moonbuggy

‘A bunch of guys attempt to launch a model rocket. Not sure the launch could of gone any worse for the guy in the back.’

(600kB Windows media)

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`In all this time however, every attempt at biological warfare has been essentially offensive. The idea has always been to incapacitate or kill the enemy. Except once, in Poland, during World War II, where a pair of quick-thinking doctors used a little-known organism to keep the Nazis at bay.

The microorganism is Proteus OX19. In most ways it’s an entirely ordinary little bacterium. Its one remarkable feature is that human antibodies for Proteus OX19 cross-react with the antibodies for Ricksettia – the bacterium responsible for the deadly disease typhus. Blood from a patient infected with Proteus Ox19 will give a false-positive in the most common typhus screening method, the Weil-Felix test.

Enter the Nazis into Poland. [..]’

I’m busy moving house and all sorts of things at the moment. Posts will be sporadic for the next few days, most probably.

Stick around though, more good stuff coming once I get myself sorted out. :)

`A woman pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in connection with a bizarre incident in February that resulted in a fake penis being microwaved at a convenience store.

Leslye Creighton, 41, of Wilkinsburg, entered the plea Wednesday, and authorities dropped the same charge against Vincent Bostic, 31, of Pittsburgh, who has agreed to help pay $425 to replace the store’s microwave, police and the couple’s defense attorney said.’

followup to Severed penis found in convenience store microwave.

`Drug sniffer dogs do little to identify drug dealers and often falsely identify people as carrying illegal drugs, a report by the Ombudsman said today.

It found only 19 people out of about 10,000 indicated by dogs as carrying drugs were successfully prosecuted for supplying drugs, despite the sniffer dogs program costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The two-year investigation has questioned the need for laws which allow drug dogs to sniff people in public to detect drugs.’

`A grandad stuck down a manhole had his cries for help ignored by passers-by for almost an hour.

Clive Colins, 65, was about to open the boot of his car in a busy shopping car park when he stepped back on to a loose manhole cover and tumbled down a 5ft hole.

About 30 people walked past him, even though he was yelling for help and his head, a leg and an arm were stuck above the surface.

One woman even parked her car next to him. But she ignored the retired garage owner’s cries as she put the roof up on her convertible.’

`As Jill describes it, she heard strange noises coming from her basement last night while Jim was tinkering around. Later he came up the stairs with an invention to help with the fruit fly situation. Using an clunky rotary thing-a-ma-bob from an old Kodak prototype, he crafted a machine he dubbed “The Fruit Fly Flattener.” After 32 years of marriage if that isn’t love I don’t know what is!’

`The world’s first ban on overly thin models at a top-level fashion show in Madrid has caused outrage among modeling agencies and raised the prospect of restrictions at other venues.

Madrid’s fashion week has turned away underweight models after protests that girls and young women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders. [..]

The Madrid show is using the body mass index or BMI — based on weight and height — to measure models. It has turned away 30 percent of women who took part in the previous event. Medics will be on hand at the September 18-22 show to check models.’

‘During a broadcast of the Dr. Who episode “Horror of Fang Rock” on WTTW Chicago Channel 11, on Sunday November 22nd, 1987, at around 11:15pm, a Video “Pirate” wearing a Max Headroom mask broke into the signal and transmitted one of the weirdest, unauthorized things ever to hit the Chicago airwaves.’

(6.2meg Flash video)

see it here »

`Christopher Columbus, the man credited with discovering the Americas, was a greedy and vindictive tyrant who saved some of his most violent punishments for his own followers, according to a document uncovered by Spanish historians.

As governor and viceroy of the Indies, Columbus imposed iron discipline on the first Spanish colony in the Americas, in what is now the Caribbean country of Dominican Republic. Punishments included cutting off people’s ears and noses, parading women naked through the streets and selling them into slavery.’

`Me (to Krissy): So, would you mind if I tape bacon to the cat?

