Bizarre News

[Milla aka. the Slayer]

Personally I would be more concerned about doing the time for a bag of bread rolls.

I'd beat up my buddy for shooting me in the butt. Relly, that doesn't belong anywhere in an armed robbery. Amateurs

[winterfate]

They would shoot us if they saw this thread...

[Milla aka. the Slayer]

Nah, poor sidekick would just end up with a bullet in his other butt cheek I suppose. Shooter is not really qualified

[winterfate]

[Kalah]

Harry Potter "blaimed" for inflation

Norwegian inflation was 1,8% i December. The Bank of Norway expected 1,5%. At a press conference wednesday, vice central bank manager Jarle Bergo said there might have been a Harry Potter-effect.

- Inflation in December was special. Amongst other things, book prices pulled the price growth up by 0,2%. It's rare for such a small group of merchandise to have such a large effect, but the book prices are calculated in a special manner. When people buy expensive books, it's calculated as a rise in prices, Bergo said.

When people, by contrast, buy Mercedes' instead of Huyndais, paying more for what is essentially the same type of goods, it doesn't count as a rise in prices.

Up next, Harry Potter rigs Nigerian election.

[winterfate]

More bizarre things have happened for real.

[asandir]

now that's a new one!

[ThunderTitan]

May the Force be with pew: Brothers open Jedi 'church' in Wales

A Jedi "church" has been born in a galaxy far far away - North Wales.

The Holyhead chapter of the self-styled Jedi Church, which claims up to 400,000 members worldwide, has sprung up thanks to brothers Barney and Daniel Jones, both Star Wars obsessives.

The "church" is only one of a handful around the planet, said hairdresser Barney, 26, the Anglesey Order Minister, also known as Master Jonba Hehol.

"Some people think it will be quite interesting but lots of people will ridicule us because it seems quite nerdy but we've had a good reaction so far," he said.

"We think of it as proper lifestyle enhancement and it should be taken seriously - it can't be bad if it makes life better.

"We live normal day-to-day lives.

"We are trying to take away the humour of it all and bring more structure so people take it more seriously."

The "religion" was born as a result of a nationwide joke in the 2001 census when nearly 400,000 claimed their belief system was Jedi.

And now Barney and musician Daniel, 21 - or Master Morda Hehol, self-appointed UK "church" leader - are getting their new "religion" off the ground.

"It's serious," said Barney.

"We will have teachings based on Yoda - the 900-year-old grand master - as well as readings, essays submitted, meditation and relaxation, visualisation and discuss healthy eating.

"The Jedi religion is about life improvement, inner peace and changing your lifestyle so you have a more fulfilling existence.

"It's based on the films but we have brought things into it because the films are a bit more sci-fi.

"But we have developed on the film's teachings, introducing teachings we believe the Jedi Knights would seek.

"We used to watch the films over and over again and it came about from that."

There will be no chance of their empire striking back at people who mock the Jedi, as they are a peace-loving bunch, said Barney.

The Anglesey order has 80 worshippers - whose uniform is head-to-toe black - but is growing daily, said Barney - who as a master wears brown hooded robes.

And when a building has been found to home the movement, the brothers aim to provide lightsabre fighting classes.

"Worshippers" will take a series of tests to scale the Jedi hierarchy.

Plans have also been made to open a Jedi "church" in Surrey and in the Philippines to follow on from America's first in Florida.

[Elvin]

I seriously can't see why anyone would ridicule them And I'm pretty sure they'll gather numerous suckers.

[winterfate]

The Jedi religion is about life improvement, inner peace and changing your lifestyle so you have a more fulfilling existence.

Frankly, they're talking about some nice ideals...there's nothing wrong with that.

The part that's hard NOT to ridicule is what they're basing it off of...

[Ethric]

My medichlorine count is higher than yours.

[Corelanis]

I support what these jedi are doing after all their religion makes more sense than most mainstream religions. . All we need now is a sith counter religion and let the fun unfold. .

[ThunderTitan]

These are not the believers you are looking for...

[Elvin]

Lol we could get some sith wannabes if some split from the jedi because they decided that giving in to your emotions makes you stronger But then it would get messy because when the apprentice surpasses the teacher he kills him.

[asandir]

I would be a sith lord in a second!

[ThunderTitan]

I would be a puppet sith lord in a second!

[asandir]

nah, 2IC is okay for me

[ThunderTitan]

it's refreshing to see jails are the same all over the world:

Ex-Florida prison boss: Drunken orgies tainted system

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Softball, drunken orgies and a prison system run like the mafia. That's what Florida's former prison secretary says he inherited when he took over one of the nation's largest prison systems two years ago.

In fact, on his first day on the job, James McDonough says he walked into his office -- the same one his predecessor used -- and there was crime scene tape preventing anyone from entering.

"That was an indication we had a problem in the department," McDonough told CNN in an exclusive interview before he stepped down last Thursday.

McDonough revealed a startling list of alleged abuses and crimes going on inside Florida's prisons:

• Top prison officials admitting to kickbacks;

• Guards importing and selling steroids in an effort to give them an edge on the softball field;

• Taxpayer funds to pay for booze and women;

• Guards who punished other guards who threatened to report them.

"Corruption had gone to an extreme," McDonough said, saying it all began at the top. "They seemed to be drunk half the time and had orgies the other half, when they weren't taking money and beating each other up." Video Watch a corrupted prison system »

He added, "Women were treated like chattel in this department."

McDonough described a bizarre prison culture among those that ran the system -- one that he says seemed obsessed with inter-department softball games and the orgies after games.

"I cannot explain how big an obsession softball had become," he said. "People were promoted on the spot after a softball game at the drunken party to high positions in the department because they were able to hit a softball out of the park a couple times."

"The connection between the softball and the parties and the corruption and the beatings was greatly intertwined."

The parties and orgies were often carried out at a waterfront ranch house built on prison grounds for a former warden with taxpayer dollars, McDonough said. The house was complete with a bar, pool table and hot tub. Photo See photos of the "party house" »

McDonough is a former Army colonel who commanded troops in Vietnam and Africa. He served as Florida's drug czar before taking on the job as the head of Florida's prison system, which oversees 90,000 inmates.

He left his post last Thursday as secretary of Florida's Department of Corrections because, he says, he feels he has cleaned up the corruption. It's time, he said, "to turn this over to law and order people that have made this their life's goal."

A Brooklyn, New York, native, McDonough says he witnessed the way the mafia worked in his youth and it provided him a keen insight into how his prison predecessor, James Crosby, operated.

"It reminded me of the petty mafia I saw on the streets of Brooklyn when I was growing up in the late 1950s, early 1960s -- petty, small-minded, thugish, violent, dangerous, outside the law, and completely intolerable for a society such as ours in the United States of America," he said.

Crosby would later plead guilty to bribery charges in relation to kickbacks from a prison vendor. He's now locked up in a federal prison. He refused CNN's request for an interview for this report.

"He's serving time in a federal prison. I hope he reforms and gets out and prospers," McDonough said.

He added, "When you have a rotten guy at the top, or gal at the top, it can be very invasive, and it's a cancer that needs to be excised."

And getting rid of this "cancer" is exactly what McDonough says he did. McDonough fired 90 top prison officials -- wardens, supervisors, colonels and majors -- claiming they were corrupt or, at the very least, not to be trusted. He demoted 280 others.

Criminal charges were filed against more than 40 others, and most were convicted. In addition to the orgies and other misconduct outside the cell blocks, there were other allegations of prisoners being harmed, McDonough said.

"In some of the pockets of corruption that we found, they [prisoners] were being abused," he said.

Among those arrested were seven officers accused of beating inmates, including five accused of forcing a prisoner to drink toilet water. All have pleaded not guilty.

Tina Hayes, the director of the prison's department initiatives who has worked in the prison system for 28 years, said the atmosphere before McDonough arrived was "a little tense" with workers "always on edge."

She said employees who didn't attend softball games or play on the teams were "isolated" and "pushed aside."

"I used to tell staff day in and day out: Keep your head high; do what's right; you know what morally is right; you've got some ethics; don't bow down to it," Hayes told CNN.

McDonough, she said, brought "standards back into the department."

"People can speak out now without being afraid to say what they need to say."
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McDonough says the majority of the prison system's 28,000 employees were honest, hard-working people who weren't corrupt at all. But he says many of the top prison officials weren't and he believes he has weeded out "an organized vein of corruption."

[asandir]

James Bond-inspired submarine ready for launch
A car that can be driven underwater is set to be unveiled next month at the International Geneva Motor Show, the Swiss manufacturer of the prototype announced.

The 'sQuba', reminiscent of James Bond's underwater car in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me is, according to manufacturer Rinspeed, the world's first real submersible car.

Rinspeed's head, Frank Rinderknecht, is a James Bond enthusiast who has dreamed of making the amphibious vehicle come true.

"For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water," said Mr Rinderknecht in a statement. "Now we have made this dream come true."

The convertible sports car transforms into an underwater vehicle in which passengers breathe with the help of compressed air masks.

"It is undoubtedly not an easy task to make a car watertight and pressure resistant enough to be manoeuvrable under water," said Mr Rinderknecht. "The real challenge however was to create a submersible car that moves like a fish in water."

Propelled by electric motors, the car can descend up to 10 metres underwater.

Aesthetic appeal aside, the open-top design of the car is actually a safety feature that permits passengers to get out quickly during an emergency and avert the problem of excessive water pressure on the windows of a closed car.

The invention will be presented at the car show in Geneva, which opens to the press March 4 and runs for the public from March 6 to 16.

Rinspeed was not available to specify the sale price of the new model.

[ThunderTitan]

It's open topped... doesn't qualify as a submarine...