‘A 75-year-old man with terminal cancer has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, and he never even got his $3 back.
John Paul Kent had prepaid $40 to gas up his Oldsmobile Delta 88 last summer at a gas station near his Jensen Beach apartment. He became angry when a clerk couldn’t open the cash register to give him his $3 in change.
Authorities said Kent left the store and returned with a nine-millimeter pistol. He then fired five shots into the floor.
This led to a six-hour stand-off with deputies outside his apartment, which was located in a retirement community.’
‘”Changes in climate are now affecting physical and biological systems on every continent,” the report says, in marked contrast to a 2001 report by the same international group that said the effects of global warming were coming. But that report only mentioned scattered regional effects.
“Things are happening and happening faster than we expected,” said Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., one of the many co-authors of the new report. [..]
The hardest-hit continents are likely to be Africa and Asia, with major harm also coming to small islands and some aspects of ecosystems near the poles. North America, Europe and Australia are predicted to suffer the fewest of the harmful effects.’
‘Two Atlanta men survived an attempt to kill themselves Friday by cutting off their arms with a circular saw, according to Atlanta Police Major Lane Hagin.
The men managed to sever three of their arms about six inches above the wrist, he said.
The two men — ages 40 and 41 — left a suicide note with the manager of their Atlanta apartment building saying they were committing suicide because their business had failed and they were recently diagnosed with HIV, Hagin said.
After reading the note, the manager called police who found the two men in their apartment with “a lot of blood,” the major said.’
Polar bears are pretty smart.
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‘Since October 2006, 35 per cent or more of the United States’ population of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) – billions of individual bees – simply flew from their hive homes and disappeared.
[..] Across the 24 U.S. states affected by the mysterious phenomenon, losses have ranged up to 90 per cent. “I’ve had a couple of yards where I’ve had 200 hives and they’re down to 10 hives that are alive,” says David Bradshaw of Visalia, about 180 kilometres southeast of Los Banos along California’s Route 99.
What’s causing the carnage, however, is a total mystery; all that scientists have come up with so far is a new name for the phenomenon – Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – and a list of symptoms.’
‘”I’ve got her, and you’re not going to get her.”
Beth Johnson heard those words from her ex-husband Monday, shortly before he crashed his rented single-engine plane into his former mother-in-law’s southern Indiana home, killing himself and the couple’s 8-year-old daughter.
The mother-in-law, Vivian Pace, described the cell phone call Tuesday as investigators tried to determine why student pilot Eric Johnson strapped his daughter into the plane’s passenger seat and apparently crashed the plane deliberately into the one-story house. [..]
“That was the only way he could hurt Beth,” she said. “That was the only way he could get to her.”
In the cell phone call, Pace said, her daughter could hear the child in the background saying, ‘Mommy, come get me, come get me.””
‘This photos are from cemetery in Yekaterinburg city. This Russian city was known in 90s as “crime capital of Russia”, many Russian mafia leaders lived there, and many of them participated in gang wars, as a result many of them now rest in peace on this cemetery. They always liked tombs like those, the production of such tomb also costs thousands of dollars.’
‘New research published in the March issue of Psychological Science may help elucidate the relationship between religious indoctrination and violence, a topic that has gained renewed notoriety in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. In the article, University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman and his colleagues suggest that scriptural violence sanctioned by God can increase aggression, especially in believers.
The authors set out to examine this interaction by conducting experiments with undergraduates at two religiously contrasting universities: Brigham Young University where 99% of students report believing in God and the Bible and Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam where just 50% report believing in God and 27% believe in the bible. [..]
The research sheds light on the possible origins of violent religious fundamentalism and falls in line with theories proposed by scholars of religious terrorism, who hypothesize that exposure to violent scriptures may induce extremists to engage in aggressive actions.’
‘Britney Spears has flipped her lid in rehab, trying to hang herself with a bedsheet after screaming “I am the anti-christ” to frightened staff.
She made the demonic cry after scrawling the devil’s number “666” across her head. [..]
The ordeal began when she terrified staff by writing the number of the beast on her head and running around the clinic screaming, “I am the anti-christ!”
“The clinic people just didn’t know what to do,” a friend claimed.
