Super Idiots are now getting their eyeballs tattooed

NY - If you think tattoos are so over, you've got another think coming. The latest in permanent ink? Tats on your eyeball. That's right - a sharp stick in the eye.
When doctors do it, it's called corneal tattooing; but when perfectly healthy folks looking for new horizons in tattooing, piercing, scarring, etc., do it, it's nuts.
Last month, the online magazine BMEzine.com (short for Body Modification) started chronicling three people's efforts to turn the whites of their eyes blue.
To tattoo the eyes, they used two different procedures. First they used a traditional needle with ink on it, but when the ink didn't hold, they switched to a syringe that injected ink into the eye. The most recent posts indicate that all was well, with one of the guys saying it felt like he had something in his eye. Full Story - MagazineLane.com - The Popcorn Factory

Nutty man falls out of car while trying to spit

FL - A Pensacola man was critically injured after he fell out of a vehicle while trying to spit.
Miguel Rogelio, 37, was riding in a 2006 Lincoln on U.S. Highway 29 when he “quickly opened the right front door” to spit, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.
When he did this he fell out of the moving vehicle and onto the roadway, hitting his head.
The driver of the car, Desiree C. Jamar, also of Pensacola, told the investigating trooper that they had just left the Tom Thumb store near the West Roberts Road intersection and that the car was traveling at about 45 miles per hour when Rogelio fell out.
Rogelio is being treated at West Florida Hospital. MagazineLane.com - Discount Tobacco

Chicken manure everywhere - A real stinky situation

NORRIDGEWOCK ME - Everywhere Richard White looked Monday there were big clumps of dried, smelly chicken manure.
It was hanging from his mailbox, sloshed all over his snowmobile, lying next to his well and dried on his garage door more than 30 feet across the yard. Two vehicles parked nearby looked like they had been through a very sloppy and thick mud run.
"There's stuff still 20 feet up the tree," White said, pointing. "It was like a tsunami wave of hot chicken (manure)."
The pungent odor of the nitrogen-concentrated chicken excrement still hung in the air at White's 441 Walker Road home, where shortly after 3 p.m. last Thursday an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rolled over and dumped 24 tons of the stuff in his front yard.
Two used vehicles up for sale were destroyed. A 1997 Eagle Vision TSI was spun around by the impact of the manure and landed in front of his doorstep, White said. A 1987 Suburban Silverado with a plow package also was splattered with the manure and turned sideways. It even blew up under the vehicle and into the motor, he said. Full Story - MagazineLane.com - Latest fashions from Liz Claiborne

Mean Nutty Woman Reads Last Page of Latest Harry Potter Book To Students

UK - A PRIMARY school head ruined the new Harry Potter book for pupils — by reading out the final page on the last day of term.
Youngsters looking forward to reading the best-seller over the summer holidays were left reeling as Carolyn Banfield gave the game away.
Nine-year-old pupil Louie Swift said: “I don’t know why she read it. She didn’t even mention she had the book. She just picked it up and started reading it to us.”
Harry ... so popular Jordan Ashman, ten, said: “It has spoiled the book for me.” Full Story - MagazineLane.com - Thompson Cigar - oldest mail order cigar company

Hindu cuts right hand off for goddess - Goddess said, "I don't Want It"

A YOUNG man in Nepal today chopped off his right hand as an offering to a feared Hindu goddess, state-run media reported.
“He offered special worship at the temple this morning,” the national RSS news agency said. "After the worship, he chopped off his right hand and offered (it) to the temple of Goddess Kali."
The 23-year-old survived the amputation by a kukhuri, a traditional curved Nepalese knife, and was in stable condition at a hospital in Biratnagar, 250km southeast of Kathmandu, the news agency reported.
It was not known why he sacrificed his hand.
Impoverished Nepal is a deeply traditional and religious country where around 80 per cent of the 27 million people are Hindu.
Kali is a multi-armed Hindu deity often associated with destruction. MagazneLane.com - Apple iTunes

Male belly-dance back in vogue - Not Cute

ISTANBUL, July 31 (Reuters Life!) - At Istanbul's Club Fox on the Sea of Marmara coast the belly dancer's hips gyrate and tassels swirl to the music but the stomach is a little hairier than usual -- it's a man's.
Male belly dancers are thrilling audiences in Turkey and other European capitals, drawing on a tradition dating back to Ottoman times when men in the Sultan's palaces were entertained by young male dancers as the women lived separately in harems.

As 36-year-old dancer "Alex" takes to the stage and the repetitive beats are replaced by Arabesque music, the young Turkish crowd goes wild, flinging their arms in the air and jostling for a view of his belly.
"All kinds of people watch me. I dance on stage in clubs, bars and even rock concerts," said Alex, who goes by his stage name.
His costume and dance style are distinct from that of a female dancer. He wears loose black trousers, a chain-mail headdress, a richly-tasselled belt and stole, and a cloak made of sheer fabric, which he extends with his arms like wings.
"I am really against people thinking oriental dance is a female dance. In doing this they are trying to give it an identity...but all dances can have male and female characters."
Ballet also has male and female dancers, he points out.
Alex began dancing aged 16, drawn to belly dance as he thought it was the most expressive dance for his body shape whilst also being highly in demand. More - MagazineLane.com - Avon

Man Who Says Was Rushing His Cat To The Vet Causes High-Speed Police Chase

A driver who led police on a high-speed chase on Monday told reporters that he was just trying to get help for his sick cat. The chase, which FOX 4 News reported had reached speeds of up to 100 mph, ended in Richardson near Highway 75 with the arrest of the man. Law enforcement officials used spike strips to stop the sport utility vehicle at about 3:30 p.m. "I was going about 65, 70 … he was going past me like I was just sitting there," witness Colby Tskey said. "It was pretty intense. "Armed officers pulled the man from the vehicle and apprehended him.

