Bizarre News

[ThunderTitan]

Jeez.... talk about fanatics.

[asandir]

Teeny Ted's tale is world's smallest book
Canadian researchers say they have produced the world's smallest published book, a story of a turnip contest that will require readers to use an electron microscope.

The book, entitled Teeny Ted from Turnip Town, measures 0.07 mm by 0.10 mm and was made using a focused gallium-ion beam to carve out spaces around each letter on pieces of crystalline silicon, according to Simon Fraser University.

That is smaller than the head of a pin, which is about 2 mm in size, according to the researchers.

The book is tinier than two cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's smallest, a copy of the New Testament of the King James Bible, made in 2001, and a 2002 production of Anton Chekhov's "Chameleon", the researchers said.

Each of the "nanobooks" is made up of 30 microtablets. The story is described by the Vancouver university as a "fable about Teeny Ted's victory in a turnip contest at the annual country fair."

[winterfate]

Good luck trying to read that book!

[asandir]

it's a ridiculous thing really

starting them young:

German Army tries to draft 4-week-old baby
The German Army sent a draft notice to a four-week-old baby named Lucio, ordering him to report for duty within the next 10 days, before realising it had blundered.

An army spokesman said the notice had been sent erroneously because a clerk typed in the wrong date of birth for the boy from Aubstadt, in southern Germany.

"It was an accident," an army spokesman said.

"Somebody entered the wrong number into a computer. There was no harm done.

"We realised the error the same day and called up the family to tell them to throw the notice away when it arrived."

[winterfate]

A bit too young perhaps?

[asandir]

maybe by a week or so

[Corribus]

Geek Squad = Peek Squad?

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_101211540.html

[ThunderTitan]

You'd think that working for tech support you'd have access to mini-cameras that are harder to spot then a mobile....

Web revelers wreck family home

About 200 youngsters caused damage put at £20,000 to
a family home after a party organized on a website.

Police said a teenage girl used the social networking site MySpace to advertise the party while her parents were away from home on Easter Monday.

The 17-year-old's mother has described the party as "house rape" and called the revellers "worse than animals".

Guests urinated on a wedding dress and stole jewellery from the house in Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham.

'Absolutely trashed'

Some party-goers also swung from ceiling light fittings, stubbed out cigarettes on the carpet, vomited in buckets throughout the house and barricaded the back door to prevent neighbours from intervening.

The girl's parents returned on Tuesday morning to find the trail of destruction at their £230,000 house in Chipchase Court.

They have now made a formal complaint of criminal damage to police.

The sixth former's 48-year-old mother, who does not want to be identified, said: "I told her that I did not want any kids or drink in the house while I was away and I'm furious.

"It's worse than a burglary, I can't believe it.

"Whoever has come in here are worse than animals, it's like house rape."

She said her daughter, who has denied creating the message on the website, was now staying with friends for a "cooling off" period.

'Traumatic' experience

The youngster had expected 30 or 40 guests but 200 turned up.

Her father said the experience had been traumatic.

"It's absolutely trashed, and I hope no-one else has to go through what me and my wife have these last few days."

A Durham Police spokesman said some people travelled hundreds of miles to be at the party.

He said: "There has been a formal complaint from the owners of criminal damage to interior fixtures and fittings.

"Inquiries are under way and we plan to speak in due course to as many of the party-goers as we can."

[asandir]

Cocaine-dealing priest jailed in Italy
An Italian priest has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for possessing cocaine with the intention of selling it.

Father Stefano Ciacca, 44, was arrested last September in possession of 500 grams of cocaine with a street value of about $US675,000 dollars.

A police dog had detected the drug in a package mailed from South America and addressed to a Don Ziliotti in Perugia.

Police identified Ciacca, arrested him and searched his home, where they found a small scale, substances to cut with the cocaine and some marijuana, ANSA news agency said.

The priest claimed to be unaware of the contents of the package, which he said was given to him by someone he was helping "on a spiritual path".

On Thursday (local time), Judge Paolo Micheli sentenced both Ciacca and an accomplice to three-and-a-half years in jail.

ANSA said the two men had gone to Colombia last year and used Ciacca's savings to buy the cocaine, which they mailed to Italy.

[ThunderTitan]

Finally, proof that swedes are EVIL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_hat#A ... byr.C3.A5n

In 2005, a Swedish ISP was raided and servers were seized that contained torrent files which provided users the ability to download warez (illegal software) and some legitimate content. This move was applauded by international media industry, such as the MPAA.

