All news is sensational news

[dnl2ba]

Woman finds a HUMAN FINGER in her chili at Wendy's in San Jose (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/03/24/FINGER.TMP)

Dude, that Wendy's is on my way to work (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1405%20Monterey%20Road%2C%20san%20jose%2C%2 0ca&spn=0.035828%2C0.047776&hl=en)! (I take 280 to 87 to 85.)

[Ballz]

Wow. And I thought it was kind of crazy when I had a hamburger at Wendy's a few weeks ago that smelled and tasted like marijuana.

[dnl2ba]

The biggest problem with categorized posts is, well, trying to categorize everything. :o I'll put news news in the sensational news thread.

wow gay smiley.

Tsunami killed three times more women than men (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/03/26/tsunami.women.ap/index.html)


Although official statistics do not provide the gender of victims, partial data indicates that many more women than men were among the 300,000 dead and missing especially in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. Indonesia, the country hardest hit by the December 26 disaster, included tsunami-battered villages where men now outnumber women 10-to-1.
The report concluded that women suffered disproportionately because they had a more difficult time outrunning the surging waters or the bad luck of being at home while the men were out at sea fishing or in the fields working.
Indonesian women, according to Oxfam and women activists, are being sexually harassed in camps, forced or rushed into marrying much older men and victimized by abusive Indonesian soldiers who reportedly have strip searched them.
This fits in with some other statistic I'd read months or years ago about young men being disproportionately represented in disaster survivors, which has laid waste to my movie-inspired visions of women and children first.

I dunno if it's just what the reporter has elected to emphasize, but the men quoted or paraphrased sound primarily concerned with the loss of women's work utility and pleasuring power rather than the loss of individual loved ones:


"What we need is women but we also need money to get them," said Mohammed Ali, a 50-year-old sand miner from Lamsenia who lost his wife and five of his six children. "We also need a house. If we have a wife and no shelter, it means nothing."

Survivors in Lamsenia and Gampong Pandee say they mostly miss the chatter and laughter of the women. There is no one to do the cooking, the washing and most of all to keep them company at night.

[schally]

I dunno if it's just what the reporter has elected to emphasize, but the men quoted or paraphrased sound primarily concerned with the loss of women's work utility and pleasuring power rather than the loss of individual loved ones
That's nothing new, though. It's probably fair to say that at least half the world still views women as things rather than people.

[dnl2ba]

Bizarre accidents including melting pyjamas, being attacked by an alligator and bitten by centipedes put almost 1 million Britons in hospital last year, it emerged today.

Volcanic eruptions, lightning strikes, lizard bites and hornet stings caused some of the more unusual injuries listed by the Department of Health (DoH).
Hundreds more fell victims to natural hazards, with 54 people struck by lightning, 37 victims of "volcanic eruption", 25 injured in "catacylsmic storms", 12 suffered from avalanches and seven were victims of earthquakes. A further 107 were exposed to "unspecified forces of nature".

Other unusual injuries included four victims of noise exposure, four of vibration and 40 from contact with a high-pressure jet.

There were 22 incidents involving the "ignition or melting of nightwear", with stray cigarettes and faulty electric blankets likely to blame.

http://society.guardian.co.uk/health/story/0,7890,1447436,00.html

[dnl2ba]

Census figures for income by race (http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/03/28/education.income.ap/index.html)


Black and Asian women with bachelor's degrees earn slightly more than similarly educated white women, and white men with four-year degrees make more than anyone else.
College-educated men typically made $63,000, compared with $33,000 for men with just a high school education.

Among women, a college graduate earned more than $38,000, compared with nearly $22,000 for a high school graduate.
The gap between men and women has narrowed since the 1970s as younger, more educated women steadily replace older, less-educated women in the work force. For example, among 25- to 29-year-olds, more than 31 percent of women have finished at least four years of college, compared with 26 percent of men.

[dnl2ba]

Miss Universe 2002 has an IQ of 156 (http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1337537.html?menu=)


The test result forced Slovenia TV, the state broadcaster, to cancel its programme involving the model who left school at 16 to pursue a modelling career.

A spokesman for Bronz Model Management that represents Iris, 22, said: "They couldn't really do a programme making fun of dumb models when she turned out to be smarter than anyone else on the programme.

"They are now wondering if they can do a different programme about the world's smartest model, and are trying to persuade Guiness to accept it as a record category."

[Gump]

Intelligence has always been a huge turn-on for me.

[schally]

I'd hit it. (Because she's smart, of course.)

[dnl2ba]

I'm a brains man, it's true.

[dnl2ba]

Congress to consider birth control bill (http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/14/prescription.bill/index.html)


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Reports of pharmacists with particular religious and moral beliefs denying prescriptions for birth control have prompted legislation that would ensure all prescriptions are filled.

House and Senate backers unveiled a bill dubbed the Access to Legal Pharmaceuticals Act (ALPhA) on Thursday.

It would allow a pharmacist to refuse to fill a prescription only if the prescription can be passed to and filled by a co-worker at the same pharmacy.

Okay.


Brauer [president of Pharmacists for Life] told Reuters she believes doctors will eventually begin ordering women to abort disabled children, or refuse to treat them after birth.

"They'll force women to kill their children ... It will be like China. It's the next logical step," she told Reuters.

:confused:

On a tangent, I just experienced the joy of wandering Rite-Aid for 20 minutes while the pharmacists filled my scrip. Is it always like that? I'm glad I'm not on regular meds.

[schally]

It usually only takes them a few minutes to fill mine as long as there isn't a line. It's like grocery shopping--best to go on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

[dnl2ba]

Corpse flower (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4469055.stm) | 2 (http://www.advance.uconn.edu/2004/040719/04071903.htm) | 3 (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/07/0718_030718_stinkyflower.html) | 4 (http://whyfiles.org/shorties/080corpseflower/)

[dnl2ba]

German exploding toads (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4486247.stm)

[Ballz]

You should amend your first post to update the finger situation -- looks to be a hoax.

[dnl2ba]

I won't edit the old post, but apparently the woman has a really... litigious history and they arrested her.

[Gump]

And the finger certainly didn't come from Wendy's.

[schally]

What a dumbass. Surely there are easier ways to weasel money out of people.

So there's supposedly a finger in some chili. Wendy's says, "Hey, we'll pay a $50k reward for information regarding the identity of the finger," and she starts to get nervous. Then they do research and figure out that she's played this game before. Then when the police start asking questions she's all like, "Oh, you guys are totally stressing me out!" and drops the lawsuit because of "emtional stress." More like dropping the suit because of LYING BITCH. Sorry, lady, no one's buying. Her lawyer even dropped her ass.

She deserved to be arrested for being a tard.

Wendy's upped the reward to $100k (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153638,00.html), so get to sleuthin'.

[dnl2ba]

Really demoralizing :(

story on anti-pedophile police unit (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-photo27apr27.story)


Gillespie has been on that knife's edge since the Child Exploitation Section was created four years ago. The Toronto police seized more than 2 million pictures and videos of child sexual abuse in 2003. So far, the world's law agencies have identified fewer than 500 of the children.


On one wall is a "Star Trek" poster with investigators' faces substituted for the Starship Enterprise crew. But even that alludes to a dark fact of their work: All but one of the offenders they have arrested in the last four years was a hard-core Trekkie.


Sitting in front of two computers in a blue suit and gold tie, Det. Constable Paul Krawczyk starts the day as a 13-year-old girl. Within minutes of his entering a chat room on education, and without asking for them, men are e-mailing nude pictures. "It's always the same," he says. "After two minutes, here come the body parts."


About a third of child-porn collectors are also hands-on abusers, the police say, and almost all of them are related to or otherwise known by their victims.


"We arrested a bad guy last week," he said. "There were 1,000 images on his hard drive. Can I pay you enough to sit at this computer and look at every image? There are babies raped and sodomized with romantic music playing in the background. You are never the same person after you see something like that. It's soul-destroying."


Gillespie says he has nightmares about the young girls beyond their reach. While shopping at Wal-Mart, he sometimes finds himself staring at children, thinking that he has seen them online. Krawczyk says that after three arrests of Boy Scout leaders in Canada in the last six months, he won't let his son join the local troop. Bulmer says he walks down the street looking at other men, thinking, yep, he looks like a pedophile. Yep, that guy is one for sure.

[Ballz]

It's a terrible job, but someone's gotta do it. I have a high amount of respect for detectives and investigators who work in units like that. It can be like fighting in a war zone. The things they see must be incredibly traumatizing.

[schally]

I bet that job has a very high burnout rate. They probably can't do work like that for too many years before they psychologically and emotionally need to be transferred elsewhere.

[Gump]

I'm wondering how they could possibly move on from that sort of thing, after getting so deep into such total evil.

On the dimly bright side, that Star Trek thing is a little exagerrated (http://www.corante.com/importance/archives/2005/04/28/la_times_claim_about_pedophiles_wrong.php).

[dnl2ba]

I figured maybe the Trekkie ratio is typical among pedophiles, but Trekkies are fatter and can't run as well when the cops show up.

[dnl2ba]

We all know Scientology is dumb, but arguing with a celebrity about it when you're interviewing him (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,353577,00.html) might be even dumber. Are you trying to prove something to the public? To the celebrity? I think all you're really doing there is making sure the celeb won't come back for another interview two years later.


SPIEGEL: Do you see it as your job to recruit new followers for Scientology?

Cruise: I'm a helper. For instance, I myself have helped hundreds of people get off drugs. In Scientology, we have the only successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. It's called Narconon.

SPIEGEL: That's not correct. Yours is never mentioned among the recognized detox programs. Independent experts warn against it because it is rooted in pseudo science.

Cruise: You don't understand what I am saying. It's a statistically proven fact that there is only one successful drug rehabilitation program in the world. Period.

SPIEGEL: With all due respect, we doubt that. <changes topic>

[schally]

I think Cruise holds grudges about stuff like that, so he's probably done with them. The interviewer does sould pretty flip.

[dnl2ba]

GRAPHIC PICTURES of a badly wounded dog probably used for fighting (http://www.tricountyanimalrescue.net/gypsy.aspx)


A few months ago, I posted that in general I don't like people. And while sure there was some jest in that statement, there was also some truth. People lie. People steal. People borrow your money and don't pay it back. People back into your car and don't leave a note. People are selfish. People murder. People set dogs on fire. People force dogs to fight and then discard their shattered bodies like garbage. People suck.

On the morning of April 11th, a kind old woman in Belmont, North Carolina came across the crumbled body of what she thought was a dead dog on the side of the road. Expecting the worst, she took the time to look closer and was both delighted and horrified to find this female pit bull barely alive; shattered limbs unable to carry her body any further, blood seeping from maggot infested wounds, skin stretched taunt over exposed ribs, dull broken eyes looking up at her begging for relief. This dog didn't have the strength to lift her head as the woman approached, she could only offer a muffled whimper. Surely others had driven past this horribly wounded dog, but no one bothered to stop. Not until this woman did. Such is the nature of man, I guess. But, thankfully our Good Samaritan did stop, and she scooped this dog's limp body up in her arms and brought her to the Eastridge Animal Hospital.

There veterinarians examined her and came to the conclusion she should be saved, but it was going to require some pretty extensive (and costly!) surgery. Upon hearing of Gypsy's condition, Joann Hager of Tri County Animal Rescue immediately told the vets to go ahead with treatment -- she would find a way to pay for it.

As best anyone can guess, Gypsy (as she is now named), was used in dog fights. Her ears were cut away so her opponent would have nothing to bite on to and drag her to the ground. She had bite wounds all over her body and the tissue around the wounds was rotting and putrid. In fact, when the veterinary staff tried to feed her, she couldn't eat because of the bite wounds inside her mouth. Yes, I said inside.

As of this writing, Gypsy has undergone several surgeries over the past few days. The damage to her right front leg was so extensive the doctors were forced to amputate it. Dead and dying tissue was cut away leaving this lovable dog horribly disfigured. The stents that were sewn into her skin to allow her wounds to drain give this lovable dog a nightmarish look. As you look at her post-surgery pictures you may think Gypsy is baring her teeth or growling; she's not. The dead tissue around her mouth has rotted away; she no longer has lips to cover her teeth. And yet despite all this, she still managed to wag her tail after her first surgeries. That my friends, is why dogs rule.

Gypsy has taken the first steps on her long road to recovery. But she is not out of the woods just yet. Doctors in Tennessee will need to perform plastic surgery to recreate the portions of her face that have rotted away. These upcoming procedures, on top of the care she's already received, come at a substantial price. While Tri County Animal Rescue has received more than enough letters of encouragement, they have not received enough donations to pay for Gypsy's medical care.

When I spoke with Joann on Friday, she estimates they had received just over $6,000 in donations -- well shy of the $10,000 they estimate her care to cost. This leaves at least a $4,000 deficit, probably more when all is said and done. That my friends, is where you come in.

With Sean Schaefer debacle last week, I received many emails of people writing in and admitting they were guilty of the same thing - never having stepped up to help when they could have. Just brushing aside my requests and thinking, "Oh someone else will donate." Well now is your opportunity to make a difference and you couldn't ask for a better one. Kids, the only thing standing between this lovable three legged pooch and a full recovery is a few thousand dollars. Is the army of EHOWA going to let that happen? I think not.

So, as has become a custom here at EHOWA, this will be one of the two times a year when I will ask you, my faithful readers, for help. So I am asking you, I am begging you, to donate what you can to the Tri County Animal Rescue to pay for the remainder of Gypsy's medical costs. Five bucks. Ten bucks. Twenty bucks. Whatever you can spare.

And I don't want to hear, "Oh I don't have the cash right now." Sure you do. Five bucks - the cost of quick lunch in drive thru. Ten bucks - a round of beers. Twenty bucks - popcorn and two movie tickets. You can do it. I know we can knock this right out of the ballpark if we all pitch in.

