Archive for October, 2008
Friday, October 31st, 2008
Japan air force chief faces sack:
The head of the Japanese air force is to be sacked after saying the country was not an aggressor in World War II, Japan’s defence minister said.
Yasukazu Hamada said Gen Toshio Tamogami’s views, written in an essay, ran counter to the government’s position on the war.
“Therefore it is inappropriate for him to remain in this position and I will swiftly dismiss him,” he said.
The general’s views are likely to anger many of Japan’s neighbours.
China, North and South Korea and other Asian nations still have traumatic memories of Japan’s aggression and colonial rule.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
Man attacks wife for not getting him new spouse
A 57-year-old Malaysian Muslim man assaulted his wife and threatened to shoot her after she failed to secure him a young second wife, news reports said on Wednesday. Mohamad Haris Daud, a local police chief in Kuantan in central Pahang state, said the man forced his 60-year-old wife to seek the consent of a woman in her 30s to be his second wife. The frightened wife then went to the woman’s house but found out that she was already married, he said. “After she told her husband that the woman was married, he ran amok and started beating her and threatened to cut her with a machete”, Mohamad was quoted as saying by the Malay-language Utusan Malaysia newspaper.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
After trousers, Malaysia Muslim body targets yoga
Not content with banning women from wearing trousers, Malaysia’s top Islamic council now wants a ban on yoga, according to a report on state news agency Bernama. The National Fatwa Council’s Deputy Director-General Othman Mustapha told reporters after a seminar on Islamic jurisprudence on Thursday that the announcement would be made soon. Professor Zakaria Stapa of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Islamic Studies Centre told the seminar on Wednesday that Muslims who had taken up yoga should stop practising as it could damage their faith, Bernama said.
Posted in And then they came for..., T.R.O.P. | No Comments »
Sunday, October 26th, 2008
Bees Kill 3 Dogs, Injure Woman in Florida
A swarm of bees that terrorized a Florida neighborhood has killed three dogs and injured a 70-year-old woman. Authorities in Palm Beach County say crews removed 50 pounds of honeycomb from the side of a Riviera Beach home after Friday’s attack. The hive has been contained. The bees swarmed Nancy Hill and her two dogs, killing the animals. The bees also attacked two other dogs in the neighborhood, killing one and sending the other to the hospital. Hill was treated at a hospital where the stingers were removed.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Saturday, October 25th, 2008
China?s prime potential enemies
China?s military preparedness and strategic deployment of weaponry take into consideration a whole range of potential enemies, an analysis of internal People?s Liberation Army documents has revealed.
In order of importance ? that is, the likelihood of actual military engagement ? those enemies are Taiwan, the United States and Japan (as potential defenders of Taiwan), India, Vietnam, Southeast Asia, Russia and NATO.
Chinese military journals consistently criticize the United States for seeking to isolate and contain China. The PLA?s indignation and frustration over this perceived U.S. interference is a reflection of its ambition to become a global hegemon, or at least a regional one.
As evidence of U.S. hostility, the military journals cite Washington?s sales of arms to Taiwan, its military alliance with Japan, its support of NATO?s eastward expansion, the stationing of a permanent force in Afghanistan, the expansion of its nuclear arsenal and its influence in restricting European arms sales to China. The journals claim that these U.S. actions all pose a direct or indirect threat to China?s national security.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships | No Comments »
Friday, October 24th, 2008
Packs of robots will hunt down uncooperative humans
The latest request from the Pentagon jars the senses. At least, it did mine. They are looking for contractors to provide a “Multi-Robot Pursuit System” that will let packs of robots “search for and detect a non-cooperative human”.
One thing that really bugs defence chiefs is having their troops diverted from other duties to control robots. So having a pack of them controlled by one person makes logistical sense. But I’m concerned about where this technology will end up.
Given that iRobot last year struck a deal with Taser International to mount stun weapons on its military robots, how long before we see packs of droids hunting down pesky demonstrators with paralysing weapons? Or could the packs even be lethally armed? I asked two experts on automated weapons what they thought – click the continue reading link to read what they said.
Posted in Technological Travesties | No Comments »
Friday, October 24th, 2008
NYERS ‘SWING’ & MISS
The ballots of four wealthy New York Democrats were yanked yesterday after they admitted they set up a temporary house in Ohio and then voted in the battleground state.
The New Yorkers and nine pals from around the country admitted they should never have registered in the Buckeye State, said prosecutors, who had investigated the group for possible vote fraud.
As part of a deal with prosecutors, the 13 said they were sorry and had “misunderstood” the state’s voting rules.
”Without reservations, we apologize to the community [and] for the problems this misunderstanding has caused,” said Greg Nolan, spokesman for activist group Vote from Home.
The Post reported Monday that the group is run from the East 82nd Street brownstone of Heather Halstead, daughter of Halstead Properties founder Clark Halstead.
Halstead and her husband, Marc Gustafson – along with Bank of New York Mellon exec Joel Speyer and former New York Sun reporter and Scarsdale resident Daniel Hemel – and their pals were investigated after they crammed into a three-bedroom house in Columbus and registered to vote.
