`A US soldier has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering three prisoners during a raid on a suspected al-Qaeda compound in Iraq last year.
The case is one of two involving soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division accused of killing Iraqis during a deployment to Iraq that ended in September.
Specialist William Hunsaker, 24, pleaded guilty to murder, attempted murder and obstruction of justice during a hearing at Fort Campbell in Kentucky.’
So, you have a vagina but want to piss standing up? No problem. :)
see it here »
`Lifelong bilingualism can help delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia in the elderly by an average of four years, according to a small study by Canadian researchers.
Patients who spoke more than one language reported memory loss or other dementia symptoms on average four years later than people who spoke only one language. [..]
Principal investigator Ellen Bialystok, a psychologist and associate scientist at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest, said the results were unusually clear.
“Rarely does a study give such clean results, so this was surprising to us,” she told CBC News Online.’
I’m fairly sure this is a repost, but this clip is slightly longer than the original I’ve got somewhere.
I just love his grin at the end. :)
see it here »
`Dentists, doctors, lawyers and other professionals in the Pittsburgh area have been targeted by a “hit man” e-mail scheme, receiving messages that tell them to pay up to spare their lives, the FBI said.
The e-mail, which was sent to most recipients around Christmas, tells the reader that there is a contract out on his life, generally for $50,000.
It says that if the recipient sends the “hit man” more money than that — generally ranging from $80,000 to $150,000 — the hit man will leave him alone.’
`British research suggests that up to 50 per cent of business managers could have psychopathic or similar tendencies.
The study carried out by the British Psychological Society says such managers are often articulate and confident, but can be unpredictable, self indulgent and lacking in empathy.
Psychology Professor Adrian Furnham says manipulative characteristics are often rewarded in the business world.
“Beware of the following individual, the good looking, educated, articulate and very bold and self confident leader,” he said.’
Just driving around the subways, why not? :)
see it here »
`There were many acid tests happening in the 1950s and 1960s. Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters dosed sometimes-unsuspecting proto-hippies. The CIA was dosing unsuspecting mainstreamers. Leary dosed fully cognizant artists, therapists and students. But meanwhile, over at Army Chemical Center at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, psychiatrist James S. Ketchum was testing LSD, BZ and other psychedelic and deliriant compounds on fully informed volunteers for the U.S. military. [..]
Now, Dr. Ketchum has released his fascinating self-published memoir, Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten, primarily detailing his times at Edgewood. The book boasts charts, graphs and experimental reports – a veritable goldmine of information for those who are interested in psychedelics, deliriants, or chemical warfare. It’s also a funny, observant, and reflective personal memoir, casting a light not only on Ketchum and his work, but on a decade that saw 60s counterculture and the military share an oddly intersecting obsession with mind-altering drugs.’
`Two women who have children fathered by rape defendant Brett “Prince” Barden testified yesterday that the purported city gang member was busy babysitting his troubled son at the time he is accused by police of having sex with a 12-year-old Lawrence girl.
In the final day of testimony, Gladys Santiago, of Camden, testified that at the time in question, she had forced the defendant to watch their 8-year-old son — who was suspended from school in June 2004 — while she was at work. [..]
According to testimony, Barden, 35, allegedly slept with his daughter’s preteen friend that spring to “educate her about sex.”‘
Strange headline. [shrug]
This is footage from something called the 19th Cannabis Cup.
A joint as big as your arm. That’s what you need. Crazy hippies. :)
see it here »
`Rotorua police were “amazed and horrified” when they stopped a car driving erratically and found a 14-year-old girl at the wheel with her mother drunk in the passenger seat.
The car had been spotted twice narrowly missing collision with oncoming trucks on State Highway 2 before it was stopped at 8am yesterday on White Pine Bush Rd near Whakatane, the Rotorua Daily Post reported today.
The mother, 35, who was allegedly drunk, had been driving from Auckland with the teenager and three other children aged between five and 10 in the car.
Her daughter took over when she had started falling asleep at the wheel, police said.’
`All footage of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin’s death had been destroyed, his widow said, including her own copy.
Terri Irwin told American TV’s Access Hollywood, in an interview to be aired in the US this week, that the tape was destroyed when it was no longer needed for the investigation.
“There’s standard protocols for examining certain evidence and that’s no longer necessary, so we’re very proud that Steve’s last documentary is going to air and that’s his last footage with wildlife,” she said.’
Apparently you can squeeze some out of elephant shit.
see it here »
`A New Jersey teenager was hit by a car and ended up in a 10-day coma. While comatose, the teen received in the mail a ticket for jaywalking for the night she was hit. Her outraged family went to court to have the ticket dismissed. [..]
“At first, they didn’t think she was going to make it at all. Then they thought she was going to have severe brain damage,” Robin Van Brunt said.
After the accident Ryan slipped into a 10-day-long coma. While she was unconscious in bed, the teen received in the mail a ticket for jaywalking on the night she was hit.
Ryan woke up with severe pain and a date in court. [..]
Others agreed that the ticket issued by a West Orange Police officer was in poor taste.’
`The U.S. Embassy in Athens was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade Friday morning, said top metropolitan police officer Asimakis Golfis.
U.S. Ambassador Charles Ries said the explosion injured no one and caused minimal damage, but was still being treated as a “very serious attack.”
The entire compound in downtown Athens is a crime scene, he told reporters.
