Archive for December, 2008
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008
Users baffled as Zune MP3 players freeze up
Baffled consumers are griping about a mysterious glitch that appeared to cause thousands of Zune music players to simultaneously stop working late Tuesday and early Wednesday.
Internet message boards have been flooded with complaints about Zune’s 30GB models freezing, prompting Y2K-like speculation about end-of-year hardware or software problems.
“It seems that every Zune on the planet has just frozen up and will not work,” posted a Mountain Home, Idaho, user on CNN’s iReport.com. “I have 3 and they all in the same night stopped working.”
Another iReporter said he was working the night shift at a Toys R Us store in Puerto Rico when his Zune player and the Zunes of four co-workers all failed about 1:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.
Posted in Technological Travesties | No Comments »
Monday, December 29th, 2008
Woman takes a 2-year toilet break:
Deputies said a woman in western Kansas sat on her boyfriend’s toilet for two years, and they’re investigating whether she was mistreated.
Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple said a man called his office last month to report that something was wrong with his girlfriend.
Whipple said it appeared the 35-year-old Ness City woman’s skin had grown around the seat. She initially refused emergency medical services but was finally convinced by responders and her boyfriend that she needed to be checked out at a hospital.
“We pried the toilet seat off with a pry bar and the seat went with her to the hospital,” Whipple said. “The hospital removed it.”
Whipple said investigators planned to present their report Wednesday to the county attorney, who will determine whether any charges should be filed against the woman’s 36-year-old boyfriend.
Posted in Yuck! | No Comments »
Saturday, December 27th, 2008
Man Sets Self on Fire During Stunt to Impress Date
A Swedish man’s attempt to impress his date went horribly awry Friday, as he ended up lighting himself on fire and going into shock. The 33-year-old man also faces allegations of endangering the public as he recovers from serious burn injuries in a hospital in Vastervik, The Local reported. The unidentified man’s girlfriend said he was attempting a stunt when he poured gasoline over his arm and set the fuel on fire. “It obviously didn’t go well. He burned his arm and other parts of his body and was in a state of shock,” Kalmar police spokesperson Reine Johansson told the TT news agency. “Don’t ask me what the point of the trick was supposed to be.”
Posted in Fire | No Comments »
Friday, December 26th, 2008
Report: Mexican says cops threatened him with lion
A gardener detained along with more than a dozen members of an alleged drug trafficking ring testified that police threatened him to feed him to lions and tigers during a raid at a Mexico City mansion, a newspaper reported Friday.
The Oct. 16 raid — in which police seized exotic animals from a private zoo at a sprawling estate — has been marred by allegations of abuse and corruption against the police who conducted the operation.
Mexico’s former acting federal police chief, Gerardo Garay, is under investigation for allegedly stealing money from the mansion during the raid. Garay is among several federal officers arrested for alleged collaboration with drug cartels in a corruption investigation known as “Operation Clean House.”
The Reforma newspaper says it had access to a court hearing Tuesday in which the gardener, Fernando Maya, testified that police beat him, gave him electric shocks and threatened to rape his wife if he did not reveal the whereabouts of the owner of the house, who remains at large. He claimed that police dragged him to cages with lions and tigers and threatened to throw him inside.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, December 26th, 2008
Is Greece an ‘ungovernable’ democracy?:
The riots and sit-ins continued for a second week across Greece yesterday as protesters kept up pressure on the government to step aside and commentators described the country as being on the verge of “societal collapse.”
Universities and 400 high schools are occupied by student activists as a leaked police report revealed official fears that the current crisis will fuel a recruitment drive for Greece’s anarchist movement.
“Changing governments is not enough,” wrote commentator Giannis Pretenderis in the Athens daily newspaper Kathimerini, “because whichever government replaces the current one – whether a better or worse one – the country will remain ungovernable.”
Posted in Anarchy | No Comments »
Friday, December 26th, 2008
Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan
The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.
Four blue pills. Viagra.