Take a moment and look at your dog laying next to you. Try to imagine what it would be like if their leg were so horribly mangled doctors would have to cut it off. Think of them having so many untreated wounds that the flesh was actually rotting off their bodies. Now try to imagine if your dog didn't have you in their corner caring for them. That's what Gypsy is going through right now.

So crack those piggy banks. Make me proud. Please donate to Gypsy (https://secure.paypal.com/xclick/business=tricountyanimalrescue@yahoo.com&undefined_quantity=1&no_intl=1&return=http//www.tricountyanimalrescue.net).

A human being visited unspeakable cruelty on this poor dog. Think about that for a second. A dog. Man's best friend. The fact that someone would do this to a dog tells me what kind of a person they are. What does that say about us if turn a blind eye?

Very sad, but I have to echo Catfish's sentiments (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/34709834/m/287000213731/r/493004313731#493004313731):

Hmmm. Y'know, I'm a little torn over this issue. One the one hand, the fact that people are donating so much money is fantastic.

On the other... that's a lot of money for one dog. Animal care is underfunded at the best of times; part of me wonders how many animals they could have saved if they'd 'cut their losses' on Gypsy and gave the money to a generic animal charity.

[ohvermie]

I see that sort of animal cruelty on Animal Planet all the time. They had this ASPCA show once and they found a little puppy in one of those grills you find in public parks. I think this was in CA. Some sorta crazy gang initiation that requires you to put a puppy in a grill and toast 90% of its body. Yeah that shows that you're real tough...pharking phages...

[dnl2ba]

35 lb Savannah cats are all the rage (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/fashion/12cats.html)

One of those articles that's not really news per se, but interesting.

[ohvermie]

That's pretty gross. It's like those humongous ragdoll cats. I have issues with my normal 8-10 lb cats (mutt bastards) walking on me when I sleep. IT HURTS I SAY!!! Those bruises on my chest come from cat paws....my momma doesn't beat me, no I swear!

[schally]

The lady across the street has a 30 lb cat. Its belly drags on the ground when it walks.

[Gump]

Okay, now there's another silver lining in that child porn article up above: the girl they were looking for has been found, she's safe, and her abuser is in prison. (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/13/child.porn/index.html)

[dnl2ba]

Wendy's finger came from lady's husband's associate (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7844274/)

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The finger that a woman said she found in a bowl of Wendy’s chili came from an associate of her husband who lost the digit in an industrial accident, police said Friday.

For those of you not around here, San Jose is about 5 minutes from me. The Symbol office I worked in just a week ago was in south San Jose.


The man is from Nevada and lost a part of his finger in an accident last December, Davis said. His identity was traced through a tip made to Wendy’s hot line, he said.
haha an anonymous tip. punny.

I might still not eat at Wendy's if their clientele goes around tossing severed fingers into the chili.

What was that recent finger story about the dick who legitimately found a severed finger in his froyo and refused to return it to the worker who lost it, thereby preventing surgical reattachment within the critical time frame? It looks like I didn't post it. What restaurant was that? Another fast food place, right?

[dnl2ba]

Runaway bride police report at The Smoking Gun (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0513051wilbanks1.html)

Sounds more like a sex fantasy than a cover story.

[dnl2ba]

Not sure if this URL will work. At the least, it'll require login.
Ugly Children May Get Parental Short Shrift (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/health/03ugly.html?ex=1116475200&en=eb7c68e09c006926&ei=5070&oref=login)


By NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Published: May 3, 2005
Parents would certainly deny it, but Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion: parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones.

Researchers at the University of Alberta carefully observed how parents treated their children during trips to the supermarket. They found that physical attractiveness made a big difference.The researchers noted if the parents belted their youngsters into the grocery cart seat, how often the parents' attention lapsed and the number of times the children were allowed to engage in potentially dangerous activities like standing up in the shopping cart. They also rated each child's physical attractiveness on a 10-point scale.

The findings, not yet published, were presented at the Warren E. Kalbach Population Conference in Edmonton, Alberta.

When it came to buckling up, pretty and ugly children were treated in starkly different ways, with seat belt use increasing in direct proportion to attractiveness. When a woman was in charge, 4 percent of the homeliest children were strapped in compared with 13.3 percent of the most attractive children. The difference was even more acute when fathers led the shopping expedition - in those cases, none of the least attractive children were secured with seat belts, while 12.5 percent of the prettiest children were.

Homely children were also more often out of sight of their parents, and they were more often allowed to wander more than 10 feet away.

Age - of parent and child - also played a role. Younger adults were more likely to buckle their children into the seat, and younger children were more often buckled in. Older adults, in contrast, were inclined to let children wander out of sight and more likely to allow them to engage in physically dangerous activities.

Although the researchers were unsure why, good-looking boys were usually kept in closer proximity to the adults taking care of them than were pretty girls. The researchers speculated that girls might be considered more competent and better able to act independently than boys of the same age. The researchers made more than 400 observations of child-parent interactions in 14 supermarkets.

Dr. W. Andrew Harrell, executive director of the Population Research Laboratory at the University of Alberta and the leader of the research team, sees an evolutionary reason for the findings: pretty children, he says, represent the best genetic legacy, and therefore they get more care.

Not all experts agree. Dr. Frans de Waal, a professor of psychology at Emory University, said he was skeptical.

"The question," he said, "is whether ugly people have fewer offspring than handsome people. I doubt it very much. If the number of offspring are the same for these two categories, there's absolutely no evolutionary reason for parents to invest less in ugly kids."

Dr. Robert Sternberg, professor of psychology and education at Yale, said he saw problems in Dr. Harrell's method and conclusions, for example, not considering socioeconomic status.

"Wealthier parents can feed, clothe and take care of their children better due to greater resources," Dr. Sternberg said, possibly making them more attractive. "The link to evolutionary theory is speculative."

But Dr. Harrell said the importance of physical attractiveness "cuts across social class, income and education."

"Like lots of animals, we tend to parcel out our resources on the basis of value," he said. "Maybe we can't always articulate that, but in fact we do it. There are a lot of things that make a person more valuable, and physical attractiveness may be one of them."

[dnl2ba]

Paris Hilton Sidekick hack explained (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/19/AR2005051900711.html)


The conversation -- which represents the recollection of the hacker interviewed by washingtonpost.com -- began with the 16-year-old caller saying, "This is [an invented name] from T-Mobile headquarters in Washington. We heard you've been having problems with your customer account tools?"

The sales representative answered, "No, we haven't had any problems really, just a couple slowdowns. That's about it."

Prepared for this response, the hacker pressed on: "Yes, that's what is described here in the report. We're going to have to look into this for a quick second."

The sales rep acquiesced: "All right, what do you need?"

When prompted, the employee then offered the Internet address of the Web site used to manage T-Mobile's customer accounts -- a password-protected site not normally accessible to the general public -- as well as a user name and password that employees at the store used to log on to the system.
Later, using their own Sidekick phone, the hackers pulled up the secure T-Mobile customer records site, looked up Hilton's phone number and reset the password for her account, locking her out of it. Typical wireless devices can only be hacked into by someone physically nearby, but a Sidekick's data storage can be accessed from anywhere in T-Mobile's service area by someone with control of the account. That means the hackers were at that point able to download all of her stored video, text and data files to their phone.
And I'll tag this one on just to comment:

By early Feb. 20, the pictures, private notes and contact listings from Hilton's phone account -- including phone numbers of celebrities such as Cristina Aguilera, Eminem, Anna Kournikova and Vin Diesel -- had appeared on GenMay.com (short for General Mayhem), an eclectic, no-holds-barred online discussion forum.Haha, GenMay.



Hallissey said her sense of privacy has been erased gradually over the past two years as a result of her association with a number of AOLers who playfully bragged to her about their success with social engineering. They showed her online screen shots of her water, gas and electric bills, her Social Security number, credit card balances and credit ratings, pictures of her e-mail inbox, as well as all of her previous addresses, including those of her children.

"This was all done not by skilled 'hackers' but by kids who managed to 'social' their way into a company's system and gain access to it within one or two phone calls," said Hallissey, who asked that her current place of residence not be disclosed. "Major corporations have made social engineering way too easy for these kids. In their call centers they hire low-pay employees to man the phones, give them a minimum of training, most of which usually dwells on call times, canned scripts and sales. This isn't unique to T-Mobile or AOL. This has become common practice for almost every company."

[dnl2ba]

Upskirting (http://news.com.com/2061-10786-5714125.html)

The comments are kinda funny too.

[dnl2ba]

Dude, where's my lake? (http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200505/s1373170.htm)


A Russian village has been left baffled after its lake disappeared overnight.

NTV television has shown pictures of a giant muddy hole bathed in summer sun, while fishermen from the village of Bolotnikovo look on disconsolately.

Dmitry Zaitsev, a local Emergencies Ministry official, says trees also disappeared under the ground as the lake emptied near the Volga river, east of Moscow.

"It is very dangerous. If a person had been in this disaster, he would have had almost no chance of survival," he said.

He says water in the lake might have been sucked into an underground water-course or cave system but some villagers have more sinister explanations.

One older woman has told NTV she believes the Americans have finally been able to hit them where it hurts.

"I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," she said as she sat on the ground outside her house.

[Ballz]

Just a typical day at work tonight.

Local bus driver goes postal on punkass students (http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=14260)

With all the f-bombs that are dropped in the video, I had to mute the sound when I included it with the story. But here's a link (http://burn.childporninspace.com/bus_video.wmv) to the video WITH sound. It's fantastic.

[dnl2ba]

Read this last blog post (http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=ToTo247)
Now read this article (http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/310320p-265498c.html)

:eek:

[ohvermie]

WOW!
You don't see that sorta crap on none of the crime dramas. Although I bet you will now...

[dnl2ba]

Man arrested for wearing Grinch mask (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050526/ap_on_fe_st/grinch_arrested)

[dnl2ba]

Australian woman sentenced to 20 years in Indonesian prison for trafficking marijuana (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/05/27/corby.appeal/index.html)

Hadn't heard about this till now. It's apparently a huge deal in Australia:

The case has galvanized public opinion in Australia, with a recent survey showing 90 percent thought Corby was innocent, believing her defense argument that the drugs found in her possession were planted by baggage handlers in Australia.

Many callers to radio talk shows in Australia were incensed, and some said they regretted making donations to Indonesian tsunami victims, The Associated Press reported. Others called for Australians to boycott Bali.

Even before the sentence, there were calls for Australians to boycott the popular holiday destination of Bali and to ban Indonesian products.

Are her backers being duped because she's young and beautiful? Are her prosecutors trusting their locals over her because she's a foreigner?

And even if she really did do it, 20 years is a long fucking time to go to prison for mari-J, and this is coming from someone who doesn't smoke anything. That would've been the best part of her life, too-- 27-47 is when a woman would make a career, build a family, etc. If I were in that situation and it looked hopeless, I might just kill my goddamn self. I'm not saying age 47+ is never worth living, but if you've spent the last 20 years in an Indonesian prison and you don't have any friends, family, resources, or prospects waiting for you on the outside, what are you going to do when you get out? And for that matter, what are you going to do while you're there? I've never been to an Indonesian prison, but I wouldn't be surprised if an attractive woman would be raped blind.

[dnl2ba]

I'm no fan of organized car racing, because it... tends to be godawful boring. But apparently there's some hubbub over the possibility that a woman, Janica Patrick, might win the Indy 500 tomorrow (Sunday, so that's technically today because it's almost 5 AM). She's 23, 5'1" or 5'2" and 100-105 lbs (sources differ), and has posed in FHM (http://www.indymotorspeedway.com/danica.htm) (on basis of her being a badass race driver and camera-friendly; she's not smoking hot).

Some guys are grunting that she has an unfair advantage because she's lighter than the competition. Since the cars are all the same weight, she'd end up with the lowest net weight, meaning faster acceleration, lower fuel consumption, and better handling.

Now, that's all very nice... but I'm more excited by Jodie Kidd and her Maserati (http://www.italiancar.com.au/pilot/ms093.htm). :eek: Google Image Search (http://images.google.com/images?q=jodie%20kidd&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) (NWS). She obviously needs a sandwich... ME and ME

Edit: Gack! I think this is a Photochop (http://www.zevzek.com/banu/jodie_kidd_thinnest.jpg), but it spooked me anyway.

[dnl2ba]

I didn't watch, but Danica apparently placed fourth.

[dnl2ba]

When I feel like it, I'll revive the information thread.

Odds of dying due to injury (as opposed to natural causes, I suppose): 1 in 23 (http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm). Detailed stats about various forms of injury.

[dnl2ba]

Now, that's all very nice... but I'm more excited by Jodie Kidd and her Maserati (http://www.italiancar.com.au/pilot/ms093.htm). :eek: Google Image Search (http://images.google.com/images?q=jodie%20kidd&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) (NWS). She obviously needs a sandwich... ME and ME

Edit: Gack! I think this is a Photochop (http://www.zevzek.com/banu/jodie_kidd_thinnest.jpg), but it spooked me anyway.

Nope, it's real (http://www.xtremity-journal.00page.com/photo4.html) :eek: :eek: :eek:

How's that even possible? Wouldn't you at least see knobby joints?

[schally]

Looks like she needs more than a sammich. DAER JODIE HOW ABOUT SOME TOTS?

: Gross. Freakin' idiot.

[dnl2ba]

Hm. Related? Biological basis to anorexia (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/42549)

Not related: Meet the real Harry Potters (http://www.abebooks.com/docs/harry-potter/biographies.shtml)

[dnl2ba]

Police tasing some noisy bitch in an SUV... twice (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/video/taser_video3a.html)

OMG shut the fuck up woman! Stop fucking hollering!

