‘A research report published in Applied Economics has found that the number of patients with violence-related injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms is related to the price of beer.
The paper is available online as a pdf and is from Cardiff University’s Violence and Society Research Group.
The researchers examined admissions to 58 hospital accident and emergency departments over a five year period and found that as the price of beer increased, violence-related injuries decreased.
In general, studies have found that alcohol consumption increases both the risk of being a victim of violence and the perpetrator of it.’
‘A gunman robbing a convenience store allowed the clerk to call 911 and apologized after the woman said she might be having a heart attack. But he still took $30 and cigarettes, authorities said. [..]
She started hyperventilating and pleaded with the gunman for help.
“I have heart trouble. Help me,” Parker said.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the gunman replied.
“I have heart trouble,” Parker told him.
“Ma’am, it’s going to be all right,” the gunman said.
“I’m probably going to have a heart attack,” Parker said.
“Oh my, ma’am, please do not have a heart attack. Please do not have a heart attack. Please don’t, ma’am,” he said.’
An excerpt of a recent conversation I had:
Anon says: Downloaded over a gig of porn last night on [friend]’s 500mb/month wireless internet quota and [the ISP seems] to think I downloaded 80mb…. they also seem to have credited her account $300…
Anon says: I should download porn more often. 🙂
moonbuggy says: That’s a bit crazy. You musta downloaded so much pr0n you broke them. 🙂
Anon says: Was only a few days into the quota too…
Anon says: Bloody pornfest 07
Anon says: Yeah… is quite strange..
moonbuggy says: [grin] She gonna be annoyed? 🙂
Anon says: Nah…
Anon says: What… that I wanked hard, downloaded shitloads of porn and made her $300?
Anon says: Would you be mad?
see it here »
‘[..] rather than seek venture financing and hire a staff, it may be better for one or two people to create a relatively simple site — say, a hobbyist blog for guitar enthusiasts — and use a service like Google AdWords to, hopefully, make enough money to live on.
But to make $50 million with a big staff-produced content-rich guitar site, sponsored by, say, Fender and Gibson, a site would have to generate more than 200 million page views a month, Mr. Liew estimated.
A site aimed at a specific demographic, like teenagers or Asian-Americans, would need to generate 800 million page views a month, by Mr. Liew’s reckoning.’
‘Sydney suburb Mosman is set to become the first officially smoke-free municipality in Australia – if not the world – after banning smoking in every council-controlled public space.
The blanket prohibition, passed unanimously by council last week, cements Mosman’s reputation as Australia’s most zealous anti-smoking neighbourhood, taking its war on cigarettes even further than advocated by the NSW Cancer Council.
Residents themselves will help enforce it, according to councillor Andrew Brown, who said Mosmanites had taken on a vigilante-style role in the campaign against nicotine.
“Members of the public will approach people who they see smoking on the beach or in parks and tell them it is not allowed and they risk a fine of $110,” Mr Brown said.’
‘Authorities confiscated more than $200 million in U.S. currency from methamphetamine producers in one of this city’s ritziest neighborhoods, they said Friday, calling it the largest drug cash seizure in history.
The seizure reflected the vast scope of an illegal drug trade linking Asia, Mexico and the United States, officials said. Two of the seven people arrested Thursday at a faux Mediterranean villa in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood were Chinese nationals.’
(11.8meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘A nasty bite on the hand that a man got from his sister’s Siamese cat is worth $122,400.
A jury on Friday awarded Michael Sabo, 57, the money for an injury he got when the cat, Randy, bit his right hand in March 2004.
Sabo’s fingers swelled so much that they looked like “plump hot dogs,” his attorney, Tom Pabst, told The Flint Journal, and an infection put Sabo in a hospital for three weeks. He had to pay thousands in medical bills.’
‘There’s a new sheriff in town and his name is John Doe. And he may be in the cubicle next to you.
Under a newly amended rule from the Internal Revenue Service, ordinary citizens can help the tax man cometh, or at least collect. The new Whistleblower Office is the IRS’s attempt to give incentives for you to rat out the tax cheats you know.
That’s right. If your employer, co-worker, landlord, neighbor or father-in-law is raking in fistfuls of cash and bypassing Uncle Sam, you can anonymously report the abuse to the IRS and snag a windfall from their dishonesty.
As long as the total amount of tax fraud comes out to at least $2 million (including penalties, interest, and whatever else the government ultimately collects based on your report), you can get a 15 to 30 percent cut.’
‘So Wolf began snooping around and found that two chains, Costco and Sam’s Club, sold generics at prices far, far below the other chains. Even once you factor in the cost of buying a membership at Costco and Sam’s Club, the price differences were astounding. Here are the prices he found at Houston stores for 90 tablets of generic Prozac:
Walgreens: $117
Eckerd: $115
CVS: $115
Sam’s Club: $15
Costco: $12
Those aren’t typos. Walgreens charges $117 for a bottle of the same pills for which Costco charges $12.’
