Archive for July, 2008
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Sexual harrassment okay as it ensures humans breed, Russian judge rules
The unnamed executive, a 22-year-old from St Petersburg, had been hoping to become only the third woman in Russia’s history to bring a successful sexual harassment action against a male employer.
She alleged she had been locked out of her office after she refused to have intimate relations with her 47-year-old boss.
“He always demanded that female workers signalled to him with their eyes that they desperately wanted to be laid on the boardroom table as soon as he gave the word,” she earlier told the court. “I didn’t realise at first that he wasn’t speaking metaphorically.”
The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Audit says Dallas Housing Authority subsidized deceased clients
The Dallas Housing Authority has spent nearly $20 million on questionable rental assistance payments, including money for 45 people who had died, according to a new federal audit of the agency.
Most of the questionable spending involved ineligible clients, clients not reported to the federal government, and duplicate payments to landlords, according to a draft report on an audit by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General.
The report is the last of three federal audits, all of which have been critical of the DHA’s accounting practices and its management of rental assistance vouchers.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Greed is Good, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
EDWARDS’ HU$H MONEY TO MISTRESS
A NATIONAL ENQUIRER investigation has uncovered John Edwards’ mistress, Rielle Hunter – the mother of his “love child” – has been secretly receiving $15,000 a month as part of an elaborate cover-up orchestrated by the former presidential contender.
The money is being funneled to Hunter by a wealthy colleague who was closely tied to the Edwards’ campaign. This same man is also shoveling cash to Edwards’ pal and former aide Andrew Young – who tried to take the heat off the ex-Senator by claiming he is the father of Rielle’s baby.
And The ENQUIRER is also exclusively revealing that Rielle’s baby is a girl named Frances Quinn Hunter and was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
“A super-rich pal – who was closely involved with the campaign finances – is helping John. It’s likely this man doesn’t know all the dirty details of John’s extramarital affair, but is acting out of loyalty and is not asking a lot of questions – only writing the checks,” revealed a source very close to the situation.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Greed is Good, Politico Follies, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
To Defend Our Airspace, We Should Investigate U.F.O.s.
ON the afternoon of Nov. 7, 2006, pilots and airport employees at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago saw a disc-like object hovering over the tarmac for several minutes. Because nothing was tracked on radar, the Federal Aviation Administration did not investigate. Yet radar is not a reliable detector of all aircraft. Stealth planes are designed to be invisible to radar, and many radar systems filter out signals not matching the normal characteristics of aircraft. Did it really make sense to entirely ignore the observations of several witnesses?
A healthy skepticism about extraterrestrial space travelers leads people to disregard U.F.O. sightings without a moment’s thought. But in the United States, this translates into overdependence on radar data and indifference to all kinds of unidentified aircraft — a weakness that could be exploited by terrorists or anyone seeking to engage in espionage against the United States.
Posted in Aliens | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008
Starbucks to shut majority of its Australian stores
Iconic US coffee chain Starbucks said Tuesday it would shut most of its Australian stores within a week, having already taken the axe to hundreds of US outlets as an economic downturn bites.
The company said it would shut 61 “underperforming” stores from a total 84 in Australia because it was refocusing to concentrate on the major cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and surrounding areas.
“This decision will result in the closure of 61 underperforming locations throughout the country by August 3,” it said without detailing how many jobs would be lost, although media reports put the figure at 685.
Starbucks said earlier in July that it would shut 600 US stores in a move widely taken to reflect the slowdown in the world’s biggest economy, where high fuel prices and a credit crunch are forcing consumers to tighten their belts.
The giant coffee chain’s chairman Howard Schultz said the firm had developed a transformation plan in January that had led to the “difficult but necessary” decision to close stores in Australia.
Posted in Greed is Good | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
Australian Mother Charged With Placing Baby in a Fish Tank to Stop Its Crying
An Australian court heard testimony yesterday in a case invovling a mother who reportedly put her nine-month-old daughter into an aquarium filled with water after she was unable to stop the baby from crying.
The 22-year-old, who was not identified, has pleaded not guilty in the District Court to endangering the life of the baby at her Blakeview home in May, 2007.
The father, who also cannot be named, told the court he and his then-partner had been arguing on the night the baby was allegedly put into the aquarium.
He said the child had been crying and his partner was not able to make her stop. He saw his partner walk past their bedroom and then saw her walk back without the child.
“Five to 10 seconds later I heard coughing, spluttering, splashing and screaming,” he said. “I saw (the baby) face up on her back in the tank splashing, screaming, panicking.”
Posted in Bad Parents, Concentrated Criminality, Concentrated Stupidity | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
NASA engineers work on alternative moon rocket
By day, the engineers work on NASA’s new Ares moon rockets.
By night, some go undercover to work on a competing design. These dissenting scientists and their backers insist they have created an alternative rocket that would be safer, cheaper and easier to build than the two Ares spacecraft that will replace the space shuttle.
They call their project Jupiter, and like Ares, it’s a brainchild of workers at the Marshall Space Flight Center and other NASA facilities.
The engineers involved are doing the work on their own time and mostly anonymously, with the help of retirees and other space enthusiasts.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Most Mysterious | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
The death of Belgium?
Belgium is in danger of falling apart. For more than six months, the country has been unable to form a government that is able to unite the French-speaking Walloons (32% of the population) and Dutch-speaking Flemish (58%). The Belgian monarch, Albert II, is desperately trying to stop his subjects from breaking up the nation-state.
Who cares? (Apart from the king, that is. After all, without Belgium, he might be out of a job.) First of all, the Walloons do. Although the French-speaking Belgians started the European Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, they are now living in a deprived rust belt in need of federal subsidies, a substantial amount of which comes from taxes paid by the more prosperous, high-tech Flemish. A handful of right-wing Dutch dreamers care too, for they have visions of uniting Belgian Flanders with the Dutch motherland.
Alas for them, however, the Flemish have no such desire. Belgium, after all, became an independent state in 1830, precisely to liberate the Catholic Flemish, as well as the Walloons, from being second-class subjects in a Protestant Dutch monarchy.
Posted in Politico Follies | Comments Off
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Mall officials consider changes after melee
As many as 300 people joined a melee that began inside a Raleigh mall and spilled outside the shopping center during the fight, police said Sunday.
Raleigh Police Department spokesman Jim Sughrue said the gang-related brawl began inside Triangle Town Center Mall on Saturday night at about 8 p.m. Off-duty officers working at the mall requested assistance, and Wake County sheriff’s deputies N.C. Highway Patrol troopers also responded
Sughrue said a 15-year-old was stabbed during the incident. He was taken to WakeMed and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. A police officer was also injured with a “significant” cut to his knee that he suffered during a chase. He was taken to Duke Raleigh Hospital for treatment and is expected to recover, Sughrue said.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Teen Antics | Comments Off
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Piglet with monkey’s face
Curious locals flocked to the home of owner Feng Changlin after news of the piglet spread in Fengzhang village, Xiping township.
“It’s hideous. No one will be willing to buy it, and it scares the family to even look at it!” Feng told Oriental Today.
He says the piglet looks just like a monkey, with two thin lips, a small nose and two big eyes. Its rear legs are also much longer than its forelegs, causing it to jump instead of walk.
Feng’s wife said the monkey-faced piglet was one of five newborns of a sow which the family had raised for nine years.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | Comments Off
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Lingering pollution worries China
China has admitted it could introduce further emergency measures to cut air pollution during the Olympic Games.
One expert said that could mean taking 90% of Beijing’s private cars off the streets at particularly bad times.
Figures show pollution levels have been relatively high over recent days – on some days thick smog is severely reducing visibility.
The BBC found one pollutant at the Olympic Village was three times higher than the recommended level on Monday.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Yuck! | Comments Off
Monday, July 28th, 2008
Adventurer Steve Fossett ‘may have faked his own death’
Round-the-world flying adventurer Steve Fossett may have faked his own death, investigators have claimed.
