In the News.... [Archive]

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 12:48 PM

Relatives: U.K. Mystery Man Is From Fla.

LONDON - A mystery detainee who allegedly created a bogus identity as an English nobleman by assuming the name of a dead baby is actually an American who went missing from Florida more than 20 years ago, his relatives say.

The man being held in a jail in Kent, England, goes by the title of the Earl of Buckingham but he is really an Orlando native named Charles Stopford, his father, Charles, and sister Rebecca Davis say in a documentary to be broadcast Sunday on Sky One television.

The relatives said they saw photos of the fake lord on the Internet along with a story in The Times this week and concluded he is Stopford.

"When I first saw his photo, I cried and I was excited because I was 100 percent positive it was him," Davis said in an excerpt of the documentary aired Saturday.

The elder Stopford said he has no idea why his son suddenly vanished from Florida in 1983.

But one of the man's brothers, Wesley, told The Times that the detainee had been convicted that same year of possessing explosives after he tried to blow up the car of his boss at a fast-food restaurant in Orlando. He was put on probation but spent 60 days in jail after he violated the terms. Shortly after that, he disappeared.

"Charles always had an obsession with the English," his father said.

Davis said she had believed Stopford was simply traveling around Europe all these years.

"I remember him saying that he loved the thought of traveling. He wanted to travel Europe," she said.

British media have dubbed the man "The Real Jackal" — an allusion to Frederick Forsythe's novel "The Day of the Jackal," which made famous the trick of using information from a baby's tombstone to create an identity.

In this case, the detainee was arrested in January 2005 as he tried to enter Dover, England, from Calais, France, across the English Channel. Police ran a passport check and saw that the person with his name was supposed to be dead, The Times said.

He is alleged to have taken the name of Christopher Buckingham, who died in 1963 at the age of 8 months, and used it to obtain documents to live as a British subject.

For the past decade he has been calling himself the Earl of Buckingham, a title that has been extinct for more than 300 years, The Times said.

The man served nine months in prison over the false passport incident. But after completing the sentence, he has remained in jail because he refuses to reveal his true identity, the paper said.

"As far as we are concerned, he still claims to be Christopher Buckingham," Kent police spokeswoman Kelly Betts said.

The fake earl apparently speaks with a perfect British accent, she added.

He has two English *****ren by a woman he is now divorced from, and all three are said to be stupefied by news that he is not the man they thought he was.

The Times said police in Kent have sent fingerprint and DNA samples to the United States to try to determine the man's identity.

Police spokeswoman Betts said she could not confirm this. She did say British authorities were working with American embassy officials to determine whether the man really is Stopford.

"We are following up a number of leads to find out who he is," she said.

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 12:52 PM

Family Kicked Out of Buffet Restaurant

DES MOINES, Iowa - Wendy Dershem may think twice before leaving that egg roll on her plate at her next Chinese buffet. The Des Moines woman, her boyfriend and her two *****ren were kicked out of a restaurant last week after management accused her of leaving too much food on her plate.

"They told us we are not welcome there anymore," said Dershem, a repeat customer at the Dragon House buffet. "We waste too much food. But the buffet is all you can eat. And you know kids. They won't always eat everything and they want something else."

Dershem said she paid her $5.95 fee on Saturday but was abruptly told to leave after eating one plate of food.

Employees said they had been watching her family on previous trips to the restaurant and were fed up with her habits.

"They just take one bite and throw it away," said cashier Lin Huyen. "They take four egg rolls and crab ragoon, take one bite of egg roll and throw the whole plate. That is wasting food."

Dershem said she was shocked by the scolding and complained to management when she paid her check. "It was embarrassing. ... If it's a one-stop buffet, post it," she said.

Dragon House manager Kent Cao said his restaurant offers all you can eat buffet, not all you can waste. Dershem's family took food, didn't finish it and then piled on the same food again, he said.

"Shes done that too many times," Cao said. "We would welcome her back if she has respect and knows what she wants."

Bob Oberbillig, an adjunct professor at the Drake Legal Clinic, says the patron would have no legal case against exclusion from a business unless there are other factors such as racial discrimination or mental health issues.

"An establishment can exclude people if they smoke or waste food," he said. "It's still a private business."

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 12:56 PM

It's hard out there for a virgin...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A brothel has become the first in Berlin to offer special deals for virgins with prostitutes trained in the delicate art of catering for customers who have never had sex, a German newspaper reported Friday.

The brothel in the red light area of the Kreuzberg district of the city charges 60 euros for a half an hour of sex and works within the laws of Germany where prostitution is legal.

"These are men who either never had sex before or have never been in a brothel before," the brothel's operator was quoted as saying in Berlin's B.Z. tabloid.

"It's the first house of love in Berlin that specializes in taking care of beginners," wrote the daily on its front page.

Prostitutes are given "sensitivity training" for first-time clients, who the brothel operator said are not necessarily young but often 40 or older: "They need to be aware of how much courage it takes to go to a brothel the first time."

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 12:59 PM

Burglars steal sun porch to enjoy sunshine

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Thieves made off with a 15,000 euro ($18,910) sun porch after spying it in a shop window during the Netherlands' first week of summery weather this year, police said Thursday.

"They smashed a window to get into the shop which had a fully assembled sun lounge in the showroom. They had to dismantle it and took it away in seven parts," police spokesman Anton de Ronde said.

The 23-foot by 6-foot sun porch, designed to be attached to a house, was for sale in Apeldoorn, to the east of Amsterdam.

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 01:03 PM

Former Disney dancer named Playmate of the Year

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A former Walt Disney World dancer who used to dress up as Cinderella and Snow White was named Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Year on Thursday.

Kara Monaco, 23, an aspiring actress from Lakeland, Florida, received a check for $100,000, a car and a sports motorbike from Playboy Enterprises Inc., company founder Hugh Hefner announced at the Playboy Mansion.

Monaco, a blonde, hopes to leverage her new role to boost her modeling and acting career.

She was Miss June in 2005.

Relaxed

2006-05-07, 01:10 PM

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 01:13 PM

Moving puppy-bag sparks bomb alert in Italy

MILAN (Reuters) - A moving bag apparently abandoned on a tram in Italy sparked panic among passengers who thought it was a bomb -- but turned out to contain four puppies.

Passengers, alarmed by movement in the large bag left on a seat Tuesday evening, warned the driver, a witness said.

"The driver stopped the tram and started walking up and down, trying to find out why the bag was left in the middle of the carriage," the witness told Reuters. The transportation company in the northern city of Milan confirmed the report.

"People started moving away from the bag and some old ladies started murmuring about a possible bomb attack," the witness added.

But just as the driver prepared to raise the alarm by calling transport headquarters, the owner of the bag -- a homeless man sitting on the other side of the coach -- stood up and opened the bag, revealing the puppies.

"They were just puppies, but these days you never know," the driver said.

Italy has been on alert for possible attacks since the March 11, 2004 bombings in Madrid and the attacks on London's transportation network last July.

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 01:15 PM

ehh...?.....why don't you just post a link to the news/article?
Takes less space and anyone that might be interested can click on it.....

If you ask me, this is very boring reading and .."to much"..
No offence ;)

that's why I have the headlines big & bold......you don't like, then don't read...

Steffi

2006-05-07, 01:18 PM

Very amusing, BF. Liked the Berlin Virgins story. But unless the girls have changed a lot since I was last in Berlin (2 years ago) I'd stay clear of them. A more surly, miserable bunch of women you couldn't hope to meet. I had to interview some of them in a purely professional capacity for an English publisher and was not impressed. Hamburg is much better.. ;)

Now for my addition to your thread. A true news story from England which you should love! Here it is:

Relaxed

2006-05-07, 01:24 PM

that's why I have the headlines big & bold......you don't like, then don't read...
No i "don't like" :) ..as i told, it's boring reading.

My opinion and my free speak, and i also told you: No offense ;)

Are you some kind of moderator in this forum BFofAKournikova? :hahaha

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 01:25 PM

Man Celebrating Jail Release Arrested

OGDEN DUNES, Ind. - A man celebrating his release from jail was arrested on a South Shore train for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.

Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District police arrested John A. McKenzie, 32, of Chicago, on the train headed to South Bend Tuesday night.

McKenzie was drunk as he rode the northern Indiana commuter line with his wife and three *****ren, following his release from a Chicago jail, police said.

Another passenger reported McKenzie to officers after he allegedly swiped a beer from him, police said.

An argument erupted, and police from NICTD, Ogden Dunes and Burns Harbor arrived to take McKenzie into custody after he made repeated death threats to the officers, police said.

McKenzie remained in the Porter County Jail Thursday, a jail officer said.

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-07, 01:28 PM

No i "don't like" :) ..as i told, it's boring reading.

My opinion and my free speak, and i also told you: No offense ;)

Are you some kind of moderator in this forum BFofAKournikova? :hahaha
nope.....and I didn't take offense btw.....guess I should have posted a smiley in my responsehammersmas

Geode

2006-05-07, 04:27 PM

No i "don't like" :) ..as i told, it's boring reading.

My opinion and my free speak, and i also told you: No offense ;)

Are you some kind of moderator in this forum BFofAKournikova? :hahaha

As with any free speech issue, if you don't like it, avoid it. No one is forcing you to read it. peace

Richard

2006-05-07, 05:54 PM

hawley

2006-05-07, 06:12 PM

ehh...?.....why don't you just post a link to the news/article?
Takes less space and anyone that might be interested can click on it.....

If you ask me, this is very boring reading and .."to much"..
No offence ;)

Trust me his other 6,000 are as chit :)

some peeps play internet hearts, others PS2, Jamie post's to kiil time..

wateva floats his boat i saypeace

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-09, 05:26 PM

Smelly drivers create a stink in Manila

MANILA (Reuters) - Bus drivers negotiating the sweltering streets of Manila have a new thing to stress about -- their armpits.

Faced with complaints from commuters fed up with the stench at the front of the bus, taxi and train, Manila authorities have reminded drivers to wash and deodorize daily during the heat of the summer.

"We understand that drivers must earn money to support themselves and their respective families," said Bayani Fernando, chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. "It is only right that in return, these drivers must observe proper hygiene.

"If they have body odor or armpit odor, ask the advice of doctors for treatment. But I think if they only take a bath every day, and maybe they can use "tawas" or deodorant, then there would be no problem."

Temperatures in the sprawling Philippine capital regularly hit the high 30s Celsius from mid-March to mid-May.

Some of the estimated 30,000 public drivers often strip off to beat the heat but Fernando reminded them to maintain decorum.

"They must also refrain from wearing slippers and shorts," Fernando said.

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-30, 12:15 AM

Lana will hate this one:

English radio station bans James Blunt songs

LONDON (AFP) - An English radio station said it has banned songs by British crooner James Blunt from its airwaves after listeners said they were fed up with hearing "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover".

Chris Cotton, programme controller of local radio Essex FM in southern England, said: "We don't have anything against James Blunt and we're pleased he has been so successful, but we really need a break."

The music industry exerts a lot of pressure on radio stations to play certain artists' music over and over again, Cotton said.

"Often this can be out of step with the audience's tastes, which results in songs being overplayed," he said. "We're happy to stand up to this pressure and follow the strong message listeners have given us. We encourage other radio stations to take the same step."

Despite this minor setback, Blunt has enjoyed phenomenal success since his voice first emanated from radio stations across the world last year.

"You're Beautiful" topped the charts in 25 countries.

In March, the former army officer became the first British artist to reach the number one slot in the US Billboard chart in nine years.

His album, "Back To Bedlam" has sold more than seven million copies worldwide.

Richard

2006-05-30, 12:52 AM

Lana will hate this one:

Jamie, friend, its was nice knowing you, what flowers for your body, and what flowers for your seperated head?

;) :D

Nic

2006-05-30, 02:03 AM

:hahaha :hahaha :hahaha

Excellent! Might have to give them a listen now. I banned BBC Radio 1 long ago for their complete lack of 'music'.

I must add that I do have a licence to comment on such things. I do not advise others to do this. It IS dangerous. (I also like living dangerously :p )

:D

BFofAKournikova

2006-05-30, 02:13 AM

Jamie, friend, its was nice knowing you, what flowers for your body, and what flowers for your seperated head?

;) :D

hey, don't shoot the messenger.....:p

Max

2006-05-30, 03:26 AM

hey, don't shoot the messenger.....:p

You will be lucky if that is all she does. at least it's quick. :D

Richard

2006-05-30, 09:30 AM

I didnt tell yet wich head........... :D

ora

2006-05-30, 10:05 PM

hey, don't shoot the messenger.....:p
why not, Jamie?? it s old greek tradition to kill messenger: watch the marathon- story...
moral: IF (not IvanaF!) you got bad news to tell, don t run 42 kms to tell them- take opposite direction!!
But: what do u think about this: good news for the girls??
(Heya Rich! like ur shakesbeer-quote!!)

Richard

2006-05-30, 11:51 PM

why not, Jamie?? it s old greek tradition to kill messenger: watch the marathon- story...
moral: IF (not IvanaF!) you got bad news to tell, don t run 42 kms to tell them- take opposite direction!!
But: what do u think about this: good news for the girls??
(Heya Rich! like ur shakesbeer-quote!!)

Hehehehe, thanks wise Oracle ;) :)

Rick

2006-06-01, 01:47 AM

hawley

2006-08-10, 01:40 PM

MI5 kick ass !!

James Bond init !! I told Lana my guardian angel was looking after herpeace

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4778575.stm

Max

2006-08-10, 05:13 PM

MI5 kick ass !!

James Bond init !! I told Lana my guardian angel was looking after herpeace

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4778575.stm

Glad to know you are not Asian. See arrests/searches are concentrated in Birmingham. :eek:

Nic

2006-08-10, 10:00 PM

I hope Lana wasn't scheduled for Heathrow else I don't think she will be travelling this weekend now.

Richard

2006-08-10, 10:05 PM

I hope Lana wasn't scheduled for Heathrow else I don't think she will be travelling this weekend now.

Lana will leave for England this friday.

Nic

2006-08-10, 10:07 PM

I knew that Sir! There are three main airports. IIRC she is travelling to Stanstead which is not affected but if it was Heathrow I understand it will be closed to inbound flights for a few days.

Richard

2006-08-10, 10:10 PM

Dont know what airline Lana will be traveling, this afternoon all Lufthansa flights to England were cancelled.

But flights from Amsterdam are leaving now i heard, so it should be ok tomorrow i hope for our littleange

BFofAKournikova

2006-08-10, 10:20 PM

well Heathrow is back in business

http://www.heathrowairport.com/

10th August 2006 19:05

Due to the heightened security at UK airports, the Heathrow Airport website is currently experiencing a high level of people visiting the site.

The airport is experiencing severe disruption to its operation.

Inbound flights: Airlines are operating short-haul flights into Heathrow. Inbound long-haul flights continue to operate but with delays.

Outbound flights: Check-in and hand search processes across all four terminals is severely affected, and will continue throughout the evening. Passengers should check with their airline before travelling to the airport and to expect delays. British Airways has cancelled its short-haul departures schedule for the rest of the day.

and more info at
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20090454-1702,00.html

TheZoRo

2006-08-10, 11:09 PM

Main news: Pluto is still a planet (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/10/1645259).

People on shashdot well, they just dosn't want to be nice (http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=193697&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&pid=15883586#15883621)

BFofAKournikova

2006-08-19, 08:09 PM

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian businessman born with two penises wants one of them removed surgically as he wants to marry and lead a normal sexual life, a newspaper report said Saturday.

The 24-year-old man from the northern state of Uttar Pradesh admitted himself to a New Delhi hospital this week with an extremely rare medical condition called penile duplication or diphallus, the Times of India said.

"Two fully functional penes is unheard of even in medical literature. In the more common form of diphallus, one organ is rudimentary," the newspaper quoted a surgeon as saying.

The surgery was expected to be challenging as both organs were well-formed and full blood supply to the retained penis had to be ensured to allow it to function normally, he added.

The newspaper did not disclose the identity of the man or the hospital to protect the patient's privacy.

There are about 100 such reported cases of diphallus around the world and it is known to occur among one in 5.5 million men, the newspaper said.

It is caused by the failure of the mesodermal bands in the embryo to fuse properly. The mesodermal bands are one of three primary layers of the embryo from which several body parts are formed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060819/od_nm/india_operation_dc

gOoSeTeR

2006-08-19, 08:34 PM

I want one...errrr...two...!

Rick

2006-09-22, 09:24 AM

This is for Jamie (Fellow Floridian and Buc's FANpeace )

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - It seems like everyone has some advice these days for the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and struggling quarterback Chris Simms.

Even President Bush tossed the football with the former University of Texas quarterback Thursday, and offered some advice.
"Never give up," Bush said Thursday when asked what he told the Bucs during a half-hour visit to the team's training facility near Raymond James Stadium, where the president delivered a fundraising speech to about 400 people in a VIP club area.

President Bush has a word or two with Bucs head coach Jon Gruden. (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press)

Coach Jon Gruden wouldn't disclose what additional wisdom the president might have imparted to Simms.

"It's great, though, to get some advice from the president of the United States. It's a little different when the coach is telling you to do this or do that. You have the president come and give you some advice, that's something you gotta listen to," Gruden said.

"Hopefully it works. If it doesn't work out this week, he can call the president to see what happened."

Bush accepted an invitation to stop by practice and was greeted on the field by Simms and teammates Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber and Mike Alstott and Ryan Nece, as well as an appreciative Gruden.

"The president has a lot to do. For him to show up here with the SWAT team on the roof and the Secret Service guys, that's awesome," Gruden said.

The Bucs (0-2) are preparing for Sunday's game against Carolina, another winless team. Simms has been the target of criticism following subpar performances the first two weeks of the season.

Bush addressed the entire squad, coaching staff and other team officials and personnel in the middle of the field. The president mingled with players, coaches and officials, posing for pictures and signing autographs before playing catch with Simms, son of New York Giants Super Bowl-winning quarterback Phil Simms.

Rick

2006-09-25, 02:29 AM

I told u Our Offensive Line "SUCKS" !

Associated Press
Posted: 13 minutes ago

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - Tampa Bay quarterback Chris Simms was taken to a hospital for an undisclosed reason after Sunday's 26-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Lisa Patterson, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph's Hospital, said any other information would have to come from the Buccaneers, who declined to comment or confirm that the fourth-year pro was being treated a few blocks from Raymond James Stadium.
Simms took several hard hits during the game and left for two plays in the second half. The team announced at that time that he was cramping, and the quarterback returned to help the Bucs take a fourth-quarter lead that the defense couldn't hold.

Simms walked from the field on his own power late in the third quarter and again at the end the game, which Carolina won when John Kasay kicked a 42-yard field goal with 2 seconds remaining. He completed 13 of 24 passes for 139 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Simms usually is made available for postgame interviews, however the Bucs said he would not speak to reporters because he was being examined by trainers and doctors.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl

Rick

2006-09-25, 02:43 AM

Bucs' Simms has spleen removed after loss to Carolina

Buccaneers quarterback Chris Simms had his spleen removed at a Tampa, Fla., hospital after rupturing it in Sunday's 26-24 loss to Carolina, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reports.

According to a source close to Simms' family, the quarterback's condition has been stabilized after surgery, during which he received blood transfusions.

It is thought the injury occurred in the second quarter. Simms took several hard hits and left the game for two plays in the second half but returned to help the Bucs take the lead in the fourth quarter.

Simms also has bruised ribs. He is being treated at St. Joseph's Hospital.

Lisa Patterson, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph's Hospital, said any other information would have to come from the Buccaneers, who declined to comment or confirm that the fourth-year pro was being treated a few blocks from Raymond James Stadium.

Simms walked from the field on his own power late in the third quarter and again at the end of the game, which Carolina won when John Kasay kicked a 42-yard field goal with 2 seconds remaining. He completed 13 of 24 passes for 139 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Simms usually is made available for postgame interviews, however the Bucs said he would not speak to reporters because he was being examined by trainers and doctors. http://espn.go.com/

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-03, 03:49 PM

Singer sets undersea concert record

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061003/ap_en_mu/norway_deep_concert

OSLO, Norway - Singer Katie Melua set a world deep-water record by performing a concert 994 feet under the North Sea in the leg of an oil platform, the rig's operator said Tuesday.

The Georgian-Irish artist and her band performed two, hour-long concerts Monday at the bottom of a hollow concrete leg that helps support the Troll A offshore platform, the Norwegian oil company Statoil ASA said.

"This was definitely the most surreal gig I've ever done," said Melua, 22, whose albums have sold more than five million copies worldwide.

Craig Glenday, editor of The Guinness Book of Records, confirmed the record for "the world's deepest underwater concert performed in front of an audience."

The concerts, watched by offshore oil crews, helped celebrate the 10th anniversary of natural gas production starting at the Troll A platform, about 55 miles off the coast of the western Norwegian city of Bergen.

The 1,548-foot tall Troll A platform was towed to the offshore field in 1995, making it the largest structure humanity had ever moved.

Statoil's platform, whose mostly-underwater structure is taller than the Eiffel tower, is supported by four vast concrete legs, or shafts, on the ocean floor. To hold the concert, Melua flew to the platform by helicopter, and then descended to the bottom of the shaft, Statoil said.

The artist sang and played the guitar, accompanied on the keyboards for one song by Troll A platform manager Jan Hauge, who had the idea for the concert.

Melua's Internet site said there was extensive training for the concert, "including escaping through the window of a submerged helicopter."

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-03, 11:55 PM

Forget airbags, silicone breasts will do

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061002/od_afp/bulgariahealthsurgery;_ylt=Av0lsh_8QGMKhs_MJFsiON6 s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

SOFIA (AFP) - A woman in the northern Bulgarian town of Ruse survived a car crash thanks to her silicone breasts which acted as an airbag, a newspaper has reported.

The 24-year-old ran through a red light and crashed her car into another vehicle at a busy crossroad in the middle of town Saturday, the daily Standart said.

"The two cars were crumpled past recognition in the crash but the woman's silicone breasts acted as airbags and saved her life," Standart wrote, citing eyewitness reports.

But survival as well as beauty comes at a price as the woman burst her silicon implants in the crash.

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-04, 12:01 AM

Boxer goes naked to make weight for world title fight

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061003/od_nm/thailand_naked1_dc;_ylt=AqLqWd0cl.7CCQhVghH_SC.hOr gF;_ylu=X3oDMTA4cmUwbnA1BHNlYwMxNzAy

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Panamanian Celestino Caballero stripped naked on Tuesday to avoid missing out on a shot at the world title.

Caballero stunned reporters by removing his underwear at the weigh-in for his WBA super bantamweight fight with champion Somsak Sithchatchawal of Thailand.

The challenger's bold move paid off when he safely made the weight limit of 55.3-kg (122 pounds) for Wednesday's fight.

Thai media reports said last week that the 30-year-old Caballero was struggling to shed weight and had considered calling the fight off.

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-04, 12:43 AM

And the most requested funeral song is...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061003/od_nm/britain_funerals1_dc;_ylt=AhX.OB9TwtiKawsVFZqdM3_t iBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

LONDON (Reuters) - James Blunt's "Goodbye My Lover" is the song most requested at British funerals and remembrance services, closely followed by Robbie Williams's "Angels," according to a survey released on Monday.

Research for the Bereavement Register found just over a half (51 percent) of people ask for a specific song be played at their funeral and 79 percent have talked with family and friends about possible song choices. The survey of 5,000 people also uncovered some unusual final choices for the final goodbye with rock songs like "I'll Sleep When I am Dead" by Bon Jovi, competing with classical tracks and soul.

"The top 20 really shows how far we have come in terms of saying goodbye. Gone are the days dirges of yore, instead we are seeing contemporary music that is easier to relate to," said Mark Roy, founder of the Bereavement Register, which removes the names and addresses of people who have died from databases to reduce junk mail.

"Everyone has a favorite song that means something very special to them, often connected to a particular time and place. When the song is played this can be a very emotive reminder of that person," he said in a statement.

Although fashions change there have been some consistent favorites over recent years like "Wind Beneath My Wings" at number four and "Candle In The Wind" -- a reworked version of which played at Princess Diana's funeral in 1997 -- which was at number six.

Many of the songs represented the different ages of the deceased.

Songs like "Danny Boy" (number 11 in the list) tended to be played at the funerals of the elderly while S Club 7's "Reach For The Stars" (number 20) was more usual at *****ren's funerals, the survey showed.

Others in the top 20 included "Knocking On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan and, perhaps unexpectedly, Fame's "I Want To Live Forever." The top 10 requested songs were:

1 - "Goodbye My Lover" - James Blunt
2 - "Angels" - Robbie Williams
3 - "I've Had The Time Of My Life" - Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley.
4 - "Wind Beneath My Wings" - Bette Midler
5 - "Pie Jesu" - Requiem
6 - "Candle In The Wind" - Elton John
7 - "With Or Without You" - U2
8 - "Tears In Heaven" - Eric Clapton
9 - "Every Breath You Take - The Police
10 -"Unchained Melody" - Righteous Brothers.

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-04, 12:44 AM

lol....if someone tried to play James Blunt at my funeral, I would have to haunt them! :p

never really thought about a funeral song for myself until I read this.....
any of these songs would do for me:

Who Wants to Live Forever - Queen
A Tout Le Monde - Megadeth
God Gave Rock n Roll To You II - Kiss
"Ode to Joy" from Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 - Beethoven'
Last Goodbye - Doro Pesch

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-06, 08:52 PM

Man tries to drive 310 miles in reverse

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061006/ap_on_fe_st/australia_outback_backward

SYDNEY, Australia - A 22-year-old man attempted to drive 310 miles in reverse on a remote Outback highway after his transmission failed, blocking his forward gears, police said Friday. The man was stopped by Western Australia state police on Thursday afternoon after they spotted his car roaring in reverse down the highway at about 40 mph, according to a statement.

He was en route to the state capital, Perth, when his transmission failed outside a restaurant in the Outback town of Kalgoorlie, about 300 miles away, according to media reports.

Rather than call a mechanic, the man opted to continue driving, in reverse.

Police said they stopped the man, whose identity was not immediately released, outside the nearby town of Coolgardie, about 12 miles from where his backward journey began.

A breath test for alcohol proved negative, but the man was charged with reckless driving and other traffic offenses, police said. He was ordered to appear before the Coolgardie Magistrates Court on Monday.

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-06, 08:53 PM

Spider causes man to lose control of SUV

LEVANT, Maine - A Levant man told police he lost control of his 2003 Lincoln Navigator after he was startled by a spider on Wednesday morning.

James Lee, 28, was trying to get out of the SUV when it smashed into a tree. He walked away with a bloody nose caused by the air bag.

But, it could've been worse. At least it wasn't the new Volvo XC90 he won in a contest.

Last month, Lee was one of 11 people from across the country to win a new vehicle from McDonald's, the Bangor Daily News reported. After finishing a Big Mac extra value meal, he got the winning game piece for the "Pirates of the Caribbean" game.

