‘Whale meat served in school lunches in an area of rural Japan is contaminated with alarming levels of mercury, a local assemblyman said today, calling for a halt in plans for the meat to be shipped to schools nationwide.
Hisato Ryono, a assemblyman in Taiji, a historic whaling town some 450km west of Tokyo, said two samples of short-finned pilot whale had mercury levels 10 to 16 times more than advised by the Health Ministry.
The samples, bought from two local supermarkets, also had 10-12 times more methyl mercury than advised levels, he said.
Mr Ryono and a fellow assemblyman conducted tests after local authorities ignored their calls to have the whalemeat inspected before it was served in school lunches in the town’s kindergartens and elementary and junior high schools.
“We were shocked that it continued to be served in school lunches,” Mr Ryono.’
‘A suburban Gainesville couple faces charges on suspicion of torturing animals while performing sex acts on each other.
Brenda and Clyde Farrell, of Keystone Heights, have each been charged with four counts of animal cruelty.
Police obtained a video they said shows the abuse. A frog, two chameleons and a parakeet were all nailed or taped to a board, then slowly decapitated, according to police.
Officers said they investigated the couple after the wife went to deputies, telling them her husband might be plotting to kill a co-worker.’
‘High up on the Mesa, in the Grand Valley town of Collbran, a tiny four legged wonder sticks close to its mothers side. It is the latest addition to the ranch owned by Larry and Laura Amos. But this is a once-in-a-million, genetically impossible occurrence of a mule giving birth.
The mother of this beauty, is named Kate. She is a mule. Mules are a hybrid of two species, a female horse and a male donkey. Breeding the two results in a species with 63 chromosomes. A horse has 64, a donkey has 62. A mule can’t reproduce because you need an even number of chromosomes to divide into pairs.
This little wonder came into the world in late April to the shock of the Amos family. Doting mother Kate has no idea what she has accomplished.’
‘A man with no arms and one leg who would not stop driving despite a long list of traffic violations was sentenced to five years in prison today on the latest charges.
Michael Francis Wiley, 40, was also sentenced to 15 years of drug offender probation. He pleaded no contest in June to a variety of felony driving and drug charges.
“I’d just like to say I know what I did was wrong,” Wiley said in court today. “I am truly sorry your honour. I am.”
Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He has already spent more than three years in prison for habitually driving without a licence, kicking a state trooper and other charges.’
Followup to Armless, One-Legged Driver Leads Chase.
(6.5meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘A 24-year-old man has been crushed to death by a mechanical claw while in a van at a Southampton scrapyard.
Barry Collins, of Millbrook, Southampton, died after the accident at James Huntley and Sons Scrap Metal and Merchants in Sholing, on Thursday. [..]
Mr Collins had taken a vehicle to the site to be scrapped.
It is believed he then returned to get something from a van after the crushing process began.
A crane with pincers designed to break vehicles picked up the van and crushed it before he could get out.’
‘Welcome to another creeping slide towards the big brother state. On August 2, 2007 over two dozen agents of the TSA setup two checkpoints at bus stops in Indianapolis Indiana and searched passengers who wanted to ride on city buses. Federal agents, including Air Marshals were present and patted people down, looked in bags, and performed “behavior” tests for the stated purpose of finding weapons and people who were a threat to public safety. [..]
So to be clear, 20 or more agents of the federal government came to Indianapolis, downtown, and setup two search stops for those wanting to ride the bus. People could decline, legally, but only if the knew they could. Traveller safety was the excuse, but in reality all the were on an explicit fishing operation that included everything plus “behavior detection officers”.’
‘Pop legend Sir Elton John wants the internet closed down.
Never one to keep his opinions to himself, the Rocket Man has waded into cyberspace with all guns blazing.
He claims it is destroying good music, saying: “The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff.
“Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision. [..]
“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.
“There’s too much technology available.
“I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today.”‘
‘A would-be immigrant to the European Union is reported to have confessed to cannibalism to stay alive after his boat lost power and drifted for weeks in the Atlantic.
Two other passengers were killed after they were driven mad by thirst and hunger, he said. [..]
Half way into the two-day journey the vessel started drifting after the engine failed, and two days later their food ran out. They were unable to catch fish or seabirds, and with no rain had to drink seawater.
“The thirst and hunger was unbearable,” said Mr Kaindil, 30. “I was just getting thinner and thinner and thinner.”
