moonbuggy

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‘Food stalls attached to Beijing’s public toilets will be removed in good time for next year’s Olympics, state media said Saturday.

Complaints over toilets with poor sanitation and toilet operators turning them into commercial operations led to the ban, which comes into force in October.

“It is not proper to sell soft drinks or snacks right at the toilets,” the Beijing News said, citing sources within the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission.’

‘A Provo man fatally shot himself with a shotgun while trying to disprove a popular TV crime show, according to authorities.

Earl F. Ellwanger Jr., 55, accidentally shot himself in the stomach about 7 p.m. Tuesday and died of his wounds Thursday at Rapid City Regional Hospital.

Ellwanger saw a television episode of “Forensic Files” in which investigators were trying to show that a woman couldn’t have shot herself in the stomach.

“He decided to show that the program was incorrect and didn’t realize the shotgun was loaded,” said Fall River County Sheriff Jeff Tarrell.’

‘According to Pearl Jam’s website, portions of the band’s Sunday night set at Lollapalooza were missing from the AT&T Blue Room live webcast. Fans alerted the band to the missing material after the show. Reportedly absent from the webcast were segments of the band’s performance of “Daughter,” including the sung lines “George Bush, leave this world alone” and “George Bush find yourself another home.”

After questioning AT&T about the incident, Lollapalooza was informed that material was indeed missing from the webcast, and that it was mistakenly cut by AT&T’s content monitor. Tiffany Nels of AT&T told CMJ that they are working the matter out with the band. “We regret the mistake,” she explains. “This was not intended and was an unfortunate mistake made by a webcast editor.” She went on to explain that AT&T has a policy for any excessive language, and that it was set up because of its all-ages audience.’

‘A New Zealand couple is looking to call their newborn son Superman — but only because their chosen name of 4Real has been rejected by the government registry.

Pat and Sheena Wheaton say they will get around the decision by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages by officially naming their son Superman but referring to him as 4Real, the New Zealand Herald newspaper has reported.

The Wheatons decided on the name after seeing the baby for the first time in an ultrasound scan and realizing their baby was “for real.”‘

Poor kid. :)

‘These guys raise an injured lion from birth and then release her into the wild. After one year they attempt to reunite with the lion and its amazing how happy the lion is to see her old friends.’

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‘A Whitehall man escaped serious injury when his attempt to wipe out yellow jackets literally exploded in his face Monday afternoon.

[..] Sekol put a dried Christmas tree over the grate and poured gasoline over it, according to Benner. At least some of that gas ran down into the storm sewer.

When Sekol lit it, the combination of warm air temperature and confined space caused the liquid gasoline and fumes to explode. [..]

[His wife] found her husband sitting on the grass near the sewer grate, with his hair and eyebrows singed.

”I guess he learned a lesson,” she said.’

‘It looks like a big flashlight — but it’s really a nonlethal weapon designed to make you sick.

Intelligent Optical Systems, Inc., of Torrance, Calif., has been granted a contract by the Department of Homeland Security to develop what it calls the “LED Incapacitator,” according to a DHS online newsletter.

The handheld device using light-emitting diodes to emit super-bright pulses of light at rapidly changing wavelengths, causing disorientation, nausea and even vomiting in whomever it’s pointed at.

“There’s one wavelength that gets everybody,” says IOS President Bob Lieberman. “Vlad [IOS top scientist Vladimir Rubtsov] calls it ‘the evil color.'”‘

‘There’s a “new” over-the-counter drug available in the US that’s apparently flying off the shelves. It’s called alli (note the way trendy lower case!) and I use the term “new” loosely because it’s apparently a lower strength version of a prescription-only drug (Xenical) that’s been around for a while.

So what does this incredibly popular wonder drug do? Well, not to go all Bill Clinton on you, but it depends on what your definition of “do” is. You see, there’s (1)what the drug company markets it as, (2)the medical description of what it does and (3)the biggest effect you’re actually going to notice.

The drug company markets it as a weight loss pill. They say it will give “safe, effective weight loss”. Because it’s FDA approved it must be good. What could possibly go wrong?’

This is a repost, but the translations of the drugs warning information amused me.

