‘”The head fell on the severed surface of the neck and I did not therefor have to take it up in my hands, as all the newspapers have vied with each other in repeating; I was not obliged even to touch it in order to set it upright. Chance served me well for the observation, which I wished to make.
“Here, then, is what I was able to note immediately after the decapitation: the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds. This phenomenon has been remarked by all those finding themselves in the same conditions as myself for observing what happens after the severing of the neck…’
‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a long-awaited apology today for the massacre of an immigrant wagon train by local church members 150 years ago in southwestern Utah.
Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve read the church’s statement on assignment from the church’s governing First Presidency during a memorial ceremony at the grave site of some of the massacre victims at Mountain Meadows, about 35 miles northwest of St. George. The statement also places blame for the Sept. 11, 1857, massacre on the local church leaders at the time and church members who followed their orders to murder some 120 unarmed men, women and children.’
‘A drunken schoolgirl kicked a New Zealand man in the testicles for pronouncing her name wrong, a court was told today.
Megan Jane Conroy from Sandstone Point north of Brisbane, sobbed in the dock in the Brisbane District Court today as she pleaded guilty to assault.
The court was told she arrived home early on May 13 last year to find the complainant and a group of her mother’s friends celebrating a birthday.
Conroy, then aged 17, asked the 40-year-man if he was “a Kiwi”, and told him to “get fucked” when he said yes.
She was then offended when he pronounced her name “Maegan” instead of “Megan” and kneed him in the groin and demanded he say it correctly.’
‘Sheriff’s deputies were called to a home in Sanford Friday after a construction worker called to report that he was asked to use a tractor to dig a hole for a horse on a nearby property.
The construction worker said he refused to help the homeowner and called for help after he realized the owner wanted him to bury the horse alive.
“The owner or caregiver of the animal requested that he put dirt on top of the animal while it was still alive,” Seminole County sheriff’s Lt. Dennis Lemma said. “They saw a horse that was obviously sick, lying in a shallow grave in direct sunlight without food or water. It couldn’t get up. It is an alarming situation.”‘
It turns out that toy radar guns work pretty well. This is a simple modification that doesn’t actually seem to do much more than change the on/off switch from a momentary button to an actual switch. But it’s kinda cool anyways. :)
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‘The National Library of France (BnF) has an amazing collection of prints from 1910 which depict life in the year 2000. They are credited to Villemard.
There’s speculation that they were included with “foodstuffs” of the era [..]’
‘European Union commissioners have ruled that Britain can carry on using imperial measurements such as pints, pounds and miles.
Europe’s Industry Commissioner Gunter Verheugen said: “There is not now and never will be any requirement to drop imperial measurements.”
The decision will not affect current law on metric measurements, but means imperial equivalents can be used too.
It follows years of wrangling between London and Brussels over metrication.’
‘Six years after the September 11 attacks on the United States and the subsequent “war on terror”, more than nine out of 10 Americans believe they will be attacked again on US soil.
And 81 per cent of Americans considered the plane hijackings that killed about 3000 people the most significant historical event of their lives, according to a poll released today.
Ninety per cent of people on the east coast – had this view compared to 75 per cent on the west coast.’
‘An Italian university student’s cellphone screensaver photo got him busted on marijuana charges.
The student allegedly made the mistake of taking a picture of himself standing among a patch of marijuana plants and using it as his screensaver photo, ANSA reported Tuesday. Then, as luck would have it, he dropped the waist pouch he used to carry the phone and it was picked up by a retiree who turned it over to police.
When the police called him in, the student allegedly broke down and confessed he owned the pot crop, the news agency said. He took the police to the spot where he was growing his illegal crop and was promptly booked.’
It seems that using an umbrella to slow your decent is not an effective technique.
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‘1. Flower-Flavored PEZ®
No, that’s not a typo. Although it would be equally disgusting, we’re talking about flower, not flour.
Introduced in the late 1960’s, flower-flavored PEZ was designed to appeal to the hippie generation — complete with a groovy, psychedelic dispenser. But even in the decade of free love, no love could be found for the flavor power of flower.
Floral scents make for great perfume, but nobody eats perfume, and apparently, there’s a reason why. The flower version flopped, and became the next addition to PEZ’s long and disturbing list of flavor failures.’
