Archive for November, 2008
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
Panda bites student seeking a hug
A college student in southern China was bitten by a panda after he broke into the bear’s enclosure hoping to get a hug, state media and a park employee said Saturday.
Don’t be deceived. Pandas might look cute but they’re not to be trifled with. Don’t be deceived. Pandas might look cute but they’re not to be trifled with. The student was visiting Qixing Park with classmates on Friday when he jumped the 6.5-foot (2-meter) high fence around the panda’s habitat, said the park employee, who refused to give his name.
The park in Guilin, a popular tourist town in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, houses a small zoo and a panda exhibit. It was virtually deserted when the student scaled the fence surrounding the panda, named Yang Yang, the employee said.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
Malaysia outlaws yoga for Muslims:
Millions of people in Malaysia have been banned from doing yoga because of fears it could corrupt Muslims.
The Islamic authorities have issued a ruling, known as a fatwa, instructing the country’s Muslims to avoid yoga because of its Hindu roots.
To most people yoga is simply a sport – a stress-busting start to the day.
Malaysia’s National Fatwa Council said it goes further than that and that elements of the Indian religion are inherent in yoga.
Announcing the decision, the council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin said practices like chanting and what he called worshipping were inappropriate and they could “destroy the faith of a Muslim”.
Posted in T.R.O.P. | No Comments »
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
Who doesn’t have a belly button?:
Underwear model Karolina Kurkova has no belly button. Is a barely-there navel for cosmetic or medical reasons?
The newspapers call it the “riddle of the £2.5m beauty”. The beauty in question is Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova. The riddle is her non-existent belly button.
Its absence was noticed this week when the 24-year-old graced a US catwalk for lingerie giant Victoria Secret. While most of us have an “outie” or an “innie”, Ms Kurkova has a smooth indentation (although sometimes a tummy button is airbrushed onto her photos in post-production).
Otherwise known as a navel, the belly button is the rounded, knotty depression in the centre of the abdomen caused by the detachment of the umbilical cord that fed you while in the womb. We all have umbilical cords, so why don’t we all have a belly button?
Posted in Human Oddities | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Authorities Say Vodka-Drinking Father Accidently Shoots, Kills Daughter
A father arrested after his 6-year-old daughter was shot to death in their Washington state home allegedly told police he had been drinking double shots of vodka while cleaning his guns. Court papers say Richard Peters told detectives he had asked his daughter, Stormy, to bring him the .45-caliber handgun Sunday. He said he must have pulled the trigger, and the girl fell to the floor. She was pronounced dead Monday. Bail for Richard Peters, 42, was set Monday at $250,000. He has been arrested for investigation of first-degree manslaughter.
Posted in Oops | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
German Medic’s Account Confirms Hitler Had Only One Testicle
An extraordinary account from a German army medic has finally confirmed what the world long suspected: Hitler only had one testicle.
War veteran Johan Jambor made the revelation to a priest in the 1960s, who wrote it down.
The priest?s document has now come to light ?- 23 years after Jambor?s death.
The war tyrant?s medical condition has been mocked for years in a British song.
The lyrics are: “Hitler has only got one ball, Göring has two but very small, Himmler is somewhat sim’lar, But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all. Hitler has only got one ball, The other is on the kitchen wall, His mother, the dirty b??r, Chopped it off when he was small.”
Posted in Nazis | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
Indian Navy sinks pirate mothership during bold stand-off in Gulf of Aden
An Indian navy warship has sunk a Somali pirate “mother ship” in the Gulf of Aden, the world’s most treacherous waterway, after the renegades threatened to attack the frigate.
The clash happened as pirates claimed to begin negotiations over a ransom for the Saudi super-tanker that was seized nearby on Saturday with two Britons aboard. The Sirius Star, which is carrying at least $100 million worth of oil, is the biggest ship ever to be hijacked.
INS Tabar, an Indian frigate dispatched last month to the area to protect the country’s merchant fleet, sighted the pirate vessel late on Tuesday. Indian officers said they spotted pirates moving on the deck with rocket propelled grenade launchers and automatic weapons.
