‘SUMMARY
During normal operation or in Safe mode, your computer may play “Fur Elise” or “It’s a Small, Small World” seemingly at random. This is an indication sent to the PC speaker from the computer’s BIOS that the CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance. This is a design feature of a detection circuit and system BIOSes developed by Award/Unicore from 1997 on.
MORE INFORMATION
Although these symptoms may appear to be virus-like, they are the result of an electronic hardware monitoring component of the motherboard and BIOS. You may want to have your computer checked or serviced.’
‘”Holy shit.”
Inside the cockpit of the cruising airliner, Captain Bob Pearson was understandably alarmed at the out-of-the-ordinary beeps that were chiming from his flight computer. On the control panel, an amber low fuel pressure warning lamp lit up to punctuate the audio alarm.
First Officer Maurice Quintal, copilot of Air Canada Flight 143, checked the indicator light to determine the cause of the computer’s complaints. “Something’s wrong with the fuel pump,” he reported.
The mustachioed Captain Pearson pulled out the trusty Boeing handbook, his fingers dashing through the pages to find the specifics of the warning. To his relief, the troubleshooting chart indicated that the situation was not as perilous as it might seem: the fuel pump in the left wing tank was signaling a problem, a minor issue considering that gravity would continue to feed the engines even if the pump failed. [..]’
A grandmother’s reaction to 2 Girls, 1 Cup.
(3.5meg Flash video)
see it here »
This is the wiki entry for Syphilis. Why, you ask? Because this small part of it amuses me greatly:
‘Until that time, as Fracastoro notes, syphilis had been called the “French disease” in Italy and Germany, and the “Italian disease” in France. In addition, the Dutch called it the “Spanish disease”, the Russians called it the “Polish disease”, the Turks called it the “Christian disease” or “Frank disease” (frengi) and the Tahitians called it the “British disease”.’
Also, the spiral shape of the organism is cool. That’s all. 🙂
‘Attacks against British and Iraqi forces have plunged by 90 percent in southern Iraq since London withdrew its troops from the main city of Basra, the commander of British forces there said Thursday.
The presence of British forces in downtown Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city, was the single largest instigator of violence, Maj. Gen. Graham Binns told reporters Thursday on a visit to Baghdad’s Green Zone.
“We thought, ‘If 90 percent of the violence is directed at us, what would happen if we stepped back?'” Binns said.
Britain’s 5,000 troops moved out of a former Saddam Hussein palace at Basra’s heart in early September, setting up a garrison at an airport on the city’s edge. Since that pullback, there’s been a “remarkable and dramatic drop in attacks,” Binns said.
“The motivation for attacking us was gone, because we’re no longer patrolling the streets,” he said.’
‘When I was 17 i was at school doing a veterinary studies course, and as part of that course, we had to complete 2 full weeks of work experience at a vet clinic of our choice. Okay, no worries, I can handle that…right?
Um NO. [..]
The second week, a puppy was brought in to the clinic. It had scruffy black fur, and even though it was pretty dopey looking, I thought it was cute.
They placed it down on one of the tables and I stood by and watched what I assumed would be a routine check-up or something.’
‘A Perth man has been charged with attempted murder after a 25-year-old man was shot in the buttocks and stomach during an argument over loud music.
Police alleged the younger man was at his Boddington home with friends when a 56-year-old man visiting neighbours began arguing with him about the loud music.
The older man allegedly threatened the residents with a piece of timber before he left and returned with a rifle.’
‘Donald Kerr, a top intelligence official with the US government, says that citizens need to change their definition of privacy to match the government’s definition, the AP reports. Appointed Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in 2005, Kerr is now the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Kerr is one of many in the intelligence community who finds Americans’ views on privacy to be antiquated and unreasonable. [..]
Americans need to shift their definition of privacy to center instead on the proper maintenance and protection of personal data by government and business entities. Kerr said that “privacy, I would offer, is a system of laws, rules, and customs with an infrastructure of Inspectors General, oversight committees, and privacy boards on which our intelligence community commitment is based and measured. And it is that framework that we need to grow and nourish and adjust as our cultures change.”‘
‘Car hoons will be penalised and humiliated under a NSW government initiative to wreck the vehicles of offenders and publish video footage of the destruction.
Premier Morris Iemma says the plan proposes to destroy hoons’ cars in demonstration tests under controlled conditions.
“Car hoons engage in potentially lethal, property destroying, anti-social behaviour,” Mr Iemma said in a statement today.
“We’re turning the tables. We’ll destroy their property – but do it for the right reasons.”‘
‘Authorities in Orange County are working to recover the remains of a 24-year-old Anaheim man who was killed Wednesday in a wood chipper accident in Tustin.
The tree service worker “was standing at the back end of the chipper, throwing branches into it with his co-workers nearby,” said Sgt. Pat Welch of the Tustin Police Department.
“One of them looked over, and he was gone.”
Authorities took the wood chipper and the truck attached to it to a parking structure at the coroner’s office, where they plan to dismantle it.’
‘When Shawn Hicks returned to his North Braddock home on Stokes Avenue after a Saturday night out on the town with friends, he didn’t bother turning on the lights.
Instead of heading to his bedroom, Mr. Hicks, a 29-year-old business major at Point Park University, plopped himself face down and fully dressed on his cream-colored leather sofa in his living room. He also neglected to deactivate his home security system, which has a silent alarm.
Surrounded by the darkness and familiar comforts of his home, Mr. Hicks was asleep within five minutes. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was not destined to have sweet dreams that night.
“I felt a lot of voltage going through my body,” Mr. Hicks said recalling the events of that late July weekend. “That’s what woke me up.”‘
‘5/13/90
To Sybil,
Lamentably, I killed your cat while trying just to sting it. It was crouched, as usual, under one of our bird feeders & I fired from some distance with bird shot. It may ease your grief somewhat to know that the cat was buried properly with a prayer & that I’ll be glad to get you another of your choice.
