weird news

[Mike Steele]

I dont know if it is just weird or disgusting:

 

 

 

Students Urged to Sell Kidneys to Repay Student Loans

The Scotsman, Debt-Hit Students Urged to Sell Their Kidneys:

Students should be able to sell their kidneys for tens of thousands of pounds to pay off university debts, according to a Scots academic.

Sue Rabbitt Roff

believes making it legal to sell the body part would boost the number of organs available to save lives and help students struggling with money. She argues that donors should be paid the average UK annual income of around £28,000. ...

 

The Dundee University academic makes the controversial comments in an

article in the British Medical Journal

today. Mrs Roff, senior research fellow at the university's Department of Medical Sociology, told The Scotsman: "We are allowing young people to undertake £20,000 to £30,000 of university fee payments. "We allow them to burden themselves with these debts. Why can't we allow them to do a very kind and generous thing but also meet their own needs?"

 

 

 

 

http://taxprof.typep...ents-urged.html

 

 

[X-Files]

I dont know if it is just weird or disgusting:

 

 

 

Students Urged to Sell Kidneys to Repay Student Loans

The Scotsman, Debt-Hit Students Urged to Sell Their Kidneys:

Students should be able to sell their kidneys for tens of thousands of pounds to pay off university debts, according to a Scots academic.

Sue Rabbitt Roff

believes making it legal to sell the body part would boost the number of organs available to save lives and help students struggling with money. She argues that donors should be paid the average UK annual income of around £28,000. ...

 

The Dundee University academic makes the controversial comments in an

article in the British Medical Journal

today. Mrs Roff, senior research fellow at the university's Department of Medical Sociology, told The Scotsman: "We are allowing young people to undertake £20,000 to £30,000 of university fee payments. "We allow them to burden themselves with these debts. Why can't we allow them to do a very kind and generous thing but also meet their own needs?"

 

 

 

 

http://taxprof.typep...ents-urged.html

 

 

 

WTF, that's pure vintage Monty Python "cheap-ass Scots" material.

 

Here, have a leaping grasp at weirdness.

 

PHILADELPHIA -- Police say a Philadelphia college professor killed himself by diving over a second-floor railing inside a campus building during class.

 

The newspaper says the 71-year-old professor walked out of his class Wednesday, returned briefly, yelled and then ran to a second-floor railing outside the classroom. Police say campus security was summoned and Alexandrov dived over the railing and hit the floor, some 20 to 30 feet below.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/05/rudolf-alexandrov-chesnut_n_919256.html?icid=maing-grid7|aim|dl9|sec3_lnk3|83805

Edited August 5, 2011 by X-Files

[DB]

She's a bit mental. As far as I'm aware, the Scots don't even pay directly for their university education (it's subsidised by my taxes, of course). She's actually telling English students to sell their organs. Somehow I suspect that it's a rather childish attempt to make a political point about £9000 fees in the UK.

 

There is a simple solution to student debt. Don't go to college unless you are sure that the job token you win by being there will help you pay off the debt. If that means no more "degrees" in TV appreciation, so be it.

[X-Files]

In a motion to dismiss a court case this week, we learn that a woman is suing Planet Sushi on the Upper West Side. Why? Because she thinks there was semen in the spicy sauce that came alongside a delivery order of tuna rolls. Per the filing:

 

...somewhere around midnight, she received a take-out order of tuna rolls, with spicy sauce on the side, and that the spicy sauce was tainted with human bodily fluid, which she believes was semen. She states that she noticed something amiss upon first tasting the sushi, after having dipped a piece of the tuna roll into the sauce, and that she spit part of the roll out but swallowed about half of the bite.

http://ny.eater.com/archives/2011/08/woman_accuses_planet_sushi_of_adding_semen_to_spicy_sauce.php

[Ivanhoe]

Apparently, bananas are vertebrate;

 

http://hackedirl.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/epic-win-photos-x-ray-banana-win.jpg

Edited August 6, 2011 by Ivanhoe

[mnm]

http://ny.eater.com/...spicy_sauce.php

 

If you say so. I have no idea what it tastes like, but maybe she knows...