Steve Fossett went missing last September when his final flight in a light plane over the Nevada desert went missing
Fossett, a friend of Virgin boss Richard Branson, and the first man to fly non-stop round the earth in a hot air balloon, went missing last September when his final flight in a light plane over the Nevada desert went missing.
However, Lieutenant Colonel Cynthia Ryan of the US Civil Air Patrol has said Fossett, whose body or plane was never found, could still be alive.
She said: “I’ve been doing this search and rescue for 14 years. Fossett should have been found.
“It’s not like we didn’t have our eyes open. We found six other planes while we were looking for him. We’re pretty good at what we do.”
Posted in Most Mysterious | Comments Off
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
16-Year-Old Dies From Motorcycle Stunts At School
A 16-year-old Riverside boy doing stunts in a high school parking lot crashed his new 2008 Yamaha R1 motorcycle into a classroom building, and died a short time later, Riverside police said Sunday.
Coroner’s officials identified the teen as Austin Lee Allen, 16, of Riverside.
Riverside police Sgt. Dan Reeves said the motorcycle rider was initially believed to be a student at Martin Luther King Jr. High School, where the crash was reported at 7:22 p.m. Saturday.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Darwin Award | Comments Off
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Currents Kill 4 In N.Y., Others Missing
The toll of swimmers caught up in treacherous ocean currents in the metro region over the weekend grew to at least 10 on Saturday as two more men drowned, a 10-year-old girl disappeared and another beach-goer had to be pulled from the water.
Altogether, four people died and three vanished within two days at beaches in New York City and on Long Island, authorities said. At least three more were rescued, they said.
In Long Beach on Saturday evening, a swimmer or surfer died after he was spotted struggling about 150 yards from shore, said Police Lt. Bruce Meyer. Lifeguards were off-duty but rushed to the beach and reached the unconscious 29-year-old man within minutes. Rescuers and hospital staffers were unable to revive him, Meyer said.
Posted in Restless Earth | Comments Off
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Lightning Strikes 10 People; 1 Dead
One man died, while nine others are injured after being struck by lightning in various parts of the tri-state area.
A man is dead and four other people are injured after a lightning strike on the beach in Sandy Hook.
National Park Service spokesman Brian Feeney says the lightning strike at about noon Sunday was on a beach where swimming isn’t allowed. That means there weren’t even lifeguards to raise the alarm as a fast-moving severe thunderstorm swept into the area.
Feeney said one man in his 40s was dead.
Five people were struck by lightning on Long Island. The group was playing soccer in Hicksville when they were caught off guard by powerful thunderstorms. The victims, all in their 20s, sought shelter under a tree.
Posted in Restless Earth | Comments Off
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
South Africa tells Robert Mugabe to surrender
THE president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has been warned by Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, that he faces prosecution for the crimes he has committed during his 28 years in office unless he signs a deal to give up all effective power.
Mbeki, who has done all he can to shield and support Mugabe for the past eight years, has come under overwhelming western pressure and has had to tell Mugabe that he could no longer protect him and his key cronies from being charged by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The power-sharing talks between Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are shrouded in secrecy. But The Sunday Times has learnt that Mugabe, who has vowed that Tsvangirai will never be in government and that “only God can remove me from power”, faces humiliation over the terms of the deal that he will be forced to sign next month.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Crazed Dictatorships, Greed is Good | Comments Off
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Florida Woman Attacked by Fox, Then Shot By Husband
Authorities say a Levy County, Fla., man accidentally shot his wife while trying to hit a fox that attacked her.
The couple told deputies they spotted an animal in their yard Friday morning and went outside to see what it was.
The fox bit the woman on the left leg and wouldn’t let go, so she told her husband to get a gun.
The man fired a .22-caliber rifle seven times, killing the animal but also hitting his wife in the lower right leg.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Oops | Comments Off
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Drunken Passengers Go on Rampage, Force Plane’s Emergency Landing
Two drunken British women went on a rampage on a charter plane, hitting one flight attendant with a bottle of vodka and trying to open a cabin door as the aircraft was cruising over Austria at 10,000 meters, police said Saturday.
The staff on the flight from Greece to England eventually forced the women back to their seats and the pilot made an emergency landing in Frankfurt on Thursday, police told The Associated Press, confirming a statement they had issued on Friday.
The identities of the women, aged 26 and 27, were not released, but police said the 26-year-old may be charged with attempted assault and interfering with air traffic.
Both women were released, police said.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Fun with Alcohol | Comments Off
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Former ‘Family Ties’ star Brian Bonsall remains a fugitive
Former child actor-turned-fugitive Brian Bonsall, who is wanted by authorities for skipping a court hearing last week, may have been successful in ducking the strong arm of the law — for now.
Bonsall, who most notably starred as Michael J. Fox’s little brother Andy Keaton on the 1980s TV series “Family Ties,” moved out of his home in north Boulder earlier this month.
A lock box hung on the door handle of his unit Thursday at the Aspen Grove condominiums, 2800 Kalmia Ave., and no one answered a knock on the door.
Aspen Grove facilities manager Gary Jones recalled seeing Bonsall moving furniture to a Dumpster at the complex over the Fourth of July weekend. Shortly thereafter, he said, the one-time kid star was gone.
Posted in Idiot Celebrities | Comments Off
Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Diamonds May Have Jump-started Life on Earth
One of the greatest mysteries in science is how life began. Now one group of researchers says diamonds may have been life’s best friend.
Scientists have long theorized that life on Earth got going in a primordial soup of precursor chemicals. But nobody knows how these simple amino acids, known to be the building blocks of life, were assembled into complex polymers needed as a platform for genesis.
Diamonds are crystallized forms of carbon that predate the oldest known life on the planet. In lab experiments aimed to confirm work done more than three decades ago, researchers found that when treated with hydrogen, natural diamonds formed crystalline layers of water on the surface. Water is essential for life as we know it. Also, the tests found electrical conductivity that could have been key to forcing chemical reactions needed to generate the first birth.
Posted in Weird Science | Comments Off
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
Chimp Steals Gun From Zookeeper In Japan
A chimp in Japan escaped the sweltering confines of his cage, and a zookeeper with a tranquilizer gun proved no match for this feisty animal. The zookeeper can be seen peeking his head and rifle over the ledge of the roof on which the chimp was resting before quickly crouching down, sensing the chimp had noticed him. The chimp pounced on the ledge, grabbing the barrel of the zookeeper’s tranquilizer gun and snatching it away, leaving the poor human defenseless.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, End of the World Update | Comments Off
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
Canadian Teen Dies After Being Buried in Hot Asphalt
A 15-year-old boy working on a construction site just north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, died Friday after he was buried under a mountain of searing-hot asphalt, fire officials said.
The boy, too young to work on construction jobs under Manitoba labor laws, was part of a paving crew working on a parking lot in the Winnipeg community of Stony Mountain.
“I believe (the truck) dumped off way too much asphalt unexpectedly,” said Stony Mountain fire chief Wallace Drysdale.
Drysdale said he was among the first on the scene, and “we just saw the hair sticking out” of the mound of asphalt. He said that crews could only work digging the boy out for four- or five-minute intervals because their feet were burning from the heat.
Police and labor officials were investigating.
Posted in I hate it when that happens, Oops | Comments Off
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Blacks in Congress Split Over Menthol Cigarettes
Free cigarettes are no longer handed out at Congressional Black Caucus functions. And it has been years since anyone referred to Edolphus Towns, Democrat of Brooklyn, as the “Marlboro Man” for his campaign contributions from the tobacco industry.
But the Congressional Black Caucus has not severed its financial ties to big tobacco. And that can complicate matters when the political discussion involves smoking’s impact on African-Americans.
