`Racial violence erupted in several Sydney suburbs last night in retaliation for a rampage by thousands of young residents through Cronulla that turned the seaside suburb into a battlefield. [..]
As the violence spread, police cars raced through Sydney streets from Cronulla to Miranda, Brighton-le-Sands, Rockdale, Maroubra, Woolooware and Tempe. Police said they had received reports of firearms being “flashed” threateningly but not discharged. “So far we have had no one shot,” an officer said. [..]
Police closed Marine Parade, Maroubra, where people converged in vehicles on the beachfront and began fighting with locals including members of the Bra Boys surf gang. Police said 50 carloads of youths smashed more than 100 vehicles with baseball bats and other weapons. In the same suburb a young girl was punched in the face.
In Rockdale police gathered in riot gear following reports of youths armed with crowbars near the train station after 10pm, a car driver trying to run down a police officer, and items being thrown at police cars in Bay Street, Brighton-le-Sands. The street was blocked off.
Around North Cronulla beach and the surrounding streets, drunk teenagers communicated with each other on walkie-talkies about rumoured sightings of Lebanese gangs.’
Fucken disgusting. Stupid rioting cunts.
`It all started when Ferdinand Piëch, the swivel-eyed former boss of Volkswagen, bought Bugatti and had someone design a concept car. “This,” he said, “is what the next Bugatti will look like.” And then, without consulting anyone, he went on. “And it vill have an engine that develops 1000 horsepower and it vill be capable of 400kph.” [..]
From behind the wheel of a Veyron, France is the size of a small coconut. I cannot tell you how fast I crossed it the other day. Because you simply wouldn’t believe me. I also cannot tell you how good this car is. I just don’t have the vocabulary. I just end up stammering and dribbling and talking wide-eyed nonsense. And everyone thinks I’m on drugs.
VITAL STATISTICS
Model Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Engine 7993cc, 16 cylinders in a W
Power 1001bhp @ 6000rpm
Torque 922 lb ft @ 2200rpm
Transmission 7-speed DSG, manual and auto
Fuel 11.7mpg (combined)
CO2 574g/km
Acceleration 0-62mph: 2.5sec
Top speed 253mph
Price £810,345′
`Fly a kite in Pakistan and you could get up to six months in jail.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court voted to extend a ban it imposed in October. As the issue was debated Saturday, kite-makers and enthusiasts rioted outside. Police used batons and tear gas.
The kite-flying ban was ordered because some 19 people died during a popular festival last February in the capital, Lahore. They either fell from roofs or were wounded by metal-lined strings.’
`Police got a surprise when they stopped a van following a hit-and-run crash on Kentucky’s Mountain Parkway: A 7-year-old boy was at the wheel, sitting on his father’s lap. [..]
When police caught up with the van on Interstate 64, Waters was working the foot pedals and his son Cody was on his lap steering, Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Estes said. He described Waters as “semiconscious.”
“He said he was en route to Florida, and his son was going to get him there,” Estes said.’
`In a year filled with political wrangling, natural disasters and pop culture curiosities, Americans turned to Merriam-Webster to help define it all.
Filibuster. Refugee. Tsunami. Each was among the dictionary publisher’s 10 most frequently looked-up words among some 7 million users of its online site.
But topping the list is a word that some say gives insight into the country’s collective concern about its values: Integrity. [..]
Ralph Whitehead, a journalism professor at the University of Massachusetts, said it may indicate the continuing discussion about American values and morality, or perhaps that integrity itself is becoming scarce so its definition is unfamiliar. [..]
No. 10 on the list is “inept,” a word that Morse said was getting a lot of attention in the days after President Bush delivered a live prime time news conference that came to an awkward end when some television networks cut him off to return to their regularly scheduled programs.’
`Transit police handcuffed and cited a man who sold a $1.75 US subway token to another rider who was having trouble with a token vending machine. He vows to fight the citation in court.
