Archive for February, 2008
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Hummer discovered stolen when driver applies for welfare in Lee County
“It doesn’t pay to apply for welfare while driving a Hummer,” declared Lee County Sheriff Gary Parsons after his officers charged a Tennessee man with possession of stolen property after he drove the expensive vehicle to the local department of social services.
Parsons said William K. Anderson, 51, 501 Forrestal Drive, Knoxville, is being held without bond at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail and may be charged with other crimes in another jurisdiction in relation to the stolen vehicle.
According to the sheriff, an observant person noticed the man arrive at the Lee County Department of Social Services on Friday in the 2004 H2 Hummer, bearing Michigan license plates, and attempt to obtain welfare benefits. Thinking something just wasn’t quite right, the person took down the license number of the vehicle and reported the information to the sheriff’s office.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Criminals | Comments Off
Monday, February 11th, 2008
BlackBerry Service Out in N. America
A major service outage afflicted users of the popular, addictive BlackBerry smart phones across the United States and Canada on Monday, wireless carriers said.
Officials with AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless said BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. told them customers of all wireless carriers were affected.
It was not immediately clear how many BlackBerry subscribers had problems, as some users reported being able to access their service normally Monday afternoon.
The BlackBerry service, which lets users check e-mail and access other data services on their handheld devices, has become a lifeline for many business executives and is increasingly popular among consumers with models like the BlackBerry Pearl.
There was no word what caused the outage or when service would be restored.
Posted in I hate it when that happens, Technological Travesties | Comments Off
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Saudis clamp down on valentines
Religious police in Saudi Arabia are banning the sale of Valentine’s Day gifts including red roses, a local newspaper has reported.
The Saudi Gazette quoted shop workers as saying that officials had warned them to remove all red items including flowers and wrapping paper.
Black market prices for roses were already rising, the paper said.
Saudi authorities consider Valentine’s Day, along with a host of other annual celebrations, as un-Islamic.
In addition to the prohibition on celebrating non-Islamic festivals, the authorities consider Valentine’s Day as encouraging relations between men and women outside wedlock – punishable by law in the conservative kingdom.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, Cultural Oddities, Idiot Authorities, T.R.O.P. | Comments Off
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Unearthly assault alleged
A Pottsville man convinced a 15-year-old girl he was part werewolf and part vampire before sexually assaulting her, police say.
Kristian Allen Carl, 19, also believed he was a supernatural mixed breed, police say.
“He convinced himself he was a hybrid — a combination werewolf and vampire,” Pottsville police Sgt. James Joos said. “He had convinced the girl he was, too.”
To prove to police he was indeed a genuine vampire/werewolf, Carl “showed me his canine teeth,” Joos said. “I let him know that all mammals, including humans, have canine teeth.”
Joos said Carl also told police he had a “guardian dragon that protected him from evildoers.”
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Cryptozoology, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh And Monet Paintings Stolen In Zurich
Paintings by some of the world’s most famous artists have been stolen by an armed gang from a museum in Zurich.
Four oil paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet were among those taken in the weekend robbery from the E.G. Buehrle museum.
Police are hunting three masked men who entered the building armed with a handgun.
The stolen works of art are thought to have a combined worth of more than £80m.
Among the paintings taken in what officials described it as a “spectacular art robbery” is Cezanne’s Boy in a Red Waistcoat.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | Comments Off
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Chavez Calls for Farm Seizures, Raises Prices Amid Shortages
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in an effort to deal with food shortages nationwide, threatened today to expropriate farms and raised the price rice producers are permitted to charge.
Fallow farmland “can’t be allowed,” Chavez said on his weekly television and radio broadcast, calling for the National Guard to take over farms with nonproductive lands. He also announced a price boost of 44 percent for rice growers.
It was at least the fourth time this year that Chavez’s government has threatened to use expropriation to deal with shortages of milk, rice, cooking oil and other price-controlled basic foods. The decision on rice prices was another in a series of increases this year, following boosts in the prices of beans, cheese and ultra-pasteurized milk.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Crazed Dictatorships, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
MYSTERY OF A JFK ‘SON’
IS SEN. Ted Kennedy trying to prevent Vanity Fair from publishing a story about a man who claims to be the illegitimate son of Ted’s brother, John F. Kennedy? Sources say the magazine’s David Friend has been working on the article for a year and a half, and sent photographer Harry Benson to Vancouver to photograph the tall, handsome man in his late 40s – whose first name is Jack and who bears a strong resemblance to the 35th president assassinated in 1963. “The story was set to run, and they gave Ted Kennedy a courtesy call, and a few days later the story was killed,”
Posted in Politico Follies, Sex | Comments Off
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Local reporter on Texas UFO case leaves newspaper; integrity of local, national news media explored
The local newspaper reporter in Stephenville, Texas, who helped cover a UFO sighting case there is no longer working at the Stephenville Empire-Tribune newspaper, effective last Thursday, Feb. 7.
