Curiously Entertaining Journalism Thread
 

I thought I'd start this thread for things that aren't quite "news of the weird" because they're a bit more pedestrian than that - yet still entertaining. I come across a lot of interesting stories that are written well and have some curious entertainment value - I'm sure you do too...

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Taiwan: from etaiwannews.com

Sperm whale explodes in Tainan City

Blood and guts of 17-meter long 50-ton mammal splatter sidewalks, automobiles parked nearby

2004-01-27 / Taiwan News, Contributing Writer / By Jason Pan

A dead sperm whale being transported through Tainan City on its way to a research station suddenly exploded yesterday, splattering cars and shops with blood and guts.

Certified by authorities as the largest beached whale on record in Taiwan, the 17-meter 50-ton carcass was being transported by a flat-bed trailer-truck to a special research location after National Cheng Kung University officials and security guards refused to allow the whale on campus.

The whale was to be preserved and an autopsy performed at the "Shi-Tsao Natural Preserve" in Tainan County by a team of marine biologists and taxidermists.

National Cheng Kung University marine biologist, professor Wang Chien-ping, was on the scene and said he had he instructed the truck driver to move the carcass so the whale could be used for educational purposes and an autopsy could be done.

The beached whale was found on along a stretch of coast in Yunlin County on Saturday.

"The animal was close to death when someone found it beached on shore on Saturday... Because of the natural decomposing process, a lot of gases accumulated, and when the pressure buildup was too great, the whale's belly just exploded and spilled blood and the innards on the street," Wang said.

Despite the explosion, enough of the whale remained intact that it will still be transported to the 'Shi-Tsao Natural Preserve' for a scientific examination, Wang added.

Local news reports showed a number of people who had gathered to take photographs of the whale before it exploded in Tainan City, as well as residents and shop owners following the explosion. Many were wearing gauze-masks and trying to clean up the spilled blood and the entrails with brushes and brooms.

"What a stinking mess! This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful," said one resident.

The news also showed one section of the street along with several parked automobiles and pedestrian walkways covered in red with copious amounts of splattered whale blood.

Lying on the trailer-truck was the dead whale - underbelly exposed with a large elongated tear where the biological gaseous blowout took place. Besides the shocking red bloody mess, large piles of whale intestines and guts were strewn along the road, leaving an unpleasant and ghastly scene for startled residents.

According to Wang, an initial assessment suggested the animal looked like an older bull whale. He said the carcass weighed over 50 metric tons and measured 17 meters, making it the largest whale ever recorded in Taiwan. He told the press that previous record was an 11-meter sperm whale which was found beached along a Tainan County coast 8 years ago.

Local media reported the sperm whale was still alive when it was found lying on the seashore in Yunlin County by a fisherman on Saturday morning. The man informed the coast guard and the police for help. When the authorities and conservation groups arrived to attempt a rescue during the afternoon, they found the animal had died.

After the news had spread about the giant beached whale, a mini-circus festival atmosphere prevailed on the site. Throughout the day on Sunday, a large crowd of more than 600 local Yunlin residents and curiosity seekers, along with vendors selling snack food and hot drinks, braved the cold temperature and chilly wind to watch workmen try to haul away the dead marine leviathan.

According to local news reports, the animal's record size proved a tough challenge for the work crews, and it took more than 13 hours, 3 large lifting cranes, and 50 workers to get the beached sperm whale loaded onto the flat-bed trailer-truck to be taken on its final trek.

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I think it's the droll descriptive treatment of this story combined with the extreme nature of the event that grabbed me . Anyway, that's my contrib. What else ya got? And why does it appeal to you, journalistically speaking...?

Indeed a very poor way to present the story.

Brings back memories of the infamous Exploding Whale
Video a few years back.

LINK
http://perp.com/whale/video.html

thanks for the link, cchris - cool vid.

thing is though, I think the way the above story is written actually is what appeals to me - perversely perhaps, but that may be my point...I definitely prefer it to a sensationalized treatment...

I remember when there was a dead whale on the beach (in hawaii, i used to live there) it stank up the whole place.. it was disgusting

Kinda makes you wonder how a mammal that big got beached?

Strange.

Anyway, it looked like a typical written news story to me.

That part was out there a little.

yes, I noted that paragraph as well.

I'll look for another example of this sort of thing in today's news...

Oh yes, us Oregonians can't forget the infamous exploding whale. What were they thinking!? The blubber projectiles did some serious damage! What did they think it was going to do? Cave in on itself peacefully?

Ah, the glory of studying exploding whale phenomenology.

Edit: On furthur reflection, I have determined my post was crude and did not contribute to the thread.

Here today's story that's hittin' the perversely interesting zone with me:

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Inmate Claims Murders During His Execution
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
ASSOCIATED PRESS

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -

Time finally ran out for condemned killer Billy Frank Vickers, but as he went to his death he left behind an unexpected disclosure he may have been involved in more than a dozen murder cases, including the Cullen Davis case.

"I would like to clear some things up if I could," Vickers, 58, said strapped to the Texas death chamber gurney Wednesday night in the moments before he received lethal injection for the slaying of a grocery store owner in Lamar County in March 1993.

He acknowledged that fatal shooting during a botched robbery, reversing his previous denials, adding: "There was several more that I had done or had a part of. I am sorry and I am not sure how many - there must be a dozen or 14 I believe all total.

"One I would like to clear up is Cullen Davis, where he was charged with shooting his wife. He didn't do that. And all of these it was never nothing personal. It was just something I did to make a living."

He didn't elaborate.

In 1976, millionaire oilman Davis was accused of killing his estranged wife's boyfriend, Stan Farr, and 12-year-old daughter, Andrea Wilborn, at his Fort Worth mansion. The wife, Priscilla Davis, and a family friend were wounded.

Cullen Davis was acquitted of his stepdaughter's murder and was later acquitted of murder-for-hire charges in a separate case.

Jack Strickland, a former prosecutor who worked on the Davis case, said Wednesday night that he had never heard of Vickers and doubted that he was involved in the 1976 shooting.

"For some perverse reason known only to him (Vickers), he once again screwed with the system. I certainly don't put any stock in it, not the slightest bit," Strickland said.

At the time, Davis was worth an estimated $400 million and believed to be the richest man to stand trial on murder charges.

Vickers wrapped up his final comments by repeating he was sorry and that, "I love you all. That is all I have to say."

Six minutes later, after exhaling and gasping as the lethal drugs took effect, he was pronounced dead. He was the fourth Texas prisoner put to death already this year. Another four are set to die next month.

The execution began less than 30 minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal to halt his punishment for gunning down the grocer, Phillip Kinslow, 50, near Kinslow's home outside Arthur City on March 12, 1993.

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The sentences that are gonna stick with me are these:

"And all of these it was never nothing personal. It was just something I did to make a living."

I see what you mean. It's like a train wreck...no matter how disturbing it is, you just...can't...turn...away from it.

been so long since I've heard about the exploding whale... thanks!

Bill O'Rights, yes. The odd juxtaposition and concatenation of meanings in the killer's last words - it wasn't personal and he only killed people to make a living. I don't know, there's something strangely unforgettable in there...

Today's story:

Teen Called 'Weakling' Saves Man In Pond
Victim: 'I Owe My Life To That Young Man'

UPDATED: 1:53 PM EST January 30, 2004

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- A high school freshman who walked out of a weightlifting session after being called a weakling became a hero minutes later when he saved an elderly man who had driven into a pond.


Justin Gregorich, 14, was one of three people who jumped into the water Wednesday to pull Raymond J. Kane from his sinking Lincoln Town Car.

"It's amazing -- there are snakes and there are alligators ... all three of them just jumped in right after that guy," said paramedic Mike Eash.

Gregorich had hopes of joining Countryside High School's junior-varsity football team next season, and after school Wednesday he went to the team's conditioning practice.

But at 5-foot-3 inches tall and 130 pounds, he couldn't lift as much weight as the other boys, who teased him. Gregorich said he left early and began walking home.

"I'm thinking, man, I should have stayed at football, the coach is going to be mad at me, why did I leave?" he recalled. "And -- WHAM!"

At that moment, the Lincoln veered off the road in front of him and sped toward the pond. Gregorich dove in, along with passers-by Michael McBrayer and Shawn Brady.

One man opened the car door as Gregorich and the other man grabbed Kane by the arms, authorities said. They swam about 50 feet back to the bank.

Kane was in good condition Thursday, issuing a statement through a hospital spokesman thanking his rescuers.

"I owe my life to that young man," Kane said. He also wished him luck in making the football team.

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On the one hand, there's the absolutely significant act of saving someone's life and on the other hand, there's the absolutely insignificant things, such as making a high school football team and what one's "peers" think of one. Some of these things may strike you as significant in themselves and I suppose they are to the young man in question. I guess I'm taking the long view on that.

Here's one that mimi brought to my attention.
It's an inspirational feline tale...

.......

Duluth, Minnesota-AP -- A cat found out in the Minnesota cold has earned the name "Frosty."

A man found the four-year-old gray-and-white tomcat frozen to the ground in Duluth on January sixth. It had been about 20 below that night.

One eye was frozen shut, and he had open wounds on his head and neck.

Kelly Johnson works at the city animal shelter. She says she didn't think the cat would live. But she gave the dehydrated cat fluids intravenously, and wrapped him in warm towels straight out of the dryer. She repeated the process every two hours, and came in during the evenings to check on him.

The cat didn't move for three days. But now he's O-K.

Frostbite left wounds on his ears and burned away patches of fur.

But animal workers say the cat seems to be grateful for all the attention, and they expect to find a permanent home for him soon.

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Stories of survival against odds are always uplifting. And there are some details in this one that are, indeed, "curiously entertaining."

Hard to say exactly why I find this noteworthy. Except it is good to know it was "God's will."

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Stampede Kills 244 at Hajj Pilgrimage

Feb 1, 5:21 PM (ET)

By RAWYA RAGEH

(AP) Muslim pilgrims perform a symbolic stoning of the devil as they throw pebbles at a pillar...


MINA, Saudi Arabia (AP) - At least 244 people were trampled to death and hundreds more hurt Sunday under the crush of worshippers in one of the deadliest disasters during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

The stampede occurred during the stoning of the devil, an emotional and notoriously perilous hajj ritual. Pilgrims frantically throw rocks, shout insults or hurl their shoes at three stone pillars - acts that are supposed to demonstrate their deep disdain for Satan.

Safety measures were in place at the site - one where fatal stampedes have been frequent - but "caution isn't stronger than fate," said Saudi Hajj Minister Iyad Madani. "All precautions were taken to prevent such an incident, but this is God's will."

The stampede broke out on one of two ramps leading to the 50-foot stone pillars. Tens of thousands of people were on the uppermost ramp, which is about the width of a five-lane highway.


Authorities said a few pilgrims fell, causing panic as pressure built up in the crowd behind.

Brig. Mansour al-Turki of the Saudi General Security Forces said about 10,000 general security officers were on duty in the area at the time.

Their intervention "resulted in containing the pushing toward the pillar to prevent more pilgrims from falling," an unidentified Saudi Interior Ministry official said, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

The same area was the scene of similar deadly incidents in 1998, 2001 and last year.

Sunday's tragedy marked the worst disaster at the annual hajj since 1997, when 340 pilgrims died in a fire at their tent city in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca.

Most of the dead Sunday were pilgrims from inside the Saudi kingdom who may not have been authorized to participate, Madani said. It was unclear how many foreign pilgrims died, but Egypt's Middle East News Agency reported that 13 Egyptians were among the dead.

