EdailyDeal: The Curse of Lono
He Pingping, the world's shortest man, dies aged 22
Death - denspark - 9 Comments
Tags: china, guinness world records, Rome, worlds shortest man, Pingping
03/16/10 -  -  - (Link)
The world's shortest man, He Pingping, who was just 74.6cm (2ft 5in) tall, has died in Rome.
Marines gone rogue or leading the fight against counterinsurgency?
Government War - EVILdogshu - 0 Comments
Tags: Taliban, Afghanistan War, U.S. Marines, Marineistan, unorthodox approach
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
Home to a dozen truck stops and a few hundred family farms bounded by miles of foreboding desert, this hamlet in southwestern Afghanistan is far from a strategic priority for senior officers at the international military headquarters in Kabul. One calls Delaram, a day's drive from the nearest city, "the end of the Earth." Another deems the area "unrelated to our core mission" of defeating the Taliban by protecting Afghans in their cities and towns.
U.S. Marine commanders have a different view of the dusty, desolate landscape that surrounds Delaram. They see controlling this corner of remote Nimruz province as essential to promoting economic development and defending the more populated parts of southern Afghanistan.
Airborne Bears To Defeat Osama, And Other DoD Suggestions
Government Military - Xiphias - 8 Comments
Tags: Osama bin Laden, Department of Defense, bears-in-the-air, suggestions, Contact Us
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
Could parachute-wearing bears sniff out Osama bin Laden?
That’s one suggestion the Pentagon has received from someone who noted, quite correctly, that a bear’s sense of smell is much more powerful than a bloodhound’s.
Air Force Sergeant Outed by Police, Discharged via DADT
Government Military - disgruntled_goat - 6 Comments
Tags: Air Force, privacy, police officers, lesbian, dont ask-dont tell
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
Jene Newsome played by the rules as an Air Force sergeant: She never told anyone in the military she was a lesbian. The 28-year-old's honorable discharge under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy came only after police officers in Rapid City, S.D., saw an Iowa marriage certificate in her home and told the nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base.
Extra:
"Police officers, who said they spotted the marriage license on the kitchen table through a window of Newsome's home, alerted the base, police Chief Steve Allender said in a statement sent to the AP."
Carrollton man charged with threatening Elton John
Crime - Xiphias - 7 Comments
Tags: Death Threats, anti-abortion, homophobia, Elton John, atlanta
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
An anti-abortion activist and gubernatorial candidate from Carrollton who was arrested for allegedly making threats against Elton John is still being held in the Fulton County jail.
Man guilty for racial attack on Borehamwood rail worker
Crime Violent - Miskimo - 9 Comments
Tags: racist, moustache, murderer, dandy, rail passenger
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
A rail passenger has been found guilty of grabbing and racially abusing a ticket inspector in Hertfordshire.
Another Small Texas Town Overpunishes Another Piddly Drug Offender
Crime - unknown rebel - 1 Comment
Tags: texas, possession, crack, prison overcrowding, 60-year sentence
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
Think 35 years for a brick or so of pot is bad?
Try this one on for size...
In a case one local defense attorney has said showed "shades of Tulia," a Bay City man was sentenced to 60 years in prison for possessing 1.3 grams of crack.
Man Dies After Being Shot Several Times In Groin At Strip Club
Crime Violent - Name Brand Aspirin - 0 Comments
Tags: Bar, Groin, strip club, fatal shooting, San Diego
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
A search was under way Monday for whoever killed a 42-year-old man at a North Park strip club, shooting him several times in the groin, police said.
Toddler Dies After Mistaking Gun for Wii Controller
Crime Violent - revdrew - 13 Comments
Tags: Tennessee, Wii, 3-year-old, accidental suicide, irresponsible gun owner
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
Mistaking a loaded gun for a video game controller, a 3-year-old in Tennessee accidentally shot and killed herself, officials said.
Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan of Norene, Tenn., shot herself Sunday night after her stepfather left his loaded Smith & Wesson handgun out on a table, Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe said.
Georgia judge bars release of photos of hiker's nude, decapitated body
Government Laws - Tameriaen - 0 Comments
Tags: Georgia, first amendment, Hustler, crime photos, The Meredith Emerson Memorial Privacy Act
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
Photos of the nude and decapitated body of a murdered hiker, sought by a writer on assignment for Hustler magazine, will not be released, a judge in Georgia ordered Wednesday.
The decision came as state lawmakers considered legislation that would ban public release of graphic photos of crime victims. First Amendment lawyers say the legislation could have a chilling effect on open records requests.
