Weird News

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:18 am

Well, at least I think this is funny <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' />  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Sponsors of GOP picnic cited for lack of permits By Liam Ford Tribune staff reporter Published August 22, 2005 A picnic for the Lyons Township Republican Party and the Lyons Chamber of Commerce was shut down Sunday when Cook County Forest Preserve District police found the sponsors lacked the proper permits, officials said. Officers issued two tickets around 3 p.m. to sponsors of the picnic at Cermak Woods, 7700 Ogden Ave. in Lyons, which one chamber official said was sponsored in part by Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica, said police spokesman Steve Mayberry. The tickets were for parking a vehicle off-roadway-- on the grass -- and another for selling tickets for a raffle without having a permit, Mayberry said. The picnic permit was taken out in the name of the Lyons Township Republican Party and involved the Lyons Chamber of Commerce, Mayberry said. Marie Vachata, a former mayor of Lyons and a member of the chamber, said forest preserve police had checked the group's permit earlier in the day before putting a stop to selling tickets for a raffle the group is holding to pay for renovations at its headquarters building. Mayberry said officers were merely responding to an anonymous call to forest preserve police about 3 p.m. Vachata, however, said she believed that Peraica -- who is running for the Republican nomination for Cook County Board president, currently held by Democrat John Stroger, may have been targeted for ticketing because of his politics. ---------- lford@tribune.com</td></tr></table>

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:00 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: (VisibilityMissing @ Jul 28 2005, 06:46 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> "Notwithstanding the disputed area, the Canadian foreign affairs ministry is allowing its cafeteria to sell Danish pastries as a goodwill gesture towards the Danish government and people."  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Canada's Arctic spat with Denmark hits Internet By David Ljunggren Thu Jul 28,12:41 PM ET OTTAWA (Reuters) - A spat between Canada and Denmark over a tiny Arctic island has moved to the Internet, where a Canadian man is dueling an unknown opponent over who really owns the disputed lump of rock. </td></tr></table>  </td></tr></table>  ****UPDATE**** Canada sends navy vessels north to defend claim on Hans Island . . . polar bears deeply confused . . .  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Canada sends navy to Arctic north By Lee Carter BBC News, Toronto Canada is sending its navy back to the far northern Arctic port of Churchill after a 30-year absence. The visit by two warships to the area is the latest move to challenge rival claims in the Arctic triggered by the threat of melting ice. The move follows a spat between Canada and Denmark, over an uninhabited rock called Hans Island in the eastern Arctic region. A visit there by Canada's defence minister last month angered the Danes. Now two Canadian warships, the Shawinigan and the Glace Bay, are on a mission to display what Canada calls its territorial sovereignty over parts of the Arctic it believes are within its borders. The dispute seems rather odd, when scientists say the region around the island is unlikely to be rich in oil or other natural resources. But Canada is deeply worried that it has taken what it considers as its Arctic territory for granted. The islands were not included in border discussions between Denmark and Canada more than 30 years ago. Warming concern It is also believed that global warming is causing the rapid melting of the ice across the Arctic, and that could make the legendary North-West Passage linking the Atlantic and the Pacific passable for ships for the first time. The US has already said it regards the passage as an international strait, not Canadian waters. Russia, Norway and Denmark also have competing claims to the continental shelf and the natural resources such as gas and oil that may lie beneath the sea bed. If this all alarms the Canadian government, it upsets environmentalists even more. They say the Arctic is one of the last of the earth's relatively untouched pristine frontiers and that a rush to exploit it will have a devastating impact on marine mammals and the rest of the fragile eco-system there.</td></tr></table>

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 12:01 am

Oops . . . It's always little things . . .  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Aug 25, 6:11 PM EDT Ga. Pilots Forget to Put Down Landing Gear EASTMAN, Ga. (AP) -- A twin-engine plane crash landed on its belly at the Eastman-Dodge airport after the two people on board forgot to put down the landing gear. The Georgia Aviation Technical College plane slid to a halt after scraping down the runway around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Eastman Fire Chief Carl Johnson said. "They didn't know they had a problem until they touched down," Johnson said. An intern flight instructor and his teacher were practicing single-engine landing and forgot to lower the landing gear, said Johnny Payne, public affairs director with the college. No one was hurt in the incident. The plane received only minor damage, Johnson said. Payne credited the intern's quick thinking when he noticed the landing gear was still up, saying the pilot kept the plane level and did not panic.</td></tr></table>

Zaaphod · Postby **Zaaphod** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 12:47 am

A good landing is one you can walk away from. A great landing is when you can reuse the plane. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' />