[thekirk]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-14416413

 

Victorian gunpowder found near Dorset rail tracks

 

 

An unexploded Victorian gunpowder blasting charge has been found near rail tracks in Dorset.

 

The charge, thought to be 126 years old, was found at Corfe Castle by a railway maintenance worker on Thursday.

 

It is thought to date from 1884 when railway navvies were constructing a cutting through the chalk rock of the Challow Hill of the Purbeck Hills.

 

The unexploded charge was made safe by a team of Army bomb disposal experts who removed it from the scene.

 

Measuring 3in (7.6cm) wide and 1in (2.5cm) deep, the charge was discovered in the chalk rock by a member of the Swanage Railway's track maintenance gang.

 

Officers from Dorset Police examined the Victorian relic before calling in an expert Army bomb disposal team from Tidworth, Wiltshire.

 

Police and the bomb disposal team decided it was safe to allow passenger trains to pass through every 40 minutes at a reduced speed 5mph.

The unexploded Victorian gunpowder Hundreds of thousands of trains have travelled past the unexploded charge

 

The team made the charge safe at 15:20 BST after a 90-minute operation.

 

Swanage Railway infrastructure manager Alistair Hall said: "It's really incredible and amazing the unexploded Victorian gunpowder blasting charge has been in the side of the railway cutting for 126 years without anyone noticing."

 

Mr Hall said that since the opening of the branch line in 1885 and the end of the British Rail line in 1972 - when the tracks were torn up for scrap - hundreds of thousands of trains had travelled past the spot where the explosives were found.

 

He added: "Throughout all those years, nobody noticed the Victorian explosive charge - perhaps people thought it was a rock blemish or a fossil or it could have been covered by wild plants."

 

The late 19th century railway cutting was part of the two-year, £77,000 construction of the 10-mile branch line from Wareham to Corfe Castle and Swanage by the business entrepreneurs of the Victorian Swanage Railway Company.

 

Makes you wonder how many there are around the national network they havent yet discovered.

 

Amazing that the railway worker even recognized that thing--I looked at the picture, and even with a reasonable experience set in modern explosives, I'd have never seen that thing as a threat. More than likely, I'd have gone "Hmm... Interesting, that--I wonder what that random disk of rusting metal is doing embedded in the wall of this cut? Must be a survey marker, or something...".

 

Somebody got damn lucky, that that gentleman recognized it for what it was, and did the right thing. He (or, she... The article doesn't do much to identify the individual) deserves a commendation and/or promotion.

[Ivanhoe]

Landshark; http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2011/08/08/am.8ft.shark.found.woods.cnn?

[Hittite Under The Bridge]

That was the first movie.

 

Told you I've watched all of them with Household 6.

 

Just watched 3.5. Dick rocket.

[Ivanhoe]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/08/alaska.mystery.substance/index.html?

 

(CNN) -- A mysterious orange substance that washed up on the shores of an Alaskan village last week was a mass of microscopic, invertebrate eggs, possibly those of a small crustacean, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lab said Monday.

 

More testing will determine the species and whether the eggs -- whose appearance on the shores of Kivalina in northwest Alaska startled residents Wednesday -- are toxic, said Julie Speegle, representative of the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center's Auke Bay Laboratories.

 

Residents of Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo village of about 430 people, found the substance in its lagoon -- giving the lagoon an orange sheen -- and clumps of the orange stuff on the beach. A resident who took pictures of the substance, Mida Swan, said last week that it had an oily feel, like baby oil.

 

I've warned you people about this;

 

 

Apparently there is a species of isopod that invades a fish's mouth, eats the tongue, latches onto the jaw, then lives as a permanent parasite (I guess eating some of what the fish eats);

 

 

So, might want to sleep with your mouth closed.

Edited August 9, 2011 by Ivanhoe

[Michael Eastes]

Some guys have a lot of trouble getting dates, it seems.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/08/iowa-man-bestiality-sex-with-cat_n_920959.html?icid=maing-grid10%7Chtmlws-main-bb%7Cdl7%7Csec3_lnk2%7C84776

[Michael Eastes]

Equal time for all beliefs...I suppose.

