UPDATE: These WERE images sent to me by my friend, and are not inaccurate - they were taken years ago - 2001 I believe.
HATLEY -- The Fisher family prefers not to think of themselves as vigilantes, even after a middle-of-the-night stakeout led to a high-speed chase and the blocking in of a vehicle until police arrived.
After seeing their mailbox smashed four times in less than two weeks and a seventh time in less than a year, they see their actions as justice.
While repairing the mailbox again on Saturday, Greg Fisher suspected that it might again be targeted. Fisher, 49, and his son Dustin, 18, took watch at 2 a.m. Sunday, and their diligence was rewarded less than an hour later when a truck drove past three times. The final time, a man took a baseball bat to the mailbox.
"It was frustrating watching someone smash your property," said Greg, who was in the house when the mailbox was smashed.
Dustin, who was waiting in a car in the driveway, followed the truck for more than eight miles through Hatley and onto Highway 29. As the truck reached speeds of nearly 100 mph, Dustin slowed down after getting a partial license plate number, he said.
A Marathon County sheriff's deputy, however, could not find the vehicle in Department of Transportation records using the partial number.
The Fishers said they have spent countless nights worried about smashed mailboxes and several Hatley businesses, including two the Fishers own, that recently were hit with paint balls. They weren't going to give up easily.
"We only did this because we felt very violated and targeted by whoever was doing it," said Greg's wife, Kim, 47.
While Kim and Dustin drove through Hatley hours later asking acquaintances about the truck, it drove past them and parked in the BP gas station. The two parked behind it and blocked it from leaving.
The Sheriff's Department again was called, and ultimately three 16-year-olds were referred on juvenile charges and a 19-year-old was referred to the district attorney's office on a charge of criminal damage to property, according to a police report. Neither the driver of the truck or Dustin was cited for speeding.
Marathon County sheriff's Lt. Randy Albert said the Fishers should have called police with the complete license plate number and vehicle description to avoid a potential confrontation.
"This one ended peacefully, but taking the law into your own hands can have tragic results, as well," Albert said.
Original hereFRIENDS of a fisherman still lost at sea off the NSW far north coast hope he will be found safe like his two crewmates.
Skipper Charlie Picton and his two deckhands were thrown into the sea when his trawler sank about 4am (AEDT) yesterday off the coast of Byron Bay.One of the deckhands, named as Michael Williams, 39, made a marathon 12-hour swim to safety and crawled onto New Brighton Beach, north of Byron Bay, about 4pm (AEDT) yesterday.
The second deckhand, John Jarret, was plucked from the water about 8.15am today by a Queensland rescue helicopter.
He was found floating 15km north-east of Ballina, suffering from hypothermia and dehydration.
The two men are being treated in separate far north coast hospitals.
Mr Jarret's family was today overjoyed by news of his rescue.
"It's beautiful, wonderful. I just can't wait to see him," his sister Rosemary Jarret told reporters on her way into Ballina hospital with other family members.
The search continues for Mr Picton, aged in his 30s from nearby Yamba.
Picton family friend Russell Creighton said most of the fishing trawlers based in Yamba had joined the search.
"I've known Charlie for a long, long time," Mr Creighton said.
"He's a Yamba resident - born and bred there and he's been a fisherman all his life."
Mr Creighton said he was a close mate of Mr Picton's father, also a fisherman, who might be involved in the search.
"A lot of our trawlers are up there participating in the search," he said.
"He's a really, really good fisherman - a nice young bloke."
"Like everyone, I'm waiting to hear the news."
Mr Creighton said Mr Picton was married and had a number of siblings.
Mr Williams, who is believed to be from Maclean, is a blackbelt in karate and his high level of fitness was probably a factor in his survival.
Chris Gort said he was second on the scene when Mr Williams crawled ashore at New Brighton Beach, near Byron Bay, about 4pm (AEDT) yesterday.
"I was walking along the beach and came across a female who had found this gentleman that had claimed he had been swimming for hours in the water and claimed that his boat had sunk," Mr Gort told Sky News.
"He had pretty bad cuts and bruises to his legs and his arms, he was pretty exhausted, pretty badly sunburnt."
The air and sea rescue operation continues with up to 10 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.
Police said conditions remained favourable for their search.
A spokeswoman for the Maritime Safety Authority said one of the men was found floating about 15km north-east of Ballina, on the NSW north coast, at 8.15am today.
A rescue helicopter airlifted the man to Ballina Hospital in an unknown medical condition but rescue crews are concerned for the man's wellbeing.
"Obviously he's been in the water for quite some time,'' the spokeswoman said.
Queensland Rescue spokesman Andy Christie said he spoke to the helicopter crew who located the second man.
"The crew said that he was talking, he was conscious - physically appeared to be okay ... but they were quick to point out that he had spent a very cold night in the water,'' Mr Christie told Sky News.
His friend, deckhand Michael Williams, 39, from Yamba raised the alarm. He was found in a distressed state by a local walker on New Brighton Beach, near Byron Bay, at 4pm after swimming at least seven nautical miles for help.
Williams left his two friends, skipper Charlie Picton and deckhand "JJ", clinging to an Esky from the stricken vessel the Sea Rogue, which left Yamba on Monday for a four-day prawning expedition.
The man, suffering extreme exhaustion and dehydration, told authorities the boat sank about 2am and he decided to leave the men floating in the water so he could raise the alarm.
Police said it was a miracle he managed to make it to shore.
A worker at a 24-hour emergency marine radio service based at nearby Point Danger said she heard the trawler had overturned.
