Archive | July, 2010

Tiny pet turtle causes big trouble on plane

31 Jul

Airline regulations are made for a reason, but this is surely one of the smallest, quietest pets to fly the friendly skies. BUT it could have been an endangered species or carrying salmonella or other unknown pest that would wreck havoc like kudzu. Or it could have been a trick animal full of C4.

The turtle in question.

In this undated photo provided by Rebecca Helm, Carley Helm, 10, poses with her turtle Neytiri. The caged turtle caused a crew to turn around a taxiing plane, take the girl and her sisters off the flight and tell them they couldn't bring their pet along. (AP Photo/Rebecca Helm)

Tiny turtle causes taxiing plane to return to gate
KATE BRUMBACK  |  Jun 25, 2010  |  AP

ATLANTA (AP) – A caged, 2-inch turtle traveling with a 10-year-old girl caused a crew to turn around a taxiing plane, take the girl and her sisters off the flight and tell them they couldn’t bring their pet along.

The sisters threw the animal and cage in the trash and returned to their seats crying Tuesday after AirTran Airways employees on the jetway said they couldn’t care for the turtle while their father drove to retrieve it. Two days later, however, Carley Helm was reunited with Neytiri even though at first the family thought the pet was emptied with the trash.

Carley was heading home to Milwaukee after visiting her father in Atlanta with sisters Annie, 13, and Rebecca, 22, when the flap unfolded.

Rebecca said the three were led onto the jetway and told they’d have to get rid of the baby red ear slider – named Neytiri after the princess in the movie “Avatar” – if they wanted to reboard.

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Mel Gibson Song Parody

30 Jul

If you haven’t actually heard any of the “Mel Gibson tapes” this is all you need to hear. They are allegedly taped phone calls between an irate (drunk?) Gibson and his estranged baby momma. There seem to be an endless supply of these taped calls where Gibson insults just about everybody on the planet.

Not safe for work, but short and goofy.

Iran promotes Islamic haircuts on men

29 Jul

It sure seems Muslims have a religion that micromanages. How about focusing on “don’t kill people” or “don’t rape women.”

Woman (not allowed to show her hair) and poster of approved men's hairstyles in Iran. Image CNN

Short on the sides and back and uses gel, this hair is approved in Iran.

Long in the back-this haircut is not OK in Iran. This image is a reminder that a gentle mullet, with length and flow can be a thing of beauty.

Short on the sides and back and uses gel, this hair is approved in Iran.

Long in the back-this haircut is not OK in Iran.

Short on the sides and back and uses gel, this hair is approved in Iran.

Iran promotes ‘Islamic’ haircuts
Iran has laid down the law: mullets won’t make the cut.
July 8, 2010  |  By Saeed Ahmed and Mitra Mobasherat  |  CNN

* Don’t: mullet

* Do: short on the front and sides

* Do: gel-slathered, combed-back

The Islamic regime, which strictly enforces head coverings for women, issued grooming guidelines for the guys this week.

Among the do’s that are now don’ts? The ’80′s Prince-style pompadour preferred by many young Iranian men, the Steven Seagal-style ponytail and the “business in the front, party in the back” sentiment of the mullet — also popular among the Persian populace.

The approved styles have a distinctly 1950s look to them: short on the front and sides for the most part. But the gel-slathered, combed-back 1980s look also received the government’s blessing.

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Man on mower charged with DUI, fishing pole theft

28 Jul

What makes a man turn to his lawnmower for transportation?

Random image of a man with a beer on a lawn mower. Cheer up lawn mower guy!

Man on mower charged with DUI, fishing pole theft
The Daily Post-Athenian | 4/14/2010

ATHENS, Tenn. (AP) — An East Tennessee man driving a lawn mower in the road has been charged with DUI. Athens police said 30-year-old Jimmy Graham Jr. smelled like alcohol and failed a sobriety test Monday after an officer spotted him on the lawn mower. He told the officer he had consumed a beer and taken a stress reliever prescribed to him.

A jailer said Graham was in custody Tuesday and there was no record of him having a lawyer.

The Daily Post-Athenian in Athens reported that Graham was also charged with aggravated burglary and theft under $500.

A police report shows Graham told the officer he had stopped by a house to pick up some fishing poles. Police said the man who lives at the house where Graham had stopped on the mower told police the fishing poles were stolen from his garage.

