Archive for April, 2008
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Bizarre religious ritual: Indians fling infants from buildings
Religious traditions around the world vary in their levels of quirkiness – but rarely do they involve throwing infants off the side of buildings.
One exception however, is the case of the small town of Solapur, Maharashtra, India. In this town, chucking infants from tall towers to test the health of their children, is the norm.
While the practice to most people would seem extreme and dangerous, the devotees strongly believe that the ritual will not harm their children.
“It’s our family tradition and so we follow it” a devotee said.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Cultural Oddities | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
African lion on the loose near Ottawa
A two-year-old pet lion was on the loose in Canada’s backwoods near the nation’s capital Wednesday, sparking a hunt by police, officials said.
The 150-pound (70-kilogram) male African lion escaped overnight Tuesday from an Indian reservation and was last seen near the tiny village of Maniwaki, north of Ottawa, said Melanie Larouche of the Quebec provincial police.
Schools and day-cares in the region were alerted and asked to keep children indoors, she told AFP.
The lion named Boomer belongs to a resident of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg reserve and was said by its owner to be harmless, but authorities were not taking any chances.
“That’s not a little pet to us, and we’re taking this situation quite seriously,” Corporal Gordon McGregor of the Kitigan Zibi reserve police force told public broadcaster CBC.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Ronaldo in transvestite scandal
Brazilian football star Ronaldo has been caught up in a sex scandal with three cross-dressing prostitutes.
Having dropped off his girlfriend at her house in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night, the footballer picked up three prostitutes.
When they all booked into a motel, Ronaldo discovered that the prostitutes were in fact men.
According to Rio police, he alleges that the transvestites then tried to extort money from him.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Celebrities, Se7en Deadly Sins, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Makeover Urged For Hitler’s “Mein Kampf”, German Historians Push For New, Annotated Version Of Infamous Manifesto
German historians want Adolf Hitler’s infamous manifesto, “Mein Kampf,” to be republished in the country before the copyright lapses in 2015.
Though the book is widely available in the English-speaking world, its publication has been banned in Germany since World War II and its resale is tightly regulated.
But German copyright law dictates that an author’s work enters the public domain 70 years after his or her death, and that deadline is fast approaching. Hitler killed himself in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945.
Before that anniversary, historians want Bavaria – which controls the copyright because Hitler’s last official address was in Munich – to authorize an annotated version of “Mein Kampf.” They say a thorough, academic presentation that places Hitler’s work in historical context would be the best defense against radical right-wing groups and neo-Nazis who might want to use the book to advance racist agendas once the copyright expires and anyone is free to publish it.
Posted in Idiot Activists, Nazis | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Bear Mauls to Death Possibly Drunk Ukrainian Woman Who Wandered Into Its Cage
A Ukrainian official says a bear fatally mauled a woman who wandered into its cage on an animal farm.
Regional emergency official Olexandr Soldatov says the middle-aged woman may have been drunk when she stepped into the cage Monday on a farm outside the eastern city of Donetsk.
He says one of the two bears inside the cage then attacked the woman.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Concentrated Stupidity, Fun with Alcohol | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Sharks Bite 3 Swimmers In 3 Days
Swimmers were again cleared from a New Smyrna Beach Monday after a third swimmer in three days was bitten by a shark and treated at a hospital.
The latest victim was the ninth recorded shark bite of the year in Volusia County, putting the number of bites ahead of the record breaking “Year Of The Shark” in 2001, according to beach records.
The victim received stitches at a Central Florida hospital.
Several shark sightings in the water prompted lifeguards to clear the water Monday, Local 6 reported.
Meanwhile, over the weekend two different swimmers were treated at hospitals after being bitten by sharks.
A 24-year-old man stepped off of his surfboard in chest-deep water near a jetty in New Smyrna Beach Sunday and was bitten on his right calf.
He was taken to Bert Fish Medical Center and treated.
On Saturday, a 21-year-old man was treated at a hospital after a shark bit his foot while he was surfing in the same area Saturday.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Nautical Nightmares | Comments Off
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Iran takes new shot at Barbie, calling US doll ‘destructive’
A top Iranian judiciary official warned Monday against the “destructive” cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.
In the latest salvo in a more than decade-old government campaign against Barbie, Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said in an official letter to Vice President Parviz Davoudi that the doll and other Western toys are a “danger” that need to be stopped.
“The irregular importation of such toys, which unfortunately arrive through unofficial sources and smuggling, is destructive culturally and a social danger,” said the letter, a copy of which was made available to The Associated Press.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, T.R.O.P. | Comments Off
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Cuba announces Communist Party congress
President Raul Castro announced Monday that Cuba will convene its first Communist Party congress since 1997 — a major gathering that could chart the island’s political future long after he and his older brother Fidel are gone.
The congress follows a series of minor social changes the younger Castro has decreed to make life easier and less restrictive for ordinary Cubans.
“We have worked hard in these past few months,” the president said during a Central Committee gathering aired on state television. The Communist Party must establish guidelines, including for “when the historic generations are no longer around,” he said.
Posted in Commies, Crazed Dictatorships, Crazy is as Crazy Does | Comments Off
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Possible New Element Could Rewrite Textbooks
An international team of researchers may, just may, have made a radical breakthrough that could rewrite physics and chemistry textbooks.
They claim to have discovered a naturally occurring element with an atomic number (number of protons) of 122 — 30 notches on the periodic table ahead of uranium, long considered the heaviest naturally occurring element.
For decades, physicists have been making artificial elements in supercolliders, only to see most of their creations disintegrate within a short time.
Most elements above atomic number 100 are inherently unstable and get progressively more usntable as you travel upward. The highest discovered one, ununoctium or atomic number 118, has a half-life of 89 milliseconds.
But according to theory, there exists an “island of stability” further out along the periodic table where certain configurations of protons and neutrons would create superheavy but also superstable elements.
Posted in Weird Science | Comments Off
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Boys sentenced over Goth murder
Two teenage boys have been jailed for life for the murder of a woman who was killed for dressing as a Goth.
Sophie Lancaster was kicked and stamped to death by Brendan Harris, 15, and Ryan Herbert, 16, in Stubbylee Park in Bacup, Lancashire, last summer.
The pair turned on Miss Lancaster, 20, in an act of “feral thuggery” as she tried to get them and three other youths to stop attacking her boyfriend.
Harris must serve a minimum of 18 years and Herbert 16 years, the judge said.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Teen Antics | Comments Off
Monday, April 28th, 2008
RFE/RL Websites Hit By Mass Cyberattack
Several websites run by RFE/RL’s broadcast services have been hit by an unprecedented cyberattack, making them inaccessible to the outside world.
The attack, which started on April 26, intially targeted the website of RFE/RL’s Belarus Service, but quickly spread to other sites. Within hours, eight RFE/RL websites (Belarus, Kosovo, Azerbaijan, Tatar-Bashkir, Radio Farda, South Slavic, Russian, and Tajik) were knocked out or otherwise affected.
The “denial-of-service” (DOS) attack was intended to make the targeted website unavailable to its users, according to RFE/RL’s Director of Technology Luke Springer. “The way this is normally done is by flooding the target website with fake requests to communicate, thereby using up all [the website's] free sources and rendering the site useless to all the legitimate users,” Springer said.