Vessels working in the area were radioed to be on the lookout for "two men holding on to an Esky", she said.
Mr Williams was recuperating in Mullumbimby Hospital, where he remains in a stable condition.
It is thought the 18m, 100 tonne trawler hit a reef about 2am.
Inspector Owen King said the search would resume at daybreak today for the two men, who are also believed to be from Yamba.
Insp King said conditions in the search area, a vast expanse of ocean several nautical miles off Byron Bay, were "extremely treacherous" but was not abandoning hope for the two missing men.
"At this stage we are still looking for survivors," he said.
Lismore Westpac LifeSaver Helicopter spokesman Roger Fry told The Daily Telegraph last night the crew had made its last contact with the owner at 7pm on Monday.
Mr Fry said no emergency beacon or flares had been let off when the boat sank and after an exhaustive four-hour air search, they found nothing in the sea.
"Our crew didn't see anything, no debris, nothing whatsoever," Mr Fry said.
"We have reports they have something keeping them afloat but nothing was found. The problem is there is no definitive location of where (the boat) sank."
Rescue boats and helicopters will resume the search while police will patrol the coastline in case the men have managed to reach shore.
Uncertainty surrounds the cause of the tragedy but police dismissed reports the trawler had sunk after being struck by another, larger vessel.
Anne Frank 1941
Many Muslim-Americans choose to wear the hijab, a traditional head scarf. (M. Spencer Green/ AP Photo )But what if you witnessed "Islamophobia" in action and saw someone being victimized because of someone else's prejudices? What would you do?
ABC's production crew outfitted The Czech Stop, a bustling roadside bakery north of Waco, Texas, with hidden cameras and two actors. One played a female customer wearing a traditional Muslim head scarf, or hijab. The other acted as a sales clerk who refused to serve her and spouted common anti-Muslim and anti-Arab slurs.
The polarity of reactions was shocking, from support to seething disapproval. Never did we expect customers to be so passionate or candid.
"Get back on the camel and go back to wherever you came from," he said. "You got that towel on your head. I don't know what's underneath your dress. Just please take your business and go elsewhere with it."
"Sir, I am an American, I was born and raised here," she said.
The other customers seemed to hear the exchange but they barely looked toward our actors. When no one came to her defense, Sabina made a direct appeal to one customer.
"Sir, would you mind ordering me an apple strudel? That's why I am here," Sabina said.
Though visibly shaken by the hateful words, the man gave Sabina the cold shoulder, completed his purchase, and walked out of the bakery. "I really think that a person who owns his own business should be able to say who they sell to," he said after we told him about the experiment.
In fact, it is illegal for public establishments to deny service based on someone's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, according to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Regardless, this man was not the only customer to defend our sales clerk's "right" to discriminate.
Javed is not alone. The number of anti-Islamic hate crime incidents in the United States has more than quadrupled from 28 incidents in 2000 to 156 incidents in 2006, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most recent figures.
Back in the bakery, the next customers had a very different answer to the question of American identity. First we met a man who angrily refused to buy anything when the sales clerk refused to serve Sabina. When our actor chastised him for being a "bad American," he begged to differ. "I believe I am a good American," he said. "My son just came back from serving in the army for over a year in Iraq and that has nothing to do with her [Sabina's] rights. I am deeply offended by this."
When we told him about the experiment, he explained why he stood up for Sabina. "I believe that people who use dress, skin color, language, heritage, financial means, education level, any of those things to say one group is better than another are using empty excuses for bigotry and hatred, and there's been enough hatred," he said.
We also met two young women who refused to let our sales clerk's hateful words go unchecked. "Sir, we are not buying our kolaches because you are really offensive and disgusting," one said. "Just because she's dressed like that doesn't mean anything," said the other, a Muslim-American woman herself. Rather than simply taking their business elsewhere, the young women demanded to speak to the manager, and they also challenged our sales clerk's definition of "American." "She's American. She's American. I'm American. You're the one that's anti-American right now," one said to the sales clerk.
When he refused to budge and our actress turned to leave, the two women walked out with her in a show of support.
According to the spokesman of the Siktivkar Court, “thorough text expertise concluded Terentyev’s comment to incite hatred on base of religious, political or cultural differences, and also to abuse people publicly by means of mass media”.
In case proved guilty, Terentyev will be either charged the fine of 4 up to 12 thousand dollars or will have to pay off his 1 to 2-year minimum salary, or will be forced to obligatory work for 180 hours.
The accusation against the musician in based on the results of the expertise held in Komi Language and Literature University. They proved his comment in the LiveJournal to be immoral and abusive.
The case started a year ago, when Terentyev posted a comment in the blog of one of komi’s journalist. The comment was a rough offence to the police. In a few days Terentyev’s apartment was raided and system block with floppies was withdrawn.
Translated by Lena Ksandinova
Charlie Chaplin: Attacked in book
But the Nazis never saw the funny side when it came to Charlie Chaplin.
Adolf Hitler's hatred of the politically outspoken movie star is apparent in a yellowing book of Nazi propaganda which includes Chaplin in a hit list of prominent Jews.
The fact that Chaplin was not Jewish didn't save him from being a target. The book, Juden Sehen Dich An (The Jews are Watching You), brands him a "pseudo-Jew".
He was in excellent company. Albert Einstein was among the international Jewish figures listed in 95 pages corroded with hate.
The book, which includes names and photographs of activists, bankers, economists, journalists, academics and entertainers, was written by Dr Johann von Leers, a notorious anti-Jewish propagandist.