‘SABLE-3 was launched on Saturday, August 11th, 2007, at 9:31 AM with a payload, consisting of a Nikon Coolpix P2 digital camera set to take 1 image every minute and a Byonics MicroTrak 300 APRS Tracker, that the Kaysam 1200 gram balloon carried to over 117,597 feet. The last payload camera photo from the ground was just before it was launched, at 9:31 AM, and the last photo before the balloon burst was the photo above, at 12:01 PM, exactly 2½ hours or 150 images later. And what a photo. The composition couldn’t have been better or the horizon more level and out of the 196 images taken during the flight, only 1 other image is as good. What are the chances?’
‘A service offering a complete “revenge package” in which people can destroy the financial status and relationships of their enemies at the click of a mouse is being offered over the internet.
For as little as £10 a month, customers of the confidentialaccess.com website can make the credit ratings of people they dislike plummet and even have them suspected of fraud.
Their bank accounts can be shut down remotely and all their essential utilities cut off.
Fake e-mails and text messages which purport to come from someone else, such as the victim’s spouse, can be sent containing false accusations of affairs or sexual liaisons.
The new “revenge” services are the latest example of the harm the internet can cause individuals. ‘
‘Recently released surveillance footage shows just how two trains crashed into a Hammond mother’s minivan Saturday, killing her two daughters.
The video, captured by Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District cameras at the Hammond station parking lot, shows a CSX freight train traveling east, toward Johnson Avenue, near the Hudson Street intersection.
The video, captured by Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District cameras at the Hammond station parking lot, shows a CSX freight train traveling east, toward Johnson Avenue, near the Hudson Street intersection.
Suddenly, a dark-colored minivan driven by Edie Bolanos blurs into the picture. Outpaced by the train, the eastbound van starts to pick up speed in the adjacent parking lot, parallel to the freight train. The van eventually takes the lead.’
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‘At 76, Doris Anderson has astounded her doctor by surviving nearly two weeks in the thick woods of Eastern Oregon.
Lost on a hunting trip, she was lightly clothed and had no supplies or survival gear as temperatures dropped into the 30s and rescue teams dwindled.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said her emergency room doctor, Steve DeLashmutt. “For being out in the mountains for a couple of weeks she was in pretty good shape, amazingly good shape.”
Anderson was extremely dehydrated, cold and incoherent when she arrived at St. Elizabeth Health Services in Baker City after two law enforcement officers working on their day off found her. [..]
“I would say for her peer group that she did remarkably well,” DeLashmutt said. “Other 76-year-old folks, two weeks in the mountains they wouldn’t have survived.”‘
This fellow jumps off a balcony into a pile of sticks and leaves. Surely there’s nothing in that pile that can penetrate his face? :)
‘I’ve had worse before.’
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‘Firefighters battling a blaze at a home in the Oakland hills this morning discovered a marijuana-growing operation, authorities said.
The two-story home at 4969 Stoneridge Court was being renovated so the entire second floor could be used to grow pot, fire Capt. Melinda Drayton said. Firefighters found more than 50 plants when they arrived at the home, which was otherwise unoccupied, around 3 a.m.
The fire “appears to have started from electricity being used for the cultivation operation,” Drayton said. “I’m not going to say (the electrical wiring) was illegal, but it looked like it was not up to code.” [..]
“This is becoming very common,” Drayton said of home marijuana-growing operations. She said electrical systems often pose a danger when they are altered for anything other than normal residential use.’
‘Authorities in Wilkinson County say a seventh-grader armed with two steak knives held six fellow students hostage Thursday morning but was disarmed and arrested 45 minutes later.
Officials say the boy brought the knives into Wilkinson County Middle School at about 7:50 a.m. and trapped six students in a classroom with him. But a female student was able to escape and notified a teacher.
Principal Aaron Geter says teachers cleared the hallways of students while he negotiated with the boy, who was using his body to block the door.
The principal said Irwinton and Wilkinson County law officers arrived within minutes. The officers, prinicpal and teachers tried to persuade the boy to surrender.’
‘A pair of former Northeastern University freshmen are facing charges after prosecutors said one leaned out his dorm window Sunday and loudly told a woman in the dorm opposite his that he and his roommate were selling pot.
Oops. Two police officers happened to be nearby.
“If you’re looking for weed, my roommate Ferrante has some for sale,” Michael Emery said out the window, according to the Suffolk district attorney’s office.
Two plainclothes Boston officers in the building overheard the conversation and went to a second-floor room where they arrested Emery, 18, and Matthew Ferrante, 18, after finding about four ounces of marijuana; drug paraphernalia, including a scale; and several bottles of alcohol, prosecutors said.’
‘The long-term cancer risk of mobile phone use cannot be ruled out, experts have concluded.
