‘Witnesses to a road crash on a Dutch motorway soon realised why the occupants of a van fled so quickly when police arrived and found hashish worth €15 million ($25.26 million) in it.
A police spokeswoman said the van contained 3000 kg of hashish and was heavily overloaded, although police did not know whether this had caused the crash.
“A van-driver heading to Amsterdam lost control of his vehicle and it tipped over … Witnesses were confused as to why two people got out and ran away even though no one was hurt in the accident,” she added.’
‘The Bush administration selected a design Friday for a new generation of atomic warheads, taking a major step toward building the first new nuclear weapon since the end of the Cold War nearly two decades ago.
The military and the Energy Department selected a design developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California over a competing design by the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The decision to move ahead with the warhead, which eventually would replace the existing arsenal of weapons, has been criticized as sending the wrong signal to the world at a time when the United States is assailing attempts at nuclear weapons development in North Korea and Iran and striving to contain them.’
‘Two packages containing human body parts — including a liver and a partial head — that were intended for a lab were delivered to a home instead, and officials say more than two dozen similar packages could be dispersed across the United States.
The body parts, sent from China, were mistakenly dropped off at Franck and Ludivine Larmande’s home by a DHL driver who thought the bubble-wrapped items were pieces to a table.
“My husband started to unwrap one and said, ‘This is strange, it looks like a liver,'” Ludivine Larmande told The Grand Rapids Press. “He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear.”
“Something wasn’t right. It was scary, and I’m glad I didn’t open them.”‘
‘What began as a routine training exercise for some Swiss soldiers almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident, when the troops got lost at night and mistakenly marched into neighbouring Liechtenstein.
According to the Swiss newspaper Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers from the neutral country wandered more than 1.5-kilometres across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday, but they soon realized their mistake and turned back.
A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story, but said there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.
Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident, with Interior Ministry spokesman Markus Amman saying nobody in his country had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition.’
‘When Edgar Bronfman Jr gained ownership of Universal Studios he got into some odd marketing campaign practices.
One of which is this … all » rare, employee orientation video, that enlightened people about how things were going to change under new management.
It was comissioned to be written and directed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and it was, and Jr. didn’t like it, so they scrapped it.
Great satire, video includes appearances by Steven Spielberg, Demi Moore, Tracy Lords, James Cameron, Michael J. Fox, and Sylvester Stallone.’
(84.7meg Google video)
see it here »
‘The chicken toss has been declared off limits at Kansas State. For years, Kansas State students have smuggled live chickens into basketball games against Kansas, then thrown them onto the court and behind the opposing bench before tip-off – mocking their rival’s Jayhawk mascot.
But an animal rights group objected to the mistreatment of chickens, and the school issued an open letter to fans this week calling for an end to the practice. [..]
Kansas State had said it would not comment on the complaint, but the athletic department issued a statement Tuesday saying it considers live, non-service animals “contraband.” Any fans caught with animals or caught throwing any object onto a playing surface will be ejected from the game and could face prosecution.’
‘Antony and Cleopatra — one of history’s most romantic couples — were not the great beauties that Hollywood would have us believe, according to British academics.
A study of a 2,000-year-old silver coin found the Egyptian queen, famously portrayed by a sultry Elizabeth Taylor, had a shallow forehead, pointed chin, thin lips and sharp nose.
On the other side, her Roman lover, played in the 1963 movie by Richard Burton, Taylor’s husband at the time, had bulging eyes, a hook nose and a thick neck.
History has depicted Cleopatra as a great beauty, befitting a woman who as Queen of Egypt seduced Julius Caesar, and then his rival Mark Antony.
But the coin, which goes on show on Wednesday at Newcastle University for Valentine’s Day, after years lying in a bank, is much less flattering about both famous faces.’
This guy skis off the edge of a rather high cliff. Seems alright.
(3.6meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘A worker at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom bonded out of jail, Thursday. Deputies said he attacked a co-worker and threatened to set him on fire, Wednesday night. [..]
“I think they’re all inaccurate,” [Kim] said. [..]
Kim and the other contract worker, 22-year-old Brandon Hoffman, according to deputies, had been having an ongoing argument as the two cleaned out a pond. Deputies said, when Hoffman turned his back, kim doused him with gasoline and even pulled out a lighter. Hoffman ran, but Kim didn’t give up.
“The suspect picked up a shovel and continued his assault on the victim, trying to hit him with the shovel. The victim then got on his cell phone, contacted us and Disney security,” said Commander Bruce McMullen, Orange County Sheriff’s Office.’
‘Scientists are to sail to the mid-Atlantic to examine a massive “open wound” on the Earth’s surface.
Dr Chris MacLeod, from Cardiff University, said the Earth’s crust appeared to be completely missing in an area thousands of kilometres across.
The hole in the crust is midway between the Cape Verde Islands and the Caribbean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. [..]
Dr MacLeod said the hole in the Earth’s crust was not unique, but was recognised as one of the most significant.
He said it was an “open wound on the surface of the Earth”, where the oceanic crust, usually 6-7km thick (3.7-4.3 miles), was simply not there.’
This is a good prank. I will need to try it on someone. :)
(3.3meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘· Over 50 Terabytes of Brain Image Data Accessible Online
· The Highest Resolution Whole Brain Atlases Ever Constructed
· A Suite of Free Desktop Applications for Navigating and Analyzing BrainMaps Data
· A Menagerie of Animal Brains’
‘A deviant Melbourne airline baggage courier who stole pubic and head hair from underwear and brushes in women’s luggage was jailed today for at least two years.
