`Thieves are sawing down aluminum light poles. Some 130 have vanished from Baltimore’s streets in the last several weeks, authorities say, presumably sold for scrap metal. But so far the case of the pilfered poles has stumped the police and left many local residents wondering just how someone manages to make off with what would seem to be a conspicuous street fixture.
The poles, which weigh about 250 pounds apiece, have been snatched during the day and in the middle of the night, from two-lane blacktop roads and from parkways with three lanes on either side of grass median strips, in poor areas and in some of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods. Left behind are half-foot stubs of metal, with wires that carry 120 volts neatly tied and wrapped in black electric tape.’
`When a Los Angeles area radio station announced a contest that awarded a Porsche 944S2 for the 102nd caller, Kevin Poulsen took control of the entire city’s telephone network, ensured he is the 102nd caller, and took away the Porsche beauty. He was arrested later that year and sentenced to three years in prison. He is currently a senior editor at Wired News. [..]
MafiaBoy, whose real identity has been kept under wraps because he is a minor, hacked into some of the largest sites in the world, including eBay, Amazon and Yahoo between February 6 and Valentine’s Day in 2000. He gained access to 75 computers in 52 networks, and ordered a Denial of Service attack on them. He was arrested in 2000.’
‘While fanboys battle it out on the importance of the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD format war, companies including Turner Entertainment Networks have already begun to move towards holographic storage. Its closer than you might think.
Early versions of holographic disk storage store up to 300GB per disk. By 2010, the disks are expected to cost $100 each and store 1.6 terabytes (thats roughly 1,600 gigabytes) each. At least one company expects to break the 1TB-per-disk barrier by 2008.’
This has been posted absolutely everywhere lately, so I figured I better post it aswell. π
With waxy pictures.
The pilot of this Airbus 321 decided to go around for a second attempt. Can’t land a plane while it’s flying sideways.
It’s watching videos like this that makes me need two or three valium before I can even think about getting on a plane. π
`In a cleared-out parking lot at Bose Corp.’s headquarters, a test driver guides a Lexus at 25 mph toward what would appear to be an unfriendly introduction to a two-by-six lying on its side, ankle-high.
A childlike grin spreads across 76-year-old Amar Bose’s face as the vehicle does something most can’t: jump over the board, like a cat bounding over a fallen log.
The sedan’s experimental, Bose-designed suspension, driven by four electromagnetic motors, had quickly pulled each wheel up, then down.’
`A high school teacher is facing questions from administrators after giving a vocabulary quiz that included digs at President Bush and the extreme right. [..]
One example: “I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes.””Coherent” is the right answer.’
`Almost half of all Australians aged under 25 have used illicit drugs and view their use as acceptable.
Although possession or use of most illicit drugs could result in a jail sentence, research shows more than six million people of all ages were undeterred.
Almost half of them took illicit drugs other than marijuana and 2.5 million in total had used illicit drugs of some kind in the past year. [..]
Australia has one of the highest rates of illegal substance abuse in the world according to University of Queensland alcohol and drug research and education centre director Professor Jake Najman.’
Gee, who woulda thunk it? π
Some time last month some guy dressed up as a firefighter, lit some fires outside some woman’s apartment, then used the firefighter clothing and a fake police badge to talk his way into her apartment. Once inside, he raped her for 13 hours or so.
Turns out, he bought fireman’s pants, the police badge, a wallet for the badge, some potassium nitrate for the fires and a bottle of chloroform all from eBay. Aswell as a few other miscellaneous bits and pieces.
More at Something Awful.
`The nightmare of nuclear war in Europe – a spectre that haunted the world for half a century – stood revealed yesterday in terrible detail.
In a historic break with the past, Poland’s newly elected government threw open its top secret Warsaw Pact military archives – including a 1979 map revealing the Soviet bloc’s vision of a seven-day atomic holocaust between Nato and Warsaw Pact forces. [..]
On the map, western Europe lay beneath a chilling overlay of large red mushroom clouds: Warsaw Pact nuclear strikes, using giant warheads to compensate for their relative lack of precision.’
including the map itself.
`There is no clear motive why a man was stabbed to death by an intruder dressed in Santa gear, detectives said.
Sikander Shaheen, 25, was attacked in his bed by a knifeman wearing a red and white hat and full white beard.
Officers said they found no reason for the murder of Mr Shaheen, who was a private, hard-working, religious man, but the knifeman “intended to kill”.’
