‘Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.
The mock attack Thursday night was intended as a learning experience and lasted five minutes during the weeklong trip to a state park, said Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip.
“We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation,” he said.
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But parents of the sixth-grade students were outraged.’
‘Two months ago at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, surgeons removed a transplanted heart from a patient who had died and re-transplanted it in another recipient.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time this has been done with a transplanted heart,” Dr. Lawrence S. C. Czer, medical director of the center’s heart transplant program, told Reuters. “Even with other organs, repeat transplantation is very rare.”
The second patient was a 45-year-old man with noncompaction syndrome, a rare cardiac condition in which the heart assumes a sponge-like appearance. The disease is progressive, and the man’s heart became more and more disabled despite the best medical therapy.’
‘Culture is a huge factor in determining whether we look someone in the eye or the kisser to interpret facial expressions, according to a new study.
For instance, in Japan, people tend to look to the eyes for emotional cues, whereas Americans tend to look to the mouth, says researcher Masaki Yuki, a behavioral scientist at Hokkaido University in Japan. [..]
So when Yuki entered graduate school and began communicating with American scholars over e-mail, he was often confused by their use of emoticons such as smiley faces 🙂 and sad faces, or :(.
“It took some time before I finally understood that they were faces,” he wrote in an e-mail. In Japan, emoticons tend to emphasize the eyes, such as the happy face (^_^) and the sad face (;_;). “After seeing the difference between American and Japanese emoticons, it dawned on me that the faces looked exactly like typical American and Japanese smiles,” he said.’
‘A Mexican physician helped drug dealers avoid detection by replacing their fingerprints with skin from the bottom of their feet, a federal prosecutor said Friday.
The doctor, Jose L. Covarrubias, was arrested Wednesday in Arizona as he attempted to cross the U.S.-Mexico border a few hours after a grand jury in Harrisburg indicted him in connection with a marijuana dealing ring.
The indictment says Covarrubias, 49, of Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Mexico, surgically removed the fingerprints of co-defendant Marc George, 42, of Jamaica.
“We heard those stories, but we didn’t believe them when we heard them during the course of the investigation,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney William Behe in Harrisburg. “We caught Marc George and we all became believers.”’
That’s kinda brave and stupid at the same time.
Or fake, ’cause I don’t actually see a guy at any stage.
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‘A Vancouver man was sentenced Friday to 13 months in prison for pretending to be mentally retarded in order to claim disability benefits.
Pete J. Costello, 28, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to defraud the government and to Social Security fraud. He began receiving disability benefits when he was 8. He was ordered to repay the $59,226 he has received since turning 18.
Costello, who cannot read or write, dictated a letter to his public defender that was submitted to the judge before sentencing and filed in court.
“I know that it was wrong to ‘act like a child’ in the Social Security office when that is not how I really am,” the letter said. “I feel very bad about this and want to do everything I can to pay this money back.”‘
Followup to Man Accused of Faking Retardation.
‘No film comes to Seattle with greater baggage this year than “Zoo,” Robinson Devor’s strangely elegant examination of the infamous incident outside Enumclaw in 2005.
Surely you know at least the general details: A Seattle man died of internal injuries after having sex with a horse at a rural farm, which was later found to be the site of regular gatherings of zoophiles, or, as they call themselves in this film, zoos. The incident, news of which spread like fire on a dry field (it was this newspaper’s most-read online story that year), had consequences: numerous jokes and snickers, and a quickly passed antibestiality law in this state.
If everyone who read or e-mailed news of the story goes to see “Zoo” in theaters, it would be a box-office hit. But that seems unlikely for this unique and very odd film, a semidocumentary that uses voice-over and dreamy, dimly lit re-enactments — and which seems crafted for an audience who may not exist.’
Followup to Mr Hands.
‘Does your milk taste like wet cardboard? Blame the bright lights in your market’s dairy section.
“Milk stored within a few inches of fluorescent light in translucent containers usually has a detectable oxidized flavor within two to four hours and a distinct off-flavor within 12 hours,” said Robert Marshall, University of Missouri food science professor.
Fluorescent lights in dairy cases create an oxidized off-flavor in milk that some experts call ‘burnt.’ The closer the milk container is to the light, and the longer it stays there, the greater the chance of an off-flavor, Marshall said in a statement.’
‘Without question, nobody deserves what happened to one teen at Palm Harbor University High School last month.
But, of all people, it turned out to be a shy freshman honors student who drank from an apple juice bottle filled with urine – a criminal prank by two other boys, officials say.
