`A retiree in northern Germany flushed some 30,000 marks (about $21,500 Cdn) down the toilet, believing the old bank notes were worthless, police said.
Officials were alerted by a blocked pipe in the northern city of Kiel. A cleaning company employee extracted soggy bundles of bank notes, but more money got away as the water started flowing again.
Investigators then discovered that the retiree had reported a blocked pipe at his house the same day. They visited the “slightly bewildered” man at his apartment and he confirmed that he had flushed the money away, a police statement issued late Wednesday said.’
`A man who claims he mistakenly had sex with “the wrong woman” after entering a dark bedroom at the home of a Sydney magazine editor was yesterday committed to stand trial for rape.
Paul John Chappell, 31, was invited back to the editor’s Bondi flat after they met during a night out.
The pair went to bed and Chappell later got up to use the bathroom.
But Chappell claims he mistakenly returned to the wrong bedroom, where the editor’s 23-year-old flatmate was asleep.
He got into bed with the flatmate and initiated sex, allegedly believing she was the other woman.
The flatmate participated because she thought it was her own boyfriend who had come to bed after falling asleep in the loungeroom.’
`A Salvadoran woman is in some trouble after she allegedly tried to smuggle into the country’s main prison a military grenade and marijuana hidden in her vagina.
The cylinder was about 10 inches long and 4 inches wide. Officials didn’t say what prompted them to check Lidia Alvarado, 44, but authorities have raised the security level at jails across the country, fearing inmates may be planning something.
Alvarado was visiting two inmates serving 25 and 30 years when she was arrested. She now faces drug and weapons charges.
Police who inspected the M-67 grenade said it was in working condition.’
`Two men have suffered terrifying visual and auditory hallucinations after eating a popular local seafish in Mediterranean restaurants.
According to a clinical study on the patients, which is due to be published in the journal Clinical Toxicology, the men started seeing and hearing things after contracting a rare form of hallucinogenic poisoning from the Salema fish they were dining on.
The species is a popular food fish and is not normally hallucinogenic.
Ichthyoallyeinotoxism, or hallucinogenic fish poisoning, is caused by eating the heads or body parts of certain species of herbivorous fish and has previously only been recorded from the Indo Pacific.
The effects of eating ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes, such as certain mullet, goatfish, tangs, damsels and rabbitfish, are believed to be similar to LSD, and may include vivid and terrifying auditory and visual hallucinations. This has given rise to the collective common name for ichthyoallyeinotoxic fishes of “dream fish”.’
`In response to the shit he knows everyone is saying about him, local resident Todd Stenerud, after a prolonged drinking session, announced his intention to show you and everyone else just minutes before closing time at a local bar Monday.
“You people don’t know [what] the fuck you’re talking about,” Stenerud announced from his stool at Dan’s Pub. “You think I can’t? Know what? I’ll show you. I’ll show everybody.”
Stenerud, who is frequently drunk, added that if those assembled were opposed to his announcement, they could kiss his “big red baboon ass.”‘
Definately average. You’ll be blazed.
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`The metal gods were smiling on Jesse Maggrah.
The 20-year-old man was walking beside railway tracks on Sunday, the Norwegian heavy metal band Gorgoroth cranked on his portable CD player, when he was hit by a freight train. [..]
He has several broken ribs, one which is poking into a lung, his doctors have told him. Maggrah is also very sore and stiff, and is having trouble walking.
Maggrah said he didn’t hear the train over his music and he didn’t feel anything through the ground.
“Maybe the metal gods above were smiling on me and they didn’t want one of their true warriors to die on them. Otherwise, I’d be up there in the kingdom of steel.”‘
`A woman from the Country Club Park area contracted a case of bubonic plague, the first human case in Los Angeles County since 1984, county health officials said Tuesday.
The woman, who has not been identified, came down with symptoms last week and remains hospitalized.
Health officials said they believe the woman was exposed to fleas in the area around her house, although an investigation is continuing.
Public health workers set out traps Tuesday to catch squirrels and other wild animals in the area near her home. County Public Health Laboratory workers will test blood from those animals to determine if there has been any exposure to the plague bacteria.’
`Britain’s worst driver was [behind] bars last night after being banned from the roads for nine lifetimes plus 109 years.
