Archive for January, 2007
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Chimps hold clues to roots of domestic violence
Male chimpanzees can be highly aggressive toward female group members, even using branches as clubs to beat them. Research carried out over many years in the Kibale National Park in Uganda now links this to female promiscuity and suggests that there would be more attacks on women if human society was as promiscuous as ape society.
However, another conclusion of today’s study is that because men play a role in bringing up children, unlike male apes, they are aggressive towards women who they suspect of cheating on them, since they may end up having to raise another man’s child.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Perez Hilton has the scoop:
Reminiscent of girlfriend Kate Moss’ drug scandal, the troubled rocker was caught on tape shooting up cocaine!
Here are some of HIGHlights:
- Doherty injects himself with cocaine in a grubby Thai hostel — as he tells worried lover Kate Moss he is “fine” on the phone.
- Bare-chested Doherty shot up several times after joining three girls in a backpacker’s $16 a night room.
Needless to say it gets better
Posted in Doherty Chronicles | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Oils May Cause Breast Growth in Boys:
Lavender and tea tree oils found in some shampoos, soaps and lotions can temporarily leave boys with enlarged breasts in rare cases, apparently by disrupting their hormonal balance, a preliminary study suggests.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Cheerleaders, Soldiers, Booze and Sex
It was supposed to be college day for the students of Ware Shoals High School in South Carolina, a chance to learn about educational prospects at a local institution.
But according to police, two of the school’s cheerleaders ditched the event (the exact date hasn’t been made public) and instead headed to a motel with Jill Moore, their coach. There, they met up for a tryst with two National Guardsmen who recruited at their school.
Moore loosened things up by allegedly providing the girls with vodka. Then, the cops say, she repaired to a room with one of the soldiers and set up a different room for the two cheerleaders and the other soldier to “hook up.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Raw Sewage Hell For Residents
FURIOUS residents in a Gwent town say they are having to cope with raw sewage running past their front doors. And one of those involved, Pontypool pensioner, Raymond Morgan, said he is concerned about health risks to himself and his wife Emily.
Posted in I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Boston Devices a Cartoon Marketing Ploy:
Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.
Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.
“It’s a hoax and it’s not funny,” said Gov. Deval Patrick.
Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
The curse of the Oscar
It’s awards season in Hollywood, with all red carpets leading to the Oscars. But winning that prestigious award can sometimes lead to nothing more than bad roles and even oblivion.
“It’s known as the curse of the Oscar, which is very real. The actor’s ultimate dream can turn out to be the ultimate nightmare,” said movie pundit Tom O’Neil, awards columnist for the Web site The Envelope.
Winners like F. Murray Abraham, Brenda Fricker, Linda Hunt, Marlee Matlin and Louise Fletcher are hardly household names despite earning the film world’s most coveted award.
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
93 Pound Tumor Removed From Woman:
A 32-year-old woman, who was repeatedly told she needed to lose weight, soon discovered why years of dieting simply didn’t work; she was carrying around a 93 pound growth on her ovary. Taquela Hilton said she struggled with weight for 12 years and during that time, the cyst was never diagnosed.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Biden Unbound: Lays Into Clinton, Obama, Edwards:
Mr. Biden is equally skeptical—albeit in a slightly more backhanded way—about Mr. Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said.
Posted in Politically Incorrect, Politico Follies | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Man bets wife in card game, loses
A Russian man lost his wife in a game of cards after putting her up as a stake instead of cash. Andrei Karpov from Murmansk had run out of money in a game of poker and offered his opponent his wife instead of cash to stay in the game. When he lost the game and his opponent Sergey Brodov turned up to claim his winnings his wife Tatiana was so angry she decided to divorce her husband and started a relationship with Brodov.
Posted in Gambling | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Mummified Russian Man Found Dead in Sitting Position After 6 Years
After six years, you’d think someone would have wondered, “Whatever happened to Vladimir?”
Russian police got their answer late last week when they went to the apartment of Vladimir Ledenev, who hadn’t been seen since 2000, Pravda reported.
What they found left them stunned.
Vladimir’s body was discovered in a sitting position, his arm, still retaining some flesh, leaning on the kitchen table, his head slumped over. An empty vodka bottle and a glass sat in front of him, according to Pravda’s reports.
Posted in Most Mysterious | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Pelosi: No Harm, No Fowl
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) returned from a four-day trip to Iraq and Afghanistan Monday night to a bizarre, Hitchcock-ian scene — a beady-eyed, black bird flying around her posh Georgetown apartment.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
‘Factory’ is seen as fully unionized:
Sienna Miller and Hayden Christensen treat us to some utterly convincing lovemaking in their new movie, “Factory Girl.” And it’s no wonder: We hear the costars actually coupled on camera.
