`A woman staying at a northeast Georgia motel this week shot herself while trying to light a cigarette with a pistol she mistook for a cigarette lighter, police said.
Police said Olivia Hutcherson, 21, of Anderson, S.C., had been arrested for fighting at a Waffle House shortly before she shot herself in the hand with a .22-caliber pistol she had tried to use to light a cigarette. [..]
About 90 minutes earlier, Hutcherson had slapped a man in the face three times after she said he touched her inappropriately, according to police reports.
Five witnesses told police they never saw the man touch her.
“She stated that someone had grabbed her from behind and she turned and struck the first person she saw,” an officer wrote in the report.’
Animated short in which a Will Nolan reads from his actual notebook about when he was a kid who was being bullied.
(10.1meg Flash video)
see it here »
`Gov. Timothy M. Kaine isn’t exactly muttering “I do believe in spooks! I do believe in spooks!” like the Cowardly Lion in “The Wizard of Oz.”
But he’s not ruling out the possibility either.
Asked on his monthly radio show on the Virginia News Network whether he has had paranormal experiences like previous Executive Mansion occupants, Kaine flatly answered: “Yes.”
Kaine said Thursday that at the same “inconvenient time” every week, the telephone rings in his family’s private quarters–and when he picks up the phone, nobody’s there. He said he’s researching whether “something odd happened” on the same day and hour sometime in the mansion’s history.’
This is a copy of some rambling email Lindsay Lohan apparently sent about the place. Sounds a bit like the drug crazed ramblings of an illiterate maniac if you ask me, but what would I know? :)
`A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men.
The study found that more than half of the men measured had penises that were shorter than international standards for condoms.
It has led to a call for condoms of mixed sizes to be made more widely available in India.’
Japanese men covered in oil trying to move furniture. They fall over a fair bit. :)
`Bihari: most officially dead person
Lal Bihari (born 1961) is a farmer from Uttar Pradesh, India who was officially dead from 1976 to 1994. He founded Mritak Sangh or the Association of the Dead in Uttar Pradesh, India. He fought Indian government bureaucracy for 18 years to prove that he is alive. [..]
Bawden: the self-elected Pope Michael I, from Kansas
[..] Sedevacantists argue that if the College of Cardinals will not or cannot elect a valid pope, ordinary Catholics can do so, under the principle of “Epikeia” (Equity). Acting on the basis of this, David Bawden was elected Pope by six people on 1990 (including himself and his parents). He is still on the job to this day.’
This fellow, apparently called Mr Pregnant, has produced this singing, dancing extravaganza.
(7.9meg Flash video)
see it here »
This guy eats teaspoons of different spices and gives them a rating out of 12.
‘I have no spit in my mouth. It has taken the spit.’
(9.9meg Flash video)
see it here »
This is a little click and shoot side scroller.
`The CSIRO ICT Centre today announced that it has achieved over six gigabits per second over a point to point wireless connection with the highest efficiency (2.4bits/s/Hz) ever achieved for such a system. [..]
Dr Jay Guo, Director of the Wireless Technologies Laboratory at CSIRO said that this breakthrough is just a first stage towards direct connections of up to 12 gigabits per second. [..]
The system operates at 85GHz in the millimetre-wave part of the electromagnetic spectrum (above 55 GHz) which offers the potential for these enormous speeds and is not yet congested by other uses.’
‘A German cop stops this kid and takes away his motorcycle. During the process of confiscating it he ends up crashing it into a tree.’
see it here »
`A number of Ontario’s public sector workers can’t account for millions in charges on taxpayer-funded credit cards, the province’s auditor general finds. [..]
The report highlights include:
* A litany of spending abuses at the Children’s Aid societies, including all-inclusive trips to Caribbean resorts and questionable overtime. (One employee was paid $21,000 to catch up on paperwork);
* $127 million charged to Hydro One credit cards without receipts. (One secretary charged $50,000 in goods that went to her boss, who signed the expenses);
* $6.5 million charged on Ontario Power Generation credit cards without any receipts;
* 300,000 more OHIP cards than Ontarians;
* Teachers and staff at four school boards charged thousands for questionable lunches, trips and gifts; and
* Workplace Safety Insurance Board patients receiving quicker access to high-tech diagnostic exams than non-WSIB workers.’
`For the past several months, I’ve been wrapping up lengthy interviews with Washington counterterrorism officials with a fundamental question: “Do you know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite?”