Posted in Idiot Criminals | No Comments »
Friday, October 24th, 2008
Mo. students face punishment for `Hit a Jew Day’:
At least four students from a suburban St. Louis middle school face punishment for allegedly hitting Jewish classmates during what they called “Hit a Jew Day.” The incident happened last week at Parkway West Middle School in Chesterfield. District officials said Thursday they believe that fewer than 10 children of the district’s 35 Jewish students were struck. District spokesman Paul Tandy said that in most cases, the students were hit on the back of their shoulders but one student was slapped in the face. It began with an unofficial “Spirit Week” among sixth-graders that started harmlessly enough with a “Hug a Friend Day.” Then there was “High Five Day.” Soon, though, the days moved from friendly to silly. Next there was “Hit a Tall Person Day” and, finally, “Hit a Jew Day.”
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Japanese Woman Arrested for Virtual-World ‘Murder’
A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband’s digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday.
The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game “Maple Story” to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
“I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry,” the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.
The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.
She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000.
Players in “Maple Story” raise and manipulate digital images called “avatars” that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles.
Posted in Technological Travesties | No Comments »
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Far-right Austrian leader sacked for revealing gay affair with Jörg Haider
The successor of the Austrian far-right leader Jörg Haider was dismissed yesterday after he revealed a ?special? relationship ?far beyond? friendship with his former mentor.
In emotional interviews with the national broadcaster and a tabloid newspaper Stefan Petzner spoke openly about his affair with Haider, who died at the age of 58 in a high-speed car crash after heavy drinking session at a gay club this month. Haider?s party, the Alliance for the Future of Austria, captured 11 per cent of the vote in national elections last month .
?He was the man of my life. Our relationship went far beyond friendship,? Mr Petzner, 27, said after only a week in the job, adding that Haider?s wife, Claudia, 52, ?did not object? to their relationship.
?I only had him. Now I am all alone. I would spend nights with him and his family and that was important for me because I often was afraid to be alone in the dark,? he added.
Posted in Nazis | No Comments »
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Police: Suspect Steals Cash, Leaves Thumb
A man was ordered to be held without bail after police tied him to a recent armed robbery. But at least he has his thumb back. Police said Bryan Perez, 22, and an accomplice made off with hundreds of dollars in cash in an Oct. 11 raid at an alleged brothel in Washington’s Columbia Heights neighborhood. According to charging documents, one of the victims took control of Perez’s silver machete during a struggle and hacked off his right thumb. About two hours after the robbery, a nine-fingered Perez went to an emergency room. Police found out about it, fingerprinted the thumb and transported it to the hospital for a comparison, according to a report in The Examiner.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
Tape measure: X-rays detected from Scotch tape
Just two weeks after a Nobel Prize highlighted theoretical work on subatomic particles, physicists are announcing a startling discovery about a much more familiar form of matter: Scotch tape. It turns out that if you peel the popular adhesive tape off its roll in a vacuum chamber, it emits X-rays. The researchers even made an X-ray image of one of their fingers. Who knew? Actually, more than 50 years ago, some Russian scientists reported evidence of X-rays from peeling sticky tape off glass. But the new work demonstrates that you can get a lot of X-rays, a study co-author says. “We were very surprised,” said Juan Escobar. “The power you could get from just peeling tape was enormous.” Escobar, a graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, reports the work with UCLA colleagues in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature.
Posted in Weird Science | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
Man Finds Racial Slur Printed On Receipt
A Kansas City man found a racial slur printed on his receipt after returning a pair of shoes he bought over the weekend.
KMBC’s Marcus Moore reported that Keith Slater, 22, bought a pair of shoes from a store called Journeys. Slater later returned them after finding a cheaper pair at another store. Slater did get his money back, but it was what was printed on the receipt that he and his family found disturbing.
“That makes me upset. I don’t want to look at that (receipt,) that makes me so upset. Why would you say that?” said a woman who was shown the receipt.
“Have they been fired? I mean, this is absolutely crazy,” said a man who saw the store ticket.
The receipt, which shows “Cust: Dumb” and then the n-word, is what Slater received after returning a pair of shoes to Journeys at Oak Park Mall.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
Dead goldfish offered the vote in Illinois
The only “agent of change” Princess ever supported was the person who freshened the water in her fishbowl. So election officials in Chicago’s northern suburbs want to know why voter registration material was sent to the dead goldfish. “I am just stunned at the level of people compromising the integrity of the voting process,” said Lake County Clerk Willard Helander, a Republican, who said she has spotted problems with nearly 1,000 voter registrations this year. Beth Nudelman, who owned the fish, said Princess may have landed on a mailing list because the family once filled in the pet’s name when they got a second phone line for a computer. “There was no fraud involved,” said Nudelman, a Democrat who supports Barack Obama. “This person is a dead fish.”
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
Girl, 13, who smokes drinks and has sex ‘rewarded’ by mother with cigarettes
A 13-year-old girl who has had four sexual partners, smokes dope, drinks beer and has been excluded from school 40 times is considered “sweet” by her mother and given cigarettes as rewards for good behaviour.
