moonbuggy

`A parcel bomb has killed a man celebrating his 23rd birthday in Nizhny Novgorod, central Russia, the Cry.ru web-site reported on Thursday.

The web-site writes that the man whose name was given as Anatoly Russkikh celebrated his birthday in own apartment. At the party he opened a bow that was sent not to him, but to his female relative who had come to visit him from Germany. The bow exploded, killing the young man and wounding those who were in the apartment.’

`The Roy family came to the city for a Sunday outing: a visit to Largo Central Park and its Bluegrass Strings and Crafty Things festival.

But the Roys accidentally left someone behind: 5-year-old Jonathan Roy, who was found wandering Largo Central Park looking for them.

Robert Roy told police he saw all 10 of his children heading toward their blue van when they left the park, Largo police Sgt. Ryan Dulski said.

“The dad said he saw them all following him and thought they got in,” Dulski said.

But Roy, 53, and his family drove home to St. Petersburg without Jonathan.’

`Bob Shamey, of Ligonier, PA Hand-Carves movable balls, chain links and miniature pliers from common toothpicks! As seen in Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! This was the first time. Below you will find examples of other little characters that are carved on top of toothpicks!’

`The High Court of Australia has unanimously ruled that mod-chips are legal, but the implications of the case for game manufacturers are not clear.

The mod chips circumvent technology designed to stop Sony PlayStation consoles from playing illegally copied game discs.

The mod chips also allow gamers to ignore manufacturers’ regional coding systems and purchase games and DVDs designed for markets outside of Australia, which are often cheaper than those from local suppliers.

All six High Court judges held that widely-used mod-chips were legal.’

`A clown in the operating room may relax anxious children who are about to undergo surgery, but the entertainer has to learn to keep out of the way, Italian researchers said Monday.

A study of 40 children between 4 months and 3 years old who were accompanied by at least one parent prior to minor surgery found having a clown present significantly reduced anxiety levels for both child and parent. Three out of five children suffer anxiety before surgery, according to the report published in the journal Pediatrics.

Clowns succeeded in distracting the children until the administration of anesthesia, but apparently annoyed doctors and nurses.

“The questionnaire for health professionals indicated that the clowns were a benefit to the child, but the majority of staff was opposed to continuing the program because of perceived interference with the procedures of the operating room,” wrote study author Laura Vagnoli of Anna Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence.’

`It sounds like NASA meets NASCAR: rocket-propelled aircraft racing through the sky at hundreds of miles an hour, while millions of fans watch in stadiums and on TV.

Peter Diamandis, founder of the aerospace Ansari X Prize, plans to turn what sounds like science fiction into reality in about a year.

At a ceremony Monday in New York, Diamandis unveiled the Rocket Racing League as its co-founder and chairman.’

`A van exploded in flames today after two Melbourne police officers noticed a suspicious device with wires attached inside.

The officers were on a routine patrol of Studley Park about 2.45am when they saw the white Ford Transit van in a car park near the boathouse.

After discovering the van had been reported stolen yesterday, they looked inside.

A police spokeswoman told AAP they saw “suspicious” bags with wires attached and moments later, after they withdrew and called for back-up, the van blew up.’

`A man accused of trying to burglarize a home while naked Tuesday stopped in mid-escape to ask the victim for a pair of shorts, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

The victim threw the shorts to the accused burglar, who then fled, said Susan Quayle, a spokeswoman for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Department.

Nickos George Kopsaftis was later arrested next door, apparently while trying to steal a car, Quayle said. “He was wearing the shorts that were donated to him,” she said.’

`It’s the ultimate robot reality show: 43 contestants battling for a spot in a government-sponsored desert race intended to speed development of unmanned military combat vehicles.

The reward? A $2 million cash prize.

The autonomous robotic vehicles began competing Wednesday in the first of a series of qualifying rounds at the California Speedway. Half will advance to the Oct. 8 starting line of the so-called Grand Challenge.’

`A Portland woman’s flight home was stopped short in Reno, all because the message on the T-shirt she was wearing.

Lorrie Heasley claims it’s a freedom of speech privilege, but airline officials say the message brings safety concerns.

Heasley, “There are bigger problems in the country, I can’t believe people can be so petty.” [..]

The shirt had pictures of members of the Bush Administration, and a phrase based on the movie “Meet the Fockers,” but with one crucial vowel changed.’

