‘With his hand wedged between his boat and a log, and his future son-in-law off getting help, William Messenger decided he was out of time. He pulled out a pocket knife and sawed off two of his fingertips to free himself from the sinking vessel.
Minutes later, his son-in-law arrived with help, a pry bar and other tools to separate the boat from the log. Messenger was rushed from the Wynoochee River in southwestern Washington to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where a hospital spokeswoman said he was in satisfactory condition Monday. She did not know if surgeons had been able to reattach the fingertips.
Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Rick Scott said Messenger, a 51-year-old fisherman from Ocean Shores, might have made a different decision if he had known how quickly his future son-in-law, Jarrad Todd, would arrive.’
‘Germany has banned the makers of Tom Cruise’s new movie from filming at military sites in the country because the actor is a Scientologist.
The German defence ministry said Cruise has “publicly professed to being a member of the Scientology cult”.
Scientology masquerades as a religion to make money, Germany said, but leaders of the church reject this.
Cruise’s producing partner Paula Wagner said the star’s own convictions had no relation to the film’s content.’
‘A fugitive sentenced yesterday for the brutal bashing murder of his 61-year-old partner is continuing to receive welfare benefits while on the run.
Apolonio Serrano, 66, killed his girlfriend with a chair before disposing of her body and lying about her whereabouts.
The killer vanished near the end of his trial for the murder of Milicia Trailovic around Christmas 2003.
When he failed to show up at the Supreme Court, police searched his Hallam home and found his car and clothes missing, his fridge empty and power off.
Prosecutor Raymond Gibson today told the court Serrano is on welfare benefits through Centrelink and the agency have refused to cut the payments off despite requests from police.’
A mechanical binary adding machine.
(11.3meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘A six-year-old boy is recovering from lacerations to his face after becoming entangled in a roll of barbed wire in Midlothian.
The schoolboy was playing in his garden when he pushed his head into a discarded roll of barbed wire at his home in Dalkeith.
As he struggled to free himself, the barbs dug into his face.’
‘Authorities are hoping witness at a party Saturday night on the Western Slope will help with information on an oil tank explosion that killed two teenagers. [..]
Several in the group then moved the party to a near by oil pump. Authorities say 17-year- old Samuel Hedemark and 19-year-old Christopher Fuller climbed on top of a large, 20-foot tall oil storage tank and began to jump up and down.
The tank exploded, killing the teens and throwing their bodies 150 yards.
“Once they got up on the tank they were jumping up and down which was causing it to release vapors from the tank through a release valve on top of tank. At some point that tank exploded,” said Joos.’
‘Russian President Vladimir Putin is making an astonishing bid to grab a vast chunk of the Arctic – so he can tap its vast potential oil, gas and mineral wealth.
His scientists claim an underwater ridge near the North Pole is really part of Russia’s continental shelf.
One newspaper printed a map of the “new addition”, a triangle five times the size of Britain with twice as much oil as Saudi Arabia.
The dramatic move provoked an international outcry. The U.S. and Canada expressed shock and environment campaigners said it would be a disaster.
Observers say the move is typical of Putin’s muscle-flexing as he tries to increase Russian power.’
‘A new study says, in a breakthrough that could potentially lead to a cure for HIV infection, scientists have discovered a way to remove the virus from infected cells.
According to the study published in Science magazine, the scientists engineered an enzyme which attacks the DNA of the HIV virus and cuts it out of the infected cell.
The enzyme is still far from being ready to use as a treatment, the authors warned, but it offers a glimmer of hope for the more than 40 million people infected worldwide.
“A customised enzyme that effectively excises integrated HIV-1 from infected cells in vitro might one day help to eradicate (the) virus from AIDS patients,” Alan Engelman, of Harvard University’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, wrote in an article accompanying the study.’
‘A man has been charged with having sex with his bike.
Robert Stewart was allegedly caught in the act by two terrified cleaners who walked into his bedroom in a hostel.
Stewart has denied the accusation, claiming it was caused by a misunderstanding after he had too much to drink. [..]
The charge alleges he conducted himself in a disorderly manner, simulated sex with a bicycle and continued to do so while naked from the waist down in the presence of two female employees.’
‘A judge ruled Monday in favor of a dry cleaner that was sued for $54 million over a missing pair of pants.
The owners of Custom Cleaners did not violate the city’s Consumer Protection Act by failing to live up to Roy L. Pearson’s expectations of the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign once displayed in the store window, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff ruled.
Bartnoff ordered Pearson to pay the court costs of defendants Soo Chung, Jin Nam Chung and Ki Y. Chung.’
Followup to $67 Million Suit Over Pants.
‘Condemned prisoner Patrick Knight was executed Tuesday evening for the deaths of an Amarillo-area couple without delivering on a promise to tell a joke in his final statement.
Patrick Knight has been soliciting jokes in the mail and on a Web site, sometimes receiving as many as 20 a day, saying his humor was intended to raise the spirits of other inmates. He said he received as many as 1,300 proposals. [..]
After expressing love to some friends, he said, “I said I was going to tell a joke. Death has set me free. That’s the biggest joke. I deserve this.”
“And the other joke is that I am not Patrick Bryan Knight and y’all can’t stop this execution now. Go ahead, I’m finished.”‘
Followup to Condemned killer wants to go out with a joke.
‘A 65-year-old St. Louis man is missing after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, according to police in Williams, Ariz.
Police said Roosevelt Sims was headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams.
“He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees,” Lt. Mike Graham said.
