moonbuggy

‘Forget everything you know about reducing fractions — it turns out you can just cancel individual digits: [..]’

‘The last thing Andrea Fernandez recalls before being drugged is holding her newborn baby on a Bogota city bus.

Police found her three days later, muttering to herself and wandering topless along the median strip of a busy highway. Her face was badly beaten and her son was gone.

Fernandez is just one of hundreds of victims every month who, according to Colombian hospitals, are temporarily turned into zombies by a home-grown drug called scopolamine which has been embraced by thieves and rapists. [..]

The use of scopolamine by criminals appears to be confined to Colombia, at least for now, and it’s not clear why the drug is such a rampant problem in Colombia. [..]’

‘A group of residents in Orange County fed up with drivers speeding through their neighborhood protested by standing and even lying in the road Wednesday night.

Neighbors said cars speed through their neighborhood at 70 mph and faster on a daily basis to avoid a nearby stoplight.

A group held signs and basically shut down traffic while pleading with people to slow down.

“The safety of our children is at stake here,” parent Kathleen Tenney said. “We need people to slow down and not cut through our neighborhood.”‘

‘The Navy accepts no theories of racial differences in inborn ability, but expects that every man wearing its uniform be trained and used in accordance with his maximum individual capacity determined on the basis of individual performance.

It is recognized, of course, that Negro performance in Naval training and tasks on the average has not been equal to the average performance of white personnel. Explanation of this difference by resort to some theory of differences in natural endowment, however, leads only to confusion in which the potentialities of individuals become obscured.

It has been established by experience that individual Negroes vary as widely in native ability as do members of any other race. It is the Navy’s responsibility to develop the potentialities of individuals to the extent that the exigencies of war require and permit.’

‘Tied to a lamppost, he stands with his head and upper body covered in tar and feathers. A makeshift placard hung around his neck with a piece of string announces the reason for his treatment.

It is a very public humiliation, and a medieval one. Almost ten years since Northern Ireland’s Troubles officially ended, this remains the crude face of justice on the streets of south Belfast. [..]

Locals had accused the victim, who is in his thirties, of being a drug dealer. And when police allegedly did not act, they took the law into their own hands.

Two masked men tied up the accused victim, poured tar over his head and then covered him in white feathers, apparently from a pillow case.’

see it here »

‘Male drivers who paid $5 for a topless car wash ended up getting hosed. Young women held up signs along a parkway advertising the car wash on Sunday and telling the drivers where to go. But hidden behind a big blue tarp, it was shirtless male firefighters who were washing the cars.

“A little bit of a bait-and-switch,” Assistant Chief Donald Prince admitted. “All the guys back there are all topless.”

Female drivers didn’t seem to mind the shirtless firefighters. Male drivers, though, felt they were getting burned.’

Things have been a little quiet here these past few days, primarily because I decided to spend some time making a web site full of nothing but random images that amuse, interest or disgust me.

It’s basically good to go, so go check it out if random images are your sort of thing. 🙂

There’s a very small amount of extra functionality on it’s way aswell [more navigation options and some ratings], and I’ll be adding more pictures as I come across them too.

If you (dis)like it or have any suggestions, leave me a comment here so I can do something about it. 🙂

What is says. NSFW without headphones, tho if you work in IT you might be able to get away with it. Claim it’s a standard diagnostic tool and you’ll be fine. 🙂

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see it here »

‘He rode his mule into town looking for work.

No, it wasn’t the opening scene of a Western movie. It was what Rod Maday did last week, ending a six-week odyssey from his hometown of Boy River, Minn.

“I’ve done about 1,500 miles and I’ve got the saddle sores to prove it,” he said.

Maday said he lost his driver’s license 10 years ago after he was accused in a hit-and-run, and was having a hard time finding work in Minnesota. He heard that Wyoming had plenty of jobs that paid well.

He set out with two mules. About a month ago, both mules got loose and one was hit by a car. It had to be euthanized.’

‘Scientists have discovered that inorganic material can take on the characteristics of living organisms in space, a development that could transform views of alien life.

An international panel from the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Max Planck institute in Germany and the University of Sydney found that galactic dust could form spontaneously into helixes and double helixes and that the inorganic creations had memory and the power to reproduce themselves.

A similar rethinking of prospective alien life is being undertaken by the National Research Council, an advisory body to the US government. It says Nasa should start a search for what it describes as “weird life” – organisms that lack DNA or other molecules found in life on Earth.’