A major six-year research programme found a “hint” of a higher cancer risk.
But the UK Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHRP) did rule out short-term adverse effects to brain and cell function.
Researchers are now expanding the programme to look at phone use over 10 years, and the specific impact on children, which has not been studied.’
‘A woman who was being mauled by a pit bull terrier stashed her 4-month-old son in a garbage can to protect him from the animal, which remained on the loose Wednesday, authorities said.
Angela Silva, 32, suffered severe injuries to her arms, receiving 50 staples and countless stitches as a result of Tuesday’s attack in her garage. [..]
“He just kept biting … and biting … and biting,” Silva, a special-education teacher, said Wednesday, after an operation at Regional Medical Center in San Jose.
Two men across the street heard Silva’s screams and shooed the dog away using power tools. The baby suffered only a few scratches.’
‘A man who police earlier said had a machete at Sir Goony’s Family Fun Center on Brainerd Road was back in his familiar haunts – General Sessions Court – on Tuesday.
Paul Ralph Vandiver earlier said he was just out looking for his pet racoons who had gotten out at the time he had the machete.
On Tuesday, he was found on Lee Highway with bags of half-empty paint spray cans in each hand that he said he uses to spray cardboard boxes.
An officer said Vandiver had gold spray paint on his hands and his mouth. Police say he has been continually arrested for huffing paint.’
‘The war in Iraq is not over, but one legacy is already here in this city and others across America: an epidemic of brain-damaged soldiers.
Thousands of troops have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury, or TBI. These blast-caused head injuries are so different from the ones doctors are used to seeing from falls and car crashes that treating them is as much faith as it is science.
“I’ve been in the field for 20-plus years dealing with TBI. I have a very experienced staff. And they’re saying to me, ‘We’re seeing things we’ve never seen before,'” said Sandy Schneider, director of Vanderbilt University’s brain injury rehabilitation program. [..]
“It’s the so-called invisible injury. It’s where a troop takes 10 times the normal time to pack his rucksack … a complicated injury to the most complicated part of the body,” said Dr. Alisa Gean, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco.’
‘The rapper made his move on the hotel heiress at the launch party for his new album Curtis at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Saturday night.
A source said: “50 played a few songs and then made straight for Paris. She was laughing and unashamedly flirting and couldn’t keep her hands of him. He nuzzled up to her and they cuddled.” [..]
The Simple Life star has previously confessed to having a crush on 50.
She said: “He’s so cool. He’s really funny and he’s so cute too, and I love his music. I think he would be the best boyfriend a girl could wish for!” [..]
Last week, Paris revealed she has set herself a deadline to be married and pregnant by next year.’
‘Ever since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, many Americans have believed that the events of that horrible day changed the United States forever. Each year that has gone by has seen an increase in the number who believe those changes have not been good for the nation.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Americans now believe that the events of six years ago changed America for the worse. That’s an increase from 54% a year ago. Just 21% believe that the nation has changed for the better because of that tragedy.’
Maybe it’s Osama who needs a big “Mission Accomplished” banner.
‘A double-decker is driven through London’s streets yesterday — carrying an obscene jibe about Mayor Ken Livingstone on its roof.
Office staff roared with laugher on reading “Livingstone is a cunt!” in 3ft-high letters.
Vandals’ cruel handiwork went unseen at Wood Green bus depot as it was not visible at street level.
Matt Arney, 26, took the snap near the Thames Embankment.
He said: “Everyone dashed to the window. It was hilarious.”‘
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‘A mysterious gooey material burst into flames after being hauled into a trash boat on the Charles River on Thursday, injuring three crew members.
The crew had picked up what they described as a taffy-like substance about eight inches long along with other trash and placed it in a container on their boat. It caught fire as the boat returned to the center of the river near the Massachusetts Avenue bridge connecting Boston and Cambridge, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk District Attorney’s office.
Wark said two crew members had first- and second-degree burns that were not life-threatening. A third crew member had minor burns, as did two emergency medical technicians who came into contact with the substance, he said.’
‘For most of his life the Shetland pony, who has both male and female genitalia, was thought to be a mare and went by the name of Amy.
And to add to his confusion he has been taken into care, undergone a sex change operation and been re-homed – only to be shunned by his peers.
But now Tootsie – named after Dustin Hoffman’s cross-dressing character in the film of the same name – finally appears to be settling in at the Bransby Home of Rest for Horses, near Lincoln.
And he has found an unlikely friend – in stablemate Derek the donkey.’
