Doggy Style

Classic onion story They say it best, so I won't say more than the title:
Greyhound Now Offering Direct Service From Kansas To L.A. Porn Director's Driveway

40,000 ecstasy pills (part 2)

Great report by the doctor that treated the man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills. Basic message: don't take 40,000 ecstasy pills. At the height of his usage he was taking an incredible 25 Es a day! Which actually more than Dangerous Dave takes before driving the bus (see here). Thanks to "Tuomas" for sending the article.

Korea Ender

The BBC reports the first person in Korea has been convicted of racism. I thought it was only a European thing of putting people in jail for what they say (in terms of racism, North Korea is obviously a leader for jailing other talk). The man jailed shouted "Arab! Arab!" at an Indian professor, apparently confusing him for someone from the middle east. Ironically the professor responded by saying "Why's that Chinaman shouting at me".

Hammer Time

An article on BBC about my hammer heads have such unusual shaped heads. It's to get better depth perception to making hunting easier. They didn't mention having a head shaped like a hammer might be a disadvantage in sneaking up on anybody. Also, they talk about shining lasers the shark to see when it responds. That must be trippy, even for a shark, swimming a long and then suddenly there are colorful lines through the water.

Aurous Sax

A treasure hunter found some Anglo-Saxon treasure, so says the BBC. In fact quite a lot of treasure, the final value, to be split 50/50 between the finder and land owner is £3.285M. The hundreds of gold and silver coins and jewelry will be bought by the state in the UK. Check out the photos of some of the stuff in the link. Using a metal detector to find treasure sounds like ti could be fun (you find treasure) but I imagine its probably soul crushingly boring, punctuated with back breaking work to dig up bottle caps. That said, the UK treasure law is pretty awesome I think. The state has first right to buy what is found, though it must be at market price. The money is split 50/50 between finder and landowner. This way people have little incentive to steal. I've read in Italy and Greece, where legally the state owns anything found, people never report finds so the archeology and the material itself is lost. Wikipedia has a good article on treasure trove laws.

Plan Jettisoned

According to the BBC (which yet again was the only news organization with decent footage of an event, i looked for somewhere else just to vary my sources) Jetpack Man, Yves Rossy, has failed in his bid to cross from Africa to Europe, over the Straight of Gibraltar, with a jetpack strapped to his back. Great interview afterwards, where he let's us know (unintentionally) he's not just a dreamer, he's a poet, or at least that's how his stilted English comes across with a French accent.

Tiring Environmental Crusade

An article on the BBC writes the EU Commission is to bring in standard labeling on car tires across the EU. Similar to the labels Europeans will be familiar with on consumer electronics, with A (green) to G (red) labeling. The labels assess safety, noise but also interestingly fuel consumption. The article states changing tired would be like taking 1.3 million cars of the road in Europe. Whilst it's brilliant steps are being made to help consumers choose better products (that can really help the environment), it's depressing that it has taken so long to happen. All of the above qualities would be desirable even if we weren't facing catastrophic climate change. I read a good article about that somewhere, will try and find it, but it basically asked why, if many of the things that we need to do to fight climate change are in themselves desirable (energy efficiency), is it not already happening. Basically, humans have limited information, many companies have little competition and so don't have incentives to become more efficient, and the issue of low hanging fruit, that companies will choose the easiest ways to increase revenue/lower costs first and that many energy efficiency projects take time to show yields. Will try and find article. In the mean time, use Ecofont!

Grandma pulling Gs

The BBC writes that Indian President Pratibha Patil, aged 74, has taken a ride in one of the country's jet fighters. Besides the fact she is apparently the oldest women to fly in a jet fighter, so claim Indian officials, I liked her quotes. Seemingly unable to avoid sounding like a grandma: "I was familiarised with the manoeuvring of the aircraft which has a very sophisticated way of handling it". Yes it is a jet fighter.

I did it for Science, again.

I'm becoming a fan, here's some more I Did it for Science I liked:
Remote-Control Panties*
Pornstar Office Christmas Party**
Being Gay for the Night

Previously, I posted some other stories I like here.