[dnl2ba]

Gizmondo Acquires Model Agency, Defends Lawsuits (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=5632)

Perplexing. Just something to add to my list of things to do when I'm a millionaire...

[dnl2ba]

Katie Holmes converts to Scientology for Tom Cruise (http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/13/people.holmes.ap/index.html)

I don't see a quote in the article where she says explicitly that she's converted, but hey.

[deevan]

On a related note: Free Katie! (http://www.freekatie.net/)

[ohvermie]

That is disturbing. But Katie's got a nice rack. ;p

[dnl2ba]

Dude Photoshops Bush, gets a visit from the Secret Service (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jlassen/186474.html)

Fucking incredible.

[dnl2ba]

So uh, we have a tsunami warning out here. There was a quake off the coast of Eureka. I just saw a report saying the warning was called off because it's not a subduction quake, but uh... just in case, nice knowing you guys.

P.S. RUN RHYS RUN

[Rhys]

Sac's too far away from the ocean to be bothered by a tsunami. So is about half of San Fran, I imagine. They don't deal with hills well, you see.

[dnl2ba]

I'm just waiting for half our state to fall into the ocean.

[ohvermie]

So am I. Then that property I own in the middle of the state will become ocean front property! CHA CHING!

[schally]

SUPER BATTLE PLAN

1. Sink half of CA.
2. Cash in on new ocean front property.
3. Build an army.
4. Take the world hostage for 100 BILLION DOLLARS!
5. Margaritas and Taquitos.

[dnl2ba]

There was just another quake in LA today. THE END IS BILL NYE

[dnl2ba]

BiDil heart drug for blacks only? (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/42825)

[Rhys]

Cat with two faces born (http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/06/16/oregon_cat_born_with_two_faces/)

Um, what?

[dnl2ba]

I'll see your two faces and raise you everything else (http://www.livejournal.com/community/genesgonebad/).

----

4th CA quake this week (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8247661/)

[dnl2ba]

Oboest bares her soul - and more - to expose musical casting couches (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1658941,00.html)


Blair Tindall, who played with the New York Philharmonic, offers an unseemly tour behind the scenes in a book entitled Mozart in the Jungle.

Tindall claims that sex played a decisive role in her musical career. She says she was simultaneously involved with three leading New York oboists — two married — who gave her work in their orchestras. One had a maxim: “The section that lays together plays together.”


“Between XXX and my former oboist boyfriends, I got hired for most of my gigs in bed.”


Now in her mid-forties, she says she dated “almost every classical musician around my age” — as well as some who were not, including two of her high-school music teachers.

W... wow.

[dnl2ba]

The real Da Vinci Code? (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1658915,00.html)


Leonardo was commissioned to paint The Battle of Anghiari in the early 16th century, during the short-lived Florentine Republic that overthrew the Medici dukes.

However, the Medicis returned to power, and in 1563 Duke Cosimo apparently instructed Vasari to paint The Battle of Marciano, depicting one of the Medicis’ own victories, apparently replacing Leonardo’s work.

Signor Seracini says that he does not believe that Vasari destroyed the Leonardo. “Instead he erected a wall between his painting and Leonardo’s,” he says. “In fact, I am convinced he used the Leonardo as a model for his own work.”


CLUES TO CRACK DA VINCI CODE

1 Leonardo is known to have finished at least the central part of The Battle of Anghiari. An eyewitnesses said it was “miraculous”

2 Vasari was an admirer of Leonardo and is unlikely to have simply painted over his work

3 Technical soundings have shown there is a cavity behind the Vasari, strengthening the theory that he put a protective wall in front of the Leonardo

4 Vasari painted the words Cerca Trova — seek and you shall find — in small letters on a pennant. It is high up and not obvious to the naked eye. It is the only writing in the painting

5 A masterpiece by Masaccio was also hidden behind a Vasari painting but was later rediscovered

[dnl2ba]

Heard about this before, but I think this's the first time I've seen a credible-looking article.

The Least Healthy Diet: Breatharianism (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/17/worlds_worst_excerpt.html)

[dnl2ba]

NASA nanosatellite (http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000453047251/)

Haven't I fought these in every futuristic videogame ever?

[Gump]

Life finally has a Mute button. (http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19509-1659146,00.html)

[dnl2ba]

73-year-old Kenyan grandfather / peasant farmer kills a leopard with his bare hands (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=8863561&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews)

[dnl2ba]

Depressing and fucked-up news from the world over!

Kidnapped girl found safe with lions (http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/06/21/lions-ethiopia050621.html)


A 12-year-old girl who was missing for a week was found being guarded by a trio of lions, said police in Ethiopia. The girl had been abducted by a group of men who wanted her to marry one of them, said Sgt. Wondimu Wedajo from Bita Genet, about 560 kilometres from Addis Ababa.



Kidnapping has long been part of Ethiopia's marriage custom. The United Nations estimates more than 70 per cent of all marriages in Ethiopia are the result of abduction.


!!!!


Rapists running rampant in Congo (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/06/22/1099895-ap.html)






PANZI, Congo (AP) - The teenager with flowers in her hair crossed her hands to keep them from trembling and described how she was raped by 10 militiamen.

Abducted two years ago when she was 16, Ombeni was kept as a concubine in the forests of eastern Congo. She became pregnant and at nearly nine months gestation, her captors cut her vagina with a machete, leaving the baby dead and abandoning the teenager in the forest.

"I laid there for one week," Ombeni said. "Until insects came out of my body." Ombeni was eventually rescued by a woman who was foraging for food and made her way to a clinic for rape victims.



Rape victims are often ostracized in Africa, where husbands and families routinely kick out their wives and mothers if they have been raped.



Most rapes in the area are committed by Rwandan Hutu rebels, who fled into eastern Congo after Rwanda's 1994 genocide, said Panzi's medical director Denis Mukwege.

Generally, militiamen will circle a village and rape all the women, he said. Then they'll choose the young ones and take them as slaves into the forest-covered mountains.


Charges Against Teen Upgraded After Dog He Allegedly Raped Dies (http://www.fox21.com/Global/story.asp?S=3456745)



SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA (FOX Carolina News) - A Campobello teen is accused of raping one neighbor's dog and another neighbor's two little girls.



Sylvia says she and her husband would not have believed Cory Williamson raped Princess exactly two weeks to the day she died had they not seen it with their own eyes. "When I got here we were laying on the deck looking at him and he had his pants down and he was doing sexual activity with the dog like a man would do to a woman."

[dnl2ba]

Meanwhile, I can't look at a single major American news outlet without reading about a Boy Scout hiding from rescue teams. I don't fucking care!

Don't miss my extra-sensational posts on the last page.

[dnl2ba]

Supreme Court rules that it's okay for cities to seize homes and businesses for private economic development (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/23/scotus.property.ap/index.html)


Susette Kelo and several other homeowners in a working-class neighborhood in New London, Connecticut, filed suit after city officials announced plans to raze their homes for a riverfront hotel, health club and offices.


The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas. As a result, cities have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes to generate tax revenue.

[dnl2ba]

Was Katie Holmes brainwashed? (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,160192,00.html)


There were 16 days in April during which no one seems to know where she was.


Sometime that week, her friends say, she flew to Los Angeles for a meeting with Cruise about a role in "Mission: Impossible 3." The meeting took place after April 11.

The next time anyone heard from Holmes was on April 27, when she appeared in public as Cruise's girlfriend and love of his life.

Where was she during those 16 days?

Somewhere during that time, she decided to fire both her manager and agent, each of whom she had been with for years and who were devoted to her.


There is some fear among Holmes' close circle that her instant romance with Cruise is not as organic as portrayed.

For one thing, Holmes was raised a strict Catholic. Also, gone from the picture are two close Holmes friends who used to be with her when she did publicity for a film.

One of these is Meghann Birie, a childhood friend who has suddenly disappeared from Holmes' world. Another, a local TV producer here in New York, was too afraid to discuss the situation with me.

We know that Cruise auditioned several actresses for this role before settling on Holmes. This column reported a story about Jennifer Garner. There have been published stories about Kate Bosworth, Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Alba being approached.

A newer one involves Scarlett Johansson, who ran for her life when presented with a fait accompli dinner at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood.

And history has been rewritten since the April 27 unveiling.

Curiously, since the Cruise-Holmes situation popped up, we have heard over and over again that Cruise was the young actress' idol when she was growing up.

That's certainly interesting because all of the publicity that used to run on Holmes — still found all over the Internet — lists another Tom as her favorite actor.

That would be Tom Hanks.

[ohvermie]

That is so weird. All I know is that her involvement with Cruise has cost her any future involvement in the Batman franchise. The relationship stole too much thunder from the movie's release. Which is a shame, because I kind of enjoyed her in Batman Begins, but it was such a supreficial role I am sure anyone could fill in for it, that and Batman doesn't need no stinking girlfriend!

[schally]

Supreme Court rules that it's okay for cities to seize homes and businesses for private economic development (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/23/scotus.property.ap/index.html)
That's fucking lame, lame, lame. David Icke (http://www.davidicke.com/) is right. The Reptoids really are destroying America.

[Gump]

That issue has been bothering me for the past few days, and you know, that's really the best explanation I've come across for this stupid decision.

Oh well, at least Congress has its priorities straight (http://us.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/22/congress.flagburning.ap/index.html).

[dnl2ba]

Chicken death machine (http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB111990618446070778-fV2VNdS6uD7Nio2CLEenXQaLXBk_20050728,00.html?mod=b logs)


Mr. Kiezebrink grew up to become an expert in this unusual field. Today, his family company sells killed chicks to zoos and falconers. And it has developed technology for efficiently killing birds.

Now he is also taking his skills to some places that need them urgently: Asian nations fighting bird flu. He has brought them some of his bird-slaughtering machines, such as the AED-100, which kills about 10,000 birds per hour, catching them by the feet and dragging their heads through an electrified pool of water.

[dnl2ba]

That is so weird. All I know is that her involvement with Cruise has cost her any future involvement in the Batman franchise. The relationship stole too much thunder from the movie's release. Which is a shame, because I kind of enjoyed her in Batman Begins, but it was such a supreficial role I am sure anyone could fill in for it, that and Batman doesn't need no stinking girlfriend!

He's never had the same GF two movies in a row, has he? They're like Bond girls.

In the comics, he usually doesn't have a girl (IIRC-- it's been a long long time and I was never that into Batman), but it's a requirement for movies.

[dnl2ba]

Supreme Court rules that it's okay for cities to seize homes and businesses for private economic development (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/06/23/scotus.property.ap/index.html)

Private developer applies to build a hotel where Justice Souter's house is (http://www.freestarmedia.com/hotellostliberty2.html)


On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.

Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.

The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."

[dnl2ba]

huge fucking newborn (http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2005/06/28/1109029-ap.html)


MILWAUKEE (AP) - Weighing in at 13 pounds, 12 ounces, Delaney Jessica Buzzell isn't your average newborn. Her parents have even dubbed her the "Big Enchilada."

Nadolski said carrying the baby in her arms was like holding a four-or five-month-old infant. The diapers and baby T-shirts also were a little on the snug side.

"It was ready for a steak," the nurse said. "It had quite an appetite."

You do NOT want that sucking on your teat.

[dnl2ba]

Boob-groping robot arms (http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/006336.php)

I love We Make Money Not Art. Plus, Regine (who runs it) is a hottie.

[dnl2ba]

Why not to go dumpster diving (http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=101542&format=&page=1)

Woman ALMOST gets trash compacted.

[dnl2ba]

Man Pulled From Women's Outhouse Tank (http://www.wsoctv.com/news/4662466/detail.html)

'Nuff said.

[ohvermie]

That's pretty hardcore. Maybe he was making his own scat video...

[dnl2ba]

646 lb catfish caught and eaten in Thailand (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050629/od_uk_nm/oukoe_environment_fish;_ylt=Aov3TgIDMlmlHgGAO6C74w btiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl) - with photo

[dnl2ba]

Taiwanese restaurant where you eat out of a toilet-shaped bowl (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050630/od_nm/taiwan_toilet_dc_1;_ylt=AvWF1M399ADIADA1SJhUILLmWM cF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--)


The Martun, or toilet in Chinese, restaurant in the southern port city of Kaohsiung boasts lengthy queues on weekends as diners wait for a toilet seat in its brightly colored tile interior.

Food arrives in bowls shaped like Western-style toilets or Asian-style "squat pots."

[dnl2ba]

Drug Rocket Fails to Take Off (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161609,00.html)


The $13,534 in cash in the 1990 Ford Thunderbird was interesting enough, Kansas City U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Don Ledford told the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune. Far more intriguing was what was in the trunk: three dud pipe bombs and a "hobby-style" rocket, three to four feet long, all packed with meth worth up to $145,000.

Ledford explained that a web of ropes and pulleys lifted the rocket into launch position when the trunk lid was opened. The rocket could then be ignited from inside the car using the dashboard cigarette lighter.


Commentary: Is that a rocket in your trunk, or are you just happy to see me? (http://www.flexyourrights.org/2005_07_07_is_that_a_rocket_in_your_trunk_or_are_y ou_just_happy_to_see_me)


Two men in Missouri were arrested following an inspired, though unsuccessful, attempt at concealing evidence by launching it out of their car in a rocket (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161609,00.html). Apparently nervous about driving around with $145,000 worth of methamphetamine, the suspects rigged their trunk with ropes and pulleys to position the drug-filled rocket, which would ignite with a push of the dashboard cigarette lighter. It didn't work. A few reasons why this might be a bad idea come to mind:

1. Knowing your rights is always easier than rigging your car so that when you push the cigarette lighter the trunk pops open and launches your stash far away with rockets.