Can you guess the vowel? I’ll give you a hint – it wasn’t an “e”. :)

`Prosecutors charged that Arlan Kaufman, 68, and his wife Linda Kaufman, 62, spent 18 years taking advantage of patients entrusted to their care. The couple ran a residential care facility in Newton, Kansas, where they worked with at least 20 mentally ill individuals from 1980 until 2004. [..]

Authorities are seeking to prove that while the couple was billing relatives and insurers for therapy, rent, utilities and food, they were forcing the residents to engage in hard manual labor in the nude on a farm the couple owned outside of town.

Prosecutors charged the residents were also forced to engage in a variety of sexually explicit acts, including masturbating, fondling each other and shaving each other’s genitals, much of which was videotaped.

Patients were physically injured or restrained if they resisted, authorities charged.’

`Stray maggots are being skewered on hooks and dragged behind boats as live fish bait, The Moon can shockingly reveal.

The cruel practice takes place on French-controlled Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, where Prince William spent two holidays.

A six-minute-old maggot pup was recently found ALIVE with a huge double hook through its body – like the maggot above – and another through the end.

The pup was found in a coastal creek and is thought to have somehow freed itself from a fishing line.

But other maggots and pinkies have been chomped up and swallowed by fishies.

The RSPCA plans to petition the French government, demanding an end to the hideous torture.’

`A giant exotic snake’s fatal mistake of trying to swallow an alligator has provided scientists with strange new evidence that pythons are continuing to spread in the Everglades. [..]

The 13-foot-snake and six-foot gator both wound up dead, locked so gruesomely it is hard to make heads, tails or any other body part of either creature.

When the carcasses were found last week in an isolated marsh in Everglades National Park, the gator’s tail and hind legs protruded from the ruptured gut of a python — which had swallowed it whole.

As an added touch of the macabre, the snake’s head was missing.’

also a larger image.

`Bathsheba Grossman carries around her art wherever she goes. She shows strangers her two-inch metal sculptures, the babies of her collection. People hold them, stare at them, love them, and buy them. In this way, she has sold on the spot to barmaids, secretaries, bus drivers, and mail deliverers. [..]

Her sculptures rise in twists and arch into knots of satisfyingly heavy darkish metal. They have structure and order, yet their symmetries are hard to grasp. As you attempt to trace the labyrinthine formations, you are drawn in, mesmerized.’

`A 22-year-old purse snatcher was convicted of first-degree murder Monday for the dragging death of an elderly Holocaust survivor. [..]

Nadel was outside a Lauderdale Lakes drug store when Montanez stopped the stolen van he was driving and asked for directions. When she approached, he grabbed her purse and tried to speed away, but Nadel either didn’t or couldn’t let go.

Montanez dragged her for several feet before she fell, striking her head on the ground. She died the next day.’

`Half a dozen Mexico City prostitutes have been arrested for using eye drops containing a sleep-inducing drug to knock out and rob their clients, leaving at least five men dead, a newspaper said on Monday.

One central city district has recorded 17 cases this year including five deaths from the drug cyclopentolate — a muscle relaxant used in eye examinations to dilate the pupil and blur vision.’

`This thing really should not exist!

The coca cola company have a world-famous quality control system, and errors are rare. Every 10 years or so, somebody comes across a minor defect. This is the holy grail of defective coke cans!!!! Check this out:

The can has no ring-pull!

No way to open it at all!’

‘For the first time, American soldiers who personally tortured Iraqi prisoners have come forward to give testimony to human rights organisations about crimes they committed.

Three soldiers — a captain and two sergeants — from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Forward Operating Base (FOB) Mercury near Fallujah in Iraq have told Human Rights Watch how prisoners were tortured both as a form of stress relief and as a way of breaking them for interrogation sessions. [..]

The 82nd Airborne soldiers at FOB Mercury earned the nickname “The Murderous Maniacs” from local Iraqis and took the moniker as a badge of honour.

The soldiers referred to their Iraqi captives as PUCs — persons under control — and used the expressions “fucking a PUC” and “smoking a PUC” to refer respectively to torture and forced physical exertion.’

`Queensland will probe claims parts of human brains were stolen from a forensic laboratory to be injected into racehorses to make them run faster.

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said today the employee at the centre of the allegations denied the theft claims during an interview with the department.

