`The guy in the pictures was stabbed at a party I was at. He was arguing with someone about how is was the toughest guy alive, and how he could withstand anything that would kill regular people and a bunch of shit like that. Anyways the person he was arguing with grabbed a knife out of the kitchen and stabbed him in the side, then beat him. Afterwards, the victim just picked up a beer and a smoke and pretended like nothing even happened.
I later found out that he passed out in a car and almost bled to death. Fortunately he was found in time, and was taken to the hospital. The knife, which was seven or eight inches long, penetrated his lung, his stomach, and his large intestine.’
`Something odd is circling our planet. It’s small, perhaps only 60-ft long, and rotates once every minute or so. Amateur astronomer Bill Yeung first spotted the 16th magnitude speck of light on Sept. 3rd in the constellation Pisces. He named it J002E3.
Automated asteroid surveys scan the skies every few weeks, yet there was no sign of Yeung’s object earlier this year. “It must have entered Earth orbit recently,” says Paul Chodas of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program at JPL. “But it doesn’t match any recently-launched spacecraft.”
In other words, it’s a mystery.’
I don’t know whether it’s the ugly kids with big teeth, or the fact that they’re being prompted by people off camera, but it is definately horribly. Not to mention the the lyrics.
see it here »
`A cameraman was hurled in the air after a drag car driver lost control yesterday and crashed at 200km/h at Meremere Dragway in north Waikato.
The impact shunted the track barrier into a media stand, sending cameraman Robert Miller flying.
He was treated at the track for minor injuries but the stand was destroyed.
Last night Mr Miller was at home nursing his injuries, a few cuts and scratches, including a gash that cut through to the bone on his left leg.’
A gash down to the bone? S’ok, it’s just a scratch. With a photo of the man flying thru the air.
A strange and somewhat gay music video.
see it here »
`Cold remedies that can be used by drug dealers to make methamphetamine would be forced behind store counters under legislation Congress is poised to pass by year’s end.
Lawmakers hope that federal restrictions — included in the agreement reached Thursday to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act — will stem a meth trade that has hit rural America particularly hard. [..]
Stores would be required to keep medicines like Sudafed and Nyquil behind the counter and consumers would be limited to 3.6 grams, or about 120 pills, per day and 9 grams, or about 300 pills, a month. Purchasers would also need to show a photo ID and sign a logbook.
Those limits target meth dealers who buy large quantities of the drugs to extract the pseudoephedrine.’
9 grams of pseudoephedrine a day? That’s one serious blocked nose. Good thing they have the Patriot Act for targetting terrorists drug dealers.
`A man ended up “trussed up like a chicken” after taking on the mainly elderly members of the Christchurch Petanque Club who found him hiding in the ladies’ loo.
The pensioners yesterday became crime fighters as they turned up for their regular game. [..]
One of the women members tried to enter the ladies’ toilets, alerting other members the door was locked, before a very large tattooed man aged in his 30s or 40s tried to push past.
“He’d locked himself in the ladies’ loo and we didn’t know we’d disturbed him …” she said.
“He burst out of the loo, he couldn’t get out any other way.”
Price said the ensuing struggle was like an episode of the Keystone Kops.’
`Researchers have finished mapping the genome of the domestic dog.
The results show among other things that dogs, mice, and humans share a core set of DNA. [..]
Scientists had previously found that about 5 percent of the human genome sequence appears in the mouse genome. The new study shows that 5 percent of the human genome is also shared with dogs.
Significantly, the sequences that are conserved in all three species are virtually the same.’
`His female caretakers thought they were caring for a handicapped adult, but William Mucklow was really a financial analyst.
His nurses say he had a scheming mind and a penchant for Pampers. More than 20 women allege Mucklow behaved like a baby and asked them to change his diapers. [..]
Sheila Anderson/Private Investigator: “He kept trying to raise up my shirt and I had to change his dirty diaper. I really believed he was a child.”‘
`[..] the RIAA’s contact information is just buried. Now, they’ve been fighting vigorously to uncover file-swappers’ addresses and phone numbers, developing tracking codes that can be embedded within MP3 files. And yet, they have an unlisted phone number. Paging Dr. Irony. There is a phone call for Dr. Irony.