“On repeated calls, the vessel’s threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship,” the Indian Navy said in a statement.
“INS Tabar retaliated in self defence and opened fire on the mother vessel.
“As a result of the firing by INS Tabar, fire broke out on the vessel and explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel.”
Posted in Pirate Update | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Pirates seize another ship in Gulf of Aden:
A Hong Kong cargo ship loaded with 36,000 tonnes of wheat bound for Iran was hijacked on Tuesday by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, near the Yemeni coast.
The latest example of piracy came as a Saudi supertanker, seized by pirates on Monday and laden with an estimated 2m barrels of oil, was confirmed to be anchored off the coast of Somalia.
Vela International, owner of the oil tanker called Sirus Star, said on Tuesday that they had established contact with the pirates and were seeking to ensure the safety of the 25-man crew.
The pirates seized control of the tanker on Saturday, 450 nautical miles south-east of the Kenyan Indian Ocean port of Mombasa. The attack marked a significant escalation in the scope of banditry in the region.
It is estimated that the tanker was holding more than a quarter of the daily exports from Saudi Arabia, the world?s largest oil exporter. The oil would have been worth about $100m (?79m, £66.5m) at Monday?s market price but is probably of little interest to the pirates.
Posted in Pirate Update | No Comments »
Monday, November 17th, 2008
Albino girl killed for body parts:
A six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine. Albinos in the region have been targeted because of a belief peddled by witchdoctors that their body parts can be used for magic potions. The girl, who was attacked on Sunday, was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Monday, November 17th, 2008
Ohio man captures commanders-in-chief in Etch A Sketch portraits:
He calls himself “Mr. Etch A Sketch.”
His motto is: “Shake my hand, not my work.”
While other Etch A Sketch artists may be more elegant, some creating sublime characterizations of famous paintings or the world around them, there are probably none more prolific than Tim George, an artist so well-known that Ohio Art sends him specially produced Etch A Sketches to preserve his works.
On Election Night, just after the returns were announced, Mr. George, a 58-year-old bank security guard, unveiled his portrait of President-elect Barack Obama, whose likeness joined those of the other 43 presidents of the United States that Mr. George drew using an Etch A Sketch.
Posted in Ars Gratia Artis | No Comments »
Saturday, November 15th, 2008
Police raids reveal ‘baby farms’
POLICE raids have revealed an alleged network baby “farms” or “factories” in Nigeria, forcing a new look at the scope of people trafficking in the country. At a hospital in Enugu, a large city in Nigeria’s southeast, 20 teenage girls were rescued in May in a police swoop on what was believed to be one of the largest infant trafficking rings in the west African country. The two-storey building on a dusty street in Enugu’s teeming Uwani district now stands deserted, shutters down. Neighbours had long found something bizarre about the establishment, where there was virtually no activity during the day, they said. The doctor in charge, who is now on trial, reportedly lured teenagers with unwanted pregnancies by offering to help with abortion. They would be locked up there until they gave birth, whereupon they would be forced to give up their babies for a token fee of around 20,000 naira ($170). The babies would then be sold to buyers for anything between 300,000 and 450,000 naira ($2500-$3800) each, according to a state agency fighting human trafficking in Nigeria, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
Posted in Slavery | No Comments »
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Jim Jones’ followers enthralled by his skills as a speaker
The key to understanding the tragedy that was Jonestown lies in the oratory skills of the Peoples Temple founder, Jim Jones. Rev. Jim Jones “He was very charismatic,” Leslie Wagner-Wilson, a Jonestown survivor, says of the Rev. Jim Jones. Click to view previous image 1 of 2 Click to view next image With the cadence and fervor of a Baptist preacher, the charm and folksiness of a country storyteller and the zeal and fury of a maniacal dictator, Jones exhorted his followers to a fever pitch, audiotapes recovered from Jonestown reveal. As he spoke, they applauded, shouted, cheered. One follower who survived the “revolutionary suicide” at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, said that Jones was the most dynamic speaker he had ever heard. Like all powerful speakers, Jones’ greatest asset was his ability to determine what listeners wanted to hear and give it to them in simple language that appealed to them on an almost instinctual level.
