`Anglo-Dutch consumer products group Unilever NV/Plc sent knives to 200,000 Dutch families in a direct mail campaign which resulted in some children suffering injuries, the company said on Tuesday.
The company had sent the letters, which included a small knife with a metal blade and plastic hilt, in the first half of January to promote the use of one of its brands of margarine.
But Unilever said three children had needed to visit a doctor and around 50 parents had filed a complaint.
“Parents said the knife was too sharp, after which we decided to send a second letter and ask the families to throw away the knife,” a Unilever spokeswoman said.
Unilever said it had contacted the families which had complained and had offered them a cuddly toy as consolation. It said it had not received any requests for compensation.’
`An elderly Brisbane woman who killed a dog by sealing it in a plastic bag and putting it in a wheelie bin has been fined $2500.
The 71-year-old woman, from Holland Park in Brisbane’s east, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty today in Brisbane Magistrates Court .
She was charged by the RSPCA after she put the dog in a plastic bag which she then dumped in a wheelie bin on October 13 last year.’
`32. TradingMarkets [..]
TradingMarkets – a Web site that provides its subscribers with professional stock-market expertise for as much as $100 a month – in January invites 10 Playboy models to participate in an investing contest.
When results are tallied toward the end of the year, 40 percent of the bunnies deliver better returns than the S&P 500, compared with just 29 percent of actively managed mutual funds.’
`Tom Cruise is the new “Christ” of Scientology, according to leaders of the cult-like religion.
The Mission: Impossible star has been told he has been “chosen” to spread the word of his faith throughout the world.
And leader David Miscavige believes that in future, Cruise, 44, will be worshipped like Jesus for his work to raise awareness of the religion.
A source close to the actor, who has risen to one of the church’s top levels, said: “Tom has been told he is Scientology’s Christ-like figure.
“Like Christ, he’s been criticised for his views. But future generations will realise he was right.”’
`The drug cartels here are clearly Goliath, heavily armed with automatic weapons.
The municipal police, stripped of their guns this month as part of a corruption probe, are now playing the role of David.
About 60 officers were issued slingshots yesterday for use on patrols in the tourist section of Avenida Revolucion and the business district of Zona Rio, according to a police department spokesman. Some of the officers bought bags of marbles for ammo.
“It’s obviously very denigrating to them to be carrying these kinds of instruments, but they have to look for ways to provide security for the public,” spokesman Fernando Bojórquez said. ‘
This is the third bad fuckup of hers I’ve seen in the past month or so.
Crazy bitch.
see it here »
‘A charter school alerted authorities to a 29-year-old sex offender who tried to enroll there, pretending he was just 12, in what sheriff’s officials said Friday may have been an attempt to lure children into sexual abuse.
The Yavapai County sheriff’s office also said Neil Havens Rodreick II conned two men he was living with and having sex with into believing he was a young boy. One of them, 61-year-old Lonnie Stiffler, called himself Rodreick’s grandfather when he tried to enroll him at Mingus Springs Charter School as “Casey Price.”
“This is the weirdest case I’ve seen in 18 years,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Susan Quayle said. “If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny.”‘ [..]
Stiffler and Robert James Snow, 43, “were very upset when the detectives told them they had been having a sexual relationship with a 29-year-old man and not a pre-teen boy,” Quayle said.’
(5.5meg Windows media)
see it here »
`The graph shown above relates the arithmetic mean IQ measured in various country’s populations, to the fraction of each country’s population that believes religion is very important.
The green diamonds represent individual countries; the yellow line is a linear regression (y = mx + b), calculated by the least squares method. The United States data point is circled in red.’
The gist is that religiosity is inversely proportional to intelligence. I’m not all that surprised. [shrug] :)
`A man who ran several marathons while claiming disability benefits has been given a 10-month prison sentence.
Paul Appleby, 47, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, started claiming benefits in 1994 – saying he needed a wheelchair or walking frame to walk.
But Appleby, who claimed £22,300 in total, joined a running club in 2001, competing in road races and marathons. ‘
This is an old trailer for the first Star Wars movie. It makes the whole movie look stupid, so I assume they came up with a better one before the movie was actually released. :)
(4.9meg Flash video)
see it here »
`After a losing a pile of money at a casino, a man drove directly to the Casino Control Commission and put his name on a list of people banned from the casinos for life.
It’s a decision he immediately regretted – even more so when he learned that in this case, what happens in Atlantic City does not stay in Atlantic City.
The state commission, identifying the man by his initials, S.D., on Wednesday rejected his bid to become the first person allowed to gamble in the state again after placing himself on the list.
The self-exclusion list was established in 2001 as a way for compulsive gamblers to avoid the temptation. People can choose to be banned for one year, five years or life. There are about 525 people are on the list now – about half for life.’
`Three thieves who allegedly stole 14 global positioning system devices didn’t get away with their crime for long. The devices led police right to their home.
Town officials said the thieves didn’t even know what they had: they thought the GPS devices were cell phones, which they planned to sell.
According to Suffolk County police, the GPS devices were stolen Monday night from the Town of Babylon Public Works garage in Lindenhurst. The town immediately tapped its GPS system, and it showed that one of the devices was inside a house. Police said that when they arrived there, Kurt Husfeldt, 46, had the device in his hands.’
`North Dakota’s Legislature is encouraging disrespect for the law by making it illegal for a man and woman to live together without being married, a legislator says.
If North Dakota prosecutors began enforcing the anti-cohabitation law, which provides a 30-day jail term and a $1,000 fine, the state would need a “$10 billion prison,” Sen. Tracy Potter, D-Bismarck, said Wednesday.
