moonbuggy

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`Auckland University scientists have revealed that eruptions of supervolcanoes powerful enough to change the climate and cause mass-extinction can be worse than previously thought. [..]

Such large eruptions of greater than 100 cubic kilometres of magma are generally rare and random events worldwide.

But geologist Darren Gravley of Auckland University and his colleagues have shown that one of the largest supervolcano eruptions on record, at Taupo 250,000 years ago, was twice as big as previously thought.’

Maybe I’m a bit stupid, but I don’t see how much worse than mass-extinction it could get. [shrug] It’s not like we’re going to be thinking “Oh, I’m glad it wasn’t any worse” once we’re already dead. :)

`Darren Sawyer was given a choice at the beginning of school yesterday: Change out of his brown clothes or go home.

Brown clothing was recently banned at the Molloy Alternative High School, where Sawyer is a sophomore. The ban came about from the emergence of the Brown Mafia, a new teenage gang in Lowell whose members wear the color brown, school officials said.

When Sawyer refused to change into a school-issued T-shirt or call home to have other clothes brought to the school, he was sent home, said Molloy Principal Kathy Akashian.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Sawyer’s mother, Lisa Motard. “I’ve heard of banning red and black. Now brown? What other colors are they going to come up with?”‘

`Memory Infinite has a USB male connector at one end and a female connector at the other, providing an “add up” concept for USB finger discs. By connecting one Memory Infinite with another to add up the storage capacity, the user won’t waste the old storage capacity when getting a larger one. The user can choose to combine or separate Memory Infinite, making the usage of USB finger discs more convenient. And when Memory Infinite connects to a computer using its male end, other USB devices still can connect to its female end without having to occupy another USB port on the computer.’

`Thank you for your letter rejecting my application for employment with your firm.

I have received rejections from an unusually large number of well qualified organizations. With such a varied and promising spectrum of rejections from which to select, it is impossible for me to consider them all. After careful deliberation, then, and because a number of firms have found me more unsuitable, I regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your rejection.’

These people are selling a monowheel for ~$4000US.

Unfortunately, it looks remarkably like the monowheel Mr Garrison invented in South Park. I think South Park has ruined monowheels forever, because now they just look like buggery machines.

`The House lawmaker in charge of defense spending said Friday that he intends to force the closure of the Guantánamo Bay military prison and curb U.S. engagement in Iraq, and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “absolutely” supports his efforts. [..]

He said the best way to control what course the war takes is for Congress to attach conditions to war-spending bills, because Bush is unlikely to veto a bill that provides money to keep fighting.

The Guant�namo military prison, where prisoners have been held without charges and abused, need to be closed to restore U.S. credibility, Murtha said.’

`Ball lightning could soon lose its status as a mystery, now that a team in Brazil has cooked up a simple recipe for making similar eerie orbs of light in the lab, even getting them to bounce around for several seconds. [..]

A more down-to-earth theory, proposed by John Abrahamson and James Dinniss at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, is that ball lightning forms when lightning strikes soil, turning any silica in the soil into pure silicon vapour. As the vapour cools, the silicon condenses into a floating aerosol bound into a ball by charges that gather on its surface, and it glows with the heat of silicon recombining with oxygen.’

There’s also a ball lightning video.

They didn’t even seem to be going particularly fast.

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`Doctors want state governments to stop contracting the operation of public hospitals to the Catholic Church unless it agrees to provide all services including IVF, abortions, sterilisations and rape counselling.

Australian Medical Association national president Mukesh Haikerwal yesterday said taxpayers had a right to expect public hospitals would provide a full range of medical services.

If church-linked organisations wanted to exclude some services in accordance with church teaching, they should not tender for contracts to operate public hospitals, Dr Haikerwal said.

But the church’s health arm rejected the criticism and accused Dr Haikerwal of being anti-Catholic.’

Fuck the Pope up the arse with a tractor, I say.

If you have some sort of obsession about the size of celebrity penises, then this is the site for you.

It’d be cool to have a house on top of a mountain.

Less cool if you’re too scared of heights to ever leave your house once you get there. :)

`The tragicomic tale of what happened to my first feature film has been told elsewhere. Suffice to say, I had turned my back on the film industry and made my next film (the one you can watch a bit further down on this page) in my backyard, with $300 cash and an old Super 8mm camera I bought on eBay.

No one was more surprised than me when Spiders on Drugs became a minor hit on the film festival circuit this summer, by which I mean it was seen by tens of people at festivals all over the planet.’

Follow up to: Effects Of Drugs And Alcohol On Spider Webs

‘This is hilarious. This amateur boxer cant figure out how to get in and out of the ring. Kinda funny how he finally enters but his exit is hilarious.’

(3.1meg Windows media)

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`China will have 30 million more men of marriageable age than women by 2020, making it difficult for them to find wives, according to a national report.

The gender imbalance could lead to social instability, the report by the State Population and Family Planning Commission warned.

It found that around 118 boys were born to every 100 girls in 2005.

A traditional preference for boys, in a country with a one-child policy, is the root of the problem, the report says.’