For Family of Nikki Catsouras, a Victory in Court
Living Legal - MaulLove - 4 Comments
Tags: Internet, car crash, decapitation, CHP, photo leak
03/16/10 - - - (Link)
They say losing a child is the worst thing a parent can endure. But for Christos and Lesli Catsouras, whose 18-year-old daughter, Nikki, was killed in a devastating car crash in 2006, there was something much, much worse. Two weeks after their daughter's death, on Halloween day, Christos got a phone call from a friend. "Have you seen the photos?" he asked, hesitantly. Nine color close-ups of Nikki's mangled remains, still strapped into her father's crushed car, had been circulating around town by e-mail. Within days, the images went viral, popping up on hundreds of sites. Now a California court has handed the family an important legal victory.
Original Story:
One Family's Fight Against Grisly Web Photos
Peter Graves dies at 83; star of TV's 'Mission: Impossible'
Death - Harry - 11 Comments
Tags: actor, Peter Graves, Biography, Mission: Impossible, Airplane!
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
Peter Graves, the rugged actor who starred in the hit TV series "Mission: Impossible" and whose career took a comic turn in the disaster spoof "Airplane!" has died. He was 83.
Pope's Exorcist Says the Devil Is In the Vatican
Living Religion - Lurchi - 23 Comments
Tags: Catholic Church, vatican, exorcist, Devil, demonic possession
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
Inside his small third floor office at Vatican City, the Rev. Gabriel Amorth prepares for his next client. In the corner, is a bed with restraining ropes. On the walls, pictures of the Virgin Mary. Near an armchair there is a Bible and other copies of prayers.
Looking his 85 years, the priest is still dressed in his pajamas, but his face shows signs of energy that has helped sustain him as the chief exorcist for the Vatican during the last 25 years.
Original Story:
Vatican says pope attacker will be forgiven
Campaign stunt launches a corporate 'candidate' for Congress
Government Elections - Urban Space Cowboy - 23 Comments
Tags: Supreme Court, Congress, political campaigns, Murray Hill Inc., Corporations are people too!
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
Murray Hill might be the perfect candidate for this political moment: young, bold, media-savvy, a Washington outsider eager to reshape the way things are done in the nation's capital. And if these are cynical times, well, then, it's safe to say Murray Hill is by far the most cynical.
That's because this little upstart is, in fact, a start-up. Murray Hill is actually Murray Hill Inc., a small, five-year-old Silver Spring public relations company that is seeking office to prove a point (and perhaps get a little attention).
After the Supreme Court declared that corporations have the same rights as individuals when it comes to funding political campaigns, the self-described progressive firm took what it considers the next logical step: declaring for office.
Extra:
Murray Hill Inc. for Congress Website:
Original Story:
Supreme Court rejects limits on corporate spending on political campaigns
Tea Party Avoids Divisive Social Issues
Government Politics - vissarion - 6 Comments
Tags: Gay Marriage, abortion, tea party, Contract from America, economic conservatism
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
For decades, faith and family have been at the center of the conservative movement. But as the Tea Party infuses conservatism with new energy, its leaders deliberately avoid discussion of issues like gay marriage or abortion.
God, life and family get little if any mention in statements or manifestos. The motto of the Tea Party Patriots, a large coalition of groups, is “fiscal responsibility, limited government, and free markets.” The Independence Caucus questionnaire, which many Tea Party groups use to evaluate candidates, poses 80 questions, most on the proper role of government, tax policy and the federal budgeting process, and virtually none on social issues.
Extra:
Contract from America: manifesto
Original Story:
Fox Poll: What Do You Think Tea Party Movement Is About?
Throwing stones in glass houses
Living Health - Ludo Smell Bad - 1 Comment
Tags: canada, Health Care, hypocrisy, Sarah Palin, socialist evil
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
Sarah Palin sees irony in her Alaskan family's visit, when she was a child, to Whitehorse for medical care for her brother. And there is irony, but not the irony the former Republican vice-presidential candidate professes to see.
"I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now," she told a Calgary audience on the weekend. "Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada."
Inflation data could lift loonie close to parity this week
Living - Urban Space Cowboy - 0 Comments
Tags: Inflation, unemployment, US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Exchange Rate
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
The latest inflation data could move the Canadian dollar even closer to parity with the U.S. dollar this week after a strong employment report Friday sent the loonie surging.
The currency ended the week at 98.2 cents U.S. and during the course of Friday trading came within about a cent and a half of parity -- its highest level since July, 2008. The loonie hasn't been level with the greenback since May 2008.