A rift has opened in the 43-member caucus over a menthol provision in legislation that would enable the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. To reduce smoking’s appeal to teenagers, the legislation would outlaw flavored cigarettes — except for menthol cigarettes, which are specifically exempted.
With menthol brands making up about 28 percent of the $70 billion American cigarette market, the exemption was seen as a necessary compromise to win broad backing for the legislation.
But menthol has become a politically charged subject in Washington because an estimated 75 percent of black smokers choose mentholated brands.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Drugs, Greed is Good, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Friday, July 25th, 2008
Air passengers’ mid-flight terror as hole is blown in Qantas 747 fuselage
Passengers on a London to Melbourne flight have described their terror after a faulty door “popped” in midair blowing a hole in the fuselage.
Qantas flight QF30, with 300 passengers and crew on board, plunged 20,000ft after the faulty door caused an “explosive” depressurisation.
The Boeing 747 had just taken off from a stopover in Hong Kong when the incident happened. As the plane dropped from 30,000ft to 10,000ft, oxygen masks fell from the ceiling.
Debra Manchester, a passenger in first class, said there was a “huge bang” and a “massive rush of wind,” with debris swirling around the cabin. Mrs Manchester, a housewife from Buckinghamshire, said there was an atmosphere of chaos as passengers struggled to put their oxygen masks on.
Posted in Technological Travesties, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Stern on XM/Sirius Merger: ‘I Will Never Vote For a Democrat Again’
Sirius Satellite Radio host Howard Stern supports the merger of his network with XM Satelitte Radio and is fuming at Democratic opposition on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) panel.
After FCC commissioners announced they have reached a deal to approve the merger of Sirius (NASDAQ:SIRI) and XM (NASDAQ:XMSR), Stern ranted about Democrats’ ‘gangsterism’ and ‘communism’ and the obstacles to the merger.
Stern described a phone conversation he had with his agent, who he described as a “liberal Democrat kind of guy.”
“I go, ‘That’s it!’” Stern said. “[I] go, ‘You know what Don, I’ve voted Republican and I’ve voted Democrat. I have vowed I will never vote for a Democrat again. I don’t give a [expletive] – no matter who they are. I don’t care if God becomes a Democrat.’ I said, ‘I backed Hillary Clinton, I backed Al Gore, I backed John Kerry. I am done with them.’”
Posted in Career Limiting Move | Comments Off
Thursday, July 24th, 2008
Motorist’s quip about ‘Grey Poupon’ met with cocked, black handgun
A Sandy man took offense to a motorist, who, after getting him to roll down his window, asked, “Excuse me, sir, do you have any Grey Poupon?”
After hearing the request for Dijon mustard, the 22-year-old driver pulled a black handgun from his glove compartment, cocked the weapon and pointed it at the three people in the other car.
“Here’s your Grey Poupon, roll your [expletive] windows up,” he responded.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Apollo 14 astronaut claims aliens HAVE made contact – but it has been covered up for 60 years
Aliens have contacted humans several times but governments have hidden the truth for 60 years, the sixth man to walk on the moon has claimed.
Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell, said he was aware of many UFO visits to Earth during his career with NASA but each one was covered up.
Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as ‘little people who look strange to us.’
He said supposedly real-life ET’s were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head.
Chillingly, he claimed our technology is ‘not nearly as sophisticated’ as theirs and “had they been hostile”, he warned ‘we would be been gone by now’.
Posted in Aliens | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT WITH MISTRESS AND LOVE CHILD!
Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.
The married ex-senator from North Carolina – whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer — met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 – and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn’t leave until early the next morning.
…
But when he emerged alone from an elevator into the hotel basement he was greeted by several reporters from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.
Senior NATIONAL ENQUIRER Reporter Alexander Hitchen asked Edwards why he was visiting Rielle and whether he was ready to confirm that he was the father of her baby.
Shocked to see a reporter, and without saying anything, Edwards ran up the stairs leading from the hotel basement to the lobby. But, spotting a photographer, he doubled back into the basement. As he emerged from the stairwell, reporter Butterfield questioned him about his hookup with Rielle.
Edwards did not answer and then ran into a nearby restroom. He stayed inside for about 15 minutes, refusing to answer questions from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER about what he was doing in the hotel. A group of hotel security men eventually escorted him from the men’s room, while preventing the NATIONAL ENQUIRER reporters from following him out of the hotel.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Politico Follies, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Milton brothers struck by leaping sturgeon
Two brothers from Milton, Florida are the latest victims to get clobbered by a leaping sturgeon.
Sam, 43, and Chris Parish, 25, were enjoying a leisurely morning of bass fishing on the Yellow River June 28 until a leaping Gulf sturgeon, estimated 5 – 6 feet in length, came over the bow and hit both men in their faces and upper bodies. They escaped the encounter with minor cuts, scrapes and bruises. The sturgeon ended up back in the river.
Neither brother required medical treatment.
Sam ended up with a cut over his left eye and a cut to his right forearm.
“My wife said I should have gotten stitches to the cut over my eye but I didn’t. It did leave me with the perfect impression of a pectoral fin in my right arm but it went away after a while,” he said.
Sam said he was in the boat’s rear seat and the collision knocked him out of his seat and against the outboard motor.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Lesbos locals lose lesbian appeal
Three residents of the Greek island of Lesbos have lost an attempt to ban the use of the word “lesbian” to describe gay women.
The residents argued that using the term in reference to gay women insulted their identity.
But an Athens court ruled there was no justification for their contention that they felt slighted, saying the word did not define the islanders’ identity.
Greeks often refer to the island as Mytilene, after its capital.
“This is a good decision for lesbians everywhere,” Vassilis Chirdaris, lawyer for the Gay and Lesbian Union of Greece, told Reuters news agency.
Posted in Idiot Activists | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
Are you Roman tonight? Statue of ‘Elvis’ chiselled 1800 years before his birth goes under the hammer
With his dashing chiselled features, swept back hair and perky bouffant the resemblance is unmistakable.
But incredibly this carving of Elvis Presley was created around 1800 years before the King of Rock and Roll first warbled his first note.
The amazing likeness has come to light as part of a sale of ancient antiques by the auction house Bonhams.
The Roman Elvis is in fact a genuine marble acroterion – a kind of architectural ornament often found for decoration on the corners of a sarcophagus, a stone tomb or burial chamber.
Elvis
It forms part of a collection owned by Melbourne-based Graham Geddes – one of the world’s most foremost collectors – which is estimated to sell for more than £1m when it goes on sale in October.
Posted in Historical Oddities | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
R.I. police say man had 0.491 blood alcohol level
State police say they arrested a man early Tuesday whose blood alcohol level was 0.491 percent — the highest ever recorded in Rhode Island for someone who wasn’t dead.
Stanley Kobierowski was taken to a hospital, put in the detoxification unit and sedated, said Maj. Steven O’Donnell. He was arraigned Tuesday on charges of driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest, and he was released after promising to appear Friday at a court hearing.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Concentrated Stupidity, Fun with Alcohol, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Top war crimes suspect Karadzic arrested in Serbia
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world’s top war crimes fugitives, was arrested on Monday evening in a sweep by Serbian security forces, the country’s president and the U.N. tribunal said.
Karadzic is suspected of masterminding mass killings that the U.N. war crimes tribunal described as “scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.” They include the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Europe’s worst slaughter since World War II.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, War | Comments Off
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Man blows up apartment spraying for bugs
A New Jersey man trying to exterminate insects in his apartment blew it up instead, the New York Daily News reported on Monday.
Isias Vidal Maceda was unhurt in the incident, but 80 percent of his apartment was destroyed, Eatontown, New Jersey police told the newspaper.
The accident occurred as Maceda was spraying for pests in his kitchen. Somehow the bug spray ignited a blast that blew out the apartment’s front windows and triggered a fire that quickly spread, the newspaper said.