Published in Berlin in the 1930s, it is thought to have inspired Chaplin's classic comedy The Great Dictator, in which he both directed and starred.
In the 1940 movie, Chaplin plays a Nazi-like tyrant, Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomainia, clearly modelled on Hitler.
The book is to be auctioned in Shropshire next month.
Auctioneer Richard Westwood-Brookes said: "The book aims to attack leading Jews worldwide, warning the German people that these people were forming an international network aimed at world domination. Each leading Jew is featured with a photograph and a pen portrait, but by far the most remarkable and bizarre aspect of this book is the inclusion of Charlie Chaplin.
"He is attacked in a section named 'Artistic Jews', with the suggestion that he was of Jewish origin and therefore a pseudo-Jew.
"Chaplin must have feared for his life when he saw the book, because the majority of the people in this book were exterminated by the Nazis.
"These pieces of history serve as a reminder of what happened and what could have happened.
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Adolf Hitler: Chaplin mercilessly parodied him in The Great Dictator
"It's easy to look at movies, but when you have original pieces like this in your hand, it's chilling."
Film historian Kevin Brownlow said Chaplin made The Great Dictator in response to seeing himself on the book's hit list.
"The Nazis mistakenly thought he was Jewish because Chaplin never denied it," he said.
"He was sent a copy of this book and it is widely believed that this led to him to make the film The Great Dictator as an act of defiance."
Mr Brownlow said the picture of Chaplin used in the book was chosen because it was one in which he looked least like Hitler.
A film maker called Ivan Montague working in Berlin in the 1930s found a copy of the book and sent it to the actor.
"Chaplin even took the time to send a letter back to Montague, thanking him for sending the book," said Mr Brownlow.
"This shows us that Chaplin was very much aware of the book and was certainly roused by it."
Original here
You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!You got flickrolled!!!Fish can count, according to scientists, who have found that North American mosquito fish have the ability to count up to four.
Previously it was known that fish could tell big shoals from small ones, but researchers have now found that they have a limited ability to count how many other fish are nearby.
This means that they have similar counting abilities to those observed in apes, monkeys and dolphins and humans with very limited mathematical ability. Christian Agrillo, an experimental psychologist at the university of Padua in Italy said: "We have provided the first evidence that fish exhibit rudimentary mathematical abilities." Last year, he and his colleagues showed that if a female mosquito fish is harassed by a male, she will try to avoid his attentions by seeking solace in the largest nearby shoal; demonstrating that the fish can tell bigger shoals from smaller ones. The team first conducted a series of experiments to see whether a lone mosquito fish would prefer to join a shoal of between two and four others. The results, published on the BBC Worldwide's natural history site, loveearth.com, show that females preferred to join shoals that were larger by just one fish significantly more often - consistently preferring shoals of four fish rather than three fish, and consistently preferring shoals of three fish over those containing just two. A second series of experiments revealed the fish's ability to process larger numbers. The fish were not able to directly count over four, but they were able to distinguish between larger numbers if they differed by a ratio of 2:1. For example, the fish could distinguish between a shoal of 16, compared to a shoal of eight others. But they could not tell the difference between a shoal of 12 compared to a shoal of eight, a ratio of 3:2. This demonstrates that fish are able to visually estimate larger numbers - but not very accurately. Prof Angelo Bisazza, who led the latest research, said that fishes' numerical abilities were actually on a par with the numerical abilities of monkeys and human infants between six and 12 months old, who were both able to visually count small numbers and less accurately estimate larger ones. Adult humans use a third counting mechanism, in which they verbally count much larger numbers. Dr Agrillo said: "The most interesting thing is that fish performance is very similar to what is observed in adult humans who possess a very limited vocabulary for numbers." For example, speakers of the Amazonian language Mundurukú lack words for numbers beyond five. "Their limits in quantity tasks closely resemble what we found in pre-verbal organisms such as fish!" he added. A variety of animals, including pigeons, parrots, raccoons, ferrets, rats, monkeys and apes are to varying degrees capable of either counting, adding or subtracting numbers. Most need to be trained to do so. Without training, adult rhesus monkeys are capable of subtracting small numbers, and are capable of representing the number zero. Wild lions apparently have a rudimentary ability to count. When a pride of lions hears the roar of an approaching lion then two or three females, rather than a lone greeter will always go out to meet the stranger. But if two approaching lions can be heard, the resident females send out four of their own. |
Even sweating brings the 19-year-old out in a painful rash.
Ashleigh, from Melbourne, Australia, is allergic to water of any temperature, a condition she's lived with since she was 14.
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Ashleigh, 19, has been allergic to water for five yearsShe suffers from an extremely rare skin disorder called Aquagenic Urticaria - so unusual that only a handful of cases are documented worldwide.
When Ashleigh gets wet her body explodes in sore, itchy red lumps that take about two hours to ease.
She has to wash. But showering is a painful experience and she can only do it for a minute at a time.
These brief showers are the only contact Ashleigh has with water. The one thing she doesn't miss is the washing up.
"People find it hard to believe, they say things like 'Oh my god, how do you wash.
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The rash Ashleigh gets after coming into contact with water is MORE painful than it looks
"That makes me feel dirty, but I consider myself a very clean person," she said.
Most of us take showering for granted but for Ashleigh it's a painful endurance that often reduces her to tears.
"Although my rash is unsightly, and often looks like I'm diseased, the feeling is so much worse than it looks," she said.
