Around The World

Train Cuts Through Bangkok Market

2007-09-30T05:46:00.000-07:00

US Navy To Cover Up Its Swastika-Shaped Barracks In San Diego,California

2007-09-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

SAN DIEGO, USA - The US Navy is to spend $600,000 to remodel a set of barracks in Southern California that resemble a swastika when viewed from above, officials said.

From ground level the layout of the four L-shaped buildings at the US Navy base outside San Diego is unremarkable.But with the increasing popularity of satellite imagery websites such as Google Earth, the barracks' swastika formation have attracted wide attention, with Anti-Defamation League campaigners requesting alterations be made.

Now the Navy has agreed to remodelling that will "camouflage" the aerial appearance of the barracks, officials said.

"The Navy has budgeted $600,000 for work that will effectively camouflage the appearance of the barracks from above," US Navy spokeswoman Angelic Dolan said.

'It could be landscaping, it could be adding solar panels," US Navy spokeswoman Angelic Dolan said.

Ms Dolan said the controversial design of the building had been drawn up in the 1960s. "It was an oversight," she said. "We certainly did not want to offend anyone, nor be associated with such a symbol."

Morris Casuto, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, welcomed plans to remodel. "We told the Navy this was an incredibly inappropriate shape for a structure on a military installation," Mr Casuto told The New York Times.

CNN did a report on the building and said the Navy has received so many complaints about the building that they are now planning to change the shape of the building so it does not resemble its current shape from the sky.

"You have to realize, back in the '60s we did not have the Internet," explains a spokeswoman for the base - though the Navy knew about the shape as early as 1967 but did nothing because the building was in a no-fly zone,she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/us/27swastika.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Lucky Pilot

2007-09-25T18:54:00.000-07:00

Bob Roberts, the pilot of a small plane that crashed onto Interstate 95 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,USA, sits in the remains of his plane, waiting for emergency officials to take him to the hospital for treatment.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22462990-5012748,00.html

http://www.gadling.com/2007/09/22/plane-crashes-onto-i-95-pilot-found-sitting-in-cockpit/

A horny mule tries to have its way with a man who has pulled over to take a crap

2007-09-22T21:52:00.000-07:00

Belgium put up for sale on eBay

2007-09-21T16:06:00.000-07:00

Shown on a computer screen is the Belgian site of ebay which highlights the country of Belgium for sale with a bid of euro10 million (US$ 13.8 million) in Belgium, Tuesday Sept. 18, 2007. Hidden among the porcelain fox hounds and Burberry tablecloths on sale at eBay.be this week was an unusual item: "For Sale: Belgium, a Kingdom in three parts" ... free premium: the king and his court (costs not included).'

The odd ad was posted by one disgruntled Belgian in protest at his country's political crisis, which reached a 100-day landmark on Tuesday with no end in sight to the squabbling between Flemish and Walloon politicians.

Fed up with a three-month political standoff, a Belgian teacher Gerrit Six posted an ad on the online auction site: "For Sale: Belgium, a Kingdom in three parts ... free premium: the king and his court [costs not included]."

"I wanted to attract attention.You almost have to throw a rock through a window to get attention for Belgium," Six said.

Six decided to vent his frustration through the ad.

"My proposal was to make it clear that Belgium was valuable, it's a masterpiece and we have to keep it.It's my country and I'm taking care of it, and with me are millions of Belgians," he told Associated Press Television News.

EBay was happy to take the advertisement.

"It was a really fun listing made by a Belgian.This person, in a very funny way, reminded the Belgians what a great country Belgium actually is and it would be a shame to sell it,"Peter Burin, public relations manager of eBay Belgium said.

However, the company decided to pull the ad Tuesday after receiving a bid of $14 million.

"We decided to take it down, just to avoid confusion," Burin said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119025234513933379.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Makeshift Motorhome

2007-09-20T17:31:00.000-07:00

Futurists put latest invention on display

2007-09-19T18:18:00.001-07:00

Czech crash victim wakes up speaking perfect English

2007-09-17T18:30:00.000-07:00

LONDON, England - Czech speedway driver Matej Kus,17, knocked unconscious in a crash stunned ambulance drivers when he woke up speaking perfect English.Kus was out cold for 45 minutes after the crash, but when he woke up he conversed fluidly in English with paramedics, even speaking in an English accent.

Kus had just begun to study the language and his skills were described by friends and team-mates as “basic at best”.

"I couldn't believe what I was hearing," Peter Waite, the promoter for Kus's team, the Berwick Bandits, told the Daily Mail.

"It was in a really clear English accent, no dialect or anything. Whatever happened in the crash must have rearranged things in his head," he said.

"Before his crash Matej's use of the English language was broken, to put it mildly.He was only just making a start on improving it and struggled to be understood, but was keen to learn," Waite said.

"Yet here we were at the ambulance door listening to Matej talking to the medical staff in perfect English.Matej didn't have a clue who or where he was when he came round. He didn't even know he was Czech," he said.

Unfortunately,Kus's new found skills didn’t last and he remembers nothing of the accident or the following two days. He is now keen pursue studies in English.

"It's unbelievable that I was speaking English like that, especially without an accent.Hopefully I can pick English up over the winter for the start of next season so I'll be able to speak it without someone having to hit me over the head first.There must be plenty of the English language in my subconscious so hopefully I'll be able to pick it up quickly next time," Kus told the Daily Mail, through an interpreter.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=481651&in_page_id=1770

Woman Banned From Smoking In Her Own Garden

2007-09-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

AKARP,Sweden - A Swedish woman who was barred from smoking in her own garden is appealing the order to the country's Environmental High Court.She has been banned by court order from smoking in large parts of her garden following a complaint from a neighbour, according to a local press.

"I will submit to the court's ruling because otherwise I am afraid of paying fines, but I am livid," the woman told Swedish daily paper Sydsvenskan. The 49-year-old single mother from Akarp, Sweden,Ingela Olofsson, was temporarily banned by the Environmental Court in Vaxjo from smoking close to her neighbour's hedge.

"This is insane," Olofsson said.

The ban was put in place until a conflict between the woman and her neighbour,a lawyer,who claims an aversion to cigarette smoke can be resolved.

However, the court must now wait on the outcome of the appeal before proceeding. The woman claims the partial outdoor smoking ban has no legal basis.

The woman's neighbour claims he has to wear an oxygen mask to walk from his home to his car because of his sensitivity to the smoke.He said that without the mask it took only seconds for the effects of the smoke to take hold, leaving him struggling for breath.

"He walks around with the mask on regardless of whether I'm smoking or not. It used to annoy me but now I don't care any more," Olofsson said.

The row started when the lawyer bought the house next to Olofsson three years ago. Berggren says that he initially asked her to smoke somewhere else than next to his garden.

The neighbours stopped talking to each other and recently all the communication between them has occurred via their legal representatives - and the media.

"We have no other choice to enter or exit our house but passing the garden path that faces your house and we can therefore no longer accept that you poison our lives with your disgusting and unhealthy tobacco smoke," the lawyer wrote in an angry letter to Olofsson.

"The best thing is for you to quit," he added.

But the woman did not stop smoking, and the bemused city has watched as the friendly neighbourhood atmosphere degenerated into a catfight.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2007/08/23/woman_banned_from_smoking_in_her_garden/8491/

Unemployed Man Travels 1500 Miles On His Mule In Search Of A Job

2007-09-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

GILLETTE,USA - After losing his driver's license 10 years ago because of involvement in a hit and run, an unemployed man from Boy River,USA,had no choice but to travel some 1500 miles on his mule in search of a job.

Rod Maday claims to have traveled 45 days in the summer heat from his home town of Boy River, Minnesota to Gillette, Wyoming on his 4-year-old mule. Maday was having a hard time finding work in Minnesota. He heard that Wyoming had plenty of jobs that paid well.

Maday set out with two mules. About a month ago, both mules got loose and one was hit by a car. It had to be euthanized.

