`A German woman sparked panic at her local post office when a 1.5-meter (5-foot) albino python escaped from a packet she had mailed, police said Tuesday.
The 28-year-old woman, who had sold the snake over the Internet, stuffed it in a package labeled “attention — glass” to be sent to its new owner.
“Staff accepted the package and put it in the back of the office — they had no idea what it was,” said police spokesman Andreas Blum. “All of a sudden, they noticed that it started moving around and then saw a big snake wriggling out of it.”‘
What happens when you use a scooter to make a merry-go-round type thing go faster?
Pretty obvious really.
Edit: Now with working video.
(2.7meg Windows media)
see it here »
`A Philadelphia family said they are outraged over the arrest of one of their family members. [..]
Cruz said police told him that he broke a new law that prohibits people from taking pictures of police with cell phones.
“They threatened to charge me with conspiracy, impeding an investigation, obstruction of a investigation. … They said, ‘You were impeding this investigation.’ (I asked,) “By doing what?’ (The officer said,) ‘By taking a picture of the police officers with a camera phone,'” Cruz said.’
`Three escapees from a western NSW correctional centre managed to effect their own recapture yesterday, when they inadvertently flagged down an undercover police car for a ride.
They also aided in their own recapture by still wearing parts of their green prison uniforms, which helped the officer in the undercover car, already alerted to their presence in the area, to identify them.’
`Increasing numbers of Americans are becoming too fat to fit into X-ray machines, US researchers report.
The nation’s rising obesity problems mean many citizens are not only too large for scanners but they have too much fat for the rays to penetrate.
Over the past 15 years, the number of failed scans linked to patient obesity has doubled, Radiology journal reports.’
`If you’re passing Go and want to collect $200, better bring a debit card.
A British version of the classic Monopoly board game released this week substitutes a Visa-imprinted debit card for the stacks of yellow, blue and purple play money long hoarded by children worldwide.
Cheating just got a little tougher.’
`The 18-year-old French woman was hospitalized with scaly skin on her legs and hands, appearing unsteady and mentally sluggish, doctors said.
They found the condition puzzling, especially since the woman’s twin sister displayed similar, but less severe, symptoms and there was no family history of the problem, the doctors reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine that
Several days later, doctors discovered the cause: a bag of mothballs stashed in her hospital room.’
`Authorities aren’t happy about yellow, smiley face gumballs.
The federal Drug Enforcement Agency is warning about so-called “Greenades,” which are marijuana-containing gumballs.
[..] The gumballs came wrapped in colorful tin foil labeled as “Greenades” with a marijuana leaf on the wrapper and detailed instructions for use. Instructions on the foil told users to chew for 30 minutes to 1 hour “before you would like receive your high” and to “chew for as long as possible, then swallow.” [..]
Each gumball contained approximately one gram of marijuana, and the total net mass of the two gumballs was 17.5 grams.’
‘Paris Hilton gets an unwelcome surprise when she takes a bath with a baby.’
(1.2meg Flash video)
see it here »
`With Australian outback hero Crocodile Dundee as her inspiration, an 80-year-old British pensioner foiled a knife-wielding burglar with an even bigger blade of her own.
When woken by a masked man holding a knife, Winifred Whelan screamed and ran downstairs to the kitchen.
Grabbing a giant carving knife, she told the startled intruder “You call that a knife? This is a knife” in an echo of the famous scene in the Crocodile Dundee film when actor Paul Hogan confronted a New York mugger.’
`In recent years, police around the country have started to use powerful infrared cameras to read plates and catch carjackers and ticket scofflaws. But the technology will soon migrate into the private sector, and morph into a tool for tracking individual motorists’ movements, says former policeman Andy Bucholz, who’s on the board of Virginia-based G2 Tactics, a manufacturer of the technology. [..]
“I know it sounds really Big Brother,” Bucholz says. “But it’s going to happen. It’s going to get cheaper and cheaper until they slap them up on every taxicab and delivery truck and track where people live.” And work. And sleep. And move.’
`Crooner Barry Manilow believes Rockdale Council has it all wrong by using his music to ward off car hoons.
Manilow has told locals who are getting tired of hearing his songs every weekend that he is putting the rock back into Rockdale.
Manilow’s spokeswoman told The Daily Telegraph he could not believe his music was being used to stop car hoons gathering at Cook Park Reserve in Brighton-le-Sands.
“He thinks it will have the opposite effect,” she said. “He thinks people will hang around to dance to it.”‘
followup to: Bystanders caught in Manilow cross fire.
`An Atlantic City man has been sentenced to three years of probation and community service at an animal shelter for beating a duck.
Donald Chapman pleaded guilty to animal cruelty a few months ago, saying he kicked the mallard and beat it with a broom March 15 in the parking lot of the Fox Chase development he worked at in Galloway Township. [..]
Beall’s organization retrieved the duck after the beating and took it to the Galloway Animal Hospital for treatment.
The duck is doing well, officials said.’
`A Ffemale driver has taken a wrong turn on her way home – and ended up following a train along a railway line.
Police in Brisbane said the woman, 52, had picked up her daughter from work and was driving home about midnight on Saturday, when she took the wrong turn at a level crossing.
She allegedly drove along the track, honking her car horn at the train as she followed it for 300m before being stuck on the tracks.
She has been charged with dangerous driving.’
`HOW IT WORKS:
[1] Add me (AlienChat@hotmail.com) as a contact to your messenger account.
[2] Send me a message and I’ll use the EXTRATERRESTRIAL BROADCASTER 3000 to send your message into the cosmos.
[3] Depending on who picks up your message (so far I’ve contacted what sounds like 12 different alien species) you should receive an Audio message within a few seconds.’
