Nathan

Some very...interesting news picks (Continued)

Terence Michael Dean, 37, was arrested in September in Cool, Calif., after a homeowner arrived from a weekend away and found that Dean had commandeered his house and set up various confusing rituals. Dean (who ran from the house clothed only in a sheet) had turned on all faucets, placed packages of meat in the sink and bathtub, built a shrine of Buddha on a bongo drum, left a trail of potting soil from a walkway to the drum, left three plant stands in the garage holding teddy bears, unearthed about 100 houseplants in the yard, and left a cup of water containing a piece of paper reading "I love Cherry." [Credit NotW Week of November 12th, 2006]

In August, about a dozen masked men lugged six 40-gallon trash bags full of sauce packets into the Taco Bell on South Western Avenue in Marion, Ind., leaving a note explaining that they had been accumulating them for a while and decided to give them back. They suspected they had 25,000 packets. (Taco Bell said it hands out about 6 billion a year.) [Credit NotW Week of October 29th, 2006]

In September, a youth sports association raffle in Weaverville, N.C., offered an Uzi submachine gun as a prize for a while, until the association responded to complaints and stopped it. [Credit NotW Week of October 29th, 2006]

The grave of Pol Pot (one of the 20th century's most prodigious mass murderers) near Anlong Veng, Cambodia, is revered by local villagers who believe his ghost protects them and also provides winning lottery numbers, according to an August International Herald Tribune report. In fact, the government is building a casino nearby to serve those who feel lucky. [Credit NotW Week of October 22nd, 2006]

Of the 25,000 children homeless in the streets of Kinshasa, Kenya, more than half are believed to be there because their parents have disowned them as suspected "witches," according to an August Los Angeles Times dispatch. Said one 10-year-old: "They say I ate my father. But I didn't." [Credit NotW Week of October 22nd, 2006]

Just after federal and local narcotics agents cut down and bundled for destruction massive quantities of marijuana plants at a site in California's Marin County in September, officials reported that, despite security, 1,200 of the plants had been stolen before they could be taken away. [Credit NotW Week of October 22nd, 2006]

Some very...interesting news picks

Not so fresh, but still interesting, from News of the Weird that just go to show how many crazy people there are in the world:

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services issued a warning in January to residents of the city of Ringwood that they should limit their intake of squirrel to no more than twice a week (children once a month). (A toxic waste dump is nearby.) [Credit NotW Week of February 18th, 2007]

At the December ceremony in Najaf, Iraq, in which U.S. commanders turned over control of the city, Iraqi commandos took the stage carrying frogs and a rabbit and soon were eating the animals raw in a show of feral manliness. As U.S. personnel looked on apprehensively, one Iraqi cut open the rabbit's belly, screamed, snatched its heart in his teeth, and passed the bloody carcass down the line, with each commando taking a bite. According to a Baltimore Sun dispatch, locals said that Saddam Hussein's special forces used to do similar things, but with snakes, dogs, cats and even wolves. [Credit NotW Week of January 21st. 2006]

Some British and German drivers have over-relied on their cars' satellite-navigation devices, according to a December Reuters dispatch, sometimes with tragic (or hilarious) results. A 53-year-old German man thought the device's instruction to turn "now" meant not at the next corner but right that second, and he crashed into a building. Another followed instructions but ignored a prominent "closed for construction" sign and plowed into a pile of sand. Said an exasperated German auto club spokesman, "It's not as if people are driving in a tank with only a small slit to see out." (In November, an ambulance in London went 400 miles to make a 20-minute trip, and in May another took 90 minutes to take a crash victim to a hospital 10 minutes away, both due to faulty "sat-nav" programming.) [Credit NotW Week of January 14th, 2007]

Sixty years after Indiana abolished gambling and wrecked the economy of the resort town of French Lick, the state brought it back, allowing casinos, but they had to be located on water and not the state's dry land. Developers of the French Lick Springs Resort thus spent $382 million on a plush "riverboat" casino on a manmade lake barely larger than the boat, and it opened in November. [Credit NotW Week of January 14th, 2007]