“It’s not simulated,” an insider tells us. “They’re really doing it.” In the movie, Miller plays doomed Andy Warhol protégé Edie Sedgwick. Christensen plays a folk rocker modeled after Bob Dylan.
Posted in Idiot Celebrities | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
The Saga Of the Lost Space Tapes
As Neil Armstrong prepared to take his “one small step” onto the moon in July 1969, a specially hardened video camera tucked into the lander’s door clicked on to capture that first human contact with the lunar surface. The ghostly images of the astronaut’s boot touching the soil record what may be the most iconic moment in NASA history, and a major milestone for mankind.
Millions of television viewers around the world saw those fuzzy, moving images and were amazed, even mesmerized. What they didn’t know was that the Apollo 11 camera had actually sent back video far crisper and more dramatic — spectacular images that, remarkably, only a handful of people have ever seen.
…
About 36 years after the tapes went into storage, NASA was suddenly eager to have them. There was just one problem: The tapes were nowhere to be found. What started as an informal search became an official hunt through archives, record centers and storage rooms throughout NASA facilities. Many months later, disappointed officials now report that the trail they followed has gone cold. Although the search continues, they acknowledge that the videos may be lost forever.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Undersea Volcano May Have Caused Quakes:
A wave of small earthquakes that has caused alarm in southern Chile may be related to the birth of an undersea volcano, officials said Tuesday. More than 1,700 tremors have been recorded recently in the rugged, sparsely populated area dotted with volcanos and cut with fjords. Dozens of people slept outside or in tents on recent nights, fearing a larger quake might follow and topple their houses.
Posted in Restless Earth | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Wife Convicted of Poisoning Marine Husband With Arsenic for Life Insurance
A woman was convicted Tuesday of murdering her Marine husband with arsenic so she could cash in on his $250,000 life insurance policy, some of which she used to have her breasts enlarged.
Prosecutors argued that Cynthia Sommer, 33, wanted a more luxurious lifestyle than she could afford on her 23-year-old husband’s $1,700 monthly salary and saw his military life insurance policy as a way to “set herself free.”
In addition to the breast enlargement surgery, Sommer’s friends and co-workers testified, she threw wild parties and had casual sex with multiple partners in the weeks after her husband’s death and the payment of the insurance policy.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Lovers stoned to death in village
Two lovers were tied to trees and stoned to death for adultery by angry relatives in a Pakistani village. Police said the couple, in their early 40s, were killed in a barrage of rocks thrown by relatives of the woman in Donga Bonga village in central Punjab province on Sunday. “It was a case of honour killing and we have arrested two brothers of the woman,” local police chief Zafar Bokhari said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Florida Woman Jailed on Old Warrant After Going to Police to Report Being Raped
A 21-year-old Florida woman who sought help from police after reporting that she had been raped instead was arrested and spent two days in jail for failing to pay a three-year-old restitution order.
A jail worker later refused to give her a second dose of an emergency contraceptive because of religious convictions, said Vic Moore, the college student’s attorney. She was released from jail Monday only after Moore went to the media.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
‘Black-Face’ College Party Causes Controversy
A party held by some Clemson University students two weeks ago is causing controversy after pictures taken at the event ended up on the Internet. Some students say it was just for fun. Others say that it was racist.
The theme of the party was “Living the Dream,” but some Clemson students are calling it a nightmare. Pictures of the party were posted on facebook.com, showing at least one person in black-face paint, with others dressed in knitted caps and jerseys and some girls with stuffing padding their pants to make their behinds look larger. There’s an image of party-goers holding 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor.
Posted in College Antics, Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Naked student interrupts lunch
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
Posted in Teen Antics | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Japan gaffe minister ‘must quit’:
Opposition parties in Japan are pressing Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa to step down for calling women “birth-giving machines”. The Democratic Party and two smaller parties are threatening to boycott budget hearings in parliament if Mr Yanagisawa, 71, does not quit.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Houses Found Buried Beneath Stonehenge Site
New excavations near the mysterious circle at Stonehenge in South England have uncovered dozens of homes where hundreds of people lived — at roughly the same time 4,600 years ago that the giant stone slabs were being erected. The finding strongly suggests that the monument and the settlement nearby were a center for ceremonial activities, with Stonehenge likely a burial site while other nearby circular earthen “henges” were areas for feasts and festivals.
Posted in Historical Oddities | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Sour puss sweetened by a dose of Prozac
It was a classic case of clinical depression. The patient would not go out for fear of being bullied, moped around the house and sought comfort in eating. Eventually there was nothing for it. Twiglet the cat had to be put on Prozac.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Eagle causes power outage
About 10,000 Juneau residents lost power Sunday after a bald eagle lugging a deer head crashed into an Alaska Electric Light & Power transmission system in Lemon Creek.
“You have to live in Alaska to have this kind of outage scenario,” said Gayle Wood, an AEL&P spokeswoman. “This is the story of the overly ambitious eagle who evidently found a deer head in the landfill.”