Posted in Fire, I hate it when that happens, Oops | Comments Off
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Man Decides Not to Jump Off Ledge, Then Falls
A patient at George Washington University Hospital fell from a fifth-story ledge overlooking New Hampshire Avenue in Northwest Washington yesterday afternoon after threatening to jump for several hours, police said.
The man climbed onto the ledge about 12:15 p.m. and for four hours paced and peered at the ground. He fell just before 4:10 p.m. after trying to climb down. The man lost his footing as he tried to move down the building and briefly hung off the ledge by only his hands before falling feet first.
His body partially hit the concrete and a large inflatable air mattress police had set up while trying to coax him down, police said.
A crowd of about 20 people were horrified as they watched the scene unfold.
Posted in Oops, Suicidal Tendencies, Yuck! | Comments Off
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
CHINA Beijing 2008: bars forbidden to serve “blacks” and Mongolians, outdoor tables banned
For “reasons of safety”, bars are forbidden to serve “blacks”" and Mongolians or place tables in the street. Street musicians are being banned, and so is buying medicines containing “stimulants” without a prescription. Prohibitions are on the rise for the Olympic capital, while the first leaks reveal a grandiose fireworks display for the inauguration.
Bar owners around the Workers’ Stadium in downtown Beijing say that public security officials are telling them not to let in “blacks” and Mongolians, and many of them have even had to sign a pledge. The official reason is the fight against drugs and prostitution, dominated in the past by Mongolians and persons of colour. Moreover, public places must close by 2 a.m., for security reasons, and the bar owners are being asked to remind their clients that they must always have an identification document with them. There is even doubt over whether the bars within a radius of two kilometres from the Olympic buildings will be able operate, or whether they will have to shut down for the entire period. In some areas, tables are not permitted outside, because “the presence of too many foreigners gathered outside could create problems”. There is also an attempt to shut down outdoor musical concerts, to prevent disorder.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, Politically Incorrect | Comments Off
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Gordon Brown aide a victim of honeytrap operation by Chinese agents
A top aide to Gordon Brown has been a suspected victim of a “honeytrap” operation by Chinese intelligence agents.
The aide, a senior Downing Street adviser who was with the prime minister on a trip to China earlier this year, had his BlackBerry phone stolen after being picked up by a Chinese woman who had approached him in a Shanghai hotel disco.
The aide agreed to return to his hotel with the woman. He reported the BlackBerry missing the next morning.
The aide, whose identity is known to The Sunday Times, immediately reported the theft to the prime minister’s Special Branch protection team and was informally reprimanded.
Posted in Cloak and Dagger, Concentrated Stupidity, Sex | Comments Off
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Woman savaged by kangaroo saved by dog
An elderly Australian woman knocked over and savaged by a large kangaroo on her farm was saved when a dog rushed to her aid and chased the animal away, her son said Saturday.
Rosemary Neal, from western New South Wales, was attacked by a male kangaroo estimated to be up to two meters (six feet, six inches) tall and weighing 100 kilograms (220 pounds) as she crossed a field to check her horses, her son Darren said.
“The kangaroo has just jumped up and launched straight at her. He hit her once and she just dropped and rolled,” he said.
“My dog heard her screaming and bolted down and chased him off. If it wasn’t for the dog she’d probably be dead.”
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Animal Rebellion Update | Comments Off
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Wars Update: Fighting Goes Out Of Fashion
While the mass media continues to feature wars and terrorism, the overall trend continues away from such unpleasantness. Such stories are anathema to the mass media, because they do not attract eyeballs, and revenue. That’s the way people are, and the result is a distorted view of trends in global violence.
Worldwide, violence continues to decline, as it has for the last few years. Violence has also greatly diminished, or disappeared completely, in places like Iraq, Nepal, Chechnya, Congo, Indonesia and Burundi. Even Afghanistan, touted as the new war zone, is seeing less violence this year than last.
All this continues a trend that began when the Cold War ended, and the Soviet Union no longer subsidized terrorist and rebel groups everywhere. The current wars are basically uprisings against police states or feudal societies, which are seen as out-of-step with the modern world. Many are led by radicals preaching failed dogmas (Islamic conservatism, Maoism), that still resonate among people who don’t know about the dismal track records of these movements.
Posted in War | Comments Off
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Zimbabwe introduces $100 billion banknotes
Zimbabwe’s troubled central bank introduced $100 billion banknotes Saturday in a desperate bid to ease the recurrent cash shortages plaguing the inflation-ravaged economy.
A shopper displays a $500 million Zimbabwean bank note.
The bills officially come into circulation Monday, although they were on the foreign currency dealers market Saturday.
As high as they are, though, the bills still aren’t enough to buy a loaf of bread. They can buy only four oranges.
The new note is equal to just one U.S. dollar.
Once-prosperous Zimbabwe has seen an unprecedented economic meltdown since it gained independence in 1980, with the official inflation rate now at 2.2 million percent.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Crazed Dictatorships | Comments Off
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
Lawyer Is Accused of Using Reform Group to Launder Money From Strip Club
A lawyer who fervently contested the result of the 2000 presidential election and started an organization advocating voter reform used it to hide profits from another venture, the police say: a strip club that offered more than dancing.
The lawyer, Louis Posner, ran the Hot Lap Dance Club out of a fifth-floor loft in Hell’s Kitchen, where the police said the wealthy clientele paid as much as $5,000 for sex with dancers in private rooms.
The authorities raided the loft on Thursday night and arrested Mr. Posner, his wife, Betty, and 19 others on charges that included money laundering and promoting prostitution. No clients were arrested.
Posted in Greed is Good, Idiot Activists, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
What’s the matter, turtle got your tongue?
Calvin “Clicker” Embry talks a little funny these days. You would, too if a 15-pound snapping turtle ever latched onto your tongue and wouldn’t let go.
This bizarre story started to unfold just before dusk this past Fourth of July. Embry, 41, a laborer from Wayne City, Ill., was at a local fireworks display when one of his buddies asked if he’d show everybody how he can hypnotize a snapping turtle and kiss him right on the snout.
“I started doing this trick years ago, and it’s a great crowd pleaser,” the legendary turtle hunter said. “I guess I’ve kissed about a hundred snappin’ turtles and never been bit — until this last time.”
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Concentrated Stupidity | Comments Off
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Myth of Consensus Explodes: APS Opens Global Warming Debate
The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate on the validity of global warming science. The leadership of the society had previously called the evidence for global warming “incontrovertible.”
In a posting to the APS forum, editor Jeffrey Marque explains,”There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution.”
Posted in Gore Effect Update, Weird Science | Comments Off
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Belmar, N.J. Mayor’s Newsletter Rattles Tourists
There is a shore town scandal brewing in New Jersey. The mayor of Belmar is stirring up some controversy.
In a newsletter aimed at the town’s summer renters, he referred to a certain group of young people with a name some Italian-Americans find offensive.
Belmar is lovely and tranquil, an escape from humidity and New York City.
Mayor Ken Pringle says he wants to keep it that way, but he may have used the wrong language to make his point. In his weekly newsletter to summer renters, the mayor, borrowing a reference he thought was fairly commonly used in his town, and lifting an incident from “njguido.com,” described a certain type that descends on Belmar:
“Guidos as kind of a rare bird and are “as welcome as, oh, Canada geese.”
Posted in Politically Incorrect, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
N.J. Councilman Starts Crusade Against Saggy Pants
Instead of “stick ‘em up,” it will be more like “pull ‘em up” now that fashion police in New Jersey have started a crackdown on baggy pants.
It’s happening in Paterson, where city officials want to put the kibosh on this form of fashion.
Bart Johnson says wearing his pants low in a fashion statement, but one councilman is saying pull it up. He’s even crafted a proposal to ban “baggy pants.”
