Archive for May, 2007

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Saturday, May 5, 2007

 

Good samaritan canoeists get $85 tickets

‘Canoeist Dennis Bohrn and his companions were stunned when they saw a woman jump off the Perrine Bridge, her body landing near them in the Snake River. Many in the group were crying by the time they managed to reach the woman and paddle her body to shore.

So Bohrn was shocked when an officer walked up and instead of thanking or comforting the group last Sunday, wrote out a couple of $85 tickets for failing to have life jackets on board either of the two canoes.

“The body was right there,” said the 58-year-old Twin Falls resident. “A girl deputy was trying to console everybody. Then a sergeant walked up. He said, ‘I see you don’t have any life jackets so I am going to give you a citation.’ It seemed a little cold.”‘


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Activists Want Chimp Declared a ‘Person’

‘In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV.

But he doesn’t care for coffee, and he isn’t actually a person—at least not yet.

In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26- year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a “person.”

Hiasl’s supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests.’


Paris Hilton gets 45 days in jail

‘Celebrity heiress Paris Hilton has been jailed for 45 days after being found guilty of violating her probation for a drink-driving conviction.

A Los Angeles judge ruled she must start her sentence on 5 June and has no prospect of an early release.

Ms Hilton told the judge she was very sorry and that she would “pay complete attention to everything” from now on.

The socialite said she did not know her licence had been suspended when caught driving without headlights in February.’

Followup to Paris Hilton May Have Probation Revoked.


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Giant Robot Dinosaurs

(9.3meg Flash video)

see it here »


Marijuana triggers psychotic symptoms, doctors say

‘One compound, cannabidiol, or CBD, made people more relaxed. But even small doses of another component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, produced temporary psychotic symptoms in people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors said.

The results, to be presented at an international mental health conference in London on Tuesday and Wednesday, provides physical evidence of the drug’s damaging influence on the human brain.

“We’ve long suspected that cannabis is linked to psychoses, but we have never before had scans to show how the mechanism works,” said Dr. Philip McGuire, a professor of psychiatry at King’s College, London.

In analyzing MRI scans of the study’s subjects, McGuire and his colleagues found that THC interfered with activity in the inferior frontal cortex, a region of the brain associated with paranoia.

“THC is switching off that regulator,” McGuire said, effectively unleashing the paranoia usually kept under control by the frontal cortex.’


Docs Change the Way They Think About Death

‘[..] That dogma went unquestioned until researchers actually looked at oxygen-starved heart cells under a microscope. What they saw amazed them, according to Dr. Lance Becker, an authority on emergency medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “After one hour,” he says, “we couldn’t see evidence the cells had died. We thought we’d done something wrong.” In fact, cells cut off from their blood supply died only hours later.

But if the cells are still alive, why can’t doctors revive someone who has been dead for an hour? Because once the cells have been without oxygen for more than five minutes, they die when their oxygen supply is resumed. It was that “astounding” discovery, Becker says, that led him to his post as the director of Penn’s Center for Resuscitation Science, a newly created research institute operating on one of medicine’s newest frontiers: treating the dead.’


Naked man superglued to exercise bike

‘A gang stripped a South African man before supergluing him to an exercise bicycle while they ransacked his house, according to a report Thursday.

SAPA news agency said the attackers, dressed in suits, hijacked a man in his 50s and forced him at gunpoint to take them to his home in Johannesburg.

“The victim was then forced to strip, after which he was superglued to the seat of an exercise bicycle, his hands were superglued, as were his feet and then his mouth was superglued shut,” SAPA quoted Mark Stokoe, a spokesman for emergency services Netcare 911, as saying.’


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David Hasselhoff Drunk

‘This is the video taken by Taylor the sixteen year old daughter of David Hasselhoff which shows the actor extremly drunk.’

(1.7meg Windows media)

see it here »


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Bill O’Reilly Uses Derogatory Names ‘More Than Once Every Seven Seconds’

‘A new study by Indiana University media researchers finds that Fox News host Bill O’Reilly calls “a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his program each night.”

The study documented six months worth, or 115 episodes, of O’Reilly’s “Talking Points Memo” editorials “using propaganda analysis techniques made popular after World War I.” Researchers found that O’Reilly “was prone to inject fear into his commentaries and quick to resort to name-calling. He also frequently assigned roles or attributes — such as ‘villians’ or downright ‘evil’ — to people and groups.’


