Archive for July, 2006

international

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

 

Bob Geldof cancels two concert dates

`Singer Bob Geldof had to cancel concerts in Milan and Rome when only a handful of people bought tickets to the events.

Geldof is widely known in Italy for his African Poverty campaign to and his campaign to eliminate Third World debt, but still, only 45 people bought tickets to his concert in Milan, held at a venue built to hold 12,000, The Times of London reported Monday.

He also canceled a concert in Rome because of similar slow ticket sales.’


Kid Takes Shot of Habanero Sauce In His Eye

‘This dude is nuts and probably lucky not to be blind. He takes a shot of a Habanero extract hot sauce into his eye for 8 bucks and a burger.’

(16.4meg Windows media)

see it here »


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Outer-space sex carries complications

`Having sex in the weightlessness of outer space is the stuff of urban legends and romantic fantasy — but experts say that there would be definite downsides as well.

Spacesickness, for instance. And the difficulty of choreographing intimacy. And the potential for sweat and other bodily fluids to, um, get in the way.

“The fantasy might be vastly superior to the reality,” NASA physician Jim Logan said here Sunday at the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2006 conference. Nevertheless, Logan and others say the study of sex and other biological basics in outer space will be crucial to humanity’s long-term push into the final frontier.’


Neighbourhood bombing ‘against humanitarian law’

`Israel’s bombing of a crowded Beirut neighbourhood where Hezbollah had its headquarters has breached humanitarian law, a senior UN official has said, as reports emerged of heavy fighting on Lebanon’s southern border.

“It is horrific. I did not know it was block after block of houses,” Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, told reporters as he toured the shattered Haret Hreik district. “It makes it a violation of humanitarian law.”

Mr Egeland was visibly shocked by the devastation in the Shiite Muslim quarter where air raids have flattened a Hezbollah compound. He said it was hard to distinguish between military and civilian targets.’


Confronting Fred Phelps Jr

‘Remember that crazy lady who made a fool of herself on Fox News? Well guess what her husband is just as crazy and especially hates gay people. Watch as this reporter attempts to make a pass at crazy old Fred at one of his protests.’

(6.5meg Windows media)

see it here »


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Video Display Interface Of The Future Projects Images Into Thin Air

‘Heliodisplay images are not holographic although they are free-space, employing a rear projection system in which images are captured onto a nearly invisible plane of transformed air. What the viewer sees is floating mid-air image or video. These projected images and video are two-dimensional, (i.e. planar) but appear 3D since there is no physical depth reference. While conventional displays have the benefit of being attached to a physical substrate, Heliodisplay projections are suspended in air, so you will notice some waviness to the quality of the projections.’

(4.1meg Flash video)

see it here »


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The Frog Museum

`Frogs playing cards, seated at a café, in the schoolroom, at the barber’s or in a soldier’s garb. Discover our collection of 108 different frogs in satirical scenes of everyday life circa 1850. A truly unusual experience.’


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Monday, July 24, 2006

 

blufr.com: bruising your ego one bluf at a time

A cool little trivia game that is good for killing some spare time. I got to around 3000 points fairly easily before I got distracted by something else. 🙂


Two killed as artwork ‘lifts off’

`Two people have been killed and 13 injured after a giant, inflatable sculpture blew free from its moorings.

Many were inside the artwork, which consists of connected rooms, when it lifted 30ft into the air at Riverside Park, Chester-le-Street, County Durham. [..]

The sculpture – called Dreamspace – is thought to have drifted for up to 40m before catching on a CCTV camera post and coming down near a children’s playground.

About 500 people were in the vicinity of the sculpture, which is half the size of a football pitch, when it came loose.’


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Casino hackers

`Not long ago, a scene like this would have been incomprehensible. No single slot could pay out $4 million. Not physically, and not practically. Even in constant use, it would be impossible for any single machine to collect sufficient incoming wagers to make such mammoth paydays happen.

What made Budz rich, and what has made casinos even richer in recent years, are new digital networks that connect virtually every slot machine in every casino in the country. Wheel of Fortune, for instance, is part of the MegaJackpots system, a network within 18 states and one Native American reservation that encompasses more than 8,000 machines, about half of them in Nevada.’


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Alleged handshake poisoner acquitted

`A jury acquitted a man who had been charged with assault after authorities said an assistant prosecutor, police officer and courtroom bailiff got sick after shaking hands with him.

