‘An international research team has provided the first scientific evidence that deadly emerging diseases have risen steeply across the world, and has mapped the outbreaks’ main sources. They say new diseases originating from wild animals in poor nations are the greatest threat to humans. Expansion of humans into shrinking pockets of biodiversity and resulting contacts with wildlife are the reason, they say. Meanwhile, richer nations are nursing other outbreaks, including multidrug-resistant pathogen strains, through overuse of antibiotics, centralized food processing and other technologies. The study appears in the Feb. 21 issue of the leading scientific journal Nature.
Emerging diseases–defined as newly identified pathogens, or old ones moving to new regions–have caused devastating outbreaks already. The HIV/AIDS pandemic, thought to have started from human contact with chimps, has led to over 65 million infections; recent outbreaks of SARS originating in Chinese bats have cost up to $100 billion. Outbreaks like the exotic African Ebola virus have been small, but deadly.’
‘<Onyxus>: Have you ever been pwned by a 4 year old? I have, and so has my son.
<Onyxus>: 1.) I was riding in the car with my family and my daughter (as I have taught her) randomly said "I pwned a noob!" Being a proud father I reached back and said "Gimme five" to which she promptly responded "No you’re the noob!"
<Onyxus>: 2.) Just today me and the missus were sitting in the living room watching TV while the kids were on the porch playing in their tiny little swimming pool. My son ran up to the back door and was yelling something unintelligible at it, when my daughter ran up behind him and dumped a cup full of water over his head…multiple times. He ran off, most likely to cry in a corner somewhere, and she looked at me through the door and yelled "I pwned a noob Daddy!"
<Onyxus>: Words can not describe the pride I feel in how I’ve brought up my daughter…’
‘Hey gang. You may have noticed that I recently joined The Facebook. Maybe we are friends? Travolta convinced me to join, so I made him my “Top Friend.” However, I am only number four on his “Top Friends” list, behind Tom Cruise, L. Ron Hubbard, and a leg of lamb he has recently become fond of.
Newspapers tell me that social networks like The Facebook are revolutionizing the way we communicate with one another. I tend to agree. Never before have we had so many different ways to let tangential acquaintances know that we are interested in having sex with them.
For instance, if I post something like “Where have you been all my life?” or “Happy birthday!” on your Facebook Wall, that means that I would likely be interested in penetrating you in any number of different ways. And I can think of a lot of ways, because I’m Christopher Walken.’
‘Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced [‘albin’]) was a name intended for a Swedish child who was born in 1991.
The boy’s parents had planned to never legally name him at all, as a protest to the naming law of Sweden (Namnlag (1982:670)), which reads:
“First names shall not be approved if they can cause offense or can be supposed to cause discomfort for the one using it, or names which for some obvious reason are not suitable as a first name.”
Because the parents (Elisabeth Hallin and Lasse Diding) failed to register a name by the boy’s fifth birthday, a district court in Halmstad, southern Sweden, fined the parents 5,000 kronor (US$682 at the time). Responding to the fine, the parents submitted the 43-character name in May 1996, claiming that it was “a pregnant, expressionistic development that we see as an artistic creation.” The parents suggested the name be understood in the spirit of ‘pataphysics. The court rejected the name and upheld the fine.’
‘This dude hacks the jumbo screen at Utrecht Central Station to announce train cancellations and prank bystanders.’
This is the same guy from Kids Hack German Highway Signs.
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‘Castro once said: “If surviving assassination were an Olympic event, I’d win the gold medal.”
His bodyguard Fabian Escalante went back through his records and counted 638 attempts to kill the Cuban leader.
Many of them were confirmed in CIA files which were declassified last year.
President Kennedy was said to have asked James Bond creator Ian Fleming for tips on how to wipe out Castro – and many of the attempts to kill or discredit him seem more appropriate to a bad Bond spoof than real life.’
a woman in the moon is singing to the earth..
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I might like you better if we slept together..
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Heathcliff, it’s me! Kathy!
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‘A police officer in Hazelwood will have to pay thousands of dollars for getting into it with a firefighter while he was trying to help an accident victim.
News 4 obtained police video that shows the Hazelwood police officer arresting a fire captain while he’s trying to move an injured driver.
It happened on Interstate 270 back in May of 2003.
Officer Todd Greeves wanted a fire truck moved to open up another lane of traffic.
The Robertson Fire Protection District Captain wanted the truck there to protect emergency workers.
