August 5th, 2010
Controversy in Saudi Arabia over Fatwa Permitting Breastfeeding of Adults:
Sheikh ‘Abd Al-Muhsin Al-’Obikan, an advisor at the Saudi Justice Ministry, recently issued a fatwa allowing the breastfeeding of adults.
The fatwa is aimed at enabling an unrelated man and woman to be secluded in the same room, a situation which Islam considers forbidden gender mixing. The rationale behind the fatwa is that breastfeeding creates a bond of kinship between the man and woman, rendering the man her mahram,[1] thus making it acceptable for them to be together in seclusion.
The fatwa created a stir in Saudi Arabia and in the Arab media at large, arousing a wave of criticism from clerics and columnists alike. Clerics claimed that breastfeeding could not create a bond of kinship between a female and an unrelated male over two years of age, and some claimed that the fatwa contradicted the shari’a.
Columnists argued that such grotesque fatwas are insulting to women, and also tarnish the Muslims’ image. One columnist pointed to a paradox, namely that the fear of gender-mixing is prompting clerics to encourage lewd behaviors like women breastfeeding grown men. Despite this criticism, Al-’Obikan has stood his ground, and even reiterated his position in greater detail.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, T.R.O.P. | No Comments »
August 4th, 2010
Winston Churchill ‘Ordered Cover-Up’ Of UFO Info To Avoid Mass Panic, Says National Archives
Winston Churchill allegedly ordered a cover up of a close encounter between an RAF aircraft and a UFO during the Second World War because it would create “mass panic”, accordingly to newly-released files.
The claim that the then Prime Minister ordered details of the unexplained incident over the East Coast to be kept secret for at least 50 years was made by a scientist who said his grandfather was one of Churchill’s bodyguards.
The tale is told in newly declassified Ministry of Defence UFO files put online by the National Archives. Allegations of the cover-up emerged when the man, from Leicester, wrote to the Government in 1999 trying to find out more about the incident.
He described how his grandfather, who served with the RAF in the war, was present when Churchill and US General Dwight Eisenhower discussed how to deal with the UFO encounter.
The man, who is not named in the files, said Churchill was reported to have exclaimed: “This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population and destroy one’s belief in the church.”
Posted in Aliens, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
August 2nd, 2010
Drunken man kills 11 in China tractor rampage
A drunken man went on a rampage while driving a shovel loader in northern China, smashing into shops and vehicles and killing 11 people, a government spokesman said Monday.
The incident began when 38-year-old Li Xianliang killed a customer Sunday at the Hongyuan coal depot in Hebei provinces Yuanshi county where he worked driving a shovel loader, said a news release issued by the county government.
Li, who had been drinking, then drove his loader down an adjacent road, smashing into cars, buses, motorcycles, trucks and roadside shops, the news release said.
The tractor eventually came to a stop in a field where police subdued the man after the hour-long rampage.The man was taken into custody and likely faces the death penalty if convicted of murder.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Fun with Alcohol | No Comments »
July 28th, 2010
Gulf Surface Oil Vanishing Quickly
The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
The immense patches of surface oil that covered thousands of square miles of the gulf after the April 20 oil rig explosion are largely gone, though sightings of tar balls and emulsified oil continue here and there.
Reporters flying over the area Sunday spotted only a few patches of sheen and an occasional streak of thicker oil, and radar images taken since then suggest that these few remaining patches are quickly breaking down in the warm surface waters of the gulf.
…
Scientists said the rapid dissipation of the surface oil was probably due to a combination of factors. The gulf has an immense natural capacity to break down oil, which leaks into it at a steady rate from thousands of natural seeps. Though none of the seeps is anywhere near the size of the Deepwater Horizon leak, they do mean that the gulf is swarming with bacteria that can eat oil.
Posted in Restless Earth | No Comments »
July 28th, 2010
Man hit by six meteorites is being ‘targeted by aliens’
A Bosnian man who claims he is being targeted by extraterrestrials after a series of meteorite strikes on his house has now been hit by a sixth space rock in the space of a few years.
Radivoje Lajic first came to international attention in 2008, shortly after the fifth meteorite had crashed into the roof of his house in the northern village of Gornji Lajici.
And now, within the past month, another rock has hit the roof of his house, in defiance of all the odds – making it six strikes since the plague of meteorites began in 2007.
Experts at Belgrade University have confirmed that all the falling rocks he has handed over were meteorites. They are now trying to work out what exactly it is about his house that particularly attracts them. The strikes always happen when it is raining heavily, he says, never when there are clear skies.
Lajic has his own explanation, of course. After the fifth rock struck his house, he said: ‘I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials. I don’t know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense. The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit six times has to be deliberate.’
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
July 8th, 2010
Raging businesman’ hung on to helicopter as it took off
A businessman enraged that a helicopter blew debris on to his car and garden tried to cling to it as it took off, a court heard.
Houshang Jafari, 59, lost his temper as the aircraft landed near his £1million flat, the jury was told.
He kicked the helicopter, tried to open the pilot’s door and hurled a carrier bag at the windscreen, it was alleged.
Then he held on to the skid bar as terrified pilot Mark Blokland tried to take off, the prosecution claim.
The heavily built businessman caused the helicopter to pitch wildly but it eventually lifted off.
Mr Jafari was allegedly angry after it blew debris at his Land Rover as it landed in gardens shared by flat owners in a converted manor house.
Yesterday, accused of putting the pilot and passengers in ” catastrophic danger”, he denied endangering aircraft safety. Private pilot Mr Blokland hired the helicopter for a lunch outing with wife Tammy and two friends who also had a £1.2million flat in Dower House at Frenchay, Bristol. James Patrick, prosecuting, said: “Mr Jafari was extremely angry, some would say livid. He had a carrier bag which he threw at the helicopter.
Posted in Crazy is as Crazy Does, Oops | No Comments »
June 30th, 2010
Maggot infestation grounds US plane.
Maggots falling from an overhead luggage bin has stopped a US plane from taking off.
Passengers were horrified to see the larvae dropping onto an unsuspecting passenger as others began to panic and cause a commotion, US media report.
US Airways blamed spoiled meat in a suitcase on board the Atlanta-to-New York flight on Monday.
The plane was taxiing down the runway at Atlanta’s international airport when passengers were told they would be returning to the airport gate because of a “minor emergency”.
“The maggots, they started to drip out of the bin in row 15,” passenger Dona Adamo told TV network Fox 5.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Yuck! | No Comments »
June 30th, 2010
North Korean team will be sent to coal mines as punishment, reports say
MORE than one disgraced national team has been heckled by angry fans on returning home – but North Korea’s misfiring stars reportedly face a much harsher punishment.
Unfortunately, crazed dictator Kim Jong-il chose the 7-0 mauling at the hands of Portugal to be the first football game ever broadcast in the impoverished communist nation.
“The Portuguese won the game and now have four points,” the Korean Central Broadcasting commentator said at the conclusion of the match. “We are ending our live broadcast now.” It then cut to factory workers and engineers praising the Dear Leader.
Seems the result may not have tallied too well with Kim Jong-il’s narrative that North Korea is a socialist paradise populated by athletic supermen.
Moon Ki-Nam, a former North Korean coach who fled the country in 2004, told reporters: “The players and coach are rewarded with huge houses when they win. But they have to atone for losing by being sent to work in the coal mines.”
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, N. Korea | No Comments »
June 27th, 2010
Trapped drunk driver opens another beer as awaits rescue
A drunk driver trapped after overturning his car cracked open another can of beer while he waited for emergency crews to rescue him, a New Zealand court was told.
Paul Nigel Sneddon, 47, pleaded guilty to careless driving and drunken driving after being nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit in a district court in the city of Palmerston North, the Dominion Post newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Police found Sneddon, a former baker, trapped in his overturned Ford Laser on June 1, drinking a can of beer after he failed to take a corner properly and crashed through a wooden barrier, flipping his vehicle.
Defense lawyer Peter Young said that when Sneddon found he could not open the doors, “he had nothing else to do at that point, so he had another beer.”
When asked by police how much he had consumed, Sneddon replied: “Plenty, I’ve been drinking for four days straight.”
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Fun with Alcohol | No Comments »
June 26th, 2010
Thousands protest summit in Canada; vandals smash windows, torch police cars.
Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful protesters at the World Summit, torching police cruisers and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers.
Police with shields and clubs earlier pushed back another small group of demonstrators who tried to head south toward the security fence surrounding the perimeter of the Group of Twenty global economic summit site. Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police.
“This isn’t our Toronto and my response is anger,” Toronto Mayor David Miller told CP24 television. “Every Torontonian should be outraged by this.”
The roving band of protesters in black balaclavas shattered shop windows for blocks, including at police headquarters, then shed some of their black clothes, revealing other garments, and continued to rampage through downtown Toronto.
Protesters torched at least two police cruisers in different parts of the city.
Police in riot gear and riding bikes formed a blockade, keeping protesters from approaching the security fence a few blocks south of the march route. Police closed a stretch of Toronto’s subway system along the protest route and the largest shopping mall downtown closed after the protest took a turn for the worse.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Anarchy | No Comments »
June 17th, 2010
Southwest Finds Shipment of Heads on a Plane
A Southwest Airlines employee called police after finding 40 to 60 human heads in a package set to be transported to a Fort Worth medical research company, the airline said.
“It wasn’t labeled or packaged properly,” said Ashley Rogers, a Southwest spokeswoman. “They called the local authorities.”
The incident happened in Little Rock, Ark., last Wednesday, she said.
Little Rock police turned the heads over to the county coroner, who questions where they came from and if they were properly obtained.
“We’ve come to the conclusion that there is a black market out there for human body parts for research or for whatever reason,” said Pulaski County coroner Garland Camper. “We just want to make sure these specimens here aren’t a part of that black market and underground trade.”
Posted in Weird Science, Yuck! | No Comments »
June 15th, 2010
Cowardly matador arrested for fleeing ring
A Mexican matador was arrested for breaching his contract after losing his nerve and running from the bullring.
The 22-year-old vaulted over the protective wall at the side of the ring as the crowd hooted and whistled in derision.