‘We’ve been dealing with the pocket-emptying effects of rising gas prices, new electric rates, and an increase in cab fare, but how would you feel about breaking the bank all for…a pizza? Now you can find out thanks to Manhattan restauranteur Nino Selimaj, who has apparently brought from the heavens a real “pie in the sky” with his new $1,000 pizza.
Yep, that’ll be $1,000 please. [..]
“Let them say I’m crazy,” Selimaj says. “But I believe in this product, and it’s gonna sell!”‘
‘The Bush administration wants to eliminate federal support for geothermal power just as many U.S. states are looking to cut greenhouse gas emissions and raise renewable power output.
The move has angered scientists who say there is enough hot water underground to meet all U.S. electricity needs without greenhouse gas emissions.
“The Department of Energy has not requested funds for geothermal research in our fiscal-year 2008 budget,” said Christina Kielich, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy. “Geothermal is a mature technology. Our focus is on breakthrough energy research and development.”‘
‘It all started when a 45-year-old man chased desperately after a Route 33 SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia shortly before 5 p.m., hoping to catch his ride.
Watching the running man intently from inside the bus, police say, was a man in his late 50s or early 60s. The younger man must have thought he was in luck – the Route 33 bus stopped, allowing him to hop on board. Police say he paid his fare and was immediately confronted by the man who’d been watching him.
The older man “began grabbing or shaking him, and asked him, ‘Where’s my money?’ Then he shot him twice in the head,” said Lt. Rich Brown of Central Detectives.’
‘Halliburton, the big energy services company, said today that it would open a corporate headquarters in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai and move its chairman and chief executive, David J. Lesar, there.
The company will maintain its existing corporate office here as well as its incorporation in the United States. [..]
The announcement about the Dubai move, which Halliburton made at a regional energy conference in Bahrain, comes at a time when the company is being investigated by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegations of improper dealings in Iraq, Kuwait and Nigeria. Halliburton has also paid out billions in settlements in asbestos litigation.’
‘Developers have turned a house into an island in China after the owner refused to move out.
The villa now stands alone in a 30ft deep man-made pit in Chongqing city, reports Jinbao Daily.
The Chongqing Zhengsheng Real Estate Company wants to turn the area into a £40m ‘Broadway’ square, including apartments and a shopping mall.
But the owner of the villa says he won’t move out unless the company pays his price – the equivalent of £1.3 million.
“The villa owner refuses to move, so the real-estate developer has had to dig out all around it to force him to,” says a saleswoman at Weilian Real Estate Sales Company.’
‘”I am not the Cookie Monster,” said Tory Caruth, laughing.
But cookies are why he spent time in the Will County Jail after the Girl Scouts sued him in small claims court.
Girl Scouts of Trailways claimed Caruth never paid for 118 boxes of cookies his daughter ordered five years ago.
The 40-year-old Joliet trucker is listed on permission forms as his daughter’s guardian responsible for payments. The 118 boxes were valued at $354 when the order was placed in January 2002. Caruth claims that money was turned in to the organization.
While his name is on the documents, Caruth said he never signed the forms, which state “failure to turn over or any misuse of these funds on my part will result in legal action taken against me by Girl Scouts.”
“I never ordered, never signed for and never received any cookies,” he said.’
‘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.’
‘Within the last five years, pets have finally overtaken farm animals in the pharmaceutical marketplace, claiming 54 percent of spending for animal drugs, according to the trade group Animal Health Institute.
Keeping more than 130 million dogs and cats alone, Americans bought $2.9 billion worth of pet drugs in 2005. Though equal to only 1 percent of human drug sales, the market has grown by roughly half since the year 2000.
“As more and more drugs are being developed for people, more and more drugs are being developed for veterinary medicine. It’s really a parallel track,” says Dr. Gerald Post, founder of the nonprofit Animal Cancer Foundation.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved more than 40 new pet drugs over the past five years.’
‘The Government’s financial support for tertiary students was among the most generous in the world and students should be more frugal, Education Minister Julie Bishop said today.
Her comments follow a study that found university students were regularly going without food because they could not afford to eat.
The Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee’s 2006 survey found one in eight students (12.5 per cent) regularly went without food or other necessities because they could not afford them.
It also revealed university students were worse off financially last year than they were in 2000, with 70.6 per cent of full-time undergraduates working about 14.8 hours a week to make ends meet.’
‘An 18-year-old man has been detained for repeatedly defecating in front of a cash machine in a bank vestibule in the southern German town of Eggmuehl.
A police spokesman said the man, who left his deposit at the bank eight times, was caught only after the bank installed video monitors to film him in action.’
‘A 12-year-old boy has been charged with sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman in a car park in north Queensland.
Police said the woman had parked her car in a multi-level car park in Townsville yesterday about 10.30am (AEST) and was walking to the lift when she was approached by the boy.
The boy allegedly grabbed her around the throat and dragged her towards the stairwell, where he sexually assaulted her.
He also allegedly stole money from the woman’s handbag.’