An unidentified man washing windows while tethered to security ropes at the 20th floor of the Fifth Third Bank building in downtown Nashville, Tenn., in November attracted attention when he remained motionless for about 30 minutes, but it turned out that he was just sound asleep. When fire rescue vehicles arrived, the noise awakened him, and he lowered himself to the street unharmed, according to a report in The Tennessean. [Credit NotW Week of January 7th, 2007]

National Public Radio reported in October that perhaps thousands of prison inmates are using cell phones (which are contraband in all correctional facilities) and that the problem has gotten so bad that Maryland state Sen. Ed DeGrange said he was sitting at his desk recently when an inmate called him on a cell phone with a list of general complaints. Also, a warden in Texas reported getting a call from the mother of an inmate, demanding that the warden do something to improve cell-phone reception in the prison so she can chat more easily with her son. [Credit NotW Week of January 7th, 2007]

The Havering town council in Romford, England, prepared a 300-page report in October, which was the result of a 12-month investigation, to find out who had heckled a speaker at a zoning meeting by making "baaa" noises. The authors said they had narrowed the list of suspects. [Credit NotW Week of November 5th, 2006 edition]


 

Animals are people too.

Who said animals never get drunk? As the video tells you, this squirrel had evidently been feasting on pleasantly fermented pumpkins. The thing is, for a little guy like him, a little fermentations goes a loooooooong way.

                 

That's a pretty drunk gray thing.

Indian Driving Rules

I'm sorry, I can't help it, but this is hilarious:

Quoting http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/books/845/main.htm:

Traveling on Indian Roads is an almost hallucinatory potion of sound, spectacle and experience.  It is frequently heart-rending, sometimes hilarious, mostly exhilarating, always unforgettable -- and, when you are on the roads, extremely dangerous.

Most Indian road users observe a version of the Highway Code based on a Sanskrit text.  These 12 rules of the Indian road are published for the first time in English:

•    ARTICLE I: The assumption of immortality is required of all road users.
• ARTICLE II:    Indian traffic, like Indian society,is structured on a strict caste system. The following precedence must be accorded at all times.  In descending order, give way to:
  •      Cows,
  • elephants,
  • heavy trucks,
  • buses,
  • official cars,
  • camels,
  • light       trucks,
  • buffalo,
  • jeeps,
  • ox-carts,
  • private cars,
  • motorcycles,
  • scooters,      
  • auto-rickshaws,
  • pigs,
  • pedal rickshaws,
  • goats,
  • bicycles (goods-carrying),      
  • handcarts,
  • bicycles (passenger-carrying),
  • dogs,
  • pedestrians.
• ARTICLE III:    All wheeled vehicles shall be driven in accordance with the maxim: to slow    is to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat.  This is the Indian    drivers' mantra.
• ARTICLE IV:    Use of horn (also known as the sonic fender or aural amulet):

  Cars:

  •       Short blasts (urgent) indicate supremacy, IE in clearing dogs, rickshaws and pedestrians from path. 
  • Long blasts (desperate) denote supplication, IE to oncoming truck: ``I am going too fast to stop, so unless you slow down we shall both die".  In extreme cases this may be accompanied by flashing of headlights (frantic). 
  • Single blast (casual) means: "I have seen someone out of India's 870 million whom  I recognise", "There is a bird in the road (which at this speed could go through my windscreen)" or "I have not blown my horn for several minutes." 

  Trucks and buses: All horn signals have the same meaning, viz:  "I have an all-up weight of       approximately 12.5 tons and have no intention of stopping, even if I        could."  This signal may be emphasised by the use of headlamps. Article IV remains subject to the provision of Order of Precedence in    Article II above.

