Bizarre News

[ThunderTitan]

What to do while on trial for computer theft?
For California man, the answer is: Steal courthouse computers

NOVATO, Calif. - A man was convicted of various theft charges, after prosecutors say he stole computers from the courthouse while he was on trial for computer theft.

"It just amazed me that someone could be in the middle of a jury trial for a burglary involving computers and immediately get involved in another burglary at the Civic Center," said sheriff's Sgt. Jerry Niess.

Jon Houston Eipp, 39, of Novato pleaded guilty Monday in three separate cases involving 10 different charges, including burglary, theft, drug possession, attempted auto theft and more.

[DaemianLucifer]

Serves them right for letting a cleptomaniac to roam free during his trial.

[asandir]

Jerusalem lost in translation
Something always gets lost in translation, but usually not an entire city.

"Jerusalem. There is no such city!" the Jerusalem municipality said in the English-language version of a sightseeing brochure it had published originally in Hebrew.

The correct translation: "Jerusalem. There is no city like it!"

Carrying a photograph of the brochure, Israel's Maariv reported tens of thousands of flyers had been distributed before city hall realised its mistake.

[ThunderTitan]

"Jerusalem. There is no such city!"

Prophecy?! The end times are near....

[ThunderTitan]

They Can't Show Dawn of the Dead in Kentucky Either

William Poole, a Kentucky high school student, was arrested on felony charges for writing a short story.

"My story is based on fiction," said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. "It's a fake story. I made it up. I've been working on one of my short stories, [and] the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies."

But local police say the setting of Poole's story renders it illegal. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill."

This Speaks Poorly For America

A poor grammatically challenged teenager in Clark County, Kentucky is being held on a $5000 bond because of the contents of his journal. He faces second-degree felony charges for making threats and possibly being a terrorist as well.

While it is nice to know that rural Kentucky does not wholeheartedly subscribe to the terrorist=A-rabs equation, there's a troubling reality here.

I'm sure that the boy's grandparents are kind, caring people who want to do what's best for everyone, and agonized over their decision to imprison their own flesh and blood based on a faulty interpretation of his private writings...but this is indicative of a bigger, more frightening picture for the rest of society.

1st Grader With Squirt Gun Back In School

District Will Remove Incident From Child's School Record

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Was it an overreaction or a safety precaution?

Either way, the Kansas City, Mo., School District has overruled local school officials.

The district overturned a 10-day suspension for a 6-year-old boy who brought a plastic squirt gun to school.

"They made a good decision. Everything is OK," said Daniella Womack, whose son Tawann Caskey was suspended.

On Monday, the first grader was suspended for bringing a two-inch plastic squirt toy to school.

Womack said a school official told her that the gun was a weapon and that a girl saw it and reported to the teacher that Tawann had a weapon. That caused the school to suspend the child for a mandatory 10 days.

[Caradoc]

The really disturbing thing about the Kentucky kid is that he had not published the story. It could hardly have inspired anyone to mayhem and is best described as a thought crime. There seems to be a paradigm shift taking place. Where once lawbreakers were punished after the crime, now we lock them up because they might commit it. This goes all the way up to the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive wars. I do not like where this is headed.

[DaemianLucifer]

But local police say the setting of Poole's story renders it illegal. "Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it's a felony in the state of Kentucky," said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill."

Thats sooo idiotic.There are tons of movies with zombies in high schools.Why dont they imprison the whole hollywood?

1st Grader With Squirt Gun Back In School

District Will Remove Incident From Child's School Record

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Was it an overreaction or a safety precaution?

Either way, the Kansas City, Mo., School District has overruled local school officials.

The district overturned a 10-day suspension for a 6-year-old boy who brought a plastic squirt gun to school.

"They made a good decision. Everything is OK," said Daniella Womack, whose son Tawann Caskey was suspended.

On Monday, the first grader was suspended for bringing a two-inch plastic squirt toy to school.

Womack said a school official told her that the gun was a weapon and that a girl saw it and reported to the teacher that Tawann had a weapon. That caused the school to suspend the child for a mandatory 10 days.