Krissy: That’s a fairly interesting question. What’s the purpose here?

Me: I put taping bacon to the cat on a list of things I said I was going to do today and people seemed to be skeptical.’

`A jealous nun appeared in court charged with threats to kill and an arson attack on a priest’s house – after she caught him in bed with a married woman.

Sister Silvia Gomes De Sousa, 39, saw red and set fire to Father Carmelo Mantarro’s house after she nabbed him ‘in flagrante.’

The furious nun – who was also Father Carmelo’s cleaner – was also armed with a machete and threatened to kill the priest before being restrained by passers by.’

`A car hit a dirt hill at high speed and flew 200 feet into the second story of an apartment building on Tuesday, killing the driver, police said.

Two people in separate apartments at the time of the 9 a.m. crash escaped injury, and there were no injuries on the street.

Investigators did not know what led the driver, Vincent Pontillo Jr., to speed down a dead-end street. His 2004 Honda Accord, which was launched from a 4-foot dirt hill, penetrated the building up to its rear bumper, police spokesman Officer William Fairchild said.’

`Nonlethal weapons such as high-power microwave devices should be used on American citizens in crowd-control situations before being used on the battlefield, the Air Force secretary said Tuesday.

The object is basically public relations. Domestic use would make it easier to avoid questions from others about possible safety considerations, said Secretary Michael Wynne.

“If we’re not willing to use it here against our fellow citizens, then we should not be willing to use it in a wartime situation,” said Wynne. “(Because) if I hit somebody with a nonlethal weapon and they claim that it injured them in a way that was not intended, I think that I would be vilified in the world press.”‘

`Former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff has claimed the late Princess Diana wanted to bed him.

Hasselhoff boasted on Tuesday night that the princess was “smitten” with him and “sparks” flew between them when they met in 1993.

Hasselhoff, 54, recently divorced his wife Pamela Bach, 43, and insists that he and Princess Diana, who tragically died in a 1997 Paris car crash, would have slept together “if circumstances had been different”.’

`US President George Bush is to host White House talks on British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

Cohen, 35, creator of Ali G, has infuriated the Kazakhstan government with his portrayal of Borat, a bumbling Kazakh TV presenter.

And now a movie of Borat’s adventures in the US has caused a diplomatic incident. [..]

President Nazarbayev will visit the White House and the Bush family compound in Maine when he flies in for talks that will include the fictional character Borat.

But a spokesman for the Kazakhstan Embassy says it is unlikely that President Nazarbayev will find the film funny.’

`Seven network personality Naomi Robson and a television crew have been stopped by Indonesian authorities after attempting to enter the troubled province of Papua on tourist visas, Indonesian authorities have confirmed.

The Today Tonight current affairs show host and her four-member crew were questioned on arrival at Jayapura airport in Papua this morning after a tip-off from anonymous sources, Indonesian foreign affairs department spokesman Desra Percaya said.

The five are now expected to be deported and possibly fined and blacklisted from ever entering Indonesia, Mr Percaya said.’

‘This is an example of why you dont ask a blonde girl to help you do a flip. Ask her to dinner but dont ask her to do anything that puts your life in potential danger.’

(740kB Windows media)

see it here »

`A blind man who was convicted of dangerous driving after he admitted being behind the wheel of a car that touched 35 mph was given a three-month suspended sentence on Monday.

Omed Aziz was also banned from driving for three years at Warley magistrates’ court in Oldbury, West Midlands. [..]

When Aziz, who is also partially deaf, was asked to step out of the car and remove his sunglasses, the officer was surprised to see he did not have any eyes, the court heard earlier this month.

In his defence Aziz, who also suffers from leg tremors and has only two fingers on his right hand, said he was testing his driving abilities.’

‘These guys hired two professional dancers for our event and this girl decided she could do a better job than them. So we let her get up on the pole and show us how it’s done.’

