Weird News

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 3:16 am

Too close for comfort . . . this happened a few blocks from where I work.  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Officials probe Ford City blast Tribune staff reports Published January 13, 2005, 3:40 PM CST Officials today ruled out foul play but stopped short of blaming a natural gas leak for a parking lot explosion that injured 10 people at Ford City Mall on the city's Southwest Side. What can be stated with certainty, officials said at a morning news conference as city crews cleaned up the blast scene, is the mall was unlikely to open today not until all the damage to the shopping center is known and utilities are restored. The blast occurred at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday as stores in the mall, at 7601 S. Cicero Ave., were getting ready to close and shoppers were heading home. Flying debris injured passersby, while others were hurt when their cars overturned. Windows of nearby stores were shattered, and a gas regulator crashed through the roof of a Leona's restaurant. About 75 vehicles were damaged or destroyed, some flipped by the blast or dropped into a crater 25 feet deep and more than 100 feet wide. "It's too preliminary to tell" if the explosion was triggered by a rupture in a 20-inch gas main that runs under the parking lot, said Ron Huberman, executive director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications. Investigators from the Chicago Fire Department Office of Fire Investigation, police Bomb and Arson Unit and federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were still gathering evidence this morning, and officials will not announce their conclusions "probably for a couple of days," Huberman said. "The preliminary investigation shows there appears to be nothing malicious involved in this event," he added. Rod Sierra, spokesman for Peoples Energy, said, "We don't know at this time whether there was a leak or not. We had not had any reports of the smell of gas before the explosion happened." "That's a little bit curious, because the pipe where this happened is vented so if there was a leak, you would think people would have been smelling the gas and we would have had reports of that," Sierra said. The utility spokesman noted lightning in the area Wednesday night, and a water pumping station, diesel fuel tanks, a Commonwealth Edison Co. electrical vault and a series of tunnels also underground near the blast scene. At a second news conference this afternoon, Sierra predicted gas service would be restored to the mall by Friday morning, but it was still not known when the shopping center would reopen. Witnesses described hearing a huge explosion that some feared was a plane crash at nearby Midway Airport. "I heard this big explosion, as if a plane had fallen," said Iradh Erusca, who lives near the mall. "It shook my house, and when I looked outside there was this white smoke." Chicago paramedics transported the injured persons to Holy Cross Hospital and St. Anthony Hospital in the city and Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. All but one woman, admitted in fair condition to Christ Medical Center, had been treated and released by this morning. City crews this morning moved away from the crater 25 seriously damaged vehiclesmany destroyed, crushed in the crater or with caved-in roofsand 50 more with lesser amounts of damage. Owners were instructed to go to a Pearle Vision Center immediately west of Ford City, show identification to police there and wait for a police escort to go claim their vehicles. Additionally, 238 homes, mostly in the 4200 to 4300 blocks of West Ford City Drive and West 76th Street near the shopping center, were still without water this morning as a result of the explosion, Huberman said. "It does concern us right now, because water is (in) some of the systems that drive the heat in some of those homes," Huberman said. Noting temperatures predicted to fall near zero tonight, he added, "our greatest focus right now is to get the water turned back on to those residences." Representatives of the Department of Human Services were on hand to help residents restart their water service or move to warming centers. Workers from the Department of Streets and Sanitation, Peoples Energy and Commonwealth Edison assisted in the recovery effort as Chicago Fire Department crews monitored the potentially unstable ground around the crater. Tribune staff reporters Imran Vittachi and Nancy Ryan contributed to this story. Copyright 2005, Chicago Tribune </td></tr></table>

Zaaphod · Postby **Zaaphod** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 2:35 am

Eep! Never a good thing to be that close. You okay, I assume?

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Sat Jan 15, 2005 2:40 am

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: (Zaaphod @ Jan 14 2005, 08:35 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Eep! Never a good thing to be that close. You okay, I assume? </td></tr></table>  Yeah, no problems . . . missed me this time. Hopefully, the school won't go up anytime soon.