Journalist Angelia Joiner had been covering the UFO story which broke early in January and brought national and international news media representatives and researchers to Stephenville, other nearby small towns and the surrounding region.
Mainstream media such as the Associated Press, CNN and other major TV networks and newspapers covered the incident with great interest. The international press also paid special attention to the UFO sightings in Stephenville and towns in the area.
Media personalities such as CNN’s Larry King and NBC’s Today show host Matt Lauer explored the sightings on their shows.
…
According to information obtained for this report, management at the Stephenville Empire-Tribune did not want further coverage in the paper of the sightings by local citizens of something that appeared to be highly unusual. Pressures may have been placed on newspaper management to discontinue articles on the subject.
Posted in Aliens, Conspiracies, Idiot Authorities, Most Mysterious | Comments Off
Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Man beaten with baseball bat, shot after accused of rape
A man accused of raping a woman at knifepoint in a Dallas apartment was beaten by an angry mob and shot at least twice, authorities said.
The 26-year-old man, who was not identified, underwent surgery Friday after being hit with a baseball bat and shot, apparently once in the head, according to a report in Saturday editions of The Dallas Morning News. Authorities did not immediately know the suspect’s condition Saturday.
Dallas police Lt. Sally Lannom said for a vigilante mob to attack a man accused of rape is unusual.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat
Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.
The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy.
These studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development.
The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.
Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, taken globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands being cleared, either for food or fuel.
Posted in End of the World Update, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
UGA professor accused of beating student
University of Georgia officials said they have removed a pharmacy professor from contact with students as they investigate whether he repeatedly punched a doctoral candidate during a drunken rage at an off-campus party. But some students claim the professor is still teaching and are outraged he hasn’t been fired.
Last semester, Shawn Holaway, a clinical assistant professor in the university’s College of Pharmacy, was accused of an unprovoked attack on graduate student Philip Almeter at a private Homecoming party in Athens. Although the alleged incident occurred Nov. 2 and Almeter said he reported it to college administrators the next day, university officials still are investigating.
“[Holaway] is contesting the allegations and being uncooperative in the university’s attempts to investigate, so it is taking longer than we would like,” university spokesman Tom Jackson wrote in an e-mail Monday to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But appropriate measures have been taken to remove him from contact with students and to set in motion the steps necessary to reach an appropriate resolution, which could include dismissal.”
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Minister warns of ‘inbred’ Muslims – Times Online
A government minister has warned that inbreeding among immigrants is causing a surge in birth defects – comments likely to spark a new row over the place of Muslims in British society.
Phil Woolas, an environment minister, said the culture of arranged marriages between first cousins was the “elephant in the room”. Woolas, a former race relations minister, said: “If you have a child with your cousin the likelihood is there’ll be a genetic problem.”
The minister, whose views were supported by medical experts this weekend, said: “The issue we need to debate is first cousin marriages, whereby a lot of arranged marriages are with first cousins, and that produces lots of genetic problems in terms of disability [in children].”
Posted in Cultural Oddities, Politically Incorrect, Sexual Deviants, T.R.O.P. | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
“Independence date: February 17″
The government has information suggesting that Hashim Thaci will declare Kosovo independence on February 17.
In talks with EU High Representative Javier Solana’s adviser Stefan Lene, Kosovo Minister Slobodan Samardžić said that the EU could not expect Serbia to sign off Kosovo’s independence, right before a unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence, said the Kosovo Ministry.
At this moment in time, by signing any sort of agreement with the EU, Serbia would be giving its consent and justification to creating a fake state on its territory, Samardžić reiterated, adding that Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica “will not sign such an act.”
The EU is attempting to get Serbia to sign any sort of agreement before February 17, since, by doing so, Serbia’s signature would be a signature for Kosovo independence, said the minister, adding that such a signature would justify the loss of 15 percent of its territory, and a violent breach of the UN Charter and Resolution 1244.