Teenagers and even little ones and women are sporting the fashion. The “saggy” or “baggy” look, where pants are pulled down and boxers are exposed seems to be all the rage these days.
…
“We’re tired of seeing your behind,” Davis said. “We don’t want to see your back side. We don’t need to see your underwear. We don’t need to see your drawers. Wear your pants.”
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Backseat lovers cheat death as their car plunges 46m down cliff!
Two lovers had a brush with death after their car plunged 46m down a cliff, while they were having sex in the back seat.
According to the police Lin Gu, 25, and lover Lee Shin, 29, suffered broken bones when their car tipped over the edge of the hill in XinDian, Taiwan.
“They had parked up close to the edge of the mountain and had left the handbrake off,” Daily Telegraph quoted a spokesman, as saying.
“When they started having sex the rocking motion started the car moving and it rolled off the hill. They were lucky they were not more seriously hurt,” he added.
Posted in Sex, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Day of Reckoning? Super Rich Tax Cheats Outed
Hundreds of super-rich American tax cheats have, in effect, turned themselves in to the IRS after a bank computer technician in the tinyEuropean country of Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme.
Kieber
Heinrich Kieber, a bank computer technician in Liechtenstein came forward with the names of US citizens who had set up secret accounts there, according to Washington lawyers investigating the scheme. He has been branded a thief by the government of Liechtenstein for violating the country’s bank secrecy laws.
He is now in hiding but scheduled to testify to the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Thursday via a video statement from a secret location, according to Congressional investigators.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Greed is Good | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Neb. cop, family win $40K over urine-tainted food
A police officer and his family have won $40,000 in their lawsuit against a restaurant that had served them food tainted by an employee’s spit and urine.
A jury on Friday ruled in favor of Sidney police Officer Keith Andrew, whose two sons, then 4 and 7, were sickened by the food they ate at a KFC/Taco Bell in October 2005. Sidney is a town of about 6,000 in western Nebraska.
The younger boy became violently ill with gastroenteritis and dehydration, vomited for hours and was forced to spend time in a hospital, the family’s lawsuit said.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Yuck! | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
S.F. officials locked out of computer network
A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Francisco’s new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.
Terry Childs, a 43-year-old computer network administrator who lives in Pittsburg, has been charged with four counts of computer tampering and is scheduled to be arraigned today.
Prosecutors say Childs, who works in the Department of Technology at a base salary of just over $126,000, tampered with the city’s new FiberWAN (Wide Area Network), where records such as officials’ e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail inmates’ bookings are stored.
Childs created a password that granted him exclusive access to the system, authorities said. He initially gave pass codes to police, but they didn’t work. When pressed, Childs refused to divulge the real code even when threatened with arrest, they said.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Hackers and Hacking | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008
Africa is giving nothing to anyone — apart from AIDS
No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia’s (and Bob Geldof’s) famous Feed The World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia’s population has grown from 33.5 million to 78 million today.
So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none. To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn’t count.
One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .
Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | Comments Off
Monday, July 14th, 2008
Ravers lose sight at laser show
Dozens of partygoers at an outdoor rave near Moscow last week have lost partial vision after a laser light show burned their retinas, Russian health officials said on Monday.
Moscow city health department officials confirmed 12 cases of laser-blindness at the Central Ophthalmological Clinic, and daily newspaper Kommersant said another 17 were registered at City Hospital 32 in the centre of the capital.
Attendees at the July 5 Aquamarine Open Air Festival in Kirzhach, 80 km (50 miles) northeast of Moscow, began seeking medical help days after the show, complaining of eye and vision problems, health officials told Reuters.
“They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them. Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80 percent, and regaining it is already impossible,” Kommersant quoted a treating ophthalmologist as saying.
Posted in Drugs, I hate it when that happens, Oops, Technological Travesties | Comments Off
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Police halt ‘mooning’ of trains in Laguna Niguel after a crowd of 8,000 gathers
Police were called out to break up the annual “mooning” of Amtrak trains in Laguna Niguel on Saturday when the crowd grew to 8,000 and many began baring more than just their behinds.
“We had some mooners and some female flashers and some people who were nude altogether,” said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. “There was also lots of drinking. We felt that it was in the public’s interest to shut it down.”
Mooners, flashers and others dispersed peacefully about 3 p.m. and there were no arrests, Amormino said. More than 50 officers responded from several police agencies, backed up by helicopters.
Some participants were angered by the police response.
“What was the point of stopping people from enjoying themselves when they were under control?” asked Robert Zoellner, 47, a first-time mooner from Mission Viejo. “Everybody was getting along.”
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Modern Narcissism | Comments Off
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Injection Used To Subdue Prisoners
While the Metro police had banned the use of Tasers for a time, they still used a controversial method to subdue unruly people, according to an I-Team report.
The city’s policy to use the method, which calls for the injection of a drug into a person, came as a “total surprise” to people most would expect to know all about it.
For almost two years, Metro police have had the option of calling for a needle loaded with a strong sedative to control the most unruly people they encounter on the street.
…
The drug is called Midazolam, which is better known as Versed. People who have had a colonoscopy have probably had a shot of the drug for the procedure.
“The drug has an amnesia effect, and we use that therapeutically because one of the nice ways to take care of the discomfort is to make people forget that they’ve had it,” said biomedical ethics and law enforcement expert Dr. Steven Miles.
Posted in Conspiracies, Drugs, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
Hair apparent: Obama shows toll of campaign
THERE was no mistaking it when Barack Obama addressed the League of United Latin American citizens in Washington last week: the Democratic nominee for president is rapidly going grey.
Perhaps it was the lighting at the Washington Hilton. Perhaps it really is the strains of the most hard-fought Democratic primary in modern history.
Perhaps, too, there has been a deliberate strategy by his campaign to “olden” him, as some blogs have suggested in the US.
Senator Obama acknowledged last week that the campaign had taken its toll, saying: “The grey is coming in quick.” He told a room full of donors in Colorado Springs, Colorado: “By the time I’m sworn in, I will look the part.”
He will be 47 a month after the November election.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Modern Narcissism, Politico Follies | Comments Off
Sunday, July 13th, 2008
1 Killed, 1 Hurt on Open-Top Bus After Hitting Heads on SE Bridge
One man was killed and another was critically injured last night when their heads struck a freeway overpass while on the upper deck of a bus headed to the Washington Nationals baseball game, D.C. police said.
The incident occurred about 8:45 p.m., as the open-topped double-decker bus, which was westbound on the Southeast Freeway, passed beneath the 11th Street overpass.
“They were standing in the upper part of the bus, and their heads struck the under part of the overpass,” said Cmdr. Andy Solberg, field supervisor for the police.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Darwin Award, Yuck! | Comments Off
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
Battle of chips: Computer beats human experts at poker
Human pride took a hit 11 years ago when IBM’s Big Blue computer beat world chess champion Gary Kasparov. Now it’s poker players’ turn to be humiliated by a machine.
A computer system called Polaris outperformed some of the world’s top players last weekend at a human-vs.-machine competition in Las Vegas.
The score was computer 3, humans 2, with one draw.
If you think it should be easier for a computer to win at poker than at the highly intellectual game of chess, think again. The human element makes poker a much more complex challenge.
Posted in End of the World Update | Comments Off
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
Mother Loses Kids After Sending Daughter to School With Swastika Drawn on Arm
A Canadian woman who describes herself as a white nationalist lost custody of her children after sending her daughter to school twice with a swastika drawn on her arm, the CBC reported.
The Winnipeg mother told the CBC she regrets redrawing the Nazi symbol after a teacher scrubbed it off. She is fighting the child welfare system to regain custody of her daughter, 7, and son, 2, who were removed from her home four months ago.
“It was one of the stupidest things I’ve done in my life but it’s no reason to take my kids,” the unidentified woman told CBC News. She is currently allowed to see her kids for two hours a week.