`Grandmaster Tu Jin-Sheng, best known for his Iron Crotch, attached himself not once, but twice, to a rental moving truck and pulled it several yards across a parking lot in Fremont. In lace-up leather boots and a black tank top, the 50-year-old tied a strip of blue fabric around the base of his penis and testicles and tugged to make sure it was on tight. An assistant kicked him hard between the legs before he lashed himself to the vehicle.
He groaned, grunted and pressed against two men for resistance.
Then, slowly, the truck began to roll forward. ‘
‘Over three decades of work by diverse engineers and researchers intent on learning how best to interact with a computer come together in the windows and icons used today’
A history of the GUI and mouse reprinted from a 1989 IEEE journal article. Interesting, if you like that sorta thing.
`An ancient book with detailed descriptions of Russian sexual customs and traditions of the 18th century was found in a remote village. Collector Mikhail Surov, who found the book, said that instructions, which he could read on the pages, made him blush. “I thought that I was quite educated as far as sex was concerned, but I thought it wrong,” he said.
[..] here is quite an innocent question in the book; the question is addressed to a female: “Did you stuff the bag with porridge? As it turns out, ancient Russians were making artificial penises with the help of this method,” Mikhail Surov said.’
`Abuse of human rights in Iraq is as bad now as it was under Saddam Hussein, if not worse, former prime minister Iyad Allawi said in an interview published today.
“People are doing the same as [in] Saddam Hussein’s time and worse. It is an appropriate comparison,” Allawi told British newspaper The Observer.
“People are remembering the days of Saddam,” said Allawi, a secular Shi’ite and former Baathist who is standing in elections scheduled for December 15.
“These are the precise reasons why we fought Saddam Hussein and now we are seeing the same things.’
Anyone know what language that is? I want to know what it says.
This is what a hadron collider looks like. I want one. π
It’s one of those pictures that lets you zoom around and see a full 360 degress in any plane you like.
`A sapling germinated earlier this year from a 2,000-year-old date palm seed is thriving, according to Israeli researchers who are cultivating the historic plant.
“It’s 80 centimeters [3 feet] high with nine leaves, and it looks great,” said Sarah Sallon, director of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center (NMRC) in Jerusalem.
Sallon’s program is dedicated to the study of complementary and alternative medicines. The center is also interested in conserving the heritage of Middle Eastern plants that have been used for thousands of years.’
Mount a camera on the wing of your ultralight then fly it into a tree. Why not? π
(3.8meg Windows Media)
see it here »
They’re right you know, she doesn’t.
`there is lots of porn on the inter-net but i could not find any BLOCK STRUCTURE porn. until now!!! this is the official web page for BLOCK STRUCTURE porn and below are some series of pictures. the image files are sort of big so if you do not see anything it means your computer is retarded and probably has extra chromosomes somewhere!!’
Block structure apparently means Lego. Who knew those little yellow men had such huge penises?
`Over a long enough period of time Pong might well be re-visioned into just about anything, but our new favorite to date is the Pong clock. It plays a random game of Pong that goes on for 24 hours at a time right side wins every minute, left side wins every hour. Were scratching everything else off our list this year this is the only thing we want.’
`Pinball is all about a spherical object rolling around on a smooth surface, so the thought of building a pinball game from Lego doesn’t immediately seem like one of the better ideas.
But that’s exactly what Gerrit Bronsveld & Martijn Boogaarts from The Netherlands have achieved.’
With lots of pictures.
First, choose your orifice type, then the texture of the inside. You can also choose a colour.
You can also get Sex in a Can.
Women will soon be obsolete. π
I put a link to the crazy Trading Spouses woman a while back. Here’s a longer and crazier version of the clip. Absolutely hilarious.
(10.3meg Windows Media)
see it here »
Mr T is not only a great actor, he’s also a wonderful musician.
[sings] Mother.. There is no other like mother.. So treat her right..
Mother.. I’ll always love her.. My mother.. So treat her right..
see it here »
Who knew the wife of the British Prime Minister was so hot.
(1.1meg PDF)
‘Franz Reichel, a mustachioed Austrian tailor, was killed leaping from the first deck in 1912 to test a tent-like parachute coat he had invented. He is said to have died of fright before hitting the ground.’
Nothing particularly gory. Grainy black and white footage of some guy wearing some strange looking thing hesitating for a few minutes before leaping off the tower and experiencing a rapid acceleration towards the ground. The parachute coat doesn’t appear to have any effect whatsoever on his descent.
(2.6meg Flash video)
see it here »
Playing with numbers. Organizing them into a spiral and looking at all the patterns you end up with.