It took hours of searching before I finally found a phone number and was able to get through to someone. I spoke with a young, mild-mannered executive who patiently answered my questions, which I delivered in my best “dumb guy” voice.’
Kinda amusing. Would be better if there was audio, especially of this bit:
`JH: A penis?
RIAA: [Long pause] What?
JH: You asked if my service provider told me I have a penis?’
see it here »
`Paul last saw the Gulfstream V about 18 months ago. He comes down to Glasgow airport’s planespotters’ club most days. He had not seen the plane before so he marked the serial number down in his book. At the time, he did not think there was anything unusual about the Gulfstream being ushered to a stand away from public view, one that could not be seen from the airport terminal or the club’s prime view.
But that flight this week was at the centre of a transatlantic row that saw the prime minister being put on the spot on the floor of the House of Commons and the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, forced on the defensive during a visit to Europe. The Gulfstream V has been identified as having been used by the CIA for “extraordinary renditions” – abducting terror suspects and taking them to secret prisons around the world where they may be tortured.’
And some images of CIA planes.
`Shot glasses can get expensive especially if you want a lot of them for a big party, here we make shot glasses out of ice, it costs very little to make a bunch, and they’re pretty sweet.’
Pretty cool idea.
`The researchers, with Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, tried to train the bees to realize that a photo of one man had a drop of a sugary liquid next to it. Different photos came with a drop of bitter liquid instead.
A few bees apparently failed to realize that they should pay attention to the photos at all. But five bees learned to fly toward the photo horizontally in such a way that they could get a good look at it, Dyer reported. In fact, these bees tended to hover a few centimeters in front of the image for a while before deciding where to land.
The bees learned to distinguish the correct face from the wrong one with better than 80 percent accuracy, even when the faces were similar, and regardless of where the photos were placed, the researchers found. Also, just like humans, the bees performed worse when the faces were flipped upside-down.’
`On issues like war crimes, torture, toxic dumping and stifling freedom of speech, corporations like Coca Cola, Chevron and Philip Morris are way out ahead of the rest. [..]
Corporations carry out some of the most horrific human rights abuses of modern times, but it is increasingly difficult to hold them to account. Economic globalization and the rise of transnational corporate power have created a favorable climate for corporate human rights abusers, which are governed principally by the codes of supply and demand and show genuine loyalty only to their stockholders.’
`The tiny hobbit-like humans of Indonesia may have lived in Australia before they became extinct about 11,000 years ago.
The startling claim comes from archaeologist Mike Morwood, leader of the team that in 2003 uncovered remains of the 1m-tall hominid at Liang Bua cave on Indonesia’s Flores island.
They believe the pint-size person – known officially as Homo floresiensis and unofficially as the “Hobbit” – was wiped out by a volcanic eruption that spared their Homo sapiens neighbours. [..]
He suggested that the Hobbits may have been pushed out by the bigger people, in part because their population was too small to compete.’
`Class of 2008 president Greg Hogan was arrested Friday on charges of robbery, police said.
The robbery occurred at the Wachovia Bank at 943 Union Blvd. at 3:02 p.m. Hogan handed the teller a note that demanded money and said he had a weapon. Police haven’t confirmed if he had a weapon.
According to police, Hogan – the son of a Baptist minister – then left the bank with $2,871 and entered a black Ford Explorer owned and driven by Student Senate President Kip Wallen. Hogan was arrested Friday at 8:30 p.m. at Sigma Phi Epsilon — both are brothers there.’
Is it a surprise? When the president of your country starts behaving like a criminal, surely it’s not gonna be long before student presidents start committing crimes too. :)
Apparently, a male wearing a blue and white jersey with the number 21 on it just stole a Playstation. There’s a witness, but they don’t want to talk to the police.
`In a terrifying escalation of the conflict, up to 70 cars from Hurstville invaded Cronulla and Brighton-le-Sands to launch revenge attacks, following the vicious attacks by Cronulla locals on people of Middle Eastern appearance on Sunday. [..]
At 10.45pm, on the Kingsway at Caringbah, about 12 cars sped by, followed by another vehicle that stopped. Four men got out and began attacking patrons of Antonio’s Pizzeria. They knocked a woman unconscious on the footpath and smashed the window of a denture clinic. [..]