Image of Jesus 'appears in a frying pan'
Living Religion - Sweater Undulations - 9 Comments
Tags: jesus, frying pan, religious apparition, hoax?, burned bacon fat
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
An image of Jesus has appeared in burned bacon fat at the bottom of a frying pan, it has been claimed.
Heroin found in juice boxes
Crime - Sweater Undulations - 0 Comments
Tags: mexico, Heroin, drug smuggling, creativity, juice boxes
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
Three men have been arrested in Attalla on charges of hiding heroin in juice boxes.
Culture clash over Japanese whaling
Living Food - Chronic Trigger - 3 Comments
Tags: japan, Whaling, activists, whale meat, delicacy
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
Clashes between Japanese whaling vessels and activists from the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group have received global attention, but do not go down well in Japan, where whale meat is still considered a delicacy, as the BBC's Roland Buerk reports.
In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt
Living Education - revdrew - 18 Comments
Tags: fraud, employment, economic crisis, student loans, trade schools
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.
At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.
But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid.
Walmart fires Michigan man for using medical marijuana
Living Legal - Sweater Undulations - 77 Comments
Tags: medical marijuana, fired, walmart, drug testing, brain tumor
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
Now that medical marijuana is legal in Michigan, can an employer fire a worker who tests positive for the drug?
WalMart says it can, so it did. "I was terminated because I failed a drug screening," says former WalMart employee Joseph Casias.
Man punched little children in head for fun, police say
Crime Violent - DamnHead - 7 Comments
Tags: old people, Ohio, walmart, just for kicks, punching children
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
Caught in the act at his local Walmart last night, Ralph Conone admitted that for months he'd been punching children in the backs of their heads with his keys in his fist, Columbus police said today.
The 68-year-old grandfather also told them why, police said: He simply got a kick out of it.
Aswad Ayinde, director of Fugees video charged with impregnating daughters
Crime - Corporate God King - 1 Comment
Tags: apocalypse, incest, Evil Parents, Aswad Ayinde, bloodline
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
An award-winning video director was unmasked Thursday as a brutal, bizarre serial breeder who repeatedly raped his daughters to create a "pure" bloodline.
Aswad Ayinde, who won an MTV award for directing The Fugees' "Killing Me Softly," fathered six kids with his daughters from the mid-1980s to 2002 - and delivered the babies himself, New Jersey prosecutors said.
A lifetime of rape and terror, from toddlers to adults
Crime Violent - raith - 9 Comments
Tags: UK, Evil Parents, Sheffield, The Gaffer, systematic sexual abuse
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
He liked to be known as "The Gaffer" and used violence, bullying and emotional control to terrorise his daughters over 30 years of systematic sexual abuse which resulted in 18 pregnancies.
Chili Finger Lady apologizes for Wendy's scam
Crime Stupid - Hekmatyar - 0 Comments
Tags: hoax, Wendys, swindler, Chili Finger Lady, Sorry!
03/15/10 - - - (Link)
The Chili Finger Lady is back! In an exclusive CBS5 interview, Anna Ayala, out on parole since last April, is not only apologizing for the Wendy's scam that riveted and grossed out a nation, but she's also spilling the beans (so to speak) on the infamous digit.
Man head butts window at bar
Crime Stupid - Name Brand Aspirin - 17 Comments
Tags: Bar, window, duh, headbutt, angry over earlier fight
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
An upset man was taken to the hospital and then to jail after he allegedly attacked a bar window with his head shortly after closing time Wednesday morning.
Wichita man pays crack dealer with Monopoly money
Crime Stupid - Urban Space Cowboy - 0 Comments
Tags: Monopoly, Money, drug dealer, crack-cocaine, Use the get out-of-jail-free card
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
When police pulled over the car they found a 33-year-old man bleeding from the head and telling an unusual story.
The victim said a couple of weeks ago he bought several hundred dollars of crack-cocaine with Monopoly money and now the dealer was ready for pay back.
French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment
Government - enki don't - 22 Comments
Tags: CIA, mind control, LSD, French bread, ergot
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
A 50-year mystery over the 'cursed bread' of Pont-Saint-Esprit, which left residents suffering hallucinations, has been solved after a writer discovered the US had spiked the bread with LSD as part of an experiment.
Court upholds 'under God' in Pledge of Allegiance
Government Laws - revdrew - 15 Comments
Tags: God, Pledge of Allegiance, separation of church and state, atheists, U.S. currency
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
A federal appeals court in San Francisco upheld the use of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" on U.S. currency, rejecting arguments on Thursday that the phrases violate the separation of church and state.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected two legal challenges by Sacramento atheist Michael Newdow, who claimed the references to God disrespect his religious beliefs.