Tracy Holt, 43, says there are a “lot worse things” her daughter Sam could be doing than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and believes that because she herself hasn’t yet suffered from cancer, “she’ll probably be alright anyway”.
She knows her daughter hangs out with friends in the street, drinking cans of lager and smoking pot, but says she is simply glad Sam is not “a proper drunk” and has not graduated to harder drugs.
Posted in Bad Parents | No Comments »
Monday, October 20th, 2008
Giant toy rabbit spotted from space:
A group of Austrian artists have made a giant pink toy rabbit in the Italian Alps can be seen via satellite from outer space. The 200-foot long rabbit, knitted by Vienna-based art collective, Gelitin, was created as an outdoor sculpture, and was designed for visitors to climb on, sleep on, and play with. Now the artists at Gelitin are delighted to note that the bunny can be seen via satellite on the internet by visitors to Google Earth.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Monday, October 20th, 2008
Gunfight At Baby Shower; Four Hurt
Detectives on Sunday continued collecting evidence and interviewing people as they investigated a baby shower that turned into a gunfight at a union hall on Oakwood Avenue.
Four people were shot and are recovering at area hospitals, said police Det. Capt. Paul Melanson.
Police were called to the United Auto Workers hall at 666 Oakwood Ave. about 11:20 p.m. Saturday for a report of a disturbance. By the time the first officers arrived, two of the wounded were on their way to Hartford Hospital by private car. Another victim was taken by ambulance. It remained unclear Sunday morning how the fourth victim got to the hospital.
One of the victims taken by car to Hartford Hospital suffered a life-threatening wound to the abdomen, but was recovering after surgery, Melanson said.
In addition to collecting and cataloging evidence, police interviewed the approximately 60 people attending the baby shower.
“Some were very helpful,” Melanson said of those at the shower. “Most were less than forthcoming.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Monday, October 20th, 2008
RAF pilot says he was ordered to shoot down UFO over Norwich
A FORMER Top Gun told yesterday how he was ordered to shoot down a massive UFO ? over NORWICH. RAF controllers told US pilot Milton Torres to ?lock on? and launch all 24 of his rockets over the city. Tale … Milton Torres as a young man, and today Tale … Milton Torres as a young man, and today But as he came within seconds of firing at the alien intruder ? ?the size of an aircraft carrier? on his radar ? it vanished at 10,000mph. The amazing close encounter is revealed in secret Ministry of Defence X-Files which are declassified today. Milton said: ?It was some kind of alien snooping over England. I guess we?ll never know what it was.?
Posted in Aliens | No Comments »
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
Protective shield of the sun is shrinking
The protective bubble around the sun that helps to shield the Earth from harmful interstellar radiation is shrinking and getting weaker, NASA scientists have discovered.
New data from the Ulysses deep-space probe show that the heliosphere, the protective shield of energy that surrounds our solar system, has weakened by 25 per cent over the past decade and is now at it lowest level since the space race began 50 years ago.
…
If the heliosphere continues to weaken, it is feared intergalactic cosmic radiation reaching Earth will increase, disrupting electrical equipment, damaging satellites and potentially harming life.
Posted in Space | No Comments »
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
Woman walks through market holding severed head of man who tried to rape her
Crowds in a busy market fled in terror as a woman walked among them holding aloft the severed head of a man who had attacked her.
Covered in blood, she held the head high like a trophy, said police – her way of showing that she had delivered her own kind of justice to her attacker.
The gruesome scene was played out in Makkapurva village, 170 miles south east of the Indian city of Lucknow, where, last night, the woman was being held behind bars.
According to police officer Ram Bharose, the unnamed 35-year-old woman had sliced off the man’s head with a sickle she had been using to cut grass near her village.
‘She was getting grass for her cattle when the man came up from behind her and tried to sexually assault her,’ said Mr Bharose.
‘In a bid to save her dignity, she turned on him and during a struggle managed to chop off his head with the sickle.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
North Korea to make major announcement on Monday:
North Korea will make an “important announcement” on Monday amid speculation over the health of its leader Kim Jong Il, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.
The 66-year-old North Korean leader disappeared from public view in mid-August and failed to make appearances on two important national holidays, leading to speculation he was seriously ill. U.S. and South Korean officials said he suffered a stroke and had brain surgery, but North Korea has denied he is ailing.
Quoting unidentified sources at Japan’s defence ministry, the Sankei said Tokyo had information that “there will be an important announcement on (Oct.) 20th.”
The Sankei said there was speculation within the Japanese government that the North’s announcement could be about Kim’s death or a government change induced by a coup.
North Korea will also ban foreigners from entering the country starting Monday, it said, without giving further details.
Posted in N. Korea | No Comments »
Saturday, October 18th, 2008
Mandurah girl could lose sight after magpie attack
A six-year-old girl may have lost sight in one of her eyes after a magpie attack near Mandurah. Maddison Hall was wearing a helmet and riding her bike at a park in Erskine on Friday morning when she was swooped by magpies. Her father Adam Hall says wildlife officers believe a rogue male pecked her eye. “We don’t know if it was just a freak accident, whether she looked up at the same time or whatever but she said the bird just would not let up on her, just kept on harassing her where as the previous ones would just fly back up and leave her alone,” he said.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Saturday, October 18th, 2008
Al-Qaeda Web Forums Abruptly Taken Offline
Four of the five main online forums that al-Qaeda’s media wing uses to distribute statements by Osama bin Laden and other extremists have been disabled since mid-September, monitors of the Web sites say.
