Weird News

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:41 pm

Oh, I'm surprised I didn't post that one here . . .  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Apr 29, 4:08 PM EDT School Mistakes Huge Burrito for a Weapon CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) -- A call about a possible weapon at a middle school prompted police to put armed officers on rooftops, close nearby streets and lock down the school. All over a giant burrito. Someone called authorities Thursday after seeing a boy carrying something long and wrapped into Marshall Junior High. The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos and wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt. "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," school Principal Diana Russell said. State police, Clovis police and the Curry County Sheriff's Department arrived at the school shortly after 8:30 a.m. They searched the premises and determined there was no immediate danger. In the meantime, more than 30 parents, alerted by a radio report, descended on the school. Visibly shaken, they gathered around in a semi-circle, straining their necks, awaiting news. "There needs to be security before the kids walk through the door," said Heather Black, whose son attends the school. After the lockdown was lifted but before the burrito was identified as the culprit, parents pulled 75 students out of school, Russell said. Russell said the mystery was solved after she brought everyone in the school together in the auditorium to explain what was going on. "The kid was sitting there as I'm describing this (report of a student with a suspicious package) and he's thinking, 'Oh, my gosh, they're talking about my burrito.'" Afterward, eighth-grader Michael Morrissey approached her. "He said, 'I think I'm the person they saw,'" Russell said. The burrito was part of Morrissey's extra-credit assignment to create commercial advertising for a product. "We had to make up a product and it could have been anything. I made up a restaurant that specialized in oddly large burritos," Morrissey said. After students heard the description of what police were looking for, he and his friends began to make the connection. He then took the burrito to the office. "The police saw it and everyone just started laughing. It was a laughter of relief," Morrissey said. "Oh, and I have a new nickname now. It's Burrito Boy." © 2005 The Associated Press.</td></tr></table>

GhostWay · Postby **GhostWay** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:02 pm

Can't . . . resist . . . "Look out, that burrito's loaded!"

Rooster · Postby **Rooster** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:08 pm

The police were called to a small town petrol station when an old couple reported a group of suspicious men in long black coats with long hair. The police arrived on the scene and after a few minutes appologised to the men. Luckily, Godspeed You Black Emperor were pretty good sports about it.

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 1:27 am

Murphy Lives!!  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Sep 12, 8:05 PM EDT Worker Error Blamed for L.A. Blackout By LAURA WIDES Associated Press Writer LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Utility workers connected the wrong wires and caused a blackout across major portions of Los Angeles on Monday afternoon, trapping people in elevators and snarling traffic at intersections, authorities said. About 2 million people were affected by the resulting power surge and outages, which were reported from downtown west to the Pacific Coast and north into the San Fernando Valley. Much of the power, which failed at about 12:30 p.m., was restored within less about 2 1/2 hours; all power was expected to restored by 5 p.m. Several workers who were installing an automated transmission system hooked up the wrong wires, according to Ron Deaton, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. "They connected it to another line that was not expecting that much electricity," he said. No one was injured in the mishap, but officials said two workers suffered minor breathing problems when smoke backed up at an oil refinery after the outage. Downtown high-rises went dark, fire officials said they received reports of people stuck in elevators, and stoplights went out at intersections across the city. Neighboring cities, including Burbank and Glendale, also were affected. The Police Department went on "full tactical alert," meaning no officers were allowed to leave work when their shifts were over. But calm prevailed in downtown Los Angeles, with office workers taking the opportunity for an extended lunch as police and fire sirens echoed in the background. Fox reports the power failure in Los Angeles is snarling traffic in the San Fernando Valley. The blackout came a day after ABC aired a videotape of a purported al-Qaida member making terrorist threats against Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. But even before the utility explained what happened, Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said there was no indication of terrorism. Still, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa recognized that the timing "created a heightened sense of concern." Some Los Angeles neighborhoods did not lose power at all. Los Angeles International Airport lost power, but its emergency generator kicked in promptly and no flights were affected, said Harold Johnson, an airport spokesman. UCLA Medical Center used backup generators and reported no danger to patients. Los Angeles operates its own power utility, which serves 1.4 million electricity customers. Customers of Southern California Edison, the largest utility in Southern California, were not affected, according to spokesman Gil Alexander. At the downtown YMCA, staff used flashlights to help usher exercisers from the pool and other areas to locker rooms so they could dress before leaving. Inside some high-rises, office workers were stuck in elevators. Albert Vasquez, 27, a customer service representative, was returning from lunch when he boarded an elevator - and the doors closed and the power went out. "It was bizarre," he said. "It went completely dark." Vasquez said he pried open the doors with his hands and left the building. Across the city, traffic was snarled at intersections when stop lights went dark. Katie Cerio, a stylist for TV commercials, said traffic lights were out in the valley's Torrance neighborhood. "They've got people directing traffic, but it's definitely a bit chaotic," said Cerio as she drove. "But now I just entered West Hollywood and the traffic lights seems to be on." Gas station pumps stopped working, car washes stopped in their tracks, assembly lines ground to a halt and restaurant machinery quit in middle of lunch hour. At Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, power was out for about 90 minutes. "All we could serve were salads and cold sandwiches," manager Frank Rodriguez said. "No hamburgers." --- Contributing to this report were Associated Press Writers Alex Veiga, Jeff Wilson, Solvej Schou and Jeremiah Marquez in Los Angeles; Jennifer Coleman in Sacramento; Robert Tanner in New York; and Erica Werner in Washington. © 2005 The Associated Press</td></tr></table>

