`This friend confirmed her suspicions by telling her that yes, she was being haunted–by the spirits of all those killed by the Winchester rifle over the years. The medium suggested that she move far away and build a house. The key, the medium added, would be to have the house in a perpetual state of construction. If Sarah were ever to complete the house, it would leave her vulnerable to the curses of the vengeful spirits.
Frightened and still grieving, Sarah Winchester believed every word. In 1884 she moved to what was then a rural area near San José, California. There, she purchased an eight-room farmhouse on more than 160 acres of land. Very shortly, a work crew began a perpetual construction project which would ultimately last for nearly forty years.’
There’s lots of images of the place at the Mystery House blog.
`Fourteen staff at Britain’s driver and vehicle licensing agency have been sacked and 101 disciplined after they swapped so many pornographic emails that it clogged up the organisation’s mainframe computer. [..]
A woman worker, who did not want to be named, said: “Boredom is a major problem in this place. The work can be very tedious and people find ways of livening up their days.
“The early stuff was pretty innocent, a joke really. A very boring document would have a picture of a naked woman attached, for example.
“I suppose it was bound to get out of hand. [..]”‘
`Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix.
The “click” of comprehension triggers a biochemical cascade that rewards the brain with a shot of natural opium-like substances, said Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California. He presents his theory in an invited article in the latest issue of American Scientist.
“While you’re trying to understand a difficult theorem, it’s not fun,” said Biederman, professor of neuroscience in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
“But once you get it, you just feel fabulous.”‘
`A former handyman has won more than $400,000 in a lawsuit over a penile implant that gave him a 10-year erection.
Charles “Chick” Lennon, 68, received the steel and plastic implant in 1996, about two years before Viagra went on the market. The Dura-II is designed to allow impotent men to position the penis upward for sex, then lower it.
But Lennon could not position his penis downward. He said he could no longer hug people, ride a bike, swim or wear bathing trunks because of the pain and embarrassment. He has become a recluse and is uncomfortable being around his grandchildren, his lawyer said.’
`The neurological basis for poor witness statements and hallucinations has been found by scientists at UCL (University College London). In over a fifth of cases, people wrongly remembered whether they actually witnessed an event or just imagined it, according to a paper published in NeuroImage this week.
Dr Jon Simons and Dr Paul Burgess led the study at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. Dr Burgess said: “In our tests volunteers either thought they had imagined words which they had actually been shown or said they had seen words which in fact they had just imagined – in over 20 per cent of cases. That is quite a lot of mistakes to be making, and shows how fallible our memory is – or perhaps, how slim our grip on reality is! [..]”‘
`What to watch out for when picking photos for your marketing materials’
This is pretty accurate. You see these sorts of photos all over the place.
`A sheriff’s deputy who was trying to get a man down from a tree shot and wounded him after mistakenly pulling a gun instead of a Taser, authorities say. [..]
The man had been climbed a fig tree and stayed there for hours, talking to himself. Deputies were unsure whether he was intoxicated or psychotic, and they wanted to get him down before he hurt himself or others, Wilson said. [..]
Blakeslee said the man climbed down on his own after getting shot.
“He said, `Ow, that hurt. I’m coming down, I’m coming down,'” Blakeslee said.’
`A periodic test that measures a man’s response to erotic images is “Orwellian” because it examines his mind, not just his body, and should not be used because it deprives him of more freedom than necessary, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
In order to be released from prison, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson had ruled in 2001, Matthew Weber would have to subject himself to tests in which a pressure-sensitive electronic device is placed around the penis and the response to stimulating images is monitored, said his lawyer, Jonathan Libby. [..]
“A prisoner should not be compelled to stimulate himself sexually in order for the government to get a sense of his current proclivities,” Noonan wrote in his concurrence with Judge Marsha Berzon’s opinion. “There is a line at which the government must stop. Penile plethysmography testing crosses it.”‘
`A German army unit due to police elections next month in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been barred from the mission because of a scandal over bizarre sexual practices in its ranks, a defense ministry spokesman said Thursday. [..]
In one incident reported in the German press, members of the unit allegedly placed fruit in the backside of one soldier and pounded it with a paddle. Initial reports said the soldier had willingly participated in the act.