Transit authority spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker said Friday that the officer “acted within the law” after he spotted Donald Pirone, 42, apparently selling the token Nov. 30 inside the West End subway station. [..]
Baker acknowledged that Pirone sold the token at face value and did not make a profit. But the law is the law, she said.’
`British authorities say they have contained a fire raging at a fuel depot that injured 43 people, but it will take a day to burn itself out. [..]
Forty-three people were taken to hospitals for their injuries, Whitely said, but the majority were “walking casualties.” All but two have been released, he said, and those two do not have life-threatening injuries.
Although firefighting units with more than 150 firefighters were on the scene, authorities said the fire may have to burn itself out.’
‘A taxi driver in Denmark bit off the tip of a 48-year-old man’s finger in a brawl over how many people could fit in the cab, police said Monday.
The dispute started early Sunday morning, when a group of five men hailed a taxi in downtown Odense, a city in central Denmark.
Police said things got out of hand when the 37-year-old driver insisted he could only take four passengers. [..]’
You could easily fit five if two of them were midgets.
`One of the things I love about tattooing is that it attracts interesting people from all demographics. The simple truth is that some people feel a desire to permanently mark themselves with things that profoundly affect their lives. I don’t know if this is some genetic leftover that helped primitive humans hold their social fabric together, or whether it’s an unavoidable byproduct of being both narcissistic and sentient creatures. Either way, people get tattooed every day with the things that define their lives — and “nerds” and “geeks” are no different.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been talking to people with “nerdy” tattoos — computer logos, video game themes, science, math, and engineering imagery. Below you can read their stories in their own words [..]’
I think the Apple and Zelda tattoos are a bit lame, but I kinda like the enormous Mandelbrot tattoo across the back. I wonder how detailed it is. It would take a pretty talented tattoo artist to make a tattoo with an infinite perimeter. 🙂
`When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933 and proceeded to carry out their savagery, many in the outside world asked how this could have happened in the land of Goethe and Beethoven. Would the people of other societies as readily accept tyranny? Sinclair Lewis, in 1935, imagined Americans turning to dictatorship under the pressures of economic distress in the Depression. He called his novel, ironically, It Can’t Happen Here. [..]
When George W. Bush was asked about torture in early November, he said: “Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture.” How could he say that after the hundreds of convincing reports of torture and maltreatment? One possible answer is that he has not allowed himself to know the truth. Another is that his lawyers have so gutted the law governing these matters that not much, in their view, is unlawful.
But there is another explanation for Bush’s words: confidence that words can overcome reality. Just as a large part of the American people could be led to believe in nonexistent links between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 bombers, so it could be persuaded–in the teeth of the evidence–that “we do not torture.” And there is reason for that confidence.’
Long article, but interesting.
‘Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, contends that Americans and the English smile differently. [..]
Keltner hit upon this difference in national smiles by accident. He was studying teasing in American fraternity houses and found that low-status frat members, when they were teased, smiled using the risorius muscle – a facial muscle that pulls the lips sideways – as well as the zygomatic major, which lifts up the lips. It resulted in a sickly smile that said, in effect, I understand you must paddle me, brother, but not too hard, please. Several years later, Keltner went to England on sabbatical and noticed that the English had a peculiar deferential smile that reminded him of those he had seen among the junior American frat members. Like the frat brothers’, the English smile telegraphed an acknowledgment of hierarchy rather than just expressing pleasure.’
Or, the English version of the same article: The smile that says where you’re from
`While we British smile by pulling our lips back and upwards and exposing our lower teeth, Americans are more likely simply to part their lips and stretch the corners of their mouths.
So distinct is the difference that the scientist behind the research was able last week to pick out Britons from Americans from close-cropped pictures of their smiles alone, with an accuracy of more than 90%.’
The Americans think the English have a sickly smile, whilst the English thing their smile is more sincere and harder to fake. Kinda amusing. 🙂
via BoingBoing.
