`Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital’s chic 16th arrondissement.
“The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there.”
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: “Do not,” it said, “try to find us.”‘
`Ever wanted to have your car stolen because the amount of money that you could get from it from your insurance company is more than what it’s actually worth? Maybe you’re planning on selling it, and just wish that it would get stolen. [..]
We are absolutely dead serious, this is no prank or no joke. Autothieves has been servicing people in Melbourne, Australia for more than 12 months, and we are now expanding into capital cities of other states.’
Vote-winning hair for John Howard.
`A man with the habit of inserting odd objects into his rectum was admitted to the emergency room of National Taiwan University Hospital yesterday.
[..] the man’s habit is by no means an unusual one. Other objects retrieved from anuses include flower vases, glass bottles, vibrators and table legs. The largest object ever removed was a bowling pin.’
partway down the page.
Nik is building a microcontroller-based robot, among other things.
`Heroic images or NASA fraud? At last we have the conclusive proof!’
Hey love crusader, I want to be your space invader.
(9.6meg MPEG)
see it here »
[sings] Cthulhu, Cthulhu.. Tentacles!
`NSW prison inmates kept deadly redback spiders to milk their venom and inject themselves for a hit.
The state opposition also revealed today that some other prisoners managed to cultivate a 40 centimetre marijuana plant in the grounds of another jail.’
`Nordstrand tried to give his attackers a warning. “Do you want karate?” he asked.
One of the robbers did, but it was a bad mistake.
“I kicked him straight under the chin and into the throat,” Nordstrand said.’
`[..] AMS had announced the deployment of Windows on submarine HMS Torbay, together with plans to retrofit Windows to Vanguard class and other attack submarines.
And in case you’re wondering, the Vanguard class boats carry the UK’s Trident thermo-nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. So some people think that’s a heap of responsibility for Windows to carry.’
`Students looking for housing offers sex as payment for lodgings on a Norwegian website.
[The] leader of [the Norwegian student union] said he is surprised by this practice.
“I really hope that the housing situation is not that bad,” he said. “This is terrible. Tragic.”‘
`What is a technological singularity? A moment when runaway ad-vances outstrip human comprehension and all our knowledge and experience becomes useless as a guidepost to the future. [..]
Even if machines remain inert and dumb, we still might provoke a singularity by giving humans a superboost. [However if] the world were full of da Vincis, we’d all be quarrelsome, gay, left-handed Italians who couldn’t finish a painting.’
`In every single one of the 173 cases, both parents scored at least twelve points lower on the second IQ test [compared to a test taken before conception], with the majority of parents losing twenty or more IQ points.
“This explains why every parent thinks their child is the smartest kid in class or the best athlete, even if that child is as dumb as a box of rocks or needs a calendar to time their forty-yard dash. People who before were intelligent and open-minded turn into raving lunatics who want to blame a teacher or coach every time their mediocre child fails,” said [some scientist].’
`[..] a California online retailer is offering children’s “pimp” and “ho” outfits for Halloween.
[Costume House owner Dean Johnson] was shocked to learn that someone is selling the already-controversial outfits in children’s sizes.
“Oh my God,” Johnson said. “Child ho costume that’s bad.”
“That’s just outrageous,” parent Naylecia McNeel said. “That’s just crazy teaching our kids to become pimps and hos. That’s not good.”‘
`Police in Germany have arrested a 19 year-old from Helmstedt for hijacking the site of eBay Germany about a week ago. [..]
The boy admitted he requested a DNS (domain name server) transfer for several high-profile sites, including Google.com, Web.de, Amazon.com and eBay Germany. While most of these transfers were denied, somehow eBay slipped through. It remains unclear how the domain could have been transferred without the consent of the existing holder.’
`China is stepping up its hard line against internet pornography by threatening life imprisonment for anyoner caught peddling porn.
Ne’er-do-wells involved in the production and distribution of online adult content – including “phone sex” – faces a range of punishments including compulsory surveillance and imprisonment. Those behind sites that generate more than 250,000 hits will be treated as “very severe” and could face life imprisonment.’
`Scientists from Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire and the University of Southampton have identified plutonium from 1950s US nuclear tests in British soil, the BBC reports. The team has also pinpointed fallout from Bikini Atoll and Chernobyl.’
`Weber and his team were in the business of making money–literally. From their headquarters at 985 Lakeshore, they were printing and distributing millions of dollars in counterfeit Canadian currency. By the time it was all over, retailers across the country would never look at a $100 bill the same way again.’
`Police arrested a man they said tracked his ex-girlfriend’s whereabouts by attaching a global positioning system to her car. [..]
Police said Gabrielyan attached a cellular phone to the woman’s car on August 16 with a motion switch that turned on when the car moved, transmitting a signal each minute to a satellite. [..]
The woman learned how Gabrielyan was following her when she discovered him under her car attempting to change the cell phone’s battery, police said.’
`The aim is to create a sealed reactor that can be delivered to a site, left to generate power for up to 30 years, and retrieved when its fuel is spent. The developers claim that no one would be able to remove the fissile material from the reactor because its core would be inside a tamper-proof cask protected by a thicket of alarms.’
`A Sabine Parish man is accused of fowl play, authorities said.
Timothy Garner, 35, of the Florien area is suspected of having sex with a chicken. [..]
After being brought in for questioning [some policeman] said Garner admitted to having sex with the animal.
He also told investigators that it was not his first time in the chicken yard, police said.’
‘Complaints by feminist groups have forced Bangkok authorities to replace signs that called on women but not men to remain chaste on city buses where Thai youths are known to have sex, an official said.
Rights groups were up in arms this week over the authority’s previous notices on buses calling for female riders to “reserve themselves”. [..]
According to the official the new signs read: “Guard your heart, protect your body. Both women and men, preserve your culture.”‘
followup to Bangkok students urged: No sex on buses.
`When police raided a house in Teignmouth they found a home-made bomb making factory where Jeremy Britton had constructed six explosive devices.
[..] Britton, who was jailed, was to tell police that they were “little boys’ toys” and that it was like having “a chemistry set”. Britton said he liked war, guns and explosives and he liked the sound of the “boom” when he set off the bombs. He said it was something to do when he was bored and he used to explode the bombs on rubbish dumps.’
`A teacher enforcing school regulations on haircuts snipped one girl’s locks to ear’s length Thursday but ended up lopping off a chunk of her ear as well, police said. [..]
[Some plastic surgeon said] that half of the earlobe was severed, and could not be reattached because the girl did not get proper medical attention quickly enough.’
`A Kansas City police officer shockingly discovered recently that wearing a Taser in a heavy rainstorm could result in his being, well, shocked. [..]
“They told me anytime heavy water penetrates the battery cover, there could be an electrical short, which could cause the weapon to discharge on its own,” [some policeman] said.’
`A Syracuse, New York, man got the scare of his life when another man pointed a rocket launcher at him during an argument. Luckily, the weapon had already been used and was inoperable.’
