moonbuggy

Build a paper plane and see how far you can throw it.

I can’t throw it very far.

(1.1meg Shockwave)

‘You run into a shop and tell everyone to hit the floor. For every muppet that hits the deck, you get a point. Simple.’

(7.1meg Windows media)

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‘Marine veteran Jonathan Schulze survived the war in Iraq but almost two years after he came home, it ended up killing him, reports The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. [..]

“She asked, ‘Why do you want to be seen?’ and I was standing behind him and he was sitting in a chair, his shoulders were slumped and Jim was standing in the doorway and he said, ‘I feel suicidal,’ ” Marianne Schulze said.

His parents say the VA told Jonathan they couldn’t admit him that day and asked if he would call back the next day. He did but was told he was number 26 on a waiting-list and the VA didn’t have enough beds for him. Four days later he hung himself.’

‘A fossil unearthed in northeastern China has middle ear anatomy somewhere between more primitive and modern mammals, confirming for the first time transitional steps in the evolution of the important structure.

Scientists suspected the malleus or hammer, incus or anvil, and stapes or stirrup, split off from a location at the hinge of the lower jaw to become separate structures.

The new find, 125 million-year-old Yanoconodon allini, has middle ear bones that are partly separated from the jaw, but remain connected by a bridge of ossified cartilage. [..]

As Dr. Luo put it: “We have now a clear case documenting why a very elaborate and very delicate and very sophisticated ear structure came about and how it came about.”‘

‘A girl, aged three, was almost killed when an elderly man crashed his car into her Adelaide home and three other houses.

The driver, aged in his mid-70s, drove straight into a house on the corner of Nikoloff Crt and Shelley Ave at Fulham Gardens about 5.30pm yesterday.

His Daewoo Leganza hit the garage door with such force it pushed the property owner’s vehicle through another wall and into their loungeroom.

The driver then reversed and crashed into another house, severely damaging the front wall, garage, and another car.

Shocked residents ran out to survey the damage and were horrified to see the man still driving. They said he swerved along Baka Ave before jumping the kerb and smashing into the front porch of another residence on Lindsay St.’

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‘The Lorentz Gun can direct a 15,000 Ampere plasma channel through the air along a straight trajectory, at grounded targets up to 35 ft downrange. The gun consists of 30 high pressure pneumatic dart stations, each capable of launching a tapered aluminum sabot that trails a thin ‘seed wire’ 0.008 inches in diameter. Cannon tilt and pan is pneumatic, and a sighting laser is located inside the cannon head. When a launched sabot contacts the target, the Marx-configured capacitor bank automatically fires and erects the bank to 110,000 volts, igniting a plasma channel along the vaporized seed wire. The plasma channel quickly intensifies, magnetically confined in the air by the Lorentz forces of its own current. Damage to the target can vary widely. Most spectators experience some degree of sinus discomfort after several firings, due to the high brissance of the plasma explosion. The capacitor bank is currently disassembled, and newer capacitors are being added to increase the bank energy to 250 kilojoules, and the range to 50 feet.’

‘A massive, mysterious whirlpool of cold water has developed off the coast of Sydney, forcing the sea surface to fall almost 1m and ocean currents to change course.

Dubbed a sea “monster” by CSIRO oceanographers, the huge body of water stretches almost 200km across and plunges 1000m towards the ocean floor. Its centre sits just 100km off the coast of Sydney and could stay there for months.

Scientists are baffled by the powerful cold-water eddy, which is invisible to the human eye but can be tracked through satellite images.

At its centre the sea level has dropped by 70cm, while the water 400m below the surface is 6C colder than normal at that depth.’

‘A 17-year-old girl who spent weeks looking for her missing dog unwrapped a box left on her doorstep and found the pet’s severed head inside, authorities said.

Homicide investigators were looking into the case because of the “implied” terroristic threat, St. Paul Police Sgt. Jim Gray said. The Humane Society of the United States said Wednesday it was offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

“This was extraordinarily heinous,” said Dale Bartlett, the Humane Society’s deputy manager for animal cruelty issues. “I deal with hundreds and hundreds of cruelty cases each year. When I read about this case, it took my breath away. It’s horrible.”‘

You start 280m up, traven for 2km and reach a top speed of 160km/hr.

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These people run a server in China and will tell you what web sites are being blocked by the Chinese firewall.

China can see me. Hooray. :) Bite the wax tadpole!

‘Even casual YouTube users have no doubt come across video clips that the company has taken down for one reason or another, but a new service gives viewers at least a chance to see the offending content. Delutube, as its name implies, can serve up some video clips even after YouTube has purged them. [..]

Delutube allows visitors to enter the video ID (pulled from the end of the YouTube URL) of a deleted clip, then attempts to retrieve the clip from YouTube’s system. Clips are not apparently deleted from YouTube’s database at the moment they are taken down (or they at least persist in YouTube’s cache before being cleared), allowing Delutube a chance of retrieving them. The site also allows for the easy downloading of clips.’

‘Prosecutors have demanded a judge impose a harsh two-year prison sentence for the editor-in-chief of the Indonesian version of Playboy. Erwin Arnada was charged in June with distributing indecent pictures and profiting from their sale.

More than 100 Muslim protesters attending the hearing thought the prosecution’s demands were too lax. The raucous group chanted “Hang him, hang him” in the courtroom.

In April, the launch of Playboy’s first Indonesian edition, which contained no nude photos, sparked widespread public debate over morality and decency in the largely Muslim nation.’

This turkey doesn’t like policemen.

