‘If pending legislation becomes law, Ohio’s most violent sex offenders would be branded with a modern day scarlet letter: fluorescent green license plates on their cars or trucks.
State Rep. Michael DeBose, D-Cleveland, and state Sen. Kevin Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls, introduced bills that would require green plates for habitual and child-oriented sex offenders.
“A distinctive license plate would warn parents and children of the potential threat posed by sexual offenders,” Coughlin said.’
‘Major international news agency Associated Press has banned its journalists from filing stories about Paris Hilton, the New York Observer has reported.
AP entertainment editor, Jesse Washington announced the ban to staff on February 13 in a memo obtained by the Observer. The ban would stay in place “barring any major events”, the newspaper said.’
‘Nearly 20 years ago, the World Health Organization and its partners launched an ambitious program to eradicate polio by the end of the millennium. That deadline passed and another was missed in 2005 and polio still strikes about 2,000 people a year, mostly children.
At a WHO meeting this week, some leading experts asked a grim question: Is it time to abandon the goal of eradication and focus instead on containing the disease? The answer, for most, was no even though many had doubts.
“Many people wonder why we are spending all this time and effort on polio when there are much bigger problems,” said Dr. Donald A. Henderson, who headed WHO’s smallpox eradication program in the 1970s. Smallpox is the only disease ever to have been eradicated.’
‘No action will be taken against a vet who punched his horse in front of a crowd during a temper tantrum after losing a race to a group of teenagers.
A Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons panel has cleared Lodewijk De Smet of Ammanford of “disgraceful conduct”.
De Smet, who practises in Llanelli, had denied the incident as he rode for the Banwen Miners’ Hunt at a show in Brecon in August 2005.
But the panel decided he had struck the horse in a “momentary loss of reason”.’
‘On the 75th anniversary of the Lindbergh kidnapping, TIME looks back at the notorious crimes of the past hundred years’
‘Separated by adoption in their native East Germany, the siblings met for the first time in 2000 when Patrick tracked down his birth mother and the younger sister he had never met.
If their mother, Ana Marie, were alive today, however, she would, in all likelihood, be wishing her estranged son had never found his way home.
Because for the past seven years, brother and sister have been lovers. In that time they have had four children together – two of whom are mentally and physically disabled and all of whom are now in care.
And despite the fact that 29-year-old Stuebing, an unemployed locksmith, has already served two jail sentences for committing incest with his sister, now aged 22, the couple defiantly refuse to give each other up. ‘
‘Australian David Hicks was charged with “material support for terrorism” Thursday, setting the stage for a war crimes trial in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that has caused strains in US relations with Australia.
Judge Susan Crawford, who oversees the military commissions, dismissed a second charge of attempted murder against Hicks after concluding there was no “probable cause” to justify it, said Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. [..]
Major Michael Mori, Hicks’s military lawyer, said the government had abandoned all its original charges against his client, replacing them with a charge — “material support for terrorism” — that has never existed in the laws of war.’
No one seems to make it around. 🙂
(6.7meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘It’s a crisp January afternoon, and Fergus Drennan is picking mushrooms in a field near the Kentish seaside town of Whitstable. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots some black and white feathers poking up from a tuft of grass.
“A bird!” he shouts. “It’s not even been dead that long; you can tell from the rigor mortis. It’s so cute, isn’t it? Come on… come back to life… No. It’s definitely dead. The only question is… why?”
Fergus looks up. Above him run several power cables. The bird must have been electrocuted. This is excellent news: since our feathered friend didn’t have a nasty disease, Fergus says it’s safe to eat.’
‘This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics tend to feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or $12.5 million spent every hour on the Iraq war. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.’
‘A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised “to get out and meet people,” the local court heard last week.
[..] He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage. [..]
“Mr McCarney has been attending counselling at which he was told that he would be advised to get out and meet people and do interesting things. It was this advice that saw him book into the city centre hotel with a donkey,” [his solicitor] said. She added that Mr McCarney also suffered from a fixation with the Shrek movies and could constantly be heard at work talking to himself saying things like “Isn’t that right, Donkey?”’
‘A group of Tennessee high school students are in hot water for trying to make a steamy porn movie between classes.
Four female and two male students were punished after a drama teacher caught them filming the flick in a Union County High School classroom.
Wayne Goforth, curriculum coordinator for the school district, told WATE-TV in Knoxville that the female students had stripped down to their underwear for the boys who were acting as the cameraman and emcee.’
‘After 13-year-old runaway Brenda Nguyen drank a fifth of vodka in less than half an hour, she spent four hours throwing up and slipping in and out of consciousness, authorities said.
Four adults and her best friend were in a Phoenix apartment with her. She drank that much at the urging of one of the adults so he could have sex with her, Phoenix Police Department detectives said. Another prayed over Brenda as her life slipped away. Someone even revived her with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
But nobody called for help, police said. Instead, thinking she would be OK, they took a nap.
When they awoke and found the eighth-grader dead, they loaded her 97-pound body into a car and dumped it in a Phoenix alley, authorities said.’
‘Kevin Russell found out it’s not easy trying to cash a check from God. The 21-year-old man was arrested Monday after he tried to cash a check for $50,000 at the Chase Bank in Hobart that was signed “King Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Servant,” Hobart police Detective Jeff White said. [..]