Posted in Cultural Oddities | No Comments »
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Spam Volumes Drop by Two-Thirds After Firm Goes Offline
The volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide plummeted on Tuesday after a Web hosting firm identified by the computer security community as a major host of organizations engaged in spam activity was taken offline. (Note: A link to the full story on McColo’s demise is available here.) scmc.jpg Experts say the precipitous drop-off in spam comes from Internet providers unplugging McColo Corp., a hosting provider in Northern California that was the home base for machines responsible for coordinating the sending of roughly 75 percent of all spam each day.
Posted in Hackers and Hacking | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
Swedish bestiality ring exposed
A Swedish newspaper has exposed a network of self-proclaimed zoophiles who meet regularly in locations around the country to have sex with animals.
The group, consisting of an estimated thirty people, is headed by a 45-year-old father of two, Expressen reports.
The unmarried former managing director is also moderator of a large internet animal sex forum and has a number of dogs and horses on his farm in southern Sweden.
Having infiltrated the network over a period of several months, Expressen eventually confronted the 45-year-old over his alleged mistreatment of animals.
But the man was quick to defend his relations with a bitch he bought online from a city-dwelling family who said they wanted the dog to have a better life in the countryside.
Posted in Sexual Deviants | No Comments »
Monday, November 10th, 2008
Jewish group mulls charges over neo-Nazi Obama slurs:
A prominent Jewish group said Monday it was reviewing legal options against a German neo-Nazi party for “racist” remarks calling Barack Obama’s election a “declaration of war” on non-white America.
The Berlin chapter of the American Jewish Committee (AFC) condemned statements made by Juergen Gansel, a deputy in the Saxony state legislature for the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany, against Obama’s election as the first African-American US president.
In a statement from his office entitled “Africa conquers the White House,” Gansel said multicultural America sought the destruction of “pure” national cultures and that Obama aimed to destroy the United States’ “white identity.”
“A non-white America is a declaration of war on all people who believe an organically grown social order based on language and culture, history and heritage to be the essence of humanity,” he said.
“Barack Obama hides this declaration of war behind his pushy sunshine smile.”
Gansel said Obama’s triumph was the product of “the American alliance of Jews and Negroes” and warned the president-elect enjoyed too much popularity in Germany.
“Many people in the ‘diverse’ republic Germany have been swept up in Obama fever which resembles an African tropical disease,” he said.
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Monday, November 10th, 2008
Pol Who Peed on Crowd Swears Off Booze
The New Jersey councilman who allegedly urinated on a crowd of concertgoers from the balcony of a Washington, D.C. nightclub swore off booze on Sunday — two days after he was busted for the embarrassing stunt.
“I’ve resolved not to touch alcohol again,” two-term Jersey City councilman Steve Lipski told the Fox 5 New York.
He went on to say that the incident was “deeply humiliating, very embarrassing” and troubling,” the Daily News reported.
The 44-year-old Democratic councilman refused to admit to the lewd stunt.
“I can’t comment on that,” he told Fox5 News. “I’m going to continue to do all the good things, and I’m not going to let this overshadow me.”
Posted in Politico Follies | No Comments »
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
Hens eggs exploding because of hot-air balloons
Abbi Vincent-Lloyd said she lost 30 hens on days when balloons were flying low over her Herefordshire farm. She claimed the stress of seeing the enormous balloons overhead caused them to run for cover. It is as they desperately try to find shelter that they bump into each other or their surroundings, exploding the eggs inside them, she said. This in turn causes an infection, which is thought to have led to scores of them dying. Miss Vincent-Lloyd, 32, said post mortems of the animals revealed they had died from peritonitis, developed from the egg being released inside them. She said: “I had lost about 15 birds when I decided to have the vet do a post mortem on two of them. “I told the vet about the hot-air balloons and jets flying low over the farm and straight away he said that was the cause. “As soon as the gas is released to raise the balloon they go absolutely crazy. “It is absolute chaos, when they go into anything and that causes the egg to explode inside them.