“Take one of these. You’ll love it,” the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.
The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes — followed by a request for more pills.
For U.S. intelligence officials, this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won. While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country’s roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations.
Posted in War | No Comments »
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
Amateurs are trying genetic engineering at home:
The Apple computer was invented in a garage. Same with the Google search engine. Now, tinkerers are working at home with the basic building blocks of life itself.
Using homemade lab equipment and the wealth of scientific knowledge available online, these hobbyists are trying to create new life forms through genetic engineering — a field long dominated by Ph.D.s toiling in university and corporate laboratories.
In her San Francisco dining room lab, for example, 31-year-old computer programmer Meredith L. Patterson is trying to develop genetically altered yogurt bacteria that will glow green to signal the presence of melamine, the chemical that turned Chinese-made baby formula and pet food deadly.
“People can really work on projects for the good of humanity while learning about something they want to learn about in the process,” she said.
Posted in Mad Scientists | No Comments »
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
Mega-orgy in Tel Aviv cancelled due to public pressure
After weeks of preparations for the largest sex event of its kind in Israel, organizers were forced to cancel it this week due to public pressure and threats exerted on the owner of the venue where the sex fest was to take place.
The event in question, which was scheduled to take place on “International Orgasm Day,” aimed to bring together some 250 participants seeking to promote world peace through multiple orgasms reached by masturbation or sex.
The orgy was organized by the Raelian movement, a UFO religion whose followers believe humankind was created by aliens. The group’s spokesman, Kobi Drori, said that the orgy was meant to include straights, gays, lesbians and bisexuals, all of them over 18.
“The purpose of the event was to try and bring world peace through mass orgasm, this by experiencing consensual sex and natural, uninterrupted pleasure. It was important to make love without feeling guilty or shy,” he explained.
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
Suspect in ‘Santa’ Slaying Reportedly Kills Self After Opening Fire at Christmas Party, Leaving 3 Dead
A man dressed as Santa Claus opened fire at a Christmas Eve party in a home that subsequently caught fire, leaving three people dead, police said. The suspect later killed himself, police said.
Police found the body of Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, 45, at the home of his brother early Thursday in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles. Police would not say how he died.
Police said he was the estranged husband of a person who may have been at the party in Covina, a Los Angeles suburb.
“He was going through some type of marital problems, and we believe that this residence is a relative’s residence,” Lt. Pat Buchanan said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Thursday, December 25th, 2008
Fill ‘Er Up With Human Fat
How a Beverly Hills doctor powered his SUV using his patients’ spare tires. Liposuctioning unwanted blubber out of pampered Los Angelenos may not seem like a dream job, but it has its perks. Free fuel is one of them. For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator.
Posted in Mad Scientists | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 24th, 2008
Mexican Beauty Queen Arrested in Gun-Filled Truck, Police Sa
A reigning Mexican beauty queen from the drug-plagued state of Sinaloa was arrested with suspected gang members in a truck filled guns and ammunition, police said Tuesday.
Miss Sinaloa 2008 Laura Zuniga stared at the ground, with her flowing dark hair concealing her face, as she stood squeezed between seven alleged gunmen lined up before journalists. Soldiers wearing ski masks guarded the 23-year-old model and the suspects.
Zuniga was arrested shortly before midnight on Monday at a military checkpoint in Zapopan, just outside the colonial city of Guadalajara, said Jalisco state police director, Francisco Alejandro Solorio.
Zuniga was riding in one of two trucks, where soldiers found a large stash of weapons, including two AR-15 assault rifles, .38 specials, 9mm handguns, nine magazines, 633 cartridges and $53,300 in U.S. currency, Solorio said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008
Man Arrested After Flashing Gang Signs on Santa’s Lap:
An alleged gang member has landed himself in jail for flashing gang signs in a photo he took while sitting on Santa’s lap.
Uriel Oliva, 18, was arrested early last week after a visit with Santa at the Village Mall in Orange.