The pop star then tried to hang herself with a bedsheet was but was found before she could hurt herself.’
‘Two packages containing human body parts — including a liver and a partial head — that were intended for a lab were delivered to a home instead, and officials say more than two dozen similar packages could be dispersed across the United States.
The body parts, sent from China, were mistakenly dropped off at Franck and Ludivine Larmande’s home by a DHL driver who thought the bubble-wrapped items were pieces to a table.
“My husband started to unwrap one and said, ‘This is strange, it looks like a liver,'” Ludivine Larmande told The Grand Rapids Press. “He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear.”
“Something wasn’t right. It was scary, and I’m glad I didn’t open them.”‘
‘After 13-year-old runaway Brenda Nguyen drank a fifth of vodka in less than half an hour, she spent four hours throwing up and slipping in and out of consciousness, authorities said.
Four adults and her best friend were in a Phoenix apartment with her. She drank that much at the urging of one of the adults so he could have sex with her, Phoenix Police Department detectives said. Another prayed over Brenda as her life slipped away. Someone even revived her with cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
But nobody called for help, police said. Instead, thinking she would be OK, they took a nap.
When they awoke and found the eighth-grader dead, they loaded her 97-pound body into a car and dumped it in a Phoenix alley, authorities said.’
‘A great presentation of five apocalyptic scenarios.’
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‘Japanese health authorities are investigating a flu medicine that is also available in Australia after a teenager jumped 11 storeys to his death after taking the drug. It was the 18th juvenile fatality linked to Tamiflu in 17 months.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has asked the Japanese importer of Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug regarded as the most important shield against bird flu in humans, to collect information about the conditions of patients who take the drug.
The 14-year-old boy’s death follows a similar case two weeks ago, when a girl also 14, died after jumping from an apartment building at Gamagori, in central Japan.’
‘A 4-year-old Redwood City boy was struck and killed by a sport utility vehicle after sledding down a driveway and into traffic in Truckee, police said today.
Kunal Mohindroo was playing with his parents in the snowy driveway Saturday when he slid into the street and was struck by the SUV, which was driven by a 38-year-old Burlingame man, said Lt. Randy Fenn of the Truckee police.
“As I understand it, they’d been doing this for a while and there had been no problems,” Fenn said. “He was riding the sled up and down the driveway. At one point, he slid out in the street and got past his parents.”‘
‘Taking certain vitamin supplements may adversely affect people’s lifespan, researchers have suggested.
Millions worldwide use antioxidant supplements such as vitamins A and E, and beta-carotene.
Looking at dozens of previous studies, Copenhagen University researchers suggested these appeared to raise, not lower, the risk of early death.
A supplements industry expert said the Journal of the American Medical Association study was fatally flawed.
But nutritionists said it reinforced the need to eat a balanced diet, rather than relying on supplements.’
‘An obese 26-year-old man in northeastern China died after a “marathon” online gaming session over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media said on Wednesday.
The 150-kg (330-lb) man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending “almost all” of the seven-day break playing online games, the China Daily said, citing his parents.
Xu Yan, a local teacher, said the “dull life” during the holiday prompted many people to turn to computer games for entertainment.’
‘A race car is travelling at over 180 MPH when a seagull crashes into and breaks his windshield.’
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‘As various parties continue to fight over the remains of Anna Nicole Smith and custody of her baby, John Travolta has stepped into the fray.
The Pulp Fiction star has decided to use her death as a chance to promote Narconon – the controversial Church of Scientology drug rehab programme – saying it could have saved the Playmate’s life. [..]
Travolta said: ‘It’s so sad. We could have helped her with Narconon but didn’t get a chance to. I wish we had.’ [..]
Scientologists claim Narconon is 85 per cent effective.
However, critics say it is a front to recruit vulnerable drug abusers into the religion.
Either way, it is sadly too late to help Smith now.’
‘Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran ruled Friday that even though Michigan law does not explicitly define sex with a dead dog as a crime, charges against a Saginaw man will stand. [..]
Fehrman had said in previous written and oral arguments that a dead dog is not an animal and therefore cannot be violated against its will.