Posted in Yuck! | No Comments »
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
Wipeout: the moment a surfer was dumped by a 40ft wave
It was a ?dark, evil wave? that almost killed him, but for Australian surfer Kerby Brown, riding this 12m (40ft) monster in his own backyard was one of the highlights of his surfing career.
The 25-year-old surfed the enormous break at an outdoor reef in the Southern Ocean ?somewhere between Margaret River and South Australia? on the southwest coast of Western Australia (WA) last August.
Local surfers discovered the break ? the exact location of which they want to keep secret ? after deep-sea fisherman alerted them to the amazing waves they had seen about 15km (9 miles) off the coast.
Mr Brown and his entourage, including his brother Courtney, decided to try and ride the dangerous break – which is only suitable to surf about four or five times a year because of the rough conditions – just before the sunset one day when the perfect wave presented itself.
?We sat out there and waited and watched for a long time, and then about an hour before dark the water dropped so we just went for it,? Mr Brown, who comes from Kalbarri, north of Perth in WA, told Times Online.
Posted in Hard Core! | No Comments »
Saturday, November 8th, 2008
Man held in dog molest
A Fresno man who is a registered sex offender was booked into Fresno County Jail on Friday for allegedly sexually molesting his girlfriend’s dog.
Joe Luis Gloria, 26, was arrested after police responded to a southeast Fresno home, where Gloria lived with his girlfriend, to a report of domestic violence.
Police found that Gloria’s girlfriend, who was not identified, was injured in a fight that began when the woman learned Gloria was molesting her 1-year old Chihuahua mix named Precious.
After examining the dog, officers found that the dog had suffered “trauma to her genital area,” said Fresno police Sgt. John Monpere.
Posted in Sexual Deviants | No Comments »
Friday, November 7th, 2008
Cleaning cobwebs with blow torch blamed for house fire in Sargent
A single-story home in Sargent was damaged by fire Wednesday morning after the homeowner accidentally set the fire while cleaning cobwebs from the eaves around the exterior of the residence with a blow torch. The 1,400-square-foot, single-story home belonging to Galen and Tammy Winchell is at 59 Smith Road in Sargent. Shortly before 11 a.m. — according to Coweta Fire Investigator James Gantt — Galen Winchell was admittedly torching cobwebs when he noticed smoke coming from his home. Emergency officials were notified immediately and three engines responded to the scene along with rescue squads, according to Gantt.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »
Friday, November 7th, 2008
Drug Gang Hangs Beheaded Man From Overpass:
A beheaded man was hung from an overpass Thursday, a gruesome display even for this northern border city long used to drug-related violence. Shortly after the grisly sighting about 5 a.m., police found the victim’s head in a black bag in a nearby plaza, said state police spokesman Alejandro Pariente. Pariente said the body was wearing black jeans, a red T-shirt and white sneakers, and was handcuffed. A banner apparently directed at rival drug-gang members was hung next to the corpse. The victim’s father identified the 23-year-old man.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, November 7th, 2008
British journalist covering Barack Obama caught on camera in drunk, plagiarism rant
Sometimes, you wake up following a drunken night out and realise you have sent an inappropriate text to an ex-girlfriend or your boss.
And sometimes you realise you have drunkenly admitted to plagiarism to camera, and spectacularly resigned from your job, shouting “F**k you’ to your boss.
This is what happened to Birmingham Mail reporter Adam Smith on Wednesday morning, as footage appeared on YouTube of him writing a report on the US election, slumped on a Miami pavement, and barely able to speak.
Mr Smith, who also calls himself Steve Zacharanda in the hit video which was viewed almost 20,000 times in 48 hours, had taken a week’s holiday to go to Miami to volunteer for the Barack Obama election campaign.
…
“I jumped on a plane on Friday to volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign,” Mr Smith explained in a strong, if rather slurred, Brummie accent. “As an ill-advised promise, I’ve decided to say to my paper back home that I’d write about the American election.