2. Police tend to be edgy during traffic stops. If they pull you over and your trunk pops open and a rocket shoots out in their general direction, they'll totally freak out and shoot you repeatedly.

3. If the rocket actually launches successfully and you're not shot to death, they'll look for the rocket. And if they find it -- which they will -- you can't say "Well that could be anybody's rocket full of meth you found in a field 300 yards away with my fingerprints on it."

If and when Congress authorizes the death penalty for meth, we may reconsider our stance on the "stash rocket" approach to police encounters, but for now we'll stick with the conventional tactics offered in BUSTED (http://www.flexyourrights.org/busted).

[ohvermie]

646 lb catfish caught and eaten in Thailand (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050629/od_uk_nm/oukoe_environment_fish;_ylt=Aov3TgIDMlmlHgGAO6C74w btiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl) - with photo

No pictures of the eating...DISAPPOINTING!

[dnl2ba]

teacher who sexed her student makes insanity plea (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050718/ap_on_re_us/teacher_sex)

Is this the same case that keeps showing up, or are all the female teachers who molest their students really hot?

[ohvermie]

i wonder how they got the cousin to drive whilst they were knocking boots in the back seat.

[dnl2ba]

Teaching group to consider banning word "fail" (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050719/od_uk_nm/oukoe_odd_britain_failure;_ylt=Aklk.ch5EX55LLJ_6t5 zbkrtiBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)


LONDON (Reuters) - The word "fail" should be banned from use in classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralising pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.

[schally]

gaaaaaaaaaay

[Rhys]

There's something about that post with that avatar than nearly made me fall off my chair.

[dnl2ba]

When a Man Dies in a Sex Act with a Horse -- What's a Reporter to Do? (http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000981095)


The AP story gave basic facts about the case. It mentioned that the man -- who died of internal bleeding from anal sex with the animal -- died after visiting a farm in nearby Enumclaw that attracted "a significant number of people" looking to engage in bestiality.


Although she never reported the man's name, in her second article Sullivan did say that he was 45 years old and added that he died of acute peritonitis due to the perforation of the colon. But because Washington is one of 17 states that does not outlaw bestiality, having sex with a horse is not a crime and his death will not be investigated.

Perhaps the most lurid detail she added, however, was that when they searched the farm, police had found hundreds of hours of videotape showing men having sex with horses. Police are still making sure that sex was not forced on the smaller, weaker animals, thus constituting animal cruelty (which is a crime). Investigators are also checking to see if other crimes like child abuse or rape occurred on the premises.


The two articles also have prompted a local senator to start drawing up a bill that would outlaw bestiality. Sullivan also reported the opinions of a local animal activist who also is calling for reform.

[deevan]

So, there's a guy whose job is to watch hundreds of hours of horse-on-man pr0n? Ehh...

[dnl2ba]

Arab-American character gets boot from WWE (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050722/ap_en_tv/arab_american_character;_ylt=ArfFVNzfH21uh7vnykVCu rSs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3YXYwNDRrBHNlYwM3NjI-)


STAMFORD, Conn. - A company that organizes wrestling entertainment has agreed to remove an Arab-American character from a popular television show after receiving hundreds of complaints about an episode that aired the day of the deadly London bombings.


During the episode, five Hassan henchmen in ski masks and camouflage ran into the ring to beat up his rival, who had defeated Hassan's sidekick. The men then carried Hassan's sidekick over their heads, which to some evoked a martyr's funeral.


Hassan, a character introduced last November and played by Mark Copani, grows up in Detroit as a typical American. But after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he believes he is treated differently by his fellow Americans and feels alienated.

"The whole point of the story line and this character was to point out the injustices Arab-Americans have suffered since 9-11," Davis said.

But the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee objected to the character. One of its campaigns resulted in nearly 500 complaints sent to WWE, a spokeswoman said.

"The character deals with a very sensitive issue," said Siwar Bandar, a spokeswoman for the committee. "However, he does so in a context that is violent, that is turning his back on America."

[dnl2ba]

Japanese develop power armor (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8656746/)


The robotic suit can give an average man twice his usual strength and was developed to assist the elderly in their everyday lives.


The sleek, high-tech get-up looks like a white suit of armor. It straps onto a person’s arms, legs and back and is equipped with a computer, motors and sensors that detect electric nerve signals transmitted from the brain when a person tries to move his limbs.

When the sensors detect the nerve signals, the computer starts up the relevant motors to assist the person’s motions.

Sankai says the suit, dubbed “Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) 5,” can let a person who can barely do an 176-pound leg press handle 397 pounds.

[dnl2ba]

In-n-Out marks food packaging with Bible citations (http://www.snopes.com/business/alliance/inandout.asp)? Never noticed.

Found this because Boing Boing notes that Forever 21 does it too (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/23/forever_21_and_bible.html).

[Rhys]

That was like the first thing I noticed when I looked at my fries. It creeped me out for a second, but since their fries are delicious, I didn't care.

[dnl2ba]

Who shops at a place called Forever 21, anyway? My guess, without really knowing anything about it: someone who's 37, that's who.

[schally]

You've probably already heard about this, but...

Man hiding in women's outhouse tank gets arrested (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8395715/).

[dnl2ba]

You've probably already heard about this, but...

Man hiding in women's outhouse tank gets arrested (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8395715/).

page 9 (http://mostlycloudy.net/forum/showpost.php?p=2097&postcount=83)

[schally]

:( i contribute nothing but shame

[dnl2ba]

SMG is ready to show her assets on the big screen (http://entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,16000928-7485,00.html)

What's this, though?

She has also just signed on for the lead in Alice, a psychological thriller with a modern spin on the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland - a role unlikely to require too many revealing moments.

A 28-year-old Alice? Sounds very American McGee-ish, though I think she was supposed to be a late teen in the McGee game. Alice on IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466663/) - ah, McGee is the in the credits (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466663/fullcredits).
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0466663/)

[Rhys]

I'm so sad now. She's not Alice. What's wrong with people?

[schally]

Agreed. I'd be interested in a McGee-ish Alice flick if they picked a decent lead. I don't really want to pay money to see Gellar.

[dnl2ba]

Woman admits having sex parties for teen boys (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8704758/)


GOLDEN, Colo. - A woman who told police she wanted to be a “cool mom” pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges Monday for having sex with high school boys at parties where authorities said she supplied drugs and alcohol.

photo (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0124051partymom1.html)

[ohvermie]

I wouldn't hit that with a 20 foot pole.

[dnl2ba]

4 boyscout troop leaders die erecting a tent when a tent pole hit power lines (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050726/ap_on_re_us/jamboree_deaths)


But the task went terribly awry when they lost control of a giant tent pole and it hit some nearby power lines, killing four Scout leaders as horrified youngsters looked on, said Bill Haines, a Scout executive in Alaska.

[dnl2ba]

Dude dies in an accident in a "haunted" house (http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/4769832/detail.html)

[deevan]

In regards to the sex-party mom-OMFGWTFBBQ???

[dnl2ba]

There's a Cadillac bicycle now (http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/07/26/cadillac_bikes/index.html).

[dnl2ba]

Kenyan offered Bill Clinton 40 goats and 20 cows for Chelsea's hand in marriage (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/07/27/clinton.kenya.ap/index.html)

Bah, overpaying.

[dnl2ba]

Blind 17-year-old is a Soul Calibur 2 champ (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050727/ap_on_hi_te/games_blind_gamer_1)

I saw a link to another site with the same story a day or two ago, but it was a fee site.

[dnl2ba]

Guy posts photos of surgery to remove a tumor from his brain (http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper/sets/598206/) - not for the squeamish

[ohvermie]

Blind 17-year-old is a Soul Calibur 2 champ (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050727/ap_on_hi_te/games_blind_gamer_1)

I saw a link to another site with the same story a day or two ago, but it was a fee site.

"One by one, while playing "Soul Caliber 2," their video characters were decapitated, eviscerated and gutted without mercy by Mellen's on-screen alter ego."

That really pisses me off because there is no such actions taking place in Soul Caliber. They're making it sound like a cheap MK rip off, not the master piece of 3d fighting that it is.

[dnl2ba]

Brain-dead woman gives birth to baby girl (http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/08/02/brain.dead.pregnancy.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories)


There were no complications during delivery and the baby "is doing well," Justin Torres wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press. The baby, Susan Anne Catherine Torres, weighs one pound 13 ounces and is 131/2 inches long, he said. The infant was delivered via caesarean section, the hospital said.

Susan Torres, a 26-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health, lost consciousness from a stroke May 7 after aggressive melanoma spread to her brain. Her husband, Jason Torres, said doctors told him his wife's brain functions had stopped.

Jason Torres quit his job to be by his wife's side, and last month her fetus passed the 24th week of development -- the earliest point at which doctors felt the baby would have a reasonable chance to survive, the brother-in-law said.

How sad. She was only 26. That's my sister's age.

How do you explain this all to your kid? I guess it's one of those things that has to wait a bit.

[dnl2ba]

Dog condoms recalled (http://www.dogcondoms.com/product-recall.html)


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Bloomington, IN – August 3, 2005 -- Dog Condoms, Inc.
is announcing a voluntary recall of its Dog Condoms® canine prophylactics, due
to an unacceptable failure rate reported during preliminary release in test
markets. Use of these recalled condoms may result in unwanted canine pregnancies.
Additionally, meat-scented Dog Condoms® may present a choking hazard, especially
for smaller dogs.

[schally]

WTF anyway, but why the hell are they scented?

[dnl2ba]

Meat-scented!!!!!!@$@!

[dnl2ba]

Have we all heard about the hail of bullets + courthouse escape (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/10/courthouse.shooting/index.html)? This just sounded like a groaner to me:

More than a day after the escape, police were receiving 25 to 35 leads each hour, said Jennifer Johnson, a TBI spokeswoman.
That prison guard already got plenty of lead...

[dnl2ba]

Another Boy Scouts accident!

Girl, 8, Killed by Tree at Boy Scout Camp (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050810/ap_on_re_us/scout_camp_death)


The girls were participating in the class at an overnight camp when the 31-foot tree suddenly snapped, crashing through a tarp over a picnic table at which they were sitting, Police Chief Kenneth Flatt said.

Four adult Scout leaders were killed in a July electrical accident in Virginia at the National Boy Scout Jamboree. Five other people have died this summer from drowning and lightning during Scout outings in Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and California.

Is some sinister villain, rejected by his Boy Scouts peers, hunting down his former tormentors?

[ohvermie]

Jason Vorhees lives!!!

*OO OO OO CHA CHA CHA*

Now if only one of them was found pulverized in their sleeping bag...

[dnl2ba]

The secret waterfall (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/12/secret.waterfall.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories)


Until recently, very few had seen the roaring water that tumbles three tiers before pouring neatly into Crystal Creek. That such a spectacle should evade even park officials for nearly 40 years is remarkable, said park superintendent Jim Milestone.

"It wasn't on a map, no one on the trail crew knew about it. People who been here 27 years had never seen it," said Milestone, who is leading an effort to clear a trail to the newly named Whiskeytown Falls. It's expected to be finished by next summer.

[dnl2ba]

Man, the whole Greek plane crash thing is getting more dramatic (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4152806.stm). So it looks like many of the people died before the plane crashed, possibly because of cold or asphyxiation. The F16s escorting saw the pilot and copilot slumped over the controls, and later, it looked like a couple passengers made it to the cockpit before the crash.

Greek Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos said: "It seems the deceased, in most cases, although not all, expired before the crash."

Coroner Philippos Koutsaftis told AFP news agency that the main hypothesis for cause of death was asphyxiation.

However, a defence ministry source quoted by Reuters said it appeared that the bodies had been frozen solid.
Crews of Greek F-16 fighter jets which were scrambled after contact with the airliner was lost, reported seeing the co-pilot slumped in the cabin. They later saw two unidentified people trying to take control of the plane and could see oxygen masks hanging down in the cabin.
:(

Felt sad reading this thread (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/34709834/m/599005484731), where someone hypothesized:

I'm also guessing that the story in the cabin went: cabin depressurizes, masks drop, people put them on, and start waiting. And waiting. It gows impossibly cold. Finally, two passengers decide to try to break into the cabin, nearly completely numb. They find the pilots dead, frozen to the controls. Neither knows how to operate anything, and they just try to do something, anything.

Also from that thread:

As an added bonus, on the news this morning they mentioned that the oxygen masks in the passenger compartment don't function above (IIRC) 27,500 feet. They can't get a positive airflow :(

Someone reportedly sent an SMS before the crash (http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=cyprus+crash+sms&btnG=Search+News)


Greek police arrested a man who told television stations minutes after the crash that he had received a SMS text from a passenger on the doomed plane saying: "The pilot has turned blue. Cousin farewell, we're freezing."

[dnl2ba]

Surviving Cabin Decompression (http://www.smartcockpit.com/operations/Surviving%20Cabin%20Decompression.pdf) (PDF)

Helios Airways Flight 522 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522) at Wikipedia

One SMS story was a hoax, and the other is under investigation.

[dnl2ba]

Michael Beurk: Women control everything! (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4155228.stm)


"Almost all the big jobs in broadcasting were held by women - the controllers of BBC One television and Radio 4 for example. These are the people who decide what we see and hear", he said.


"What we have now are lots of jobs that require people skills and multi-tasking - which women are a lot better at."

'Happy medium'

While Buerk admitted a lot of the changes were for the better, he questioned whether things had gone too far.

"Products are made for women, cars are made for women - because they control what is being bought," he said.


"All they are is sperm donors, and most women aren't going to want an unemployable sperm donor loafing around and making the house look untidy."

I don't even know who this guy is, but I gather that he's a famous news personality.

[dnl2ba]

Update: All flight 377 victims autopsied so far were alive when the plane crashed (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/08/16/greece.crash/index.html?section=cnn_topstories)


Examinations of 20 bodies, including that of a flight attendant, have already indicated they were alive when the plane crashed, an Athens coroner said.