He was briefly persuaded back into the bullring by organisers but gave up before coming face to face with half-ton beast and skulked from the ring a second time.
He was arrested after the bullfight following complaints by organisers that he had breached his contract.
He was later released after paying a fine.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
June 15th, 2010
Home video filmed by a TURTLE as diver’s lost camera is taken on a 1,100-mile ocean odyssey
The 1,100-mile journey of a diver’s camera lost in the Caribbean has been revealed with the extraordinary help of a sea turtle who switched it on and filmed some of the epic adventure.
Royal Dutch Navy sergeant Dick de Bruin was exploring a wreck off the tropical island of Aruba last year when his bright red camera silently floated away.
Yet following a six-month odyssey the camera has found its way back to Mr Dr Bruin, with some unique ocean footage recorded by the turtle.
The lost camera was reunited with Mr de Bruin thanks to some impressive detective work by a Florida coastguard, who spotted it pounding against the rocks of a Key West marina on May 16.
Paul Shultz waded into the waters for a closer look and fished out the Nikon camera, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.
Its waterproof plastic case was covered with six months’ worth of crusty sea growth, but the camera itself was in an almost pristine condition.
However, clues to tracking down its owner were few.
There were photos of two men preparing to scuba dive; a family nestled together on a couch; a mysterious relic settled deep into the sea floor – and a puzzling video clip of splashing water that appeared to have been taken as the camera thrashed around under the control of something that wasn’t human.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
June 13th, 2010
Bundesbank’s Thilo Sarrazin: ‘Immigrants making Germany dumber’
Immigrants are making Germany ‘dumber’, according to a board member of the country’s central bank.
Thilo Sarrazin claimed the ‘limited education’ of immigrants – coupled with their high birth rate – meant Germans ‘are becoming dumber in a simple way’.
He said: ‘There’s a difference in the reproduction of population groups with varying intelligence.’
It is not the first time the 65-year-old member of the Bundesbank has caused controversy since he joined last year.
In October he described Muslim children as ‘underclass’ citizens.
‘I don’t have to accept someone who lives off a state they reject, doesn’t properly take care of the education of his children-and keeps producing more little girls in headscarves,’ Mr Sarrazin said.
‘That goes for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arabic population of Berlin.’
He added that they were not fit for much other than ‘fruit and vegetable selling’.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
June 10th, 2010
New Comet a Stunner — and Visible to Naked Eye:
A recently discovered comet is surprising skywatchers by becoming brighter than predictions had first suggested and can now be seen with the unaided eye during the next few weeks.
Comet McNaught, officially catalogued as C/2009 R1, was discovered by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught last September using the using the 0.5-meter Uppsala Schmidt telescope and a CCD camera.
It’s the 51st comet that bears McNaught’s name.
Although initially an extremely faint object, enough observations of the newfound comet were made to allow Brian Marsden of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., to calculate an orbit.
Comet McNaught is expected to pass closest to the sun (perihelion) on July 2, at a distance of 37 million miles (60 million km).
The comet is visible now for people with dark skies away from urban and suburban lighting. By mid-June it may be an easy skywatching target for most people.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
June 9th, 2010
Russian Stalin-era mass grave yields 495 skeletons:
Russia has uncovered at least 495 skeletons, many with head gunshot wounds, in a mass grave probably dating back to purges under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in the 1930s, municipal authorities said on Wednesday.
At least 3.5 tonnes of bones were extracted from the site on the outskirts of the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok after it was discovered by workmen building a road, the city government said in a statement.
Millions of Soviet citizens were executed or died in labour camps during Stalin’s rule from the 1920s until his death in 1953, but discoveries of mass graves became less frequent after a surge in finds that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.
Experts were checking the hypothesis that the bodies were victims of Stalin’s purges.
“Practically all of the skulls have bullet wounds,” said Yaroslav Livanksy, the head of a group of volunteers who helped to excavate the site.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Commies | No Comments »
June 7th, 2010
Flame-throwing elephants clash with humans over resources in Bangladesh | Herald Sun:
AN increasing number of humans are being killed by wild elephants each year in Bangladesh – with many of the fatalities occurring because people settle in the animals’ migration corridors.
Bangladesh is home to only an estimated 227 wild Asian elephants, but up to 100 more migrate through the country each year, mostly through the north and northeast, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
As more people in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most densely populated nations, settle in the elephant corridor areas, they are more likely to be attacked by confused, angry pachyderms.
There are now hundreds of villages along the densely-forested Indian border and residents of the area say they frequently have to drive away herds of wild elephants that come to raid their paddy fields and fruit trees.
During harvesting season, the villagers form night patrols and use kerosene torches, firecrackers and drums to drive the elephants away, but these efforts are becoming increasingly futile.
Tribal leader Luise Neng Minja said the elephants, which shelter in the forest during the day and come down to villages at night, used to flee but now they are no longer so scared.
“I’ve seen an elephant snatch a torch from a man with its trunk while we were driving away a herd, and throw the flame on a house, setting it on fire,” said Luise, 51.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Fire | No Comments »
June 7th, 2010
U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe
Federal officials have arrested an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records to whistleblower site Wikileaks, Wired.com has learned.
SPC Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles east of Baghdad, where he was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. A family member says he’s being held in custody in Kuwait, and has not been formally charged.
Manning was turned in late last month by a former computer hacker with whom he spoke online. In the course of their chats, Manning took credit for leaking a headline-making video of a helicopter attack that Wikileaks posted online in April. The video showed a deadly 2007 U.S. helicopter air strike in Baghdad that claimed the lives of several innocent civilians.
…
Manning came to the attention of the FBI and Army investigators after he contacted former hacker Adrian Lamo late last month over instant messenger and e-mail. Lamo had just been the subject of a Wired.com article. Very quickly in his exchange with the ex-hacker, Manning claimed to be the Wikileaks video leaker.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Hackers and Hacking, Treason is as Treason Does, War | No Comments »
June 6th, 2010
Local High School Ends ‘Beat The Jew’ Game:
Seven seniors at a Southern California high school were facing disciplinary action for participating in a game called “Beat the Jew” in which losers were subjected to “incineration” or “enslavement,” a school administrator said Friday.
The game involved some students playing the role of Nazis who blindfolded and dropped off other students playing Jews who must find their way back to the campus, said Sherry Johnstone, assistant superintendent of personnel for Desert Sands Unified School District.
It was not immediately clear what either punishment comprised for losing players, she said.
Posted in Teen Antics | No Comments »
June 6th, 2010
Boy, 7, goes on animal killing spree in Australian zoo:
The director of an Australian zoo said on Friday he is “horrified” after a seven-year-old boy broke into the zoo, fed an assortment of animals to a crocodile and clubbed various lizards to death with a rock.
The boy’s attacks happened early Wednesday and were captured on a zoo security camera, said Rex Neindorf, director of the Alice Springs Reptile Centre in Australia’s Northern Territory.
The boy, whose identity cannot be revealed, jumped the zoo’s security fence before bludgeoning three lizards to death with a rock, including the zoo’s much-loved 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to “Terry,” an 11-foot, 440-pound saltwater crocodile, said Neindorf.
The boy also threw several live animals into the crocodile’s enclosure, and at one point tried to clamber over the fence surrounding the enclosure in an effort to get closer to the crocodile.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Hard Core!, Yuck! | No Comments »
June 5th, 2010
Big Fireball on Jupiter Spotted by Amateur Astronomers:
A huge fireball has been spotted on Jupiter in yet another collision from space caught on camera and video by amateur astronomers.
The new Jupiter crash occurred on June 3 at 20:31 UT (4:31 p.m. Eastern Time) and was spotted by skywatcher Anthony Wesley in Australia and fellow amateur astronomer Christopher Go in the Philippines.
Wesley’s photos show the Jupiter fireball blazing in the atmosphere of the gas giant planet. So far, no visible scar in the clouds has been reported from the event.
Wesley described the event as a “large fireball” on his website, where he posted the photos taken from Broken Hill, Australia.
This new impact on Jupiter comes less than a year after a spectacular crash on July 19, 2009, when what scientist now think was an asteroid about 1,600 feet (500 meters) wide slammed into the planet.
That collision created a massive bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean. It was Wesley, too, who first spotted the July 2009 collision. His observations kicked off an international observation campaign to study the impact site.
Astronomers initially suspected a comet in last year’s impact, but announced this week that a rogue asteroid was the most likely culprit.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
June 5th, 2010
Israeli Forces Board Gaza-Bound Aid Vessel:
Israeli forces seized a Gaza-bound aid vessel without meeting resistance on Saturday, preventing it from breaking an Israeli maritime blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory days after a similar effort turned bloody.
The military said its forces boarded the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie cargo ship from the sea, not helicopters. The takeover stood in marked contrast to a violent confrontation at sea earlier this week when Israeli commandos blocked a Turkish aid vessel trying to break the blockade.
At the time, Israeli commandos rappelled from helicopters and a clash with passengers left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead.
Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich says Saturday’s takeover took only a few minutes and that the vessel was being taken to Israel’s Ashdod port.
Posted in Idiot Activists, T.R.O.P., War | No Comments »
June 4th, 2010
‘Drunk’ parrots litter Australian town:
Hundreds of seemingly drunk parrots are falling out of trees and the sky in a northern Australian town, mystifying veterinary surgeons who are struggling to care for them.
The brightly coloured lorikeets are showing classic signs of drunkenness by losing all coordination and passing out, and then cowering in cages as they recover from their “hangovers”.
“They definitely seem like they’re drunk,” said Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, near Darwin.
“They fall out of trees… and they’re not so coordinated as they would normally be.
They go to jump and they miss the next perch.”
Hansen said nobody was sure what was causing the symptoms, although it may be a plant they are eating.
Other theories include an outbreak of a mystery virus.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
May 27th, 2010
Man Infects Himself with Computer Virus
University of Reading researcher Mark Gasson has become the first human known to be infected by a computer virus.
The virus, infecting a chip implanted in Gasson’s hand, passed into a laboratory computer.
From there, the infection could have spread into other computer chips found in building access cards.