"I can't go anywhere for about two hours afterwards because it's so severe.
"There's been many occasions where I've been so itchy, I've made myself bleed from scratching."
Away from water pretty Ashleigh appears like any other healthy teenager.
She leads a busy life studying Journalism and Public Relations at university and working in an office.
But if she gets wet she attracts unwanted attention.
"People stare at me in the street," said Ashleigh who lives with her mum Louise Miller, 42.
"After a shower I stay at home until it goes away, that frees me of the burden of having to explain."
Ashleigh spends a lot of time explaining her condition because few people have heard of it. Most doctors and dermatologists have never seen a case of it. "Many people don't even believe me when I tell them," said Ashleigh, who hardly believed it herself at first.
She developed the condition five years ago after an acute case of tonsillitis. She was prescribed a heavy dose of penicillin that rid her of the tonsillitis but left her with another problem.
"I suddenly started getting a rash after I showered or swam," says Ashleigh who used to swim regularly and spend a lot of time at the beach.
"I tried to ignore it but it got progressively worse so I went to see a dermatologist."
Ashleigh's dermatologist, Professor Rodney Sinclair, told her the penicillin had altered the histamine levels in her body and caused the Aquagenic Urticaria to occur.
There is no cure and no successful treatment for the condition so the gravity of the situation began to dawn on the 14-year-old Ashleigh.
"I was in disbelief for a while, but I soon realised how serious it was.
"I cried for a few hours, then picked myself up, and kept going. I realised it was something I had to live with," she says.
So Ashleigh found ways to avoid water - she stopped doing sports and anything that made her sweat.
She makes sure she stays in air-conditioned places and always has an umbrella in her car. Her family and boyfriend of three years, Adam, 23, are very supportive but her condition makes intimate moments with her Adam a little difficult.
"We have to sleep with a sheet between us at night, and I can't go near him if he's sweaty," said Ashleigh.
Even the experts seem a little vague about Aquagenic Urticaria.
Dermatologists agree there's an association with elevated blood histamine levels, but there are other processes at work since antihistamine drugs often provide no relief at all.
Nina Goad of the British Association of Dermatologists says: "There isn't a wealth of information about Aquagenic Urticaria because it's extremely rare.
"We're not sure how many cases there are in the world and we do not yet fully understand the precise mechanisms that trigger the weals."
Students aged just 13 were told to carry out the exercise in an English lesson in order to "get into the mind of a troubled teenager".
The school is situated just a few miles from the South Wales borough of Bridgend, an area which has been struck by a string of apparent hangings by young people.
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Outrage: Pupils at Radyr Comprehensive School were asked to write suicide notes in a lesson
Today the grieving mother of one of the victims said the task showed a "disgusting" lack of sensitivity in the wake of the tragedies.
And parents of the children who were asked to perform the "literary" exercise said it was inappropriate to ask young children to imagine having suicidal thoughts.
Year Nine pupils at Radyr Comprehensive School, in the outskirts of Cardiff are studying a book in which the main character finds his sister dead with a suicide note next to her body.
The children were asked to write their own version of the letter which features in Noughts and Crosses, by Malorie Blackman.
One parent said: "It's dreadful they were asked to do this at such a sensitive time.
"All the children are aware what is going on in Bridgend - what was this teacher thinking of?
"The pupils are being asked to express suicidal thoughts that they don't have - but who knows what that could lead to?
"My daughter said the book is making her depressed."
The headteacher of the 1,400-pupil school yesterday said their English teacher did not associate the class project with the Bridgend suicides - even though it is just 12 miles away.
A mother of one of the 17 suicide cases yesterday condemned the suicide notes class exercise as "disgusting".
Tracey Roberts, whose son Anthony Martin, 19, hanged himself almost a year ago, said: 'I find this very, very disturbing.
"The worst thing any parent can ever do is read a suicide note from your own child.
"It is a sick world when the schools are telling kids to do it.
"Quite honestly, it is disgusting. They should not be putting these ideas into the minds of 13-year-old children."
The 42-year-old added: "Discussing a proper suicide strategy for schools is a good idea - but getting these children writing suicide notes is just so wrong.
"This school is so close to Bridgend that all the children must be aware of what is going on. I think they should stop it immediately - they are playing with fire."
Mrs Roberts' son who was the fifth out of 17 young people to be found hanged in the Bridgend area since the start of last year.
Noughts and Crosses is not on the curriculum for all schools - but has been used as a text by Radyr Comprehensive for two years.
Headteacher Steve Fowler said today: "Noughts and Crosses is a well-known book by a highly regarded author, commonly read in schools.
"The suicide is a relatively small sub-plot in a book that deals with many weighty topics such as racism, terrorism and the death penalty.
"One of the main characters learns of the death of his sister and finds an envelope from her addressed to him."
Mr Fowler said the task was a 'spontaneous piece of writing' where children were asked not to turn over the page to find out what the letter said - but to write their own version of the suicide note.
He added: "Such predictive tasks are commonly set as activities in the study of any text.
"There are clearly grave sensibilities in South Wales at the moment about young people taking their own lives.
"However, the teacher setting the text did not associate the task with news stories but rather considered it part of the textual study of a serious book dealing with serious issues in a serious way.
"Any offence caused is completely unintentional."
A Cardiff council spokesman said: "Schools are expected to cover a range of sensitive issues with young people via the curriculum.
"This book was selected for study some time ago and we have no reason to doubt the ability of teachers at Radyr to deal with such matters in an appropriate manner."