He hasn't taken delivery of the new vehicle yet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061005/ap_on_fe_st/spider_crash;_ylt=Asm__zfg92lvxJ41dTXY1VguQE4F;_yl u=X3oDMTA4cmUwbnA1BHNlYwMxNzAy

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-24, 08:40 PM

Don't mess with Old Farts

OMAHA, Neb. - Two robbers who thought they had an easy mark in a 68-year-old Omaha man were surprised on Sunday. Police said Earnest Coleman was sitting in his car outside an Omaha grocery store when a young man jumped into the passenger seat with a gun and demanded Coleman's money.

Coleman responded by grabbing the robber and his gun, and exchanging blows. A second robber came to Coleman's window and hit the elderly man, police said.

Undeterred, Coleman pulled that man into the car and began to hit him, too. The two robbers then ran away — without Coleman's money and without the gun.

Police are reviewing surveillance footage from security cameras, a spokesman said.

The robbers appeared to be teenagers, Coleman said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061024/ap_on_fe_st/botched_robbery

BFofAKournikova

2006-10-24, 09:01 PM

Don't mess with Old Farts part II

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 70-year-old British pensioner, trained in martial arts during his military service, dispatched a gang of four would-be muggers in a late-night attack in Germany.

"Looks like he had everything under control," a police spokesman from the German town of Bielefeld said of the incident last Friday.

The man, a native of Birmingham who now lives in Germany, was challenged by three men, demanding money, while a fourth crept up behind him. Recalling his training, the Briton grabbed the first assailant and threw him over his shoulder.

When a second man tried to kick him, the pensioner grabbed his foot and tipped him to the ground. At this point, the three men, thought to be aged between 18 and 25, fled, carrying their injured accomplice with them.

The pensioner, whose name was not immediately available, suffered light abrasions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061023/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_germany_pensioner

Geo

2006-10-25, 06:14 PM

No Nudes Is Good News For Brits
Wednesday October 25, 04:33 PM

Nudity in public is the greatest modern taboo, according to a survey. Almost two out of five (37%) people placed nakedness at the top of a list of unacceptable public practices. It was followed by wearing a hoodie (12%), public displays of affection (11%) and breast-feeding (9%).

The survey was conducted by Hasbro, makers of the board game The Big Taboo, to mark the fourth National Game Playing Week.

Nick Atkinson, of British Naturism, said British people still had unnecessary hang-ups about nudity.

He said: "I am shocked that people rate nudity in public as more offensive than drinking alcohol or farting."

The full top ten, compiled with answers from 3,013 people, was: Being naked in public (37%), wearing a hoodie (12%), public displays of affection (11%), breast-feeding (9%), mobile phone ringtones (8%), arguing (7%), drinking alcohol (6%), litter (3%), smoking (2%), flatulence (2%).

{Must be 3013 non-MW members or non-Old Fart Club members :gr: :gr: }

:fire :fire :fire

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-01, 10:55 PM

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch woman, who had meticulously planned her own funeral after the death of her husband last year, died next to the grave in Amsterdam where she wanted to be buried, a newspaper reported.

The 65-year-old widow probably died of a heart attack while she was visiting the family grave where her name, but no date, was already inscribed, De Telegraaf daily reported Wednesday.

The woman was carrying a bag with her containing her will when she died and had already organized details of her funeral including the music she wanted played, the paper said.

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-01, 11:00 PM

Lebanon war puts damper on Israeli pot smokers

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's recent war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas has sent cannabis prices sky high in the Jewish state. Boosted security on the Lebanon frontier brought a drastic reduction in drug smuggling, with the cost of cannabis in Israel up eight-fold, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Smoking and selling cannabis are illegal in Israel. Trafficking from Egypt has also been curbed by Israeli patrols aimed at preventing Palestinians from smuggling in arms.

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-01, 11:01 PM

BERLIN (Reuters) - Two sharp-eyed Germans saw what they thought were masked bank robbers in a car with tinted windows in front of a bank and called police, but the occupants turned out not to be thieves but *****ren in Halloween masks.

The two women in the small northern town of Bad Zwischenahn separately spotted the vehicle, police said Monday. But it took off before police arrived.

Authorities picked it up two hours later and detained the driver and three passengers -- *****ren in Halloween costumes.

"We got a call that there were 'masked people in front of a bank' and assumed it was a hold-up," officer Juergen Harms said. "After we brought the man and the *****ren in ... we were able to quickly establish it was a case of mistaken identity."

"It was hard for the witnesses to see that it was three *****ren wearing Halloween masks," Harms said, adding police had thanked the women for being observant.

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-01, 11:06 PM

BERLIN (Reuters) - A careless burglar in Germany left behind a vital clue at a break-in when he sliced off the end of a finger and left it behind, police said on Monday.

"We usually find fingerprints at the crime scene, but it's not every day that thieves leave the original there too," said a spokesman for police in the central town of Hildesheim.

Police wasted no time in matching the piece of finger with existing prints they had from a 15-year-old of Iraqi origin.

The youth initially denied breaking and entering into an office to steal a computer but confessed when police produced the digital remnant, which had been severed on a broken window.

"I don't know if the fellow asked for it (the fingertip) back afterwards," the police spokesman said.

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-01, 11:11 PM

California couple's marriage made in HELL

HELL, Mich. - Catherine Greene was admittedly a little nervous when she said "I do" to fiance Nicholas Doubleday during a Halloween-themed wedding ceremony in this unusually named hamlet. "It was her idea," Doubleday said. "When I asked her to marry me, she said she wanted the wedding in Hell."

The couple live near San Diego and are planning to relocate to Michigan. They haven't ruled out moving to Hell, which has about 250 people and is 45 miles west of Detroit.

The bride, a registered nurse, was dressed in black and wore vampire teeth during Tuesday's nuptials. She walked down the lantern-lit, pumpkin-lined aisle in cadence with a funeral dirge instead of the "Wedding March."

The groom, who hopes to become a history teacher, was a knight clad in 80 pounds of armor.

"I will have these wonderful memories forever," Greene told The Ann Arbor News.

It was the second such ceremony at John Colone's Hell Village Chapel, a tiny building that stands behind his Screams Ice Cream & Halloween Store.

"This is great," Colone said. "I love the joy and the laughter we can bring into people's lives."

The maid of honor, Terri Dunham of Oceanside, Calif., was dressed as an angel in white. Greene's bridesmaids were dressed as medieval princesses.

"Having the wedding here totally makes sense," Dunham said. "I've known Cathy since we were in sixth grade and she's always been extreme and offbeat.

"Everyone wants a special and unique wedding. This will be a great story to tell to their grand*****ren."

Greene and Doubleday met in 2003 in Alaska, where she was going to college and he was in the Air Force. Their ghoulish wedding day was their third trip to Hell together.

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-01, 11:17 PM

COLUMBUS, Ind. - A sheriff's deputy sniffed out two men suspected of robbing a pizza delivery woman when he caught a whiff of pepperoni and sausage pizza at their home.

Bartholomew County Sheriff's Deputy Jimmy Green was searching the area where the delivery woman was robbed for potential witnesses Sunday night when he grew suspicious of one man, Maj. Mark Gorbett said.

"It just didn't seem right to Jimmy, and he wanted to take it a step further and went to the witness' residence. That's when Jimmy smelled the aroma of pizza," Gorbett said. "I'm sure our K-9 unit wouldn't have hit on the pizza."

Green noticed a phone book in the house opened to the pizza section. Officers also found the pizzas and cash taken in the robbery and a knife they believe one of the suspects used, Gorbett said.

Police arrested two men in their early 20s at the home, a couple of blocks from where the delivery woman was robbed. Deputies believe the men called in the pizza order and gave a phony address, then one of the men robbed the delivery woman at knifepoint while the other served as a lookout.

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-01, 11:19 PM

Mayor mistakenly hands out sex number

EDMOND, Okla. - The mayor personally distributed thousands of fliers discouraging underage drinking only to find they mistakenly contained the phone number for a sex talk line.

Edmond Mayor Saundra Naifeh and more than five dozen volunteers went door-to-door Saturday to deliver 22,000 fliers. The city attorney notified Naifeh Saturday night after the police department learned of the mistake.

"Obviously, it made me feel sick," Naifeh said. "I had a blister on one foot (from going door-to-door) when the city attorney told me the number was wrong. I have no idea how the error happened."

Callers dialing the number were promised "exciting live talk" if they called a second number offering provocative telephone conversations or text messages costing 99 cents to $2.99 a minute.

City Manager Larry Stevens called the wrong listing an inadvertent error that occurred when the card was designed by the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

Naifeh said writing a story identifying the nature of the wrong telephone number was sensationalism and tabloid news.

"It will change the focus of what we were doing," she said. "It is not part of the story."

Naifeh had chosen the campaign to fight underage drinking as Edmond's contribution to Make A Difference Day, a national day set aside to help neighbors and the community.

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-07, 08:15 PM

Pot users relying on home delivery

NEW YORK - In a city where you can get just about anything delivered to your door — groceries, dry cleaning, Chinese food — pot smokers are increasingly ordering takeout marijuana from drug rings that operate with remarkable corporate-style attention to customer satisfaction.

An untold number of otherwise law-abiding professionals in New York are having their pot delivered to their homes instead of visiting drug dens or hanging out on street corners.

Among the legions of home delivery customers is Chris, a 37-year-old salesman in Manhattan. He dials a pager number and gets a return call from a cheery dispatcher who takes his order for potent strains of marijuana.

Within a couple of hours, a well-groomed delivery man — sometimes a moonlighting actor or chef — arrives at the doorstep of his Manhattan apartment carrying weed neatly packaged in small plastic containers.

"These are very nice, discreet people," said Chris, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition only his first name be used. "There's an unspoken trust. It's better than going to some street corner and getting ripped off or killed."

The phenomenon isn't new. It has long been the case around the country that those with enough money and the right connections could get cocaine or other drugs discreetly delivered to their homes and places of business.

But experts say home delivery has been growing in popularity, thanks to a shrewder, corporate style of dealing designed to put customers at ease and avoid the messy turf wars associated with other drugs.

"It's certainly been the trend in the past 10 years in urban areas that are becoming gentrified," said Ric Curtis, an anthropology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who specializes in the drug culture.

The corporate model — and its profit potential — were demonstrated late last year when the Drug Enforcement Administration announced that it had taken down a highly sophisticated organization dubbed the Cartoon Network. DEA agents arrested 12 people after using wiretaps and surveillance and making undercover buys.

Authorities estimated that since 1999, the ring made a fortune by delivering more than a ton of marijuana, some of it grown hydroponically — without soil — in the basement of a Cape Cod-style home on 10 acres in Vermont, where an informant reported the smell of the crop was overpowering.

The dealers, working out of a roving call center, processed 600 orders a day — from doctors, lawyers, Wall Street traders — even on Christmas, investigators said. Authorities refused to give names, but in one conversation overheard last October, a courier boasted about the ring's upscale clientele, according to court papers.

"We know comedians. We know celebrities," the courier said. "So you might meet a rapper, a singer. We go to a lot of people."

One former customer named Lucia, a 30-year-old employee at an entertainment cable network, recalled blatant deals done at the company's Manhattan headquarters. Executives and employees alike would pool their orders as if they were buying lunch together, then await the arrival of a courier, Lucia said.

The cost was $60 for one plastic case holding two grams of marijuana — a steep markup, but worth it because of convenience and quality, she said.

"It was kind, kind bud," she said. "Yummy stuff."

The emphasis on customer service and satisfaction was evident at one stash house, where agents found more than 30 pounds of marijuana in plain view, already packaged for holiday delivery, court papers said. The packages featured the drug ring's cartoon character logo and the greeting, "Happy Holidays From Your Friends at Cartoon!"

The operation's alleged mastermind, John Nebel, "should have been the CEO of a Fortune 500 company," said his attorney, Steve Zissou.

Instead, Nebel, who is awaiting trial, could get a minimum of 10 years in federal prison if convicted. Prosecutors also are demanding the forfeiture of $22 million in cash, homes, cars, motorcycles and a boat owned by him and his cohorts.

At Lucia's workplace, employees were "bummed" by the news of Nebel's bust, Lucia said. But worries that the office might get raided evaporated, and other dealers stepped in, though "their product does not hold up to Cartoon," she said.

Investigators seized customers' names and addresses from the drug operation's computer logs. But those people face little risk of prosecution, authorities said.

Authorities conceded the home delivery trade will probably survive because of the high demand for marijuana and the low penalties for dealing it.

Under state law, most marijuana offenses "are not treated as very significant crimes," said Bridget G. Brennen, the city's special narcotic prosecutor. "That is why you see the marijuana delivery services proliferating. Their exposure is slight."

Max

2006-11-07, 09:53 PM

Two police officers are suing Burger King after claiming they were served burgers which had been sprinkled with marijuana. Mark Landavazo and Henry Gabalson were in uniform and riding in a marked patrol car when they bought food at a Burger King restaurant in Los Lunas, New Mexico. They ate about half of their burgers before discovering marijuana on the meat.

They used a field test kit for confirmation of the substance and then went to a hospital for medical tests.

Three Burger King

employees, Justin Armijo, 19, Robert Nuckols, 21, and manager Joseph Ledesma, 33, were arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and aggravated battery on an officer.

The policemen's civil action seeks punitive and compensatory damages and they are alleging personal injury, negligence, battery and violation of fair practices.

Their lawyer Sam Bregman said: "It gives a whole new meaning to the word 'Whopper'.

"The idea that these hoodlums would put marijuana into a hamburger and therefore attempt to impair law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs is outrageous."

While the case is already the subject of jokes on US chat shows, Mr Bregman said it was "deadly serious".

He said: "God forbid these officers didn't realise their burgers were laced with pot and then were called to a violent situation where they'd have to draw their firearms.

"Their lives were placed in danger because of these idiots and Burger King."

The company has refused to comment as it has a policy against discussing pending court cases.

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-07, 10:05 PM

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-12, 03:41 PM

Brazilian woman survives 6 shots to head :eek:

SAO PAULO, Brazil - A woman was released from the hospital a day after she was shot in the head six times in an attack police blamed on her ex-husband, Brazilian media reported Saturday.

Patricia Goncalves Pereira, a 21-year-old housewife, was shot Friday after an altercation with her ex-husband, who was upset because she refused to get back together with him, Globo TV reported.

"I know this was a miracle," Pereira told the TV network. "Now I just want to extract the bullets and live my life."

Doctors could not explain how Pereira survived the attack. The .32-caliber bullets didn't break through her skull and didn't even need to be immediately extracted, doctors said. Pereira also was shot once in the hand.

Police said the ex-husband was still at large, Globo TV reported.

Max

2006-11-12, 04:15 PM

Brazilian woman survives 6 shots to head :eek:

Doctors could not explain how Pereira survived the attack. The .32-caliber bullets didn't break through her skull and didn't even need to be immediately extracted, doctors said. Pereira also was shot once in the hand.

Was Brazilian Coffee in the bullet case instead of gunpowder :D

BFofAKournikova

2006-11-13, 03:51 PM

Is a burrito a sandwich? Judge says no

WORCESTER, Mass. - Is a burrito a sandwich? The Panera Bread Co. bakery-and-cafe chain says yes. But a judge said no, ruling against Panera in its bid to prevent a Mexican restaurant from moving into the same shopping mall.

Panera has a clause in its lease that prevents the White City Shopping Center in Shrewsbury from renting to another sandwich shop. Panera tried to invoke that clause to stop the opening of an Qdoba Mexican Grill.

But Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke cited Webster's Dictionary as well as testimony from a chef and a former high-ranking federal agriculture official in ruling that Qdoba's burritos and other offerings are not sandwiches.

The difference, the judge ruled, comes down to two slices of bread versus one tortilla.

"A sandwich is not commonly understood to include burritos, tacos and quesadillas, which are typically made with a single tortilla and stuffed with a choice filling of meat, rice, and beans," Locke wrote in a decision released last week.

In court papers, Panera, a St. Louis-based chain of more than 900 cafes, argued for a broad definition of a sandwich, saying that a flour tortilla is bread and that a food product with bread and a filling is a sandwich.

Qdoba, owned by San Diego-based Jack in the Box Inc., called food experts to testify on its behalf.

Among them was Cambridge chef Chris Schlesinger, who said in an affidavit: "I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian."

Max

2006-11-13, 04:26 PM

Is a burrito a sandwich? Judge says no

Among them was Cambridge chef Chris Schlesinger, who said in an affidavit: "I know of no chef or culinary historian who would call a burrito a sandwich. Indeed, the notion would be absurd to any credible chef or culinary historian."

Oxford makes it very clear, OED that is, better than Cambridge ;)

sandwich

• noun 1 an item of food consisting of two pieces of bread with a filling between them. 2 Brit. a sponge cake of two or more layers with jam or cream between them.

• verb 1 (sandwich between) insert between (two people or things). 2 (sandwich together) squeeze (two things) together.

— ORIGIN named after the 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-92), an English nobleman said to have eaten food in this form.

If Americans steal our language they should not alter it ;)

Geo

2006-11-29, 06:24 PM

The old ones are all ways the best !!!

Does this happen only in Florida ? someone you know Jamie, shopping at WM ?

BFofAKournikova

2006-12-06, 10:22 PM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - It is considered polite to light a match after passing gas. Not while on a plane.

An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of flatulence, authorities said.

The Dallas-bound flight was diverted to Nashville after several passengers reported smelling burning sulfur from the matches, said Lynne Lowrance, spokeswoman for the Nashville International Airport Authority. All 99 passengers and five crew members were taken off and screened while the plane was searched and luggage was screened.

The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she struck the matches in an attempt to conceal a "body odor," Lowrance said. She had an unspecified medical condition, authorities said.

"It's humorous in a way but you feel sorry for the individual, as well," she said. "It's unusual that someone would go to those measures to cover it up."

The flight took off again, but the woman was not allowed back on the plane. The woman, who was not identified, was not charged in the incident.

BFofAKournikova

2006-12-24, 03:16 PM

SPOKANE, Wash. - A woman hopped aboard buses, greeted passengers with "Merry Christmas" and handed each an envelope containing a card and a $50 bill before stepping off and repeating the process on another bus.

She did it so quickly that descriptions of the woman varied among surprised Spokane Transit Authority passengers on several routes Thursday, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported Friday.

"She kind of kept her head down. I don't remember ever seeing this lady before," said bus driver Max Clemons.

"I had a young man in the back of the bus. He looked like he was going to start crying. He said in broken English, 'She don't know how much this will mean to me at Christmas,'" Clemons said.

Transit authority spokesman Dan Kolbet said efforts to identify the gift-giver were unsuccessful. Her generosity didn't appear to be part of a marketing gimmick, he said.

The woman gave envelopes to about 20 passengers, he said. Each was sealed with a sticker that said: "To a friend from a friend."

The woman, accompanied by one or two young boys, pulled the envelopes out of a cloth satchel. The buses were pulling away from stops before riders even knew what happened.

"There was a lot of excitement. People were making calls on their cell phones," said driver Terry Dobson, who had two of his trips visited by the mystery woman. "The people on those buses really needed the money."

Hours after the impromptu gift-giving, Dobson was still giddy.

"It was just a neat thing," he said. "It makes you tingle all over."

Max

2006-12-29, 10:25 PM

BERLIN (Reuters) - A 21-year-old German tourist who wanted to visit his girlfriend in the Australian metropolis Sydney landed 13,000 kilometres away near Sidney, Montana, after mistyping his destination on a flight booking Web site.

Dressed for the Australian summer in t-shirt and shorts, Tobi Gutt left Germany on Saturday for a four-week holiday.

Instead of arriving "down under", Gutt found himself on a different continent and bound for the chilly state of Montana.

"I did wonder but I didn't want to say anything," Gutt told the Bild newspaper. "I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the United States."

Gutt's airline ticket routed him via the U.S. city of Portland, Oregon, to Billings, Montana. Only as he was about to board a commuter flight to Sidney -- an oil town of about 5,000 people -- did he realise his mistake.

The hapless tourist, who had only a thin jacket to keep out the winter cold, spent three days in Billings airport before he was able to buy a new ticket to Australia with 600 euros in cash that his parents and friends sent over from Germany.

"I didn't notice the mistake as my son is usually good with computers," his mother, Sabine, told Reuters.

Geode

2006-12-30, 06:34 PM

That is why it is good to book your plane by the 3-char airport codes!

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-07, 11:46 AM

RALEIGH, N.C. - A North Carolina artist intrigued by the public obsession with celebrity has found herself feeding that obsession with a painting of actress Angelina Jolie as the Virgin Mary hovering over a Wal-Mart check-out line.

Kate Kretz has painted for 20 years but none of her previous work has garnered the attention given "Blessed Art Thou," showing this weekend at Art Miami, an annual exposition of modern and contemporary art.

The painting has gotten much attention from celebrity web sites and blogs. Since the buzz started, the number of daily unique visitors to Kretz's own blog has jumped from an average of 30 to 15,000 on Wednesday.

"My intention was to ask a question and get people to think," Kretz said in a telephone interview Friday from Miami. "I had no idea so many people would be asking a question and thinking."

The painting — acrylic and oil on linen — depicts an angelic Jolie in the clouds, holding her newborn daughter, Shiloh, with *****ren Maddox and Zahara at her legs. Below them is a Wal-Mart checkout line. The painting is for sale for $50,000 through Chelsea Galleria in Miami, which represents Kretz.

On her blog, Kretz, 43, said the painting addresses "the celebrity worship cycle." She said she chose Jolie for the subject "because of her unavoidable presence in the media, the worldwide anticipation of her *****, her 'unattainable' beauty and the good that she is doing in the world through her example, which adds another layer to the already complicated questions surrounding her status."

Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, asked to comment about "Blessed Art Thou" on a Post blog, was unimpressed. "Once you've deciphered it, there's not much chance of giving it a second look," Gopnik wrote.

http://www.katekretz.com

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-08, 07:58 PM

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters Life!) - A U.S. college student imprisoned for three weeks for trying to take flour-filled condoms onto an airplane has settled her lawsuit against Philadelphia for $180,000, a city spokesman said on Friday.

Janet Lee, 21, a student at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, was arrested at Philadelphia International Airport in 2003 after police and security officials thought the flour was an illegal drug.

She was held in Philadelphia on drug-trafficking charges and released only when tests proved the substance in the three condoms was flour.

The condoms, which are sometimes used to smuggle drugs, were a joke among the students, and Lee was taking them home to Los Angeles.

Her civil rights case against Philadelphia, which had been set to go to trial on Thursday, was settled for $180,000, said Ted Qualli, spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor John Street.

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-08, 08:01 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - A British farm worker needed hospital treatment after being attacked by a herd of pigs, Norfolk police said Sunday.

The 51-year-old man was knocked over by a sow at a Norfolk farm in eastern England, prompting the rest of the herd to attack him.

"It seems that when he fell, he was attacked by one of the sows and then the other pigs joined in," a Norfolk police spokesman told Reuters.

"He suffered bumps and bruises and a head injury though it is not considered to be life-threatening."

The police spokesman said it was the first time he had heard of a pig attack in the area -- but it was unlikely the herd would be put down.

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-08, 08:15 PM

ORLANDO, Fla. - A Walt Disney World employee dressed as the character "Tigger" was accused of hitting a ***** while posing for a photo, a spokeswoman for the theme park said Saturday.

Park officials temporarily suspended Michael J. Fedelem while they investigate the accusations, Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said.

"Naturally, physical altercations between cast members and guests are not tolerated," Suarez said.

Jerry Monaco of New Hampshire videotaped his son, Jerry Jr., posing with the costumed character at Disney-MGM Studios on Friday and recorded the confrontation, according to a statement from the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

The father said Fedelem intentionally hit his son "on or about the head," said sheriff's spokesman Carlos M. Padilla. "The tape only shows a fraction of what happened. Now it's up to us to find out what led up to that."

A message left by The Associated Press for Monaco was not immediately returned. A telephone listing for Fedelem could not be located.

In 2004 a Walt Disney World employee dressed as Tigger was accused of touching the breast of a 13-year-old girl while she posed with him for a photo. A jury found the man not guilty.

video of the attack here:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2778058

Max

2007-01-08, 10:32 PM

LONDON (Reuters) - For sale: the world's smallest country with its own flag, stamps, currency and passports.

Apply to Prince Michael of Sealand if you want to run your own storm-tossed nation -- even if it is just a wartime fort perched on two concrete towers in the North Sea.

Built in World War Two as an anti-aircraft base against German bombers, the derelict platform was taken over 40 years ago by retired army major Paddy Roy Bates who went to live there with his family.

He declared the platform, perched seven miles off the east coast of England just outside Britain's territorial waters, to be the principality of Sealand.

The self-styled Prince Roy adopted a flag, chose a national anthem and minted silver and gold coins as its currency.

The family saw off an attempt by the Royal Navy to evict them and also an attempt in 1978 by a group of German and Dutch businessmen to seize Sealand by force.

"I was held prisoner out there for three or four days and then managed to get back to England," Roy's son Michael told BBC Radio on Monday.

"I slid down a rope out of a helicopter with my father and a couple of comrades and took the place back against armed opposition. It was quite a high point in my life," he said.

Prince Michael, whose 85-year-old father now lives in Spain, said his family had been approached by estate agents with clients "who wanted a bit more than a bit of real estate, they wanted autonomy."

Asked what were the delights of living on Sealand, the 54-year-old prince said "The neighbours are very quiet. There is a good sea view."

"There is no jurisdiction by any other country in the world," he said, suggesting it could be a base for online gambling or offshore banking.

Calling it a cross between a house and a ship, the prince acknowledged it was not the world's most picturesque country, boasting as it does two large concrete towers with eight rooms in each tower.

"It is fairly bleak," he conceded. ""But it is quite pleasant sitting inside in the warm and watching the horrendous weather roaring past the double-glazed windows."

So what did he expect to get for Sealand?

"We shall see," Prince Michael said. "I will listen to anybody who wants to talk."

Richard

2007-01-09, 12:44 AM

Hmm, maybe The Netherlands should invade it ;)

Geode

2007-01-09, 07:38 AM

Have Hilton buy it and put a hotel/casino on it.

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-09, 09:52 AM

blin wish I was rich (not Dutch Rich but money rich :p)

I would buy it an rename it Ivanafukistan! :D

Geode

2007-01-09, 05:06 PM

Jamie (Ivana Postalot), your slacking off on your posts. I would have expected you to be nearing 10K by now. blablablab

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-09, 09:11 PM

Milk destroys health benefits of tea: study

PARIS (AFP) - Bad news for Britons: adding milk to tea ruins the health benefits of the drink, according to a Germany study.

Tea has complex compounds called polyphenols which are believed to help the arteries to relax or dilate, thus enabling a smoother flow of blood.

Scientists led at the Charite Hospital in Berlin tested black Darjeeling tea on 16 healthy women volunteers aged more than 50, placing an ultrasound probe on their forearm to measure arterial response.