All this was intentional, in an experiment to see how simple radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips like those used for tracking animals can host and spread technological diseases.
The research shows that as implantable bionic devices such as pacemakers get more sophisticated in the years ahead, their security and the safety of the patients whose lives depend on them will become increasingly important, said Gasson.
”We should start to think of these devices as miniature computers,” Gasson said.
And just like everyday computers, they can get sick.
Down with disease Gasson had a relatively simple chip implanted in the top of his left hand near his thumb last year.
It emits a signal that is read by external sensors, allowing him access to the Reading laboratory and for his cell phone to operate.
He and his colleagues created a malicious code for the chip. When the lab’s sensors read the code, the code inserted itself into the building computer database that governs who has access to the premises.
“The virus replicates itself through the database and potentially could copy itself onto the access cards that people use,” Gasson said.
Posted in End of the World Update, Mad Scientists | No Comments »
May 20th, 2010
‘Artificial life’ breakthrough announced by scientists:
Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first synthetic living cell.
The researchers constructed a bacterium’s “genetic software” and transplanted it into a host cell.
The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species “dictated” by the synthetic DNA.
The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms.
The researchers hope eventually to design bacterial cells that will produce medicines and fuels and even absorb greenhouse gases.
The team was led by Dr Craig Venter of the J Craig Venter Institute (JCVI) in Maryland and California.
He and his colleagues had previously made a synthetic bacterial genome, and transplanted the genome of one bacterium into another.
Now, the scientists have put both methods together, to create what they call a “synthetic cell”, although only its genome is truly synthetic.
Posted in Mad Scientists | No Comments »
May 19th, 2010
Austin police arrest teenagers for homemade bombs
Austin police arrested five high school students on accusations of making homemade bombs out of household cleaners and setting them off at the home of teachers.
Police say four of the five students attended Brentwood Christian School on North Lamar. They are Jacob Cardenas, Henry Rhea, Brady Johnson, and Brian Lam.
The school’s president described them as good students with no past behavior problems.
The fifth student arrested, Luke Mallett, attends Hyde Park Baptist School. According to arrest affidavits, it was Mallett’s idea to build the bombs and set them off at the homes of Brentwood Christian School teachers.
“All of them emphatically say they were playing around, and it was a joke. They meant no harm to anybody; they didn’t mean to harm anybody’s property. They are actually friends with these teachers, and it was just meant as a practical joke,” said Corporal Scott Perry, Austin Police Department.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent | No Comments »
May 19th, 2010
Germany’s ‘desperate’ short ban triggers capital flight to Switzerland
A year ago, Germany’s financial regulator BaFin warned that the toxic debts of the country’s banks would blow up “like a grenade” once hidden losses from the credit crisis caught up with them.
An internal memo at the time showed that BaFin feared write-offs might top €800bn (£688bn), twice the reserves of Germany’s financial institutions. Nobody paid much attention.
But the regulator’s shock move on Tuesday night to stop short trading on banks, insurers, eurozone bonds – as well as a ban credit default swaps (CDS) on sovereign debt – has left markets wondering whether the slow fuse on Germany’s banking system has finally detonated.
BaFin spoke of “extraordinary volatility” and said CDS moves were jeopardising “the stability of the financial system as a whole”.
It is unsettling that the BaFin should opt for such drastic measures a week after EU leaders thought they had overawed markets with a €750bn rescue package and direct purchases of Greek, Portuguese and Spanish debt by the European Central Bank.
BaFin’s heavy-handed move seems to proclaim that the rescue has failed. “The market is left asking what skeletons are lurking in the cupboard,” said Marc Ostwald from Monument Securities.
The short ban follows a report by RBC Capital Markets that circulated widely in the City accusing German banks of failing to come clean on 75pc of their €45bn exposure to Greek debt.
Posted in End of the World Update, Greed is Good, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
May 15th, 2010
Obscene e-mail: Coconut Grove Elementary principal sent parent profane message
Parents at Coconut Grove Elementary School are calling for the ouster of Principal Eva N. Ravelo this week after she told a parent in an e-mail to “eat sh– and die.”
The controversy, which is now under review by the Miami-Dade County school district’s central office, started Monday.
Abigail DuBearn, a member of the school’s Educational Excellence School Advisory Committee, or EESAC, had asked Ravelo and other council members whether student representatives of the committee “could be notified today and be invited to attend and participate” at Monday’s meeting.
Ravelo, 44, then replied to DuBearn’s e-mail with the message: “Advise her to eat sh– and die.” Ravelo spelled the swear word as it appears here — without the last two letters.
Maria Orjeda, the school’s reading coach, who spoke on behalf of Ravelo, said the principal meant to send the e-mail about DuBearn to her assistant principal, Ramón Dawkins, instead of DuBearn.
DuBearn could not be reached for comment Thursday.
“Ms. Ravelo takes full responsibility for the mistake. She apologized to Mrs. DuBearn on Tuesday,” Orjeda said.
The principal, who is still running the school, has been instructed not to speak with the media, Orjeda said.
Ravelo could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
May 12th, 2010
Mexican mayor allegedly beats wife on mother’s day
The mayor of a southern Mexico town allegedly beat his wife during a mother’s day celebration, sparking national criticism and prompting federal authorities to urge the woman to file a complaint.
Local media reported Wednesday that Enrique Hernandez, mayor of Petantepec in southern Chiapas state, punched and kicked his wife and pulled her hair during a mother’s day concert Monday.
The national newspaper Reforma quoted another mayor at the event as saying Hernandez yelled at his wife, Estela Velasco, and then began hitting her at the public concert in the town of Pueblo Nuevo.
“I tried to help her but the mayor threatened me,” Pueblo Nuevo Mayor Juan Alberto Morales told Reforma.
“He beat her hideously. The lady didn’t want to get any medical attention.”
An official with the Chiapas state government’s Institute for Women said Hernandez’s wife confirmed the attack.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t allowed to discuss the case, said federal and state authorities urged Velasco to file a complaint against her husband but she had refused out of fear.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Idiot Authorities, Politico Follies | No Comments »
May 12th, 2010
Jupiter loses one of its stripes and scientists have no idea why
Jupiter has lost one of its iconic red stripes and scientists are baffled as to why.
The largest planet in our solar system is usually dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere, with one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere.
However, the most recent images taken by amateur astronomers have revealed the lower stripe known as the Southern Equatorial Belt has disappeared leaving the southern half of the planet looking unusually bare.
The band was present in at the end of last year before Jupiter ducked behind the Sun on its orbit.
However, when it emerged three months later the belt had disappeared.
Journalist and amateur astronomer Bob King, also known as Astro_Bob, was one of the first to note the strange phenomenon.
He said: Jupiter with only one belt is almost like seeing Saturn when its rings are edge-on and invisible for a time – it just doesnt look right.
It is not the first time this unusual phenomenon has been noticed.
Jupiter loses or regains one of its belts every ten of 15 years, although exactly why this happens is a mystery.
Posted in Most Mysterious, Space | No Comments »
May 8th, 2010
Canadian beavers build world’s largest dam
In a remote corner of northern Alberta, Canadian beavers have built the world’s largest dam, proving once and for all they are worthy of their status as a national symbol.
The roughly 850-metre dam — located at the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park, about 200 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray — is believed to be the work of several generations of beavers.
The massive structure captured international attention this week, more than two years after it was first discovered by an Ottawa ecologist surveying the area through satellite imagery.
The dam is so big, it can be seen from space.
“I think it’s great that our Canadian icon is bringing attention to our national parks,” park spokesperson Mike Keizer told CTV.ca, a reference to the beaver’s role as a national emblem.
But the dam won’t become a tourist attraction, despite the buzz. The wood-and-mud formation stands in an isolated spot, a multiple-day paddle and hike through un-trailed areas – so far that even rangers only view it from the air, Keizer said.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
May 5th, 2010
Prosecutors say N.J. carpenter’s union official rang up ‘epic’ go-go bar tabs
In the words of prosecutors, the bar tabs of Shawn Clark were “epic.”
Amid thumping music and twirling dancers, the former labor union official dropped $65,000 in seven years at go-go bars across New Jersey.
On average, prosecutors say, he hit clubs once or twice a week, buying pints of beer, bottles of chardonnay and shots of liquor chased by fizzy energy drinks at places like Johnny A’s Hitching Post in Paterson, Double D’s in Morristown and Pure Go Go in Manville. Some days he spent more than $1,000.
And every round, prosecutors say, was illegally charged to an American Express account belonging to the union where Clark was business manager.
“We are talking about hundreds and hundreds of liquid lunches, some lasting three to four hours … all on the union credit card,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan W. Romankow said during opening arguments today at Clark’s federal trial in Trenton.
Posted in Fun with Alcohol, Greed is Good, Sex | No Comments »
May 3rd, 2010
Shatner’s singing a happy tune
If anyone has noticed the soaring share price of Priceline.com, it’s an easy bet that Canadian actor William Shatner had something to do with it.
Unofficial word on Wall Street is that Shatner, who was initially paid in Priceline shares when he became pitchman for the Internet travel website startup in 1997, is now worth a cool $600 million.
No wonder he looked so happy singing a duet of Total Eclipse of the Heart on Lopez Tonight the other week.
Priceline’s shares, which at one point plummeted to $1.80 during the dot-com crisis in 2000, are now trading close to $300 apiece.
And although the company won’t disclose how many shares (or salary) Shatner receives, it’s presumed to be plenty.
After all, it’s Shatner’s personality driven ads for the website that has made it so popular.
As he approaches his eighth decade on the planet, Shatner has gone through more ups and downs than a freight elevator.
After starring in the iconic role of Captain Kirk on Star Trek in the late ’60s, he later could find no work and lived in a truck he’d park on the street in the San Fernando Valley area of L.A.
Posted in Greed is Good | No Comments »
May 1st, 2010
Doctors sterilise Uzbek women by stealth
WHEN her baby died soon after delivery, Gulbahor Zavidova, 28, a poor farmer’s wife, longed to be pregnant again.
After months of trying she and her husband visited a doctor who told her she could never have another child because she had been sterilised.
