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You rang?*

 

* As with most, this posting has multiple meanings, delayed impact fuze. React accordingly.

 

Cellphone, heal thyself — if you’re sick of having to work your way through a series of broken electronic devices, dulled (or dead) batteries and an endless thread of replacement cellphones, help may be at hand thanks to scientists at the University of Illinois, who are hard at work creating “self-healing electronic circuits.”

 

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2011/12/28/cellphones-that-repair-themselves-scientists-create-self-healing-circuits/#ixzz1hxUhAsTc

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Death of man struck by train leads to 'bizarre' civil case

 

 

By Steve Schmadeke, Chicago Tribune reporter

Thu Dec 29 2011 12:00 AM

Ruling in what it called a "tragically bizarre" case, an appeals court found that the estate of a man killed by a train while crossing the Edgebrook Metra station tracks can be held liable after a part of his body sent airborne by the collision struck and injured a bystander.

 

In 2008, Hiroyuki Joho, 18, was hurrying in pouring rain with an umbrella over his head, trying to catch an inbound Metra train due to arrive in about five minutes when he was struck by a southbound Amtrak train traveling more than 70 mph.

 

A large portion of his body was thrown about 100 feet on to the southbound platform, where it struck Gayane Zokhrabov, then 58, who was waiting to catch the 8:17 a.m. train to work. She was knocked to the ground, her leg and wrist broken and her shoulder injured.

 

A Cook County judge dismissed Zokhrabov's lawsuit against Joho's estate, finding that Joho could not have anticipated Zokhrabov's injuries.

 

A state appeals court, after noting that the case law involving "flying bodies" is sparse, has disagreed, ruling that "it was reasonably foreseeable" that the high-speed train would kill Joho and fling his body down the tracks toward a platform where people were waiting.

 

Leslie Rosen, who handled Zokhrabov's appeal, said that while the circumstances of the case were "very peculiar and gory and creepy," it ultimately was a straightforward negligence case, no different than if a train passenger had been injured after the engineer hit the brakes.

 

"If you do something as stupid as this guy did, you have to be responsible for what comes from it," she said.

 

Joho's mother, Jeung-Hee Park, who had just dropped him off before the accident, filed her own lawsuit against Metra and the Canadian Pacific Railway. The lawsuit said both entities were negligent because Joho had no warning that what he thought was his Metra train was actually an express Amtrak train.

 

The Metra train was delayed that day, but there was no announcement on the platform's loudspeakers. A Cook County judge found that the railroads had no duty to warn about such an "open and obvious danger" as a moving train, a decision upheld on appeal.

 

Keith Davidson, one of Park's attorneys, said he is seeking to appeal that ruling to the Illinois Supreme Court.

 

Two months after Joho's death, another person was killed while crossing the Edgebrook station tracks in Chicago. Joyce Chiriboga, 48, died after being struck while following her sister across the tracks in a case that alleged a Metra engineer had failed to keep lookout and blow the horn in time.

 

The case was recently settled for an undisclosed amount, court records show.

 

Other Illinois "flying body" cases include a 1974 Supreme Court ruling from La Grange in which a passenger in a two-car crash at Brainard Street and Ogden Avenue was thrown 30 feet into a public parkway. His leg, which had to be amputated, was impaled on a broken piece of drain pipe the town had left by the road, but courts found that La Grange could not be held liable.

 

In 1951, a postal worker in Momence, Ill., was seriously injured after a train struck an elderly woman whose body knocked him into his mail cart, breaking his leg. But in that case, he successfully sued the railroad for operating a train at an unsafe speed.

Edited by Hittite Under The Bridge
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Dexter?

 

ST. PETERSBURG — The leg was pale and bent at the knee. The limb washed ashore onto a small sliver of beach behind a waterfront neighborhood. It arrived sometime overnight and was discovered Tuesday morning by tourists.

 

But the most ominous detail was this: The leg was cleanly cut at the thigh and the foot.

 

"We don't know the cause and manner of death," said St. Petersburg police Maj. Mike Kovacsev, who commands the city's detectives. "But obviously someone went to great lengths to dismember this body."

 

http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/article1207942.ece

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Someone broke into an exhibit and stole a monkey from the San Francisco Zoo, the zoo discovered Friday morning.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45827900/ns/us_news-life/#.Tv9-ytRrNNU

 

A Michigan man has been charged with felony sex offenses after he told police he was HIV-positive and had set out to intentionally infect as many people as he could, police said. Health officials have issued an alert warning that "possibly hundreds of people have been exposed to HIV."

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/30/9833291-michigan-man-may-have-intentionally-infected-hundreds-with-hiv

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A seven-year-old Indian girl was murdered in a tribal sacrifice and her liver offered to the gods to improve crop growth, police in the central state of Chhattisgarh said on Sunday.

 

http://news.yahoo.co...-074513654.html

 

I was going to mention this under the banner of:

 

''Latest from the World's Largest Democracy"

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http://www.smh.com.au/business/marketing/drag-queen-tampon-ad-transphobic-20120103-1pixo.html

 

video at

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lReX1dAUAE

 

 

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/marketing/drag-queen-tampon-ad-transphobic-20120103-1pixo.html#ixzz1iOKOU24I

 

 

Drag queen tampon ad 'transphobic'

January 3, 2012 - 11:56AM

 

Advertisement Tampon maker Libra has been branded "outrageously transphobic" over its new ad implying transgender people are not real women because they do not menstruate.

