`Until recently, LaChania Govan’s complaints about Comcast’s service seemed relatively tame. The 25-year-old Elgin mother of two said she was put on hold, disconnected, even transferred to the Spanish language line.
But after persistent problems with her digital recording system forced her to make dozens of calls to the cable company in July, her August bill came with a change really worth complaining about: In place of her name were the words “Bitch Dog.”‘
Google and MSN maps rolled into one, or something. 🙂
`Speeding from the scene of the crime, a Chinese boy tows a floating plastic bag of stolen natural gas last week. Flouting a government ban, farmers around the central Chinese town of Pucheng frequently filch gas from the local oil field.’
`Cycling manufacturer giant Specialized has announced that it is working on prototypes for revolutionary new bikes, set to be released in 2006. The new line of bikes is being dubbed the Venom Line. The bikes feature aerodynamic design and revolutionary technology that was pioneered by a special research team in Japan. Specialized unveiled the bikes at a special media conference in Tokyo on November 31st. The text below is from an official press release from Specialized.’
`It has been about one year since the release of the original Top Ten Most Ridiculous Black Metal Pics, and it is just as popular as ever. Despite the endless cascade of praise, criticism, and death threats [..] I’ve been reluctant to compile another list. But, alas, the demand is just too high. And so is the volume of totally pathetic source material.’
‘These kids decide to pee down a slide in the middle of the night at a park. After they finish the one guy thinks he can still safely walk down the slide but he is wrong.’
(3.3meg Windows media)
see it here »
`The documents and photographs confirm that Jean Charles was not carrying any bags, and was wearing a denim jacket, not a bulky winter coat, as had previously been claimed.
He was behaving normally, and did not vault the barriers, even stopping to pick up a free newspaper.
He started running when we saw a tube at the platform. Police had agreed they would shoot a suspect if he ran.
A document describes CCTV footage, which shows Mr de Menezes entered Stockwell station at a “normal walking pace” and descended slowly on an escalator.’
`Lawyers for Pope Benedict XVI have asked US President George W. Bush to declare the pontiff immune from liability in a lawsuit that accuses him of conspiring to cover up the molestation of three boys by a seminarian in Texas, court records show.
The Vatican’s embassy in Washington sent a diplomatic memo to the State Department on May 20 requesting the US government grant the pope immunity because he is a head of state, according to a May 26 motion submitted by the pope’s lawyers in US District Court for the Southern Division of Texas in Houston.
Joseph Ratzinger is named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit. Now Benedict XVI, he’s accused of conspiring with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston to cover up the abuse during the mid-1990s. The suit is seeking unspecified monetary damages.’
`U.S. Military Personnel who died in German hospitals or en route to German hospitals have very rarely been counted. They total about 6,210 as of 1 January, 2005. The ongoing, underreporting of the dead in Iraq, is not accurate. The DoD is deliberately reducing the figures. A review of many foreign news sites show that actual deaths are far higher than the newly reduced ones. Iraqi civilian casualties are never reported but International Red Cross, Red Crescent and UN figures indicate that as of 1 January 2005, the numbers are just under 100,000.’
`Even before the gates opened, the atmosphere turned surly, with people yelling at police officers who were trying to keep the crowd civil.
When the first off-duty police officers arrived at 6:10 a.m., they called for more officers to assist with security, Police Chief Henry W. Stanley said.
Ultimately, up to 45 officers were there, as were fire and rescue personnel.
The gates opened at 6:54 a.m., and the stampede — literally — was on. The first crush occurred at the main gate to RIR and the second occurred at the entrance to the building where the 4-year-old iBooks were being sold.’
Kinda interesting physics..
`The settlement’s only significant feature is a traffic sign with its name on it at which English-speaking tourists invariably stop to have their photograph taken. The sign is the most stolen street sign in Austria. A considerable portion of Fucking’s budget is spent on replacing the stolen signs.’
`Are you a kid? Does your microwave oven belong to your parents? If so, then don’t even THINK about trying any of these experiments. I’m serious. If I wreck my microwave oven, I can buy another. Also, I’m a professional electrical engineer. I know enough physics and RF effects to take correct safety precautions when I’m experimenting. But you don’t know the precautions, so you should be smart: read and enjoy my writing, but don’t duplicate my tests unless you grow up to become an electronics tech, engineer, etc., and buy your OWN microwave oven.’