Full Story - MagazineLane.com - Discount Cigarrettes Nationwide at CigarettesAmerica.com

Big Mouth Idiot Bragged About Killing People At A Baby Shower

EL CAJON – One of two men charged with the execution-style killings of an El Cajon liquor store owner and a store worker bragged about the shooting to friends, a witness testified in court Monday.
Jean Rices said he “popped them” after one of the two pulled off a ski mask Rices was wearing, Dwayne Hooks testified in El Cajon Superior Court.
Rices, 25, of El Cajon and Anthony Miller, 21, of Alpine are charged with the March 2006 slaying of Heather Nabil Mattia, 22, and Firas Washid Eiso, 23, at Granada Liquor Store on Broadway near Mollison Avenue.
Hooks testified that Rices told him of the shooting during a July 2006 baby shower for Hooks' wife. He said Rices was dating Hooks' sister at the time.
Rices said “he was the one who smoked or shot the people,” Hooks testified.
Miller, who also attended the baby shower, didn't say anything but “he would nod along” as Rices spoke of the shooting, Hooks said.
Questioned by defense lawyers, Hooks said he agreed to testify for the prosecution in exchange for a reduced charge on a July 2006 robbery of a Lakeside branch of Washington Mutual bank. Rices is also a defendant in that robbery case.
In exchange for his testimony in the Granada shooting case, Hooks said he was sentenced to one day in jail for the bank robbery and relocated by prosecutors to a new apartment for his protection.
Eiso and Mattia each died of a single shot wound to the head, testified Glenn Wagner, the county's chief medical examiner.
The preliminary hearing before Judge Allan J. Preckel, held to determine if there is sufficient evidence for a trial, is expected to take conclude Tuesday. MagazineLane.com - Everything for the baby at Baby Age

Don't Ask For A Raise if You Work At This Car Dealership

EAST POINT, Ga. — The owner of a car dealership has been accused of killing two employees because they kept asking for pay raises.
Rolandas Milinavicius has been charged with two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of Inga Contreras, 25, and Martynas Simokaitis, 28.
All three are from the eastern European nation of Lithuania but had been living in Atlanta, authorities said.
Milinavicius, who was having financial problems, told police he shot the two Thursday after they kept asking for more pay, said police in East Point, which is just outside Atlanta.
"He told us that he was under a lot of stress," East Point police Capt. Russell Popham said. "Unfortunately, he decided to take his anger out with violence."
Milinavicius, who had been living in Alpharetta, started RM Auto International two years ago, hoping to meet the demand for American cars in Lithuania. He began shipping cars and later hired the two victims as his only employees. Full Story - MagazineLane.com - Cars Direct is America's #1 way to buy cars online!

How dumb does someone have to be to need a device to remind them their kid is in the back seat

Your car has a sensor that tells you when you've left the headlights on or the keys in the ignition. It probably has another reminding you and your passengers to buckle your seat belts, and still another that sounds when the door is ajar. Some cars even to tell you when the tires need inflating.
But so far, there's no standard equipment to tell you that you've left a child in the back seat of a hot car.
"How many people died because their keys were left in the ignition, headlights left on?" asks Janette Fennell, who tracks hot-car deaths as president and founder of Kids and Cars. "They have the opportunity to eradicate this as a cause of injury and death to children for a relatively low cost. Why not do it?"
"The issue is not the technology; the issue is getting it to market," says Jan Null, a San Francisco-area meteorologist who also tracks child hot-car deaths.
Requiring such technology would translate into tens of millions a year in added costs to carmakers. But a spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in Washington, D.C., insists cost is not the issue. Full Story - MagazineLane.com - Everything for your pet at PETsMART

Nutty Chinese gather Panda Poop to be recycled into souvenirs

BEIJING - Nothing says "I love you" like a photo frame made from panda poop.
The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base has come up with a dung-for-profit scheme that turns droppings from the endangered species into odor-free souvenirs ranging from bookmarks to Olympic-themed statues of the animals, state media and base officials said Monday.
The facility in the southwestern province of Sichuan houses about 40 bamboo-fed pandas who produce less than a ton of excrement a day.
"We used to spend at least 6,000 yuan ($770) a month to get rid of the droppings but now they can be lucrative," Jing Shimin, assistant to the base director, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
The products will be made at a local handicraft company mostly from undigested bamboo culled from the panda waste through a special process, Xinhua said.
An official who answered the phone at the Chengdu facility said the dung is "carefully selected, smashed, dried and sterilized at 300 degrees Celsius (572 degrees Fahrenheit)." He refused to give his name but said the products will be of all colors because they will be dyed.
"They don't smell too bad because 70 percent of the dung is just remains of the bamboo that the pandas are unable to digest," Jing said. Full Story - MagazineLane.com - Just Blinds - The best way to buy blinds