Maday arrived at the Department of Workforce Services in Gillette, Wyoming,on Friday,August 17,2007.,ending a six weeks odyssey. He was attired in a torn shirt, dusty blue jeans, spurs and a cowboy hat.

"I've done about 1,500 miles and I've got the saddle sores to prove it," Maday said.

He said he averaged 30 miles a day, but the most he ever traveled in one day was 70 miles.

Maday said he had a bad first impression of Gillette because some teenagers yelled “uncalled for” things at him when he arrived Thursday night.

“After last night, Gillette’s nothing like what I had thought,” Maday said.

Maday spent the night at the Council of Community Services Waystation, and his mule was looked after by Staci Conner, manager of 2 Brothers Communications.

Maday said he will go look for a ranch job or an outfitting job in the mountains.

“I could probably get a job and stay here, but I’m not willing to part with my mule,” Maday said. “He’s my best friend and I’m not getting rid of him for nothing.”

Maday left Gillette the next morning, riding west toward the Bighorn Mountains,AP reported.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2007-08-21-mule_N.htm

Extreme Privacy

2007-09-14T00:34:00.000-07:00

Cats Go Fishing

2007-09-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

Kung Fu Woman

2007-09-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

War On Education In America And South Africa

2007-09-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Question: Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the United States on a world map. Why do you think this is?

Miss Teen South Carolina 2007: "I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh...people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and...I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., err, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our... "

Here comes a reply from South Africa:

Yet,the war on education goes on:

Why Women Live Longer?

2007-09-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

"Jesus Camp" In Devil's Lake ?

2007-09-08T10:46:00.000-07:00

The summer camp featured in the documentary "Jesus Camp " (2006) which includes scenes with disgraced preacher Ted Haggard, was recently forced to close after a reported storm of protest.The camp was located in Devil's Lake, North Dakota,USA.

When the film debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in the summer of 2006, it generated a lot of controversy for what was perceived by filmmakers as overtly political content and crazy subject matter. "Jesus Camp" focused on the training methods of camp organiser and Pentecostal pastor Becky Fischer and the activities of the children sent to her for instruction by their parents.

Children are shown speaking in tongues and being urged to campaign against abortion. They are warned off reading Harry Potter books, and are told: "in Old Testament times, he would have been put to death." In one scene, the students appear to be worshipping in front of a cardboard effigy of American president George Bush.

The documentary portrays Becky Fischer, 56, as drill instructor to a group of young Christian children steeling themselves for spiritual and political warfare.

Fischer has since announced that due to negative reactions to the camp after the film, including telephone calls and vandalism, the camp, which was held once a year for three weeks, will be discontinued indefinitely.

"I don't think we'll be doing it for a while," she said.

WATCH FULL DOCUMENTARY

Swedish Sheriff

2007-09-05T23:42:00.001-07:00

Russian man arrested for stealing a bridge

2007-09-03T19:25:00.000-07:00

MOSCOW,Russia - Russian police have arrested a 45-year-old municipal worker for stealing a bridge.The 5-meter span metal bridge disappeared from a river crossing in the Ryazan region, east of Moscow.

Russian Police said they tracked it down to the man, who had used his work truck to remove it and then chopped it up and sold it for scrap.

"A five-meter metal bridge over the Yaroslavka River was stolen, but the thief was successfully traced following a manhunt," a local police spokesman said.

The police said the 45-year-old suspect is believed to have dislocated the bridge in the region's Shilovo District and carried it away using a vehicle owned by the utilities company he works for. He then sawed it up, and intended to sell it to a scrap yard.

"This is the largest object to be stolen this year," the spokesman said.

In a statement, Ryazan region police called it "the bulkiest theft of the year."

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070830/75802975.html

Troubleshooting

2007-09-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

Bathroom Bust Tapes Released

2007-09-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

Bush, Cheney and Gonzales are in transit in the Minneapolis airport. Dubya goes for a whiz and 15 minutes later is led out of the men's room, handcuffed, in the custody of an undercover police officer. Cheney and Gonzales accompany the president for the interrogation, a transcript of which is shared here below:

DAVE BOSNIA,INVESTIGATIVE SERGEANT: Do you wish to talk to us at this time?

PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH: Sure pal, why not? Shall we start with baseball?

BOSNIA: OK. I just want to start off with your side of the story, OK? So...

GONZALES (whispers to president): Just say you can't remember anything dude! It worked great for me!

BUSH: So, I go into the bathroom here, as I normally do. I was gonna take a dump...you know, take a load off my mind...had a big bowl of chili on the flight down here....

CHENEY: whispers loudly: Damn it George...I told you to say you were going in to search for weapons of mass destruction...can't you get anything right!

BOSNIA: OK.

BUSH: So I sat down to go to the bathroom. And you said our feet bumped. Well there's just no way that happened at all. And the next thing I knew, under the bathroom divider comes a card that says "Police." I naturally assumed you were looking for my autograph. Happens to me in bathrooms all the time. You wanna make somethin' of it?

BOSNIA: OK. I don't want to get into a pissing match here.

BUSH: We're not going to, Bubba, I can assure you that. What's your beef anway? You think I'm some kind of homo or somethin'? Is that it? You think I'm some kind of faggot?

BOSNIA: Actually I don't care if you are gay...this is a free country. I wouldn't waste taxpayers money trying to expose harmless gay adults or corrupt elected officials enjoying themselves in the privacy of their own public restrooms. That's just the kind of trivia that CNN would spend a lot of time on instead of exposing treason and war crimes. But not someone like me. I'm a public servant.

BUSH: I don't -- I am not gay. I don't do these kinds of things and...

CHENEY: It's too late for denials George. You have to play hardball with guys like this. Threaten a pre-emptive nuclear strike on his home if he doesn't leave you alone. We can send in a paramilitary unit and toast his whole neighborhood. Later we'll blame it on Muslim extremists. We can even coat his house with depleted plutonium like we did with the hospitals in Fallujah.

BOSNIA: Jeez! No need to get violent! Really your sexual preferences don't matter. I don't care about idiotic personal stuff like that.I am a patriot in the tradition or Mark Twain who stated that "a patriot is one who supports his country 100% of the time...and the government when it deserves it."As such I am passionate about protecting the rights of US citizens under the Constitution and a believer in the principle of Eternal Vigilance.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_abraham0_070831_bathroom_bust_tapes_.htm

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

2007-08-31T01:04:00.000-07:00

"Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" (2004), a brilliant documentary by director Robert Greenwald, does a wonderful job at chronicling how media empires,led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news.

This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know,how network misrepresents facts, manufactures terror and slanders liberals, all with the sole purpose of advancing its right-wing agenda.

Greenwald's film provides stimulating evidence of how thoroughly news can be skewed, political agendas served and a climate of fear created by a news net selling itself as an objective information service but in reality offering little distinction between news and commentary.

The film uncovers daily internal memos that outline conservative talking points, nonconformists that are threatened with their jobs and correspondents that often do not even pretend to be impartial.

WATCH FULL DOCUMENTARY

Squirrels wield a secret weapon

2007-08-28T15:18:00.001-07:00

Squirrels have a secret weapon that until now has remained invisible to the human eye.

The Californian ground squirrel heats up its tail then waves it in the snake's face - a form of harassment that confuses the rattler, which has an infrared sensing organ for detecting small mammals.

This defensive tactic remained invisible to biologists until they looked at the animals through an infrared video camera. Now they believe that many other animals might be using infrared weaponry to ward off potential predators.

Squirrel waves hot tail at rattle snake

Confronted with a gopher snake, which has no infrared sensory organ, the squirrels wagged their tails but didn’t bother to warm them up first.

Squirrel waves cold tail at gopher snake

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12477

Missing Dolphin

2007-08-28T02:13:00.000-07:00

Hey,Google

2007-08-27T16:50:00.000-07:00

Never pass wind in your wetsuit!

2007-08-26T22:21:00.000-07:00