`Fifty new pink coloured taxis serving women only were introduced Monday in Dubai by the Public Transport Organisation under the name “Women’s Taxi”. The taxis are being operated by 100 women drivers of different nationalities.
“The women drivers have been trained on driving skills at specialised institutes as well as dealing with the customers according the customs and traditions of the community,” said Mohamed Obeid, chairman of the Public Transport Organization.
“They have been also trained on dealing with women and children, handling emergencies as well as reaching governmental organizations, entertainment and tourist sites.”‘
‘Guy came home to find his house broken into and naked guy sleeping on his couch.’
(5.3meg Windows media)
see it here »
`Scientists are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of “gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans. [..]
It raises the prospect that pregnant women could one day be offered a treatment to reduce or eliminate the chance that their offspring will be homosexual. Experts say that, in theory, the “straightening” procedure on humans could be as simple as a hormone supplement for mothers-to-be, worn on the skin like an anti-smoking nicotine patch.
The research, at Oregon State University in the city of Corvallis and at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, has caused an outcry. Martina Navratilova, the lesbian tennis player who won Wimbledon nine times, and scientists and gay rights campaigners in Britain have called for the project to be abandoned.
Navratilova defended the “right” of sheep to be gay. [..]’
Sounds like a giant chicken hatchery or something.
(4.7meg Flash video)
see it here »
`A cell phone became a lifeline for a Detroit man who woke up inside a garbage truck that had begun compacting its load, Oak Park, Mich., police said.
The man, 41, was scavenging for cans and bottles in the city’s Dumpsters when he apparently fell asleep, Lt. Mike Pousak said. He was awakened after the Dumpster he was in was unloaded into a garbage truck at about 2 p.m. Thursday. The man, whose name was not released, used his cell phone to call 911.
Pousak said the man didn’t know where he was, but that he hadn’t been drinking, and he isn’t homeless. The man is, however, unemployed.’
This is kinda cool, but a bit crazy. If the hills too step to pedal up, there’s always walking. This could be overkill. [shrug] 🙂
see it here »
`Drivers swerved cars and trucks into other lanes to avoid a 3-year-old boy, wearing only a diaper and T-shirt, who was playing along a busy highway after wandering away from home while his mother slept, police said.
Some motorists stopped along Interstate 465 on the city’s west side Saturday to take care of the boy until officers arrived, the Indiana State Police said.
“I looked up and I seen this little … boy running down the middle of the slow lane in the interstate. I just could not believe what I was seeing,” said Troy Crady, one of those who stopped to help. [..]
Senior State Trooper Cedric Merritt said that when Dyer was told of her son’s activities, she responded: “Oh, he got out again.”‘
`A new poll from The Associated Press and AOL News has discovered that Americans are torn in terms of their perception of President George W. Bush and his performance in 2006. When asked to name the past year’s biggest villain, Bush was far and away the #1 choice, commanding 25% of the vote, distantly trailed by Osama Bin Laden (8%), Saddam Hussein (6%), President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran (5%), North Korean leader Kim Jong II (2%) and Donald Rumsfeld (2%). Satan only took in 1% of the vote, as did Hugo Chavez, Tom Cruise, Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Rosie O’Donnell, among others.
On the flipside, Bush also claimed the top spot when Americans were asked to name the year’s biggest hero, but with only a trifling 13% of the vote. [..]
There’s some video over at Crooks and Liars.
`An emu has been stolen from an animal centre by burglars who then hid it in a wheelie bin to make their getaway.
Volunteers at Lords House Farm in the Rishton area of Blackburn, Lancashire, said they fear the emu will have died.
Burglars took the bird from the farm, which offers riding and animal therapy, then hid it in a bin stolen from a neighbouring property.
Lancashire police said the bin was pushed for almost a mile, before being abandoned and the emu taken.’
`A berserk Bronx woman who received a samurai sword as a Christmas gift used the blade to attack her mother yesterday during a fight over cigarettes, police and relatives said.
Erica Torres, 22, repeatedly cut her mother, Sylvia Pantoja, with the sword at about 8 a.m. after the mom attempted to stop Torres and her sister from arguing over a pack of smokes, police and relatives said.
“She just went lunatic on everybody,” said Torres’ 14-year-old sister, Jasmin Cabrera. “She was up until 2 saying she was going to kill everybody. Then she took the sword and went wild.”‘
If you give a sword as a present to a lunatic then I s’pose you reap what you sow. [shrug] 🙂
`In a ground-breaking case, a 24-year-old Norwegian woman has been sentenced to nine months in prison and fine after being convicted of forcing sex on a sleeping man. [..]
The incident took place on Jan. 4, 2004, at an apartment in Bergen, Norway. According to court documents, the man said he found the woman performing oral sex on him as he was sleeping on the couch.
The woman however said that she did indeed perform fellatio on the man but claimed he was awake and approved of what she was doing.
However the man disagrees and says that the incident scared him and subsequently caused mental anguish and psychological difficulties.’
`Historic Mecca, the cradle of Islam, is being buried in an unprecedented onslaught by religious zealots.
Almost all of the rich and multi-layered history of the holy city is gone. The Washington-based Gulf Institute estimates that 95 per cent of millennium-old buildings have been demolished in the past two decades.
Now the actual birthplace of the Prophet Mohamed is facing the bulldozers, with the connivance of Saudi religious authorities whose hardline interpretation of Islam is compelling them to wipe out their own heritage.’
