‘In one of his most chilling moves to date against his own citizens, the American War Leader has issued a sweeping order this week outlawing all forms of protest against the Iraq war.
President Bush enacted into US law an ‘Executive Order’ on July
17th titled “Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq” [..]
Today, as the United States faces an imminent economic collapse, while at the same time its war bill has reached the staggering amount of $648 billion, one of the last freedoms the American people have had to protest their leaders actions against them, and other peoples in the World, has now been taken away from them, the freedom to speak and write in opposition to what is being done to them.’
‘After laying siege to a house for five hours, police gave a final warning before storming the house where a gunman had been reported inside.
A police dog rushed upstairs and, finding a woman in bed, proceeded to sink its teeth into her arms.
But as armed officers surrounded a terrified Sonia Pellow, they realised two things. First, she wasn’t a gunman.
Second, she was deaf and had been sleeping throughout the entire stand-off.
Yesterday Miss Pellow, 36, was still too afraid to return to her home in Hayle, Cornwall, after the ordeal, which followed a hoax call to police that a gunman was inside.
“I don’t know what happened – I was asleep but then this dog was all over me,” she said. “I got bitten on both of my arms. I was terrified.”‘
‘Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Oh no!’
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‘An elderly woman who was mugged for 11 cents said she hopes her attacker learned a lesson, NBC 5 reported. [..]
“He got right in my face and said very quietly, ‘Give me your wallet. I have a gun and I will shoot you,'” Rose said. “I felt sick. I was disappointed in me and in him.”
Rose said she thought he was kidding, but gave him everything she had: 11 cents.
“I said, ‘What would your mother think of you?’ He didn’t reply,” Rose said.’
‘Video-game publisher Take-Two Interactive has done it again.
The company, which has come under fire in the past for offensive content in its games, is now testing the taste barrier with its latest sports video game, All-Pro Football 2K8, which features O.J. Simpson, unquestionably America’s most infamous athlete.
A customized video clip on the Game Trailers Web site shows Simpson game highlights as his team, “The Assassins,” moves down the field. Toward the end of the clip, Simpson scores a touchdown, prompting a large hooded mascot above the scoreboard to make stabbing motions with a large knife.’
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This actually happened at the university I used to go to. Our lecturers would occasionally tell us stories about stupid experiments that don’t end well.
This was always my favourite. 🙂
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‘start clickin’! …and just keep on clickin”
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‘Debbie Hulleman’s pet dog Pepper likes to chew things. She’s gnawed on lipstick canisters, shampoo bottles, ball point pens, toothpaste, and now the list includes nearly $750 in cash — gobbled right down.
“This is probably the worst,” Ms. Hulleman said yesterday, recalling the nasty chore of recovering the money from vomit and — you guessed it — dog piles left in the yard. [..]
Pepper got into a purse belonging to a friend of her mother’s and chewed the cash from an envelope. [..]
“It wasn’t that bad. I soaked it and strained it and rinsed it. I just kept rinsing it and rinsing it. I had rubber gloves on of course,” she said. “Everyone said, ‘I can’t believe you did that.’ Well, for $400, yeah, I would do that.”‘
‘They share more than 90 per cent of human DNA. And like a family grieving one of its own, Taronga Zoo’s troupe of chimps have shown the most human qualities as they mourn the death 60-year-old matriarch, Fifi.
For about an hour after the primate passed away on Thursday, the 19 chimpanzees, who share the enclosure, virtually closed ranks, surrounding her body in a poignant gesture of shared heartache.
They each had their moment of closure; some patting and sniffing the fallen ape, while others simply sat in silence. [..]
Ms Beaven said the chimps spent the hours leading to her death filing in and out of the enclosure, as if paying their final respects.’
‘A couple guys paddle out on a lake and shoot at a flaming propane tank. They were expecting an explosion and they got much more.’
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‘It’s a bad idea to burglarize a place marked “K-9 training facility.”
Police dog handlers arriving Wednesday at the abandoned nursing home where they hold training sessions discovered two men and a woman dismantling the building’s copper pipes and wiring, Hall County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kiley Sargent said.
When the officers arrived, the three dropped their tools and ran. That was their second mistake.
“For anyone to try to run from a whole unit of canines, it’s just a no-win situation,” Sargent said. [..]
Signs outside the northern Georgia facility warn, “Caution!!! Gainesville Police Department K-9 training facility – Keep Out.”‘
‘Two years before its completion, the world’s largest dam is already changing the local weather, say scientists studying the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River. Both modeling and actual meteorological data suggest that the reservoir is cooling its valley, which is causing changes in rainfall. [..]