Madani also said 272 pilgrims had died of natural causes during the hajj. Many participants are elderly, and Muslims believe that if a person dies while performing the pilgrimage they will go directly to heaven.

About 2 million Muslims are participating in this year's pilgrimage. To control the crowd, Saudi authorities set quotas for pilgrims from each country, and also require its citizens and residents to register upon arrival.

Many resident foreigners, especially those from the Indian subcontinent, cannot afford to pay the cost of an authorized pilgrimage, around $530, and perform the pilgrimage independently, despite recent laws requiring citizens and residents to join registered pilgrimage campaigns.

The chaos came after a sleepless night of prayer at the climax of the hajj, when pilgrims from around the world listened to Saudi Arabia's top cleric at the Namira Mosque.

On Sunday morning, they prayed at dawn then gathered pebbles to throw at the pillars. Each participant throws seven times, chanting "bismillah" ("in the name of God") and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Great").

Calling America "the greatest Satan," Egyptian pilgrim Youssef Omar threw pebbles at one pillar on which someone had scrawled "USA."

After the 1998 hajj, when about 180 pilgrims were trampled to death, religious authorities issued an edict extending the amount of time in which pilgrims could complete the ritual, hoping to spread out the crowd.

A giant ramp leading to the pillars fills with pilgrims waiting to throw their pebbles, and Saudi authorities instruct pilgrims in several languages when and where to pass.

Still, 14 pilgrims were trampled to death during the same ritual last year and 35 died in a 2001 stampede.

The stoning ritual also marked the first day of Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, celebrated at the hajj and around the Muslim world with the slaughtering of a camel, cow or sheep. Meat is eaten and distributed to the poor.

Two stories in which the protagonists miss the point - don't get the clue - from today:

Blake Sings as LA Judge Bans TV Cameras from Trial
Mon February 2, 2004 04:27 PM ET

(Page 1 of 2)
By Howard Breuer
VAN NUYS, Calif. (Reuters) - The judge in actor Robert Blake's murder trial on Monday banned television cameras from her courtroom during witness testimony in a proceeding nearly overshadowed by the antics of the onetime child star.

Blake, best known as a tough-as-nails cop on the hit series "Baretta," emerged from the courthouse eating a hot dog, then borrowed a guitar from a street musician and performed a quick rendition of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for reporters.

The strange scene suggested that Blake, who normally shies away from reporters, was not to be outdone by singer Michael Jackson -- who ended a Santa Barbara court appearance on child molestation charges last month by climbing on his car and shuffling through a few dance steps.

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Dean Calls FCC Probe of Breast Incident 'Silly'
Mon February 02, 2004 07:36 PM ET

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Sometimes a breast is just a breast.
Howard Dean, a physician and a Democratic presidential candidate, on Monday dismissed as "silly" a government inquiry into whether indecency rules were broken during the broadcast of the Super Bowl halftime show when pop diva Janet Jackson's bodice was ripped to expose her right breast.

"I find that to be a bit of a flap about nothing," the former Vermont governor said. "I'm probably affected in some ways by the fact that I'm a doctor, so it's not exactly an unusual phenomenon for me."
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Ah, OK, I get it - since he is a doctor, he's seen a human breast before - professionally, I guess. Well OK - so like if our kids had medical degrees they wouldn't be morally compromised by a multi-million dollar stage act of a rich white kid assaulting an older black woman for fun and profit...

All very interesting ART.

Going back to the one about the high schooler pulling the man from the car:

That is the kind of juxtaposition that can really bring life into focus. The young man is distressed over something we see as trivial - making a football team - that is probably the most important thing in the world to him. In the midst of these thought he sees someone in need of help and immediately helps.

What I wonder is, when he laid his head down on his pillow that night was he thinking more of saving a life or possibly getting cut from a football team.

What's in a Name?
 

local6.com
Kansas Woman Posed As 13-Year-Old Boy
33-Year-Old Allegedly Tried To Enroll In Middle School

UPDATED: 6:28 PM EST February 3, 2004

GALENA, Kan. Associated Press -- Authorities in Galena are investigating a case in which a 33-year-old woman posing as a 13-year-old boy sought help from a church and tried to enroll in a middle school.

Jim Jones, pastor of the Galena Assembly of God, said the person he now knows to be a woman showed up at his church in October, claiming to be Chris Gomez, a 13-year-old boy who had been the victim of child abuse.

Jones said that after a series of inconsistencies, he confronted the person claiming to be a boy last week and that she told him she was actually a 33-year-old woman with three children.

The case was referred to JoAnna Derfelt, the Cherokee County prosecutor, who asked the sheriff's department to investigate. She said Monday that until the investigation is complete she would not comment on it or identify the person being investigated.

Jones said he knew the woman as Birdie Jo Hoaks. A woman of that name attracted attention in Salt Lake City in 1995 when she called Utah social services officials and told them she had been left at a bus stop by her stepmother and father. The woman provided a birth certificate for Michael Ross, who would celebrate his 13th birthday several days later, on Christmas. The story triggered an outpouring of sympathy, and two trust accounts were set up.

But after the story was revealed as a hoax, the money was refunded. Reports of similar hoaxes by a Birdie Jo Hoaks came in from a number of other states, including Montana, Vermont, Alaska, California, Kansas, Texas, Idaho, New York, New Jersey, Maine, South Dakota, West Virginia, Arizona and Wisconsin.

In the Salt Lake City case, Hoaks was sentenced to 18 months in jail for theft of services and making a false statement, both misdemeanors. She was also ordered to make restitution of $580.

A judge later ordered her release to a woman's shelter after a psychiatric evaluation concluded she was not a danger to herself or others.

Jones said the woman he knows as Hoaks was at his church on Sunday and that he speaks to her almost daily. He said she is about 5 feet tall and 140 pounds and was very convincing in portraying a teenage boy who claimed to have been sleeping in a bus belonging to his church.

Jones said he had often invited her to his home after services for lunch with his family, and that he purchased clothing and food for her. He said an optometrist belong to the church gave her an eye exam and free glasses, and another church member cut her hair for free.

Jones said the woman told him she had been home-schooled and never attended public school, so at his urging and with his help she tried to enroll in the Galena School District early last month.

"I know she met with a special education teacher to be evaluated," he said. "But I don't think she ever was allowed in with the general school population."

School Superintendent Ray Dykens said the woman had no identification but had a Social Security number. He said that when the number checked out, the district agreed to allow her to meet with a special-education teacher for testing.

He said the woman, posing as a boy, met with the teacher for about three hours a day for four days.

Dykens said the woman, who never was allowed to attend classes with other students, stopped showing up at the school.

"We weren't about to put him in with the school population until we knew who he, or she, was," he said.

Jones said many things that Hoaks told him were suspect. For instance, he said she kept changing her story about her living arrangements. He said that after she told him she was actually a woman, he informed the school district, and Galena police were also notified.

Jones said the woman is living in an apartment with her toddler son, her twin sister, her mother and stepfather.

"I have been in the home, and I can tell you her son is healthy and well-cared for," he said.

He said he had difficulty understanding her motive. He said she apparently had access to money and on Sunday paid him back money he had given her to purchase clothing. He also said she apparently had a place to stay the entire time she was posing as a 13-year-old boy.
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So this lady named "Hoaks" pulls off another hoax.
That's enough to make it curiously entertaining already.
This most current stunt by Birdie Jo is her most bird-brained to date, I'd say...

Sorry, but I'm going to have to call BULLSHIT on this one. There is no such thing as a grateful cat.

My immediate reaction to that is who in the hell would go to a church whose Pastor was named Jim Jones.....Time for the Kool-Aid everyone.

Dark Whisperings Shake Dog Show Circuit
Wed February 4, 2004 10:25 AM ET

By Pete Harrison
LONDON (Reuters) - Something sinister is troubling Britain's usually genteel world of dog-showing, and at the center of it all lies one question: Who called Mrs Joyce Mann a "puppy farmer?"

Hate mail is circulating, threats have been made over the phone, Mann -- the country's top show judge -- has resigned and The Kennel Club says it has never seen anything like it.

"It is quite a nasty business," said a club spokeswoman. "Someone has set out to blacken Joyce's name at the pinnacle of her career."

And all this with the premier date on the dog show calendar fast approaching: Crufts, the world's largest dog show and the quintessence of British canine culture starts on March 4.

Joyce Mann, this year's Crufts Best of Show judge and wife of its chairman Peter, had been targeted by a fax campaign to highlight her mass breeding of Yorkshire Terriers in the 1960s -- puppy farming -- a practice common at the time, but now considered unethical.

"This has all the ingredients of a Miss Marple mystery," said Beverley Cuddy of "Dogs Today" magazine. "Dog showing is still very much a gentle middle-class pursuit, but it does have this other side.

"When people get obsessed, only winning counts, and the dog becomes irrelevant," she added.
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I always find it fascinating how humans who profess to love something - often become "obsessed" with some tangential aspect of the object of their affection and end up having the reason they entered into the relationship in the first place become "irrelevant."

Excellent collection of stories! :) Somehow, this thread has made my day, and my day has only just begun! (it is 1:00 AM right now)

Here's one for you:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...cow_hairpieces
3 Accused of Putting Hairpieces on Cows
Thu Feb 5, 8:07 AM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Three livestock exhibitors at last year's Ohio State Fair have been disqualified for allegedly outfitting their Holstein cows with hairpieces.



State Fair inspectors said the three glued or painted hair from another part of the animal or from another animal to create straighter backs on the cows and enhance their appearance in the show ring.

Kreg Krebs and his brother Kenneth of Fredericksburg, and Scott Long of Clayton, Mich., could be required to forfeit all winnings, said Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Melanie Wilt. The winnings had been withheld by fair officials.

Wilt said state inspectors at the fair discovered the fake hair when the cows were leaving the show ring on Aug. 10.

The men have 30 days to request a hearing in which they could present their cases to an independent hearing officer.

Cool story!
Yeah we're into farm show esthetics.
I can understand that one...

...shoulda done a slicker job, IMO!

This one is from the Daily Telegraph and is being reported by US news agencies. That's enough to make it newsworthy in itself. You folks who like to run everything by snopes - have at it!
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Man lived with body for 18 months
By Richard Savill
UK Daily Telegraph
(Filed: 05/02/2004)


A pensioner told police he did not know his brother had been dead for 18 months in the mobile home they shared. Herbert Silver, 72, had called police to say his brother George had died suddenly. They expected to find a body, but found a skeleton.



The body of George Silver, 75, was found in his bedroom in the hamlet of Blissford, near Fordingbridge, Hants. Police said there no suspicious circumstances.

The brothers, both bachelors, moved to Blissford from Kent about 12 years ago. George Silver worked for the former London Electricity Board and his brother was employed in the roads and bridges department of Kent county council.

Mr Silver said yesterday: "I thought that there may have been something wrong when he didn't appear. But I admit that I didn't go into his room for a few hours, a few days... well quite a while actually, which was a bit naughty really. In the end I plucked up the courage to go and have a look.

"A doctor came out and assessed me and I asked him if I was bonkers but he said I wasn't." An inquest will be held later this month.

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Guess at least it's good to know he's not bonkers!

It's rubber not rocket science, duh.
 

An interesting insight into a behind-the-scenes detail that made it all possible...

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Fetish shop angry with Janet Jackson

The fetish shop that sold Janet Jackson her Super Bowl outfit are furious over her boob flashing stunt.

DeMask, of Manhattan, New York, say it made it look as if her £140 bustier was flimsy, reports the New York Post.

Justin Timberlake tore off part of the bustier, exposing her breast, after singing the words: "I'm gonna have you naked by the end of this song."

The stunt, during a half-time duet, has caused a storm in the US but DeMask are more concerned with their reputation.