In Bay Street, Brighton-le-Sands, a young woman was sitting in a car when men approached and opened the door to her vehicle and put a hand up her dress, saying: “We are going to rape you, you Aussie sluts.”
A witness, Linda El-Hassan, 19, said a shot was fired at the woman’s car but she was unhurt. Miss El-Hassan said she was Lebanese and opposed the violence. “We all came to this country and we are all one in this country.”‘
What the fuck is wrong with people?
`Racial violence erupted in several Sydney suburbs last night in retaliation for a rampage by thousands of young residents through Cronulla that turned the seaside suburb into a battlefield. [..]
As the violence spread, police cars raced through Sydney streets from Cronulla to Miranda, Brighton-le-Sands, Rockdale, Maroubra, Woolooware and Tempe. Police said they had received reports of firearms being “flashed” threateningly but not discharged. “So far we have had no one shot,” an officer said. [..]
Police closed Marine Parade, Maroubra, where people converged in vehicles on the beachfront and began fighting with locals including members of the Bra Boys surf gang. Police said 50 carloads of youths smashed more than 100 vehicles with baseball bats and other weapons. In the same suburb a young girl was punched in the face.
In Rockdale police gathered in riot gear following reports of youths armed with crowbars near the train station after 10pm, a car driver trying to run down a police officer, and items being thrown at police cars in Bay Street, Brighton-le-Sands. The street was blocked off.
Around North Cronulla beach and the surrounding streets, drunk teenagers communicated with each other on walkie-talkies about rumoured sightings of Lebanese gangs.’
Fucken disgusting. Stupid rioting cunts.
`It all started when Ferdinand Piëch, the swivel-eyed former boss of Volkswagen, bought Bugatti and had someone design a concept car. “This,” he said, “is what the next Bugatti will look like.” And then, without consulting anyone, he went on. “And it vill have an engine that develops 1000 horsepower and it vill be capable of 400kph.” [..]
From behind the wheel of a Veyron, France is the size of a small coconut. I cannot tell you how fast I crossed it the other day. Because you simply wouldn’t believe me. I also cannot tell you how good this car is. I just don’t have the vocabulary. I just end up stammering and dribbling and talking wide-eyed nonsense. And everyone thinks I’m on drugs.
VITAL STATISTICS
Model Bugatti Veyron 16.4
Engine 7993cc, 16 cylinders in a W
Power 1001bhp @ 6000rpm
Torque 922 lb ft @ 2200rpm
Transmission 7-speed DSG, manual and auto
Fuel 11.7mpg (combined)
CO2 574g/km
Acceleration 0-62mph: 2.5sec
Top speed 253mph
Price £810,345′
`Fly a kite in Pakistan and you could get up to six months in jail.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court voted to extend a ban it imposed in October. As the issue was debated Saturday, kite-makers and enthusiasts rioted outside. Police used batons and tear gas.
The kite-flying ban was ordered because some 19 people died during a popular festival last February in the capital, Lahore. They either fell from roofs or were wounded by metal-lined strings.’
`Police got a surprise when they stopped a van following a hit-and-run crash on Kentucky’s Mountain Parkway: A 7-year-old boy was at the wheel, sitting on his father’s lap. [..]
When police caught up with the van on Interstate 64, Waters was working the foot pedals and his son Cody was on his lap steering, Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Estes said. He described Waters as “semiconscious.”
“He said he was en route to Florida, and his son was going to get him there,” Estes said.’
`In a year filled with political wrangling, natural disasters and pop culture curiosities, Americans turned to Merriam-Webster to help define it all.
Filibuster. Refugee. Tsunami. Each was among the dictionary publisher’s 10 most frequently looked-up words among some 7 million users of its online site.
But topping the list is a word that some say gives insight into the country’s collective concern about its values: Integrity. [..]
Ralph Whitehead, a journalism professor at the University of Massachusetts, said it may indicate the continuing discussion about American values and morality, or perhaps that integrity itself is becoming scarce so its definition is unfamiliar. [..]
No. 10 on the list is “inept,” a word that Morse said was getting a lot of attention in the days after President Bush delivered a live prime time news conference that came to an awkward end when some television networks cut him off to return to their regularly scheduled programs.’