RFE/RL has taken countermeasures and restored full service to most of its Internet sites. The primary target, the Belarus Service, is still affected.
RFE/RL has been hit before by denial-of-service attacks, but this attack was unprecedented in its scale, as RFE/RL websites received up to 50,000 fake hits every second.
Posted in Hackers and Hacking, Technological Travesties | Comments Off
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Massive Attack: Half A Million Microsoft-Powered Sites Hit With SQL Injection
A new SQL injection attack aimed at Microsoft IIS web servers has hit some 500,000 websites, including the United Nations, UK Government sites and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While the attack is not necessarily Microsoft’s fault, it is unique to the company’s IIS server.
The automated attack takes advantage to the fact that Microsoft’s IIS servers allow generic commands that don’t require specific table-level arguments. However, the vulnerability is the result of poor data handling by the sites’ creators, rather than a specific Microsoft flaw.
In other words, there’s no patch that’s going to fix the issue, the problem is with the developers who failed follow well-established security practices for handling database input.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Hackers and Hacking, Technological Travesties | Comments Off
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Strippers can’t compete with Internet
The number of strippers and strip clubs in Toronto is declining, with former dancers blaming the Internet for putting them out of work.
A 23-year-old ex-dancer identified only as Madeline told the Toronto Star she could make as much as $1,000 per night after she started working in strip clubs four years ago, but gave it up for a clothed bartending job when fewer men would pay $20 for a lap dance.
“Why would a guy go to a club and pay to sit there if he could get it all for free on his computer at home?” she asked.
Posted in Sexual Deviants, Technological Travesties | Comments Off
Monday, April 28th, 2008
300-pound inmate complains Ark. jail doesn’t feed him well
An inmate awaiting trial on a murder charge is suing the county, complaining he has lost more than 100 pounds because of the jailhouse menu.
Broderick Lloyd Laswell says he isn’t happy that he’s down to 308 pounds after eight months in the Benton County jail. He has filed a federal lawsuit complaining the jail doesn’t provide inmates with enough food.
According to the suit, Laswell weighed 413 pounds when he was jailed in September. Police say he and a co-defendant fatally beat and stabbed a man, then set his home on fire.
“On several occasions I have started to do some exercising and my vision went blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out,” Laswell wrote in his complaint. “About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again.”
But Laswell then goes on to complain that he undertakes little vigorous activity.
Posted in Human Oddities | Comments Off
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
Orangutan attempts to hunt fish with spear
A male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish.
It is the first time one has been seen using a tool to hunt.
The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja, where apes are rehabilitated into the wild after being rescued from zoos, private homes or even butchers’ shops.
“Orang hutan” means “forest man” in one of Indonesia’s many languages and our long-armed cousins do indeed show a remarkable ability to mimic our behaviour.
It’s only a matter of time before they turn on US!
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Animal Weirdness, End of the World Update | Comments Off
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
Kim Jong-il builds ‘Thunderbirds’ runway for war in North Korea
North Korean military engineers are completing an underground runway beneath a mountain that can protect fighter aircraft from attack until they take off at high speed through the mouth of a tunnel.
The 6,000ft runway is a few minutes’ flying time from the tense front line where the Korean People’s Army faces soldiers from the United States and South Korea.
The project was identified by an air force defector from North Korea and captured on a satellite image by Google Earth, according to reports in the South Korean press last week.
It is one of three underground fighter bases among an elaborate subterranean military infrastructure built to withstand a “shock and awe” assault in the first moments of a war, the defector said.
The runway, reminiscent of the Thunderbirds television series, highlights the strange and secretive nature of the regime that provided the expertise for a partially built nuclear reactor in Syria, film of which was released by the CIA last week.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, N. Korea, War | Comments Off
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
Austrian ‘hid daughter in cellar’
An Austrian man allegedly held his daughter captive in a cellar for 24 years and fathered four children with her, reports say.
The existence of the woman, believed missing since 1984 and now 42, emerged after one of the children was found in the house in a “serious condition”.
A search was begun by the authorities for her mother after she was found, Austrian broadcaster ORF reports.
The 19-year-old is now in hospital in the Lower Austrian town of Amstetten.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Cultural Oddities, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
Chris Jenkins murder connects dozens around country
University of Minnesota college student Chris Jenkins was found in the Mississippi River in February of 2003.
Minneapolis Police began investigating the case, which also caught the attention of two retired NYPD detectives.
Turns out, Jenkins’ death was the missing part of the puzzle for Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte.
They think Jenkins connects dozens of other deaths around the country over the last decade. The stories are the same all over the country–an athletic, intelligent, well-liked college student goes missing.
Family and friends launch a massive search. Weeks or months later, the young man is discovered drowned. In more than 40 cases, the deaths are blamed on a drunken accident–except for one.
…
While most local investigations focused on where a body was recovered, Gannon and Duarte tried to figure out where the body went into the river.
City after city, when they’d find the spot where the body went into the water, they would find something else: The symbol of a smiley face
“It’s very disturbing,” Duarte said.
The paint color and size of the face varies, but the detectives are convinced that it’s a sick signature the killers leave behind.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Conspiracies | Comments Off
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
ReCreate 68 Starting to Look Like a Threat to Peaceful Activist Groups
…
Denver could face a “dangerous situation” on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, war protesters said Thursday, after losing a coveted permit for Civic Center to the convention host committee.
“When things blow up because the police have to enforce a permit that the Democrats got, don’t blame us for that,” said Glenn Spagnuolo.
“Blame the Democrats for trying to silence dissent in the city of Denver.”
The lottery for permits to protest, pray or hold other events in city parks during the DNC Aug. 24 through 28 resumed Thursday after the city bungled the drawing Tuesday by accidentally leaving out some of the applicants’ names.
But when Jenny Anderson, event planner for the Denver 2008 Convention Host Committee, won the permit for Civic Center for a kick-off Aug. 24, Spagnuolo accused the committee of creating a “very serious, dangerous situation . . . for everybody.”
Posted in Anarchy, Politico Follies | Comments Off
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
Mexican Police: 13 Dead in Tijuana Shootouts
Massive gunbattles broke out between suspected drug traffickers who fired at each other while speeding down heavily populated streets of this violent border city early Saturday, killing 13 people and wounding nine.
All of the dead were believed to be drug traffickers, possibly rival members of the same cartel who were trying to settle scores, said Rommel Moreno, the attorney general of Baja California state, where Tijuana is located.
“Evidently this is a confrontation between gangs,” Moreno told reporters.
Eight suspects and one federal police officer were injured in the pre-dawn shootings, none gravely, said Agustin Perez Aguilar, a spokesman for the state public safety department. The suspects are being held on suspicion of weapons possession among other possible charges.
Police recovered 21 vehicles, many with bullet holes or U.S. license plates; a total of 54 guns; and more than 1,500 spent shell casings at various points in the city where the battles broke out, Perez Aguilar said.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Drugs, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Man Arrested After Pumping Gas Into Imaginary Car
A Frankfort man was arrested on drug trafficking charges early Sunday morning after he was reportedly pumping gas into an imaginary vehicle. According to the arrest report, Metro Police arrived at a gas station at First and Jefferson streets in Louisville and immediately smelled marijuana coming from Joshua L. Moore, who station clerks contend was filling up an imaginary vehicle.