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Psychologist makes patient wear dog collar
An Australian psychologist charged with indecently assaulting a patient told a court on Tuesday that forcing his female patient to wear a dog collar and call him master was within a psychologist’s ethical guidelines.
Psychologist Bruce Beaton, 64, pleaded not guilty in the Western Australia District Court to four charges of indecently assaulting a 22-year-old woman in 2005, local media reported.
Beaton was arrested when police, who had been secretly video recording the session with the woman, heard whipping sounds, reported Australian Associated Press from the court.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Some highlights from last week:
27.01.2007 0530 LT in position 07:01.38N – 079:39.22E, Colombo Roads, Sri Lanka.
While a container ship was waiting for pilot, port control instructed master to proceed to open sea at full speed. Whilst underway, small boats followed the ship and one of the boats with two persons on board hit ship’s hull at stbd quarter and exploded. Another boat continued to chase the ship. Master immediately called port control for assistance. Two naval boats attended and finally destroyed the boat. Five doors to accommodation and six empty containers damaged.
20.01.2007 0930 UTC in position 05:33.5N – 005:24.5E, Chanomi Creek, Nigeria. Armed militants blocked the channel with many boats with sophisticated heavy weapons. They forced the master to stop the vessel, drop anchor and to lower the gangway. 17 crew members were abducted by the militants who boarded the vessel. The remaining militants took seven crewmembers as hostage and hijacked the vessel. The pilot, on board at the time, was later released. Negotiations between Nigerian authorities and militants are in progress
Posted in Pirate Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
‘Life-changing event’: Panther chases forester:
A federal forester says he was chased into the Chattooga River by a 7-foot-long panther with “jet black” fur. Terrance Fletcher, a technician with the U.S. Forest Service, dove into the frigid water and crawled up the bank in South Carolina to escape. “The animal started running … so I decided to run and get away and jump in the river to get across to the other side,” Fletcher said this week. “It was a life-changing event for me.”
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Reid’s Whitewater
“It’s hard to buy undeveloped land in booming northern Arizona for $166 an acre. But now-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid effectively did just that when a longtime friend decided to sell property owned by the employee pension fund that he controlled.
In 2002, Reid (D-Nev.) paid $10,000 to a pension fund controlled by Clair Haycock, a Las Vegas lubricants distributor and his friend for 50 years. The payment gave the senator full control of a 160-acre parcel in Bullhead City that Reid and the pension fund had jointly owned.
“Reid’s price for the equivalent of 60 acres of undeveloped desert was less than one-tenth of the value the assessor placed on it at the time. Six months after the deal closed, Reid introduced legislation to address the plight of lubricants dealers.” And that’s not all. The newspaper reports that “since taking full control of the parcel in 2002, Reid has pushed for federal funding for a new bridge over the Colorado River a few miles from his property.”
Posted in Politico Follies | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007
Holocaust Memorial in Berlin Defaced by Neo-Nazi Sympathizers
The German authorities were preparing for criticism from the Jewish community after it was revealed that a Holocaust memorial in Berlin was being used as a public bathroom by tourists and by neo-Nazi sympathizers. The revelation in a Berlin newspaper is likely to trigger a new debate about how the Holocaust should be remembered in Germany.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Luzhkov Says Gay Parade Is ‘Satanic’:
Mayor Yury Luzhkov on Monday denounced gay rights parades as “satanic” and vowed that he would never allow such events to be held in the city.
Speaking during a Russian Orthodox Church conference at the Kremlin, Luzhkov said the city would reject any application to hold a gay pride parade and crack down on anyone who chose to march in defiance of the ban, just as it did in 2006.
“Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as a satanic event,” Luzhkov said in televised comments. “We did not let the parade take place then, and we will not allow it in the future.”
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Thieves race car through store
Would-be thieves raced a car through the ground floor of a department store but left empty-handed after failing to ram it into the jewelry section, police said Monday. The incident happened late Sunday, when the fashionable Illum department store was closed and there was no one inside the downtown building.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Teen falls to death at car show:
After viewing tapes from security cameras near the fifth-floor escalator, Robert Charron, head of security at the Palais, said: “For reasons we don’t know, he decided to sit on the rails. When he noticed it was going to be difficult, he tried to grab at the structure and fell onto the entrance vestibule, about 40 feet below.
“It was an isolated incident, but very unfortunate.”
Posted in Darwin Award | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Unhappy as a boy, Kim became youngest ever transsexual at 12:
A boy of 12 is believed to have become the world’s youngest sex change patient after convincing doctors that he wanted to live the rest of his life as a female.The boy – originally called Tim, but now known as Kim – has started to receive hormone treatment, in preparation for the operation that will eventually complete the sex change.