When the women drank half a litre (0.9 of a pint) of tea, their arteries relaxed significantly more than when they drank hot water or tea with milk -- tea in which skimmed milk, comprising 10 percent of the drink's volume, was added.

The results were confirmed in lab-dish tests on rat aorta.

The study, which appears online in the European Heart Journal, points the finger of blame at three casein proteins in the milk. These are thought to adhere to a kind of polyphenols known as catechins, preventing them from carrying out their health-making work.

This could explain why Britain, a nation passionate about tea-drinking but where almost everybody adds milk to their cup, fails to make headway against cardiovascular disease, said researcher Verena Stangl.

The study did not cover green tea, which is widely drunk in East Asia -- without milk.

Max

2007-01-09, 09:14 PM

This could explain why Britain, a nation passionate about tea-drinking but where almost everybody adds milk to their cup, fails to make headway against cardiovascular disease, said researcher Verena Stangl.

And there was me thinking greasy Fish Suppers or Ulster Fries were to blame. ;)

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-11, 04:33 PM

.......and now this:

U.S. warns about Canadian spy coins

WASHINGTON - Money talks, but can it also follow your movements?

In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside.

The government said the mysterious coins were found planted on U.S. contractors with classified security clearances on at least three separate occasions between October 2005 and January 2006 as the contractors traveled through Canada.

Intelligence and technology experts said such transmitters, if they exist, could be used to surreptitiously track the movements of people carrying the spy coins.

The U.S. report doesn't suggest who might be tracking American defense contractors or why. It also doesn't describe how the Pentagon discovered the ruse, how the transmitters might function or even which Canadian currency contained them.

Further details were secret, according to the U.S. Defense Security Service, which issued the warning to the Pentagon's classified contractors. The government insists the incidents happened, and the risk was genuine.

"What's in the report is true," said Martha Deutscher, a spokeswoman for the security service. "This is indeed a sanitized version, which leaves a lot of questions."

Top suspects, according to outside experts: China, Russia or even France — all said to actively run espionage operations inside Canada with enough sophistication to produce such technology.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service said it knew nothing about the coins.

"This issue has just come to our attention," CSIS spokeswoman Barbara Campion said. "At this point, we don't know of any basis for these claims." She said Canada's intelligence service works closely with its U.S. counterparts and will seek more information if necessary.

Experts were astonished about the disclosure and the novel tracking technique, but they rejected suggestions Canada's government might be spying on American contractors. The intelligence services of the two countries are extraordinarily close and routinely share sensitive secrets.

"It would seem unthinkable," said David Harris, former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. "I wouldn't expect to see any offensive operation against the Americans."

Harris said likely candidates include foreign spies who targeted Americans abroad or businesses engaged in corporate espionage. "There are certainly a lot of mysterious aspects to this," Harris said.

Experts said such tiny transmitters would almost certainly have limited range to communicate with sensors no more than a few feet away, such as ones hidden inside a doorway. The metal in the coins also could interfere with any signals emitted.

"I'm not aware of any (transmitter) that would fit inside a coin and broadcast for kilometers," said Katherine Albrecht, an activist who believes such technology carries serious privacy risks. "Whoever did this obviously has access to some pretty advanced technology."

Experts said hiding tracking technology inside coins is fraught with risks because the spy's target might inadvertently give away the coin or spend it buying coffee or a newspaper. They agreed, however, that a coin with a hidden tracking device might not arouse suspicion if it were discovered in a pocket or briefcase.

"It wouldn't seem to be the best place to put something like that; you'd want to put it in something that wouldn't be left behind or spent," said Jeff Richelson, a researcher and author of books about the CIA and its gadgets. "It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense."

Canada's largest coins include its $2 "Toonie," which is more than 1-inch across and thick enough to hide a tiny transmitter. The CIA has acknowledged its own spies have used hollow, U.S. silver-dollar coins to hide messages and film.

The government's 29-page report was filled with other espionage warnings. It described unrelated hacker attacks, eavesdropping with miniature pen recorders and the case of a female foreign spy who seduced her American boyfriend to steal his computer passwords.

In another case, a film processing company called the FBI after it developed pictures for a contractor that contained classified images of U.S. satellites and their blueprints. The photo was taken from an adjoining office window.

Geo

2007-01-12, 09:05 PM

Obese Russians

Tatyana Sharapova is possibly one of the most overqualified janitors in Moscow: She can type 60 words a minute; speaks Russian, English and some German; and has a professional-sounding voice ideal for answering phones.

But Sharapova, 25, is stuck pushing a mop around a small shopping center in southern Moscow, she says, because she weighs too much.

At 118 kilograms, or 260 pounds, she is part of a growing problem of overweight Russians.

The causes of this weight gain in Russia are similar to those elsewhere, experts say: Too much high-fat food, not enough fruits and vegetables, not enough exercise.

According to figures from the state-funded Institute of Nutrition, men between the ages of 30 and 44 weigh 2.4 kilograms, roughly 6 pounds, more than they did 12 years ago -- coming in at 78.7 kilograms compared to 76.3 in 1994.

Women, too, are gaining mass, finds the institute, which falls under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Those aged 45 to 60 are now heavier than they were not so long ago.

Overall, the average weight has risen by 2 kilograms, between 4 and 5 pounds, in the past decade, the institute's figures show.

"In Russia," said the institute's director, Viktor Tutelyan, "more than 55 percent of the population over 30 years old carry excess weight. In total, almost one-quarter -- 23 percent -- suffer from obesity."

'can type 60 words a minute; speaks Russian, English and some German; and has a professional-sounding voice ideal for answering phones.

Eats too much high-fat food, not enough fruits and vegetables, not enough exercise. '

hammersmas

Game of tennis anyone?

:D :D :D :D :D :D

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-16, 10:21 PM

London calling: NFL to hold regular-season game in England

:banana :banana :banana :banana :banana :banana
LONDON (AP) -- London will hold the NFL's first regular-season game outside North America this year, the start of a campaign to take American football to a global audience.

"There's great history of NFL football in London, and British fans have been great fans of football over the years," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Tuesday. "We're confident that this game is going be a great success in London and will be a great foundation to play more games there going forward."

The opponents have yet to be announced, but the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants are believed to be front-runners for the game. The Dolphins, but not the Giants, are one of six NFL teams the league identified as potential home teams; they would give up a home game in Miami to host the contest in London.

"They are two of the teams that have expressed an interest and we'll narrow it down to which two teams will generate the most enthusiasm for the fans in London and the broader U.K.," Goodell said.

The most likely venue is the new 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium, which will open this spring after years of delays. The other candidate is 82,000-seat Twickenham, home of English rugby.

"We're looking at both venues in terms of their readiness," said Marc Waller, vice president of NFL International. "It's important that we understand terms of readiness of both stadiums and then a financial bidding process will also ensue."

The game will be held between late September and mid-October.

Goodell will announce the teams, venue and date before the Feb. 4 Super Bowl in Miami.

NFL owners voted in October to play up to two games outside the United States every season for the next five years. The London game will be the only overseas contest in 2007.

Germany, Canada and Mexico have been identified as the other top markets for NFL games outside the United States.

"We eliminated Toronto after agreeing with the Canadian Football League that we wouldn't go there because it was already hosting the Grey Cup," Goodell said. "Mexico was discussed, as well as Duesseldorf and Hamburg."

The NFL staged its first regular-season game outside the United States in 2005. The Arizona Cardinals played the San Francisco 49ers before a crowd of 103,467 in Mexico City.

London hosted several NFL American Bowl preseason games in the 1980s and 1990s. The city also had the London Monarchs in the World League of American Football-- now NFL Europe -- but the team folded.

Goodell said fans have reacted positively to the league's overseas plan, even though it means some teams will lose a scheduled home game.

"There are fans here that we think will like the idea and respond to it because it puts your city on a global stage and the city will be showed as a world class city itself," he said.
:fire :fire :fire :fire :fire :fire

finally you Brits will see what real football is all about ;)

ora

2007-01-16, 11:37 PM

Phhhh! American football !! ... will never be a serious thread for REAL football, (what u may call soccer over there) here on our continent!! As bushyBush & his former foreign minister (I forgot his name as he forgot what he himself had said...)- btw: his german grandma said he is a nerd!! Rumpsteak or so...
tried to tell us: the old (& overcome) world, haha!
nevermind, Jamie!!

Geode

2007-01-17, 05:08 PM

Obese Russians
The causes of this weight gain in Russia are similar to those elsewhere, experts say: Too much high-fat food, not enough fruits and vegetables, not enough exercise.

According to figures from the state-funded Institute of Nutrition, men between the ages of 30 and 44 weigh 2.4 kilograms, roughly 6 pounds, more than they did 12 years ago -- coming in at 78.7 kilograms compared to 76.3 in 1994.

Women, too, are gaining mass, finds the institute, which falls under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Those aged 45 to 60 are now heavier than they were not so long ago.

Overall, the average weight has risen by 2 kilograms, between 4 and 5 pounds, in the past decade, the institute's figures show.

:D

Its the American way of taking over the planet. Make everyone too big to move. Viva La McDonalds! shootself

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-18, 03:12 PM

Sheriff looks into water-drinking death

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - As participants in KDND-FM's water-drinking contest chugged bottle after bottle, a listener called in to warn the disc jockeys that the stunt was dangerous — and could be fatal.

"Yeah, we're aware of that," one of them responded.

Another DJ said with a laugh: "Yeah, they signed releases, so we're not responsible. We're OK."

Those comments, and others made during the Jan. 12 "Morning Rave" radio show, appeared to give little regard to the risk of water intoxication — until a woman died just hours after imbibing nearly two gallons in the contest.

On Wednesday, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department launched a criminal investigation into the incident, and attorneys for the family of Jennifer Lea Strange said they plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the radio station.

The county coroner said preliminary autopsy findings indicate Strange, a 28-year-old mother of three, died of water intoxication.

Authorities decided to pursue the investigation after listening to a tape of the show, obtained by The Sacramento Bee, during which DJs joked about the possible dangers of consuming too much water, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran said. At one point, the DJs even alluded to a college student who died during a similar stunt in 2005.

Strange was one of about 18 contestants who tried to win a Nintendo Wii gaming console by determining how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom. The show's DJs called the contest "Hold your Wee for a Wii."

Several hours into the contest, Strange was interviewed on the air and complained that her head hurt.

"They keep telling me that it's the water. That it will tell my head to hurt and then it will make me puke," she said.

Eventually, Strange gave in and accepted the second-place prize: tickets to a Justin Timberlake concert. She commented that she looked pregnant, and a female DJ agreed.

"Oh, my gosh, look at that belly. That's full of water. ... Come on over, Jennifer, you OK?" a male DJ asked. "You going to pass out right now? Too much water?"

Several hours later, Strange was found dead in her home.

On Tuesday, KDND's parent company, Entercom/Sacramento, fired 10 employees connected to the contest, including three morning disc jockeys. The company also took the morning show off the air.

Station spokesman Charles Sipkins said Wednesday the company had not yet heard from the sheriff's department but that it would cooperate with the investigation.

Max

2007-01-19, 10:44 PM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's faithful indulged on Friday in the annual Orthodox tradition of plunging through ice holes into freezing water, but a key ingredient was missing: it is not cold.

Grandmothers, robed priests and burly businessmen can usually be seen leaping through holes in the ice on frozen rivers and lakes across Russia to celebrate Orthodox Epiphany.

The warmest Moscow winter since records began has melted the ice and snow, leaving the faithful to take the dip in pouring rain and temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit).

Russians lined up before plunging into a lake at Strogino, in the capital's outskirts, where last year helpers had to skim off ice that formed in seconds in ice holes.

"It is my first time. It is such a strange feeling but somehow a very good feeling too," said Nadezhda, dripping wet after taking a dip in the lake as friends looked on.

"It is warm this year so I decided to try it," she said, adding that last winter, the coldest in a generation, was too chilly to take the plunge.

Christian Orthodox Epiphany celebrates the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan when worshippers believe the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove. It is celebrated in Russia on January 19.

Russians, who discuss the weather with a peculiar intensity, have been shocked by this years blazing -- for European Russia -- weather. A spokeswoman for Moscow's weather centre said this winter so far was the warmest since records began in 1879.

"The water is somehow not the same this year. I don't know why -- the water just seems different without a proper frost," said Alexander, who takes the plunge every year.

Besides the worshippers, bears at Moscow Zoo have also had their winter habits disrupted by the heat: the bears dropped off late for their hibernation and two have already woken up early.

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-24, 03:47 PM

Tiny London apartment on sale for $335K

LONDON - Location, location, location. Almost anywhere else, the tiny dilapidated studio wouldn't attract much more than mice. But this is London and the 77-square-foot former storage room — slightly bigger than a prison cell and without electricity — is going for $335,000.

The closet-sized space in the exclusive Knightsbridge neighborhood may be only "about the size of a ship's galley, said real estate agent Andrew Scott, who's handling the sale. "But it's permanently anchored to one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the world."

At more than $4,340 a square foot, the mortgage buys a spot within walking distance of tony stores like Harrods and London's iconic Hyde Park. Originally conceived as a maid's room, the apartment at 18 Cadogan Place hasn't been used for years and is littered with trash bags and crumbling paint.

A coffin-sized shower is en suite, and storage is provided by a shallow closet and 10-inch-deep shelves cut into the wall. Two hot plates and a small sink make up the kitchen. Two dirty windows allow light to filter into the basement room, and the fire escape could conceivably double as a shared patio.

With no electricity or heating, Scott said it would cost an additional $59,000 to make the room habitable.

"It is an investment," he said, as he stretched his arms the width of the room, laying his palms flat on opposite sides of the wall.

The sale of this dark, mildewy room illustrates the astronomical rise in property values across London, which in the past year has seen average residential property prices increase 22.4 percent, to about $703,000, according to figures released Monday by Rightmove, which tracks the British property market.

Prices in London's most desirable neighborhoods have grown even faster, with average house prices in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea — where Cadogan Place is located — rising 61.8 percent over the past year to a jaw-dropping $2.2 million.

Ultra high-end property prices in London are the most expensive in the world, with some recent sales hitting $5,900 per square foot — making the Cadogan Place studio a bargain by comparison, according to research published last year by CB Richard Ellis Group Inc.

Similar properties in New York can go for about $5,300 per square foot, while those in Hong Kong sell at around $3,950 per square foot.

Scott said he already had three offers on the property, which might go to auction. Size, he added, is in the "eye of the beholder."

"If you thought of this as the cabin on a boat, you'd say, 'It's pretty spacious,' " Scott said.

BFofAKournikova

2007-01-30, 07:07 PM

WESTERVILLE, Ohio (AP) -- A high school lunch period was disrupted Monday by a greased, naked student who ran around screaming and flailing his arms until police twice used a stun gun on him, authorities said.

Taylor Killian, 18, had rubbed his body with grapeseed oil to keep from being caught, and got up after the first time he was shocked to continue running toward a group of frightened students huddled in a corner at Westerville North High School, Lt. Jeff Gaylor said.

"That prank went a little farther than he intended, I guess," Gaylor said.

Officer Doug Staysniak was monitoring the lunch period when Killian, with long hair and a full beard, ran in the room toward students, who screamed and ran away. The officer is normally assigned to a middle school and did not recognize Killian as a student, Gaylor said.

Police said that an administrator ordered Killian to stop, but that the student made a sexual gesture and kept running.

Killian is in jail and charged with inducing panic, public indecency, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. A message seeking comment was left at Killian's home.

School officials reported that Killian was a good student, Gaylor said. There was no indication of substance abuse or a medical problem.

Geode

2007-01-31, 06:36 AM

Tiny London apartment on sale for $335K

I wonder if this is the same size as a room on Sealand?
(http://board.mashasworld.com/v3/showpost.php?p=27234&postcount=73)
:flowers

BFofAKournikova

2007-02-04, 10:47 PM

$2.6 million: Super Bowl ad cost
30 seconds: Ad length
$40,000: Average annual wage in the U.S.
65: Years' salary it would take to buy one Super Bowl ad

55 inches: Limit to the size of a TV you can watch the Super Bowl on per federal copyright laws
24: TVs for sale at Best Buy that are 55 inches or larger

$25,000: Cost of the Vince Lombardi trophy
$38,000: Share for Super Bowl losers

4.1 million- Estimated amount of pretzels, in pounds, consumed during the game.

It is estimated that at halftime of the Super Bowl, across the United States 90 million people will flush about 350 million gallons (1.3 billion litres) of water down the toilet at the same time, unleashing a torrent equal to a seven-minute flow over Niagara Falls.

BFofAKournikova

2007-02-04, 10:54 PM

oops....forgot to mention that the Superbowl will be shown in 232 countries & broadcast in 33 languages! :D

Max

2007-02-19, 05:54 PM

Just read this business news story, which as a shareholder in this company, gave me another reason to like Russians ;)

GOOD DAY
Diageo workers
WHISKY workers have been working round the clock to keep up with a boom in sales - in vodka swilling Russia. An upturn in newly-rich middle-class Russians has been credited for a 35 per cent increase in sales

Geo

2007-02-19, 06:24 PM

Sex in fast lane halts traffic on Israeli road Sunday February 18, 03:53 PM

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police investigating why a car was blocking traffic in the fast lane of a major highway on Sunday found a couple inside having sex.

A police spokesman said the female driver and her male passenger gave in to their passions without pulling over to the side of the road, causing congestion and leaving other motorists having to swerve to dodge their stationary vehicle.

A patrolman gave the woman a ticket for holding up traffic.

scrredd scrredd :beer :beer :beer :beer

BFofAKournikova

2007-02-19, 07:11 PM

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A man who was fired by IBM for visiting an adult chat room at work is suing the company for $5 million, claiming he is an Internet addict who deserves treatment and sympathy rather than dismissal.

James Pacenza, 58, of Montgomery, says he visits chat rooms to treat traumatic stress incurred in 1969 when he saw his best friend killed during an Army patrol in Vietnam.

In papers filed in federal court in White Plains, Pacenza said the stress caused him to become "a sex addict, and with the development of the Internet, an Internet addict." He claimed protection under the American with Disabilities Act.

His lawyer, Michael Diederich, says Pacenza never visited pornographic sites at work, violated no written IBM rule and did not surf the Internet any more or any differently than other employees. He also says age discrimination contributed to IBM's actions. Pacenza, 55 at the time, had been with the company for 19 years and says he could have retired in a year.

International Business Machines Corp. has asked Judge Stephen Robinson for a summary judgment, saying its policy against surfing sexual Web sites is clear. It also claims Pacenza was told he could lose his job after an incident four months earlier, which Pacenza denies.

"Plaintiff was discharged by IBM because he visited an Internet chat room for a sexual experience during work after he had been previously warned," the company said.

IBM also said sexual behavior disorders are specifically excluded from the ADA and denied any age discrimination.

Court papers arguing the motion for summary judgment will be exchanged next month.

If it goes to trial, the case could affect how employers regulate Internet use that is not work-related, or how Internet overuse is categorized medically. Stanford University issued a nationwide study last year that found that up to 14 percent of computer users reported neglecting work, school, families, food and sleep to use the Internet.

The study's director, Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, said then that he was most concerned about the numbers of people who hid their nonessential Internet use or used the Internet to escape a negative mood, much in the same way that alcoholics might.

Until he was fired, Pacenza was making $65,000 a year operating a machine at a plant in East Fishkill that makes computer chips.

Several times during the day, machine operators are idle for five to 10 minutes as the tool measures the thickness of silicon wafers.

It was during such down time on May 28, 2003, that Pacenza logged onto a chat room from a computer at his work station.

Diederich says Pacenza had returned that day from visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington and logged onto a site called ChatAvenue and then to an adult chat room.

Pacenza, who has a wife and two *****ren, said using the Internet at work was encouraged by IBM and served as "a form of self-medication" for post-traumatic stress disorder. He said he tried to stay away from chat rooms at work, but that day, "I felt I needed the interactive engagement of chat talk to divert my attention from my thoughts of Vietnam and death."

"I was tempting myself to perhaps become involved in some titillating conversation," he said in court papers.

Pacenza said he was called away before he got involved in any online conversation. But he apparently did not log off, and when another worker went to Pacenza's station, he saw some chat entries, including a vulgar reference to a sexual act.

He reported his discovery to his boss, who fired Pacenza the next day.

Pacenza says he would have understood if IBM had disciplined him for taking an unauthorized break, but firing him was too extreme.

He argues that other workers with worse offenses were disciplined less severely — including a couple who had sex on a desk and were transferred.

Fred McNeese, a spokesman for Armonk-based IBM, would not comment.

Pacenza claims the company decided on dismissal only after improperly viewing his medical records, including psychiatric treatment, following the incident.

"In IBM management's eyes, plaintiff has an undesirable and self-professed record of psychological disability related to his Vietnam War combat experience," his papers claim.

Diederich says IBM workers who have drug or alcohol problems are placed in programs to help them, and Pacenza should have been offered the same. Instead, he says, Pacenza was told there were no programs for sex addiction or other psychological illnesses. He said Pacenza was also denied an appeal.

Diederich, who said he spent a year in Iraq as an Army lawyer, also argued that "A military combat veteran, if anyone, should be afforded a second chance, the benefit of doubt and afforded reasonable accommodation for combat-related disability."

Max

2007-02-26, 06:53 PM

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A 107-year-old Hong Kong villager, who still enjoys an occasional smoke, has attributed his longevity in part to decades of sexual abstinence, a newspaper said on Sunday.

"I don't know why I have lived this long," Chan Chi -- one of Hong Kong's oldest people -- was quoted as saying in the South China Morning Post during an annual feast for the city's elders.

"Maybe it has to do with the fact that I have lived a sex-less life for many years -- since I was 30," said Chan, a widower whose youthful bride perished during the Japanese invasion in World War Two.

Chan, from Hong Kong's less built-up New Territories hinterland, was pictured looking sprightly and eating heartily at the banquet.

A former chef, he said a low-fat diet and regular dawn exercises had helped him fight off the ravages of old age.

But the centenarian, who's had no difficulty living a monastic existence for nearly 80 years, admits the pleasures of tobacco have been harder to resist.

"Now I want to quit," he was quoted as saying of his decades-long cigarette addiction. "Maybe the government should ban cigarette sales so I can give it up," he added.

hawley

2007-02-26, 10:01 PM

Odd, if you live to 107. i guess the last thing u wud want to do is give anything up!

Joe.

2007-03-02, 02:45 AM

Teacher's sex with student taped, say police
Babysitter allegedly arranged, filmed woman's liaison with 12-year-old boy

© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

CLINTON, S.C. (AP) A 24-year-old first-year female teacher has been arrested on charges of molestation and indecent behavior with a 12-year-old male student – and police say they have a videotape to prove it.

Stephanie Giambelluca, a former teacher at J.D. Meisler Middle School in Metairie, La., was taken into custody on Wednesday along with Ryan Mapes, 18.

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, police say that Mapes allowed the teacher to come to the home where he was babysitting the boy. She, allegedly, wanted to have sex with the student.

Prior to her arrival, Mapes set up a video camera in the living room. When she came to the boy's home, she and the student went into another room. No information has been released about any activities that occured there.

Afterwards, Giambelluca brought the boy back to the living room where Mapes gave him a Xanax tablet he had taken from the woman's purse. She disrobed to her underwear, performed a suggestive dance for the boy and performed oral sex on Mapes in front of him.

According to police statements, Mapes admitted to the sex acts.

Bond has not been set for either of the two suspects.

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-02, 09:08 PM

The Invasion of Liechtenstein has begun!!

Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein

ZURICH, Switzerland - What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

"We've spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it's not a problem," Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. "It's not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something," he said.

Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn't have an army.

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-12, 03:20 PM

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish member of parliament is aiming for re-election by campaigning with a translation of his Web site into Klingon, used in the TV series Star Trek.

"Some have thought it is blasphemy to mix politics and Klingon," said Jyrki Kasvi, an ardent Trekkie. "Others say it is good if politicians can laugh at themselves."

He said his politics posed some translation difficulties, since Klingon does not have words for matters such as tolerance, or for many colours, including green -- the party under whose banner he is running in the national elections on March 18.

Non-warriors can also access the site, www.kasvi.org, in English, Swedish and Finnish.

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-12, 03:24 PM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian policeman has been jailed for phoning an airport with a bomb warning to help acquaintances of his boss make their flight, the Kommersant daily said on Friday.

A senior police officer, who was seeing off two businessmen in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg in February last year, told his subordinate to fix the problem when they failed to board the plane on time.

The assistant phoned the airport and said he had received a message about explosives and weapons on board the plane. The aircraft with 40 passengers on board turned around in mid-air to return to Yekaterinburg.

The police officer and his subordinate were sentenced to 21 months in prison each, the paper reported.

Witnesses cited by Kommersant said the businessmen had been drinking in the airport.

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-12, 03:27 PM

PARIS (Reuters) -- Luxembourg on Thursday dismissed a report suggesting a dire shortage of toilets in one of the world's wealthiest countries.

"It's astonishing," Antoine Haag of Luxembourg's statistics office told Reuters when asked to explain why the country came top of a latrine-shortage list published in the report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The Paris-based OECD, a free-market body with 30 mainly rich member countries, said the figure included in a broad review of living conditions, might be wide of the mark but that its data had been supplied by Luxembourg.

"We're looking at the figure. We believe that there may be something wrong with it," an OECD spokesman said.

Fourteen percent of homes in Luxembourg, a tiny state wedged between France and Germany, lacked a lavatory, according to the figures the OECD issued. Turkey came second and Poland third.

Haag, in charge of social statistics in Luxembourg, carried out a new calculation in response to the Reuters query and said he got a less embarrassing figure. Just 1,021 of 176,870 homes lacked an indoor, flushing toilet, or 0.6 percent, he said.

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-12, 03:28 PM

BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck.

Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said on Friday the trained mason measured the single-storey summer house -- which was some 8 meters (26 feet) long and 6 meters wide -- before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls.

"The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don't think his wife was too pleased."

After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove to his brother's house where he has since been staying.

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-12, 03:30 PM

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - When dozens of chickens went missing from a remote West Bengal village, everyone blamed the neighborhood dogs.

But Ajit Ghosh, the owner of the missing chickens, eventually solved the puzzle when he caught his cow -- a sacred animal for the Hindu family -- gobbling up several of them at night.

"We were shocked to see our calf eating chickens alive," Ghosh told Reuters by phone from Chandpur village.

The family decided to stand guard at night on Monday at the cow shed which also served as a hen coop, after 48 chickens went missing in a month.

"Instead of the dogs, we watched in horror as the calf, whom we had fondly named Lal, sneak to the coop and grab the little ones with the precision of a jungle cat," Gour Ghosh, his brother, said.

Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case.

"We think lack of vital minerals in the body is causing this behavior. We have taken a look and have asked doctors to look into the case immediately," Mihir Satpathy, a district veterinary officer, said by phone.

"This strange behavior is possible in some exceptional cases," Satpathy said.