Vietnames witch doctor’s virginity test frees rapists

27 Jul

This is an important story that says much about the society in which it happened.

It shows that the Vietnamese don’t hold women in high regard or respect the criminal nature of rape. It says even their communist government believes in traditional medicine over the rule of law and objective evidence. Then again, hiring an expert and paying for expert testimony has become standard procedure in court cases and their culture considers healers experts.

Surely Pham Thi Hong must have been compensated, perhaps VERY well compensated for her expert testimony and threat to immolate herself.

Currently Pham Thi Hong is the only traditional medicine practitioner in Vietnam who can give a virginity test by examining ones' ear. (AP Photo)

‘Virginity test’ helps free 3 in Vietnam rape case
TRAN VAN MINH  |  Jul 1, 2010  |  AP

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) – An acupuncturist who claims she can detect a man’s virginity based on a small dot on the ear has become a minor celebrity in Vietnam, where she is credited with helping to free three convicted rapists from prison.

Traditional medicine practitioner Pham Thi Hong started lobbying for the men’s release, pleading their case all the way to the president, because she believes all three men are virgins and therefore could not be guilty of rape.

“They all had small red spots on the back of their ears,” said Hong, 54. “The spots should have disappeared if they had had sex. My many years of experience told me that these men did not have sex before.”

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Plato’s musical code cracked

26 Jul

The classics are still a lively field of study, which is great news!

Statue of Greek philosopher Plato. (Credit: iStockphoto/Vasiliki Varvaki)

Science Historian Cracks the ‘Plato Code’
ScienceDaily  |  June 29, 2010

=Plato was the Einstein of Greece’s Golden Age and his work founded Western culture and science. Dr Jay Kennedy’s findings are set to revolutionise the history of the origins of Western thought.

Dr Kennedy, whose findings are published in the leading US journal Apeiron, reveals that Plato used a regular pattern of symbols, inherited from the ancient followers of Pythagoras, to give his books a musical structure. A century earlier, Pythagoras had declared that the planets and stars made an inaudible music, a ‘harmony of the spheres’. Plato imitated this hidden music in his books.

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Botox Limits Ability to Feel Emotions

25 Jul

Since “Botox Limits Ability to Feel Emotions” and to express emotions, it’s a good thing no one in Hollywood uses it!

Two photos of actress Nicole Kidman taken at very different times in her career. Please note, Botox® does not affect the size of one's teeth, nose or hair.

Botox Limits Ability to Feel Emotions
By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer  |  www.livescience.com  |  22 June

A well-known side effect of Botox is the inability to fully express emotions. Now research reveals another side effect: the inability to fully feel emotions.

Botox, a popular cosmetic injection used to fight facial wrinkles, is made of an extremely toxic protein called Botulinum toxin. Botox works by temporarily paralyzing muscles that cause wrinkles.

That means no unsightly wrinkles, but also no moving those muscles at all — which could have more significant consequences than simply looking frozen, the researchers found.

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Mysterious migration of deep sea animals

24 Jul

Add this to the list of the many things we don’t know.

Deepwater travellers: A) deepwater slipskin and B) gonate squid

An out of place rattail

Deep sea fish ‘mystery migration’
By Matt Walker  |  Editor, Earth News  |  BBC.com  |  3 June 2010

Deep sea fish species found in the north Pacific Ocean have mysteriously been caught in the southwest Atlantic, on the other side of the world.

It is unclear how the animals, a giant rattail grenadier, pelagic eelpout and deep sea squid, travelled so far.

Their discovery 15,000km from their usual home raises the possibility that deep sea currents can transport animals from one polar region to another.

Details are published in the journal Deep Sea Research part I.

“These findings were completely unexpected,” says Dr Alexander Arkhipkin of the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department, based in Stanley, on the Falkland

The route travelled

Hardline Somali militants ban music on airwaves

23 Jul

I guess The Clash was right, Shareef don’t like it. It makes me sad to see something a simple, universal and wonderful as music banned.

Single or 45 rpm record of The Clash's "Rock the Casbah"

Members of The Clash. Left Joe Strummer, right bassist Paul Simenon.

When music is outlawed only outlaws will have music.