Tim was diagnosed as a transsexual two years ago, when doctors and psychiatrists concluded that his claims to be “in the wrong body” were so deeply felt that he required treatment. The therapy involves artificially arresting male puberty, with a series of potent hormone injections before the administration of female hormones to initiate the development of features such as breasts.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Kara's Classics, Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Power line kills 11 on train roof
Dozens of people sitting on the roof of a crowded passenger train were hit by an overhead power line in southern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 11 people and injuring more than 40 others, the railways minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said. The tragedy occurred near the town of Sukkur in Sindh province. The victims were either electrocuted or tossed off the top of the moving train after the high-voltage line hit them.
Posted in Darwin Award | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
Hospice helped dying man lose his virginity:
A young disabled man who receives care for his life-limiting illness at a hospice run by a nun spoke yesterday of his decision to use a prostitute to experience sex before he dies. Sister Frances Dominica gave her support to 22-year-old Nick Wallis, who was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Sufferers usually die by their thirties. Mr Wallis told staff at the Douglas House hospice in Oxford that he wanted to experience sexual intercourse. He explained that he had hoped to form an intimate and loving relationship with a woman, but his disability had acted as a barrier.
Posted in Sex | No Comments »
Monday, January 29th, 2007
UFO’s seen over South Shore sky:
It’s hard to draw a surfer’s attention away from the next wave, but whatever was in the northwest sky Friday evening around 6:20 p.m. drew a crowd along Kewalo Basin and Ala Moana Beach Park. Honolulu resident Peter Hollingworth described as two lights circling in the sky, about 45 degrees above the horizon. Video of one of the lights was recorded from the Channel 2 SkyCam. “These two little fireballs with a stream behind it,” said Hollingworth. “Looked kind of like a shooting start but it just kept going. They changed directions a few times, at first it was coming in then it turned, then it went out then it came back in again”
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Caverns give up huge fossil haul:
An astonishing collection of fossil animals from southern Australia is reported by scientists. The creatures were found in limestone caves under Nullarbor Plain and date from about 400,000-800,000 years ago. The palaeontological “treasure trove” includes 23 kangaroo species, eight of which are entirely new to science.
Posted in Paleontology Update | No Comments »
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
Refrigerator-Sized Chunk of Ice Crushes Car in Florida
A Hillsborough County resident’s Ford Mustang was destroyed by just that Sunday, when a large slab of ice fell from the clear Florida sky directly onto the automobile, WTVT reports.
Posted in Most Mysterious | No Comments »
Sunday, January 28th, 2007
For sale: Berlin country estate, one Nazi owner
The hideaway villa used by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, to entertain his lovers is to be put up for sale in an attempt to bail out the cash-strapped city of Berlin. The rundown, empty Wald-hof estate, set in woodland 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the city, has become a financial burden for the Berlin council, which has been contemplating the closure of opera houses and other desperate measures to avert bankruptcy.
Posted in Nazis | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Presidential hopeful falls for radio hoax:
A radio comedian heaped fresh embarrassment on Ségolène Royal yesterday when he revealed how he had fooled the Socialist candidate for the French presidency into making unguarded comments on the taboo subject of Corsican independence.
Gérald Dahan, 33, said that he called Ms Royal on Wednesday pretending to be the prime minister of Quebec. The call came after Ms Royal had sparked a diplomatic row by backing demands for the French-speaking province to split from Canada.
Mr Dahan — an impressionist who is well-known for fooling French celebrities — said that he convinced at least five of Ms Royal’s advisers that he was Jean Charest, Quebec’s prime minister, before speaking to her for 11 minutes.
Posted in Politico Follies | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Party expels ‘racist’ Socialist:
The French Socialist Party has voted to expel a senior member for saying there are too many black players in the national football team.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
World Economic Forum
Former President of Iran Mohammad Khatami, right, shares a word with Senator from Massachusetts, USA, John Kerry after participating in a session ‘The Future of the Middle East’ at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Saturday Jan. 27, 2007. Kerry criticized the Bush administration’s foreign policy during the session, saying it has caused the United States to become ‘a sort of international pariah.’
Posted in Politico Follies | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Balloons released in Israeli promotion sow panic in south Lebanon
An Israeli promotional campaign involving balloons caused panic among Lebanese civilians Saturday when the wind carried them over the border into southern Lebanon. The Lebanese media reported that some civilians were hospitalized after inhaling the gas in the balloons. However, the photographs published on the Web site of Hezbollah’s TV station Al-Manar show green balloons from a promotional campaign for Ha’ir, a Schocken group newspaper.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Mars may hold massive reservoirs of water, CO2 just beneath its surface:
Data gleaned from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express Orbiter has revealed that the Red Planet might hold large underground reservoirs of water and carbon dioxide that once formed the planet’s ancient atmosphere.