Police said there is no train station or running water at the crossing, which is about two miles from the nearest road, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet.
Amtrak personnel told police dispatchers that Sims was drunk and unruly.
The Sims family said Sims is diabetic and was going into shock.’
A reporter asks a kid with zombie makeup on what he thinks..
Who doesn’t? :)
(990kB Windows media)
see it here »
‘One of the more unpleasant chores of field dressing now takes just seconds to accomplish using the innovative Butt-Out Tool. This tool is the fastest, easiest way to disconnect the anal alimentary canal from deer or similar-sized game. Immediately after harvesting game, insert the Butt-Out Tool into the anal canal and twist until it grabs the membrane. Continue twisting another half turn, then steadily pull the Butt-Out Tool out of the canal. Extract 10″ of membrane, tie the membrane off and cut. Its time-saving ease of use makes this the tool every deer hunter needs in his pack.’
Baltimore police are looking for a few good pairs of pants.
The police department has run out of two popular sizes of the custom-made navy blue uniform pants it provides to every officer, a department spokesman said Wednesday.
Officers who wear size 36 or 38 will have to wait for new pants until a special order comes through.
“We are officially out,” said Officer Troy Harris, a police spokesman. “We’re putting in an emergency order for those two sizes.” [..]
Cadets receive four pairs of pants when they leave the police academy. When officers need a new pair, they get them free but are required to turn in their old ones.’
‘Symptoms of mental retardation and autism have been reversed for the first time in laboratory mice.
US scientists created mice that showed symptoms of Fragile X Syndrome – a leading cause of mental retardation and autism in humans.
They then reversed symptoms of the condition by inhibiting the action of an enzyme in the brain. [..]
Researcher Dr Susumu Tonegawa stressed that the mice were not treated until a few weeks after symptoms of disease first appeared.
“This implies that future treatment may still be effective even after symptoms are already pronounced,” he said.’
‘A few hours after watching the shattered body of his girlfriend retrieved from The Gap in Sydney, Gordon Wood went to a morgue and asked to see her breasts, a court heard.
In a statement to police, former Glebe Morgue attendant Kenneth Nichols said he was alone on the afternoon of June 8, 1995, when Wood walked in, identified himself as Caroline Byrne’s boyfriend, and asked to see her body because “I want to see her titties”.
The statement is among thousands of interviews and documents that form the 12-volume brief against Wood, who has been charged with murdering the 24-year-old model by throwing her from the cliff at Watsons Bay in a fit of rage.’
‘A new Australian ad campaign is seeking to reduce road deaths by questioning the manhood of speeding drivers.
The series of TV ads shows women shaking their little finger – a gesture used to symbolise a small penis – as speeding male motorists race past.
The campaign aims to make speeding socially unacceptable among young drivers, reports the BBC.
The “Speeding. No-one Thinks Big of You” campaign will run on TV, in cinemas, at bus shelters and online.’
Look at it for a while. Look at the foot in particular.
Updates are going to be a bit scarce for the rest of the month. I’ve managed to exceed my home download quota way too early in the month, so finding good news and web sites is a bit tricky at the moment.
Tho, I mean tricky in the sense that I’m capped to 64kbps and can’t be fucked sitting around all day and waiting for web pages to load. :)
I’ll see how it goes an try to make a few posts. Otherwise, I expect things will be back to normal as soon as July arrives.
In the mean time, if you’re bored, check out some of the archives. There’s whole bunches of hilarity and amusion around the site. :)
I may have posted this video before, but never with the narration. :)
(1.5meg Flash video)
see it here »
Another one of those cool Tower Defence type games.
‘Almost everything we think we know about the Bible and sex is wrong.
Instead of being a list of sexual shalt-nots, the Bible contains so much graphic eroticism that parents may want to keep the sacred text away from youth under age 18.
Indeed, that’s what 2,000 Hong Kong residents tried to do in May when they called on a Chinese decency commission to restrict the Bible to adults only because it contains passages that seem to give the okay to incest, rape, adultery and a father offering his daughters to strangers for sexual gratification.’
‘Toucan Sam’s Froot Loop-hawking days on Saturday morning TV may be numbered.
The Kellogg Co. said Wednesday that it would phase out advertising its products to children younger than 12 unless the foods meet specific nutrition guidelines for calories, sugar, fat and sodium.
Kellogg also announced that it would stop using licensed characters or branded toys to promote foods unless the products meet the nutrition guidelines.
The voluntary changes, which will be put in place over the next year and a half, will apply to about half the products Kellogg markets to children worldwide, including Froot Loops and Apple Jacks cereals and Pop-Tarts.’
This is some strange festival involving giant wooden penises, possibly in Japan or China.
(3.6meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘Playing videogames is a great workout for your eyes. In a recent study at the University of Toronto, videogame players consistently beat nongamers in timed searches for targets in both simple and complex visual environments (spotting the b in a field of ks, for example). The scientists say that videogames—which reward rapid searches for hidden targets—boost quick, efficient eye movement and improve scanning skills that can enhance your reading and driving. You can’t find exercise like that at the gym.’
‘A proposed pro-marijuana conference to be held in the US-administered Northern Mariana Islands has led to a bizarre row among local legislators.
Opponents of the conference of Californian-based activists advocating that marijuana should be legalised have suggested the territory should be renamed the Northern Marijuana Islands.
But the cash-strapped government says the conference would be a boon for the sagging tourism industry.
“We welcome anybody who wants to hold a conference here, whether it be to discuss marijuana or not,” government spokesman Charles Reyes said Thursday.’