Greek counterterrorism authorities and U.S. officials are working to uncover who is behind the attack, Ries said.’
The cop who said that Pauly Shore getting punched in the face was a setup was right. Here’s some footage taken before the punch where Pauly discusses the scene with the audience and the guy who threw the punch.
You can see the original video here: Pauly Shore gets punched in the face.
(4.6meg Flash video)
see it here »
This guy has apparently wired up bits of his house so you can control them over the internet. I was just switching his Christmas tree lights on and off.
There’s a webcam so you can see what’s going on in the room.
`A 27-year-old Beaver Dam man charged with groping two Beaver Dam police officers has been bound over for trial. [..]
According to police reports, Greenleaf approached an officer that was investigating an underage drinking party at a home on Sloan Circle, put his arm around the officer and allegedly grabbed the officer’s genitals. After being verbally warned that he could be arrested for such conduct, Greenleaf approached the officer again and grabbed him in the same manner, the report said. [..]
If convicted, Greenleaf faces 21 years in prison and $63,000 in fines.’
‘Tommy the Cat had many a story to tell, but it was a rare occasion such as this that he did.’
(13.3meg Flash video)
see it here »
`The controversial Muslim leader Sheik Taj el-din al Hilaly has savaged Australia in an interview on Egyptian television, claiming there is no freedom or democracy for Muslims here and that English people are the most unjust and dishonest.
The senior cleric said Muslims were more Australian than Anglo-Saxons because they came here voluntarily, that Australians played the “fear card” to keep Muslims down, and that racial prejudice was the reason for the 55-year sentence given to the gang rapist Bilal Skaf.
“Anglo-Saxons came to Australia in chains, while we paid our way and came in freedom. We are more Australian than them. Australia is not an Anglo-Saxon country – Islam has deep roots in Australian soil that were there before the English arrived,” Sheik Hilaly said.’
Cows weigh quite a bit. Heh..
(1.4meg Flash video)
see it here »
`A mail carrier had a blood-alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit when he was arrested for driving his delivery truck into oncoming traffic and crashing into a sign, police said.
Thomas Lahiff was incoherent Friday when he returned to the post office, where he was arrested about an hour after the crash, Police Capt. Mike Babe said. He said tests showed the 46-year-old’s blood-alcohol level was 0.31 percent.’
`NASA is investigating whether incorrect software commands may have doomed the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which abruptly fell silent last year after a decade of meticulously mapping the Red Planet.
The space agency said that theory is just one of several that may explain the probe’s failure. NASA on Wednesday announced the formation of an internal review board to investigate why the Global Surveyor lost contact with controllers during a routine adjustment of its solar array. [..]
The software was aimed at improving the spacecraft’s flight processors. Instead, bad commands may have overheated the battery and forced the spacecraft into safe mode [..]’
This is one of those candid camera type shows. In this case, they’ve tricked some girl into thinking she has a stalker, then locked her in a garage with a naked man and filmed the whole thing.
At one point the narrator uses the phrase “She may be scarred for life, but only mentally”.. [shrug] :)
(4.7meg Windows media)
see it here »
`It is no secret that the MPAA and other anti-piracy organizations track down alleged pirates by uploading fake torrents. Up until now it was always unclear where those files came from, and how to identify them. [..]
The server boxes that host these torrents fall in serveral ip-ranges, and are not yet blocked by blocklist software like peerguardian. Here are a few of the ranges that were discovered recently. You can easily add these to the blocklist of your torrent client (if it supports one), filewall, or blocklist manager.
# 66.172.60.XXX, 66.177.58.XXX, 66.180.205.XXX, 209.204.61.XXX, 216.151.155.XXX’
`A school program to fight childhood obesity that includes yoga is drawing complaints from some Christian parents in the Quesnel area in B.C.’s Cariboo region.
They say yoga is a religion, and shouldn’t be taught in public schools. [..]
Local rancher Audrey Cummings doesn’t believe Christian children should be doing yoga at all.
“There’s God and there’s the devil, and the devil’s not a gentleman. If you give him any kind of an opening, he will take that.”‘
This is a recording of a phone call between someone trapped in the World Trade Center and a 911 operator. The building actually collapses during the phone call.
Well, at the end of the phone call, actually. [shrug]
see it here »
`This week in Federal Way schools, it got a lot more inconvenient to show one of the top-grossing documentaries in U.S. history, the global-warming alert “An Inconvenient Truth.” [..]
“Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher,” said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. “The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. … The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD.” [..]
“From what I’ve seen (of the movie) and what my husband has expressed to me, if (the movie) is going to take the approach of ‘bad America, bad America,’ I don’t think it should be shown at all,” Gayle Hardison said. “If you’re going to come in and just say America is creating the rotten ruin of the world, I don’t think the video should be shown.”‘
`Has Sony gone mad? Prominent adult movie producer Digital Playground says it is forced to use HD DVD instead of Blu-ray, because Sony does not allow XXX-rated movies to be released on Blu-ray.
It does not matter how you stand to porn. It is here and it is a massive business. It is also an industry that is an early adopter for new media technology. VHS might not have won with out the adult film industry adopting it.
[..] In the interview Joone says he was forced to use HD DVD, because no Blu-ray disc manufacturer would make his discs, because Sony was against it and they would loose their license.
If this holds true, Blu-ray is at a major disadvantage and could fail.’
This is a pretty cool video. These crows are smarter than some people I know. :)
see it here »