The military described the incident as “reprehensible” and “not to be tolerated”.’
A pretty funny series of pranks involving public toilets.
(17.8meg Flash video)
see it here »
`A stalker hid under a woman’s bed for two days — just for the chance to be alone with her. How he got the keys to her house is the scariest part, and it’s a serious reminder of the need to be cautious before handing over your keys.
The disturbing video shows the convicted stalker carefully hiding his video camera on a desk in the victim’s bedroom. When he hears the woman and her boyfriend come in the apartment, he disappears under her bed. Carlo Castellanos-Feria remained there for two days until he was discovered by the victim’s boyfriend.’
`Insurers have withdrawn the cover on their virginity taken out by three sisters in the event of the second coming of Christ. [..]
Mr Burgess said: “The people were concerned about having sufficient funds if they immaculately conceived. It was for caring and bringing up the Christ. [..]
The burden of proof that it was Christ had rested with the women and any premium on the insurance was donated to charity, said Mr Burgess.
The siblings had paid £100 annually since 2000. If they had secured a payout, they stood to receive £1m.’
`A Cuyahoga County, Ohio, judge threw out the charge against a man accused of raping a girl six years ago when the prosecutor in the case was 45 minutes late to trial.
Prosecutors have filed an appeal and said, if necessary, they will refile the charge against Norman Allen Craig, 22, of North Ridgeville, Ohio.
The mother of the now 16-year-old Rocky River girl said her daughter feels victimized by the judge’s decision.’
`What if the next burger you ate was created in a warm, nutrient-enriched soup swirling within a bioreactor?
Edible, lab-grown ground chuck that smells and tastes just like the real thing might take a place next to Quorn at supermarkets in just a few years, thanks to some determined meat researchers. Scientists routinely grow small quantities of muscle cells in petri dishes for experiments, but now for the first time a concentrated effort is under way to mass-produce meat in this manner.
Henk Haagsman, a professor of meat sciences at Utrecht University, and his Dutch colleagues are working on growing artificial pork meat out of pig stem cells. They hope to grow a form of minced meat suitable for burgers, sausages and pizza toppings within the next few years.’
`US President George W Bush has said he would like to close the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and send many detainees back to their home countries.
However, he said not all the inmates would be returned – some would need to be put on trial in the US because they were “cold-blooded killers”.’
`Firewall Leak Tester, a company that provides tools to test the quality of personal firewall software, has released a utility called RemoveWGA that blocks Microsoft from “phoning home” from Windows PCs on a daily basis.
“Once the WGA Notification tool has checked your OS and has confirmed you had a legit copy, there is no decent point or reason to check it again and again every boot,” the company said in a note explaining its motive for releasing the tool.’
`Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough wants a national investigative unit set up to probe for cases of abuse in indigenous communities.
“I believe we need to have a national investigative unit … that can actually look at these crimes … right across these remote communities,” Mr Brough told ABC radio.
His comments follow further revelations of abuse in indigenous communities.
ABC television program, Lateline, reported on Wednesday night that Aboriginal men in the central Australian town Mutitjulu were keeping girls as young as five as sex slaves, and trading sex for petrol to be sniffed.’
`Ever thought of building your own home made stun gun?
Here are three schematics for those of you who would like to build your own. If you know how to read electronic schematics, the three stun gun circuits on this page include all the information you need to make a stun gun. Personally I have no idea what they mean.’
`Worried that a drought could be looming, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said Tuesday the state will sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for draining excessive amounts of water from the state’s reservoirs. [..]
The Corps acknowledged over the weekend that a faulty gauge at Lake Lanier had allowed 22 billion gallons of water to be released by mistake. Carol Couch, director of Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division, said the amount of water mistakenly drained would have been enough to support the city of Atlanta for 118 days.’
`I guess I imagined the papal plane to be something resembling Air Force One only spiritual, like a news pilgrimage.
I imagined wrong.
The Volo Papale, as it’s known in Italian, is more like a Catholic school field trip.’
`An inventor from Bangkok is patenting an outlandish emergency landing system for aeroplanes.
Normally, when a crash landing is inevitable and no runway is in sight, a pilot would make a controlled belly flop to prevent the plane from ploughing into any buildings nearby.
