‘Kerri and Jason Brown discovered a secret room behind a bookcase containing a homeowner’s worst nightmare — mold. Also in the room was a handwritten note: “You found it!” What the Browns found was a mold problem so serious the previous owner was forced to move, according to the note.
Fearing their young daughter’s health, the Browns hired an environmental engineer who detected high levels of several types of mold, including a black mold fungus called Stachybotrys.
“It terrified me,” Kerri Brown told WYFF-TV in Greenville. “I had heard reports of what it does for children, and I was terrified.”‘
‘An alleged speed ‘cook’ for a bikie gang had both his ears cut off at Currumbin at the weekend.
Police said picnickers and swimmers at the Currumbin Rock Pools found the man bleeding from head wounds about 2pm on Saturday.
The man, who had lost a large amount of blood, told medical staff he had been hurt in a fall.
The Elanora man, 38, refused to speak to police at The Tweed Hospital on Saturday afternoon.
He also refused to make an official complaint after police found the crime scene near the rock pools, but no sign of the severed ears. [..]
“Even though he’s not talking to us, you don’t need to be Einstein to work out what he did wrong to incur the wrath of the bikies,” said a police officer.’
It’s usually a good idea to close the doors of your car when it’s in motion.
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‘If there’s a sadder commentary on the state of American society, we can’t think of it — we’ve grown so fat we sink the boats of It’s A Small World.
According to Miceage, the boats routinely bottom out under the weight of super-sized riders, bringing the popular ride to a grinding — literally — halt. That’s increased the wear and tear on the fiberglass boats, which have been in use since the ride opened during the 1964 World’s Fair, when Americans, on average, weighed 25 pounds less than we do today. [..]
Employees — Disney calls them “cast members” — have been aware of the issue for some time now and so discretely leave empty seats in boats carrying heavy riders. But backups persist, and in some cases no one realzes there’s a problem until boats stop emerging from the ride.’
‘Australia’s 2007 Toy Of The Year, Bindeez, was being pulled from shelves after it was revealed the product’s “magic beads” contain a chemical that when swallowed converts into the toxic illegal drug fantasy.
Two NSW children have been hospitalised over the past 10 days suffering seizures after eating the beads, while a two-year-old boy from Toowoomba in southeastern Queensland was flown to a Brisbane hospital after swallowing Bindeez beads. [..]
Testing by scientists in NSW found the chemical link to the drug gamma-hydroxy butyrate (GHB) – also known as fantasy or Grievous Bodily Harm – which can also cause drowsiness, coma and can lead to death. [..]
Sydney-based poisons specialist Dr Naren Gunja said the list of Bindeez’s ingredients supplied by the manufacturer said it should contain the non-toxic chemical known as 1,5-pentanediol.
“What we’ve found in the beads from testing done … by our hospital scientists is that it contains 1,4-butanediol,” Dr Gunja said, adding this chemical was metabolised by the body into GHB.’
‘Guests at the Berghof, Hitler’s private chalet in the Bavarian Alps, must have endured some unpleasant odors in the otherwise healthful mountain air.
It may sound like a Woody Allen scenario, but medical historians are unanimous that Adolf was the victim of uncontrollable flatulence. Spasmodic stomach cramps, constipation and diarrhea, possibly the result of nervous tension, had been Hitler’s curse since childhood and only grew more severe as he aged. As a stressed-out dictator, the agonizing digestive attacks would occur after most meals: Albert Speer recalled that the Führer, ashen-faced, would leap up from the dinner table and disappear to his room.
[..] Strangely, Hitler was unfazed by the fact that this high-fiber diet was having the opposite effect on his digestion than what he had intended: His private physician, Dr. Theo Morell, recorded in his diary that after Hitler downed a typical vegetable platter, “constipation and colossal flatulence occurred on a scale I have seldom encountered before.”‘
‘A teenager carried out a sex act and then simulated sex on a pavement after drinking a half bottle of vodka while on medication, a court has heard.
Steven Marshall, 18, of Woodstock Avenue, Galashiels, admitted the offence in his home street on 17 June.
Selkirk Sheriff Court heard he got into a press-up position on the pavement and started simulating sexual intercourse.
Sentence was deferred on Marshall, who takes medication for arthritis. He was put on the sex offenders register.’
‘A lottery scratchcard has been withdrawn from sale by Camelot – because players couldn’t understand it. [..]
To qualify for a prize, users had to scratch away a window to reveal a temperature lower than the figure displayed on each card. As the game had a winter theme, the temperature was usually below freezing.
But the concept of comparing negative numbers proved too difficult for some Camelot received dozens of complaints on the first day from players who could not understand how, for example, -5 is higher than -6. [..]
The 23-year-old, who said she had left school without a maths GCSE, said: “On one of my cards it said I had to find temperatures lower than -8. The numbers I uncovered were -6 and -7 so I thought I had won, and so did the woman in the shop. But when she scanned the card the machine said I hadn’t.
“I phoned Camelot and they fobbed me off with some story that -6 is higher – not lower – than -8 but I’m not having it. [..]’