[dnl2ba]

Woman Gets Cable Bill With Derogatory Name (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050818/ap_on_fe_st/nasty_bill;_ylt=ApQD4LcOnM7sy2jbAkAnufoEtbAF;_ylu= X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)


CHICAGO - LaChania Govan said she got bounced around by her cable company when she called to complain. She made dozens of calls and was even transferred to a person who spoke Spanish — a language she doesn't understand.

But when she got her August bill from Comcast she had no trouble understanding she'd made somebody mad. It was addressed to "Bitch Dog."


In another case, Peoples Energy customer Jefferoy Barnes started getting letters addressed to "Jeffery Scrotum Bag Barnes."

"I had no bad words at all. I guess the earliest letter is dated in May and from then on up until now my name has been listed as Jeffery Scrotum Bag Barnes and I have no idea why."

[ohvermie]

Is your MMORPG server safe from crime? (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7865)

[dnl2ba]

$750K is yours if you can produce empirical evidence that Jesus is not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (http://www.boingboing.net/2005/08/19/boing_boings_250000_.html)

Though it looks like they don't even have the balls to back that reward:

* Prize to be awarded with Intelligently Designed currency; void where prohibited by logic.Are they afraid someone's going to be able to claim the money? If they could provide empirical evidence about Jesus, it probably is worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to someone.

[deevan]

Eheheh... Well, I already dress like a pirate.

[dnl2ba]

Can you tell I'm hung up on the flight 737 thing? It's just that there looked like there might've been a chance to save them...

Greek investigators match blood from Helios cockpit wreckage to steward (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050820/wl_afp/greeceairplanecrash_050820131949)

Check out the photo. Pretty girl, and the guy is a dashing small aircraft pilot standing in as flight crew. This is like the aviation equivalent of the hundreds of ex-LAPD who keep showing up in movies like Die Hard (or was he ex-NYPD?). The F-16 pilots said it looked like 2 people were trying to save the plane when probably lack of oxygen had knocked everyone else unconscious. If you take some license and say the second person was the pretty girl, you've got yourself a made-for-TV movie.

This is like any Star Trek episode where everyone except Spock / T'Pol / Data / 7 of 9 gets knocked unconscious and it's up to the lone alien/android/Borg hero(ine) to save the day.

[dnl2ba]

Fetal pain challenged by scientific review (http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/08/23/fetal.pain.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories)
Researchers: Pain perception unlikely before third trimester

I actually just wanted to say that discussions of abortion and the phrase "stuck their hands into a hornet's nest" do NOT, under any circumstances, go together.

[ohvermie]

Video games cause of pregnancy? (http://www.newsnet5.com/news/4885861/detail.html)


The article reported that some would say that movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline may all be to blame.

Damn you hot coffee!!!!

[dnl2ba]

I had to do a double-take. Canton, Ohio.

[dnl2ba]

I've seen this quote before, but since video games + violence keeps coming up here...

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kristian_Wilson

"Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music."

Kristian Wilson
CEO, Nintendo Gaming Corporation, Inc, 1989

[deevan]

Yeah, their mascot is the trojans.

[dnl2ba]

Pubic pants (http://www.theage.com.au/news/fashion/pubic-pants-furore/2005/08/24/1124562896177.html?oneclick=true)

I hope this one doesn't catch on. For one, I don't want to see other guys wearing that, and for another, I'd hate to be caught in some situation where you're not hip unless you're wearing pubic jeans.

I read somewhere that historically, men's clothing has been much more conservative than women's. Okay, that's obvious, but men's clothing is also conservative in its trends: it takes much longer for things to go in or out of style in the men's clothing world.

[dnl2ba]

I've seen this quote before, but since video games + violence keeps coming up here...

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kristian_Wilson

"Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music."

Kristian Wilson
CEO, Nintendo Gaming Corporation, Inc, 1989

NOES IT IS BY MARCUS BRIGSTOCKE (http://www.marcusbrigstocke.com/pacman.asp)

I've never heard it called "Nintendo Gaming Corporation," anyway, and what would it be doing with a non-Japanese CEO?

[dnl2ba]

Hollywood producer has a heart attack and dies, but also falls on his 9-year-old daughter and kills her too (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/24/producer.death.ap/index.html)

And if that weren't weird enough already...


The vehicle was found parked at a convenience store in Clearlake Oaks a day after Carr abandoned his wife at a grocery store in Ashland, Oregon.


Carr's wife, Chikako Carr, 50, said she still has no idea why her husband took off while she was in a grocery store restroom. He also dumped a box of belongings, including important personal papers and photos, in a pasture on the outskirts of Ashland a few days before he disappeared.

Authorities also don't know why Carr drove to Clearlake Oaks. His brother, John, lives there but said he had not heard from Carr, Perdock said.

Extra bad for the wife. Your husband leaves you, AND takes the kid, AND he dies, AND the kid dies too.

[dnl2ba]

Woman offended by doc's obesity advice (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082400499.html)

[dnl2ba]

Doctors don't have germs, nurse told (http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/doctors-dont-have-germs-nurse-told/2005/06/20/1119250928025.html?oneclick=true)

(free reg, or get a u/p from Bug Me Not (http://bugmenot.com/view.php?url=http://reg.smh.com.au/login.do?status=FAIL&errMsg=&errCode=10001&site=SMH&server=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smh.com.au&data=%2Fnews%2Fnational%2Fdoctors-dont-have-germs-nurse-told%2F2005%2F06%2F20%2F1119250928025.html%3Fonecl ick%3Dtrue&count=0))


When a nurse confronted Dr Jayant Patel about the extremely high rate of post-operative infection among his patients, he was adamant: doctors did not carry germs.

When on rounds with Dr Patel, early in his two-year stint at the hospital, Ms Aylmer noticed him going from patient to patient checking his handiwork without first washing his hands.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jayant_Patel


Overall, Patel is linked to at least 87 deaths out of the 1,202 patients he treated between 2003 to early 2005, 30 of whom died while under his care in Bundaberg.

[dnl2ba]

Collector: Are these rare coins real?
U.S. Mint: Hm, yup. We'll take those, thanks. (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/25/rare.coins.ap/index.html)


David Lebryk, acting director of the Mint, had announced in a news release that the rare coins, which were never put in circulation, had been taken from the Mint "in an unlawful manner" in the mid-1930's and now were "recovered."

The coins, which are so rare that their value is almost beyond calculation, are public property, he said.


In 2002, Sotheby's and numismatic firm Stack's auctioned off a 1933 Double Eagle coin for $7.59 million, the highest price ever paid for a coin.

...
After a legal battle, the dealer [from 2002, not from the current story] was permitted to sell the coin at auction on the condition he split the proceeds with the Mint.

[dnl2ba]

Christians embrace dinosaurs as proof of Genesis (http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/44624) - actually several links, so I'll leave that to Metafilter.

"A is not inconsistent with B; therefore, A proves B"

[dnl2ba]

Female boxer Ann Wolfe finally gets her chance in the ring with a male competitor (http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1642287)

She has a great record (from boxing with women) and he has a comparatively crappy record.

Read the comments. Skip all the trash about her (lack of) attractiveness and look for long posts by boxers (zena, hubiestewart, madpiper, verdelak).

[dnl2ba]

CNN weather guy loses his cool (http://retrospection.net/videofiles/hurricanekat.php) (QT)

[dnl2ba]

In Bangalore, India, a Cuddle With Your Baby Requires a Bribe (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/international/asia/30bangalore.html?ex=1283054400&en=612246cc07e037c4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss)

[dnl2ba]

There's no way this can be real, but it's fun anyway: Tom Cruise claims he is "old beyond reckoning" (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=15892588%26method=full%26siteid=66633-name_page.html)

I mean, I believe he's a kook, but I don't believe when a British tabloid claims he said that publicly.

[dnl2ba]

black people: looters (http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/ts/080304tropicalweathe/im:/050829/480/ladm13208292332;_ylt=Al5ZxwJ8RbPpZQEW_iQt14xiWscF; _ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-)
white people: residents (http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/ts/080304tropicalweathe/im:/050830/photos_tc_afp/050830194101_mzffh1jl_photo1;_ylt=ApRfEVK4PspcnHn9 9Lxhj49iWscF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-)

[schally]

Weak. You don't "loot" food. You loot TVs and X-Boxes. No one who scrounges for food or survival supplies during a natural disaster is a thief. If they need it to survive they should take it.

[dnl2ba]

I wonder if AFP / AP came up with the captions too, or if they're Yahoo's.

I guess I'm not entirely comfortable with that definition of looting. I mean, sure I'd take food if my loved ones and I (or I alone) needed it to survive, but I'd still feel like I'm stealing. If I were a small shop owner, I wouldn't be surprised that it happened and maybe even glad someone could get some use out of all those goods that were probably getting destroyed anyway, but I'd also probably hear "Damn looters!" not too far back in my head, too.

[dnl2ba]

looting discussion (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/34709834/m/941007605731/p/19) amidst a gigantic hurricane thread

[dnl2ba]

black people: looters (http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/ts/080304tropicalweathe/im:/050829/480/ladm13208292332;_ylt=Al5ZxwJ8RbPpZQEW_iQt14xiWscF; _ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-)
white people: residents (http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/ts/080304tropicalweathe/im:/050830/photos_tc_afp/050830194101_mzffh1jl_photo1;_ylt=ApRfEVK4PspcnHn9 9Lxhj49iWscF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3dmhrOGVvBHNlYwNzc20-)

another shot of a black looter (http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050830/480/ladm10208301530)

Discussion about the photos and captions on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/firewall/38725768/)



feldamundo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894190114@N01/) says:

Being in the news biz, I can confirm that AFP and AP write their own photo captions. Yahoo is just the publisher.


Disco77Stu77 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/76631113@N00/) says:

Black, white, thats not the issue. These people are from New Orleans! So they are all criminals anyways.

[dnl2ba]

Shoot the looters (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/34709834/m/350002215731) - Ars Technica discussion


GwT (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%280%29)

There's a big difference between finding food to survive in a disaster area and kicking in shop windows to run off with 6 DVD players.



Bolero (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%280%29)

Personel Property isn't worth taking a life (which goes for the looters too). The looting is a problem, but let's face it, staying in New Orleans to engage in looting is an extremely risky proposition right now. I imagine that many of the people who engage in theft of non-vital foods and sundries may very well get their comeuppance by the hand of nature.



meldroc (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%280%29)

As stated. It's not about the stuff. It's not about petty theft. These looters are thugs. They're going around shooting people, harassing rescue workers, making things more dangerous, and removing all law and order. They're looting a children's fucking hospital while there are patients in it!

Shoot the fuckers.


morphy (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:void%280%29)

http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=78338

quote:


A homocide is justifiable:

(4)(a) When committed by a person lawfully inside a dwelling, a place of business, or a motor vehicle as defined in R.S. 32:1(40), against a person who is attempting to make an unlawful entry into the dwelling, place of business, or motor vehicle, or who has made an unlawful entry into the dwelling, place of business, or motor vehicle, and the person committing the homicide reasonably believes that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent the entry or to compel the intruder to leave the premises or motor vehicle. The homicide shall be justifiable even though the person committing the homicide does not retreat from the encounter.



Pontiphex (javascript:void(0))

As I said in a similar thread:


quote:
Or maybe the photographer actually talked to the people in the pictures.

In the first one the subject said "Nigga I was LOOTING!"

In the second, the subject said "Uh yeah, I found this bread."

Ya never know.




Also, the Flickr discussion has gone on for quite a ways now.


joethepeacock (http://www.flickr.com/photos/67116116@N00/) says:

OMG INTERNET!!! OMG ARGUE!!! OMG OMG OMG!!!

Dear lord...
All of you, shut the fuck up already. Two different agencies wrote two different captions differently. Does it illustrate the inherient racism in the media? Does it show bias toward white people? Does it correctly surmise what's happening in the associated photographs?

The answer to all of these questions is "Perhaps, but perhaps not." But one thing is for certain: your anger and outrage and OMG I WANT TO ARGUE ALL DAY LONG is completely wasted here.

Put your anger to work and help fix the situation (and by this, I mean both the racism and the fact that these people are hungry and need help). Your constant blather in an attempt to become famous on a comment board on flickr that's been propigated across the OMG INTERNET!!! Isn't helping a goddamn thing, save your fevered ego.

Now hush.


shutyourlips (http://www.flickr.com/photos/97346769@N00/) says:

Maybe if you'd open up your booty and look you'd notice the negro has a bag 3 times as large as him/her. While the two residents in the bottom picture clearly grabbed a loaf of bread and soda. They got what they needed and nothing more. They didn't grab trashbags and stuff them with all kinds of shit, shit not needed to survive, maybe that is why the top picture was considered a looter. I think the articles are right on.



mikeg626 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike626/) says:

Interesting difference in language.

More confusing is the first image, in which the person has chosen *Diet* Pepsi, which has no calories to sustain him.

pwned

Oh shits, how did I forget to include the :hmmm: non-smiley when I uploaded that last set?

[schally]

Why all the long-winded discussion? Everyone knows that black people steal stuff. Especially corn bread. And I'm sure that bag is full of delicious corn bread baked by sweet old white ladies who don't steal anything because, you know, they aren't darkies.

In truth, I doubt those captions are a true mark of bias. I just think that whoever wrote the looter captions has a different idea about survival than I do. Maybe since I was raised in the South I don't know any better, but I believe that in this type of situation taking food to eat is not stealing unless you're taking it from other people who need to eat. That's all.