A “gotcha” question? Perhaps. But if knowing your enemy is the most basic rule of war, I don’t think it’s out of bounds. And as I quickly explain to my subjects, I’m not looking for theological explanations, just the basics: Who’s on what side today, and what does each want? [..]
But so far, most American officials I’ve interviewed don’t have a clue. That includes not just intelligence and law enforcement officials, but also members of Congress who have important roles overseeing our spy agencies. How can they do their jobs without knowing the basics?’
`The tide of unwanted email is rising as spammers find new ways to dodge filtering systems, experts say.
A study released in November 2006 by email filtering firm Postini, based in California, US, found that spam now accounts for 91% of all email and that over the past 12 months the daily volume of spam has risen by 120%.
A separate report, from IronPort Systems, also in California, concludes that worldwide spam volumes increased from 31 billion messages daily in October 2005 to 61 billion messages daily in October 2006.’
`On Aug. 27, 1979, two parallel lines of 11 men formed on a field of dry dirt in Sanandaj, Iran. One group wore blindfolds. The other held rifles. The command came in Farsi to fire: “Atesh!” Behind the soldier farthest to the right, a 12th man also shot, his Nikon camera and Kodak film preserving in black and white a mass execution.
Within hours, the photo ran across six columns in Ettela’at, the oldest newspaper in Iran. Within days, it appeared on front pages around the world. Within weeks, the new Iranian government annexed the offending paper. Within months, the photo won the Pulitzer Prize.’
‘During a live TV cooking show some guy faints and slams his head against a blender.’
see it here »
‘Many people are spending the night in a respite centre after a tornado ripped through several streets in north-west London.
Up to 150 houses and many cars were damaged when the freak weather hit the Kensal Rise area.
One man in his 50s suffered a serious head injury and five were treated for minor injuries and shock.
Fire services have sealed six roads in a zone covering a quarter of a square mile and searched at least 100 homes.’
Also a video of the London tornado damage.
see it here »
`A police officer in Longwood, Fla., accused of inappropriately touching a teen girl has been accused of sexual harassment before, Local 6 News has learned.
Officer Art Lews, 37, was arrested this week after a 14-year-old girl claimed he touched her inappropriately.
A report said the girl’s grandparents called police after they suspected the girl had sex with her boyfriend.
When Lewis arrived, he allegedly took the girl into another room and said he needed to perform an “exam” on her, police told Local 6 News.’
Apparently he never feels pain. [shrug]
see it here »
`A student activist who pounded a placard depicting the Prime Minister with water bombs has been accused of breaching terrorism laws.
Police investigated Jessica Moore, the president of the Wollongong University students’ association, after a caller to the national security hotline reported she had organised the protest in support of Hamas, the Palestinian party whose military wing is on a list of terrorist organisations.
But Ms Moore, an anti-war activist and member of the Socialist Alliance, said the protest was against homophobia and had nothing to do with Hamas. About 20 students had gathered on a university lawn where posters reading “Target homophobia. Take out the Libs”, were on display.’
`Garrett Anderson told a 911 dispatcher he arrived home to find his wife stabbed in her chest, a knife still beside her, and that he didn’t know what had happened, according to the tape released by police Tuesday.
Anderson placed the call shortly before midnight Nov. 21 from a pay phone a few blocks away from his east Mesa home.
When police arrived to the house, in the 1100 block of East Abilene Avenue, they found the front door open, Anderson’s wife, Chanel, dead, and the couple’s four children inside, safe. [..]
“I need an ambulance really quick to my house,” Anderson told dispatchers. “My wife’s hurt. She needs an ambulance. . . . She got stabbed, please hurry.”
When police asked how his wife got stabbed, Anderson replied, “I don’t know. I wasn’t home.”‘
`Two parents have filed a lawsuit alleging school officials failed to protect their daughters from sexual assault by another girl in their kindergarten class.
The lawsuit claims both girls were subjected to repeated sexual abuse by the third girl during nap periods and on a playground in the fall of 2005.
It says the assaults took place even though the abusive girl’s mother had warned a school official that her daughter had been a victim of sexual abuse and might be a threat to other children.’
`Brain scans could help predict schizophrenia, research suggests.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans have revealed key changes in the brain’s grey matter in a small group before they developed symptoms.
The finding suggests tracking these changes over time, combined with traditional assessments, could help doctors to predict illness.’