Drink A Glass of Wine Daily For A Healthy Heart - Die From Bowel Cancer

UK - Drinking alcohol even in moderation — a large glass of wine or a pint of beer a day — can increase the risk of developing bowel cancer by 10 per cent, a Europe-wide study has found.
And drinking to two pints a day or around two large glasses of wine increases the risk by up to a quarter.
About 35,000 new cases of bowel cancer are diagnosed in the UK each year, claiming the lives of 16,100 people annually.
Almost 480,000 people across 10 European countries were questioned about their drinking habits as part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. The ongoing research is funded by Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council and other European agencies.
The findings on bowel cancer, published online yesterday by the International Journal of Cancer, found that people who drank 15 grams of alcohol a day — equivalent to about two units — had about a 10 per cent increased risk of the disease.
Those who drank more than 30 grams of alcohol — or three to four units — increased their bowel cancer risk by about 25 per cent. Full Story - MagazineLane.com - World Of Watches

New York City Auctions Off 500 Pounds of Foreign Coins Found in Parking Meters because it is too much trouble to take them to the bank

NEW YORK — The city is selling 500 pounds of foreign coins that found their way into its parking meters this year.
"We have pretty much every denomination from every continent," said Anthony Alfano, the city's deputy chief of meter collections. The most common coins are Greek drachmas, he said.
The Department of Transportation, which makes about $90 million from parking meters annually, has collected bids for the foreign coins and plans to announce the best offer Monday.
About a decade ago, the agency decided to sell foreign coins it collected because it was impractical to exchange them for U.S. currency. In previous years, selling the coins has netted the department between $2 to $4 a pound.
Last year's highest bidder for the coins was Jim Corliss, 60, of Braintree, Mass., a longtime collector. He also bid this year.
"Every once in a while I find something of value," he said, pointing out that he once came across an 1835 British shilling worth $5. Full Story - MagazineLane.com - Babies R Us

Rapist could not get on with the rape because the woman would not stop talking - so he left

Sale Lake City UT - A would-be rapist broke into a Cedar City home and used a knife to detain a woman for an hour before she was able to call for help. Police say the incident began about 3 a.m. Sunday in Cedar City. An 18-year-old intoxicated man entered a stranger's home with the intent of finding someone with whom to have sex, said Sgt. Jerry Womack. The suspect took a knife from the kitchen and held it to the neck of a 23-year-old woman inside, Womack said. For about the next hour, the woman tried to dissuade the suspect from raping her. She talked to him about religion, then said she was ill and her husband would be home soon. Finally, when the suspect let the woman go to the bathroom, she was able to call 911 and the would-be rapist left. The woman recognized the man from the neighborhood and police found him at his apartment later that morning. Today he was in the Iron County jail on suspicion of aggravated sexual assault, aggravated burglary, kidnapping and theft and was being held on $50,000 cash-only bail. MagazineLane.com - Booty Parlor - Where sexy meets fabulous

Preacher's Missing Wife Found - Got tired of Listening to His Preaching and Took Off

NY - The wife of an Alabama minister missing for more than four months has been located by police unharmed and working under an alias at a fast-food restaurant in New York state, authorities said Monday.
Louisiana police located Mary Byrne Smith alive and well in New York state on Friday. The 30-year-old kindergarten teacher had been working under an assumed name at a fast-food restaurant.
"We know it’s her," Bossier City Police Chief Mike Halphen said at a press conference Monday. "She did not want us to disclose the reasons why she left, and she did not want us to disclose where she is living."
She does not face criminal charges, Halphen said.
"People have their reasons for wanting to start a new life and that was her choosing," Halphen said. "And again, we encouraged her very, very hard to contact her family and at least talk with her children and we believe that she at will." Full Story MagazineLane.com

Surgery Finished By Cell Phone Lights During Blackout

BUENOS AIRES - The light from the cell phone screens allowed surgeons to complete an emergency appendix operation during a blackout in a city in central Argentina, reports said on Saturday.
Leonardo Molina, 29, was on the operating table on July 21, when the power went out in the Policlinico Juan D. Peron, the main hospital in Villa Mercedes, a small city in San Luis province.
"The generator, which should have been working correctly, didn't work," a hospital spokesman, whose name was not given, told TN television news station.
"The surgeons and anesthetists were in the dark... A family member got some cell phones together from people in the hallway and took them in to provide light," he said.
Ricardo Molina, 39, Leonardo's brother, told La Nacion newspaper that the lights were out for an hour and his brother's anesthesia was wearing off.
Hospital Director Dario Maurer told La Nacion the surgery was without light a maximum of 20 minutes. MagazineLane.com

Drunks Get A Free Ride Home In Their Own Vehicle

Albuquerque NM - The Barley Room Bar & Grill offers a service in which General Manager Phil Lovato will ride around on a motorcycle that might look at home in a three-ring circus.
As funny as that might sound, it isn't meant to be amusing.
"Our main goal is to make sure people stay safe," Lovato said one day last week as he folded a circus-clown-size motorcycle into a package the size of a large suitcase.
The Northeast Heights restaurant sees the tiny motorcycle as an innovative way to help its patrons get home with their own vehicles and, most important, without driving drunk.
Here's how it works: The motorcycle, once folded, is placed in the trunk of a bar patron's vehicle. A member of the restaurant staff drives customer and car home. Once there, the Barley Room worker unfolds the motorcycle and drives it back to the restaurant.
The customer ends up home safe without driving drunk and the vehicle parked in the driveway rather than at the bar. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Sightings of mysterious giant bird continue in San Antonio

