"Makes Sense To Me" News Story Of The Day [Archive] - Page 2 - ZEFRANK.COM

Brynn

03-25-2009, 11:26 PM

^Yeah, it's really true, unfortunately.

The criminalization of everyday life (http://allisonkilkenny.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/the-criminalization-of-everyday-life/)

The Criminalization of Everyday Life
In City Limits, Robert Neuwirth
civil rights, law, police state on March 24, 2009 at 7:23 pm

City Limits, Robert Neuwirth

I spent 24 hours in the slammer the other day. My crime? Well, the police couldn’t tell me when they locked me up. The prosecutor and judge couldn’t either, when I was arraigned the following day. I found out for myself when I researched the matter a few days after being released: I had been cited for walking my dog off the leash – once, six years ago.

Welcome to the ugly underside of the zero-tolerance era, where insignificant rule violations get inflated into criminal infractions. Here’s how it worked with me: a gaggle of transit cops stopped me after they saw me walk between two subway cars on my way to work. This, they told me, was against the rules. They asked for ID and typed my name into a hand-held computer. Up came that old citation that I didn’t know about and they couldn’t tell me about. I was immediately handcuffed and brought to the precinct. There, I waited in a holding cell, then was fingerprinted (post-CSI memo: they now take the fingers, the thumbs, the palms, and the sides of both hands) and had the contents of my shoulder bag inventoried. I could hardly believe it: I was being arrested without ever having committed a crime.

I was held overnight in the Midtown North Precinct lock-up (shoelaces and belt confiscated, meals courtesy of the McDonald’s dollar menu). In the morning, my fellow convicts and I were led, chain-gang style, to the Manhattan Community Court next door. The judge there dismissed the charge against me – because no one ever does time for that kind of crime. A few days later, at Brooklyn’s central court, my warrant was lifted for “time served” – again because no one is ever locked up for breaking the leash law.

If the cops had simply written me a ticket, I would have paid it, and I would have also had to pay to vacate my outstanding warrant. But by cuffing me and holding me overnight, the city spent quite a bit of money (it took two police officers approximately six hours each just to arrest and process me), while the fines assessed against me were rescinded.

While I was inside, I was astounded by the kinds of things that take up police and court time. A couple of people nabbed for being in various parks after dark. One of them was walking his dog. Two young men accused of riding their bicycles on the sidewalk. Three people arrested for sleeping in a subway station. My roommate in the lock-up was an articulate and self-aware 60-year-old whose sin was that he bought a bottle of booze and had taken a swig on the street. In the cell next to us: two costumed Mariachis busted for busking on the subway. They were repeat offenders. Their weapons: a guitar and an accordion.

With zero tolerance, we have finally done it: We have criminalized everyday life. After all, in the course of their life people sometimes ride their bikes on the sidewalks. And once upon a time not too long ago, it was normal to go into the parks after dark. My friends and I did all the time, particularly if we had time to kill before or after the opera, the symphony, or a jazz or rock concert. We walked brazenly between subway cars. Some of us even – horror of horrors! – played music on the street or in the subway without a license. And, though my parents would not be happy to know it even now, we sometimes drank beer in public – making sure, in an important but legally meaningless gesture, that the bottle was in a paper bag. If I did any of this on a regular basis today, I’d probably be considered a behavioral recidivist and sent to Riker’s Island.

I can laugh away my time in a cell—my life suddenly turned into an update of “Alice’s Restaurant.” But I get angry when I think of kids in their teens or 20s being treated the way I was. I’m not against hard time for criminal, violent or anti-social behavior. But slapping young people behind bars and giving them an arrest record simply because the normal things they do are trivial rule violations is not only wasteful, it’s downright criminal.

- Robert Neuwirth

Robert Neuwirth, a longtime contributor to City Limits, is the author of “Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World,” and is at work on a new book about the global reach of the informal economy.

Editor’s note: The Giuliani administration highlighted its increase of “quality of life” summonses, but statistics from the annual Mayor’s Management Report indicate that the Bloomberg administration has been just as zealous. The number of such summonses under Giuliani reached its height in fiscal 2001, hitting 523,000. After a dip in 2002, the number of “quality of life” summonses rose under Mayor Bloomberg to more than 700,000 in fiscal 2004. They’ve declined since then to 527,000 in fiscal 2008—still higher than under the previous mayor. The city’s courts, meanwhile, have registered an uptick in the number of people getting arraigned on minor charges: In 2007, the last year for which the court system published statistics, the number of arraignments for infractions and violations was the highest in 10 years – 20 percent greater than the previous year.

MoJoRiSin

04-01-2009, 10:31 PM

Announcement
March 31st, 2009 11:59:59 pm

Introducing CADIE

Research group switches on world's first "artificial intelligence" tasked-array system.

For several years now a small research group has been working on some challenging problems in the areas of neural networking, natural language and autonomous problem-solving. Last fall this group achieved a significant breakthrough: a powerful new technique for solving reinforcement learning problems, resulting in the first functional global-scale neuro-evolutionary learning cluster.

Since then progress has been rapid, and tonight we're pleased to announce that just moments ago, the world's first Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity (CADIE) was switched on and began performing some initial functions. It's an exciting moment that we're determined to build upon by coming to understand more fully what CADIE's emergence might mean, for Google and for our users. So although CADIE technology will be rolled out with the caution befitting any advance of this magnitude, in the months to come users can expect to notice her influence on various google.com properties. Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage.

These are merely the first steps onto what will doubtless prove a long and difficult road. Considerable bugs remain in CADIE'S programming, and considerable development clearly is called for. But we can't imagine a more important journey for Google to have undertaken.

For more information about CADIE see this monograph, and follow CADIE's progress via her YouTube channel and blog ::

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/cadie/index.html

Coffee

04-02-2009, 01:59 PM

^^^TERMINATE(HE)R

OH..btw (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Search-Engines/Googles-April-Fools-Prank-Tradition-Continues-with-CADIE-432833/)

Brynn

04-08-2009, 01:38 AM

Woman calls 911 over lack of shrimp in fried rice
AP

HALTOM CITY, Texas – A woman called 911 to report she didn't get as much shrimp as she wanted in her fried rice at a Texas restaurant.

Haltom City police on Tuesday released the taped emergency call, in which the customer is heard telling the dispatcher, "to get a police officer up here, what has to happen?"

The customer also says: "He didn't even put extra shrimp in there."

The upset customer had left the Fort Worth-area restaurant when an officer arrived Monday afternoon.

Restaurant workers say the woman had been denied a refund after leaving with her order, then returning to complain.

Cook June Lee says nothing was wrong with the meal, and that "some customers are happy. Some are not."

___

zero

04-08-2009, 02:29 PM

^ makes me fondly remember the case of the lady & the harmful cheeseburgur <object width="30" height="30"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FZ12Ry-hD6I&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FZ12Ry-hD6I&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="30" height="30"></embed></object>

MoJoRiSin

04-17-2009, 10:46 PM

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/think-youve-read-madame-bovary-youve-barely-begun-1670408.html

brightpearl

05-12-2009, 05:30 PM

(CBS) If the recession gets worse, we may be eating dog food for dinner.

Don't laugh. It's apparently tastier than you'd expect.

In the last few years, organic dog food made with human-grade free range meat and fresh vegetables has spiked in popularity among health-conscious shoppers. Some companies even claim, for instance, that "humans actually taste our foods, as part of our QC process!"

What's surprising is that some of the new organic dog foods taste as good as (or as bad as) similar human foods, like liverwurst and duck liver mousse, according to a working paper circulated on Friday by the American Association of Wine Economists.

The paper is titled "Can People Distinguish Pâté from Dog Food?" and it concluded that, well, they can't.

These enterprising researchers separately put organic Canned Turkey & Chicken Formula for Puppies/Active Dogs, duck liver mousse, pork liver pâté, liverwurst, and spam in a food processor. The resulting confection was ladled into five different bowls and garnished with parsley.

The volunteers in this culinary experiment didn't exactly prefer the dog food, but they couldn't identify it either. "Only 3 of 18 subjects correctly identified sample C as the dog food," the paper says.

:D :D :DThe authors conclude that: "Although human beings do not enjoy eating dog food, they are also not able to distinguish its flavor profile from other meat-based products that are intended for human consumption." :D :D :D

The lesson? Presentation matters. Expectations matter. And, perhaps, that organic dog food is better than you think.

Which is why blind taste tests are so useful; Trader Joe's $2-or-$3-a-bottle Chardonnay won a blind test in California against formidable competition. Another working paper published by the wine economists' group found that, as you might expect, people give higher ratings to wine if they're told it's more expensive.

By Declan McCullagh

YsaPur EsChomuw

05-12-2009, 09:49 PM

^ Over here many people become suddenly quite poor when they retire. I've heard they buy pet food instead of meat because it's cheaper.
Oh, not for their pet...
:mad:

lukkucairi

05-17-2009, 06:48 PM

dear SLC - how much weirder can you get? (http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12385924)

trisherina

05-18-2009, 01:06 AM

(sigh) I'll bet you this ^^ is someone with pervasive developmental problems. Chances are he isn't going to be opening a day care center in any case.

Hyakujo's Fox

05-18-2009, 02:05 AM

a somewhat marginal reduction in implausibility (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0309_0603009_loch_ness.html)

Brynn

05-18-2009, 06:35 PM

^ Finally. Now all we have to figure out is how aliens irradiated him enough to turn him into a monster...

lukkucairi

05-20-2009, 11:03 AM

pearly, get ready... (http://www.kens5.com/homepage/tab1/stories/KENS20090518-Crazy_Ants.16288c43.html)

Hyakujo's Fox

05-20-2009, 11:49 AM

pearly, get ready... (http://www.kens5.com/homepage/tab1/stories/KENS20090518-Crazy_Ants.16288c43.html)

it makes sense, cos that's where the jobs are.

Brynn

05-21-2009, 06:31 PM

Group Pleads to Obama: Use Alien Tech to Fix Energy Crisis

Consumer Energy Report
2009-05-20

To most of us, UFO’s solving our energy problem will sound, at best, like wishful thinking, and most likely will be dismissed as insane.

But if energy lobbyist Stephen Bassett has his way, President Barack Obama will release information that the government is secretly hiding on “extraterrestrial vehicles” –according to Mr. Bassett’s claims– which can be used to solve the nation’s energy problem and limit climate change in one fell swoop.

The power source, he said, chronicled in a report Greenwire did on the subject, behind a flying saucer the weight of a tractor-trailer which hurtles through galaxies at 20,000 miles per hour is astronomical.

“What is the energy system operating that craft?” Bassett said. “They’re not burning kerosene. It eliminates oil. It eliminates coal. If it’s as good as we think it is, it transforms everything.”

Mr. Bassett is the founder of the Paradigm Research Group (PRG), which launched the “Million Fax on Washington” campaign, calling for the President to release all files, call for congressional hearings, and make available extraterrestrial (ET) derived technologies to the public domain.

Bassett claims that the government has flying saucers in its possession.

He is a firm believer in the cause, and is even working free of charge to lobby on behalf of the Exopolitics Institute, an educational organization which describes itself as “dedicated to studying the key actors, institutions and political processes associated with extraterrestrial life.”

Believers that the truth regarding ET technology is currently being covered up, Bassett says, are eagerly awaiting for President Obama to declassify the information the government is holding on the subject.

He says that Obama ”has the intelligence to handle it,” while at the same time being “sensitive to the concerns of the military intelligence community.”

After lobbying for seven months on science and technology, defense and aviation, Bassett has now added, in a Senate filing, energy to his portfolio.

“The UFO phenomenon is real,” Bassett said. “The extraterrestrial presence is real.”

His theory is that the melting polar ice caps would be a thing of the past. There would be no more ozone hole, while the price of electricity would plummet to almost nil.

PRG says that there are “twenty million plus American citizens who are following the politics of disclosure with interest and concern.”

brightpearl

05-21-2009, 06:47 PM

^Oh, for pete's sake.:rolleyes:

About the ants, the local news has been shrilling about that for a year or so. Nothing to report so far. They do sound nasty, but I've never seen photos or video of them doing what's reported -- inches thick and such. It seems suspiciously undocumented. Perhaps it's true, and perhaps it's another Africanized honey bee scare...those hardly ever cause a problem, and they were the local new's fifth horseman in the 80's.

I'm sure they are a problem with electricity...fire ants do that, too. They burn out air conditioning compressors and stuff with some regularity. I had tons of those until I started spraying orange oil...

Frieda

05-21-2009, 06:50 PM

^^ it's about time for the vulcans to finally sharing warp technology with us.

zero

05-28-2009, 01:23 PM

i'm surprised this isn't the top headline at every news site: little alien found in lahore, pakistan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOCbw9sNAd4)

<object width="400" height="300"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tOCbw9sNAd4&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tOCbw9sNAd4&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="300"></embed></object>

bless it

Hyakujo's Fox

06-17-2009, 10:17 AM

knows how to run a tight ship (http://www.smh.com.au/world/strangebuttrue/navy-captain-bans-brussels-sprouts-as-devils-vegetable-20090617-chu3.html)

zero

06-17-2009, 10:47 AM

dearie me, our once great seafaring nation of the untidy kingdoms - nowadays we've got a sea captain, name of 'wayne keble' floating around with nothing better on his mind than banning brussel sprouts.

:(

poor wee sprouties. they can come and live out their days at my house. yes, and they shall be happy & content in the sunshine beside zormix & mine's magic baby brussel sprout that's a-growing inside the orange bucket of zormix. she sent it across the ether using teleportastic means to my abandoned boatyard in the early springtime.

:)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2436/3631919684_20ef62831d.jpg

brightpearl

07-23-2009, 02:08 AM

Humans Emit Visible Light (http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090722/sc_livescience/strangehumansglowinvisiblelight)

Hyakujo's Fox

07-25-2009, 02:03 AM

dearie me, our once great seafaring nation of the untidy kingdoms - nowadays we've got a sea captain, name of 'wayne keble' floating around with nothing better on his mind than banning brussel sprouts.

:(

^can't handle the truth that he sleeps easy at night because Keble of the Bulwark, is out there, somewhere, holding the line against vegetables that could well spoil the nations dinners.

Hyakujo's Fox

07-25-2009, 02:13 AM

http://www.regrettheerror.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/spacecorrection.jpg

Brynn

08-03-2009, 02:55 AM

poor freaked-out daughter :( (http://www.wimp.com/arrestedcall/)

lukkucairi

08-03-2009, 08:30 AM

^ sheesh!

Brynn

08-14-2009, 06:07 AM

UK Police Raid Barbecue Because it was Listed as “All-Night Event” on Facebook (http://www.fr33agents.com/299/uk-police-raid-barbecue-because-it-was-listed-as-all-night-event-on-facebook/)

Nothing like being pro-active about fighting crime. And hamburgers. I'm impressed to know that they trawl Facebook's private invites to find this out, too. I'm beginning to wonder when GB's going to install the surveillance cameras in the private residences.

zero

08-19-2009, 02:06 PM

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01461/squirrel460_1461341c.jpg (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6018173/Squirrel-is-surprise-star-of-holiday-photo.html)

^

12"razormix

08-19-2009, 03:09 PM

TWIGGY!?? :eek:

zero

08-19-2009, 03:23 PM

we always knew she was destined for great ness

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/aug/13/squirrel-canada-holiday-snap

i'm so proud

YsaPur EsChomuw

08-19-2009, 03:41 PM

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01462/Moon_1462664i.jpg (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/6029438/Scene-stealing-squirrel-the-cheeky-critter-throughout-history.html?image=6)

MoJoRiSin

08-20-2009, 07:22 PM

MoJoRiSin

08-21-2009, 07:14 PM

http://images.usatoday.com/life/_photos/2009/08/21/nordahlx.jpg

Michael Jackson had his own private
artist

MoJoRiSin

08-24-2009, 02:40 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/19/AR2009081904279.html?hpid=artsliving

MoJoRiSin

09-10-2009, 10:11 PM

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10312630-265.html

Brynn

09-11-2009, 01:49 PM

man arrested for wearing monkey suit (http://ow.ly/oXql)

PERTH, Australia, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- Police in Australia said they arrested a man who refused to give his name while dressed as a monkey in a shopping center.

Perth police said Brenton Green, 21, was spotted by two officers Sunday afternoon hugging shoppers, posing for photos and dancing for the crowd, PerthNow reported Tuesday.

The officers said they asked the costumed performer his name and he responded by shaking his head and making "squeaking noises." They said they asked him a second time and he responded: "Monkey."

The officers arrested Green and charged him with failing to comply with a police request. He was released on bail on the condition that he not return to the city, but then he was arrested on his way to the train station by the same officer who had initially arrested him, who said Green violated the conditions of his bail.

Green spent Sunday night in the East Perth jail and appeared before a magistrate Monday. He was released with a spent conviction, a three-month community release order and ordered to pay $60 in court costs.