Among the surprise weather changes has been the increase in rainfall between the Daba and Oinling mountains, said Wu.
The rains come from a “lake effect” intensification of precipitation, like that seen around the Great Lakes of North America. The lake effect happens when already moist air picks up more moisture as it crosses over a warm body of water, then rains or snows it out quickly upon reaching the shore.’
‘A new bungle has emerged in the investigation of Mohamed Haneef as Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty yesterday dimissed reports that the Indian doctor was suspected of being involved in a plot to attack the Gold Coast’s tallest building.
The Australian can reveal that investigating AFP officers wrote the names of overseas terror suspects in Dr Haneef’s personal diary, only to later grill him during an interrogation over whether he had written the potentially incriminating notes. [..]
Sergeant Simms states: “Now, as I was alluding to, or as I was going to show you, before … police who have been looking through your diary have found some handwritten notes in the back of your diary. And one of these handwritten notes is details for Kafeel Ahmed. Telephone numbers and looks like an address. A couple of addresses. Now, that writing there, is that your writing?”
When Dr Haneef again denies it is his writing, Sergeant Simms leaves the room. He returns and says: “Thought that might have been the case. In fact, it’s not. This is what’s been written by police. So it’s not your handwriting at all.”‘
This woman is absolutely terrified of clowns. I s’pose it’s better than pickles. 🙂
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‘Mellon Park in Point Breeze is meant to be an oasis from the stresses of city life, but when two rival ice cream vendors met there recently, it was anything but peaceful and calm. [..]
The woman told investigators Didiano started screaming and cursing at her in front of children, saying she was hurting his business.
Then, she said, he went back to his truck and pulled out a knife and threatened her before slashing her truck’s tires.
Didiano has been accused of a meltdown before. A couple of years ago, he was in a scuffle with a 13-year-old boy. At the time, Didiano told police the boy cursed at him and his prices.
The boy claimed Didiano wouldn’t sell him ice cream because he said he was fat.’
‘Purdue Pharma L.P., the maker of OxyContin, and three of its executives were ordered Friday to pay a $634.5 million fine for misleading the public about the painkiller’s risk of addiction. [..]
Designed to be swallowed whole and digested over 12 hours, the pills can produce a heroin-like high if crushed and then swallowed, snorted or injected.
From 1996 to 2001, the number of oxycodone-related deaths nationwide increased fivefold while the annual number of OxyContin prescriptions increased nearly 20-fold, according to a report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In 2002, the DEA said the drug caused 146 deaths and contributed to another 318.’
‘A woman who says she was so overcome with passion for a valuable painting on display in France, has been charged with criminal damage after kissing it.
The immaculate white canvas so attracted Sam Rindy she smudged it with her lipstick, saying later she had wanted to make it even more beautiful.
The 3x2m (9×6-foot) painting by US artist Cy Twombly is valued at more than $2m (£970,000). [..]
“I left a kiss,” she told La Provence newspaper on leaving the police station.
“A red stain remained on the canvas… This red stain is testimony to this moment, to the power of art.”‘
‘Call it a case of shopping-cart rage.
State police said a 45-year-old Dutchess County man became enraged at a 72-year-old woman who was in front of him at the checkout line of the Super Stop & Shop on Route 6 last night and ran her over with his shopping cart.
James Curcio of Hillside Road, Poughquag, continued pushing the shopping cart out the door, despite not paying for the groceries, then beat a retreat in his car, police said.
The 72-year-old woman was treated at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt and released.’
‘Well, after wearing them my feet would be red and sort of tingly, but I figured that it was just because it was first flip flops of the year so my feet need to get used to them. Blabity blabity… Well I have now had this chemical burn for 11 days, (As of July 3rd) I really thought it would just go away on it’s own. It is absolutely going away very well at all…this started on June 22nd 2007 and has just gotten worse basically. I have only worn those shoes 15 minutes here, half an hour there, hour there…and so on, NOT enough time to burn my feet like this!
I apologize for you having to look at my feet, really….. sorry!’
‘A man with an unusually tiny brain managed to live an entirely normal life despite his condition, caused by a fluid buildup in his skull, French researchers have reported.
Scans of the 44-year-old man’s brain showed that a huge fluid-filled chamber called a ventricle took up most of the room in his skull, leaving little more than a thin sheet of actual brain tissue.
“He was a married father of two children, and worked as a civil servant,” Dr Lionel Feuillet and colleagues at the Universite de la Mediterranee in Marseille wrote in a letter to the Lancet medical journal.