Stas Barabash and colleagues from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics who studied the data said, of the water and carbon dioxide that once existed on the planet, only a small amount was likely lost to the effects of solar wind over the past 3.5 billion years.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
Coming suicide epidemic in China as population collapses:
There is almost no chance that China will become the world’s hegemonic superpower, or that the Chinese yuan will dislodge the US dollar as the key reserve currency in our life-times.
It is ageing faster than any nation in history. Indeed, there is a risk that China’s demographic structure will implode long before the great mass of China’s interior ever become rich. This was more or less the conclusion of a closed-door session of Chinese experts at the Davos gathering, regrettably on “Chatham House” rules so none can be named.
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
Sacred Cave of Rome’s Founders Discovered, Archaeologists Say:
Archaeologists say they have unearthed Lupercale—the sacred cave where, according to legend, a she-wolf nursed the twin founders of Rome and where the city itself was born.
The long-lost underground chamber was found beneath the remains of Emperor Augustus’ palace on the Palatine, a 230-foot-tall (70-meter-tall) hill in the center of the city.
Posted in Historical Oddities | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
US woman fights off lion with pen:
A 65-year-old Californian woman has saved the life of her husband, 70, by fighting off an attacking mountain lion with a small log and his pen.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
China arrests men for murdering “ghost” brides
Chinese police have arrested three men for killing two young women to sell their corpses as “ghost brides” for dead single men, a Chinese newspaper reported, warning the dark custom might have claimed many other victims. ADVERTISEMENT Yang Donghai, a 35-year-old farmer in western China’s Shaanxi province, confessed to killing a woman bought from a poor family for 12,000 yuan ($1,545) last year.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
Murder in a teapot:
British officials say police have cracked the murder-by-poison case of former spy Alexander Litvinenko, including the discovery of a “hot” teapot at London’s Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for Polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing.
…
The official says investigators have concluded, based on forensic evidence and intelligence reports, that the murder was a “state-sponsored” assassination orchestrated by Russian security services.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
Nice work if you can get it
Ford Motor Co. may resume paying executive bonuses to boost the morale of managers battered by three rounds of job cuts and plant closings in the past five years, people familiar with the matter said.
The No. 2 U.S. automaker is considering the renewal of bonuses as a way of supporting managers coping with reduced benefits, the elimination of merit raises and the threat of job losses, said the people, who didn’t want to be identified because the discussions are private.
Ford paid no bonuses to its top 6,000 executives during the last two years. Ford’s net income shrank to $1.44 billion for 2005. Ford said today it lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter and $12.7 billion for 2006, the biggest annual loss ever. The company is cutting 40,000 factory and white-collar jobs in hopes of restoring North American auto profits in 2009.
Posted in Doh! | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Pardon scandal for Hillary’s brother continues
A court-appointed bankruptcy trustee asked a federal judge this week to schedule a new court date in a case against Tony Rodham, the brother of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., accused of failing to repay $109,000 in loans from a carnival company whose owners received controversial pardons issued by President Bill Clinton in the last hours of his presidency. According to documents filed in the case, Rodham received the loans, before and after the pardons were granted, from United Shows of America, Inc., owned by Edgar Gregory and his wife, who had been convicted of defrauding several banks.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
More on Those “Dining Concierge” Services Everyone’s Getting All Huffy About
I’m told that a former Eat Out writer at Time Out was fired for working for the service on the side. She was calling up restaurants and scoring reservations by telling them she was from Time Out. Then, that reservation would subsequently be sold through the service to fat-cat diners, and the writer would pocket money.
Posted in Corrupt Journos | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Hints of huge water reservoirs on Mars
Mars is losing little water to space, according to new research, so much of its ancient abundance may still be hidden beneath the surface. Dried up riverbeds and other evidence imply that Mars once had enough water to fill a global ocean more than 600 metres deep, together with a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide that kept the planet warm enough for the water to be liquid. But the planet is now very dry and has a thin atmosphere.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Teacher fired over butt art hires ACLU
A high school art teacher has hired the ACLU to challenge his firing after a video of him moonlighting as a “butt-printing artist” was widely circulated among his high school students. The executive director of the Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said a public employee such as former teacher Stephen Murmer has a right to free expression outside the workplace as long as it does not interfere with his job.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Scientists Can’t Get Sloth to Move
Scientists in the eastern German city of Jena said Wednesday they have finally given up after three years of failed attempts to entice a sloth into budging as part of an experiment in animal movement.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
New Trend On The Rise: The Patriotic Terrorist
What is a patriotic terrorist?
It is an American who claims to love his or her country while enjoying the enemy’s success against said country. It is a person who gets deeply offended if you question their patriotism, while also appearing to share the same ideals of the more spirited folk who like to blow up innocent people.
