‘David Levy is an expert on artificial intelligence and president of the International Computer Games Association. He’s one of those people who seem qualified to prognosticate on our technological future. His forecast: In a few short years nearly everyone will be having sex with robots.
I have no trouble believing that men will have sex with robots. If I had a robot I’d make it clean the bathroom and dust.
But Levy, 62, author of the recently released Love and Sex With Robots, says women will want some too. [..]’
‘A Canadian man survived 96 hours pinned under his all-terrain vehicle in the Rocky Mountains by eating rotting animal carcasses, drinking melted snow and thinking of his grandchildren, he said on Monday.
Ken Hildebrand was trapped face down for four days and three nights in the Crowsnest Pass area of southwestern Alberta, where he tried numerous ways to free himself in below-freezing temperatures.
Throughout the ordeal, he kept wolves and coyotes away by blowing on an emergency whistle.
“I thought of my family and God and that was it,” Hildebrand, a paramedic, told Reuters from his hospital bed in Lethbridge, Alberta.’
‘A group of registered sex offenders and convicted felons who were told by the Department of Corrections to live under a bridge in Fort Lauderdale have been chased away by neighbors, police and the Department of Transportation.
On Friday night, police officers posted “No Trespassing” signs underneath the Oakland Park Boulevard Bridge over the intracoastal and told the former felons that if they didn’t leave they’d be arrested. The group packed up their things and headed west.
They set up a camp on the edge of the Everglades, far away from schools, parks and civilization. [..]
“Hopefully nobody’s going to complain about it and we can be left alone for a while,” said Mark DaCosta, an ex-convict who is not a sex offender but was ordered to live by the same rules as a condition of his parole.
The Department of Corrections had the men reporting to the bridge every night because they couldn’t find a place for them to live that wasn’t too close to school or park. State law prohibits sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of anyplace children congregate. [..]’
‘An 81-year old man in the small Chilean village of Angol shocked his grieving relatives by waking up in his coffin at his own wake, local media said on Sunday.
When Feliberto Carrasco’s family members discovered his body limp and cold, they were convinced that the octogenarian’s hour had come, so they immediately called a funeral home, not a doctor.
Carrasco was dressed in his finest suit for the wake, and his relatives gathered to bid him a final farewell. [..]
The man who “rose from the dead” said he was not in any pain, and only asked for a glass of water.’
For some reason this guy filmed himself whilst checking the stock market. On this occasion he happens to lose his entirely life savings. Apparently, the stock market fucked him in the arse.
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‘A small town has been rocked by the copycat suicides of seven young people.
Local people fear the hangings are linked to a chilling internet cult.
Within 24 hours of the latest death last week, two friends of the teenage girl had also attempted suicide.
Yesterday police took computer equipment from 17-year-old Natasha Randall’s home in Bridgend, South Wales.
Detectives confirmed they are investigating a possible suicide chain – the seven dead are all linked in some way although they did not all know each other.
Several of them posted personal profiles on the social networking internet site Bebo.’
‘A jilted boyfriend wreaked revenge on his former lover by showing his mates a secret film of her performing oral sex on a dog.
Kenneth Morris, 54, was left furious when his former girlfriend ditched him for someone else – and left him footing the rent bill.
When he found a DVD of her performing oral sex on a dog in an obscene homemade film, he decided to get his own back.
Morris copied the DVD then gave it to one unsuspecting friend saying: “Watch this – it’s gross.”
The shocked pal was so disgusted by what he saw he immediately alerted the RSPCA and police.’
‘Given that she describes herself as a human pet – and is happy to walk around on a lead – Tasha Maltby is used to odd looks and even odder remarks.
But nothing had prepared her for the reaction of the bus driver who allegedly told the self-styled Goth and her boyfriend: “We don’t let freaks and dogs like you on.”
Miss Maltby and her fiance Dani Graves were so angered they have complained to the bus company of being “victimised”.
“It is definitely discrimination, almost like a hate crime,” 19-year-old Miss Maltby said yesterday.
The music technology student had this defence of her lifestyle.
“I am a pet, I generally act animal like and I lead a really easy life,” she said.’
‘The Rev. Ted Haggard emerged from three weeks of intensive counseling convinced he is “completely heterosexual” and told an oversight board that his sexual contact with men was limited to his accuser.
That is according to one of the disgraced pastor’s overseers, who on Monday revealed new details about where Haggard has been and where he is headed.