Caoimhin · Postby **Caoimhin** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 3:29 am

Ever wonder as a guy what girl's/women's pants feel like <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... tongue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tongue.gif' /> :  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Women's jeans inspire new trend: 'Fashioncore' Fad grows among hardcore music scene By Natalie Naquin, Revelry Writer March 15, 2004 It is not uncommon for fashion trends to reflect the style of music a person listens to. One of these trends -- males wearing female jeans -- not only evinces the type of music these men listen to, but it is also a characteristic of an entire fashion scene. "Fashioncore" is the term that describes those who wear girl jeans -- at least that is what they call it. "It's just a scene thing," said Brandon Sheridan, who is a self-proclaimed fashioncore scenester. "You've got the black hair over one eye, the white belt, the girl pants, the converse -- it's the 'scene' thing to do." "The scene" refers to the national hardcore music scene. Hardcore, as defined by Travis Leblanc, an English freshman, is a type of music with a couple of distinctions from MEHTUL. There is a chugging beat, which you dance to, "crazy" tunings with many dissonant chords, and a screamer, a singer who can "growl and shout his head off." Bands such as Norma Jean, Through the Eyes of the Dead, and Reflux are considered hardcore. Leblanc broke down the definition of fashioncore. "There are two divisions of hardcore," Leblanc said. "Fashioncore and tough-guy hardcore. Fashioncore is more image-oriented. Same music [as tough-guy hardcore], different look." The look he describes is common among students. Walking around the quad, it is easy to spot someone wearing girl jeans, a "super-tight hoodie," and a bandana in their back pocket. Story image 2 Ryan Warden Also common among fashioncore style is a white belt to go with the female pants, although this is usually only popular among those who like grindcore. "Grindcore is another style of music," Leblanc said. "It's really out there, spastic, crazy -- people who like grind usually wear the belt." Most of the girl-pant wearing few claim how comfortable girl pants are as opposed to men's jeans. "They're so comfortable and I feel so good in them," said Danny Farber, a 20-year-old girl pants enthusiast at The Furnace music venue. "They show my figure off better. Guy pants just don't do it for me." Sheridan agrees with Warden, although there is one stipulation. "They're actually more comfortable than guy pants -- as long as you wear tighty-whities," he said. The reasoning behind guys wearing girl pants could be because of the feeling of belonging to a group, and recognizing those who share the same musical tastes. "It's predominately a hardcore thing," Leblanc said. "Nine people out of 10, if you see them wearing girl pants, they like hardcore. You're walking down the street, you see a guy wearing girl pants, you know what it's all about. They're into hardcore." Julie Reboul, a philosophy freshman, enjoys spotting guys wearing girl pants. "Boys in girl pants make me blush," she said. "I love it. I think it's the hottest thing in the whole world." The main reason for girl pants, coincidentally, is the comfort factor. "They're a lot more comfortable," Leblanc said. "Especially the stretch kind. It doesn't make sense to me why they don't make guy pants the same. They get a little tight in the crotch every now and then, but that's to be expected." </td></tr></table>

GhostWay · Postby **GhostWay** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:03 pm

. . . Whoa. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' />  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction Fri Sep 16, 2005 10:31 AM ET SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building. Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing electrical current that was building up as his clothes rubbed together. When he walked into a building in the country town of Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet. "It sounded almost like a firecracker," Clewer told Australian radio Friday. "Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt." Employees, unsure of the cause of the mysterious burning smell, telephoned firefighters who evacuated the building. "There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we could hear a cracking noise -- a bit like a whip -- both inside and outside the building," said fire official Henry Barton. Firefighters cut electricity to the building thinking the burns might have been caused by a power surge. Clewer, who after leaving the building discovered he had scorched a piece of plastic on the floor of his car, returned to seek help from the firefighters. "We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said. "I've been firefighting for over 35 years and I've never come across anything like this," he said. Firefighters took possession of Clewer's jacket and stored it in the courtyard of the fire station, where it continued to give off a strong electrical current. David Gosden, a senior lecturer in electrical engineering at Sydney University, told Reuters that for a static electricity charge to ignite a carpet, conditions had to be perfect. "Static electricity is a similar mechanism to lightning, where you have clouds rubbing together and then a spark generated by very dry air above them," said Gosden.</td></tr></table>

rogue-kun · Postby **rogue-kun** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:55 pm

