Archive for June, 2010

Maggots on a Plane

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Maggot infestation grounds US plane.

Maggots falling from an overhead luggage bin has stopped a US plane from taking off.

Passengers were horrified to see the larvae dropping onto an unsuspecting passenger as others began to panic and cause a commotion, US media report.

US Airways blamed spoiled meat in a suitcase on board the Atlanta-to-New York flight on Monday.

The plane was taxiing down the runway at Atlanta’s international airport when passengers were told they would be returning to the airport gate because of a “minor emergency”.

“The maggots, they started to drip out of the bin in row 15,” passenger Dona Adamo told TV network Fox 5.

Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Yuck! | No Comments »

Lose a game, go to the coal mines

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

North Korean team will be sent to coal mines as punishment, reports say

MORE than one disgraced national team has been heckled by angry fans on returning home – but North Korea’s misfiring stars reportedly face a much harsher punishment.

Unfortunately, crazed dictator Kim Jong-il chose the 7-0 mauling at the hands of Portugal to be the first football game ever broadcast in the impoverished communist nation.

“The Portuguese won the game and now have four points,” the Korean Central Broadcasting commentator said at the conclusion of the match. “We are ending our live broadcast now.” It then cut to factory workers and engineers praising the Dear Leader.

Seems the result may not have tallied too well with Kim Jong-il’s narrative that North Korea is a socialist paradise populated by athletic supermen.

Moon Ki-Nam, a former North Korean coach who fled the country in 2004, told reporters: “The players and coach are rewarded with huge houses when they win. But they have to atone for losing by being sent to work in the coal mines.”

Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, N. Korea | No Comments »

“He had nothing else to do at that point, so he had another beer.”

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Trapped drunk driver opens another beer as awaits rescue

A drunk driver trapped after overturning his car cracked open another can of beer while he waited for emergency crews to rescue him, a New Zealand court was told.

Paul Nigel Sneddon, 47, pleaded guilty to careless driving and drunken driving after being nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit in a district court in the city of Palmerston North, the Dominion Post newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Police found Sneddon, a former baker, trapped in his overturned Ford Laser on June 1, drinking a can of beer after he failed to take a corner properly and crashed through a wooden barrier, flipping his vehicle.

Defense lawyer Peter Young said that when Sneddon found he could not open the doors, “he had nothing else to do at that point, so he had another beer.”

When asked by police how much he had consumed, Sneddon replied: “Plenty, I’ve been drinking for four days straight.”

Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Fun with Alcohol | No Comments »

Black Bloc Rocks Toronto

Saturday, June 26th, 2010

Thousands protest summit in Canada; vandals smash windows, torch police cars.

Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful protesters at the World Summit, torching police cruisers and smashing windows with baseball bats and hammers.

Police with shields and clubs earlier pushed back another small group of demonstrators who tried to head south toward the security fence surrounding the perimeter of the Group of Twenty global economic summit site. Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police.

“This isn’t our Toronto and my response is anger,” Toronto Mayor David Miller told CP24 television. “Every Torontonian should be outraged by this.”

The roving band of protesters in black balaclavas shattered shop windows for blocks, including at police headquarters, then shed some of their black clothes, revealing other garments, and continued to rampage through downtown Toronto.

Protesters torched at least two police cruisers in different parts of the city.

Police in riot gear and riding bikes formed a blockade, keeping protesters from approaching the security fence a few blocks south of the march route. Police closed a stretch of Toronto’s subway system along the protest route and the largest shopping mall downtown closed after the protest took a turn for the worse.

Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Anarchy | No Comments »

Heads! Heads! Heads!

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Southwest Finds Shipment of Heads on a Plane 

A Southwest Airlines employee called police after finding 40 to 60 human heads in a package set to be transported to a Fort Worth medical research company, the airline said.

“It wasn’t labeled or packaged properly,” said Ashley Rogers, a Southwest spokeswoman. “They called the local authorities.”

The incident happened in Little Rock, Ark., last Wednesday, she said.

Little Rock police turned the heads over to the county coroner, who questions where they came from and if they were properly obtained.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that there is a black market out there for human body parts for research or for whatever reason,” said Pulaski County coroner Garland Camper. “We just want to make sure these specimens here aren’t a part of that black market and underground trade.”

Posted in Weird Science, Yuck! | No Comments »

Matadors are not allowed to run away

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Cowardly matador arrested for fleeing ring

A Mexican matador was arrested for breaching his contract after losing his nerve and running from the bullring.

The 22-year-old vaulted over the protective wall at the side of the ring as the crowd hooted and whistled in derision.

He was briefly persuaded back into the bullring by organisers but gave up before coming face to face with half-ton beast and skulked from the ring a second time.

He was arrested after the bullfight following complaints by organisers that he had breached his contract.

He was later released after paying a fine.

Posted in Concentrated Stupidity | No Comments »

Turtle videography in the Caribbean

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Home video filmed by a TURTLE as diver’s lost camera is taken on a 1,100-mile ocean odyssey

The 1,100-mile journey of a diver’s camera lost in the Caribbean has been revealed with the extraordinary help of a sea turtle who switched it on and filmed some of the epic adventure.