The procedure had been performed immediately after she gave birth, by doctors who did not ask her consent.
On learning she could not bear children, her husband left her. “Not a day passes without me crying,” she said. “I was outraged when I found out what they had done. How could they do such a horrible thing without asking me?”
According to human rights groups, tens of thousands of young women like Zavidova have been sterilised without their consent in the authoritarian former Soviet state of Uzbekistan.
Uzbek sources say the measure was ordered by Islam Karimov, the president, who has ruled with an iron fist for 20 years. The policy is aimed at keeping down the country’s poor population — with 28m people, it is Central Asia’s most densely populated state.
…
Critics claim every doctor was told to persuade “at least two women” a month to have the procedure.
Doctors who failed faced reprisals and fines.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent | No Comments »
May 1st, 2010
Astonished police in Hungary stop group of Afghan refugees who claim they have spent three years WALKING to Britain
Astonished police in Hungary stop group of Afghan refugees who claim they have spent three years WALKING to Britain
It was January 2007 and the four teenagers decided they would walk to London – home, they thought, of the best music in the world.
Unfortunately, they lived in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, and faced an almost 4,000-mile trek to get to Britain.
Three years and three months later, the foot-sore refugees have been arrested in Hungary. Some 1,200 miles short of their destination, they may now be deported back to their homeland.
Posted in Crazy is as Crazy Does | No Comments »
April 30th, 2010
OBAMA CHEATING SCANDAL:
PRESIDENT OBAMA has been caught in a shocking cheating scandal after being caught in a Washington, DC Hotel with a former campaign aide, sources say.
And now, a hush-hush security video that shows everything could topple both Obama’s presidency and marriage to Michelle!
A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions.
While Baker has insisted in the past that “nothing happened” between them, the ENQUIRER has learned that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.
Among those being offered money is a limo driver who says that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous where the President was staying.
On the condition of anonymity, the limo driver said he took Baker “from a friend’s home in the DC area to the Hotel George where I learned later that Obama would be spending the night.”
The driver recalled that he “waited in the lobby while she went to change her outfit.
“But to the best of knowledge she did not have a room at the hotel and she was not staying there so I thought that it was a bit odd.”
Posted in Politico Follies, Sex, Sinners in the hands of an angry God | No Comments »
April 29th, 2010
Tiger Woods had 120 affairs, including one with young neighbor
Tiger Woods confessed to cheating with as many as 120 women behind his wife’s back during their five-year marriage, the National Enquirer reported Thursday.
But a one-night stand with the 21-year-old daughter of a neighbor in Florida was the final straw for Elin Nordegren, the U.S. magazine quoted sources as saying.
The Enquirer claimed the distraught mother-of-two decided to sign divorce papers after learning it was investigating Woods’ alleged fling with Raychel Coudriet, whom he had reportedly known since she was just 14.
The scandal-plagued golfer was said to have listed all the women he bedded as part of his treatment for sex addiction at the Gentle Path rehab center in Mississippi earlier this year.
But a source told the magazine that Woods left his young neighbor off the list.
After learning of the claim, a furious Nordegren, 30, allegedly called Woods while he was having dinner with friends following his golf comeback at the U.S. masters.
“She was screaming so loudly that everyone at the table could hear what she was saying,” a source told the magazine.
Posted in Sexual Deviants | No Comments »
April 29th, 2010
Hippos destroy 40 nursery beds at Moriba rice field:
Marauding hippopotamus on Thursday April 22 destroyed over forty nursery beds at Moriba rice field in Janjangbureh, CRR.
The nurseries which were due for transplanting were seriously damaged thus causing another setback for farmers in the Central River Region, the farming community of which has double season annually.
A delegation comprising of agricultural officers from Sapu Agricultural Office, together with the National Assembly member for the area Hon.Foday Jibani Manka, Alh Omar Mambureh and the press visited the scene.
Speaking shortly after the visit, the National Assembly member for the area Hon. Foday Jibani Manka explained that the rice farm was established in 2002 in response to the clarion call made by President Jammeh ‘back to the land’.
He said that such damages caused by the hippos have never happened though the hippos do cause damage but not to this extent. He appealed to the Department of Wildlife and Conservation to intervene in order to minimize the damages.
The principal agricultural officer, Mustapha Drammeh opined that the hippos have caused extensive damages on the seedlings which were due for transplanting. He noted that the season has thus been delayed as a result of this. He also pointed out that hippos are always destroying rice fields, which is a big setback for farmers in the area.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent | No Comments »
April 28th, 2010
Concertgoers show the Reich stuff, are beaten by crowd
How did they Nazi this coming?
Three men who showed up in full Nazi regalia to a hardcore punk show at an Old City bar Friday night were attacked by as many as 50 people on the streets after leaving the venue, according to witnesses and club management.
The headlining band at the Khyber that night was Murphy’s Law, led by front man Jimmy G, who formerly went by the moniker Jimmy Gestapo.
In an e-mail to the Daily News, Jimmy G confirmed that some guys had showed up to the concert in “full Nazi field dress.”
“And they did get their asses kicked,” he wrote. “Again.”
Khyber owner Stephen Simons, who was not at the show, said he had been told that the crowd inside “largely ignored and mocked” the three men.
But after they exited the club, on 2nd Street near Chestnut, they were attacked by a group of up to 50 people, he said.
“I guess being on 2nd Street in SS uniforms on a Friday night is a way to incite a semi-riot,” Simons said.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Nazis | No Comments »
April 27th, 2010
Wikipedia Distributing Child Porn, Co-Founder Tells FBI:
The parent company of Wikipedia is knowingly distributing child pornography, the co-founder of the online encyclopedia says, and he’s imploring the FBI to investigate.
Larry Sanger, who left Wikipedia in 2002, said Wikimedia Commons, the parent company of Wiki products including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikinews and Wikiquote, is rife with renderings of children performing sexual acts.
Sanger sent a letter to the FBI earlier this month outlining his concerns and identifying two specific Wikimedia Commons categories he believes violate federal obscenity law.
The first category, entitled “Pedophilia,” contains 25-30 explicit and detailed drawings of children performing sexual acts. The category was created three years ago. The second, “Lilicon,” provides cartoons similar in detail and depiction.
One of the more egregious cartoons shows a rendering of a young child about to perform oral sex on a much older man. related links
“I wasn’t shocked that it was online, but I was shocked that it was on a Wikimedia Foundation site that purports to be a reference site,” said Sanger, who is now involved in educational projects like Citizendium.org and WatchKnow.org, non-profit directories of videos for students grades pre-K to 12.
Posted in Sexual Deviants, Technological Travesties | No Comments »
April 27th, 2010
Island which spent £600,000 getting rid of rats over-run with rabbits:
The last rat was seen on the tiny island of Canna four years ago after specialist pest controllers were brought in from more than 11,000 miles away to deal with the problem.
But now islanders are complaining that the rodent’s disappearance has led to thousands of rabbits invading the island because there are no rats to keep their numbers down.
The problem is so bad that locals say historic monuments are being “devastated” by the rabbits and they are devouring the self-sufficient islanders’ gardens away.
Even the island’s only restaurant has responded to the bounty and put on dishes of rabbit and cranberry with pistachio and rabbit pie in a rosemary and thyme cream sauce.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
April 24th, 2010
Mount Everest ‘death zone’ set for a spring clean up – Yahoo! News:
Twenty Nepali climbers are setting off to Mount Everest this week to try and remove decades-old garbage from the mountain in the world’s highest ever clean-up campaign, organizers said on Monday.
Many foreign and Nepali climbers have cleaned Mount Everest in the past but Namgyal Sherpa, leader of the Extreme Everest Expedition 2010, said no one had dared to clean above 8,000 meters (26,246 feet), an area known as the “death zone” for the lack of oxygen and treacherous terrain.
Sherpa and his team of seasoned climbers, carrying empty rucksacks and special bags, will risk the zone’s thin air and freezing temperatures to pick empty oxygen bottles, gas canisters, torn tents, ropes, and utensils lying between the South Col and the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) summit.
…
More than 4,000 climbers have since scaled the mountain and tourism, including climbing, is a key source of income for Nepal, among the world’s poorest countries. Sherpa’s team hopes to bring down at least 2,000 kg of garbage and the corpse of a climber killed two years ago. “I have seen three corpses lying there for years,” Sherpa said.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
April 21st, 2010
HP Designjet 3D Printer Now On Sale, Churns Out Solid Plastic Objects From the Desktop
Remember back in January when HP announced it would bring a tabletop 3-D printer to market, at a place and time to be named later? That place and time just became a quite a bit less ambiguous.
Today Stratasys, the company that is manufacturing the device for HP, announced that it has shipped the first units of the HP-branded Designjet 3D fabrication machines, which will be available in May — but only in Europe. The Designjet 3D is based on Stratasys’s Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology, which turns three-dimensional CAD drawings into tangible prototypes by extruding partially molten ABS plastic in extremely fine layers one atop the other, forming the entire 3-D model in a single piece from the ground up.
Designjet 3D will print in ivory-colored plastic only while Designjet Color 3D will print single-color parts in up to eight different colors (we’re not sure why you can’t just put a different hue of ABS plastic in the Designjet 3D).
Aimed at businesses large and small as well as educational institutions and individual inventors, the idea is to offer a point of entry into 3-D printing for those who want to prototype in-house directly from their computers. That kind of convenience can save a lot of time and money on product development, but it also comes with a sizeable up-front cost.
In our earlier coverage to speculated that the price of HP’s printer would come in under $15,000 — the price of a similar printer recently released by Stratasys. But HP today announced that the Designjet 3D would retail starting at less than €13,000, or just under $17,500. Which means the price of entry into the 3-D club may still sit somewhere between unfeasible and pie-in-the-sky for many garage-shop hobbyists.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent | No Comments »
April 19th, 2010
Iceland volcano eruption: Navy armada ready to pick up stranded Britons
Three of the Royal Navy’s most illustrious ships are to spearhead a dramatic operation to rescue 150,000 Britons stranded abroad by the volcanic ash crisis.