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 8:29 pm

"[Javier] Tellez organized the cannonball launch with psychiatric patients at the Baja California Mental Health Center in Mexicali, Mexico as a therapeutic project ."  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Human cannonball to be fired across U.S.-Mexico border ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press Writer August 27, 2005 David Smith Sr. holds a world record for the longest distance traveled by a human fired from a cannon. On Saturday, he plans to add to his list of cannonball coups by shooting across the U.S-Mexico border. The feat is the brainchild of Venezuelan artist Javier Tellez and is part of a series of public art projects in the two border cities. Smith will be shot from a popular beach in Tijuana, Mexico, over a rusty, corrugated MEHTUL fence into Border Field State Park in San Diego. David Smith Jr., also an accomplished human cannonball, said his father will be the first person to fly across an international border from a cannon. Tellez organized the cannonball launch with psychiatric patients at the Baja California Mental Health Center in Mexicali, Mexico as a therapeutic project . The event is part of an art series that begins Saturday and will run through the fall, sponsored by inSite05, a binational arts partnership in the San Diego-Tijuana region. Tellez said in a statement he was inspired by circus performers to explore "the notion of spatial and mental borders in the context of Tijuana and San Diego. Tellez, 36, and Smith Sr. worked closely on the backdrop, music, costumes and advertising for the project, "One Flew Over the Void." Tellez plans a documentary film about it. Although it is against the law for anyone, including U.S. citizens, to enter the country outside an official port of entry, Smith Sr. won't be crossing illegally. U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar made an exception for him, said Border Patrol spokesman Kurstan Rosberg. Smith Jr., 28, said the family insisted on U.S. government approval. "I had to have some kind of official OK high enough up to make sure he doesn't land in the U.S. and go to a federal penitentiary," he said. Smith Sr., of Half Way, Mo., is listed in Guinness World Records for record distance for a human fired from a cannon. He flew 185 feet, 10 inches on May 29, 1998 in West Mifflin, Penn. The Smith family has five cannonballs: father, son, two daughters and a cousin. Smith Sr. built seven cannons designed to fire humans, and his family operates five of them, traveling around the world to perform at events including parades and concerts, his son said. "If one of the girls has a babby, they can't be a cannonball during that time," said Smith Jr. He said he has been clocked at 50 mph in little more than one-fifth of a second after takeoff and was scheduled Saturday to shoot out of a cannon in Toronto. </td></tr></table>

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 12:50 pm

New excuse for that morning coffee fix . . .  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Study says coffee delivers more health benefits than fruit and veg JOHN VON RADOWITZ COFFEE is likely to contribute far more health-giving anti- oxidants to the British diet than fruit and vegetables, new research suggests. The evidence comes from the United States, where scientists measured the antioxidant content of more than 100 items, including vegetables, fruits, nuts, spices, oils and beverages. Coffee emerged as easily the biggest source of antioxidants, taking account of the amount per serving and level of consumption. Black tea came second, followed by bananas, dry beans and corn. "Americans get more of their antioxidants from coffee than any other dietary source - nothing else comes close," said the leader of the study, Professor Joe Vinson, of Scranton University, Pennsylvania. Caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee appeared to provide similar antioxidant levels. The US findings probably reflect a similar trend in the UK, with 47 per cent of the population drinking about 70 million cups of coffee each day. Antioxidants help to rid the body of harmful free radicals - destructive molecules that damage cells and DNA - and have been linked to a number of health benefits, including protection against heart disease and cancer. Studies have associated coffee drinking with a reduced risk of liver and colon cancer, type two diabetes and Parkinson's disease. But Prof Vinson urged moderation, recommending that people drink only one or two cups per day. He added: "Unfortunately, consumers are still not eating enough fruits and vegetables, which are better for you from an overall nutritional point of view." A spokesman for the British Coffee Association said: "This study reconfirms the fact that moderate coffee consumption of four to five cups a day not only is perfectly safe but may confer health benefits." <a href='http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/' target='_blank'>http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/</a> </table>  >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Darwin misses!  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Published Sunday, August 28, 2005 Man Unharmed When Train Crushes His Car The Associated Press VALPARAISO, Ind. Police said "it was a miracle" that a man was not killed after his car was crushed, twisted and dragged by a train. Porter County Sheriff's Department officers said they were shocked Kenneth Liptak Jr., not only survived the crash, but also managed to crawl out of the mangled MEHTUL and walk around Saturday morning. "It was a miracle. I've never seen anything like it," Sgt. Charles Douthett said in a news release. Liptak's mother, Helen, said she was still in shock hours after hearing about the crash. She said "somebody up there" was looking out for her 30-year-old son. Liptak, 30, who lives just north of the CSX crossing north of Valparaiso, 20 miles southeast of Gary, was heading south to work when his car was hit by the train and dragged about 200 feet. He told police he pulled out of his driveway and immediately saw the lights and gates activated. He told police he saw a northbound car drive around the gates and then he looked for westbound trains, telling police the morning trains usually come from that direction. But he said he did not look the other way. An eastbound train, traveling 55 mph, struck the passenger side of his station wagon, pushing the car east of the crossing. The mangled wreckage landed upside down. Liptak, who police said had only minor bruises, declined medical treatment. Police said the 6-foot-4 man wiggled himself free from the wreckage. Police ticketed Liptak for disregarding a railroad signal at the crossing that was closed for three hours. </td></tr></table>