Royal Dutch Navy sergeant Dick de Bruin was exploring a wreck off the tropical island of Aruba last year when his bright red camera silently floated away.

Yet following a six-month odyssey the camera has found its way back to Mr Dr Bruin, with some unique ocean footage recorded by the turtle.

The lost camera was reunited with Mr de Bruin thanks to some impressive detective work by a Florida coastguard, who spotted it pounding against the rocks of a Key West marina on May 16.

Paul Shultz waded into the waters for a closer look and fished out the Nikon camera, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.

Its waterproof plastic case was covered with six months’ worth of crusty sea growth, but the camera itself was in an almost pristine condition.

However, clues to tracking down its owner were few.

There were photos of two men preparing to scuba dive; a family nestled together on a couch; a mysterious relic settled deep into the sea floor – and a puzzling video clip of splashing water that appeared to have been taken as the camera thrashed around under the control of something that wasn’t human.

Posted in Animal Rebellion Update | No Comments »

Politically incorrect at the Bundesbank

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

Bundesbank’s Thilo Sarrazin: ‘Immigrants making Germany dumber’

Immigrants are making Germany ‘dumber’, according to a board member of the country’s central bank.

 Thilo Sarrazin claimed the ‘limited education’ of immigrants – coupled with their high birth rate – meant Germans ‘are becoming dumber in a simple way’.

He said: ‘There’s a difference in the reproduction of population groups with varying intelligence.’

It is not the first time the 65-year-old member of the Bundesbank has caused controversy since he joined last year.

In October he described Muslim children as ‘underclass’ citizens.

‘I don’t have to accept someone who lives off a state they reject, doesn’t properly take care of the education of his children-and keeps producing more little girls in headscarves,’ Mr Sarrazin said.

‘That goes for 70 percent of the Turkish and 90 percent of the Arabic population of Berlin.’

He added that they were not fit for much other than ‘fruit and vegetable selling’.

Posted in Politically Incorrect | No Comments »

A new comet for the summer

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

New Comet a Stunner — and Visible to Naked Eye:

A recently discovered comet is surprising skywatchers by becoming brighter than predictions had first suggested and can now be seen with the unaided eye during the next few weeks.

 Comet McNaught, officially catalogued as C/2009 R1, was discovered by Australian astronomer Robert McNaught last September using the using the 0.5-meter Uppsala Schmidt telescope and a CCD camera.

It’s the 51st comet that bears McNaught’s name.

Although initially an extremely faint object, enough observations of the newfound comet were made to allow Brian Marsden of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., to calculate an orbit.

Comet McNaught is expected to pass closest to the sun (perihelion) on July 2, at a distance of 37 million miles (60 million km).

The comet is visible now for people with dark skies away from urban and suburban lighting. By mid-June it may be an easy skywatching target for most people.

Posted in Space | No Comments »

Yet another gift from Comrade Stalin unearthed in Russia

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

Russian Stalin-era mass grave yields 495 skeletons:

Russia has uncovered at least 495 skeletons, many with head gunshot wounds, in a mass grave probably dating back to purges under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in the 1930s, municipal authorities said on Wednesday.

 At least 3.5 tonnes of bones were extracted from the site on the outskirts of the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok after it was discovered by workmen building a road, the city government said in a statement.

 Millions of Soviet citizens were executed or died in labour camps during Stalin’s rule from the 1920s until his death in 1953, but discoveries of mass graves became less frequent after a surge in finds that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Experts were checking the hypothesis that the bodies were victims of Stalin’s purges.

“Practically all of the skulls have bullet wounds,” said Yaroslav Livanksy, the head of a group of volunteers who helped to excavate the site.

Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Commies | No Comments »

Elephants up the ante in Bangladesh!

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Flame-throwing elephants clash with humans over resources in Bangladesh | Herald Sun:

AN increasing number of humans are being killed by wild elephants each year in Bangladesh – with many of the fatalities occurring because people settle in the animals’ migration corridors.

Bangladesh is home to only an estimated 227 wild Asian elephants, but up to 100 more migrate through the country each year, mostly through the north and northeast, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

As more people in Bangladesh, one of the world’s most densely populated nations, settle in the elephant corridor areas, they are more likely to be attacked by confused, angry pachyderms.

There are now hundreds of villages along the densely-forested Indian border and residents of the area say they frequently have to drive away herds of wild elephants that come to raid their paddy fields and fruit trees.

During harvesting season, the villagers form night patrols and use kerosene torches, firecrackers and drums to drive the elephants away, but these efforts are becoming increasingly futile.

Tribal leader Luise Neng Minja said the elephants, which shelter in the forest during the day and come down to villages at night, used to flee but now they are no longer so scared.

“I’ve seen an elephant snatch a torch from a man with its trunk while we were driving away a herd, and throw the flame on a house, setting it on fire,” said Luise, 51.

Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Fire | No Comments »

Never spill your guts to anyone named Lamo

Monday, June 7th, 2010

U.S. Intelligence Analyst Arrested in Wikileaks Video Probe

Federal officials have arrested an Army intelligence analyst who boasted of giving classified U.S. combat video and hundreds of thousands of classified State Department records to whistleblower site Wikileaks, Wired.com has learned.