Posted in Anarchy, Crazy is as Crazy Does, War | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Apparently Immaculate Komodos Hatched
Two Komodo dragons have hatched at the Sedgwick County Zoo, apparently without the fertilization of a male. The dragons, both males, are believed to be the first in North America known to have hatched by parthenogenesis, which occurs naturally in some species, including invertebrates and lower plants. It happens more rarely in some vertebrates.
Two other known cases in which Komodo dragons hatched by parthenogenesis were at the London and Chester zoos in England in 2006.
The zoo in Wichita is having DNA testing done to document the mother’s and the babies’ genetic structure because of the remote chance that a male’s sperm was stored on the female’s body.
Posted in Animal Weirdness, Most Mysterious | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Sharia law row: Archbishop is in shock as he faces demands to quit
The Archbishop of Canterbury was facing demands to quit last night as the row over sharia law intensified.
Leading bishops publicly contradicted Dr Rowan Williams’s call for Islamic law to be brought into the British legal system.
With the Church of England plunged into crisis, senior figures were said to be discussing the archbishop’s future.
One member of the church’s “Cabinet”, the Archbishop’s Council, was reported as saying: “There have been a lot of calls for him to resign. I don’t suppose he will take any notice, but, yes, he should resign.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Politically Incorrect, T.R.O.P. | Comments Off
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Dwarves hidden in sports bags target Swedish coaches
Swedish police are quizzing “people of limited stature” with criminal records following a spate of robberies from the cargo holds of coaches – possibly carried out by dwarves smuggled onboard in sports bags.
According to the Sun, the gang responsible pack their vertically-challenged accomplices into bags and stick them in with other passengers’ luggage. The undercover operatives then rifle the hold for valuables before resealing themselves in their hiding place, to be extracted later by another gang member at the coach’s final destination.
National coach operator Swebus confirmed it’d been hit by the audacious crims, who have over the last few months has lifted “thousands of pounds” in cash, jewellery and other valuables.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Human Oddities | Comments Off
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Cyberblue on cyberblue
For goodness’ sake people, don’t hit “Reply all”!
When the Department of Homeland Security ran its first cyberwargame in February of 2006, it found it easier to fight intrusions to individual networks than fight a shifting and expanding attack across a spectrum of targets. This was precisely the kind of attack the Russians launched against Estonia a year and two months later. Suitably warned, the DHS grimly began to ramp its game, uneventfully on the whole, but with one tiny exception …
In late 2007, a contractor for the US Department of Homeland Security sent its daily Open Source Intelligence Report to “a subscription list of hundreds, perhaps thousands of recipients” according to Michael Sachs, the director of the SANS Internet Storm Center. You can guess what happened next.
A fault in the settings created a storm of emails. Replies went to everyone on the DHS mail list, as did every other reply from people who replied back. Subsequent e-mails pleading with members to “stop hitting the reply-to-all button” added themselves to the din. Within a short time a storm of mail, most sent by misadventure was crisscrossing the network. ZDNet describes the tragicomic sequence of events.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Doctor held in Indian organ scam
A doctor alleged to be the mastermind of an organ trading racket in India has been arrested in Nepal, according to Nepalese officials.
Amit Kumar was reportedly discovered in a jungle resort in southern Nepal.
Indian police had been wanting to question Dr Kumar after they raided a house in Delhi which had been used to carry out illegal kidney transplants.
Officers say hundreds of poor labourers were lured from across northern India and bribed into selling their kidneys.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Medical Monstrosities, Yuck! | Comments Off
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Man dead for years found in flat
The body of a man believed to be dead for more than five years has been found in a Bristol flat where a council tenant continued to live.
The corpse was discovered by council workers on a sofa in the lounge after neighbours reported a foul smell.
The deceased man, believed to be in his 70s, was the tenant’s former lodger.
It is thought the tenant failed to report the death because he suffers from mental health problems. An inquest is due to open later.
Posted in Yuck! | Comments Off
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Woman attacked by man in Carnival garb, police say
A Covington woman was attacked Monday morning by a New Orleans man dressed in
Carnival garb that she met through the Internet, Covington police said Tuesday.
Lawrence Goldstein, 40, 1020 St. Claude Ave., New Orleans, was booked Monday with attempted rape, false imprisonment and possession of nitrous
oxide, which is classified a dangerous substance, police said. Sometimes known as laughing gas, the chemical was used
by Goldstein in an attempt to lower the victims defenses, authorities said. Goldstein called the 24-year-old Covington resident
early Monday morning and told her that he had too many guests at his residence and asked if he
could sleep at her place, Covington police spokesman Lt. Jack West said.
