Clipmarks | LorisKnight's 'odd' clips

Forecast: Iraq 2009

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:37:57 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

According to the Bush countdown clock, there are now 477 some odd left in the administration. It is a safe assumption that there will still be a hundred thousand ~~coalition~~ American troops in Iraq 478 days from now.

So what will the landscape look like for the next administration and what decisions will it that landscape force?

First, there is another “surge” at work in the region — a surge in regional defense spending as a hedge against instability and the rise of Iran, both consequences of the war in Iraq.

The US recently gave Jordan $78 million in defense aid, and other countries are purchasing $63 billion in arms. So, if the war in Iraq is paving the way for a stable, democratic Middle East where things get a little better every day, why is everyone going on an arms buying binge? And why is the US the architect of the deal?

Tags: war, strategy, politics, iraq

'Alien' sheep bring them flocking

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:26:47 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: www.ananova.com

A flock of 'alien' sheep has become a local attraction in a Romanian village after all 250 turned green overnight.

The owner of the sheep, in the village of Arsa from Constanta county, called the vet to see what was wrong with his animals.

Locals came flocking to see the unusual sight while the local vet took samples from the sheep wool and discovered they had all been treated with a solution of limestone.

The shepherd said he used the solution to help a few animals get rid of a skin disease.

Shepherd Cristinel Florea said: "A few of my sheep got sick one year ago, they got a sort of rash on their skin.

"I tried all sorts of treatments but nothing seemed to work. So I decided to use the limestone and all my sheep look like aliens now."

Vet Grigore Mertoiu said: "Everyone was puzzled at first but then the owner told us he used limestone to treat his sheep.

"The poor animals turned all green during the night because it was a little chilly and they slept very close."

Tags: odd, science

Holes in one for father and son

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:23:54 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: www.stuff.co.nz

An Auckland father and son have defied the odds by each hitting a hole in one on the same hole while playing golf together.

Mike Jones and his father Trevor were playing with two others at Waitemata Golf Club this month when they both hit an ace on the 118m par-three 10th hole, The New Zealand Herald reported today.

When the pair suspected Trevor's shot might have gone in, Mike said he would shout dinner if he did the same.

Both knew they had gone close but didn't realise the two balls had gone in the hole until they walked on to the green.

A TAB spokesman put the odds of getting a hole in one at about 1000 to one and said getting two would be more like a million to one.

Tags: odd

High school student suspended for tricking rival fans into insulting themselves

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:34:45 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: www.azcentral.com

HILLIARD, Ohio - A high school student who tricked football fans from a crosstown rival into holding up signs that together spelled out, "We Suck," was suspended for the prank, students said.

Kyle Garchar, a senior at Hilliard Davidson High School in suburban Columbus, said he spent about 20 hours over three days plotting the trick, which was captured on video and posted on the video-sharing Web site YouTube. He said he was inspired by a similar prank pulled by Yale students in 2004, when Harvard fans were duped into holding up cards with the same message.

At the end of the video, Garchar wryly thanks the 800 Hilliard Darby High School supporters who raised the cards at the start of the third quarter during last Friday's football game.

"It couldn't have been done without you," reads the closing frame of the video.

Garchar, 17, created a grid to plan how the message would be spelled out once fans in three sections held up either a black or white piece of construction paper.

Tags: odd

Drunk dad has 11 year old drive home

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:31:32 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: www.azcentral.com

FAIRBANKS, Alaska - A father who was too drunk to drive had his 11-year-old son get behind the wheel of his pickup and drive them home, authorities said.

Police stopped the boy late Tuesday after he was seen driving the 1992 Chevy truck the wrong way on a one-way street.

The boy's father, Frank Neff, 35, of Fairbanks, was too drunk to drive and had told the child to drive them home, police said.

Neff pleaded no contest to charges of reckless endangerment and contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with the incident. He was ordered to spend 15 days in jail and to take parenting classes. The boy wasn't charged.

"When you've got your 11-year-old son who is driving you around who is unlicensed, that creates a hazard not only for the child but for the public," said prosecutor Joe Dallaire.