MoJoRiSin

09-11-2009, 01:55 PM

^ he ? why were they sure it was a he from the beginning?
i was thinking it was an older mom of a teen who was tryint
to figure out how to tell her family she wasn't actully a REAL
wife and mother but rather a super hero
born to save the world
btw: m got into her car at 9:16
and her daughter has left charlie 97.1 on the radio
>>>>>>huge smiley goes here<<<<<<
thank you Brynn!!

http://www.charliefm.com/

MoJoRiSin

09-11-2009, 02:56 PM

"D.C. braces for lost symbol seekers"

MoJoRiSin

09-11-2009, 02:58 PM

over

zero

09-11-2009, 03:00 PM

Brynn

09-11-2009, 09:35 PM

you're AMAZING! :D
It's all inexplicably starting to make sense

Hyakujo's Fox

09-30-2009, 11:25 PM

actually this doesn't make sense at all

http://images.theage.com.au/2009/10/01/763906/Wisconsin-Tourism-Federatio-420x0.jpg (http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/wtf-we-have-to-change-our-name-20091001-gdk8.html)
^

Brynn

09-30-2009, 11:39 PM

Agreed. With all due respect to the tourism industry in Wisconsin, all I can think is wtf? There's tourism in Wisconsin?

Hyakujo's Fox

09-30-2009, 11:44 PM

people used to go and get their photo taken next to the WTF sign, but now there's nothing.

MoJoRiSin

10-06-2009, 02:29 PM

http://www.digitalcity.com/2009/10/06/comic-book-artist-joel-watson-shares-how-he-makes-a-living-with/

Coffee

10-06-2009, 02:36 PM

Hey...there are several great attractions in Wisconsin. umm...that place with the roof that folds off...a big lake...great octoberfests...and PEEEEEEEF.

Brynn

10-06-2009, 04:08 PM

I'm sure it's a lovely place if Peef is there :)

It's just too bad that Wisconsin didn't stand by their acronym, and embrace it as a potent tourist attraction of its own.

Btw, Mo, thanks for the digital city article - really inspiring!

Hyakujo's Fox

10-07-2009, 09:17 AM

Half of U.S. high-school seniors surveyed recently thought Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple. (http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Religious+illiteracy+cultural+barrier/2066767/story.html)

Doesn't say whether the other half thought they were unmarried.

lukkucairi

10-08-2009, 11:10 AM

Harvard's RoboBeeHarvard researchers recently got a $10 million grant to create a colony of flying robotic bees (http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/45971), or RoboBees to among other things, spur innovation in ultra-low-power computing and electronic "smart" sensors; and refine coordination algorithms to manage multiple, independent machines.

The 5-year, National Science Foundation-funded RoboBee project could lead to a better understanding of how to artificially mimic the unique collective behavior and intelligence of a bee colony; foster novel methods for designing and building an electronic surrogate nervous system able to deftly sense and adapt to changing environments; and advance work on the construction of small-scale flying mechanical devices, according to the Harvard RoboBee Web site.

The RoboBee scientists will create robotic bees that fly autonomously and coordinate activities amongst themselves and the hive, much like real bees. They anticipate the devices will open up a wide range of discoveries and practical innovations, advancing fields ranging from entomology and developmental biology to amorphous computing and electrical engineering, the researchers stated.

Brynn

10-12-2009, 08:21 PM

^:eek: Fifth Horseman Thread
Actually, if they could teach them to pollinate, or hybridize them with real honey bees, we might all get to stick around on earth a little longer....

Gun-toting soccer mom - "I just don't understand why this is happening to me" (http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20091008/US.Soccer.Mom.Gun/)

Husband killed Pa. gun advocate during video chat
LEBANON, Pa. — A soccer mom who was thrust into the national gun-rights debate after taking a loaded pistol to youth sports events was killed by her husband in a shooting witnessed online by her video chat partner, authorities said Friday.

Scott Hain used his own gun to fire several shots into his 30-year-old wife, Meleanie, while her video chat was active and perhaps as she washed dishes in their kitchen, police said. Scott Hain, 33, later killed himself in an upstairs bedroom.

Meleanie Hain's loaded pistol — with a bullet ready in the chamber — was in a backpack hanging from the front door.

The couple's three young children were home just before the murder-suicide, but authorities stopped short of saying they were home at the time. The online friend heard a shot and screams and turned to see Scott Hain firing, they said.

He "observed Scott Hain standing over where Meleanie was and discharging a handgun several times," Lebanon Police Chief Daniel Wright said at a news conference. The man, who was described as a friend of both Scott and Meleanie Hain, called 911.

"He kept open his Web cam episode; however, he heard nothing or saw nothing after that," Wright said. The chat was apparently not recorded.

Meleanie Hain became a voice of the gun-rights movement last year when she fought for the right to carry a holstered pistol at her young daughter's soccer games. Other parents complained, prompting a sheriff to revoke her concealed-weapons permit, a decision a judge later overturned.

"I'm just a soccer mom who has always openly carried (a firearm), and I've never had a problem before," Hain said last fall. "I don't understand why this is happening to me."

The Hains later sued the sheriff who had revoked her gun permit. The $1 million suit, which claims they suffered emotional distress and lost customers for her home baby-sitting service, remains pending against Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo.

Scott Hain, a parole officer, owned the 9 mm handgun used to kill his wife. He then killed himself with a shotgun, authorities said after Friday's autopsies. Police found several handguns, a shotgun, two rifles and several hundred rounds of ammunition in their Lebanon home, as well as six spent shell casings in the kitchen.

Friends and neighbors told police the couple had been having marital problems, but police knew of no immediate cause of the violence. Scott Hain was living at the family home at the time, Wright said.

Their three children are ages 2, 6 and 10.

Neighbor Aileen Fortna has said the children told another neighbor that "daddy shot mommy."

The judge who restored Meleanie Hain's concealed-weapon permit last year questioned her judgment and said she had "scared the devil" out of other parents at the soccer field.

Hyakujo's Fox

10-14-2009, 02:01 AM

There's only one thing worse than a robot bee, and that's a robot spider that crawls around inside you (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6300636/Spider-pill-offers-new-way-to-scan-for-diseases-including-colon-cancer.html).

Probably not to be taken in conjunction with other drugs I'd suggest. ;)

MoJoRiSin

10-31-2009, 08:05 PM

http://i.usatoday.net/tech/_photos/2009/10/30/orion-nebulax-large.jpg
Dark matter "wrecking ball" may have hit Milky Way

brightpearl

11-06-2009, 11:37 AM

There is no way this can end well.

After Mickey’s Makeover, Less Mr. Nice Guy
Published: November 4, 2009
LOS ANGELES — For decades, the Walt Disney Company has largely kept Mickey Mouse frozen under glass, fearful that even the tiniest tinkering might tarnish the brand and upend his $5 billion or so in annual merchandise sales. One false move and Disney could have New Coke on its hands.

Now, however, concerned that Mickey has become more of a corporate symbol than a beloved character for recent generations of young people, Disney is taking the risky step of re-imagining him for the future.

The first glimmer of this will be the introduction next year of a new video game, Epic Mickey, in which the formerly squeaky clean character can be cantankerous and cunning, as well as heroic, as he traverses a forbidding wasteland.

And at the same time, in a parallel but separate effort, Disney has quietly embarked on an even larger project to rethink the character’s personality, from the way Mickey walks and talks to the way he appears on the Disney Channel and how children interact with him on the Web — even what his house looks like at Disney World.

“Holy cow, the opportunity to mess with one of the most recognizable icons on Planet Earth,” said Warren Spector, the creative director of Junction Point, a Disney-owned game developer that spearheaded Epic Mickey.

The effort to re-engineer Mickey is still in its early stages, but it involves the top creative and marketing minds in the company, all the way up to Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive.

YsaPur EsChomuw

11-06-2009, 11:42 AM

^ Why don't they just make something new? Something of their own creation, rather than mess up something that has exised and been fine so far.

Coffee

11-06-2009, 12:52 PM

Someone hasn't been paying attention to the entertainment/movie industry lately. :P

YsaPur EsChomuw

11-06-2009, 01:00 PM

True :o

So what's new?

MoJoRiSin

11-25-2009, 04:17 PM

and pray for rain?

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/11/oregons_national_guard_current.html

lukkucairi

11-28-2009, 04:12 AM

http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2009/11/boxing_day.html

Author Katherine Dunn spent more than 10 years training with the fighters of Knott Street Boxing Club in Northeast Portland’s Matt Dishman Community Center.

But Dunn, best known for her novel “Geek Love,” had never fought for a purse until Tuesday afternoon. Dunn, 64, was carrying a bag of groceries from Trader Joe’s to the Northwest Portland home where she has lived for more than 30 years when someone yanked the purse strap on her left shoulder so hard it spun her around.

“I was facing this young woman who shouted, ‘Let it go. Let it go,’¤” Dunn said.

She did not. So, Dunn said, 25-year-old Brandy Amber Carroll kicked her in the shin and slapped her face. Dunn figured that gave her permission to put her years of training to work.