Two of the group went insane and, after they started assaulting the others, the captain waited for them to fall asleep before throwing them into the ocean to die.’
This is a quick virtual tour of Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor, demonstrating their nuclear capabilities.
Hooray for having six secret floors of weapon production equipment hidden underground, I suppose. :)
(19.7meg Flash video)
‘Shelby County investigators said a 14-year-old Russia area boy who died July 16 after tying a 75-pound rock to his ankle to perform a “stunt” in a family pond.
Jay Luthman died at Miami Valley Hospital a day after he was pulled from the Rangeline Road pond by several Russia volunteer firefighters. [..]
Nathan Luthman told investigators Jay Luthman tied a rock to his ankle and dragged it into the pond to “perform a stunt … but did not know the actual stunt Jay was trying to perform,” O’Leary said.’
‘Oliver, a nine-year-old, white-faced capuchin monkey, has escaped from the Tupelo Buffalo Park and Zoo.
The Tupelo Zoo is asking residents Tuesday to help find Oliver. [..]
Park employee Ann Stewart said Oliver will respond to his own name and may take bait of bananas, marshmallow or grapes.
She urged people to call the park if they spot the mammal and warns that he does bite.
She also says he can outrun a horse.’
‘Jesuit missionaries may soon venture into Second Life, intent on saving virtual people from virtual sins.
Writing in the Italian Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica, whose contents are approved by the Vatican, Father Antonio Spadaro has told fellow Catholics that they shouldn’t be wary of venturing into Second Life’s virtual world, arguing that the online alternate universe might be the perfect place to land converts, Reuters reports.
“It’s not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it,” Spadaro said. “Instead, it needs to be understood … the best way to understand it is to enter it.” A regular contributor to the Jesuit journal, Spadaro has also lauded Tom Waits as a Christian role model.’
‘An extremely rare “living fossil” caught by a fisherman in Indonesia is being examined by scientists.
The 1.3m-long (4.3ft), 50kg (110lb) coelacanth is only the second ever to have been captured in Asia and has been described as a “significant find”.
An autopsy and genetic tests are now being carried out to determine more about the specimen. [..]
Scientists previously thought the fish group had died out about 70 million years ago, but were shocked when in 1938 they discovered that a specimen had been caught in a fishing net off the east coast of South Africa.’
‘A Castle Rock man died outside a movie complex yesterday when he hooked a cable from his neck to a concrete pillar, then sped off in his car.
Nobody reported the 57-year-old man’s suicide outside the Castle Rock Stadium 12 movie theater until a construction worker spotted the car in an adjacent field and made the horrific find about 2 p.m., Castle Rock police spokeswoman Karen McGrath said this morning.’
‘A man has been found alive after being chained to a tree in the remote woods of West Vancouver, B.C., for six days in what police are calling a bizarre suicide attempt.
Police say hikers looking for their runaway dog Tuesday evening heard the pleas of a man calling for help in a remote area of Cypress Bowl Road.
The 48-year-old man in distress could not be reached because of the rough terrain, although he was able to tell police he had gone there six days ago to commit suicide and had chained himself to a tree.’
‘It’s good to have ambition: becoming the first female president… learning to speak nine languages… or, you know, possessing the largest breasts on the planet. The following ladies apparently never met a bag of saline or silicone they didn’t want to take home, which is why they make Pamela Anderson look like Kate Hudson. We salute their commitment to being the best at the breast, but one question still lingers: How many parachutes does it take to make a bra for those things?’
‘A three-day-old lamb at Canterbury Vets’ Methven surgery bleats for its feed just like any other newly born sheep. But this one has seven legs.
Two of the legs hang useless behind the lamb’s forelegs. The lamb has three rear legs, one of these with two hoofs. It walks using its two forelegs and three hind legs. [..]
Canterbury Vets veterinarian Steve Williams said he believed a misprint in embryo formation had resulted in the lamb being polydactyl – with many legs – occurring once in several million sheep.
Williams said the lamb was also hermaphrodite, and was missing a portion of its bowel so was unable to pass faeces and so would have to be destroyed.’
‘Ever since scientists convicted sunlight of causing skin cancer, many seemingly sensible people have been running around slathered in sunscreen, using hats and long sleeves to hide our skin from the sun as if we were vampires. Now it looks like we may have gone too far: We may be missing out on the benefits of sunshine.