A handout picture of Peter Schiff along with a dedication are shown Monday at the Anne Frank House in The Hague. Anne met Peter at school in 1940 and later, while in hiding in Amsterdam, wrote about how much she missed him. Anne died at Bergen-Belsen and Peter at Auschwitz.Anne Frank, the Jewish schoolgirl who wrote her diary while hiding from the Nazis in the Netherlands during World War II, was captivated by Peter Schiff.
She met him at school in 1940, his family also having fled from Germany to Amsterdam the previous year. At age 11, Anne fell in love with Schiff and later, while in hiding in Amsterdam herself, wrote about how much she missed him | Anne's attic Nov. 25: NBC's Dawna Friesen takes a tour of the Amsterdam house where Anne Frank hid from the Nazis. NBC News Web Extra |
Michaelis, who moved from Germany to Britain many years ago, said he has had the photo authenticated and that it will be displayed on the Anne Frank House Web site.
Schiff also is believed to have died in a Nazi prison camp.
The Anne Frank Foundation in the Netherlands was closed on Sunday and could not immediately be reached by The Associated Press for comment.
Reading brings to mind wisdom, the exchange of ideas and quiet contemplation. It does not bring to mind people who need help putting their pants on. These books change all of that.
This book contains enough compressed stupidity to erase all science as far back as the middle ages. The title alone proves the retardedness of everyone who's even touched it three times over:
1) They had to write both Lotto and Lottery on the cover, for fear of missing half their target market. "Dur, this book is for lott-e-ry, dat sounds more fancier than the lotto we simple folk play 'round these parts"
2) The use of "everyday players" make you realize that the target market for this book is a group of folks who think of themselves as mere regular players, while a secret cabal of professionals keeps scooping all the jackpots. Why, if only these everyday players had access to some kind of inside knowledge!
3) Third. Goddamn. Edition. We have no idea what possible refinements to lotto-winning technology the author could be adding each time, short of scribbling "hahaha, oh God this is working--I can't believe it's working" all over the proof copy before sending it back to the printers. A third edition of anything hasn't damaged our faith in humanity so much since the newspapers ran their "Princess Diana--still dead" memorials in 2000.
The back-cover blurb is an even richer treasure trove of anti-logic. Professor Smith proudly promises to reveal the secrets of interpreting your dreams with the end goal of predicting the winning lotto numbers. We hate to break it to you but if the best your conscious mind can come up with is "buy a book about how to win the lotto written by someone who has not done so," then we're guessing your mind is not an unharnessed money-making probability super-predictor.
This book is simply cruel. Buying a lotto ticket may be a tax on people who don't understand statistics, but it still provides that momentary hope--those few seconds where you get to picture yourself as a filthy rich hedonist. This book systematically harnesses and murders those hopes, telling the reader that playing the lotto is actually a valid financial strategy and something that can be worked at. When you're taking money AND killing the dreams of those with nothing to hope for but winning the lottery, you have officially reached the rank of King Bastard.
What You Could've Bought:
An Elementary Introduction to the Theory of Probability
Even the name of this book demonstrates that it doesn't know when to quit. "The Title: Subtitle (another bit of Title)"--You don't get up to 52 Sudoku ideas if you're even remotely prepared to cut unnecessary or pointless things. Even so they'd need to devote 10 secrets to "Picking up the pen" to get this many tips for such a mind bogglingly simple game. People like to believe that they're undiscovered super-geniuses because they can outwit the back page of a daily newspaper, which is why Sudoku are carefully crafted to:
a) Look smarty-pants because they have numbers in them.
b) Actually be about as difficult as writing down your credit card number.
They enable thousands of mobile office chair-weights to go about their day with the smug secret knowledge that they're actually pretty damn smart.
Tips include sage advice on topics such as "scanning the rows" and "filling in the gaps." Based on title alone, it's pretty clear that the author personally infiltrated the invisible floating MENSA fortress and wrestled secret Sudoku strategies out of the cold hands of dead Nobel Prize winners. The intellectual level of the average reader? Well, "scanning the rows" is split up over three separate tips. But it's not until you get to the part where two separate tips are given over to "taking a break" that you realize that the book you're reading was written after this phone conversation:
Publisher: We need a Sudoku book right now before the idiots lose interest!
Maths guy: How long have I got?
Publisher: The courier's on his way!
The fact that this book has specifically 52 great Sudoku-solving secrets is terrifying. The implication is that somebody might need to take a week to digest every tip about the secret mysteries of number writing over the course of a year, and that this person might be wandering around bookshops loose and looking for a car that looks interesting enough to walk out in front of. Nevertheless, at least this book keeps them safely occupied sucking the lead out of pencils, otherwise their stubbornness, ready cash and need for instructions for even the simplest of tasks could lead them to less benign pastimes.
What You Could've Bought:
How to Live a Life That's Not Boring
There are millions of masturbation manuals in the world, but most of them consist of pictures of girls (or guys) and a tactful understanding that the reader will just get on with it. Not many men are confident enough to interrupt another male mid-stroke with a stern cry of "You're doing it wrong!" let alone offer them instruction. But that's exactly what Dr. Litten did. Not only can he refer to masturbation as "solo sex" with a straight face, but he sold enough books to get a deal for a sequel.
Dr. Litten really set himself a challenge coming up with a sequel, considering that the final chapters of The Joy of Solo Sex included psychic masturbation and the Ultimate Orgasm (who, if memory serves, recently defeated the Hulk in a Marvel crossover). And seriously, what can you do after the Ultimate Solo Sex Orgasm, save for closing the Terminal Browser Window and shooting the Final Wadded-up Tissue into the wastebasket?