Police say that Oliva was under a court order not to associate with members of his street gang, engage in gang activity or hang out at the Village Mall when the photo was taken Dec. 16.
Posted in Idiot Criminals | No Comments »
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
JACKO IS AT DEATH’S DOOR: PAL
Michael Jackson is dying from a rare lung condition and needs a lifesaving transplant, according to his biographer.
The 50-year-old star has Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disorder that can severely damage the lungs and liver, according to writer Ian Halperin.
“A close friend of Jackson told [me] the singer is scared he won’t live longer than six months,” Halperin wrote on his Web site.
Posted in Idiot Celebrities | No Comments »
Saturday, December 20th, 2008
Mice suspected in deadly cat fire:
Mice may be responsible for a blaze that killed nearly 100 cats at an animal shelter near the Canadian city of Toronto, officials say.
The fire at the humane society shelter in Oshawa also killed three dogs and some rats that were up for adoption.
An initial report from the fire marshal says mice or rats chewing through electrical wires in the ceiling are likely to have sparked the blaze.
Offers of help have been pouring in from animal lovers across Canada.
“It’s unfortunate and ironic that mice caused the fire that killed the cats,” Toronto Humane Society spokesman Ian McConachie told the BBC News website.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Saturday, December 20th, 2008
Jihadist Group Trying to ‘Invade’ Facebook Gets Shut Down
A quickly growing jihadist group that used Facebook to spread its radical message has been shut down by the popular Web networking site after FOXNews.com alerted the company to the group’s activities. Facebook blocked the group, Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra — Arabic for “Knights in Support of the Invasion” — Thursday evening after the group swelled to about 120 members in just over one week. The group had been exhorting its members to wage “Jihad to aid the religion of Allah and his Prophet.”
Posted in War | No Comments »
Saturday, December 20th, 2008
Robert Mugabe: ‘Zimbabwe is mine — I will never surrender’
A defiant President Mugabe scorned the growing international clamour for him to step down, insisting yesterday that “Zimbabwe is mine” even as his regime struggled to contain a devastating cholera epidemic that has brought his already ravaged nation to the brink.
Mr Mugabe delivered the broadside, which included renewed attacks on Britain, before the party faithful at the annual conference of Zanu (PF).
“I will never, never sell my country. I will never, never, never, never surrender,” he said, referring to calls from the West and other African nations for him to resign. “I won’t be intimidated. Even if I am threatened with beheading, I believe this and nothing will ever move me from it: Zimbabwe belongs to us, not to the British.”
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships | No Comments »
Friday, December 19th, 2008
Is the internet going down? Undersea sub-cables have just broken…:
Breaking news: something’s happening to the internet, right now. We’re just not quite sure what. Interoute, the internet networks company, reports that three of the four internet sub-cables that run from Asia to North America have been damaged. These carry more than 75 per cent of traffic between the Middle East, Europe and America. It’s hard to gather what this actually means – is it that the internet is down or (more likely) significantly slower than usual between the Middle East and America? (If you’re reading this, let’s face it, the internet has not shut down altogether) But, according to the company, there is a domino effect taking place.
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Spokesman.com | Racist e-mails target Obama
Alaska officials are investigating racist jokes about President-elect Barack Obama that have been circulating on state government e-mail accounts.
One of the five e-mails obtained by the Associated Press asks what was the outcome of the Democrat’s victory after all the time and money spent, and concludes: “Another black family living in government housing!”
State officials were unaware of the e-mails until asked about them by the AP.
Three of the racist messages were confirmed by the state’s information technology division after an electronic search of the government’s e-mail system, Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer said Wednesday.
It’s embarrassing to the state,” she said.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Police: Suspicious wife who demands to smell husband’s genitals beaten
Police are seeking an arrest warrant for a man accused of hitting his wife after she asked to smell his penis to determine whether he was cheating with another woman, according to a police report released Wednesday.
The 37-year-old victim told investigators her husband of three years punched her face and kicked her arms and legs Monday night after she accused him of having an affair.