Tom Flapwell · Postby **Tom Flapwell** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:09 pm

And I'd heard that black wasn't one of the healthier colors of tea.

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:32 am

Wildlife taking over San Francisco . . .  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Aug 30, 3:16 PM EDT Ostrich Stretches Legs on the Golden Gate SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Commuters are used to traffic backups during the rush-hour commute on the Golden Gate Bridge. But even this had to throw some of them for a loop: An ostrich got loose from a minivan Monday and started roaming around near the toll plaza on the bridge. Ron Love, the owner of Love Farms, was transporting two of the odd-looking birds in the back of his van. Love was stopped in traffic when he suddenly accelerated, jolting one of the ostriches, who smashed through the back window of the van and got loose on the bridge. The ostrich began running around on the bridge, stopping traffic for about eight minutes before police were able to move it out of traffic. "It was quite an adventure," Love said. "Strange things always seem to happen with ostriches. I guess this proves it." The ostrich had road rash from the fall but was not seriously hurt and was resting comfortably back home, California Highway Patrol Sgt. Wayne Ziese said.</td></tr></table>

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:49 pm

ARRRR!!  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Sep 4, 2:05 PM EDT Pirate Constitutions Sold on Iraqi Streets BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- First pirate CDs. Then pirate videos. Now pirate constitutions. Iraqi officials are still haggling over the wording of the draft constitution, which was supposed to have been finalized on Aug. 28 despite the objections of minority Sunni Arabs. The late fine-tuning has delayed printing the 5 million copies that the government plans to distribute to all Iraqi families before the Oct. 15 referendum. But Iraqi street vendors, who peddle magazines and newspapers for motorists stuck in traffic, have added copies of the constitution to their offerings. Each copy goes for 100 Iraqi dinars, about 70 cents. One vendor, waving copies of the document on a Baghdad street, refused to identify his supplier. But copies of the version announced Aug. 22 and another supposedly declared final six days later were published in Baghdad newspapers. </td></tr></table>  <a href='http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html' target='_blank'>Talk Like A Pirate Day</a> is 19 September!!