The incident took place after Neff had been drinking beer and shots with a friend in an apartment at a downtown building, police said.

Tags: odd

Prep Football: Photo raises a furor in Carroll

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:29:17 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: www.omaha.com

Three Carroll High School football players face a one-game suspension for making what the school has deemed obscene hand gestures in a team photograph.

The decision prompted one boy's father to resign as a booster club president and left the local newspaper explaining its decision to publish an altered version of the photo.

The controversy comes the week Carroll High is to play cross-town rival Carroll Kuemper.

The photo, taken by the Carroll Daily Times Herald, appeared Monday in the newspaper's fall sports preview section. The newspaper "blurred" four players in the photo, three of whom were making similar hand gestures and a fourth whom the newspaper judged not to be acting in a "respectable manner." The fourth player was not suspended from playing.

Every player on the team, including those obscured, was identified by name below the photo. An editor's note followed:

Tags: odd

N.Z. Burglar Returns Goods, Apologizes

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:25:40 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: apnews.myway.com

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - A burglar visited Graeme Glass' home in New Zealand twice in one day - first to steal some goods and later to return them, along with a heartfelt apology note.

The thief struck while Glass was at work in the southern resort of Queenstown on Tuesday.

The burglar smashed a window to gain entry and made off with a laptop computer, a camera, and Glass's wallet with an American Express credit card.

The thief returned the goods later in the day, along with a new basketball and two pairs of gloves bought on the stolen credit card.

Glass and his wife, Shirley, discovered the loot piled on their kitchen table with a neat, handwritten full-page note from the burglar saying he was sorry for "violating the safety and security of your home."

The robber also promised to leave cash in Glass' mailbox to pay for the smashed window when he had enough money.

Tags: odd

Malaysian Man Pulls Train With Teeth

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:23:40 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: ap.google.com

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Malaysian man nicknamed "King Tooth" has pulled a seven-coach train using a steel rope clenched in his mouth in an attempt to set a new world record for the heaviest weight pulled with teeth.

Grunting and gasping, Rathakrishnan Velu's neck muscles strained and his face contorted Thursday as he hauled the nearly 328-ton train over more than 9 feet along tracks at a railway station in Kuala Lumpur.

The feat was being submitted to the Guinness World Records, said Rathakrishnan's manager, Anna Chidambar.

Dozens of onlookers clapped and chanted "Malaysia Boleh!" or "Malaysia Can" when Rathakrishnan sat down and pulled the train, holding both tracks for support and pushing his booted feet against the wooden rafters to propel himself backward.

Rathakrishnan, who partially attributes his strength to an Indian form of meditation, pulled the train 9 feet, 2.2 inches in the first attempt.

Tags: odd

Man loses top of his head in brain operation

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:21:21 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court has awarded 3,000 euros ($4,100) in damages to a man who had to have the top of his skull replaced with plastic because of a faulty hospital fridge.

Doctors removed the top of the man's head and put it in cold storage while they operated on his brain, the court in the western city of Koblenz said Tuesday.

Because the refrigerator was defective, the section of skull was not kept cool enough and could not be reattached. Doctors replaced the bone with a plastic prosthesis.

The man sought compensation of at least 20,000 euros on the grounds that the prosthesis caused him headaches, affected his balance and made him unduly sensitivity to the weather.

Following consultations with experts, the court found that the operation had caused the man's discomfort, not the loss of the top of his skull.

Compensation of 3,000 euros was "appropriate and sufficient," it said.

Tags: odd

Bulldozer Driver Rams Police Station

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:18:15 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: ap.google.com

TROY, N.H. (AP) — An ex-con on a stolen bulldozer repeatedly rammed the police station in Troy early Friday, tearing down large chunks of the front wall, authorities said.

"He hit it three times," State Police Sgt. David Griffin said. "He took out the whole front, which included the main entrance to the police department."

No one was inside the building at the time, but an officer who arrived in the parking lot around 12:30 a.m. witnessed the bulldozer attack and arrested the driver, police said.

In court Friday morning, Stanley Burt, 34, said the police drove him to it.