John Curtis Ridgeway, 42, was seen pulling out a vial of liquid and rubbing his hands with the contents after a December jury trial in which he was found guilty of driving without insurance, authorities said. [..]

Ridgeway told The Associated Press after he was charged that the substance was olive oil. He testified that he used oil to anoint “corrupt buildings” and that it was meant to rid the buildings of demons.’

followup to Toxic handshake lands man in jail.


international

Sunday, July 23, 2006

 

How a trainee cop came to class armed to the teeth

`A NSW Police trainee has been arrested and stood down after he paraded his personal collection of illegal replica firearms at the Goulburn Police Academy. [..]

The Sun-Herald can reveal the man brought a replica MP5 submachine-gun and other weaponry into the grounds of the academy, then provided a demonstration to classmates. When stunned onlookers reported his actions to academy hierarchy a raid was conducted at the man’s private residence, where a stockpile of other military-style equipment was uncovered.’


Late night calls from Israel spook jittery Lebanese

`At first, Bushra Khayyat tried to ignore the incessant ringing of the phone at her house in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon. It was 4 a.m., but she finally got out of bed.

“I said hello and got a recorded message from Israel,” she told Reuters.

In clear Arabic, the strong voice on the phone said: “Oh Lebanese people, we tell you not to follow Hizbollah. We will continue to strike and no one will bring your prisoners back from Israel except the Lebanese government.”‘


Crazy telemarketer call

Some crazy woman calling up a telemarketer to tell him she’ll have his taxes audited every year and that he’s a rapist. Apparently she’s upset because she has had so many telemarketers calling her it caused her appendix to burst.

(2meg mp3)


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Feeding homeless outlawed

`If someone looks like he could use a meal, be warned: Giving him a sandwich in a Las Vegas park could land you in jail.

The Las Vegas City Council passed an ordinance Wednesday that bans providing food or meals to the indigent for free or a nominal fee in parks.

The measure is an attempt to stop so-called “mobile soup kitchens” from operating in parks, where residents say they attract the homeless and render the city facilities unusable by families.’


Daughter Sues Mother Over Fall

`An Illinois woman is suing her Wisconsin parents for negligence, claiming a surprise birthday visit to her mother in January 2005 left the woman with a broken ankle after a fall on her parents’ icy driveway. [..]

She filed suit earlier this year, arguing that her parents should be held liable for damages for maintaining “an unnatural accumulation of ice” on their driveway. She alleges her parents’ gutter was defective and they should pay her more than $75,000 in damages.

Her parents responded that she can’t prove their driveway was icy at the time or that their drainage system was faulty.’


Nanotubes Might Not Have the Right Stuff

`Scientists and science fiction fans alike have big plans for carbon nanotubes; it has been hoped that a cable made of carbon nanotubes would be strong enough to serve as a space elevator. However, recent calculations by Nicola Pugno of the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, suggest that carbon nanotube cables will not work.

[..] Laboratory tests have demonstrated that flawless individual nanotubes can withstand about 100 gigapascals of tension; however, if a nanotube is missing just one carbon atom, it can reduce its strength by as much as thirty percent. Bulk materials made of many connected nanotubes are even weaker, averaging less than 1 gigapascal in strength.

In order to function, a space elevator ribbon would need to withstand at least 62 gigapascals of tension.’


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Saturday, July 22, 2006

 

Steve Irwin Quotes

`I have no fear of losing my life – if I have to save a koala or a crocodile or a kangaroo or a snake, mate, I will save it.’

`Sharks, I’ve been self-trained as well, and crocodiles, naturally. I’ve been catching them since I was nine. No problem.’

`The only animals I’m not comfortable with are parrots, but I’m learning as I go. I’m getting better and better at ’em. I really am.’


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Friday, July 21, 2006

 

Police officer moonlighted as prostitute

`An Auckland police officer has been allowed to keep her job, despite moonlighting as a prostitute. [..]

It was understood the officer had sought secondary employment due to financial difficulties. [..]

An Auckland spokeswoman for the New Zealand Prostitutes’ Collective said that depending on the parlour in which they worked, the police officer could earn $500 on a Friday night.’


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Inmates charged in tractor escape

`Two inmates assigned to mow grass at a sheriff’s firing range escaped on a John Deere tractor. [..]

They left the jail on the tractor at noon Tuesday to mow the firing range across the street. About two hours later, they were reported missing. Authorities said the two left the tractor in the woods behind the firing range and took a 2002 Kia about a half-mile away.’