Hundreds of villagers flocked to Chandpur on Wednesday to catch a glimpse of Lal, enjoying his bundle of green grass for a change.

"The local vets said the cow was probably suffering from a disease but others said Lal was a tiger in his previous birth," Ajit added.

Andy

2007-03-15, 07:46 PM

Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.
Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.

A foreign ministry official described Ambassador Tzuriel Refael's behaviour as an unprecedented embarrassment.

The incident, which happened two weeks ago, has renewed calls for a radical overhaul of the way Israel appoints and promotes its diplomats.

San Salvador was Mr Refael's first post as ambassador. He was promoted in 2006 from a technical position in the ministry which had involved several foreign postings.

We're talking about behaviour that is unbecoming of a diplomat

Foreign ministry spokeswoman
He was being recalled, although he had not broken any laws, foreign ministry spokeswoman Zehavit Ben-Hillel told reporters.

She confirmed that lurid reports of the incident in the Israeli press were accurate.

"We're talking about behaviour that is unbecoming of a diplomat," she said.

Israel has been rocked by a recent series of misconduct and corruption scandals, shaking public confidence in the political leadership.

Haaretz website reports that police found Mr Refael in the Israeli embassy compound where he had been found bound, gagged and naked apart from sado-masochistic sex accessories.

In 2006, Israel's diplomatic service was criticised by the public watchdog for its appointments system.

The state comptroller's report singled out the foreign ministry appointments committee for its inadequate examination of candidates and lack of transparency.

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-15, 08:09 PM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York restaurateur has cooked up the world's most extravagant pizza -- a $1,000 pie topped with six kinds of caviar and fresh lobster.

Nino Selimaj, who runs six pizza restaurants in the Big Apple, on Wednesday unveiled the Luxury Pizza, a 12-inch (30-cm), thin crust topped with caviar, lobster, creme fraiche and chives. Cut into eight, it works out at $125 a slice.

"I know this won't be for everyone but there are people in New York who can afford it and once tried, they'll be back for more. It is delicious," said Selimaj, who moved to New York from Albania about 29 years ago.

"Sure, some people will say it is just a publicity stunt but I have researched this for over a year and think there is a demand. I have already sold one," he told Reuters.

Selimaj said Nino's Bellissima in Manhattan, the only one of his restaurants to offer the dish, needs 24 hours notice for the gourmet dish because it orders the caviar in advance.

"But where better to experiment with pizza than in New York where people love their pizza?" he asked.

If diners are still hungry after the Luxury Pizza, they can always head over to nearby restaurant Serendipity, which sells a $1,000 ice-cream sundae called Golden Opulence that is covered in 23-karat edible gold leaf.

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-15, 08:13 PM

UN: U.S., Europe deforestation reversed

ROME - The United States and much of Europe have reversed years of deforestation and are showing a net increase in wooded areas, while most developing countries continue to cut down their trees, a U.N. agency said Tuesday.

The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization said in its biannual report on the State of the World's Forests that economic prosperity and careful forest management had positive effects.

However, poor or conflict-stricken countries — where clear-cutting and uncontrolled fires are especially severe — still face serious challenges in managing their wooded areas, the agency said.

"Deforestation continues at an unacceptable rate" of about 32 million acres a year, said Wulf Killmann, a forestry expert at the agency. However, he noted in a positive sign that the net loss had decreased over the last decade from 22 million acres to 17 million acres.

The United States reported an annual increase in forest area of 0.12 in the 1990s and 0.05 percent from 2000 to 2005. That increase, however, was accompanied by deforestation in Mexico, which reported a 0.52 percent decrease in the 1990s and a 0.40 percent decrease in wooded areas from 2000 to 2005. Canada reported no change during those periods.

In Europe, the report said the net increase was due to efforts in Spain and Italy, followed by Bulgaria, France, Portugal and Greece.

Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean are currently the regions with the highest losses of wood-covered regions, especially in tropical areas.

Africa, which accounts for about 16 percent of the global forests, lost over 9 percent of its trees between 1990 and 2005, the agency said. In Latin America and the Caribbean, home to nearly half of the world's forests, 0.5 percent were lost every year between 2000 and 2005 — up from an annual net rate of 0.46 percent in the 1990s.

On the positive side, wooded area increased in Asia between 2000 and 2005. The increase was limited to East Asia, where investment in tree plantations in China offset high rates of clear-cutting in other regions, the report said. Forested area in most European countries is also increasing, while it is stable in Canada and the United States.

Among the major causes of deforestation cited by Killmann were conversion of land for farming or livestock.

Forests cover just under 9.88 billion acres, about 30 percent of the world's land area. The world lost 3 percent of its wooded areas between 1995 and 2000, the agency said.

Max

2007-03-16, 06:36 PM

Final British bottle of HP sauce

HP sauce is seen as a symbol of Britishness
The last bottle of HP sauce has been produced in Birmingham, marking the end of more than 100 years of sauce making at the site.
Production is moving from the plant in the Aston area of the city to The Netherlands with the loss of 125 jobs.

The final shift finished work at 0600 GMT, although some will stay a few days longer to clean up the factory.

The closure has been opposed by unions and civic leaders but US owners Heinz decided the factory was not viable.

Businesses near to the factory launched a Save Our Sauce campaign and protests were held in Birmingham and outside the American Embassy in London in a bid to get the company to change its plans.

Birmingham City Council leaders met with Heinz managers to try to draw up fresh plans and MPs tried to get HP banned from tables inside the Houses of Parliament as it was no longer "a symbol of Britishness", but all to no avail.

Production team leader Danny Lloyd, who has worked at the factory for 18 years, said it was "like the bottom had fallen out" of the workers' worlds.

HawleyVegas

2007-03-16, 06:53 PM

said it was "like the bottom had fallen out" of the workers' worlds.

It kinda looked like it had too ewwwww

but taste fookin yummy on a baccon and egg sandwich mmmmmmmm

Bye bye Rover and HP bbye :)

Andy

2007-03-16, 07:29 PM

Star Wars' R2-D2 to collect post

Postboxes across the US are to be dressed up as Star Wars robot R2-D2 to celebrate 30 years since the release of the sci-fi series' first outing.
Some 400 boxes will get the new look, including outside Hollywood's Grauman Chinese Theatre, one of first cinemas to screen the film in 1977.

The makeover is part of a post office campaign for the announcement of a surprise stamp on 28 March.

The public have been urged not to tamper with the droid mail collectors.

A special stamp to commemorate the release of the first film was issued by the US Postal Service in May 1977.

Chief marketing officer Anita Bizzotto said the robot postboxes are a "little teaser" for its announcement later this month.

"When you look at a mailbox, the resemblance to R2-D2 is too good to pass up," added Ms Bizzotto.

The USPS website is running a clip from Star Wars in which robot C-3PO asks: "R2D2, where are you?"

In the next shot, someone is seen slotting a letter into the little beeping robot.

During the six films of the Star Wars series, R2-D2 - regarded as a more courageous robot counterpart to C-3PO - was responsible for saving his human counterparts

Max

2007-03-17, 04:56 AM

Stars unite for Comic Relief show

Peter Kay and Matt Lucas duetted with The Proclaimers
Tony Blair and Kate Moss joined a host of stars to perform in the Comic Relief TV show to raise funds for good causes.
By the end of the show, it was announced that a record-breaking total of £40.2m had been raised.

Peter Kay and Matt Lucas duetted with The Proclaimers on the classic single I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) with the song instantly available to buy online.

Prime Minister Tony Blair appeared in a sketch with comic Catherine Tate's teenage schoolgirl character Lauren.

He used her catchphrase "Am I bovvered?" repeatedly to Lauren's dismay.

"Meeting Lauren was an experience in itself, she didn't seem 'bovvered' by anything," Mr Blair joked.

"But I hope she will put her time spent at Number 10 to good use."

'You're fired'

Girls Aloud and the Sugababes kicked off the BBC One show at 1900 GMT by performing the Red Nose Day single, Walk This Way.

The show's celebrity cast-list has already included James Bond star Daniel Craig, supermodel Elle McPherson and Little Britain stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams.

Socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson won the final of Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, which raised £780,000 through viewers' votes.

And former Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan heard the words "you're fired" another time, as he was sacked by Sir Alan Sugar from the celebrity version of the Apprentice, Comic Relief Does the Apprentice.

Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly visited Africa

The fundraising marathon has also featured the last ever episode of The Vicar of Dibley, which saw pop star Sting move in with Dawn French's character, Reverend Geraldine Kennedy.

Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand, Paul O'Grady and Davina McCall are among the presenters during the eight-hour marathon.

Indie rockers, The Killers, took to the stage with pop stars Take That also performing.

Sketches came from the likes of Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen, Little Britain, The Mighty Boosh and David Tennant.

Proceeds from Comic Relief: The Big One go to charities in the UK and Africa.

The appeal was launched on 31 January but the majority of money will be collected on Friday - known as Red Nose Day.

Friday marks the 11th Red Nose Day and the 21st year of Comic Relief.

The charity has raised more than £425m in that time

More would have been raised if Kesha had not killed and ate Ivana's Red Nose :D

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-21, 01:59 PM

McDonald's Has a Beef With the Oxford English Dictionary

McDonald's U.K. has launched a campaign to get British dictionary publishers to revise their definitions of "McJob."

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a "McJob" is "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector."

"It's the complete opposite to that," Amanda Pierce, McDonald's spokesperson and employee of 15 years, told ABC News. "It's stimulating, rewarding and offers a wide range of opportunities. All the skills I have learned at McDonald's will last me a lifetime," Pierce said.

Pierce, who started on the shop floor of McDonald's and now works for the McDonald's U.K. head office, is a shining example of the career path that the American fast food chain can offer its U.K. employees. "The McJob isn't what you think it is," she said.

In May, McDonald's will begin offering its employees the opportunity to sign a petition to turn the expression into something more positive in the hopes of changing the way people see McDonald's jobs. The company will gather as many signatures as possible before submitting the request to dictionary publishing houses.

It has a hard task ahead, as McJob has entered not only the dictionary but the British and American vocabulary. On both sides of the Atlantic, it means a low-paying job with few prospects. First used in the United States in the 1980s, the word was popularized by Douglas Coupland's 1991 book "Generation X."

Today, McDonald's jobs are often considered decent gigs for high school dropouts or temporary jobs for students paying off loans. And at home, parents warn their *****ren: If you don't study hard, you'll end up working at McDonald's.

But the McDonald's publicity machine is trying to work the Mc-expression to its advantage. Last year, as part of its employer-branding strategy to woo the best staff, it displayed posters with the slogan "McProspects — over half of our executive team started in our restaurants. Not bad for a McJob."

BFofAKournikova

2007-03-21, 02:15 PM

"It's the complete opposite to that," Amanda Pierce, McDonald's spokesperson and employee of 15 years, told ABC News. "It's stimulating, rewarding and offers a wide range of opportunities. All the skills I have learned at McDonald's will last me a lifetime," Pierce said.

yeah she learned such invaluable skills such as mopping floors, cooking & salting the fries, cleaning toilets, & refilling the toilet paper rolls. Oh and she can run the drive through now! All this for a nice $10/hour after 15 years....hammersmas

Andy

2007-03-29, 09:39 PM

Condom testers required by Durex

Durex has launched its first UK recruitment drive for thousands of condom testers.
The condom maker wants a panel of 5,000 people who are single, married, or in couples to report their experiences of using its condoms and lubricants.

Men and women of all ages, ethnic groups or sexual orientation have been asked to apply on its website.

Durex was inundated with 14,000 applicants on the first day it started a similar scheme in France.

'Massive panel'

UK panellists will be expected to report online on how enjoyable the condoms and lubricants were to use and whether their sex lives have improved.

"The idea is to create a massive panel of testers who can try Durex condoms, have sex and then give us feedback about their experiences - in strictest confidence, of course," a Durex spokeswoman said.

"It isn't some crazy kind of '60s love-in," she added.

Durex sales in the six months until September 2006 increased by 7% compared to the same period in the previous year, driven by a surge in sales of personal devices and lubricants.

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-03, 11:39 PM

Couple fights to name baby 'Metallica'

:music
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Metallica may be a cool name for a heavy metal band, but a Swedish couple is struggling to convince officials it is also suitable for a baby girl.

Michael and Karolina Tomaro are locked in a court battle with Swedish authorities, which rejected their application to name their six-month-old ***** after the legendary rock band.

"It suits her," Karolina Tomaro, 27, said Tuesday of the name. "She's decisive and she knows what she wants."

Although little Metallica has already been baptized, the Swedish National Tax Board refused to register the name, saying it was associated with both the rock group and the word "metal."

Tomaro said the official handling the case also called the name "ugly."

The couple was backed by the County Administrative Court in Goteborg, which ruled on March 13 that there was no reason to block the name. It also noted that there already is a woman in Sweden with Metallica as a middle name.

The tax agency appealed to a higher court, frustrating the family's foreign travel plans.

"We've had to cancel trips and can't get anywhere because we can't get her a passport without an approved name," Tomaro said.

peace peace peace peace

Max

2007-04-04, 12:20 AM

Couple fights to name baby 'Metallica'

Ah, now I understand what Swedish 'Meatballs' means :D

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-16, 03:24 PM

BUDAPEST, Hungary - Five thousand bunnies blocked a highway Monday, tying up traffic after the truck that was carrying them collided with another vehicle and overturned.

Neither driver was hurt, authorities said.

The M1 highway — the main road between the capitals of Hungary and Austria — was closed for hours while authorities worked to gather the animals, Highway Patrol Spokeswoman Viktoria Galik said.

Galik said some 500 rabbits were killed.

By midday, 4,400 rabbits had been rounded up.

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-16, 03:32 PM

LONDON (AFP) - A guide to the different types of abandoned shopping trolleys has won the Diagram Prize for oddest book title of the year, following an online vote for industry publication The Bookseller.

"The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification" by Julian Montague secured 1,866 out of a total of more than 5,500 votes from a six-strong short-list.

In second place was "Tattooed Mountain Women and Spoon Boxes of Daghestan" with 1,365 votes; third was "Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence" with 685 votes.

In a statement announcing the winner, The Bookseller said: "'Stray Shopping Carts' joins a noble pantheon of Diagram winners, perhaps closest in spirit to those rural guides 'How To Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art' (1989) and 'Weeds in a Changing World' (1999)".

Horace Bent, diarist at The Bookseller, added: "In the fine tradition of the prize 'going on title alone' I have not yet read my copy of Montague's tome."

But he said his appetite had been whetted by a review on online retailer Amazon that described it as "one of the most complete and well thought-out works I have ever encountered."

Montague himself said he was surprised to have won the accolade.

"I was so deeply into the project that I was a little number to the fact that the title could surprise other people," he was quoted by Britain's The Independent newspaper Saturday as saying.

Last year's winner was "People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves To Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About it."

The competition has been running since 1978, when the winner was "Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice."

The nominations are made by publishers, booksellers and librarians from around the world.

HawleyVegas

2007-04-17, 11:50 PM

ARE WE EVA GOING TO BE SAFE FROM THESE EVIL HOODIES?

An 81-year-old woman, once described by a judge as "the original neighbour from hell", has been jailed for six months.

"It seems to me, despite your age and despite your infirmities, you have deliberately, for a period going on for 10 years, made life a misery for neighbours" - Judge Roderick Denyer QCDorothy Evans, of Abergavenny, South Wales, failed to attend Cardiff Crown Court on Monday when she was due to be sentenced for one conviction of harassment and six breaches of her anti-social behaviour order.

Judge Roderick Denyer QC had then said he would issue a warrant for her arrest if she did not turn up on Tuesday.

Sentencing Ms Evans, the judge said: "It seems to me, despite your age and despite your infirmities, you have deliberately, for a period going on for ten years, made life a misery for neighbours.

"In my view, the consequences of your behaviour must be brought home to you."

Ms Evans's barrister said: "This is not a woman who is wholly bad but on the evidence has become obsessional about a dispute she has had with neighbours."

He added that the source of Ms Evans's dispute was flooding at her home which was kept under control by constant pumping operations and she blamed this on Angela and Roberto Casa who lived next door.

At the trial in February, a jury heard how she had broken the Asbo by shouting abuse, calling Mrs Casa a prostitute and telling her husband to go back to Italy. She also told the couple's 13-year-old daughter that she was a witch

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-19, 09:35 PM

Sexual 'theme park' opens in London

LONDON - An adults-only sexual "theme park" has opened in London, promising to help visitors improve their sex lives.

Amora, which promotes itself as an "love and relationships academy" is located on Piccadilly Circus across from the much-photographed statue of Eros, the Greek god of love.

Just around the corner from Soho, London's red-light district — the attraction in the Trocadero entertainment center features interactive exhibits exploring aspects of sexual relationships ranging from flirting to fetishes. "We are confident that visitors will walk away with tips to enhance their sex life and relationships," Amora spokeswoman Lisa Seddon said, adding the attraction aimed to steer clear of pornography and sleaze.

Several cities around the world — including Paris, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Barcelona — are home to erotic museums. Typically, they exhibit everything from pornography to high-minded paintings exploring local sexual attitudes and culture.

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-21, 09:20 PM

A panda in China who became pregnant after watching sex education videos has given birth to twins.

Hua Mei was born in the US but moved to China in February.

Officials said they had determined that one of the twins was a boy, but they could not check the other one because Hua Mei was still cuddling it.

The news was cause for celebration at the reserve she lives in, because pandas rarely breed in captivity and are endangered in the wild.

"We are all very excited. The cubs are in good condition," said Li Wei, from the Wolong Panda Conservation Centre in Sichuan, southern China.

Before she became pregnant, Hua Mei had been shown videos as preparation for a series of "blind dates" because experts feared she had little knowledge of mating after living in captivity.

Born to two Chinese pandas on loan to San Diego zoo, Hua Mei is the first foreign-born panda to return to China.

China earlier this year announced the results of a first comprehensive survey of its wild panda population.

This showed there were an estimated 1,600 of the creatures left in the wild, 40% more than previous figures suggested.

Correspondents warned that the numbers might reflect the fact that the survey was so thorough, rather than a genuine recovery in numbers.

A further 161 pandas were reported to be living in captivity.

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-22, 12:10 PM

Speak Dutch or be fired

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian auto parts supplier has forbidden its workers to speak any language other than Dutch, even during their lunch break, and employees could be fired if they disobey.

"We have people from Italy, India, Poland, Algeria here. It's to avoid cliques forming here and there," said Geert Vermote, human resources manager of HP Pelzer in the town of Genk in Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region.

Language is a sensitive topic in Belgium, particularly in Flanders where locals and politicians are keen to promote the use of Dutch and prevent the encroachment of the country's other main language, French.

Two staff at HP Pelzer have so far received written warnings, out of a workforce of 125 employees, some 70 percent of whom are of foreign origin. Three warnings would lead to a worker being fired.

Belgian newspaper De Standaard reported Thursday that workers of Turkish origin, who make up some 35 percent of the company's workforce, felt the rule was aimed against them and had asked the union to intervene.

Vermote said the rule had been agreed with the company's works council and said the "three strikes" rule applied to warnings of any form.

"It's really nothing other than other rules we have, such as a ban on smoking," he said.

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-22, 12:14 PM

Dutch coffee shops say cannabis smoke here to stay

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Could a smoking ban spell the end of Amsterdam's world famous coffee shops, where smoking cannabis is one of the main attractions?

No chance, says local conservative politician and coffee shop owner Michael Veling.

The Dutch may well follow other European countries in banning tobacco smoking in restaurants, cafes and bars, but Veling says it should still be possible to smoke dope.

"It is ridiculous to think that a smoking ban would be the end of coffee shops," the 50-year-old Veling says.

He says the clientele who have been coming to coffee shops to buy and inhale cannabis are flexible enough to find a way around any ban on smoking the tobacco products they routinely mix with marijuana resin or leaf in rolled paper "joints."

"You can bring parsley or old socks if you want, cut them here and smoke them, nobody will say anything," Veling said.

"Plus there are plants that have a every similar structure to tobacco and can maybe substitute for it."

A tobacco smoking ban, which could come into force at the start of 2008, may also boost the use of some of the weirder contraptions used for inhaling the active part of marijuana, THC, which gives users a high.

"Nearly all of our American customers do that anyway, using pipes or the "volcano,"" Veling says in his dark, cozy coffee shop, pointing to a shiny, cone-shaped silver contraption.

The volcano or vaporizer heats cannabis to release vapors of THC and channels these into a long transparent balloon.

At the counter, a dark-haired man waits to get the air from the balloon into his lungs. Using the volcano makes cannabis consumption cheaper, Veling explains, because the drug can be used several times and is not burned like in a pipe.

"On good days, when the shop is full of Americans, we sell 100 or 200 of these balloons," Veling says.

TOLERANCE

But most European customers of his "De Kuil" in central Amsterdam prefer to roll their marijuana with tobacco into joints, Veling admits.

One of them is Czech-born, Swiss resident Pavel Kotrba, sitting near the entrance with a broad smile and dilated pupils.

If a ban came into force, he says: "I would smoke my joint on the street in front of the coffee shop, no problem."

Soft drugs are legally banned in the Netherlands but under a policy of "tolerance," buyers are allowed to have less than 5 g of cannabis in their possession.

Government-regulated coffee shops sell cannabis and can keep stocks of up to 500 g.

Coffee shops first sprung up in the Netherlands in the 70s and have been drawing tourists ever since.

So far the majority of Dutch parliamentarians have urged that the coffee shops be exempt from any smoking ban, but a more sweeping Europe-wide ban might be introduced.

Unlike many of his colleagues in the soft drug retail business, Veling, who is also speaker of the Dutch Cannabis Retailers organization, does not consider the ban a danger to the industry which he estimates rolls in more than 1 billion euros ($1.36 billion) a year.

Most of the more than 700 coffee shops in the Netherlands would not even be affected by it anyway, he says, as they resemble cannabis drive-ins, where people queue in front of counters, buy and leave.

"Some of these shops are huge and generate sales of approximately five million euros a year," he says.

Plus recent legislation banning the sale of both alcohol and cannabis together in coffee shops doesn't seem to have irked his customers too much.

"They smoke more, that's my impression."

Richard

2007-04-23, 10:07 AM

Speak Dutch or be fired

I agree with this, sometimes when you want to buy something you cant understand the guy or girl in the shop. Sad part is that most are born here.

If it were up to me: speak proper Dutch, dont want that? Just go to the country your parents came from and who's passport you also have.
There's a whole generation of mostly Maroccans here who dont like us, dont want anything to do with us, just here to steal and make trubble.

Would be so more peachful to donate them all to Marocco :D

Andy

2007-04-24, 09:03 PM

Man cuts off penis in restaurant

A man cut off his penis with a knife in a packed London restaurant.
Police were forced to use CS gas to restrain the man when they entered the Zizzi restaurant in The Strand on Sunday evening.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said the man was aged between 30 and 40 and that his injuries were self-inflicted.

The man was then taken to hospital in south London where his condition is stable. It is understood surgeons were unable to reattach his penis.

A spokeswoman for Zizzi said the man was not thought to have any connection with the restaurant.

She said: "At around 9pm on Sunday, a man walked into the Zizzi restaurant on The Strand, down the stairs to the basement restaurant area and tried to enter a kitchen.

"Members of staff stopped him, at which he ran into a second kitchen area.

"The man then picked up a kitchen knife and slashed himself across the wrist and groin areas before running back into the restaurant, where he continued to stab himself.

"This happened in a matter of seconds and was obviously extremely frightening and distressing for the many customers and staff in the restaurant at the time."

She added: "Apart from the man, we understand that no-one else suffered any physical injuries."

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-24, 09:55 PM

Donkey becomes witness in Dallas dispute

DALLAS - The first witness in a lawsuit Wednesday between two neighbors was Buddy the donkey, who walked to the bench and stared at the jury, the picture of a gentle, well-mannered creature and not the loud, aggressive animal he had been accused of being.

The donkey was at the center of a dispute between oilman John Cantrell and attorney Gregory Shamoun that began after Cantrell complained about a storage shed Shamoun was building in his backyard in Dallas.

He said Shamoun retaliated by bringing Buddy from his ranch in Midlothian and putting him in the backyard.

Cantrell complained of donkey noise and manure piles.

"They bray a lot any time day or night. You never know when they're going to cut loose," he testified.

Shamoun said Buddy was there to serve as a surrogate mother for a calf named Lucy that needed to be bottle-fed.

Neither jurors nor Buddy had the last say.

The neighbors settled their dispute while jurors deliberated.

Shamoun agreed to buy some of Cantrell's land and Cantrell agreed to withdraw his complaint with the city.

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-24, 10:24 PM

DES MOINES, Iowa - Riggs hardly looks or acts like a beauty king. A 3-year-old male bulldog, Riggs is a drooler with protruding teeth and a penchant for attacking noisy appliances, begging for crumbs and hopping on furniture.

Fortunately for the canine from Prairie City, Iowa, those traits endeared him to judges Monday in the "Beautiful Bulldog" contest, an annual event held to draw attention to the 98th running of the Drake Relays. The relays, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious track and field events, will attract nearly 8,000 athletes.

Riggs beat out a 50-dog field that included the likes of Sir Grizwald Snorzalot, Napoleon Underbite and Crazy Legs Da Moose to take the crown. Contest organizers acknowledge the event is more about a winning personality than beauty.

"The last thing you're going to get with a bulldog is beauty," said master of ceremonies Dolph Pulliam. "But bulldogs have character. They have a certain look...they're the kind of dog you look at and you get scared. But you know what? These are the friendliest darn bulldogs in the world."

Many thought Riggs' chief competition would be Hank, the offspring of the last two contest winners. Last year's winner, Hannah, gave Riggs a snarl, but he kept his cool, plodding down the runway both gracefully and glacially.

The brown and white dog was dressed in a form-fitting costume in Drake's blue and white colors.

"He's the most beautiful bulldog (with) his attitude and his demeanor. He's just kind of stout, and he's ready to do this," said his owner, Cordell Miller. "He's very excited."

Riggs celebrated by posing for photographers and munching on a doggy bone, leaving crumbs and drool on his throne.

"He's pretty low key, until it's time to eat," Miller said.

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-24, 10:32 PM

An Estimated 60,000 Animals Will Be Saved Because of Deep Freeze

April 24, 2007 — - A rescue effort is under way to save hundreds of seal hunters whose boats have been stuck in a block of thick ice in the North Atlantic Ocean for more than a week.

The hunters' ships are stuck in a solid ice pack 140 miles long and 70 miles wide. Two huge storms trapped more than 100 vessels just as they were setting out for Canada's annual seal hunt.

"Many of the vessels have run out of provisions, fresh water, fuel in some cases," Canadian Coast Guard Capt. Windross Banton told "Good Morning America" from his ship as he engaged in the rescue effort.

Banton is trying to get food to more than 300 sailors and help their ships break free from the ice.

"Right now, outside as far as the eye can see, there is nothing but a field of ice," he said.

