moonbuggy

(1.5meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘Tasmanian devils could be extinct in just 10 years, researchers at a University of Tasmania forum in Hobart said yesterday.

Devil scientists overwhelmingly believed the last wild devil would die in under 20 years without major action.

That would spell the end for marsupials like bettongs and eastern-barred bandicoots.

“There was very strong consensus that if we don’t do something, extinction will happen on mainland Tasmania,” said Professor of Wildlife Research Hamish McCallum, senior scientist with the Devil Facial Tumour Disease program.’

The cop even tries to get him a job. Hilarious. 🙂

(17.8meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘Officer Ben Henrich of the Prescott Police Department tried to rescue the driver of a pickup truck after she crashed into a house.

The truck struck a natural gas line and three minutes later the house exploded killing the driver and injuring the officer.

Officer Henrich was three feet away from the house when it exploded and was pulled to safety by a fellow policeman.

Henrich suffered burns, cuts, and whiplash.

Authorities are investigating to determine why the pickup truck crashed into the house.’

(2.8meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘The vast freshwater ecosystem of the Amazon River is home to abundant animal life, and many of its species thrive by virtue of their ferocity. If one were to ask the locals which of the river’s indigenous species is the most treacherous, a few might describe the roaming packs of carnivorous piranhas, or the massive anaconda snakes; but based on the general sentiment of the region, the most frequently uttered response would be “candirú.”‘

‘A man said he broke into an apartment with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being raped, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his upstairs neighbor was watching.

“Now I feel stupid,” said James Van Iveren, who has been charged in the case. “This really is nothing, nothing but a mistake.”

According to a criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning Feb. 12, damaging the frame and lock.

“Where is she?” Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the sword at the neighbor, the complaint said. “Where is she?” [..]

The neighbor later played for police the part of the DVD he believed Van Iveren heard downstairs.’

‘The NBC Today show aired this clip on Friday of a girl who has had the hiccups for over 3 weeks.’

(9.3meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘A smelly “fart bomb” had postal staff and firefighters holding their breath today when it burst at a postal sorting centre on Auckland’s North Shore.

The fart bomb was a giveaway in an internet magazine, but when other postal items were placed on top of the magazines being posted out the sachet bomb burst and released its contents shortly after daybreak. [..]

Acting deputy chief fire officer for the North Shore, Mike McEnaney, said the bomb was harmless but smelly and staff had no choice when they called the fire service.’

I wouldn’t want to fight her.

(1.4meg Windows media)

see it here »

A real time world map showing information about emergencies and disasters currently occurring.

‘In a stunning declaration at a London charity gig last night, teary punk celeb Kelly Osbourne revealed that a member of her family has the AIDS virus. [..]

Introducing a performance by the pop band Scissor Sisters, Kelly fought back tears as she said the cause was special to her because a member of her family had been diagnosed with the disease. Photographers said Osbourne sobbed before leaving the stage.

Calls and e-mailed requests for comment were not immediately returned.’

And into a puddle.

(1.7meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘To the locals, it’s the “McMissile” case.

And like the name, the details of it spill forth like a bad joke: A woman is driving north on Interstate 95. Three kids squirm in the back seat, and her sister, six months pregnant and having early contractions, sits in the front. The stress starts to simmer. Traffic slows, then crawls, then creeps. More stress. A car cuts in front of her, then scoots away. A short time later, it darts in again. She can no longer take it. She veers onto the shoulder and speeds up. Wham! She tosses a large McDonald’s cup filled with ice into the other car. [..]

The jury sentenced her to two years in prison, the minimum, and a judge will formally impose a sentence Wednesday. Under state law, the judge can only decrease the jury’s sentence.

“We didn’t think it would go this far,” Hall said in an interview at the Rappahannock Regional Jail. “Two years! What did I do?”‘

‘For a mere $82 a computer scientist and electronic voting critic managed to purchase five $5,000 Sequoia electronic voting machines over the internet last month from a government auction site. And now he’s taking them apart.

Princeton computer science professor Andrew Appel and his students have begun reverse-engineering the software embedded in the machines’ ROM chips to determine if it has any security holes. But Appel says the ease with which he and his students opened the machines and removed the chips already demonstrates that the voting machines are vulnerable to unauthorized modification.

Their analysis appears to mark the first time that someone who hasn’t signed a non-disclosure agreement with Sequoia Voting Systems has examined one of its machine’s internals.’

‘Marylynn Aminrazavi was happy. She was on vacation. Decked out in beach casual – oversized white T-shirt, colorful beach towel, hair in a bun – she leaned back in a chair by the Atlantic Ocean, put on her daughter’s iPod, and closed her eyes. Lost in the music, she began to sing along. Loudly.

The song was Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love to You.” Aminrazavi’s thin, nasal warble – not to mention her physique (she looks like your mom) – was clearly never intended for mid-90s R&B sex-pop. The resulting scene was comic gold: A 46-year-old suburban mother of two, blissfully unaware, belting out “I’ll make love to you / Like you want me to” to the dozens of beachgoers around her.

Had someone not had the presence of mind to capture the moment with a digital camera, it would have been lost forever. [..]’

(817kB Windows media)

see it here »

‘Rep. Don Young on Thursday added his voice to the speechifying about President Bush’s Iraq policy and bolstered it with what he thought was the voice of President Abraham Lincoln.