*To elaborate a little on this one, it was amazing. The women wore vibrating panties which react to noise around the women, increasing the vibration with greater noise. Thus: "Waiting on the platform, I didn't even have to look out at the tracks to know the train was coming — I could feel it from blocks away. It was like being clairvoyant; my vagina could predict the future."
**"As with all Christmas parties, different elements seemed to cling together. The north side of the room was occupied by hitters, slappers, spankers and people being tied up and generally bothered. On the south side were those whose primary concern seemed to be how much of their limbs they could fit into another human being."

Now you CIA it, now you don't.

The BBC writes the CIA, as part of the increasingly infamous MK-ULTRA (see the new film "Men Who Stare at Goats"), hired a magician to teach their operatives tricks of the trade. The book that came out of this, clearly named in a time before PR consciousness ("The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception"), teaches operatives how to spike someone's drink whilst lighting a cigarette, tie your shoe laces to send messages and so on. It's worth mentioning the MK-ULTRA programme, about which more and more is coming to light, is at times both humorous and disturbing. Humorous when you consider the CIA seriously attempted psychic abilities as plausible, disturbing when you consider they used men at brothels to test the effect of LSD (without the subjects permission or knowledge), in one cases giving a man LSD for 79 days (again, without his knowledge or informing him what was happening to him).

Empty Words

I like the idea of Ecofont, a group that has released their own environmentally font, called Ecofont, which reduces the amount of ink needed to print a document by about 20%. The idea being to save money and the environment. The font "works" because it is made up of tiny circles, giving the letters a solid look but with less ink. I actually quite like how the font looks. I intend to start using it, and you should to!

Moose Loose by Lake Hus

A man in Sweden has been cleared of murdering his wife after it emerged a moose had actually been the guilty party, explains the BBC. The man had found his wife dead by their lake side home and immediately been arrested on suspicion of murder and then held for ten days. He was released when moose fur and saliva were found on her body. It is believed the moose may have been drunk on fermenting apples. One thing though. How exactly did the police think he did the crime? Presumably she had been charged with antlers and bitten. I imagine the antlers did the fatal damaged. I kind of imagine antler impalement leaves a mark. A bit different than say a bullet wound or stab wound. If the police did think he did the crime, imagine what they thought of him. I picture the interegration. "Listen you sick fuck, we know what you did, you charged her with a dead moose didn't you?"

(Jail) Song Bird

The BBC writes several men in London have been convicted of using a rap song to intimidate witnesses in a real criminal case (a murder). At the risk of sounding inappropriate, the lyrics actually made me chuckle:
"I can't wait for the snitch to drop, I still show up at his wake just to see him off'"
The two men involved were jailed to 4 years and 2 1/2 for their roles in the crime.

Power Sander

Amazing Ukrainian sand artist Kseniya Simonova in action. She became famous after a clip of her on Ukraine's got Talent (apparently they can do more than vegetable soup and making tragic history) became an internet sensation. I hadn't seen sand art before, the affect is pretty awesome.

The Third Rice

According to that old chesnut, the BBC, copies of Mein Kampf are flying of shelves (or out of street vendors' hands) in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka. It looks like many Bangladeshis, seemingly unaware of their position within the new Aryan social order, have taken a shine to Hitler's calling-it-like-it-is, no-nonsense, straight-from-the-hip, plans to capture their country and enslave its entire population to serve greater Germany. I particularly like the quote from BBC that "Last week, Mein Kampf did unusually well because many bought the book to give it away as an Eid present". Happy Eid!

Vanuatu Vacancy

Beyond physical isolation and rising sea levels, Vanuatu is facing a new problem reports news.com.au (yeah, I think that's their name, not just their address). Prime Minister Edward Natapei has lost his parliamentary seat over a paperwork error. After missing three consecutive sessions of parliament with out giving the speaker a note from his mum (OK, a note explaining why), according to Vanuatan law (that most ancient of judicial traditions) he must lose his seat. The prime minister was said to be rushing back to Vanuatu (to hell with icebergs) whilst furious debate has broke out on the island.