Officers searched Moore and found “two large baggies” of marijuana and a large amount of Ecstasy. Police said Moore also had a cell phone and a large amount of money, which they said was indicative of trafficking.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Drugs, Idiot Criminals | Comments Off
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Feds not laughing at beer from Weed
The federal government has said no to Weed.
Or at least to the bottle caps on beer brewed at a popular local brewery in this small Siskiyou County town, which has a name that no doubt would have kept 1970s pot-smoking duo Cheech and Chong giggling.
Weed brewer Vaune Dillmann faces possible sanctions or fines from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau if he continues to brew and sell beer with bottle caps printed with the label “Try Legal Weed.”
Bureau spokesman Art Resnick said Monday that the bottle caps tell consumers to support an illegal drug – a policy that violates rules of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau as well as the agency’s predecessor, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms.
Posted in Fun with Alcohol, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
The Adolf Hitler doll which comes with a change of clothes – and a spare head with a kind face
An action-man style doll of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler has gone on sale in the Ukraine, with saleswomen comparing the doll to Barbie.
Supermarkets in the capital Kiev are stocking the 40 centimetre high figure of the fuhrer, complete with jackboots, leather trench-coat and swastika armband.
The £100 figure has a spare head “with a kind expression on it,” glasses and several changes of clothes.
It comes in a presentation box with the dates of Hitler’s birth and death on it.
…
One saleswoman said: “It is like Barbie. Kids can undress fuhrer, pin on medals and there’s a spare head in the kit to give him a kinder expression on his face.
“He has glasses that are round, in the manner of pacifist Jon Lennon”.
Posted in Greed is Good, Nazis, Politically Incorrect | Comments Off
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Man survives 500-foot fall into Pennsylvania strip mine
A man survived a 500-foot fall into a strip mine Friday, astounding rescuers who spent hours on a risky descent into the abyss to bring him back out.
Police said Nathan Bowman was trespassing on coal company property around 1 a.m. Friday when he slipped and fell into the Springdale Pit, an inactive mine about 700 feet deep, 3,000 feet long and 1,500 feet wide.
Bowman tumbled down a jagged slope and then free-fell several hundred feet, his descent broken by a rock ledge not far from the bottom of the pit, said Coaldale Police Chief Timothy Delaney, who helped direct the rescue effort.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Squirrel wars: reds, greys and blacks battle for supremacy
The last stronghold of the native red squirrel is under attack in the North, while black “super squirrels” have begun a rearguard assault on their grey rivals in the South.
It was the sort of scene that unfolds every morning in British back gardens. As soon as he opened the curtains Martin Coats saw a squirrel run along his garden wall and over the fence into the fir trees at the back. Though he thought little of it at the time, conservation groups confirmed that his street is now in the front line of the war against grey squirrels.
“It did occur to me at the time that I’d never seen a grey up here before but I didn’t realise the significance,” said Mr Coats, 36. “If it comes back I’ll be better prepared. I’ll get the gun out and, if I see it, I’ll shoot it.” Scottish Natural Heritage said that it had received four sightings of a grey squirrel in the Milton of Leys housing estate near Inverness. It is the first confirmed sighting of a grey in the Highlands, stronghold of the red squirrel and is home to at least half of the estimated 120,000 in Scotland.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Friday, April 25th, 2008
Cloud Of Bees Swarming In ‘Tornado Pattern’ Chases Diners From Restaurant
A giant cloud of thousands of bees mysteriously appeared and began to swirl in a “tornado pattern” around a Central Florida Mexican restaurant.
Customers at Oxie’s restaurant located near Highway 17-92 and Plymouth Avenue in DeLand said they noticed a cloud in the sky and thought it was raining. They then realized, the cloud was a swarm of bees.
“A lot of people said it was bees and ran to their cars,” restaurant owner Oxie Ochiana said. “It was scary. I was panicking. I didn’t know what to do.”
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Humans Almost Became Extinct 70,000 Years Ago
Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.
The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.
The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.
“This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species’ history,” Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence, said in a statement.
“Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world,” he added. “Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA.”
Posted in Historical Oddities, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Japanese Girl Commits Suicide With Detergent, Sickens 90 Neighbors
A 14-year-old Japanese girl killed herself by mixing laundry detergent with cleanser, releasing fumes that also sickened 90 people in her apartment house, police said Thursday as they grappled with a spate of similar suicides.
None of the sickened neighbors in Konan, southern Japan, were severely ill, although about 10 were hospitalized, authorities said. The deadly hydrogen sulfide gas escaped from the girl’s bathroom window and entered neighboring apartments.
The girl’s suicide Wednesday night was part of an expanding string of similar deaths that experts say have been encouraged by Internet suicide sites.
Posted in Oops, Suicidal Tendencies | Comments Off
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Mexican Embassy: Official Fired After Getting Caught With White House BlackBerries
Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans and has since been fired, FOX News has learned.
Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference.
Mexican Embassy spokesman Ricardo Alday said Thursday he was asked to tender his resignation once he arrived back in Mexico City.
“Mr. Quintero will be responsible for explaining his actions to the American authorities conducting an investigation. The Mexican Government deeply regrets this incident,” he said.
Quintero Curiel took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Concentrated Stupidity | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
N.J. Officer Allegedly Performed Sex Acts On Cows
More charges have been filed against a Burlington County police officer who was recently charged with sexually assaulting three girls.
Authorities announced Moorestown Officer Robert Melia Jr., 38, has been charged with four counts of animal cruelty after allegedly engaging in sex acts with cows between June and December of 2006.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club limits rice purchases
Wal-Mart Stores Inc’s (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Sam’s Club warehouse division said on Wednesday it is limiting sales of several types of rice, the latest sign that fears of a rice shortage are rippling around the world.
Sam’s Club, the No. 2 U.S. warehouse club operator, said it is limiting sales of Jasmine, Basmati and long grain white rice “due to recent supply and demand trends.”
U.S. rice futures hitting an all-time high Wednesday on worries about supply shortages.
…
The situation has sparked food riots in several African countries, Indonesia, and Haiti. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that higher food prices could hurt global growth and security.
Rice prices have risen 68 percent since the start of 2008.
Trade bans on rice have been put in place by India, the world’s second largest exporter in 2007, and Vietnam, the third biggest, in hopes of cooling domestic prices. Rice is a staple in most of Asia.
Posted in End of the World Update | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Penis theft panic hits city.
Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men’s penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.
Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.
Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo’s sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.
Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, Doh! | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
A New ‘Green’ Body Count Begins
Food riots caused by rising food prices have erupted around the world. Five people died in uprisings in Haiti, perhaps the first of many casualties to come from the fad of being “green.”
Food riots also broke out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ethiopia. The military is being deployed in Pakistan and Thailand to protect fields and warehouses. Higher energy costs and policies promoting the use of biofuels such as ethanol are being blamed.
“When millions of people are going hungry, it’s a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels,” an Indian government official told the Wall Street Journal. Turkey’s finance minister labeled the use of biofuels as “appalling,” according to the paper.
Biofuels have turned out to be a lose-lose-lose proposition. Once touted by the greens and the biofuel industry as being able to reduce the demand for oil and lower greenhouse gas emissions, biofuels have accomplished neither goal and have no prospect for accomplishing either in the foreseeable future.