Posted in Bad Parents, Idiot Parents, Nazis | Comments Off
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
Teen Decapitated In High-Speed Crash
A teenager died after he crashed a SUV into the back yard of a northwest Harris County home early Friday, KPRC Local 2 reported.
Harris County sheriff’s deputies said the 16-year-old was driving at least 90 mph when he crashed on Champions Forest Drive near Teakwood Forest Drive at about 1 a.m.
Detectives said the teen crashed into a wooden fence before hitting a Hummer that was parked in a driveway.
The teen was decapitated by a wooden fence post, deputies said.
Posted in Darwin Award | Comments Off
Saturday, July 12th, 2008
Lightning claims 5 young lives in a week
Five young lives have been ended by lightning in less than a week, a deadly reminder of one of summer’s leading hazards.
“Typically, July marks the peak in lightning activity. It’s also the time when people are vacationing, so they are outside and they are vulnerable to lightning,” said John Jensenius, a lightning safety expert at the National Weather Service.
But why so many young people in a few days? “I don’t have an answer for that,” Jensenius said, “It’s all very sad.”
Landon Dillard, 16, of Macon, Ga., was riding a bicycle at a summer camp in Colorado when he was struck down on July 3.
Two days later, 19-year-old Korey Moore of Swansea, S.C., was riding a personal watercraft when hit. The next day lightning claimed Stephanie Dawn Kirpes, 23, of Woodbridge, Va., while she was jogging along the shore in Virginia Beach, Va.
And on July 7, two 16-year-olds were killed by lightning: Ben Richter on his family farm at Watertown, Wis., and Lucian Ellis of Sampson County, N.C., who was in a beach hut sheltering from a storm.
Posted in Restless Earth, Sinners in the hands of an angry God | Comments Off
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Rolling Stones’ Ron Wood, 61, cavorts with 18-year-old waitress
Talk about robbing the cradle. Apparently, 61-year-old Rolling Stones’ rocker Ronnie Wood has run off with an 18-year-old cocktail waitress, leaving his wife of 23 years.
The duo are thought to have fled to the musician’s home in Ireland, where they have reportedly been living for the past week together.
The presumed cause of this sudden change of heart? Wood’s Achilles heel: alcohol.
Wood, who admitted his alcoholism publicly in 2000, is said to have met the young Russian Ekaterina Ivanova three months ago after a premiere of “Shine a Light.” A source told the UK’s Daily Mail the young blond has become a drinking buddy of the rock star.
Posted in Crazy is as Crazy Does, Fun with Alcohol, Idiot Celebrities | Comments Off
Friday, July 11th, 2008
FMillionaire Missing on Hawaii’s Main Island of Oahu
The millionaire founder of an Internet software security company remained missing on Hawaii’s main island of Oahu this week, police said.
Steven Thomas, 36, was last seen June 30 at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel in Waikiki, where his mother and a cousin were staying.
His family said he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in April but has refused medication.
“He thinks everyone on the island is out to get him,” Candis Thomas said of her husband’s bipolar condition. “He thinks the military is involved, he thinks that aliens are involved, and he’s just been in a real delusion state of being fearful.”
Thomas was arrested April 27 and taken to Castle Medical Center after he ran naked into the middle of a race/walk in front of his home in Lanikai. He also owns a home in Boulder, Colo.
He is the founder of Boulder-based Webroot Software Inc. The software company that created the Spy Sweeper and Window Washer programs was sold in 2004 to a group of investors for about $108 million.
Posted in Aliens, Crazy is as Crazy Does | Comments Off
Friday, July 11th, 2008
MBTA boss touts T but takes SUV
MBTA general manager Dan Grabauskas is spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars urging suburban commuters to “Dump the Pump,” brave the heat and take the T, yet the transit boss continues to drive to work from Ipswich to Boston in the cool comfort of his T-owned SUV.
Grabauskas was observed by a Herald reporter on several occasions over the past seven weeks, including yesterday, driving his agency-owned 2008 Ford Escape hybrid to his office at the state Transportation Building in Park Square – a roughly 60-mile-a-day commute round-trip.
The T chief also drove his roomy, air-conditioned ride to a June 19 event in Lowell promoting his new $52,000 “Dump the Pump” ad campaign aimed at getting people to take public transportation to conserve gas and help improve the environment.
The agency’s Web site also promotes taking the T as a “No Brainer” option to getting hosed at the gas pump.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Friday, July 11th, 2008
Rangel gets bargain on apartments
While aggressive evictions are making rent-stabilized apartments increasingly scarce in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent apartments in a sprawling penthouse overlooking Upper Manhattan, courtesy of one of New York’s premier real estate developers.
Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.
Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit, six-tower luxury development with doormen that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.
Posted in Greed is Good, Politico Follies | Comments Off
Thursday, July 10th, 2008
Earthquake Destroyed China’s Largest Military Armory, Says Source
A high-level Chinese military source secretly disclosed last week that the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province caused a chain-reaction of explosions in the Sichuan mountain areas. The explosions destroyed Chinese army’s largest armory, new weapon test bases and part of nuclear facilities including several nuclear warheads. This information is considered China’s top military secret.
After the earthquake, Chinese authorities had ignored the disaster victim’s initial calls for help. Only after the first critical 72 hours had passed did the authorities allow international aid to be delivered to the disaster region. Military analysts believe that this delay occurred because Mianyang City of Sichuan Province is one of important areas for the Chinese military nuclear industries and also its largest armory. The Chinese regime did not want potential spies from the outside world in this very sensitive military area during a time when there may have been a nuclear accident.
“I went to see the site of the explosion again. Villagers on the road told me, ‘These concrete blocks and soil were from the explosion,’” said a medical team member. (Photo provided by mainland Chinese Internet Users)
According to sources, a nuclear accident did happen. On June 27, the Chinese military disclosed that 2,700 chemical cleanup workers had been sent to earthquake disaster areas for nuclear chemical emergency rescue.
Posted in Fire, Restless Earth | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
‘Ritual killing’ rescue in Ghana
Police in Ghana are trying to reunite a teenage boy with his family after rescuing him from what they suspect was a ritual killing.
Two men have been given lengthy prison sentences for trying to sell the 16-year-old boy for $20,000 (£10,000).
Police believe he would have been killed for his body parts to be used for witchcraft.
Having rescued the boy, the police have issued a photo of him in order to try to find his relatives.
The photo published by the police shows Akwesi Buabeng staring into the camera looking a little bewildered.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Woman tries to kill mice, shoots self
A Potter Valley woman wounded herself and a man July 3 while attempting to kill mice with a .44-caliber Magnum revolver, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman, 43, had drawn the gun from a holster under her left arm, intending to shoot mice scurrying across the floor of a small travel trailer on Highway 20 in Potter Valley, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The revolver instead slipped from her hand and fired as it struck the floor, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Diamonds Rained Down During Ice Age
Diamonds and precious metals found in the eastern United States might have rained down during the last Ice Age after a comet shattered over Canada and set North America ablaze, all leading to a mass die-off of animals and humans.
New chemical analyses of diamond, gold and silver found in Ohio and Indiana reveal the minerals were transported there from Canada several thousand years ago. The question is, how?
“There are no gold mines or silver mines in Ohio that anyone knows of, but there are plenty of them in Canada,” said retired geophysicist Allen West, who was involved in the study.
The discovery is consistent with a theory proposed by West and colleagues that a 3-mile-wide comet splintered over glaciers and ice sheets in eastern Canada about 12,900 years ago and wiped out man and beast.
Posted in Restless Earth, Space, Weird Science | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
Mysterious Midair Dent in Jetliners Nose
Don’t blame a bird for the punch that the Northwest Airlines plane took in the nose on Sunday.