The woman, who was house-sitting and had a six-month-old baby with her, told him he
could come over but only to sleep, West said.
Goldstein arrived at the apartment in a purple top hat, a large purple cape and a purple satin shirt, West said. His upper
body was covered in pink body paint and glitter, West said.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Drugs, Fun with Alcohol | Comments Off
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Pop diva Kumi Koda in hot water over ‘rotten womb’ gaffe
Singer Kumi Koda has apologized after saying women over 35 had “rotten” fluid in their wombs, sparking a furor that led a cosmetics maker to suspend advertisements featuring her. “I sincerely and deeply apologize for offending people with my remark,” Koda, a 25-year-old pop idol famed for her cute and sexy look, said on her official website. Her agency, Avex Entertainment, said it was taking the matter seriously and announced a halt to promotional activities for her latest album, “Kingdom,” which was released at the end of January.
Speaking on a popular radio program, Koda said that her newlywed manager should have children soon for the sake of the mother’s amnion, the part of the womb that protects an embryo.
“Mothers’ amnion fluid is rotten once they turn around 35,” she said. “I mean it. It gets dirty.” The soundbite was reproduced on Internet sites along with furious postings.
Posted in Idiot Celebrities, Politically Incorrect | Comments Off
Friday, February 8th, 2008
6 Dead After Gunfire at Mo. Meeting
A gunman with a history of acrimony against civic leaders stormed City Hall during a council meeting Thursday night, killing two police officers and three city officials before law enforcers fatally shot him, authorities said. The mayor was critically injured in the rampage.
The victims at the meeting in suburban St. Louis were killed after the gunman rushed the council chambers and began firing as he yelled “Shoot the mayor!” according to St. Louis County Police spokeswoman Tracy Panus. Two people were wounded before Kirkwood police fatally shot him, she said.
Panus said the names of the victims would not be released until a news conference Friday morning. But the wounded included Mayor Mike Swoboda, who was in critical condition late Thursday in the intensive- care unit of St. John’s Mercy Hospital in Creve Coeur, hospital spokesman Bill McShane said, declining to discuss the nature of the injuries. McShane said another victim, Suburban Journals newspaper reporter Todd Smith, was in satisfactory condition.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality | Comments Off
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Exxon wins freeze on $12 billion of Venezuelan assets
Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N: Quote) has won court orders freezing up to $12 billion in Venezuelan assets around the world as it fights for compensation for operations lost to President Hugo Chavez’s nationalization drive.
The largest U.S. company sought the asset freeze to guarantee repayment should it win arbitration over the Cerro Negro heavy oil project.
The move is the boldest challenge yet by an international oil major against any of the governments around the world that have moved to increase their holds on natural resources as energy and commodity prices have soared.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, Greed is Good, Hard Core! | Comments Off
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Cash Strapped Clinton Campaign — Stunt?
So it turns out the Clinton campaign may not be so cash-strapped after all — at least not at this very moment.
After offering on Wednesday to go without paychecks to help save precious campaign resources, senior staff members on Hillary Clinton’s campaign are in fact not going without pay during the month of February, ABC News has learned.
“It’s not happening,” said a source familiar with the situation.
Clinton’s campaign has been shouting from the rooftops all day about its online fundraising efforts since Super Tuesday.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Corrupt Journos, Greed is Good, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
Drug Traffic Beneath the Waves
In the annals of the drug trade, traffickers have swallowed cocaine pellets, dissolved the powder into ceramics and flown the drug as far as Africa on flimsy planes — anything to elude detection and get a lucrative product to market. Now, the cartels seem to be increasingly going beneath the waves, relying on submarines built in clandestine jungle shipyards to move tons of cocaine.
Last year, 13 of the vessels were seized on dry land or stopped at sea by Colombian or U.S. patrol boats — more than in the previous 14 years combined, according to the Pacific fleet of the Colombian navy, which is responsible for interdiction efforts across 130,000 square miles.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Drugs, Toys! | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Man ‘had sex with victim’s body’
A man accused of murdering teenage model Sally Anne Bowman confessed to having sex with her after she was killed, a court has been told.
Miss Bowman, 18, was repeatedly stabbed and bitten outside her home in Croydon, south London, in September 2005.
Chef Mark Dixie, 35, of no fixed address, denies murdering Miss Bowman.
Prosecutor Brian Altman said: “The defendant confesses that he had sex with Sally Anne and that he had sex with her after her death.”