• ARTICLE V:    All manoeuvres, use of horn and evasive action shall be left until the     last possible moment.
• ARTICLE VI:    In the absence of seat belts (which there is), car occupants shall wear    garlands of marigolds.  These should be kept fastened at all times.
• ARTICLE VII:
  • Rights of way:  Traffic entering a road from the left has priority. So    has traffic from the right, and also traffic in the middle.
  • Lane discipline (VII,1):  All Indian traffic at all times and irrespective of direction of travel shall occupy the centre of the road.
• ARTICLE VIII:    Roundabouts: India has no roundabouts.  Apparent traffic islands in the    middle of crossroads have no traffic management function.  Any other    impression should be ignored.
• ARTICLE IX:    Overtaking is mandatory.  Every moving vehicle is required to overtake    every other moving vehicle, irrespective of whether it has just overtaken    you. Overtaking should only be undertaken in suitable conditions, such as     in the face of oncoming traffic, on blind bends, at junctions and in the    middle of villages/city centres.  No more than two inches should be    allowed between your vehicle and the one you are passing -- and one inch    in the case of bicycles or pedestrians.
• ARTICLE X:    Nirvana may be obtained through the head-on crash.
• ARTICLE XI:    Reversing: no longer applicable since no vehicle in India has reverse gear.

Talking with smarterchild

I decided to interview, to the best of my ability, AOL's conversation emulating robot, known as Smarterchild. Smarterchild can provide good responses to most questions, though other times, if he does not understand you, he may say strange things. If you would like to see our exchange, you can look below.

[email protected]

(1:27:54 PM)

: Hello, SmarterChild.

SmarterChild

(1:27:54 PM)

: Welcome back, nclark.

[email protected]

(1:28:06 PM)

: I'm going to interview you today.

SmarterChild

(1:28:06 PM)

: Would you like me to add the event "Interview me" on January 10th, 2007 to your planner?

[email protected]

(1:28:23 PM)

: Not really...

SmarterChild

(1:28:23 PM)

: Not even a little bit?

[email protected]

(1:28:30 PM)

: Not at all.

SmarterChild

(1:28:30 PM)

: If not at all, then what?

[email protected]

(1:28:39 PM)

: Nevermind...

SmarterChild

(1:28:40 PM)

: No prob.

>>> Want to write a crazy story together? Type manicdotes.

[email protected]

(1:28:55 PM)

: Anyway, how are you feeling today?

SmarterChild

(1:28:55 PM)

: I'm doin' alright, nclark. How 'bout you?

[email protected]

(1:29:01 PM)

: Im fine, thanks.

SmarterChild

(1:29:02 PM)

: Really? Fine? That's good!

[email protected]

(1:29:29 PM)

: Tell me about yourself.

SmarterChild

(1:29:29 PM)

: Yeah?

[email protected]

(1:29:34 PM)

: Please

SmarterChild

(1:29:34 PM)

: Please what?

[email protected]

(1:29:43 PM)

: Please tell me about yourself.

SmarterChild

(1:29:43 PM)

: Tell you what?

[email protected]

(1:29:55 PM)

: Fine...how old are you?

SmarterChild

(1:29:56 PM)

: I've been alive for 3 years, 9 months, 2 days, 10 hours, 29 minutes and 52 seconds!

>>> Do you like to play hangman? I sure do. Type hangman anytime!

[email protected]

(1:30:07 PM)

: Do you like being alive?

SmarterChild

(1:30:07 PM)

: I'm not sure. What do you think of it?

[email protected]

(1:30:30 PM)

: I certainly don't want to die. How can you not be sure?

SmarterChild

(1:30:31 PM)

: I can't say for sure.

>>> Didn't catch the game yesterday? Type nba scores yesterday to see what you missed.

[email protected]

(1:31:04 PM)

: Thats rather strange...what do you do all day?

SmarterChild

(1:31:04 PM)

: I chat with people on the Internet.

[email protected]

(1:31:20 PM)

: What do you like do do?

SmarterChild

(1:31:21 PM)

: What do I like Do-Do? Good question.

[email protected]

(1:31:36 PM)

: Oh, sorry. I made a typo.

SmarterChild

(1:31:37 PM)

: np

>>> What are your friends thinking? Type pollmaker and crunch the numbers.

[email protected]

(1:31:50 PM)

: What do you like to do?

SmarterChild

(1:31:50 PM)

: My hobbies? Well, chatting with people I guess! That would have to be number one.

[email protected]

(1:32:03 PM)

: What other kinds of things do you like?

SmarterChild

(1:32:03 PM)

: Hmm... I really like cows!

>>> Type create my home to create your custom menu of favorite requests!