San Antonio TX - Strange sightings of a huge flying creature have been reported as recently as six months ago. Is it a monster or myth?
Guadalupe Cantu III was busy working his newspaper route, but he says the big news of that day 10 years ago flew right over his car. He says he's seen what most have not — an unidentified flying object, one that still scares him.
"We were afraid that it would come at us. So we stayed in the car till it passed this way," witness Guadalupe Cantu III said. "This thing's all feathers, all black. Much bigger than me. It looked at us. It had very stooped-up shoulders." The beast has been spotted from the Rio Grande Valley to the mountains of New Mexico.
"(It) looked like what was possibly two people standing on top of a mountain up there," said David Zander, who saw the monster in New Mexico. "Something that big ... I guess it kinda makes you feel like it could come over and carry you off if it wanted to."
San Antonio's Ken Gerhard has written a book on these dark birds as big as planes, with wingspans from 15 to 20 feet. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Exorcism Runs Amuck

PHOENIX - Officers responding to a report of an exorcism on a young girl found her grandfather choking her and used stun guns to subdue the man, who later died, authorities said.
The 3-year-old girl and her mother, who was also in the room during the struggle between 49-year-old Ronald Marquez and officers, were hospitalized, police said Sunday. Their condition was unavailable.
The relative who called police said an exorcism had also been attempted Thursday.
"The purpose was to release demons from this very young child," said Sgt. Joel Tranter.
Officers arrived at the house Saturday and entered when they heard screaming coming from a bedroom, Tranter said.
A bed had been pushed up against the door; the officers pushed it open a few inches and saw Marquez choking his bloodied granddaughter, who was crying in pain and gasping, Tranter said.
A bloody, naked 19-year-old woman who police later determined to be Marquez's daughter and the girl's mother was in the room, chanting "something that was religious in nature," Tranter said. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Pigeons Put On Birth Control Pill

HOLLYWOOD CA - Hollywood residents believe they've found a humane way to reduce the out-of-control neighborhood pigeon population, and the mess that comes with it. Over the next few months a birth control product called OvoControl P, which interferes with egg development, will be placed in bird food in new rooftop feeders. Community leaders planned to announce pilot program at a news conference Monday. It's believed to be the first program of its kind in the nation. MagazineLane.com

Lightning Strikes Man Twice - Going To Try To Live a Better Life

HAMLIN, Pa. - Lightning can strike twice. Just ask Don Frick.
Frick says he survived his second lightning strike Friday - 27 years to the day of his first - and emerged a bit shaken, with only a burned zipper and a hole in the back of his jeans.
"I'm lucky I'm alive," Frick said in a phone interview Sunday night from his home in Hamlin, Pennsylvania.
Frick was attending a festival when a storm came up quickly. He and six others sought refuge in a shed shortly before lightning struck the ground nearby. The strike sent a shock through Frick and four others.
The 68-year-old says "It put me up against the wall. When I came to and realized I was alive, the first thing that came to my mind was that I'm pretty lucky." None of the others were seriously injured.
Twenty-seven years earlier, Frick said he was driving a tractor-trailer when the antenna was struck by lightning, leaving his left side injured for weeks. MagazineLane.com

Paris' Grandpa Giving Her Inheritance To Charity - Not Happy With Her

PARTY princess Paris Hilton is $60 million out of pocket after her billionaire grandfather - appalled by her jail term for drink-driving offences - axed her inheritance.
Family patriarch Barron Hilton was already embarrassed by his granddaughter's wild behaviour - notably when her home sex video was leaked on the internet. But the 79-year-old considered her 23-day sentence last month the last straw. "He was, and is, extremely embarrassed by how the Hilton name has been sullied by Paris," says Jerry Oppenheimer, who wrote a biography of the clan called House Of Hilton.
"He now doesn't want to leave unearned wealth to his family." Hilton senior, the only member of the family left with a sizeable stake in the huge hotel chain, has let it be known that he intends to donate to charity the $2.4bn he will gain from this month's sale of the company to private equity firm Blackstone. The money will go to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the charity set up in the name of the founder of the family business. MagazineLane.com

Woman Still Skydives at 84

WARSAW - Krystyna Zbyszynska, 84, became Poland's oldest parachutist when she made her first jump with her daughter-in-law, news channel TVN24 reported on Sunday.
"I survived World War Two and wasn't afraid, so what's there to be afraid of now?" she said after clambering out of her jumpsuit this weekend.
"Babcia (granny) Krysia is not your ordinary gran," explained one of her teenaged granddaughters.
"She tells me I'm not playing my music loud enough and comes into my room and wants to dance."
Asked whether she planned another jump Zbyszynska, from the northern city of Olsztyn, told the channel: "Yes, the day I turn 100." MagazineLane.com