Patriotic terrorists love America with so much intensity that it appears to the untrained eye that they hate it. But it’s actually the most powerful form of “tough love” known to man, woman and Rosie O’Donnell. Patriotic terrorists love America so much that they realize it needs an intervention – and real terror is the only way to enable that intervention. In fact, to keep a mammoth, arrogant superpower like America in check, terrorism is the only thing we’ve got. Noam Chomsky knew this from the start, making him a patriotic terrorist of the highest order.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Film calls Nanjing massacre “hoax”
A Japanese filmmaker has announced plans to make a documentary saying that the “rape of Nanjing” in 1937, in which China says 300,000 civilians were killed by Japanese soldiers, never happened. Satoru Mizushima said his film to “correct the errors of history” will be based on documents showing that Chinese accounts of the killings were a hoax.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Video: US forces engage Mahdi militia in Baghdad
One of the better videos from the Iraq front in the last few months. Nice secondaries resulting from the Apache too
NOTE: Strong language / NSFW alert
Posted in War | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Lights ‘not of this world’ mystery finally solved:
Not everyone is quick to accept the Air Force’s explanation. “Are you trying to tell us that a retired Air Force colonel doesn’t know the difference between flares and lights from a UFO? But the Air Force trusted him enough to fly F-16s, multi-million dollar jets?” asks Jim Chadbourne of Waterford, Conn. “When are the media going to stop listening to the government’s crap and report the truth?”
“Finally Solved” – yes, just like the “swamp gas” explanation for the Michigan sightings back in the 60’s, or the “crash test dummy” explanation for Roswell.
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
1 Dead, 17 Injured in Student Clashes at Beirut University
Students for and against the government hurled rocks and furniture at each other Thursday as Lebanon’s power struggle turned violent on a university campus and spilled onto nearby streets. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television said one of the militant group’s supporters was killed, but security officials could not immediately confirm the death. Security officials said at least 17 people were injured. Other TV stations reported that about 25 people were hurt.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Anarchy, College Antics | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Warming to raise seas for 1,000 years
World sea levels will keep rising for more than 1,000 years even if governments manage to slow a projected surge in temperatures this century blamed on greenhouse gases, a draft U.N. climate report says.
The study, by a panel of 2,500 scientists who advise the United Nations, also says that dust from volcanic eruptions and air pollution seems to have braked warming in recent decades by reflecting sunlight back into space, scientific sources said.
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
MLK Party Causes Uproar on Texas Campus:
Authorities at Tarleton State University said they plan to investigate a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that mocked black stereotypes by featuring fried chicken, malt liquor and faux gang apparel.”I feel like there is no excuse for this type of ignorance,” said Donald Ray Elder, president of the Stephenville school’s chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Photographs posted on social networking Web site Facebook.com showed partygoers wearing Afro wigs and fake gold and silver teeth. One photo showed students “mocking how African-Americans do step shows,” Elder said. In another picture, a student is dressed as Aunt Jemima and carries a gun.
Posted in College Antics, Fun with Alcohol, Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Belgium Forbids 18 and 88
Patrick Dewael, the Belgian minister of the Interior, has forbidden the wearing of football shirts displaying the numbers 18 and 88. According to the Liberal minister the number 18 stands for “Adolf Hitler” and the number 88 for “Heil Hitler.” A is the 1st letter of the alphabet, H the 8th.
Fortunately, Discordian numbers 23 and 5 are safe for the time being.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
US military unveils heat-ray gun:
The US military has given the first public display of what it says is a revolutionary heat-ray weapon to repel enemies or disperse hostile crowds. Called the Active Denial System, it projects an invisible high energy beam that produces a sudden burning feeling, but is said to be harmless.
Posted in War | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Entire village suspected of mayor’s murder:
Miguel Grima was not a well-liked man. As mayor of a tiny hamlet in the foothills of the Pyrenees in northern Spain he had ruffled a few feathers.
The farmers turned against him when he put a stop to the centuries-old custom of herding livestock through village.
The hunters got annoyed when he refused to issue them with shooting licences and the local drinkers revolted after he prevented the settlement’s only bar from setting out tables on the terrace in summer.
He had repeatedly received anonymous threatening letters and reportedly told friends recently that he feared for his life and he was considering standing down as mayor of Fago at the next election.
So last Friday evening when he failed to return home from a late council meeting in a nearby town, his wife took his absence seriously and contacted police.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Thursday, January 25th, 2007
Skydiver charged with murder after love rival fell 13,000ft to her death
A married woman who was having an affair with a fellow skydiver plunged 13,000ft (4,000m) to her death after her love rival and best friend tampered with her parachute, police say. Els Van Doren, 37, fell to earth in a garden in front of a group of onlookers. Els Clottemans, 22, has been charged with her murder.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Kara's Classics | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
5 Komodo dragons born at British zoo
A British zoo announced Wednesday the virgin birth of five Komodo dragons, giving scientists new hope for the captive breeding of the endangered species.