The victim said she told her 25-year-old husband as he used the restroom “to display his penis to her so that she can smell it,” the report states.
Posted in Yuck! | No Comments »
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
‘Acid’ bottles hurt dozens in HK:
Forty-six people were injured when two bottles of what’s thought to be acid fell onto a busy street in Hong Kong. Police suspect the bottles were dropped deliberately from a high-rise building, an official told a local newpaper. Victims cried out as the liquid damaged skin and burned holes in clothing, witnesses said. Those taken to hospital were released the same day. Police searched the building, but no arrests were made following the incident late on Saturday.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Weather rocket kills man and blows up his body at cremation
The body of Wang Diange, from the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia, was found in the wreckage of a house where he had been overseeing the wake of a previous family funeral, after mourners felt a loud explosion which took off half the roof. As it was raining and thundery, they decided that the house, and Mr Wang in particular, had been struck by lightning. The police came to the same conclusion. Further inquiries were made a few days later after Mr Wang’s own funeral. As his body was being put into the cremation chamber, it blew up spectacularly, bursting the doors off the oven. When the fire had been put out, the only clue as to what had happened was a small twisted piece of metal, which seemed to be the glowing remnants of a screw.
Posted in Oops | No Comments »
Thursday, December 18th, 2008
Tiny foot, other body parts removed from tumor in newborn’s brain:
A pediatric neurosurgeon says a tumor he removed from the brain of a Colorado Springs infant contained a tiny foot and other partially formed body parts. Dr. Paul Grabb said he operated on Sam Esquibel at Memorial Hospital for Children after an MRI showed a microscopic tumor on the newborn’s brain. Sam was 3 days old and otherwise healthy. Grabb said that while removing the growth, he discovered it contained a nearly perfect foot and the formation of another foot, a hand and a thigh. “It looked like the breach delivery of a baby, coming out of the brain,” Grabb said. “To find a perfectly formed structure (like this) is extremely unique, unusual, borderline unheard of.”
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
Little ‘Adolf Hitler’ Denied Birthday Cake at New Jersey Grocery Store
The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell, denied a birthday cake with the child’s full name on it by one New Jersey supermarket, is asking for a little tolerance.
Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the nearby ShopRite, but also with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article about the cake.
Heath Campbell, who is 35, said in an interview Tuesday that people should look forward, not back, and accept change.
“They need to accept a name. A name’s a name. The kid isn’t going to grow up and do what [Hitler] did,” he said.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Greek youths break into state TV center, take over:
Protesters forced their way into Greece’s state NET television news studio Tuesday and interrupted a news broadcast featuring the prime minister so they could urge viewers to join mass anti-government demonstrations.
For more than a minute, about 10 youths blocked a broadcast showing a speech by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. Instead, they displayed banners reading: “Stop watching, get out onto the streets,” and “Free everyone who has been arrested.” No one was hurt, and no arrests were reported.
NET chairman Christos Panagopoulos claimed the protesters violently forced their way into the studio. “This goes beyond any limit,” he said.
It was the latest twist in 11 days of riots and protests after a policeman shot and killed a 15-year-old boy on Dec. 6. The violent protests have evolved from being just aimed at Greek police to being highly critical of Karamanlis’ conservative government.
Posted in Anarchy | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Meeting the cannibals of Papua New Guinea: “Japanese people taste the best – whites are too salty!”
Brave Italian photographer Iago Corazza travelled the country, the island at the end of the world, and took photos of its fascinating inhabitants, who still live a Stone Age existence.
“You find people here who can describe the taste of human flesh,” the photographer said of his travels.
Anthropologist Olga Ammann describes it more succinctly in the book. She quotes people who have eaten other humans: “The meat of white people smells too strongly and is too salty.”
The Japanese are meant to taste the best, according to her study – the only thing that beats it is the meat of their own women.