The Rev. Tim Ralph of Larkspur also said the four-man oversight board strongly urged Haggard to go into secular work instead of Christian ministry if Haggard and his wife follow through on plans to earn master’s degrees in psychology.’
‘After a long, dry decade, La Nina has arrived at last, bringing drenching rains across most of Queensland and stretching into NSW and Victoria.
Cattle farmer Fred Ahern and his family were airlifted from their Murweh Station property on the banks of the Warrego River, south of Charleville, yesterday. They were forced out by rising floodwaters that have reduced their homestead to an island invaded by snakes. But Ahern couldn’t be happier. The rain means he’ll be able to return to his normal stocking level of 1200 breeders after reducing the herd to 700 because of drought.
“Am I happy? Am I ever,” Ahern says. ‘
‘That’s not funny. I’m sitting in loads of shit.’
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‘China has systematically covered up the accidental deaths of at least 10 workers, and perhaps many more, in a rush to construct the futuristic “bird’s nest” stadium in Beijing for this summer’s Olympic Games.
The estimates are drawn from dozens of interviews conducted over six months, under a guarantee of anonymity, with employees from the huge building site in a northern district of the capital.
Witnesses have told The Sunday Times of seeing workers plummet to their deaths from the perilous heights of the stadium [..]
The bodies were swiftly removed by police, who sealed off accident scenes with orange tape and cleared other workers from the area while the dead were loaded into police vehicles, witnesses said.
Managers and police ordered the workers not to mention the deaths to anyone and not to talk about the accidents among themselves.’
‘Two Australians have been jailed for a failed heist which left one of them with a bag of bread rolls and the other with a bullet in the backside.
Benjamin Jorgensen, 38, and Donna Hayes, 36, were sentenced to seven and eight years respectively for the robbery in a Melbourne restaurant.
During the robbery, Jorgensen grabbed what he thought was a bag of money – only to find it contained bread rolls.
He also accidentally fired his gun, hitting Hayes in the buttock.
Judge Roland Williams described the two, who had expected to steal takings worth about A$30,000 ($26,000, £13,000), as a “pair of fools”.’
‘Perched on a rock, she could be waiting for a bus.
But if so, she could be in for an awfully long wait.
This photo of what looks remarkably like a female figure with her arm outstretched, was taken on Mars.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has set the Internet abuzz with claims that there really is life on the red planet.
Others may well feel that it is simply an optical illusion caused by a landscape.’
‘The actor Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon in an apartment in Manhattan, according to the New York City police. Signs pointed to a suicide or an accidental overdose, police sources said. Mr. Ledger was 28.
At 3:31 p.m., according to the police, a masseuse arrived at the fourth-floor apartment of the building, at 421 Broome Street, between Crosby and Lafayette Streets in SoHo, for an appointment with Mr. Ledger. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of the bedroom Mr. Ledger was in. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger naked and unconscious on a bed, with sleeping pills — both prescription medication and nonprescription — on a night table. They moved his body to the floor and attempted to revive him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities.’
she got legs, she knows how to use them..
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This is a mildly amusing clip of a ventriloquist who’s act goes slightly wrong. Good recovery tho. 🙂
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‘Two in three Australian travelers are either members of the notorious Mile High Club or would like to be a member, a survey showed on Monday.
Asked if they would consider a mid-air sexual encounter, almost half of 1,110 people surveyed wanted an adventure, while 12 percent already had mile-high membership wings.
“People are obviously looking for more stimulating entertainment than a movie or a CD when traveling by plane,” Totaltravel.com global marketing manager Paul Fisher said.
A flight attendant for Australia’s flag carrier Qantas was sacked last year after claiming to have had a tryst with actor Ralph Fiennes in a business class lavatory during a flight from Darwin to Mumbai.’
‘In the name of Jesus, stop it!’
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‘NASA is wrestling with a potentially dangerous problem in a spacecraft, this time in a moon rocket that hasn’t even been built yet.
Engineers are concerned that the new rocket meant to replace the space shuttle and send astronauts on their way to the moon could shake violently during the first few minutes of flight, possibly destroying the entire vehicle.
“They know it’s a real problem,” said Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor Paul Fischbeck, who has consulted on risk issues with NASA in the past. “This thing is going to shake apart the whole structure, and they’ve got to solve it.” [..]