In an evolutionary twist, the newborns’ eight-year-old mother Flora shocked staff at Chester Zoo in northern England when she became pregnant without ever having a male partner or even being exposed to the opposite sex.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Koreans urged to turn out in struggle for national reunificaction
All the Koreans from all walks of life should demolish the walls bisecting the nation and join in the sacred cause of adding brilliance to the June 15 reunification era by closely uniting under the banner of patriotism and national reunification, with a proper understanding that the nation precisely means them and to defend the national interests is for them.
The Songun policy is the noblest, patriotic policy for glorifying the June 15 reunification era. The whole nation should fully support and uphold the Songun policy, a treasured sword for peace and reunification, regarding it as its lifeline.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, N. Korea | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Bullfighter beaten by his bull
A Spanish bullfighter was recovering from gland surgery in the Colombian city of Bogota, after a bull stabbed him in the neck during the final hours of a bullfight.
Jesus Martinez, better known as “Morenito de Aranda,” was close to slaying his second bull when the animal pierced his neck with one of his horns.
The bullfighter had stabbed the animal twelve times when the bull made what experts called a “mysterious” recovery.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
China’s Hu vows to “purify” Internet
Chinese Communist Party chief Hu Jintao has vowed to “purify” the Internet, state media reported on Wednesday, describing a top-level meeting that discussed ways to master the country’s sprawling, unruly online population. Hu made the comments as the ruling party’s Politburo — its 24-member leading council — was studying China’s Internet, which claimed 137 million registered users at the end of 2006.
Perhaps it is time for those of us on the Internet to help “purify” China of Communists?
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Tiny London Apartment on Sale for $335K:
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.”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Noriega hopes to return to Panama after release
Former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega hopes to immediately board a plane for Panama when he is released from prison on September 9, and he plans to fight his conviction back home in the slayings of two political opponents, his attorney said. Noriega’s eight-year rule over Panama ended after the United States invaded Panama on December 20, 1989, to force him from power. He is being held in the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami on drug trafficking and money laundering charges.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Aliens ask wrong people in van about work
Federal agents taking a break from an unrelated assignment yesterday arrested 24 illegal aliens at a Fells Point 7-Eleven after the men attempted to solicit “underground” employment from the agents.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were stopped in the convenience store parking lot when the group of Hispanic men approached the agents’ unmarked vehicles, ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi said.
Posted in I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Former Duke Prosecutor Faces New Ethics Charges:
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has been charged with new ethics violations for his conduct on the Duke lacrosse sex assault case.The North Carolina Bar filed an amended complaint today, accusing Nifong of withholding DNA evidence from the defense and making misrepresentations to the presiding judge in the case.
The bar has accused Nifong of conduct that involves “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.” Nifong also allegedly violated a rule that “prohibits an attorney from knowingly making false statements of material fact.”
UPDATE: Not surprisingly, The Smoking Gun has the docs.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Boy’s screaming kills chickens
Hundreds of chickens have been found dead in eastern China — and a court has ruled that the cause of death was the screaming of a 4-year-old boy who in turn had been scared by a barking dog, state media reported Wednesday.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Kara's Classics, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
Canada tells Royal ‘don’t interfere’ over freedom for Quebec
Ségolène Royal, the French Socialist presidential candidate, sparked a diplomatic row with Canada yesterday after appearing to call for Quebec’s independence in the latest in a series of blunders.
Ms Royal, 53, touched a raw nerve when she backed demands for Quebec’s “freedom”, and was rebuked by Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister.
…
They say that the woman who presented herself as a breath of fresh air in a tired, male-dominated political world has been revealed as worryingly inexperienced.
“She is extremely lightweight on serious and sensitive subjects,’ Michèle Alliot-Marie, the Defence Minister, said. She is backing Mr Sarkozy.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
A case of reptile erectile dysfunction
Mozart, an iguana stuck with a permanent erection six days after a mating session at a Belgian zoo, may have to have his penis amputated if the condition does not improve.
“He will see the vet on Thursday,” said Enid Balemans, spokeswoman for the Aquatopia Zoo in Antwerp, stressing that veterinarians were still considering alternative treatments.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Stolen Bigfoot leaves only tire tracks
Bigfoot has gone missing in Federal Way, leaving no massive footprints in sight. It isn’t a hoax. An 8-foot-tall, wooden carving of the fabled Northwest beast was reported stolen Monday from a chiropractic office on Southwest Dash Point Road. Tim Payne, who’s had a practice in Federal Way for two decades, propped up the statue near his business’ secluded driveway more than five years ago. His family says he is fascinated with the lore of Bigfoot, which is why he chose the creature instead of a wooden bear or gorilla.
