‘A former Democratic Party activist who left dog feces on the doorstep of U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave’s Greeley office during last year’s 4th Congressional District campaign was found not guilty Wednesday of criminal use of a noxious substance.
A Weld County jury deliberated about two hours before acquitting Kathleen Ensz of the misdemeanor count. Her trial began Tuesday.
Ensz’s lawyers never denied that their client left a Musgrave campaign brochure full of feces at the front door of the congresswoman’s office. But they argued that Ensz was making a statement protected by free speech – the poop was a symbol of what she thought of Musgrave’s politics.’
‘The Memorial Day holiday means it’s a day on the water with the family.
Chuck Singleton does what he can to makes sure his kids are safe out here. The concern is who else is out there.
“You don’t know where they come from,” said Singleton. “You know, they could load up with a bomb or whatever and come right out here.”
With thousands of boats on the waterways, the worry is the recreational boat is now a Homeland Security threat.’
‘Twenty-seven illegal immigrants spent a day at sea holding on to buoys around a giant tuna net as the Maltese and Libyan governments argued over who should save them from drowning.
They were picked up eventually by an Italian patrol vessel. The men – Africans of various nationalities – had paid for a passage from Libya to Europe in an open boat that foundered on Saturday.
Soon after their boat went down they were spotted by the Maltese tug Boudafel, which was towing a huge tuna-breeding plant towards Spain.
The men said the tug threw them a line and began towing them, ahead of the plant.’
‘At last, I’ve done it. I’ve thrown in the towel, kicked the habit and gone on the wagon. After thirty years, I have escaped from a fearsome addiction.
To be truthful, I’m not really sure I’ve gone cold turkey yet. Only last month I was at a psychical research conference. Only days ago, I emptied the last of those meticulously organised filing cabinets, fighting the little voice that warned: “Don’t do it, you might want to read that again” with a stronger one that urged: “You’ve given up!” as I threw paper after paper on ESP, psychokinesis, psychic pets, aromatherapy and haunted houses into the recycling sack. If cold turkey does strike, the dustbin men will have taken away my fix.
Come to think of it, I feel slightly sad. It was just over thirty years ago that I had the dramatic out-of-body experience that convinced me of the reality of psychic phenomena and launched me on a crusade to show those closed-minded scientists that consciousness could reach beyond the body and that death was not the end. Just a few years of careful experiments changed all that. I found no psychic phenomena – only wishful thinking, self-deception, experimental error and, occasionally, fraud. I became a sceptic.’
‘Mercury Energy says it was unaware that disconnecting power to a south Auckland home could have potentially life-threatening consequences.
Folole Muliaga, 44, died within two hours of a contractor cutting power to her Mangere home at 2pm yesterday.
Today a relative said Mrs Muliaga’s family had told the contractor that the mother-of-four was dependent on an oxygen machine, which needed electricity to run.
Mrs Muliaga’s son told TV One News that his mother – sitting with the machine – had asked the contractor to give them a chance, but the man had replied he was just doing his job.’
‘The era of tax-free e-mail, Internet shopping and broadband connections could end this fall, if recent proposals in the U.S. Congress prove successful.
State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail.’
‘A Pakistani court has sent a couple to jail for three years on the grounds that they lied about the sex of the husband who is a transsexual.
The couple married last year, after the husband had undergone sex-change operations, but a medical team appointed by a high court in the city of Lahore found that the husband, Shumail Raj, 31, was a woman.
“There is sufficient evidence to establish that Shumail Raj is a woman,” Judge Khawaja Sharif said in his ruling.
He sentenced the couple to jail for three years and imposed a fine of 10,000 rupees ($166) each for perjury.’
‘Stolen birthday balloons sparked a fight in Laurel County on Monday in which a man and his 14-year-old son were charged with assault after a teenager was seriously injured, the sheriff’s office said.
Brad Freeman and Shawn Asher went to the home of Charles Murphy and his 14-year-old son Monday evening to ask about balloons that had been stolen from a birthday party earlier that day, according to a news release from the Laurel County sheriff’s office.