[/quote]

Land of the trully free,and inocent until proven otherwise

The really disturbing thing about the Kentucky kid is that he had not published the story. It could hardly have inspired anyone to mayhem and is best described as a thought crime. There seems to be a paradigm shift taking place. Where once lawbreakers were punished after the crime, now we lock them up because they might commit it. This goes all the way up to the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive wars. I do not like where this is headed.

As far as I know,those that commit a crime still can be released on technicallity.

But if you look from other side,you may see some wisdom in it:Its very hard to repair the damage once that its been done,and theres no sense in trying.But if you prevent the damage from ever happening,it will be ok.

[asandir]

Mummified dogs found buried with ownersArchaeologists in Peru have discovered the mummified remains of dogs buried alongside their owners around 1,100 years ago.

Hundreds of years before the European conquest of South America, the Chiribaya civilian valued its dogs so highly that when one died it was buried alongside family members.

Experts say the dogs' treatment in death indicated the belief that the animal had an afterlife.

The dogs, which have been called Chiribaya shepherds for their lama herding abilities, were not sacrificed as in other ancient cultures, but buried with blankets and food in human cemeteries.

Biological archaeologists have unearthed the remains of more than 40 dogs which were naturally mummified in the desert sands of Peru's southern Elo Valley.

[asandir]

Ansari reveals secrets of hygiene in space
The world's first female space tourist and first space blogger, American national Anousheh Ansari, has been telling the world of the difficulties of keeping tidy in zero gravity.

"Well my friends, I must admit keeping good hygiene in space is not easy!" the Iranian-born woman wrote, saying she would reveal what "everyone wants to know" but is too modest to ask.

"Water does not 'flow' here, it 'floats' - which makes it a challenging act to clean yourself," Ms Ansari said.

She explains that astronauts bathe with wet and dry towels and swallow after brushing their teeth, which they refer to as "the fresh mint effect".

Ms Ansari says she had been given the personal hygiene kit of Daisuke Enomoto, a would-be space tourist from Japan who was pulled from the flight because of health problems, leaving her with "a razor and lots of shaving cream, but no make-up".

Hair-washing in space brings its own difficulties.

"You basically take a water bag and slowly make a huge water bubble over your head and then very very gently, using a dry shampoo, you wash your hair," Ms Ansari said.

"At the slightest sudden movement, little water bubbles start floating everywhere."

Ms Ansari has promised to share videos of the process upon her return to Earth.

Sweat 'recycled'

Since all water in the International Space Station (ISS) is recycled, wet objects are left to air dry so the station's water conduction unit can collect and purify the water - including from sweaty workout clothes.

"One of the cosmonauts told me, 'We are all very close to each other, like brothers and sisters, it is very unique because we drink each other's sweat.' Now I know well what he means," Ms Ansari said.

More poetic is Ms Ansari's description of seeing the Earth shortly after the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft blasted off to bring her to the ISS.

"Tears started rolling down my face. I could not catch my breath... Even thinking about it now still brings tears to my eyes," she wrote.

"Here it was, this beautiful planet turning graciously about itself, under the warm rays of the Sun... so peaceful... so full of life... no signs of war, no signs of borders, no signs of trouble, just pure beauty."

The 2,000 or so readers' comments that have appeared on Ms Ansari's website - http://spaceblog.xprize.org - since she took off from the Russian Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 18 have largely been expressions of admiration and encouragement.

Most of the comments have come from readers in the United States and Iran.

But numerous other countries have been represented, and comments have been written in English, Farsi, Spanish, Swedish and French.

The blog by the world's fourth-ever space tourist started well before her take-off.

Earlier space tourists wrote emails to Earth but did not have a universally accessible online diary.

[ThunderTitan]

I think i'll wait for artificial gravity before venturing of into the void.

This just in:

BARBIE'S WORLD
Full name is Barbie Millicent Roberts

Pa. farm discovers a four-legged chicken

SOMERSET, Pennsylvania - Henrietta the chicken was living inconspicuously for 18 months among 36,000 other chickens at Brendle Farms — until a farm foreman discovered she had four legs.

Farm-owner Mike Brendle was amazed by the discovery among his standard two-legged, egg-laying hens.

"It's as healthy as the rest," he said.