John Williamson, 40, was locked up for 14 months yesterday after he admitted defying eight previous life bans for drinking and driving.
In 2000, Williamson was branded the worst driver “in Scotland, if not the UK”, after earning his sixth life ban.
At the time, he claimed he only got behind the wheel when he was drunk.
He also claimed he had never caused an accident – shortly before smashing into a police car.
At Perth Sheriff Court yesterday, Williamson was banned for life for the ninth time after he admitted driving while disqualified and with no insurance.’
`Hollywood actor Tom Cruise has played down reports that he plans to eat the placenta of his new baby.
The War of the Worlds star was quoted in GQ magazine saying he thought the placenta and umbilical cord would be “very nutritious”.
But in a subsequent interview with Diane Sawyer on US television, he made light of the comments.
“Yeah, we’re going to do that – a whole family thing. Isn’t that normal and natural? No, we’re not eating it.”‘
followup to Tom Cruise’s placenta plans.
`The Pentagon’s fringe science arm wants to keep track of potential enemies-of-the-state in every way imaginable: not just by sight, or by sound, or by their e-mail; but by their smell, as well.
Darpa’s “Unique Signature Detection Project (formerly known as the Odortype Detection program)” aims to sniff out genetic markers in “human emanations (urine, sweat, etc.)” that “can be used to identify and distinguish specific high-level-of-interest individuals within groups of enemy troops.”
“Recent experimental results” show that chemical compounds in a mouse’s “urinary” scent produces an “odortype” that’s unique to each individual rodent, Darpa observes in its original solicitation for the project. “Although experimental data for humans is far less quantitative,” the agency is hoping that a similarly “genetically determined,” “exploitable chemosignal” can be found in people, too.’
`School officials in Inglewood, Calif., said an elementary school principal made an “honest mistake” while trying to prevent student walkouts during immigration rallies.
Angie Marquez imposed a lockdown as nearly 40,000 students across Southern California left classes to attend immigrants’ rights demonstrations. But the lockdown didn’t allow children to go to the bathroom, forcing them to use buckets in the classroom.
One activist said what happened was “unsanitary, unnecessary and absolutely unacceptable.”
Marquez apparently misread the district handbook and ordered a lockdown designed for nuclear attacks.’
`Australia’s top spy agency ASIO is surfing the net for new recruits as part of a $1 million campaign.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has paid for a “sponsored link” on web search engine Google to find budding spies.
Sponsored links enable organisations and companies to have their names and brief messages pop up when a web surfer keys in the name or associated words.’
`In an odd twist of fate, a sister caught her sister’s last minutes alive – without even knowing.
Maria Ramoutar and her sister were in separate cars on their way back from Miami Beach when Maria saw a fiery car crash. She decided to videotape it with her cell phone.
Four people inside that burning car died, including Maria’s sister.
Maria didn’t find out it was her sister till the next day. Now she says she wishes she would have done something to save her.’
`A hospital patient died when he became engulfed in flames as he lit a cigarette after being treated with an inflammable gel for a skin complaint.
Philip Hoe, 60, is believed to have sneaked out of a ward and on to a fire escape stairwell to get around a smoking ban.
It is believed that as he lit the cigarette it ignited fumes from a paraffin and kerosene wax cream used on large areas of his body.
The gel is thought to have soaked into his nightclothes which burst into flames, causing him to scream in agony.’
`Philips suggests adding flags to commercial breaks to stop a viewer from changing channels until the adverts are over. The flags could also be recognised by digital video recorders, which would then disable the fast forward control while the ads are playing.
Philips’ patent acknowledges that this may be “greatly resented by viewers” who could initially think their equipment has gone wrong. So it suggests the new system could throw up a warning on screen when it is enforcing advert viewing. The patent also suggests that the system could offer viewers the chance to pay a fee interactively to go back to skipping adverts.’
Not safe for work.
Unless you are some sort of professional fat porn viewer.
`Dad-to-be Tom Cruise has vowed to eat the placenta of his newborn baby and plans to dine on the umbilical cord too.
The actor’s bizarre plans are sure to shock his legions of fans but the Hollywood heavyweight insists he plans to cook the unusual meal after fiancée Katie Holmes gives birth.
The 43 year-old star told America’s GQ magazine: “I’m going to eat the placenta. I thought that would be good. Very nutritious. I’m going to eat the cord and the placenta right there.”