This may explain how Dr. Litten achieves the impossible halfway through his own book and fucks up masturbation (we're fairly sure fucks up masturbation is a fetish, but we're too terrified to Google it) with the chapter "Sharing Solos." We're not sure exactly how repressed the author is or how cruelly his burly father crushed his dreams of being a dancer, but once you've got two men naked, having handsex together we've got a different word for that. The ability to even write the phrase "sharing solos" and not see a problem indicates a level of psychotic self-denial that would make Nixon look like a weeping Oprah guest. The progression from "play with yourself" to "play with yourself and other naked men" puts you close to the most important naked-man-based revelation since Archimedes.
All of which is fine for Dr. Litten himself, but no use to the poor soul who's on his second "romance DIY" book and is expecting pages with titles like "Mongolian Thumb Twister" and "How to Make It Feel Like Someone Else!" to help pass the long, occasionally damp nights.
What You Could've Bought:
How to Talk to Women
Or, for one in 10 men (including Dr. Litten):
The Coming Out Guide
Supercharged quantum touch sounds like something Stephen Hawking has built into his wheelchair to disintegrate bullies who don't realize that the "Jock:Nerd" power dynamic changes radically after the first Nobel Prize. In reality it's what happens when someone sees a copy of Scientific American in the trash while trying to think up an official sounding name for 'waving your hands mystically and going ooga-booga.' "
The original quantum touch therapy consists of imagining colors and focusing on body parts. That's it. That's the entire therapy. The book jacket is lined with gushing testimonials from those who have been Quantumly touched, about how much supercharging things enhanced their incredibly gullible lives.
Considering that these are people who believed the first book which said "think about the color red and you'll feel good," a book that asks you to "think about the color red harder and you'll feel EVEN BETTER" didn't have to deliver much.
Hard scientific evidence is provided by the fact that thinking about silver can provide the same benefits as colloidal silver. Obviously the "it's the same color so it should do the same thing" school of medicine isn't very popular, but that's just because Big Pharma doesn't want the little man to know that a bag of Skittles can cure AIDS.
Add the fact that colloidal silver has slightly fewer medical benefits than punching yourself in the face and you've got a treatment so many levels removed from reality there's a genuine risk it could be run over by Superman riding a unicorn on his way to meet a reasonable political blogger.
Mr. Herriott insists on being called "Dr.", having a Ph.D. in naturopathic medicine, but is strangely reticent to mention where it comes from--possibly because the true center of naturopathy, Narnia, can only be found by those pure of heart.
What You Could've Bought:
Quacks: Fakers & Charlatans in Medicine
We do have the cover image for 'Much Ado About Nothing' as well, but this picture is much, much funnier.
Star Trek features warp drives, holodecks and the cures to all modern diseases--and the part that an army of nerds decided to spend all their time thinking about is a made-up language. Since the "fictional language" and "classical literature" markets don't actually overlap, this book is proof that a small but very profitable core of fans will buy absolutely anything connected to their chosen obsession. As soon as someone casts limited-edition Borg models out of depleted uranium rods, they'll solve the nuclear waste problem, earn a lot of money and--after a small lethal exposure period--eliminate all "Kirk Vs. Picard" arguments.
Even assuming you receive a cranial trauma serious enough to make "Shakespeare as portrayed by prune-headed aliens" seem like a good idea, why would you ever pick the goddamn romantic comedy? Of all the Bard's works, this is the one that benefits least from a warrior culture and a language that sounds like you're choking on a furball. Hamlet would work, and be 20 times shorter as it would skip directly to the final scene where everyone kills each other. Macbeth would no longer be driven mad, cursed and slaughtered for his regicide:
MhaQ'Beth: I've just killed the king!
Klingon population: Awesome! Hail King MhaQ'Beth!
Macbeth: w00t!
Or how about Othello, where things would have gone much easier for everyone:
I'agHo: My lord, I fear your wife is unfaithful with ...
OKHel'lo: How dare you, you filthy P'tagh!
If you must have Klingon romance (in which case there are a number of terrifying forums that cater to your deeply disturbing needs), at least go with Romeo and Juliet. Sure, it's an insane tale of pedophilia*, murder and suicide but since the only acceptable method of Klingon suicide is to attack a larger force, the final scene would be much less sissy as K'Romm'O and Jhilleat declare war on Europe and charge the entire German army together. Like Butch and Sundance, but with fucking.
Ivan Segedin's subterfuge killed him when he was in a head-on car crash while wearing a fake seatbelt, a coroner says.
"Ultimately Mr Segedin's actions in driving without a seatbelt have cost him his life in an accident that he may well have survived had he worn one," coroner Carla na Nagara said yesterday.
Mr Segedin died in a crash on July 22 last year near Okato, in Taranaki, from multiple injuries when his car crossed the road and collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle, the coroner said.
Mr Segedin, 39, refused to wear a seatbelt and had been fined for not wearing one 32 times since February 2003.
Examination of his car found that, though it was fitted with proper seatbelts, an additional belt with a long strap had been knotted above the seatbelt on the driver's side, providing a belt to simply sit over the driver's shoulder, Ms Nagara said.
Presumably this was to create the illusion to a passing motorist or police officer that a seatbelt was being worn when it was not.