So if CA falls off the continent while I'm visiting, you and Rhys will be in good hands. In times of crisis I can find us some vittles no problem and your conscience will stay clean. So if you don't want to forage for food at the grocery store it's okay we can kill and eat ants. Unless there's a flood then we'll have to find something else.

[dnl2ba]

<3

[Rhys]

Personally, when California falls off the continent, I am going to pillage all the food I need to survive, and I will make sure people know I'm pillaging. Looting is for pussies.

[Gump]

I just think that whoever wrote the looter captions has a different idea about survival than I do. Maybe since I was raised in the South I don't know any better, but I believe that in this type of situation taking food to eat is not stealing unless you're taking it from other people who need to eat. That's all. Maybe it's my Southern upbringing, but I can agree with that. I'm more worried about their health and safety than I am about their regard for the law. Now, the people looting guns and firing at people--THOSE are the people I'm afraid of.

[dnl2ba]

In case anyone doesn't follow Ballz's LJ, here's Snopes' take on finders vs. looters (http://www.snopes.com/photos/katrina/looters.asp) with some compelling words from the sources. Sounds like it was harmless.

[dnl2ba]

Spindly bush saves police officers (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/01/town.police.survival.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories)

That's the kind of headline and article I would've expected to see in the papers in Sim City 2000.

[deevan]

Probably linked elsewhere, but this blogger on the 13th floor of a data center in NO has a lot of good stuff to say. Cam feed too:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor

[dnl2ba]

Chief Justice Rehnquist has passed away (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/03/rehnquist.obit/index.html).

[dnl2ba]

Prophetic article on Nat'l Geographic about NO and its wetlands (http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/index.html) (from 2004)
(http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/index.html)

[dnl2ba]

Bush to probe hurricane response (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9A8844CD-9E3F-461E-9751-C8485E06FD43.htm)

On the one hand, I'm not sure how much Bush, personally, could've done. (Er, context is that lots of people are pointing fingers at Bush.) Wasn't it up to FEMA, the National Guard, etc.? Certainly, it helps to have support above and beyond that (more organization in getting people out, more supplies), but I don't know for sure that it was Bush's job to direct all those resources. A friend groused last night that the problem is that no one was in a position to direct all this kind of stuff.

The same friend added that it sure doesn't help Bush's image that he was golfing the day after the hurricane. Even if there wasn't really anything else he could do, at least go to a meeting or somethig.

Not many people I know were convinced by the last investigation that ended up blaming the CIA for misinformation about Iraq's WMD capabilities. I'd like to see the numbers for the American public.

[Gump]

Well, Bush did hire Michael Brown for FEMA, not because he was qualified, but because he was a former roommate of a campaign manager. He was forced to resign from his previous job as head of the International Arabian Horse association. So there is that.

Incidentally, I downloaded the DHS's National Response Plan (http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/editorial/editorial_0566.xml) earlier, and I plan to read it sometime this week. It's supposed to outline the exact role the federal government is supposed to take in this sort of situation.

[dnl2ba]

Stats on teen sex from Teen People Magazine (http://www.local6.com/family/4941071/detail.html)


Among those who are sexually active, 41 percent of the girls started having sex at 13 or 14; 35 percent started at 15 or 16, and 23 percent began at 17 or 18.

What the shit. 41% at 13 or 14!??! I guess seeing the age distribution would be important for interpreting that.

[schally]

Depends who they polled, too. A poll for teens in general, rather than teens who subscribe to Teen People mag, would probably be a bit different.

[ohvermie]

Stats on teen sex from Teen People Magazine (http://www.local6.com/family/4941071/detail.html)



What the shit. 41% at 13 or 14!??! I guess seeing the age distribution would be important for interpreting that.

I would also like to know where the polling area was...

cuz then i'd move there

[dnl2ba]

Ahnold to veto CA gay marriage (http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-09-08T051159Z_01_SCH817981_RTRUKOC_0_UK-RIGHTS-CALIFORNIA-GAYS.xml&archived=False)


SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 7 - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday he will veto a bill to allow gay marriage in the state and said the issue should be decided by the courts or by voters directly but not by the Democrat-controlled legislature.

A veto had been widely expected after California's Assembly on Tuesday endorsed gay marriage, the first time a state legislature had taken such a step. California's Senate passed the bill last week.

Schwarzenegger's press secretary, Margita Thompson, said the governor "believes that gay couples are entitled to full protection under the law and should not be discriminated against based upon their relationship."

But since California voters approved a ballot measure five years ago defining marriage as between a man and a woman, the question of gay marriage should be put to voters again in a referendum or decided by courts, she said.

"We cannot have a system where the people vote and the legislature derails that vote," Thompson said.


Republican media consultant Wayne Johnson said it was inconceivable Schwarzenegger would have signed the bill because his approval ratings have slumped, leaving him with only Republican support. "The people who are his strongest supporters are among the least likely to support this bill," said Johnson.

[dnl2ba]

2 stories about escaping (or not) from sinking cars (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16517135-1242,00.html) - Just read it. The second story was kind of jarring after reading the first one.

[dnl2ba]

Why the feds were slow to respond to Katrina (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/09/national/nationalspecial/09military.html?ei=5090&en=aa642b8c89c27c01&ex=1283918400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1126238795-dGCl9WlaN8lbkCHBy9hw2w&pagewanted=print) (NY Times)

Basically, the feds were hamstrung by the Adminstration's own post-9/11 emergency response system, which delegated power in the event of an emergency to local authorities.

via my friend Dayv (http://www.livejournal.com/users/vote_moneyshot/62018.html)

[dnl2ba]

Nitwits electrocuted trying to steal a high-voltage power line (http://www.komotv.com/stories/39084.htm)

Actually, they were trying to steal a low-voltage line, but the line they picked was high-voltage.

[dnl2ba]

Katrina destruction slide show (http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=14ewb3ap.b147fdut&Uy=nyvoby&Ux=1) by some guy who stayed and rode out the storm before escaping by stolen car.

[dnl2ba]

Dubai plans city of 'wonders of the world' replicas (http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1457613.htm)


The Gulf emirate of Dubai will build a city of life-size replicas of seven wonders of the world at an estimated cost of $US1.5 billion ($1.94 billion) to house offices, shops and flats, a developer has said.

The Falcon City of Wonders is the latest of a host of ambitious construction projects in the booming trade hub, which is part of the United Arab Emirates.

Three buildings will be modelled on structures that were part of the original list of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World" - the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Others will be replicas of more modern wonders - the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Great Wall of China, a statement said.

The structures will house flats, office space, hotels and shopping malls.

It'll be like Vegas, but in the UAE. How does the Luxor stack up against the largest of the Great Pyramids at Giza, anyway?

[dnl2ba]

FEMA director Michael Brown resigns
CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/12/katrina.impact/index.html?section=cnn_topstories) | Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=apzWfjJ3f1hs&refer=top_world_news) | Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050912/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_brown)

In business news, eBay is buying Skype (http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm5992_20050912.htm) ($2.6+ b) and Oracle is buying Siebel (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/business/12cnd-oracle.html) ($5.8 b).

[dnl2ba]

Bruce Lee a symbol of unity in divided town (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050912/od_nm/bosnia_brucelee_dc;_ylt=A0SOwmJEBCZD.zoA.BDtiBIF;_ ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl)


SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The ethnically divided Bosnian city of Mostar has agreed to erect a new symbol of unity -- a statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, worshipped by Muslims, Serbs and Croats.

Fuck yeah.

[dnl2ba]

Bush takes responsibility for the federal Katrina response (http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050913/ap_on_go_ot/katrina_washington)

Also, a career firefighter named R. David Paulison has been tagged to take Michael Brown's place as FEMA chief.

[dnl2ba]

Roberts says Roe v Wade set a precedent (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9175162/), though he didn't offer his own opinion. Way to be non-controversial... but it still leaves some questions in the air.

[schally]

Mr. T to star in advice show:"I Pity The Fool." (http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271|97474|1|,00.html)

[dnl2ba]

Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050916/od_nm/australia_electricity_dc;_ylt=AoId03Isv8IDTVfS.jgw 85as0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ)

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.

"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.

Shocking Quilted Armor of Storms
+7-571 lightning damage
+3 to Static Field
+2 to Blaze

[dnl2ba]

Plague-infested mice go missing from lab (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/15/missing.mice.ap/index.html)

[dnl2ba]

More details on the pizza delivery guy / bank robber with the collar bomb (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/18/bank.robbery/index.html) - The FBI has released pictures that suggest the poor guy didn't know he was gonna be blown up.

Erie, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Recently released images of a pizza deliveryman who robbed a bank, then was killed by a bomb fastened around his neck, suggest he was unaware of any threat to his life, according to the FBI.
I remember reading about this a while ago, though I don't think I knew about it 2 years ago. Pretty freaky, like something out of a movie.

Wells arrived at the bank about 40 minutes before he robbed it and then, appearing calm, left with an undisclosed amount of cash in a plastic grocery bag. The bomb was under his T-shirt and he also carried a cane-shaped firearm, but used it only as a cane.

State police stopped Wells moments after the robbery. When the device exploded, he was sitting handcuffed in a parking lot surrounded by police, who kept their distance while waiting for a bomb squad to arrive. Wells told the officers that somebody locked the bomb onto him.

And from WJET TV (http://www.wjettv.com/news/default.asp?mode=shownews&id=5655):

The FOX-TV show "America`s Most Wanted" devoted most of Saturday`s show to Erie`s 2003 pizza bomber case. The show featured a reenactment of Brian Wells robbing the PNC Bank with a collar bomb locked around his neck. Wells handed the teller a note demanding $250,000. The show revealed she gave him a bag with only $7,000. Wells nine page note featured scavenger-hunt style instructions. He was under the impression following the directions to the end would allow him to disarm the collar bomb. However, the show says authorities did not find a key or note at what was supposed to be Wells` final stop. The bomb exploded while Wells was surrounded by police. Brian Wells told police he was approached by three men at a television transmitter tower who shot at him and locked the bomb around his neck. Police say they didn`t find shell casings or any sign of a struggle at the transmitter site. But according to the autopsy report, Brian Wells had a shotgun pellet in his right thigh.

[dnl2ba]

'Makeover' sued over woman's suicide (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/20/makeover.suit.reut/index.html)


LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- A Texas woman has sued ABC's popular reality show "Extreme Makeover" for more than $1 million claiming among other things that an abrupt cancellation of her appearance on the program led to her sister's death.

The night before Williams was to begin her makeover, the show's producers told her it would take too long for work on her jaw to heal. They canceled her appearance and sent Williams home where Kellie, distraught over what she had said about her sister, eventually killed herself, according to the suit.

[dnl2ba]

Microbiologists Find Men the Great Unwashed (http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PublicHealth/tb/1778)


Overall, 82% of more than 6,300 men and women observed leaving restrooms washed their hands in 2005 compared with 78% in 2003, said the American Society of Microbiology and the Soap and Detergent Association.

But women accounted for nearly all of that improvement, the groups said, from 83% to 90%.

Men, however, remained the great unwashed, with a negligible soap-and-water improvement to 75% in 2005 from 74% in 2003.




91% said they washed their hands after using a public restroom.
83% said they washed after using the bathroom at home.
77% said they washed before handling or eating food.
73% said they washed after changing a dirty diaper.
42% said they washed after petting a dog or cat.
21% said they washed after handling money.
32% said they washed after coughing and sneezing, a figure that concerned researchers.



Sports fans, especially men, scored with some of the dirtiest hands; overall, 26% of those observed at Atlanta's Turner Field did not wash. Sixteen percent of the women and 37% of the men did not wash.
The biggest disparities between men and women were observed in New York's Penn Station. Ninety-two percent of the women washed their hands compared with only 64% of the men.
San Franciscans appeared to have the best hand hygiene habits. Overall, 88% of those observed at the Ferry Terminal Farmers Market washed -- 85% of the men and 91% of the women washed their hands.
Here's a reminder: it doesn't matter if you got pee on your hands! (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_220.html)

[dnl2ba]

Katrina has loosed the US Navy's 3 dozen dart-firing dolphins (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1577753,00.html)

[dnl2ba]

Guam: tropical storm Longwang approaches!!!! (http://www.prh.noaa.gov/guam/textReader.php?pil=TCPPQ3)

"Katrina" doesn't sound scary. "Longwang"? Holy shit. Run for it!

[ohvermie]

ph33r the longwang.

[dnl2ba]

Sweden set for freeze-dry burials (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4293992.stm)

Under the process, billed by Ms Wiigh-Maesak as "ecological burial", bodies are dipped in a bath of freezing liquid nitrogen.

The brittle bodies are then mechanically shaken so that they begin to break down into small particles.

[dnl2ba]

long blog post about space shuttle Discovery from August (http://www.idlewords.com/2005/08/a_rocket_to_nowhere.htm)


The Soviet Shuttle, the Buran (snowstorm) was an aerodynamic clone of the American orbiter, but incorporated many original features that had been considered and rejected for the American program, such as all-liquid rocket boosters, jet engines, ejection seats and an unmanned flight capability. You know you're in trouble when the Russians are adding safety features to your design.

[dnl2ba]

Tom "Gay" Cruise and Katie "Publicity Stunt" Holmes to have a baby (http://www.eonline.com/News/firstlook.html?tnews)

[schally]

dnl2ba: reading E! Online so you don't have to.

Something about them having a baby together is weird and creepy to me. I always assumed Cruise had a low sperm count or something since he never had kids with Kidman.

[dnl2ba]

Well, there's the whole thing about him allegedly being GAY, and Katie Holmes claiming she's a VIRGIN and will remain so until marriage. I guess there's always immaculate conception.

[ohvermie]

I thought the Kidman/Cruise marriage yielded no babies because Kidman didn't want to jeopardize her career/figure with childbirth. Or am I thinking of her character in To Die For.

