moonbuggy

`The Hokkaido Prefectural Government is considering outlawing the purchase of used underwear from teenage girls, local government officials said.

The prefectural government is expected to revise the ordinance on the wholesome education of youths to incorporate a clause that would ban adults from buying used underwear directly from girls aged below 18. Violators would face up to one year in prison or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.’

`A flock of pigeons fitted with mobile phone backpacks is to be used to monitor air pollution, New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday.

The 20 pigeons will be released into the skies over San Jose, California, in August.

Each bird will carry a GPS satellite tracking receiver, air pollution sensors and a basic mobile phone.

Text messages on air quality will be beamed back in real time to a special pigeon “blog,” a journal accessible on the Internet.’

`Depending on who you talk to, a political aide who cleaned up a non-political mess deserves either a gold star or a slap on the wrist.

Mike Patton took on extra duties last Thursday when he mopped up what he called a “poo apocalypse” in a downtown public library.

Thursday afternoon, a patron of the Ottawa Public Library opened the men’s bathroom door to discover a toilet seat and surrounding floor covered in feces.

“Clearly someone was not feeling well and had a bit of a diarrhea issue, and it was all over the seat and the floor and the toilet, in the stall area,” said Patton, who revisited the scene of the grime with CBC on Tuesday.’

`US oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted a quarterly profit of $9.9bn (£5.55bn), the largest in US corporate history, on the back of record oil and gas prices.

Profit was up 75% and revenue rose 32% to more than $100bn. [..]

Oil and gas companies have been benefiting from the rising cost of oil, brought on by the two hurricanes which hit the Gulf of Mexico in late summer, disrupting output.’

`A man who called police to report his marijuana was stolen was arrested after police recovered the pot and invited him to come to the Public Safety Building to identify it. [..]

Tippetts called police Monday evening after someone broke a window, got cut on the glass and crawled into his home while he was away. He told police the only thing missing was a quarter-pound bag of marijuana he was selling.

Tippetts also told officers that a man called him about buying some marijuana earlier in the day, but Tippetts was on his way to work and told the caller no. He gave police the caller’s name.’

`Seven teenagers were hospitalized briefly Sunday after the group became sick from eating brownies laced with marijuana at a Montpelier home, Montpelier Police said. [..]

Police said when they arrived, there were no adults present and there had been an underage party. Authorities said they found no alcohol, but learned the seven teens made and ate the pot brownies.

Because police were initially unsure what was in the brownies, the seven teenagers were taken to Central Vermont Hospital, where they were treated and released to their parents, police said.’

`Scientists at the University of Kentucky have built tiny pipes that move water 10,000 times as fast as the conventional laws of fluid flow allow, mimicking for the first time the seamless way fluids progress through our cells. They’ve also found a way to control which molecules can pass through the pipes, a discovery that could yield safer, more efficient skin patches to deliver medicine into the body. The pipes are made of carbon nanotubes, thin sheets of graphite rolled into cylinders just seven billionths of a meter in diameter. [..]’

Seems to be more of the same from the guy responsible for the paintings at Notes on the Denial of Perspective.

`”Once the door closed, the nightmare began,” prosecutor Mike Wolfe said. According to him, Runge, 36, repeatedly raped Gutierrez as her daughter watched. He then moved on to Jessica. After cutting their throats, Runge threw paint thinner and a lighted match onto the bed to try to conceal his crime, prosecutors said.

Defense attorneys didn’t try to soften the monster image prosecutors painted. But attorney William Wolf said his client is insane and needs treatment.

“These are the mad acts of an insane, irrational, illogical mind,” Wolf said. He told jurors that within Runge’s brain, “The wiring is all wrong.”

All of that means Runge has “poor impulse control, poor planning and poor judgment.”‘

This guy seems to have wired up absolutely everything in his house and has a page reporting stats on all the stuff going on. Interesting, but somewhat insane. :)

`Fellow workers and regular patrons at the Kensington Avenue restaurant, where Thomas Erhardt had done some electrical work and odd jobs for four years, weren’t buying that this was a merciful act.

“When you brutally kill your father [with a hammer], where’s the mercy in that?” Storm asked. “There’s no justification for that at all. If you wanted to do a mercy killing, give him some sleeping pills.”‘

`A naked man, struck and killed on Interstate 90 just west of Snoqualmie Pass early today, was the owner of three McDonald’s fast-food restaurant franchises in Ellensburg. [..]

At about 4 a.m., the truck crossed the median and the eastbound lanes, coming to a stop when it struck a guardrail, the patrol said in a news release.

Arnes then apparently left the truck, took off his clothes and stood in the eastbound lanes — Lane 2 — where he was struck up a white pickup, Trooper Kelly Spangler said.’

‘Self-described vampire and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jonathan “The Impaler” Sharkey has been arrested on Indiana charges of stalking and escape. [..]

Princeton police said their search discovered the May 2005 warrants that led to Sharkey’s arrest Monday. [..]

Among his proposals was one that would use impalement to execute murderers, rapists and terrorists.

“As governor,” Sharkey said, “terrorists and criminals will live in fear of me, while the people of this state will be able to live fear free.”‘

BoingBoing has a picture of the vampire. I know I’m scared.

followup to Vampire seeks governor’s job.

`After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams.

On the company’s web site, if you click on “Telegrams” in the left-side navigation bar, you’re taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible:

“Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative.”‘

An East Tennessee State University student says she was dismissed from the cheerleading squad because she works at a Hooters restaurant.

Freshman Kimberly Sams says she’s 18 and should be allowed to work where she wants. [..]

Sams says she was called into a locker room after practice and dismissed by squad coach Tammy Bartow about three weeks ago. Sams says Bartow told her the off-campus job was the reason.’