Mr Segedin's car had an expired warrant, was full of rust, and an autopsy blood test showed he had taken methamphetamine and cannabis. But Ms Nagara said not wearing a seatbelt was the one variable that made the difference between life and death. "He died when quite possibly he need not have."
His fatal injuries were caused when he was thrown forward on to the steering wheel in a low-impact crash.
No blame or responsibility for the crash rested on the other driver, Ms Nagara said.
Ivan Segedin's subterfuge killed him when he was in a head-on car crash while wearing a fake seatbelt, a coroner says.
"Ultimately Mr Segedin's actions in driving without a seatbelt have cost him his life in an accident that he may well have survived had he worn one," coroner Carla na Nagara said yesterday.
Mr Segedin died in a crash on July 22 last year near Okato, in Taranaki, from multiple injuries when his car crossed the road and collided head-on with an oncoming vehicle, the coroner said.
Mr Segedin, 39, refused to wear a seatbelt and had been fined for not wearing one 32 times since February 2003.
Examination of his car found that, though it was fitted with proper seatbelts, an additional belt with a long strap had been knotted above the seatbelt on the driver's side, providing a belt to simply sit over the driver's shoulder, Ms Nagara said.
Presumably this was to create the illusion to a passing motorist or police officer that a seatbelt was being worn when it was not.
Mr Segedin's car had an expired warrant, was full of rust, and an autopsy blood test showed he had taken methamphetamine and cannabis. But Ms Nagara said not wearing a seatbelt was the one variable that made the difference between life and death. "He died when quite possibly he need not have."
His fatal injuries were caused when he was thrown forward on to the steering wheel in a low-impact crash.
No blame or responsibility for the crash rested on the other driver, Ms Nagara said.
A 'bird boy' was found in Volgograd several days ago. A 7-year old boy was taken away from his mother, 31. A woman took an interest in birds more than in her own son, that’s why he became a real Mowgli.
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A boy lived with his mother in a 2-room apartment full of cages with feed and droppings. She had her own domestic birds and fed wild ones. A woman neither beat him nor left him without food. She just never talked to him. It was all the birds that communicated with the boy and taught him birds’ language.
“When you start talking to him, he chirps”, - says Galina Volskaya, a social worker of Kirovskiy region, Volgograd. A boy doesn’t understand human language at all. He just chirps and when realizing that he is not understood, starts to wave hands in the way birds winnow wings.
The boy’s mother signed an abdication from a child. A boy now lives in the asylum, but soon will be transferred to the center of psychological care. The child has a so called “Mowgli syndrome”, which in the past years has become widely spread. for example, during the last 2 months 5 children with the same symptoms were found.
In Cambodia a 27-year old wild woman was recently found. She lives in the jungles, walks nude and doesn’t understand human language. However, a local policeman acknowledged her as his daughter that got lost 18 years ago while at 8. In Africa a 10-year old boy was found among the pack of monkeys. In the USA 2 girls were brought up by a pack of monkeys. In Russia a 9-year old boy became a head of wild dogs’ tribe.
Translated by Lena Ksandinova
It has to be said: female school teachers are the new male Catholic priests.
Sexual offenses committed by female teachers is at its peak, much like the libidos of the accused. While male teachers are (rightfully) lambasted for their sexual misconduct, women seem to get off much easier - literally and figuratively. And why, you ask? The answer is simple: older women seducing younger men is part of our culture, like it or not. Just ask Mrs. Robinson, or Stifler’s Mom.
South Park touched on the subject in “Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy,” where Kyle’s little brother Ike has an affair with his Kindergarten teacher. The cops in the episode have a field day with the case, exclaiming “niiiiiiiiice” after hearing about the teacher’s naughty secret. Their point, however blurry, was well taken: everybody loves a sexed-up authoritative figure, within reason.
My point and solution? Horny teachers should wait, ever so patiently, until their prey graduates. If you’re into kids, you derserve to be locked up; if you’re into being the older lady for kicks, play your cards right, don’t break the law, and have at it like a jackrabbit.
We here at COED do not condone sexual misconduct by any means, unless said means consist of hot, willing and able teachers getting down with young studs. Just kidding…?
Check out 18 of America’s Sexiest Sex Offenders after the jump and vote!
Cameo Patch
Age at time of offense: 29
Location: Toole County, UT
Occupation: Substitute Teacher
Lover: 17 year-old male student
Crime: Performing oral sex on a minor. Charged with unlawful sexual conduct and lewdness
Sentence: $2000 fine, 36 months probation and ordered to obtain a psycho-sexual evaluation.
Angela Comer
Age at time of offense: 26
Location: Kentucky
Occupation: Middle School Math Teacher
Lover: 14 year-old male student
Crime: Fled the country with a 14-year-old lover and her four-year-old son.
Sentence: Indicted by a grand jury in Kentucky on felony custodial interference, two counts of third-degree sodomy and four counts of unlawful transaction with a minor relating to sexual acts.
Danielle Walls
Age at time of offense: 25
Location: San Diego, CA
Occupation: High School History Teacher
Lover: 16 year-old male student
Crime: 10 to 25 sexual encounters with a minor, supplying drugs and alcohol to a minor. Pled guilty to multiple counts of unlawful sexual contact and furnishing alcohol to a minor in addition giving a controlled substance to a minor.
Sentence: 1 year in jail, 5 years six months probation.
Christine Scarlett
Age at time of offense: 39
Location: Strongsville, OH
Occupation: Art Teacher
Lover: 17 year-old male student
Crime: Scarlett allegedly held a win a date with a teacher contest, and took Bradigan to Dairy Queen. Bradigan said Scarlett then made a move on him in the parking lot of a Strongsville mall. Bradigan says a sexual relationship followed.
