`A three-year-old required hospital treatment after becoming stuck to a toilet seat in a bowling alley which had been smeared with glue.
Lucy Richmond was visiting Bowling International in Stroud, Gloucs, with her mother and elder brother.
Her mother Annabel, 37, tried to lift Lucy off the toilet seat but found she could not move her and lumps soon appeared on her leg.’
`Two more retired U.S. generals called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign on Thursday, claiming the chief architect of the Iraq operation ignored years of Pentagon planning for a U.S. occupation and should be held accountable for the chaos there.
As the high-ranking officers accused Rumsfeld of arrogance and ignoring his field commanders, the White House was forced to defend a man who has been a lightning rod for criticism over a war that has helped drive President George W. Bush’s public approval ratings to new lows.
Six retired generals have now called for Rumsfeld to step down, including two who spoke out on Thursday.’
`One Briarwood Elementary School kindergartner stabbed another in the chest with a pencil this morning in retaliation for being kicked, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said.
The student was taken to Carolinas Medical Center — Charlotte by Medic with the pencil sticking about two inches into his chest, Sgt. Randy Hagler said. He will be held overnight for observation.’
`A game of Hide and Seek today could have had a tragic outcome for a four-year old boy. It’s another reminder for us all about the need to be careful with kids and cars.
Robyn Stone, Neighbor: “Everyone was out looking, calling his name, up and down, anywhere we could think of.” [..]
Robyn Stone: “I thought, ‘I’ve got to do something, I’ve got to get in the car and go.’ I just said a little prayer asking for him to help me find him and let him be ok. I thought I was crazy but I could hear him crying.”
She wasn’t crazy. He had crawled underneath her car and was holding on for dear life to the shaft between the wheels, near the spare tire.’
`An intruder has been found dead and naked in the house he broke into after apparently overdosing on prescription drugs he had found inside.
The 60-year-old resident of an Adelaide property found the body yesterday after being away for two days.
Police said the dead man appeared to have taken the resident’s diabetes tablets, vomited in the toilet and then used the shower before collapsing.
Detective Senior Sergeant Brian Kimber, of Elizabeth, said the intruder, aged in his 20s, had been known to police.’
`Imagine having a full-time administrative assistant who regularly sends sweet messages and virtual flowers to all of your girlfriends, in your name, using e-mail and SMS.
And image that this assistant also browses through the dating sites and faithfully enters the personal and vital statistics of every woman who meet your requirements right into your electronic black book.
Now, imagine that you have a dedicated accountant who constantly evaluates your Booty Yield so you can determine whether any particular woman is worth the time, effort and money that you’ve invested.
Are you starting to get the picture of what GirlFriend X is all about?
GirlFriend X is your automated love life manger, taking care of the tedious side of having relationships with women so you can spend more time enjoying them!’
`A 12-year-old girl is believed to have become the first UK patient to have her heart transplant reversed.
Doctors at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital acted when Hannah Clark’s body rejected her donor heart – 10 years after her original transplant.
The donor heart was disconnected, and Hannah’s own heart – which was never removed – was able to cope on its own.’
`A natural light source that could put the traditional light bulb in the shade has been invented by US scientists. [..]
Previous attempts to make OLEDs like this have largely failed to make an impact because traditional phosphorescent blue dyes are very short lived.
The new polymer uses a fluorescent blue material instead which lasts much longer and uses less energy.
The researchers believe that eventually this material could be 100% efficient, meaning it could be capable of converting all of the electricity to light, without the heat loss associated with traditional bulbs.’
`Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, USA, are using the Free-Electron Laser at specific wavelengths (selective photothermolysis) to heat up fat, which is then excreted by the body – without harming the skin. They say this technique could be used for treating cellulite, acne and heart disease.
Researchers used pig fat and two-inch-thick skin samples.
Prof. Rox Anderson, Mass. General Hospital, said “The root cause of acne is a lipid-rich gland, the sebaceous gland, which sits a few millimetres below the surface of the skin. We want to be able to selectively target the sebaceous gland and this research shows that, if we can build lasers at this region of the spectrum, we may be able to do that…. We can envision a fat-seeking laser, and we’re heading down that path now “‘
`When Thomas Carroll couldn’t come up with the $125 in fines and fees to bail his pet Weimaraner out of the dog pound, investigators say he broke into the pound to free his pooch and three others.
