‘A Pakistani man has broken the world-record for “ear-lifting”, carrying almost 62 kilograms from a cord attached to his right ear. [..]
Mr Gill had to use a special headgrip to protect both his ear and temple, as he lifted the weight for seven seconds about 10 centimetres off the ground.
After warming up with a more modest 30kg weight, Mr Gill took up the record-breaking 61.7 kilos with only a brief cry of pain.
Mr Gill, who himself only weighs 90 kilos, trains everyday but insists he has never had any hearing problems due to his peculiar hobby.’
Well, it did seem to slow him down fairly effectively. :)
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State health regulators have determined that a La Jolla cardiologist hit a combative patient repeatedly after an angioplasty, placing him in jeopardy, it was reported Thursday.
Dr. Maurice Buchbinder made “chopping like blows to the patient’s abdomen,” tried to hit his leg “with a substantial amount of force” and “used the tip of his elbow to hit (him) on the forehead” during the incident on Aug. 24, three witnesses told investigators, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. [..]
After the patient was moved to a gurney when the angioplasty was finished, the physician told him, “You are an animal” and then “grabbed and twisted the patient’s nose,” making it turn “bluish,” the witnesses said, according to the Union-Tribune.’
‘Spintronics, also known as magnetoelectronics, is an emerging technology that harnesses the spin of particles.
Conventional electronics ignores these rotations and instead exploits the movement or accumulation of electrons to do useful calculations or store data.
Freescale MRAM chip
Spintronics is already used in MRAM devices produced by Freescale
The movement of electrons through the tiny wires found in modern microchips is the reason why laptops become so hot.
But, by harnessing the twist and turns of particles – detected as a weak magnetic force – scientists hope to unlock almost infinite computing power and storage, without the heat.’
‘A cancer patient says she was left alone in a CT scanner for hours after a technician apparently forget about her, and she finally crawled out of the device, only to find herself locked in the closed clinic.
Elvira Tellez of Tucson said she called her son in a panic, and he told her to call 911.
Pima County sheriff’s deputies arriving at the oncology office had her unlock the office door to let them in, said Deputy Dawn Hanke, a department spokeswoman. The deputies contacted the office manager, who was not aware of the situation.’
‘Toyota Motor Co. will recall floor mats from 55,000 Camry and Lexus ES 350 models due to complaints of unintended acceleration caused by the mats sticking underneath the accelerator pedal, federal safety officials and the automaker said Wednesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration took the unusual step of highlighting Toyota’s recall announcement, advising owners of other Toyota models — including the Prius hybrid and Avalon sedans — to ensure their floor mats are properly installed. [..]
As the Free Press first reported last month, NHTSA had opened an investigation into the floor mats after amassing 40 reports of unintended acceleration in 2007 Lexus ES 350 sedans, including eight crashes and 12 injuries.’
‘”Water undoubtedly is the most important chemical substance in the world,” explained Elmar Fuchs and colleagues from the Graz University of Technology in Austria in a recent study. “The interaction of water with electric fields has been intensely explored over the last years. We report another unusual effect of liquid water exposed to a dc electric field: the floating water bridge.”
When exposed to a high-voltage electric field, water in two beakers climbs out of the beakers and crosses empty space to meet, forming the water bridge. The liquid bridge, hovering in space, appears to the human eye to defy gravity.
Upon investigating the phenomenon, the scientists found that water was being transported from one beaker to another, usually from the anode beaker to the cathode beaker. The cylindrical water bridge, with a diameter of 1-3 mm, could remain intact when the beakers were pulled apart at a distance of up to 25 mm.’
‘This poor unsuspecting kid is minding his own business setting the table for lunch when out of nowhere he gets drilled in the face with an exercise ball.’
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‘Students in Canada have found a new way to fill time in between lectures – by setting each other on fire for fun.
They douse one another with deodorant spray before using matches or lighters to start the blaze, which leaves students with flames licking their bodies.
Police in Ontario said they were aware of students taking deodorants to school and using them to set each other on fire, usually for no more than a second. [..]
PC Doug Graham from Middlesex Ontario Provincial Police said: ‘This is a fairly common thing around the province. It’s certainly an issue we have to notify parents about.”
‘A 15-YEAR-old Russian boy suffered acute frostbite after riding the wing of a Boeing-737 plane on a 1300km two-hour flight.
With temperatures hitting minus 50C and the plane at a cruising speed of 900km/h, the teenager Andrei Shcherbakov collapsed onto the tarmac when the plane landed.
He had clung on for the entire flight from Perm in Russia’s Ural region to Vnukova Airport in Moscow.