‘An Australian woman was killed by a pet camel given to her as a 60th birthday present after the animal apparently tried to have sex, police said Sunday.

The woman, whose name was not released, was killed Saturday at her family’s sheep and cattle ranch near Mitchell, 600 kilometers (350 miles) west of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, state police Detective Senior Constable Craig Gregory said.

The 10-month-old male camel — weighing about 150 kilograms (330 pounds) — knocked the woman to the ground, lay on top of her, then exhibited what police suspect was mating behavior, Gregory said.’

This one doesn’t really make much sense. Fake? Or clever dog?

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see it here »

‘The 50-foot California pepper tree was in Kelley Fornatoro’s backyard when she went on vacation Aug. 2.

It was gone when she got back a week later. [..]

It took two days and a sizable crew from Oxnard-based Julian’s Tree Care to remove the nearly 30-year-old tree from her Rustic Court home in Thousand Oaks, neighbors told Fornatoro.

The question both Fornatoro and the police are asking is who hired the company to remove the tree?

The tree removal cost $3,500 and the company hasn’t been paid. A police report lists the company as the second victim in the case along with Fornatoro. [..]

Replacing the tree that was cut down with one similar in age and stature would cost $52,000 to $60,000, according to other tree service companies Fornatoro consulted with. The price includes labor and special equipment.’

‘A couple were thwarted in their effort to leave this small central Wisconsin town when they were arrested for robbing a gas station with a samurai sword.

Renee Ferreri, 22, told police that she and Brian A. Schmid, 24, “were tired of their lives, and they just ‘gave up,'” according to a criminal complaint.

The couple needed money to leave town, so they stole a 2000 Mercury Sable on Aug. 8 from the Jeepers Gin Mill and drove to their home to pick up the sword and two stocking caps, police said. [..]

Police arrested the couple after a Plover officer remembered seeing several samurai swords in their apartment when he responded to a domestic disturbance call in May.’

‘Steven Earp, 48, was eating a fast-food sandwich Wednesday morning, said police Sgt. Doug Mozan.

Earp choked and blacked out. His 1997 Honda sedan hit a parked car. After the wreck, Earp came to.

Mozan attributed his revival to a “seat-belt-induced Heimlich maneuver.”

Witnesses told police Earp got out of his car, and they asked if he was OK.

“No, I’m not,” he said, and collapsed again.’

The waves are created by huge chunks of ice falling off a glacier and into the sea.

(3.2meg Flash video)

see it here »

‘An 8-year-old girl who recently moved to Florida caused a panic when she tried to ride back home to Ohio on her bicycle out of fear of hurricanes.

A sheriff’s helicopter, search dogs and neighbors found the girl after an hour-long search Wednesday night.

“It is amusing but at the same time sad,” DeLand police Deputy Chief Randel Henderson said. [..]

DeLand police arrived and began a search, aided by tracking dogs and a Volusia County sheriff’s helicopter. A homeless camp also was searched.’

‘Whenever folks who have lived or traveled in Germany gather for a beer, sooner or later one subject is sure to rear its ugly head: what is the deal with those toilets? [..]

We’ve had innumerable bad experiences with German toilets. In Berlin, we lived on an upper floor and the water pressure was too weak to push a healthy-sized log off the shelf. After a few minutes’ fruitless flushing you’d be forced to grab a wad of toilet paper and give the horrid thing an encouraging nudge. Then followed a lengthy bout of brushing and cleaning to remove the skid marks from the porcelain. At the other extreme, in Munich we lived in a basement suite where the water pressure was too high. Worse, the shelf was actually slightly concave, forming a shallow bowl. The first time I flushed the toilet the water came rushing through so forcefully that a small chunk of poo launched off the lip and shot out over the floor. After that we always held the lid down when we flushed. I swore you could feel a kick as the turd ricoched off the underside.’

‘Malaysian police have arrested a man who practised as a dentist for 29 years although he had no medical training and treated patients at his home in a cast-off examining chair.

The impostor’s closest brush with the dental profession was during the years 1962 to 1978, when he assisted an army dentist by carrying his bag on visits to plantation workers’ homes, the New Straits Times reported.

“I watched the doctor diagnose and treat problems with teeth,” the paper quoted the unidentified man as saying when officials raided his home this week.

“I also saw how he would extract teeth and make models and measurements for dentures.”‘

‘A diplomatic incident of some kind is perhaps foreseeable when four young Liverpudlians arrive in a land they’ve never seen before to meet legions of screaming, weeping young women. That might be what Harold Wilson had in the back of his mind when, as Prime Minister, he ensured that a visit to the British embassy in Washington was on the Beatles’ itinerary when they travelled to the US in February 1964.