Manager Sam Hill said: "There's no way it would have ripped that way. We're known for putting together solid, long-lasting pieces."

She wants Jackson to own up to altering the top for the stunt which was originally billed as an accident.

"They took off the studs that kept the cup in place and replaced them with snaps so the top could just come off," she said.

"It would have looked like Justin was assaulting her if he'd tried to rip it off before it was modified. It's really easy to modify rubber. It's not rocket science."

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I'm thinking this sews up the wardrobe malfunction issue.
If you blame the wardrobe then you are gonna piss off the folks who made the wardrobe. I'm off to search for a picture of the smoking snaps...

Could have swore it read "independent hairing officer" when I first read it.....

there's gold in them thar...house!
 

Texan finds black gold...in the loo

DALLAS - The old joke is that everyone who lives in Texas has an oil well in their backyard.

Ms Liela LeTourneau found one in her toilet.


No, it did not start to gush after a flush.

She found crude oil bubbling up from her toilet, bathtub, kitchen sink and everything else connected to the water drainage lines in her home when she returned from work on Monday.

The floor was also drenched with a thick coating of what is known in the state as 'Texas Tea'.

'There was this black (ooze) coming out from my house. I thought, 'What have I left on? What has my son left on that's spilled over?' ' said the nurse in an interview with local daily Longview News-Journal.

Ms LeTourneau and her son have moved out of the house for the time being.

Meanwhile, officials in Texas and Longview, the city where Ms LeTourneau lives, said on Thursday they believe that a mix-up in sewer lines might be the cause of the oil spill.

The residence might have been connected to a line used to dispose of saltwater instead of a sewage line.

Saltwater disposal lines are used in the oil production process to drain off liquids from that process - mostly saltwater.

The line became backed up, and oil seeped out, turning Ms LeTourneau's home into an oil patch.

'I was always proud to have an oil derrick in my backyard. Every Texan should have one,' she told the paper. 'Now, I don't know.' -- Reuters, AP
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I'm thinking this house could just slide on down the hill if they're not careful.

For some reason, I free-associated to the idea of metal detectors...
We just bought a 153 year-old home with a lot of history. It operated a still during Prohibition, for example. I think I'll pick up a metal detector and see what kind of wealth our place might be sitting on - just waiting to be discovered!

The family's fine. We're going to eat some of this food
 

Jackson Father Opens New Calif. Restaurant
Associated Press

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Michael and Janet Jackson's father had a gala opening for his new restaurant Wednesday night, but the two pop stars were absent.

The restaurant, which showcases Southern cooking such as collard greens and catfish, was started by Joseph Jackson and named Katherine's after the Jackson family matriarch.

Jermaine Jackson spoke about his sister's infamous Super Bowl halftime show at the opening, saying it looked like the clothing removal was an accident.

"I didn't understand what was going on until later," he said. "It wasn't done intentionally. It looked like an accident. I'm going to believe that."

He said he the story has been in the news so much because "the media have nothing else to talk about."

Joseph Jackson declined to talk about his daughter Janet.

"The family's fine. We're going to eat some of this food," he said.

He said his wife Katherine would not attend because she was "relaxing."

"She's in Las Vegas and she wishes us all have a good time," he said.

.....................................

I always go for "life goes on" stories. And I love the line: "The family's fine. We're going to eat some of this food."

Like I said, curiously entertaining...

Great stories, thanks for sharing them with us... I laughed a couple of times!
Cow wigs... tee hee...

As you know I have some serious views on the subject of the humorous commentary below. I do see the humor in it as well. Art Buchwald writes funny stuff and this thread is where I put stuff that strikes me for whatever reason as "curiously entertaining."

(I usually hate it when people like waiters and others say, "Enjoy!" But I do hope you enjoy the story for what it is...)
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washingtonpost.com
A Case of Naked Aggression


By Art Buchwald

Thursday, February 12, 2004; Page C02


There seems to be no end to the Janet Jackson "scandal" that occurred during the Super Bowl halftime show. The investigation goes on and on.

A spokesman for CBS, who refused to take my calls, said, "Our intelligence was not at fault. We didn't know that Ms. Jackson would bare her breast during her number until it showed up on the satellite photos, which our analysts studied after the game."

"What did it look like from 400 miles up?" I asked.

"It initially looked like a trailer truck that could be holding weapons of mass destruction. It was only when we magnified it that we decided it could be the upper part of Janet Jackson's body."

"Did anyone influence you in your report?"

"No, we reported the facts as we saw them. Our agents on the field said something was going on, but they weren't sure what it was. It was only after Janet started to dance that we went to orange alert. But it was too late. The cat was out of the bag."

"Do you think Justin Timberlake, who actually pulled Janet's costume off, was part of the conspiracy?"

"We're looking into that. He claimed it was a 'wardrobe malfunction,' which could be the first one in Super Bowl history. We have sent the costume to the FBI lab for testing."

"What was MTV's role in all this?"

"They're playing the blame game. They say they were so busy putting on the show they didn't know anything was amiss."

"But," I said. "MTV says CBS was so interested in the commercials they paid no attention to what else was going on. What did FCC Chairman Michael Powell say?"

"He said he was disgusted, outraged, shaken, traumatized, shocked, stunned, scandalized, and the incident turned his stomach."

"Wow," I said.

"He wants a full investigation with all the evidence presented to the FCC board."

"Does this mean you are going to call viewers who witnessed the event?"

"Yes," he said. "We don't ever want to see a woman's breast on television again, except on cable."

"At least CBS is playing damage control," I said.

He said, "We believe the incident will be forgotten by the 2012 Super Bowl."

"Where does the NFL stand in all this?"

"The Panthers and the Patriots were in the locker room during halftime and had no idea what was happening on the field. Had they known, they might not have played as well as they did."

I asked, "What is the most terrible thing about the Janet Jackson flash of flesh?"

"Our young fighting men in Iraq saw it. After they did, morale plummeted. As one sergeant said, 'This is not what we are fighting for.' "'

After the CBS spokesman hung up, I thought, "What will American culture be like after the Super Bowl? What will our allies think of us?"

And the last thing that came to mind was, "Where were you, Mary Poppins, when we needed you?"

....................

Here's a story that doesn't seem to have any story attached.
It seems to be a funny take-off piece but it doesn't report any facts. It was picked up as a news flash by the Financial Times too, but - still no news behind the story. Guess it's just a joke-fest...or something?
..............

Barbie and Ken: It's Over

Thursday, February 12, 2004

By Catherine Donaldson-Evans

Fox News

NEW YORK — One of America's most famous couples is calling it quits. Are you sitting down?

After 43 years together, Barbie and Ken (search) — as in the dolls — have decided that breaking up is hard to do, but do it they must.

Since they're dolls — and famous — Barbie and Ken had no direct comment about their split at the International Toy Fair (search), where the bombshell was dropped. The news predictably came from their spokespeople during a press conference Thursday.

"This is an announcement we thought we’d never make," said Barbie’s publicist, Ken Sunshine (search). "I will confirm that Ken and Barbie are going to go their separate ways."

Click here for a video of the couple in happier times.

The circumstances surrounding the famous couple's break were hazy, though their spokespeople assured the press they split up on good terms.

"The flame of love has gone out," said Ken's publicist, A. Russell Arons — who doubles as Mattel Inc.'s (search) vice president of marketing for Barbie. "The tolls of Hollywood romance are well known."

Arons and Sunshine described it as a "sad" and "reflective" day.

Devastated Barbie-and-Ken-friendly homes across the country were suddenly faced with the task of explaining the breakup to their children — and finding separate toy boxes for the pair. Sunshine said he'd been barraged with e-mails from fans.

Arons suggested moms and dads handle it "much like a parent may someday have to explain a divorce" and assure their little girls that Barbie and Ken would always care for each other and be friends.

Cynics called the split a desperate publicity stunt by the couple's company, Mattel Inc., which has seen Barbie's popularity and revenues in the U.S. drop recently despite her numerous image makeovers and new products.

But Arons brushed aside the implication that Mattel might toss Barbie out on her ear.

"Mattel would never dump Barbie," she said.

Barbie was holed up in her Dream House with friends and family, according to Sunshine, who also represents human Hollywood stars Ben Affleck, Justin Timberlake and Leonardo DiCaprio. It wasn't clear where Ken was staying.

A statement the handsome man-doll had prepared was read at the press conference.

"Barbie and I decided to spend some time apart," the statement read. "She's got a new look ... I'm confident we will always stay friends."

When asked about the catalyst for the split, Arons simply said it was the "toll of the fourth movie" they starred in together — a musical due out in the fall called "Barbie as The Prince and the Pauper" — and the pressure of being in the limelight.

Sunshine declined to offer specifics on the relationship's demise, and asked the press to "please, please respect their privacy."

Sunshine and Arons had no comment as to whether there was another "Ken" in Barbie's life.

"Barbie is actually going through something difficult," Arons said, adding that Barbie was just "a woman exercising options."

But after the news conference, Mattel Girls Division Vice President Julia Jensen dished that in the upcoming months "there may be a new blush in Barbie's life."

Longtime rumors surrounding Ken's androgyny and sexual orientation were quickly dismissed Thursday. Arons said the split had nothing to do with Ken's sexuality and that the couple loved each other.

"He is not of mixed gender," she said.

And other whisperings that Barbie and Ken are secretly sister and brother weren't even touched on.

The couple — whose romance seemed so picture-perfect that other successful pairings in and out of Hollywood were frequently dubbed "Barbie and Ken" — met on the set of their first television commercial in 1961.

Their relationship unfolded much like any other Hollywood romance, though it lasted quite a bit longer. They fell madly in love and quickly became joined at the hip, as the saying goes. They even worked together on several projects. It was a fairytale, really. That is, until the unhappy ending.

Some said the relationship dissolved because the pressure of being in the public eye became too great — even after 43 years. Others gossiped that Ken's ambiguous sexuality and Barbie's disproportionate figure finally took their toll.

Still others blamed the break on the fact that Barbie's career and popularity continued to overshadow Ken's. Then there were those who maintained that they were just a plastic couple from the beginning.

Ken's publicist denied that the all-American doll guy felt overshadowed by his gorgeous doll gal.

"For four decades Ken has been a real supporter of Barbie. We've all joked about it, but he really enjoyed being Mr. Barbie," Arons said.

Still, the question remains whether or not Barbie's fame finally did come between the pair.

"Ken played a role in every movie, but Barbie certainly was the star," Jensen added later. "But he's got strong shoulders. I wouldn't want to put words in his mouth. His official statements is that he's obviously thrilled with her success."

The twosome's relationship might be over, but their troubles aren't, especially when it comes to the settlement.

They'll be faced with the task of divvying up the hundreds of possessions they've amassed over the years, such as the Barbie Bubble Bath, camper, townhouse and several vehicles.

As for the mansion in Malibu?

"The Dream House has always been Barbie's," Arons said.

Saw a segment on the early show about the Barbie thing. It's true, it's true. They've released a 'surfer' barbie who is 'single' along with a surfer male doll who certainly is not Ken. Poor guy. ;)

An interactive soap opera for kids! Modern, inclusive, gritty. One Barbie and a whole host of Kens, Chucks, Brads and Justins to vie for her fleeting attention.

As a story it's amusing; as marketing this seems rather vile. Kids really don't need a disfunctional family of dolls, while parents should perhaps avoid encouraging their nippers to play at litigation and 3-in-a-bed romps...Or have I got the wrong end of the stick?
Thanks for posting, anyway:)

Astronomers spy 10 billion trillion trillion-carat diamond
The Associated Press
Last Updated 3:06 p.m. PST Friday, February 13, 2004
LOS ANGELES (AP) - If anyone's ever promised you the sun, the moon and the stars, tell 'em you'll settle for BPM 37093.
The heart of that burned-out star with the no-nonsense name is a sparkling diamond that weighs a staggering 10 billion trillion trillion carats. That's one followed by 34 zeros.