SPC Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Maryland, was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles east of Baghdad, where he was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. A family member says he’s being held in custody in Kuwait, and has not been formally charged.

Manning was turned in late last month by a former computer hacker with whom he spoke online. In the course of their chats, Manning took credit for leaking a headline-making video of a helicopter attack that Wikileaks posted online in April. The video showed a deadly 2007 U.S. helicopter air strike in Baghdad that claimed the lives of several innocent civilians.

…

Manning came to the attention of the FBI and Army investigators after he contacted former hacker Adrian Lamo late last month over instant messenger and e-mail. Lamo had just been the subject of a Wired.com article. Very quickly in his exchange with the ex-hacker, Manning claimed to be the Wikileaks video leaker.

Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Hackers and Hacking, Treason is as Treason Does, War | No Comments »

Now kids, remember you’re not allowed to play ‘Beat the Jew’ until you get to college

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Local High School Ends ‘Beat The Jew’ Game:

Seven seniors at a Southern California high school were facing disciplinary action for participating in a game called “Beat the Jew” in which losers were subjected to “incineration” or “enslavement,” a school administrator said Friday.

The game involved some students playing the role of Nazis who blindfolded and dropped off other students playing Jews who must find their way back to the campus, said Sherry Johnstone, assistant superintendent of personnel for Desert Sands Unified School District.

It was not immediately clear what either punishment comprised for losing players, she said.

Posted in Teen Antics | No Comments »

Kids do the darndest things in Oz

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Boy, 7, goes on animal killing spree in Australian zoo:

The director of an Australian zoo said on Friday he is “horrified” after a seven-year-old boy broke into the zoo, fed an assortment of animals to a crocodile and clubbed various lizards to death with a rock.

The boy’s attacks happened early Wednesday and were captured on a zoo security camera, said Rex Neindorf, director of the Alice Springs Reptile Centre in Australia’s Northern Territory.

The boy, whose identity cannot be revealed, jumped the zoo’s security fence before bludgeoning three lizards to death with a rock, including the zoo’s much-loved 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to “Terry,” an 11-foot, 440-pound saltwater crocodile, said Neindorf.

The boy also threw several live animals into the crocodile’s enclosure, and at one point tried to clamber over the fence surrounding the enclosure in an effort to get closer to the crocodile.

Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Hard Core!, Yuck! | No Comments »

Jupiter takes one for the team

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Big Fireball on Jupiter Spotted by Amateur Astronomers:

A huge fireball has been spotted on Jupiter in yet another collision from space caught on camera and video by amateur astronomers.

The new Jupiter crash occurred on June 3 at 20:31 UT (4:31 p.m. Eastern Time) and was spotted by skywatcher Anthony Wesley in Australia and fellow amateur astronomer Christopher Go in the Philippines.

Wesley’s photos show the Jupiter fireball blazing in the atmosphere of the gas giant planet. So far, no visible scar in the clouds has been reported from the event.

Wesley described the event as a “large fireball” on his website, where he posted the photos taken from Broken Hill, Australia.

This new impact on Jupiter comes less than a year after a spectacular crash on July 19, 2009, when what scientist now think was an asteroid about 1,600 feet (500 meters) wide slammed into the planet.

That collision created a massive bruise the size of the Pacific Ocean. It was Wesley, too, who first spotted the July 2009 collision. His observations kicked off an international observation campaign to study the impact site.

Astronomers initially suspected a comet in last year’s impact, but announced this week that a rogue asteroid was the most likely culprit.

Posted in Space | No Comments »

Rachel Corrie stopped again, this time without a bulldozer

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Israeli Forces Board Gaza-Bound Aid Vessel:

Israeli forces seized a Gaza-bound aid vessel without meeting resistance on Saturday, preventing it from breaking an Israeli maritime blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory days after a similar effort turned bloody.

The military said its forces boarded the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie cargo ship from the sea, not helicopters. The takeover stood in marked contrast to a violent confrontation at sea earlier this week when Israeli commandos blocked a Turkish aid vessel trying to break the blockade.

At the time, Israeli commandos rappelled from helicopters and a clash with passengers left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead.

Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich says Saturday’s takeover took only a few minutes and that the vessel was being taken to Israel’s Ashdod port.

Posted in Idiot Activists, T.R.O.P., War | No Comments »

Drunk parrots mystifying Oz

Friday, June 4th, 2010

‘Drunk’ parrots litter Australian town:

Hundreds of seemingly drunk parrots are falling out of trees and the sky in a northern Australian town, mystifying veterinary surgeons who are struggling to care for them.

The brightly coloured lorikeets are showing classic signs of drunkenness by losing all coordination and passing out, and then cowering in cages as they recover from their “hangovers”.

“They definitely seem like they’re drunk,” said Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, near Darwin.

“They fall out of trees… and they’re not so coordinated as they would normally be.

They go to jump and they miss the next perch.”

 Hansen said nobody was sure what was causing the symptoms, although it may be a plant they are eating.

Other theories include an outbreak of a mystery virus.

Posted in Animal Weirdness | No Comments »