The man went to a hospital after he had mild weakness in his left leg.’
Update: Nature has a CT image.
Apparently they need some seat belts.
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‘Scientists have converted an organism into an entirely different species by performing the world’s first genome transplant, a breakthrough that paves the way for the creation of synthetic forms of life.
The team, led by Craig Venter, the man who raced to sequence the human genome, wants to build new microbes to produce environmentally friendly fuels.
The group’s study, details of which were revealed in the US journal Science yesterday, proves it is possible to transplant a complete set of genetic instructions into an organism, in effect turning it into the same species the DNA was taken from.’
‘A Holly Hill woman said a cross-dressing prostitute assumed her look and stole her identity.
Brittany Ossenfort said her old roommate, who was identified as Richard Phillips, is pretending to be her as he sits in the Orange County Jail on a prostitution charge under her name.
“We had gotten a phone call while I was at work that he was in jail, and he was asking my boss to go bail him out,” Ossenfort said.
Ossenfort said she did some checking online.
“There it was, my name, my address, my birthdate, his picture looking like a girl,” Ossenfort said.’
‘A parasite common in Asian bees has spread to Europe and the Americas and is behind the mass disappearance of honeybees in many countries, says a Spanish scientist who has been studying the phenomenon for years.
The culprit is a microscopic parasite called nosema ceranae said Mariano Higes, who leads a team of researchers at a government-funded apiculture centre in Guadalajara, the province east of Madrid that is the heartland of Spain’s honey industry.
He and his colleagues have analyzed thousands of samples from stricken hives in many countries.’
Followup to Mystery of the dying bees.
‘A seagull has turned shoplifter by wandering into a shop and helping itself to crisps.
The bird walks into the RS McColl newsagents in Aberdeen when the door is open and makes off with cheese Doritos.
The seagull, nicknamed Sam, has now become so popular that locals have started paying for his crisps.
Shop assistant Sriaram Nagarajan said: “Everyone is amazed by the seagull. For some reason he only takes that one particular kind of crisps.”
The bird first swooped in Aberdeen’s Castlegate earlier this month and made off with the 55p crisps, and is now a regular.
Once outside, the crisps are ripped open and the seagull is joined by other birds.’
‘Some stupid rich kid ruins a BMW 740i while attempting a burn out. Its ok you can just drive it home backwards, daddy will never know.’
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‘A chubby-faced tearaway nicknamed Chucky after the demonic horror movie doll has been issued with an Asbo after using up 85 per cent of the local police time.
Oliver Clinch, 12, brought chaos and fear to his neighbourhood as he went on an alcohol-fuelled crime spree, smashing windows, stealing, abusing residents in the street and leading other youths ‘like the Pied Piper’.
Clinch’s victims are looking forward to their first peaceful night in more than a year after he was given a two-year anti-social behaviour order.
They hope it will bring to an end the 12-month reign of terror during which
4ft 5in Clinch committed at least 60 offences in Little Lever near Bolton.
PC Graham Westwell told Bolton magistrates that he had spent 85 per cent of his working life dealing with Clinch’s crimes. He said: ‘In my view, these 60 offences in the last year represent only half of the crimes he has committed.’
‘Vice President Dick Cheney will serve as acting president briefly Saturday while President Bush is anesthetized for a routine colonoscopy, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday.
Bush is scheduled to have the medical procedure, expected to take about 2 1/2 hours, at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, Snow said.
Bush’s last colonoscopy was in June 2002, and no abnormalities were found, Snow said.’
I just like the headline. 🙂
‘Jock Doubleday, director of the California non-profit corporation Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc., has offered $75,000 to the first medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO who publicly drinks a mixture of standard vaccine additives.
The additives would be the same as those contained in the vaccines recommended for a 6-year-old according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and the dose would be body-weight calibrated. It would include, but not be limited to:
* Thimerosal (a mercury derivative)
* Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
* Phenol (a disinfectant dye)
* Aluminum
* Benzethonium chloride (a disinfectant)
* Formaldehyde (a preservative and disinfectant)
On August 1, 2007, if no one has taken the challenge, the offer will be increased to $90,000 and will increase at a rate of $5,000 per month until someone accepts.’
‘Nigerian schoolchildren who received laptops from a U.S. aid organisation have used them to explore pornographic sites on the Internet, the official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported on Thursday.
NAN said its reporter had seen pornographic images stored on several of the children’s laptops.
“Efforts to promote learning with laptops in a primary school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials,” NAN said.
A representative of the One Laptop Per Child aid group was quoted as saying that the computers, part of a pilot scheme, would now be fitted with filters.’