“I wanted to be here because I’m here for history. The trouble is, the readers of the Birmingham Mail are going to get my version of history. And I’m just a little bit pissed…”
With a laugh and a clap of the hands, he added: “And thank god for the BBC, because I’m cutting and pasting, oh, baby!”
Not wanting to seem too unprofessional, he added: “I’m a proper news journalist.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Friday, November 7th, 2008
Fox Bursts Into South Carolina Church, Bites Pastor’s Daughter and 2 Others Before Being Killed
Evening youth programs at a South Carolina church were interrupted when a fox burst in and attacked three people. The bite victims are now waiting to see whether they’ll need to be treated for rabies after the Wednesday night incident. The Herald-Journal of Spartanburg reported Friday that a woman opened the door of the family life center at Liberty Baptist Church in Inman to lead youth group members to the main building when the fox pounced. The animal jumped on the skirt of Pastor David Duncan’s 20-year-old daughter, Alicia Duncan, and its teeth scratched her legs, he said. Two other people were bitten.
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
First Trial against an American Surgeon for Killing a Patient to Harvest Organs Begins:
A San Francisco surgeon is undergoing trial for allegedly hastening the death of a terminally ill patient to harvest his vital organs.
The case against Hootan Roozrokh is believed to be the first of its kind brought against an American transplant surgeon.
Rosa Navarro, the patient?s mother, successfully filed suit against the hospital where the patient died and received $250,000 in compensation. Now the District Attorney?s office is pressing charges against the 34-year-old surgeon for ?dependent adult abuse, administering a harmful substance and prescribing controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose.?
Roozrokh is also being charged with giving the 25-year old Ruben Navarro an antiseptic called Betadine, normally administered to an organ donor after death, via feeding tube to the stomach. Some commentators suggest the antiseptic was ultimately responsible for the patient?s death.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities | No Comments »
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
UK police: man charged with having IEDs, Nazi book
British police charged a 43-year-old man Thursday with plotting an act of terrorism and having two improvised explosive devices, chemicals, timers, and a Nazi-themed handbook.
Neil Christopher Lewington was first arrested last week after police discovered a suspected explosive device when they searched him at a railway station in Lowestoft, a coastal city in eastern England.
He was originally charged with possessing an item to cause criminal damage and was released on bail Saturday. But he was immediately re-arrested by Scotland Yard.
Scotland Yard said in a statement that Lewington carried two improvised explosive devices to Lowestoft from Reading, a city near London where he lives, on Oct. 30. It said Lewington was being charged with making or having an explosive substance intended to “to endanger life, or cause serious injury to property in the U.K.”
The police statement said Lewington had four containers of weed killer, seven timers, three tennis balls, fire lighters, and a book entitled: “Waffen SS U.K. Members Handbook.”
Posted in Nazis | No Comments »
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Italian leader: Obama ‘handsome and even tanned’:
Italy’s famously impolitic Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi described U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday as “young, handsome and even tanned.”
Berlusconi appeared to be joking about America’s first black president at a news conference following talks with Russia’s president.
The Italian leader, who has a history of controversial remarks, was asked by a reporter about the prospect for U.S.-Russian relations, which have plummeted to Cold War-levels in recent months.
Berlusconi responded by saying that the relative youth of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, 43, and Obama, 47, should make it easier for Moscow and Washington to work together.
Then he said, smiling: “I told the president that (Obama) has everything needed in order to reach deals with him: he’s young, handsome and even tanned.”
Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 5th, 2008
Jogger runs mile with rabid fox locked on her arm:
With a fox locked onto her arm, an Arizona jogger ran a mile to her car, where she was able to dislodge the animal, throw it into the trunk and drive to a Prescott hospital. The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said the fox, which later attacked an animal control officer, tested positive for rabies. The unidentified Chino Valley resident told deputies she was on a trail Monday at the base of Granite Mountain when the fox attacked, biting her foot. The woman said she grabbed it by the neck when it went for her leg and it latched onto her arm. Thinking the fox was rabid, she wanted to make sure it didn’t get away so she ran to her car, where she was able to pry open its jaws, wrap it in a sweat shirt and toss it into the trunk.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »
