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BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .')
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 24 Jan 13 - 10:01 PM Death knell for cemetery coffin dunny A small far north Queensland town will today hold a funeral for its controversial coffin-shaped toilet. The oddly shaped outhouse stands at Millaa Millaa's cemetery but the Tablelands Regional Council ordered its removal because of complaints and a failure to meet building standards. Pat Reynolds from the local chamber of commerce says it will be moved to a nearby paddock in a funeral procession today. He says the community has lost what could have become an iconic attraction. "There will be a funeral for it, as we're calling it the death of common sense at the cemetery," he said. "The weather's obviously going to have some effect on it but we will be removing the toilet from the cemetery. "There will be a procession as we move it to its new spot just down the road." read on & check out the picture! & here are a few more The long drop: Australia's outback dunnies When plumbing is but a pipe dream, it's time to dig a pit and build yourself an outhouse When you've gotta go in the outback, it's the blistering desert or one of Australia's finest traditions -- the dunny. "They were funny-looking buildings, that were once a way of life, If you couldn't sprint the distance, then you really were in strife. They were nailed, they were wired, but were mostly falling down, There was one in every yard, in every house, in every town. They were given many names, some were even funny, But to most of us, we knew them as the outhouse or the dunny." -- Anonymous The outhouse, the thunder box, the long drop, the biffy and the kybo. Most cultures around the world have some version of a toilet separated from main buildings and in Australia it's called the dunny. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Jan 13 - 12:43 AM That makes sense. Just the process of having pets that go from being house pets to outside pets involves a learning curve. My two dogs had quite a bit of teaching to do when I took in a friend's lab after she was hurt in an accident last year at this time. After a year with them he's a pro, but it took a while for him to figure out what they were barking at, what they were grazing on, how you're suppose to howl when the fire truck goes by on the road, and not just howl at the coyotes beyond the back fence. :) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 13 Jan 13 - 08:31 PM Here in the southern US, donkeys have been being used as guard animals in livestock herds for a number of years. They particularly don't like coyotes and rattlesnakes. However, local wisdom (aka conversations overheard at the feedstore) is that rescue animals, especially abandoned family pets, don't adapt well to their guardian role. They need to be introduced to the livestock herd at a young enough age to bond with it. Otherwise, they tend to be loners and may even fight with the animals they're supposed to be protecting. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 13 Jan 13 - 07:42 PM I've heard of alpacas bonding with sheep to protect them & even seen one in action at the Bendigo Sheep & Wool show a few years back. I'd just read the blurb on the tent of the bloke selling alpacas to protect sheep, when a yappy dog walked walked the laneway. The alpaca was sitting with 3 sheep in a pen & looked up sharply, then stood facing the dog to protect it's sheep! Desperate farmers turn to donkeys for protection Demand is on the rise for rescued Hunter Valley donkeys to protect stock from being maimed or killed by wild dogs. Wild dogs are considered so devastating across New South Wales that scientific officials have declared them a key threatening process. Farmers lose millions of dollars each year and now they are turning to donkeys, which are notorious for fending off dogs. The Good Samaritan Donkey Sanctuary in the Hunter Valley has taken to pairing donkeys with desperate farmers like Mike O'Brien. Mr O'Brien travelled from Queensland to get his donkeys Milo and Coco. He says he has lost no sheep since they started work. "I've tracked dingoes going flat across a paddock and seen the donkey tracks after them," he said. "The dogs have taken-on an electric fence. So they really stick the skids on under the dogs if they turn up in your area - and they do kill dogs. "I've had all the donkey/ass jokes told to me and it's like water off my back. "I'm marking 100 per cent lambs again, so I'm smiling." Mr O'Brien says donkeys are tough, bond well with stock and live up to 40 years. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 30 Dec 12 - 08:28 PM Rescued hiker fined over potatoes, naan bread A man has been fined for not preparing adequately before setting out on a three-day trek in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Police say the 29-year-old only had a kilo of potatoes and a naan bread in his backpack when he left for the walk on Wednesday afternoon. The man, from Victoria, failed to show up at his destination three nights later. A search involving two helicopters and volunteer rescue workers was launched on Saturday afternoon. Four hours after it began, the man was found and winched to safety from the Wolgan Valley. He was found to have a minor ankle injury but declined treatment. He was taken to Katoomba Police Station and issued with a $500 fine. Inspector Brenton Charlton from the NSW Police Rescue Force says the man was fined for for putting his own safety, and the safety of others, at risk. "When the man set out he had with him a kilo of potatoes and naan bread," he said. "We believed the 29-year-old placed himself and the search teams at risk through his lack of planning and preparation, and through carrying inadequate provisions." Police also allege his intended route, through