Posted in Most Mysterious | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Tijuana police issued slingshots
The police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers.Municipal police spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said Monday that the slingshots, along with bags of ballbearings, were given to officers patrolling areas of the city visited by tourists.
Tijuana’s police force of 2,000 officers has been without guns since Jan. 5, but some patrol alongside armed state police.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Cruise ‘is Christ’ of Scientology:
TOM Cruise is the new “Christ” of Scientology, according to leaders of the cult-like religion.The Mission: Impossible star has been told he has been “chosen” to spread the word of his faith throughout the world.
And leader David Miscavige believes that in future, Cruise, 44, will be worshipped like Jesus for his work to raise awareness of the religion.
Can we PLEASE have a crucifixion now???
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Idiot Celebrities, Kara's Classics, Scientology | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Flying dinos had bi-plane design:
The first flying dinosaurs took to the air in a similar way to a World War I bi-plane, a study shows. A fresh analysis of an early feathered fossil dinosaur suggests that it dropped its hind legs below its body, adopting a bi-plane-like form.
Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Apple’s Jobs questioned by U.S. authorities
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs was questioned by U.S. investigators about stock options backdating at the company, according to several reports citing unidentified lawyers.
The company behind the popular iPod digital media player has said it was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission for its past option-grant practices.
Jobs was questioned by federal investigators in San Francisco last week, according to reports by the San Francisco Chronicle and Bloomberg, citing unidentified legal sources.
Posted in Most Mysterious | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
Diver escapes from shark’s jaws:
An Australian diver has escaped from the jaws of a Great White shark which had grabbed him by the head. Eric Nerhus, 41, was diving off Cape Howe on Australia’s south-east coast when he was attacked.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Nautical Nightmares | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
This time it’s in Israel, and he’s actually being charged!
Israel’s Katsav faces rape charge:
Israeli President Moshe Katsav is to be charged with rape and abuse of power, the ministry of justice has announced. Correspondents say a final decision on the indictment would be made only after a hearing, where Mr Katsav could present his case.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Politico Follies | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 23rd, 2007
New racism row on Channel 4 show:
A second Channel 4 reality show is at the centre of a racism row after one contestant said she supported slavery.
Gap year student Lucy Buchanan, 18, is taking part in Shipwrecked, where two teams on desert islands compete to win a £70,000 prize. She also said she hated fat people and wanted a return of the British Empire.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 22nd, 2007
CIA tale scams 22 out of $1 million
She claimed to be a CIA agent who could have satellites scan people’s bodies for disease, then have CIA agents administer secret medicines to them while they slept. As far-fetched as her story was, Stacey Finley convinced 22 neighbors, in-laws and friends in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi to pay her nearly $1 million over the past six years.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Monday, January 22nd, 2007
Daydreaming is brain’s default setting, study finds
Daydreaming seems to be the default setting of the human mind and certain brain regions are devoted to it, U.S. researchers reported Friday. When people are given a specific task to do, they focus on that task but then other brain regions get busy during down time, the researchers report in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. “There is this network of regions that always seems to be active when you don’t give people something to do,” psychologist Malia Mason of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital said in a telephone interview.
Posted in Slack! | No Comments »
Monday, January 22nd, 2007
Blue Monday: The unhappiest day of the year
If you are feeling a little down then you can take solace in the thought that things are unlikely to get any worse. Today, say experts, is the unhappiest day in the entire year. Unpaid Christmas bills, nasty weather, and failed New Year’s resolutions combine to make January 22 the gloomiest in the calendar.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Sunday, January 21st, 2007
TO HELI.. AND BACK:
IT IS one of the most daring military rescues ever – an extraordinary race against time in the heart of Afghanistan’s bandit country. The men of 45 Commando Royal Marine had just returned to base following an assault on a Taliban stronghold in Helmand Province when the radio on the Apache helicopter crackled into life. One of their comrades – Lance Corporal Matthew Ford – was missing and they had just minutes to find him and bring him back before the Taliban got to him.
…
Realising that unless they acted immediately the fallen Marine had no chance of survival, Tom Smith, a 39-year-old Army Air Corps warrant officer, devised an extraordinary plan. By strapping four troops on to two Apache helicopters – which cannot take passengers – they could reach Matt before the Taliban did.
Posted in Hard Core!, War | No Comments »
Sunday, January 21st, 2007
Suspect in huge Brazil bank theft found dead
A man accused of being one of the robbers who tunneled in and stole more than $70 million in cash from a branch of Brazil’s central bank in 2005 was found dead on a remote ranch, authorities said Sunday. Anselmo Oliveira Magalhaes, 32, was found by police on Saturday with a broken neck and his hands and feet tied inside a 75-foot-deep well at the ranch in the interior city of Santa Izabel, said Luciana Araripi, a spokeswoman for the Sao Paulo state Public Safety Department.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