The biggest danger is the pressure the ice puts on the vessels. The pressure can actually lift them out of the water.

"The pans of ice and the pieces of ice are big enough and severe enough they could potentially crush the hull of the long liners," said the Canadian Coast Guard's Brian Penney.

Better weather conditions have now allowed several ships to be rescued. For some, it was in the nick of time.

"The last couple of days got scary there," said Rodney Gray, captain of the Cape John Navigator. "We were caught in ice that was getting very close to land. We never had control of anything. Wherever the ice went, we had to go."

These boats are engaged in the highly controversial seal hunt. Over the last three years, 1 million seals have been killed, and animal rights activists say they're sometimes killed in inhumane ways. Now it is the hunters who are in danger.

Animal rights activists might take solace in the fact that because so many ships have been stranded, the seal hunters will most likely not meet their quota. An estimated 60,000 seals have been spared because of the stranded ships.

It wouldn't bother me if all those hunters freeze in hell!inmadwaygf

hawley

2007-04-25, 03:58 PM

It wouldn't bother me if all those hunters freeze in hell!inmadwaygf

say's the man who eat's pretty much every other animal, while wearing his leather shoes

:confused:

Max

2007-04-25, 04:27 PM

say's the man who eat's pretty much every other animal, while wearing his leather shoes

:confused:

Bit of a difference to way animals are terminated in a regulated abattoir for necessary food and skins etc than being clubbed to death for just kicks.

I'm with Jamie, hope the cruel feckers freeze.

Geode

2007-04-25, 04:34 PM

April 24, 2007 — The hunters' ships are stuck in a solid ice pack 140 miles long and 70 miles wide. Two huge storms trapped more than 100 vessels just as they were setting out for Canada's annual seal hunt.

The storms were brought to you by GreenPeace Cloud Seeding Division in cooperation with Mother Nature. :p

hawley

2007-04-25, 05:25 PM

Bit of a difference to way animals are terminated in a regulated abattoir for necessary food and skins etc than being clubbed to death for just kicks.

I'm with Jamie, hope the cruel feckers freeze.

Well when ur chewin on Daisy the cow leg, im sure she will thank the lord she was electric shocked before havin a bolt fired throw her skull, or throat slit.

I mean how can someone eat meat and wear animal skins, have so much love for a fooking seal? lol

Load of boooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooo ooooxxxxxxx innit:)

Max

2007-04-25, 08:09 PM

Well when ur chewin on Daisy the cow leg, im sure she will thank the lord she was electric shocked before havin a bolt fired throw her skull, or throat slit.

I mean how can someone eat meat and wear animal skins, have so much love for a fooking seal? lol

Load of boooooooooollllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooo ooooxxxxxxx innit:)

I love my meat and have no guilt about eating it.
Animals are there to eat, the difference to me is the sudden fast death by bolt or shock rather than the slow torteous beating to death by a club.

BFofAKournikova

2007-04-25, 09:04 PM

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man called on his bank for an unusual service when he was too tired and drunk to go home -- he bedded down there for the night with his horse.

The man, identified as Wolfgang H. by German media, went to sleep next to cash machines in the local branch of the Mittelbrandenburgische Sparkasse in Wiesenburg southwest of Berlin after unsaddling his horse Sammy and closing the door.

A spokeswoman for the bank said that aside from an undesirable deposit made by his horse inside the building, the 40-year-old account holder had not breached any house rules.

"The horse was otherwise very well behaved and kept a good watch on his master," she said Wednesday. "Perhaps we should have a supply of oats and water on the premises in future."

Another customer discovered the horse and rider as he slept and informed police, who asked the man to leave.

A police spokesman said that since the horse's droppings had been removed, the matter was now closed.

Geode

2007-04-26, 04:02 PM

I love my meat and have no guilt about eating it.
Animals are there to eat, the difference to me is the sudden fast death by bolt or shock rather than the slow torteous beating to death by a club.

The really sad and gross part of the annual seal hunt is about 40% of the seals are not dead when skinned. It is another reason why GreenPeace is involved with trying to stop the hunt! My response to seal hunters is fuckyou

Richard

2007-04-26, 10:32 PM

If it were up to me i would skin some of the hunters.....

hawley

2007-04-26, 11:38 PM

If it were up to me i would skin some of the hunters.....

why am i not suprised, you Jamie Max agree?:)

a seal is no more than a ant! whos see's one, and who needs one?

Go tell the girls how cute u are after you hit the Donate button www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=562 :):):)

hawley

2007-04-29, 06:47 PM

"Time to kill the little Knut?":wow:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1577461.ece

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-01, 09:02 PM

LOS ANGELES - Reggie the alligator reappeared Monday after vanishing for 1 1/2 years in an urban lake where the reptile turned up in 2005 and repeatedly skunked would-be 'gator wranglers.

"After 18 months of hibernation or just eluding us, Reggie has decided to show himself," City Councilwoman Janice Hahn told a press conference next to Harbor Regional Park's Lake Machado.

Hahn said she had asked the Parks and Recreation Department to put a fence back up around the lake.

"Reggie is older, Reggie is bigger, and he's probably hungry, so I want to make sure that we keep the public safe," she said. "He's a wild alligator and he's unpredictable and we're not really sure what his behavior will be."

Reggie was an illegal pet allegedly tossed into the 50-acre lake by a former Los Angeles policeman when it got too big. It was spotted in August 2005 and caused a stir until disappearing the following October.

At the time Reggie, of uncertain sex, was estimated to be between 5 feet and 7 feet in length.

A series of alligator experts tried and failed to capture Reggie.

Hahn recalled an offer of help from TV's "Crocodile Hunter," Steve Irwin, who was subsequently killed by a stingray last year.

"Steve Irwin, before he tragically passed away, was here at Lake Machado and pledged to come back here with his crew when we spotted Reggie to see if he could help us capture Reggie," she said. "So we're going to call them and see if they might not like to come out in memory of Steve Irwin and finish the job that Steve promised that he would do for Los Angeles."

If captured, the alligator could be housed at the Los Angeles Zoo, she said.

Reggie's fate had been a puzzle, with some believing the alligator had died.

"I think there were many of us who never really believed he was dead but really weren't sure where he was. We don't know where he's been, we don't know what he's been doing — but he's back," the councilwoman said.

Lake Machado is in the Wilmington area of South Los Angeles near the city's port.

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-03, 08:35 PM

Judge sues cleaner for $65M over pants

WASHINGTON - The Chungs, immigrants from South Korea, realized their American dream when they opened their dry-cleaning business seven years ago in the nation's capital. For the past two years, however, they've been dealing with the nightmare of litigation: a $65 million lawsuit over a pair of missing pants.

Jin Nam Chung, Ki Chung and their son, Soo Chung, are so disheartened that they're considering moving back to Seoul, said their attorney, Chris Manning, who spoke on their behalf.

"They're out a lot of money, but more importantly, incredibly disenchanted with the system," Manning said. "This has destroyed their lives."

The lawsuit was filed by a District of Columbia administrative hearings judge, Roy Pearson, who has been representing himself in the case.

Pearson did not return phone calls and e-mails Wednesday from The Associated Press requesting comment.

According to court documents, the problem began in May 2005 when Pearson became a judge and brought several suits for alteration to Custom Cleaners in Northeast Washington, a place he patronized regularly despite previous disagreements with the Chungs. A pair of pants from one suit was not ready when he requested it two days later, and was deemed to be missing.

Pearson asked the cleaners for the full price of the suit: more than $1,000.

But a week later, the Chungs said the pants had been found and refused to pay. That's when Pearson decided to sue.

Manning said the cleaners made three settlement offers to Pearson. First they offered $3,000, then $4,600, then $12,000. But Pearson wasn't satisfied and expanded his calculations beyond one pair of pants.

Because Pearson no longer wanted to use his neighborhood dry cleaner, part of his lawsuit calls for $15,000 — the price to rent a car every weekend for 10 years to go to another business.

"He's somehow purporting that he has a constitutional right to a dry cleaner within four blocks of his apartment," Manning said.

But the bulk of the $65 million comes from Pearson's strict interpretation of D.C.'s consumer protection law, which fines violators $1,500 per violation, per day. According to court papers, Pearson added up 12 violations over 1,200 days, and then multiplied that by three defendants.

Much of Pearson's case rests on two signs that Custom Cleaners once had on its walls: "Satisfaction Guaranteed" and "Same Day Service."

Based on Pearson's dissatisfaction and the delay in getting back the pants, he claims the signs amount to fraud.

Pearson has appointed himself to represent all customers affected by such signs, though D.C. Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz, who will hear the June 11 trial, has said that this is a case about one plaintiff, and one pair of pants.

Sherman Joyce, president of the American Tort Association, has written a letter to the group of men who will decide this week whether to renew Pearson's 10-year appointment. Joyce is asking them to reconsider.

Chief Administrative Judge Tyrone Butler had no comment regarding Pearson's reappointment.

The association, which tries to police the kind of abusive lawsuits that hurt small businesses, also has offered to buy Pearson the suit of his choice.

And former National Labors Relations Board chief administrative law judge Melvin Welles wrote to The Washington Post to urge "any bar to which Mr. Pearson belongs to immediately disbar him and the District to remove him from his position as an administrative law judge."

"There has been a significant groundswell of support for the Chungs," said Manning, adding that plans for a defense fund Web site are in the works.

To the Chungs and their attorney, one of the most frustrating aspects of the case is their claim that Pearson's gray pants were found a week after Pearson dropped them off in 2005. They've been hanging in Manning's office for more than a year.

Pearson claims in court documents that his pants had blue and red pinstripes.

"They match his inseam measurements. The ticket on the pants match his receipt," Manning said.

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-05, 03:00 PM

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A gang of armed robbers forced a man to strip naked and then glued him to his exercise bike and sealed his lips with more glue while they ransacked his house, according to a published report.

Kobus van Deventer, 50, was left stuck to the bike with super-strong glue for three hours until he was rescued by his girlfriend, the South African Press Association reported.

Van Deventer was carjacked Wednesday while driving in Johannesburg's northern suburbs, the association reported.

His assailants, dressed in suits and armed with handguns and an automatic assault rifle, forced their way into van Deventer's car and made the property developer drive to his house.

"The victim was then forced to strip, after which he was super-glued to the seat of an exercise bicycle, his hands were super-glued as were his feet and then his mouth was super-glued shut," Mark Stokoe, spokesman for emergency services Netcare 911, told SAPA. Workers from Netcare, a private company, provided aid at the scene.

Stokoe said the robbers ransacked van Deventer's house and safe while "helping themselves to Chivas Regal and the like."

South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world, with about 50 people being slain everyday. The government is desperate to counter the country's violent image, especially in the run up to the soccer World Cup it will host in 2010.

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-05, 03:06 PM

OTTAWA (AFP) - Bigfoot, the legendary hairy man-like beast said to roam the wildernesses of North America, is not shy, merely so rare it risks extinction and should be protected as an endangered species.

So says Canadian MP Mike Lake who has called for Bigfoot to be protected under Canada's species at risk act, alongside Whooping Cranes, Blue Whales, and Red Mulberry trees.

"The debate over their (Bigfoot's) existence is moot in the circumstance of their tenuous hold on merely existing," reads a petition presented by Lake to parliament in March and due to be discussed next week.

"Therefore, the petitioners request the House of Commons to establish immediate, comprehensive legislation to affect immediate protection of Bigfoot," says the petition signed by almost 500 of Lake's constituents in Edmonton, Alberta.

A similar appeal has been made to the US Congress.

Down through history, there have been numerous, if unsubstantiated sightings of Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch in North American folklore.

The beast is said to inhabit remote forests, mainly in the US Pacific northwest and western Canada, and many believe it could be related to the equally mythical Yeti said to have found its home in Tibet and Nepal.

While sometimes described as large, hairy bipedal hominoids, Bigfoot are considered by most experts to be a combination of folklore and hoaxes.

But the legend remains strong, and Bigfoot researcher Todd Standing, who was behind the petition, claims to have proof of its existence, and says he fears for its safety.

"When I get species protection for them nationwide, I will make my findings public and I will take this out of the realm of mythology. Bigfoot is real," Standing told Global National television news.

He said he has 12 seconds of video footage of Bigfoot roaming Canada's western Rocky Mountains included in a 30-minute documentary, but his detractors say it was staged with actors.

His supporters hail from Canada's westernmost provinces, but Bigfoot sightings have been reported across the country, which is 90 percent uninhabited.

There are currently 516 plant and animal species at risk in Canada, according to Environment Canada. Another 13 species are already extinct.

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-06, 08:36 PM

Activists want chimp declared a 'person'

VIENNA, Austria - In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV. But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person — at least not yet.

In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26-year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a "person."

Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests.

"Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights," said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group.

"We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions," Theuer said.

"We're not talking about the right to vote here."

The campaign began after the animal sanctuary where Hiasl (pronounced HEE-zul) and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years went bankrupt.

Activists want to ensure the apes don't wind up homeless if the shelter closes. Both have already suffered: They were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled in a crate to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter.

Their food and veterinary bills run about $6,800 a month. Donors have offered to help, but there's a catch: Under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal donations.

Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Hiasl, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But without basic rights, they contend, he could be sold to someone outside Austria, where the chimp is protected by strict animal cruelty laws.

"If we can get Hiasl declared a person, he would have the right to own property. Then, if people wanted to donate something to him, he'd have the right to receive it," said Theuer, who has vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

Austria isn't the only country where primate rights are being debated. Spain's parliament is considering a bill that would endorse the Great Ape Project, a Seattle-based international initiative to extend "fundamental moral and legal protections" to apes.

If Hiasl gets a guardian, "it will be the first time the species barrier will have been crossed for legal 'personhood,'" said Jan Creamer, chief executive of Animal Defenders International, which is working to end the use of primates in research.

Paula Stibbe, a Briton who teaches English in Vienna, petitioned a district court to be Hiasl's legal trustee. On April 24, Judge Barbara Bart rejected her request, ruling Hiasl didn't meet two key tests: He is neither mentally impaired nor in an emergency.

Although Bart expressed concern that awarding Hiasl a guardian could create the impression that animals enjoy the same legal status as humans, she didn't rule that he could never be considered a person.

Martin Balluch, who heads the Association Against Animal Factories, has asked a federal court for a ruling on the guardianship issue.

"Chimps share 99.4 percent of their DNA with humans," he said. "OK, they're not homo sapiens. But they're obviously also not things — the only other option the law provides."

Not all Austrian animal rights activists back the legal challenge. Michael Antolini, president of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said he thinks it's absurd.

"I'm not about to make myself look like a fool" by getting involved, said Antolini, who worries that chimpanzees could gain broader rights, such as copyright protections on their photographs.

But Stibbe, who brings Hiasl sweets and yogurt and watches him draw and clown around by dressing up in knee-high rubber boots, insists he deserves more legal rights "than bricks or apples or potatoes."

"He can be very playful but also thoughtful," she said. "Being with him is like playing with someone who can't talk."

A date for the appeal hasn't been set, but Hiasl's legal team has lined up expert witnesses, including Jane Goodall, the world's foremost observer of chimpanzee behavior.

"When you see Hiasl, he really comes across as a person," Theuer said.

"He has a real personality. It strikes you immediately: This is an individual. You just have to look him in the eye to see that."

Max

2007-05-09, 01:47 PM

Belfast is UK's 'booziest city'

People in Belfast will spend almost £50,000 on alcohol

Belfast is home to the "biggest boozers" in the UK, according to new research.
A survey says that people living in Northern Ireland's capital will, on average, spend £47,568 on alcohol in their lifetime.

The survey, by alcohol rehabilitation website pcpluton, said the student town of Cambridge came out second in the tipsy town tally.

There, people will spend £40,939 on booze between birth and death.

Falling in behind Belfast and Cambridge are Leeds, Leicester and Manchester.

Top Ten Boozy Cities
1 Belfast
2 Cambridge
3 Leeds
4 Leicester
5 Manchester
6 London
7 Sheffield
8 Bristol
9 Aberdeen
10 Cardiff

Another of its findings was that one in 10 people in the UK will have had their first taste of alcohol by their tenth birthday.

Furthermore, while 14% of people considered themselves to be binge drinkers only 8% are actually worried about it.

Darren Rolfe of pcpluton, which has worked with people from Northern Ireland, said: "It is quite scary to see how much is literally being poured down the drain, and how young some people are when they start drinking.

"Those who find long lasting recovery from addiction discover much better and more productive ways to spend their hard earned cash."

Northern Ireland was also top of the survey's regions poll, coming out ahead of the North West and London.

Max

2007-05-14, 07:01 PM

A TERRIFIED dad was held by police for 13 hours after they mistook a dummy of Lara Croft for a gunman.

Computer games fan David Williams, 42, was arrested when armed cops swooped on his home late at night.

He was pinned to the ground, handcuffed and quizzed — after officers spotted his life-sized model of the gun-toting Tomb Raider star.

David, from Dukinfield, Greater Manchester said: “I can’t believe the police could be so stupid.”

He had called cops about nuisance phone calls he had received.

But when two officers arrived, one saw the limited edition 6ft statue, worth £1,000, standing in the darkness of his living room window.

Fearing it was an armed crook, the officers called in support — and David was held at gunpoint. He claims he was bruised in the scuffle.

David, who runs a computer games store, said: “The back-up cops burst in through the back door and knocked me to the ground. One jabbed a gun in the back of my neck and said, ‘All right — where’s the gun?’

“I said, ‘I don’t have one’. They weren’t happy and searched the house.

“They took me in for questioning, and brought the mannequin with them.

“They must have soon realised what had happened because the PC who called for help was getting a lot of stick.”

A police spokesman said: “An officer can never take things at face value.”

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-20, 11:39 AM

X-rated nude car wash gets police all-clear

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A nude car wash offering an X-rated sideshow and topless cleaning in Australia's tropical Queensland state has been given the all-clear after police and officials said they were powerless to scrub it.

The Bubbles 'n' Babes car wash in Brisbane prompted a flood of complaints with a topless car wash for A$55 ($45) and a nude car wash with X-rated lap-dance service for A$100. "If it was approved for a car wash then I can't imagine how we can stop them," Lord Mayor Campbell Newman told a council meeting with worried local lawmakers.

Professional car washes have boomed in most cities with drought-stricken Australians banned from washing their own cars due to tough water restrictions.

Queensland police denied any cover-up in a state where their image has been dented by past accusations of police corruption and involvement with organized crime.

The raunchy wash, set up by a strip-club owner, was screened from the public and used recycled water to avoid breaching water use restrictions, they said.

"We don't want any traffic accidents caused by people looking at the girls instead of looking at the road," Superintendent Colin Campbell told local media.

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-20, 11:52 AM

Pub told to change tricky bathroom signs

DESTIN, Fla. - Confusing signs on the bathroom doors at McGuire's Irish Pub have played jokes on customers for years, sending women to the men's room and vice versa.

But the father of a girl who was interrupted by a man in the women's room and Florida's Department of Business and Professional Regulation don't find the signs funny.

The agency recently threatened the Panhandle tourist landmark with closure for "Lack of signage properly designating bathrooms."

The state took action after the father filed a complaint, which said his 15-year-old daughter was embarrassed and left the restaurant crying after the bathroom incident.

General Manager Billy Martin has removed the signs at his Destin pub, but left them at his original pub in Pensacola.

"We're not trying to be malicious," Martin told the Northwest Florida Daily News. "It's an Irish joke kind of thing."

More than 3,000 pub patrons have signed a petition to bring the signs back.

The men's room sign has large print that reads "Ladies" and smaller text clarifying women shouldn't go in there because it's the men's room. The women's room has a similar sign.

The signs have been up for 10 years in Destin and 30 years in Pensacola.

Blin it was so funny to see drunk people go in the wrong bathrooms all the time! :hahaha
Now I won't see it happen again unless I go all the way to Pensacola!:(

Well at least they still have the garbage burger! For $10 you get a burger with almost everything on it.....onion, pickles, lettece, tomato, jalapeños, ketchup, peanut butter, chocolate syrup, gummy bears, & lots more! hammersmas

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-20, 11:56 AM

here's the men's room sign

BFofAKournikova

2007-05-22, 08:33 PM

BERLIN (Reuters) - A nine-year-old German girl was so upset about having to tidy her room she put up a sign in her window urging passers-by to call police for help.

Pedestrians in the central city of Braunschweig saw the girl crying in the window, holding up a sign up saying "Help! Please call the police!" Next to her sat a small boy.

Quickly alerted, officers rushed to the scene to discover the girl had rowed with her mother about tidying her room and enlisted her two-year-old brother's aid to attract attention.

"The room looked like a battlefield," said a spokesman for local police on Monday. "Officers told the girl to tidy her room. When they came back two hours later to check, it was all cleaned up. And the mother and daughter had made up too."

Andy

2007-05-29, 07:31 PM

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6700777.stm

Brummie girls 'not pretty enough'

Beauty contest officials chose a model from Stoke-on-Trent to represent Birmingham because they could not find anyone pretty enough from the city.
Miss Great Britain organisers picked Sophie Wilson to represent the city in a heat despite her only connection being an ex-boyfriend who lived there.

The 18-year-old IT student said she thought it was unfair on Birmingham's beauties.

The competition was later won by Rachael Tennant, from Aberdeen.

Miss Wilson said: "When they said there wasn't that many pretty girls in Birmingham I didn't actually believe in that.

'No-one suitable'

"There are obviously going to be absolutely gorgeous girls about but I just think they weren't auditioned."

Tracie Bedwood, of Birmingham model agency Adage Models, said she could not believe the decision.

She said: "If it's someone representing Birmingham then they should be from Birmingham.

"There are lots of beautiful girls in the city and I know because we've got lots of them on our books."

A spokesman for Miss Great Britain said: "We were desperately looking for a Miss GB entrant from Birmingham but in truth, there was no-one suitable who entered.

"We look forward to more entering next year."

Geode

2007-06-12, 04:16 PM

Paris Hilton Is Back In Jail: Screaming And Crying :

Screaming and crying, Paris Hilton was escorted out of a courtroom and back to jail Friday after a judge ruled that she must serve out her entire 45-day sentence behind bars rather than in her Hollywood Hills home.

"It's not right!" shouted the weeping Hilton, who violated her parole in a reckless driving case. "Mom!" she called out to her mother in the audience.

Hilton, who was brought to court in handcuffs in a sheriff's car, came into the courtroom disheveled and weeping, hair askew, sans makeup, wearing a gray fuzzy sweatshirt over slacks.

She cried throughout the hearing, her body shook constantly and she dabbed at her eyes. Several times she turned to her parents, seated behind her in the courtroom, and mouthed, "I love you."

Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer was irked by the morning's developments. He said he had left the courthouse Thursday night having signed an order for Hilton to appear for the hearing.

When he got in his car early Friday, he said, he heard a radio report that he had approved Hilton's participation in the hearing by telephone, but he had not. "I at no time condoned the actions of the sheriff and at no time told him I approved the actions," he said of the decision to release Hilton from jail after three days.

On the "medical reasons" we have been hearing about, It has emerged that Hilton was depressed and refused to eat inside the detention facility in Los Angeles, and cried herself to sleep every night.

Doctors and guards feared she would have a total nervous breakdown, some even concerned she might try to kill herself.

The outrage of the American people was finally heard. Why should Paris get special treatment when there are so many other less well connected who have to serve out their sentances sick or not, depressed or not.

BFofAKournikova

2007-06-12, 10:45 PM

Butts charged with stealing toilet paper turnass

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa - Police blame a woman named Butts for stealing toilet paper from a central Iowa courthouse, and while they're chuckling, the theft charge could put her in prison.

"She's facing potentially three years of incarceration for three rolls of toilet paper," Chief Lon Walker said, stifling a laugh as he talked to KCCI-TV about Suzanne Marie Butts. "See, I can't say it with a straight face."

Workers had noticed the rolls disappearing from the Marshall County Courthouse much faster than usual, Walker said.

Butts, 38, was caught last week after an employee saw her taking three rolls of two-ply tissue from a storage closet, Walker said.

Butts insisted it was the first time she'd pilfered toilet paper, but she declined to answer further questions on her attorney's advice.

The fifth-degree theft charge, a misdemeanor, normally carries a sentence of less than a year in jail. But Butts could face more time if convicted under the state's habitual offender law because she has prior theft convictions.

Walker did not know why Butts was at the courthouse, but said that she did not work there.

BFofAKournikova

2007-06-12, 10:52 PM

ROCK BLUFF, Fla. - A woman was injured over the weekend by a leaping sturgeon, the latest incident involving the flying fish on the Suwannee River, officials said.

Tara Spears, 32, of Bell, was knocked unconscious by the animal on Sunday while boating on the river north of Rock Bluff, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported.

She was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and was expected to recover, the agency reported.

The large, prehistoric-looking sturgeon have hard plates along their backs. They can grow up to 8 feet long and up to 200 pounds.

In April, a leaping sturgeon severely injured a 50-year-old woman from St. Petersburg who was riding a personal watercraft on the Suwannee River. She suffered a ruptured spleen and had three fingers reattached by surgeons, but she lost her left pinkie finger and a tooth.

BFofAKournikova

2007-06-17, 12:31 PM

BERLIN (Reuters) - An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.

The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said Thursday.

With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.

The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.

"After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man's garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh," the spokesman said. "Then he killed it with his crutch."

The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.

BFofAKournikova

2007-06-23, 05:54 PM

Black lab drives owner's car into river

SAGLE, Idaho - Bad dog. Charlie the black lab drove his owner's car into the Pend Oreille River. As Mark Ewing walked home Wednesday evening after returning from picking up a pizza, Charlie jumped into the car through an open window, and apparently knocked the vehicle into gear.

"He somehow got the car into neutral," Ewing said. "My car just went boom, down an incline and into the drink."

Ewing could only watch as his Chevy Impala sank into the river. No dummy, Charlie jumped out of the window as the car went downhill.

"There's nothing weirder than looking at your car cruising down your driveway when you're not in it and seeing your dog jump out and then watching your car go splash," Ewing said.

Actually, things got a little weirder when the tow truck driver showed up.

Before the driver dove into the water to hook the car up to his truck, he asked Ewing to hold his dentures.

"My car's in the drink, I've got dentures in my hand and this guy Keith ... goes swimming," Ewing noted.

http://www.freesmileys.org/emo/happy001.gif

BFofAKournikova

2007-07-02, 12:03 PM

Moscow excess hits new heights with luxury hotel

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia capped its journey from communism to capitalism on Sunday with the opening of a $1,000-a-night (500-pounds-a-night) luxury hotel on the site of an old Soviet hostelry best known for its surly service and bugged telephones.

The Ritz-Carlton hotel near Moscow's Red Square sets a new standard for decadence in a city where an oil-driven economic boom has created an explosion of wealth and a headlong rush to spend it.

The hotel's presidential suite -- where the dining room is fitted with bullet-proof glass and windows -- costs a little over $16,000 a night.