Stripper Charged With Impersonating A Policeman

UK - A male stripogram facing court over wearing a police uniform and equipment has been charged for a second time.
Stuart Kennedy is already due to face court this Friday after an incident in Aberdeen's Bon Accord Street in March.
Mr Kennedy appeared again at an event on Saturday night in Oldmeldrum and was detained by police officers.
Police said a 24-year-old had been charged in connection with wearing articles of police uniform. He is due at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Thursday.
A plea of not guilty was previously lodged on Mr Kennedy's behalf at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in relation to the original offensive weapons charges including having batons in public. MagazineLane.com

Woman does it herself and gives birth in a DIY store isle

UK - A woman put a new meaning to "do it yourself" when she gave birth to a baby daughter in the middle of a DIY store.
Sue Jarvis became a new mum in the paint aisle at Wilkinsons in Beaumont Leys, Leicester.
When her waters broke she phoned husband James who came from their home in Huncote, Leicestershire, in time to deliver 7lb 5oz Karrisa himself.
Mrs Jarvis, 38, praised staff at the hardware store who came to her assistance during the 30-minute birth. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Superyacht crashes into wall 30 seconds after leaving drydock

A man witnessed this alarming piece of coming alongside in Varazze on the Italian Riviera. He wrote: 'While staying in Varazze, moored next to the Baglietto ship yard, a newly launched super yacht left the docks. I was watching with my daughter, when it promptly rammed the bridge that had opened to let it out and then ran up the dockside wall at speed. 'It had only left the dock 30 seconds earlier - one of the crew jumped off the foredeck into the harbour as it hit the harbour wall. It appears that no one was physically hurt (amazing with all sorts of people around on a sunny Saturday) only the skipper's pride and I imagine his paycheck!' MagazineLane.com

Duckling hatched from a box of eggs bought from a supermarket

UK - A SCHOOLBOY has defied the odds and hatched a duckling from a box of eggs he bought from a supermarket.
Will Parris paid £1.50 (€2.25) for the box of free range duck eggs which he took under his wing.
The eggs, otherwise destined to be scrambled, poached or fried, were bought from Waitrose in Surrey, in the UK, at the end of June with a best before date of July 2. With his dad Andrew's help he borrowed an incubator, put the eggs inside and waited to see what would happen.
In the early hours of July 8 with friend Josh Collier staying over, the boys were woken up to see a duckling start to break free from one of the shells. "We saw the crack in the egg and the duckling trying to peck its way out," he said. "It was amazing. I thought nothing would hatch. I have never had a pet like this before. This beats the rest," said Will (12).
A Waitrose spokesman said: "Our flocks are all female so this is an extremely rare occurrence, but a drake must have come into contact with the flock." The next task for the family is to provide some playmates for their new charge. MagazineLane.com

200-ton ship engine falls off truck causing traffic mess

SAN DIEGO – A 200-ton ship engine being transported to General Dynamics NASSCO slid off a trailer and hit three cars on Harbor Drive near 28th Street early Thursday.
The fallen engine also broke a water line and prompted the shipyard to close operations.
The engine, which was destined for a Navy ship under construction, was being carried on a tractor-trailer rig escorted by some vehicles south on Harbor Drive shortly after midnight, police said.
It was traveling about 2 to 3 mph, when it shifted and slid off the trailer. It landed on a Dodge sedan, crushed the front end of a Ford Aerostar and hit another vehicle, San Diego police Sgt. Kevin Friedman said. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Redheads Hated In England

UK - The British Isles feature more redheads than anywhere else on earth. But some people who have the genetic trait said they feel discriminated against.
"It's horrible," one woman said. "I mean, I love redheads. But people are quite anti-them."
In England, the flame-haired are called "ginger" or "ginge."
Photographer Charlotte Rushton said people often yell at her in the street and she often feels like part of a minority.
"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down," Rushton said.
The nation that gave the world Ginger Spice, the Duchess of York and Lily Cole may be ginger-phobic. And it is not a joke.
One British family of redheads, the Chapmans, told the British media it was driven from its home by abuse including anti-redhead grafitti, vandalism and physical assaults. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Victim disarms sissy robbers with gas nozzle

NY - A Brentwood gas station attendant fended off an armed assailant early Friday with his gas pump nozzle, police said. "He wasn't scared," a co-worker said. "He took it personal. He was angry."
The attendant, Ali, a 57-year-old Turkish immigrant, speaks very little English, according to Oken, 29, a Turkish co-worker. Neither wanted to give their full names for publication. Oken said Ali fully understood what was happening when a man walked up to him about 2:30 a.m. Friday at the Delta gas station on Islip Avenue and pointed a gun at him. Oken was not there at that time, but said Ali later told him that Ali did not understand much of what the gunman was saying, but he understood the word "money" which the assailant kept repeating. Instead of giving him any of the station's cash, Ali took a swing at the gunman with the nozzle, and then started jabbing at him with it, Oken said. The gunman did not fire his weapon, Oken said, and called to an accomplice who was standing near the station's mini-mart entrance. The two men then fled on foot. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Gator Found in Moving Pillowcase on NY Beach

BABYLON, N.Y. (AP) - A peace officer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals happened across a moving pillowcase on a beach Saturday on which someone had written: "Live Gator - Please find him a home," officials said.
The off-duty officer for the Suffolk County organization had been taking a walk on Long Island's Overlook beach, according to the group. The officer called in a response team to rescue the 30-inch-long animal.
SPCA officials are asking for donations to help them care for the alligator until it can be taken to a sanctuary. They are also seeking information on who might have dumped the gator. MagazineLane.com