The hunk of celestial bling is an estimated 2,500 miles across, said Travis Metcalfe, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

"You would need a jeweler's loupe the size of the sun to grade this diamond," said Metcalfe, who led the team that discovered the gem.

The diamond is a massive chunk of crystallized carbon that lies about 300 trillion miles from Earth, in the constellation Centaurus.

The galaxy's largest diamond is formally known as a white dwarf, or the hot core of a dead sun.

Astronomers have suspected for decades that white dwarfs crystallized, but only recently were able to verify the hypothesis.

A paper detailing the discovery has been submitted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters for publication.

..........................

I like this story because it's news about the universe. But mostly, I like the phrase, "The hunk of celestial bling ..."

Not just hot for John F'in K...
 

Here's a morsel that's so scandalously rich that it deserves a mention. It's about Alexandra Polier, the purported paramour of the Dem's candidate of the moment...
...........................................

:from today's NY Daily News and it's by Lloyd Grove:

"Alexandra in cyberspace"

Before her 15 minutes of fame are up, we have maybe 30 seconds to share the fascinating Friendster profile of someone identified as Alexandra Polier.
That's the same name as the 27-year-old Columbia journalism grad who has denied as "completely false" the Internet and British tabloid rumors of a "relationship" with Democratic presidential frontrunner John Kerry.

The Friendster profile reads:

"About Me: just another hot piece of a- with a philosophy degree and a love for old movies. I'm afraid of death, hospitals and insects. I can't spell. I like old people. I want to travel the world reporting on injustices while taking the time to enjoy an umbrella drink when appropriate."

There's no way of knowing for sure if these colorful and provocative musings were really posted by Polier, but after checking with folks who know her, I believe they were.

Yesterday, a person listed by the "online social networking community" as a Friendster "friend" said that yes, it's the same Alexandra Polier.

The cyberspace Polier is identified as a "member since May 2003" and mostly recently logged in last Friday, as the nonscandal was reaching critical mass. She didn't respond to Lowdown's E-mail asking for verification.

Some profile highlights:

"Occupation: journalist/socialite... Status: Open Marriage...Hometown: Malvern, Pa....Interests: doting on Yaron, reading bad novels, wedding planning, drinking too much...Who I Want to Meet: A spastic, compulsive, insatiable, well-dressed Israeli, with big blue eyes, a philosophy degree, and a cute infant nephew."

"Yaron" is apparently a reference to Yaron Schwartzman, the noncyberspace Polier's fiance, an Israeli raised in Kenya.

...................

Curiously entertaining...

Want some sexism with your cool new technology?
 

This is from today's Wired News - I get it in my Inbox:
.................
She, Robot

In an unusual example of drama queens collaborating with computer geeks, Carnegie Mellon University has created what it calls the world's first robot receptionist. Valerie, a blond "roboceptionist" whose digitally animated face appears on a computer display, uses motion-detection technology to greet visitors at the entrance to a computer science hall. She answers the phone and gives directions -- although visitors must type their questions in using a keyboard. And, like a stereotypical receptionist, Valerie likes to gossip about her life, including her psychotherapy sessions, her dream of being a lounge singer and her motherboard's tendency to nag her about her social life. One of the writers who created Valerie's character admitted, "After a while on the job, she gets testy. But she can be charming too."
................

How come when "hip" journalists type like that, they're not called sexist and ridiculed?

Sounds like the creators of "Valerie" need some attitude upgrades of their own...

Is this sexism, or just stereotyping the deskbound go-betweens that serve as a company's first interface? I think you'd need to have a particular sort of character to do such a job, and that's not necessarily to say that these are particularly female traits.
Why aren't there more male receptionists? Would we all rather be welcomed by a woman? I know I would, so maybe that's it.

want some racism with your cool new technology?

To continue the Asimovian theme, here's a satire on some of the more unsavoury opinions expounded in the UK's gutter press (The Sun, News of the World, Daily Mail, etc.); as featured in today's right-on Guarniad.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,38...103390,00.html

____________________________________________________

Comment
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can robots get asylum?
John O'Farrell
Friday February 20, 2004
The Guardian

This week the world's most advanced human-shaped robot has been performing to amazed audiences at the Science Museum. The gig was booked after weeks of haggling with his agent. "I'm sorry, but my boy is not sharing a dressing room with the Dalek. He gets star room number one, with a whole crate of WD40 and top billing above the animatronic Gollum."

The new Japanese robot is called Asimo, short for "Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility" (and it was also his grandfather's middle name). He really does possess an incredibly advanced range of human skills. He can walk up and down. He can shake hands. He can wave. Apparently the royal family are worried he might make them completely redundant. Asimo will even stride towards you and offer an outstretched hand as a greeting, except for the teenage version, which barely looks round and just grunts from the sofa.

All week crowds at the Science Museum have gasped as the robot has followed orders to walk up steps, walk down steps, turn around and come back. While the security guard stood there thinking: "Well I can do that! Walking up steps, that's easy. But does anybody ever ask me? Oh no, I just stand here being ignored while they applaud that stupid robot doing things I could do when I was two." There are fears that Asimo's new-found celebrity status may be getting out of hand. He's already been photographed for the Party People section of the colour supplements, chatting with weathergirl Suzanne Charlton and the drummer from the Darkness and saying: "Of course, I love performing; but what I really want to do is direct."

Asimo is small, only 1.2m, and looks like an extra from a science fiction film. He is connected to the internet, so he can provide all sorts of useful information for his owner, like how to get your android a penis enlargement. He can recognise different voices and walk in different directions, and in a decade they're hoping he might even fetch sticks. A lot is being made of his highly developed ability to walk down stairs, with no credit, apparently, being given to his British forerunner: the Slinky.

The Japanese may well make the cleverest little robots, but we can still pride ourselves on making the hardest. In a straightforward fight, Asimo wouldn't stand a chance against one of those destructive monsters from Robot Wars. We can feel a surge of patriotic pride as we imagine Asimo being sliced in two by Mr Psycho's rotating blade, while a strange man in an anorak impassively wiggles his remote control behind the screen.

The long-term plan must be that these sorts of automatons will eventually do all sorts of jobs currently undertaken by humans. But the question that everyone's asking is: what is there to stop all these foreign robots coming over here and signing on the dole? Once you let them in, they'll take advantage of our generous benefits system and bring in all their robot relations and we'll just be swamped. Because, while the science pages of our newspapers have been getting excited about the potential of robots to do all the boring menial work that no one wants to do, the tabloid editorials have been fretting that lots of eastern Europeans are about to pour into the country to do all the boring menial work that no one wants to do.

I mean, who's going to pay a Slovakian girl £3 an hour to iron all the duvet covers when you can buy a robot to do it for under £10m? So obviously we have to spend billions developing computerised labour-saving devices, since the alternative is letting foreigners into the country.

I'm sure there is a good reason for developing computerised androids, if only to inspire hundreds of would-be screen-writers into depicting a nightmarish future in which the robots rebel and turn on their masters. Our economy badly needs labour, but give me a friendly Polish painter and decorator over a Japanese robot any day. This robot has been developed by Honda and if he's anything like the Honda I used to have, when the weather's cold you'll have to push him along and jump on him to get him started.

But at least this week potential immigrants have seen a way they might be welcomed into our society. All they need to do is stick on a robot costume and they will be completely accepted. And then, just to be sure, they should scan the Daily Mail editorials and in a monotone electronic voice comment: "I agree there is already far too much immigration." And all the English people will say: "Goodness, these robots are just as intelligent as we are." Which frankly isn't saying a great deal.

____________________________________________________

A highly conversational style seems to be positively encouraged by this newspaper. The results are often more entertaining than here, but I thought the subject matter relevant and interesting.

I saw some great shots of this somewhere. Can't remember but hell, it was quite a (strange) mess!

Close Call You Probably Never Heard About!
 

Last month we could have been in a big fat RED ALERT mode - not from terrorists but from OUTER SPACE!

We would have been thrown into major PANIC MODE - we were so close!!!

Read on to see what the heck we missed by a hair:

...................................

Earth almost put on impact alert

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

Astronomers have revealed how they came within minutes of alerting the world to a potential asteroid strike last month.
Some scientists believed on 13 January that a 30m object, later designated 2004 AS1, had a one-in-four chance of hitting the planet within 36 hours.

It could have caused local devastation and the researchers contemplated a call to President Bush before new data finally showed there was no danger.

The procedures for raising the alarm in such circumstances are now being revised.

At the time, the president's team would have been putting the final touches to a speech he was due to make the following day at the headquarters of Nasa, the US space agency.

In it he planned to reset the course of manned spaceflight, sending it back to the Moon and on to Mars, but he could have had something very different to say.


"If... the call had been made to the president it would have been disastrous."
-Brian Marsden, Minor Planet Center

He could have begun by warning the world it was about to be hit by a space rock.
Bush would not have known where it would impact - only somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Experts would have been bouncing radar signals off the huge rock as he spoke in order to get more information about its trajectory.

At about 30m wide, the asteroid was cosmic small fry, not the type of thing to wipe out the dinosaurs or threaten our species, but still big enough to cause considerable damage after exploding in the atmosphere.

Potentially, the loss of life could have been much worse than 11 September.

In the end, Bush made no such announcement, but astronomers have admitted they were on the verge of making the call.

Shall we call the President?

In a paper presented at this week's Planetary Protection conference in California, veteran asteroid researcher Clark Chapman calls it a "nine-hour crisis".

He explains how word reached the astronomical community of an asteroid that had just been discovered by the twin optical telescopes of the Linear automated sky survey in New Mexico.


The Minor Planet Center in Massachusetts - the clearing house for such observations - posted details on the internet requesting attention from astronomers, one of whom noticed something peculiar.
The object was expected to grow 40-times brighter in the next day - a possible sign that it was getting closer, very rapidly.

But with data from just four observations available, the uncertainties were large. There were many possible orbits the object could be on, and the majority of them did not threaten the Earth.

What to do? Tell the world about the uncertain situation or wait for more data?

For some astronomers, events reached a crescendo when Steven Chesley, a researcher at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, looked at the available data and sent an e-mail saying the asteroid had a 25% chance of striking the Earth's Northern Hemisphere in a few days.

It was then that astronomers Clark Chapman and David Morrison, chair of the International Astronomical Union's Working Group on Near Earth Objects, contemplated picking up the telephone to the White House.

'Jumped the gun'

But many astronomers did not agree that waking up President Bush would have been wise.

"They completely misread the situation," said Benny Peiser of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. "There was plenty of time to get other observers on the job."

Others also believe the call would have been premature.

"That would have jumped the gun before we knew much about the object," said Brian Marsden, of the Minor Planet Center.

"I find it incredible that such action was contemplated on the basis of just four observations. That is just not enough to yield a sensible orbit.
"There was no need to panic as it was obvious that the situation would have been resolved, one way or another, in another hour or two," he told BBC News Online.

Fortunately for all concerned, shortly after the ominous Chesley e-mail, an amateur astronomer managed to dodge the clouds and take a picture of a blank patch of sky.

This was significant because if 2004 AS1 really was going to hit the Earth, it would have been in the amateur's sights. The fact that it was absent meant the rock would not strike us.

But Chapman says in his presentation that if it had been cloudy, and no more observations could have been obtained at the time, he would have raised the alarm.