"I've been harassed to the point this has brought this to," said Burt, wearing a T-shirt depicting a construction excavator. "I want an investigation started."

Tags: odd

Lucky or what? N.Y. duo wins 2nd multimillion Lotto jackpot

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:15:51 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: www.azcentral.com

NEW YORK - How lucky can you get?

Adeline and Eugene Angelo won $5 million Thursday after buying the winning ticket in last week's New York Lotto. In 1996, they won $2.5 million after splitting a $10 million jackpot with three other people.

Eugene Angelo, 81, said he and his wife would share their new fortune with their three sons and their families. Taking the lump-sum payment of $2.5 million, Eugene and Adeline and each of their sons will get about $513,000 before taxes.

"We're a little older, a little wiser and there are a few more of us, when you count the grandkids," Eugene Angelo said. "We're still the same old people. Still very excited. It's a great feeling."

Adeline Angelo, 74, a retired medical secretary, said she hoped the new money will "buy us good health and longevity."

Tags: odd

Chinese Monks Fume Over Net Slurs

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:11:11 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: apnews.myway.com

BEIJING (AP) - China's Shaolin Temple has demanded a public apology from an Internet user who claimed a Japanese ninja beat its kung fu-practicing monks in a showdown, a lawyer said Friday.

An open letter from the temple posted on the Internet Thursday denied the fight ever took place and called on the person who posted the claim to apologize to the temple's martial arts masters.

Monks from the temple, nestled in the Songshan Mountains of central China's Henan province, said they will consider legal action if the person doesn't make a public apology.

The incident comes amid lingering tensions between China and Japan over World War II atrocities. China is highly sensitive to anything that smacks of Japanese militarism, particularly because many believe Tokyo has yet to show adequate remorse for its wartime actions in China.

Tags: odd

Man Caught in Michigan Car Wash Dies

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:08:39 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: hosted.ap.org

WYOMING, Mich. (AP) -- A car wash employee got entangled in the giant, automatic brushes and died, authorities said.

Police were investigating the death of Ricardo Alberto Martinez, 18, but foul play wasn't suspected.

Martinez was closing the car wash Friday night when a customer returned to have his vehicle washed again. After the vehicle entered the car wash, Martinez went inside and somehow became entangled, police said.

Another customer later found the body at the business in this western Michigan community located near Grand Rapids, police said.

Tags: odd

Conn. Home 20-Times Larger Than Average

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:06:47 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: hosted.ap.org

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The enormity of the house Arnold Chase is building on Avon Mountain isn't fully apparent from the outside, where only 17,000 square feet of it lies in plain view.

It's the two-level, 33,500-square-foot basement complex, complete with a 103-seat movie theater, ticket booth, concession stand, game room and music annex, that will make it New England's largest occupied single-family home.

At nearly 50,900 square feet, the Chase home will be slightly larger than billionaire Bill Gates' home in Washington, about 4,000 square feet smaller than the White House and 20 times larger than the average-size home in America.

The average U.S. home measures about 2,500 square feet - up from 1,995 square feet in 1988 - according to the National Association of Home Builders. But while houses are getting bigger, rarely are they built as big as the new Chase house.

Tags: odd

Cat gets high on drugs left over from dinner party

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:01:58 GMT

clipped by: LorisKnight

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

SYDNEY (AFP) - An agitated pet cat left in a cupboard overnight turned out to be high on cocaine and benzodiazepines left over from a wild weekend dinner party, a report said Saturday.

The eight-month-old Himalayan cat arrived at a veterinary clinic with dilated pupils and a racing heart, while the owner said it had trouble walking and was easily startled, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Vets Dominic Barfield and Richard Malik, who run a clinic in the Sydney suburb of Double Bay, were unable to take blood or use a thermometer to take the cat's temperature as it was pacing incessantly around its cage.

While the owner was adamant the cat had not been exposed to toxic plants, mouldy foods or drugs, when contacted by telephone the owner's wife admitted the cat could have licked "plates of cocaine" which had been served at a dinner party two days earlier.

A drug screen also revealed the cat had benzodiazepines in its system.

Tags: odd