Cruise, a devoted Scientologist, made the decision after reading the afterbirth contains important nutrients and vitamins.’
Pretty strange. Not safe for work.
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`In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That’s the conviction that inspired Greenpeace’s first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.
Look at it this way: More than 600 coal-fired electric plants in the United States produce 36 percent of U.S. emissions — or nearly 10 percent of global emissions — of CO2, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change. Nuclear energy is the only large-scale, cost-effective energy source that can reduce these emissions while continuing to satisfy a growing demand for power. And these days it can do so safely.’
`A man portraying Jesus during a passion play in Mexico City has been taken to hospital after he fell from the cross.
The 29-year-old actor hit his head on the ground after falling up to three metres yesterday as he was being lowered to be laid in a tomb, television reports said.’
`The Kent State University chapter of a national sorority is on probation over some comments that have angered some of the university’s black students, NewsChannel5 reported.
The controversy surrounds an award given out at the Chi Omega formal last Saturday. A student who was catering the event heard an award given out for the “blackest Chi Omega.”
Candace Poole said she was shocked to hear applause in the room as a white member accepted the award.
A group of black students met Thursday with sorority members, who said the award was meant as a joke and was the idea of just a few students, including the black date of the recipient.
He said his date received the award because she was motherly and nurturing.’
`From the life-does-not-always-imitate-art department, an Albany, New York, resident was sentenced to jail for second-degree assault and attempted first-degree assault, reports the online branch of Capital 9 News.
Tyrone McMillan was taken into custody last year after leading police on a car chase when officers attempted to pull him over for a parole violation. After slamming into two cars, McMillan told police that he thought he could outrun them because he played games from Rockstar’s controversial Grand Theft Auto franchise.
McMillan, in his 30s, apparently thought that his gaming skills translated to the real world. His experience navigating the fictional streets of San Andreas and Vice City with a PlayStation 2 controller led to a 55-minute real-life car chase, part of which had his girlfriend’s 11-year-old daughter and her 10-year-old cousin in the backseat. The girls leapt from the moving car while it was turning onto a highway.’
`This season’s creepiest fashion accessory is a live, bejeweled cockroach worn as jewelry – and what better place for roach couture than New York?
“This really reinforces my theory that society is imploding,” cracked Pete Donelan of Princeton, whose meal at a tony wine bar was interrupted by the sight of our live cockroach – Kafka – scurrying up its wearer’s arm.
The giant Madagascar hissing cockroach, which is about three inches long and actually does hiss, is partially covered in brightly colored Swarovski crystals, which are glued to its hard outer shell.’
`Most self-respecting starships in science fiction stories use antimatter as fuel for a good reason – it’s the most potent fuel known. While tons of chemical fuel are needed to propel a human mission to Mars, just tens of milligrams of antimatter will do (a milligram is about one-thousandth the weight of a piece of the original M&M candy).
However, in reality this power comes with a price. Some antimatter reactions produce blasts of high energy gamma rays. Gamma rays are like X-rays on steroids. They penetrate matter and break apart molecules in cells, so they are not healthy to be around. High-energy gamma rays can also make the engines radioactive by fragmenting atoms of the engine material.
The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is funding a team of researchers working on a new design for an antimatter-powered spaceship that avoids this nasty side effect by producing gamma rays with much lower energy.’
`A senior US marine officer says he is willing to apologise for the damage caused by his troops to the ancient Iraqi site of Babylon.
US forces built a helicopter pad on the ancient ruins and filled their sandbags with archaeological material in the months following the 2003 invasion.
Colonel Coleman was chief of staff at Babylon when it was occupied by the First Marine Expeditionary Force.
Babylon’s Hanging Gardens were among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.’
`Test of a Fire Fighting Foam system at Ellsworth AFB. This was only supposed to last a few seconds, but the system would not shut-off.’
`Notorious former mental institutions being converted into high-end condos. Candy bars with curious names. And more stupidity. See our list of the year’s most boneheaded blunders.’
`No matter how hard we pray, how many chickens we sacrifice, how often we chant naked by moonlight, every network is at one time or other exposed to the ultimate technology risk: users.
They’re short, tall, skinny, and fat. They’re smart or stupid, unique or cloned — but no matter what, they’ll abuse technology.’