A study (press release) released today in the journal Neurology indicates that children who spend more time in the sun may have a decreased risk of multiple sclerosis. In pairs of twins where one twin had multiple sclerosis, the MS-free sibling had spent more time outside, playing team sports and sun tanning. Scientists theorize that ultraviolet rays in sunlight trigger a protective response that protects the body from this chronic nervous system disorder, either by altering the immune system or by producing vitamin D. Twins that spent more time in the sun decreased their risk of getting MS by almost 50%, despite their genetic predisposition toward the disease.’
‘Researchers at the University of Sydney have found that adolescent rats are more vulnerable to adverse effects of cannabis than adult rats.
Professor Ian McGregor says rats’ brains basically respond to drugs the same way as humans but they are easier to work with because they are not polydrug users.
He says his team gave the rats cannabis then took them off the drug for two weeks before testing their long-term memory.
“We found that the adolescents that had been given cannabis had impaired memory, relative to adolescent rats that hadn’t had cannabis exposure,” he said.
“Then when we compared them to adults we found there was very little memory deficits in the adults rats that had been given cannabis.”‘
‘Divers in the US city of Minneapolis have suspended their search overnight for victims of a bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi river.
Officials said it was too dangerous for the divers to work in the dark.
Four people are confirmed dead with up to 30 people missing. US officials are not linking the collapse to terrorism.
Some 50 vehicles were hurled into the water when part of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, gave way during the rush hour on Wednesday evening.’
(614kB Flash video)
see it here »
‘The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation was created in 1982 by a small group that originally came together as a an informal support group for problems that were the result of traumatic experiences at petting zoos as children. This group realized that there were many others out there who were afraid to come forward with their horrific stories and wanted to find some way to help as many people as they could. The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation is the result of their dream.
Through its programs and workshops, individuals from all walks of life have been able to live happier and more fulfilling lives, without the ever-present ghosts of their personal goat traumas. Some have even made such progress that they have been able to put their traumas completely behind them and rejoin mainstream society.’
‘One of the things you get no hint about before you come to Peru but then you find everyone assumes you should know about it once you are here is Chicha Morada.
Any restaurant in Peru will offer this deep purple colored beverage and the natives drink it like a southerner can imbibe Iced Tea. And, after you try it and get used to it’s taste, you’ll admit its damned refreshing. [..]
The drink is made from dark corn that is allowed to soak with the peelings of a large pineapple. Peruvians will use the ‘meat’ of the pineapple for a dish then save all the exterior cuttings as well as the core to use in this drink. Although the drink includes sugar, the pineapple adds a sweet zing to the drink that really sets it apart.’
At that age, I had more sense than to whack burning aerosol cans with wood.
(1.6meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘A police officer was accused Wednesday of raping a 19-year-old woman at a deserted police substation, then showing up at a nearby home to handle the woman’s complaint after she called 911, prosecutors said.
A grand jury indicted Providence patrolman Marcus Huffman, 37, on a single count of first-degree sexual assault, said Michael Healey, a spokesman for Attorney General Patrick Lynch. [..]
The woman later called 911 from a nearby relative’s house, and Huffman was dispatched to the scene along with two other officers, Healey said. As the senior officer, Huffman handled the woman’s complaint, he said.
“He later filed a report which we allege failed to include important facts, among which were any mention of the incident involving him and the victim,” Healey said.’
‘”My age is the same as the olive tree,” reads the blue tattoo on Qaisar Tariq al-Essawi’s left shoulder.
Al-Eassawi, 36, got the tattoo so his family and close friends could recognise his remains if he ended up in a morgue.
“I selected this wording because only my family and close friends know about our olive tree which was planted by my father when I was born,” al-Essawi, a father of two boys, told IRIN in Baghdad.
One response to sudden and violent death which has become commonplace in Iraq’s turmoil, is the emergence of a new subculture – the etching of tattoo identities on people who fear becoming an unclaimed body in a packed morgue.’
‘A new phenomenon in New Zealand is taking the idea of you are what you eat to the extreme.
Vegansexuals are people who do not eat any meat or animal products, and who choose not to be sexually intimate with non-vegan partners whose bodies, they say, are made up of dead animals.
The co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Human and Animal Studies at Canterbury University, Annie Potts, said she coined the term after doing research on the lives of “cruelty-free consumers”.’
Not just one roof, two really. :)
(448kB Flash video)
see it here »