Partygate (crash)

So, last Tuesday, as widely reported, a Washington couple decided to gatecrash Obama's reception for the visiting Indian premier Manmohan Singh. After arriving and posing for photos, including with Obama, they then went to have cocktails in the East Wing. It's known at no point were they thrown out, but how they could have had a seat at dinner is bizarre. These things are planed in advance, both for food and wine, but also for who sit next to who. It's obviously not just possible (is it?) to pull up a couple of chairs and share with your neighbour. A later article suggests the secret service is now considering criminal charges. Quite what for it's not clear. Is gatecrashing where you just walk up and say "let me in" illegal?

Beer Boggles (the mind)

A Scottish (where else?) brewery, BrewDog, has released a beer weighing in at 32%, much to the horror of the Alcohol Focus Scotland (whose members no doubt felt like having a drink after hearing this would soon be hitting the streets). According to the BBC BrewDog previously released an 18% beer called "Tokyo", for which they were branded "irresponsible" (I'm not sure because the beer has 18% or for making any association with Japanese drinking culture), so they rather amusingly followed that beer with one called "Nanny State", which is described as a "low alcohol" beer (which by their standards might be 12%). The new beer's name? Tactical Nuclear Penguin, the first two words of which bring to mind some sort of nuclear weapon, whilst the third seems to be there as a non sequitur.

The English Patient

A rather drab article about the firing of a hospital boss in the UK comes alive towards the end when they start to list the problems inspectors found with the hospital. I kid you not:

"

The inspectors saw:

• Floors and curtains stained with blood

• Blood-splattered on trays used to carry equipment

• Badly soiled mattresses in the A&E department with stains soaked through to the foam filling

• Items that should only be used once still in use

• Equipment in the resuscitation room that was past the use-by date

• A children's blood pressure cuff heavily stained with blood

• Suction machines contaminated with fluid inside and out, with what looked like mould growing on the equipment

"

Man Eating Lions Apparently on Diet

The (relatively) famous man eating lions that plagued railway construction in Kenya in the late 1800s may not have been as insatiable as many believed. The Railway Gazette writes analysis of the isotopes found in the fur of the skins shows what the lions were eating (or not) before they died. One probably ate 3.5 humans and the other 8.1. This is somewhat less than the 135 deaths attributed to the lions at the time. If you wish, you can read more on this topic in the delightfully named 'Co-operation and individuality among man-eating lions' by J D Yeakel published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Because it matters.

Fresh Balls

I'm rarely speechless. I really don't know what else to say. Here.

Witches in Saudi

Saudi Arabia has a witch problem, at least according to the religious courts there, according to the BBC. A man, Ali Sibat, in Lebanon who hosts a TV show giving out psychic advice has been arrested whilst performing his pilgrimage to Mecca. Apparently the authorities see no irony in arresting a man for witchcraft who has just traveled thousands of kilometers and taken days out of his schedule in order to demonstrate the fact he believes in Allah.

Magnetic Heat Shield

Kind of cool concept outlined on FlightGlobal. When space craft reenter the atmosphere the friction, and resulting heat, requires heat shields to protect the craft. Scientists are working on the idea of creating a magnetic shield that will repel the atoms of the air away from the craft thus avoiding friction and the need for shields. Big implications for safety (the last shuttle was lost after hot atmospheric gases breached its heat shield) and for easy of access to space (huge weight savings and great design freedom).
It is hoped the concept will be tested in the next decade, with a launch three years after approval (which is yet to be given).

Plane strikes Goose

More from FlightGlobal, about a Frontier Airlines jet had hit a flock of geese. The safety board's investigation found that the Airbus A319 had hit 6 or 7 geese, damaging both engines. The airliner landed without problem, using the left engine as the right engine had shut down. What I like is the rather placid language the safety board uses in saying passengers saw "...fireballs being ejected from the engine". I somewhat imagine looking out the window and seeing huge fireballs being blasted out the back of your plane's engines might inspire rather stronger language.