Posted in Cannibal Update | No Comments »
Monday, December 15th, 2008
World’s first refrigerated BEACH to be built next to luxury hotel in Dubai
The world’s first refrigerated beach is to be built at a luxury hotel in Dubai so the filthy rich holidaymakers don’t burn their feet on the scalding hot sand.
The revolutionary beach will sit next to the new Palazzo Versace hotel and will include a system of heat-absorbing pipes built under the sand and giant wind blowers, designed to keep tourists cool in the searing 40-50C heat.
The hotel, which is due to open late next year or early 2010, will be controlled by thermostats linked up to computers and feature a cooled swimming pool.
Posted in Greed is Good | No Comments »
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Mother ?sold her twins to pay for liposuction? – Times Online:
A mother has been accused of selling newborn twin boys for 9,000 to pay for cosmetic surgery. Sonia Ringoir, a 31-year-old restaurant worker from the Belgian tourist haven of Ghent, was arrested and charged last week after the allegations were made by her estranged husband.
Marc Poppe, 48, told an undercover reporter for Dutch television that Ringoir had sold the babies to a friend to fund liposuction, the fat removal procedure. He said the couple had searched the internet to find a quick way of making money: ?It was financially attractive to us. Of course we wouldn?t do it for nothing.?
Since Belgium has no law banning the sale of children, Ringoir has been charged with ?degrading treatment? of the twins. She has also been charged with fraud after a Dutch couple alleged she had conned them by falsely offering to be a surrogate mother. If convicted, she could face between one month and five years in jail.
Posted in Bad Parents | No Comments »
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Greek police run out of tear gas as rioting continues for a seventh day
Thousands of Greek protesters clashed with riot police yet again in Athens today, as police started to run out of tear gas after battling rioters day and night for a whole week.
Police sources said their riot squads had fired 4,600 tear gas canisters this week as rioters torched hundreds of banks and shops and occupied their campuses, where police after forbidden by law from entering.
The police have asked Israel and Germany to send them emergency supplies, while protesters claimed that they had been using old stock from the 1980s in a desperate bid to contain the rioting. They claimed that corroded chemicals were causing some demonstrators to collapse and need medical attention.
?We found tear gas canister dated from 1981,? said one demonstrator, calling himself only GK. ?The old chemicals make us sick, people have fainted and have trouble breathing,? he said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, December 12th, 2008
Look up tonight for a spectacular treat in the sky
If the full moon tonight looks unusually large, it is not your imagination ? it is the biggest and brightest full moon to be seen for 15 years.
Each month the Moon makes a full orbit around the Earth in a slightly oval-shaped path, and tonight it will swing by the Earth at its closest distance, or perigee. It will pass by 356,613km (221,595 miles) away, which is about 28,000km closer than average.
The unusual feature of tonight is that the perigee also coincides with a full moon, which will make it appear 14 per cent bigger and some 30 per cent brighter than most full moons this year ? so long as the clouds hold off from blocking the view.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Friday, December 12th, 2008
Driver of Silver Bentley Shot, Seriously Injured in Los Angeles Freeway Gunbattle
The driver of a silver Bentley was shot early Friday in an apparent car-to-car freeway shooting in the southbound lanes of Highway 101 in downtown Los Angeles.
California Highway Patrol and police officers responding to a 3:25 a.m. shots-fired call discovered the bullet-riddled Bentley stopped on the freeway near the eastbound Interstate 10 connector.
Police Lt. Paul Vernon says the Bentley driver, who has several bullet wounds, was found slumped over the steering wheel. The lieutenant says he’s hospitalized with serious injuries.
Vernon says no witnesses have come forward to the apparent car-to-car shooting. Investigators don’t know if the shooting is gang or narcotics related or the result of road rage.
The Bentley, which is peppered with bullet holes, does not have license plates.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Prominent Trader Accused of Defrauding Clients
Bernard L. Madoff, a legend among Wall Street traders, was arrested on Thursday morning by federal agents and charged with criminal securities fraud stemming from his company?s money management business.