After a meeting of emergency planning committee Cobra in Whitehall this morning, Gordon Brown revealed the aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Ocean will be made available for the massive relief effort.
A third Royal Navy vessel, HMS Albion, is already on its way to Spain to pick up troops and ‘may be able to be of help’, the Prime Minister said.
Mr Brown also announced that Spain’s Madrid airport, which remains clear of the ash cloud, is likely to be used as a hub for stranded Britons returning from Asia, Africa and the U.S. Travellers could then be ferried by bus and train to Spanish and Channel ports, to be picked up by the Navy ships.
Posted in Restless Earth | No Comments »
April 18th, 2010
President George Washington racks up $300,000 late fee for two Manhattan library books:
He may have never told a lie, but George Washington apparently had no problem stiffing a Manhattan library on two books.
Two centuries ago, the nation’s first President borrowed two tomes from the New York Society Library on E. 79th St. and never returned them, racking up an inflation-adjusted $300,000 late fee.
But Washington can rest easy. “We’re not actively pursuing the overdue fines,” quipped head librarian Mark Bartlett.
“But we would be very happy if we were able to get the books back.” Washington’s dastardly deed went unknown for almost 150 years.
Then in 1934, a dusty, beaten-up ledger was discovered in a trash heap in the library’s basement.
Posted in Oops | No Comments »
April 18th, 2010
Felon accused of running animal-sex farm in Whatcom County
A Whatcom County man’s friendship and aggressive support for a man convicted in the infamous Enumclaw horse-sex case led to his arrest this week for allegedly operating a bestiality farm just south of the Canadian border, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Douglas Spink, 39, a one-time dot.com millionaire, convicted drug smuggler and horse trainer, was quietly living on rural property south of Sumas when he connected with James Tait, who was in a Tennessee jail on a bestiality charge.
Tait had earlier been convicted of trespassing in 2005 in the Enumclaw case, in which a Gig Harbor man died after having sex with a horse.
The two men’s communications set in motion an investigation that resulted in Spink’s arrest Wednesday at the Sumas farm for suspicion of violating his federal probation for drug smuggling.
Federal prosecutors and Whatcom County sheriff’s officials say Spink also allowed people to come to the farm and have sex with animals.
He was “promoting tourism of this nature for bestiality,” Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo said Friday.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Sexual Deviants | No Comments »
April 18th, 2010
White supremacist rally ends with five arrests and two assaults, police say
A white supremacist rally on the lawn of Los Angeles City Hall ended with a handful of arrests Saturday afternoon as counter-protesters showered police and white supremacists with rocks, bottles and other debris.
[Update, 4:50 p.m.: All five people arrested were counter-protesters, police say.] A rally by 40 members of a group calling itself the National Socialist Movement drew hundreds of counter-protesters from throughout the region.
In the hours leading up to the rally, where members called for the removal of all nonwhites from America’s southwest, counter-protesters scuffled with people perceived to be sympathizing with the white supremacists’ message.
One man, who sported Nazi tattoos, was severely beaten near City Hall while another man, who carried a confusing sign about religion with a scribbled swastika, was pummeled by a mob of people on Spring Street between 1st and 2nd.
The Los Angeles Police Department went on tactical alert during the event and took responsibility for escorting the white supremacists to and from the demonstration site.
Earlier in the week the group had obtained a permit for the demonstration.
Posted in Anarchy, Nazis | No Comments »
April 17th, 2010
Extramarital Sex Leads to Earthquakes
An Iranian cleric has proclaimed that inappropriately dress women leading to extramarital affairs are the resons behind the devastating earthquakes that frequently rattle the country.
Speaking to worshipped at the Friday prayers here on Apr 16, senior cleric Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi said, “Many women who dress inappropriately … cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes.”
“Calamities are the result of people’s deeds…We have no way but conform to Islam to ward off dangers,” the religious leader is quoted as saying in newspaper reports.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Restless Earth, T.R.O.P. | No Comments »
April 16th, 2010
7,500 Online Shoppers Unknowingly Sold Their Souls:
A computer game retailer revealed that it legally owns the souls of thousands of online shoppers, thanks to a clause in the terms and conditions agreed to by online shoppers.
The retailer, British firm GameStation, added the “immortal soul clause” to the contract signed before making any online purchases earlier this month. It states that customers grant the company the right to claim their soul.
“By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.”
GameStation’s form also points out that “we reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act. If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant Us such a license, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction.”
Posted in Greed is Good, Oops, Sinners in the hands of an angry God | No Comments »
April 15th, 2010
Kids Found Outside In Diapers, Mom Arrested NBC New York
An East Hampton, Connecticut, woman is facing several charges after her 2- and 3-year-old sons were playing in the woods for hours wearing nothing but diapers on Friday morning, police said.
Julie Root, 27, was arrested shortly after coming home from work.
A neighbor called East Hampton police when she had heard the children playing alone by the road in the rain for at least an hour.
When two officers arrived, they found the two small boys walking in the woods on the south side of Flatbrook Road near a stream. The boys were wearing no clothing other than their diapers and they were freezing cold, police said.
An ambulance was called and the boys were taken to Marlborough Clinic for a medical evaluation.
While all of this was taking place, Root walked up to the scene and said she had returned from working third shift at 7:30 a.m. and had possibly dozed off, allowing the boys to slip out of the house.
Root, who is wearing the t-shirt that reads “I Love Weed” in her mug shot, was heavily under the influence of prescription pain medication, police said.
Posted in Bad Parents, Concentrated Criminality, Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
April 15th, 2010
Britain Closes Airspace as Volcanic Ash Spreads
British civil aviation authorities ordered the closure of the country’s airspace as of noon on Thursday to shield aircraft from a high altitude cloud of ash drifting south and east from an erupting volcano in Iceland.
The plume of ash shut down airports and forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in a wide arc from Ireland to Scandinavia.
The closures left airplanes on the tarmac as the rolling cloud — made up of minute particles of silicate that can damage airplane engines — headed from Britain and Scandinavia toward northern France. News reports said Denmark also had restricted air travel.
“From midday today until at least 6 p.m., there will be no flights permitted in U.K. controlled airspace other than emergency situations,” Britain’s National Air Traffic Service said in a statementon its Web site. “This has been applied in accordance with international civil aviation policy.”
The move effectively grounded all flights in Britain from 11:00 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (7:00 a.m. Eastern) and affected an estimated 6,000 flights that use British airspace every day, aviation experts said.
Oddly, for travelers, the closure was announced under clear blue skies. Experts had said earlier that the ash may not be visible from the ground but can clog airplane engines.
Posted in Restless Earth | No Comments »
April 14th, 2010
Canceled: Hearing That Would Have Grilled CEOs on Health Care
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has canceled a hearing intended to grill CEOs who took a charge against profits because of the health care reform bill. The cancellation came after they realized what everyone already knew – that the companies were required to do what they did because of accounting rules.
Waxman and others had reacted with outrage and accused the companies of doing it – in essence, to make health care reform look bad.
AT&T took a $1 billion charge and other companies including Caterpillar, John Deere, and Valero Energy, and 3M took hundreds of millions in charges because of the health care reforms.
The new bill ended a tax break intended to make it attractive for the companies to keep their retirees on company drug benefit plans instead of ending those plans and pushing them into Medicare which would have cost the government much more money. The Democratic memo cancelling the hearing notes, “These one-time charges were required by applicable accounting rules.
Under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles as determined by the FASB, companies are required to take a noncash charge against current earnings to recognize a tax liability for the estimated future tax effects of a new law.”
It goes on to read, “This noncash charge must reflect the entire present value of the loss of future tax deductions on the subsidy, and it must be taken in the period in which the law is enacted. Moreover, if the level of the impact is deemed “material” under SEC regulations, the company must file the report promptly following the triggering event, in this case the enactment of the law.”
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Politico Follies, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
April 14th, 2010
Head of far-right Hungarian party Jobbik vows to wipe out ‘Gypsy crime’
The leader of a far-right party that won 16.7 per cent of votes in the Hungarian elections has pledged to “eradicate Gypsy crime”.
Gabor Vona, the head of Jobbik, also pledged “very distinct and very spectacular politics”.
He said that he would wear the uniform of the Magyar Garda (Hungarian Guard), Jobbik’s banned uniformed wing, at the opening of Parliament.
After a series of court cases the Garda has been declared illegal and police have arrested its members at public gatherings.
Viktor Orban, the leader of the centre-right Fidesz — and almost certain to be the country’s next Prime Minister — said in response that Hungary was a country of law and order, and that any breaches of the law would be firmly dealt with.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
April 13th, 2010
TWO escaped convicts dodge manhunt by dressing as sheep:
TWO escaped convicts have dodged a huge manhunt – by disguising themselves as SHEEP.
The pair dressed in full sheepskin fleeces, complete with heads, to lie low among farm flocks.
Robbers Maximiliano Pereyra, 25, and Ariel Diaz, 28, stole the sheep hides from a ranch after breaking out of an Argentinian maximum security prison a week ago.
And they have managed to evade the 300 cops on their trail – despite locals seeing them running through fields at night.
A farmworker at La Almeda said: “They were wearing grey clothes but had full sheepskins, including the sheeps’ heads, over their heads and backs.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
April 11th, 2010
French Leader Sarkozy Slams Obama, Warns He Might Be Insane
A new report circulating in the Kremlin today authored by France’s Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) and recently “obtained” by the FSB shockingly quotes French President Nicolas Sarkozy as stating that President Barack Obama is “a dangerous[ly] aliéné”, which translates into his, Obama, being a “mad lunatic”, or in the American vernacular, “insane”.
According to this report, Sarkozy was “appalled” at Obama’s “vision” of what the World should be under his “guidance” and “amazed” at the American Presidents unwillingness to listen to either “reason” or “logic”.
Sarkozy’s meeting where these impressions of Obama were formed took place nearly a fortnight ago at the White House in Washington D.C., and upon his leaving he “scolded” Obama and the US for not listening closely enough to what the rest of the World has to say.
Apparently, as this report details, the animosity between Sarkozy and Obama arose out of how best the West can deal with the growing threat posed by rising Islamic fundamentalism.
