`The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there’s an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday. [..]
He added that if humans can avoid killing themselves in the next 100 years, they should have space settlements that can continue without support from Earth.
“It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species,” Hawking said. “Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.”‘
`German police have arrested a man on suspicion of murdering a woman with a sausage.
Prosecutors and police said the 50-year-old was arrested after the woman’s body was discovered in an apartment in Zwickau, eastern Germany. They said she had choked on a Bockwurst, a popular large German sausage.
The prosecutors said the man had given a patchy account of events, acknowledging that he may have “administered” a Bockwurst to the woman.’
`Hi, people.
I have happy news for everyone in Reykjavik (Iceland) needing a shag!! I havent seen them yet with my own eyes but experts in my field (well in seeing elves, Im not sure about their expertese in the sex thing) have spotted a whole lot of elves behind Alþingi (the Icelandic Parliament). They are apparently protesting because a lot of their homes are beeing destroyed, both in the making of Kárahnjúkar power plant and other big buildings. So if you like to do it in public, that is the right place to go, just note that sex in public with an invisible person might look even weirder than just having sex in public.’
`The prohibition of psychoactive substances has evolved gradually in the United States and in Europe. The opium-containing preparation laudanum had been widely available since the 18th century. Morphine, cocaine, and even heroin were seen as miracle cures when they were first discovered. During the mid to late 19th century, many manufacturers proudly proclaimed that their products contained cocaine or opium. A few, like Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup for infants which contained morphine, were more guarded in divulging their principal ingredients. By the beginning of the 20th century, problems with habitual use of cocaine and opiates was becoming increasingly apparent. This led to the removal of these substances from some products (e.g., Coca Cola) and to the introduction of the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906) in the United States which required the listing of ingredients on product labels. Nonetheless, standard narcotic remedies like paregoric remained readily available into the early 20th century, and Benzedrine inhalers were marketed without prescription until the early 1950s. Codeine wasn’t removed from most over-the-counter cough suppressants until the early 1980s.’
`A black bear got more than it bargained for after straying into a family garden in the US state of New Jersey.
The unwelcome intruder was forced up a tree – twice – by the family pet, a tabby cat called Jack.
The terrified bear was only able to make its escape when owner Donna Dickey called the hissing cat into the house.’
`A Missouri woman has been arrested for breaking into a dog breeder’s home and beating her repeatedly over the head with a dead Chihuahua, local media reported.
She woman was upset because the puppy had died, police told the St Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper.’
`disclaimer: by submitting this form, you, the cardholder, agree to give us all your money.’
`Two men from Saudi Arabia and one from Yemen were found dead shortly after midnight today in separate cells, said the Miami-based US Southern Command, which has jurisdiction over the prison. Attempts were made to revive them, but they failed.
“They hung themselves with fabricated nooses made out of clothes and bed sheets,” base commander Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris told reporters in a conference call from the US base in southeastern Cuba.
“They have no regard for human life,” he said. “Neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation but an act of asymmetric warfare against us.”‘
Also Guantanamo suicides a ‘PR move’:
`A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a “good PR move to draw attention”.’
`A police chief sparks controversy today by suggesting the number of rapes in Scotland could be substantially reduced if women drank less.
Neil Richardson, assistant chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police, bases his claim on new research which identified victims’ alcohol consumption as significant in a third of attacks.
The senior officer said “a lot” of the 1,100 rapes a year could be prevented “by people not allowing themselves to be in a vulnerable position”.’
`Hollywood party girl Paris Hilton was happy to play charity queen while the cameras were rolling.
But two years after a well-publicised visit to Gold Coast charity Paradise Kids, the millionaire heiress has broken a promise she made to help seriously ill children.
Hilton pledged to organise a star-studded benefit concert in Los Angeles to raise much-needed funds for the charity. [..]
“I’ll get a few friends together. I know the Backstreet Boys will help out for sure and I talked to Blu Cantrell last night,” Hilton claimed at the time. Missy Elliott was another big-name act mentioned.
“I definitely want to do this,” Hilton told gathered media. “My grandmother died of cancer and I almost lost my cousin to leukemia. It’s just something very important to me. [..]
To date, no benefit concert has taken place and efforts by Paradise Kids to contact Hilton have been unsuccessful.’