The employee, who works at the John Tonge Centre in Brisbane’s pathology laboratory, is accused of stealing the pituitary gland from the brains of dead people to use as a horse racing stimulant. [..]

The employee is also accused of keeping ropes from the necks of suicide victims and drip bags of saline solution attached to people who died in hospitals.’

Various web tools that are fun to play with.

`Major labels Sony BMG and EMI are releasing more and more new CDs that block fans from dragging their tunes to iPods.

Now, in the most bizarre turn yet in the record industry’s piracy struggles, stars Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters and Switchfoot — and even Sony BMG, when the label gets complaints — are telling fans how they can beat the system.’

`An Army sergeant based at Fort Huachuca walked into a bank Monday, his mouth covered in duct tape, and presented a note saying he had a bomb in his mouth, police said. [..]

The officers “rushed the suspect,” took him into custody, walked him to a metal rail fence away from other people, handcuffed him to one of the rails and backed away. They recognized him by the tape on his mouth, Robinson said. [..]

A bomb squad robot removed the tape. Robinson said once the tape was taken off, Lewis spat out an unidentified object, which was not an explosive device.’

with a photo of the robot taking the tape off. It looks like it could pull his whole face of, if it wanted to. Actually, it kinda looks like it does want to rip his whole face off. :)

`Vancouver is the world’s best place to live, a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has found.

The EIU ranked 127 cities in terms of personal risk, infrastructure and the availability of goods and services.

All the cities that fell into the top “liveability” bracket were based in Canada, Australia and Western Europe.’

Some images of the landing gear of that plane that had the dodgy landing the other week. The wheel has been nicely ground down by the asphalt.

`On May 5th, 2005 (05/05/05 spooky!) I set out to determine just how much money I could lose by trusting SPAM.

What if I purchased 1000 shares of stock from EVERY stock tip mentioned in a SPAM email? Could we all really be missing out on a great opportunity?

Of course, I don’t have the money to actually waste on an experiment like this. I made this little web site to keep track of the value of those stocks… without my actually purchasing anything.’

`The FBI’s counterterrorism unit has launched a broad investigation of US-based theft rings after discovering some vehicles used in deadly car bombings in Iraq, including attacks that killed US troops and Iraqi civilians, were probably stolen in the United States, according to senior US Government officials. [..]

The inquiry began after coalition troops raided a Falluja bomb factory last November and found a Texas-registered four-wheel-drive being prepared for a bombing mission. Investigators said there were several other cases where vehicles evidently stolen in the US wound up in Syria or other Middle Eastern countries and ultimately in the hands of Iraqi insurgent groups, including al-Qaeda in Iraq.’

`The stress of standing in line to buy the German edition of Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince proved too much for a man in Germany, who ran amok and threatened to kill people unless he got a book, police said on Tuesday.

The unnamed 24-year-old man stormed into a book shop in the Hanover railway station and absconded with six copies of the German-language edition, which went on sale nationwide on Saturday.

Finding it difficult to carry the books while running, he dashed into another shop on the railway concourse and pushed shoppers aside to demand a shopping bag from a sales clerk. He punched a customer in the face when admonished for being rude.’

`The idea is simple: to try and make $1m (US) by selling 1,000,000 pixels for $1 each. Hence, ‘The Million Dollar Homepage”. The main motivation for doing this is to pay for my degree studies, because I don’t like the idea of graduating with a huge student debt. I know people who are paying off student loans 15-20 years after they graduated. Not a nice thought!’

This fellow has already made $250,000 selling pixels. Interesting. :)

I like the geek ones. :)

`Your mom’s weight is modeled by the summation of a diverging sequence. [..]

Your Mom is so fat that she makes neighboring carbons split into 5 peaks on her NMR spectrum. [..]

If your mom was a polar solute then intelligence would be a non-polar solvent. [..]

If your mom’s intelligence were a shell script, it’d be commented out. [..]

The shortest distance between your mom and any given person is 50 cents.’

`As we head into 2005’s home stretch, I thought I’d do a round-up of my top 10 pieces of Windows Freeware for 2005. Some of these aren’t new, but certainly what I’d consider essential. Some on the other hand, are new. I’ve tried to avoid the instantly popular ones like Firefox and Opera, although I did give way to Winamp and Konfabulator in the end. But hey, it’s my top 10. If you don’t like it, post your own.’