A few days later, a swedish hacker group known as AUH (Arga Unga Hackare, translates to "Angry Young Hackers") defaced the website of Antipiratbyrån (Anti-Piracy Bureau), Sweden's biggest organisation working to stop piracy. Arga Unga Hackare is generally regarded as a group of black hats. However, in this case, it may be argued that this particular action was grey.

The defacement was unusual, because AUH published information which became the basis for a nation wide discussion regarding abuse of Swedish legal resources, and possibly criminal acts supervised by international anti-piracy industry. The servers of the raided ISP was found containing warez, but as AUH was hacking Antipiratbyrån, they found evidence in the form of private emails that showed that Antipiratbyrån had used an infiltrator to put the illegal software on the ISP's servers. The infiltrator worked under the nickname rouge, but AUH identified him with real name, address and Swedish personal identification number. He was shown to be wanted by Swedish authorities for criminal acts. AUH also published e-mails that loosely linked international anti-piracy agencies to these actions, but the e-mails did not show to which extent the case was known outside of Sweden.

In the next few days, other sources provided evidence that strongly suggested that:

* Antipiratbyrån funded the warez servers, making Antipiratbyrån the source of the illegal software - not the ISP.
* Antipiratbyrån knew that the ISP owners were not aware that the servers were being used for warez.
* Antipiratbyrån put effort into moving the warez servers from a former location to the raided ISP, because the raided ISP had a very good bandwidth (high speed internet connection).
* Antipiratbyrån had been able to influence legal system into not following proper procedures: the raided ISP owners were not interviewed by a judge before the raid. The raid was needlessly intrusive and caused downtime to critical infrastructure for systems which did not serve illegal content. The Antipiratbyrån staff had supervised and instructed Swedish authorities on place what to do.
* Antipiratbyrån's hurry to raid the ISP may have been initiated by the fact that the ISP recently before the raid had performed an inventory, in which the warez servers had been notified as unknown servers to be investigated.

The credibility of Antipiratbyrån was badly injured, and they did not deny the allegations. Eventually, Antipiratbyrån and the ISP reached a settlement, and did not publicly debate the incident further.

So, black hat tactics and skills were used by AUH, but they were used to unravel what many consider to be an unethical and criminal conspiracy, which possibly has international ties. This is typically grey shades of ethics; while the methods employed by AUH can be considered unacceptable and unethical, they were used to uncover even more unethical and possibly criminal actions on the part of Antipiratbyrån.

The current website of Antipiratbyrån is located at http://www.antipiratbyran.com/

[asandir]

Sex aid sparks bomb scare
A suspicious package that sparked a bomb scare and evacuation of a New Zealand mail centre was later identified as a harmless sex aid, according to a newspaper report.

An airport x-ray machine alerted staff about suspicious wiring in the parcel from China on Tuesday and it was placed in an explosives safe overnight.

Emergency services were only notified the next morning, when they decided to evacuate the mail centre near Auckland airport.

The New Zealand Herald reports the parcel was later identified as a sex aid.

The incident has prompted a Customs investigation into why emergency services were not immediately contacted, leaving a potential bomb in a safe overnight.

[ThunderTitan]

Click link for full story.

Asian tycoon leaves legacy to fortune-teller


by Stephanie Wong
Thu Apr 19, 9:15 AM ET

HONG KONG (AFP) - Asia's richest woman left her wealth to her fortune-teller in her last known will, Hong Kong media reported Thursday, predicting a costly legal battle to control her multi-billion-dollar estate.
ADVERTISEMENT

Nina Wang, who died aged 69 earlier this month and had no children, left a legacy estimated as worth at least 4.2 billion US dollars after transforming her company Chinachem into a real estate empire.

A day after her lavish funeral Wednesday, two wills she allegedly wrote in 2002 and 2006 were published separately in Next Magazine and its sister Apple Daily publication.

The 2002 document said Wang's fortune would go to her charitable trust. But the later version named her personal fortune teller, Chan Chun Chuen, as the beneficiary.

Citing unnamed sources close to her family, Apple Daily said the relatives -- Wang is survived by two younger sisters and a brother as well as in-laws -- and senior aides were unfamiliar with Chan and upset by the new will and were set to take the issue to court.