“He’s a good kid,” said the victim’s mother, Wendy Cason. “He didn’t deserve that.”
Two freshmen, both 15, stole the bottle from a campus vending machine in early April, poured out the juice, replaced it with their waste and put the bottle back into the machine, officials say.’
He doesn’t seem to be in too much pain either..
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‘A “disoriented” Magellanic penguin swam ashore on Peru’s coast, some 3,100 miles north of his home in the frigid waters of southern Chile.
The penguin got lost while looking for food, Peru’s National Resource Institute was quoted as saying in El Comercio newspaper Saturday.
“It seems he was disoriented and got lost in the sea due to the different ocean currents,” said Wilder Canales, who heads the National Paracas Reserve in southern Peru. “In his endless search for food, he casually climbed up on our shores, something that has never happened before.”‘
‘It happened last Friday when drivers on the motorway in Ferrol were surprised to see a disabled man travelling along the road in his motorised bed.
The paper says that 42 year old Antonio Navarro, who is 95% disabled, and who drives and controls his motorised bed with his mouth, had got drunk and was intending to visit ‘Jade’ a local whorehouse, but took a wrong turning off a local roundabout.
Police finally stopped him at 9pm after he had travelled some 10 kilometres along the motorway. Once he had taken the wrong exit he decided to continue along the road so as not to put other drivers in danger. Antonio told the paper that signs should be improved on the roundabout and across the town.’
‘A Texas mother who claims the family dog tore off her baby son’s genitals has been arrested and accused of mutilating the boy herself with a sharp instrument.
Katherine Nadal is now awaiting a court hearing on custody of the boy. She has been charged with injury to a child and is being held on $100,000 bail.
Child-welfare authorities said she told social workers she woke up from a nap in March to find that her small dachshund had attacked her son. But police said a veterinarian and a doctor have agreed the dog did not cause the injuries.
Police have said in court papers that the mother had used a sharp instrument to cut off the boy’s genitals.’
Followup to Baby Is Emasculated; Mother Blames Dog.
‘A Serbian man needed emergency surgery after he had sex with a hedgehog on a witchdoctor’s advice.
Zoran Nikolovic, 35, from Belgrade, says the witchdoctor told him it would cure his premature ejaculation.
But he ended up in an operating theatre after the hedgehog’s needles left his penis severely lacerated.
A hospital spokesman said: “The animal was apparently unhurt and the patient came off much worse from the encounter. We have managed to repair the damage to his penis.”‘
One of these kids is not like the other ..
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I didn’t read most of this page, ’cause I couldn’t be fucked. But, right at the top is the following quote, which suggests the rest of the page may also be amusing:
‘To the optimist, the glass is half full.
To the pessimist, the glass is half empty.
To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.’
It’s funny because it’s true. 🙂
‘The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced results today of the investigation into the illegal promotion of OxyContin by The Purdue Frederick Company, makers of the widely abused, highly addictive pain pill.
“An investigation by OCI uncovered an extensive, long-term conspiracy by The Purdue Frederick Company, Inc. to generate the maximum amount of revenues possible from the sale of OxyContin through various illegal schemes,” according to an FDA statement.
FDA today informed healthcare professionals of criminal charges and civil liabilities brought against Purdue Frederick in connection with several illegal schemes to promote, market and sell OxyContin, the company’s powerful prescription pain reliever that has caused addiction problems of epidemic-promotions in cities and rural areas across the United States.’
‘Microsoft’s Windows Update has a component called Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) that downloads updates while you’re busy doing other things with your computer. If you get disconnected, the update will pick up where it left off when you get back on the network.
Sounds great, right? Well, generally it is. But since BITS is part of your operating system, your firewall doesn’t really check to see what it’s downloading. And while there is pretty much no risk of automatically downloading a virus or trojan through Windows Update under normal circumstances, hackers are starting to use BITS to download code to computers that have already been affected.’
Moses seems to have some sort of magical frogs.
Jesus is no match for magic frogs.
‘Authorities were led on a high speed vehicle chase by an armless, one-legged man, and they said this wasn’t the first time the 40-year-old eluded police.
Michael Francis Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He spent time in prison for kicking a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after an accident in 1996. He led police on a 120 mph chase in 1998.
On Tuesday, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, New Port Richey police Capt. Darryl Garman said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, Garman said.’
‘Did you ever log onto Active BBS or Interactive over the past 10 years? If you have, well then.. you are a loser. Wait no! Just kidding.. This myspace was created by Nick (NickZ) and Adela (Cupid) for all us crazy activities who want to stay in touch.. or just to say hi or if you are wondering where everyone is nowdays.’