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:57 am

Mistakes, mistakes . . . not the criminal mastermind.  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Jan 14, 6:05 PM EST Police: Man Uses Cardboard Gun in Robbery SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -- A man who used a cardboard gun to rob a bank apparently wasn't paying much attention when he cased the building earlier and failed to notice it was across the street from an office used by Caddo Parish sheriff's detectives. Employees told authorities they had seen the man hanging around the business earlier in the day, sheriff's spokeswoman Cindy Chadwick said. He showed up again later Thursday, wearing a bandana and brandishing what looked like a gun. "He demanded an undisclosed amount of money from the teller" then took off on foot, Chadwick said. Deputies immediately responded along with detectives from across the street. Together, they began blocking off driveways and setting up a perimeter around the area. Det. Stacy Cowgill saw the suspect crossing the road, trying to stay in the woods. Cowgill chased the man and arrested him without incident eight minutes after deputies were dispatched. "He had the money in his front pocket," Cowgill said. "He told us when I got him the gun was made out of cardboard." A short time later, deputies found two rolls of paper taped together to resemble a gun. Ricky Lawrence Banks was booked into Caddo Correctional Center on a charge of first-degree robbery. "You can't be very bright and rob a bank right across the street from a detective office," Cowgill said. --- Information from: The Times-Picayune, http:// WWW.TIMESPICAYUNE.COM 2005 The Associated Press. </td></tr></table>

Burning Sheep Productions · Postby **Burning Sheep Productions** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 1:49 am

Ye gads... that's gotta be an embarrasing moment.

Richard K Niner · Postby **Richard K Niner** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:17 am

Just what we need:  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Speaker tells Palo Alto students that stripping can be lucrative BILEN MESFIN, Associated Press Writer Thursday, January 13, 2005 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- School officials in Palo Alto are reconsidering their use of a popular speaker for an annual career day after he advised middle school students that they could earn a good living as strip dancers. William Fried told eighth-graders at Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School that stripping and exotic dancing could be lucrative career moves for girls, offering as much as $250,000 or more per year, depending on their bust size. "It's sick, but it's true," Fried, president of Foster City's Precision Selling, a management consulting firm, told The Associated Press. "The truth of the matter is you can earn a tremendous amount of money as an exotic dancer, if that's your desire." The school has asked Fried to give his 55-minute presentation, "The Secret of a Happy Life," for the past three years. A tip sheet he distributes to students includes a list of 140 potential careers and areas of interest they can consider pursuing. Along with professions as accounting and nursing, the list offers such nontraditional suggestions as exotic dancing, stripping and acting as a spiritual medium. He counsels students to experiment with a variety of interests until they discover their "life's purpose," something they love and excel in. The presentation and handout have been praised by students, school principal Joseph Di Salvo and others said. Fried's presentation "helped me realize that my career choice should not be influenced by money," one student wrote in a thank-you letter. "It should be influenced by what we like and are good at." But on Tuesday, some students asked Fried to expand on why he included "exotic dancing" on the list. Fried spent about a minute answering questions, defining strippers and exotic dancers synonymously. He told students, "For every two inches up there, you should get another $50,000 on your salary," student Jason Garcia, 14, said. "A couple of students egged him and he took it hook, line and sinker," said Di Salvo, who also said the students took advantage of a substitute teacher overseeing the session. Di Salvo heard about the exchange when the mother of a student called him the next morning. She said she was outraged when her son announced that he was forgoing college for a career in a field he truly loves -- fishing -- and said she found Fried's handout even more disconcerting. Di Salvo, who has since heard from another parent, said Fried's overall presentation is a positive one. The mention of exotic dancing and Fried's off-the-cuff remarks, however, have prompted him to consider barring the speaker from next year's career day. The principal said he would send letters of apology home with students. "It's totally inappropriate," Di Salvo said. "It's not OK by me. I would want my presenters to kind of understand that coming into a career day for eighth-graders." School board member Mandy Lowell didn't expect Fried's comment to cause lasting damage but said the speaker didn't adhere to the message of achievement the district is trying to promote. "I don't think that your natural or implant-inflated bust size is what our schools aim to nurture," she said. "My aspiration is not to have children in this district become exotic dancers." District superintendent Mary Frances Callan did not immediately return two telephone calls seeking comment. Despite the uproar, many students said Fried was the most inspiring speaker in a lineup that included a pilot, an attorney, a classical pianist and a journalist. "He really focused on finding what you really love to do," said Mariah Cannon, 13. Cannon also said she wouldn't want exotic dancing taken off Fried's list. Although parents might find it hard to hear, it's a legitimate career choice, she said. Student Tom Marks, 13, said he found some of Fried's comments "weird and unnecessary" but still thinks he should return next year. "I don't think he should have gone into all the details," he said. "I just got upset that he talked about it so much." Fried, 64, said he does not think he offended anyone. "Eighth-grade kids are not dumb," he said. "They are pretty worldly."</td></tr></table>