The sources said the family held "important evidence" that could discredit Chan's will and were confident of winning any case.

Wang's lawyer Jonathan Midgley declined to comment on the reports and her personal assistant could not be reached.

[Caradoc]

From LA Times, some real molecular names:

arsole
bastardane
megaphone
spermine
moronic acid
erotic acid
crapinon
spamol
windowpane (brings back some fond memories)
diabolic acid
domperidone
constipatic acid
draculin

[Mytical]

Brought in by a co-worker who lives some distance from me. The Western Star (Warren County).

An editorial for the Star talked about obesity of children, then went on to say that do to possible lawsuits the following had been taken out of recess playgrounds in the last couple of years (and why). Swing (could hit children in the back of the head.) Slides higher the 3' tall (could fall off), juglegym (falling), dodgeball/baseball/basketball/football (for a whole lot of reasons the biggest of which is self -esteem. Wouldn't want the little dears ego bruised now would we?). Tag - Falling. Last but not least Giant-beachballs. The editors sun apparently had been hit with one and gotten injured, and even though the family did not make a huge deal of it, the next day it had too been banned.

Now I know I am getting old. The second I read this the first thing that come to my mind was "Wow back in my day..." so here it is, an old fogey's rant.

"Wow back in my day, you fell down a flight of stairs, if you were not bleeding, a bone was not broken, or you were not unconscious, you were picked up dusted off and sent back out to play. In fact no matter what you did if you did not show one of these 3 signs, you were put right back out to play. Blood, broken bone, loss of consciousness. The only signs that a injury was serious enough to be treated. It worked too. Sure I am a bit over weight, but other then that, pretty dang healthy. Like to think I grew up a pretty good person too."

If you want to find the source of our kids being unhealthy, overweight, or lethargic look no further then a mirror. Coddling kids is not the way to go, don't build a bubble arround them and expect them to be healthy. So they eat a bit of dirt, or bloody their elbow or knee. So they get in a fight and their nose bleeds..kids are much more flexible and have a greater healing factor then adults. They can overcome things in hours that takes grown ups days...weeks or longer. Unplug, turn off, black out, and play. Make time to roughhouse with your kids. It will make you healthier also. Just remember to take in to consideration they are much smaller and normally weaker, and everything will be fine.

[ThunderTitan]

Blood?! It's not even a fall if you don't bleed. Heck, if a week passed where one of us didn't have a scab something has wrong. There's nothing like running through a bush of roses to win at hide&seek.

[Caradoc]

I suppose it follows that if we beat our kids and force them to work in sweatshops, they'll turn out even better.

[ThunderTitan]

Damn right. But really, no swings, jungle gyms or games? What kind of childhood is that?

Man brings donkey to testify on its own behalf
Buddy, accused of loud braying, appears gentle and well-mannered in court

DALLAS - Faced with complaints that his donkey was too loud, Dallas attorney Gregory Shamoun decided to bring his case directly to the court: He had the donkey testify.

Buddy the donkey appeared in court Wednesday. He walked to the bench and stared at the jury, the picture of a gentle, well-mannered creature and not the loud, aggressive animal he had been accused of being.

Shamoun was in a dispute with oilman John Cantrell, who had complained to the city about a storage shed Shamoun was building in his backyard in Dallas. Cantrell said Shamoun retaliated by bringing the donkey from his ranch and putting him in the backyard.

Cantrell complained of donkey noise and manure piles.

“They bray a lot any time day or night. You never know when they’re going to cut loose,” he testified.

Despite the donkey’s appearance, neither jurors or Buddy had the last say — the neighbors settled their dispute while jurors deliberated.

[Elvin]

Seems like a bad joke.

[ThunderTitan]

No, it's JUSTICE dammit.... JUSTICE!

[Mytical]

I suppose it follows that if we beat our kids and force them to work in sweatshops, they'll turn out even better.

Come on. You really think I was saying that? Oh I guess you mean we should wrap them in bubble wrap and pad everything with styrofoam.

There is a huge difference in letting kids be kids then working them 16 hrs a day. Next thing you know, we'll be putting them all in padded cells, in solitary, so they don't catch a cold or something. *sighs*. Too worried about suing each other, what might go wrong, to just live. If you live life afraid of everything, you don't live much of your life. A skined knee or elbow is not going to kill a kid. *Shrugs* whatever. Think what you want, I'm done.