Officer Greeves has been ordered to pay $18,000.’
‘A building superintendent in the Bronx with a history of mental illness strangled his 14-year-old daughter and tried to burn her body in the building’s incinerator, the police said on Saturday.
The man, identified as Miguel Matias, 34, told officers that he had lost his temper and killed his daughter because he found her sending instant messages to a boy, the police said. Her name was not released. [..]
Mr. Matias called 911 on Saturday about 10 a.m. to say that he had killed his daughter, the police said. He said he had put her body in the woods, but officers discovered the girl’s body on fire in the incinerator in the boiler room of the building, at 1005 Walton Avenue in the South Bronx, near Yankee Stadium, the police said.
The authorities said that Mr. Matias had been placed in an institution years ago after he poured gasoline in a car while he and two children were inside, including the 14-year-old whom he was accused of killing.’
‘A technical glitch gave the F.B.I. access to the e-mail messages from an entire computer network — perhaps hundreds of accounts or more — instead of simply the lone e-mail address that was approved by a secret intelligence court as part of a national security investigation, according to an internal report of the 2006 episode.
F.B.I. officials blamed an “apparent miscommunication” with the unnamed Internet provider, which mistakenly turned over all the e-mail from a small e-mail domain for which it served as host. The records were ultimately destroyed, officials said.
Bureau officials noticed a “surge” in the e-mail activity they were monitoring and realized that the provider had mistakenly set its filtering equipment to trap far more data than a judge had actually authorized.’
‘The man accused of murdering a model said he was “totally disgusted” with himself for having sex with her corpse.
Mark Dixie, accused of killing Sally Anne Bowman, said he did not realise she was dead until after he had sex with her body, the Old Bailey heard.
He said he became suspicious when the teenager did not react to bites on her face and body.
Mr Dixie, 37, denies murdering the 18-year-old in Croydon, south London, during a sex attack, in September 2005.
Giving evidence, he said: “I don’t know what went through my mind. I took full advantage of someone and I should not have done it.”‘
Not the best place in the house for dancing.. 🙂
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‘Smokers could be forced to pay £10 for a permit to buy tobacco if a government health advisory body gets its way.
No one would be able to buy cigarettes without the permit, under the idea proposed by Health England.
Its chairman, Professor Julian Le Grand, told BBC Radio 5 Live the scheme would make a big difference to the number of people giving up smoking.
But smokers’ rights group Forest described the idea as “outrageous”, given how much tax smokers already pay. [..]
He said it was the inconvenience of getting a permit – as much as the cost – that would deter people from persisting with the smoking habit.
“You’ve got to get a form, a complex form – the government’s good at complex forms; you have got to get a photograph.
“It’s a little bit of a problem to actually do it, so you have got to make a conscious decision every year to opt in to being a smoker.”‘
‘The Gilbert Highland High community is outraged that a diorama they helped build has been destroyed after Texas museum officials said it was historically inaccurate.
The 10- by 5-foot diorama of the Battle at Palmetto Ranch, the last land battle of the Civil War, was shipped in August to the Texas Military Forces Museum at Camp Mabry in Austin to be on display along with four other dioramas built by Gilbert students. [..]
Highland history teacher Glen Frakes is especially outraged because more than 7,000 hours were put into the project by his students and other volunteers.
He supervised the after-school project, which involved more than 200 of his students. They helped build, paint and complete the diorama in a little more than three years. [..]
The diorama cost about $23,000, with labor worth between $60,000 and $130,000, Frakes said. [..]
“It looked like someone took their arm and back-swapped the whole thing,” Savoy said. “A master’s thesis doesn’t give you the right to destroy a diorama.”‘
‘Two shop-owners were today fined for selling chocolate cake – which had been sprinkled with human faeces.
A horrified customer ate the foul-smelling gateaux but noticed that it didn’t taste or smell “quite right” and handed the cake to public health scientists.
The analysts soon established that the sweet treat was covered in faeces and legal proceedings against the shop owners were started.
Shop owners Saeed Hasmi, 25, and Jan Yadgari, 23, were fined £1,500 for selling food unfit for human consumption.
The pair – who ran the Italiano Pizzeria in Roath, Cardiff – admitted the charge but did not say how the chocolate cake was contaminated.’
‘Seriously ill patients are being kept in ambulances outside hospitals for hours so NHS trusts do not miss Government targets.