(6.5meg Windows media)

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This is a fun little time killing game. :)

(1.7meg Shockwave)

‘A 6-year-old boy stayed in an apartment with the body of his father for two days after the man died on their sofa, obeying instructions to never leave without permission, firefighters said.

The boy, whose name was not released, didn’t want to leave even after firefighters arrived, fearing punishment if he left, fire department Maj. Noble Lee said.

“He wasn’t as distraught as one might think,” Lee said. “I don’t think he understands the gravity of the past few days. He wasn’t as upset at the situation as he was about being outside the residence without permission.”‘

‘The Christian Democrat leader, Fred Nile, wants random drug testing for all NSW MPs.

He will be first to volunteer, and wants the Greens MP Lee Rhiannon to be second.

Unaccountably, in 2004 Mr Nile voted for an amendment watering down Rhiannon’s motion to breath-test MPs for alcohol while in Parliament.

Yesterday Mr Nile was tough on drugs in Macquarie Street: “The voting public deserve to know whether the people they elect are capable of making rational decisions and are prepared to devote themselves to the job. There is no room for illegal drug taking in a House of Parliament.”‘

This woman smears herself with boric acid to prove her point that her neighbour is a liar.

It doesn’t prove a thing. :)

(11.9meg Windows media)

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‘We’ve been dealing with the pocket-emptying effects of rising gas prices, new electric rates, and an increase in cab fare, but how would you feel about breaking the bank all for…a pizza? Now you can find out thanks to Manhattan restauranteur Nino Selimaj, who has apparently brought from the heavens a real “pie in the sky” with his new $1,000 pizza.

Yep, that’ll be $1,000 please. [..]

“Let them say I’m crazy,” Selimaj says. “But I believe in this product, and it’s gonna sell!”‘

‘A woman whose doctor says marijuana is the only medicine keeping her alive can face federal prosecution on drug charges, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling was the latest legal defeat for Angel Raich, a mother of two from Oakland suffering from scoliosis, a brain tumor, chronic nausea and other ailments who sued the federal government pre-emptively to avoid being arrested for using the drug. On her doctor’s advice, Raich eats or smokes marijuana every couple of hours to ease her pain and bolster her appetite. [..]

Raich, 41, began sobbing when she was told of the decision that she was not immune to prosecution and said she would continue using the drug.

“I’m sure not going to let them kill me,” she said. “Oh, my God.”‘

‘The Bush administration wants to eliminate federal support for geothermal power just as many U.S. states are looking to cut greenhouse gas emissions and raise renewable power output.

The move has angered scientists who say there is enough hot water underground to meet all U.S. electricity needs without greenhouse gas emissions.

“The Department of Energy has not requested funds for geothermal research in our fiscal-year 2008 budget,” said Christina Kielich, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy. “Geothermal is a mature technology. Our focus is on breakthrough energy research and development.”‘

(4.1meg Windows media)

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‘ Timothy Michael Seibert was in the midst of raping a 49-year-old woman, according to police, when he answered a cell phone call from his wife.

The woman was so close to the phone she could hear Seibert’s wife yelling at him, asking him where he was and what he was doing, according to arrest documents filed by Silver Spring Twp. police. [..]

The woman, who knew Seibert, also told police that Seibert had raped her once before on May 5, according to arrest documents. That incident was not reported until Sept. 3.’

‘Here is the future of the green amusement park: The Skycycle at Washuzan Highland Park in Okayama, a pedal-powered roller coaster. They clearly have some dramatic topography to take advantage of here, and it looks truly frightening. Most North American amusement parks are on pretty flat terrain but they often build artificial mountains- Demand a green ride like this on the Magic Mountain.

The side-by-side tandem pedal-powered carts have seat belts, and a cute pink basket.’

‘Texas lawmakers are fighting to block the governor’s order requiring that sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer, with the House giving final approval to a bill to make the shots strictly voluntary.

Gov. Rick Perry’s executive order has inflamed conservatives who say it contradicts Texas’ abstinence-only sexual education policies and intrudes into family lives. Some critics also have questioned whether the vaccine has been proven safe.

The House voted 118-23 on Wednesday to approve a bill that would keep the vaccine off the list of required shots for school attendance. The measure now heads to the state Senate, where more than half the members are co-sponsoring an identical bill.’

Yet another clip of The Annoying Devil from Balls of Steel.

This one isn’t the best, but it’s not bad. :)

(26.4meg Windows media)

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‘A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need “proof” of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found that smoked marijuana was effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy.

It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage to nerves afflicts people with many other illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis. [..]

As all marijuana research in the United States must be, the new study was conducted with government-supplied marijuana of notoriously poor quality. So it probably underestimated the potential benefit.’

‘Sussex County prosecutors are investigating whether there’s any fact to the fiction written by four boys.

“The War of the Boys and the Girls; One Winning Team, Many Losses, Tons of Deaths,” describes the violent deaths of a dozen girls and a female teacher.

The fifth-graders used characters with the same names as actual students at McKeown Elementary School in Hampton.

The students were suspended and psychiatric evaluations are scheduled.

Superintendent Everett Burns has told parents that law enforcement has determined the book does not pose a threat.’

‘Six graves were disturbed by vandals who toppled headstones and placed candles, an animal heart, a gourd and a picture of a man among them, police said. [..]

The items left among the headstones included more than a dozen unlit black candles, black handkerchiefs and a photograph of an unidentified man wearing a suit and smiling. The animal heart had pins in it.

Nearby, police found a partially buried statue of a rooster, wrapped in a bandanna with a pair of underwear around its neck.’

Here’s how you do the wooden spoon trick if you only have two spoons instead of three. :)

(1.9meg Windows media)

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