Sheeran said the purpose of the sodomy law is not to protect a specific victim, necessarily, but ”to prevent people from debasing and dehumanizing themselves.” Such laws also protect society, Sheeran said, and ”prevents people from acting like animals themselves.”’
‘ Terry Gilliam’s film Tideland gets a second chance starting today.
The story of a young girl whose parents are drug addicts — which Gilliam describes as a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Psycho — fared poorly with audiences during a brief U.S. theatrical release last fall. [..]
Gilliam says that the movie, which also stars Jennifer Tilly, is “about people in search for love, it’s about relationships. It’s also about drugs, sex and necrophilia. What more would you want in a movie?” he adds with a laugh. [..]
But he persisted, he says, “because I think it was genuinely a good story to tell. The fact is a lot of the public won’t like it, but I’m actually interested in the part of the public that will.”‘
‘A 28-year-old Chico man was killed Monday after he lost control of his car while working on his laptop computer while driving, according to the California Highway Patrol.
“We have reason to believe he was operating his laptop because it was still on and plugged into the cigarette lighter,” said CHP Cmdr. Scott Silsbee. [..]
The crash closed lanes in both directions for nearly two hours and traffic was diverted to alternate routes while a helicopter transported an injured couple to Rideout Hospital and work crews cleared the debris.’
‘A feud threatens to tear apart the family of Thomas Watson jnr, the founder of IBM, after a claim by his daughter’s estranged lesbian lover to a share in his fortune.
The battle over how to divide up the multi-million-dollar Watson trust fund has been triggered by an extraordinary legal question before a US court: is his daughter’s one-time lover also Watson’s grandchild?’
‘The highest U.N. court cleared Serbia on Monday of direct responsibility for genocide in Bosnia during the 1992-95 war, but said Belgrade had violated its obligation to prevent and punish the mass killing.
Bosnia had asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on whether Serbia committed genocide through the killing, rape and ethnic cleansing that ravaged Bosnia during the war, in one of the court’s biggest cases in its 60-year history.
It was the first time a state had been tried for genocide, outlawed in a U.N. convention in 1948 after the Nazi Holocaust.’
‘The illegal trade of elephant ivory has reached such unprecedented levels in Africa that the authors of a U.S. report published Monday are urging western nations to provide more aid for better enforcement.
They say the trade has increased despite an international ban on ivory imposed in the late 1980s.
“Poaching right now has reached its worst levels in history,” said Samuel Wasser, one of the report’s authors and director of the University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology in Seattle.’
‘At least 11 people died and more than 100 people were injured at an annual spring festival in eastern Pakistan celebrated with the flying of thousands of colorful kites, officials said Monday.
The deaths and injuries were caused by stray bullets, sharpened kite-strings, electrocution and people falling off rooftops on Sunday at the conclusion of the two-day Basant festival, said Ruqia Bano, spokeswoman for the emergency services in the city of Lahore.
The festival is regularly marred by casualties caused by sharp kite strings or celebratory gunshots fired into the air. Kite flyers often use strings made of wire or coated with ground glass to try to cross and cut a rival’s string or damage the other kite, often after betting on the outcome.’
‘One of the elephants, Topsy, was known for having a bad temper, and had killed three people in the last three years. After the last killing, it was decided that she had to be destroyed by hanging. Note, I am making none of this up. New York’s ASPCA protested that hanging was cruel, citing the fact that it had been replaced by electrocution in the NY penal system. Luna Park’s owners took the protest in stride, and decided that electrocution would be the kindest solution, and one that they could sell tickets for! They enlisted the willing Thomas Edison to help with technical matters.’
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‘This is the last haunting self- portrait of Andrew McAuley, a man and his kayak, alone. All around, a vast seascape of emptiness. The green-grey Tasman Sea heaving, the horizon a cruel circle.
For 30 days and nights, wherever the Australian adventurer turned his salt-rimmed eyes, he understood his aloneness.
“I never once doubted he would do it,” his wife, Vicki, said yesterday. And he almost did.
[..] At 7.15pm, the New Zealand Coastguard picked up an almost indecipherable distress signal from a vessel that identified itself as Kayak 1. There were two clear words: “help” and “sinking”. Then silence.’