 

The television commercial depicts a drag queen character and a blonde woman standing side by side in a nightclub restroom putting on mascara and lip gloss, and adjusting their bras competitively.

 

The blonde woman then pulls out her Libra tampon, leaving the drag queen to storm out of the toilets in a huff.

 

The ad, which wraps with the catch phrase "Libra gets girls", has faced a storm of criticism, with dozens posting harsh comments on the company's Facebook page.

 

One woman, Gabeh Lissette Gutierrez, posted: "I'm not sure what is more disgusting, the blatant transphobia or the inclination that a period is what defines a woman's femininity.

 

"Seriously, what were you thinking?"

 

Another poster, Miserys Malice, hit out at the "get girls" phrase, writing: "So, for the females who've gone through the likes of menopause or hysterectomies I suppose Libra failed to 'get those girls'?"

 

"Having an advertising campaign where some snooty-nosed woman is going to resort to whipping out her feminine hygiene product in the face of someone who doesn't have a menstrual cycle therefore rendering her a winner, maybe was in bad taste and poor form."

 

A handful of supporters, all men, defended the ad, saying the criticisms were political correctness gone crazy.

 

But female critics hit back, saying the ad was probably written by men who, obviously, neither menstruate nor buy Libra products.

 

SCA, which owns the brand, has yet to respond to media calls.

 

AAP

 

This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/business/marketing/drag-queen-tampon-ad-transphobic-20120103-1pixo.html

 

 

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Tomas messing around with shark genetics in his evil laboratory again?

 

Hybrid Sharks Found in Australian Waters

Published January 03, 2012 | NewsCore

 

Scientists have discovered the world's first hybrid sharks in Australian waters, with multiple generations of the new creature found along the nation's east coast.

 

Scientists say the discovery of interbred sharks could signal the presence of new "tropical" sharks in waters as far south as Sydney, The Australian reported.

 

"Wild hybrids are usually hard to find, so detecting hybrids and their offspring is extraordinary," said Jennifer Ovenden from the Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.

 

Fifty-seven of the marine animals were found along a 1,243-mile (2,000-km) stretch between northern New South Wales and far north Queensland, with Ovenden calling the discovery "unprecedented."

 

The new shark is a hybrid of the genetically distinct Australian blacktip, whose range extends north from Brisbane, and the larger common blacktip found in southeastern coastal waters.

 

The scientists say interbreeding between the two shark species is a sign the animals are adapting to climate change and they also warn that hybridization could make the sharks stronger.

 

"Hybridization could enable the sharks to adapt to environmental change as the smaller Australian blacktip currently favors tropical waters in the north while the larger common blacktip is more abundant in sub-tropical and temperate waters along the south-eastern Australian coastline," Ovenden said.

 

University of Queensland research scientist Jess Morgan said hybridization was common in plants and relatively common among fish because of their external fertilization. "They just release their eggs and sperm into the water column," she said.

 

"[but] sharks physically mate, which is usually a good way to make sure you don't hybridize with the wrong species."

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/03/hybrid-sharks-found-in-australian-waters/

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Tomas messing around with shark genetics in his evil laboratory again?

 

 

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/03/hybrid-sharks-found-in-australian-waters/

 

I want to see great whites the size of whale sharks with great big wings and of course the obligatory lasers on their freaking heads in triple turrets!

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Okay, I know, this is the "weird news" thread ... but seriously: "HUH?" Roadkill lowered from a crane to kick off the fireworks? Is that a Georgia thing, or a somewhat bizarre ceremony even there?

:blink:

 

If it was a Mississippi thing they'd be lowering a recipe with it.

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A Mexican warlock who bases his fortune-telling predictions on tarot card readings and observations of the stars has claimed US president Barack Obama will fail to win re-election.

 

In a traditional New Year's forecast, Mexico's Grand Warlock also predicted that two more Latin American leaders would be diagnosed with cancer.

Photo provides context

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A Mexican warlock who bases his fortune-telling predictions on tarot card readings and observations of the stars has claimed US president Barack Obama will fail to win re-election.

 

In a traditional New Year's forecast, Mexico's Grand Warlock also predicted that two more Latin American leaders would be diagnosed with cancer.

Photo provides context

 

Well, that guy talks to satan all the time, so he oughta know.

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LEXINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Do you have change for a million-dollar bill?

 

Police say a North Carolina man insisted his million-dollar note was real when he was buying $476 worth of items at a Walmart.

 

Investigators told the Winston-Salem Journal that 53-year-old Michael Fuller tried to buy a vacuum cleaner, a microwave oven and other items. Store employees called police after his insistence that the bill was legit, and Fuller was arrested.

 

The largest bill in circulation is $100. The government stopped making bills of up to $10,000 in 1969.

 

Fuller was charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretense and uttering a forged instrument. He is in jail on a $17,500 bond, and it isn't clear if he has an attorney. He is scheduled to be in court Tuesday.

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