`A German pensioner who wired up a high-voltage cable to try to wipe out the moles digging up his garden killed himself instead.

Uwe Werner, police spokesman in Stralsund north of Berlin, said the 63-year-old retired construction foreman was found dead in the garden of his weekend house in Zingst next to a 380-volt cable and metal spikes rammed into the ground.

“The moles survived,” Mr Werner said, noting the voltage was enough to run a cement mixer or heavy-duty power saw. “It was in any event an unorthodox method to try to get rid of moles.”‘

What happens when you strip down to underpants and a t-shirt then run past lots of people shooting paintballs at you?

Pain, is the answer. :)

(3.2meg Windows media)

see it here »

`Within minutes of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s arrival on Capitol Hill yesterday, it became apparent that the Bush administration had, after four divisive years, finally succeeded in uniting Congress on the war in Iraq.

Unfortunately for Rice, the lawmakers were unified in opposition to President Bush’s new policy.

“I have to say, Madam Secretary,” a seething Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) told Rice, “that I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.”

“Madam Secretary,” added Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, a moderate Democrat, “I have supported you and the administration on the war, and I cannot continue to support the administration’s position. . . . I have not been told the truth over and over again.”‘

`ACFI is a group of people working for the peoples right to it’s Internets. We have made progress in Ladonia and are now working on the Micronation of Sealand.

Recently it was made clear that this country is for sale. To make sure the owners will be kopimistic and that the country won’t be governed by people that do not care about it’s future, we have come up with a plan.

With the help of all the kopimists on Internets, we want to buy Sealand. Donate money and you will become a citizien.’

‘A 48-year-old man says Portland firefighters forced him to the floor and kicked him after he argued with them in the lobby of his apartment building early Thursday — an allegation backed up by surveillance tapes.

The tapes, recorded from cameras mounted in the lobby of the Fairfield Apartments, show that resident Terry DeGeorge didn’t appear to touch the firefighters before they forced him to the floor. While he was being held down by two firefighters and a paramedic, another firefighter kicked him three times, the video shows. A security guard restrained him with handcuffs.’

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This is quite an interesting old advertisement for a car dealer, somewhere around Baltimore by the sounds of things.

Don’t forget to bring your wife. :)

(2.1meg Flash video)

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‘A Harstselle man who allegedly stole $300 from his grandfather’s wallet has been charged with armed robbery, authorities said. [..]

Detective Kyle Wilson said Daniel Brown donned a ski mask and jacket, armed himself with a handle from a hydraulic floor jack and made the 10-foot hike to his grandfather’s home next door.

“There’s a woman that lives there with his grandpa,” Wilson said. “He said, ‘Sit down, Bernice.’ Then he goes to his grandpa’s room and he says, ‘This is a robbery, I need your money, and I mean it, Pa-Paw.'” [..]

Daniel Brown denied he was the man behind the mask. The cash reported stolen had not been recovered Wednesday.’

`A 280-pound man who tried to break into a craft and hobby store by crawling in through a cooling duct got stuck and died, authorities said.

The Missoula County coroner’s office identified the man as Kenneth Ellingson, 37, of Missoula, and said the cause of death was positional asphyxiation. [..]

Authorities said the 6-foot-tall, 280 pound man got stuck in an L-shaped portion of the duct probably around 3 a.m. or 4 a.m.’

These people have a unique way of making a club soda.

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`A man shot a friend when the two got into an argument over James Brown’s height, police said.

Dan Gulley Jr. was charged with assault in the shooting of David James Brooks Jr., police said. Officers said the men were at a friend’s home on Monday when, according to witnesses, the argument over the height of the late “Godfather of Soul” escalated, with Gulley, 70, shooting Brooks, 62, twice in the abdomen. [..]

Brown, who was known to wear lifts, died of heart failure Dec. 25 at age 73. Accounts of his height vary.’

`The most spectacular comet in 40 years, named after the Australian astronomer who discovered it, will streak through the southern hemisphere over the next month.

Clear skies permitting, McNaught’s Comet will reveal itself against the western horizon at sunset, beginning on Saturday. [..]

It has already appeared in the northern hemisphere and will be visible for up to one month but will burn brightest on Monday evening, fellow ANU astronomer Paul Francis said.’

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`A naked construction worker fell about four stories to his death early yesterday at the work site for a new downtown museum, D.C. police and fire officials said.

Joseph Oliver, 23, of La Plata was discovered about 6 a.m. in the basement elevator shaft area of the Newseum, which is being built at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, officials said. Authorities said it was unclear why he was naked.

“It appears he may have fallen from the fourth floor because there were clothes and personal belongings on that level,” said Assistant Fire Chief Larry Schultz.’

`A high school teacher was charged under Texas’ peeping-tom law with videotaping girls’ wrestling matches for his sexual enjoyment.

Police said David Ware, 28, often zoomed in for close-up shots of the girls’ crotches. [..]

“This was more than accidental footage of the genital areas,” Brimmer said. “It appeared to be a purposeful act of zooming in.”‘

Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.

(2.3meg Flash video)

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