`It’s a gathering of movie stills, from some of our all time favorites. They are all over the place – from comedies to serious drama, from the late 1970s to 2005, from American to Japanese, to Japanese remade American to French…

If you do manage to solve them all you are officially a movie nerd.

We’re not joking. You’re a geek. Seriously, solving the whole thing should be near impossible as there are some really tricky ones, so if you manage, do send us a mail – we’d be sure to mail you back our annual “Wow, We’re Impressed” award.

This concludes our trying to be funny and sucking at it part. Scroll down for instructions and the actual quiz.’

I got 16/30 pretty easily. Couldn’t be fucked thinking too hard for the rest. I vaguely recognize a few more but can’t put a name to the image. Fun. :)

`In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior U.S. military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women’s latrine after dark.’

`Prince Harry is to be sent to Iraq next year as a troop commander and is likely to patrol the hazardous border with Iran, defence sources have disclosed.

The third in line to the throne will join the Army’s 1st Mechanised Brigade, which will be deployed to Basra in May 2007. [..]

As a troop commander in the Blues and Royals, the prince will have the rank of cornet, equivalent to a second lieutenant, in charge of 11 men and four light tanks.’

`A 13-year-old boy who entered an elephant’s open-air cage to feed it a mango was crushed to death on Tuesday. [..]

“Maia understood that its territory had been invaded by a stranger, which is why the elephant trapped Guillermo with the trunk, taking him by the legs and then crushing him with one of its front feet,” said Carlos Britos, a veterinarian and director of the zoo.

He described the 35-year-old elephant as docile and obedient with him and other handlers. [..]

“She obeyed and let go of the child, but he was already dead,” he said.’

`Evah since I been a lil girl i always be thinkin that it would be nasty (in a good way) to have a couple of men act out that scene from Star Wars where Luke comes to rescue Princess Leah from Jabba the hut.

Here’s what i want: Four men (Luke, Jabba, Hans Solo, and Chewy) to come over to my house, tie me up by the neck and then beat me around for a while before reenacting the entire portion of the film that takes place at Jabba’s palace (i will provide copies of the script for you to memorize or read before we commence and i have created costumes from fabric and pieces of plastic i had lying around the house).’

With pictures. Hilarious. :)

`The goons at SA are fighting with EBW because apparently they don’t give credit to authors, and host and make money from content without permission from the creators. Fortunately for me, a few of you guys found https://www.ebaumsworld.com/family.html which is an obvious plagiarism of https://www.zgeek.com/trailerparkpage/

I’ve been emailing them since I found out, and I haven’t got a reply at all yet. I even jumped on their forum, posted once about it in a nice way.. honest.” I didn’t even swear once. And I was instantly banned from the forum. (twice)’

`A German newspaper has apologised for accidentally placing a utility company advertisement for “the gas of tomorrow” inside a full-page story on the Nazi killing of Sinti (Gypsy) people in Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Landeszeitung Lueneburg said on its website today it had not noticed that the article about a local exhibition describing the fate of the Sinti in Hitler’s Germany appeared on the same page as an advert for utility company E.ON which read: “E.ON is taking care of the gas of tomorrow, today.”‘

`There was an emotional farewell yesterday at Vancouver International Airport as medical marijuana crusader Steve Kubby reluctantly returned to the U.S. to face a jail sentence.

Kubby’s supporters and family were on hand as he boarded a flight to California escorted by his American lawyer, who worried he could die without access to pot in jail.

“The officials in Canada might be sending him back to a death sentence,” said Bill McPike.’

`Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, said the tax office in the US has to store his financial data on a special computer because his fortune is so vast.

“My tax return in the United States has to be kept on a special computer because their normal computers can’t deal with the numbers,” he said at a Microsoft conference held in Lisbon.

“So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven’t paid something when really it is just on the wrong computer,” he added in comments broadcast on television.

“Then they will send me another notice telling me how bad they feel they that they sent me a notice that was a mistake,” he said’

A tongue piercing that doubles as a toothbrush.

`Milwaukee police are now considering the body found encased in concrete in a Milwaukee rental house over the weekend a homicide. [..]

At least two families are now wondering how they could have lived there with a dead body for so long and not even have known it.

“You could see like a little lump in it, and then it looked like a foot sticking up, kind of, but with cement over it,” past resident Cortez Thurman said.

Thurman said his family always joked about a dead body buried in the basement of their old home.

“I used to lift weights down there and everything, and we used to always joke around, like, what if it’s a dead body up under there?” Thurman said.’

`What happened to them? Where did those stainless-steel, big E signs that came to symbolize the downfall of Enron go?

When those left to salvage Enron held an auction to raise money to pay the company’s debts, the big E’s were the star attraction. Sure, you could buy Aeron chairs in batches of 300 or so, but a big E — now that was a conversation piece.

There were four of them. The first one sold for about $17,000 in London. A standing-room-only crowd in Houston went wild when another big E fetched a price of $44,000.’

`Dutch TV programme Nieuwslicht (Newslight) is claiming that the security of the Dutch biometric passport has already been cracked. As the programme reports here, the passport was read remotely and then the security cracked using flaws built into the system, whereupon all of the biometric data could be read.

The crack is attributed to Delft smartcard security specialist Riscure, which here explains that an attack can be executed from around 10 metres and the security broken, revealing date of birth, facial image and fingerprint, in around two hours. Riscure notes that that the speed of the crack is aided by the Dutch passport numbering scheme being sequential.’

`A pastor accused of selling the town‘s oldest church pleaded guilty to embezzlement on Monday and agreed to 18 months in prison, court officials said.

Radic had preached at First Congregational Church in Ripon for nearly a decade before he sold the church last October for $525,000, allegedly using the money to buy a BMW. He also faked documents that gave him possession of his house, which was owned by the church, then used the property to take out loans, authorities said.’