“My left arm is wrapped up in the purse, her right arm is wrapped up in the purse, we’re nose to nose and I’m punching her as hard as I can with my right hand,” she said.

Dunn started shouting and people walking by stopped. But as soon as Dunn said she was being robbed, Carroll accused the author of trying to take her purse. So the passersby just watched. One of Dunn’s neighbors soon came out and grabbed the purse. Then two Trader Joe’s employees came to accuse the woman of shoplifting.

When police showed up soon after, Carroll took off running with some groceries, but not the purse. She didn’t get far. Carroll, who has 2006 convictions for theft and criminal mischief, was booked into Multnomah County Jail and charged with felony robbery and theft.

Dunn has loved boxing for nearly 30 years and has written articles and essays on the sport, including freelance stories for The Oregonian. She said she was proud of herself for putting her years of fight training to use, staying relatively calm and hanging on to her purse. Dunn was a little disappointed not to bloody Carroll’s nose, but pointed out she was fighting with her rear hand.

“I would normally lead, as all good boxers do, with my left hand,” she said. “But my left hand was tied up in the purse.”

Dunn was bloodied in the scuffle and had to go to the hospital for a tetanus shot.

“I had scratches from her fingernails, a bloody eye where she had thumbed me — it was a helter-skelter affair,” Dunn said. “Getting a tetanus shot, it made me feel young again.”

[wow...tetanus shots make you feel young?! :eek:]

YsaPur EsChomuw

11-28-2009, 06:47 AM

The last tetanus shot I got really freaked me out: my arm got swollen and red and painful, the burning swelling rapidly spread all over my upper arm plus a mysterious lump appeared in my armpit. I didn't feel young, I felt I was going to die!
:o
I didn't. The symptoms disappeared after two or three weeks.

MoJoRiSin

11-29-2009, 12:47 AM

^^ wow! here is some background music for such moments::
http://www.zefrank.com/
then look for song posted
November 24th:)

brightpearl

12-09-2009, 05:47 PM

http://www.geckotales.com/g-pig-love.jpg

lukkucairi

12-15-2009, 03:50 PM

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2009/12/08_survival_of_kindest.shtml

BERKELEY — Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are challenging long-held beliefs that human beings are wired to be selfish. In a wide range of studies, social scientists are amassing a growing body of evidence to show we are evolving to become more compassionate and collaborative in our quest to survive and thrive.

In contrast to "every man for himself" interpretations of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley psychologist and author of "Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life," and his fellow social scientists are building the case that humans are successful as a species precisely because of our nurturing, altruistic and compassionate traits.

They call it "survival of the kindest."

"Because of our very vulnerable offspring, the fundamental task for human survival and gene replication is to take care of others," said Keltner, co-director of UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center. "Human beings have survived as a species because we have evolved the capacities to care for those in need and to cooperate. As Darwin long ago surmised, sympathy is our strongest instinct.”

Empathy in our genes

Keltner's team is looking into how the human capacity to care and cooperate is wired into particular regions of the brain and nervous system. One recent study found compelling evidence that many of us are genetically predisposed to be empathetic.

The study, led by UC Berkeley graduate student Laura Saslow and Sarina Rodrigues of Oregon State University, found that people with a particular variation of the oxytocin gene receptor are more adept at reading the emotional state of others, and get less stressed out under tense circumstances.

Informally known as the "cuddle hormone,” oxytocin is secreted into the bloodstream and the brain, where it promotes social interaction, nurturing and romantic love, among other functions.

"The tendency to be more empathetic may be influenced by a single gene,” Rodrigues said.

The more you give, the more respect you get

While studies show that bonding and making social connections can make for a healthier, more meaningful life, the larger question some UC Berkeley researchers are asking is, "How do these traits ensure our survival and raise our status among our peers?"

One answer, according to UC Berkeley social psychologist and sociologist Robb Willer is that the more generous we are, the more respect and influence we wield. In one recent study, Willer and his team gave participants each a modest amount of cash and directed them to play games of varying complexity that would benefit the "public good.” The results, published in the journal American Sociological Review, showed that participants who acted more generously received more gifts, respect and cooperation from their peers and wielded more influence over them.

"The findings suggest that anyone who acts only in his or her narrow self-interest will be shunned, disrespected, even hated,” Willer said. "But those who behave generously with others are held in high esteem by their peers and thus rise in status.”
"Given how much is to be gained through generosity, social scientists increasingly wonder less why people are ever generous and more why they are ever selfish,” he added.

Cultivating the greater good

Such results validate the findings of such "positive psychology” pioneers as Martin Seligman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania whose research in the early 1990s shifted away from mental illness and dysfunction, delving instead into the mysteries of human resilience and optimism.

While much of the positive psychology being studied around the nation is focused on personal fulfillment and happiness, UC Berkeley researchers have narrowed their investigation into how it contributes to the greater societal good.

One outcome is the campus's Greater Good Science Center, a West Coast magnet for research on gratitude, compassion, altruism, awe and positive parenting, whose benefactors include the Metanexus Institute, Tom and Ruth Ann Hornaday and the Quality of Life Foundation.

Christine Carter, executive director of the Greater Good Science Center, is creator of the "Science for Raising Happy Kids” Web site, whose goal, among other things, is to assist in and promote the rearing of "emotionally literate” children. Carter translates rigorous research into practical parenting advice. She says many parents are turning away from materialistic or competitive activities, and rethinking what will bring their families true happiness and well-being.

"I've found that parents who start consciously cultivating gratitude and generosity in their children quickly see how much happier and more resilient their children become,” said Carter, author of "Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents” which will be in bookstores in February 2010. "What is often surprising to parents is how much happier they themselves also become."

The sympathetic touch

As for college-goers, UC Berkeley psychologist Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton has found that cross-racial and cross-ethnic friendships can improve the social and academic experience on campuses. In one set of findings, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, he found that the cortisol levels of both white and Latino students dropped as they got to know each over a series of one-on-one get-togethers. Cortisol is a hormone triggered by stress and anxiety.

Meanwhile, in their investigation of the neurobiological roots of positive emotions, Keltner and his team are zeroing in on the aforementioned oxytocin as well as the vagus nerve, a uniquely mammalian system that connects to all the body's organs and regulates heart rate and breathing.

Both the vagus nerve and oxytocin play a role in communicating and calming. In one UC Berkeley study, for example, two people separated by a barrier took turns trying to communicate emotions to one another by touching one other through a hole in the barrier. For the most part, participants were able to successfully communicate sympathy, love and gratitude and even assuage major anxiety.

Researchers were able to see from activity in the threat response region of the brain that many of the female participants grew anxious as they waited to be touched. However, as soon as they felt a sympathetic touch, the vagus nerve was activated and oxytocin was released, calming them immediately.

"Sympathy is indeed wired into our brains and bodies; and it spreads from one person to another through touch,” Keltner said.

The same goes for smaller mammals. UC Berkeley psychologist Darlene Francis and Michael Meaney, a professor of biological psychiatry and neurology at McGill University, found that rat pups whose mothers licked, groomed and generally nurtured them showed reduced levels of stress hormones, including cortisol, and had generally more robust immune systems.

Overall, these and other findings at UC Berkeley challenge the assumption that nice guys finish last, and instead support the hypothesis that humans, if adequately nurtured and supported, tend to err on the side of compassion.

“This new science of altruism and the physiological underpinnings of compassion is finally catching up with Darwin's observations nearly 130 years ago, that sympathy is our strongest instinct,” Keltner said.

Hyakujo's Fox

12-31-2009, 01:58 AM

I always suspected the dictionary game was quite influential

...a list of new words to be considered for future editions of the Oxford English Dictionary.

... arguably the best word on the list is from the 19th century: snollygoster. The words means a ''shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician''. It was first recorded in 1855 and fell out of use, before being re-introduced during British election coverage this year.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/snollygoster-vies-for-a-place-in-the-oxford-20091230-ljxo.html

lukkucairi

01-26-2010, 07:08 PM

http://www.wmur.com/money/22343878/detail.html

State Hopes To Harness Power Of 'Three Wolf' Shirts
Online Sensation Named Official T-Shirt Of NH Economic Development

YsaPur EsChomuw

01-28-2010, 01:29 PM

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/8/2010/01/500x_religion_sex.jpg (http://io9.com/5457946/geographies-of-sex-and-religion)

trisherina

02-19-2010, 02:54 AM

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdwlE3DpcMD9gNAnFMrQ7iNHCS6AD9DUNV2G1

Jack Flanders

02-19-2010, 03:14 AM

^ Was watching the 6 o'clock news tonight from Philadelphia (our local news/shit) and could not believe this!!! I hope some heads really roll on this one. Perverts and too many administrators with nothing to do.

Hyakujo's Fox

03-17-2010, 05:02 AM

75- summer artist today magnificently fulfills the song, which literally exploded the Internet. (http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-home&trurl=http://www.lifenews.ru/news/16032&lp=ru_en&btnTrUrl=Translate)

Brynn

08-06-2010, 03:46 PM

Oregon health inspectors shut 7-year-old girl's lemonade stand down

August 5, 2010

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A county official in Oregon has apologized after a 7-year-old’s business venture was soured because health inspectors shut down her lemonade stand.

Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen, the county’s top elected official, said Thursday that running a lemonade stand is a “classic iconic American kid thing to do.”

He says he called Julie Murphy’s mother, Maria Fife, to offer his apology and says she appreciated it.

Fife helped her daughter set up a lemonade stand last week at a local arts fair in northeast Portland. They had to pack up and leave after being approached by two inspectors who said the stand lacked a license.

Cogen says while the inspectors were doing their job, the rules are meant for professional food service operators. He adds he ran lemonade stands as a child.

MoJoRiSin

08-06-2010, 09:49 PM

^ CNN nightly news 8/06/2010

Jack Flanders

08-06-2010, 11:47 PM

^^ Channel 16.1 Mishawaka, Indiana 6 pm news. Home again in Indiana!!

Brynn

08-07-2010, 01:17 AM

Holy crap :eek: I hate it when Oregon makes national news like that. Thanks for telling me. :(

Peregrine

08-07-2010, 08:14 PM

Apparently, it's not law enforcement's job to enforce the law:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2010/08/05/nb-dogs-attack-woman.html

Bruce Connell, the deputy police chief, said that criminal charges are generally only laid in dog attacks where the owner intended for it to happen. Otherwise, they're treated as unfortunate accidents.

He added there is a leash law, but that is for city bylaw enforcers to enforce, not police. The city could ticket the dog owner, but police said the case was closed.

lukkucairi

08-07-2010, 10:00 PM

Germany Terrorized by Swarms of Radioactive Boar (http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2010/08/07/germany-terrorised-by-swarms-of-radioactive-boar/)

Steph?

Marcus Bales

08-08-2010, 11:18 AM

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/08/08/finland.sauna.championships/index.html?hpt=T2

Call the Darwin Awards and let them know they have another candidate.

trisherina

09-28-2010, 03:28 AM

makes sense to me (http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/27/segway-inc-owner-rides-over-cliff-to-his-death/), but I'd still want to ask a few questions

zero

10-10-2010, 07:40 AM

http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00932/coupland_jpg_932006cl-3.jpg (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-radical-pessimists-guide-to-the-next-10-years/article1750609/page1/)

^

12"razormix

10-10-2010, 04:24 PM

i love you, dougie coup!

Brynn

10-11-2010, 03:20 PM

Some parts of that were extremely depressing. Others, meh - not so much. :-)

MoJoRiSin

10-17-2010, 01:06 PM

"It's just like Buzz Lightyear: Falling with style," Lindsey said. (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2010-10-17-space-shuttle-flight-training_N.htm)

lukkucairi

11-03-2010, 08:41 PM

Virgin Boa Birth (http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9139000/9139971.stm)

Brynn

11-30-2010, 11:07 PM

Drug Gang Parrot Arrested (http://newslite.tv/2010/09/20/drug-gang-parrot-arrested-in-c.html)

lukkucairi

12-02-2010, 08:19 AM

cinnamon used to make gold nanoparticles (http://ecoseed.org/technology/innovations/article/27-innovations/8519-cinnamon-replaces-toxic-chemicals-in-nanoparticle-production)

trisherina

12-20-2010, 04:03 AM

the "how not to be an asshole" (http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Training+deal+with+mentally+urged/3997806/story.html) training is only effective when delivered much earlier

Hyakujo's Fox

01-07-2011, 08:50 AM

Brynn

01-13-2011, 05:56 PM

Man charged with felony for reading his wife's e-mail to track an affair

Leon Walker, 33, stands next to the swing set he built for his 3-year-old daughter, Lailana Walker, outside his Rochester Hills, Mich. home.

By Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press, via AP

A Michigan man faces up to 5 years in prison for reading his wife's e-mail to find out if she was having an affair, the Detroit Free Press reports.

The newspaper says Leon Walker, 33, of Rochester Hills, has been charged with a felony after reading Clara Walker's GMail account on a laptop the now-divorced couple shared. He goes to trial in February.

Oakland County prosecutors used a state statute typically used to prosecute crimes like identity theft or stealing trade secrets, the newspaper says.

Leon, Clara Walker's third husband, found out in an e-mail that she was having an affair with her second husband, who was once arrested for beating her in front of her small son. Leon Walker showed the e-mail to that son's father, Clara's first husband, who filed an emergency motion to obtain custody.

"I was doing what I had to do," Leon Walker, a computer technician, tells the Free Press. "We're talking about putting a child in danger."

Oakland County prosecutor Jessica Cooper, in a voice mail to the newspaper, calls Walker a skilled "hacker" who used his wife's e-mail "in a contentious way."

In preliminary testimony, Clara testified that while Leon had bought her that laptop, it was hers alone and that she kept the password a secret.

Leon Walker says he routinely used the computer and that she kept all of her passwords in a small book next to it. "It was a family computer," he says. "I did work on it all the time."

lukkucairi

01-14-2011, 11:20 PM

Doctors Amputate Zsa Zsa Gabor's Right Leg (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_people_zsa_zsa_gabor;_ylt=AjNpaejYkAjNQBsSYiVwY 4suQE4F;_ylu=X3oDMTMxbHEwcmVxBGFzc2V0A2FwL3VzX3Blb 3BsZV96c2FfenNhX2dhYm9yBGNjb2RlA3ZpZXdzaGFyZQRjcG9 zAzIEcG9zAzIEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNkb2N0b 3JzYW1wdXQ-)

lukkucairi

01-16-2011, 11:21 AM

well, OK then. (http://www.slate.com/id/2281106?wpisrc=xs_wp_0001)

Frieda

01-17-2011, 09:42 AM

not a proper flotation device (http://m.theage.com.au/victoria/river-rescue-as-sex-toy-ditches-rider-20110117-19sra.html)

lukkucairi

01-20-2011, 10:46 AM

sharks swimming through flooded Australian streets (http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2011/01/14/ipswich-bull-sharks-spotted-flood-affected-streets/)

MoJoRiSin

01-20-2011, 11:22 AM

^ha ha ha see coment #1
He followa the BRISBANE river not the
BREMER river
(Zero, you should get this)

brightpearl

01-23-2011, 10:18 PM

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - What's in a name? That's the question at the heart of a class action lawsuit Montgomery, Alabama law firm Beasley Allen filed targeting fast food giant Taco Bell. The lawsuit claims the company uses "false advertising" on its menu and in its advertisements.

WSFA 12 News contacted the Taco Bell Corporation for a response to the lawsuit. The company said it is working to release a statement.

The complaint, originally out of California, on behalf of the general public alleges that what Taco Bell calls "beef" doesn't meet the minimum requirements set by the USDA to be called "beef" or "seasoned ground beef" or anything of the kind.

"Rather than beef, these food items are actually made with a substance known as "taco meat filling," according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit states that Taco Bell should refer to its product as "taco meat filling" because it contains mostly "extenders" and other non-meat substances.

What are these substances? The document lists water, "Isolated Oat Product," wheat oats, soy lecithin, maltodrextrin, anti-dusting agent, autolyzed yeast extract, modified corn starch and sodium phosphate as well as beef and seasonings.

The USDA defines "beef" as "flesh of cattle."

Taco Bell denied the accusations.

"Taco Bell prides itself on serving high quality Mexican inspired food with great value," said Rob Poetsch, a Taco Bell spokesman. "We're happy that the millions of customers we serve every week agree. We deny our advertising is misleading in any way and we intend to vigorously defend the suit."

The definition as read in the lawsuit states "Ground beef" "shall consist of chopped fresh and/or frozen beef with or without seasoning and without the addition of beef fat as such, shall not contain more than 30 percent fat, and shall not contain added water, phosphates, binders, or extenders."

The USDA policy book requires food labeled as "taco filling" to contain "at least 40 percent fresh meat," and the label must show the true product name.

In containers shipped to Taco Bell stores, not seen by consumers, the label reads: "Taco Meat Filling."

Beasley Allen law firm adds that what Taco Bell is marketing as beef only contains 36% meat.

Copyright 2011 WSFA 12 News. All rights reserved.