`Police in France said they had thwarted an attempt by a group of marijuana smokers to roll the world’s longest joint by seizing a work-in-progress measuring 80 centimetres (32 inches) in length.
“At some point, these young people had wanted to craft a joint of 1.12 metres to beat the world record in the discipline and get it officially registered,” said a police officer in eastern France. [..]
During an investigation targeting a group of four smokers in the eastern Vosges area of France, police discovered the giant joint containing 70 grams of marijuana resin. It had not been finished because of a lack of tobacco.’
`Six friends spruced up in fake blood and tattered clothing were arrested in downtown Minneapolis on suspicion of toting “simulated weapons of mass destruction.”
Police said the group were allegedly carrying bags with wires sticking out, making it look like a bomb, while meandering and dancing to music as part of a “zombie dance party” Saturday night.
“They were arrested for behavior that was suspicious and disturbing,” said Lt. Gregory Reinhardt, a police spokesman. Police also said the group was uncooperative and intimidated people with their “ghoulish” makeup.’
`Igbal Asghar reached across the counter at Super Halal Meat market and passed two butchered chickens to the man with the familiar face. Then he ducked into the walk-in freezer to fetch the customer’s second order, goat meat.
When the butcher stepped out seconds later, the customer’s severed left hand lay on the floor by the meat saw, Asghar said. The customer ran down the Springfield store’s center aisle and into the front parking lot, leaving a trail of blood and yelling repeatedly that he was “not a terrorist.” Outside, another witness said, the man announced that he had used the meat saw to cut off his hand “for Allah.”‘
`Nobel peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.
Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.
“I have a very hard time with this word ‘non-violence’, because I don’t believe that I am non-violent,” said Ms Williams, 64.
“Right now, I would love to kill George Bush.” Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.’
`Last month, Hamas militants tunneled into Israel and kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Israel immediately invaded Gaza. Hamas began lobbing rockets into Israel. The Lebanese group Hezbollah kidnapped two more Israelis near the Lebanon-Israel border. Israel responded by carrying out airstrikes against Lebanon. Egypt and Saudi Arabia condemned Hezbollah for instigating the violence. Syria, Iran, and Lebanon called Israel’s retaliation an excessive use of force.
Confused? [..]’
With an interactive table showing who’s buddies with who.
`Israel said today it regretted the deaths of four UN military observers in southern Lebanon and would investigate the air strike that killed them.
“Israel sincerely regrets the tragic death of the U.N. personnel in south Lebanon,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
“We do not target UN personnel and, since the beginning of this conflict, we have made a consistent effort to ensure the safety of all members of (the UN peacekeeping force). This tragic event will be thoroughly investigated,” Mr Regev said.’
`Singer Bob Geldof had to cancel concerts in Milan and Rome when only a handful of people bought tickets to the events.
Geldof is widely known in Italy for his African Poverty campaign to and his campaign to eliminate Third World debt, but still, only 45 people bought tickets to his concert in Milan, held at a venue built to hold 12,000, The Times of London reported Monday.
He also canceled a concert in Rome because of similar slow ticket sales.’
‘This dude is nuts and probably lucky not to be blind. He takes a shot of a Habanero extract hot sauce into his eye for 8 bucks and a burger.’
(16.4meg Windows media)
see it here »
`Having sex in the weightlessness of outer space is the stuff of urban legends and romantic fantasy — but experts say that there would be definite downsides as well.
Spacesickness, for instance. And the difficulty of choreographing intimacy. And the potential for sweat and other bodily fluids to, um, get in the way.
“The fantasy might be vastly superior to the reality,” NASA physician Jim Logan said here Sunday at the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace 2006 conference. Nevertheless, Logan and others say the study of sex and other biological basics in outer space will be crucial to humanity’s long-term push into the final frontier.’
`Israel’s bombing of a crowded Beirut neighbourhood where Hezbollah had its headquarters has breached humanitarian law, a senior UN official has said, as reports emerged of heavy fighting on Lebanon’s southern border.
“It is horrific. I did not know it was block after block of houses,” Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief co-ordinator, told reporters as he toured the shattered Haret Hreik district. “It makes it a violation of humanitarian law.”
Mr Egeland was visibly shocked by the devastation in the Shiite Muslim quarter where air raids have flattened a Hezbollah compound. He said it was hard to distinguish between military and civilian targets.’
‘Remember that crazy lady who made a fool of herself on Fox News? Well guess what her husband is just as crazy and especially hates gay people. Watch as this reporter attempts to make a pass at crazy old Fred at one of his protests.’
(6.5meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘Heliodisplay images are not holographic although they are free-space, employing a rear projection system in which images are captured onto a nearly invisible plane of transformed air. What the viewer sees is floating mid-air image or video. These projected images and video are two-dimensional, (i.e. planar) but appear 3D since there is no physical depth reference. While conventional displays have the benefit of being attached to a physical substrate, Heliodisplay projections are suspended in air, so you will notice some waviness to the quality of the projections.’
(4.1meg Flash video)
see it here »
`Frogs playing cards, seated at a café, in the schoolroom, at the barber’s or in a soldier’s garb. Discover our collection of 108 different frogs in satirical scenes of everyday life circa 1850. A truly unusual experience.’
A cool little trivia game that is good for killing some spare time. I got to around 3000 points fairly easily before I got distracted by something else. :)
`Two people have been killed and 13 injured after a giant, inflatable sculpture blew free from its moorings.
Many were inside the artwork, which consists of connected rooms, when it lifted 30ft into the air at Riverside Park, Chester-le-Street, County Durham. [..]
The sculpture – called Dreamspace – is thought to have drifted for up to 40m before catching on a CCTV camera post and coming down near a children’s playground.
About 500 people were in the vicinity of the sculpture, which is half the size of a football pitch, when it came loose.’
