Archive for October, 2007

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Tuesday, October 2, 2007

 

Danger Mouse

He’s the greatest, he’s fantastic.

Where ever there is danger, he’ll be there.

(602kB Flash video)

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Monday, October 1, 2007

 

The 14 or 15 Commandments

So, according to the wiki there are actually 14 or 15 different commandments listed in the Bible. They’re listed twice, and they say slightly different things in each place, particularly concerning the Sabbath.

Different Christian sects group the commandments together differently, combining them arbitrarily here and there to bring the number down to the official “10”. Some branches of Christianity regard one of the commandments merely as a preface.

And then there’s the Evangelicals:

‘Modern Evangelicalism, under the influence of dispensationalism, commonly denies that the commandments have any abiding validity as a requirement binding upon Christians [..]’

Oh, also, in the proper historical context, “Thou shall not steal” actually means “Thou shall not kidnap”.

Because everyone knows that the wisest people of all are those that stop counting when they run out of fingers. Good effort, fellas. 🙂


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Rammstein – Bayern des samma mia

Hooray for live concerts.. And video editing. 🙂

(4.4meg Flash video)

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Spanish town tosses world’s biggest salad

‘A town in southern Spain on Saturday tossed what local officials said was the world’s largest salad, involving 6,700 kilograms (14,740 pounds) of lettuce, tomato, onion, pepper and olives.

It took 20 cooks over three hours to mix all the ingredients needed to make the salad in the town of Pulpi in the province of Almeria, one of Spain’s main fruit and vegetable growing areas.

“Excellent coordination since the beginning made it possible to meet this challenge,” said Lorenzo Navarro, the head of the Association of Businessmen and Storekeepers of Pulpi which organized the event with the town hall.’


17-Pound Baby Born in Russia

‘A small Russian city just got a really big addition: a 17-pound, 1 ounce baby whose mother had already delivered 11 other children.

Tatiana Khalina, 42, delivered the girl by Caesarean section at a maternity clinic in Aleisk, a town of 30,000 people in the Altai region in southern Siberia, a nurse at the clinic said Thursday. [..]

The daily Moskovsky Komsomolets quoted the local social services chief, Marina Alistratova, as saying the family had modest means. She said Khalina’s husband was on contract with a local military unit.

“We have presented them with a good washing machine, a food package and a card,” Alistratova told the newspaper. “We will keep supporting them in the future.”

An average weight for newborn babies is around 7 pounds, 1 ounce, according to international statistics.’


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Dry Ice Bomb Taped to Helmet

Hmm.. This video makes me look at my bike helmet and an empty drink bottle sitting next to me with interest. 🙂

(753kB Flash video)

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Scottish tourism concern as Loch Ness monster sightings dwindle

‘Fewer people are reporting sightings of the Loch Ness monster, amid concerns scepticism about its existence could threaten tourism in the region.

There have only been two reports of sightings this year, compared to three in 2006 and much lower than a decade ago, when the annual number sightings was consistently in the double digits.

“It’s becoming a potential crisis,” said Mikko Takala, 39, a founding member of the Loch Ness Monster Fan Club who runs four webcams on the lake’s north shore.
advertisement [..]

There have been more than 4000 purported sightings of “Nessie” since a surgeon vacationing at the lake in the 1930s released a photo allegedly capturing the legendary monster on film.

Since then, the monster has been a key tourism draw, bringing an estimated £6 million a year into the Highland economy.’


Youth Football Team Foils Robbery Of Elderly Man

‘The 22 members of the Patriots — ages 11 to 14 — were working out again Thursday afternoon. They were in the park Wednesday evening when they saw the crime take place.

“I just seen these two guys walking up to an old man and pull him down from his camera strap, and the old man started hitting him [and] called us to help,” remembered 13-years-old Patriot team member Lafaele “Junior” Siliake.

Police say two teenage boys, 15 and 17 years old, knocked down a 71-year-old man and ran off with his camera. Taylor Leota led the charge as the whole football team took off after the two suspects.

“At first they were jogging,” explained the 13-year-old Leota. “After they see the team coming, they started sprinting. I would have been scared too seeing a football team chasing me; especially one of us.”‘


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Neocons seek to justify action against Teheran

‘American diplomats have been ordered to compile a dossier detailing Iran’s violations of international law that some fear could be used to justify military strikes against the Islamic republic’s nuclear programme.

Members of the US secretariat in the United Nations were asked earlier this month to begin “searching for things that Iran has done wrong”, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Some US diplomats believe the exercise — reminiscent of attempts by vice-president Dick Cheney and the former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld to build the case against Saddam Hussein before the Iraq war — will boost calls for military action by neo-conservatives inside and outside the administration.’


‘Fart Spray’ Attack at Local Restaurant

‘According to Brook Park police, a couple of pranksters could face felony charges after spraying “Fart Spray” into a local restaurant.

Two men pulled up to the drive-thru window at the Rally’s on Snow Road in Cleveland and sprayed a bottle of the offensive product.