Brynn

01-25-2011, 11:07 PM

^ when they lose, I can hear the spin doctors now - "64% Vegetarian"

Coffee

01-26-2011, 02:01 PM

damn, if everyone would just protest corporate greed and NOT go to those ****ing corporate chain anti-health restaurants, and shop at your local actual mexican restruant/burger joint/delicatessen for a month...all that corporate bullshit would go away.

Lets make Februarary the "Don't eat at White castle/Tacobell/Burgerking/McD's" Month...AKA "Where's The Beef Month".

Coffee

04-12-2011, 12:42 PM

GO NAVY!!!

Gratz on your new disabled-vehicle disabling system :(

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13033437

Try to picture setting alight a fast moving small boat's motor while it is bouncing over swells with this gizmo...either they are gonna put lazer etched pinstriping all over the motor, or they are gonna have to lazer scortch the sailors instead to stop the boat so they can focus on the motors for a bit...this is a fail system if burning small boats is their goal. Or this is gonna be one cruel and unusual anti-personnel weapons system...possibly defeat-able with a large highly polished stainless steel mirror.)

MoJoRiSin

04-27-2011, 12:08 AM

Satya Sai Baba is not going to be cremated

Brynn

04-28-2011, 05:11 PM

Woman loses lawsuit against tanning salon (http://www.oregonlive.com/tualatin/index.ssf/2011/04/patron_of_a_tualatin_tanning_salon_loses_lawsuit_t hat_faulted_the_business_for_windows_that_exposed. html)

Hyakujo's Fox

04-29-2011, 08:22 AM

Hyakujo's Fox

06-15-2011, 11:35 PM

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/rail-protest-thwarted-by-cancelled-trains-20110616-1g4t8.html

Altona residents attempting to get to Parliament House for a protest planned for 12.30pm today about poor rail services on their line have been thwarted — after Metro this morning cancelled all trains until further notice.

Buses have been running to replace trains this morning, after an equipment fault at Seaholme on the Werribee line meant no trains have run.

The protest is over changes to the timetable last month that left residents near three stations — Seaholme, Altona and Westona — needing to catch three trains during off-peak times if they want to access City Loop services.

"They are not actually explaining anything on the stations; it hasn't been running for quite a while this morning," said Maree Kinniburgh, whose daughter Abbie almost missed an exam this morning due to late trains, which later became a full cancellation of all services on the line.

"Metro is not telling us they are cancelled, they are just saying they are delayed," she said.

Metro spokesman Chris Whitefield said an equipment breakdown at Seaholme had caused the cancellations. He said the line would begin running again around 1pm.

YsaPur EsChomuw

11-04-2011, 09:07 AM

monkeys! (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8867262/Having-more-friends-linked-to-bigger-brain.html)

brightpearl

11-21-2011, 01:55 PM

Bman

11-21-2011, 10:32 PM

Search for extraterrestrial life should include exotic possibilities.

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/alien-life-index/

"Searching for ET the way we've been doing it is like flying around the galaxy looking for a good Italian restaurant."

MoJoRiSin

12-11-2011, 03:23 AM

"December 5, 2011(Santa Barbara, Calif.) –– An international team of scientists has found the fastest-rotating massive star ever recorded. The star spins around its axis at the speed of 600 kilometers per second at the equator, a rotational velocity so high that the star is nearly tearing apart due to centrifugal forces. This confirms a prediction put forward by astrophysicist Matteo Cantiello, a postdoctoral fellow with UC Santa Barbara's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, who contributed to the discovery published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The observations were made at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, as part of a survey of the heaviest and brightest stars in a region called the Tarantula Nebula. The Tarantula Nebula is a region of star formation located in a neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 160,000 light years from Earth. The reported star, VFTS 102, is extremely hot and luminous, shining about 100,000 times more brightly than the sun. According to the research team, this star had a violent past and was ejected from a double star system by its exploding companion star.

Cantiello and collaborators explained that stars could reach such rapid rotation via a "cosmic dance" with another star so close that gravity strips gas from its surface. "This gas falls onto the companion star, increasing the mass and spinning it up," said Cantiello. "Similar to a tennis ball spinning fast after being hit by a glancing blow, a star rotates quickly after being hit off-center by the in-falling gas."

Cantiello previously predicted the possibility of observing this type of star. He reported this theoretical finding with Sung-Chul Yoon, Norbert Langer, and Mario Livio in a paper published in 2007 in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters. This theoretical investigation of stars in binary systems predicted extreme rotational velocities after mass accretion. The observed rotational velocity for the star agrees with this prediction.

The star is unusual not only because it rotates so fast, but also because it is moving away from its neighboring stars at a velocity of about 70,000 miles per hour, or 30 kilometers per second. "Having been part of a binary system could explain this space oddity," said Cantiello. "It has been known for over 40 years that a star in a massive binary system can be shot away from its surroundings when the companion ends its life in a spectacular explosion called a supernova. In our theoretical calculations we noticed that the ‘spun-up' star would also be moving from its surroundings at a high rate. It is very exciting to find a star that matches both of these predictions."

The star is located close to a pulsar and a supernova remnant, which may be left over from the companion star that once spun-up the observed star. If confirmed, this would provide additional support for the theoretical explanation put forward by Cantiello and collaborators in 2007.

Cantiello said that this star may produce dramatic fireworks as it dies. Such a rapidly rotating, massive star is believed to be the progenitor of some of the brightest explosions in the universe: gamma-ray bursts. These occur when the star's fast rotation produces powerful
jets of light and matter."

Brynn

12-13-2011, 07:34 PM

Tattoo Artist Facing Civil Lawsuit

November 21st, 2011

Two trailer park residents in Dayton, Ohio are going to be battling this out in court over the next few months.

Tattoo artist, Ryan L. Fitzjerald was hit with a $100,000 lawsuit last week by his ex-girlfriend Rossie Brovent. She claims that her boyfriend was supposed to tattoo a scene from Narnia on her back but instead tattooed an image of a pile of excrement with flies buzzing around it.

Apparently Ryan found out that she had cheated with a long-time friend of his and this was his way of getting even. Originally Rossie tried to have Ryan charged with assault but it turns out this crafty tattoo artist got her to sign a consent form prior to the tattoo and it said that the design was ‘at the artists discretion’, she claims; “he tricked her by drinking a bottle of cheap wine with me and doing tequila shots before I signed it and got the tattoo”. “Actually I was passed out for most of the time, and woke up to this horrible image on my back.”
Is there a picture of it? Of course there's a picture of it:
But I just deleted it because after six months of coming to this thread, I simply got tired of looking at it, so go find it yourself.

Peregrine

12-14-2011, 08:24 PM

The picture is real, for some reason. But the story is made up.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/bodymods/poo.asp

Brynn

12-15-2011, 04:46 AM

But...but...it made sense to me! :D

Peregrine

12-15-2011, 08:27 PM

Yeah, I'll agree with you there. The made up story makes more sense than the tattoo without a backstory at all.

Hyakujo's Fox

12-16-2011, 06:12 AM

But it doesn't look like it's an actual tattoo, too broad brushed.

Coffee

01-26-2012, 10:46 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/newt-gingrich-gay-marriage-_n_1234955.html

To paraphrase...Newt Gingrich: "Marriage is a sacred union between a man and a woman, and another woman, and another woman" :rolleyes:

Brynn

01-30-2012, 07:08 PM

:eek: that picture of his current wife!!!!!!!:eek:

brightpearl

01-30-2012, 08:11 PM

^Very Mars Attacks moment the photographer caught her in, poor thing.

I confess I am having kind of a hard time feeling too sorry for her, though...

http://users.breathe.com/redplanet/movie/wt16.jpg

Coffee

01-31-2012, 12:31 PM

I <3 one commenter who said:

"Besides, if you look at the Snowy Owl he is standing next to, above,

_________ NEWT IS INTO BESTIALITY*__________*_ "

Brynn

02-02-2012, 02:57 PM

LOL! :D

Here's a creeper for you:
Rich guy adopts his own 42-year-old girlfriend (http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/polo-club-founder-goodman-adopts-his-adult-girlfriend-2138913.html)

brightpearl

02-03-2012, 07:53 AM

I cannot stop laughing at this.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police say several people dressed as movie characters on Hollywood Boulevard got into a brawl that ended with a man dressed as "Pirates of the Caribbean" character Capt. Jack Sparrow being pepper-sprayed.

Officer Rosario Herrera says it's unclear why the Sparrow character, made famous in the movies by Johnny Depp, got into a fight with people dressed as Catwoman and an alien in front of the Kodak Theatre Thursday evening.

Officers responded to a call that there was a disturbance on the stretch of Hollywood Boulevard known to host costumed characters who hustle tourists for a few bucks in exchange for a photo with a celebrity lookalike.

Sparrow was treated for minor injuries. No arrests have been made.