That does not include breakfast, but hotel staff recommend the Tsar's breakfast, a $700 per person meal that includes Cristal champagne, Beluga caviar and truffle omelette.

The hotel's wine list features a 1961 Chateau Petrus at $68,000 a bottle, and a 1969 vintage Macallan Single Malt Scotch Whiskey priced at $400 a shot.

"Our guests are very discriminating and have high expectations," said Ritz-Carlton President Simon Cooper.

"We are well aware of the growing wealth that is occurring in Russia ... and so we think the timing of the opening of the first Ritz-Carlton hotel is as good at it gets," Cooper told reporters.

SEEDY

The new hotel was built on the site of the Intourist, flagship hotel of the Soviet Union's Intourist agency that employed staff vetted for their political loyalty to guide foreign tourists on tightly-controlled excursions.

After the Soviet collapse, the concrete tower on Tverskaya street acquired a seedy atmosphere: the air conditioning did not work, prostitutes in tiny skirts toured the lobby bar and the bed linen was threadbare.

The cheapest rooms at the Ritz-Carlton hotel will cost a little over $1,000 after tax. Russia is home to hundreds of millionaires who could easily afford those rates -- managers said one Russian earlier this month booked a suite for a year.

But the hotel said it expected about 80 percent of its guests to be foreign travellers, though it predicted the proportion of Russians would rise over time.

The problem is that despite its moneyed elite, the average monthly wage in Russia is still only about $500, putting the hotel way out of reach for most people.

However, General Manager Oliver Eller said they should not be deterred. Ordinary Muscovites were welcome to come in, take a look at the new hotel and order a cup of coffee, he said.

Ritz-Carlton is a division of hotel operator Marriott International.

well I know where I will not be staying whenever I get to Moscow :p

Liza

2007-07-02, 12:43 PM

well I know where I will not be staying whenever I get to Moscow :p
The most expensive hotel in the world >> Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys

$1395-a-night!
http://www.littlepalmisland.com/

I know where I will not be staying when I go to Florida. :)

BFofAKournikova

2007-07-02, 12:56 PM

The most expensive hotel in the world >> Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys

$1395-a-night!
http://www.littlepalmisland.com/

I know where I will not be staying when I go to Florida. :)

actually that is only the 2nd most expensive in the US & #10 in the world

the world's most expensive is The Mansion at the MGM Grand.....the $5,000 price tag is simply for the room. Meals and alcohol are charged separately.

top ten list of the world according to Forbes:

Liza

2007-07-02, 01:04 PM

Sorry! :) I should have said: 'One of the most expensive hotel in the world' and 2nd most expensive in US'

I was a bit to fast ;)

diesel911

2007-07-02, 01:12 PM

Most of the times all hotels are almost fully booked in Moscow and average price if you are looking to book room same day is about 1500$ :)
There are only few 5 star hotels in Moscow and thats the reason for this high demand. the diiference between 5 and 4 stars is huge, its like 5 to 2 in west :)

BFofAKournikova

2007-07-02, 01:39 PM

BFofAKournikova

2007-07-12, 08:43 PM

BERLIN (Reuters) - German police broke into a darkened apartment fearing they would find a dead body, after neighbors complained of a nasty smell seeping out onto the staircase.

The shutters of the apartment had been closed for more than a week and the mailbox was filled with uncollected mail.

But instead of a corpse, they found a tenant with very smelly feet, asleep in bed next to a pile of foul-smelling laundry, police in the southwestern town of Kaiserslautern said on Sunday.

:hahaha :hahaha :hahaha

ora

2007-07-12, 11:01 PM

Moscow excess hits new heights with luxury hotel
However, General Manager Oliver Eller said they should not be deterred. -
:p[/I]
good guy! Eller is about 40yrs old and did his first steps close to my home... I don t think I ll ever take advantage of that :P

BFofAKournikova

2007-07-19, 07:53 PM

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - She is a latecomer to the information superhighway, but 75-year-old Sigbritt Lothberg is now cruising the Internet with a dizzying speed. Lothberg's 40 gigabits-per-second fiber-optic connection in Karlstad is believed to be the fastest residential uplink in the world, Karlstad city officials said.

In less than 2 seconds, Lothberg can download a full-length movie on her home computer — many thousand times faster than most residential connections, said Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit.

Jonsson and Lothberg's son, Peter, worked together to install the connection.

The speed is reached using a new modulation technique that allows the sending of data between two routers placed up to 1,240 miles apart, without any transponders in between, Jonsson said.

"We wanted to show that that there are no limitations to Internet speed," he said.

Peter Lothberg, who is a networking expert, said he wanted to demonstrate the new technology while providing a computer link for his mother.

"She's a brand-new Internet user," Lothberg said by phone from California, where he lives. "She didn't even have a computer before."

His mother isn't exactly making the most of her high-speed connection. She only uses it to read Web-based newspapers.

blin.....this dude should have installed it at any one of the Diesel girl's flats instead of for his mom who only reads newpapers online workingcom

Max

2007-07-26, 05:15 PM

US cat 'predicts patient deaths'

A US cat that is reportedly able to sense when a nursing home's residents are about to die is baffling doctors.
Oscar has a habit of curling up next to patients at the home in Providence, Rhode Island, in their final hours.

According to the author of a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, the two-year-old cat has been observed to be correct in 25 cases so far.

Staff now alert the families of residents when he sits down next to their ailing loved one.

"He doesn't make many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," David Dosa, a professor at Brown University who carried out the research, told the Associated Press news agency.

'Premonitions'

Oscar was adopted as a kitten at Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Centre.

Cats often can sense when their owners are sick or when another animal is sick
Thomas Graves, feline expert

The cat is said to do his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses at the home, but is not generally friendly to patients.

Although most families are grateful for the warning Oscar seems to provide, some relatives ask that the pet be taken away while they say their last goodbyes to their loved ones.

When put outside the room, Oscar is said to pace up and down meowing in protest.

Thomas Graves, a feline expert from the University of Illinois, told the BBC: "Cats often can sense when their owners are sick or when another animal is sick.

"They can sense when the weather will change, they're famous for being sensitive to premonitions of earthquakes."

A doctor who treats patients at the home said she believed there was probably a biochemical explanation, rather than the cat being psychic.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/6917113.stm

BFofAKournikova

2007-07-26, 05:21 PM

read that myself this morning on yahoo

here is yahoo's article:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill

She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.

Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.

No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.

Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070725/ap_on_fe_st/death_cat

Andy

2007-07-31, 12:38 AM

Japanese firm Nikko has created an all-in-one multimedia device incorporating projector, DVD player, media card reader and oh, so much more. So what's new, you might say, well this particular product is shaped like R2-D2 from Star Wars.

The driod has a front-loading disc slot, with compatibility for DVD-R/RW and CR-R/RW discs. His famous ‘eye’ is a Texas Instruments DLP projector with 80° viewing angle for watching...well, Star Wars. Image resolution is 800 x 600 pixels, while contrast ratio is 500:1 and images can be projected over a distance anywhere between 4.9’ and 16.4’. You could even pretend you've stumbled across an old recorded message made for one General Kenobi...who served your father years ago in the Clone Wars...

This R2 unit has no rockets: but then neither did the original

R2-D2 measures 34 x 32 x 51cm and weighs 8kg and is able to physically move around, in the traditional fashion. His arms and...um, 'foot' can also be adjusted so that the projected image can be adapted for different screens and wall shapes. FM radio is also supported, as is a SD/MMC card reader and iPod docking station. This R2 unit also supports MP3/WMA/JPEG/MP4 and DivX.

Two 10w speakers are built into the droid, which also provide R2-D2-esque sound effects, while a range of connection interfaces are also included behind a hidden panel to the rear, including a USB port, headphone stereo jack and DVI-I socket.

Thankfully there's no carbon scoring

An infra-red receiver is built into the front and receives commands from the Millennium Falcon-shaped remote control which, although slightly cheap and plastic in appearance, can be used to control all of his functions, including movement.

While it may be beat the Darth Vader laptop hands down as the ultimate Star Wars gadget, this title has its price, £2,000 (€3,150/$4,090), but it’s available from play.com next month. No word has yet been given on the gold, blinged-up version, otherwise known as C-3PO.

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07/25/r2-d2_multimedia/

Andy

2007-07-31, 12:42 AM

Star Wars laptops - for the Jedi in you

Although the Star Wars Darth Vader "laptop" is marketed as a learning device, we're not sure if it truly is something for the kids or more for you die-hard fans of the Dark Side.

The Star Wars Darth Vader laptop: an open and shut case

The first thing to catch your eye is its design. The flattened Darth Vader mask opens up to reveal a compressed QWERTY keyboard and, instead of a mouse, an extendable light sabre is used to select and guide users around the device's 50 games.

Users can play as either a Jedi Knight or Sith Lord, and each game is designed to train young reflexes, typing skills and rhythm. And to help develop enough hand-eye coordination, memory skills and musical talents to see off any invasion from the Dark Side. Apparently.

The light sabre also has lights and motion sensors embedded within it so that users can 'shhhwing' it around in true Star Wars style. And get some Wii Remote practice in while they're at it.

The laptop uses the force of three AA-size batteries.

A UK price or release date is yet to be beamed across

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/07/20/star_wars_laptop/

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-05, 03:09 AM

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish squirrel with a sweet tooth heads to a Finnish grocery shop at least twice a day to steal "Kinder Surprise" chocolate-shelled eggs.

"I named it the Kinder-squirrel, after the treats. It always goes after them, other sweets do not seem to interest it as much," the manager of the store in Jyvaskyla, central Finland, told Reuters.

The confectionary, which is intended for *****ren, has a toy inside.

"It removes the foil carefully, eats the chocolate and leaves the store with the toy," Irene Lindroos said.

Unfortunately, the bushy-tailed thief does not clean up after itself, but leaves the wrappers behind, she added.

Squirrels have a well deserved reputation for being clever and adaptable animals. Many a home owner has seen the small rodents raiding their supposedly "squirrel-proof" bird feeders.

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-05, 03:13 AM

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - A man with no arms and one leg who wouldn't stop driving despite a long list of traffic violations was sentenced to five years in prison Friday on felony driving and drug charges.

Michael Francis Wiley, 40, also was sentenced to 15 years of drug offender probation. He pleaded no contest in June to the charges.

"I'd just like to say I know what I did was wrong," Wiley said in court Friday. "I am truly sorry your honor. I am."

Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He has already spent more than three years in prison for habitually driving without a license, kicking a state trooper and other charges.

He once had a valid license, but it has been suspended several times since 1985, according to his attorney. He starts the car with his toes, shifts with his knee and steers with the stump of his left arm. He turns on the lights with his teeth.

In his most recent brush with the law last May, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, officials said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, police said.

Defense attorney John Hooker pleaded for leniency and a minimum sentence of 2 1/2 years. He cited his client's need for treatment for his many physical and mental health problems, including anxiety, panic attacks, depression and a pain disorder related to his amputations.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Wiley said he's done driving.

"I'm beat. The white flag is up," he said. "You can only bang your head against the wall so long before it hurts."

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-05, 03:17 AM

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida man stockpiled 20,000 cubic yards of horse manure on his property and was charged with running an illegal composting operation, environmental regulators said on Wednesday.

Neighbors complained about the odor wafting from Walter Duque's property in the rural community of Loxahatchee, where several acres were covered with manure piles up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) high, the state Department of Environmental Protection said.

Investigators suspect Duque had been accepting dump truck loads of horse manure from nearby equestrian communities in Palm Beach County, agency spokesman Stephen Webster said. They issued three misdemeanor citations for violations punishable by up to 18 months in jail and $30,000 in fines.

Florida requires special permits for composting and storing horse manure and regularly inspects the operations to ensure ground water is not polluted, Webster said.

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-06, 08:10 PM

Bad Thai cops to endure Kitty shame http://smt.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/images_1.jpg

http://mazeguy.net/cartoon/hellokitty.gifBANGKOK, Thailand - Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring "Hello Kitty," the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.

Police officers caught littering, parking in a prohibited area, or arriving late — among other misdemeanors — will be forced to stay in the division office and wear the armband all day, said Police Col. Pongpat Chayaphan. The officers won't wear the armband in public.

The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.

"Simple warnings no longer work. This new twist is expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor," said Pongpat, acting chief of the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok.

"(Hello) Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It's not something macho police officers want covering their biceps," Pongpat said.

He said police caught breaking the law will be subject the same fines and penalties as any other members of the public.

"We want to make sure that we do not condone small offenses," Pongpat said, adding that the CSD believed that getting tough on petty misdemeanors would lead to fewer cases of more serious offenses including abuse of power and mistreatment of the public by police officers.

Hello Kitty, invented by Sanrio Co. in 1974, has been popular for years with *****ren and young women. The celebrity cat adorns everything from diamond-studded jewelry, Fender guitars and digital cameras to lunch boxes, T-shirts and stationery.http://mazeguy.net/cartoon/hellokitty.gif

Max

2007-08-18, 12:20 AM

Russia restarts Cold War patrols :eek: :crazy

Russia is resuming a Soviet-era practice of sending its bomber aircraft on long-range flights, President Vladimir Putin has said.
Mr Putin said the move to resume the flights permanently after a 15-year suspension was in response to security threats posed by other military powers.

He said 14 bombers had taken off from Russian airfields early on Friday.

The move came a week after Russian bombers flew within a few hundred miles of the US Pacific island of Guam.

A few days ago Moscow said its strategic bombers had begun exercises over the North Pole.

Flexing muscles

"We have decided to restore flights by Russian strategic aviation on a permanent basis," Mr Putin told reporters at joint military exercises with China and four Central Asian states in Russia's Ural mountains.

"In 1992, Russia unilaterally ended flights by its strategic aircraft to distant military patrol areas. Unfortunately, our example was not followed by everyone," Mr Putin said, in an apparent reference to the US.

"Flights by other countries' strategic aircraft continue and this creates certain problems for ensuring the security of the Russian Federation," he said.

In Washington, state department spokesman Sean McCormack played down the significance of Russia's move, saying: "We certainly are not in the kind of posture we were with what used to be the Soviet Union."

"If Russia feels as though they want to take some of these old aircraft out of mothballs and get them flying again, that's their decision," he told reporters.

One of the reasons Russia halted its flights 15 years ago was that it could no longer afford the fuel.

Today Moscow's coffers are stuffed full of oil money, says the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Moscow, and the Kremlin is determined to show it is still a military power to reckon with.

'Shadowed by Nato'

Russian media reported earlier on Friday that long-range bombers were airborne, and that Nato jets were shadowing them.

Itar-Tass quoted Russian air force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky as saying: "At present, several pairs of Tu-160 and Tu-95MS aircraft are in the air over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which are accompanied by Nato planes."

Nato said it was aware of the flights but had no comment on whether Nato planes were in attendance.

In last week's incident near Guam, the Russian pilots "exchanged smiles" with US fighter pilots who scrambled to track them, a Russian general said.

The US military confirmed the presence of the Russian bombers near Guam, home to a large US base.

Last month two Tupolev 95 aircraft - dubbed "bears" according to their Nato code-name - strayed south from their normal patrol pattern off the Norwegian coast and headed towards Scotland. Two RAF Tornado fighters were sent up to meet them.

Russian bombers have also recently flown close to US airspace over the Arctic Ocean near Alaska.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/europe/6950986.stm

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-21, 08:12 PM

:eek: :eek: :eek:

EDINBURGH (AFP) - A dwarf performer at the Edinburgh fringe festival had to be rushed to hospital after his penis got stuck to a vacuum cleaner during an act that went horribly awry.

Daniel Blackner, or "Captain Dan the Demon Dwarf", was due to perform at the Circus of Horrors at the festival known for its oddball, offbeat performances.

The main part of his act saw him appear on stage with a vacuum cleaner attached to his member through a special attachment.

The attachment broke before the performance and Blackner tried to fix it using extra-strong glue, but unfortunately only let it dry for 20 seconds instead of the 20 minutes required.

He then joined it directly to his organ. The end result? A solid attachment, laughter, mortification and ... hospitalisation.

"It was the most embarrassing moment of my life when I got wheeled into a packed AE with a vacuum attached to me," Blackner said.

"I just wished the ground could swallow me up. Luckily, they saw me quickly so the embarrassment was short-lived."

:hahaha :hahaha :hahaha

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-21, 08:17 PM

crazy dwarf :crazy

Geode

2007-08-21, 10:05 PM

crazy dwarf :crazy

Boy, that really sucks... :D

Geo

2007-08-22, 05:04 PM

crazy dwarf :crazy

Now you know what Scotsmen keep under their kilts!!!!!!

A vacuum cleaner shootself shootself shootself

starwars starwars starwars

Max

2007-08-22, 06:25 PM

crazy dwarf :crazy

Think the vacuum was between his ears and not on the end of the hose :D

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-25, 03:28 AM

NEW YORK - Armed with a soldering iron and a large supply of energy drinks, a slight, curly haired teenager has developed a way to make the iPhone, arguably the gadget of the year, available to a much wider audience.

George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., spent his last summer before college figuring out how to "unlock" the iPhone, freeing it from being restricted to a single carrier, AT&T Inc.

The procedure, which the 17-year-old posted on his blog Thursday, raises the possibility of a cottage industry springing up to buy iPhones, unlocking them and then selling them to people who don't want AT&T service or can't get it, particularly overseas.

The phone, which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod, is currently sold only in the U.S.

An AP reporter was able to verify that an iPhone Hotz brought to the AP's headquarters on Friday was unlocked. Hotz placed the reporter's T-Mobile SIM card, a small chip that identifies a phone to the network, in the iPhone. It then connected to T-Mobile's network and placed calls using the reporter's account.

T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology, but smaller carriers also use the technology, known as GSM. In Europe and Asia, GSM is the dominant network technology.

The hack is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software, and missteps may result in the iPhone becoming useless, so few people will be able to follow the instructions.

"But that's the simplest I could make them," Hotz said.

Technology blog Engadget on Friday reported successfully unlocking an iPhone using a different method that required no tinkering with the hardware. The software was supplied by an anonymous group of hackers that apparently plans to charge for it.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel and Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said their companies had no comment on Hotz' exploit. Hotz said the companies had not been in touch with him.

Apple shares rose $4.23, or 3.2 percent, to close at $135.30 on Friday. AT&T shares gained 26 cents, or 0.7 percent, to close at $40.36.

The iPhone has already been made to work on overseas networks using another method, which involves copying information from the SIM chip, or Subscriber Identity Module.

The SIM-chip method does not involve any soldering, but does require special equipment, and it doesn't unlock the phone — each new SIM chip has to be reprogrammed for use on a particular iPhone.

Both hacks leave intact the iPhone's many functions, including a built-in camera and the ability to access Wi-Fi networks. The only thing that won't work is the "visual voicemail" feature, which lists voice messages as if they were incoming e-mail.

Since the details of both hacks are public, Apple may be able to modify the iPhone production line to make new phones invulnerable.

Analysts said it's unlikely Apple would overhaul the iPhone's wiring to thwart the new hack because the difficulty of the procedure is likely to keep it confined to hardcore hobbyists.

"I'm having a hard time figuring out where the real pain is going to come from in this," said David Chamberlain, principal analyst with market researcher In-Stat who follows mobile devices and services. "Just selling the piece of hardware, they've made a nice profit off that."

Apple has said it plans to introduce the phone in Europe this year, but it hasn't set a date or identified carriers.

There is apparently no U.S. law against unlocking cell phones. Last year, the Library of Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from coverage under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Among other things, the law has been used to prosecute people who modify game consoles to play a wider variety of games.

Hotz collaborated online with a large number of people to develop the unlocking process. Of smaller core group, two were in Russia.

"Then there are two guys who I think are somewhere U.S.-side," Hotz said. He knows them only by their online handles.

Hotz himself spent about 500 hours on the project since the iPhone went on sale. On Thursday, he put the unlocked iPhone up for sale on eBay, where the high bid was at $12,600 late Friday. The model, with 4 gigabytes of memory, sells for $499 new.

"Some of my friends think I wasted my summer but I think it was worth it," he told The Record of Bergen County, which reported Hotz's hack Friday.

Hotz heads for college on Saturday. He plans to major in neuroscience — or "hacking the brain" as he puts it — at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-25, 03:42 AM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A woman set fire to her ex-husband's penis as he sat naked watching television and drinking vodka, Moscow police said Wednesday.

Asked if the man would make a full recovery, a police spokeswoman said it was "difficult to predict."

The attack climaxed three years of acrimonious enforced co-habitation. The couple divorced three years ago but continued to share a small flat, something common in Russia where property costs are very high.

"It was monstrously painful," the wounded ex-husband told Tvoi Den newspaper. "I was burning like a torch. I don't know what I did to deserve this."

Andy

2007-08-25, 11:13 AM

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has inadvertently become a gay icon after stripping down to the waist on a fishing trip.

The pictures were taken while the President was on holiday with Prince Albert of Monaco in the Siberian mountains.

They have had a huge impact in Russia, turning the president into a sex symbol, an inspiration for men to start pumping iron, and the new darling of the gay lobby.

Newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda published a huge colour photo of the bare-chested President, under the headline Be Like Putin.

The picture illustrated a guide to the exercises needed to build up a torso like that of the Russian leader.

The paper reported that women who visited its website had posted comments on Mr Putin's "vigorous torso" and said they "were screaming with delight and showering him with compliments".

Russian gay chatrooms and blogs were also particularly intrigued by the photos.

One satirical photo circulating on the internet compared the fishing and riding adventure with gay cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain.

The 54-year-old leader, who is married with two daughters, has cultivated a macho image.

He is a keen downhill skier, has a black belt in judo, and has appeared on television driving a truck, operating a train, sailing on a submarine and co-piloting a fighter jet.

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-26, 11:07 AM

The pharaoh's curse?

CAIRO (Reuters) - A German has handed in a package containing part of a Pharaonic carving to Egypt's embassy in Berlin, with a note saying his stepfather had suffered a "curse of the Pharaohs" for stealing it, Egypt said Wednesday.

The note said the man felt obliged to return the carving to make amends for his late stepfather and enable his soul to rest in peace, Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities said.

The stepfather had stolen the piece while on a visit to Egypt in 2004 and on his return to Germany suffered paralysis, nausea, unexplained fevers and cancer before dying recently, the anonymous man said in the note.

The Egyptian embassy in Berlin had sent the fragment back to Egypt by diplomatic pouch and it had been handed over to the Supreme Council for Antiquities, where a committee of experts was trying to ascertain its authenticity, the statement said.

The belief in a curse that strikes down anyone who disturbs the tombs or mummies of ancient Egypt's Pharaohs has been around since the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 and the subsequent death of the excavation's financier Lord Carnarvon.

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-29, 06:00 PM

NEW YORK (AP) -- Leona Helmsley's dog will continue to live an opulent life, and then be buried alongside her in a mausoleum. But two of Helmsley's grand*****ren got nothing from the late luxury hotelier and real estate billionaire's estate.

Helmsley left her beloved white Maltese, named Trouble, a $12 million trust fund, according to her will, which was made public Tuesday in surrogate court.

She also left millions for her brother, Alvin Rosenthal, who was named to care for Trouble in her absence, as well as two of four grand*****ren from her late son Jay Panzirer -- so long as they visit their father's grave site once each calendar year.

Otherwise, she wrote, neither will get a penny of the $5 million she left for each.

Helmsley left nothing to two of Jay Panzirer's other *****ren -- Craig and Meegan Panzirer -- for "reasons that are known to them," she wrote.

But no one made out better than Trouble, who once appeared in ads for the Helmsley Hotels, and lived up to her name by biting a housekeeper.

"I direct that when my dog, Trouble, dies, her remains shall be buried next to my remains in the Helmsley mausoleum," Helmsley wrote in her will.

The mausoleum, she ordered, must be "washed or steam-cleaned at least once a year." She left behind $3 million for the upkeep of her final resting place in Westchester County, where she is buried with her husband, Harry Helmsley.

She also left her chauffeur, Nicholas Celea, $100,000.

She ordered that cash from sales of the Helmsley's residences and belongings, reported to be worth billions, be sold and that the money be given to the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Her longtime spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, had no comment.

Helmsley died earlier this month at her Connecticut home. She became known as a symbol of 1980s greed and earned the nickname "the Queen of Mean" after her 1988 indictment and subsequent conviction for tax evasion. One employee had quoted her as snarling, "Only the little people pay taxes."

BFofAKournikova

2007-08-29, 07:13 PM

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The eBay auction for 22 Michael Vick football cards, chewed up and slobbered on by two Missouri dogs, ended Wednesday as the winning bidder dished out $7,400 -- with the money expected to be donated to the Humane Society.

The success of that auction, with 31 different bidders, created a craze of 25 other postings this week offering torn up cards featuring the disgraced NFL superstar.

But so far, the original post from Rochelle Steffen, of Cape Girardeau, Mo., has been the only auction to attract droves of bidders.

Steffen gave Monte, her 6-year-old Weimaraner, and Roxie, her Great Dane puppy, every Vick card she owned to destroy. The result: The cards worth $1-to-$10 were crumpled, crimped, chewed, torn and generally in a sorry state. Some even had corners missing.

"When I started this, I only expected to get $100 for a local shelter," Steffen told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "But it's received so much attention. It's for such a good cause."

The gnawed cards were the most expensive Vick items on eBay, with well-preserved rookie cards, autographed jerseys and other collectibles selling for far less.

Vick pleaded guilty to a federal dogfighting charge this week. He will be sentenced Dec. 10.

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-02, 09:43 AM

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian police have detained a 45-year-old municipal worker for stealing a bridge.

The 5-meter span metal bridge disappeared from a river crossing in the Ryazan region, east of Moscow. Police said they tracked it down to the man, who had used his work truck to remove it and then chopped it up and sold it for scrap.

In a statement, Ryazan region police called it "the bulkiest theft of the year."

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-02, 09:45 AM

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Prince Johan Friso of the Netherlands and his wife Princess Mabel edited information about her past in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the royal family said Friday.

Friso, 38, the younger brother of heir to the throne Prince Willem-Alexander, gave up his place in the line of succession in 2004 when he married Mabel Wisse Smit without official consent because of a controversial relationship she had had with a Dutch drug baron.

A spokesman for the Dutch royal family, headed by Queen Beatrix, confirmed that the entry on Wikipedia describing Mabel's relationship with slain drug baron Klaas Bruinsma had been changed from a computer in one of the queen's palaces.

When Prince Johan Friso asked the Dutch parliament in 2003 for permission to marry Mabel, Dutch media published details of her relationship with Bruinsma, who was shot and killed in 1991 in front of the Amsterdam Hilton hotel.

As a result, the couple decided not to seek parliament's permission for their marriage, which resulted in Friso renouncing his right to the throne.

Mabel said she had known Bruinsma vaguely but later admitted spending several nights on his boat.

The edits were discovered by Dutch media using Wiki Scanner, an online tool that tracks changes to Wikipedia, where anyone can submit and edit entries.