‘John Howard is going to spend $189 million “cleaning up the internet” for Australian families, blocking pornography, upgrading the search for chatroom sex predators and cutting off terror sites.

Every Australian family will be provided with a free internet filter and the federal Government will enter an unprecedented partnership with service providers to filter pornography at the source.

Communications and Australian Federal Police resources will be boosted immediately to expand checks on internet chat rooms to detect child predators, and privacy laws masking sex offenders on the net will be altered.

The Prime Minister unveiled his new net commandments last night on a webcast to more than 700 churches and thousands of churchgoers around the country.’

‘This guy is friggin awesome! For a moment he breaks out of the surfer stereotype and gives a well worded response to a news reporter regarding the recent weather in LA.’

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‘A crocodile survived a fall from the 12th floor of a Russian apartment block after making an escape bid through a window, emergency services said on Wednesday.

Diving out of the window has become a habit for the crocodile, called Khenar, with concerned neighbours saying it was the third time he had used that method to flee, Moskovsky Komsomolets daily reported. [..]

Emergency services put the crocodile in a local aquarium to recover from his fall. Within a few hours his concerned owner came to pick him up and the crocodile was last seen lying on the back seat of his owner’s car.’

‘The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US Treasury

Two Chinese officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning, for the first time, that Beijing may use its $1,330bn (£658bn) of foreign reserves as a political weapon to counter pressure from the US Congress. Shifts in Chinese policy are often announced through key think tanks and academies.

Described as China’s “nuclear option” in the state media, such action could trigger a dollar crash at a time when the US currency is breaking down through historic support levels.’

If you want to learn maths, I’d recommend a school other than the Castle Hills First Baptist School. An except from their curriculum:

‘CALCULUS
Students will examine the nature of God as they progress in their understanding of mathematics. Students will understand the absolute consistency of mathematical principles and know that God was the inventor of that consistency. Mathematical study will result in a greater appreciation of God and His works in creation. The students will understand the basic ideas of both differential and integral calculus and its importance and historical applications. The students will recognize that God created our minds to be able to see that the universe can be calculated by mental methods.’

‘The thought screen helmet blocks telepathic communication between aliens and humans. An abductee who took voltage readings from a second helmet while wearing another one demonstrates that this communication is a form of electromagnetic energy.

Aliens cannot immobilize people wearing thought screens nor can they control their minds or communicate with them using their telepathy. When aliens can’t communicate or control humans, they do not take them.’

One of the abductees is kinda hot. I’d certainly probe her if I was an alien.

‘You’ve reached the Badass of the Week, your one-stop shop for all things badassery-related. Scroll down for this week’s badass, or just go ahead and search through the complete list of all badasses that have been featured on the site. I update the page every Friday, so if you give a crap feel free to check back in next week to satisfy your insatiable desire to read about grown people punching each other in the mouth or beating each other about the head and neck in a most furious manner.’

‘This is a show where two contests go head to head trying to steal different things without getting caught.’

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‘A 42-year-old man who died after a head-on collision near New Plymouth last night was travelling on the bonnet of a car before the fatal crash, police said today.

Darin Paul Maxwell, 42, of New Plymouth, died when the black Mazda Lantis he was travelling on collided with another vehicle on State Highway 3, several kilometres southeast of the city, about 10pm.

The drivers of both vehicles remain in hospital in critical and serious condition, police said.

Witness accounts put Mr Maxwell on the bonnet of the Mazda at the time of the accident.

Detective Sergeant Greg Gray said police would not comment further on why he was on the bonnet of the car at this stage, but confirmed Mr Maxwell and the driver of the Mazda knew each other.’

‘A teenager with a history of sleepwalking plunged to his death from a balcony on the first night of a holiday abroad.

Troy Heather, 18, was staying with his girlfriend and her parents in their second-floor apartment on Minorca.

Hairdresser Danielle Ward, also 18, was woken at 3am on Sunday by the sound of her boyfriend hitting the ground 25ft below their flat.

She ran downstairs and raised the alarm but Mr Heather, who had suffered severe head injuries, died in hospital four hours later.’

‘A St. Paul man, complaining of chronic pain, wanted to have his testicles removed. When conventional medical staff refused to do the job, he hired other “professionals” to take off his testicles, according to a search warrant affidavit filed Monday in Ramsey County District Court.