If that was the case, then Wilson had evidently not anticipated quite how enthusiastically the Fab Four would actually be received by the likes of Lord Harlech, British ambassador of the day, and his wife Lady Sylvia Ormsby-Gore. [..]

John Lennon was pushed and pulled by a “rugby scrum of young Foreign Office officials” while George Harrison was grappled into a corner by dozens of autograph hunters in formal dress. But Ringo had the worst of it. “Someone just cut off a piece of my hair. I’m ruddy mad. This lot here are terrifying,” he said. “Much worse than the kids.”‘

‘Laughter might be unexpected in a liquor store where a robbery just occurred. But that’s how employees responded to the “Duct Tape Bandit” who hit Shamrock Liquors in Ashland and fled nearly empty handed.

A man who had his head wrapped in duct tape to conceal his identity walked into the store last Friday, police said.

Store manager Bill Steele had some duct tape of his own, but his was wrapped around a wooden club that sent the robber fleeing, according to a report by WSAZ-TV in Huntington, W.Va.

Store employee Craig Miller said he chased the man to the parking lot, tackled him and held him in a choke position until police arrived, the station reported. An unidentified customer also helped, police said.’

Also with a video interview with the man from the jail.

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see it here »

‘Parents concerned about knife crime are getting “slash-proof” school uniforms for their children.

A company is offering to modify blazers and jumpers by lining them with knife-resistant Kevlar.

Bladerunner in Romford, east London, said it has been contacted by the parents of five local pupils about the £130 adaptation.

But the government said stabbings in schools were very rare and accused the firm of scaremongering for profits.’

This is a site run by an apartment complex manager, with lots of interesting and amusing stories about her dealings with tenants. For example, a letter to a tenant:

‘Dear Mr. Levert,

I understand that it’s quite frustrating to receive many upon many late rent notices when you seem pretty convinced you brought the cheque on the first of the month. I also understand that you’re a very busy man and “don’t have time for this shit”, and that I should just, as you eloquently put it, “fucking fix it.” [..]

But it’s all okay, because calling you and getting screamed at that you don’t have time to fix our fuck-up and that we better stop sending late rent notice makes me feel quite special, especially as the eviction date draws closer (and I love nothing more than having TWO pending evictions in one month). [..]’

‘Like any three-year-old, Tom Trueman is constantly at risk of taking a tumble.

But in his case every fall could prove fatal – which is why he wears a safety helmet every waking moment.

Tom, who has already had ten operations, had half of his skull removed after a hospital infection attacked most of the bones in his head.

He has astounded doctors with his progress since but, as his everwatchful parents know, a knock from a fall or a glancing blow from a stray football could cause permanent brain damage or prove fatal.’

see it here »

‘”Brady Bunch” parody “Not the Bradys XXX” hits stores Sept. 18, bringing back memories of the sweet innocent times of the 1970s, according to the company.

“This movie just makes you feel good as you watch it,” said co-producer Scott David of X-Play, which produced the movie with distribution coming through LFP.

“This is a family-style porn movie, which I’m not sure has ever been done,” said the movie’s co-producer Jeff Mullen. “We live in an era of extremely hardcore sex where double-doubles and reverse bukkakees with anal triple-Lutz moves reign supreme, however ‘Not the Bradys XXX’ isn’t about that, but it is the kind of movie you can show the entire family. [..]

The film also stars Mike Horner playing the sensible father, Alana Evans as Carol the mom, Lynn LeMay as Alice and Ron Jeremy as Sam the Butcher. [..]’

‘Three hundred chickens died in panic early on Sunday when a drunken German teenager on a joyride crashed a van into their shed, police said.

“Apparently some of the chickens were so desperate to get away that they ran into the wall and died,” the spokesman said. “Others suffered heart attacks.”‘

‘Police have used a stun gun to subdue a man who smeared himself with faeces and blood after being thrown out of a Gold Coast nightclub.

Officers were called after a security guard was assaulted by a man who had been evicted from the club in Orchid Avenue, Surfers Paradise, around 3.30am (AEST) today.

By the time officers arrived, the man had undressed himself and covered his entire body in faeces and blood, police said.’

‘Every hour Jack breaks through the door and the famous line “Here’s Johnny” plays followed by the scream of Shelly Duvall’