(1.3meg Windows media)

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`A man caught speeding by a Watchman camera in Hyde, Greater Manchester, decided he’d attempt to destroy the evidence by blowing up the offending device with thermite, the BBC reports.

Craig Moore, 28, of Thorne, Doncaster, was caught on camera in Mottram Road on 14 August last year while driving a work vehicle. Later that night, he returned with a quantity of thermite (a powdered mixture of aluminium and iron oxide) which he used in his job as a welder. A recording later recovered from the Watchman’s hard disk drive showed a Ford Transit approach and stop, then leave just before a shower of sparks heralded the camera’s demise. [..]

Moore’s pyrotechnic display eventually led to an appearance before the beak this week at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, where he was jailed for four months. He had previously admitted damaging property.’

`Twisted Mark Woollen was locked up in disgrace after being found lurking at the stables where he sexually interfered with a horse.

He had been banned from every field in Britain and put on a strict curfew after admitting the offence. [..]

Woollen was spotted on various occasions riding horses in his underwear, before the 33-year-old was captured on CCTV abusing Molly.

Woollen was caught on March 14 when George Day, Molly’s owner, walked into the stable to find Woollen standing next to the horse with no trousers on.’

`An armed gang of suspected drug traffickers wearing ski masks threw five human heads onto the dance floor of a bar in western Mexico Wednesday in an apparent revenge killing, prosecutors said.

Wielding hand guns and rifles, some 20 men dressed in black drove up to the Luz y Sombra (Light and Shade) bar in the city of Uruapan, barged into the club and fired shots in the air.

They forced late-night revelers to lie on the floor and pulled the five male heads out of plastic bags, dumping them on the dance floor along with a handwritten message, a spokesman for the Michoacan state prosecutors’ office said. [..]

The message said the attack was “divine justice.”’

‘Crew members on a Sharon Stone movie were so annoyed by her behaviour that they urinated in a bathtub before she got in it to film a scene, a new book claims.’

‘This is a great prank done in the middle of a mall. People are asked to participate in a taste test and then quietly remove the table leaving them alone in the mall blindfolded.’

(5.1meg Windows media)

see it here »

`Kenneth Ray Brooks marched into Centura Bank and declared: “I’m holding down the joint,” police reports record. He then “stuffed a stack of bills into his waistband and pushed the money down out of view”, and quickly exited the scene tailed by a bank employee.

Sadly, Brooks didn’t get far before a dye-pack concealed in the loot exploded. Police spokeswoman Sgt. Barbara Jones explained: “Witnesses said they could see smoke coming out of his pants.” Officers attending the scene quickly identified the perp by “his discomfort and bright red dye on both hands”.

Brooks, identified by bank employees and CCTV footage of the blag, was taken to police headquarters for questioning and later “walked very slowly to a waiting ambulance with the help of police officers and firefighters”. He then enjoyed a trip to the local hospital “as a result of possible burning injuries to his person”.’

`For the first time, US President George W. Bush has confirmed the existence of secret CIA prisons around the world, defending the program as well as “tough” interrogation procedures. [..]

Human rights groups have branded the administration’s “tough” interrogation techniques as torture and European Union MPs claim the CIA has conducted covert flights around Europe to transport terror suspects to countries where they could face torture.

Mr Bush stressed that the US does not use torture, claiming “it’s against our laws and it’s against our values”. He would not detail the type of interrogation techniques that are used through the program, but said they were lawful.

“I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary,” he said.’

`An angry mob fatally beat a man whom they mistakenly thought was involved in the disappearance of their friend, shortly before police arrested and charged another person in the crime, police said.

Union County Sheriff’s deputies found Tony Lorin Blakeney at his home with serious injuries Friday. He later died at a hospital.

Ten men, ages 16 to 30, were charged with murder in the attack. They were being held without bond until an October 4 court date.

“This is the worst beating attack I’ve ever seen,” Sheriff Eddie Cathey said.’