The disappearance of the forums on Sept. 10 — and al-Qaeda’s apparent inability to restore them or create alternate online venues, as it has before — has curbed the organization’s dissemination of the words and images of its fugitive leaders. On Sept. 29, a statement by the al-Fajr Media Center, a distribution network created by supporters of al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremist groups, said the forums had disappeared “for technical reasons,” and it urged followers not to trust look-alike sites.
Posted in Most Mysterious | No Comments »
Friday, October 17th, 2008
British Man Sentenced to Prison for Hacking Wife to Death Over Facebook Status
A British man who killed his wife with a meat cleaver because she changed her Facebook status to “single” was sentenced to at least 14 years in a U.K. prison Friday, the Daily Mail reported.
Wayne Forrester, 35, was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine when he drove to their family home and murdered his wife, Emma, as she slept in her bed. The couple had recently separated and Forrester felt humiliated when Emma changed her relationship status to single on Facebook.
The police were called amid Emma?s screams for her life. Wayne emerged from the house, drenched in blood and gripping a carton of juice when the police arrived. Holding his stained hands out for handcuffs, the Mail Online reports he told police, “Who called you? My wife is in there. I killed her.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, October 17th, 2008
Teen Girl Allegedly Enslaved, Sexually Assaulted in Seattle
Five immigrants from Afghanistan enslaved a teenage girl they brought to the United States, with some forcing her to do chores and one ? her 37-year-old husband ? beating and sexually assaulting her, according to a federal indictment unsealed this week.
The girl is from an impoverished single-parent home in Afghanistan, and she was informally adopted by another family there that forced her to marry at age 13 in 2005, Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said Thursday. The girl’s husband is Mohammad Atahee, a friend of the adoptive family; U.S. officials don’t recognize the marriage.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, October 17th, 2008
Legal case against God dismissed:
A US judge has thrown out a case against God, ruling that because the defendant has no address, legal papers cannot be served. The suit was launched by Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers, who said he might appeal against the ruling. He sought a permanent injunction to prevent the “death, destruction and terrorisation” caused by God.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Britons Get Jail Time in Sex on Beach Case:
A British couple was sentenced to three months in jail Thursday in a case that has caused controversy in this Gulf boom town because the two were charged with having sex on the beach. The judge did not provide any details about his verdict as is customary in Dubai, so it is unclear whether Michelle Palmer and Vince Acors were found guilty of engaging in intercourse, or some lesser offense. The two Britons, who are both in their 30s and met at an all-you-can-drink champagne brunch before the alleged incident occurred, were arrested in July and later charged with sex outside of marriage, public indecency and drunkenness.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Workout for brain just a few clicks away:
Searching the Internet may help middle-aged and older adults keep their memories sharp, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles studied people doing Web searches while their brain activity was recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging scans. “What we saw was people who had Internet experience used more of their brain during the search,” Dr. Gary Small, a UCLA expert on aging, said in a telephone interview. “This suggests that just searching on the Internet may train the brain — that it may keep it active and healthy,” said Small, whose research appears in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Many studies have found that challenging mental activities such as puzzles can help preserve brain function, but few have looked at what role the Internet might play. “This is the first time anyone has simulated an Internet search task while scanning the brain,” Small said.
Posted in Technological Travesties | No Comments »
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Gay cannibal chef: It was like work
A GAY chef accused of killing a pal and frying pieces of his body treated his victim like meat at work, a court heard yesterday.
Former Mr Gay UK Anthony Morley, 36, said he slit Damian Oldfield?s throat after he tried to rape him.
Police found six lightly-fried pieces of 33-year-old Mr Oldfield?s leg mixed with herbs on a chopping board in Morley?s kitchen.
A seventh piece ? which Morley had chewed ? was in a bin bag.
Posted in Cannibal Update | No Comments »
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
Actor in mob film Gomorrah arrested
An actor who played a Godfather in a new smash Mafia movie is among seven people arrested in a police crackdown. Bernardino Terracciano, 53, plays a boss in ‘Gomorrah’, a hard-hitting blockbuster on the Naples Mafia known as the Camorra, released this week in Britain. He was seized over the weekend on suspicion of extorting protection money and having ties to the Casalesi clan, part of the Camorra mafia. The latest arrests came a month after six Africans were gunned down outside a clothes shop in Castel Volturno near Naples by the ruthless Casalesi clan.
Posted in Ars Gratia Artis | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
NEW AIG $$ PERK JERKS
A group of AIG execs went on an $87,000 partridge hunt at a posh English manor last week – on the US taxpayers’ dime and at the same time the debt-riddled insurance giant was accepting another nearly $40 billion from the government to shore it up, according to Britain’s News of the World.
The party included four AIG execs – including at least two from New York, the paper said.