Thousands of people a year are having to wait outside accident and emergency departments because trusts will not let them in until they can treat them within four hours, in line with a Labour pledge.
The hold-ups mean ambulances are not available to answer fresh 999 calls.
Doctors warned last night that the practice of “patient-stacking” was putting patients’ health at risk.
Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that last year 43,576 patients waited longer than one hour before being let into emergency units.’
‘A restaurant owner has apologised after diners had their very own F word experience – without Gordon Ramsay.
Ten friends found the abusive and sexually-explicit message on their bill at Joe Delucci’s Italian restaurant in Bird Street, Lichfield, Staffordshire.
Diner Clare Watkin said she thought it was written after they complained about poor service.
The party from Walsall had gone to the restaurant on Friday. Owner Nigel Langsdon has begun an investigation.
Ms Watkin said: “I couldn’t believe it. The bill read ‘fish cakes’, which one of us had for a starter, and it was written right above it – absolutely disgusting language.’
‘A national dance craze in Ivory Coast has spawned a black market in treatments claiming to increase one’s bottom size.
The dance in question has been inspired by DJ Mix and DJ Eloh’s hit song Bobaraba, which means “big bottom” in the local Djoula language.
When it plays you can be guaranteed that the dance floor will be packed with people shaking their derrieres.
Even Ivorian footballers have adopted the moves and could be seen wiggling their bottoms in a curious on-pitch dance after each goal scored during the just-ended Africa Nations Cup.
However, doctors have warned of the possible dangers of some of the concoctions on sale. ‘
‘A Central Florida woman whose 17-year-old daughter was killed in a murder-suicide apparently committed by her ex-boyfriend said the teen was told by police to stop calling for help or she’d be arrested.
Police said Clay Coffner shot his estranged girlfriend, Natasha Hall, in the head outside her DeLand home Friday before turning the gun on himself.
Hall’s mother, Sherry, said her daughter was concerned about Coffner and informed police.
In fact, Hall said her daughter called police so much that on Jan. 15 they threatened her.
“The police officer said if you call us one more time on him, I’m going to arrest you both,” Sherry Hall said. “So, the day she died, she knew she couldn’t talk to police. So, she handled it herself.”‘
‘Sometime after midnight on September 6, 2007, at least four low-flying Israeli Air Force fighters crossed into Syrian airspace and carried out a secret bombing mission on the banks of the Euphrates River, about ninety miles north of the Iraq border. The seemingly unprovoked bombing, which came after months of heightened tension between Israel and Syria over military exercises and troop buildups by both sides along the Golan Heights, was, by almost any definition, an act of war. But in the immediate aftermath nothing was heard from the government of Israel. In contrast, in 1981, when the Israeli Air Force destroyed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, near Baghdad, the Israeli government was triumphant, releasing reconnaissance photographs of the strike and permitting the pilots to be widely interviewed.’
‘The Queensland government says there is no reason to change the law after a court found a teacher could legally slap a student in the face.
An assault charge against a Gold Coast high school teacher who admitted slapping a year eight student in class was thrown out yesterday.
The magistrate accepted the teacher was practising “domestic discipline” – a law that allows a teacher to use reasonable force “by way of correction, discipline, management or control”.
Southport Magistrates Court was told Upper Coomera State College teacher Justin Ransfield, 37, slapped Aidan Pascoe, 14, in the classroom in December 2006.
The court heard Ransfield and the student clashed physically after the boy disobeyed a direction to start work.’
‘A car was dropped onto the roof of a building in an industrial park Sunday night, crashing through the ceiling and heavily damaging one business.
A forklift was used to hoist the 1966 Chevy Nova up and onto the roof of the Rancho Vista Business Park on Specialty Drive near Activity Drive about 7:30 p.m., said Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Maxin.
The car crashed into a business that specializes in the installation and repair of sliding glass doors and windows; it was heavily damaged, Maxin said.
It appears that both the heavy machinery as well as the car were parked somewhere near the site, Maxin said. The car was being repaired or refurbished, he said.
Witnesses said they saw a man running from the site.’
‘POLICE are stepping up the heat on potential terrorists by seeking access to “tens of thousands” of closed circuit television cameras.
Police will store every NSW camera location in a central database so that terrorists and other criminal activity can be speedily tracked.
Owners of large and small businesses who have installed CCTV cameras in customer areas or outside their premises will be asked to register them with police.
The information will be used to create a map of CCTV locations, allowing police to quickly source footage showing suspects and crimes.’