The four began to argue at the home on Old State Road in London, and Murphy allegedly hit Asher in the head with a piece of pipe, the release said.
Murphy’s son, whose name was not released, picked up a baseball bat and began to hit Asher as well.’
‘A duck found with a pocket knife in her back in Huntington Beach was recovering Monday, and authorities announced a $1,000 reward for anyone with information about whoever stabbed the mallard.
The female duck was brought to the Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center Sunday at 10 a.m. by a member of the public who spotted it with the knife in its back at the Breakfast in the Park restaurant at 6622 Lakeview Drive, said Lisa Birkle, the center’s assistant wildlife director. The restaurant has views of a lake where many ducks swim, Birkle said.’
‘A ship’s doctor has died in Western Australia after eating blowfish, a delicacy that can prove fatal if not prepared properly.
Authorities were called to an iron ore ship off Dampier early on Saturday after a 43-year-old Chinese man suffered paralysis and his breathing became laboured.
“We did a co-ordinated rescue effort through Australian Search and Rescue,” said Acting Sergeant Chris Hinch. [..]
“The other person who had eaten the fish fell ill and made himself vomit,” he said.
“There was another gentleman who did CPR on the doctor and fell ill because the doctor had vomited while he was giving him CPR.
“We bought him to shore as a precautionary measure.”‘
‘Step aside Big Brother housemates – three dying contestants competing for a donated kidney will plunge reality television to fresh lows this week.
A terminally ill cancer patient will gift one of her kidneys to one of three recipients chosen by a television audience, in a bizarre Dutch program.
Viewers will watch video clips depicting the three “contestants” chatting about their lives – and then will vote via text message to literally save one.’
‘Exactly which is Jean Claude Van Damme doing running around the streets of Hollywood stripping of clothing as he goes?’
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see it here »
‘Exposure to pesticides could lead to an increased risk of contracting Parkinson’s disease, a study has found.
Researchers discovered that high levels of exposure increased the risk by 39%, while even low levels raised it by 9%. [..]
The study included more general questions about family health history and tobacco use.
All the replies were then compared to those from a group of people of similar age and sex who had not been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
They revealed that while having a family history of Parkinson’s was the clearest risk factor for developing the disease, exposure to pesticides also gave a clear increase.
People who had been knocked out once were 35% more at risk, while being knocked out on more than one occasion appeared to increase the risk by two-and-a-half times.’
‘An Israeli man wrestled a leopard to the ground after it entered his bedroom in a desert college and tried to make a meal of his pet cat.
“He jumped on the leopard and pinned him to the floor, then his wife called us so we could take it away,” Amram Zabari, a local park ranger who rushed to the scene, said today.
Arthur De Mosh, a 45-year-old tour guide at the college near Kibbutz Sde Boker in southern Israel, was awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of the leopard trying to eat his cat.
He freed the pet, which survived the ordeal, from the leopard’s clutches.’
Apparently the leopard got hurt in the tussle and required a CAT scan. No shit. :)
(4.1meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘Dallas police are searching for six masked gunmen who ransacked a home on Leon Street early Monday morning. Officials said the thieves busted into the home at about 5:30 a.m., tied up several of the residents and then began collecting the family’s belongings.
The thieves stole jewelry, three plasma televisions, a video game system and even two puppies.’
‘Water-pipe smoking may pose the same health risks as cigarettes, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, adding that more scientific research was needed into the link between hookah use and a number of fatal illnesses.
“Using a water pipe to smoke tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking,” the U.N. health agency said in a seven-page document on the practice. “Contrary to ancient lore and popular belief, the smoke that emerges from a water pipe contains numerous toxicants known to cause lung cancer, heart disease and other diseases.”‘
‘A thief found out the hard way that robbing a woman isn’t the best way to capture her heart.
Two men robbed a U-Haul store around 3 p.m. Sunday, taking an unspecified amount of cash, according the store’s owner. But instead of fleeing, one man lingered and tried to strike up a conversation with the woman he had just robbed.