According to Wiki Scanner, the entry saying Mabel provided "incomplete and false information" about Bruinsma was changed to just "incomplete information" in January 2006.

Friso and his wife are the latest in a long list of people, companies and institutions that have changed their entries in Wikipedia. It is usually considered bad taste to change one's own entry in the online encyclopedia.

Wiki Scanner has also revealed that changes to entries on the Iraq war and Guantanamo Bay prison have been made from CIA and FBI computers.

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-02, 09:49 AM

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man said Thursday he feared he may have built his own tomb after a vehicle ploughed into his house for the 10th time.

"If we stay, someone's eventually going to kill us. We're living in a time bomb," Manfred Sedlazek, 59, told Reuters.

Sedlazek is reluctant to leave the house he built himself, which is on a bend of a busy road, but said it may be his only chance of survival.

Earlier this week, a 40-tonne truck blasted through the side of the red-brick house in the village of Karlshoefen, in northern Germany. Sedlazek returned home from shopping to find the shattered vehicle sticking out of his living room.

Police estimated the damage at more than 100,000 euros ($136,100).

Nine previous smashes into the two-storey building Sedlazek shares with his wife have wrecked his kitchen, bedroom and garden, causing damage worth tens of thousands of euros.

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-02, 11:01 AM

Prank starts 25 years of security woes

NEW YORK - What began as a ninth-grade prank, a way to trick already-suspicious friends who had fallen for his earlier practical jokes, has earned Rich Skrenta notoriety as the first person ever to let loose a personal computer virus.

Although over the next 25 years, Skrenta started the online news business Topix, helped launch a collaborative Web directory now owned by Time Warner Inc.'s Netscape and wrote countless other computer programs, he is still remembered most for unleashing the "Elk Cloner" virus on the world.

"It was some dumb little practical joke," Skrenta, now 40, said in an interview. "I guess if you had to pick between being known for this and not being known for anything, I'd rather be known for this. But it's an odd placeholder for (all that) I've done."

"Elk Cloner" — self-replicating like all other viruses — bears little resemblance to the malicious programs of today. Yet in retrospect, it was a harbinger of all the security headaches that would only grow as more people got computers — and connected them with one another over the Internet.

Skrenta's friends were already distrusting him because, in swapping computer games and other software as part of piracy circles common at the time, Skrenta often altered the floppy disks he gave out to launch taunting on-screen messages. Many friends simply started refusing disks from him.

So during a winter break from the Mt. Lebanon Senior High School near Pittsburgh, Skrenta hacked away on his Apple II computer — the dominant personal computer then — and figured out how to get the code to launch those messages onto disks automatically.

He developed what is now known as a "boot sector" virus. When it boots, or starts up, an infected disk places a copy of the virus in the computer's memory. Whenever someone inserts a clean disk into the machine and types the command "catalog" for a list of files, a copy gets written onto that disk as well. The newly infected disk is passed on to other people, other machines and other locations.

The prank, though annoying to victims, is relatively harmless compared with the viruses of today. Every 50th time someone booted an infected disk, a poem he wrote would appear, saying in part, "It will get on all your disks; it will infiltrate your chips."

Skrenta started circulating the virus in early 1982 among friends at his school and at a local computer club. Years later, he would continue to hear stories of other victims, including a sailor during the first Gulf War nearly a decade later (Why that sailor was still using an Apple II, Skrenta does not know).

These days, there are hundreds of thousands of viruses — perhaps more than a million depending on how one counts slight variations.

The first virus to hit computers running Microsoft Corp.'s operating system came in 1986, when two brothers in Pakistan wrote a boot sector program now dubbed "Brain" — purportedly to punish people who spread pirated software. Although the virus didn't cause serious damage, it displayed the phone number of the brothers' computer shop for repairs.

With the growth of the Internet came a new way to spread viruses: e-mail.

"Melissa" (1999), "Love Bug" (2000) and "SoBig" (2003) were among a slew of fast-moving threats that snarled millions of computers worldwide by tricking people into clicking on e-mail attachments and launching a program that automatically sent copies to other victims.

Although some of the early viruses overwhelmed networks, later ones corrupted documents or had other destructive properties.

Compared with the early threats, "the underlying technology is very similar (but) the things viruses can do once they get hold of the computer has changed dramatically," said Richard Ford, a computer science professor at the Florida Institute of Technology.

Later viruses spread through instant-messaging and file-sharing software, while others circulated faster than ever by exploiting flaws in Windows networking functions.

More recently, viruses have been created to steal personal data such as passwords or to create relay stations for making junk e-mail more difficult to trace.

Suddenly, though, viruses weren't spreading as quickly. Virus writers now motivated by profit rather than notoriety are trying to stay low-key, lest their creations get detected and removed, along with their mechanism for income.

Many of the recent malicious programs technically aren't even viruses, because they don't self-replicate, but users can easily get infected by visiting a rogue Web site that takes advantage of any number of security vulnerabilities in computer software.

Although worldwide outbreaks aren't as common these days, "believe it or not there's exponentially more malware today than there ever was," said Dave Marcus, a research manager for McAfee Inc.'s Avert Labs. "We find 150 to 175 new pieces of malware every single day. Five years ago, it would have been maybe 100 new pieces a week."

Symantec Corp. formed the same year Skrenta unleashed "Elk Cloner," but it dabbled in non-security software before releasing an anti-virus product for Apple's Macintosh in 1989. Today, security-related hardware, software and services represent a $38 billion industry worldwide, a figure IDC projects will reach $67 billion in 2010.

Even as corporations and Internet service providers step up their defenses, though, virus writers look to emerging platforms, including mobile devices and Web-based services like social-networking sites.

"Malware writers can't assume you are on PCs or won't want to limit themselves to that," said Dave Cole, Symantec's director of security response.

That's not to say Skrenta should get the blame anytime someone gets spam sent through a virus-enabled relay or finds a computer slow to boot because of a lingering pest. After all, there no evidence virus writers who followed even knew of Skrenta or his craft.

Fred Cohen, a security expert who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation in 1986 on computer viruses, said the conditions were right, and with more and more homes getting computers, "it was all a matter of time before this happened."

In fact, a number of viruses preceded "Elk Cloner," although they were experimental or limited in scope. Many consider Skrenta's the first true virus because it spread in the wild on the dominant home computers of its day.

"You had other people even at the time saying, `We had this idea, we even coded it up, but we thought it was awful and we never released it,'" said Skrenta, who is now heading Blekko Inc., a month-old startup still working in stealth mode.

And where was his restraint?

Skrenta replied: "I was in the ninth grade."

workingcom

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-04, 03:02 PM

Rock stars more likely to die prematurely

like we already didn't know thishammersmas

LONDON (Reuters) - Rock stars -- notorious for their "crash and burn" lifestyles -- really are more likely than other people to die before reaching old age.

A study of more than 1,000 mainly British and North American artists, spanning the era from Elvis Presley to rapper Eminem, found they were two to three times more likely to suffer a premature death than the general population.

Between 1956 and 2005 there were 100 deaths among the 1,064 musicians examined by researchers at the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University.

As well as Presley, the toll of those dying before their time included Doors singer Jim Morrison, guitar hero Jimi Hendrix, T Rex star Marc Bolan and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain.

More than a quarter of all the deaths were related to drugs or alcohol abuse, said the study in the Journal of Epidemial Community Health.

"The paper clearly describes a population of rock and pop stars who are at a disproportionate risk of alcohol and drug related deaths," said Mark Bellis, lead author of the study.

He said the study raised questions about the suitability of using rock stars for public health messages such as anti-drug campaigns when their own lifestyle was so dangerous.

"In the music industry, factors such as stress, changes from popularity to obscurity, and exposure to environments where alcohol and drugs are easily available, can all contribute to substance use as well as other self-destructive behaviors," the report said.

FIRST FIVE YEARS RISK

It found that musicians were most at risk in the first five years after achieving fame, with death rates more than three times higher than normal.

Hendrix, Bon Scott of AC/DC and punk rocker Sid Vicious all died within five years of hitting the big time, said Bellis.

Among British artists the risk of dying remains high until around 25 years after their first success, when they return to near normal life expectancy.

That bodes well for rock survivors like The Who's 63-year-old Roger Daltrey, who famously first sang "I hope I die before I get old" in the song "My Generation" back in 1965.

But this trend was not found in North America, where ageing rockers remain almost twice as likely to suffer a premature demise, particularly from heart attack or stroke.

American stars Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys and Johnny Ramone of the Ramones all died in their 50s.

Bellis suggested that the high death rate among older American musicians could be related to the continent's greater appetite for reunion tours, exposing the artists for more years to an unhealthy "rock'n'roll" lifestyle.

It could also be due to the poor medical outlook for impoverished American ex-pop stars who have no health insurance, he said.

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-04, 06:34 PM

Australia marks 'crocodile hunter' Irwin's death

SYDNEY (AFP) - Australia marked the first anniversary of the death of environmentalist and television "crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin in a low-key manner with his family commemorating privately, reports said Tuesday.

But tributes flowed for the way his widow Terri and daughter Bindi, 9, have conducted themselves since Irwin was killed by a stingray barb that pierced his chest during filming on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

Bindi Irwin has become a media star in her own right since her father's death, promoting his causes, speaking at events to commemorate him and starring in her own television programs. The couple also had a three-year-old son, Bob.

"Behind the positive faces they have shown the world since that dreadful day, there can be no doubt there is still deep sorrow and lasting pain," Sydney's Daily Telegraph said in an editorial.

"So too for those who respected and admired Irwin for his boundless enthusiasm for life, his determination to make every second of it worthwhile.

"They will have their own thoughts to content themselves with, their own sadness."

Irwin, who was 44 when he died, became world-famous for his daring stunts with dangerous animals but he was also an environmentalist who put much of the money he made towards promoting related causes.

He also ran a zoo with is wife in northeastern Queensland state. The Australia Zoo continues to be open to visitors.

Irwin's death prompted a national outpouring of grief, with tributes flowing in from all sections of society, including Prime Minister John Howard, who described Irwin as a "wonderful and colourful son" of Australia.

A public celebration of Irwin's life is to be held on September 15.

Geo

2007-09-05, 06:55 PM

SYDNEY (AFP) - An agitated pet cat left in a cupboard overnight turned out to be high on cocaine and benzodiazepines left over from a wild weekend dinner party, a report said Saturday.

The eight-month-old Himalayan cat arrived at a veterinary clinic with dilated pupils and a racing heart, while the owner said it had trouble walking and was easily startled, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Vets Dominic Barfield and Richard Malik, who run a clinic in the Sydney suburb of Double Bay, were unable to take blood or use a thermometer to take the cat's temperature as it was pacing incessantly around its cage.

While the owner was adamant the cat had not been exposed to toxic plants, mouldy foods or drugs, when contacted by telephone the owner's wife admitted the cat could have licked "plates of cocaine" which had been served at a dinner party two days earlier.

A drug screen also revealed the cat had benzodiazepines in its system.

The "remorseful" owner, who was not identified, was counselled and allowed to take the pet home, but no legal action was taken as there is no legal requirement in Australia for vets to report such cases to police.

The case was reported in this month's edition of the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, the newspaper said, but did not specify when the incident happened, other than that it was on a Monday morning.

pimp pimp :wow: :wow: :wow:

I just hope Kesha and Rusya don't find Ivy's stash :eek: :eek: :eek:

Or it will be high flying cats over Moscow. angelfly angelfly angelfly angelfly

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-12, 01:38 PM

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/world/europe/10sitcom.html?ref=todayspaper

MOSCOW, Sept. 9 — Turn on the sitcom that is the hottest television show in Russia, and it all seems so familiar. Moored to his living room couch is a shoe salesman who is more interested in watching sports than conjugal relations. His wife has shocking hair and an even more shocking mouth. A couple of ne’er-do-well teenagers round out this bawdy, bickering bunch.

In fact, the show is an authorized copy of the American sitcom “Married With *****ren,” with a Russian cast and dialogue but scripts that hew closely to those of the original. This knockoff is such a sensation, especially among younger viewers, that its actors have become household names, and advertisements for its new season are plastered around Moscow.

A drumbeat of anti-Americanism may be coming from the Kremlin these days, but across Russia people are embracing that quintessentially American genre, the television sitcom, not to mention one of its brassiest examples. And curiously enough, it is the Russian government that has effectively brought “Married With *****ren” to this land, which somehow made it through the latter half of the 20th century without the benefit of the laugh track.

The show’s success says something not only about changing tastes here but also about Russia’s standing. Sitcoms are typically grounded in middle-class life and poke fun at it. The popularity of Russian versions of “Married With *****ren” and other adaptations of American sitcoms suggests that Russia has gained enough stability and wealth in recent years that these jokes resonate with viewers.

“ ‘Married With *****ren,’ with its satire on the American middle class, fits the style of our channel well,” said Dmitri Troitsky, a senior executive at the Russian channel TNT, a Gazprom-owned network whose programming bent is roughly similar to that of the Fox network in the United States. “It seemed interesting and topical for us to do a parody on the Russian middle class.”

These days, American visitors in Russia could be forgiven for thinking they had stumbled upon some bizarre realm of reruns. Adaptations of two other shows, “Who’s the Boss?” and “The Nanny,” are also popular here.

All three programs are distributed by Sony Pictures Television International, which has created versions of them and other American programs around the world, often in partnership with local producers. “The Nanny,” which was first broadcast here in 2004, was such a hit that after running out of episodes to copy, some of the show’s original American writers were commissioned to create 25 more episodes, said Ron Sato, a Sony spokesman.

“Married With *****ren,” which ran from 1987 to 1997 in the United States, has been renamed “Schastlivy Vmeste,” or “Happy Together.” Its setting has been moved from the Chicago area to Russia’s heartland metropolis of Yekaterinburg. The sniping couple, Al and Peg Bundy, have become Gena and Dasha Bukin.

The thrust is the same: sending up family life as outrageously — or as vulgarly, depending upon your point of view — as possible.

A typical bit: In the living room, Gena suddenly tells Dasha to take off her clothes. Dasha is elated that Gena finally wants to have sex, and then Gena says, “No, Dasha, I’m simply dying of hunger, and hope that that will take away my appetite.”

Natalya Bulgakova, a spokeswoman for TNT, said the show, which had its debut last year, is now the most popular scripted series among Russians ages 18 to 30. (Older Russians typically roll their eyes at mention of “Schastlivy Vmeste,” as if they briefly wonder whether life under Communism was not so bad after all.)

TNT is owned by Gazprom-Media, which is controlled by Gazprom, the Russian national resources behemoth that is controlled by the government. Asked about the show, Gazprom-Media said in a statement that it did not interfere in its stations’ programming decisions.

While even Americans who do not speak Russian could discern the American roots in “Schastlivy Vmeste,” it is fair to say that many Russian viewers might not. But even Russians who do would seem unlikely to be bothered by the show’s origins.

Russian television has come a long way from the staid, politically tinged fare of Communist times, and these days there are many channels offering a steady diet of movies, dramas, game shows, soap operas and reality shows — some locally produced, some imported and dubbed.

News programs, which are tightly overseen by President Vladimir V. Putin’s administration, are another story. As in Soviet days, they rarely divert from the Kremlin’s point of view. Barbed political satire, which thrived after the fall of the Soviet Union, has been suppressed.

Sitcoms were first broadcast in Russia in the 1990s, when the country was on the brink of economic collapse, but both original sitcoms and copies of American ones achieved poor ratings. People were struggling and seemingly not in the mood for breezy jokes about the lives of the comfortable. Unable to identify with the sitcoms’ characters, Russians instead flocked to dubbed Latin American soap operas.

Only recently, with the economic upturn, has the sitcom taken hold.

“This is probably the last television genre to be adopted in Russia,” said Elena Prokhorova, who studies Russian television and is a visiting professor at the College of William and Mary, in Virginia. They did not work before, she said, because “sitcoms require a very stable social life.”

The producers and actors of “Schastlivy Vmeste” said that while the Russian scripts followed the outlines of the American ones, they had made changes for a Russian audience, fashioning plots around Russian holidays and using sets that better resemble interiors in Russia. Viktor Loginov, who plays Gena Bukin, looks younger than Ed O’Neill, who played Al Bundy, in part because the show is geared toward younger audiences.

They also insisted that the humor was more Russian. “We try to capture the so-called Russian soul so that it will be accepted by our Russian audience, so the character becomes a guy from the street,” said Mr. Loginov, a classically trained actor.

Still, the feel of “Schastlivy Vmeste” seems far more American than Russian. Classic Russian humor tends more toward narrative satire than slapstick.

Though “Married With *****ren” was something of a shock when it first appeared in the United States, provoking advertiser boycotts, two decades later the Russian version has not stirred a similar reaction. Russian television critics note that, as in much of the world, television here has become home for a lot of relatively coarse fare.

Daniil B. Dondurei, editor in chief of Cinema Art magazine, said he saw a darker significance in the success of shows like “Schastlivy Vmeste.”

“Today, people are becoming accustomed to not thinking about life,” he said. “The television is training them to not think about which party is in Parliament, about which laws are being passed, about who will be in charge tomorrow. People have become accustomed to living like *****ren, in the family of a very strong and powerful father. Everything is decided for them.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/world/europe/10sitcom.html?ref=todayspaper

btw there is a cooly video clip from the show on the link above

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-12, 06:09 PM

Bukins meet the Bundys :wow:

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-12, 07:39 PM

LONDON (AFP) - A British couple have shacked up in a budget roadside motel for more than 20 years because they love never having to do the laundry or cooking, they said Tuesday.

David Davidson, 79, and his wife, Jean, 70, first tried out a Travelodge hotel while visiting a sick aunt in 1985 -- and were instantly hooked.

Their room -- near Grantham, east central England off the A1 trunk road from London to Edinburgh -- overlooks a car park, but is also within sight of a slip road that trucks rumble down day and night, jazzing up the view.

"We get great rates because we book well in advance and we even have our own personal housekeeper. All our bed linen is laundered, too. It doesn't get much better than that, does it?" said former Royal Navy sailor David Davidson.

The couple have spent around 100,000 pounds (200,000 dollars, 150,000 euros) renting rooms which cost them as little as 15 pounds (30 dollars, 22 euros) a night.

The motel is renaming their room The Davidsons' Suite and mounting a plaque in the reception to mark their 10-year anniversary.

The couple, who initially lived in a Travelodge in nearby Newark before moving in 1997, have kept their old flat in Sheffield, northern England, and return every fortnight to collect the post.

The Davidsons exchange Christmas presents with the staff, dine out at a roadside eaterie across the car park and watch the traffic go by.

"There is always something outside our window. Our room looks out to the car park and a busy slip road where lorries pass through the night," David Davidson said.

"We do have to be a bit choosy about what we keep in our room as it can fill up easily."

His wife added: "We don't get hit with huge heating bills over the winter and its safer than a lot of places these days."

The couple do go for trips abroad -- but stay in a Travelodge.

"Some will think David and Jean Davidson bonkers to have spent the last 22 years living in a hotel," said the Daily Express in its editorial.

But their room rates are "not more than many people's mortgage payments, the housework is done for them and they do not pay utility bills. What's not to like?"

CanadianExpress

2007-09-13, 04:40 PM

Wed Sep 12, 9:43 PM

MANNING, S.C. (AP) - A woman in South Carolina who went to court to pay a traffic ticket drove there in a stolen car and ended up behind bars.

Chief Deputy Joe Bradham says police received a tip that Amber Helton was going to be in a stolen car when she paid the ticket. They arrested her as she opened the door of the 2001 Dodge Intrepid on Tuesday morning.

Helton and a male passenger were charged with possessing a stolen vehicle.

Helton was being held at the Clarendon jail today in lieu of US$5,000 bail.

Authorities said that the vehicle had been reported stolen Aug. 28 in Tennessee.

Bradham said Helton had been in court less than a week before and was acquitted of possessing a stolen tag but convicted of driving without a license.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070912/koddities/oddity_stolen_car

CanadianExpress

2007-09-13, 04:49 PM

Official prototype of kilogram mysteriously losing weight
Wed Sep 12, 11:48 AM
By Jamey Keaten

PARIS (AP) - A kilogram just isn't what it used to be.

A 118-year-old cylinder that has been the international prototype for the metric mass, and kept tightly under lock and key outside Paris, is mysteriously losing its weight - if ever so slightly.

Physicist Richard Davis of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sevres, southwest of Paris, says the reference kilo appears to have lost 50 micrograms compared with the average of dozens of copies.

"The mystery is that they were all made of the same material, and many were made at the same time and kept under the same conditions, and yet the masses among them are slowly drifting apart," he said.

"We don't really have a good hypothesis for it," Davis said in a phone interview Wednesday.

But only the one in Sevres really counts. It is kept in a triple-locked safe at a chateau and only rarely sees the light of day - mostly for comparison with other cylinders shipped in periodically from around the world.

"It's not clear whether the original has become lighter, or the national prototypes have become heavier," said Michael Borys, a senior researcher with Germany's national measures institute in Braunschweig. "But by definition, only the original represents exactly a kilogram."

The kilogram's inconstancy illustrates how technological progress is leaving science's most basic measurements in its dust. The cylinder was high-tech for its day in 1889 when cast from a platinum and iridium alloy, measuring 3.9 centimetres in diameter and height.

At a November meeting of scientists in Paris, an advisory panel on measurements will present possible steps toward basing the kilogram and other measures - like Kelvin for temperature, and the mole for amount - on more precise calculations. Ultimately, policy-makers from around the world would have to agree to any change.

Even countries that don't use the metric system could be affected by the kilogram's uncertainty: the kilogram is also the ultimate weight standard for the U.S. customary system, where it equals 2.2 pounds.

But don't expect the questions about the kilo to lead to public campaigns to lower the price of bread, or cause wary waistline-watchers to re-examine their weights: 50 micrograms is roughly equivalent to the weight of a fingerprint.

"For the lay person, it won't mean anything," said Davis. "The kilogram will stay the kilogram, and the weights you have in a weight set will all still be correct."

But for scientists who rely on the official kilogram for minute measurements every day, the inconstant metric constant is a nuisance - threatening calculation of things like electricity generation.

"They depend on a mass measurement and it's inconvenient for them to have a definition of the kilogram which is based on some artifact," said Davis, who is American.

Many measurements have undergone makeovers over the years.

The metre was once defined as roughly the distance between scratches on a bar, a far cry from today's high-tech standard involving the distance that light travels in a vacuum.

One of the leading alternatives considered for a 21st-century kilogram is a sphere made out of a Silicon-28 isotope crystal, which would involve a single type of atom and have a fixed mass.

"We could obviously use a better definition," Davis said.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070912/koddities/shrinking_kilogram

CanadianExpress

2007-09-13, 04:55 PM

Wed Sep 12, 2:13 PM

By Colleen Barry

MILAN, Italy (AP) - Be it fettuccine, linguine or spaghetti, Italians will soon be paying up to 20 per cent more for their pasta.

Consumer groups are calling for a one-day pasta strike Thursday - not against eating it, but against buying it - to protest the increase. But producers say the strike targeting Italy's national dish is wrongheaded because the price is linked to a global rise in the cost of grains.

Pasta is an Italian staple, entwined with the national identity. It's not uncommon for families to discuss which format of pasta best fits that day's sauce - tubular penne, twisty rigatoni or flat linguine. The average Italian eats 28 kilograms of pasta a year, on a peninsula so far untouched by low-carb diet crazes.

"There is no dish that costs less," said Furio Bragagnolo, the vice-president of the Italian pasta manufacturers association. "Whoever decides to strike against pasta will spend more on whatever they buy instead. A plate of pasta probably costs less than an apple."

The increase in the price of pasta is being driven by rising wheat prices worldwide, economists and producers say. The demand for wheat is the result of several trends, chiefly an increasing demand for biofuels, which can be made from wheat, and improved diets in emerging countries where putting more meat on the table is raising the demand for feed for livestock, said Francesco Bertolini, an economist at Milan's Bocconi University.

As a result, wheat stocks worldwide are being depleted and grain prices are soaring. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that U.S. stockpiles are at their lowest level in 33 years.

Italy produces only about half of the high-protein durum wheat used to make high-quality pasta and bread; the rest is imported from overseas markets including the United States, Canada and Ukraine.

On the Bologna market, for example, the cost of a kilogram of durum flour has risen in just the last two months from US$0.36 a kilo to US$0.62, Bragagnolo said. And durum flour constitutes 70 per cent of the cost of producing pasta.

Similarly, the December wheat contract, the largest futures contract, closed just shy of US$9 a bushel Tuesday on the Chicago Board of Trade, up from about US$5 a bushel roughly four months ago.

In the Italian supermarket, that will translate by the end of the year into an increase of US$0.16-US$0.19 on a half-kilo package, which now typically runs from US$0.83 to US$1.25, Bragagnolo said.

Even at higher prices, Bragagnolo said price of a portion of pasta - 100 grams, excluding sauce, of course - will about US$0.23-US$0.24.

While consumer groups raised the alarm about the price increase, few shoppers in supermarkets were taking notice.

"I'm not so bothered because it's not such a drastic increase, and anyway it involves a type of food that continues to have a low price," said Gabriele D'Angelo, a police officer shopping in central Rome on Wednesday.

Those who are mostly likely to be concerned, producers say, are those on a fixed income, such as 70-year-old Francesca Sanfelice. "The price increase will affect how I shop. Already, I'm buying less bread, which is helping me lose weight," Sanfelice laughed.

Such worldwide producers as De Cecco - which sells pasta in more than 80 countries - expect little fluctuation in their market overall as a result of the price increases and even less impact from the strike - noting that consumers tend to buy their pasta two to three kilos at a time.

"It's a symbolic strike, which will have no impact," said De Cecco's commercial director Luciano Berardi. "To say not to eat pasta would be a call to arms. It's the least expensive dish there is."

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/070912/koddities/italy_pasta_strike

CanadianExpress

2007-09-13, 05:15 PM

Tue Sep 11, 2:09 PM

THE HAGUE (AFP) - A new proposal from the mayor of Amsterdam is sure to be considered a bummer by certain visitors to the Dutch city: a three-day waiting period to buy hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Mayor Job Cohen wants to require the wait period to allow mushroom buyers to fully understand exactly what it is they are purchasing, ANP news agency reported Tuesday.

The proposal seeks to prevent impulse purchases and follows several incidents that have occurred in the city involving tourists who have eaten hallucinogenic mushrooms.

In March, a 17-year-old French girl killed herself by jumping from a bridge in the city after having eaten mushrooms.

Under the proposal, potential mushroom buyers would have to show identity papers when visiting one of the "smart shops" where they are sold in the famously tolerant city.

They would then be given a card with the date listed on it, as well as fliers with information on the mushrooms.

Three days later, the mushrooms could be collected.

The mayor detailed the proposal in a letter to Dutch Health Minister Ab Klink, ANP said.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/070911/oddities/netherlands_drugs_laws

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-14, 07:54 PM

Six decades after Israel was founded to ensure that Jews would never suffer another Holocaust, the Jewish state has smashed its first cell of neo-Nazis. The idea was so unthinkable that the country has no law against neo-Nazi activity.