‘Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s jaunt to France was interrupted today by an unscheduled itinerary item — he was slapped with a criminal complaint charging him with torture.
Rumsfeld, in Paris for a discussion sponsored by the magazine Foreign Policy, was tracked down by representatives of a coalition of international human rights groups, who informed the architect of the US invasion of Iraq that they had submitted a torture suit against him in French court.
The filed documents allege that during his tenure, the former defense secretary “ordered and authorized” torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military’s detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.’
And he doesn’t even notice..?
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‘The Storm worm is fighting back against security researchers that seek to destroy it and has them running scared, Interop New York show attendees heard Tuesday.
The worm can figure out which users are trying to probe its command-and-control servers, and it retaliates by launching DDoS attacks against them, shutting down their Internet access for days, says Josh Korman, host-protection architect for IBM/ISS, who led a session on network threats.
“As you try to investigate [Storm], it knows, and it punishes,” he says. “It fights back.”‘
‘A man who has proudly showed off his tattoo for 26 years was baffled to realise it actually spelt Coca-Cola.
Vince Mattingley had his name tattooed on his chest in Chinese writing after asking staff at his favourite restaurant to write his name in Chinese symbols.
But a waiter drew the Coke words – and Vince had it etched on his chest.
Vince only realised the mistake when he recently travelled to Thailand and a barman asked him why he had Coca-Cola written on his chest, reports The Sun.’
‘After a holiday you expect to find a few bills waiting for you – but not another person living in your house.
But that’s exactly what Beverly Mitchell from Douglasville in the US found after returning from 2-½ weeks in Greece. When she saw the lights on and a strange car in the driveway, she called the police. They found another woman, Beverly Valentine, in the house, the news website IOL reported.
Authorities say they don’t know why Valentine, 54, broke into the home and acted like it was her own, even going so far as ripping up carpet, changing utilities into her name and painting rooms.
“In 28 years I’ve never seen something this strange,” said Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Stan Copeland.’
‘Police in the German city of Stuttgart have been called to round up an unusual group of runaways: crayfish.
The freshwater crustaceans, which resemble lobsters, escaped from an Asian restaurant and made a run, erm, scuttle for it.
The escape attempt was noticed by a pedestrian who notified authorities.
Apparently the crayfish had squeezed through gaps in the grating at the top of the tanks and scuttled out the front door.’
‘A kamikaze squirrel fell from the sky and detonated a Bayonne woman’s car yesterday, police said today.
Lindsey Millar, 23, and her brother, Tony, 22, were both home Wednesday at about 12:45 p.m. when Lindsey’s car suddenly started burning outside their 42nd Street home.
Tony Millar said firefighters told them it was the work of a buck-toothed saboteur that had been gnawing on overhead power lines connected to a transformer directly above the 2006 Toyota Camry.
“The squirrel chewed through the wire, was set on fire, fell down directly to where the car was,” Tony Millar said. “The squirrel, on fire, slid into the engine compartment and blew up the car.’
‘The National Defence Force is probing whether a software glitch led to an antiaircraft cannon malfunction that killed nine soldiers and seriously injured 14 others during a shooting exercise on Friday. [..]
Mangope told The Star that it “is assumed that there was a mechanical problem, which led to the accident. The gun, which was fully loaded, did not fire as it normally should have,” he said. “It appears as though the gun, which is computerised, jammed before there was some sort of explosion, and then it opened fire uncontrollably, killing and injuring the soldiers.” [..]
During the shooting trials at Armscor’s Alkantpan shooting range, “I personally saw a gun go out of control several times,” Young says. “They made a temporary rig consisting of two steel poles on each side of the weapon, with a rope in between to keep the weapon from swinging. The weapon eventually knocked the polls down.”‘
‘A burglar in Montgomery chose the wrong family to mess with, literally. Adrian and Tiffany McKinnon returned home on Tuesday after a week away to find that thieves had emptied almost everything the family of five owned, Tiffany McKinnon said through tears.
“Tears just rolled down my face as I walked in and saw everything gone and piles of trash all over my home,” she said. [..]
“My husband Adrian caught the thief red-handed in our home,” she said. “And what is even crazier, the man even had my husband’s hat sitting right on his head.”
Adrian McKinnon held the suspect, 33-year-old Tajuan Bullock, at gunpoint and told him to sit on the floor until he decided what to do.
“We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabinets onto the floor,” Tiffany McKinnon said.’
‘<JayNiN> So yeah, guys, my dad and I had a big arguement last night…It’s actually pretty fucking awkward.
<SimCard> Yeah? Tell us about.
<JayNiN> Heh, you guys aren’t going to believe this…but anyways.
<JayNiN> So last night, my sister was trying to get her AOL connection shut off (yes, I know…who the fuck still uses AOL?)
<JayNiN> and I decide to go to the regional chatrooms
<JayNiN> 10 minutes in the chatroom, some random guy IMs me and is like "ASL"
<JayNiN> so I fuck around with the guy saying "19/F/WY"
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‘Chlamydia – the most common sexually transmitted disease in the US and UK – causes dramatic genetic damage in sperm leading to male infertility, a new study suggests.