`The first Professor of Physics at the University of Queensland, Professor Thomas Parnell, began an experiment in 1927 to illustrate that everyday materials can exhibit quite surprising properties. The experiment demonstrates the fluidity and high viscosity of pitch, a derivative of tar once used for waterproofing boats. At room temperature pitch feels solid – even brittle – and can easily be shattered with a blow from a hammer (see the video clip below). It’s quite amazing then, to see that pitch at room temperature is actually fluid!
In 1927 Professor Parnell heated a sample of pitch and poured it into a glass funnel with a sealed stem. Three years were allowed for the pitch to settle, and in 1930 the sealed stem was cut. From that date on the pitch has slowly dripped out of the funnel – so slowly that now, 72 years later, the eighth drop is only just about to fall.’
`Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
All’s well that ends.
To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.
After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.
Everything that goes up must come down.
Corollary: Not always’
`Former Spice Girl singer Victoria Beckham, the wife of England soccer captain David, has confessed she has never read a book.
Despite struggling for a hit record for some time, Victoria Beckham said she never had a spare moment to leaf through anything more challenging than fashion magazines. [..]
The confession is all the more startling given that it would appear to include her own autobiography, Learning to Fly, and that of her husband, My Side.
“I haven’t read a book in my life. I haven’t got enough time. I prefer to listen to music, although I do love fashion magazines,” she was quoted as saying.’
`On Thursday, August 4th, we put the magnetic acoustic device (I’m not sure it has a name yet, so this one will have to do for now) to the test on one of our ranges… Using a variety of sounds from human voice to music to sound effects (screams, shouts, gunfire, sirens, and the like), we succeeded in listening to the sounds from the transmitter located one statue mile in the distance!
[..] The developer tells us that there are other configurations they believe will allow it to take even more energy. They estimated we were using 15,000 watts, but with a different type of magnet they believe we they can easily exceed 100,000 watts without overheating.’
`When Melvyn Reed went into hospital for a heart bypass operation, his loved ones were anxious to be with him as he recovered.
But things got unexpectedly crowded around the bedside of the 58-year-old car salesman. And while his heart was on the mend, three others were soon broken.
For first, one of his wives turned up to comfort him. Then another. Then another. All within minutes of each other. [..]
Recalling the fateful day the three women all turned up at the hospital, Reed told police: “Unfortunately, the timing of the visits went out of sync and they all arrived at once.”
His first wife — his only legitimate one — is said to be standing by him.’
`The Paris city hall has pledged “never to welcome” the actor to the city of love – all because of his membership of the Church of Scientology.
Cruise and film director J.J. Abrams have also been banned from filming upcoming action flick Mission: Impossible 3 in the Vatican.
In a debate late yesterday, Paris’ Socialist-controlled municipal assembly approved a resolution “never to welcome Cruise, spokesman for Scientology and self-declared militant for this organisation”.’
Lots more of this from tomcruiseisnuts.com.
`A Zimbabwean woman was electrocuted and her lover burnt on his hands while having sex in an electricity substation in Bulawayo, the New Ziana news agency reported Friday.
The woman, “believed to be a prostitute, was electrocuted while being intimate with her boyfriend”, the news agency said, quoting a witness. [..]
A security guard was electrocuted three years ago while having sex with a prostitute inside an electricity substation at a shopping centre in Chitungwiza, 25 kilometres southeast of Harare.’
`”If these patents are granted, Monsanto can legally prevent breeders and farmers from breeding pigs whose characteristics are described in the patent claims, or force them to pay royalties,” says Then. “It’s a first step toward the same kind of corporate control of an animal line that Monsanto is aggressively pursuing with various grain and vegetable lines.” [..]
In one application (WO 2005/015989 to be precise) Monsanto is describing very general methods of crossbreeding and selection, using artificial insemination and other breeding methods which are already in use. The main “invention” is nothing more than a particular combination of these elements designed to speed up the breeding cycle for selected traits, in order to make the animals more commercially profitable.’
I find this video terrifying.
(8meg Quicktime)
`Yet the debate rages on. What exactly is the Geyser of Love? Is it real? Is it pee? Is it a different kind of fluid released from the urethral glands? Or is it, perhaps (as I suspect), an amazing female sexual mix of fluids, explosive juices and spraying squirting wetness? If women ejaculate, what does that mean about women and men? About penises and vulvas? About G-Spots and urethras?’
`A finance industry professional has been refused bail on charges of bestiality and animal cruelty after 17 dead rabbits and a guinea pig were found in and around a Sydney office building.
Brendan Francis McMahon, 36, of North Sydney, made a brief court appearance today charged with one count of bestiality with a rabbit.
He also faces 18 counts of aggravated animal cruelty involving rabbits and a guinea pig, and two charges of possessing cannabis.’