AIG’s general manager in Frankfurt, Sebastian Preil, flippantly told one undercover reporter, “The recession will go on until about 2011 – but the shooting was great today, and we are all relaxing fine,” the newspaper said.
The two New York execs were Jeffrey Malkovsky, a senior director in Manhattan, and John Roberts, who advises AIG, the paper said. Roberts came with Hilary James, manager of the Bristol Plaza hotel in New York.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
Flaming Pet Rat Starts Fire, Damages Titusville Home
A pet rat, a piece of twine and some questionable judgment ended with a Brevard County home in flames. David Stanifer and two friends were inside the home on Friars Court (see map) in Brevard County when the fire started early Monday morning.
Stanifer and two other people were chasing the rat, named Amelia Earhart, around the house.
”They told us they were playing with their pet mouse or rat and they tied a ribbon to it and they were cutting a ribbon with the lighter,” said Lt. Teresa Uzel of the Brevard County Fire Rescue.
“She was getting adventurous and we wanted to let her walk around on the ground and we didn’t want her running off too far, so we grabbed some twine and some jingle bells so she didn’t get too far,” Stanifer told Eyewitness News (watch interview).
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
OBAMA SEX PERV SCANDAL
The ENQUIRER exclusively reports a “sex pervert” was Sen. Barack Obama’s longtime mentor and “father figure”.
For seven years, the presidential candidate had a “father-son” relationship with Frank Marshall Davis, who has confessed to having sex with children, sadomasochism, bondage and practicing a wide array of deviant sexual activities.
In his 1995 memoir Dreams from My Father, Obama identifies his childhood mentor only as “Frank,” but Obama insiders later confirmed he was referring to Davis, a journalist and poet who was a pal of Obama’s maternal grandfather, Stanley Dunham.
Frank Marshall Davis admitted in his private papers that he had secretly authored a hard-core pornographic autobiography called Sex Rebel: Black, published in 1968. The author of the book – a copy of which was been obtained by The ENQUIRER – is listed as “Bob Greene.” Davis later confessed to its authorship after a reader noticed similarities in style and phraseology between that book and Davis’ poetry.
Posted in Sexual Deviants | No Comments »
Monday, October 13th, 2008
1 in 3 ATL police academy grads have criminal records
Keovongsa Siharath was arrested in Henry County on charges he punched his stepfather.
Jeffrey Churchill was charged with assault in an altercation with a woman in a mall parking lot.
Calvin Thomas was taken into custody in DeKalb County on a concealed weapons charge.
All three are now officers with the Atlanta Police Department.
More than one-third of recent Atlanta Police Academy graduates have been arrested or cited for a crime, according to a review of their job applications. The arrests ranged from minor offenses such as shoplifting to violent charges including assault. More than one-third of the officers had been rejected by other law enforcement agencies, and more than half of the recruits admitted using marijuana.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Sunday, October 12th, 2008
Jobseekers duped into getting face tattoos
TWO Indonesian jobseekers have been tricked into getting their faces tattooed by a bogus official offering government jobs.
Village chief Sawiyono – who was helping the men find jobs in Jakarta – claimed he had received a text message from a government official offering them work as intelligence officers but saying they would have to be inked first with a dragon tattoo, Antara state news agency said.
Sawiyono realised he had been tricked after checking with the subdistrict chief of the Bojonegoro district of East Java who told him there was no such requirement.
But by then it was too late and the men had already been tattooed, the report said.
“I am fully responsible for the mistake and I will do my best to help the men remove their tattoos,” Sawiyono said.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Sunday, October 12th, 2008
Florida Mailman Bitten by Rattlesnake Hiding in Mailbox
Forget rain, sleet or snow. The bite of a poisonous snake didn’t keep mail carrier Efraim Arango from his mail route on Friday.
The 66-year-old Arango was bitten as he slipped mail inside a box. He told authorities that he shook his arm and thwacked the small snake against his car door to break its grip.
Arango continued to deliver mail for 30 minutes before seeking help.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Friday, October 10th, 2008
Disgraced politician withdraws from Parliament
The political career of one of Norway?s rare MPs from an ethnic minority remained in jeopardy Friday, after she was caught running up huge phone bills by calling clairvoyants for advice, also on political matters.
Saera Khan, who went on sick leave after admitting to the reason for her high phone bills, withdrew her name late Thursday from her party’s list of candidates for the Parliament next year, and from other duties. That means she won’t seek re-election.
Posted in Politico Follies | No Comments »
Friday, October 10th, 2008
Berlusconi Says Leaders May Close World’s Markets:
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said political leaders are discussing the idea of closing the world’s financial markets while they “rewrite the rules of international finance.” “The idea of suspending the markets for the time it takes to rewrite the rules is being discussed,” Berlusconi said today after a Cabinet meeting in Naples, Italy. A solution to the financial crisis “can’t just be for one country, or even just for Europe, but global.” The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much 8.1 percent in early trading and pared most of those losses after Berlusconi’s remarks. The Dow was down 0.5 percent to 8540.52 at 10:10 in New York. Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers are meeting in Washington today, and will stay in town for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings this weekend. European Union leaders may gather in Paris on Oct. 12, three days before a scheduled summit in Brussels, Berlusconi said today, while Group of Eight leaders may hold a meeting on the crisis “in coming days,” he said.