Eight Russian immigrants, aged 16 to 21, were remanded in custody in the Ramleh magistrates' court, near Tel Aviv, early yesterday.

They covered their faces with their shirts, baring arms tattooed with neo-Nazi insignia and slogans, and protested their innocence. A ninth suspect has fled the country. They are to be charged with causing bodily harm, illegally possessing weapons and denying the Holocaust.

Superintendent Revital Almog, who headed the investigation, said: "The level of violence was outrageous."

One of the young men was Jewish. The rest were admitted under Israeli legislation, which grants citizenship to anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent and entry permits to the families of gentiles married to Jews.

About one million immigrants, many with tenuous ties to Judaism, moved to Israel in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The cell's alleged leader was named as Eli Buanitov.

Detectives said they found an email message on his computer saying: "I won't have kids. My grandfather is half Yid, so that this piece of trash won't have ancestors with even the smallest per cent of Jewish blood."

In another file, he was quoted as writing: "I will never give up. I was a Nazi and will remain a Nazi. I won't rest until we kill them all."

Undercover police began tracking the cell after two synagogues in the Tel Aviv satellite town of Petah Tikva were desecrated and yeshiva students were beaten. Internal and external walls were spray-painted with swastikas, as well as "Heil Hitler" and "Death to the Jews" graffiti.

The religious community in the town has complained of a reign of terror. "There are people here who simply hate Jews," said Nahum Taub, a synagogue sexton. Rabbi Yigal Rosen, who heads a yeshiva, reported that three of his students were ambushed as they walked through a local park. The assailants beat them, called them names and held a knife to the neck of one student before stealing their mobile phones.

Inspector Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said the suspects had filmed themselves beating 15 ultra-Orthodox Jews, foreign workers, homosexuals, homeless people, drunks and drug addicts. In one particularly brutal assault, the whole group set on a Thai worker in a bus station. He had to be treated in hospital.

Detectives who raided their homes found the films and a photograph of one of the group brandishing an M-16 assault rifle. They also confiscated knives, an improvised pistol, TNT, wires and detonators.

Some of the footage was shown at yesterday's Cabinet meeting. Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, said: "We saw the appalling documentation of violence for its own sake. We as a society have failed in educating these youths and distancing them from crazy and dangerous ideologies."

Rosenfeld said the eight had neo-Nazi tattoos on their arms. They would meet every few days and decide who and where to attack next. Searches of their computers and video cassettes revealed links to racist groups in Germany and the United States.

The case has shocked Israelis and prompted calls for the Government to reconsider its immigration policy and to outlaw neo-Nazi and other hate crimes.

Efraim Zuroff, who is still hunting Nazi war criminals for the Simon Weisenthal Centre, said: "The writing was on the wall. This is what happens when you have laws that allow immediate citizenship to people with little connection to Jewish history, the Jewish people, the Jewish religion and Jewish culture."

Avner Shalev, the chairman of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial authority, said: "Neo-Nazi activity, wherever it appears, must be treated with the utmost seriousness and the perpetrators prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

crazy crazy world:crazy

Max

2007-09-15, 01:33 PM

Robber licked then got nicked

A robber in Minnesota was not happy with just stealing a mobile phone and keys from his victim - he also made her take her shoes off so he could lick her toes.

The 24-year-old woman was stopped as she left work in the early hours by the man and was forced to remove her shoes in what police Commander Kevin Casper classed as “weird sexual behaviour”.

Police arrested the man a few minutes later about four blocks away, and the keys and phone were returned to the victim.

Crazy :D

Max

2007-09-16, 04:32 AM

Rally driver feared dead in crash

Former world rally champion Colin McRae is believed to have been killed along with three others in a helicopter crash near his home in Lanarkshire.
The helicopter, which police believe was owned by Mr McRae, 39, came down at 1610 BST in Jerviswood, about a mile from Lanark, and caught fire.

Strathclyde Police said Colin McRae, a keen pilot, is thought to have been on board with three others.

However formal identification of those killed still has to be carried out.

Strathclyde Police said the damage to the Squirrel aircraft was so bad it was initially unclear how many people had died.

A police statement said: "Around 1610 BST on Saturday, 15 September 2007, emergency services were called to a helicopter crash in Jerviswood, east of the A73 at Lanark.

"There are no survivors."

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has been informed and will carry out a full inquiry.

Police have been conducting a full scene examination and area search.

The Scottish Ambulance Service confirmed that its own helicopter had been despatched to the scene along with three ambulance crews and the Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service was in attendance.

An RAF helicopter was also put on stand-by to assist.

A spokesman for the British Airports Authority said the helicopter did not come from Glasgow or Edinburgh Airports, but its flight path is still unknown.

Colin McRae won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in 1995 driving a Subaru, becoming the first Briton to win the title.

He also was runner-up in 1996, 1997 and 2001.

He is married to Alison and has two *****ren, Hollie and Johnny.

In August of last year, McRae and co-driver Nicky Grist competed for Subaru in the first live televised American rally in Los Angeles and finished second despite rolling his car

mteagle

2007-09-16, 11:19 PM

88 tourist die in plane crash in tialand !!! wrere the girls lucky this spring or what !!!

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-25, 05:54 PM

BERLIN (Reuters) - Staff at a German butcher's shop were shocked to discover a customer had hidden two sex toys in their sausages for transport to Dubai, police said Wednesday.

"It was two latex dildos with a natural look," said a spokesman for police in the southwestern city of Mannheim.

After shopping there earlier in the day, the man, who spoke broken English, returned to the butcher's with two large "Schwartenmagen" sausages. He asked a shop assistant to wrap and cool them until he departed for Dubai the next day.

But the assistant noticed the goods had got heavier and alerted police. Officers discovered the man, who was about 50, had removed some of the meat and packed the dildos inside.

"He could have used a loaf of bread," the spokesman said. "It's not against the law here. But obviously I can't speculate on what customs in Dubai will have to say about it."

hammersmas

Andy

2007-09-27, 08:59 PM

Russian mother has 'giant' baby

A Russian woman has given birth to a baby weighing 7.75kg (17.5lbs), more than twice the average newborn weight.
The "little" girl, Nadia, was delivered by Caesarean section at a hospital in the Altai region of Siberia, joining eight sisters and three brothers.

"We were all simply in shock," reports quoted Nadia's mother, Tatyana Barabanova, 43, as saying.

"What did the father say? He couldn't say a thing - he just stood there blinking," she said.

Record weights

All her previous babies had weighed more than 5kg (11lb), a local reporter was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying.

"I ate everything, we don't have the money for special foods so I just ate potatoes, noodles and tomatoes," added Mrs Barabanova, who had the ***** on 17 September.

In January 2005, a woman in Brazil gave birth to a baby weighing 17lb (7.73kg), the heaviest boy yet born in Brazil, according to the Brazilian Gynaecological Association.

Among the heaviest babies recorded are a 10.2kg (22.5lb) boy born in Italy in 1955, and a 10.8kg (23.8lb) boy born in the US in 1879 but who died 11 hours later.

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-30, 09:33 PM

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph.

But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age.

And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket, according to Boris Chertok, one of the founders of the Soviet space program.

In a series of interviews in recent days with The Associated Press, Chertok and other veterans told the little-known story of how Sputnik was launched, and what an unlikely achievement it turned out to be.

Chertok couldn't whisper a word about the project through much of his lifetime. His name, and that of Sergei Korolyov, the chief scientist, were a state secret. Today, at age 95 and talking to a small group of reporters in Moscow, Chertok can finally give full voice to his pride at the pivotal role he played in the history of space exploration.

"Each of these first rockets was like a beloved woman for us," he said. "We were in love with every rocket, we desperately wanted it to blast off successfully. We would give our hearts and souls to see it flying."

This very rational exuberance, and Korolyov's determination, were the key to Sputnik's success.

So was happenstance.

As described by the former scientists, the world's first orbiter was born out of a very different Soviet program: the frantic development of a rocket capable of striking the United States with a hydrogen bomb.

Because there was no telling how heavy the warhead would be, its R-7 ballistic missile was built with thrust to spare — "much more powerful than anything the Americans had," Georgy Grechko, a rocket engineer and cosmonaut, told AP.

The towering R-7's high thrust and payload capacity, unmatched at the time, just happened to make it the perfect vehicle to launch an object into orbit — something never done before.

Without the looming nuclear threat, Russian scientists say, Sputnik would probably have gotten off the ground much later.

"The key reason behind the emergence of Sputnik was the Cold War atmosphere and our race against the Americans," Chertok said. "The military missile was the main thing we were thinking of at the moment."

When the warhead project hit a snag, Korolyov, the father of the Soviet space program, seized the opportunity.

Korolyov, both visionary scientist and iron-willed manager, pressed the Kremlin to let him launch a satellite. The U.S. was already planning such a move in 1958, he pointed out, as part of the International Geophysical Year.

But while the government gave approval in January 1956, the military brass wanted to keep the missile for the bomb program, Grechko, 76, said in an interview. "They treated the satellite as a toy, a silly fantasy of Korolyov."

The U.S. had its own satellite program, Grechko said. "The Americans proudly called their project 'Vanguard,' but found themselves behind us."

The Soviet Union already had a full-fledged scientific satellite in development, but it would take too long to complete, Korolyov knew. So he ordered his team to quickly sketch a primitive orbiter. It was called PS-1, for "Prosteishiy Sputnik" — the Simplest Satellite.

Grechko, who calculated the trajectory for the first satellite's launch, said he and other young engineers tried to persuade Korolyov to pack Sputnik with some scientific instruments. Korolyov refused, saying there was no time.

"If Korolyov had listened to us and started putting more equipment on board, the Americans could have opened the space era," Grechko said.

The satellite, weighing just 184 pounds, was built in less than three months. Soviet designers built a pressurized sphere of polished aluminum alloy with two radio transmitters and four antennas. An earlier satellite project envisaged a cone shape, but Korolyov preferred the sphere.

"The Earth is a sphere, and its first satellite also must have a spherical shape," Chertok, a longtime deputy of Korolyov, recalled him saying.

Sputnik's surface was polished to perfection to better deflect the sun's rays and avoid overheating.

The launch was first scheduled for Oct. 6. But Korolyov suspected that the U.S. might be planning a launch a day earlier. The KGB was asked to check, and reported turning up nothing.

Korolyov was taking no chances. He immediately canceled some last-minute tests and moved up the launch by two days, to Oct. 4, 1957.

"Better than anyone else Korolyov understood how important it was to open the space era," Grechko said. "The Earth had just one moon for a billion years and suddenly it would have another, artificial moon!"

Soon after blastoff from the arid steppes of the Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan, the satellite sent out what would be the world's most famous beep. But the engineers on the ground didn't immediately grasp its importance.

"At that moment we couldn't fully understand what we had done," Chertok recalled. "We felt ecstatic about it only later, when the entire world ran amok. Only four or five days later did we realize that it was a turning point in the history of civilization."

Immediately after the launch, Korolyov called Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to report the success. Khrushchev's son, Sergei, who was alongside his father at the moment, recalled that they listened to the satellite's beep-beep and went to bed.

Sergei Khrushchev said that at first they saw the Sputnik's launch as simply one in a series of Soviet technological achievements, like a new passenger jet or the first atomic power plant.

"All of us — Korolyov's men, people in the government, Khrushchev and myself — saw that as just yet another accomplishment showing that the Soviet economy and science were on the right track," the younger Khrushchev, now a senior fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, said in a telephone interview.

The first official Soviet report of Sputnik's launch was brief and buried deep in Pravda, the Communist Party daily. Only two days later did it offer a banner headline, quoting the avalanche of foreign praise.

Pravda also published a description of Sputnik's orbit to help people watch it pass. The article failed to mention that the light seen moving across the sky was the spent booster rocket's second stage, which was in roughly same orbit, Chertok said.

The tiny orbiter was invisible to the naked eye.

Excited by the global furor, Khrushchev ordered Korolyov immediately to launch a new satellite, this time, to mark the Nov. 7 anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

"We didn't believe that you would outpace the Americans with your satellite, but you did it. Now you should launch something new by Nov. 7," Korolyov quoted Khrushchev telling him, according to Grechko.

Working round-the-clock, Korolyov and his team built another spacecraft in less than a month. On Nov. 3, they launched Sputnik 2, which weighed 1,118 pounds. It carried the world's first living payload, a mongrel dog named Laika, in its tiny pressurized cabin.

The dog died of the heat after a week, drawing protests from animal-lovers. But the flight proved that a living being could survive in space, paving the way for human flight.

The first Sputnik beeped for three weeks and spent about three months in orbit before burning up in the atmosphere. It circled Earth more than 1,400 times, at just under 100 minutes an orbit.

For Korolyov there was bitterness as well as triumph. He was never mentioned in any contemporary accounts of the launch, and his key role was known to only a few officials and space designers.

Leonid Sedov, a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences with no connection to space program, was erroneously touted in the West as the Father of Sputnik. Korolyov, meanwhile, was only allowed to publish his non-sensitive research under the pseudonym "Professor K. Sergeyev."

Khrushchev rejected the Nobel committee's offer to nominate Korolyov for a prize, insisting that it was the achievement of "the entire Soviet people."

Sergei Khrushchev said his father thought singling out Korolyov would anger other rocket designers and hamper the missile and space programs.

"These people were like actors; they would all have been madly jealous at Korolyov," he said. "I think my father's decision was psychologically correct. But, of course, Sergei Korolyov felt deeply hurt."

Korolyov's daughter, Natalia, recalled in a book that the veil of secrecy vexed her father. "We are like miners — we work underground," she recalls him saying. "No one sees or hears us."

The Soviet Union and the rest of the world learned Korolyov's name only after his death in 1966. Today his Moscow home, where Chertok met reporters, is a museum in the chief scientist's honor.

Chertok was permitted to travel abroad only in the late 1980s, after Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev liberalized the Soviet Union.

The surviving leaders of the space program are no longer anonymous or silent, and revel in the accolades so long denied them.

"The rivalry in space, even though it had military reasons, has pushed the mankind forward," said Valery Korzun, a cosmonaut who serves as a deputy chief of the Star City cosmonaut training center. "Our achievements today are rooted in that competition."

BFofAKournikova

2007-09-30, 09:35 PM

In the end, it was the Americans who won the race to the moon, nearly 22 years later. Khrushchev wasn't interested in getting there, his son says, and the effort made under his successor, Leonid Brezhnev, was underfunded and badly hampered by rifts between Korolyov and other designers.

"We wouldn't have been the first on the moon anyway," Grechko said. "We lost the race because our electronics industry was inferior."

Today, even as Sputnik recedes into the history books, its memory still exercises a powerful grip. In August, when a Russian flag was planted on the sea bed at the North Pole, the Kremlin compared it to Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon — an indication, perhaps, of how much Russians still treasure that first victory in space.

In this image made available by Ria Novosti, Jan. 11, 2007, Yuri Gagarin, left, the first human in space, and Soviet space designer Sergei Korolyov are seen in Moscow on Sept. 15, 1961. Korolyov's work and even his name were Soviet secrets until after his death in 1966. Yet a century after his birth, on Jan. 12, 1907, he is revered as a visionary who started the space age, the man who led the team that put the world's first satellite into orbit in 1957 and sent the first human into space.

BFofAKournikova

2007-10-08, 06:01 PM

this pic thread not as important, but bump

BFofAKournikova

2007-10-15, 01:02 PM

Fisherman lands record 844-pound shark

DESTIN, Fla. - Six friends went to a fishing tournament looking to catch some grouper. They caught an 844-pound shark instead.

The fight by Adlee Bruner and friends to pull the 11-foot mako shark onto the boat from the Gulf of Mexico took more than an hour on Saturday. But when they made it back to land, it was a record for the decades-old Destin Fishing Rodeo.

"It was tense," Bruner, 47, said about the fight to land the shark, which has a mouthful of huge, fearsome teeth. "I've fished for 40 years. I've never see one that big."

Bruner and his fishing buddies were on a 52-foot charter boat with Capt. Robert Hill, about 70 miles southwest of this beach city in the Florida Panhandle.

The fishermen first noticed the big mako because it kept eating grouper and scamp they had hooked.

"It was like 'Jaws,'" Hill said.

Hill hooked a two-foot amberine on as bait and tossed it out. The shark eventually hit it.

After the long fight, the shark was gaffed and eventually gave up after its tail was roped. But even then, the men could not get the big shark in the boat. They tied it to the stern with three ropes and made the four-hour trip back to land.

The shark was hoisted at the rodeo before a big crowd. It tipped the scale at 844.4 pounds.

After it was gutted, the mako still weighed 638 pounds, breaking the tournament's previous shark division record by 338 pounds.

thunderfoot256

2007-10-15, 01:22 PM

YOU'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BOAT!!!!!
:D

BFofAKournikova

2007-10-16, 10:02 PM

State police in Indiana, Pa., are investigating after a Pepsi employee allegedly assaulted a Coca-Cola employee while making a delivery at a Wal-Mart in White Township on Oct. 1.

According to police, Robert Koscho, 48, of Ebensburg, and the Pepsi employee, David Paulina, 42, of Clymer, were bickering back and forth while making their deliveries at the Oakland Avenue store. Police said the two are also accused of trying to run each other over with pallets full of soda bottles.

As Koscho left the store, police said, Paulina called him over and punched him three times in the face, breaking Koscho's nose and giving him a black eye.

"As the victim left the store, the suspect came over and got into a physical confrontation with him and struck him a few times," said Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Jeanne Martin. "He hit him in the face, gave him a black eye and broke his nose."

A Coca-Cola representative told WTAE Channel 4 Action News that the fight started over shelf space in the aisles of the store.

Shelf position is very important for product sales, and the competition for prime space can be fierce, according to Gary Baum, who owns Cook's Market in Greensburg.

"Most places have to pay premium prices for each linear foot of shelf space, especially when you get to the frozen food, beverages, cigarette companies," Baum said.

Pepsi said they have fired Paulina over the incident, saying they don't tolerate violence in the workplace.

At this time, police continue to investigate the incident.

Geode

2007-10-16, 10:18 PM

Pepsi, Coke rivalry becomes physical

I'll take a Dr Pepper and let the other two fight it out!

BFofAKournikova

2007-11-13, 08:17 PM

Hilton tries to help drunken elephants

GAUHATI, India - With Rwanda off her charity calendar, Paris Hilton has turned her attention to the plight of ... drunken elephants in India.

"The elephants get drunk all the time. It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them," the 26-year-old socialite was quoted as saying by the World Entertainment News Network's Web site.

In the wake of her jail term for an alcohol-related reckless driving case, Hilton is seeking to remake her image from club-hopping party girl to world-traveling do-gooder. She announced plans to do charity work in Rwanda, but the trip was postponed until next year.

Then opportunity for Hilton's "global elephant campaign" knocked last month when six parched pachyderms broke into a farm in the state of Meghalaya and guzzled farmers' homemade rice beer. The elephants went on a rampage, then uprooted an electricity pole and were jolted to death.

"There would have been more casualties if the villagers hadn't chased them away. And four elephants died in a similar way three years ago. It is just so sad," Hilton was quoted as saying in last week in Tokyo, where she was judging a beauty contest.

Sangeeta Goswami, head of animal rights group People for Animals, told The Associated Press: "I am indeed happy Hilton has taken note of recent incidents of wild elephants in northeast India going berserk."

"As part of her global elephant campaign, Hilton should, in fact, think of visiting this region literally infested with elephants," Goswami said.

Hilton's publicist couldn't immediately be reached Tuesday to verify her comments. Another conservationist said elephant alcohol abuse was just a symptom of the real problem. (No, he wasn't talking about celebrities.)

"Elephants appear on human settlements ... because they have no habitat left due to wanton destruction of forests," said Soumyadeep Dutta, who heads Nature's Beckon, a leading regional conservation group. "A celebrity like Hilton must focus her attention on this fact."

Andy

2007-11-13, 09:47 PM

A US man has injured himself in both legs after attempting to loosen a stiff wheel-nut by blasting it with his gun.
The 66-year-old man from Washington state was repairing his car outside his home when the accident took place.

Shooting at the wheel from arm's length with his 12-gauge shotgun, he was peppered with buckshot and debris.

The man - who police say was on his own and not intoxicated - was taken to hospital with severe, but not life-threatening, injuries.

The man, from South Kitsap, 10 miles (16km) southwest of Seattle, had been repairing his Lincoln Continental for two weeks, according to the police, and had removed all but one of the nuts on the right rear wheel.

Frustrated by the one remaining nut which refused to budge, he resorted to fire power in an effort to shift it.

"He's bound and determined to get that lug nut off," said Deputy Scott Wilson, a spokesman from the sheriff's office.

He sustained injuries from his feet to the middle of his abdomen, with some pellets reaching as high as his chin, police said.

Geode

2007-11-13, 10:23 PM

Nov 11, 11:06 PM (ET)

ATLANTA (AP) - A 20-year-old man was arrested for allegedly selling hallucinogenic mushrooms hidden inside chocolate bunnies and ducks and other drugs, authorities said.

Rockdale County sheriff's deputies arrested a the man after a deputy spotted him allegedly selling a sheet of LSD and a chocolate duck containing psilocybin mushrooms for $650, Sgt. Jodi Shupe said Saturday.

"It appears they were using the chocolate to cover up they were selling drugs, and they had been doing it for a while," Shupe said.

Drug officers found 74 chocolate ducks and bunnies containing mushrooms in a cooler bag in the man's truck, along with $1,200 in cash in his pants pockets, Shupe said.

Geode

2007-11-13, 10:32 PM

Fri Nov 9, 8:21 AM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A tale of online love inspired usually cynical New Yorkers this week to help a young man find the girl of his dreams after he spotted her on a crowded subway train.

For Web designer Patrick Moberg, 21, from Brooklyn, it was love at first sight when he locked eyes with a rosy-cheeked woman while riding in Manhattan on Sunday night. She was writing in her journal.

The train was so full that he lost her in the crowd when they both got off, so he set up a Web site dedicated to finding the mystery woman -- www.nygirlofmydreams.com.

He drew a picture of the girl, who was wearing blue shorts, blue tights, and a red flower in her hair, and posted his cell phone number, e-mail address and an appeal for help finding her.

It worked.

Within hours Moberg's inbox was overflowing with e-mails and his phone ringing non-stop. He told the New York Post that he even received e-mails offering him love. "Some people said I'm not the girl but you're so adorable, pick me instead."

Tuesday night a friend of the woman contacted him and sent him a picture so he could confirm her identity. "Found Her! Seriously!" a notice on his Web site said.

"We've been put in touch with one another and we'll see what happens."

The mysterious subway brunette was named Thursday as Camille Hayton, an intern at magazine BlackBook from Melbourne, Australia, who also lives in Brooklyn.

"This is crazy. I can't believe it's happening," Hayton, 22, told the New York Post.

But Moberg said he is now pulling the shutters on his love life, scribbling out the cell phone number on his Web site and leaving a message on his phone saying he will do no more interviews.

"In our best interest, there will be no more updates to this website," he wrote.

"Unlike all the romantic comedies and bad pop songs, you'll have to make up your own ending for this."

Some New Yorkers may already, wondering if Moberg had made it sound too easy to find a needle in a haystack in this city of eight million people.

BFofAKournikova

2007-12-04, 10:57 PM

ROME - Tweety may get a chance to take the witness stand and sing like a canary. An Italian court ordered the animated bird, along with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and his girlfriend Daisy, to testify in a counterfeiting case.

In what lawyers believe was a clerical error worthy of a Looney Tunes cartoon, a court in Naples sent a summons to the characters ordering them to appear Friday in a trial in the southern Italian city, officials said.

The court summons cites Titti, Paperino, Paperina, Topolino — the Italian names for the characters — as damaged parties in the criminal trial of a Chinese man accused of counterfeiting products of Disney and Warner Bros.

Instead of naming only the companies and their legal representatives, clerks also wrote in the witness list the names of the cartoons that decorated the toys and gadgets the man had reproduced, said Fiorenza Sorotto, vice president of Disney Company Italia.

"Unfortunately they cannot show up, as they are residents of Disneyland," Sorotto joked in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It certainly pleased us that the characters were considered real, because that's what we try to do."

The Naples court will have to rewrite the summons, although this will probably delay the trial, said Disney lawyer Cristina Ravelli.

"Let's hope the characters will not be prosecuted for failing to appear," Ravelli quipped.

Calls seeking comment from Warner Bros. in Milan were not immediately returned. Phones at the Naples court were not answered Tuesday.

Max

2007-12-20, 08:40 PM

Guinness good for you - official

The long-running ad campaign is well-known
The old advertising slogan "Guinness is Good for You" may be true after all, according to researchers.
A pint of the black stuff a day may work as well as an aspirin to prevent heart clots that raise the risk of heart attacks.

Drinking lager does not yield the same benefits, experts from University of Wisconsin told a conference in the US.

Guinness were told to stop using the slogan decades ago - and the firm still makes no health claims for the drink.

The Wisconsin team tested the health-giving properties of stout against lager by giving it to dogs who had narrowed arteries similar to those in heart disease.

They found that those given the Guinness had reduced clotting activity in their blood, but not those given lager.

Heart trigger

Clotting is important for patients who are at risk of a heart attack because they have hardened arteries.

A heart attack is triggered when a clot lodges in one of these arteries supplying the heart.

Many patients are prescribed low-dose aspirin as this cuts the ability of the blood to form these dangerous clots.

The researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida, that the most benefit they saw was from 24 fluid ounces of Guinness - just over a pint - taken at mealtimes.

We already know that most of the clotting effects are due to the alcohol itself, rather than any other ingredients

Spokesman, Brewing Research International
They believe that "antioxidant compounds" in the Guinness, similar to those found in certain fruits and vegetables, are responsible for the health benefits because they slow down the deposit of harmful cholesterol on the artery walls.

However, Diageo, the company that now manufactures Guinness, said: "We never make any medical claims for our drinks."

The company now runs advertisements that call for "responsible drinking".

A spokesman for Brewing Research International, which conducts research for the industry, said she would be "wary" of placing the health benefits of any alcohol brand above another.

She said: "We already know that most of the clotting effects are due to the alcohol itself, rather than any other ingredients.

"It is possible that there is an extra effect due to the antioxidants in Guinness - but I would like to see this research repeated."

She said that reviving the old adverts for Guinness might be problematic - at least in the EU.

Draft legislation could outlaw any health claims in adverts for alcohol in Europe, she said.

Feelgood factor

The original campaign in the 1920s stemmed from market research - when people told the company that they felt good after their pint, the slogan was born.

In England, post-operative patients used to be given Guinness, as were blood donors, because of its high iron content.

Pregnant women and nursing mothers were at one stage advised to drink Guinness - the present advice is against this.

The UK is still the largest market in the world for Guinness, although the drink does not feature in the UK's top ten beer brands according to the latest research.