Toilet Trouble on the way to Hong Kong

Cathay Pacific has been in news, as their entire long-haul airbus fleet has toilet trouble. Seriously, despite the fact they are licenced to fly hundreds of people thousands of kilometers, they have had such bad toilet trouble they have had to divert a flight from Riyadh bound for Hong Kong, to Mumbai. All ten toilets had stopped working! On other occasions passengers were bumped from flights after they realized they could not maintain the 80 passengers to 1 toilet ratio the airline requires of itself. Their spokeswomen seemed in a combative mood according to the BBC's article;
blaming passengers she said:
"You would be amazed what we find in the pipes when we clean the system - not just face towels but medicine bottles, socks, items of clothing and even children's stuffed toys,"

Airlines move into health tourism

Malev, the Hungarian national carrier, is moving into dental tourism. Their website has a page, complete with sexy Hungarian flight attendant, where you can buy your classic flight + hotel + dental check-up (?!) all in one go. It's pretty cheap (149EUR rtn). What does it tell you about the state of dentistry in western Europe that people will not fly thousands of kilometers to see a dentist? That said, a choice between a dentist in Helsinki and a weekend of partying in Budapest, maybe more doctors appointments should be like this.

Climate Research Unit hacked

The Climate Research Unit (CRU) has been hacked according to several million articles floating around the net right now. Here's one from old faithful, the BBC. The CRU, for those of you not in the know, i.e. most of you, is the climate research department of the University of East Anglia (UEA), and is apparently considered one of the leading institutions of its type in the world. So what you say? Well, the hack (committed last week) mainly involved emails between scientists there and a number of them seem to suggest, to put it bluntly, the climate change isn't real. Some of the quotes from the emails look very bad indeed:
Phil Jones (one of the scientists) talks about using Mann's (another scientists) "...Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series"...to hide the decline".
Many naturally interpreted that to mean hide the decline in temperature. There are easily 50 or so similarly damning statements. Now the scientists, or their "collaborators" seem to be striking back, essentially, through sympathetic blogs, like this one. Most of their explanation do seem reasonable. For example, above, where they talk about "hiding the decline" apparently this is taken out of context, they are referring to the fact tree rings used to give a good indication of temperature, but since the 60s they no longer correlate. Thus it is necessary to use other data to hide that. The words "trick" and "hide" were just unfortunate.
I'd love to read a more professionally drafted analysis of the whole affair. Sadly, on an issue this big, I kind of feel those who believe in global warming (or should I say science) will do anything to interpret the data to support there position (imagine how stupid they'd feel otherwise) and those who don't take anything, even clear science, to support their view.
Frankly, I find it hard to believe that the world's entire scientific establishment has entered into the mother of all conspiracies to trick the world into..... great efficiency? Over 40 Noble laureates over 4 decades, from every part of the world, in every Nobel field all collaborate to trick us? It seems a bit much, so I'm happy enough that these emails are really just massively out of context. I believe the hacker got over 500 emails, more than enough to find things that look bad, especially given the one-sided, casual nature of email. Still, great story, send me more if you find it.

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights

Great article from the BBC, looking at the Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFR). The UK, Poland and the Czech Republic all felt worried enough about it to negotiate opt-outs from it in the forth coming Lisbon Treaty (coming into effect next week). This article points out the charter is not nearly as powerful as people imagine and that much of what it contains is already EU law anyway. Which begs the question why have an opt-out to begin with then? I suspect that this a kind of straw puppet that government worried about anti-EU sentiment can put up to show they have kept some special power or such like. Then, in the future, when the next round of negotiations comes along, they can claim that in exchange for accepting certain new powers they managed to keep the opt-outs, taking the wind out of sails of their opponents. What's brilliant is how many EU sceptics are against the CFR despite the fact it's hardly, from their perspective, the main issue. Be sure that if one of the mentioned governments tried to remove the opt-outs the EU sceptics would go crazy, precisely playing into the hands of pro-EU political forces, and giving the straw puppet the appearance of flesh.