Ankaris · Postby **Ankaris** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 12:29 am

Well... it IS true... <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' />

Steve the Pocket · Postby **Steve the Pocket** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 3:27 pm

He must have spoken at Britney Spears' school at one point. * Gets egged *

allison · Postby **allison** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:12 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: (Octan @ Jan 17 2005, 03:27 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> He must have spoken at Britney Spears' school at one point. * Gets egged *  </td></tr></table>  I love you. <3 Haha, well, hey. Whatever floats your boat.

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 5:02 pm

It had to be in Colorado. All I have to say is ouch . . . . ouch!!  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Jan 16, 7:28 PM EST Man Finds Nail in Skull Six Days Later By ERIN GARTNER Associated Press Writer LITTLETON, Colo. (AP) -- A dentist found the source of the toothache Patrick Lawler was complaining about on the roof of his mouth: a four-inch nail the construction worker had unknowingly embedded in his skull six days earlier. A nail gun backfired on Lawler, 23, on Jan. 6 while working in Breckenridge, a ski resort town in the central Colorado mountains. The tool sent a nail into a piece of wood nearby, but Lawler didn't realize a second nail had shot through his mouth, said his sister, Lisa Metcalse. Following the accident, Lawler had what he thought was a minor toothache and blurry vision. On Wednesday, after painkillers and ice didn't ease the pain, he went to a dental office where his wife, Katerina, works. "We all are friends, so I thought the (dentists) were joking ... then the doctor came out and said 'There's really a nail,'" Katerina Lawler said. "Patrick just broke down. I mean, he had been eating ice cream to help the swelling." He was taken to a suburban Denver hospital, where he underwent a four-hour surgery. The nail had plunged 1 1/2 inches into his brain, barely missing his right eye, Metcalse said. "This is the second one we've seen in this hospital where the person was injured by the nail gun and didn't actually realize the nail had been imbedded in their skull," neurosurgeon Sean Markey told KUSA-TV in Denver. "But it's a pretty rare injury." Lawler was recovering Sunday in the hospital, where he was expected to spend several more days. Despite his lack of medical insurance and hospital bills between $80,000 and $100,000, Katerina Lawler said her husband is in good spirits. "The doctors said, 'If you're going to have a nail in the brain, that's the way you want it to be,'" she said. "He's the luckiest guy, ever." 2005 The Associated Press.</td></tr></table>

allison · Postby **allison** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 6:20 pm

.... How do you not know you've shot a nail into your brain? I mean... really.