Posted in Gore Effect Update, Greed is Good, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Search resumes for Brazil priest carried aloft by party balloons
Rescuers scoured the waters off Brazil’s southern Atlantic coast on Tuesday looking for a Roman Catholic priest who disappeared after floating into the sky strapped to hundreds of helium party balloons.
Rev. Adelir Antonio di Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon wearing a helmet, aluminum thermal flight suit, water proof coveralls and parachute in a bid to break a record for the longest time in-flight with party balloons.
He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port authority officials. A cluster of coloured balloons were found Tuesday night, floating intact in the sea off Brazil’s southern Santa Catarina state near di Carli’s last contact point, according to a photograph posted on Sao Paulo’s UOL news website.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Residents Report Mysterious Red Light Sightings in Skies Over Phoenix
Red colored lights that formed a square and then a triangle were seen floating over north Phoenix late Monday, a sight reminiscent of an unexplained 1997 sighting that has become part of the area’s lore.
There was no immediate word where they came from.
The Air Force said the lights weren’t from any of their flight operations and officials at Deer Valley airport and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport could not explain it.
The lights were visible for about 13 minutes around 8 p.m. Monday.
Posted in Aliens, Most Mysterious | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
‘I infected 1500 girls with AIDS’
A SERIES of sickening videos have been posted on the internet showing a man who claims to have deliberately “infected” thousands of women with AIDS.
Calling himself ‘Trashman’ and speaking with an American accent, the masked man says he has infected between 1200 and 1500 unknowing victims with the devastating disease.
He can be seen reading the names and ages of some of the women he claims to have had unprotected sex with in the video clips on website YouTube.
The videos – one of which has been viewed 195,000 times – also feature a web address to a “gangsta” portal filled with pornography and where Trashman has a profile.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Crazy is as Crazy Does, Disease | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
‘Naked nomad’ who rejected civilization to wander the outback alone leaves a multi-million pound estate to his sister
He walked naked through the Australian outback and died without clothes in a canoe in the jungle – but it was learned yesterday that the so-called ‘Naked Nomad’ had left behind a £2 million fortune.
Eccentric Victor Flanagan wandered the sun-scorched roads of Australia without a stitch of clothing, slipping on a simple sarong when he entered towns, a curious figure with shoulder-length greying hair who had rejected civilisation.
Everyone believed he was penniless, but it has now been revealed that Mr Flanagan had left behind land worth £2 million near Busselton, in Western Australia.
Posted in Human Oddities | Comments Off
Monday, April 21st, 2008
Bull Jumps Over Wall at Northern California Rodeo, Injuring 6
A 3,000-pound bull jumped over an 8-foot fence during a Northern California rodeo and injured three children and three adults.
Authorities say the rodeo fans’ injuries aren’t considered life-threatening.
The bull made its bid to escape Sunday in Red Bluff, Calif., near the end of the city’s 87th annual rodeo and landed in an audience seating area.
Rodeo director and spokesman Joe Froome calls it a freak accident.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Monday, April 21st, 2008
Hospital removes ‘wrong kidney’
A hospital in the Republic of Ireland has admitted removing the wrong kidney from a sick child.
The mistake, that led to a healthy kidney being removed, was described by Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin as an “unprecedented error”.
The Dublin facility said it has given its sincere apologies to the family.
The young child now faces regular dialysis unless a donor kidney can be found. An internal investigation is being carried out by the hospital.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities, Oops | Comments Off
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
RAF fury over Prince William’s £30,000 helicopter stunt in Kate Middleton’s backyard
The head of the RAF has ‘erupted’ with rage over revelations Prince William landed a £10million RAF helicopter in girlfriend Kate Middleton’s backyard during a military exercise.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy is said to have been furious at the ’sheer stupidity’ of the situation and demanded a ‘line-by-line’ explanation from subordinates.
Details of the angry reaction emerged as the young royal came under fire for using a RAF Chinook for a second time to fit in a personal visit.
He landed the machine in girlfriend Kate Middleton’s back garden during an official military exercise.
One senior RAF source told the Mail: ‘William hasn’t done anything wrong but the naivety of those around him in allowing him to make these flights without foreseeing the potential problems they could cause is astonishing. I think there has been a bit of royal fever here.’
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Idiot Celebrities | Comments Off
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
Stinky manure smell engulfs London
A foul smell permeating London and parts of England over the past two days is due to farmers on the European continent spreading manure in their fields, forecasters and British farmers said Saturday.
Experts say the inescapable farmland smell permeating London will stick around for a couple of days.
The agricultural odor is inescapable in central London and smells vaguely of farmland or even garbage.
Forecasters said a stiff breeze from the east is carrying the smell across the North Sea from Belgium, the Netherlands and even Germany. They said the smell is likely to hang around through the weekend as the easterly wind continues.
“You can’t say it’s going to smell for two days, but the wind is coming in from the same direction,” said Chris Almond, a forecaster with the Met Office, Britain’s weather service.
Posted in Restless Earth, Yuck! | Comments Off
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
Russian Soyuz, With Korean Space Pioneer, Lands Off Mark – New York Times
A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying South Korea’s first astronaut landed on Saturday in northern Kazakhstan 260 miles off its mark and 20 minutes late, Russian space officials said.
A spokesman for mission control, Valery Lyndin, said the crew — Yi So-yeon, a South Korean bioengineering student; Peggy A. Whitson, an American astronaut; and Col. Yuri I. Malenchenko, a Russian flight engineer — was safe, though the three had been subjected to severe G-forces during the re-entry.
The Russian-made Soyuz capsule touched down at 4:51 a.m. Eastern time about 260 miles off target, the spokesman said, which was highly unusual given how precisely engineers plan for such landings. It was also about 20 minutes later than scheduled.
Posted in Oops, Space, Technological Travesties, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Man calls emergency number 6,442 times
A Romanian man has been fined for making 6,442 profane phone calls to an emergency number, police said Thursday.
The 24-year-old man, who lives in a village in southern Romania, was identified in February and fined $223 in April after a checkup showed he was mentally sound, said Daniela Salaoru, police spokeswoman for Ialomita county police.
Police did not identify the caller. But the Evenimentul Zilei newspaper said he was a well-digger, and reported that he called the 112 emergency number from November to January to swear at the operators. He used a prepaid mobile phone, which does not immediately make it possible to identify the caller, police said.
Posted in Crazy is as Crazy Does | Comments Off
Friday, April 18th, 2008
CNN reporter faces drug charge after arrest in Central Park
A CNN reporter was arrested Friday in Central Park with a small amount of methamphetamine in his pocket, but he avoided jail time by agreeing to undergo drug counseling and therapy.
Richard Quest, 46, was arrested around 3:40 a.m. on a count of possession of a controlled substance _ a misdemeanor that usually refers to a personal use amount of a drug. He was also charged with loitering; the park officially closes at 1 a.m.
When police saw and detained Quest, he told them, “I’ve got some meth in my pocket,” according to the complaint filed in court. The complaint said he had a plastic sandwich bag containing methamphetamine in a jacket pocket.
Quest, who is British, is a correspondent for CNN International and is known for his reports on business travel. He hosts “CNN Business Traveler” and “Quest.”
Update: More here, including details about “a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Drugs, Idiot Celebrities | Comments Off
Friday, April 18th, 2008
Oklahoma sheriff charged with using inmates as sex slaves
Authorities have charged a western Oklahoma sheriff with coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail.
Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned Wednesday just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official.
Burgess, the top officer in the county of 26,000 since 1994, appeared in court Wednesday was released after posting $50,000 bail.
A message left at Burgess’ home Thursday was not immediately returned.
Among other things, Burgess is accused of having sex with a female drug court participant who was in his custody. The crimes are to have occurred between October 2005 and April 2007.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Man arrested; allegedly viewed pornography on library computer
Several times during the last month, a maintenance worker has found what appeared to be bodily fluids in pencil holders and plastic bags around the public-access computer area of the Williamsburg Regional Library.
After the worker told library officials, the incidents were reported Monday to police, who suspected that a man was repeatedly masturbating at the library. On Thursday, library workers saw a man around the computer area and called police. The man initially had his hands down his pants but began fumbling around and acting nervously when police arrived, Williamsburg police spokesman David Sloggie said.
The man was arrested after police determined that he was looking at a pornographic Web site on one of the library’s computers, Sloggie said.
Jeffrey Jay Jones, 22, of Joy Drive in Hampton is charged with defacing public property and possession of marijuana, Sloggie said. Police found marijuana when arresting Jones.
Posted in Drugs, Idiot Criminals, Sexual Deviants, Yuck! | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Johnson City man unharmed by exploding toilet
A 61-year-old Johnson City man said he wasn’t injured Wednesday when a toilet exploded with water and launched him against a wall.
Richard Szymanski said he was using his son’s toilet at 69 Carlton St., Johnson City, when steam started coming out the toilet after he flushed. Before he could stand up the toilet shot out hot water and he was thrown a few feet into a shower wall.
“It was kind of hot there for a minute,” said Szymanski.
Posted in Doh!, You lucky bastard, Yuck! | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
White student in blackface plays Obama in college skit
North Dakota State University is investigating complaints about a campus skit in which a white student in blackface portrayed Barack Obama receiving a lap dance.
The same skit, part of a charity fundraiser held at a campus theater, also featured a depiction of cowboys having sex with each other, witnesses told The Forum newspaper, which first reported the backlash Friday.
“We’re trying to find out the right approaches for accountability, but at the same time try to heal wounds that have occurred and allow the campus to move ahead,” Janna Stoskopf, NDSU’s dean of students, told The Associated Press on Friday.
The March 18 skit involving the NDSU Saddle and Sirloin Club was performed at the Mr. NDSU Pageant, which is sponsored by the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and raises money for diabetes research.
People who attended it said a pageant contestant from Saddle and Sirloin dressed as a woman from the Internet video “I Got a Crush on Obama” and performed a strip tease for another student, who was wearing dark makeup and an afro wig.
Posted in College Antics, Politically Incorrect | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Swedish researchers find world’s oldest living tree
The world’s oldest living tree on record is a nearly 10,000 year-old spruce that has been discovered in central Sweden, Umeaa University said on Thursday.
Researchers had discovered a spruce with genetic material dating back 9,550 years in the Fulu mountain in Dalarna, according to Leif Kullmann, a professor of Physical Geography at the university in northwestern Sweden.
That would mean it had taken root in roughly the year 7,542 BC.
“It was a big surprise because we thought until (now) that this kind of spruce grew much later in those regions,” he said.
Posted in Restless Earth | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
For senior, abortion a medium for art, political discourse
Art major Aliza Shvarts ‘08 wants to make a statement.
Beginning next Tuesday, Shvarts will be displaying her senior art project, a documentation of a nine-month process during which she artificially inseminated herself “as often as possible’ while periodically taking abortifacient drugs to induce miscarriages. Her exhibition will feature video recordings of these forced miscarriages as well as preserved collections of the blood from the process.
The goal in creating the art exhibition, Shvarts said, was to spark conversation and debate on the relationship between art and the human body. But her project has already provoked more than just debate, inciting, for instance, outcry at a forum for fellow senior art majors held last week. And when told about Shvarts’ project, students on both ends of the abortion debate have expressed shock, saying the project does everything from violate moral code to trivialize abortion.
Posted in Ars Gratia Artis, Modern Narcissism | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Dozens Involved In Wild Brawl In Nyack
Police say two people have been injured and five people arrested after dozens fought in the streets of the Rockland County village of Nyack.
Orangetown police say fights among 40 to 50 people broke out Wednesday afternoon.
It took police officers from seven departments to finally break up the fights, which continued across Nyack for an hour.
Police say some involved in the fight were armed with knives, bats and an ax.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Teen Antics | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Cops kill cougar on North Side
A cougar ran loose in Chicago on Monday for the first time since the city’s founding in the 19th Century. But by day’s end, the animal lay dead in a back alley on the North Side, shot by police who said they feared it was turning to attack.
No one knew where the 150-pound cat came from, though on Saturday Wilmette police had received four reports of a cougar roaming that suburb, roughly 15 miles from the site of Monday’s shooting.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Texas inmate cons way onto Idaho ballot
A federal prison inmate got himself listed on the ballot for Idaho’s May 27 primary as a Democratic presidential candidate, the state’s top election official said.
Keith Russell Judd is serving time at the Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution in Texas for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999. He’s scheduled for release in 2013.
Judd, 49, qualified for the ballot by submitting a notarized form and paying the required $1,000 fee, state Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said. As a result, Democratic voters will be able to choose among Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Judd.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Politico Follies | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Fresno Student Shot, Killed by Police Officer After Bat Attack
A police officer shot and killed a high school student Wednesday after the teenager attacked the officer with a baseball bat on campus, authorities said.
Police said the officer fired shortly before noon, after a 17-year-old boy at Roosevelt High School allegedly came up behind the officer and hit him in the head with the bat, according to Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. The officer fell down dazed, grabbed a gun from his ankle holster and fired, Dyer said.
“The officer was fortunate that he was able to defend himself,” the chief said.
The cause of the attack was not immediately known. Dyer said there was no history of prior run-ins between the student and the officer, who was employed by the police department as the school’s resource officer.
Police did not immediately release the identities of the officer or student, who was described as a longtime Fresno resident who recently transferred to the school. The teenager was 6 feet tall and 250 pounds — larger than the officer, authorities said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Criminals | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Appendix operation through the mouth
Surgeons have removed a man’s appendix through his mouth in a radical world first.
The pioneering operation – dubbed “cakehole surgery” – means no unsightly scars, and the patient was doing sit-ups three days afterwards.
Today, doctors released the first pictures of the bizarre-looking procedure on Jeff Scholz, which was undertaken using miniaturised surgical tools.
It is hoped this new approach could slash waiting times, cut down on infection and reduce post-operative pain.
Doctors say Mr Scholz, 42, an ex-US marine, has made a speedier recovery than he would have done with standard keyhole surgery.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities, Yuck! | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Television Star Exits Scientology
Ruggedly handsome actor Jason Beghe was best man at the wedding of “X-Files” star David Duchovny (his childhood pal) and actress Tea Leoni. In 1998, he starred as Demi Moore’s love interest in “G.I. Jane.” He’s been featured in numerous TV dramas such as “Criminal Minds,” “Numb3rs” and “CSI.”
In 2005, Beghe appeared in promotional spots for the Church of Scientology. But now, Beghe has escaped the church after taking courses since 1994. He’s made a video that’s up on YouTube.