Posted in Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Locals Fear Giant Catfish Develop Taste for Live Humans After Feeding on Corpses in River Grave
A fearsome fish has started killing people after feeding on human corpses, scientists fear. They reckon that a huge type of catfish, called a goonch, may have developed a taste for flesh in an Indian river where bodies are dumped after funerals. Locals have believed for years that a mysterious monster lurks in the water. But they think it has moved on from scavenging to snatching unwary bathers who venture into the Great Kali, which flows along the India-Nepal border.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
Unregulated Sperm Donation Causes 30 Women to Be Impregnated by Same Man
Unregulated sperm donation has led to a situation where children from the same community are potentially at risk for incestuous relationships.
Reverend Dr. Andrew Dutney, a reproductive technology expert in South Australia, said in one reported case, about 30 lesbians living in Adelaide, Australia, were impregnated by the sperm from one man.
Those mothers organized picnics so the children could get to know one another as siblings, thus reducing the risk for future romantic relationships.
In another case, a man?s sperm produced 29 children, all of whom were living in Adelaide. These children are unaware who their siblings are.
All of these children were born about 10 years ago, which means they will reach adolescence in a few years.
Posted in Sex | No Comments »
Thursday, October 9th, 2008
US officials may have uncoverd attempted voter fraud less than a month before US Election
US election officials believe they have uncovered massive attempted voter fraud less than a month before the country goes to the polls to choose its new president. Ballot box US authorities are desperate to stop voter fraud Eleven separate investigations have now been launched into a voter registration group called the Association of Community Organisations for Reform ? or Acorn. The authorities believe they may have duplicated voter forms, employed convicts to register people and even stolen the names of the American football team the Dallas Cowboys in order to create fake voters. The suspicions started when authorities in Las Vegas raided the organisation’s offices, removing eight computer hard drives and several boxes of documents.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
Grain shipments stalled in credit drought:
The credit crisis is spilling over into the grain industry as international buyers find themselves unable to come up with payment, forcing sellers to shoulder often substantial losses.
Before cargoes can be loaded at port, buyers typically must produce proof they are good for the money. But more deals are falling through as sellers decide they don’t trust the financial institution named in the buyer’s letter of credit, analysts said.
“There’s all kinds of stuff stacked up on docks right now that can’t be shipped because people can’t get letters of credit,” said Bill Gary, president of Commodity Information Systems in Oklahoma City. “The problem is not demand, and it’s not supply because we have plenty of supply. It’s finding anyone who can come up with the credit to buy.”
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Former Mr Gay UK ’slit boyfriend’s throat then marinated his diced flesh with fresh herbs’
A gay chef murdered his lover, cut out part of his leg, seasoned it with herbs and fried it, a court has heard. Anthony Morley, 35, chewed one of the pieces before throwing it into his kitchen bin. Morley, a former holder of the Mr Gay UK title, then walked to a nearby takeaway restaurant and told horrified staff: ‘I have killed someone, call the police’.
Posted in Cannibal Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Extremely drunk R.I. driver pleads no contest
A man who state police said had a blood alcohol level more than six times the legal limit when he was arrested in July has pleaded no contest to drunken driving.
As part of a plea deal, Stanley Kobierowski was sentenced Friday to one year probation, a $500 fine, 40 hours of community service and a one-year loss of his driver’s license.
The 34-year-old Kobierowski was arrested after driving into a highway message board on Interstate 95. Authorities said he had the highest blood alcohol level ever recorded for anyone in Rhode Island who wasn’t dead.
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Monday, October 6th, 2008
Police: Man Burned While Using Lighter To Siphon Gas
Mukwonago police said a man was burned while using a lighter to steal gas from a van.
Police said the man lives in Wauzeka and was visiting friends. But when he went to drive home early Saturday morning he didn’t have enough gas and attempted to siphon some from the van into his SUV, with help from a Mukwonago woman.
Police said when he couldn’t see how much was in the container, he used a lighter to check. A blast of fire burned his hands. Neighbors called police.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
Monday, October 6th, 2008
Fairgoers Catch, Save Toddler Dropped By Mom Dangling From Carnival Ride
A group of fairgoers caught and saved a toddler who was dropped nearly 40 feet from a carnival ride as her mother dangled above the crowd.
Sheri Pinkerton became trapped when the Crazy Bus ride at a carnival in Port Orange started up suddenly as Pinkerton and children were getting off the ride.
“I heard a bunch of screaming and I looked over and the school bus had started to go back up as the mother was getting off with her little girl,” Craft said. “She was pretty much caught. She was half in and half out. Her leg was caught up underneath the ride and she was holding on to her little girl.”
A group of men then gathered under the dangling mother and child and urged the woman to let go of her daughter.