`Transit police handcuffed and cited a man who sold a $1.75 US subway token to another rider who was having trouble with a token vending machine. He vows to fight the citation in court.
Transit authority spokeswoman Jocelyn Baker said Friday that the officer “acted within the law” after he spotted Donald Pirone, 42, apparently selling the token Nov. 30 inside the West End subway station. [..]
Baker acknowledged that Pirone sold the token at face value and did not make a profit. But the law is the law, she said.’
`British authorities say they have contained a fire raging at a fuel depot that injured 43 people, but it will take a day to burn itself out. [..]
Forty-three people were taken to hospitals for their injuries, Whitely said, but the majority were “walking casualties.” All but two have been released, he said, and those two do not have life-threatening injuries.
Although firefighting units with more than 150 firefighters were on the scene, authorities said the fire may have to burn itself out.’
‘A taxi driver in Denmark bit off the tip of a 48-year-old man’s finger in a brawl over how many people could fit in the cab, police said Monday.
The dispute started early Sunday morning, when a group of five men hailed a taxi in downtown Odense, a city in central Denmark.
Police said things got out of hand when the 37-year-old driver insisted he could only take four passengers. [..]’
You could easily fit five if two of them were midgets.
`One of the things I love about tattooing is that it attracts interesting people from all demographics. The simple truth is that some people feel a desire to permanently mark themselves with things that profoundly affect their lives. I don’t know if this is some genetic leftover that helped primitive humans hold their social fabric together, or whether it’s an unavoidable byproduct of being both narcissistic and sentient creatures. Either way, people get tattooed every day with the things that define their lives — and “nerds” and “geeks” are no different.
Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been talking to people with “nerdy” tattoos — computer logos, video game themes, science, math, and engineering imagery. Below you can read their stories in their own words [..]’
I think the Apple and Zelda tattoos are a bit lame, but I kinda like the enormous Mandelbrot tattoo across the back. I wonder how detailed it is. It would take a pretty talented tattoo artist to make a tattoo with an infinite perimeter. :)
`When the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933 and proceeded to carry out their savagery, many in the outside world asked how this could have happened in the land of Goethe and Beethoven. Would the people of other societies as readily accept tyranny? Sinclair Lewis, in 1935, imagined Americans turning to dictatorship under the pressures of economic distress in the Depression. He called his novel, ironically, It Can’t Happen Here. [..]
When George W. Bush was asked about torture in early November, he said: “Any activity we conduct is within the law. We do not torture.” How could he say that after the hundreds of convincing reports of torture and maltreatment? One possible answer is that he has not allowed himself to know the truth. Another is that his lawyers have so gutted the law governing these matters that not much, in their view, is unlawful.
But there is another explanation for Bush’s words: confidence that words can overcome reality. Just as a large part of the American people could be led to believe in nonexistent links between Saddam Hussein and the 9/11 bombers, so it could be persuaded–in the teeth of the evidence–that “we do not torture.” And there is reason for that confidence.’
Long article, but interesting.
‘Dacher Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley, contends that Americans and the English smile differently. [..]
Keltner hit upon this difference in national smiles by accident. He was studying teasing in American fraternity houses and found that low-status frat members, when they were teased, smiled using the risorius muscle – a facial muscle that pulls the lips sideways – as well as the zygomatic major, which lifts up the lips. It resulted in a sickly smile that said, in effect, I understand you must paddle me, brother, but not too hard, please. Several years later, Keltner went to England on sabbatical and noticed that the English had a peculiar deferential smile that reminded him of those he had seen among the junior American frat members. Like the frat brothers’, the English smile telegraphed an acknowledgment of hierarchy rather than just expressing pleasure.’
Or, the English version of the same article: The smile that says where you’re from
`While we British smile by pulling our lips back and upwards and exposing our lower teeth, Americans are more likely simply to part their lips and stretch the corners of their mouths.
So distinct is the difference that the scientist behind the research was able last week to pick out Britons from Americans from close-cropped pictures of their smiles alone, with an accuracy of more than 90%.’
The Americans think the English have a sickly smile, whilst the English thing their smile is more sincere and harder to fake. Kinda amusing. :)
via BoingBoing.