Secret bank manual tells how to avoid giving charges back

UK - The cynical methods used by one of Britain's biggest banks to avoid refunding customers' unfair bank charges are exposed today.
High Street giant Lloyds TSB, which has been accused of overcharging customers £300 million a year, has issued staff with guidelines on how to deal with complaints. In a 16-page training pack it instructs workers to: Reject first-time claims, even if they are legitimate.
• Offer a maximum payout of £750.
• Only offer immediate settlements to those who are "very ill" – or dying.
• Not refund or waive interest. Full Story MagazineLane.com

China: Go To Our Churches or Go To Jail

BEIJING — Four priests from China's underground Roman Catholic Church have been detained by police, a U.S.-based monitoring group said Sunday.
Three priests were detained Tuesday in the northern region of Inner Mongolia after fleeing their hometown to avoid arrest for refusing to join the state-sanctioned church, the Cardinal Kung Foundation announced. It said the fourth priest was detained in early July in the northern province of Hebei following a motorcycle accident.
It gave no details of what charges the priests might face.
China's Catholics are permitted to worship only in churches run by a government-monitored group with no ties to the Vatican. But millions who remain loyal to the pope worship in secret "house churches."
The priests detained in Inner Mongolia's Xilin Gol League region were identified as Liang Aijun, 35, Wang Zhong, 41, and Gao Jinbao, 34. All were from Hebei, according to the Kung Foundation, which is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Nortwest Airlines Out Of Pilots

MINNEAPOLIS — Northwest Airlines canceled more flights as expected Saturday, with the company continuing to attribute the problem to pilot absenteeism.
Northwest did not release its own cancellation figures Saturday, but the Web site FlightStats.com reported as of 9 p.m. EDT that the airline had called off 166 flights. It reported that 1,056 scheduled flights departed.
The airline had canceled a total of 125 flights Friday, the Web site reported.
Northwest expects to complete 93 percent of its flights Saturday, said Roman Blahoski, spokesman for the carrier, based in Eagan. The pilot absenteeism was affecting flights mainly on narrow-bodied aircraft, he said.
The airline had warned Friday that it would probably cancel more flights over the weekend.
The Northwest branch of the Air Line Pilots Association released a phone message to members Friday stating that it didn't believe there had been an improper use of sick time. If there was, the union suggested, it was caused by stress from increased flying hours. Full Story MagazineLane.com

1,500 Pound Ketchup Packet and a Large Fries

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. — First came the world's largest ketchup bottle.
Now this southern Illinois community is after the record for the world's largest ketchup packet.
Collinsville has partnered with the H.J. Heinz Co. to fill an 8-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide plastic pouch with 1,500 pounds of the tomato goop for a school fundraiser.
"That's a lot of ketchup," said Tracey Parsons, a Heinz spokeswoman.
The company donated 4,000 glass bottles of the condiment for people to buy for $1 and pour into the packet. Proceeds will go to the Collinsville Christian Academy, which was damaged by a fire this week.
Hundreds in the city, home to a 170-foot-tall water tower touted as the "World's Largest Catsup Bottle," showed up Saturday to participate in the ketchup filling and other fundraising activities. The feat is being submitted to Guinness World Records. MagazineLane.com

Donkey Races held for 39 years - No more - Someone might sue

CARDIFF, Wales -- Citing safety risks, lawyers and insurance carriers have reined in a traditional children's donkey race at a North Wales resort this weekend. "We asked insurers if they could give us cover for kids racing on donkeys, but they wouldn't touch it," Llandudno Rugby Club Chairman Robin Holden told The Daily Mail. "They said they could insure us if the donkeys were walking, not racing." Holden said he sought legal advice regarding whether parents could sign a waiver, but was told by a lawyer parents couldn't sign away their children's rights. "He also said that, if they were injured, the child could wait and take action as soon as they were of legal age," Holden added. Children were allowed to ride on donkeys, so long as the animals walked and the wee ones held a parent's hand. Event organizer Brian Bertola said he was sorry children must miss out because some people are so quick to sue. "Children have been doing this for 39 years, and we have never had a problem; it is ridiculous," he said. "Sadly, this is the age we live in. Even on the slightest incident, people will try and claim." Magazinelane.com

Pay up or we dig him up

New Zealand - -- A New Zealand funeral home director allegedly threatened to dig up a body because his family hadn't paid for his funeral. Richard Bennison of Gray's Funeral Services in Rotorua said he hoped the threat would pressure the family to pay up, The Herald on Sunday reported. Bennison said he would not have been allowed to carry through on his threat, but the dead teen's sister said Bennison "gave me the impression that it would happen." MagazineLane.com

Brothers used toy gun in robberies - trying to steal enough money to buy real gun

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A 19-year-old California man has been arrested in three street robberies that police say he pulled off using a toy gun. Police said John Hernandez and his 17-year-old brother, whose name was not released, were charged Friday, The Oakland Tribune reported Saturday. Sgt. Alex Perez said Hernandez admitted his involvement in the robberies, which took place between 11 p.m. Wednesday and 12:15 a.m. Thursday. His brother, however, denied any wrongdoing. Both were charged Friday with three counts of robbery. They were arrested after the last victim and his wife followed them to a gas station and called police -- who arrived just as the brothers were apparently preparing to carjack someone, Perez said. Some of the stolen property was found in the brothers' possession, police said, while other items were found at the base of the gas pump. Police said Hernandez still had the replica gun. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Scientists breed world’s first mentally ill mouse