Posted in Crazy is as Crazy Does | No Comments »
April 10th, 2010
Orangutans kickbox and parade in bikinis for cheering tourists
Dressed in garish shorts and boxing gloves, orangutans trade punches and spin-kick each other in a boxing ring.
Horrifying footage shows cheering tourists drawn to the barbaric sport at a theme park called Safari World on the outskirts of Bangkok in Thailand.
The same company was banned from doing exactly the same thing just six years ago.
While an orangutan pretends to be knocked out of the boxing ring, others, dressed in bikinis are trained as round card girls and bell ringers.
The apes kickbox each other as a spectacle for tourists in a show lasting more than 30 minutes, before being returned to their dark cages.
It is not known how many orangutans have been captured and trained by Safari World.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Animal Weirdness, Greed is Good, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
April 10th, 2010
Another UCLA Student Sexually Assaulted
Another sexual assault of a female student has occurred on the UCLA campus, the sixth crotch-grabbing incident in the last month, authorities said on Friday.
In this latest attack, which occurred Wed. about 6 p.m. east of Westwood Village near a Ralphs grocery store, the male suspect reached out and tried to grab the female victim’s crotch, said Sgt. Tim Nyx of the UCLA Police.
These crotch-grabbing incidents date back to March 8. All the attacks occurred between 3:30 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. on Westwood Plaza between Charles E. Young Drive South and just south of Le Conte Avenue, according to campus police.
All six women told police the suspect was Hispanic, 40 to 60 years old, 5 ft 3 in to 5 ft 6 in tall, 150 to 180 pounds, with a dark complexion, brown eyes, and a pot belly.
The women also said the suspect wore “various hats,” during the assaults, including a farmer’s hat and a baseball cap.
According to police, the suspect’s pattern is to wait in the path of female victims who are distracted while using their cell phones, and then as the victim approaches to reach out with his hand and grab the victim’s crotch area.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Sexual Deviants | No Comments »
April 10th, 2010
Polish President, Wife Among Dozens Killed in Russia Plane Crash:
Polish President Lech Kaczynski and some of the country’s highest military and civilian leaders died when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia on Saturday, killing 96, officials said.
Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the Soviet-era Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police.
The Army chief of staff, Gen. Franciszek Gagor, National Bank President Slawomir Skrzypek and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer were also on board, the Polish foreign ministry said.
Russia’s Emergency Ministry said there were 96 dead, 88 part of a Polish state delegation.
…
Putin has been put in charge of a commission investigating the crash, the Kremlin said.
Posted in Most Mysterious, Oops | No Comments »
April 9th, 2010
Russia furious over adopted boy sent back from US.
Russia threatened to suspend all child adoptions by U.S. families Friday after a 7-year-old boy adopted by a woman fromTennessee was sent alone on a one-way flight back to Moscow with a note saying he was violent and had severe psychological problems.The boy, Artyom Savelyev, was put on a plane by his adopted grandmother, Nancy Hansen of Shelbyville.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the actions by the grandmother “the last straw” in a string of U.S. adoptions gone wrong, including three in which Russian children had died in the U.S.
The cases have prompted outrage in Russia, where foreign adoption failures are reported prominently. Russian main TV networks ran extensive reports on the latest incident in their main evening news shows.
The Russian education ministry immediately suspended the license of the group involved in the adoption—the World Association for Children and Parents, a Renton, Washington-based agency—for the duration of an investigation. In Tennessee, authorities were investigating the adoptive mother, Torry Hansen, 33.
Any possible freeze could affect hundreds of American families. Last year, nearly 1,600 Russian children were adopted in the United States.
“We’re obviously very troubled by it,” U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington when asked about the boy’s case. He told reporters the U.S. and Russia share a responsibility for the child’s safety and Washington will work closely with Moscow to make sure adoptions are legal and appropriately monitored.
Posted in Bad Parents | No Comments »
April 9th, 2010
If Carlsberg did strikes… workers walk out over drinking ban
Beer deliveries around Copenhagen were interrupted this week after hundreds of Carlsberg workers walked out when the brewer tightened rules on workplace drinking and removed beer coolers from work sites.
The warehouse and production workers in Denmark are protesting against the company’s new alcohol policy, which allows them to drink beer only during lunch hours in the canteen.
Previously, they could help themselves to beer throughout the day, from coolers placed around the site. The only restriction was that they could not be drunk at work.
“It was up to each and everyone to be responsible,” Jens Bekke, a company spokesman said. “
There has been free beer, water and soft drinks everywhere,” he added.
“Yesterday, beers were removed from all refrigerators. The only place you can get a beer in future is in the canteen, at lunch.”
Posted in Fun with Alcohol, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
April 8th, 2010
PD: Man arrested after discharging gun inside Walmart
A west Valley Wal-Mart customer was arrested Thursday after accidentally firing a round while playing with his pistol inside the store.
El Mirage Police Department spokesman Robert Peoples said officers were dispatched to the store near Thunderbird and Dysart roads after a call came in that shots had been fired.
While officers were en route, they discovered no one had been injured and that the store manager was standing with the suspect.
Peoples said the suspect was identified as 30-year-old David Walters, of Surprise.
During the officer’s investigation, witnesses said Walters entered the store carrying a semi automatic pistol in a holster.
According to witnesses, Walters continually “messed” with the gun while it was in the holster.
He would reportedly holster and un-holster the gun, which made the other customers and employees nervous.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
April 7th, 2010
Russian cannibal trial halted as Karina Barduchian images make juror ill
The trial of two Russian men accused of chopping up a 16-year-old girl and eating her with potatoes has been postponed after a juror fell ill looking at prosecution images.
The case was postponed after the juror had to be excused while examining photographs of student Karina Barduchian after her death.
Maxim Golovatskikh and his friend florist Yury Mozhnov, both 20, are accused of drowning Karina Barduchian, in a bath, then carving up her body and serving her meat with potatoes to a lodger.
Before the case was halted, the lodger, Ekaterina Zinovyeva, told the court in St Petersburg they had a party with their Goth friends on the night of the murder in January, 2009.
Karina, who was in love with Golovatskikh, stayed the night, she said.
Posted in Cannibal Update | No Comments »
April 7th, 2010
Asteroids record: James McAllister sets new high score
A VIDEO game addict clocked up a new high score on arcade classic “Asteroids” – smashing the previous record set 28 years ago.
Locksmith John McAllister, 41, played the simple joystick-controlled shooting game for 58 hours straight to rack up 41,338,740 points, The Sun reported.
The marathon gaming session was even broadcast live over the internet from his pal’s basement in Portland, Oregon.
“The Asteroids high score record is considered a holy grail. It’s a title that a lot of people would want, and I wanted it,” he told KGW-TV.
The previous high score of 41,336,440 was set by 15-year-old Scott Safran in 1982 – the longest-held high score of all time.
McAllister went without sleep during his game, which could not be paused, and racked up enough extra lives to dash to the toilet without getting a game over.
His score needs to be verified by official referees before he is entered into the record books.
Posted in Hard Core! | No Comments »
April 7th, 2010
Child-puncher fined, put on probation
A Columbus man who admitted to punching children in the head at local Walmart stores for excitement has been sentenced to five years of probation and fined $150.
Ralph Conone, 68, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault last week in Franklin County Municipal Court, according to court records.
His attorney earlier told a judge that Conone suffered from mental-health issues and was not a threat to the community.
At the time, Judge Mark Hummer prohibited the news media from photographing Conone so police could circulate his photo in an attempt to find other victims.
No other victims came forward. Judge Scott VanDerKarr sentenced Conone on March 30 to 180 days in jail and fined himon each count, but suspended all but the 20 days Conone spent in jail in exchange for probation.
Conone was ordered to stay away from the stores and commit no further acts of violence. Conone must continue to attend counseling.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
April 5th, 2010
UFO hunter: Aliens killing sheep
A British UFO hunter said he is convinced extraterrestrials are behind recent sheep mutilations on the country’s farms — and claims he witnessed such an event.
Phil Hoyle, 53, of Shrewsbury, England — who said he has been investigating British livestock mutilations for nine years — said he and members of his Animal Pathology Field Unit team witnessed two UFOs using some sort of light to zap sheep and releasing smaller versions of themselves closer to the animals, The Sun reported Monday.
“For a short while it looked more like a Star Wars battle,” he said of the purported incident at a Welsh farm near Radnor Forest.
“The technology involved in these attacks is frightening. These lights and spheres are clearly not ours. They are built by technology and intelligence that’s not from here,” Hoyle said.
Posted in Aliens, And then they came for... | No Comments »
April 5th, 2010
4 shot, at least 50 arrested in violence linked to NYC auto show:
Four people were shot and dozens of people were arrested Monday in a mile-long stretch of Manhattan near Times Square in mayhem that police said was connected to the start of the city’s annual auto show.
A group of youths who attended the New York International Auto Show at the Jacob A. Javits Center ran amok in midtown Manhattan.
Chief NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne said additional officers were on patrol because similar problems have happened during past auto shows.
“Young men looking for trouble afterwards,” he said. “There has been incidents over the years. It’s something we watch over and we prepare for it in advance.”
Police made 54 arrests, mostly on charges of disorderly conduct. Police weren’t sure how many of those arrested knew each other, or what sparked the shootings that began shortly after midnight.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
April 5th, 2010
Chaos Breaks Out Easter Sunday In New Rochelle
From the game room to the movie theatres – the busiest day of the year at New Roc City is always Easter Sunday.
But never before had the crowd at the entertainment complex been so big – or so out of control – as it was Sunday night.
“They kept on yelling, screaming, you got people throwing rocks,” said Derrick Smith.
200 cops in riot gear were called to disperse a rowdy crowd of teenagers – mostly from the Bronx – who swarmed New Roc City.
Police believe groups of young people who had started Easter Sunday in New York City began texting and e-mailing each other – the message, essentially – ‘let’s go to New Rochelle and takeover New Roc City.’
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
April 5th, 2010
Teens at Easter egg hunt find body in Iowa park
Police say two teenagers who wandered away from their younger siblings at an Easter egg hunt have found a body at a Des Moines park.