Rodney Lyle Petersen, 30, of Wallan, pleaded guilty to 50 counts of theft of women’s hair.
The Victorian County Court was told Petersen would pull over in his courier van and rummage through lost or delayed luggage he was returning to Qantas passengers.
He collected the pubic and head hair from brushes and underwear in the baggage and put it in plastic slips then recorded the owners’ personal details in an exercise book.’
‘Paris Hilton could have her probation revoked – possibly resulting in jail time – if she is found to have been driving with a suspended license because it would violate conditions of her previous sentence for reckless driving, authorities said Wednesday. [..]
“Our office is waiting to obtain a copy of the citation,” said Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for the Los Angeles city attorney’s office. “Once we’re able to verify that Miss Hilton was driving the vehicle, we will request that the court revoke her probation and set a probation violation hearing.”
Hilton could face up to 90 days in jail if a judge finds she violated her probation, he said.’
‘Opium production in Afghanistan reached record levels last year, the United States has said.
The US State Department’s annual report on narcotics also said the flourishing drugs trade was undermining the fight against the Taleban.
It warned of a possible increase in heroin overdoses in Europe and the Middle East as a result.’
‘If pending legislation becomes law, Ohio’s most violent sex offenders would be branded with a modern day scarlet letter: fluorescent green license plates on their cars or trucks.
State Rep. Michael DeBose, D-Cleveland, and state Sen. Kevin Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls, introduced bills that would require green plates for habitual and child-oriented sex offenders.
“A distinctive license plate would warn parents and children of the potential threat posed by sexual offenders,” Coughlin said.’
‘Major international news agency Associated Press has banned its journalists from filing stories about Paris Hilton, the New York Observer has reported.
AP entertainment editor, Jesse Washington announced the ban to staff on February 13 in a memo obtained by the Observer. The ban would stay in place “barring any major events”, the newspaper said.’
‘Nearly 20 years ago, the World Health Organization and its partners launched an ambitious program to eradicate polio by the end of the millennium. That deadline passed and another was missed in 2005 and polio still strikes about 2,000 people a year, mostly children.
At a WHO meeting this week, some leading experts asked a grim question: Is it time to abandon the goal of eradication and focus instead on containing the disease? The answer, for most, was no even though many had doubts.
“Many people wonder why we are spending all this time and effort on polio when there are much bigger problems,” said Dr. Donald A. Henderson, who headed WHO’s smallpox eradication program in the 1970s. Smallpox is the only disease ever to have been eradicated.’
‘No action will be taken against a vet who punched his horse in front of a crowd during a temper tantrum after losing a race to a group of teenagers.
A Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons panel has cleared Lodewijk De Smet of Ammanford of “disgraceful conduct”.
De Smet, who practises in Llanelli, had denied the incident as he rode for the Banwen Miners’ Hunt at a show in Brecon in August 2005.
But the panel decided he had struck the horse in a “momentary loss of reason”.’
‘On the 75th anniversary of the Lindbergh kidnapping, TIME looks back at the notorious crimes of the past hundred years’
‘Separated by adoption in their native East Germany, the siblings met for the first time in 2000 when Patrick tracked down his birth mother and the younger sister he had never met.
If their mother, Ana Marie, were alive today, however, she would, in all likelihood, be wishing her estranged son had never found his way home.
Because for the past seven years, brother and sister have been lovers. In that time they have had four children together – two of whom are mentally and physically disabled and all of whom are now in care.
And despite the fact that 29-year-old Stuebing, an unemployed locksmith, has already served two jail sentences for committing incest with his sister, now aged 22, the couple defiantly refuse to give each other up. ‘
‘Australian David Hicks was charged with “material support for terrorism” Thursday, setting the stage for a war crimes trial in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba that has caused strains in US relations with Australia.
Judge Susan Crawford, who oversees the military commissions, dismissed a second charge of attempted murder against Hicks after concluding there was no “probable cause” to justify it, said Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman. [..]
Major Michael Mori, Hicks’s military lawyer, said the government had abandoned all its original charges against his client, replacing them with a charge — “material support for terrorism” — that has never existed in the laws of war.’
No one seems to make it around. :)
(6.7meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘It’s a crisp January afternoon, and Fergus Drennan is picking mushrooms in a field near the Kentish seaside town of Whitstable. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots some black and white feathers poking up from a tuft of grass.
“A bird!” he shouts. “It’s not even been dead that long; you can tell from the rigor mortis. It’s so cute, isn’t it? Come on… come back to life… No. It’s definitely dead. The only question is… why?”
Fergus looks up. Above him run several power cables. The bird must have been electrocuted. This is excellent news: since our feathered friend didn’t have a nasty disease, Fergus says it’s safe to eat.’
‘This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics tend to feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or $12.5 million spent every hour on the Iraq war. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.’
‘A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised “to get out and meet people,” the local court heard last week.
[..] He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage. [..]
“Mr McCarney has been attending counselling at which he was told that he would be advised to get out and meet people and do interesting things. It was this advice that saw him book into the city centre hotel with a donkey,” [his solicitor] said. She added that Mr McCarney also suffered from a fixation with the Shrek movies and could constantly be heard at work talking to himself saying things like “Isn’t that right, Donkey?”’