I called & came by your house several times. We will be in the Dominican Republic until Thursday. I’ll see you then.
Love, Jimmy’
‘A woman was knocked out during a shopping centre appearance by Prime Minister John Howard in west Sydney today.
Mr Howard was walking through the food court of the Penrith Plaza shopping centre when the woman was knocked to the ground and hit her head in the crush of people.
A member of Mr Howard’s security team and local police stayed with the woman until she regained consciousness a few seconds later.
She was led, crying and rubbing her head, to a nearby store.
Earlier, a 29-year-old man was spoken to by police after he declined to shake the Prime Minister’s hand.
The man, identified only as Alex, put his hand out as Mr Howard approached him but then whipped his hand away.
“I’m not a fan,” he said later.’
‘Most parents like to pull out all the stops to make a child’s 16th birthday as memorable as possible.
But having a female stripper surprise your son in front of his teacher in class would not feature on many wish-lists.
Yet that’s what happened when one woman booked a special performer for her son’s big day.
She stipulated that the surprise take place in drama class – and even asked the teacher to film it so the family could see the boy’s reaction.
But – thanks to what has been put down as a booking error – a female stripper turned up in place of the gorilla-suited man the unnamed mother had apparently asked for.
The stripper, who arrived on cue halfway through the lesson, first walked the birthday boy around the classroom on all fours.
Then, gyrating to the sounds of Britney Spears, she spanked him before stripping down to her bra and knickers and insisting the “naughty” schoolboy rub cream all over her body. [..]
“To be fair to the teacher, you could tell she was just stunned – and when the cream came out she told the stripper: ‘That’s it. That’s enough’.”‘
This is just a bizarre situation. Seizures? WTF?
(1.6meg Flash video)
see it here »
Tigers are funny animals. 🙂
(2.6meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘Residents in a Blackwood street are kicking up a stink about litres of raw sewage flowing past their homes.
People living in Edward Street are furious that effluent is being forced out of storm drains on a daily basis and running along the length of their street.
They say waste including faeces, toilet paper, used condoms and sanitary towels is being washed up just yards from their front doors, causing a terrible stench and stopping children playing in the street. [..]
Caerphilly council environmental health officers have been monitoring the situation and keeping in touch with Welsh Water.’
‘Organizers for the 2008 Olympics in China have released their list of items banned from the Olympic village where the athletes will stay.
Among the “prohibited objects” — Bibles.
The Catholic News Agency reports that the committee behind the Beijing games cited “security reasons” for the ban.
Athletes are also prohibited from bearing any kind of religious symbol at Olympic facilities.’
‘A tourism student who twice had to walk barefoot in a Sri Lankan rainforest is suing a college, claiming his health was damaged by leeches.
James Sheridan, 50, said people on the field trip were made to remove their footwear because villagers considered the Unesco world heritage sites sacred. [..]
The court heard claims that Mr Sheridan, of Townhill, Swansea, was so weak after returning home that he could “only eat corned beef and lettuce for months”.
Mr Sheridan claimed he had suffered from malaria-like feverishness, sleeplessness, excessive sweating and lethargy in the six years since the trip, paid for with European funding as part of a tourism and leisure management MSc degree course.’
‘Duct tape thin fishing line at around head height and watch your unsuspecting roommates make fools of themselves.’
(1.4meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘A Chelan County fire chief says a couple were lucky they weren’t killed by a cow that fell off a cliff and smashed their minivan.
District 5 Chief Arnold Baker says they missed being killed by a matter of inches Sunday as they drove on Highway 150 near Manson.
The 600-pound cow fell about 200 feet and landed on the hood of the minivan carrying Charles Everson Jr. and his wife Linda of Westland, Mich., who were in the area celebrating their one-year wedding anniversary. They were checked at Lake Chelan Community Hospital as a precaution.
The van was heavily damaged, including a broken windshield.’
‘Karl Marx, who complained of excruciating boils, actually suffered from a chronic skin disease with known psychological effects that may well have influenced his writings, a British expert said on Tuesday.
Sam Shuster, professor of dermatology at the University of East Anglia, believes the revolutionary thinker had hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) in which the apocrine sweat glands — found mainly in the armpits and groin — become blocked and inflamed.
“In addition to reducing his ability to work, which contributed to his depressing poverty, hidradenitis greatly reduced his self-esteem,” said Shuster, who published his findings in the British Journal of Dermatology.
“This explains his self-loathing and alienation, a response reflected by the alienation Marx developed in his writing.”‘
The distance may be fine, the aim is maybe not so good. 🙂
(1.8meg Flash video)
see it here »
You should probably look at what’s in front of you before you go running across a road.
(1.9meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘A 69-year old woman is facing charges for celebrating too loudly when her beloved Denver Broncos score on Sundays.
Jeri Priest honks a contraption she calls “The Broncos Horn” after each Denver score. Priest, along with her husband Larry and their neighbors let off one hearty honk for each point scored.
The horn is an odd-looking device Larry Priest built 30 years ago. It’s a two-wheel dolly carrying six car horns all hooked to a car battery. A relay switch allows Jeri Priest to sound the horn from the comfort of her home.
It’s the comfort of one neighbor that’s in question.’
‘A mother cremated a body she thought was that of her dead son, only for him to turn up alive later, police said on Friday.
Gina Partington’s 37-year-old son Thomas Dennison was reported missing last month and a body was found in Rusholme, Manchester, three days later.
The 58-year-old mother, from Urmston, Greater Manchester, formally identified the body as that of her son and, following an inquest, the body was cremated on October 30.’