The dogs’ liberation didn’t last long, and authorities soon caught up with Carroll, charging the Glen Carbon man Tuesday with two felony burglary counts. Carroll, 20, remained jailed Wednesday on $50,000 bond.’
`A bailiff was sent to an 80-year-old gran’s council home to demand rent arrears of just five pence.
Alice Nelson was left “terrified” after the official called on her without warning.
She has lived at the same address for 45 years and has never knowingly been behind with her rent.
The bailiff told Alice, of Wigan, Greater Manchester, she had to hand over the 5p there and then.’
`Fight off wave after wave of enemies with your cannon. Use your mouse button to shoot and the spacebar to set off a bomb.’
`Dutch police have reportedly confiscated the saxophone of a busker who played so badly that his audience complained.
According to the Dutch news agency ANP, the 43-year-old used to perform at the railway station at Leiden in the west of the country to the dismay of passengers, who found his instrument an ill wind.
He was the only person to believe that the station concourse “did justice to the sound quality of his instrument” by amplifying it, as he told policemen who served him with a summons and confiscated his saxophone.’
`Microsoft Corp. estimates it lost about $14 billion last year to software piracy — and those may prove to be the most lucrative sales never made.
Although the world’s largest software maker spends millions of dollars annually to combat illegal copying and distribution of its products, critics allege — and Microsoft acknowledges — that piracy sometimes helps the company establish itself in emerging markets and fend off threats from free open-source programs. [..]
The proliferation of pirated copies nevertheless establishes Microsoft products — particularly Windows and Office — as the software standard. As economies mature and flourish and people and companies begin buying legitimate versions, they usually buy Microsoft because most others already use it. It’s called the network effect.’
`The financing behind the violence that continues to disrupt Iraq may have an unlikely source: ancient treasure.
“The people that are murdering men, women and children in the streets are getting some of their funds from the current trade in antiquities,” said Marine Col. Matthew Bogdanos. “In Afghanistan the Taliban are using opium to support their activities. The cash crop in Iraq is not opium, it’s antiquities.”
Bogdanos, who’s been labeled the “Indiana Jones” of Baghdad, was conducting counter-terror actions in southern Iraq in April 2003 when he heard from news reports that 170,000 artifacts had been stolen from the Iraq Museum while U.S. troops stood by idly.
Bogdanos, who has a master’s degree in classics from Columbia University, decided to do something about it.’
`Speaking at an erotic fair in Bucharest, Romania, Cicciolina said: “It is time someone did something about Bin Laden, and I am ready to do it. “I am ready to make a deal, he can have me in exchange for an end to his tyranny. My breasts have only ever helped people while Bin Laden has killed thousands of innocent victims.” The blonde porn star, whose real name is Anna Ilona Staller, pointed out that Bin Laden could learn from Saddam Hussein’s mistakes. In the 1990s she offered herself to Saddam Hussein if he gave up dictatorship of Iraq, and added that if he had taken up her offer “who knows what might have happened.”’
‘Who wants to be a millionaire idiot. This guy may be the biggest fool in the history of televised game shows. I wish the host would have the nerve to just say what everyone is thinking: you are an idiot, now go home and never live this down.’
(4.4meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘If you discover a nice Korean woman working at a clock repair shop that struggles with the pronunciation of the word “clock,” what should you do?’
Hilarious. 🙂
(4.0meg Flash video)
see it here »
`Zoologists have found a remarkable fish that can wriggle from Africa’s tropical swamps to snaffle a snack on land.
The eel catfish, Channallabes apus, catches unsuspecting victims by arching upwards and descending upon prey, trapping an insect against the ground before sucking it up. It performs this trick thanks to a bendy neck supported by specialized vertebrae, which allows it to hover over prey without needing fins or arms to hold up its head.
The same trick may have been used by the very first vertebrates to venture onto land, the researchers speculate.’