Brynn

02-15-2012, 07:34 PM

Man suffers heart attack (http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-suffers-heart-attack-while-eating-heart-attack-185717972.html)

Brynn

03-20-2012, 04:34 PM

Coffee

03-20-2012, 07:31 PM

Sweeeet...free fighting cocks for every stillborn baby in Georgia!
What a country!
You lose some, you win some in Georgia. :rolleyes:

Has anyone compared the R. Rep. from Georgia to a Horse's Ass yet? :p

Brynn

03-21-2012, 09:58 PM

^Seriously!

I'm posting today to get that ugly tattoo off the top of the page that I look at every time I come in here - eww. I guess I should post some absurd news item as well. I'll go look around - shouldn't be too difficult.

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:07 PM

Okay...recent "News of the Weird"

LEAD STORY -- In Northern Vietnam, Much Rides on a Man's Phallic Aim
An annual spring fertility festival in Vietnam's Phu Tho province is capped by a symbolic X-rated ceremony rendered G-rated by wooden stand-ins. At midnight on the 12th day of the lunar new year, a man holding a wooden phallus-like object stands in total darkness alongside a woman holding a wooden plank with a hole in it, and the act is attempted. As the tradition goes, if the man is successful at penetration, then there will be good crops. Following the ceremony, villagers are ordered to "go and be free," which, according to a February report by Thanh Nien News Service, means uninhibited friskiness during the lights-out period. [Thanh Nien News (Ho Chi Minh City), 2-9-2012]

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:07 PM

Cultural Diversity

-- In the remote state of Meghalaya, India, a matrilineal system endows the women with wealth and property rights and relegates the men to slow-moving campaigns for equality. A men's rights advocate, interviewed by BBC News in January, lamented even the language's favoring of women, noting that "useful" nouns seem all to be female. The system, he said, breeds generations of men "who feel useless," falling into alcoholism and drug abuse. In maternity wards, he said, the sound of cheering greets baby girls, and if it's a boy, the prevailing sentiment is "Whatever God gives us is quite all right." The husband of one woman interviewed said, meekly, that he "likes" the current system -- or at least that's what his wife's translation said he said. [BBC News, 1-19-2012]

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:08 PM

-- Each year, the town of Chumbivilcas, Peru, celebrates the new year with what to Americans might seem "Festivus"-inspired (from the Seinfeld TV show), but is actually drawn from Incan tradition. For "Takanakuy," with a background of singing and dancing, all townspeople with grudges from the previous 12 months (men, women, children) settle them with sometimes-bloody fistfights so that they start the new year clean. Said one villager to a Reuters reporter, "Everything is solved here, and after(ward) we are all friends." [Reuters via CBS News, 12-14-2011]

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:10 PM

So tired of looking at that tattoo.
Here's another:

Latest Religious Messages

-- Prophet Warren Jeffs, of a breakaway Mormon cult, is serving life (plus 20 years) in a Texas prison for raping two underage parishioners, but insists that his power has not been diminished. He was disciplined in December for making a phone call to his congregation announcing several decrees, including barring marriages from taking place until he can return to "seal" them and prohibiting everyone from having sex. (Since Jeffs retains his "messiah" status among many church members, and since life-plus-20 is a long time to wait, and since the cult is reclusive, it is difficult for outsiders to assess the level of sexual frustration in the compound.) [Daily Mail (London), 12-31-2011; Deseret News (Salt Lake City), 12-30-2011]

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:11 PM

Questionable Judgments

-- According to a municipal street sign in front of Lakewood Elementary School in White Lake, Mich. (filmed in February by Detroit's WJBK-TV), the speed limit drops to 25 mph on "school days only," but just from "6:49-7:15 a.m., 7:52-8:22 a.m., 8:37-9:07 a.m., 2:03-2:33 p.m., 3:04-3:34 p.m. (and) 3:59-4:29 p.m." [WJBK-TV, 2-15-2012]

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:12 PM

A Special Place in Hell

(1) John Morgan, 34, was charged in February in Port St. Lucie, Fla., with embezzling over $40,000 from a trust fund that had been established for his daughter, who has special needs because of cerebral palsy. Because of the theft, she is unable to have dental work necessitated because a care provider failed to lock her wheelchair, sending her sprawling face-first. (2) Police officer Skeeter Manos, 34, was charged in February in Seattle with embezzling over $120,000 from a fund for the families of four colleagues who had been shot to death in the line of duty. Manos' alleged expenditures included several trips to Las Vegas. [WPTV (West Palm Beach, Fla.), 2-6-2012] [Associated Press via WHBF-TV (Rock Island, Ill.), 2-8-2012]

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:13 PM

People With Issues

What Do You Mean, I'm Not Mentally Stable: Ms. Fausat Ogunbayo, 46, filed a federal lawsuit against New York City's Administration for Children's Services because it had taken away her kids (aged 13 and 10 at the time) in 2008 for questions about Ogunbayo's mental stability. The lawsuit, for "recklessly disregard(ing)" her "right to family integrity," asks the city to pay her $900,000,000,000,000 (trillion). [Staten Island Advance, 2-7-2012]

MoJoRiSin

03-21-2012, 10:13 PM

((Brynn, this image is for you
remember, in your dream you saw a beaded charismaic
woman next to a guy in a tux??
imagine my big smile when i came across this: )

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/03/14/us/20120315_STATEDINNER.html

now that i think about it it doesn't really go in this thread
does it?

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:20 PM

ahhhh....okay, I get it now!

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:20 PM

Least Competent People

LaDondrell Montgomery, 36, had been sentenced in November in Houston to life in prison for armed robbery despite his vigorous protestations of innocence, and about a week later, in December, he was exonerated in fact. Although he had testified at his trial, he had not mentioned that he had an ironclad alibi -- that he had been in jail during the time the robbery was committed. Once jail records were reviewed, Montgomery was freed. The prosecutor hadn't checked the records before trial, and neither had Montgomery's attorney, but then neither had Montgomery ever mentioned it (because, he had told his lawyers, he had been in and out of jail so many times in his life that he just could not remember if he had been locked up at the time of the armed robbery). [Houston Chronicle, 12-9-2011]

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:21 PM

Update

Sherwin Shayegan of Bothell, Wash., has apparently been acting out again. News of the Weird first mentioned, in 2007, an adult "troll" who hung out at high schools and befriended male students, especially athletes, ultimately beseeching them for piggyback rides. In some cases, he jumped on without permission and was arrested and ordered to get treatment and to stay away from schools. He reportedly began his piggyback "career" in 2004 with incidents in Washington and Oregon, and though there were periods of dormancy, it flared up again recently as he traveled to Montana, Bismarck, N.D., and Minneapolis (perhaps to outrun restraining orders). (Fondness for piggyback rides is not a widely practiced obsession, though the legendary illustrator R. Crumb liked to receive them in lieu of sex, according to an ex-girlfriend in the 1994 movie "Crumb.") [Associated Press via KOMO-TV (Seattle), 2-16-2012]

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:22 PM

I give up. That's all I've got.

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:41 PM

Wait...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8poYuXU_iBo/TGTIyVewR-I/AAAAAAAAAFI/kNv118QFCKI/s1600/dog-in-a-poodle-skirt-by-mockstar.jpg

"Makes Sense To Me" News Story of the Day:
People Keep Dressing Dogs Up in Clothes And Posting Them On the Internet

3/21/12 - PORTLAND
Apparently, people keep dressing up adorable dogs in uncomfortable human clothes, take a picture of them, and then post them for laughs on the internet. Here is a picture of a dog dressed in a poodle skirt, posed as if the canine is participating in a dance class. One can only hope that the dog is undressed in a timely fashion once the photographer has been satisfied. Here, the humor is derived from the fact that the dog is dressed in a "poodle" skirt, thus creating a visual pun.

Authorities on the subject speculated as to whether or not the photographer originally had hoped to cast an actual poodle for the scenario, but was unable to locate one, opting instead for a dog of indeterminate breed. When asked about it, photographer Ellery Fragmore stated "I dunno. I guess I did look around for a poodle at first, but then something about my neighbor's dog Mr. Wiggles just put the whole thing into cute overload, so I decided to go with it. Besides, he looks like he kind of wants to be a poodle, wearing that skirt and everything, so it added an extra layer of meaning for me."

Brynn

03-21-2012, 10:50 PM

Oh it's still there.

Okay. I'll interview myself.