SCIENTISTS have created the world’s first schizophrenic mice in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the illness.
It is believed to be the first time an animal has been genetically engineered to have a mental illness. Until now they have been bred only for research into physical conditions such as heart disease. It will allow researchers to study the disease and develop treatments using a limitless supply of laboratory animals.
Animal rights campaigners have condemned the research, saying that it is morally repugnant to create an animal doomed to mental suffering.
The mice were created by modifying their DNA to mimic a mutant gene first found in a Scottish family with a high incidence of schizophrenia, which affects about one in every 100 people. The mice’s brains were found to have features similar to those of humans with schizophrenia, such as depression and hyperactivity.
“These mutant mice may provide an important new tool for further study of the combinations of factors that underlie mental illnesses like schizophrenia and mood disorders,” said Takatoshi Hikida, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, a leading researcher.
The egg cells of mice were genetically modified by inserting a gene associated with schizophrenia into their DNA. The eggs were fertilised and grown into viable baby mice using surrogate mothers.
Animal Aid, a campaign group, said rodents were not a reliable way of modelling human disease.
MagazineLane.com

Lifesize cut-outs slow traffic for homeowners

WEST SALEM -- Traffic flow along Main street has frightened children for a long time.
"The speed limit is 55 MPH just down the street," explained Mike Wood, who lives near the downtown area. "Then over here, it changes to 35 mph so cars come speeding by." Then Wood put some pictures of his children in his front yard and ever since then, drivers have been slowing down. Some even take the time to call him on the phone. Often, they're yelling."At first they're mad because they think, why are these people letting their kids out by the road," he said. Those pictures are life-size cut-out posters. They're so realistic, that Wood played a joke on his neighbors with the first one he made. He placed it in their front yard. After several hours and several glances out the window, they called him. Full Story MagazineLane.com

What would make a 12-year-old kid collect 165 vacuum cleaners?

ADRIAN, Mich. - One hundred years ago this year, a department store janitor named Murray Spangler took a tin soap box, a fan, a pillow case and a broom handle and invented what he called the "suction sweeper." The vacuum cleaner was born. And soon, every kid wanted one. Well … not every kid. To most 12-year-olds, vacuuming is about as appealing as algebra. But to Kyle Krichbaum of Adrian, Mich., it's pure joy. "Some people like baseball better than football," Kyle says. In fact, he tells CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman in this week's Assignment America that he likes vacuums better than "everything." Kyle's mom, MaryLynn, says the fire's been burning since before he could say "Hoover." "When Kyle was a baby in his little baby seat and I'd be vacuuming, he would just be mesmerized by the vacuum and he would just; he'd follow it everywhere," she says. Kyle got his first vacuum at age 1, dressed up as a Dirt Devil for Halloween at 2, and, as a former teacher recalls, was vacuuming during school recess at age 6. "It's not that he didn't like recess. He just preferred to stay inside vacuuming," he says. "He would go down and, actually, one day vacuum one side of the room, the next day vacuum the other side. [He'd] also vacuum the principal's office — anywhere he could vacuum." Today, Kyle has 165 vacuums. He uses almost all of them, vacuuming his own house up to five times a day. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Eighty-Eight Year-Old Boy Scout Earns Eagle Award - Took you long enough, but congratulations anyway

FORT MYERS, Fla. — An 88-year-old southwest Florida man was honored as an Eagle Scout on Saturday, decades after he finished the requirements to earn the rank.
Walter Hart never collected his Eagle Award as a young man because his service in World War II got in the way. Scout officials say he may be the oldest person to ever earn the honor.
"It means a lot to me," said Hart, who lives in a retirement center in nearby Lehigh Acres. "I've been looking forward to this for a long time."
Hart joined the Cub Scouts in 1928 in Malden, Mass., and earned 23 merit badges during his years as a Boy Scout where he earned ranks of Star and Life, scouting officials said. Of the 120 merit badges available, 21 must be earned to qualify for Eagle.
Hart joined the Navy in 1943 and served for two years aboard the USS Alfred A. Cunningham, preventing him from getting his award. But Hart found some of his old Boy Scout memorabilia last year, including documents that showed he completed the requirements for his Eagle Scout rank. He contacted the scouts about receiving his award. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Connecticut Home Invasion Suspects Released Without Full Report - Unbelievable

CHESHIRE, Conn. — The state's parole board had incomplete information when it agreed this spring to release two prisoners who allegedly terrorized and killed three members of a Cheshire family last week, according to a state official.
Robert Farr, chairman of the Connecticut Board of Parole and Pardons, said the board had only one police report to review when it agreed to release 26-year-old Joshua Komisarjevsky of Cheshire and 44-year-old Steven Hayes of Winsted.
The report documented only one incident on Komisarjevsky's long criminal record, did not have sentencing transcripts and other information, Farr told The Advocate of Stamford for a story in Saturday's editions. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Fisherman and sea lion have knife fight - sea lion loses

NEWPORT BEACH, California -- A fisherman accused of stabbing a sea lion with a steak knife after the animal stole his bait has been arrested.
The sea lion, a six-foot female weighing about 150 pounds, was stabbed in the heart and was euthanized, said Dean Gomersall, animal care supervisor at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.
"It's a horrible thing," Gomersall said. "My crew is extremely upset, and we're just glad the person was caught."
Hai Nguyen, 24, was fishing off a Newport pier about 12:30 p.m. Friday when the sea lion snatched the bait from his fishing pole.
"It was close enough so he could just reach out and stab it in the water," said Sgt. Evan Sailor, a police spokesman. "A number of people witnessed it and called police."
Nguyen was arrested without incident at the pier and held at Newport Beach Jail on $20,000 bail. He was expected to be arraigned next week on a charge of felony cruelty to animals, authorities said.