Web 2.0 is a bit of a stupid label that all the internet trendy types seem to be fond of these days. None the less, there’s some interesting software in this list. I’m gonna have a look at some of it when I’ve done updating the page you’re reading now. 🙂
‘HYDESim maps overpressure radii generated by a ground-level detonation; these radii are an indicator of structural damage to buildings. No other effects, such as thermal damage or fallout levels, are included in this tool. Note that the displayed rings are “idealized”; that is, no account is taken of terrain, urban density, ground type, weather conditions, and so on.’
Kinda cool little application, if you like that sorta thing. I couldn’t sleep particularly well the other night and since I didn’t have much else to do at 5am I used this simulator to roughly calculate how the recent fuel depot explosion in England compared to the atomic weapons dropped on Japan in World War II.
And how did it compare, you ask? Pretty fucken well. 🙂
`A lion bit off, and then ate, the tip of a woman’s finger after the woman climbed a barrier next to the animal’s enclosure at Melbourne zoo to pick flowers.
Zoo director John Gibbons said today the woman, in her 20s, was picking agapanthus inside a barricade next to the enclosure when she was bitten by a young male lion. She lost the top of her middle finger in the attack, which occurred last Thursday. [..]
“We do ask all our patrons to stay behind the safety barriers here at the zoo and she explained at the time that she was picking some flowers,” Mr Gibbons told ABC radio today.
“It’s not a wise thing to do to climb over a safety barrier and collect a flower here at the zoo.”‘
`A new type of text message which self-destructs in 40 seconds has been launched.
The Mission Impossible-style messaging is aimed at business users who need to exchange delicate information.
However, couples carrying out affairs have also signed up to the service. [..]
The recipient doesn’t receive the message itself, but a link to the message which they have to open.
They then have 40 seconds to read it before it disappears.’
`Young Australians are becoming too drugged and too fat to answer the call to serve their country in the military.
Increasingly unhealthy lifestyles – coupled with the ageing population and competition from private sector jobs – are hindering efforts by the Australian Defence Force to attract enough physically and mentally fit recruits to defend the nation. [..]
“The high incidence of non-medical drug use among young people (recent studies suggesting up to 50 per cent of 15-year-olds smoke marijuana at least once a month) … severely limits the pool of recruitable candidates,” says the ADF recruiting report, completed last month.’
`GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”
“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”
“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”’
`Jelqing (also known as milking) is an exercise designed to force large amounts of blood through the penis, increasing the internal pressure and creating controlled damage or micro-tears in the structure of the penis. This damage will be mostly repaired overnight but overworking or not taking rest days will reduce efficacy. The effects can be to increase length or girth or a combination of the two.
The exercise consists of applying an OK style thumb and forefinger grip encircling the base of the lubricated partially erect penis, restricting blood flow, and pulling this grip forward toward the glans. Once one hand has reached the glans the same grip and motion is applied with the second hand. This process is repeated for a number of strokes in a continuous milking motion. Each stroke should take no less than three seconds.’
`Large explosions have rocked a fuel depot near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire shooting flames hundreds of feet into the sky.
Police say there are 36 casualties, with two people seriously hurt. [..]
The fire, which police believe was caused by an accident, could last days with more explosions expected. [..]
In total, 20 petrol tanks are involved in the fire, each said to hold three million gallons of fuel.’
`Banana Boy’s superpowers weren’t enough to help him and the rest of his bunch give police the slip.
The local television character, who goes by the name Chris Phelps when he’s not donning his superhero’s large yellow banana crime-fighting costume, was arrested Thursday at gunpoint along with two others when police mistook their skit for a real-life knife fight. [..]
Unaware the melee was staged, Lovelace drew his handgun and ordered Banana Boy and his colleagues to the ground. They complied – quickly. [..]
“I said, ‘Oh my God, don’t shoot the banana,'” said Steven Wilson, who was watching the skit being filmed when Lovelace came upon the scene with his gun drawn. “It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.”‘
`A man who robbed a New Zealand bank was so disappointed with his haul he tried again – this time by phone, police said Saturday.