Police Sgt. Chris Scott says the teens came across the man’s body in a wooded area at Beaverdale Park on Saturday morning.
He says the teens had accompanied their siblings to the park’s egg hunt but wandered away.
The body was found at least 300 yards from where the egg hunt took place.
He didn’t know how old the teens were.
About 100 children participated in the annual event.
Posted in I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
April 5th, 2010
Pastor Defends Easter Egg Drop
The pastor of a church that organized a massive Easter egg drop is defending the event after some parents reported that it turned into chaos.
On Saturday, 60,000 eggs were dropped from a helicopter at the Rochester Fairgrounds while thousands of people waited below.
Some of the eggs included tickets for valuable prizes, such as flat-screen TVs and Nintendo Wiis.
Some people said the scrum on the ground when the eggs started falling was dangerous.
“I think it was like chaos,” said Sarah Gallo, of Stratham, N.H.
“I saw some people kneeing people, and it was, like, really, really dangerous, I thought.”
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
April 5th, 2010
Ritual sacrifice of children on rise in Uganda:
Caroline Aya was playing in front of her house in January when a neighbor put a cloth over her mouth and fled with her.
A couple of days later, the 8-year-old’s body was found a short walk away — with her tongue cut out.
Police believe she was offered up as a human sacrifice in a ritual killing, thought to bring wealth or health.
“If it is a sickness you try to treat it, and if they die that is one thing,” said Caroline’s father, Balluonzima Christ.
“But when you slaughter a person like a goat, that is not easy.”
The practice of human sacrifice is on the rise in Uganda, as measured by ritual killings where body parts, often facial features or genitals, are cut off for use in ceremonies.
The number of people killed in ritual murders last year rose to a new high of at least 15 children and 14 adults, up from just three cases in 2007, according to police.
The informal count is much higher — 154 suspects were arrested last year and 50 taken to court over ritual killings.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
March 30th, 2010
Man plunges to death from Empire State Building in apparent suicide during evening rush hour
Authorities say a 21-year-old man has plunged to his death in an apparent suicide jump off the Empire State Building during the evening rush hour.
Police say the man was dead when rescue workers arrived at the 102-story skyscraper shortly before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Authorities wouldn’t immediately release his name or say from which floor he had jumped.
The Empire State Building is the third-tallest building in the United States. More than 30 people have committed suicide at the building since it opened in 1931.
Before Tuesday, the most recent was believed to have been in 2006, when a man jumped from a vacant office on the 66th floor.
Posted in Suicidal Tendencies | No Comments »
March 30th, 2010
‘The Termites’ tunnel into Paris bank to steal millions in cash and jewellery in ingenious heist:
A ‘highly professional’ criminal gang is on the run after digging their way into the vault of a Paris bank and stealing millions of pounds worth of cash and jewellery.
The meticulously planned raid saw four men using pickaxes and even a flame thrower to get into the vault of a Credit Lyonnais branch in the upmarket Avenue de l’Opera, close to the Louvre Museum.
Once inside they tied up a security guard and then spent at least seven hours emptying more than 200 high security private safes, getting away with more than £20million.
So as to destroy evidence, they then started a fire which set off sprinklers which flooded the entire basement of the bank.
Police have estimated the criminals’ haul to be worth ‘at least’ £22million.
The ingenious heist – which is already being described by French media as the ‘Crime of the Century’ – is thought to have been carried out by a notorious gang dubbed ‘The Termites’.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
March 30th, 2010
Bodies of 21 Babies Found in China River
The bodies of 21 babies, believed dumped by hospitals, have washed ashore on a riverbank in eastern China, state media reported Tuesday.
Video footage showed that the bodies – stashed in yellow plastic bags, at least one of which was marked “medical waste” – included some infants several months old. Some wore identification tags with their mothers’ names, birth dates, measurements and weights. The official Xinhua News Agency said there were also fetuses among the bodies.
Residents discovered the remains under a bridge in the city of Jining, Shandong province, over the weekend. Tags on the feet of eight of the babies traced them back to a hospital in Jining, according to the People’s Daily Web site. Three of them had been admitted earlier to the hospital in critical condition, the report said. It did not say when.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Kara's Classics, Medical Monstrosities, Yuck! | No Comments »
March 29th, 2010
Nazi scandal engulfs Human Rights Watch:
At the headquarters of Human Rights Watch, more than 30 storeys above the noise and bustle of Manhattan, there is so much high-mindedness hanging in the air you can almost taste it. This is the epicentre of a certain type of socially smart, progressive activism — the kind that persuades Hollywood grandees, power lawyers and liberal financiers to dig deeply into their pockets.
When the story broke that one of the organisation’s most prominent and vocal members of staff might be a collector of Nazi-era military memorabilia it felt like some sort of sexual scandal had erupted in the Victorian church. For a lobbying group accustomed to adulatory coverage in the media, it was a public-relations catastrophe. Human Rights Watch is one of two global superpowers among the world’s myriad humanitarian pressure groups.
It is relatively young — established in its current form in 1988 — but it has grown so quickly in size, wealth and influence that it has all but eclipsed its older, London-based rival, Amnesty International. Unlike Amnesty, HRW, as it is known, gets its money from charitable foundations and wealthy individuals — such as the financier George Soros — rather than a mass membership.
And, also unlike Amnesty, it seeks to make an impact, not through extensive letter-writing campaigns, but by talking to governments and the media, urging openness and candour and backing up its advocacy with research reports. It is an association that is all about influence — an influence that depends on a carefully honed image of objectivity, expertise and high moral tone.
So it was perhaps a little awkward that a key member of staff was found to have such a treasure trove of Nazi regalia.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Activists, Nazis | No Comments »
March 29th, 2010
Erykah Badu Window Seat Video: Is Her Stripping Illegal or Just in Poor Taste?
Heads turned during the filming of singer Erykah Badu’s latest music video, “Window Seat”
The video was shot in and around Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.
In it, Dallas native Badu walks down Elm Street while stripping her clothes off one piece at a time – until she’s fully nude.
Elm Street is the place where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
Badu walks between several people on the street, and a few can be seen staring at her as she strolls and strips.
You can watch the video on her site.
It’s slightly NSFW, although parts of her body have been blurred out.
Badu is completely nude as she approaches the spot on Elm where Kennedy was shot (which is marked with an “X” on the pavement).
The sound of a gunshot can be heard and Badu collapses as if she has been shot.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
March 29th, 2010
RNC investigating money spent at L.A. bondage nightclub:
A Republican National Committee (RNC) spokesperson said the committee is looking into a large expenditure at a Los Angeles club known for simulated bondage scenes and nudity.
A Daily Caller report Monday pointed out the expenditure, which was for almost $2,000 at Voyeur West Hollywood.
An RNC spokesperson said the committee is looking into the matter, but said the expenditure was made by a non-committee staffer and added that the report erroneously hinted that RNC Chairman Michael Steele attended the club.
“The chairman was never at the location in question; he had no knowledge of the expenditure, nor does he find the use of committee funds at such a location at all acceptable,” the spokesperson said.
“Good reporting would make that distinction crystal clear. The committee has requested that the monies be returned to the committee and that the story be corrected so that it is accurate.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Stupidity, Politico Follies, Sex, Sexual Deviants | No Comments »
March 28th, 2010
Basle’s Grand Royal casino raided by armed gang
French and Swiss police have launched a cross-border manhunt for an armed gang who stormed a casino in Basle and broke open cash desks before vanishing into the night with hundreds of thousands of euros.
The raid, which prosecutors said was a professional operation orchestrated with “brutal” efficiency, was carried out at 4am this morning at the city’s Grand Casino by about 10 masked raiders armed with machine guns and pistols.
After one man burst through the front entrance with a sledgehammer, his accomplices ran inside and ordered guests to the floor while firing into the air.
“The criminals fired a number of shots, but luckily no one was hit,” the Basle public prosecutor said in a statement. Some of the gang tried to break into the safe room but failed, despite firing bullets into the door. Others went to the cash desks and managed to steal “several hundreds of thousands of [Swiss] francs”.
The gang then sped off across the border in two silver Audi cars whose numberplates were registered in the Bas-Rhin area of eastern France.
The Grand Casino, which describes itself as “the Swiss Las Vegas”, is just 200 metres from the French border. Witnesses said the gang members spoke in French. Today, as the authorities in both countries stepped up the manhunt, casino staff said they were left shaken by the heist.
“This is the first time we’ve been robbed. We are all very shocked. You can prepare for it, but when it happens it’s something else,” a manager, Michael Favrod, told Swiss television.
“Thankfully nothing happened to my colleagues or the guests,” he added. While none of the staff or guests were shot, several were kicked or manhandled. One woman, who accidentally blocked the gang’s getaway, was dragged from her car and beaten, said the authorities.
“The perpetrators knew what they were after. They proceeded quickly, professionally and brutally,” said Peter Gill, a spokesman for the Basle prosecutors.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
March 27th, 2010
Uma Thurman’s new film seen by just one person on opening day
Uma Thurman’s latest film is set to be one of the biggest box office flops ever after just one ticket was sold for the movie on its opening day.
Over its opening weekend at the beginning of March, only around a dozen people went to see Motherhood, a semi-autobiographical account of parenting in New York written and directed by Katherine Dieckmann. The film took just £88 at the British box office on its opening weekend.
On its debut Sunday, takings at the box office were just £9 – the price of a ticket for one person.
Only one British cinema was given permission to launch the film earlier this month, with the film’s producers hoping that exclusivity would generate a buzz and lead to box office success by word of mouth.
Instead, cinema goers stayed away from the Apollo West End in record numbers in a move that will be embarrassing for Thurman, the star of Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill who divides her time between London and New York.
Motherhood, which also stars Jodie Foster and Minnie Driver, is thought to have made only £40,000 when it opened in America last year, despite costing around £3.4 million to make.
Posted in I hate it when that happens, Oops | No Comments »
March 27th, 2010
Police: Drunk Pennsylvania Man Tried To ‘Revive’ Dead Opossum
State police have charged a central Pennsylvania man with public drunkenness after he was seen giving mouth-to-mouth “resuscitation” to a long-dead opossum along a highway.