The arrest and criminal complaint were confirmed just before 6 p.m. Thursday by Lev L. Dassin, the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and Mark Mershon, the assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
According to the complaint, Mr. Madoff advised colleagues at the firm on Wednesday that his investment advisory business was ?all just one big lie? that was ?basically, a giant Ponzi scheme? that, by his estimate, had lost $50 billion over many years.
Related accusations were made in a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in federal court in Manhattan. That complaint accuses Mr. Madoff of defrauding advisory clients of his firm and seeks emergency relief to protect potential victims, including an asset freeze and the appointment of a receiver for the firm.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008
Meet Elizabeth Frisinger: She lost her virginity and accidentally texted her dad:
Meet Elizabeth (Lizzy) Frisinger 18, isn?t she precious? She is also mind blowingly stupid. Elizabeth, a Senior in Cleveland went on a class trip where she lost her virginity on the beach. Apparently it was ?gr8?.
We know this because young Lizzy was so excited about her conquest she texted her friend, except it wasn?t her friend, she had accidentally texted her dad. Class trip finished. Cue a slap to the forehead and wide spread humiliation on the interwebs.
Posted in Teen Antics | No Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
Would-Be Bride Swept to Sea During Proposal on Oregon Coast
A romantic marriage proposal on the Oregon coast turned deadly for the bride-to-be when a wave swept her out to sea.
Police don’t suspect foul play in the disappearances Saturday of Leafil Alforque, Tillamook County Sheriff Todd Anderson said. Thick fog and dangerous water conditions off Neskowin Beach hampered the rescue efforts, and the search was called off Monday.
Scott Napper had a ring in his pocket and planned to pop the question to Alforque, 22, at Proposal Rock, which got its name from couples ready to marry.
Napper said the tide had receded around the rock when the couple began to walk to it, but then a wave around 3 feet high suddenly came in.
“I turned into it to keep from getting pulled under it,” Napper said. By the time he turned to find Alforque, who was only 4-foot-11, she had been caught by the receding waters.
Posted in Oops | No Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
‘Hero Dog’ Pulls Injured Friend From Oncoming Traffic
Footage from a traffic camera overlooking a busy freeway in Santiago, Chile captured a dog performing a heroic act ? pulling an injured friend from oncoming traffic. The video, from Azteca America Colorado, shows an injured dog lying in the middle of a freeway after being hit by a car, while a rescue dog dodges traffic to run to its side. The rescue dog then drags the severely injured canine across lanes of traffic as cars swerve around it. No motorists stopped to help either dog, but a highway crew arrives at the end of the video.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
Field Trips Canceled After Students See Autopsy of Classmate
A medical examiner’s office in Michigan has canceled public school tours after a high school group watched the autopsy of a 14-year-old girl from their district. The Detroit News reports Monday that Oakland County officials decided to stop the tours in Pontiac after they were contacted by the girl’s parents, who were very upset about the March tour. Mike Zehnder, the county’s director of public services, says it was “a poor decision” to let the tour go on.
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
Breaking the Cuddle Barrier
Leave it to English schoolchildren, the scientific minds behind Winnie the Pooh and Paddington, to achieve the latest astronautical milestone — sending teddy bears into space.
On Monday, a helium balloon buoyed a quartet of bears 100,000 feet up, to the edge of space, where they sampled the rarefied top of the atmosphere. Sensors monitored the extreme temperatures they experienced — more than 60 degrees Fahrenheit below zero — though the bears themselves kept snug in foil spacesuits custom-made for them by the preadolescent mission control team.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Friday, December 5th, 2008
Black Students Bound, Humiliated in Classroom Slavery Lesson
A white teacher attempted to enliven a seventh grade discussion of slavery by binding the hands and feet of two black girls, prompting a complaint from one girl’s mother and the local chapter of the NAACP. After the mother complained to the school, the superintendent said he was having “conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons.” “If a student was upset, then it was a bad idea,” said Superintendent Brian Monahan of the North Rockland School District in New York City’s northern suburbs.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