This is what he has to say: “Scientology is destructive and a rip-off.”
He also says: “It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution. If Scientology is real, then something’s f—ed up.”
You can see from the video that Beghe does not mince words. But his refreshing candor about the religion he joined in 1994 should shake the Celebrity Center to its core.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Crazy is as Crazy Does, Kara's Classics, Scientology | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
Iranian vice chief ‘caught in brothel’
An Iranian police chief in charge of fighting vice in Tehran was jailed today for reportedly consorting in an underground brothel.
Local media reported that General Reza Zarei was jailed after being caught with six naked women at a prostitution den in the Iranian capital.
Ali Reza Jamshidi, a spokesman for Iran’s judiciary, confirmed today that Mr Zarei had been taken to jail. He refused to elaborate further about the case, however, saying it was now “in the legal stage.”
But officials, speaking anonymously, have supported the allegations, which have been extensively reported in recent weeks.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Monday, April 14th, 2008
HARDCORE MARILYN
Some really like it hot.
In the sordid tradition of peddling raunchy video footage of celebrities a la Paris Hilton, a long-buried sex movie of Marilyn Monroe recently hit the market, a top collector told The Post.
An illicit copy of the steamy, still-FBI-classified reel – 15 minutes of 16mm film footage in which the original blond bombshell performs oral sex on an unidentified man – was just sold to a New York businessman for $1.5 million, said Keya Morgan, the well-known memorabilia collector who discovered the film and brokered its purchase.
The footage appears to have been shot in the 1950s. When it came to light in the mid-’60s, then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had his agents spend two weeks futilely trying to prove that Monroe’s sex partner was either John F. Kennedy or Robert F. Kennedy, according to declassified agency documents and interviews, Morgan said.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Chronic NYC Subway Groper Could Get Life
About two weeks after he was released from prison, Freddie Johnson was arrested on charges of illegally rubbing up against a woman on a crowded Manhattan subway train.
It is a fairly common crime in New York. But this was no common criminal.
Johnson has been arrested a staggering 53 times—the majority for allegedly groping women on subway trains.
In his latest arrest, Johnson was being followed by plainclothes officers who recognized him from police photos. He was charged with persistent sexual abuse, and if convicted this time he could be sent away for life.
But the fact that Johnson was roaming the subways in the first place has raised questions about how the state deals with the problem of repeat sex offenders. His case even drew the scorn of a recent newspaper editorial that labeled him the “Subway Rat.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Criminals, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Tree man ‘who grew roots’ hopes to marry after 4lb of warts removed
The ‘Tree Man of Java’ is hoping to get married after doctors performed four major operations to hack away the bark-like tissue sprouting from his hands and feet.
For 20 years Dede Koswara lived covered in warts with huge tree-like growths encasing his limbs.
Tree man Dede recovers in hospital after five operations to remove his root-like warts
Today Dede, whose plight was highlighted on the Telegraph website, can once more use his hands and walk without pain.
He can see the outline of his toes for the first time in over a decade after medics cut more than 4lbs of warty horns from his legs and feet.
He has also become a sudoko addict now medics have cut growths from his hands allowing him to hold a pen.
Posted in Human Oddities, Medical Monstrosities, Yuck! | Comments Off
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Bill toughens law on visual sexual aggression against children in Maine
Those who peer at children in public could find themselves on the wrong side of the law in Maine soon.
A bill that passed the House last month aims to strengthen the crime of visual sexual aggression against children, according to state Rep. Dawn Hill, D-York.
Her involvement started when Ogunquit Police Lt. David Alexander was called to a local beach to deal with a man who appeared to be observing children entering the community bathrooms. Because the state statute prevents arrests for visual sexual aggression of a child in a public place, Alexander said he and his fellow officer could only ask the man to move along.
“There was no violation of law that we could enforce. There was nothing we could charge him with,” Alexander said.
Remember: Fascists always claim they do it to protect the children…
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Activists, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Spy photos reveal ’secret launch site’ for Iran’s long-range missiles
The secret site where Iran is suspected of developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets in Europe has been uncovered by new satellite photographs.
The imagery has pinpointed the facility from where the Iranians launched their Kavoshgar 1 “research rocket” on February 4, claiming that it was in connection with their space programme.
Analysis of the photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite four days after the launch has revealed a number of intriguing features that indicate to experts that it is the same site where Iran is focusing its efforts on developing a ballistic missile with a range of about 6,000km (4,000 miles).
Posted in Cloak and Dagger, Crazed Dictatorships, T.R.O.P. | Comments Off
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
Today I know the meaning of ‘butthurt.’
If it were later than 12:16 p.m. and if I had eaten anything yet today, I would take a double shot of whiskey right now. I might do it anyway because any negative repercussions from that would have to be better than feeling every ounce of pain I’m enduring today.
I am doing my taxes.
And you know what, right this second, I’m NOT proud to be an American. I’m not even proud to be a human being today. I am certainly not enjoying the fact that I share air and a planet with whatever assholes invented and maintain the IRS.
It makes me want to blow shit up. Not people, that would be taking it too far, but definitely shit. Like watermelons and outhouses and maybe even a taco truck.
So far, after a basic run-through with Turbotax, it looks like I’m gonna have to write a check for over $11,000. THIS IS MORE THAN 30% OF MY TAXABLE INCOME. About 23% of my gross income. What is this, goddamn commie Russia?
So in honor of this day of misery and brimstone, I would like to offer some heartfelt sentiments to certain people.
Be sure to read the whole thing!
Posted in Doh! | Comments Off
Sunday, April 13th, 2008
‘World peace’ hitcher is murdered
An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.
The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the northern city of Gebze on Friday.
She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people.
Turkish police say they have detained a man in connection with the killing.
Reports say the man led the police to the body.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Concentrated Stupidity | Comments Off
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
100 ‘Killer Bee’ Stings Kill Fla. Man – Orlando News Story
A man in Florida died after being stung more than 100 times by bees that officials think were Africanized honey bees.
The man had a fatal reaction to the bee stings, medical officials said.
Local 6 reported that it will likely be reported as the first death in Florida caused by the aggressive bees.
The victim’s name wasn’t released.
Africanized bee stings are no more potent than an ordinary bee stings, but the bees are far more aggressive and attack in swarms. Experts say they have been in Florida since 2002, and there have been a few reports about swarms of the bees attacking people.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Yuck! | Comments Off
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
Misfired artillery crashes into girl’s bed
A piece of artillery that was apparently misfired by the military crashed through the roof of a New Jersey home miles away Friday and injured a young girl’s cat, which had to be euthanized, officials said.
No people were injured when the two-pound piece hit the Jefferson Township home about two-and-a- half miles from the Picatinny Arsenal and landed in the girl’s bed, said Peter Rowland, arsenal spokesman. She wasn’t home, but her cat was sleeping on the bed.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Oops | Comments Off
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
Train hits man peeing on track
A man was critically injured last night when a train hit him while he was urinating on the track at Penrose station.
Police said the man, who was very drunk, suffered pelvic, leg and back injuries and was in Auckland City Hospital.
“It’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen,” said Senior Sergeant Junior Abraham.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | Comments Off
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
Lonely Planet rocked by claims of free trips, plagiarism
THE Lonely Planet guidebook empire is reeling from claims by one of its authors that he plagiarised and made up large sections of his books and dealt drugs to make up for poor pay.