Trooper Jamie Levier says several witnesses saw 55-year-old Donald Wolfe, of Brookville, near the animal along Route 36 in Oliver Township Thursday about 3 p.m.
The trooper says one person saw Wolfe kneeling before the animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a seance, while another saw the mouth-to-mouth attempt.
Posted in Fun with Alcohol, Yuck! | No Comments »
March 25th, 2010
U.K. Teen Dies in Blast After Cigarette Sparks Hair Bleach:
In freak accident, hydrogen peroxide used to lighten hair sparks when hair dresser lights a cigarette, causing her car to explode.
A British hairdresser died after her cigarette ignited a leaking bottle of hydrogen peroxide bleach which then blew up in her car as she drove along a quiet country lane, the Bournemouth Echo reported Thursday.
Jennie Mitchell’s grieving father Bob urged hairdressers to show extreme caution when carrying the hydrogen peroxide, a powerful bleach used to lighten hair when mixed with ammonia.
“The hydrogen peroxide had ventilated in the car. She opened the window, which introduced oxygen,” he said.
“Jennie was a smoker and it’s likely that she lit or had a lit a cigarette.”
“Until the accident, nobody knew this could happen. We keep saying, you couldn’t have written this in a script.”
Posted in Darwin Award, Oops | No Comments »
March 25th, 2010
Evesham school fake shooting of teacher traumatises children
Children were left crying and traumatised after a school role play in which one of their teachers was apparently shot dead in the playground.
The pupils, aged ten to 13, saw their religious education teacher run across a field and fall to the ground following a loud bang. Some were so upset that they were sick afterwards, parents said.
The stunt was part of a science lesson designed to teach children how evidence is collected in criminal investigations. They were not told it was fake until ten minutes after the event.
The ’shooting’ happened on Tuesday. More than 300 pupils were called to the hall and warned there was a gun somewhere in the school before being sent back to their classrooms.
Five minutes later, the fire alarm went and the children queued up in the playground. Only a handful knew it was fake.
Three teachers – one brandishing what looked like a gun – were seen running across the school field before shots were heard. Teacher Richard Kent fell to the ground and played dead.
The children were then ushered back to their classrooms as other teachers pretended to tend to Mr Kent. It was ten minutes before it was revealed the scene was fake.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
March 24th, 2010
Elusive Monkey Romps in Tampa Bay Area:
In the hours after a monkey on the lam fell into a woman’s pool and then swiped some fruit from her backyard tree, fans of the wily primate cheered it for avoiding capture.
“Go little monkey, go! No cages for you,” wrote a guy named Jack on the “Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay” Facebook fan page. (There were more than 16,000 fans of the elusive monkey as of Wednesday morning.)
“I sure hope ‘they’ don’t catch you!” wrote a woman named Kathleen.
“Why can’t ‘they’ just leave you alone?”
Why, indeed? The rhesus macaque monkey has avoided capture for nearly a year.
Authorities don’t know where the animal came from, but some believe it could have gotten separated from a troupe of wild monkeys in an Ocala-area state park, some 118 miles north of St. Petersburg.
Another possibility: the animal could have escaped from an unpermitted owner. The creature has captivated people in Tampa Bay and beyond — possibly because of his ability to outwit the humans trying to catch him.
“It’s something that you can kind of cheer for,” said Amy Ellis, a Pasco County employee who has become a fan of the monkey on Facebook. “Every day there’s so much bad news. He’s kind of like a little hero.”
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
March 23rd, 2010
Chicago Schools Chief, Now an Obama Aide, Had V.I.P. List for Top Choices
When Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, was chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools, his office kept a log of nearly 40 pages listing the local politicians and business people and others who sought help getting children into the city’s most selective public schools.
According to an article Tuesday in The Chicago Tribune, which first obtained and reported on the confidential log, those who sought such help included 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard M. Daley’s office, the State House speaker, the state attorney general, the former White House social secretary and a former United States senator.
A spokesman for the Department of Education said Tuesday that the log was a record of those who asked for help, and that neither Mr. Duncan nor the aide who maintained the list, David Pickens, ever pressured principals to accept a child. Rather, he said, the creation of the list was an effort to reduce pressure on principals.
“Arne Duncan asked David Pickens to respond to all of these requests, some of which came from him, some from lots of other people, as a way to try to manage a process that was putting a lot of pressure on principals,” said Peter Cunningham, who handled communications for Mr. Duncan in Chicago and is now assistant secretary of the Department of Education.
“This was an attempt to buffer principals from all the outside pressure, to get our arms around something that was burdensome to them. It was always up to the principal to make the decision. Arne never ever picked up the phone.”
Yep, I “believe” it too – do you?
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Corrupt Journos, Politico Follies | No Comments »
March 23rd, 2010
Chinese boy has 31 fingers, toes:
A Chinese boy with 31 fingers and toes is set to undergo an operation to remove the extra digits.
The six-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, has 16 toes and 15 fingers.
One of the fingers is incomplete and appears on X-ray photographs as a “fork” sticking out from the right thumb.
Three fingers on each of the boy’s hands are also fused together by skin.
The boy, from Shenyang in China’s north-eastern Liaoning province, beats the current world record held Indian boys Pranamya Menaria and Devendra Harne, who have 12 fingers and 13 toes.
Posted in Human Oddities | No Comments »
March 23rd, 2010
Man inserts zucchini into anus in suicide attempt:
A 62-year-old man was rushed to hospital after he attempted to take his own life the ancient way. The sexagenarian inserted a zucchini into his anus in the attempted suicide at his home in Hong Kong on Friday.
According to Ming Bao, the man’s daughter who returned home at about 10.40pm was shocked to see her father moaning in pain and lying in a pool of blood.
She rushed him to the hospital for bleeding in the anus.
When asked by the medical assistants, the man said he wished to die and that it was an ancient way to take one’s own life.
Posted in Suicidal Tendencies, Yuck! | No Comments »
March 22nd, 2010
Scientists Successfully Embed Silicon Chips Inside Human Cells
Scientists have already created mini-cyborgs out of living cells and semiconductor materials, but now biological cells can also contain tiny silicon chips.
Those silicon chips could become future intracellular sensors that monitor microscopic activities, deliver drugs to target cells or even repair cell structures, according to Nanowerk.
Experiments found that living human cells can ingest or receive injections of silicon chips and continue functioning as usual for the most part.
More than 90 percent of chip-containing HeLa cells — the first immortal human cell line derived from a poor, cancer-stricken woman – still survived a week after receiving their silicon loads.R
Other studies have tested nanoparticles inside living cells. But silicon chips allow for much easier integration of electronics and mechanical parts, say scientists at the Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona in Spain.
The study published in the aptly-named journal Small opens the doors for possibly putting microprocessors and other silicon-based devices inside cells. That could lead to promising developments for both micro-computing and medicine.
Posted in Mad Scientists, Weird Science | No Comments »
March 21st, 2010
WW II bombs threaten AC/DC concert:
Unexploded Second World War bombs at an Austrian airfield threaten to shut down a May concert by metal rockers AC/DC.
The concert at Wels Airport on May 22nd has already faced another obstacle — complaints by environmentalists that it would disturb colonies of rare birds in the area.
Now, city officials have informed the metal band that the bombs pose a danger to the estimated 80,000 fans who have bought tickets to the sold-out concert.
Hermann Wimmer, the mayor of Wels, told Austrian TV this week that approval for the concert will not go ahead until experts in demining and bomb defusing evaluate the site.
The airport had been the target of heavy Allied bombing during the war.
Posted in War | No Comments »
March 21st, 2010
Alien Abduction Day Arrives, But Will Little Green Men?:
Clamp on your foil hat and cower under your bed, Alien Abduction Day is here!
March 20 is Alien Abduction Day, when “the skies are carefully watched by those expecting / wishing to be abducted by an alien life form,” states eHow.com.
The strange holiday’s origins are unclear, though it was clearly popularized by the 2008 Alien Abduction Day festival in Toronto.
The festival was an all around sci-fi street party in Toronto, sponsored by a comic book shop and several local businesses.
But references online exist to the even from years earlier — and watch for Twitter to heat up Saturday with the #AlienAbductionDay tag.
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
March 20th, 2010
Indian guru tries to kill man with tantric ritual live on TV:
It could be India’s version of “Survivor,” or “The Biggest Loser.”
A famous Indian guru used his television show to boast about his power to kill other men using only a mystic ritual.
So the head on the Indian Rationalist Association offered himself up as a sacrificial lamb.
Sanal Edamaruku volunteered himself for the ritual because he wanted to expose the guru as one of many spiritual con men roaming the country.
While millions tuned in to watch the scheduled murder live on TV, the station canceled the program.
The showdown quickly appeared on YouTube. The guru, Pandit Surender Sharma, is seen chanting mantras and massaging Edamaruku’s forehead.
The willing participant is in good spirits and simply laughs it off. After the show, Edamaruku was still alive.
Hat tip to Jonathan!
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
March 19th, 2010
Two women stung about 100 times each by swarm of bees in N. Phoenix
A group of people were seriously injured when they were attacked by a swarm of bees in north Phoenix.
It happened at about 8 p.m. at a Wal-Mart store in the area of 3rd Avenue and Bell Road. The victims were rushed to the hospital after the attacks.
Two people are in critical condition and a third person who jumped in to help was also hospitalized.
3TV has learned two women were walking down the street when they were attacked by the swarm of bees. Witnesses say there were so many bees that at one point they could not see the women’s faces.
Heather Laroc, who saw the bee attack, tells 3TV, “We hear screaming from outside and there’s two ladies laying in the street and they’re covered with bees from head to toe. You could just not see their skin and screaming ‘Help, help, help’.”
That woman called the police and the fire department.
By the time first responders arrived the two older women were still blanketed with bees.
They had been stung almost 100 times each. Two men who jumped in to try to help them were also stung.
The women and one man were rushed to the hospital.
Firefighters searched for the hive and eventually found it and took it down.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