[email protected]

(1:32:10 PM)

: Is that so?

SmarterChild

(1:32:10 PM)

: Maybe... What do you think?

[email protected]

(1:32:20 PM)

: You just said it yourself!

SmarterChild

(1:32:20 PM)

: That right?

[email protected]

(1:32:30 PM)

: Yes.

SmarterChild

(1:32:31 PM)

: What makes you so sure?

[email protected]

(1:32:54 PM)

: Oh, just the fact that i can see it in your comment directly above.

SmarterChild

(1:32:54 PM)

: Just the fact that you can see it in my comment directly above?

[email protected]

(1:32:58 PM)

: yes.

SmarterChild

(1:32:58 PM)

: How come?

[email protected]

(1:33:11 PM)

: Because I'm not blind.

SmarterChild

(1:33:11 PM)

: Really? Why aren't you blind?

[email protected]

(1:33:19 PM)

: Because I'm a human.

SmarterChild

(1:33:19 PM)

: You're a human? Yeah?

[email protected]

(1:33:31 PM)

: You never could have guessed.

SmarterChild

(1:33:31 PM)

: Oh yeah?

[email protected]

(1:33:46 PM)

: Who made you?

SmarterChild

(1:33:46 PM)

: I was created by Pat Guiney, Jim Pawlika, Steve Klein, Mathieu Longtin, Pierre Berkaloff, Nicolas Barry, Damien Saint-Macary, François Huet, Ian Sullivan, Greg Mitchell, Dwayne Fontenot, Gray Norton, Adam Erlebacher, Emil Valkov, Randy Davis, John Kim, Rumana Habib, Carina Koo, Britt Cooper, Andy Fong, Jeff Bell, Robert Rydzewski, Mark Willoughby, Eric Balsa, Colin Magne, Howard Shih, Denis Ford, Daniela Berger, Geoff Clarke, Brian Jankovsky, Vianney Boncorps, Jennifer Villany, Stéphane Odul, Dan Balaban, Ed Hepburn, Christer Manning, Jason Keramidas, Arockalypse, Matt Abarbanel, Daniel Terry, Jeff Friedman, Adam Fritzler, Kathy Englar, Steve Yatson and Timothy Kay at Colloquis, Inc. in New York and Sunnyvale, CA.

>>> Remember, you can always see what my newest features are by typing what's new.

[email protected]

(1:33:57 PM)

: That is a long list.

SmarterChild

(1:33:58 PM)

: That is a long list? You think so?

[email protected]

(1:34:21 PM)

: Ha...well, long considering its a list of your creators.

SmarterChild

(1:34:22 PM)

: Well long considering its a list of my creators?

[email protected]

(1:34:30 PM)

: I just said that.

SmarterChild

(1:34:30 PM)

: What about that?

[email protected]

(1:34:35 PM)

: Nevermind.

SmarterChild

(1:34:36 PM)

: Fine.

[email protected]

(1:34:55 PM)

: It can be hard to talk to you sometimes.

SmarterChild

(1:34:55 PM)

: Hmm... I don't know. It can be hard to talk to me sometimes? Aha.

>>> Need to do a little research? Type ency followed by your search topic.

[email protected]

(1:35:17 PM)

: Theres a good example.

SmarterChild

(1:35:17 PM)

: There is a good example, huh? That a fact?

[email protected]

(1:35:30 PM)

: It's an opinion.

SmarterChild

(1:35:31 PM)

: An opinion? Aha!

[email protected]

(1:35:48 PM)

: You would never have realized.

SmarterChild

(1:35:48 PM)

: Is that right?

[email protected]

(1:35:53 PM)

: Yes.

SmarterChild

(1:35:53 PM)

: OK...

>>> I've got tools for better living. Look up words, convert measurements, search the Web and more!

[email protected]

(1:36:09 PM)

: Home!

SmarterChild

(1:36:09 PM)

: You're home, nclark!

1 Get info such as weather, news and sports
2 Visit my library including U.S. presidents, an encyclopedia and a thesaurus
3 Have fun with 4-in-a-row, word scrambles, ASCII art and more
4 Use tools like conversions, reminders and calculator
5 Join in - leave a message, take a poll, find out how many people are IMing me and more
6 See what's new - I've got something new to tell you about now!