Original Story:
Tampa City Council, atheists fight over Pledge of Allegiance
Conservatives put stamp on Texas textbooks
Living Education - revdrew - 46 Comments
Tags: texas, evolution, Religion, conservative ideals, separation between church and state
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
New social studies curriculum stresses religion over evolution
A far-right faction of the Texas State Board of Education succeeded Friday in injecting conservative ideals into social studies, history and economics lessons that will be taught to millions of students for the next decade.
Giant meat-eating plants prefer to eat tree shrew poo
Living Nature - denspark - 12 Comments
Tags: Borneo, poo, worlds largest, pitcher plant, meat-eating plants
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
The largest meat-eating plant in the world is designed not to eat small animals, but small animal poo.
Botanists have discovered that the giant montane pitcher plant of Borneo has a pitcher the exact same size as a tree shrew's body.
But it is not this big to swallow up mammals such as tree shrews or rats.
Tasmanian devil colony shows immunity to cancer
Science - dbtng - 4 Comments
Tags: cancer, australia, Tasmanian devil, endangered species, tumor
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
The discovery of a genetically distinct colony of Tasmanian devils may save the species from being wiped out by a contagious cancer that has decimated the population, Australian scientists said Wednesday.
So far, the colony in northwestern Tasmania state has proven immune to the face cancer that has ravaged the iconic animal — made famous worldwide by their Looney Tunes cartoon namesake, Taz.
Original Story:
Scientists Discover Origin of a Cancer in Tasmanian Devils
11 Siberian tigers starve to death in zoo
Living Nature - Lorenzo Stomp - 0 Comments
Tags: zoo, china, chicken bones, starved to death, Siberian tigers
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
Two other hungry animals are reportedly shot dead after attacking keeper
Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China's frigid northeast, state media said Friday.
Air Canada learns that hockey trumps flying
Sports - smarmylittlegit - 2 Comments
Tags: Air Canada, hockey, Vancouver 2010, Winter Olympics, flight delay
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
Canada's largest airline has learned it sometimes has to take a back seat to the country's biggest sporting passion, ice hockey, the head of Air Canada said on Tuesday.
The airline was forced to delay a flight from Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games because passengers watching the end of gold medal final on airport televisions ignored repeated calls to board.
'Wedgie killer' could face more prison time
Crime - Name Brand Aspirin - 0 Comments
Tags: shoplifting, self-defense, Utah, manslaughter, Wedgie Killer
03/13/10 - - - (Link)
A loaf of bread, a 12-pack of beer and thou -- for up to 30 years in prison.
Erik Kurtis Low, branded in news reports as "the wedgie killer," is back behind bars. And he could be there a long time if convicted of burglary and shoplifting charges that would constitute a probation violation of Low's 2009 manslaughter conviction. Low has pleaded not guilty to the new charges.
It's the latest twist in the unusual 2003 case.
Granny D dead at 100
Death - Bored - 8 Comments
Tags: politics, New Hampshire, obituary, campaign finance reform, Granny D
03/12/10 - - - (Link)
Doris Haddock, who walked across the US at the age of 89 to press for changes in election campaign funding, has died at her home in New Hampshire.
Granny D, as she was widely known, trekked 3,200 miles (1,650km) in 1999 and 2000 to draw attention to the high cost of running for office in the US.
Brain scans 'can distinguish memories', say scientists
Science - denspark - 4 Comments
Tags: UK, Memory, memory loss, brain scan, distinguishable
03/12/10 - - - (Link)
Scientists say they have been able to tell which past event a person is recalling using a brain scan.
The University College London researchers showed people film clips and were able to predict which ones they were subsequently thinking about.
Women refuse to go through airport body scanners
Government Bureaucracy - Harry - 50 Comments
Tags: UK, privacy, x-ray, virtual strip search, full body scanners
03/12/10 - - - (Link)
Two women were stopped from boarding a plane at Manchester Airport after refusing to undergo a full body scan.
The passengers were due to fly to Islamabad on 19 February when they were selected at random to go through the new scanning machine.
Extra:
"In US airports where scanners are installed passengers have the option of a undergoing a body search."
Original Story:
Airport security bares all, or does it?
Mystery of 75 starlings falling from the sky
Living Nature - denspark - 12 Comments
Tags: UK, birds, starlings, crash landing, mysterious death
03/12/10 - - - (Link)
The deaths of 75 starlings which appeared to fall from the sky and crash land on to a driveway in Somerset has mystified the RSPCA animal charity.
The birds were spotted falling onto the entrance of a house in Coxley in Somerset on Sunday 7 March.
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