*thinks of all the times he wore his woll school pull over under his nilon school jacket......*

Elscire · Postby **Elscire** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:44 pm

Probably you and everyone else at school, rogue-kun, if it was uniform. Still, that's just wacky. I like it. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... iggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />

rogue-kun · Postby **rogue-kun** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 8:57 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: (Elscire @ Sep 16 2005, 08:44 PM)</td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Probably you and everyone else at school, rogue-kun, if it was uniform. Still, that's just wacky. I like it. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... iggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />  </td></tr></table>  Well yes and know It was unifom, but it was normal to wear Either the jacket or the pull over. [the pull overs was more popular as you where alound to keep those on in class] But bain a junoir at the time I was in shorts all year round, and i could ignore the cold legs if toso was toasty

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:00 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> "We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.</td></tr></table>  Just a bit of physics nitpicking, 'cause I'm prone to do that: BAD BAD!! WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! Volts are a measure of ELECTRIC POTENTIAL not CURRENT!!! Static electric fields by definition have no current! <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /> However, I can certainly see something like this happening, as we used to have all kinds of fun with static electricity when we wore wool in the Arctic, especially while walking around on carpeting. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... iggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /> I think I comically overemphasized that enough . . .

rogue-kun · Postby **rogue-kun** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:10 pm

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: (VisibilityMissing @ Sep 16 2005, 09:00 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'> "We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.</td></tr></table>  Just a bit of physics nitpicking, 'cause I'm prone to do that: BAD BAD!! WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! Volts are a measure of ELECTRIC POTENTIAL not CURRENT!!! Static electric fields by definition have no current! <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... /blink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='blink.gif' /> However, I can certainly see something like this happening, as we used to have all kinds of fun with static electricity when we wore wool in the Arctic, especially while walking around on carpeting. <img src='http://definecynical.mancubus.net/forum ... iggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' />  </td></tr></table>  I think they ment Charge, not Current

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:13 pm

Part of the problem is that the journalist continued the mistake by using the same terminology in the next paragraph. Point of contention: If you're going to use physics terminolgy, use it right. There's too much lazy usage already.

Tom Flapwell · Postby **Tom Flapwell** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:20 pm

Here's how I remember it: "Legends never die, but Ampere will always be current." That story is pretty hard to believe. Too bad Irwin Mainway (Dan Aykroyd on SNL) didn't know about it when he was trying to explain that his company's Halloween costumes were no more dangerous than ordinary clothes. So a man named Clewer needed a clue, eh?

Henohenomoheji · Postby **Henohenomoheji** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 11:29 pm

wow, nice 2-hit pun combo there Tom. ...and now... I REALLY WANNA DO THAT WITH STATIC E!!!

VisibilityMissing · Postby **VisibilityMissing** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:11 am

Ooops . . .  <table border='0' align='center' width='95%' ><tr><td class='quotetop'>Quote: </td></tr><tr><td class='quotebody'> Prison Locked Down After Warden Loses Keys Fri Sep 16,10:42 PM ET JACKSONVILLE, Ill. - Prisoners at the Jacksonville Correctional Center spent four days on lockdown after an assistant warden lost a set of keys. The set of about ten keys, which was still missing Friday, included a master key that opens doors to cell houses and two prison wings. The "high minimum security" institution of 1,400 male inmates was locked down from last Friday until Monday after a search failed to turn up the keys. "We don't believe this poses a serious threat to the safety of the facility," Illinois Department of Corrections spokesman Sergio Molina said. The keys could have been lost between April 8 and last Friday, Molina said. They were not necessarily lost at the prison and were authorized to be taken home, he said. The master key also provides entry to prison work camps at Greene County and Pittsfield, he said. An assistant warden reported the keys missing last Friday. He had given the keys to another employee on April 8 because he was being temporarily reassigned to the department's headquarters, Molina said. Both employees remained on the job. The department was investigating and disciplinary action was possible, Molina said. ____ On the Net: Illinois Department of Corrections: <a href='http://www.idoc.state.il.us/' target='_blank'>http://www.idoc.state.il.us/</a>

Define Cynical Fan Forums

Weird News

Who is online