“We’re saying that we have optional laws, laws that we don’t really mean,” Potter said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the repeal measure. “We shouldn’t have laws like that.”‘
‘Put a thing of firecrackers in a tin and toss them at your mother lounging on the couch….See what happens.’
(3.0meg Windows media)
see it here »
`Gordon Brown has spoken out over the ‘offensive’ bullying of Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on Big Brother during his trip to India following an official complaint from the country’s junior foreign minister and protesters took to the streets.
Security has stepped up around TV’s Celebrity Big Brother house after threats were made against the housemates at the centre of a bitter race storm. [..]
The controversy has now sparked comment from Tony Blair who has not seen the programme but highlighted the Government’s condemnation of racism.’
‘Audio from Radio Station KDND of Jennifer Strange complaining of severe headache, and the joke the DJs make of it. Criminal charges have been opened by the Sacremento County Sherriff’s Department, and 10 station employees have been fired. Jennifer died after drinking 2 gallons of water.’
Followup to: Autopsy Finds Signs of Water Intoxication in Radio Contestant’s Death.
(5.7meg Windows media)
see it here »
For some reason this police officer is sure that this man has marijuana on him. :)
see it here »
‘This dude drinks an entire bottle of Vodka in just 20 seconds. The effects take about an hour or so but he finally passes out in a classroom taking notes.’
(5.7meg Windows media)
see it here »
`A California radio station has fired 10 employees, including five on-air personalities, after Jennifer Strange, a mother of three, died following her participation in a “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” competition, reports the Sacramento Bee. The 28-year-old died of water intoxication, having consumed an estimated two gallons of water in an attempt to win a Nintendo console for her children. The winner of the contest was to be the person who managed to drink the most water without going to the bathroom.
Strange called into her office after the show and told a coworker that she had a “really bad” headache and would be going straight home. She was found dead in her Rancho Cordova home on Friday afternoon by her mother, who had gone to check on her after being contacted by the concerned coworker.’
`A criminal defense lawyer was arrested after a sheriff’s deputy found him naked with a 14-year-old girl in a courthouse conference room, authorities said Tuesday.
The deputy looked into the room during rounds Monday afternoon and discovered 49-year-old Larry Charles and the girl, said Lt. Dan Bagnell of the police department’s Special Victims Unit.
“He had asked for sex. But there was no physical contact we’re aware of,” Bagnell said. ‘
`A 46-year-old German motorist driving along a busy road suddenly veered to the left and ended up stuck on a railway track – because his satellite navigation system told him to, police said.
The motorist was heading into the north German city of Bremen “when the friendly voice from his satnav told him to turn left”, a spokesman said.
“He did what he was ordered to do and turned his Audi left up over the curb and onto the track of a local streetcar line. He tried to back up off the track but got completely stuck.”
The police spokesman said about a dozen trams were held up until a tow truck arrived to clear the car off the track.
Several German motorists have crashed their cars in recent months, later telling police they were only obeying orders from their satnavs.’
`Controversial singer and animal rights campaigner Pink has backed down on her call for a boycott of Australian wool.
Pink made the statement as part of a video for PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — calling for the end of mulesing. [..]
But Pink, who labelled the practice “sadistic”, said she had been misinformed. [..]
“My one mistake was saying to boycott the whole industry, all Australian wool.
“That’s absolutely not right. That’s not my stance. My stance is to boycott mulesing.”‘
This involves tying a person to each end of a rope then getting the two people to run away from each other. Funny. :)
(6.4meg Windows media)
see it here »
You’re just asking for trouble, really.
see it here »
`The invasion of Iraq has greatly destabilised the country, President Bush admitted yesterday – but he still insisted that Iraqis should be grateful to America for starting the war.
As the White House scrambled to stem a flow of Republican defections over Mr Bush’s plan to send another 21,500 troops to Iraq, the President also admitted that the execution of Saddam Hussein had been mishandled, calling it discouraging.
In earlier private comments to news anchors he went much further, describing the ugly scenes during Saddam’s hanging as second only to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in terms of disastrous mistakes.’
‘Strange, 28, was found dead inside her Astral Drive home in Rancho Cordova Friday afternoon. Her death came just hours after Strange participated in a radio station KDND 107.9 The End contest, testing contestants to drank as much water as they could without going to the bathroom.
The winner of the “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest would take home a new Nintendo Wii video game system.’
see it here »
`Some persons believe a mud pack is the answer to the search for a beautiful complexion, others think massage will do the trick, but Mrs. D. M. Ackerman, of Hollywood, Calif., has decided that reduced air pressure is a good treatment. So she has devised a “glamour bonnet” like a diver’s helmet with which the atmospheric pressure around the beauty seeker’s head can be lowered.’
`Darren Sawyer was given a choice at the beginning of school yesterday: Change out of his brown clothes or go home.
Brown clothing was recently banned at the Molloy Alternative High School, where Sawyer is a sophomore. The ban came about from the emergence of the Brown Mafia, a new teenage gang in Lowell whose members wear the color brown, school officials said.
When Sawyer refused to change into a school-issued T-shirt or call home to have other clothes brought to the school, he was sent home, said Molloy Principal Kathy Akashian.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Sawyer’s mother, Lisa Motard. “I’ve heard of banning red and black. Now brown? What other colors are they going to come up with?”‘
`A German pensioner who wired up a high-voltage cable to try to wipe out the moles digging up his garden killed himself instead.
Uwe Werner, police spokesman in Stralsund north of Berlin, said the 63-year-old retired construction foreman was found dead in the garden of his weekend house in Zingst next to a 380-volt cable and metal spikes rammed into the ground.
“The moles survived,” Mr Werner said, noting the voltage was enough to run a cement mixer or heavy-duty power saw. “It was in any event an unorthodox method to try to get rid of moles.”‘