‘Authorities on Tuesday were looking for a man who robbed a bank in Anchorage while swinging a flaming torch fashioned from a burning T-shirt and a yard-long metal pole. On Monday, the masked robber threatened to set fire to people, including the teller, and burn down the bank building in Fairview if his demands weren’t met.
The man stormed the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union branch at about 3:45 p.m., said FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez. He yelled at customers to get down on the floor.
He fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of money, authorities said. All customers managed to flee the bank, authorities said.
Police later recovered the still smoldering shirt outside the bank.’
‘Antony and Cleopatra — one of history’s most romantic couples — were not the great beauties that Hollywood would have us believe, according to British academics.
A study of a 2,000-year-old silver coin found the Egyptian queen, famously portrayed by a sultry Elizabeth Taylor, had a shallow forehead, pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose.
On the other side, her Roman lover, played in the 1963 movie by Richard Burton, Taylor’s husband at the time, had bulging eyes, a hook nose and a thick neck.
History has depicted Cleopatra as a great beauty, befitting a woman who as Queen of Egypt seduced Julius Caesar, and then his rival Mark Antony.
But the coin, which goes on show on Wednesday at Newcastle University for Valentine’s Day, after years lying in a bank, is much less flattering about both famous faces.’
‘Opium production in Afghanistan reached record levels last year, the United States has said.
The US State Department’s annual report on narcotics also said the flourishing drugs trade was undermining the fight against the Taleban.
It warned of a possible increase in heroin overdoses in Europe and the Middle East as a result.’
‘Nearly 20 years ago, the World Health Organization and its partners launched an ambitious program to eradicate polio by the end of the millennium. That deadline passed and another was missed in 2005 and polio still strikes about 2,000 people a year, mostly children.
At a WHO meeting this week, some leading experts asked a grim question: Is it time to abandon the goal of eradication and focus instead on containing the disease? The answer, for most, was no even though many had doubts.
“Many people wonder why we are spending all this time and effort on polio when there are much bigger problems,” said Dr. Donald A. Henderson, who headed WHO’s smallpox eradication program in the 1970s. Smallpox is the only disease ever to have been eradicated.’
‘Kevin Russell found out it’s not easy trying to cash a check from God. The 21-year-old man was arrested Monday after he tried to cash a check for $50,000 at the Chase Bank in Hobart that was signed “King Savior, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Servant,” Hobart police Detective Jeff White said. [..]
Police were called to the bank after Russell tried to cash the check, which was written on an invalid Bank One check with no imprint, White said. Russell had several other checks with him that were signed the same way but made out in different dollar amounts, including one for $100,000.’
‘Former Neighbours favourite Alan Dale says he hates the makers of the TV soap, saying he left feeling ripped off.
Dale, who played Jim Robinson in the glory years of the Ramsey Street soap from 1985 to 1993, has since become a success in the US where he has appeared in an array of high profile programs.
But despite that success, 59-year-old Dale remains bitter over how he feels he was treated during his time on Neighbours. He says he snubbed the progam’s 20-year anniversary because he felt ripped off.
“I didn’t like it there, they were not nice people,” Britain’s Daily Mirror quotes Dale as saying.’
‘The reason Al Gore’s energy bill is so high is because he and his wife chose to receive “green power,” which costs them $4 more per 150 kilowatt-hours than their utility’s regular plan. Furthermore, Al Gore’s house has 20 rooms due to offices, security, etc.
The Gores choose to raise their bill by over 50 percent in order to minimize carbon pollution.
That’s the real truth… Inconvenient or not.’
Followup to: Al Gore’s Personal Energy Use Is His Own “Inconvenient Truth”
‘If you are too drunk to drive, you might want to think about ditching the assault rifle. And the cocaine. Ditto the marijuana. And you definitely don’t want to pretend you’re a police officer.
Gwinnett police have arrested a 24-year-old Lawrenceville man after he asked for change for $100 at a fast-food drive-through last week and the clerk noticed an assault rifle in his lap.
He was slurring his words as he asked for change at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday at a McDonald’s on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, police said in a news release Monday. When the driver noticed that the clerk had seen the gun, the driver claimed he was a police officer. He either passed out or fell asleep at the wheel.
Store clerks called police and said the man appeared to have been drinking. The driver awoke a moment later, got upset because he didn’t get his change and left.’
‘A man charged with robbing a bank, for the second time since 2005, tried to show police the loot, but discovered he had been robbed, Fayetteville police said.
Joseph Thomas Mulkerin, 46, was arrested at a Bragg Boulevard motel Tuesday and charged with common law robbery of $2,179 from the Wachovia branch on Green Street, said police spokeswoman Jamie Smith.
He had been released from prison Jan. 11 after serving a sentence for the 2005 robbery of the same bank, in which he pleaded guilty to taking $1,098.
Mulkerin went to his motel room to show officers the money, but discovered some missing. Police later charged motel maintenance man David Mims, 49, with breaking into the room and taking some of the cash, Smith said.’