Police were called to the bank after Russell tried to cash the check, which was written on an invalid Bank One check with no imprint, White said. Russell had several other checks with him that were signed the same way but made out in different dollar amounts, including one for $100,000.’
‘Sigourney Weaver, I’m coming after you bitch!’
(9.2meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘Former Neighbours favourite Alan Dale says he hates the makers of the TV soap, saying he left feeling ripped off.
Dale, who played Jim Robinson in the glory years of the Ramsey Street soap from 1985 to 1993, has since become a success in the US where he has appeared in an array of high profile programs.
But despite that success, 59-year-old Dale remains bitter over how he feels he was treated during his time on Neighbours. He says he snubbed the progam’s 20-year anniversary because he felt ripped off.
“I didn’t like it there, they were not nice people,” Britain’s Daily Mirror quotes Dale as saying.’
‘Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet’s recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause, according to one scientist’s controversial theory.
Earth is currently experiencing rapid warming, which the vast majority of climate scientists says is due to humans pumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Mars, too, appears to be enjoying more mild and balmy temperatures.
In 2005 data from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey missions revealed that the carbon dioxide “ice caps” near Mars’s south pole had been diminishing for three summers in a row.’
‘A Montreal woman who used fondue fuel to set her late boyfriend’s penis on fire has been sentenced to four years in prison.
The Crown says taking into account time already served, Andree Rene will have to remain incarcerated for another 30 months.
Crown attorney Steeve Lariviere said today the 44-year-old woman also needs follow-up help for her psychological and alcohol problems. [..]
As Guillaume Pungo snoozed, Rene doused the man’s private parts with fuel and set them aflame.
The 52-year-old spent a month in hospital after suffering third-degree burns in the pelvic area and on his chest.’
‘Declassified documents reveal that Japanese ultranationalists with ties to U.S. military intelligence plotted to overthrow the Japanese government and assassinate the prime minister in 1952.
The scheme — which was abandoned — was concocted by militarists and suspected war criminals who had worked for U.S. occupation authorities after World War II, according to CIA records reviewed by The Associated Press. The plotters wanted a right-wing government that would rearm Japan. [..]
Two CIA documents said the plot reportedly had the support of 500,000 people in Japan, and that the group planned to use a contact who controlled a faction inside the National Safety Agency — a precursor to the Defense Ministry — to help launch the coup.’
‘Prince Charles suggested Tuesday on a visit to the United Arab Emirates that banning McDonald’s fast food was crucial for improving people’s diets, a British news agency reported.
Charles made the comments while visiting the Imperial College London Diabetes Center in Abu Dhabi for the launch of a public health campaign, The Press Association reported.
“Have you got anywhere with McDonald’s? Have you tried getting it banned? That’s the key,” Charles was quoted as asking one of the center’s nutritionists.’
‘The most celebrated of all the diphallic terata was Jean Baptista dos Santos, who when but six months old was spoken of by Acton. His father and mother were healthy and had two well-formed children. He was easily born after an uneventful pregnancy. He was good-looking, well proportioned, and had two distinct penises, each as large as that of a child of six months. Urination proceeded simultaneously from both penises; he had also two scrotums. Behind and between the legs there was another limb, or rather two, united throughout their length. It was connected to the pubis by a short stem 1/2 inch long and as large as the little finger, consisting of separate bones and cartilages. There was a patella in the supernumerary limb on the anal aspect, and a joint freely movable. This compound limb had no power of motion, but was endowed with sensibility…’
I’ve been using the word “biphallic” all this time, it seems “diphallic” may be more correct..?
Followup to Biphallic Pictures.
see it here »
‘U.S. agents smashed a Mexican drug trafficking network by arresting more than 400 people and seizing over 18 tonnes of narcotics, authorities said on Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the 20-month operation dismantled the Victor Emilio Cazares-Gastellum network, which smuggled cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana from Mexico and distributed it across the United States.
Police nabbed 66 people in coordinated raids across four states, bringing the total number of arrests to more than 400, he told a news conference in San Diego, California.’
‘A hamster was miraculously brought back to life after being cooked by accident.
The pet, called Christmas, must have had a gnawing feeling something was wrong when his cage was left on top of an oven and the hob was turned on by mistake.
The cage burst into flames and Christmas became a furry fireball.
When firefighters arrived to put out the blaze, the rodent was lying on his back with his charred legs in the air and tongue hanging out.
Officer Mark Spinks, 36, admitted: ‘We all looked at each other and said, “That hamster is a goner”.’
But when colleagues gave Christmas a blast of oxygen, a few nips of Ribena and rubbed his belly, they were amazed to see him splutter back to life.’
‘Spying on Australians by law enforcement agencies intensified last year, with Australian Federal Police doubling requests for surveillance warrants.
The AFP’s use of tracking devices that allow it to closely monitor the movements of an individual, vehicle or vessel also doubled in 2005-06.
The figures, released in a federal Attorney-General’s Department report, came as ASIO chief Paul O’Sullivan warned that a small group of radicalised individuals posed a serious terrorist threat to Australia.’
See how the bomb squad ‘disarms’ what is very probably a traffic counting device belonging to the Department of Transport.