Posted in You lucky bastard | No Comments »
Monday, October 6th, 2008
Albinos in Burundi flee killings:
Albinos in Burundi have been taking refuge after three of them were killed by gangs apparently seeking to sell body parts in neighbouring Tanzania. Four albinos were moved to a provincial centre on Thursday in Ruyigi, Burundi, where police were protecting them, the BBC’s Prime Ndikumagenge reports. Authorities have arrested six people in connection with the murder of an albino teenage girl in August. The attacks follow the killing of 26 Tanzanian albinos in less than a year.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Monday, October 6th, 2008
Marianna teacher ‘told students what ‘CHANGE’ stood for’
The Jackson County School Board has taken action against a teacher who apparently made racial commentary on presidential candidate Barack Obama.
According to parents and students in Greg Howard?s seventh-grade social studies class, Howard on Friday, Sept. 26 asked the class a question regarding Obama?s call for change, and proceeded to write out what the letters C-H-A-N-G-E stood for.
?She told me that he wrote on the board ?Can You Help A (expletive) Get Elected, and then laughed about it,? said Shelia Christian, a mother of one of Howard?s students.
Jackson County Superintendent Danny Sims said that description of this incident was ?pretty accurate.?
Sims said Howard apparently repeated the action in more than one class, having made the comment in ?a couple of periods.?
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Monday, October 6th, 2008
How to make money out of turmoil
If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95, with HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50, £1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5, but if you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium re-cycling plant, you would get £214. So based on the above statistics the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and re-cycle.
Posted in Fun with Alcohol | No Comments »
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
Somalia: 4 pirate attacks in 24 hours
There have been four failed pirate attacks in the last 24 hours off the lawless Somali coast despite the presence of six American warships guarding a hijacked ship full of weapons, a U.S. Navy spokeswoman said Saturday.
Navy Cmdr. Jane Campbell, from the 5th Fleet in Bahrain, says three attacks were averted because crew members escaped at high speed.
Another attack was foiled because the pirates were badly prepared: The ladder they had brought to climb on to the ship was too short.
The Navy says three of the attacks were in the heavily patrolled corridor within the Gulf of Aden. The location of another was not precisely known but was somewhere off the Somali coast.
Posted in Pirate Update | No Comments »
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
Firebomb Tossed Into Colorado Frat House; Brawl Follows
Someone tossed a firebomb into a fraternity house about a block from the University of Colorado, setting off a brawl in a nearby alley that sent one man to the hospital, police said.
The firebomb early Friday caused no injuries or significant damage, and residents had put the blaze out by the time firefighters arrived, police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said.
Huntley said it was probably not a hate crime, but more likely stemmed from a feud between the fraternity and residents of a nearby apartment or with another fraternity. No arrests had been made, and police had no individual suspects.
A jug of charcoal starter fluid with a burning firecracker attached was thrown into the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house through an open door about 2:15 a.m., Huntley said. Someone inside pushed it back out with a wet mop.
Posted in Fire | No Comments »
Saturday, October 4th, 2008
O.J. Simpson Found Guilty on All Charges in Robbery-Kidnap Trial
O.J. Simpson, who went from American sports idol to celebrity-in-exile after he was acquitted of murder in 1995, was found guilty Friday of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. The 61-year-old former football star could spend the rest of his life in prison. Sentencing was set for Dec. 5. A weary and somber Simpson released a heavy sigh as the charges were read by the clerk in Clark County District Court. He was immediately taken into custody.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Driver Castroneves pleads not guilty in tax case:
Race car driver and “Dancing With The Stars” winner Helio Castroneves pleaded not guilty Friday to federal tax evasion charges and declared outside the courtroom that he would treat the case like a race against the Internal Revenue Service.
“I’m a race car driver,” the two-time Indianapolis 500 winner told reporters. “This is a very difficult situation. I’ll be strong and I’ll win this race.”
Castroneves, 33, spoke after his release on $10 million bail following a court appearance in which he was shackled in handcuffs and leg chains and was visibly weeping into a wad of white tissue. Outside, Castroneves acknowledged he was overwhelmed by the weight of the moment.
“It’s been a long day. It’s been an emotional day, obviously,” he said. “I am not guilty.”
With that, Castroneves hopped into a waiting car and headed for a flight to Atlanta to participate in this weekend’s Petit Le Mans race. Terms of Castroneves’ release allow him to travel for work in the United States but not abroad, meaning he will likely miss a race later this month in Australia, said his attorney, Mark Seiden.
Posted in Idiot Celebrities | No Comments »
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Vegetarian Gluttons for Punishment Pursue Pain in Phuket
Doctors in Phuket, Thailand, are warning vegetarians at the annual Chinese Vegetarian Festival that piercing their faces with knives, axes, spades and beach umbrellas could expose them to health risks. Each year, health authorities warn devoted Buddhists that ?Ma Song,? the ritualistic self-infliction of pain, could cause HIV/AIDS and hepatitis infections. And every year, adherents walk barefoot over smoldering coals, climb ladders with rungs made of knife blades and bathe in hot oil?all in pursuit of spiritual trance which will earn good luck for themselves and their neighbors.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Crazy is as Crazy Does | No Comments »
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Crikey! 7-Year-Old Breaks Into Zoo, Feeds Animals to Croc
A blank-faced 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo’s director said Friday.