Sentence: Sentencing yet to take place.
Amber Jennings
Age at time of offense: 30
Location: Dudley, MA
Occupation: High School English Teacher
Lover: 16 year-old male student
Crime: Emailing nude pictures and video of herself to a former student. Pled guilty to “disseminating harmful materials to a minor”.
Sentence: 2 years probation
Rebecca Dawn Bogard
Age at time of offense: 27
Location: Biloxi, MI
Occupation: High School Teacher
Lover: 16 year-old male student
Crime: Sent explicit text messages and trysted with the victim in her white Jaguar, which bore the license plate “GRRRRR.”
Sentence: Facing felony sexual battery charges.
Mary Kay Letourneau
Age at time of offense: 34
Burien, WA
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher
Lover: 13 year-old male student
Crime: Having sex with a minor.
Sentence: Pled guilty to two counts of second-degree statutory rape and was sentenced to 89 months in prison.
Fact: Letourneau was her victims 3rd grade tacher and began their sexual relationship when she taught him again in 6th grade when he was 13 years old. Letourneau gave birth to his love child while serving her 89 month prision sentence. Letourneau was released from prision in 2004 and was married to her victim (now 21 years old) one year later.
Pamela Smart
Age at time of offense: 23
Location: Derry, NH
Occupation: Media Services Coordinator
Lover: 15 year-old male
Crime: Seduced 15-year-old William “Billy” Flynn and threatening to leave him unless he killed her husband.
Sentence: Charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Note: Nicole Kidman portrayed Pamela Smart in the movie To Die For.
Janelle Batkins
Age at the time of crime: 42
Location: Clinton, MI
Occupation: French Teacher
Lover: 17 year-old male student
Crime: Had sex with underage student at her home over a several month period.
Sentence: Charged with two counts of CSC and if convicted she will serve jail time.
Loni Folks
Age at time of offense: 24
Location: Petal, Mississippi.
Occupation: 5th Grade Teacher
Lover: 16 year-old male student
Crime: Arrested on Jan 28, 2008 for having sexual relations with a minor.
Sentence: Charges pending.
Sandra Geisel
Age at time of offense: 42
Location: Colonie, NY
Occupation: English Teacher
Lover: 4 students incuding a 16 year-old student.
Crime: Having sex with 4 students including a minor in the backseat of her car.
Sentence: Albany County District Attorney’s office filed two felony rape charges.
Heather Shelton
Age at time of offense: 22
Location: Buncombe, NC
Occupation: Teacher’s Assistant
Lover: 18-year-old student
Crime: In North Carolina it is a felony for any teacher to have sex with a student regardless of the age of the student.
Sentence: Fired from her job
Carrie McCandless
Age at time of offense: 29
Location: Jefferson County, CO
Occupation: High School English Teacher
Lover: 17 year-old male student
Crime: Having sex with a minor during a school sponsored camping trip to the Rockies. Pled guilty to tampering with evidence and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Sentence: 45 days in days in prison, 5 years probation, 1 - two year deferred sentence, 1 – 4 year deferred sentence and 10 year registration as a sex offender
Odd Fact: Carrie’s husband was the school’s principal.
Amy McElhenney
Age at time of offense: 25
Location: Austin, TX
Occupation: High School Spanish Teacher
Lover: 18-year-old student
Crime: Charged with having an improper relationship with a student, a second-degree felony.
Sentence: A conviction on a second-degree felony could result in up to 20 years in prison
Notes: Competed in the 2002 Miss Texas pageant after she was crowned Miss Bexar County.
Pamela Rogers Turner
Age at time of offense: 27
Location: McMinniville, TN
Occupation: Elementary School Teacher, Physical Education and Basketball Coach
Lover: 13 year-old male student
Crime: Having vaginal and oral sex with a minor on more than a dozen occasions at school, her home and the teens’ home. She was later arrested for sending nude photos, sex videos and text messages to a minor and continuing communications with the boy through blogs and a website after her original arrest. She was ultimately charged with 4 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and violation of probation
Sentence: 270 days in prison, an 8-year suspended sentence, 7 years 3 months probation, register as a sex offender and surrender her teaching certificate for life.
Debra Lafave
Age at time of offense: 25
Location: Tampa, FL
Occupation: Middle School Teacher
Lover: 14 year-old male student
Crime: Numerous sexual encounters with a teen in her classroom, her home and her SUV. Charged with 4 felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition.
Sentence: 3 years house arrest, 7 years probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender who cannot work near children
Odd Fact: Nick Carter claims to have lost his virginity to Ms. Lafave
— Honerable Mention —
*Neither of the two below have been convicted of a sex crime*
Erica Chevillar
Age: 26
Location: Boca Raton, FL
Occupation: 10th grade social studies teacher
Notes: Posed for the US National Bikini Team and resigned rather than facing punishment when parents in the school district saw the pictures online. After resigning Chevillar posed for Playboy and joined WWE’s Diva search.
Check out Erica’s super hot Playboy and US Bikini Team pics here.
Tamara Hoover
Age : 29
Location: Austin, TX
Occupation: Art teacher
Crime: Allegedly being the subject of explicit photos that had been posted on Flickr, a public photograph sharing website.
Sentence: Agreed to resign from her position at Austin High School in Texas and received a $14K settlement from the school.
Who is America’s Sexiest Sex Offender