The manager of the restaurant wasn’t sure what the substance was.

As a precaution, he threw away more than $1,000 worth of food, and three of his employees wound up going to the Southwest Medical Center to be checked out.’


DAAS – Joan Of Arc

‘There was a bone of contention about her gender..’

(18.8meg Flash video)

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Secrets of 1957 Sputnik launch revealed

‘When Sputnik took off 50 years ago, the world gazed at the heavens in awe and apprehension, watching what seemed like the unveiling of a sustained Soviet effort to conquer space and score a stunning Cold War triumph.

But 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age.

And that winking light that crowds around the globe gathered to watch in the night sky? Not Sputnik at all, as it turns out, but just the second stage of its booster rocket, according to Boris Chertok, one of the founders of the Soviet space program.’


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Three from four people arrested in Darwin ‘are on drugs’

‘Three out of four people arrested and detained by police in Darwin are under the influence of illicit drugs, research shows.

Australian Institute of Criminology data reveals 73 per cent of Darwin detainees tested positive to cannabis in July and August, steadily increasing from 46 per cent in January last year.

Another 8 per cent tested positive to methylamphetamine, the drug commonly known as speed.

The data, compiled under the AIC’s Drug Use Monitoring in Australia program (DUMA), shows a steady increase in the number of offenders testing positive to cannabis.

Drug Free Australia executive officer Jo Baxter said there was a common misconception that cannabis was a “soft” drug.’


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Wrongly accused held for 70 years

‘A woman who spent 70 years in institutions after she was wrongly accused of theft has been reunited with her long-lost family.

Jean Gambell, now 85, was working as a cleaner in a doctor’s surgery when she was accused of stealing 2s 6d – equivalent to twelve-and-a-half pence.

The cash later turned up but by then Jean had been sectioned.

Her two brothers found the sister they had thought was dead when a care home questionnaire came to their house.’


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Couple Abandoned Baby So They Could Party

‘A Glendale couple said they couldn’t afford a baby sitter, so they strapped their 14-month-old son in his stroller at home while the couple went out, police alleged.

Rachel Anderson and her live-in boyfriend, Mitch Laputka, were ordered to stand trial Thursday on charges they neglected baby Gabriel so badly that his body was covered with diaper rash, his body temperature was 12 degrees below normal and he stopped breathing, requiring 21 minutes of CPR to revive him. Police said the couple admitted to leaving the boy home alone because they wanted to party.’


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New world record in ‘ear-lifting’

‘A Pakistani man has broken the world-record for “ear-lifting”, carrying almost 62 kilograms from a cord attached to his right ear. [..]

Mr Gill had to use a special headgrip to protect both his ear and temple, as he lifted the weight for seven seconds about 10 centimetres off the ground.

After warming up with a more modest 30kg weight, Mr Gill took up the record-breaking 61.7 kilos with only a brief cry of pain.

Mr Gill, who himself only weighs 90 kilos, trains everyday but insists he has never had any hearing problems due to his peculiar hobby.’


Biker Uses Face To Slow Down

Well, it did seem to slow him down fairly effectively. 🙂

(1.9meg Flash video)

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Cardiologist Accused Of Hitting Patient Resigns

State health regulators have determined that a La Jolla cardiologist hit a combative patient repeatedly after an angioplasty, placing him in jeopardy, it was reported Thursday.

Dr. Maurice Buchbinder made “chopping like blows to the patient’s abdomen,” tried to hit his leg “with a substantial amount of force” and “used the tip of his elbow to hit (him) on the forehead” during the incident on Aug. 24, three witnesses told investigators, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. [..]

After the patient was moved to a gurney when the angioplasty was finished, the physician told him, “You are an animal” and then “grabbed and twisted the patient’s nose,” making it turn “bluish,” the witnesses said, according to the Union-Tribune.’


Putting electronics in a spin

‘Spintronics, also known as magnetoelectronics, is an emerging technology that harnesses the spin of particles.

Conventional electronics ignores these rotations and instead exploits the movement or accumulation of electrons to do useful calculations or store data.

Freescale MRAM chip
Spintronics is already used in MRAM devices produced by Freescale

The movement of electrons through the tiny wires found in modern microchips is the reason why laptops become so hot.

But, by harnessing the twist and turns of particles – detected as a weak magnetic force – scientists hope to unlock almost infinite computing power and storage, without the heat.’


Woman Left in CT Scanner for Hours

‘A cancer patient says she was left alone in a CT scanner for hours after a technician apparently forget about her, and she finally crawled out of the device, only to find herself locked in the closed clinic.

Elvira Tellez of Tucson said she called her son in a panic, and he told her to call 911.

Pima County sheriff’s deputies arriving at the oncology office had her unlock the office door to let them in, said Deputy Dawn Hanke, a department spokeswoman. The deputies contacted the office manager, who was not aware of the situation.’