Northwest is now examining the dented nose cone of a Boeing 757 jet that was damaged during a flight from Detroit to Tampa. Images snapped by passengers (MSNBC even has some video, above) show the front tip of the plane looking a bit like a beer cup smashed in after a football game.
A spokeswoman for the Tampa airport initially told The Associated Press that the damage was probably caused by a bird striking the plane in mid-flight.
But this afternoon, the Federal Aviation Administration essentially ruled out that possibility as more details became available.
Posted in Most Mysterious | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Bizarre murder scene for US actress
For six days American actress Joyce Germain lay dead beneath a pile of towels, cushions, a foot spa and a construction hat, decomposing in the bathroom of her inner Sydney flat.
It was a bizarre scene, rivalled only by the cast of characters who will be called to give evidence about her unsolved death.
Opening an inquest into the 59-year-old’s death in Sydney on Monday, counsel assisting the coroner, Rebbecca Becroft, said the circumstances could only be described as “strange and bizarre”.
Ms Germain’s large frame was buried beneath various household items, including bedding, towels and a blue foot spa.
An electric iron cord was wrapped about her neck and a knife and razor were found near her body, but there were no discernible wounds, Sgt Becroft said.
Her dress was lifted above her head and a clothes peg had been attached to her genitals, with lipstick smeared over the vanity basin, walls and the body.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Houstonian sentenced to 35 years in killing over foot odor
A Houston man was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Tuesday after prosecutors said he fatally stabbed his roommate during an argument about foot odor.
William Antonio Serrano, 23, pleaded no contest to murder in May in the October death of Noel Quintanilla-Vaquero, 21.
During his sentencing hearing on Tuesday, Serrano cried as he told state District Judge Mike Anderson that he had been defending himself against Quintanilla-Vaquero, his court-appointed attorney, Sid Crowley, said.
However, no evidence was available to show that Quintanilla-Vaquero had a weapon, Harris County Assistant District Attorney Joe Vinas said.
“The defendant said the victim had smelly feet,” Vinas said.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Yuck! | Comments Off
Monday, July 7th, 2008
G8 summit: Gordon Brown has eight-course dinner before food crisis talks
Gordon Brown and his fellow world leaders have sparked outrage after it was disclosed they enjoyed a six-course lunch followed by an eight-course dinner at the G8 summit where the global food crisis tops the agenda.
The Prime Minister was served 24 different dishes during his first day at the summit – just hours after urging the world to reduce the “unnecessary demand” for food and calling on British families to cut back on their wasteful use of food.
Mr Brown and his wife Sarah were among 15 guests at the “blessings of the earth and the sea social dinner”.
The dinner consisted of 18 dishes in eight courses including caviar, smoked salmon, Kyoto beef and a “G8 fantasy dessert”.
…
African leaders including the heads of Ethiopia, Tanzania and Senegal who had taken part in talks during the day were not invited to the function.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Activists, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Monday, July 7th, 2008
Chess boxers slug it out
A RUSSIAN man has been crowned world champion in the novelty sport of chess boxing, a game that requires equal skill at moving pawns and throwing punches.
Mathematics student Nikolai Sazhin, 19, competing under the name “The President” knocked out a 37-year-old German policeman Frank Stoldt, who served as a peacekeeper in Kosovo until recently.
The loser said he was simply too punch-drunk to fend off checkmate.
“I took a lot of body-blows in the fourth round and that affected my concentration. That’s why I made a big mistake in the fifth round: I did not see him coming for my king,” he said.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Cultural Oddities | Comments Off
Sunday, July 6th, 2008
‘Cindy Brady’ Shows Up Hung Over for Interview
The youngest member of TV’s favorite fictitious family “The Brady Bunch” nearly blew chunks during a Denver radio appearance Thursday morning.
Actress Susan Olsen apparently showed up at the Darren and Coba show at Jet 107.9 with a massive hangover. She answered a few questions from the show’s host -looking rather queasy the whole time- before admitting to her condition and darting from the studio (presumably for a restroom).
Posted in Fun with Alcohol, Idiot Celebrities | Comments Off
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
America’s Got No Shame: TV talent show’s new low as woman crushes beer cans with her breasts
Sharon Osbourne, Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff were left agog during the latest round of America’s Got Talent auditions after a hopeful smashed beer cans with her 40lb breasts.
Busty Heart, as she is know, crushed nine beer cans simultaneously with her right breast in a rather peculiar attempt to impress the judges.
The former exotic dancer stuck pictures of Morgan and Hasselhoff’s faces to the cans, which ended up flattened on the table.
Busty, whose real name is Susan Sykes, left the studio audience stunned when she appeared on US reality show America’s Got Talent.
A gasp echoed out around the Los Angeles studio as the nightclub owner took to the stage with her 88-inch chest.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, Human Oddities | Comments Off
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
Waxwork Hitler beheaded in Berlin
A man has been arrested after tearing the head off a wax figure of Adolf Hitler at a newly opened branch of Madame Tussauds in Berlin.
The 41-year-old man was held after attacking the waxwork, only hours after the attraction opened on Saturday.
The inclusion of Hitler in the exhibition has aroused controversy in a country where Nazi symbols are banned.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Cultural Oddities, Nazis | Comments Off
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
More headless corpses found as Mexican drug wars rage
Three decapitated corpses were discovered in Mexico’s northwestern Sinaloa state Friday, bring to a total of seven headless bodies found and 11 police assassinated in a bloody week of often drug-related violence in the country, officials and news reports said.
The three headless corpses were found in a car in Culiacan, Sinaloa, together with a note critical of one of the Beltran Leyva brothers, heads of a faction of the divided Sinaloa drug cartel, state judicial officials said in a statement.
The Beltran Leyva brothers are in a fight with Sinaloa-based Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the country’s most sought-after drug kingpin.
A message attacking him was found with four decapitated bodies on Wednesday, also in Culiacan.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Drugs | Comments Off
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
Carjackers’ nightmare: intended victims are two cops
A 22-year-old man is in custody after police said he and another man unwittingly tried to carjack an unmarked police car with two uniformed officers inside.
At 9:30 p.m. Thursday, the officers were investigating illegal fireworks activity in the 2200 block of Eastwood Avenue when a sports utility vehicle pulled up in front of their unmarked police sedan, said Santa Ana Police Department Comm. Steve Colon.
The two men got out of the SUV and took “an aggressive approach toward the officers,” Colon said. The driver acted as if he had a weapon in his waistband, police said.
At that point, the officers got out of the car; the two suspects ran back into their SUV and attempted to get away, Colon said. Police suspect the two men didn’t realize there were officers in the vehicle.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Doh!, Idiot Criminals | Comments Off
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
No kitty, no die: Marley the cat survives 14-storey plunge
Marley the cat dropped 14 storeys out of a window of a high-rise and lived to meow about it.
It may have been nature that lured him out, and it was nature that cushioned his fall.
Angela Bester had left a window slightly ajar for her one-year-old Scottish Fold domestic cross she named after a favourite singer, Bob Marley, while she took an overnight trip to Whistler.
When she returned to her 14th storey condo, she froze.
“I saw the window and I knew instantly what had happened and I looked at the (uneaten) food and the water. In my heart, I knew he was gone,” said the construction health and safety manager.
“I was completely devastated.”
Posted in Animal Weirdness, You lucky bastard | Comments Off
Saturday, July 5th, 2008
Three charged with murder after 17-year-old boy is tied to tree, forced to drink petrol and set alight
A teenager died after he was tied to a tree and made to drink petrol before being set on fire, police revealed yesterday.
Simon Everitt died from inhaling some of the fluid, a post-mortem examination found.
The 17-year-old engineering student had been missing for three weeks before his body was discovered buried in a ditch last Saturday.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Concentrated Criminality, Fire | Comments Off
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Eight dead as canoeists sucked into turbines
Divers pulled seven bodies out of the Sava River and fought strong currents Friday to search for five other missing people after two canoes were crushed running over a dam in southeastern Slovenia.