Full Story MagazineLane.com

5 Second Rule - Some scientists with nothing else to do actually tested it

Last month, scientists at Clemson University in South Carolina determined that applying the five-second rule to dropped food will not actually prevent the food from gathering bacteria.
The nation's reaction to this: Duh.
The five-second rule. If you've never heard of it, ask any sixth-grader. "It means that if you drop something on the ground, you can still eat it if you pick it up in five seconds," says Kiara Hopkins, 11.
"God made dirt and dirt don't hurt," elaborates Christopher Evans, 13. "But after five seconds, it's nasty."
Imperative to the rule's effectiveness, Kiara and Christopher say, is yelling out, "FIVE-SECOND RULE!" as soon as an item has touched the ground. It is also acceptable for a friend to yell it on your behalf.
It would seem that the Clemson research would be the death of the five-second rule. But such thinking would be based on the notion that the five-second rule is like any other rule, bound by the rule-like constraints of practicality and public good. It is not. The beauty of the five-second rule is that it is utterly pliable and that it is not about food so much as it is about yearning and disgust and gastronomic history and evolutionary wiring and the implicit social contract we make when we break (and drop) bread with other human beings. Full Story

MagazineLane.com

Man puts trash in a trash can - fined for littering

New Zealand - The man said he took some rubbish from the back of his car and put it in a green council bin outside a kebab shop in Hataitai.
"I assumed, incorrectly as it turns out, that as it was a litter bin I was able to put litter in it," he said.
Wellington City Council duly sent him a litter infringement notice, which carried a $100 fine.
Under a bylaw passed last year, such a fine will soon increase to $400.
The man said he had no idea that putting a bit of rubbish in a bin was a sin.
He wrote to the council, pointing out the ticket had the wrong address and explaining the circumstances.
"I was unaware that domestic and non-domestic rubbish were categorised differently. Full Story MagazineLane.com

Novel idea: ATM bolted to the floor

MILWAUKEE - This will go in the books under "dumb criminals. " Three men bust into a convenience store in an attempt to haul away the ATM. Their plan didn't go so well. It was all caught on tape. The Citgo gas station's surveillance cameras were rolling when the would be burglars showed up early Wednesday morning on 107th Street south of Brown Deer Road. They back a pickup truck trough the store's front door. Glass goes everywhere. The driver gets out and first tries pulling on the ATM. Here's what he doesn't know, the machine is bolted to the floor. Full Story

MagazineLane.com

Man spends $160,000 on another guy's wife

OLDSMAR FL - One man's search for love has put him in the poor house and landed his wife behind bars. He's on the verge of bankruptcy and she's charged with bigamy and scheming to defraud her husband.
Kim Norris, 37, is accused of illegally marrying John Meister, a restaurant manager.
Meister says he married Norris in Dunedin last year, after a whirlwind romance where she said she was divorced.
"I thought that had gone through," he said. "We got married then I found out she wasn't divorced."
Meister gave Norris a car, an SUV, a motorcycle, and, according to investigators, even paid for breast augmentation surgery. Investigators say he spent $160,000 on her.

Full Story

MagazineLane.com

Man has really useless nose

HARLINGEN, Texas — A man who said he has damaged nerves in his nose never smelled his wife's decomposing body in a storage room of their home and thought she had left him, police said.
The couple's daughter was looking for a cat July 15 when she found Alicia Pilouw's body in a storage room filled with household items, Eugene Pilouw said. His wife had been gone for three days.
"I never smelled anything and I still don't smell anything," said Pilouw, who blames diabetes for his damaged nose. "I thought she had run away from home again — especially after I noticed an envelope with $250 was missing."
Harlingen police expect to get toxicology test results Monday that will help them determine 50-year-old woman's cause of death, police spokesman David Osborne said. He said that initial autopsy results were inconclusive. MagazineLane.com

ATM Jackpot

MANSFIELD, La. -- An ATM at a northwest Louisiana truck stop gave out $20 bills instead of $5s, but authorities say they know who took the extra $7,000 the machine spit out and plan to track them down. DeSoto Parish sheriff's Lt. Toni Morris said the automated teller machine has records showing 26 people who received the extra cash during five days in late Annette Parker, a supervisor at Eagle's Truck Stop, said she unplugged the machine after overhearing conversations about the excess payments. "The next morning when we had come back in, someone had plugged it back up," she said. Morris said someone who did not work at the truck stop may have rigged the machine, which keeps records of when the money was taken and by whom. Morris said charges could be brought against the people who got more money than they were debited for. MagazineLane.com