`The world reacted with shock and dismay last month to the news that Iranian Jews were being forced to wear yellow badges, a policy made infamous by the Nazis. Canada’s National Post featured the story on its front page with a headline reading “Iran Eyes Badges For Jews” above a photograph of Hungarian Jews wearing yellow Stars of David from 1944. The world media quickly followed the National Post’s lead, with the reports repeated in major newspapers across the globe. The Simon Weisenthal Center confirmed the story, noting “Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis”. The Australian and Canadian Prime Ministers expressed outrage, with Stephen Harper observing that the Iranian regime was “very capable of this kind of action”.
The only problem with this story? It was a complete fabrication.’
`A former funeral home worker who pleaded no contest to hiding a baby’s body in the pants of a man’s corpse slated for cremation – apparently to avoid paying an extra $50 fee – faces the permanent loss of her funeral director’s license.
The Texas Funeral Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to find that Stephanie Barkley engaged in unethical and unprofessional conduct.’
`Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity chef that everyone loves to hate, now has a new enemy: Sir Cliff Richard. [..]
The UK’s Daily Mail reports that Richard thought the first wine Ramsay gave him to taste was “amazing”. [..]
The second wine did not go down so well.
“I told him it was a sort of £12.99 bottle and Cliff said, ‘That’s rubbish. I wouldn’t pay for that, it’s tainted, it’s insipid. It tastes like vinaigrette. I’d never buy that,'” Ramsay quoted him as saying.
I told him, ‘Cliff, that was your wine’ and, well, fuck me, he went off. Bananas. He lent over and [beckoned me towards him] with his finger and said, ‘Young man, go fuck yourself.'”‘
`This morning I learned that Pentagon officials have said that force levels in Iraq would not be cut “anytime soon,” apparently because of a “recent surge in violence” sweeping Iraq. But what struck me most about that news was votesomemore’s response in this thread claiming that, “There is ALWAYS a ‘recent surge in violence.'”
That got me thinking. Is there always a “recent surge in violence” in Iraq? I Googled the phrase, and discovered that the answer to the question is, well, yes.
There are a few notable periods where violence is not reported as a “recent surge,” (for example, Nov 2003 – Mar 2004) and there are a few notable periods where the violence is much worse (for example, May 2005).
But overall, it appears that there is a “recent surge in violence” reported in Iraq pretty much every few weeks.’
`47. Express Delivery
Keith Moon
Item: Customized milk truck
Cost: $595
In 1971, Who drummer Keith Moon bought a British electric-powered milk delivery cart and had it converted into a “mobile Victorian parlour” — with armchair, wallpaper, cocktail cabinet and gramophone. To fit it in his garage, Moon also removed his Corvette and drove it into a nearby hedge. [..]
30. Establishing Boundaries
Paul McCartney
Item: Gigantic fence
Cost: $170,000
Herds of wild boar were becoming a problem on McCartney’s 1,000-acre English estate, tearing up trees and carrying swine fever. But he didn’t want the guilt of the pests being shot on his property, so in 1999 he had a four-mile long fence built to keep them out. “He does whatever he wants because he can afford it,” said a disgruntled local farmer.’
`A team of scientists from The University of Western Australia Murdoch University, CSIRO and three American, French and Spanish research institutions announced the discovery of the vortex after a month-long research voyage in the ocean just west of Rottnest Island.
Led by Dr Anya Waite, a biological oceanographer from UWA, the 10-member team found the vortex – 200km in diameter and 1000m deep – spinning at speeds up to 5kph just off the Rottnest Canyon. [..]
She said the climate above the vortex was noticeably different.
“It feels like you’re in the tropics,” she said.’
‘Look, now, I got a lot of bitches to plough.. So you can fuck with me later, but you should fuck with me now..’
(5.5meg Flash video)
see it here »
`A Cook County jury on Tuesday awarded an Illinois-record $5 million judgment in a medical malpractice suit to an Arizona couple for the loss of the woman’s vagina, according to a release from the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
The suit alleged that on May 5, 2000, Dr. Taek Kim unnecessarily placed a synthetic suburethral sling during a hysterectomy and repair of a cystocele on the plaintiff. Eventually, the sling eroded into the plaintiff’s vagina, resulting in chronic infection, pain and discharge, according to the release from the law firm of Taxman & Hurst. The scar tissue and foreshortening led to the eventual loss of the woman’s vagina, the suit claimed.’