Michal Kaminiski

The BBC looks at Michal Kaminiski, the leader of a new right wing EU rejectionist grouping in the EU parliament. He's relevant because he leads the UK conservatives in the EU parliament and they seem likely to take power in the UK next year. He clearly has a past with far right views, though the issue is more whether he still harbours them. The article doesn't exactly nail him, but it flirts with saying he still has far right views. Whether or not he does this has got to be bad for the Conservatives in the UK, because whereas they want people to think of their position on the Europe as being sceptical, a vote winner for many voters in the UK, if people start to think Nazi they might well end up finding Europe as a liability. Great article.

40,000 ecstasy pills

An article at bravenewtraveller.com looks at a man who took 40,000 ecstasy pills (not at once). The article is OK, but I'm more intrigued by who he is and the effects. More articles about this would be welcome, do post them if you find them.

New film "We Live in Public"

A interesting sounding new film "We Live in Public" is due out soon according to the BBC. An internet millionaire, Josh Harris, recorded six months of his life and 100 other people, nothing hidden (be it sex, drugs etc..). During those six months his girlfriend left him, he lost his fortune, had a mental breakdown before the police finally shut down the project. Should be good.

Mission to Mercury

The BBC writes that ESA (European Space Agency) has approved a large mission to Mercury. The total cost will be 970m €, up from 665m and should reach Mercury in 2020 along with a Japanese probe. The European part will be an orbiter to that will study the planet for about a year studying a range of scientific areas. The Japanese part will look at Mercury's magnetic field. The probe will be the most extensive mission to Mercury yet.

Power Hungry TVs

California has passed strict limits on power consumption by TVs, so says the BBC. The move will save $8bn over 10 years and removes the need for a new power plant. The law requires a reduction of 33% consumption by 2011 and 50% by 2013. Amazingly, TV watching accounts for 10% of California's total electricity consumption. California has set limits in other areas for years according to the article, and thus has kept its electricity usage stable over the last three decades.

Crashing Submarines

The BBC informs us that an American nuclear submarine crashes due to "complacency". The USS Hartford collided with the USS New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico causing 15 injuries and over $100M of damage. Incredibly, a navy report states that the crew would regularly "sleep on watch, listen to the radio and slouch on deck". The ships navigator had taken his exams whilst listening to his iPod (seriously). Correction of just one of 30 separate mistakes would have prevented the crash. The captain has been relieved of duty.

I did it for science

Big fan of I Did it for Science right now. It's hosted on Nerve.com. It's kind of a collection of weird, generally well written accounts of sexual experimentation, all done in the name of science. I have only scratched the surface but I liked:
Having affairs with married women
Do pick-up lines work?
Sex on drugs

I'll mention more as I come across good ones.

Environmentalism as a belief

The Economist has a piece about a court case in Britain that establishes that environmentalism is a form of protected belief. Protected in the sense that it is illegal to discriminate against somebody, in the work place (according to the Equality and Employment (Religion or Belief) Regulations), regarding their green beliefs. Tim Nicholson argued his former employers had discriminated against him. Some might say environmentalism is a far more rationally grounded than religious beliefs. That said, religious beliefs are basically protected because they are not rational and people freak-out when their beliefs are threatened, because they can't defend that belief. It kind of disturbs me the idea that rational beliefs are now protected because they should and can be challenged as part of a healthy civil society.

Water on the moon

Following on from my last post, The Economist writes that water has been confirmed to exist on the moon. As they rightly point out, it's not really all that amazing when you consider water is made from the commonest element in the universe (hydrogen) and the third most common (oxygen). However, as part of Constellation program NASA intends to build a lunar outpost between 2019-2024 and water matters. With it there is drinking water, oxygen to breath, hydrogen rocket fuel and liquid oxygen to burn that fuel. Having available in orbit around the earth makes subsequent space exploration and exploitation much easier and cheaper.