Marsden disagrees. "If it had been cloudy and the call had been made to the President it would have been disastrous."

Many astronomers recognise that they a false alarm could have brought ridicule on their profession. They are calling for more planning and less panic if it should happen for real next time.

And 2004 AS1? It turned out to be bigger than anyone had thought - about 500m wide. It eventually passed the Earth at a distance of about 12 million km - 32 times the Earth-Moon distance, posing no danger to us whatsoever.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...re/3517319.stm

Published: 2004/02/24 17:33:49 GMT

..............................................

Just think of how MUCH WORSE IT COULD HAVE ALKMOST BEEN than it is!!!

Makes ya stop and think, does it not?

so inspiring it kills
 

Woman dies watching Christ film
From correspondents in Salt Lake City
27feb04

A WOMAN watching Mel Gibson's new film The Passion of the Christ collapsed during the the final, bloody crucifixion scene and later died.

While people were helping the woman, identified as 57-year-old Peggy Law Scott, in Wichita, Kansas, the lights were turned on and moviegoers were ushered out. She later died at a hospital. No cause of death was immediately given.
The opening of The Passion of the Christ drew everyone from conservative churchgoers to confrontational New Yorkers more than willing to roll out their soapboxes as screenings got under way across the United States.

But the gore - and in some cases, church rules - kept some of the most devout Christians away.

In Salt Lake City, curiosity about the film among many Mormons was outweighed by church teachings that discourage viewing R-rated movies, which are not recommended for people under 17 years old.

"I don't think our Lord would want me to see an R-rated film about his son," said 20-year-old Shawn Watts, a Mormon missionary.

Watts said he was intrigued but would need permission from his bishop, since missionaries are not allowed to watch films or television under church protocol. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stresses family values and frowns upon members seeing R-rated films.

Despite concerns about violence and accusations that the film fuels anti-Semitism, The Passion made a bundle on its Ash Wednesday opening.

The movie took in an estimated $US15 million to $US20 million ($19.49 million to $25.99 million) after just one day of release, remarkable for a religious-themed movie. It opened in more than 3000 theatres in the United States - an unusually large release for a religious film with English subtitles to translate the Latin and Aramaic its characters speak.

Among the legions that saw The Passion, many streamed out of movie theatres feeling as if they themselves had been through a flogging.

"It sort of felt like you were coming to watch an execution," said Peter Hitchins, whose wife, Amy, wiped away tears as they left a movie theatre in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"It's a little bit more brutal than you would think," said a sobbing Kim Galbreath, 29, in the Dallas suburb of Plano in Texas. "I mean, there were times when you felt like it was too much. But I dare anybody not to believe after watching it."

Directed, produced and co-written by Gibson, the film has received mixed reviews from critics. Some have praised Gibson's commitment to his subject. Others see it as excessively bloody, obsessed with cruelty and unfair in its portrayal of Jews.

Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League who saw The Passion before opening day, said he was still worried about reactions to the film when it comes out in places like Argentina and Europe, where there has been less debate about its content.

"We know the power of images, and we know the power of a star with a reputation around the world, and this concerns us," Foxman said.

In New York, famous for its love of raucous debate, members of the New Black Panther Party gathered outside a theatre, saying the film's biggest problem is obvious: Jesus wasn't white.

"We call this the greatest story never told," said Divine Allah, a youth minister in the group, citing a biblical verse that describes Jesus with woolly hair and brown skin.

Even People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sounded off in the Big Apple - but this time, it was in support of the film, which they said underscored the brutality of violence.

"It points out our belief in the unacceptability of violence and how animals suffer the same pain humans do," said Corinne Ferraro, 29.

.................................

There' just so darn much that's curiously entertaining about this movie that it has set a new mark in the annals of weirdness.

I'm sorry, I just can't take Mel Gibson seriously - as an actor, director, producer, or thinker.
..................................

I guess I'm not the only one who feels this way:

'I'm not going to spend $9 just for a few
laughs'

-- CBS's Andy Rooney to Don Imus on
why he won't see PASSION OF CHRIST....

Here's one for you, ART...
 

Man wears diaper to apply for job
February 26, 2004 (Pequannock, New Jersey) — Dress for success probably doesn't include wearing a diaper.

Authorities in northern New Jersey charge that William Rhode the Third went to a Roman Catholic school seeking a job application. Police say the 53-year-old Paterson man was wearing a diaper and pink stretch pants. According to police, Rhode pooped in his diaper when officials at the Holy Spirit School refused to give him a job application.

Police caught him a short time later near a local supermarket.

He faces child endangerment charges and is being held on $75,000 bail. A judge has also ordered a mental exam for Rhode.


Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
..............
How do you like the pooping on cue? Crazy.
I thought I'd lighten the tone after the Passion post :)

yes, txlovely,
I hear there are web sites for these folks.
I guess he mistook real life for one a' them there deals...

I have a fond appreciation for debunkology - the art and science of debunking myths that are promolgated among us regarding things like what is and what is not healthful.

Here's several debunkological items that crossed my desk last week. The site they're from is pretty good on a regular basis. There's a radio spot that's produced in which the transcripts are first published.
.......................

February 26, 2004:
Fascinating Medical News II
Interview with Dr. Dean Edell, author of Life, Liberty & The Pursuit Of Healthiness


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Carruthers:
People tend to get more colds in the cold weather, but
you can't catch a cold by being out in the cold.

Dean Edell:
We've thrown naked people into snow banks, and put
them in freezers multiple times to try to disprove
this one. And basically the cold weather has nothing
to do with it, except that in the cold weather we go
indoors more and viruses transmit more easily indoors,
and that's why you get more colds in the winter.

Dr. Dean Edell, author of the book Life, Liberty & The
Pursuit Of Healthiness, says people who carry
around water bottles with them all day may be overdoing it a little.

There've been two studies recently to find that you
just don't need to take 8 glasses of water a day,
because everything you eat is water; vegetables are
95% water, white bread is 40% water, steak is 60%
water. So it's a myth that you need to drink all this water.

And Dr. Edell says the latest research on vitamin
supplements is more than a little discouraging.

Most of the big double-blind studies where you give
half the people real vitamins and supplements, half
the people phony ones, find them worthless. Once again
don't shoot the messenger; I'm just conveying the
scientific evidence. As a matter of fact there may be
a government warning coming out warning certain groups
of people not to take antioxidants. For instance, smokers
get more cancer when they take antioxidants. We're
not exactly sure why this is, but the studies with
vitamin E, and vitamin C, and vitamin A, and all the B
vitamins have shown no impact on heart disease and
cancer.

somethingyoushouldknow.net

To my way of thinging the definitions of "superstition" and "religion" could be conveniently conflated.

Existentially, I don't see a difference - except that religion is typically infused with massive doses of wishful thinking and mind-numbing socio-psychological pressure.

As a political conservative, I part company with those who prefer a blend of politics and religion. But, judging by the box office of the film in question, there does seem to be the standard combo of religion and superstition in equal doses as reported below:

.................
'666' On 'Passion' Tickets Causes Stir

Associated Press
POSTED: 10:16 am EST March 1, 2004
UPDATED: 1:51 pm EST March 1, 2004

ROME, Ga. -- Tickets at one movie theater screening Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" are being deemed decidedly unholy.

The number 666, which many Christians recognize as the "mark of the beast," is appearing on movie tickets for Gibson's film at a Georgia theater, drawing complaints from some moviegoers.

The machine that prints tickets assigned the number 666 as a prefix on all the tickets for the film, said Gary Smith, owner of the Movies at Berry Square in northwest Georgia. The 666 begins a series of numbers that are listed below the name of the movie, the date, time and price.

"It's from our computer and it's absolutely a coincidence," Smith said. "It has nothing to do with the film company or any vendor. It's completely in our computer."

In the Bible, the book of Revelation says 666 is the "number of the beast," usually interpreted as Satan or the Antichrist.

Several patrons have made comments about the numbers, and one person who was uncomfortable having 666 on her ticket asked for a pass to be substituted for a ticket.

"A lot of people have asked what the numbers mean, some said it seemed odd, some said it was inappropriate," said theater employee Erica Diaz.

The movie, which opened Wednesday, is a bloody depiction of Christ's final hours and crucifixion.

I forget where I put my wallet and my keys. I forget people's names. I forget a lot of things. I like it that way. I think it would be excruciating to have a memory as good as do these folks:

............................................


The Masters of Memory Lane By Michelle Delio
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62492,00.html

02:00 AM Mar. 02, 2004 PT

NEW YORK -- A few hours ago we had been a small crowd of strangers. But we quickly became a support group, desperately trying to convince each other that mediocre memory skills don't necessarily imply a complete lack of intelligence.

Humiliated by the scene taking place in front of us, it was hard to recall we'd started the day feeling somewhat smug about our own mental abilities. After all, who spends a beautiful springlike Saturday watching a memory competition but people who figure that they, too, are reasonably intelligent?

But it sure was hard not to feel stupid watching three dozen people who had, in just five minutes, memorized the positions of 52 cards in a shuffled deck and were now happily organizing cards in a new deck into the same order as the pack they had memorized.

"I can feel my brain curling up into a fetal position in shame," whispered one onlooker, who identified himself as a professor of statistical science at a New York university. "I feel very small and very ... limited right now."

We couldn't even comfort ourselves with the idea that the people standing on stage were an elite group with a particular penchant for instant recall. The organizers and competitors in the seventh annual U.S. Memory Championship, held in New York on Saturday, had already taken pains to tell us that we too could perform amazing feats like memorizing a string of 100-plus random numbers if we just practiced.

"This is making me nauseous. I have brain cramps," said Nancy Heeden, a graphic artist who attended the event. "I feel like I should just go home, read a crappy romance novel and give up all my pretensions of being an intellectual. I'm not worthy."

After a series of five tests that apparently were more grueling for onlookers than for contestants, the title of U.S. Memory Champion was won by Scott Hagwood, a one-time engineer from Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Hagwood has won the title three times previously, and will now represent the United States in the 2004 World Memory Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this September. Hagwood didn't come in first in all the contests on Saturday, but he aced the card memorization test, accurately recalling each card's position in his deck in just over two minutes.

That skill will come in handy in the international competition, which evidently makes the national games look like child's play.

The three-day international event pits mnemonic experts from around the globe in competitions that include memorizing a previously unpublished and non-rhyming lengthy poem in 15 minutes, and writing it down complete with proper spelling and punctuation; memorizing a list of 400 random words and reciting them back in order; and the dreaded "binary competition," in which competitors have a half hour to memorize a random string of thousands of 1s and 0s.

In last year's international competition, Hagwood managed to recall 552 numbers in the binary string. Competitor Gunther Karsten remembered 3,009. Hagwood came in 12th out of 46 contestants in 2003; this year he hopes to place in the top five.

Hagwood said he wasn't born with an outstanding ability to memorize, and claims anyone can learn the skill. There are specific techniques that mnemonic masters use -- such as associating images with each number and suit when memorizing card positions -- but in general it all comes down to keeping your brain synapses in good working order.

To do that, Hagwood, who gives seminars on how to improve memory skills, advises people to use their non-dominant hand in daily chores, do crosswords and puzzles, play chess, take a different route on your daily commute, learn to tango, play an instrument and speak another language.

No matter how challenging your job is, it isn't demanding enough. Brains thrive on constant challenge, so presenting them with the same activities that they already excel at doesn't keep the gray matter in top shape. You can, however, substitute the waltz for tango lessons -- just ensure that you have a good balance of fresh thinking and activities built into your life.