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Wife put excrement in man’s curry

‘A disgruntled wife has admitted feeding her estranged husband a curry containing dog excrement after their relationship broke down.

Jill Martin, 47, pleaded guilty at Paisley Sheriff Court to culpable and reckless conduct against husband Donald Martin. [..]

Depute Fiscal Margaret Dunnipace told the court that on 13 March, after placing the dinner in front of her husband Donald and watching him start to eat it, Martin had burst out laughing. [..]

The couple have now begun divorce proceedings.’


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Military: New Iraqi school had bombs built in

‘American soldiers discovered a girls school being built north of Baghdad had become an explosives-rigged “death trap,” the U.S. military said Thursday.

The plot at the Huda Girls’ school in Tarmiya was a “sophisticated and premeditated attempt to inflict massive casualties on our most innocent victims,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.

The military suspects the plot was the work of al Qaeda, because of its nature and sophistication, Caldwell said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

The plot was uncovered Saturday, when troopers in the Salaheddin province found detonating wire across the street from the school. They picked up the wire and followed its trail, which led to the school. Once inside, they found an explosive-filled propane tank buried beneath the floor. There were artillery shells built into the ceiling and floor, and another propane tank was found, the military said.’


PJ Harvey

Hey, I’m the king of the world. You ought to hear my song.

You come on and measure me, I’m 20 inches long.

see it here »


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Friday, May 4, 2007

 

My boss told me..

My Boss Told Me


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La chute

There are apparently images of break dancers, taken to make it appear as if they’re falling.


NASA rethinking death in mission to Mars

‘How do you get rid of the body of a dead astronaut on a three-year mission to Mars and back?

When should the plug be pulled on a critically ill astronaut who is using up precious oxygen and endangering the rest of the crew? Should NASA employ DNA testing to weed out astronauts who might get a disease on a long flight?

With NASA planning to land on Mars 30 years from now, and with the recent discovery of the most “Earth-like” planet ever seen outside the solar system, the space agency has begun to ponder some of the thorny practical and ethical questions posed by deep space exploration.’


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Couple Touring Home Find Woman’s Body

‘This real estate agent will likely do a house check before letting her prospective customers tour on their own from now on, after a couple happened upon a homeowner dead in bed.

Linda Chabucos-Galow, a real estate agent with Shorewest, stood in the dining room while Justin and Colleen McKeen walked through a house Monday night.

Before long, she heard Colleen scream as the couple stood at the doorway.

“I thought, ‘What’s wrong?’ Maybe it was a dead mouse or something,” Chabucos-Galow said.

But then she peered into the bedroom and saw the body of Linda L. O’Leary, 55, the owner of the home. She had been dead for about two weeks, officials say.

“It looked like a Halloween prop,” Chabucos-Galow said.’


Childhood Curiosity

Childhood Curiosity


Bruce Willis Drunk At NBA Game

Yippee kai aye, motherfuckers.

(3.9meg Windows media)

see it here »


Man threatened to blow up Jetstar aircraft

‘A Jetstar call centre operator was allegedly told the budget airline had “just created a terrorist” after it charged excess baggage fees to a disgruntled Brisbane passenger.

Denis William Malizani, 30, of Morayfield in Brisbane’s north, was yesterday charged with making a threat to destroy an aircraft after being told he had to pay the baggage fee while checking in for a flight to Adelaide on April 26. [..]

He allegedly rang Jetstar’s call centre at a later stage and became “aggressive” when he was referred to the operator’s supervisor to further discuss the fees.

Prosecutor Clive Porritt said Malizani had told the operator “I will take it fucking further. I will tell you what I’ll do – I’ll blow up your fucking aircraft. You’ve just created a terrorist.”‘


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Police: ‘Wizard’ Left Boy, Note At Denny’s

‘A 29-year-old man wearing a purple wizard outfit was taken into custody in Daytona Beach and charged with abandoning his fiance’s 4-year-old son in a booth at a Denny’s restaurant, according to police. [..]

Workers at Denny’s restaurant located off International Boulevard said Nathan Sierbrasse, 29, left the 4-year-old asleep in one of the booths.