 

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ARMY_ATHEIST_CONCERT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-08-12-51-59

 

EDIT: Maybe not everyone is equal:

 

http://onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=1407776

Edited August 9, 2011 by Michael Eastes

[X-Files]

In an exclusive ExopoliticsTV interview with Alfred Lambremont Webre released May 16, 2011 America’s Morning News correspondent Robert M. Stanley, author of Covert Encounters in Washington, DC, has revealed how unethical extraterrestrial and inter-dimensional entities manipulate terrestrial elite “controllers” of the human population in finance, politics, media, religion, and in governmental and public events in Washington, DC.

 

With regard to the inter-dimensional extraterrestrials around Washington, DC, Mr. Stanley states, “We are dealing with a shape-shifting ET that is apparently known to the U.S. government.”

 

Mr. Stanley reveals how the religious-based geometric layout of Washington, DC’s architecture and infrastructure is used as a “dimensional” mind control panel by unethical inter-dimensional lower-order extraterrestrials, for the manipulation and control of the worldwide permanent war economy and arms industry by manipulating the war-industry decision-making processes in Washington, DC.

 

 

 

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/news/ufo_extraterrestrials/2011/08/07/453.html

[X-Files]

Most of Tanknet is probably retroactively indictable then.

 

 

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) - A Tennessee boy asked what he did on his summer vacation surprised his teacher, and local authorities, by saying he made explosive devices, police said on Thursday.

Police were summoned to investigate the 13-year-old's claim and found he was telling the truth.

The boy, who is not being identified, was charged Wednesday with felony manufacturing of explosive devices, according to Lisa Marchesoni, spokeswoman for the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/boy-tells-teacher-spent-vacation-making-explosives-171322163.html;_ylt=ArY.cqxTayvPkcmJ2Bxx7JsSH9EA;_ylu=X3oDMTQwOXJzajZrBGNjb2RlA2dtcHRvcDIwMHBvb2xyZXN0BHBrZwNkZTE5YjZjNi1kZDYxLTM0ZjMtOWZjNS0wYjkzZDQ4MTEzYzEEcG9zAzYEc2VjA25ld3NfZm9yX3lvdQR2ZXIDOThhZGExYzAtYzQzZC0xMWUwLWIzYWYtNmJkNWM2MmU1MTFk;_ylg=X3oDMTM1MmZuZzBxBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDYTMyYTFkNTMtMWM0MS0zZGE2LTlhZGYtMzU3ZWNhNzg3ZDFmBHBzdGNhdANob21lfG9kZG5ld3MEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdlBHRlc3QD;_ylv=3

 

 

 

VIENNA (AP) — A famed Austrian museum has fired an employee for washing his hands and face with his urine.

Alfred Zoppelt says he was fired after 23 years of working as an attendant at the Belvedere, a castle in Vienna with a major art collection. He says his adherence to urine therapy was previously "never a problem."

http://news.yahoo.com/man-fired-washing-himself-own-urine-133318223.html

Edited August 12, 2011 by X-Files

[BansheeOne]

O tempora, o mores.

 

Rome police arrest Colosseum 'gladiator' gang

 

AFP – Wed, Aug 10, 2011

 

Italian police have arrested 20 gladiator impersonators in an undercover sting aimed at ending a violent racket operating around Rome's most famous tourist sites, Italian press reported on Thursday.

 

Police disguised as gladiators, dustbin men and members of the public raided the gang made up of seven families working with five tourist agencies.

 

The modern gladiators are accused of attacking and intimidating competitors for a lucrative business in which gladiators collect up to 10 euros ($14) for having their picture taken alongside tourists in front of attractions.

 

The police officers disguised as gladiators were beaten up by the alleged criminal gladiators before other undercover officers swooped in.

 

"Gladiators" are a feature of the Roman landscape for tourists, with men decked out in bright red capes, helmets with plumes of red feathers and sandals while carrying swords and round shields.