Blah, MySpace. [shrug] 🙂
‘Since the fluid is a continuous medium, a traveling disturbance will result. In the earth’s atmosphere, gravity waves are important for transferring momentum from the troposphere to the mesosphere. Gravity waves are generated in the troposphere by frontal systems or by airflow over mountains. At first waves propagate through the atmosphere without affecting its mean velocity. But as the waves reach more rarefied air at higher altitudes, their amplitude increases, and nonlinear effects cause the waves to break, transferring their momentum to the mean flow.’
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‘A woman who had sex with her boyfriend’s brother in her darkened room late one night claimed she was raped, saying the man tricked her into the act by impersonating her boyfriend.
But Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court disagreed Thursday, citing a half-century-old state law that says it is not rape when consent to sexual intercourse is obtained through fraud or deceit. [..]
The woman told police she was asleep alone in the bedroom she shared with her longtime boyfriend when a man came in, climbed into bed and had sexual intercourse with her, according to the SJC decision.’
‘Ben Carmitchel, president of ESS Data Recovery, claims that hard drives may have an unlikely adversary this Spring: air conditioners.
“On average we see a 20% increase in failed hard drives hitting our lab in the summer as in the winter,” Carmitchel says. “We also see a seasonal change in the types of problems hard drives experience. In the warmer months, we diagnose far more electronic-related issues. From surveying some of our customers, we’ve found that power surges caused by air conditioners may play a significant role in the springtime increase.”‘
‘iPods can cause cardiac implantable pacemakers to malfunction by interfering with the electromagnetic equipment monitoring the heart, according to a study presented by a 17-year-old high school student to a meeting of heart specialists on Thursday.
The study tested the effect of the portable music devices on 100 patients, whose mean age was 77, outfitted with pacemakers. Electrical interference was detected half of the time when the iPod was held just 2 inches from the patient’s chest for 5 to 10 seconds.
The study did not examine any portable music devices other than iPods, which are made by Apple Inc.
In some cases, the iPods caused interference when held 18 inches from the chest. Interfering with the telemetry equipment caused the device to misread the heart’s pacing and in one case caused the pacemaker to stop functioning altogether.’
‘The job posting was a head-scratcher: “We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.”
A reporter half a world away covering local street-light contracts and sewer repairs? A reporter who has never gotten closer to Pasadena than the telecast of the Rose Bowl parade?
Outsourcing first claimed manufacturing jobs, then hit services such as technical support, airline reservations and tax preparation. Now comes the next frontier: local journalism.’
I thought he was going to smash it, but he didn’t. Still, unlucky. 🙂
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‘Cult film production company Hammer Horror is set to be revived after being sold off to a consortium led by Dutch media billionaire Jon de Mol, the creator of Big Brother.
No official price was given for the deal. But sources at Hammer, which created gothic horrors in the 1950s and 1960s such as Dracula, the Curse of Frankenstein and The Mummy, said Cryte Investments, in which Mr de Mol is a major shareholder, got it for a “few million” pounds. The new owners plan to invest at least £25m initially to resurrect the popular British films – and plans are in the pipeline with a UK broadcaster to launch a Hammer Horror TV series.
Cryte also hopes to restart Hammer’s production division and create new films for the first time in more than 30 years.’
I used to love watching Hammer movies.
‘Rescuers cut through a filtration tank of dense fish feces to reach four workers who fell into the sludgy dung Friday while cleaning the 18-foot tank at a western Massachusetts farm.
The workers became trapped for 45 minutes after a bracket holding a plastic filtration pad collapsed as workers stood on it to clean the fiberglass tank at the Australis Aquaculture fish farm, said Capt. David Dion of the Turners Falls Fire Department and the fish farm’s manager Josh Goldman.
One of the farmhands fell below what Dion described as a sand-and-feces mix, while the other three had their heads above the sludge, he said. [..]
“It was very slimy and it was heavy,” [Dion] said. “Never seen anything like it in my life.”‘
‘Untreated sewage from factory discharges and urban centres now accounts for 10 per cent of the Yellow River’s flow, a prominent Chinese group says.
The volume of waste water flowing into the river, China’s second longest, doubled from 2 billion tonnes to 4.3 billion between 1980 and 2005, Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based NGO, told the China Daily.
“It now accounts for about one-tenth of its total volume,” Ma said.
The 5,464-km river supplies water to more than 150 million people and irrigates 15 per cent of the country’s farmland, but has lost a third of its fish species and is 70 per cent unfit for drinking or swimming, state media have reported.’