Online memory games and exercises are provided for the curious or the hopeful memory contestant in training, including a series of exercises offered by the reigning world memory champ, Andi Bell. Bell recently memorized the positions of 52 cards in 100 decks, and then answered questions such as "What is the 17th card in the 22nd deck?"

He got 89 out of 100 questions right, and ruefully says it wasn't his best performance.

The way this is written is curiously entertaining to me. It's from the Sydney Morning Herald...

I especially like the parts about "armour-piercing warhead(s)"

..................

Viagra users' sperm short on firepower
Date: April 27 2004


Men who use the anti-impotence drug Viagra could be impairing their fertility, say scientists, after laboratory experiments indicated the drug can damage sperm.

They are now warning younger men to use caution before taking the drug recreationally.

Researchers from Queen's University in Belfast found that sperm exposed to Viagra became more active. But at the same time a mechanism used by sperm to penetrate the egg wall during fertilisation was greatly speeded up.

Known as the "acrosome reaction", it involves firing an armour-piercing warhead of digestive enzymes at the egg.

If the sperm release their "ammunition" too early, before reaching the egg, they do not get another shot and are rendered infertile. The study showed that this was likely to happen to sperm exposed to Viagra.

The university's Sheena Lewis said: "The fact that this sperm function is impaired by the presence of Viagra is worrying."

The scientists, who presented their findings to a recent British Fertility Society conference, studied 45 samples of semen. Half were treated in the lab with a dose of Viagra equivalent to the amount in the blood of a man who has taken a 100-milligram pill.

These sperm were found to be more motile than untreated sperm: they had more energy and moved around more.

This would normally be considered a positive effect, since sperm motility is linked to fertility. But the extra energy given to the sperm also seemed to speed up the acrosome reaction. Most of the untreated sperm spontaneously released their acrosome enzymes after about three hours.

But sperm exposed to Viagra released the enzymes after only one hour. Although no attempt was made to fertilise eggs, this was too fast to have allowed successful fertilisation in a real-life situation.

Dr Lewis said while Viagra had become popular for sexual enhancement, men should exercise caution if hoping to start a family.

Robotic Cones!
 

This one just passed my screen today and it's already one of my favorite stories. I have a bunch of traffic cones around here and use them all the time for setting off work or roadway areas. I guess I just like the image of these robotic self-propelled shapes moving around on their own. The whole story is fascinating...

...............

Robotic traffic cones swarm onto highways


19:00 28 April 04

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition.

Herds of robotic traffic cones could soon be swarming onto a highway, closing down lanes and slowing the traffic.

The new road markers have been developed by Shane Farritor, a roboticist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in a bid to help reduce the $100 billion per year that the Department of Transportation estimates is lost to the US economy through accidents and delays caused by highway lane closures.

The self-propelled markers take the form of robotic three-wheeled bases for the brightly coloured barrels that are set out to demarcate road repair zones. Farritor says they can open and close traffic lanes faster and more safely than humans.

The markers are delivered to the roadside by a specially equipped truck, from which an operator controls their deployment using a laptop computer. Each fleet of robots is made up of a lead robot or "shepherd", which is equipped with a Global Positioning System satellite navigation receiver, plus a number of less expensive "dumb" units.

The laptop screen displays an image of the road, captured by a camera mounted on top of the truck. Using software developed by Farritor's team, the operator marks on the screen where the barrels should be placed.


Dead reckoning


From this the software calculates the GPS coordinates of the point where the shepherd should be placed, and this is sent to the shepherd via a radio link. The shepherd takes up its position, and also tells the other markers, by radio, where to go. They then use dead reckoning - counting how many times their wheels turn, for instance - to work out their position.

Each robotic base has two electric motors, powered by a 12-volt lead-acid battery, which drive two 20-centimetre-diameter wheels. This allows the robot bases to turn on the spot, and travel at up to 1.3 metres per second - about walking pace.

The shepherd checks its "sheep" are in the right place using a laser-based radar (or "lidar") system to correct any positional errors. The lidar also has a safety role. If a marker is detected consistently straying out of position, the shepherd moves it out of harm's way and shuts it down.

On a test track, Farritor and his team used a swarm of six markers to form wedge-shaped lane barriers. He says they were able to achieve an accuracy close to that of humans.


Cost cutting


"Our tests proved these robots can work in teams to provide traffic control," he says. "Deploying and retrieving highway markers on open roads is hazardous so the robots will reduce risks for workmen," he adds.

Farritor says the next steps will be to improve the graphical positioning software on the PC and to cut the cost of the cones so the idea can be commercialised.

The prototypes cost $700 each, but the team aims to reduce that to $200 by using cheaper motors. "At that price I believe the savings will mean it will still be affordable if one dies in the line of duty," he says.

Andrew Howard, head of road safety for the AA Motoring Trust in the UK, welcomed the idea. "They could be a big help on lanes that are shut during quiet times and reopened during peak traffic periods," he says.

two very interesting stories Art,

as for the first one, I am curious if they are long term effects, only time will tell. but I wouldn't think that anyone taking viagra was interested in having 'that' night be the one where they conceived their child. but they could be.

the second one was cool. despite the fact that it would reduce jobs for people who are not as educated as a robotics engineer, it could save lives and help expediate work done by the DOT.

yeah...
I like thinking of them rubber dunce hats getting a high-tech upgrade!

!!!Childless couple told to try sex !!!
 

Childless couple told to try sex

A German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage have found out why they are still childless - they weren't having sex.

The University Clinic of Lubek said they had never heard of a case like it after examining the couple who went to see them last month for fertility tests.

Doctors subjected them to a series of examinations and found they were both apparently fertile, and should have had no trouble conceiving.

A clinic spokesman said: "When we asked them how often they had had sex, they looked blank, and said: "What do you mean?".

"We are not talking retarded people here, but a couple who were brought up in a religious environment who were simply unaware, after eight years of marriage, of the physical requirements necessary to procreate."

The 30-year-old wife and her 36-year-old husband are now being given sex therapy lessons while the university clinic undertakes a study to try to find out if there are more couples with a similar lack of sex education.

...

heh heh.

Story from Ananova today - linked from Drudge.

dog days of justice

N.Y. Lawyer Fined for Barking at Witness

May 21, 7:27 AM (ET)

By SAMUEL MAULL

NEW YORK (AP) - A lawyer who barked like a dog at a witness during a deposition has been fined $8,500 for misconduct and harassment of opponents.

The lawyer, David Fink, made false statements, failed to comply with court orders and engaged in frivolous conduct during a breach of contract suit over home furnishing designs, Manhattan state Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos said.

Fink's client Carl Levine represents designers of home furnishings to manufacturers and other licensees. He sued a married couple, Laurette Angsten and Kit Kittle, alleging they did not pay him money they owed for marketing their products.

During a deposition in which Kittle was giving sworn statements on Jan. 16, 2002, he referred to letters he had received from Fink. He called them threatening, "mad dog lawyer" letters, according to Kittle's lawyer, Samuel Friedman.

At the continuation of the deposition the next day, Friedman said, Fink started barking like a dog when Kittle was asked about the letters by Donald Creadore, the lawyer who had taken over Levine's case from Fink.

Friedman said Fink "behaved in a very mocking manner, making the witness feel intimidated, speaking over other people and making it difficult for the court reporter to record much of anything."

Friedman complained to Ramos about Fink's behavior.

"Mr. Fink was barking up the wrong tree," the lawyer quipped as he recalled the deposition. "I don't know what motivated him to bark."

After having a special referee review Fink's behavior, Ramos followed the recommendations and fined Fink, according to the judge's 54-page decision, which was published Thursday. The lawyer had already been assessed another $1,400 for previous misconduct in the case.

The special referee also recommended that Ramos report Fink to the disciplinary committee that monitors lawyers' conduct. Ramos' decision did not reveal whether he reported Fink, and Friedman said he did not know whether the judge had done so.

Fink did not return calls for comment. Creadore said he had no comment.

Meanwhile, the judge ruled against Levine in the underlying case, saying he was not entitled to royalties or commissions from Kittle and Angsten.
.....

heh heh.
I appreciate the level of professionalism here...nyuk nyuk.

He should write a howl-to book.
Or maybe open a paw shop next to his office.
He could advertise his services in the bone book - cheaper than the Yellow (snow) Pages.
Then his clients could go next door and get the fang of it.

Something about unanticipated explosions seems curiously entertaining to me, I suppose:

BLACKSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - Warning: smoking in the toilet can be dangerous. A portable toilet exploded Tuesday after a man who was inside it lit a cigarette.

Emergency workers said the man was not severely injured and drove himself to Clay-Battelle Community Health Center. He was later transferred to Ruby Memorial Hospital. His name and condition were not available Wednesday.

The explosion, which occurred in Blacksville, resulted from a buildup of methane gas inside the portable toilet. The methane did not "take too kindly" to the lit cigarette, said a spokeswoman for Monongalia Emergency Medical Services.

Jul 15, 7:25 AM (ET)

Georgia Man's Pants Explode !
 

I guess this is becoming the odd explosions thread.
It's entirely coincidental, far as I can tell.
But every time I think of adding to it - it turns out it's another explosive development...

...............................................
From Fox News:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,127839,00.html

Georgia Man's Pants Explode!

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

A Georgia man's experience only goes to prove what most people take as common sense: Don't try to mix dangerous chemicals in your pants.

According to newspaper reports, three Walker County social workers were visiting Daniel Gabriel Doyle, 39, of LaFayette, last Tuesday. As he sat in their car filling out paperwork, his pants exploded.

"He kept fiddling with his front right pants pocket," Patrick Stanfield, commander of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force, told the Walker County Messenger. "All of a sudden, a loud bang happened, and fire shot from his pocket. It damaged the inside of the state vehicle and burned clothing on the case workers."

Apparently, Doyle had combined red phosphorus (search) and iodine (search), two chemicals used to make methamphetamine, in a film canister. He then stuck the canister in his pocket when the social workers showed up.

"He didn't know what he was doing, and it started boiling on his leg," Stanfield said.

The reaction of the two chemicals heats up to about 278 degrees Fahrenheit before exploding, according to the Messenger.

"The state might have to destroy the vehicle," Stanfield said. "The car is contaminated now."

Sheriff's deputies found a meth lab on the premises and arrested Tammy Conley, 29, as well as Doyle, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The case workers were treated for minor injuries in LaFayette. Doyle was taken to Erlanger Medical Center (search) in nearby Chattanooga, Tenn., with second- and third-degree burns to his testicles and leg.

By Friday he was in the Walker County Jail, charged with manufacture and possession of methamphetamine.

"That was one for the books," Walker County sheriff's Maj. Hill Morrison told the Journal-Constitution. "I've been in this business for more than 35 years, and that's a first."

Very entertaining read, Art -

I find it amazing that a group of scientists are convinced that a space rock is potentially going to cause massive destruction when it collides with earth, and yet when I read about the incident it seems like it was published almost as an afterthought...

I would be interested in other near-false alarms we have had in other large scale destruction incidents...

A Profile in Leadership
 

During this US election year, it's always good to have some perspective on some of the alternatives that are out there for running countries. Here's one that is both tragic and humorous in perverse ways...

This guy makes the differences between Bush and Kerry look very minor by comparison.
.................................................

Swaziland's spendthrift King takes his 13th wife

By Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent
06 September 2004

While his tiny country reels under the burdens of mismanagement, food shortages and Africa's worst Aids crisis, the attention of Swaziland's young King Mswati remains focused on his own lavish lifestyle.

Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarch, has reportedly chosen a 16-year-old girl to become his 13th wife after an annual ceremony at which thousands of bare-breasted girls were paraded for him to pick a new consort.