“He stuck around and was trying to get the female employee’s number,” U-Haul general manager Patrick Sobocinski said. “She said he was just saying, ‘Hey baby, you’re pretty fine.'” [..]
“She said he was saying, ‘Can I get your number and go out sometime,'” Sobocinski said.
No surprise ending here – the woman turned him down, and he fled.’
(4.7meg Windows media)
see it here »
‘Ground-breaking Australian research has discovered a respiratory virus in children which may also have links to cancer.
After a five-year study, associate professors Theo Sloots and Michael Nissen of the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane, have found the WU polyomavirus in 44 patients, including 38 from Brisbane and six from the US. [..]
“We know that up to 50 per cent of children who come into hospital with severe respiratory tract disease do not go home with the cause,” Prof Nissen said.
“So now we have another virus which is associated with severe respiratory viral tract disease.
“It is of great interest though that also this virus falls into a family of viruses that have been linked with cancers, so it’s an exciting field of new research into causes of cancer.”‘
Apparently she got tangled in some cord that holds the boats in place before the start of the race.
(1.0meg Flash video)
see it here »
‘”Psychopath! psychopath!”
I’m alone in my living room and I’m yelling at my TV. “Forget rehabilitation — that guy is a psychopath.”
Ever since I visited Dr. Robert Hare in Vancouver, I can see them, the psychopaths. It’s pretty easy, once you know how to look. I’m watching a documentary about an American prison trying to rehabilitate teen murderers. They’re using an emotionally intense kind of group therapy, and I can see, as plain as day, that one of the inmates is a psychopath. He tries, but he can’t muster a convincing breakdown, can’t fake any feeling for his dead victims. He’s learned the words, as Bob Hare would put it, but not the music.
The incredible thing, the reason I’m yelling, is that no one in this documentary — the therapists, the warden, the omniscient narrator — seems to know the word “psychopath.” It is never uttered, yet it changes everything. A psychopath can never be made to feel the horror of murder. Weeks of intense therapy, which are producing real breakthroughs in the other youths, will probably make a psychopath more likely to reoffend. Psychopaths are not like the rest of us, and everyone who studies them agrees they should not be treated as if they were. ‘
‘When Dana Acker went to check on her 15-year-old son in the bath, she never imagined she would never see him alive again. Joshua Dean Knight died after inhaling from an aerosol can used to clean electronics. [..]
More and more kids around the country are engaging in a dangerous practice they call “computer dusting.” The product, made by a variety of manufacturers, produces a burst of air which is meant to blow dust off keyboards, cameras or other hardware.
Acker says more and more kids are dying each year because they don’t realize the burst of air contains a chemical, Freon, which is used in refrigerators and air conditioners. She says officers who responded to her son’s death told her it’s a growing problem.’
‘After the disaster and subsequent decontamination efforts, the Soviet government established boundaries for the newly created Chernobyl Exclusion Zone encompassing portions of Ukraine and Belarus. The Zone is located within 30 km of the station and access is strictly controlled by the Ukrainian and Belarusian governments and militaries. What follows are my impressions of the Ukrainian sector of the Zone as it existed in June 2006, 20 years after the disaster.’
‘Chen Yan waves at a crowd of onlookers bemused at seeing China’s late helmsman, Mao Zedong, brought back to life by a middle-aged woman.
Chen, 51, from Mianyang, in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan, has been dressing up as Mao since she was discovered on a local TV show in 2005 impersonating another actor who had played Mao in movies.
“I was impersonating (the actor) when the beautician saw some similarities between me and Mao,” Chen said, as make-up artists fussed over her in a Mianyang hair salon.
The beautician saw a dollar to be made in Chen’s prominent cheekbones and imperious demeanor, and invited her for a make-over, she said.’
‘Police in Ontario are looking for a man who allegedly approached women and asked them to kick him in the groin.
Three women reported similar incidents to police over the past two months, and two of the women reported the suspect was on a bicycle. None of the women reported injuries.
Police Sgt. Cate Welsh said Monday the man’s request is not a crime, but they are concerned nonetheless.’