Two people managed to swim ashore after their boats broke up and capsized but one died Friday in the hospital, raising the death toll to 8, according police spokesman Pavel Perc. The second survivor remained hospitalized.
The accident happened late Thursday, when two large canoes decided to run over a dam under construction near Sevnica, a town 56 miles (90 kilometers) southeast of the capital of Ljubljana. At that section, the dam, part of a hydroelectric plant, is currently built only to about the height of the water.
…
Slovenian TV journalist Goran Rovan, who had been in one of the safe canoes, told the state-run news agency STA that the other canoes capsized and broke apart when they hit the whitewater passing through the dam gates. The occupants fell into the river and were sucked by the rapids into the underwater tunnel leading to the generator turbines.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Doh! | Comments Off
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Faceless ‘aliens’ spotted in crowd at Wimbledon
With the blankest of blank expressions on their faces, these mysterious figures have been popping up in the most unlikely of places.
The faceless mutants have a penchant for A-list celebrity bashes and have been spotted at Elton John’s White tie ball and Harrods summer sale, opened by Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall.
With a membrane of skin stretched tightly over their eyes, noses and mouths, the alien-like figures were most recently snapped ‘watching’ a match perched on Murray Mount at Wimbledon.
Posted in Aliens, Ars Gratia Artis, Most Mysterious | Comments Off
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Joyriding in stolen Dillon police car lands boy, mother in jail
A 13-year-old Dillon boy was arrested after officers said he took his interest in law enforcement too far by joyriding in a stolen police car.
His mother, who police said saw no problem with her son’s hobby, also was arrested.
Residents called police Sunday to say they’d seen the boy driving around in a police car, Dillon Police Sgt. Jason Turner said.
Officers didn’t even know the car was missing until then, Turner said.
The boy had also taken the car the previous Sunday, drove around Dillon and then returned the car to the police station, Turner said.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Criminals, Teen Antics | Comments Off
Friday, July 4th, 2008
The Worm Turns – Curing Diseases With Parasites?
In the early 1990s, Joel Weinstock, a gastroenterologist, encountered a puzzle. The prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease (I.B.D.) across North America increased markedly during the 20th century. Many thought that “bad” genes would eventually explain the spike, but Weinstock didn’t buy it. In areas where fewer than two generations ago the I.B.D. incidence might have been as low as 1 in 10,000, it was now 1 in 250. A defective gene couldn’t spread that quickly, he reasoned. It had to be something in the environment. But what? Stumped, Weinstock tried turning the question around. Instead of asking what triggered I.B.D., he asked what, before the 20th century, protected against it?
At the time, Weinstock, then at the University of Iowa, was editing a book on parasitic worms. These worms, or helminths, have a paradoxical effect on the host. Rather than induce inflammation, which is the body’s typical response to invasion, the intruders calm the host immune system. They force a peace, scientists think, to avoid eviction and keep the host — their home and food source — as healthy as possible. As Weinstock considered the I.B.D. puzzle, he wondered if immune manipulation by worms could incidentally protect against other diseases.
Comparison of the prevalence of I.B.D. and surveys of worm-infestation rates revealed a telling pattern. About 10 years after improved hygiene and deworming efforts reduced worms in a given population, I.B.D. rates jumped. Weinstock had his hypothesis: after a long coevolution, the human immune system came to depend on the worms for proper functioning. When cleaner conditions and new medicines evicted the worms from our bodies, the immune system went out of kilter. “Hygiene has made our lives better,” says Weinstock, now at Tufts University. “But in the process of eliminating exposure to the 10 or 20 things that can make us sick, we’re also eliminating exposure to things that make us well.”
Posted in Weird Science, Yuck! | Comments Off
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% – far more than previously estimated – according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Activists, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Adolf Hitler finally returns to Berlin – but will tight security ensure model behaviour?
Before Adolf Hitler killed himself in April 1945 he explained to his aides that he was determined not to fall into the hands of the Russians — and land up as the freak exhibit in a Moscow waxworks.
As luck would have it, Hitler — or, at least, a waxen effigy — has now been put on display in Berlin, a short stroll away from his former bunker.
Thanks to Madame Tussauds, which has just opened a new affiliate in Berlin, Germans can at last view a realistic model of the Führer. The suspicion, though, is that he will bring nothing but trouble.
To ensure that the wax Führer does not inspire neo-Nazi pilgrimages, Madame Tussauds has cordoned off the dummy and imposed a no-touch rule. You can kiss Robbie Williams or even Angela Merkel, but not Hitler; nor can you pose for a picture with him. There are CCTV cameras and the London-based company has also taken the precaution of moulding a very shrivelled Führer.
Posted in Historical Oddities, Nazis | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Live bombs haunt Orlando neighborhood
The search teams comb through the backyards of the half-million-dollar homes with metal detectors, placing red flags on the manicured lawns every time they get a hit. To the shock of residents, they sometimes find live bombs.
The bombs are left over from a 12,000-acre World War II bombing range. The area has become an Orlando neighborhood with thousands of homes.
The Army Corps of Engineers has launched a $10 million cleanup of what used to be the PineCastle Jeep Range, but it said bombs could remain there once they’re done.
“Chances are, it’s not a problem,” said Mike Ornella, the man leading the Army Corps cleanup.
But he conceded, “We’re never going to be 100 percent sure. We’re never going to give a 100 percent guarantee that the properties are clear.”
The developer refused comment for this story. Residents are enraged.
Posted in Greed is Good, Oops | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Woman Dies After Accidentally Drinking Torch Oil
New Jersey poison control officials said a Burlington County woman has died and five other people have been sickened in separate incidents around the state after accidentally drinking small amounts of oil used to light patio torches.
Officials said the victims mistakenly thought they were drinking apple juice.
Steve Marcus, executive director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, said the 84-year-old woman died Monday night after suffering lung damage caused by ingesting the kerosene-like substance.
Posted in Doh!, Oops | Comments Off
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
N.C. Dem leader accused of satanism
A Durham, N.C., Democratic official and her husband face criminal charges in connection with alleged satanic rituals.
Joy Johnson, 30, a third vice-chairwoman of the Durham County Democratic Party and vice chairwoman of the Young Democrats, was charged Friday with two counts of aiding and abetting. Her husband, Joseph Scott Craig, 25, was charged with second-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for incidents in January and May, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Tuesday.
Mark McCullough, an assistant district attorney, would not release details of the allegations. But in court on Monday, he acknowledged that “part of the allegations are that satanic worship is part of this case.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Sinners in the hands of an angry God | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Romulus man burned in blast
An Amish man suffered burns on 75 percent of his body after a large gas tank exploded on his Yerkes Road farm late Monday morning.
Seneca County sheriff investigators said that the man, Samuel L. Byler, 25, lit a match near a 175-gallon fuel tank on his farm at 2081 Yerkes Road, igniting vapors inside and causing it to explode about 11:30 a.m.
Byler, who suffered burns on much of his body, was treated at the scene by EMTs and then transported by Mercy Flight to Strong Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in guarded condition this morning in the burn unit.
Byler suffered third-degree burns on his hands and chest, the sheriff’s department said.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Darwin Award, Fire | Comments Off
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Militants burn down ice-cream parlours
Taliban militants have burned down four ice cream parlours in a province bordering the capital Kabul, a security guard said.
The militants, who attacked the parlours in the Kulanger district of Logar on Monday, also set fire to DVDs, CDs and televisions used to entertain ice-cream buyers while they eat.
Security guard Mohammad Alem said: “At about 1am 10 masked Talibs came into the market and asked me to show them where the ice-cream shops were. I was scared so I showed them.”
The masked men broke down the parlour doors, took out the televisions and set fire to them behind the shop.
Posted in T.R.O.P., War | Comments Off