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Sexual Deviants, Yuck! | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Police: Woman Driver Puts Seatbelt Around Case Of Beer, Not Toddler
A St. Augustine woman pulled over when a deputy saw her run a red light had a case of beer belted in her front seat, but a young child unrestrained in the same vehicle, according to the arrest report.
The deputy who pulled over Tina Williams in the 1700 block of U.S. 1 South about 4:30 p.m. Sunday reported smelling a strong odor of alcohol coming from the car, according to WJXT. When he asked Tina Williams for a driver’s license, she replied, “I never had one.”
Posted in Bad Parents, Fun with Alcohol | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Police: Crack Found in Man’s Buttocks
Police searching a downtown home found a man hiding 15 plastic bags of crack cocaine in his buttocks.
Pierre Lynch, 20, of Washington, D.C., was searched after he went to a home on Charles Street Thursday night.
Police had gone to the home after officers saw suspected drug dealing in the area, Sgt. Jim Robison said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Drugs | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
DCF to review personnel records
The head of the Department of Children and Families, “horrified and shocked” by the arrest of his agency spokesman on child-pornography charges, Monday ordered a review of personnel records for all DCF employees.
DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth and Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey briefed reporters at DCF headquarters about the arrest of Al Zimmerman on eight counts of soliciting two boys for sexual purposes.
Butterworth, who fired Zimmerman last Friday, said he sent a message to all department employees — urging them to “work with your heads held high” — and said the incident does not reflect on DCF’s work in protecting children in foster care, the elderly and other needy Floridians.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Another undersea Internet cable damaged in Mideast: Indian firm
Another Middle East undersea Internet cable has been damaged, adding to disruption in Indian online services caused when several lines were cut earlier this week, a cable operating firm said Saturday.
The Falcon cable was cut 56 kilometres (35 miles) from Dubai, between Oman and the United Arab Emirates, according to its owner FLAG Telecom, part of India’s Reliance Communications.
The company said on its website that a repair ship had been notified and was expected to arrive at the site in the next few days.
The cause of the latest cable damage was not immediately known.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Hackers and Hacking, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Group Calls on China to Respect Rats
An animal rights group called Monday for China to treat rats with kindness and respect, as millions across the nation begin to celebrate the coming Year of the Rat.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said it has asked the Chinese government to consider animal welfare laws for rats used in laboratory experiments. The group also recommended a series of guidelines for animals used in science.
“Rats sing, they dream, and they express empathy for others,” Coco Yu of PETA’s Asia-Pacific branch said in a statement.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Treason is as Treason Does | Comments Off
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Quarter of Brits think Churchill was myth: poll
Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.
The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.
And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Idiot Parents | Comments Off
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Man Says Exorcism Led to Wife’s Death
A man accused of killing his wife says he was trying to exorcise a demon from her when the devil entered his body and caused her to die, according to a police probable cause statement.
Jan David Clark, 60, was arrested Friday after authorities went to his home and found Susan Kay Clark’s body wrapped in a bed sheet with a cross and sword on top of it.
Officers had gone to the home after being told that Clark had called a friend and said his 59-year-old wife was dead, said Sgt. Gary Duesler said the Ector County Sheriff’s Office.
Clark told investigators he had his wife pinned face down on a carpeted floor when she died.
Clark was charged with murder and remained in the Ector County jail on Sunday in lieu of $300,000 bail.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Concentrated Stupidity, Sinners in the hands of an angry God | Comments Off
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Monkey Boiled Alive At Research Lab
A monkey, slotted to be used in a drug-product research experiment, was instead boiled alive inside an Everett laboratory, a KIRO Team 7 Investigation found.
It’s a deadly error, but not the first one KIRO Team 7 Investigators uncovered at SNBL USA.
That company is near the Boeing Plant off Merrill Creek Parkway in Everett. It houses around 2,000 primates and represents clients like Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Seattle Genetics.
Using hidden camera footage, Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne shows you inside a facility that’s no stranger to federal animal care violations.
When it comes to scientific experiments, often the Cynomolgus Macaque monkey is the primate of choice. They weigh anywhere from about 3 to 25 pounds and make lots of barking noises. It’s hard to image how anyone could miss one sitting inside a small cage.
In early November, SNBL employees set out to clean pens full of monkeys and, at times, their babies.
Our hidden camera footage, taken inside SNBL headquarters, shows just how obvious it is to see and hear these animals jumping around in their enclosures.
Despite that, KIRO Team 7 Investigators confirmed someone placed a wire kennel, with a healthy female macaque monkey still inside, into a giant rack-washer.