[dnl2ba]

Photographer discusses and defends his 1985 photo of Omayra Sanchez trapped and dying in Columbia (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4231020.stm) - You can see a bigger version of the image in this World Press Photo gallery (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4231020.stm) and clicking the Nov 1985 entry. (Warning: Filled poignant imagery and captions.)

Edit: Non-Flash version of the gallery (http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=blogsection&id=15&Itemid=115&bandwidth=high) with a less annoying UI, but with lower-res images. Omayra Sanchez (http://www.worldpressphoto.nl/index.php?option=com_photogallery&task=view&id=179&Itemid=115&bandwidth=high)

[schally]

Bill Watterson: Where is he now? (http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/10/24/reclusive.cartoonist.ap/index.html)

Watterson is hero thread material. His artistic integrity is just incredible. He never went for the quick buck in a profession that is rife with merchandising for greeting cards and coffee mugs. What a guy.

[ohvermie]

Then why is his complete Calvin and Hobbes collection like 3 gazillion dollars?1?!?11111 one

[schally]

Because it's ten years worth of material.

[ohvermie]

I'd still buy it anyway. I <3 Calvin and Hobbes, I still have the last strip clipped out and framed. It's all yellow and sad.

[dnl2ba]

"Cool mom" gets 30 years for sex parties (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/15/sexparty.mom.ap/index.html)

30 years! Well, I guess I probably wouldn't blink if it were a guy who committed statutory rape with his daughter's friends. I wonder how many years came from each charge, though:


She pleaded guilty in July to two misdemeanor counts of sexual assault and nine felony counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

She also was sentenced for additional charges of third-degree assault, violation of a restraining order and harassment for unrelated cases involving her husband and children, prosecution spokesman Carl Blesch said.


So is she actually serving more time for the booze and drugs than for the omg teen sex?

[dnl2ba]

Ants EAT WOMAN'S EYE!@!@%@!% (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051115/ap_on_fe_st/india_ant_attack)


NEW DELHI - A woman died in a Calcutta hospital after ants ate one of her eyes as she was recovering from a cornea operation, media reports said Tuesday.

Gauri Chakraborty, 55, had complained of terrible pain after the operation at a state-run hospital, but a nurse told her it was normal and left her unattended, her son Soumen told the Press Trust of India news agency.

He said that when her bandage was removed the next day they found big black ants nibbling at her eye, PTI reported.

[dnl2ba]

The Pope wears Prada shoes and Gucci sunglasses (http://www.shoeblogs.com/wordpress/2005/11/24/the-pope-wears-prada/)

[dnl2ba]

Girl with peanut allergy dies after kiss (http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/11/28/kiss.death.ap/index.html)

[schally]

The kid that kissed her is going to be emotionally scarred for life a la Rogue.

[dnl2ba]

Lingerie store window has live models (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051129/ap_on_re_us/lingerie_store_2)

Robin Lovitt's death sentence commuted to life sentence (http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/11/29/landmark.execution.ap/index.html) because a clerk illegally destroyed evidence that could exonerate him.

[dnl2ba]

omg abortion induces long-term mental distress! (http://www.foodconsumer.org/777/8/Abortion_induces_long_term_mental_distress.shtml)


Anne Nordal Broen and colleagues from the University of Oslo, Norway, in collaboration with colleagues from the Buskerud Hospital in Drammen, conducted the study, which involved 40 women who had a miscarriage and 80 women who underwent an induced abortion. The study was meant to assess how abortions and miscarriages could mentally or psychologically affect the women during a five-year period.
However, women who aborted their pregnancy suffered from mental distress much longer after the event, two and five years afterwards, than women who had a miscarriage. 26% were still experiencing distress after six months, and 20% at five years.
So um, there was no control group of women who had given birth successfully or not been pregnant at all, unless you consider miscarrying to be the baseline.

Secondly, there's a big gap between "abortion and long-term mental distress are correlated" and "abortion induces long-term mental distress." What if the kinds of women who tend to have abortions also tend to be younger and poorer (and therefore possibly more prone to future distress) than women who don't? Because that's what the statistics say. We'd need results that control for all those factors.

I suppose what this really says is "abortion is correlated with more long-term distress than miscarriage is."

Compare 21 related headlines on Google News (http://news.google.com/?ncl=http://www.foodconsumer.org/777/8/Abortion_induces_long_term_mental_distress.shtml&hl=en).

[dnl2ba]

Kansas U's Dept of Religious Studies chair forced out (http://arstechnica.com/journals/science.ars/2005/12/13/2079)

After making fierce anti-"fundy" comments in an email, colleagues asked him to resign and he got beaten up on the road.

The Ars Technica article author says:

I work in the medical industry, and one of the things I think about on a daily basis is this nebulous ideal called "professionalism." When I'm speaking to a patient, every word I say is carefully weighed before I say it—I often think about what I'm going to say to a person before they even arrive. In circumstances like those Dr. Mirecki finds himself in, I wonder what he was thinking when he sent the e-mails he allegedly did. Insulting, vitriolic comments don't change anyone's mind—they only serve to put someone with a differing viewpoint on the defensive. By the same token, beating someone because of a difference in opinion is also way over the top.

[dnl2ba]

Doctors remove 16-pound facial tumor (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/14/health/main1124664.shtml)

[dnl2ba]

Court pardons smitten bra burglar (http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=10574138&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews)



Police caught him red-handed in November walking out of the neighbor's apartment with a key to her door, a bra, two photographs and her MP3 player, the report on Xinhua's English Web site, www.chinaview.cn (http://www.chinaview.cn), said.

But the court in Harbin, capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province, dismissed harassment charges against the burglar. It heard that on the times he entered the woman's apartment while she was out, he had washed her dishes, done her laundry, left her snacks and even fixed her computer.

[dnl2ba]

Are Match.com and Yahoo Personals hiring beautiful women to go out with you and goad you into renewing your subscription? (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051215-5779.html) (second half of the article)


Speaking of "wishing they hadn't," several lawsuits (http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/life/article.jsp?content=20051219_118193_118193) against online dating services are currently wending their way through the American court system. Unhappy customers are claiming that they were duped into remaining with Match.com and Yahoo Personals—and shelling out more cash—when both sites engaged in dirty tricks to keep the subscriptions coming in.

Matthew Evans, a thirtysomething professional from Orange County, Calif., accuses www.match.com of sending him fake romantic emails to goad him into subscription renewal. He alleges that employees read his emails and tailored responses to invent the "perfect match." Worse yet, Evans says the company hired a beautiful woman named Autumn Marzec to go on a date with him. The lawsuit claims that www.match.com "employs 'date bait' teams to hoodwink subscribers," and that these staffers fake dates up to 100 times a month.
Having a company hire a beautiful woman to go out with you doesn't actually seem like grounds for a lawsuit, but one can see Evans' point. The Yahoo case is similar, in that Yahoo is accused of posting fake profiles of attractive singles to boost traffic. Both companies claim innocence, and Match.com claims that is has an affidavit from Autumn Marzec in which she swears that she was not employed by the website.

[dnl2ba]

Well, Freakonomics gave me a lot to think about for the next time I have a baby and need to name 'em, but it looks like there's a new consideration in town.

Baby's name on U.S. no-fly list (http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2005-12-15T160452Z_01_SIB554549_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-NOFLY.xml)


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sarah Zapolsky was checking in for a flight to Italy when she discovered her 9-month-old son's name was on the United States' "no-fly" list of suspected terrorists.

"We pointed down to the stroller, and he sat there and gurgled," Zapolsky said, recalling the incident at Dulles International Airport outside Washington in July. "The desk agent started laughing. ... She couldn't print us out a boarding pass because he's on the no-fly list."
I should check to see whether "Prince Xavier Avogadro Kodama Esquire McCarthy" is on there. There's always the chance that there's a suspected terrorist with a similar name, and I'll need years to come up with a new, non-terrorist one that's as good.

[ohvermie]

Man looking for love online...FINDS HIS MOTHER (http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/news/wwn/20051209/113414040002.html)

[dnl2ba]

Heart-broken stranger gives away $15,000 ring (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/15/ring.found.reuters.reut/index.html)


An anonymous gift-giver left a $15,000 diamond engagement ring to the owner of an unlocked car in western Massachusetts with a typed note hinting at a broken heart.

"Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present. Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now. Merry Christmas to you," the note said.

[schally]

Yeah, I heard about that.

I guess I should make the obligatory tacky chick observation that you'd be crazy to leave a guy that gives you a $15,000 rock. I mean, come on. Imagine the lingerie.

[dnl2ba]

"My love is gone now" could suggest a lot of things besides that she turned him down.

[dnl2ba]

Bad Santas run wild in Auckland (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4539180.stm)


About 40 men in ill-fitting Father Christmas costumes ran around Auckland vandalising or stealing property, and throwing bottles, police say.

Two security guards were injured and three of the men were arrested.

A police spokesman described it as "fairly average behaviour" from "an organised group of idiots".

[schally]

I have a vague recollection of Chuck Palahniuk describing a similar event in Portland, Oregon, but with thousands of Santas. And I don't think they vandalized--I think they just ran through the streets.

[dnl2ba]

I'm gonna chalk this one up as sensational.

Korean stem cell research drama (http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,69864,00.html?tw=wn_story_top5) / Wired

[dnl2ba]

New Video Game Designed To Have No Influence On Kids' Behavior (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43441) (The Onion)


NEW YORK— Electronic-entertainment giant Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Grand Theft Auto series creator Rockstar Games, released Stacker Tuesday, a first-person vertical-crate-arranger guaranteed not to influence young people's behavior in any way.

"With Stacker, the player interacts with an environment full of boxes—lightweight, uniformly brown boxes with rounded corners—and uses diligence and repetitive hard work to complete his mission," said Doug Benzies, Stacker's chief developer. "We're confident that the new 'reluctantly interactive' content engine we designed will prevent any excitement or emotional involvement, inappropriate or otherwise, on the part of the player."

Though some have compared Stacker to Tetris, those within the industry have been quick to draw distinctions between the two games.

"Tetris' suggestively twisting and turning blocks, violent falling motions, and increasingly frenzied suspense are a potential influence on children," said video-game ethicist Steve Contreras. "By contrast, after playing Stacker, with its eternally unchanging shapes and gentle lowering actions, I doubt a child would ever want to arrange any sort of virtual block again. This is exactly what this controversial industry needed to rescue its reputation."

Added Contreras: "We could really use a good first-person stander game."

[dnl2ba]

Pokemon Gene Renamed Following Legal Threat (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7569)


Researchers at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York have changed the name of a gene found to cause cancer, due to legal pressure from Nintendo's Pokémon USA. The gene, which has the formal name of POK erythroid myeloid ontogenic gene, was previously abbreviated as POKEMON, leading to media reports that compared the game with aspects of the disease, albeit in a lighthearted fashion.

Scientific journal Nature reported that Pokémon USA, the subsidiary company of Nintendo established to control the Pokémon brand in America, threatened to sue the cancer research center on the understandable grounds that equating Pokémon with cancer was doing harm to the brand's image. Sloan-Kettering acquiesced to the company's demands and changed the gene's name to the more unobtrusive Zbtb7.

[schally]

Pope dons the Camauro (http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/21/051221182323.6y8q01ja.html)

Check out the picture. "STRIKE HIM DOWNNN!" We have the creepiest-looking Pope ever.

[dnl2ba]

Whoop, forgot to link the Spirit Fingers post on same (http://facepalm.blogspot.com/2005/12/urbi-et-orbi.html) after seeing your post.

Stoned owl hides out in Christmas tree (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10486516/) - Check out pics 1, 5, 7, and 10.

[schally]

Dad replaces bad kid's XBox 360 with coal (http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/christmas-spirit/dad-replaces-bad-kids-360-with-coal-145033.php).

[dnl2ba]

Wow, I'm amazing. I saw the link, clicked it, didn't read it, came back hours later, read it, and then came to this thread to post it.

[dnl2ba]

NYT expose on online sex predators (http://news.com.com/Boy+joins+a+sordid+online+world+through+his+Webcam/2100-1047_3-6004925.html?tag=st.txt.caro) - through the experiences of an 18-year-old boy who's been in the biz since he was 13.

[dnl2ba]

I must've heard about this when it hit the news, but I didn't know the SA connection.

William Freund (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Freund)

Apparently asked for ammunition recommendations on Something Awful forums, then went and killed people.


William Freund (c. 1986 – October 29 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_29), 2005 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005)) was a nineteen year old male who donned a cape and ski mask and went on a shooting rampage in the city of Aliso Viejo, California (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliso_Viejo%2C_California). He shot and killed two people before going home and killing himself by shooting himself in the torso. Before going on the rampage, he is said to have posted his plans on the online Asperger's Syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger%27s_Syndrome) message board wrongplanet.net. He also posted on the message board of the comedy website Something Awful (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Awful) under the alias "forbiddenforum" asking for information on where to buy buckshot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckshot) ammunition. Forum members responded with information, then derision as he claimed that he was going to be shooting at people attempting to vandalize his Halloween pumpkins. The thread was closed a few days before his shooting spree. He also posted on AnandTech (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AnandTech) but never commented on suicide or his plans to kill. He was a computer expert who, according to his employer, kept to himself and severely lacked social skills.

[dnl2ba]

Annoying someone via the Internet anonymously is now a federal crime (http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-annoyance%2C+go+to+jail/2010-1028_3-6022491.html?part=rss&tag=6022491&subj=news)


It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed (http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehouse.gov%2Fne ws%2Freleases%2F2006%2F01%2F20060105-3.html&siteId=3&oId=2010-1028-6022491&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex) into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act (http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fthomas.loc.gov%2Fcgi-bin%2Fbdquery%2Fz%3Fd109%3Ah.r.03402%3A&siteId=3&oId=2010-1028-6022491&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex). Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.