The boy jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australia early Wednesday, then went on a 30-minute killing spree, using a rock to slay three lizards, including the zoo’s beloved, 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to “Terry,” an 11-foot, 440-pound saltwater crocodile, said zoo director Rex Neindorf.
The boy, whose deadly acts were caught on the zoo’s security camera, also threw several live animals to Terry over the two fences surrounding the crocodile’s enclosure, at one point climbing over the outer fence to get closer to the giant reptile. In the footage, the boy’s face remains largely blank, Neindorf said.
“It was like he was playing a game,” he said.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
’Chilling’ Nuclear Doomsday Announcement Draft Released
The doomsday script was never used by the British Broadcasting Corp., but decades later the message remains haunting. “This is the wartime broadcasting service,” the announcement begins. “This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons.” The decades-old statement continues: Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. The announcer promises to bring further information as soon as possible and tells listeners to stay tuned. A draft of the message was released by the National Archives on Friday, along with letters between government bureaucrats and BBC executives offering a rare glimpse at a Cold War secret plan to deal with a nuclear attack. “This is chilling to read,” said Mark Dunton, a contemporary history specialist at the National Archives.
Posted in End of the World Update | No Comments »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
System administrator steals almost 20,000 pieces of computer gear
Now this is some serious computer theft. We’re talking 19,709 pieces of stolen computer equipment from the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. The theft included everything from PCs and printer toner to hard drives, software and other office equipment amounting to over $120,000 according to court documents and published reports.
The systems administrator, Victor Papagno plead guilty in federal court today to stealing the items in a period between 1997 and 2007 to benefit Papagno and his friends, reports said.
He took so much stuff that he stored some of it in neighbors’ houses, according to WTOP.com a local news outlet.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Surveillance of Skype messages found in China
A group of Canadian human-rights activists and computer security researchers has discovered a huge surveillance system in China that monitors and archives certain Internet text conversations that include politically charged words.
The system tracks text messages sent by customers of Tom-Skype, a joint venture between a Chinese wireless operator and eBay, the Web auctioneer that owns Skype, an online phone and text messaging service.
The discovery draws more attention to the Chinese government’s Internet monitoring and filtering efforts, which created controversy this summer during the Beijing Olympics. Researchers in China have estimated that 30,000 or more “Internet police” monitor online traffic, Web sites and blogs for political and other offending content in what is called the Golden Shield Project or the Great Firewall of China.
The activists, who are based at Citizen Lab, a research group that focuses on politics and the Internet at the University of Toronto, discovered the surveillance operation last month. They said a cluster of eight message-logging computers in China contained more than a million censored messages. They examined the text messages and reconstructed a list of restricted words.
The list includes words related to the religious group Falun Gong, Taiwan independence and the Chinese Communist Party, according to the researchers. It includes not only words like democracy, but also earthquake and milk powder. (Chinese officials are facing criticism over the handling of earthquake relief and chemicals tainting milk powder.)
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships | No Comments »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
‘How Far Can You Bounce?’ Shouts Push Suicidal Teen to Death Leap
Jeering onlookers goaded a teenager in Britain to jump to his death, undermining police efforts to talk him down, and then took pictures of the body.
Tuesday as 17-year-old Shaun Dykes prepared to jump from the top of a multi-storey carpark in Derby, northern England, spectators allegedly shouted to him: “How far can you bounce?,” the U.K.’s MailOnline reported.
As Dykes hesitated for three hours on the ledge while police unsuccessfully tried to reason him out of taking his life, teenagers who had gathered below shouted “Jump” and “Get on with it,” according to police and witnesses.
Then after Dykes lay in a crumpled heap on the pavement the same hecklers rushed out from behind the police cordon to take photos of the body.
“When he (Dykes) fell, lots of people were screaming and crying but there were several groups of youths who ran from behind the cordon and looked like they were taking pictures with their mobile phones,” a local shopkeeper was quoted as telling the MailOnline.
Posted in Suicidal Tendencies | No Comments »
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008
Soldier posted to Siberia for online whinge
If Russian soldiers have anything to sing about they usually do it in foot-stomping Cossack choirs belting out the words to Kalinka.
Lieutenant Vitaly Efremov decided to take a more modern approach: he made a rap video, released online, complaining about the rotten state of his barracks.
The clip hit a nerve with the top brass, which decided to post him to Siberia, where he can exercise his musical talents in the windswept tundra. He can probably consider himself lucky that he did not sing Elvis Presley?s Jail House Rock or the Pretenders? Back on the Chain Gang.
The lieutenant modelled his video on Stan by Eminem, in which the rapper sends a letter to a frustrated fan. The Russian letter is to Anatoly Serdyakov, the Defence Minister, and is set against a backdrop of military decay: a crowded barrack room with peeling wallpaper, a scabrous bathroom, erratic shower water and broken equipment.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
Scientists: Earth May Exist in Giant Cosmic Bubble
If the notion of dark energy sounds improbable, get ready for an even more outlandish suggestion. Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly devoid of matter. Scientists say this condition could account for the apparent acceleration of the universe’s expansion, for which dark energy currently is the leading explanation.
Posted in Weird Science | No Comments »