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Toyota recalls floor mats that jam gas pedals

‘Toyota Motor Co. will recall floor mats from 55,000 Camry and Lexus ES 350 models due to complaints of unintended acceleration caused by the mats sticking underneath the accelerator pedal, federal safety officials and the automaker said Wednesday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration took the unusual step of highlighting Toyota’s recall announcement, advising owners of other Toyota models — including the Prius hybrid and Avalon sedans — to ensure their floor mats are properly installed. [..]

As the Free Press first reported last month, NHTSA had opened an investigation into the floor mats after amassing 40 reports of unintended acceleration in 2007 Lexus ES 350 sedans, including eight crashes and 12 injuries.’


Chickengirl

(1.0meg Flash video)

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Water forms floating ‘bridge’ when exposed to high voltage

‘”Water undoubtedly is the most important chemical substance in the world,” explained Elmar Fuchs and colleagues from the Graz University of Technology in Austria in a recent study. “The interaction of water with electric fields has been intensely explored over the last years. We report another unusual effect of liquid water exposed to a dc electric field: the floating water bridge.”

When exposed to a high-voltage electric field, water in two beakers climbs out of the beakers and crosses empty space to meet, forming the water bridge. The liquid bridge, hovering in space, appears to the human eye to defy gravity.

Upon investigating the phenomenon, the scientists found that water was being transported from one beaker to another, usually from the anode beaker to the cathode beaker. The cylindrical water bridge, with a diameter of 1-3 mm, could remain intact when the beakers were pulled apart at a distance of up to 25 mm.’


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Exercise Ball To The Face

‘This poor unsuspecting kid is minding his own business setting the table for lunch when out of nowhere he gets drilled in the face with an exercise ball.’

(1.3meg Flash video)

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Students’ spray and fire fun

‘Students in Canada have found a new way to fill time in between lectures – by setting each other on fire for fun.

They douse one another with deodorant spray before using matches or lighters to start the blaze, which leaves students with flames licking their bodies.

Police in Ontario said they were aware of students taking deodorants to school and using them to set each other on fire, usually for no more than a second. [..]

PC Doug Graham from Middlesex Ontario Provincial Police said: ‘This is a fairly common thing around the province. It’s certainly an issue we have to notify parents about.”


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Teenager survives ride in wing of a Boeing-737

‘A 15-YEAR-old Russian boy suffered acute frostbite after riding the wing of a Boeing-737 plane on a 1300km two-hour flight.

With temperatures hitting minus 50C and the plane at a cruising speed of 900km/h, the teenager Andrei Shcherbakov collapsed onto the tarmac when the plane landed.

He had clung on for the entire flight from Perm in Russia’s Ural region to Vnukova Airport in Moscow.

His arms and legs were so severely frozen that rescuers were at first unable to remove his coat and shoes.

He was taken by ambulance to hospital where doctors are trying to save his hands.

When he awoke, Andrei told police that he had decided to run away from his alcoholic father and their home in Perm.’


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U Sank My Carrier!

‘It all comes out of the “Millenium Challenge ’02” war games we staged in the Persian Gulf this summer. The big scandal was that the Opposing Force Commander, Gen. Paul van Ripen, quit mid-game because the games were rigged for the US forces to win. The scenario was a US invasion of an unnamed Persian Gulf country (either Iraq or Iran). The US was testing a new hi-tech joint force doctrine, so naturally van Riper used every lo-tech trick he could think of to mess things up. When the Americans jammed his CCC network , he sent messages by motorbike.

The truth is that van Ripen did something so important that I still can’t believe the mainstream press hasn’t made anything of it. With nothing more than a few “small boats and aircraft,” van Ripen managed to sink most of the US fleet in the Persian Gulf.

What this means is as simple and plain as a skull: every US Navy battle group, every one of those big fancy aircraft carriers we love, won’t last one single day in combat against a serious enemy.’


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Convent closed after nuns in fist-fight

‘A convent in southern Italy is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows.

Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista, reportedly upset about their mother superior’s authoritarian ways, scratched her in the face and threw her to the ground at Santa Clara convent near Bari in an incident in July that was kept quiet until now.

Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri tried to reconcile the nuns but finally decided in late August that they had “clearly lost their religious vocation” and asked the Vatican for permission to close the convent.

Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista moved to another convent, but Sister Liliana barricaded herself inside, refusing to leave, the reports said.’


Treadmill Snowboarding

When there’s no snow outside, what else are you going to do? 🙂

(2.8meg Flash video)

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Woman kills lover with ‘kiss of death’

‘A Chinese woman who killed her lover with a rat poison-laced kiss when she suspected him of being unfaithful has been sentenced to death, a newspaper said today.

Xia Xinfeng, from Maolou in the central province of Henan, passed a capsule with rat poison from her mouth to her long-time lover, Mao Ansheng, during a kiss, the Shanghai Daily said.

Mr Mao swallowed the capsule and died soon afterwards.

“The couple had said that if either one of them cheated on the other, he or she would have to die,” the paper said in explaining the mouth-to-mouth assault.

Ms Xia found Mr Mao had been “talking” with another woman, and deemed that he had broken their promise.’