Men with chlamydia have more than three times the normal level of DNA fragmentation in their sperm, report researchers. However, results from the study also indicate that appropriate antibiotic treatment can help restore the genetic integrity of these men’s sperm as well as their fertility.
Until recently, doctors believed that chlamydia threatened women’s fertility only. The bacteria responsible for the disease, Chlamydia trachomatis can cause a woman’s fallopian tubes to become blocked or scarred, making it difficult or impossible to conceive a child.’
‘A 10-year-old girl today told of her terrifying ordeal trapped down a drain.
Chanelle Edwards got stuck after falling down the grid outside her Liverpool home.
She fell while playing with friends in Lavender Way, Walton, yesterday afternoon.
She was trapped for almost an hour as firefighters armed with drills battled to break the concrete and free her.
Today the St Nicholas Catholic Primary School pupil said she was watching her two-year-old brother CJ play in the street when the toddler strayed dangerously close to the drain.
She said: “I went to help him but I fell in myself. [..]’
‘<Richad34> Oy I had a bad night
<Richad34> I couldn’t sleep, and had no idea what to do. My parents are still awake, it was midnight, and I was bored.
<Richad34> So then I remembered that I had a drama presentation the next class and I played a rich guy so I needed a suit.
<Richad34> I take out my suit, and get dressed. You know, the works. I even took out my top hat and my cane.
<Richad34> Now it gets a little weird. I had to go downstairs in order to see how I looked as it’s the only place with a full body mirror. My parents sleep on the same floor as me so I didn’t want to wake them up.
<Richad34> So I got this idea. I decided to turn on my TV so that my parents thought people were talking outside, and my footsteps would be noises they were making. I thought it would work, I was tired.
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‘Fewer people are reporting sightings of the Loch Ness monster, amid concerns scepticism about its existence could threaten tourism in the region.
There have only been two reports of sightings this year, compared to three in 2006 and much lower than a decade ago, when the annual number sightings was consistently in the double digits.
“It’s becoming a potential crisis,” said Mikko Takala, 39, a founding member of the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club who runs four webcams on the lake’s north shore.
advertisement [..]
There have been more than 4000 purported sightings of “Nessie” since a surgeon vacationing at the lake in the 1930s released a photo allegedly capturing the legendary monster on film.
Since then, the monster has been a key tourism draw, bringing an estimated £6 million a year into the Highland economy.’
‘The 22 members of the Patriots — ages 11 to 14 — were working out again Thursday afternoon. They were in the park Wednesday evening when they saw the crime take place.
“I just seen these two guys walking up to an old man and pull him down from his camera strap, and the old man started hitting him [and] called us to help,” remembered 13-years-old Patriot team member Lafaele “Junior” Siliake.
Police say two teenage boys, 15 and 17 years old, knocked down a 71-year-old man and ran off with his camera. Taylor Leota led the charge as the whole football team took off after the two suspects.
“At first they were jogging,” explained the 13-year-old Leota. “After they see the team coming, they started sprinting. I would have been scared too seeing a football team chasing me; especially one of us.”‘
‘According to Brook Park police, a couple of pranksters could face felony charges after spraying “Fart Spray” into a local restaurant.
Two men pulled up to the drive-thru window at the Rally’s on Snow Road in Cleveland and sprayed a bottle of the offensive product.
The manager of the restaurant wasn’t sure what the substance was.
As a precaution, he threw away more than $1,000 worth of food, and three of his employees wound up going to the Southwest Medical Center to be checked out.’
‘A woman who spent 70 years in institutions after she was wrongly accused of theft has been reunited with her long-lost family.
Jean Gambell, now 85, was working as a cleaner in a doctor’s surgery when she was accused of stealing 2s 6d – equivalent to twelve-and-a-half pence.
The cash later turned up but by then Jean had been sectioned.
Her two brothers found the sister they had thought was dead when a care home questionnaire came to their house.’
Well, it did seem to slow him down fairly effectively. 🙂
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‘A cancer patient says she was left alone in a CT scanner for hours after a technician apparently forget about her, and she finally crawled out of the device, only to find herself locked in the closed clinic.
Elvira Tellez of Tucson said she called her son in a panic, and he told her to call 911.
Pima County sheriff’s deputies arriving at the oncology office had her unlock the office door to let them in, said Deputy Dawn Hanke, a department spokeswoman. The deputies contacted the office manager, who was not aware of the situation.’
‘Toyota Motor Co. will recall floor mats from 55,000 Camry and Lexus ES 350 models due to complaints of unintended acceleration caused by the mats sticking underneath the accelerator pedal, federal safety officials and the automaker said Wednesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration took the unusual step of highlighting Toyota’s recall announcement, advising owners of other Toyota models — including the Prius hybrid and Avalon sedans — to ensure their floor mats are properly installed. [..]
As the Free Press first reported last month, NHTSA had opened an investigation into the floor mats after amassing 40 reports of unintended acceleration in 2007 Lexus ES 350 sedans, including eight crashes and 12 injuries.’
‘This poor unsuspecting kid is minding his own business setting the table for lunch when out of nowhere he gets drilled in the face with an exercise ball.’
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