The man who Young quoted, though, was not the nation’s 16th president but a professor at a Washington, D.C., graduate school.

“I’d like to make a quote,” Young began after being granted his five minutes on the House floor. “‘Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged.'”‘

‘An elderly woman who had been living without power in her home due to hurricane damage was finally seeing the light Friday night, when power to her home was restored. What makes her story amazing is that the hurricane which put her in the dark was Andrew, almost 15 years ago, and she’s been living without power to her house since August 24, 1992.’

‘A dog trying to survive the subzero wind chills froze to the ground, but because of one woman’s generous heart, the dog has another chance at life, KMBC’s Lara Moritz reported Wednesday.

“He had sat down on the ground where the frozen ground was, and his body had stuck or bonded to the ground, so probably when he tried to stand up, it ripped the flesh from his rear area,” volunteer Melissa Zarda said.

The dog was named Shiver, and animal volunteers said it could happen to any dog left outside in the cold without shelter.’

‘A township woman was in critical condition at a Philadelphia hospital after accidentally setting herself on fire while lighting a cigarette over a stove. [..]

“We’re getting reports that she was lighting a cigarette over top of the stove, and the flames from the stove communicated to her hair and some clothing,” said Chief Oakley.

“Fortunate for her, she was standing underneath a sprinkler head, and the heat from when she ignited touched off the sprinkler head, and it was right over top of her,” he said.’

(3.0meg Windows media)

see it here »

‘Actor Sylvester Stallone says the seizure of several items of his luggage at Sydney Airport on Friday night was the result of a misunderstanding.

Customs officers are investigating the prohibited items, which were confiscated from Stallone and five others in his entourage when he arrived during a routine luggage check.

The actor and his party were held for several hours after X-rays showed up the banned items.

Customs are yet to confirm what the seized items are.’

‘A German paraglider is being hailed as “the luckiest woman in the world” after surviving a storm cell that sucked her higher than Mount Everest during a flight in northern New South Wales.

Ewa Wisnierska, 35, spent 40 minutes unconscious while being carried to a height of approximately 30,000 feet, where she was pounded by hail, narrowly avoided lightning and was covered in ice.

A 40-year-old Chinese paraglider sucked into the same storm cell was found dead yesterday, a day after going missing.’

‘The author of ForestBlog, a blogging tool, has discovered that the MPAA was using his code in violation of his license. He gives the code away for free, but requires that users link back to his site and keep his name on the software. The MPAA deleted all credits and copyright notices from his work, and used it without permission. They ripped him off:

Way back in October last year whilst going through the website referals list for another of my sites I stumbled across this link. That’s right, my blogging software is being used by the MPAA (Motion picture Association of America); probably one of the most hated organisations known to the internet. Cool, I thought, until I had a look around and saw that all of the back links to my main site had been removed with nary a mention in the source code!’

‘Ryan Burke decided it would be a great idea to amass a crowd of 100s of UNC students to witness him breaking up with his girlfriend Mindy. (Valentines Day 2007)’

‘I’m not ready to make it right, I’m not ready to back down..’

see it here »

‘In a unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Alabama statute banning the commercial distribution of sex toys, saying that there is no fundamental right to privacy raised by the plaintiff’s case against the law.

According to the statute, it is “unlawful for any person to knowingly distribute any obscene material or any device designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs.”’

‘An Italian judge has ordered 26 Americans and five Italians to stand trial for the kidnapping of a terror suspect in Milan in 2003, in what will be the first criminal court case over the CIA’s extraordinary rendition programme.

The decision, which indicts a number of senior intelligence officials from the US and Italy, concerns the abduction of a radical imam known as Abu Omar, who was flown to Egypt where he claims he was tortured under questioning on February 17 2003. Prosecutors say that five Italian intelligence officials worked with the CIA to abduct the Egyptian cleric.

All but one of the American suspects have been identified as CIA agents. [..]’

‘A 5-year-old girl fended for herself for days while she was left home alone with the body of her mother, who was found dead on her couch after apparently succumbing to bacterial meningitis, authorities said.

The body of Tina Tietz, 39, was discovered Sunday afternoon after a concerned longtime friend called 911.

Police had to force their way into her rural home in Muskegon County’s Fruitland Township, about 45 miles northwest of Grand Rapids. There they also found the woman’s daughter, Marissa, who had rummaged the house for food for an unknown number of days, and the family dog, which had been tied up inside.

Police found the cupboards open, rice and cereal spilled all over and the bathroom sink overflowing.’

‘Grocery store shopping cart handles have more germs than public restrooms, making them one of the worst public places for germs, according to researchers.

It’s a problem that at least one state, Arkansas, is trying to address, by passing a law forcing stores to clean up their carts.

How germy could shopping carts really be? Very, according to researchers at the University of Arizona who tested all kinds of public surfaces. They found that shopping carts were loaded with more saliva, bacteria and even fecal matter than escalators, public telephones, and even public bathrooms.

The only surfaces that had more germs were playground equipment and bus rails.’

‘Drivers on their way to breakfast in northern Virginia on Saturday found it all over the road after nearly 165,000 eggs spilled out of an overturned tractor-trailer on the Capital Beltway.

“It looked like a large omelet,” said Michael Karbonski, of the Virginia Department of Transportation. [..]

The truck driver fled the scene before police arrived and had not been located by Saturday afternoon, said state police spokesman Sgt. Terry Licklider. [..]’