 

They can be found outside the Colosseum, Castel Sant'Angelo, Piazza Venezia and even in front of St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, preying on the millions of tourists who pass through Rome every year.

 

Criminal gangs had divided up these tourist sights and were defending their territory with violence, the police said.

 

Five competitors who had been chased away alerted police to the gang's activities, leading to the sting operation.

 

http://news.yahoo.com/rome-police-arrest-colosseum-gladiator-gang-000250682.html

 

[Mike Steele]

Mike, the Mark of the Beast is here?....

 

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.6e1e2ad90e2d94b12b6258b7e9c5b33d.611&show_article=1

 

Electronic skin tattoo has medical, gaming, spy uses Aug 11 03:43 PM US/Eastern

 

 

This image courtesy of J. Rogers, University of Illinois shows an epidermal...

 

A hair-thin electronic patch that adheres to the skin like a temporary tattoo could transform medical sensing, computer gaming and even spy operations, according to a US study published Thursday. The micro-electronics technology, called an epidermal electronic system (EES), was developed by an international team of researchers from the United States, China and Singapore, and is described in the journal Science.

 

"It's a technology that blurs the distinction between electronics and biology," said co-author John Rogers, a professor in materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

 

"Our goal was to develop an electronic technology that could integrate with the skin in a way that is mechanically and physiologically invisible to the user."

 

The patch could be used instead of bulky electrodes to monitor brain, heart and muscle tissue activity and when placed on the throat it allowed users to operate a voice-activated video game with better than 90 percent accuracy.

 

"This type of device might provide utility for those who suffer from certain diseases of the larynx," said Rogers. "It could also form the basis of a sub-vocal communication capability, suitable for covert or other uses."

 

The wireless device is nearly weightless and requires so little power it can fuel itself with miniature solar collectors or by picking up stray or transmitted electromagnetic radiation, the study said.

 

Less than 50-microns thick -- slightly thinner than a human hair -- the devices are able to adhere to the skin without glue or sticky material.

 

"Forces called van der Waals interactions dominate the adhesion at the molecular level, so the electronic tattoos adhere to the skin without any glues and stay in place for hours," said the study.

 

Northwestern University engineer Yonggang Huang said the patch was "as soft as the human skin."

 

Rogers and Huang have been working together on the technology for the past six years. They have already designed flexible electronics for hemispherical camera sensors and are now focused on adding battery power and other energy options.

 

The devices might find future uses in patients with sleep apnea, babies who need neonatal care and for making electronic bandages to help skin heal from wounds and burns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[X-Files]

 

The outline of a face appeared in storm clouds and was captured on video by a freaked out cameraman in New Brunswick, Canada.

 

read more: http://www.tntmagazine.com/tnt-today/archive/2011/08/04/freaky-face-in-clouds-appears-in-canada-video.aspx#ixzz1V1Az9oVN

 

http://www.wkyc.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=1096197750001

[Jeff]

[Wobbly Head]

She did say she always wanted a big rock

 

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/mayors-gift-ex-wife-20-ton-boulder-her-164102166.html

 

.MONTREAL - A small-town mayor could face criminal charges after he delivered an unwelcome birthday present to his ex-wife: a 20-ton boulder, topped with a pink ribbon, dumped on her front lawn.

[Ivanhoe]

http://www.ktbs.com/news/28891567/detail.html

 

An Australian man was fined and had his license suspended after being caught driving a scooter made of a motorized beer cooler capable of carrying several dozen drinks.

 

An interesting thing about the photo of said beer scooter is the offroad tires. Seems handy for fishermen and beachgoers.

[X-Files]

It's some of the swankiest real estate in Manhattan, and it's overrun with rats.

 

The Grand Army Plaza Park, in the shadow of the world-renowned Plaza hotel, is home to a burgeoning brood of rodents.

 

The city park - which borders Fifth Ave. just north of Central Park South and across from the famed fountain in front of The Plaza - is infested with pint-sized, four-legged squatters.

 

They are frightening tourists and even some jaded New Yorkers.

 

"They are big. They look like rabbits," said food cart vendor Reese Perez, 60, as he watched the parade of rats from across East Drive on the edge of Central Park.