The girl, a Miss Teenage Swaziland finalist, is now in seclusion after being taken by Mswati's royal guards. The 36-year-old king caused a furore earlier this year when he announced plans to invest more than £5.6m in building palaces for each of his wives. He was earlier forced to drop plans to spend £28m on a jet for his exclusive use. The deal fell through but the kingdom lost a £2.8m downpayment.

Despite the mass poverty in his country, Mswati's authoritarian rule and extravagance have become legendary in Africa. He can close newspapers at will, and overturn court decisions.

Apart from the annual inxwala reed dance festival, at which bare-breasted girls parade before him, Mswati can send his bodyguards to abduct into the royal household any girl of his choosing at any other time.

That habit plunged his kingdom into chaos last year when a mother took Mswati to court demanding that he return her 18-year-old daughter. But Lindiwe Dlamini lost her battle when her daughter, Zena Mahlangu, opted for the lavish lifestyle of Mswati's royal household over the poverty that afflicts more than 90 per cent of Mswati's 1.2 million subjects.

Critics have accused the king of not setting a good example in a country ravaged by Aids. About 40 per cent of all adults are infected. But he has shown no signs of relenting.

Mswati inherited the country at the age of 18 from his father, King Sobhuza, who died in 1982, aged 83. King Sobhuza officially had about 120 wives but unofficial estimates say the number was even higher

from: http://news.independent.co.uk

washingtonpost.com
Between Metro and Cell User, a Disconnect
Officer Shoves, Arrests Pregnant Woman Over Loud Call
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2004; Page A01


Sakinah Aaron was walking into the bus area at the Wheaton Metro station several weeks ago, talking loudly on her Motorola cell phone. A little too loudly for Officer George Saoutis of the Metro Transit Police.

The police officer told Aaron, who is five months pregnant, to lower her voice. She told the officer he had no right to tell her how to speak into her cell phone.

Their verbal dispute quickly escalated, and Saoutis grabbed Aaron by the arm and pushed her to the ground. He handcuffed the 23-year-old woman, called for backup and took her to a cell where she was held for three hours before being released to her aunt. She was charged with two misdemeanors: "disorderly manner that disturbed the public peace" and resisting arrest.

Those are the facts on which both sides agree.

They interpret the events of Sept. 9 very differently.

Transit Police and some Metro officials say Saoutis was protecting the peace by removing a woman who had overstepped the boundaries of civil behavior because she was loudly cursing into her phone.

They say that cell phones have become just another instrument of loutish behavior in the public space and that they are fighting a dramatic deterioration of manners in the transit system.

"We need better enforcement to allow people to know we are serious and want to maintain the high-quality level of the system," said Robert J. Smith, chairman of the Metro board, adding that "ranting youth" have become a plague on the subway. "This isn't Montana. We live in a very dense region, and people are on top of each other all the time."

Smith, who refuses to carry a cell phone, said he thinks Metro riders need to use the devices with care. "We wouldn't allow someone to come into the U.S. Capitol Rotunda and shout obscenities into a cell phone," he said.

But Aaron and some defenders of free speech say the Transit Police are the ones who overstepped boundaries by making a crime out of conversation and pushing a pregnant woman to her knees. The incident took place out of doors and not in the confines of a rail car or bus, they note.

And they point to a string of other incidents, including the July arrest of a 45-year-old woman for chewing a PayDay candy bar and the 2000 arrest of a 12-year-old girl for eating a french fry, that are earning the Transit Police a national reputation as an agency itching to lock up riders.

"Technically, the police officer is right, but the result is wrong," said D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who represents the city on the Metro board. "How do we prevent minor transgressions escalating into major problems? It's not what any of us want. We don't want pregnant women booked for loud cell phone conversations. We don't want 12-year-old girls in handcuffs for eating a single french fry. Whether it's training or guidance to our officers, we have to do something."

Johnny Barnes, executive director of the Washington area chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, called Aaron's arrest "troubling."

"There seems to be an unusual attention paid to activities of patrons," Barnes said. "One should be able to ride the Metro and exercise a range of rights without fear of intervention from Metro police."

Aaron, who lives in Silver Spring and works as a clerk at the Food and Drug Administration, said she was talking to her fiance on her cell phone as she walked toward the bus bay about 4:45 p.m. Sept. 9 to catch the Route C4 Metrobus.

"Our phone conversation had ended," she said. "I'm walking down the stairs and the transit cop said, 'You have to lower your voice, ma'am.' I said, 'You can't tell me how loud I can talk.' He said, 'I can arrest you,' and he grabbed my arm. I said, 'What are you doing? I'm pregnant! Oh, so you want to flex some muscle today?' He grabbed my hand, and we struggled."

Aaron acknowledged that she was loud on the phone but said she wasn't cursing and lobbed a profanity only after Saoutis grabbed her.

After her release that night, Aaron went to Holy Cross Hospital and was treated in the emergency room for a bruise she said was a result of Saoutis's pushing her to the ground and placing his knee on her upper back.

Saoutis, who is about to complete his first year on the job with the Transit Police, was not available for an interview yesterday, according to Deputy Chief Tim Gronau.

Gronau said his officer properly enforced the law and arrested Aaron because it was clear she wasn't taking his warning seriously.

"We're not either pro or negative cell phones," he said. "The issue is [that] the volume of her conversation, coupled with the language, is not conducive to socially accepted standards of behavior."

..............

Yeah, I think we can relate to this story. It used to be seeing folks at phonebooths - waving their hands expressively to everyone in view except the person they're talking to, cursing, yelling. Sometimes it's an entertaining diversion and sometimes it's downright criminal...I guess.

"This isn't Montana" - heh heh.

This one is pretty sad. The thing is though, for someone like myself, whose childhood religious tutelage was filled with amazing, miraculous, and terrible stories of Catholic saints, it has an eerie resemblance to those bizarre tales...

Indian girl who weeps stones in plea for help

By Justin Huggler in Delhi
19 October 2004


The girl who wept stones: it sounds like something out of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel. But according to reports from Jharkhand state in eastern India it is all too real.

A 15-year-old girl called Savitri been admitted to hospital suffering from tiny stones that emerge from the corners of her eyes. Doctors say they have never seen anything like it, and they cannot explain it.

At the girl's village in Jharkhand, they have two explanations. Either she is possessed by an evil spirit, or she is an incarnation of a goddess. But for Savitri, the condition is anything but a blessing. Before the stones emerge, she suffers from excruciating pain in her head. Tiny stones emerge from her ears, nose and mouth as well.

"In some cases, stones have come out from the nose and the ear of some people," said Dr Ragho Saran, an ear, nose and throat specialist who has treated Savitri. "But this is the first time I have even heard of stones coming out of the eyes. Stones are formed due to the high level of calcium in the body. But they are generally found in the gall bladder and kidney."

Savitri and her family are desperate for a cure. Her bedside at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science has been overrun by reporters, but the family say no one has been able to offer medical help.

from independent.co.uk

This one reminds me of a sitcom bit.
It's curiously and satisfyingly perverse, I think:
....................

2004-12-09 19:26:00

People drop sink down on car to shut the alarm up

The people, who live in one of Moscow's apartment blocks, were infuriated with the unceasing and irritating sound of the car alarm outside. Someone, who was desperately seeking silence and tranquility, dropped a sink down on the car. The car owner is grieving, but his neighbors are happy to enjoy the silence.

The press service of Moscow's southern police administration reported that someone threw a sink out of a window of apartment block 30 in Kaspiiski Street in Moscow. The sink fell down on the Zhiguli car, which was parked near the building. The sink considerably damaged the roof of the car. "The car owner reported the incident, but we have not been able to find the person, who threw the sink out of the window yet. Most likely, one of the neighbors did that to get rid of the long-lasting alarm noise that annoyed them at night," a police officer said.

It was not the first occurrence, when people lynched the owners of noisy cars. The car alarm disturbs too many people, who try to sleep in their homes at night after a hard day at work. One can call the police and complain of the car noise. The police will promise to take measures, although such measures do not bring any good, as a rule, and the honking goes on.

It is noteworthy that car owners could easily avoid people's anger - they only need to make their cars quiet. Everything depends on the alarm settings. Incorrect settings can make the car alarm even wind-sensitive.

from funreports.com

somehow, i dont think that would "fly" in the states.

Here's one that at this point in my life and the history of the world strikes me as so serious it's silly or so silly it's serious - so I post it here because it is curiously amusing to me in a sick sad way:

from The Washington Times online edition

Allah off the Richter scale


By Arnaud de Borchgrave
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


The killer wave that swallowed tens of thousands of Muslims was an act of Allah designed to punish the Christians. So went the convoluted logic of some Muslim imams in recent sermons from Saudi Arabia to the Palestinian territories.
If it weren't for the diligent monitoring of Muslim clerics by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), Americans would be in the dark about the outpourings of dangerous drivel fed to devout Muslims gathered in mosques for Friday prayers.

Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Munajiid explained God's tsunami punishment of Christians stemmed from "the Christian holidays [that] are accompanied by forbidden things, by immorality, abomination, adultery, alcohol, drunken dancing and revelry. A belly dancer costs 2,500 pounds a minute and a singer costs 50,000 pounds an hour, and they hop from one hotel to another from night to dawn.
"Then they spend the entire night defying Allah. ... At the height of immorality, Allah took revenge on these criminals. ... Allah struck them with an earthquake. He finished off the Richter scale. All nine levels gone."
In the same vein, Sheikh Mudeiris, at a Palestinian Friday sermon in Gaza, said, "When oppression and corruption increase, the law of equilibrium applies. I can see in your eyes you are wondering what is the 'universal law of equilibrium.' This law is a divine law. If people are remiss in implementing God's law and in being zealous and vengeful for His sake, Allah unleashes his soldiers in action to take revenge."
In Saudi Arabia, one of last year's measures to counter mosque-generated violence was a ban on imam's using the word "jihad," or holy warrior. But the content hadn't changed much without the banned word. Saudi cleric 'Aed Al-Qarni told the worshippers, "Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered. This is the path to victory." He was reacting to the death of a brother "killed by the brothers of apes and pigs, the murderers of the prophets." In case there was any doubt, he was referring to the Jews of Israel.
He then deplored lamented the lack of Muslim backbone: "One billion two hundred million nobodies. We are incapable of taking action, of being useful, of harming the Jews. The most people do today is to verbally protest over the TV channels or to demonstrate. What is the use of this? ... We must sacrifice people like Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, and Ahmad Yassin, and thousands of others. Houses and young men must be sacrificed. Throats must be slit and skulls must be shattered. This is the path to victory, to shahada and to sacrifice."
Imam Al-Qani went to explain the "idolatrous" people of Vietnam, Cambodia and South Africa, "nations with no calling or divine law make sacrifices ... in people, blood and souls. All the more reason we should too, the nation of Islam."
Saudi clerics have also urged Iraqis to resist "the American occupation of Iraq." They can urge jihad without the proscribed word for holy war.
Saudi Sheikh Fawzan Fawzan said God's unlisted number informed him the tsunami was punishment for homosexual behavior and fornication over Christmas, even if the victims are Muslims. "All that's left for us to do," he said, "is to ask for forgiveness. We must atone for our sins, and for the acts of the stupid people among us. ... We must fight fornication, homosexuality, usury, fight the corruption on the face of the Earth, and the disregard of the lives of protected people."

Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large of The Washington Times and of United Press International.


-------------------

Really now, what's to do about this sort of thing ?
At some point it's either read 'em and weep or note the absurdity of it all...and keep one's perspective...

This one's bound to become an urban legend. Ananova says it's true. Me? No idea. It's definitely curiously entertaining though...

...

Man peed way out of avalanche

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.

Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.

He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out.

But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through.

He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it, local media reported.

He said: "I was scooping the snow from above me and packing it down below the window, and then I peed on it to melt it. It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt. But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there."

Parts of Europe have this week been hit by the heaviest snowfalls since 1941, with some places registering more than ten feet of snow in 24 hours.

For an AP story, this leaves too much to the imagination. It doesn't even say a thing about "how" this would be possible - given feline anatomy and vehicular construction, not to mention aerodynamic realities. Well, I suppose that's what makes it "curiously entertaining"...

......................................


Cat Survives 10-Mile Trip on Top of Car

Mar 4, 7:29 AM (ET)


INKOM, Idaho (AP) - Torri Hutchinson's cat might just have one less life to live. Hutchison was driving along Interstate 15 one day recently when a motorist kept trying to get her attention and pointing to the roof of her car.

She said she was wary of the man, but wondered if perhaps her ski rack might have come loose.

She pulled over to the side, but kept her doors locked and the motor running.

The man pulled up behind her. Hutchinson rolled down her window to hear the man frantically shouting, "Your cat! Your cat!"

He reached for the roof of her car and handed the shocked Hutchinson her orange tabby.

She had driven about 10 miles with the cat on top of the car, and didn't even notice the feline when she stopped for gas.

Hutchinson said Cuddle Bug, or C.B. for short, had climbed into the back of her car as she was getting ready to leave. She put him out, but he must have jumped on the roof while she wasn't looking, she said.

............................

It was probably the ski rack, but still...

cooking with sperm
 

Here's a tasty tidbit that is sure to be curiously entertaining to some. It seems that semen is a condiment indistinguishable from sugar and lard. The pastry chef in question received a surprisingly small punishment - don't you think? - for chicaning to infuse his bodily fluid inside of unknowing strangers...

"
Teen Sends Student Semen-Frosted Brownies

Wed Mar 9, 9:08 PM ET

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - A teenager has agreed to admit to three counts of disturbing the peace after anonymously sending semen-frosted brownies to a fellow student. The recipient shared the treat with two other teens, police said.

They said the 17-year-old Coeur d'Alene High School student was upset after a prank in which the other student put peanut butter in his cheese sandwich days before. He told a school resource officer that "he hated peanut butter and it made him more mad than he could explain," according to the police report.

The teen later told School Resource Officer Jeff Walther that he got the idea of putting his semen on the brownies from the movie "National Lampoon's Van Wilder," in which characters send pastries filled with dog semen to a fraternity house.

The student was arrested and booked into a juvenile detention center. He has since been released on a judge's order that he has no contact with the students who ate the brownies.

The youth is to be sentenced on April 4 on the three misdemeanor counts, which are each punishable by up to 90 days in detention, prosecutors said.

The victims' parents were notified and the children were tested for anything that could have been transmitted through the body fluid, although Panhandle Health spokeswoman Susan Cuff said the chance of the students' health being affected would be "extremely remote."

School Superintendent Harry Amend declined comment on any school discipline against the teenager.


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...nk_2&printer=1

Dog's false lead in murder case
 

Here's one for you, Art!

From the BBC World Edition today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4334377.stm
......................................................
Dog's false lead in murder case


US prosecutors trying to crack a murder case realised they were barking up the wrong tree when one of their witnesses turned out to be a small dog.

They had been interested in talking to Murphy Smith since the main suspect sent him a letter from his cell.

But when he turned up at court, lawyers knew they had grabbed the wrong lead for Murphy was a pet, not a relative.

Albert K Smith, the dog's owner, is awaiting trial in Arkansas, over the shooting of his ex-wife's boyfriend.

The defendant had written to Murphy from his cell - alerting prosecutors' suspicions.

They sent out a subpoena, and the five-year-old Shih Tzu duly appeared at the Benton County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, led by the defendant's brother.

An official refused to grant them access to the courthouse - because no dogs are allowed.

Prosecutor Robin Green told the Associated Press news agency she apologised to the brother for any inconvenience, adding: "The dog was friendly enough and probably would have been a very co-operative witness."
......................................................

I love what the prosecutor told the AP about the dog making a co-operative witness. I wonder if she said it tongue-in-cheek to the press or if she actually said something like that to the brother in a fit of shock-induced politeness.

yep...and at least the dog was friendly.

good doggie!

:)

Squirting Semen in Charlotte
 

Here's another bodily-fluids-in-strangers story. I wonder if he'll tell the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth?

................
Former Dentist Accused Of Squirting Semen Into Mouths Of Patients

7:02 am EST March 15, 2005

CHARLOTTE, N.C. Associated Press -- A former North Carolina dentist accused of using syringes to squirt semen into the mouths of female patients was charged Monday with multiple misdemeanor counts of assault on a female.

A Mecklenburg County grand jury indicted Dr. John Hall on seven counts of assault on a female. He was charged with assaulting six patients, including one of them twice, over an eight-month period in 2003.

Hall, 44, who practiced in nearby Cornelius, is expected to turn himself in at the Mecklenburg County jail on Wednesday. He faces up to 120 days in jail if convicted on all the charges.

Hall could not be reached for comment. In the past, he has denied the allegations, calling them "bizarre and sensational."

Assistant District Attorney David Maloney, who sought Monday's indictments against Hall, would not comment on the charges.

"We knew these indictments were coming," said defense attorney George Laughrun. "This is just the first step in the process. My client is anxious for the process to get started and get this behind him for himself and his family."

The North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners revoked Hall's license in August after six former patients testified in Raleigh that the dentist made them swallow what they now believe was his semen.

In testimony before the dental board last summer, Hall denied the allegations.

"I have never injected semen in any patient's mouth," he said. "I never would. I've got a 10-year-old daughter. That whole concept is so beyond me."

Police searched Hall's office and confiscated syringes after several employees said they were suspicious of the dentist's behavior. DNA tests on the syringes later showed they contained Hall's semen.

..........................................

I hear he graduated from the Freudian Academy of Dentistry - where sometimes a cavity is just a cavity...

Hey, a dentist sees a cavity and he's gotta fill it!

This story contains a bit of gallows humor, doesn't it?

I suppose there are many who believe in the "dignity of the dead" but I'm not one of them. I figure the dead are...well, dead.

In any event, I do find this story contains elements of both the grotesque and the humorous.

Curiously entertaining...

...................................

Use of Human Corpses for Testing Decried



VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Researchers at an Austrian university used human corpses to study how to develop better crash-test dummies, and authorities are now investigating whether the scientists should be charged with violating the dignity of the dead, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Researchers at the Technical University of Graz used 21 bodies provided by The Medical University of Graz for tests performed between 1994 and 2003, said Alice Senarclens de Grancy, a spokeswoman for the Technical University.

Horst Sigl, a prosecutor in the southern city of Graz, said authorities are investigating whether researchers violated the dignity of the dead - a crime in Austria - by using the bodies in tests.

"The core of the problem is whether those used in the tests or their relatives gave permission,'' he said in a telephone interview.


During the tests, the bodies were placed in seats that moved with speeds up to 9 mph before being stopped in an effort to simulate a rear-end collision. Scientists observed how the bodies' vertebrae, upper bodies and backs moved.


Senarclens de Grancy rejected any suggestion that the dignity of the dead could have been disturbed in the tests, saying they were carried out under strict ethical standards.


"It's not in any way a crash test as you might think about it,'' she said. "There is no car. There is no wall.''


Using real bodies was necessary to develop a ``dummy which is very similar to the human body, which reacts as the human body does,'' Senarclens de Grancy said.


The Medical University, a separate institution, has launched an internal investigation even though it was ``confident that all had been done in order,'' spokeswoman Birgit Jauk said.


Anyone convicted in the case could face six months in prison or a fine, Sigl said, adding that the preliminary investigation likely would be finished in about a month.

.................................

I do find the statement, "There is no car. There is no wall.'' to be quite Zen when taken out of context. Memorable - at least for a day or so...

Hmm... what exactly would constitute disturbing the dignity of the dead? :hmm:

Well, I guess this would be construed as the disturbance:

"During the tests, the bodies were placed in seats that moved with speeds up to 9 mph before being stopped in an effort to simulate a rear-end collision. Scientists observed how the bodies' vertebrae, upper bodies and backs moved."

Problematically, reading that paragraph is one of the funny parts of this. I don't know why exactly but it seems to be the way it's described. That seems to be the criteria for what I find curiously entertaining here...

Maybe it's the Five Point Palm Exploding Toad Technique...

LINK
This is my favorite part... the caption under the picture reads: Well if their living into their thousands, then I guess I can feel better knowing that they've exploded only after long, fulfilling lives.

Thanks for the exploding toad item, SC...
............

This next one strikes me as curiously entertaining because it was linked straight-faced from Google News this morning:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...epopestory.jpg

...

It's a funny story and it was even funnier getting to it from Google News.

Media Stunned at Election of a Catholic as Pope
Written by Jeremy Robb
Wednesday, April 27, 2005




NEW YORK, New York --- Media outlets around the globe panicked after learning that a Catholic had been elected as the new pope. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has been described by the world media as a "hardline conservative" who believes in all major aspects of Catholic faith and doctrine.

"I can't believe the Catholic Church would do this," said an insider at CNN. "This guy doesn't believe in abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage, or female priests. I was really anticipating that the Catholic Church was ready to elect a pope that was not a true Catholic. Someone far more flexible on these issues. You know. Like a Unitarian Church leader."

It seemed unusual that the media portrayed John Paul II as a compassionate and warm leader, while Benedict the XVI is described as a radical hardline conservative even though the two hold almost identical beliefs about the Church. A New York Times executive explained. "We all described John Paul II as a right-wing zealot when he was first elected in an attempt to promote hatred of Catholics and religion," said the executive. "Once he actually started to perform compassionate deeds and change the world for the better, we had to back off. Now we have an opportunity to slam this new pope as a hardline conservative. Most of our readers are too dumb to know that hardline conservative is just code for a devout Catholic. I'm still disappointed that our early smear tactics couldn't sway the Cardinals to select someone like John Kerry, Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton, three non-Catholics who would change the Church doctrine for the better. This is off the record, right?"

...

from:
http://www.chronwatch.com/content/co....asp?aid=14273

Uh...Ted Kennedy is Catholic....sheesh, even in parody they manage to get their 'facts' screwed up! :D

This one could go anywhere but as I've spent some time in Japan, I am always interested in the sadness of those good people. The whole island seemed like an amusement park called "REPRESSION ISLAND." Of course, like the U.S., it doesn't look repressed. It looks totally free - especially as it presents itself in the warped mirror of media. That's the thing with repression - it masquerades as freedom.

........

As many as 10 percent of Japanese youths may be living in "epic sulks" as hermits ("hikikomori"), according to a March Taipei Times dispatch from Tokyo, thus representing no improvement in the already alarming problem that was described in a report in 2000. Many of the hikikomori, in fact, still live in their parents' homes and simply never leave their bedrooms. Among the speculation as to cause: school bullying, academic pressure, poor social skills (after obsessively whiling away hours at video games), unaccessible father figures, and an education system that suppresses youths' sense of adventure. [Taipei Times, 3-11-05]

...........

For some perverse reason, I decided that sad stories also qualify as "curiously entertaining" - there's a twinge of sadness in most of these stories, after all...

We laugh because it hurts.


At least, that's my take on it. Comedy has a way of turning sadness into joy- we laugh at ourselves so that we can ease our pain or just feel better.

[QUOTE=ARTelevision] That's the thing with repression - it masquerades as freedom.
QUOTE]

Well said, Art. Can I quote you on that in the future? I'll send you a nickle every time, promise!