that he claimed were incognito $100 bills, The New York Sun reported Monday.
Posted in Idiot Criminals | No Comments »
Monday, May 7th, 2007
Oregon Boy Had Spiders Walking on his Eardrums
An Albany boy who has been complaining about the “sound of Rice Krispies” in his ears has two new souvenirs; spiders that Oregon doctors removed by flushing the boy’s ears. Jesse Courtney has been pestering his mother by complaining about the noise and constant earache. The sounds remained a mystery until the doctors removed the spiders, one of which was still alive.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Monday, May 7th, 2007
French police arrest nearly 600 people in post-election violence+:
French police have arrested a total of 592 people across the country as bands of rioters protested conservative Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential election victory Sunday, French media reported.The police said a total of 730 vehicles were torched and 28 police officers were injured in violent incidents from Sunday night to Monday morning. Police fought stone-throwing rioters with tear gas, but it was not clear how many rioters were injured, according to Radio France.
Posted in Anarchy | No Comments »
Monday, May 7th, 2007
Navy Heats Up Cold Fusion Hopes:
New proof that cold fusion works could fuel additional interest in generating power from low energy nuclear reactions
Cold fusion, the ability to generate nuclear power at room temperatures, has proven to be a highly elusive feat. In fact, it is considered by many experts to be a mere pipe dream — a potentially unlimited source of clean energy that remains tantalizing, but so far unattainable.
However, a recently published academic paper from the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego throws cold water on skeptics of cold fusion. Appearing in the respected journal Naturwissenschaften, which counts Albert Einstein among its distinguished authors, the article claims that Spawar scientists Stanislaw Szpak and Pamela Mosier-Boss have achieved a low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) that can be replicated and verified by the scientific community.
Posted in Mad Scientists | No Comments »
Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Brewer must pay alcoholic beer taster
A Brazilian court has ordered local brewer Ambev to pay 100,000 reals (US$49,400; euro36,400) to an alcoholic beer taster who drank about a liter and a half (3.2 pints) of beer each day.
The unidentified employee alleged that the company did not provide the health measures needed to keep him from developing alcoholism, a labor court in the Rio Grande do Sul state said in a statement Friday.
The employee said in his lawsuit that for more than a decade, he drank between 16 and 25 small glasses of beer during his eight-hour shifts at the company
The employee said he also received a bottle of beer after each shift.
Posted in Fun with Alcohol | 2 Comments »
Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Police battle anti-Sarkozy protesters
RIOT police fired tear gas at stone-throwing protesters gathered in central Paris today to demonstrate against the presidential election victory of right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy.
The clashes took place on the Place de la Bastille where about 5000 supporters of the defeated Socialist candidate Segolene Royal had gone to await the election results, an AFP journalist said.
Up to 300 rioters, some of whom were masked, made running attacks on riot police who took up positions at the entrance to boulevards leading onto the square.
Earlier a small crowd of protesters, brandishing black and red anarchist flags, set fire to an effigy of Mr Sarkozy in the square before tearing it limb from limb and then stamping on it.
Posted in Anarchy | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Starving vultures prey on living animals
Huge flocks of starving vultures have started attacking live animals in northern Spain, officials in the city of Burgos said on Thursday.
In one incident, about 100 vultures killed a cow and her newborn calf, a rancher from the Mena Valley said, according to the Spanish government’s office in Burgos, quoted by state news agency EFE.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Sunday, May 6th, 2007
Hindenburg Survivors Mark 70th Anniversary of Crash
At 87, Robert Buchanan says he sometimes has trouble remembering what he did 10 minutes ago. But he can recall in vivid detail the day 70 years ago when he watched the luxurious airship Hindenburg erupt into a fireball.Flames roared across the surface of the mighty German dirigible only 100 or so feet above him, singeing his hair as he ran for his life.
“It was a piff-puff, just like someone would leave the gas on and not get the flame to it,” said Buchanan, one of the last living members of the ground crew waiting to help the Hindenburg land.
Posted in Fire, I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Car’s so hot, it was stolen twice — in one day
York Heiden is one unlucky crime victim — his car was stolen twice in one day. Even he can’t believe it. “Everyone says, ‘You shouldn’t have left it,’” Heiden said, laughing. “But I know, I know … So many what-ifs: I shouldn’t have done this, I should have taken the tire off.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
The moment a teenage girl was stoned to death for loving the wrong boy
A 17-year-old girl has been stoned to death in Iraq because she loved a teenage boy of the wrong religion.
As a horrifying video of the stoning went out on the Internet, the British arm of Amnesty International condemned the death of Du’a Khalil Aswad as “an abhorrent murder” and demanded that her killers be brought to justice.
Reports from Iraq said a local security force witnessed the incident, but did nothing to try to stop it. Now her boyfriend is in hiding in fear for his life.
Miss Aswad, a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, was condemned to death as an “honour killing” by other men in her family and hardline religious leaders because of her relationship with the Sunni Muslim boy.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Woman’s 11-stone legs may be lost:
A woman is campaigning to raise awareness of a rare condition which has left her with 11 stone (70kg) legs. Mandy Sellars, 32, from Lancashire, suffers from Proteus syndrome, a condition also thought to have affected the “Elephant Man”, Joseph Merrick. Although she was born with abnormally large legs and feet – which continue to grow – her body is of average size. Doctors may have to amputate in the future, but Ms Sellars says she wants to raise awareness before it happens.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