Two or three people operated on the man, Russell Daniel Angus, 62, a couple weeks ago at his home in St. Paul. He was unconscious during the surgery, and when he woke up, his testicles had been removed.

And the “professionals” were gone.

His groin area was bleeding heavily, so he called his daughter. She called for help. When police arrived, they found a makeshift operating room set up in the upper level of the house. There were bright lights, an apparent operating table, medical supplies and equipment, and a camera. Angus was still bleeding, and there was blood in the living room, hall and bathroom, the affidavit said. He was taken to Regions Hospital.’

‘The pilot of a Qantas Boeing 767 from Sydney carrying 185 passengers to Darwin was targeted by a powerful laser beam, prompting an investigation by federal police and aviation authorities.

The incident, just before midnight on August 3, resulted in the pilot having to fly the next day’s return leg from Darwin to Sydney as a passenger.

A Qantas spokesman, Lloyd Quartermain, said last night that the pilot, who has not been named, had been referred to Qantas’s doctor for assessment. Mr Quartermain declined to comment on whether the pilot was injured. He said the decision to replace him as pilot for the return flight was “a precautionary measure”.’

‘President Bush is worried about a new threat to America and is asking congress to approve a $50 billion defense supplemental. They are after your children!’

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‘A 60-year-old Stuart man was arrested and charged with domestic battery after he allegedly urinated on his sleeping girlfriend and her son early Saturday morning.

Wilfred Hart, of the 2100 block of Northwest 20th Avenue, allegedly woke the woman and her 13-year-old son at about 5:45 a.m., called her “dirty trailer trash,” and then forced her out of bed and into the shower because she smelled bad, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s Office report.’

‘A 59-year-old German woman has had most of a pencil removed from inside her head after suffering nearly her whole life with the headaches and nosebleeds it caused, Bild newspaper reported on Monday.

Margret Wegner fell over carrying the pencil in her hand when she was four.

“The pencil went right through my skin — and disappeared into my head,’ Wegner told the newspaper.’

‘Police chiefs in the Thai capital, Bangkok, have come up with a new way of punishing officers who break the rules – an eye-catching Hello Kitty armband.

The armband is large, bright pink and has a Hello Kitty motif with two hearts embroidered on it.

From today, officers who are late, park in the wrong place or commit other minor transgressions will have to wear it for several days.

The armband is designed to shame the wearer, police officials said.’

‘A giant, smiling Lego man was fished out of the sea in the Dutch resort of Zandvoort on Tuesday.

Workers at a drinks stall rescued the 2.5-metre (8-foot) tall model with a yellow head and blue torso.

“We saw something bobbing about in the sea and we decided to take it out of the water,” said a stall worker. “It was a life-sized Lego toy.”

A woman nearby added: “I saw the Lego toy floating towards the beach from the direction of England.”

The toy was later placed in front of the drinks stall.’

‘Jim Cramer from CNBCs Mad Money has a total meltdown last week after the stock market took a slide. This guy is reportedly worth $100 million, if I had that much money I would not be freaking out at things like this.’

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‘Adolf Hitler kept a vast record collection of ‘forbidden’ music by Jewish composers, it was revealed yesterday.

Recordings by Mendelssohn and Offenbach were hidden in sealed boxes – but scratchmarks suggest they were among his favourites.

Russian composers were also banned under the Third Reich. But in private Hitler repeatedly played Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky and hundreds more works he publiclly labelled “sub-human music”.’

‘In the early 1990s, a Russian drilling rig encountered something peculiar two miles beneath the coldest and most desolate place on Earth. For decades, the workers at Vostok Research Station in Antarctica had been extracting core samples from deep scientific boreholes, and analyzing the lasagna-like layers of ice to study Earth’s bygone climate. But after tunneling through 414,000 layers or so– about two miles into the icecap– the layers abruptly ended. The ice below that depth was relatively clear and featureless, a deviation the scientists were at a loss to explain. In search of answers, the men drilled on.

Unbeknownst to the Russians, their drill had mingled with the uppermost reaches of one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world; a pristine pocket of liquid whose ecosystem was separated from the rest of the Earth millions of years ago. As for what sort of organisms might lurk in that exotic environment today, no one can really be certain.’