His arms and legs were so severely frozen that rescuers were at first unable to remove his coat and shoes.
He was taken by ambulance to hospital where doctors are trying to save his hands.
When he awoke, Andrei told police that he had decided to run away from his alcoholic father and their home in Perm.’
‘It all comes out of the “Millenium Challenge ’02” war games we staged in the Persian Gulf this summer. The big scandal was that the Opposing Force Commander, Gen. Paul van Ripen, quit mid-game because the games were rigged for the US forces to win. The scenario was a US invasion of an unnamed Persian Gulf country (either Iraq or Iran). The US was testing a new hi-tech joint force doctrine, so naturally van Riper used every lo-tech trick he could think of to mess things up. When the Americans jammed his CCC network , he sent messages by motorbike.
The truth is that van Ripen did something so important that I still can’t believe the mainstream press hasn’t made anything of it. With nothing more than a few “small boats and aircraft,” van Ripen managed to sink most of the US fleet in the Persian Gulf.
What this means is as simple and plain as a skull: every US Navy battle group, every one of those big fancy aircraft carriers we love, won’t last one single day in combat against a serious enemy.’
‘A convent in southern Italy is being shut down after a quarrel among its last three remaining nuns ended in blows.
Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista, reportedly upset about their mother superior’s authoritarian ways, scratched her in the face and threw her to the ground at Santa Clara convent near Bari in an incident in July that was kept quiet until now.
Archbishop Giovanni Battista Pichierri tried to reconcile the nuns but finally decided in late August that they had “clearly lost their religious vocation” and asked the Vatican for permission to close the convent.
Sisters Annamaria and Gianbattista moved to another convent, but Sister Liliana barricaded herself inside, refusing to leave, the reports said.’
When there’s no snow outside, what else are you going to do? :)
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‘A Chinese woman who killed her lover with a rat poison-laced kiss when she suspected him of being unfaithful has been sentenced to death, a newspaper said today.
Xia Xinfeng, from Maolou in the central province of Henan, passed a capsule with rat poison from her mouth to her long-time lover, Mao Ansheng, during a kiss, the Shanghai Daily said.
Mr Mao swallowed the capsule and died soon afterwards.
“The couple had said that if either one of them cheated on the other, he or she would have to die,” the paper said in explaining the mouth-to-mouth assault.
Ms Xia found Mr Mao had been “talking” with another woman, and deemed that he had broken their promise.’
‘Researchers who launched an experimental cyber attack caused a generator to self-destruct, alarming the government and electrical industry about what might happen if such an attack were carried out on a larger scale, CNN has learned. [..]
Sources familiar with the experiment said the same attack scenario could be used against huge generators that produce the country’s electric power.
Some experts fear bigger, coordinated attacks could cause widespread damage to electric infrastructure that could take months to fix. [..]
In a previously classified video of the test CNN obtained, the generator shakes and smokes, and then stops.
DHS acknowledged the experiment involved controlled hacking into a replica of a power plant’s control system. Sources familiar with the test said researchers changed the operating cycle of the generator, sending it out of control.’
‘Saddam Hussein offered to step down and go into exile one month before the invasion of Iraq, it was claimed last night.
Fearing defeat, Saddam was prepared to go peacefully in return for £500million ($1billion).
The extraordinary offer was revealed yesterday in a transcript of talks in February 2003 between George Bush and the then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the President’s Texas ranch.
The White House refused to comment on the report last night.
But, if verified, it is certain to raise questions in Washington and London over whether the costly four-year war could have been averted.
Only yesterday, the Bush administration asked Congress for another £100billion to finance the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.’
‘British singer George Michael says he’s trying to smoke less cannabis, but says it’s not a problem in his life because he can afford it.
“I’m constantly trying to smoke less marijuana. I’d like to take less and to a degree it’s a problem,” Michael told BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs program.
“Is it a problem in my life? Is it getting in the way of my life? I really don’t think,” Michael said.
“I’m a happy man and I can afford my marijuana so that’s not a problem.”‘
‘Some soldiers in Afghanistan blow up a road block and inadvertently arouse an angry wasp nest.’
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‘Detectives are baffled by a brazen daylight attack at Newmarket, in Brisbane’s inner north on Monday, in which a woman had her underpants ripped off and bag stolen.
“It’s pretty strange. I haven’t heard anything like it before,” Det-Sen-Sgt Brad Rix said.
He said the 23-year-old was grabbed from behind as she walked home from Newmarket train station about 4.30pm (AEST).
The offender then lifted her dress up, and pulled off her underpants before grabbing her bag and taking off.