Thomas Kohnstamm, whose explosive new book Do Travel Writers Go To Hell? is out this month, also claims to have accepted freebies in contravention of the Melbourne-based company’s policies.
Kohnstamm told The Sunday Mail yesterday he had worked on more than a dozen books for Lonely Planet, including their titles on Brazil, Colombia, the Caribbean, South America, Venezuela and Chile.
In one case he said that he had not even visited the country he had written about.
“They didn’t pay me enough to go Colombia,” he said.
“I wrote the book in San Francisco. I got the information from a chick I was dating who was an intern in the Colombian Consulate.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Doh! | Comments Off
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
Arizona Blind Golfer Gets Hole-in-One
An 85-year-old legally blind golfer from southern Arizona made a hole-in-one this week on a par-3 course. Robert Dunham accomplished the feat on the third hole at Tortuga in Green Valley.
Playing with a group of fellow blind veterans enrolled in a Veterans Affairs health care system program, Dunham’s volunteer assistant lined him up with the ball, handed him a 9-iron and stepped back.
Dunham swung through the ball, hit it squarely and it landed softly on the green, taking one hop before nestling into the bottom of the cup.
Posted in Human Oddities | Comments Off
Friday, April 11th, 2008
Man chased us with saw, 5 homeless men charge
The stories unfold like scenes from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, only this isn’t Texas and the alleged victims claim the roaring sound of the chainsaw is very real.
For months, five homeless men have complained to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department that they have been terrorized by a local businessman known to them only as “the Chainsaw Man.”
They say he chases them through fields and over railroad tracks, armed with a chainsaw, and has even shot at them with a pistol.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Crazy is as Crazy Does | Comments Off
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
‘Aliens’ attack Bosnian man’s home with meteors
Radivoje Lajic claims he is being targeted by aliens and has reinforced his roof in Gornja Lamovite with a steel girder.
He said: “I am obviously being targeted by aliens. I don’t know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense.
“The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit five times has to be deliberate.”
The chances of just one meteor hitting your house is many billions to one.
Belgrade University has confirmed that all the rocks Mr Lajic has handed over were meteorites, but not that they all hit his house.
Posted in Aliens, Most Mysterious, Space | Comments Off
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
“Fight Club” Busted at Local High School
It’s a violent and illegal form of entertainment that’s popped up at a high school here. They’re called “fight clubs” and they could have some students in La Vernia in big trouble.
La Vernia police say a group of teens would meet in a school bathroom and then start fighting. They got caught because they used the internet to let everybody know what they were doing.
“We don’t think this is entertainment or funny,” said Dr. Tom Harvey, La Vernia ISD superintendent.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Teen Antics | Comments Off
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Police: Men Mistake FDNY For Police, Jump From Window
Firefighters responded to a smoke condition call in Queens early Wednesday and found that four men had jumped from the widow of the building, apparently believing police were raiding the location.
The building at 35-12 Farrington Street in Flushing is known as an illegal gambling location police said.
The four men were found in the alleyway suffering from various injuries, including leg and ankle fractures, and were taken to the hospital. They had jumped out of a window several stories up, authorities said.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Doh!, Idiot Criminals | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Chavez to nationalise top steelmaker
VENEZUELA will take control of the country’s largest steelmaker in the second major takeover of foreign businesses in a week as President Hugo Chavez resumes his socialist drive to nationalise key industries.
Just days after Mr Chavez announced the takeover of the cement industry, his government said today that steelmaker Ternium Sidor would fall back into state hands, sending the Argentine-controlled company’s shares tumbling.
Mr Chavez increased state control of swathes of the oil-rich economy in a multi-billion-dollar campaign last year but spent recent months focusing on day-to-day issues like crime and trash collection after voters rejected his push for wider powers in a December referendum.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Crazed Dictatorships, Greed is Good | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Ice-cream stick ship sails for England
A Viking ship made from ice-cream sticks has set sail for England from the Netherlands.
The 15-metre long ship, named after the Norse god Thor, is made from 15 million recycled ice-cream sticks glued together by US-born stuntman Robert McDonald, his son and more than 5,000 children.
“If you can dream it you can do it … I want to teach children that anything is possible,” McDonald said.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Boy, 11, steered bus to avoid semi
The 11-year-old Cleveland boy who steered a runaway school bus to safety said Wednesday he took the wheel because the bus was rolling toward a semi.
David Murphy told on ABC’s “Good Morning America” other children on board during Monday’s crash were “freaking out,” screaming and hollering, and he decided he had to do something.
“I took the wheel and had to turn the wheel on the sidewalk,” he said.
His mother said she was amazed.
“When I saw the precision of the bus, it seemed like it was parked,” Patricia Murphy said during the program. “I couldn’t believe it and that he had that strength and that direction.”
She said she figured out a reason her son was so quiet afterward was that he was terrified he’d get in trouble for taking the wheel.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Monks Storm Media Tour in China
Fifteen Tibetan Buddhist monks interrupted a state-sponsored media tour of a restive region of western China on Wednesday, demanding the return of the Dalai Lama and yelling that they had no human rights.
In the second such incident in as many months, the monks, carrying a banned Tibetan flag, burst out of a building at the Labrang monastery in the town of Xiahe, in the northwestern province of Gansu, and rushed across a plaza to a group of 20 visiting Chinese and foreign journalists.
“The Dalai Lama has to come back to Tibet. We are not asking for Tibetan independence, we are just asking for human rights. We have no human rights now,” one monk told the reporters in Chinese.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
First Lungless Frog Found
The first recorded species of frog that breathes without lungs has been found in a clear, cold-water stream on the island of Borneo in Indonesia.
The frog, named Barbourula kalimantanensis, gets all its oxygen through its skin.
“Nobody knew about the lunglessness before we accidentally discovered it doing routine dissections,” study lead author David Bickford, a biologist at the National University of Singapore, said in an email.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
Weekly Pirate Report
04.04.2008: 0948 UTC: 13:12.84N – 050:14.63E, Gulf of Aden.
Ten pirates armed with AK47 guns and RPG in two speedboats attacked a sailing cruise vessel underway. They took hostage 30 crewmembers and hijacked the vessel to Somali coast. SSAS activated. Yemen maritime authorities and coalition forces informed.
01.04.2008: 1440 LT: Posn: 13:45.81N – 049:18.79E: Gulf of Aden.
Three speedboats chased and attacked the tanker underway with automatic weapons and rocket launchers. Master took evasive manoeuvres and increased speed. Later, boats moved away. Ship’s funnel and lifeboat were damaged by gunfire/RPG. An hour later, five speedboats chased the ship again from various directions. Ship took evasive manoeuvres and prevented the boats from closing in. Later the boats moved away. The IMB Piracy Reporting Centre communicated with the coalition Navy, the owners and Master of ship to provide assistance as required. One coalition warship was in the vicinity monitoring the five speedboats.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Anarchy, Pirate Update | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
College Student Builds His Very Own Tank
A Flint, Mich., college student may never have to fight for a parking space again.
That’s because he’s built his own fully operational half-size replica German World War II Panzer tank.