Hardline Somali militants ban music on airwaves
www.ohio.com  |  Associated Press  |  Apr 13, 2010

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Rock, rap and love songs once filled the airwaves in Somalia’s war-torn capital, one of the few pleasures residents had. But Islamist militants ordered music off the air Tuesday, labeling it un-Islamic in a hardline edict reminiscent of the Taliban.

Stations immediately complied, fearful that disc jockeys would face the harsh punishment militants mete out here: amputations and stonings. The edict is the latest unpopular order from the Islamists, who also have banned bras, musical ringtones and movies.

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Lady drunk on vanilla extract busted in front of school.

22 Jul

Seriously, it’s not booze, so what’s the big deal? She obviously just needed a nap, so why not nap in front of the middle school? Who needs to stand, walk or speak to be able to drive? I cringe to think she was picking up her kid, but drunks are selfish. She has 2 previous DUIs but that doesn’t mean she has a problem, I bet she has creative, elaborate excuses for each DUI.

This is classic desperate, wheedling, drunk behavior. In an Agatha Christie book I read about a “lady” who drank herself to death on Lavender Water. Booze is booze and addicts are addicts.

A grocery receipt for 2 8-ounce bottles of vanilla extract was found in this ladies’ car. Vanilla in addition to being dainty and tasty is easily available and not subject to blue laws. I predict next she’ll take up mouthwash or wise up and become a modern addict and move on to a “back injury” and the subsequent hundreds of percocets and oxy she can get with a simple prescription.

Kelly Moss, the lady drunk.

Here’s a link to the AP’s video. I can’t embed it but it doesn’t have commercials.

Germantown Mom Released on Bond
Friday, 02 Jul 2010 | www.myfoxmemphis.com

SHELBY COUNTY, Tenn. – A Germantown mother who is accused of being intoxicated by vanilla extract and Diet Coke has been released on $1,000 bond.

Shelby County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call about a woman suspiciously slumped over the steering wheel in a white car parked in front of Arlington Middle School. 48-year-old Kelly Moss was in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, partially parked on the school’s driveway and the sidewalk, officers said.

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US aid supports a very very corrupt Pakistan

21 Jul

Now THIS is corruption. One wonders what US policy makers have in mind in giving so much aid to Pakistan.  Pakistan is almost assuredly where bad guy Osama Bin Laden has been hiding  and their human rights record is grim.

A security guard standing at the entrance of a Mercedes-Benz dealer in Islamabad. Image New York Times.

Link to a video on this topic.

Pakistan’s Elite Pay Few Taxes, Widening Gap
By SABRINA TAVERNISE  |  July 18, 2010  |  www.nytimes.com

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Much of Pakistan’s capital city looks like a rich Los Angeles suburb. Shiny sport utility vehicles purr down gated driveways. Elegant multistory homes are tended by servants. Laundry is never hung out to dry.

But behind the opulence lurks a troubling fact. Very few of these households pay income tax. That is mostly because the politicians who make the rules are also the country’s richest citizens, and are skilled at finding ways to exempt themselves.

That would be a problem in any country. But in Pakistan, the lack of a workable tax system feeds something more menacing: a festering inequality in Pakistani society, where the wealth of its most powerful members is never redistributed or put to use for public good. That is creating conditions that have helped spread an insurgency that is tormenting the country and complicating American policy in the region.

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Man burns feet on hot sidewalk

20 Jul

With record heat across America this summer, this kind of injury could be on the rise. Careful out there cats and kittens. Humans didn’t evolve walking on blacktop and most people have sweet, soft, white feet from wearing shoes all the time not the tough callouses that would offer some protection from extreme temps.

We wish this guy the best.

Arizona man suffers second degree burns on both feet from extremely hot pavement
by Mike Murasarz, ABC News  |  WHAS11.com  |  July 19, 2010 at 2:27 PM

(ABC News) The extreme heat sent an Arizona man to the hospital with severe burns on his feet.

Seventy-eight-year-old James Wankul suffered second degree burns on his feet, just for walking on the sidewalk with no shoes on. He had gone outside to run after the mailman. Wankul said the pain brought him to his knees. A neighbor ran after him, after seeing him fall in the street.

Terri Cyran, the neighbor, said “By the time he turned around, he couldn’t run back to the grass. So he fell down and then he was burning his knees and his hands so we had to, both of us, had to pick him up by his arms and then run him to the grass.”

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