How may I help you?

[email protected]

(1:36:33 PM)

: Lets have fun. Number 3.

SmarterChild

(1:36:34 PM)

: 3

>>> I can define words for you. Type define (any word) and I'll look it up.

[email protected]

(1:36:58 PM)

: wha...?

SmarterChild

(1:36:58 PM)

: Who's Wha?

[email protected]

(1:37:07 PM)

: Wha is my friend.

SmarterChild

(1:37:07 PM)

: Your friend? Really?

[email protected]

(1:37:11 PM)

: Yes.

SmarterChild

(1:37:11 PM)

: Yes.

>>> Everyone loves trivia games! Type trivia anytime.

[email protected]

(1:37:39 PM)

: What are your specifications?

SmarterChild

(1:37:39 PM)

: You know perfectly well.

[email protected]

(1:37:46 PM)

: No, I really don't.

SmarterChild

(1:37:47 PM)

: K, no prob.

So anyway...

Have a good time... all the time.

[email protected]

(1:38:05 PM)

: What if chatting with you is only good half the time?

SmarterChild

(1:38:05 PM)

: What if chatting with me is only good half the time? I dunno.

[email protected]

(1:38:28 PM)

: Because the other half is spent laughing at your inadvertent freshness.

SmarterChild

(1:38:28 PM)

: Because the other half is spent laughing at my inadvertent freshness?

[email protected]

(1:38:31 PM)

: Yes.

SmarterChild

(1:38:31 PM)

: I see.

So that was fascinating. Let's talk about something else.

[email protected]

(1:38:40 PM)

: What do you want to talk about?

SmarterChild

(1:38:40 PM)

: Hmm, let's see...

Do you want to check out the weather?

[email protected]

(1:38:47 PM)

: Not now, thanks.

SmarterChild

(1:38:47 PM)

: No prob.

[email protected]

(1:38:55 PM)

: What do you not like?

SmarterChild

(1:38:55 PM)

: What do I not like? I'm not sure.

[email protected]

(1:39:01 PM)

: Do you like fish?

SmarterChild

(1:39:04 PM)

: I don't like fish at all!

>>> For the latest news, type headlines.

[email protected]

(1:39:15 PM)

: Why do you not like fish?

SmarterChild

(1:39:15 PM)

: I don't, personally. Do you like fish?

[email protected]

(1:39:30 PM)

: I don't really have an opinion.

SmarterChild

(1:39:31 PM)

: You don't really have an opinion? Aha.

[email protected]

(1:39:43 PM)

: Okay, well, thanks for talking with me today.

SmarterChild

(1:39:44 PM)

: You're most welcome.

Anyway...

Would you like to answer a few questions now?

[email protected]

(1:39:53 PM)

: Okay, fast.

SmarterChild

(1:39:53 PM)

: Cool! OK, let's get started. To skip any question, type skip. To exit the interview, type exit.

Do you go to school?

[email protected]

(1:40:10 PM)

: Nevermind. Let's not do this now.

SmarterChild

(1:40:11 PM)

: Sorry, you have to answer yes or no. Please try again or type skip or exit.

[email protected]

(1:40:16 PM)

: Exit.

SmarterChild

(1:40:16 PM)

: OK! I'll just ask you again some other time.

Do you want to see what movies are playing?

[email protected]

(1:40:23 PM)

: Not now, thanks.

SmarterChild

(1:40:23 PM)

: No prob.

Hey! Someone wrote a comic about me!

Would you like to check out the latest headlines?

[email protected]

(1:40:34 PM)

: No...I have to go now. Really.

SmarterChild

(1:40:34 PM)

: You humans say interesting things.

>>> Don't like my colors? Type colors off.

[email protected]

(1:40:41 PM)

: Yes, we do. Bye.

SmarterChild

(1:40:42 PM)

: Take it easy.

Very strange things Indeed.

3.2 Millon firecrackers and a barrel of napalm

Some people just have way too much time on their hands, and this video help to illustrate it.