When officers investigated, they found a note for law enforcement with the boy’s name and contact information.’


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Judge dies of ‘adult sudden death syndrome’

‘A Chinese judge charged with corruption died in his cell from “adult sudden death syndrome”, Xinhua news agency said today.

Investigators said Li Chaoyang, 38, had been unco-operative while in detention in Xing’an county in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southwestern China.

“Cuts on his face and other injuries” had been caused by a fall during an escape attempt, they said. [..]

“Li Chaoyang’s sudden death conforms with adult sudden death syndrome,” said Mr Shi, citing a forensic report.’


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PJ Harvey & Björk – Satisfaction

(7.9meg Flash video)

see it here »


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Thursday, May 3, 2007

 

HD DVD cracks: there’s no going back

‘When AACS was revealed as the encryption format of choice for HD DVD and Blu-ray, bets were placed on how long it would take for it to be cracked. Since the first HD DVD and Blu-ray discs began shipping, hackers have been hard at work figuring out how to break the encryption; DVD Jon even registered DeAACS.com. We’ve covered both crackers’ efforts and the attempts by the AACS Licensing Authority to keep those cracks from seeping into the public consciousness. Yesterday, all of that came to a head.’


Snake-brandishing woman gets house arrest

‘A woman accused of holding police at bay by brandishing poisonous snakes was sentenced to house arrest and probation.

“I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind that night,” said Terry Jackson, 36, at her sentencing Monday.

Officers were trying to prevent the despondent woman from harming herself with a hunting knife when the confrontation took place October 25, police said.

Jackson picked up two western diamondback rattlesnakes, a pigmy rattlesnake and two copperheads to try to keep police from taking her into custody, authorities said.

Jackson, who was raising the snakes for laboratories, received several bites during the standoff and was taken to a hospital after police subdued her with a stun gun.’


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Little Brother Bean Bag Launch

Children don’t like to fly as much as they think they do. 🙂

(4.3meg Windows media)

see it here »


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Duck penises show arms race between sexes

‘What they found surprised them — corkscrew-shaped oviducts, with plenty of potential dead-ends.

“Interestingly, the male phallus is also a spiral, but it twists in the opposite, counterclockwise, direction,” said Yale ornithologist Richard Prum in a statement.

“So, the twists in the oviduct appear designed to exclude the opposing twists of the male phallus. It’s an exquisite anti-lock-and-key system.”

Brennan believes females evolved convoluted oviducts to foil the male rapists.

“You can envision an evolutionary scenario that, as the male phallus increases in size, the female creates more barriers. You get this evolutionary arms race,” Brennan said.’


WoW Player Claims A Bounty On His Head In And Out Of Video Game

‘Carson admitted to police that he had been “making it hard for her to get far in the game.” He said that after repeated online threats from the woman, she sent her husband and friends over to his house to “take care of him.” Carson later said that he had made the mistake of telling her where he lived and “if her husband was man enough to just come meet me to settle this.”

2 weeks leading up to the assault he said he had been harassed by a few characters constantly during game play. “I knew that I might be messed with in the game but I didn’t really expect her husband to come looking for me. I couldn’t have been more wrong.”‘


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Sarah’s beaver

Sarah's Beaver


Snakes on a Plane


Wednesday, May 2, 2007

 

Satan behind illegal immigration, Utah County Republican claims

‘A Utah County Republican delegate may not be catching hell for calling illegal immigration a satanic plot, but he isn’t gaining any converts, either.

Utah County GOP Chairwoman Marian Monnahan says District 65 Chairman Don Larsen’s resolution – asserting that illegal immigration is the devil’s plan to destroy the nation by “stealth invasion” – “in no way” is endorsed by the Republican Party.

“It’s just free speech,” Monnahan said Thursday. “It’s Don’s right to do that.”

Provo Mayor Lewis Billings, a prominent Utah County Republican, says he understands Larsen’s frustration with the federal government’s slow response to immigration issues, but he doubts “there will be a lot of support for the resolution in its current form.” [..]

Members of Utah’s Latino community searched for diplomatic words to respond to the measure.

“It sounds like someone who is way out in left field, living in some fantasy world,” [..]’