Muninn · Postby **Muninn** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:24 pm

I guess this is sort of weird news. It interested me anyway.  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Prehistoric badger had dinosaurs for breakfast Palaeontologists have dug up a new species of mammal that roamed China during the reign of the dinosaurs. The creature was large enough to feast on young dinosaurs, exploding the myth that all of the mammals living back then were relatively tiny. Repenomamus giganticus, as the creature has been christened, was more than a metre long, about the size of a large dog. However, it would have more closely resembled a badger, says Yaoming Hu of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who led the examination of the fossil. The fossil, which dates back 130 million years and was found in Liaoning in northern China, has a skull that is double the size of that of its closest relative, R. robustus, Hu and his colleagues report in this week's Nature1. This makes it a startling addition to the ranks of Mesozoic mammals, who lived with the dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago. "We were totally surprised," Hu told news@nature.com. "The idea about Mesozoic mammals is that they were small. These ones are totally different." Digestible theory So big, in fact, was R. giganticus that it may well have had some dinosaurs for breakfast, literally. At the same site, the researchers uncovered a R. robustus skeleton with the bones of a babby Psittacosaurus in just the spot where its stomach would have been. If R. robustus could manage to eat a dinosaur, then its big brother almost certainly could, Hu and his colleagues suggest. They add, however, that it may well have fed on plants and insects too. "If this is not the largest Mesozoic mammal, it must be approaching it," comments Jerry Hooker, who studies prehistoric mammals at the Natural History Museum in London. "Its jaw length is about that of a fox." The idea that Repenomamus ate young dinosaurs is very plausible, he adds. The dinosaur bones found with R. robustus are from a single individual and some are still articulated, making it unlikely that they were washed there from elsewhere after death. The bones' articulation also suggests that Repenomamus tore its prey limb from limb before gulping it down in large chunks, Hooker argues. This theory is bolstered by the fact that the mammals' teeth are sharp, with no molars. One way to confirm that the Psittacosaurus was eaten would be to look for corrosion on its bones from digestive acids, Hooker suggests. "Mammalian carnivores today have very strong digestive juices," he says. Hyenas' stomach acid, for example, can make holes in bones and teeth. Hooker rejects the suggestion, however, that Repenomamus supplemented its diet with vegetarian options. "I would have thought it unlikely that they were eating plants," he says. "With these teeth you wouldn't expect them to do a lot of grinding or crushing, and that's what you would need, like a pestle and mortar."</td></tr></table>  <a href='http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050110/ ... 10-11.html' target='_blank'>http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050110/ ... 11.html</a>

Richard K Niner · Postby **Richard K Niner** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 1:20 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Sperm race TV show launched in Germany A new reality TV show has been launched in Germany to find the man with the fastest sperm. The sperm will be attracted to the finishing line by a chemical lure identical to that emitted by the female egg in the womb. The aim is to find Germany's most virile man in a new reality show being dubbed Sperm Race. Twelve men, including two celebrities and a 'health freak', will take part in the show set to be aired later this year. The show will follow the contestants as they make donations at a sperm bank. The frozen sperm will then be transported to the studio in Cologne. Borris Brandt, 43, head of production company Endemol in Germany, rejected protests that the show was unethical, saying no human eggs would be fertilised. "The main prize in the competition is a Porsche, not a babby. It's actually a very scientific programme and the topic of fertility is massive in Germany at the moment," he said. The sperm will be released into a test tube in which a chemical substance will draw the fluid towards it The winner will be pronounced by a team of doctors including a gynaecologist, an andrologist and a urologist. Brandt added: "The programme isn't immoral. We're only testing, we're not conceiving." </td></tr></table>  What is this world coming to!?

GhostWay · Postby **GhostWay** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:48 pm

Just when I thought television programming hit rock bottom, they got out the digging equipment and went down another 10 feet. There's a reason that I watch nothing other than Star Trek.

Muninn · Postby **Muninn** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:09 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: (GhostWay @ Jan 18 2005, 03:48 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Just when I thought television programming hit rock bottom... </td></tr></table>  He he he, bottom. And not being unethical doesn't mean it's not disgusting.

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