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 7:54 pm

The Anchorage Police Department get to call in their bomb squad:  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Man can't believe APD blew up his beloved artifact cannonball ARCHAIC PROJECTILE: He just wanted to find out if it was volatile. By MEGAN HOLLAND Anchorage Daily News Published: September 5, 2005 Last Modified: September 5, 2005 at 09:30 AM When he called police and the bomb squad showed up at his Anchorage home last week, Yale Metzger just wanted them to examine the cannonball he had picked up in Cordova. He didn't want them to bring out the remote-controlled robot, haul away the cast iron ball and blow it to smithereens. But that's what they did. Now Metzger is saying the Anchorage Police Department was looking for an excuse to dynamite something and that they owe him a cannonball. The police are calling Metzger "an idiot" for carrying the incendiary device around in his truck, then bringing it into downtown Anchorage, where they say it could have sent shrapnel flying for blocks had it exploded. Metzger, a 45-year-old Anchorage attorney, found the 4-inch, 8-pound, cast iron ball in downtown Cordova last summer while excavating property he had purchased. It was unearthed in what was most recently a snow dump. Metzger put it in the back of his pickup, where it rolled around for a year, he said. Over time he began to investigate how a cannonball -- an archaic projectile that stopped being used more than a century ago -- could have ended up in Cordova at the southeastern end of Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska. One possibility he came up with was that it came from the ships of Russian or European commercial traders in the 18th century that were in the area looking for lucrative sea otter pelts. State archaeologist Dave McMahan said other cannonballs have been found in Anchorage, Valdez and Sitka, adding that the Russians were pretty much all over Alaska during their occupation in the 1700s. But "it is doubtful we will ever know where exactly it came from," he said of Metzger's find. Linda Yarborough, archaeologist for the Chugach National Forest near Cordova, says round iron balls were used to crush ore in gold mine machines. Not having seen Metzger's, she can't say for sure, but her hunch is that it could have come from a mill at the historic McKinley Lake Mine east of Cordova that dates to the early 1900s. "Unfortunately, not having it, it is really hard to look at a picture and figure out what it might have been," Yarborough said. Photos of the object are the only evidence Metzger now has of his souvenir. Anchorage police, however, say a fuse hole in the device convinced them it was a cannonball, and the explosion when they destroyed it backs that position. The experts say whichever possibility may be true, the ball was of historic value. And that is precisely what incenses Metzger. Several weeks ago, he decided to bring his find to his Anchorage home on 11th Avenue. He got a friend to pack it with him on a state ferry. Metzger had heard of old cannonballs blowing up, but he chalked up those stories largely to urban myth or at least something that happens extremely rarely. Still, once it was in Anchorage, Metzger was slightly concerned the ball could be still active and thought he would check it out. He wanted to know if his cannonball was solid or hollow, and if it was hollow, did it have volatile black powder? He tried to get a friend at the airport's Transportation Security Administration to put it through one of the machines. That didn't work; it would have gotten his friend in trouble. He tried to get a friend at a medical office to X-ray it, but the machine was judged not powerful enough. So he called the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They told him to call the Anchorage Police Department. Police said they would take a look at it. Last Monday, the bomb squad took one look at it sitting in Metzger's garage and treated it like a bomb seconds away from blowing. "Could it have exploded?" Metzger asked. "Sure. So could a meteor fall out of the sky and hit your truck." The bomb squad vehicle contained a portable X-ray machine that could have determined if the cannonball was hollow, but that wasn't an option, said police Sgt. Ray Jennings, head of the bomb squad. The super-powerful rays to see through MEHTUL would have punched through Metzger's walls and his neighbors', exposing everyone to the harmful rays, he said. Taking a look at it, the police knew by the fuse hole that it was potentially live, they said. "A cannonball is nothing more than a large grenade," Jennings said. "It could have sent MEHTUL flying blocks." Metzger wanted the squad to take the cannonball and X-ray it elsewhere, but deputy chief Audi Holloway said, defending the department's decision, that moving it just puts officers in unnecessary danger. "You never know what point an explosive device is at," he said. "If it is anything that may have explosives in it, that may cause damage to a person or property, we have to assume it will explode. We have to destroy it." The bomb squad exploded the cannonball at the Anchorage Landfill, said Lt. Paul Honeman, but police won't say how for security reasons. Sgt. Jeff Morton confirmed that a secondary explosion occurred and said a different color of smoke blurted out, making it certain that the cannonball had volatile black powder. Did the police destroy a potentially important historical artifact? "We're not going to put a bomb technician's life in jeopardy over a cannonball or anything else," Jennings said. He called Metzger "an idiot" for bringing the bomb into town and for questioning the bomb squad's decision to destroy it. Now Metzger wants the police to buy him another cannonball on eBay. "I was going to make a doorstop out of it. They owe me a cannonball." Daily News reporter Megan Holland can be reached at mrholland@adn.com or 257-4343.</td></tr></table>

Bocaj Claw · Postby **Bocaj Claw** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 8:05 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: (VisibilityMissing @ Sep 5 2005, 03:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'>  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> "I was going to make a doorstop out of it. They owe me a cannonball."</td></tr></table>   </td></tr></table>  He had my complete sympathy until that part.

rogue-kun · Postby **rogue-kun** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 10:34 pm

How is a chuck of cast iron an instory device? Shough the cannon desgined to lauched should be consider as such....but the Ball !?!

Rooster · Postby **Rooster** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 10:42 pm

Hey, I almost got cautioned for pointing my finger at a policeman once. I mean, I know people say "you could take someone's eye out", but I thought that was meant in jest.

Tom Flapwell · Postby **Tom Flapwell** » Mon Sep 05, 2005 11:59 pm

OT: rogue-kun, if you're going to stick around, it's customary to introduce yourself in a new thread at the Airport forum.

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 2:38 am

Are your chickens safe?  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Ananova: Chicken thief on Interpol list A Romanian man who stole seven chickens from a neighbour was surprised to find he was on Interpol's most wanted list. The 51-year-old chicken thief, from Iasi in eastern Romania, who is unnamed for legal reasons, had left the country four years ago. But when he returned to visit family he was told by border guards he had been identified from an Interpol list of dangerous fugitives - for stealing chickens from his neighbour's farm before he left. Police spokesman Serban Pittner said: "He was a wanted man for four years. Officers identified him by his international arrest warrant for stealing seven chickens." The international chicken thief has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail.</td></tr></table>

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