The 180-degree water, caustic foam and detergent killed the primate at some point during the 20-minute cycle.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Mad Scientists | Comments Off
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Holocaust Day marred by ‘racist’ stone-throwing
THE Holocaust Memorial Day marking the genocides of the 20th century was marred on Sunday when a gang of youths stoned Jewish tourists on a guided tour of London’s East End.
A group of 96 visitors looking at sites of Jewish interest were attacked by youths hiding behind a fence in a back street in Whitechapel.
Two were struck by the missiles, an American woman just starting a new post at London’s Metropolitan University and a Canadian lecturer.
The woman had blood pouring from her head and needed hospital treatment.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Politically Incorrect | Comments Off
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
Teacher survives attack by 400lb lion, claiming ‘it was only playing’
A British teacher’s trip to Africa turned to horror – when a lion leapt on her from behind and clamped its jaws round her head.
As she was dragged to the ground, Kate Drew screamed in pain as the animal’s teeth sank into her.
To add to her terror, two other lions were prowling not far away, waiting to pounce.
Luckily, tour guides were nearby and they tackled the 400lb animal, wrestling it away from her and saving her from more serious injury or death.
She was left needing 13 stitches in bite wounds – but it is thought the lion may simply have mistaken her for a playmate, because of her mane-like long blonde hair.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Animal Rebellion Update, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
Speed writing
Philip M Parker is the world’s fastest book author, and given that he has been at it only for about five years and already has more than 85,000 books to his name, he is also probably the most prolific.
Parker is also the most wide-ranging of authors – the phrase “shoes and ships and sealing wax, cabbages and kings” is not the half a per cent of it. Nor are the classic subjects foreign to him.
He has authored 188 books related to shoes, 10 about ships, 219 about wax, six about sour red cabbage pickles, and six about royal jelly supplements.
Posted in Human Oddities | Comments Off
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
Retired Green Beret shoots intruder, gets court martial
Retired Army Green Beret Smokey Taylor got his court martial this weekend and came away feeling good about it.
Taylor, at age 80 the oldest member of Chapter XXXIII of the Special Forces Association, was on trial by his peers under the charge of “failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber” in the shooting of an intruder at his home in Knoxville, TN, in December.
The entire affair, of course, was very much tongue in cheek. Taylor had been awakened in the early morning hours of Dec. 17, 2007, when an intruder broke into his home. He investigated the noises with one of his many weapons in hand.
…
“Charges were brought against him under the premise that he should have saved the county and taxpayers the expense of a trial,” said Chapter XXXIII President Bill Long of Asheville. “He could have used a .45 or .38. The .22 just wasn’t big enough to get the job done.”
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality | Comments Off
Friday, February 1st, 2008
Cow Hit by Woman’s Car Lands in Back Seat
It was surprise enough when Tanya Coccia’s car accidentally hit two cows that had wandered on to the road.
It was an even bigger surprise when Coccia and her 14-year-old daughter realized one of the cows had landed in her back seat.
When emergency crews arrived they found the cow in the car shaking after falling through the back window, according to MyFOXBoston.com.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Friday, February 1st, 2008
Scientist: All Blue-Eyed People Are Related
If you’ve got blue eyes, shake the hand of the nearest person who shares your azure irises: He or she may be a distant cousin.
Danish researchers have concluded that all blue-eyed people share a common ancestor, presumably someone who lived 6,000 to 10,000 years ago.
“Originally, we all had brown eyes,” Professor Hans Eiberg of the University of Copenhagen said in a press release. “But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a ’switch,’ which literally ‘turned off’ the ability to produce brown eyes.”
Posted in Weird Science | Comments Off
Friday, February 1st, 2008
7-Year-Old Boy Critical After Being Found Hanging From Clothing Hook at School
A 7-year-old boy is in critical condition after being found hanging by his shirt collar from a clothing hook in a charter school’s dressing room, and police tried to determine Thursday whether it was an attack or an accident.
The shirt collar cut off the boy’s oxygen, and he was unconscious when a teacher found him Wednesday, said police Lt. Mark Spangler. He was in critical condition at a hospital Thursday.
“We’re not ruling anything out. We can’t rule anything in at this point,” Spangler said about the investigation. “Nothing is stepping out to us to say that there is some predator out there. … We just don’t know yet.”
The boy had attended an assembly at the Not Your Ordinary School campus and asked to be excused to go the bathroom. He was found as the assembly was ending; there was no surveillance camera in the area.
Posted in Most Mysterious | Comments Off