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/08/15/2011-08-15_theyre_big_they_look_like_rabbits_sez_spooked_vendor.html#ixzz1VKfL7p00

 

 

NEW YORK, NY (PIX11)— There was a time when rats in the East Village was hardly considered news. But since the city stopped laying down poison this summer, the rat population in Tompkins Square Park has exploded.

 

http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-rats-invade-east-village-,0,1337537.story

 

The world's largest known rodent, the capybara, was spotted by workers at the Paso Robles Wastewater Treatment Plant and photographed before submerging back into the water, reported Fox 35.

"I received a call from the city of Paso Robles sewer plant," Tom Tognazzini of the Department of Fish and Game told Your Central Coast News. This gigantic capybara is believed to weigh between 100-120 lbs.

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/16/capybara-spotted-at-wastewater-treatment-plant/#ixzz1VKgA1ZfP

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/08/16/capybara-spotted-at-wastewater-treatment-plant/

 

And now for the weird part -

 

Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between danger and sex appeal, at least for rats infected with a parasite that twists ancient rat instincts to its own advantage.

 

The parasite, a common single-celled organism called Toxoplasma gondii, infects all sorts of animals, including rats, in which it causes a strange transformation.

 

For obvious reasons, rats normally avoid cats. In the presence of cat urine they become very timid — unless they’re infected with Toxoplasma. Research over the past 10 years has shown that infected rats drop their normal fearful “freezing” response, and instead go exploring. They even approach the cat smell.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/science/23parasite.html

 

***************************

 

(CNN) -- It's eerie but it's true: Three people have died this summer after suffering rare infections from a waterborne amoeba that destroys the brain.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/08/17/amoeba.kids.deaths/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

 

 

VOLOGDA, Russia - Russian authorities were Friday probing the freak death of a woman killed by a homemade missile launched by her husband.

The victim was looking on as her aviation-enthusiast spouse assembled his makeshift rocket in a field.

But the launch when horribly wrong when the missile blasted off and veered toward her, striking the woman in the head.

 

 

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/russian-man-kills-wife-with-homemade-missile-20110812-ncx#ixzz1VKkhKSzY

 

 

****************

What do you want on your tombstone?

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/17/meth-bust-tombstones-foun_n_929355.html?icid=maing-grid7|aim|dl1|sec3_lnk2|87341

 

**************

 

Mike, the Mark of the Beast is here?....

 

 

The credit score of the average U.S. consumer in July was 666, the Number of the Beast in the book of Revelation.

That’s right, the book at the end of the Bible about the apocalypse.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2011/08/apocalypse-average-us-credit-score-666.html

Edited August 18, 2011 by X-Files

[Stargrunt6]

Mike, the Mark of the Beast is here?....

 

 

 

It has potential, but this one doesn't last longer than three months. Once they make it permanent though . . .

 

I never thought the End Times would happen without more sophisticated computers. I'm talking a real huge change, going beyond the linear circuits and binary.

[DB]

"Oui?" - "Non." - "Mais, oui!"

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-14572094

[Ivanhoe]

I must be dreaming;

 

http://www.liq.wa.gov/pressreleases/liquor-control-board-selects-stores-spirits-tasting-pilot

 

OLYMPIA – Beginning September 1, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) will implement a year-long spirits tasting pilot in 30 state, contract and tribal liquor stores statewide. A list of the 30 stores selected for the tasting pilot is available here.

 

The pilot was established by Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1202 during the 2011 legislative session.

 

“We are excited to have this opportunity for our customers to taste new and interesting products in our stores,” said WSLCB Chair Sharon Foster. “With more than 1,100 spirits products available in state stores, customers can now enhance their product knowledge by trying something they may never have considered before and learn first-hand about the products from distillers’ representatives. ”

 

Free samples at liquor stores. Wow!

[Mike Steele]

I must be dreaming;

 

http://www.liq.wa.go...s-tasting-pilot

 

 

 

Free samples from the Peoples Collective of Washington liquor stores. Wow!

 

FIFY