Blind Man Holding Food Fatally Shoots Wife

`A man who is legally blind accidentally shot and killed his wife while trying to balance a plate of fried chicken and a pistol, authorities said.

Kelly Honeycutt, of Morganton, was moving into a new home with his wife, Norita, on Monday night.

Honeycutt, who found the .38-caliber pistol in a box, shot his wife in the head after she handed him the food, Burke County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Beall said.’


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Runaway circus kangaroo on the loose

`A kangaroo is roaming the green hills of Ireland after escaping a circus near the picturesque port of Kinsale.

“This kangaroo broke loose just before the show while they were bringing him from the cages to the arena. He decided to take a walk,” said local farmer John Walsh on whose land the 2-year-old male, named Sydney, made his break for freedom.’


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Glut makes Australian wine cheaper than water

`Australian wine is being sold off cheaper than water, as a glut of grapes pushes the cost of a bottle to below two dollars.

Bumper harvests for three straight years have led to a massive oversupply, with up to a billion litres of unsold wine in storage tanks across the country.

Leading winemakers have seen their shares tumble and many grape growers could be forced out of business.

But for the consumer, it means quality wines are available at a fraction of the normal price as producers move their excess stock in unlabelled bottles known as cleanskins.’


international

Student Set Dorm Fire To Meet Women

`A student at the University of Central Florida is accused of setting a fire on campus as a way to meet women, according to a Local 6 News report.

Police said Matthew Damsky admitted to lighting a couch on fire at the Academic Village Dorms last week.

Damsky told officers he hoped he would be able to meet women as the building was being evacuated.

He was arrested for arson and booked in to the Orange County Jail.’


Man accused of blinding wife with carrot

`A 46-year-old man is accused of assaulting his wife with a carrot, causing her to lose sight in one eye. Roderick Vecsey is charged with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct.

Pamela Vecsey, 46, underwent six hours of surgery after being hit in the left eye with the vegetable Saturday night, but doctors were not able to restore her vision, prosecutor Stephanie Damiani said.’


Thursday, July 20, 2006

 

Cooling Computers with Tiny Jet Engines

`The computer servers that fill huge data centers are producing more heat with every new generation of processors. It’s a problem that’s sending engineers on a search for cooling fans that are both small enough to fit inside ever-smaller server chassis and powerful enough to dispel increasing amounts of heat. At Hewlett-Packard, they’ve found one answer in an unexpected place: model jet airplanes. [..]

The prototype HP fans are built from sturdier, more reliable parts than today’s computer fans, according to Vinson, and they deliver air with enough force to cool the smaller, denser, and hotter servers on HP’s drawing boards. “They literally blow you away,” he says; “it’s like picking up a leaf blower.”‘


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Customer subdues robber with applesauce

`A customer at a city grocery tackled an armed robber and beat him with a can of applesauce when he refused to drop his gun, police said.

The suspect shot himself in the head during the struggle, and passed out after the 66-year-old customer administered four blows to the head with the Mott’s applesauce.’


Paper Record Player

`To play the record the handle needs to be turned in a clockwise direction at a steady 33.3 rpm. The paper cone then acts as a pick up and amplifies the sound enough to make it audible.’


Shitty Stories

`I was riding an overnight ferry in Greece a couple summers ago with a large group, mostly made up of flaky girls. Since we were stuck on the ferry till morning with nothing to do most of the group decided to get tomorrow’s showering out of the way tonight. A particular clique of the dumb girl posse convinced the tour guide to allow them to use her room to shower as it was one of few with a functioning shower. Apparently, the girls had decided they were only going to shit once on the trip because all of them went into the tour guide’s bathroom and laid monstrous loads. The only problem with that was that they had not realized that you can NOT flush toilet paper in the toilets on these ferrys. [..]’


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More tossers on TV

`Channel 4 is to bring mass public masturbation to the small screen.

The broadcaster – once led by Michael Grade, dubbed “pornographer in chief” by the Daily Mail – has commissioned a documentary about the UK’s first “masturbate-a-thon” as part of a series of programmes dubbed “Wank week”, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.

In what must surely be one of the summer’s more bizarre events, hundreds of people are expected to gather in a hall in central London on August 5 to pleasure themselves in aid of charity.’

Also, the home page: The First International Masturbate-A-Thon.


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