But Polchai Phanumphai’s idea is for aircraft to spin their way down instead. As a suitably fitted-out plane prepares to crash down, an altimeter would trigger explosive charges to make one wing break away from the fuselage and kick the one-winged plane into a horizontal spin.’
`Sydney workers have been told to prepare individual emergency packs, containing maps, water bottles and additional clothing, in case of a terror attack.
The suggestion was one of a number of guidelines, launched at a forum in Sydney today, to help businesses react to emergencies such as terrorist attacks or fires.
They have been drawn up by NSW emergency services and business groups as part of the Sydney CBD Emergency Sub Plan.’
‘This guy is having a rough day. During a baptism he flips out and attacks one of the Church members. Not verbally. He literally starts kicking this chicks ass and throws holy water on them.
(2.1meg Windows media)
see it here »
`These are things I find abandoned in books or stuffed on the book cart at the jail where I volunteer.’
`Like something out of a David Lynch movie, except yummier and less confusing, the Nun Bun bandit has sent an additional clue to The Tennessean concerning the whereabouts of the world-famous AWOL pastry.
Following up to a letter and photo of the Nun Bun sent to the newspaper nearly a month ago, the second letter was received today, along with a photo showing the bun being shown off by two smiling young men.
The iconic cinnamon bun, notable for its resemblance to Mother Teresa, appears to still be in one piece and does not appear to have been damaged by its apparent kidnapping from the Bongo Java coffeeshop. [..]
Nashville police officials said they shelved the case after an investigation because of its “low solvability.”‘
`Tokyo’s futuristic image as the world’s most technologically advanced broadband internet-enabled city is under attack from a vicious but decidedly low-tech foe: urban-dwelling jungle crows.
Their destructive and unpredictable behaviour during the annual May to June mating season is always highly problematic for the Japanese capital. But this year the aggressive ink-black birds have created a new headache by developing a seemingly insatiable taste for fibre-optic internet cable.
[..] An initial burst of activity involving a network of traps around the city and a squadron of experienced crow-catchers met with success, with about 11,000 crows captured.
Unfortunately, crows from the countryside around Tokyo flew in to replace their ensnared comrades, and the population remained constant. ‘
`Christian psychotherapist Richard Cohen, board president of the ex-homosexual education and outreach organization known as Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX), is addressing criticism leveled against certain therapy techniques he uses on clients with homosexual desires. [..]
Cohen’s methods have raised some questions, however; and he has lately taken sharp criticism over a May 23 appearance on Cable News Network (CNN), in which he demonstrated a technique that involves cuddling a male client in his lap. Another of the unusual therapy techniques depicted involved a client hitting a pillow with a tennis racket while shouting the name of a parent or other individual who elicits painful childhood memories.’
`Maybe we’re in a bear market after all.
Several floors of a downtown Toronto office building in the heart of the city’s financial district were evacuated Tuesday after somebody accidentally discharged a can of bear repellent. “It was supposed to be some kind of a prize in a raffle,” said Toronto police Const. Kristine Bacharach.
“Somebody opened it and accidentally set it off.”‘
`Coffee grows in dozens of countries around the world. Some varieties have earned a special reputation, often based on a combination of rarity, unusual circumstances and particularly good flavor. These coffees, from Jamaican Blue Mountain to Kona to Tanzanian Peaberry, command a premium price. But perhaps no coffee in the world is in such short supply, has such unique flavors and an, um, interesting background as Kopi Luwak. And no coffee even comes close in price: Kopi Luwak sells for $75 per quarter pound. Granted, that’s substantially less than marijuana, but it’s still unimaginably high for coffee. [..]
On these Indonesian islands, there’s a small marsupial called the paradoxurus, a tree-dwelling animal that is part of the sibet family. Long regarded by the natives as pests, they climb among the coffee trees eating only the ripest, reddest coffee cherries. Who knows who first thought of it, or how or why, but what these animals eat they must also digest and eventually excrete. Some brazen or desparate — or simply lazy — local gathered the beans, which come through the digestion process fairly intact, still wrapped in layers of the cherries’ mucilage. The enzymes in the animals’ stomachs, though, appear to add something unique to the coffee’s flavor through fermentation.’