Brendle's 13-year-old daughter, Ashley, named the bird Henrietta after the discovery. It has two normal front legs and, behind those, two more feet. They are of a similar size to the chicken's front legs, but do not function. The chicken drags her extra feet behind her.

[asandir]

Three-year-old buys car on eBay
Jack Neal briefly became the proud owner of a pink convertible after he managed to buy it for $US17,000 on the Internet, despite being only three-years-old.

Jack's mother Rachel Neal says she left her password for the eBay auction site in her computer and her son used the 'buy it now' option to complete the purchase.

"Jack's a whiz on the PC and just pressed all the right buttons," she said.

The seller of the second-hand car, a dealer from Worcestershire in central England, was amused by the bid and agreed not to force the sale through.

"Luckily he saw the funny side and said he would re-advertise," Ms Neal said.

[ThunderTitan]

Yeah, forcing a 3year-old to buy a car would have been great publicity...

[asandir]

woulda been pretty funny thou!!!

[ThunderTitan]

Bankrupcy always is... for everyone else.

[ThunderTitan]

Why are cows are better then yours:

Cows Get High in Romania

Happy cows give more milk.

This was the belief of five Romanian farmers who are now subject of police investigation after they were found to have been feeding cannabis to their cows.

The farmer aged between 57 and 82, claiming they didn't know they were doing something illegal by growing the drug in their field, tod the police officers that the drug actually help the cows in producing more milk.

One of the farmers, Ion Astarastoaie said: "We grew it because the cows seemed to like it, and happy cows give more milk."

[DaemianLucifer]

You guys and your whacky theories

[ThunderTitan]

See, stuff like this never get on TV around here, for fear ppl might actualy side with the cows. Wonder what the penalty for selling drugs to cattle is?

[asandir]

Dutch burglar betrayed by urge to play piano
A burglar who broke into a house in the Dutch town of Tiel could not resist playing the piano he found there after ransacking the living room, police say.

Unfortunately for the 20-year-old thief, his music woke the owner of the house, who called the police.

"The owner didn't register whether the playing was any good or not. He was more worried about the state of his house," a police spokesman said.

and

Madonna's pay-packet makes record book
Madonna's pay-packet, Janet Jackson's malfunctioning wardrobe, Hillary Clinton's memoirs and Sigourney Weaver's height all have one thing in common - they are world record breakers.

Veteran pop singer Madonna supplants younger rival Britney Spears in the latest edition of Guinness World Records, winning the title of highest annual earnings by a female singer after she took home an estimated $US50 million ($A66 million) in 2004.

Despite the relentless media coverage of her personal life, Spears is also unseated by another 40-something as the world's most searched-for person and most searched-for news item on the Internet.

She loses those top spots to pop diva Janet Jackson, who also gets credit for the largest ever fine imposed on a broadcaster after one of her breasts was exposed live on air.

The most wanted man on Internet search engine Google in 2005 was Hollywood heart-throb Brad Pitt, according to the star-studded 2007 version of the Guinness World Records book.

In the world of publishing, US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton holds the title for fastest-selling non-fiction book after her memoirs sold 200,000 copies on day one.

Not to be outdone, her husband, former US President Bill Clinton, also clinches a place for the largest advance for a work of non-fiction.

Oscar winning movie star Nicole Kidman is another top earner, holding the record for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she earned a reported $US3.71 million ($A4.95 million) for a four-minute commercial for Chanel No.5 perfume.

Elsewhere, chat show host Oprah Winfrey is the highest paid person on television, Cher's 2005 "Farewell Tour" was the highest grossing music tour by a female artist and Irish rock band U2 were the biggest earning act in the world last year.

As for the downsides of stardom, modern celebrities have yet to match Errol Flynn's real-life courtroom performances which saw him jailed a record four times.

And if you have ever wondered who are the biggest people strutting Hollywood's sidewalks, Clint Eastwood, Vince Vaughn and British horror actor Christopher Lee are its tallest leading men at 1.94 metres.

At 1.82 metres, Hollywood's tallest leading women are Alien star Sigourney Weaver, Brigitte Neilsen and Oscar-winner Geena Davis, who also starred in the world's biggest ever box-office flop, Cutthroat Island.

[ThunderTitan]

Dutch burglar betrayed by urge to play piano

Vampire?!

[asandir]

say what?