`Suppose an anthropoid were taken into a typical human family at the day of birth and reared as a child. Suppose he were fed upon a bottle, clothed, washed, bathed, fondled, and given a characteristically human environment; that he were spoken to like the human infant from the moment of parturition; that he had an adopted human mother and an adopted human father . . . . The experimental situation par excellence should indeed be attained if this technique were refined one step farther by adopting such a baby ape into a human family with one child of approximately the ape’s age.’
‘Trikke (pronounced tri-ike) three-wheeled cambering machines are human-powered vehicles that use Trikke Tech’s patented 3CV technology to allow a rider to propel this chainless, pedal-less vehicle forward without ever needing to touch the feet to the ground.’
This is a strange bike/skateboard/scooter type combination, and there are some interesting videos of it in use.
‘These guys are on top of the Great Wall of China and they give their camel a beer. I guess the camel was pretty thirsty!’
(3.5meg Windows media)
see it here »
`Two brothers in Peabody say they caught a man who allegedly broke into their mother’s home Christmas Eve by pulling down his pants to slow him down before police arrived. [..]
While John Medeiros struggled with Wallace, George Medeiros was able to call police.
But Wallace kept trying to get away, so George Medeiros said he came to a last resort – he “pantsed” him – including his underwear – all down to his ankles.
“I figured it would slow him down if he got up to run,” he told the paper.’
`Salvador Celaya, a 73-year-old with Alzheimer’s disease, wore black rubber boots, dirty blue jeans and a flannel shirt Friday as he rummaged through the charred remains of the Phoenix home where he and his wife raised six children. [..]
The future for Salvador Celaya and his 69-year-old wife, Carlota, was uncertain two days after police serving a search warrant pried open the front door and launched a diversionary grenade through a bedroom window that started a fire that destroyed the house. [..]
“This is not a botched search warrant,” said Gilbert police spokesman Lt. Joe Ruet. “It’s not the wrong house, and it’s a very serious criminal that we’re after.”’
BoingBoing is covering a story about a crazy looking comic put out by the NRA. The images in the comic have been described as such:
`With their mutant critter hordes of lobsters, islamofascist deer, and TNT-totin’ owls, razor-eschewing hippie chicks who’ve escaped from R. Crumb comix are coming to burn down your white suburban home. And ye shall know them by the tracks of their Birkenstocks.’
A PDF copy of the comic is available here.
(3.9meg PDF)
`China’s government, which suppresses a range of information deemed threatening to national security, now wants to keep weather forecasts from falling into the wrong hands, state press has reported.
New regulations to take effect next year will clamp down on the illegal acquisition of Chinese meteorological information by foreigners, the China Daily newspaper reported.
The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) has identified about 20 breaches of weather security since 2000, the paper said.’
`A 15-year-old boy has been sentenced to four years in a juvenile treatment program after deputies stopped him driving a stolen bus along a public transit route, picking up passengers and collecting fares. [..]
Davis also lost his driving privileges for a year, though he doesn’t have a license. The sentence means he won’t be able to drive for a year after getting a permit or license.
He was already on probation for taking a tour bus and driving passengers around in January, authorities said.’
`The South Korean Government is handing out gifts for office workers who promise not to visit brothels this holiday season.
“If you promise yourself to make it a healthy night out at the end of the year, and if you recommend this to others, we are giving lots of prizes,” the Ministry of Gender Equality said in an internet posting.
The ministry is offering to pay companies whose employees pledge not to buy sex after what are typically alcohol-soaked, year-end parties.’
`Today, Hacienda Napoles is in ruins, taken over by jungle foliage and bats. The sprawling Spanish-style mansion has been gutted, scavenged by treasure hunters looking for stashes of gold and cash buried under the floors. [Pablo] Escobar is long gone, cut down in a hail of police gunfire.
But the hippos are still here.
[..] Now the original four have multiplied to 16 and, far from starving to death, as some expected, they have learned to forage like cows.’
`[..] statuettes of “El Caganer,” or the great defecator in the Catalan language, can be found in nativity scenes, and increasingly on the mantelpieces of collectors, throughout Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region, where for centuries symbols of defecation have played an important role in Christmas festivities.
During the holiday season, pastry shops around Catalonia sell sweets shaped like feces, and on Christmas Eve Catalan children beat a hollow log, called the tio, packed with holiday gifts, singing a song that urges it to defecate presents out the other end.’
‘The Learning Channel takes a fascinating look at the lives of conjoined twins Brittany and Abigal. [..]’
(12.5meg Windows media)
see it here »
`Siberian scientists believe that addiction to alcohol and narcotics, as well as depression, suicidal thoughts and psychosomatic diseases occur when an individual loses his or her interest in life. The absence of the will to live is caused with decreasing production of endorphins – the substance, which is known as the hormone of happiness. If a depressed individual receives a physical punishment, whipping that is, it will stir up endorphin receptors, activate the ‘production of happiness’ and eventually remove depressive feelings.
Russian scientists recommend the following course of the whipping therapy: 30 sessions of 60 whips on the buttocks in every procedure. A group of drug addicts volunteered to test the new method of treatment: the results can be described as good and excellent.’
`Police said the robber entered the bank and shot 25-year-old James R. Garrison in the chest, fatally wounding him. [..]
The robber then approached another teller and said, “Give me all of it,” and the teller gave him an undisclosed amount of money, according to police. The robber said, “Merry Christmas,” and fled.
Garrison was pronounced dead at a hospital.’
I find the quiet little “Aah, sheisser” at the end kinda strange.
see it here »
If I die and find myself in one of these things, I’m gonna come back and haunt the cunt who put me in it. 🙂