Professor Jorge Arenas of the Institute of Acoustics in Valdivia, Chile, acknowledged that the problem was serious but said: “NASA has developed one of the safest and risk-controlled space programs in engineering history.”‘
.. that last comment means almost nothing when engineering history has so few space programs in it. 🙂
‘A Canadian prostitute says she bared her cleavage and hiked up her skirt as she drove through the border at Blaine, where her “sure thing” always waved her through with a smile, even though her car was packed full of marijuana.
Minutes later, she’d fool around with the guard at a gas station down the road.
The border guard, Desmone Bastian, says it never happened.
“I’ve never failed to perform my duties,” Bastian told a federal jury Friday in Seattle. “I did my job with a lot of integrity, and a lot of pride.”
Bastian, 31, a U.S. citizen who lives in Surrey, B.C., worked as a U.S. immigration inspector for eight years before being charged in 2006 with taking a bribe — free sexual contact, and sometimes money — in exchange for turning a blind eye when the prostitute, Sandra Maas, would cross the border in his lane.’
It’s certainly a fairly crazy looking move. He’s lucky he didn’t break his leg, I reckon. 🙂
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‘A police siren that can’t be ignored.
Police in Oklahoma are excited over a new piece of equipment called the “Rumbler.” It is a very loud siren – so noisy that drivers will be able to feel their seats vibrate from the sound.
The low tone is also surprising many drivers – making them look up and pull over.
“It’s a deeper tone than the normal,” says driver Abby Ross.
And you don’t just hear the Rumbler, you feel it.
“A little bit, just a little bit. A little vibration in the seat and the car, not a big difference but enough to know they’re back there,” adds driver Don Balente.
And that’s exactly why Tulsa Police bought them. Officers say, even with their lights on and sirens blaring, drivers don’t notice their patrol cars.’
‘Microsoft is developing Big Brother-style software capable of remotely monitoring a worker’s productivity, physical wellbeing and competence.
The Times has seen a patent application filed by the company for a computer system that links workers to their computers via wireless sensors that measure their metabolism. The system would allow managers to monitor employees’ performance by measuring their heart rate, body temperature, movement, facial expression and blood pressure. Unions said they fear that employees could be dismissed on the basis of a computer’s assessment of their physiological state.
Technology allowing constant monitoring of workers was previously limited to pilots, firefighters and Nasa astronauts. This is believed to be the first time a company has proposed developing such software for mainstream workplaces.’
‘For the past ten years, the London-born actor has led a resolutely reclusive existence, locked away on a remote 50-acre estate in the mountains of County Wicklow (hence the former public schoolboy’s recently acquired Irish brogue).
He has emerged to make just four films in the past decade, including his latest role as a violent oil prospector in There Will Be Blood, which won him a Golden Globe this week (hence this rare appearance in Los Angeles), has been nominated for a Bafta, and is tipped to earn him a second Best Actor Oscar. [..]
But the win comes as rumours circulate in Hollywood that one co-star quit the movie in disgust after branding Day-Lewis “crazy and intimidating”. [..]
Visitors to his home – which can be reached only via a narrow track – have revealed how he spends his time obsessively practising his twin hobbies of shoe-making and woodwork, as well as riding for hours at a time alone through the mountains on his push bike.’
‘A Boyce man has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for burning a young relative with hot food.
Robert Eston Larrick Jr., 40, was sentenced on Tuesday in Winchester Circuit Court.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jason Caccamo said Larrick shoved a “smoldering” Hot Pocket sandwich in the 11-year-old victim’s face.
Caccamo said the child suffered first- and second-degree burns around her eye. Larrick did not take the child to the hospital for medical treatment after the incident.
Last month, Larrick entered Alford pleas to charges of malicious bodily injury and felony child abuse. An Alford plea means he did not admit guilt, but acknowledged sufficient evidence exists for a conviction.’
‘A woman arrested for causing a scene at a Valley restaurant spat at an officer and on the drive to the police station threatened to hunt down the officer’s wife and children, investigators said. [..]
As Barnes was being led to the patrol car, she spat at one of the officers and struggled with them, officers said. The woman claimed she was a lawyer and kickboxer, according to authorities.
Once inside a patrol car, she began hitting her head against the window and threatening to kill herself, according to police.
She told one of the officers on the drive to the police station, “I will come after you with a vengeance. I will come to your station. I will never let you rest. I will hunt your wife. I will hunt your kids.”‘