“He’s rung (the bank) and said ‘I’m the guy who robbed you the other day and I want the manager to put some money in a bag and go and stand in the street,” said Detective Sergeant Chris Winder of the Auckland Police.
“(He said) ‘I’ll drive by slowly and take the bag from you and drive off.'”‘
‘The idea came to me while I was helping my daughter with her homework. There was no direct reason why I should have come up with the idea during that event. It was just a random thought on which I followed through. What if I were to stand on a street corner with a sign in MY hand? One in which did not ask for money, food, a job or sympathy, but offered to give people something for free? What if I offered people waiting at the stoplight of a busy intersection free Linux disks?
[..] It was shortly after the morning work rush hour that it began to happen.
People gave me money�
And cigarettes�
4 gave me gift certificates to local eateries.
Some gave me phone numbers.
Go figure.’
`These are online games that, in my opinion, offer a “good experience” – good game design with an overall attention to quality. Unless otherwise noted, they’re all free, online, and available right now.’
A frequently updated list of stupid things George Bush has said and links to videos, including:
“The best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who’s spending time investigating it.”—Expressing hope that the probe into how CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity was leaked will yield answers, Washington D.C., July 18, 2005
“I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep on the soil of a friend.”—On the prospect of visiting Denmark, Washington D.C., June 29, 2005
“We expect the states to show us whether or not we’re achieving simple objectives—like literacy, literacy in math, the ability to read and write.”—on federal education requirements, Washington, D.C., April 28, 2005
“We look forward to analyzing and working with legislation that will make—it would hope—put a free press’s mind at ease that you’re not being denied information you shouldn’t see.”
—Washington, D.C., April 14, 2005
`iDefense, the cyber security intelligence provider and a VeriSign company, reports that the next planned attack of 2005’s most prolific email worm family, Sober, is scheduled to start on January 5, 2006 based on commands hard-coded within the worm.
The attack date coincides with the 87th anniversary of the founding of the Nazi party. Additionally, the attack could have a significant detrimental effect on internet traffic, as email servers are flooded with politically motivated spam emails from potentially tens of millions of e-mail addresses.’
Some realistic looking murals on the sides of buildings.
`Out of the sun a black, cigar-shaped object falls toward the earth. At the edge of town a filling station attendant sees it cross the slice of sky between the car above him and the edge of his grease pit. The center fielder of the visiting baseball team sees the moving spot, then looks back toward the batter, impatient for the third out. A woman in the park hears a strange, thin whistle and looks up, shading her eyes.
At a point 2,000 feet above the ground, the first atomic rocket of World War III explodes over your city. In one vast flash of light, equal to 100 suns, the buildings are etched against a sky of fire. A blinding ball of flame leaps from the point where the rocket exploded.’
I love this retro nuclear war stuff. It’s great. 🙂 What other official documents would have lines like the following?
`If and when an atom bomb ever does fall near you, you will be scared. There is no doubt about that. If you are normal, you will be plenty scared.’
`Three people have been arrested and three others assaulted in renewed violence at Sydney’s Cronulla beach, NSW Police say.
Scuffles have been breaking out since about midday (AEDT) when about 5000 people, some yelling racist chants, converged on the beach where racial tension and disputes between beach users flared last week. [..]
It was not clear if any of the arrests related to earlier witness reports of at least three men being pursued and attacked as they tried to get away from angry members of the crowd chasing them on foot. [..]
As the crowd moved along the beach and foreshore area today, one man on the back of a ute began to shout “No more Lebs” – a chant picked up by the group around him.
Others in the crowd, carrying Australian flags and dressed in Australian shirts, yelled “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie … Oi, Oi, Oi”.’
Remember that guy died after sneaking onto a farm and being fucked by a horse?
This is apparently the video. Absolutely not safe for work.
(1.5meg Flash video)
see it here »