"The use of the word 'annoy' is particularly problematic," says Marv Johnson, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union (http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aclu.org%2F&siteId=3&oId=2010-1028-6022491&ontId=1023&lop=nl.ex). "What's annoying to one person may not be annoying to someone else."

Here's the relevant language.

"Whoever...utilizes any device or software that can be used to originate telecommunications or other types of communications that are transmitted, in whole or in part, by the Internet... without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person...who receives the communications...shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

[dnl2ba]

The ugly stick has had a field day with Melissa Joan Hart (http://www.newswatch50.com/entertainment/story.aspx?content_id=B1B20BE5-9CF9-4C6D-8C0B-E7DDAAB20C36) ("Clarissa Explains it All").

[ohvermie]

OH MY GOD!!!

And wasn't MJH on Sabrina the Teenage Witch? Clarissa was some other wench.

[dnl2ba]

both (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004997/)

[dnl2ba]

Mouthy parrot 'reveals sex secret' (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/01/17/uk.parrot/index.html)

Ars discussion (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/8390901411/m/970002037731)

Cmon, it could have been worse. The bird could have said things like:

Raaaaawwk! Up the ass!
/whistles Wait your turn!
Twenny bucks! Raaawk! Twenny bucks!

[schally]

I heard that story on the radio, but the version they gave was a little more embellished. In it the bird said, "Hi Gary," but it also said, "I love you," and made slurping noises.

I've heard that African greys are really smart birds. Cleary Ziggy wanted to rule the roost again so he eliminated the competition.

[dnl2ba]

Seattle suit filed for "lost time" over controversial best-seller (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002760247_frey25m.html)

Book comes out, Oprah endorses it, bunch of nitwits go buy it on her say-so. The Smoking Gun says it's full of inaccuracies and exaggerations. Nitwits sue author for the time they wasted reading it.

[dnl2ba]

Yes, sensational.

Steve Jobs emits an opprobrious effluvium produced by smoking infants' limbs, and Bill Gates wears a golden halo fashioned of honey-tongued praise given by his crippled war widow beneficiaries (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060126-6062.html)


Gates is giving away his fortune with the same gusto he spent acquiring it, throwing billions of dollars at solving global health problems. He has also spoken out on major policy issues, for example, by opposing proposals to cut back the inheritance tax.

In contrast, Jobs does not appear on any charitable contribution lists of note. And Jobs has said nary a word on behalf of important social issues, reserving his talents of persuasion for selling Apple products.

Although The Steve is absent from the lists, his wife has given large monetary donations to the Democratic political party through the years.

[Jobs] uses social issues to support his own selfish business goals. In the Think Different campaign, Jobs used cultural figures he admired to sell computers -- figures who stuck their necks out to fight racism, poverty, inequality or war.
OTOH:

or obvious reasons, there's no way to tell if he gave anonymous donations, and it's hardly fair to paint Jobs in a purely negative light when many CEOs and other well-compensated executives give little or nothing to charity.

From the Ars discussion (http://episteme.arstechnica.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/174096756/m/864003647731/r/952004647731#952004647731):
This just shows how hard it is to evaluate people.

Gates built MS with a real culture of bullying and thuggery. They go around threatening to cut off people's air supply, they've killed off good companies with vaporware stories, they have contempt for government regulators, etc.

But that same guy is the greatest philanthropist in the world, by a wide margin. It's not just the amount, either -- he's not building opera houses, he's building up public health infrastructure in Africa, etc. Stuff that really makes a big difference in countless lives. I know it's because he's got the dough, but he's done more good than Mother Theresa (and a lot more bad).

Jobs is just another self-absorbed tech CEO. He's good at it, and all, but he's more of a guy that central casting would send up.

If you want a real good guy in his relationship with technology, go with Linus. But gates is just a colossal figure in philanthropy, and no one else touches him.

[dnl2ba]

7 kids die in a car crash, then their grandpa has a heart attack and dies when he hears about it (http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/26/bus.crash/index.html)

That's awful.

[dnl2ba]

Muhammed cartoon

There's a lot of articles out there about the whole Muhammed cartoon, but they haven't been reprinting the cartoon in question so we can see what the fuss is about. CNN says they're not reprinting it "in respect for Islam (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/02/cartoons.wrap/index.html)" (newfound respect, a.k.a. fear, as conservahottie Michelle Malkin points out (http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004440.htm)). This's what I found after a brief look.
http://technorati.com/search/%22muhammad%20cartoon%22
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3561502a12,00.html
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/sarticle.php?id=12146
http://face-of-muhammed.blogspot.com/ - The alarmist Moment of Truth post (http://face-of-muhammed.blogspot.com/2006/02/moment-of-truth.html) probably isn't helping relations much. It basically says, "Islam threatens our way of life and must be dealt with." Hrm. (http://face-of-muhammed.blogspot.com/2006/02/moment-of-truth.html)
some Muslims' response (http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004448.htm) - I like the first one.
The drawings were commissioned by the Jyllands-Posten (Jutland's Post) to accompany an article on self-censorship and freedom of speech after Danish writer Kare Bluitgen was unable failed to find artists willing to illustrate his children's book about Mohammed for fear of violent attacks by extremist Muslims.

Islamic teachings forbid pictorial depictions of Mohammed.
"The modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own religious feelings.
"It is incompatible with contemporary democracy and freedom of speech, where you must be ready to put up with insults, mockery and ridicule.

"It is certainly not always equally attractive and nice to look at, and it does not mean that religious feelings should be made fun of at any price, but that is less important in this context. [...] we are on our way to a slippery slope where no one can tell how the self-censorship will end.

"That is why the Jyllands-Posten has invited members of the Danish editorial cartoonists union to draw Mohammed as they see him."

Forty artists were invited to give their interpretation on of how Mohammed may have looked. Twelve responded.

Oh... how ironic! The brief snippets I'd read up till now made me think it became a freedom of speech issue after the fact, but it was actually intended to be controversial. Just not this controversial.

Even if you're gonna get all ruffled over something, do you have to take it out on the whole country, never mind a whole continent, never mind the whole West? A reaction like that isn't any better than westerners who condemn all Muslims for the actions of a handful of extremists.

[Gump]

I swear, if my school didn't do such a good job of teaching me that cheek-turning, enemy-loving, and forgiveness were all good things, I'd seriously want to take a baseball bat and bludgeon all involved, from the European papers to the Muslim extremists to the right-wing nutjobs in America crying "It's Islam's fault" to the left-wing dumbasses crying "It's your fault!" to the right-wing nutjobs crying "Your mom!" to the left wing dumbasses saying "You're a doodyhead" and so on and so forth.

Yeah, this has done a great job of bringing out the best in people.

It's taken me forever to find any reasonable commentary on this issue. The BBC has readers' response from the MidEast and Denmark, (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4674628.stm) the Council on American-Islamic Relations has a piece asking "What would Mohammed do?" (http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=38841&theType=NB) and Daily Kos has a batty left wing conspiracy theory (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/2/4/203853/5058).

[schally]

Speaking of cartoon-related commentary, I found this one today:

Cartoons kindle Arab debate over democracy, rights (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/2/14/worldupdates/2006-02-14T025031Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-236513-1&sec=worldupdates)


Uproar in the Islamic world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad has prompted many in the Middle East to ask why Muslims have rarely mobilised to address other pressing issues such as democracy and human rights.


"Most of the protests against the cartoons were blessed, if not organised, by the local governments, which encourage such acts as long as they don't touch on sensitive domestic issues," he said.

Safa said the region's high unemployment also meant that Arab youths had to relegate their demands for democracy and wider political participation further down their agenda.


"People prefer to vent their anger in a protest that would not irritate local authorities than to risk losing what they have, however meagre, if they march asking for more," said Nora Mourad, a Lebanese political activist.

[dnl2ba]

dude Cheney shot apologizes! (http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/02/17/cheney/index.html)

Now, I'm of the "accidents happen" school on the Cheney shooting story, but it seems a little silly for this guy to apologize.

[dnl2ba]

Sony BMG replaces CEO because of DRM problems (http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060210/germany_sony_bmg_ceo.html?.v=7)


Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, who had been chairman, is replacing CEO Andrew Lack, who becomes chairman of the board. The swap, announced Friday and effective immediately, follows months of criticism of Lack's tenure as CEO, including investor discontent over spiraling fees paid to artists and a scandal over copy protection software in Sony CDs.


Following the change, Schmidt-Holtz will assume overall management responsibility, while Lack "will lead the company's public policy and industry initiatives, and assume operating responsibility and oversight for the theatrical film business of Sony BMG," a joint statement said.

[dnl2ba]

Unattractive teenagers more prone to lives of crime (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/16/AR2006021602039_pf.html)


These economists found that the long-term consequences of being young and ugly were small but consistent. Cute guys were uniformly less likely than averages would indicate to have committed seven crimes including burglary and selling drugs, while the unhandsome were consistently more likely to have broken the law.

Very attractive high school girls were less likely to commit six of the seven crimes, while those rated unattractive were more likely to have done six of seven, controlling for personal and family characteristics known to be associated with criminal behavior.

Mocan and Tekin aren't sure why criminals tend to be ugly. Other studies have shown that unattractive men and women are less likely to be hired, and that they earn less money, than the better-looking. Such inferior circumstances may steer some to crime, Mocan and Tekin suggest. They also report that more attractive students have better grades and more polished social skills, which means they graduate with a greater chance of staying out of trouble.
Oh man. C'mon Hot or Not!

Also on that page:

Recalculating Love
Why do men claim to have had so many sex partners while women claim to have so few? The conventional wisdom is that men deliberately inflate their number of lovers while women underreport their dalliances -- the "macho and maiden" hypothesis.

That's mostly wrong, says psychologist Norman R. Brown, a visiting research scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. Most men and women don't intentionally fib about their past partnering. Instead, his studies suggest, men and women use different ways to estimate their number of different partners and this dissimilarity is a major reason men report more lifetime liaisons than women, a statistical impossibility.

"Women are more likely to rely on enumeration" and count up their partners, Brown said -- "a strategy that typically leads to underestimation. Men are twice as likely to use approximation to answer the question. And approximation is a strategy known to produce overestimation."

[dnl2ba]

Holocaust denier gets a 3-year jail sentence (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/20/austria.irving.trial.ap/index.html)


Irving is the author of nearly 30 books, including "Hitler's War," and has contended most of those who died at concentration camps such as Auschwitz succumbed to diseases such as typhus rather than execution.

Irving was arrested November 11 in the southern Austrian province of Styria on a warrant issued in 1989. He was charged under a federal law that makes it a crime to publicly diminish, deny or justify the Holocaust.
I guess I just think it's B.S. because I'm an American and I believe people should have the freedom to be crackpots or conspiracy theorists.

[schally]

I'm with you. He should be able to say whatever he wants.

[Gump]

Yeah, to an extent, I understand why Germany and Austria have laws like that, but he should have the right to say what he thinks. Then we can laugh at him and mock him as much as we want. I mean, we could do that anyway, but it's not as much fun when they're behind bars.

Take, for example, Fred Phelps. The man himself is obviously a poison to our society. But if he ended up in prison, then the bikers wouldn't be able to carry out such a cool counter-protest. (http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1546852.php).

[dnl2ba]

Italian supreme court: Rape isn't as serious if the victim isn't a virgin (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/17/italy.abuse.reut/index.html)

[schally]

What do you guys think about all the port news (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1651013) we've been having this week?

[dnl2ba]

I haven't heard any solid allegations about why the UAE is so bad. Some seem to think their gov't helped fund 9/11, but most of what I'm hearing is fear-mongering about Arabs.

New analysis: Become a martyr and in the afterlife, you get 72... white raisins? (http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,3605,631332,00.html)

The phrase "appetizing vaginas" may haunt me for the rest of my days.

[Gump]

That link was pretty interesting. It reminded me of the late George Lamsa, whose translation of the Bible I got a couple of months ago. He believed that the original language of the New Testament was Aramaic, rather than Greek, and based his version on that. One of his points was the number of double-meanings in Aramaic that don't exist in Greek. For example, the word for "camel" is the same as the one for "rope." Thus, with that in mind, we get this verse:

"It is easier for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven."

I guess I'll have to add the Hadith to my collection of religious scripture. I underestimated its importance to Islam--it sounds kinda like the equivalent to the Talmud (which similarly codifies aspects of Jewish law not completely spelled out in the Torah).

As for the UAE deal, I've heard a number of reasons why it seems fishy:

* The UAE-based company is controlled by a foreign government, unlike the British company, which was privately-owned.

* The UAE is one of only three nations to have recognized the Taliban as a legitimate government.

* The UAE royal family has been cozy with Osama Bin Laden, to the point where a strike against him in 1999 was foiled because he had Emerati royals as guests.

* Some low-level members of the Bush administration used to be employees of Dubai Ports, which suggests somebody did someone a little favor.

* The government is supposed to conduct an investigation before they close a deal like this, which, this time, they apparently didn't do.

Basically, my line of thinking is, "Was this really the best company they could find?"

[dnl2ba]

Thanks, Gump. I hadn't read enough about it to be informed of the facts.

[schally]

That link was pretty interesting. It reminded me of the late George Lamsa, whose translation of the Bible I got a couple of months ago. He believed that the original language of the New Testament was Aramaic, rather than Greek, and based his version on that. One of his points was the number of double-meanings in Aramaic that don't exist in Greek. For example, the word for "camel" is the same as the one for "rope." Thus, with that in mind, we get this verse:

"It is easier for a rope to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven."
That reminds me. I remember reading somewhere that "eye of a needle" was actually a type of very narrow window; a camel could supposedly fit through one, but it would be a tight squeeze. I don't remember where I saw that, though.