Yes I wrote that news item because it makes sense to me.
It probably does not make sense to post it in this thread. No, I am not on any meds or under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the moment.
Yes I am procrastinating.
No it doesn't actually make sense to me.
No I have never dressed up a dog and taken a picture of it.
Yes, I am lying about that. Once I dressed up my very cute, fluffy, black and white Shztzu-Pomeranian mix of a dog in a little gray jogging outfit with little yellow stripes down the leg, but only because he was freezing because he had recently suffered some hair loss and was embarrassed. However, he was more embarrassed to be wearing a doggie jogging outfit, so I took him out of it after just a couple of snaps.
No I will never do that again.
Yes I might post it here later in an attempt to get that hideous tattoo picture off the top of the page. I've been looking at it for months and months and I'm tired of it, and it turned out not to be a real news story anyway, and it's all just so very embarrassing in general.

Brynn

03-21-2012, 11:01 PM

In hell that tattoo picture is on every billboard.
I know, wrong thread.

Coffee

03-22-2012, 11:18 AM

Yay...epic weird news blog FTW!

I was getting a wee bit sick of the tapoo pic too

:)

brightpearl

04-02-2012, 10:00 PM

Starbucks reviews alternative to cochineal insects for red coloring in strawberry Frappucino. (http://blogs.starbucks.com/blogs/customer/archive/2012/03/29/update-regarding-cochineal-extract.aspx)

How about strawberries? :rolleyes:

Hyakujo's Fox

04-03-2012, 08:43 AM

And will the Red Velvet Whoopie Pie be made with real Red Velvet Whoopies? :confused:

brightpearl

04-03-2012, 08:17 PM

^There is no way to make Red Velvet anything appealing to me regardless of the colorant.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/ff/Poison_Help.svg/220px-Poison_Help.svg.png

Brynn

04-09-2012, 12:06 PM

Ugh. Eww. Blech. Ptooey.

Brynn

04-18-2012, 01:33 PM

Man protests airport security (http://www.katu.com/news/local/Man-protests-airport-security---naked-147865895.html)

brightpearl

05-22-2012, 11:44 PM

Man with Zebra, Parrot in Front Seat Charged with DUI (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/05/man-with-zebra-parrot-in-front-seat-charged-with-dui/)

Brynn

05-27-2012, 06:40 PM

...as told to me by a three-year-old:
What did the man say when he walked into a bar?
"Ouch."

All I can think of is how much poop there must be on the upholstery!

MoJoRiSin

06-09-2012, 02:45 PM

i'll have another retired before triple crown try

Brynn

06-22-2012, 12:57 AM

Really gross. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/15/squid-sperm_n_1599591.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false)

Coffee

06-24-2012, 12:42 AM

Because when a crap weasel wants to polish up it's image...hire a FOX.

http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-hires-u-journalist-help-media-relations-180945243.html

brightpearl

10-12-2012, 06:02 PM

Turns out we just don't hear very well. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49367270/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.UHiFj4b6CDd)

Brynn

11-14-2012, 04:21 AM

Wife mows down husband with car for allowing Obama to win. (http://natmonitor.com/2012/11/13/wife-mows-down-husband-with-car-for-allowing-obama-to-win/)
National Monitor, Staff | November 13, 2012

Wife mows down husband with car for allowing Obama to win Credit: Flickr

A pregnant Arizona woman ran over her husband for failing to vote in the presidential election.

Holly Solomon, a pregnant Arizona woman, ran over her husband for not voting in the 2012 presidential election, according to CBS affiliate KPHO. Ms. Solomon’s husband reportedly stepped out of the car during an argument and gave his wife a dirty look, at which point the woman became enraged and chased her husband around a parking lot in their Jeep SUV.

“At one point he went behind a light pole so the vehicle wouldn’t strike him. He ended up leaving the light pole trying to run away to a different area,” said Sgt. Jesse Sanger with the Gilbert Police Department.

At this point, investigators said, the pregnant Arizona woman ran over her husband with her car. Daniel Solomon was reportedly pinned underneath the vehicle. According to investigators, the woman wanted to scare her husband and said she accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake.

A witness who called 911 revealed just how ludicrous the situation that unfolded in the parking lot was.

“He got out of the car and she was screaming at him,” the witness said, according to KNXV. “And he started walking away and she started driving in circles around him. And she wouldn’t let him go, so finally he took off to try to get away, and she ran into him.”

According to the CBS affiliate, the woman was upset that her husband had failed to vote in the 2012 presidential election. The woman, the officer said, was convinced that her family wouldn’t do well under four more years of President Barack Obama.

Ms. Solomon’s husband, Daniel Solomon, told police that his wife “just hated Obama,” according to abc15.com.

While Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes, the woman’s husband wouldn’t have been able to help elect Governor Romney even if he had voted for the Michigan native. The Bain Capital co-founder lost the swing states of Florida, Virginia, Colorado and Ohio, making a Romney victory last Tuesday unrealistic.

KPHO noted that as of early Tuesday morning, the woman’s husband remains in the hospital. Investigators said that Ms. Solomon will face aggravated assault and reckless driving charges.

Political elections, especially presidential elections, tend to bring out strong emotions in people, as is made clear by the pregnant Arizona woman’s decision to mow over her husband with the family car.

While not physically dangerous like the incident in Arizona, New York real estate mogul Donald Trump let his passion show during the 2012 presidential race.

The reality TV star took to Twitter to bash Obama after he was reelected to a second term in the Oval Office.

“He lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!” Mr. Trump tweeted to more than 1.8 million followers.

A California woman also let her emotions get the best of her when she took to Facebook to express her disgust at the presidential election results.

The post, which led to her dismissal from her job as an ice cream store manager, referred to President Obama using the N word.

“Maybe he will get assassinated this term..!!” Denise Helms wrote.

“The assassination part is kind of harsh,” Ms. Helms later told FOX40. “I’m not saying I’d go do that or anything like that, by any means, but if it was to happen I don’t think I’d care one bit.”

Whether or not the contentious nature of the presidential race put people more on edge than usual, the Arizona woman’s reckless behavior and the California woman’s racist post appear to be extreme cases of people overacting to the results of the 2012 presidential election.

Coffee

11-14-2012, 12:50 PM

I'm torn between "Hey, at least they vote." and "Fvvvvvck, they vote?"

Ok...ill go with the latter.

brightpearl

10-03-2013, 08:32 AM

"We're not going to be disrespected, We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is."

-- Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-IN), on the government shutdown.

YsaPur EsChomuw

10-23-2013, 03:38 PM

"... We don’t openly profess those values nowadays, but our educational system—which routinely tests kids on their ability to recall information and demonstrate mastery of a narrow set of skills—doubles down on the view that students are material to be processed, programmed, and quality-tested..."

How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses (http://www.wired.com/business/2013/10/free-thinkers/all/)

MoJoRiSin

01-30-2014, 06:29 PM

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/01/what-makes-a-good-toilet/282987/

Where on earth did they get the idea to use chemicals (chlorox?? yikes!:( )
in the first place?

Hyakujo's Fox

03-16-2014, 07:17 AM

I was seduced by Scarlett Johansson disguised as an alien... and that doesn't happen every night in Glasgow, says father-of-two picked randomly for star's new movie (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2581785/I-seduced-Scarlett-Johansson-disguised-alien-doesnt-happen-night-Glasgow-says-father-two-picked-randomly-stars-new-movie.html#ixzz2w7SJ7WEB)

brightpearl

08-05-2014, 10:59 AM

Utah Man Fired For Blog About Homophones, Which Apparently Promote The Gay Agenda
The Huffington Post | By Cavan Sieczkowski

Of all the reasons an employee could be fired, writing about homophones ranks pretty far down on the list. Alas, that is exactly what happened to Tim Torkildson, a social media specialist at English-language learning center Nomen Global Language Centre in Provo, Utah.

Before we move on, it's important to note that homophones are words that are pronounced similarly but are different in meaning, origin or spelling. Examples are "to," "too" and "two," or "intense" and "intents." Homophones have nothing to do with gays or any sort of "agenda." Ok, let's continue.

After publishing a blog post about homophones, Torkildson was fired by his boss, Nomen owner Clarke Woodger, in mid-July, reports the Salt Lake Tribune. According to Torkildson, Woodger told him, "Now our school is going to be associated with homosexuality."

Woodger told the Salt Lake Tribune that the students at Nomen are from 58 countries around the world and typically know only a basic level of English. He apparently thought a blog about homophones could be confusing or offensive.

"People at this level of English," Woodger told the publication, "may see the ‘homo’ side and think it has something to do with gay sex."

After being fired, Torkildson blogged about the incident, claiming that his boss called his homophones explainer "extremely inappropriate."

"There are hundreds of these [homophones] in the English language, and it is one of the first subjects tackled when teaching [English as a second language]," he also wrote. "It is a subject that has been taught and discussed with absolutely no controversy for well over a hundred years. Until now."

Unsurprisingly, some have found news of the termination hard to fathom.