“It was absolute daylight, not far from a train station. This person must have felt sure he was going to get away with it,” Det-Sen-Sgt Rix said. He said there was no attempt to sexually assault the woman, who did not realise her bag had been stolen until some time later.
“It’s possible he may have stolen her underpants as a trophy, or perhaps he intended taking the attack further. We don’t know,” he said. ‘
‘Six Catholic nuns have been excommunicated for heresy after refusing to give up membership in a Canadian sect whose founder claims to be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, the Diocese of Little Rock announced Wednesday.
The Rev. J. Gaston Hebert, the diocese administrator, said he notified the nuns of the decision Tuesday night after they refused to recant the teachings of the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary.
The Vatican has declared all members of the Army of Mary excommunicated. Hebert said the excommunication was the first in the diocese’s 165-year history.
“It is a painfully historic moment for this church,” Hebert said.’
‘Hair is a better source of ancient DNA than bone or muscle, a new study involving woolly mammoth hair suggests.
“The main problem with things like bone is that it contains real DNA from the source, but also a load of DNA that is undesirable,” said study team member Tom Gilbert of the University of Copenhagen. “For example, when a mammoth dies and the body starts putrefying, bacteria gets all throughout the body. Later, as it’s buried in the ground, soil bacteria get into it.”
Contamination from bacteria DNA generally make up 50 to more than 90 percent of the raw DNA extracted from the bone and muscles of ancient specimens, Gilbert said. In contrast, more than 90 percent of the DNA extracted from hairs taken from woolly mammoth specimens in the new study belonged to the extinct mega-mammals themselves.
“The quality of the DNA was fantastic,” Gilbert told LiveScience. “It was way better than we ever imagined. There’s both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA in there.”‘
‘The Sex Pistols will play a one-off gig in Los Angeles next month, with tickets being given away by a US radio station.
The show will take place at the Roxy on Sunset Strip, Hollywood, on 25 October – two weeks before six dates in the UK.
No tickets for the Los Angeles concert will be sold – instead, fans will have to win them through Indie 103.1FM.
The punk group have reformed for the 30th anniversary of their seminal album Never Mind The Bollocks, and recently went back into the recording studio.
They re-recorded their single Anarchy in the UK – the first time they had been in the studio together since the 1970s.’
This is just a bunch of ravers dancing down a street for no apparent reason.
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‘The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately.
Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio claimed some anti-retroviral drugs were also infected “in order to finish quickly the African people”.
The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence.
Aids activists have been angered by the remarks, one calling them “nonsense”.’
‘A plastic surgery office discriminated against a pregnant secretary who was fired after being told to suck in her belly so she wouldn’t scare away patients, government lawyers charged in an anti-discrimination lawsuit filed Wednesday. [..]
Griggle, who worked in the company’s Cranberry office, said she was fired in December 2005, two weeks after telling her supervisors she was pregnant.’
‘One Dylan Stephen Jayne of Pennsylvania filed suit against “Google Internet Search Engine Founders” in Pennsylvania Civil court, seeking the small amount of $5 billion dollars. Jayne claims that his safety is in jeopardy because of Google releasing personal information about him.
Jayne asserts that individuals looking to perform acts of terrorism could obtain his information from Google, making it more likely that he will be detained wrongfully in the future. Jayne’s statement of claim is that, “Dylan Steven Jayne, plaintiff, has a social security number that when the social security number is turned upside down in its entirety it is a scrambled code that does spell the name Google.”‘
‘A 24-year-old Argentine man has married a woman 58 years his senior.
The groom, Reinaldo Waveqche, told reporters after the ceremony in Santa Fe, northern Argentina: “I’ve always liked mature ladies.”
Mr Waveqche added: “I don’t care what other people say.” He and bride Adelfa Volpes, 82, are planning to travel to Rio de Janeiro for their honeymoon.
Asked if the marriage was purely spiritual, Ms Volpes laughed and replied: “There is going to be more.”‘
It looks like the car ran a red light. Not the smartest thing to do.
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‘Some volunteer firefighters in Vermont have been accused of using Jaws of Life during a vandalism spree, WPTZ-TV in in Plattsburgh, N.Y., reported.
Firefighters usually use the tool to help victims of serious car crashes escape the mangled wreckage. [..]
Police said the four started the spree at the Berlin Mall and Central Vermont Hospital, pulling hubcaps and windshield wipers from cars. The four then headed to the Montpelier park and the town of Northfield, damaging pay phones and stealing street signs, police said.
Police said they got a break in the case in mid-September when someone came forward with information into the case, including that the vandalism may have been part of a dare.
Police said they aren’t sure who dared the four, and the Berlin Fire Department said it never had any involvement in the crime nor did it know the equipment had been used.’