‘This would normally but a really funny prank on it’s own but the fact that the sleeping guy happens to be a vet who just returned from Iraq makes this priceless. I would have crapped my pants.’
(1.8meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘A redheaded hacidic jewish break dancer face plants while trying to do a front flip. Somehow I dont think he’s going to Hollywood.’
(2.4meg Windows media)
see it here »
`The Egg Farmers of Ontario have laid charges against a farming couple who became locked in a tense standoff with police when the federal food inspectors raided their chicken farm.
Shawn Carmichael and his wife, Paula, each face 11 charges under the Farm Products Marketing Act.
The couple and about 40 protesters became involved in a shoving match during a 10-hour standoff with police on March 23 at their farm in Spencerville, south of Ottawa near Hwy. 401.
At one point, someone used a front-end loader to push an OPP officer back from the entrance to the farm’s driveway.
The standoff ended peacefully when Carmichael agreed to hand over a dozen chickens, a crate of eggs and photocopies of some of his files.’
`An attractive young Australian chess queen is at the centre of a scandal in the normally sedate sport, apparently provoking a jealous clash between two grandmasters on an Italian dance floor.
Nineteen-year-old Arianne Caoili was jiving with Armenian chess star Levon Aronian in a Turin nightclub when an English rival, Danny Gormally, performed an unorthodox and aggressive opening gambit.
Teammates at the World Chess Olympiad say Gormally moved in and sent the 23-year-old Armenian, a World Cup winner, sprawling across the floor of the Hiroshima Mon Amour nightclub.’
`A 6-year-old Florida boy who was accidentally left behind by his family after they celebrated his birthday at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant will temporarily remain in state custody. [..]
Emanuel’s family said they accidentally left him Saturday night and didn’t notice he was missing until the next day. Each relative thought the child was with another family member. [..]
An attorney for the boy’s mother told the judge there were 12 youngsters at the party and as they all piled into cars to leave, the boy was simply overlooked.’
‘The size of a shoebox, a mysterious bronze device scooped out of a Roman-era shipwreck at the dawn of the 20th century has baffled scientists for years. Now a British researcher has stunningly established it as the world’s oldest surviving astronomy computer. [..]
Scooped out of a Roman shipwreck located in 1900 by sponge divers near the southern Greek island of Antikythera, and kept at the Athens National Archaeological Museum, the Mechanism contains over 30 bronze wheels and dials, and is covered in astronomical inscriptions.
Probably operated by crank, it survives in three main pieces and some smaller fragments.’
`There’s a time and place for everything, local Australian governments have ruled as they move to stop brothels opening near cemeteries. [..]
Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Tuesday that cemeteries were places for quiet reflection by families who should not have to put up with “a brothel going on next door.”
“It’s totally inappropriate. There’s a place for brothels and a place for cemeteries and we don’t believe the two mix,” he said.’
`The people in the pictures below have my friend’s T-Mobile Sidekick. Instead of doing the honorable thing when finding someone’s phone in a taxi, they instead kept it. [..]
When my friend realized that she had left the Sidekick in the taxi she asked me to immediately send a message to the phone saying that we would give a reward for the phone. There was no response. After a day of waiting, she had to go to the store and spend over $300 on a new Sidekick. When she put her SIM card in, she saw that the person(s) that had taken the phone had not only signed on to AOL leaving their name and password in the phone, but they had taken pictures of themselves.’
`Illusionist David Copperfield is planning to go one better than rival David Blaine by impregnating a woman live onstage.
The magician will carry out the stunt in Germany, without–he insists–even touching the volunteer.
Copperfield tells PageSix.com, “There is a great deal of new territory to conquer. I’m going to make a girl pregnant. Naturally there will be no sex.
“Everybody will be happy about it, but I’m not telling you any more.”‘
Lots and lots of music videos from the 80’s. You love it.
`A man accused of not paying for his Pop-Tarts had a troubled getaway.
First, the clerk at the convenience store ripped the man’s shirt off as they struggled when she confronted him for pocketing the toaster pastries Friday, police said.
Then after the man punched the clerk in the stomach and made it out the door, he was hit by a pickup truck in the parking lot. Police said he got up and kept running – into the path of a minivan while he was crossing the street. He got up again, but didn’t make it far.’