“I took it home, driving it around in this white-picket-fence neighborhood, and one of the neighbors called the cops on us,” Kettering University student Will Foster tells the Flint Journal. “[They] came and they just told us to head back home, but they were also laughing at it because they had never seen anything like that before.”
Foster figures his mini-weapon of doom cost about $10,000 to build, most of it on trial-and-error research. It runs on a three-cylinder diesel engine and has a 360-degree turret with a working cannon powered by an air tank that can fire golf balls and empty cans of Red Bull.
Posted in College Antics, Toys! | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Girls Record Brutal Attack On Teen To Allegedly Post On YouTube
Video was released late Monday afternoon showing a brutal beating at the hands of a gang of teenage girls. Their motivation for the attack was allegedly so they could post the video on YouTube and MySpace.
The victim reported the attack after she was beaten so badly she had to be treated at the hospital. That’s when the sheriff’s office started looking into it and learned about the video.
The sheriff calls it shocking, saying he’s never seen anything like it. It was a vicious attack all captured on home video inside a Polk County home.
When 16-year-old Victoria Lindsay arrived at her friend’s house where she had been staying, six girls were waiting. Immediately, they started yelling and one girl began pummeling the victim.
On the video, the girls can be heard encouraging the fight in the background, even taunting Lindsay to fight back, all while one of them held the camera. The victim’s family has said it was an elaborate plot to injure and embarrass Victoria Lindsay. Lindsay’s parents couldn’t believe their daughter had to endure the attack.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Bad Parents, Teen Antics | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Naomi Campbell banned from British Airways
Supermodel Naomi Campbell has been banned from traveling with British Airways after she spat in a policeman’s face.
The 37-year-old catwalk queen has pleaded with the company to change their minds.
“Naomi has been flying with BA for nearly 30 years and has been a good customer. She hopes this can be resolved amicably,” her rep said.
But the airline is adamant they will not allow Naomi to board one of their flights after she lost her temper in a row over a bag. A source said: “Banning her will send out a worldwide signal that such behavior is totally unacceptable.”
Posted in Idiot Celebrities | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Aryan ideals, not ancient Greece, were the inspiration behind flame tradition
There is a two-word answer to those who think the Olympic torch is a symbol of harmony between nations that should be kept apart from politics – Adolf Hitler.
The ceremony played out on the streets of Paris yesterday did not originate in ancient Greece, nor even in the 19th century, when the Olympic movement was revived. The entire ritual, with its pagan overtones, was devised by a German named Dr Carl Diem, who ran the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Although he was not a Nazi, and was appointed to run the Olympics before the Nazis came to power, Diem adapted very quickly to the new regime, and ended the war as a fanatical military commander exhorting teenage Germans to die like Spartans rather than accept defeat. Thousands did, but not Diem, who lived to be 80.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, Nazis | Comments Off
Monday, April 7th, 2008
Kamikaze rat blacks out Stockholm
The electrocution of a fat rat in an electric station Saturday caused a three-hour power outage in Stockholm’s central train station.
The early morning outage led to some delays in train traffic, since the rat’s 11,000 voltage blowout led to a blackout in the station and halted elevators and escalators, Jesper Ekenlund, a spokesman for power company Fortum said.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Monday, April 7th, 2008
Police probe ‘new KGB poison attack’ as defector Gordievsky is found unconscious in Surrey home
Special Branch is investigating an alleged attempt to murder Oleg Gordievsky, the KGB double-agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence at the height of the Cold War.
The former Soviet colonel, who escaped to Britain in 1985, says he was poisoned by a Russian assassin who visited him at his secret safe-house in Surrey.
He fears he is the latest victim of revenge attacks by Russian intelligence on high-profile defectors.
Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian spy, was murdered in London in 2006.
Gordievsky – awarded one of Britain’s highest honours by the Queen last October – was rushed to hospital after collapsing at home.
He lay unconscious and “close to death” for 34 hours. He spent a further two weeks recuperating in a private clinic paid for by his former bosses in MI6.
He was initially left partially paralysed by the alleged attack and still has no feeling in his fingers.
Last night Surrey Police confirmed they were investigating a possible attempt on Gordievsky’s life.
Posted in Cloak and Dagger, Concentrated Criminality, Crazed Dictatorships | Comments Off
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
Police Tear Gas Crowd at College Party
Police early Sunday used tear gas to disperse a crowd at a large party near the campus of Michigan State University after fights broke out and officers were pelted with bottles and cans.
Police said in a statement that 3,000 to 4,000 people had gathered for the Cedar Fest party in East Lansing on Saturday night. Police said 52 people were arrested and 48 others ticketed for various offenses.
It wasn’t immediately whether there were any injuries.
Police said the crowd became increasingly unruly about 1 a.m., the Lansing State Journal and The State News reported.
Tear gas was fired about 2 a.m. after repeated loudspeaker warnings to leave were ignored, and the crowd had dispersed about an hour later. Police said about 80 officers from area jurisdictions worked to contain the crowd.
Posted in Anarchy, College Antics, Fun with Alcohol | Comments Off
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
China struggles to quell Tibet rebels
A PICTURE is emerging of desperate and prolonged Tibetan resistance despite the huge scale of China’s military operation across the mountainous region that one ancient poet called “a place where snow lions dance”.
The Chinese press focused yesterday on a campaign to whip up resentment against the foreign media as reports outside China spoke of at least eight unarmed Tibetans shot dead by paramilitary police.
Scraps of evidence collected by exiles, campaigners, military analysts and daring witnesses inside Tibet all point to the conclusion that China can subdue the Tibetans but cannot win the spiritual war.
There is also new evidence this weekend in eyewitness accounts provided to The Sunday Times of the spread of unrest among Muslims in the vast province of Xinjiang, which borders Tibet.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Crazed Dictatorships | Comments Off
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
Sonny Bono ‘assassinated by hitmen’
SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers, an ex-FBI agent claims.
Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed.
“It’s nonsense for anyone to now try to suggest that Bono died after crashing into a tree. There’s zero evidence in this autopsy report… to show such an accident happened. Instead, there’s powerful proof he was assassinated.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Conspiracies, Politico Follies | Comments Off
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
French Navy Works to Save Crew on Yacht Captured by Pirates
France’s military is keeping close tabs on a French luxury yacht seized by pirates off Somalia’s coast, and officials hope to avoid using force to free the 30 crew members, the prime minister said Saturday.
Attackers stormed the 288-foot Le Ponant on Friday as it returned without passengers from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea, officials with French maritime transport company CMA-CGM said.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said officials were “following the hostage situation minute by minute.”
“Our priority is to protect the lives of the people on board,” Fillon said while visiting the town of Le Mans. “All channels of discussion are open to try to resolve this case by trying not to use force.”
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Pirate Update | Comments Off
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
Police: Suspect crashed memorial service
A Boulder man was arrested early Thursday after police said he crashed a memorial service, grabbed the breast of the deceased woman’s sister and showed her mother pornographic pictures.
Marlos Hernandez, 31, faces possible charges of unlawful sexual contact, first-degree burglary and harassment after police said he entered a memorial gathering in another unit of his apartment building that had started Wednesday evening and extended past midnight.
When Hernandez upset the mother of the woman who recently died, other grieving guests became upset and a “physical confrontation” ensued outside the apartment complex in the 700 block of Mohawk Drive, according to police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Crazy is as Crazy Does | Comments Off