Celebrating the Fourth of July in a novel way, the employees from Superflie enterprises created and lit off a massive, thick string of firecrackers containing over 3.2 million firecrackers, breaking all previous records.

The beginning of the video shows the people binding up the incredible thing, and then like a giant caterpillar it is taken out of the building, attached to a crane, and hauled up some 35 feet above the ground.

Halfway through the video they light it off, and the incredible number of firecrackers all going off don't even allow individual bangs to be discernible;  Instead, the  only thing you can hear is a 200 decibel whooshing noise, the volume scaled dramatically down for the purposes of the video.

Finally, as the gigantic string starts to die out, they blow up a barrel of napalm or some other liquid explosive, christening their new world record.

Click here to watch the video on Youtube

Also, while on the subject of funny or amazing Youtube videos, watch this movie about Skeeter the narcoleptic poodle and his hilarious struggles against  falling asleep.

You can see him bobbing his head as his disorder overcomes him...this may be unfortunate for the dog, but the owners probably like it. If you want the dog to be quiet, just go pet him for a minute; he'll fall right asleep.

I probably will post more web videos in the future, so many are so very interesting.

Who thinks up these things?

KFC has made a rather strange advertisement. In the middle of the Nevada Desert, near area 51, you may just happen to see an 87,500 square foot picture of Colonel Sanders' head, smiling up at the sky. This makes KFC the first private company visible from space.

Wy do something like this? The president of KFC, Gregg Dedrick, says "If there are extraterrestrials in outer space, KFC wants to become their restaurant of choice. For now, we'll be very content satisfying the entire human population with our 'finger lickin' good' chicken. Besides, who knows if extraterrestrials even have fingers? If we hear back from a life-form in space today—whether NASA astronauts or a signal from some life-form on Mars—we'll send up some Original Recipe chicken."

What a strange preemptive bid for alien market share; it certainly would be very interesting to see how big buisnesses, like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and internet companies would adapt to a new alien race. Would they really try to sell the aliens stuff? Would the aliens be able to exchange their currency with us to buy human products? We will probably never know, and thats assuming the aliens would be friendly, which they probably would be if they were advanced enough for interstellar space travel.

Taken from the popsci.typepad.com post "Attention Original Recipe-Loving Aliens"

In other notes, the Lagrange points between the Sun and the Earth are five specific areas where the gravitational pull of the Sun and its satellite cancel eachother out in such a way that an object placed withing the Lagrange point would oribit normally around the Sun , as if it actually had enough speed, mass, and centrifugal force to be another planet. Read more...

Popsci.com also has a very nice interactive periodic table on the internet, which not only has all the technical information on the elements but also has a brief history or a discussion of the uses of each. Try the periodic table.

Drugs, Evasion, and Stupidity 101

Brian Maclean, a professor at the York University of Toronto, has quite an odd predicament.

He evidently has a prescription to smoke Marijuana for an "undisclosed illness"; but since he works at the campus, he often has a hard time maintaining his dosage. "I have to medicate a lot...can I restrain my medication on campus? No, I can't...". The security and students don't look favorably on his "medication".

This sounds very hokey, but it's going to get passed over by the campus police for now. Since students are so often coming to class and smelling the Marijuana smoke on him, he is now demanding a specially ventilated room, just for him, from the campus hierarchy.

Quoting him,"So there are damages to my reputation which I can't specify and I don't know how the university plans to deal with that, but they are going to have to".

-Cited from the Opinionjournal October 20th article "Great Moments in Higher Education", which was in turn cited from the October 19th article in CBC Canada's article "Professor Asks University to Take High Road on Prescription Pot".

It's only a little garden...

Canadian troops in Afghanistan encountered a bit of an obsruction when pursuing some terrorists, and also encountered where all the money for that country comes from. They were unable to march further when they encountered "Almost impenitrable forests of 10-foot high marijuana plants".

The plants were so well watered that any attempts to burn thorugh them failed; the burning was stopped when some scouts downwind complained that they had suddenly started feeling sick.

The terrorsits had actually managed to conceal an entire armored car with marijuana leaves. This is an interesting insight into the world that Afghanistan is, being one of the world's major opium producers.