`From NASA’s press event for the 25th anniversary of its first shuttle launch: See the ‘Discovery,’ a supercomputer that turns out any kind of space-related data at an incredibly quick rate. NASA’s Rupak Biswas gives the tour.’
`A teenage boy accidentally set himself on fire early Wednesday morning after allegedly trying to siphon gas from a firefighter’s car.
Police first learned of the injury after a 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy claimed that someone had thrown gasoline on the 17-year-old at the Common Cents service station and lit him on fire, said Lt. Rod Hauge.
The boy was taken to the hospital with second- and third-degree burns on his legs. Police were called to the hospital to investigate the incident and later learned that the 17-year-old spilled gas on his pants while siphoning gas. He then used a lighter to try to determine how wet his pants were and set himself of fire, Hague said.’
The 80’s was the best period of human history to date. Don’t believe me? This will prove it.
(5.1meg Flash video)
see it here »
Tracing the culprits by means of DNA matching. 🙂
`A 38-year-old Lincoln man showed up at BryanLGH Medical Center West on Monday, claiming he had been assaulted last week, police said Tuesday.
The man told hospital staff he was in the area of 28th and P streets Thursday when someone punched him in the head from behind and kicked him when he fell.
He said he temporarily lost consciousness and came to, only to find his pants down to his ankles.
An X-ray at the hospital Monday revealed a 20-ounce soft drink bottle lodged in the man’s lower intestine. He was to have it removed Tuesday.’
It’s at the bottom of the page.
`For a vision of war, it was almost elegant. The smoke and stink and deafening crack of munitions would be replaced by invisible beams of focused light. Modified 747 jets, equipped with laser weapons, would blast ballistic missiles while they were still hundreds of miles from striking our soil. “Directed-energy” cannons would intercept incoming rockets at the speed of light, heating up the explosives inside and causing them to burst apart in midair. And this wasn’t some relic of Reagan-era Star Wars visionaries. These were modern plans, initiated barely a decade ago, that would be realized not in some far-off future, but soon. Out in the New Mexico desert at the White Sands Missile Range, the U.S. Army’s Tactical High Energy Laser shot down dozens of Katyusha rockets and mortars. In 2004, Air Force contractors began test-firing the chemically powered beam weapon for a retrofitted 747, the Airborne Laser.
Then reality set in [..]’
with laser video.
`The grimly named “isolator” was supposed to be temporary.
Everyone expected that the baby boy named David Vetter would develop a functioning immune system once he received a bone marrow transplant from his sister. Then he could leave the plastic walls that protected him from germs and live happily ever after, forever able to touch those he loved.
It was not to be. As a fascinating and heartbreaking new television documentary reveals, overly optimistic doctors and modern medical technology would fail the “boy in the bubble.” Doomed by a deadly combination of hope and hubris, he wouldn’t make it to his teen years.’
`Iran announced overnight it had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, a dramatic breakthrough in its disputed atomic drive that defies a UN Security Council demand for the work to be halted.
The announcement came just 15 days before the expiry of a Security Council deadline for Iran to freeze enrichment – a process that can be extended to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.
In a speech carried live on state television, vice president and atomic energy chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh announced that “on April 9, we successfully enriched uranium to 3.5 per cent,” the purity required for civilian reactor fuel.’
`Howard Stern pushed Carmen Electra one step closer to leaving Dave Navarro this morning when he convinced the sexy actress to buck up and take a ride on the world-famous Sybian machine– a sex toy-esque machine that he can only usually get pornstars and strippers to hop on!’
(13.3meg Windows media)
`Ruth Malhotra went to court last month for the right to be intolerant.
Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she’s a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation.
Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she’s demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy.
With her lawsuit, the 22-year-old student joins a growing campaign to force public schools, state colleges and private workplaces to eliminate policies protecting gays and lesbians from harassment. The religious right aims to overturn a broad range of common tolerance programs: diversity training that promotes acceptance of gays and lesbians, speech codes that ban harsh words against homosexuality, anti-discrimination policies that require college clubs to open their membership to all.’