China in Space

CNN has an article on China's space programme. It's kind of interesting how massive "space programmes" were seen as relics of the cold war. Now they're back. The USA, Russia, China, ESA (European Space Agency), India and Brazil (which has the luxury of launching almost directly from the equator, which gives their rockets a huge sling-shot effect) all have serious space programmes producing results. Meanwhile smaller countries are also getting in on the act, South Korea now has its own working rockets. And that doesn't even begin to mention the private companies involved, most publicly Virgin Galactic, but also a series of other companies many of them working with the security of government contracts (i.e NASA will buy private rides to space from 2011 until it has new rockets in 2015-2017ish), plus there are first section of a space hotel already in orbit. Then of course there is the international space station which will be complete next year. I will definitely right more about all of this because I'm fascinated that decades after everyone thought space would become another regular "human space", and then nothing happened, everything is starting to happen now.

Hiroshima Mon Amour

Hiroshima Mon Amour. Interesting movie, sometimes a little slow but equally highly compelling at times as well. It's a classic.

Rabbi with startling similarity to Robert De Niro commits crime.

According to the BBC, a rabbi who looks a lot like Robert De Niro has committed a crime. His defence are planning to argue that constant exposure to a man who looks like him commiting serious crimes eventually lead to a psychological condition that forced him too to commit crimes. The prosecution are expected to counter that it should have also forced him to seek counseling too, creating the potential for wacky comedy.

No, seriously, a rabbi was caught in your classic cocaine dealing and sex situation that could happen to anyone. But he does look a lot like Robert Di Nero.

Cosmic Particles almost brings down plane

Crazily, who knew?, investigators are attempting to establish whether cosmic particles almost brought down a Qantas plane flying between Singapore and Perth. Here.

According to a previous article, what Qantas and the safety board are referring to as an "upset" actually involved:
"The jet, en route from Singapore to Perth, climbed 200ft upwards before returning to its cruising altitude of 37,000ft. About one minute later, it descended 650ft in the space of 20s - pitching downwards to a maximum of 8.4° - before regaining its cruise level once more.

Seventy seconds later it descended again, by 400ft in 16s, with nose-down pitch of 3.5°."

14 passengers were severely injured.

Lightning crash in Thunder city.

Article from Flightglobal, apparently with no sense of irony:

"Thunder City has voluntarily grounded its remaining three Lightnings"

Secret Army

I've been watching "Secret Army". Incredible, 1970s Belgian-British collaboration about a secret network smuggling allied air crews who have been shot down out of occupied Europe. It's amazing in that it does not feel like traditional television/film fiction. The heros do not survive. Sometimes good people die and bad people live. Just because a character have been around for a while they're not safe. I guess soap operas are similar, but this is serious, gritty drama. The style is at times peculiar because nearly everything spoken is in English, and some of the actor's affect their characters proper accents, whilst others don't (i.e. Natalie, the Dutch girl with the insanely posh British accent). Still, with a few exceptions superb writing, and truly compelling because goodness and justice do not always, or even often, triumph. Now I'm looking forward to the follow-up series, Kessler.

You can find Secret Army on DVD or torrents.

Ads

There are now ads. I wanna earn some money. They will go properly live in 48 hours. Tell me what you think. I can move the position of some ads so if they piss you off tell me.

Palin appears on Oprah

The BBC has an article that Sarah Palin has appeared on Oprah.

Some observations:
1. 2012 is "not on her radar". That doesn't necessarily mean she isn't running, she may lack object permanence.
2."I'm concentrating on 2010 and making sure that we have issues to tackle," I love the way she openly admits that she creates the issues not merely responds to them.
3. On news that the father of her grandson's child will appear in Playgirl:
'Mrs Palin said she found it "a bit heartbreaking to see the road that he is on right now".'
So appearing in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant and doing a swim suit walk on state TV no problem. 25 years later, taking clothes off for magazine simply "heartbreaking".

The Daily Menagerie is born

It lives! By popular demand (OK, quite a few friends) my blog is born. I thought I'd continue as my Facebook page had been before, an eclectic mix of news, technology, videos, the bizarre, the funny, my observations and really whatever fits. I'd very much like suggestions, though I won't promise to publish them. So, there we have it. Spread the word if you like it; I'm looking at a glorious new beginning.