remote terrain, would have been extremely difficult to complete safely. They say it would have taken much longer than the man had estimated. ============= Fires are forbidden, so if he has wanted to cook the spuds, he could have caused a bush fire. If he had matches. ==================== |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Nov 12 - 12:24 PM Making our Cities More Resilient Can't Wait by Richard Florida. Millions upon millions of people live in coastal cities — not just New York and the Boston-Washington corridor, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, and New Orleans, but also many of the great cities in the emerging economies of Asia, India, and around the world. Their coastal locations are what fueled their growth in the first place, as a recent study titled "The United States as a Coastal Nation" [PDF] shows. Read the rest of the article at the link. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Ed T Date: 21 Oct 12 - 12:10 PM ""Driving while wearing Ugg boots could severely damage your health. Vera Baxter, a 49-year-old assistant head teacher, has told a Manchester court she ''thought she was going to die'' when one of her boots became trapped under the brake pedal"". Driving with Ugg boots |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Ed T Date: 21 Oct 12 - 10:24 AM TSA Removes X-Ray Body Scanners From Some Major Airports: Body scanners |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Oct 12 - 12:17 AM Here's a nice story. Music in nature, but I don't want to start a whole thread for it. Mr. Sollecito's Ultimate School of Rock. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 15 Jul 12 - 07:21 PM Guantanamo lawyer Mori moves to Australia AAP The US military lawyer who defended Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks has settled in Melbourne with his family. The Age reports Michael Mori will start his new job on Monday in the Lonsdale Street offices of the plaintiff law firm Shine. Mr Mori, 46, was passed over three times for promotion after defending Mr Hicks and was critical of the US military commission trial processes. In 2007 he was threatened with court martial for speaking out for Mr Hicks. He told The Age that he finally secured his promotion to lieutenant colonel in 2009 and ended up as a military judge in Hawaii before retiring this year. Mr Mori has to study some local subjects to gain formal admission as a solicitor in Victoria but will immediately take a role expanding his new firm's social justice work. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 13 Jul 12 - 03:13 AM next!! click on the link to see the photo The first photo ever uploaded to the internet Every day millions of photos are uploaded to the Internet on countless blogs, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, etc. But have you ever wondered what the very first image upload looked like? Well look no further, because the tech site Motherboard has done the digging for you, with writer Abraham Riesman posting a story to mark the upcoming 20th anniversary of the upload. In 1992, a picture of the parody band Les Horribles Cernettes, that was digitally altered in Photoshop, earned the distinction of becoming the first World Wide Web photo upload. So who are these ladies pictured in the image? The group of ladies were lab employees who worked for CERN, a research laboratory in Geneva where major discoveries have been made, including the project that started the World Wide Web, and more recently, the discovery of the Higgs boson. The internet's creator, Tim Berners-Lee, was looking to test a Web system that could support photos and asked IT developer Silvano de Gennaro to provide an image. De Gennaro chose an edited image of the ladies of Les Horribles Cernettes, whose nerdy song lyrics included the words "you say you love me but you never beep me." Part of the reason the upload was so revolutionary was because the Internet was previously seen as a place for conducting serious business, not having fun. De Gennaro, who snapped the picture of the ladies for their next CD cover, never could have imagined the place it would have in history. "I didn't know what the Web was," he said later. "When history happens, you don't know that you're in it." July 18 marks the photo upload's 20th anniversary, although, as Mr Riesman clarifies, this is not the first photo on the Internet; rather it was the first photo on the World Wide Web, which was developed at CERN, linked to the Internet |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Jul 12 - 02:23 AM What a great story, Sandra! Here's an odd one to follow it with: Michigan woman kept friend's body for 18 months. A 72-year-old Michigan woman kept the body of her dead companion bathed, dressed and sitting up for a year and a half after his death because she didn't want to be alone, according to M Live, a Michigan news and information blog. Linda Chase said that she knows what she did may seem morbid, but that she kept the body of her friend Charles "Charlie" Zigler, who is believed to have died of natural causes around Christmas of 2010, so that she would have someone with whom to talk and watch NASCAR races on TV. "It's not that I'm heartless," she said, "I didn't want to be alone. He was the only guy who was ever nice to me." Jackson, Michigan police found Zigler's body sitting up in a living room chair, mummified. Chase said that there was never a bad smell from the cadaver, and that contrary to what neighbors and some media outlets are reporting, she and Zigler were merely friends, not a romantic couple. "If you had to know Charlie, he had the best sense of humor in this whole world," Chase told M Live. She liked to buy him western shirts and would bake him a birthday cake each year. The two would often go on fishing trips together and watch NASCAR races, she said. They shared a home for more than ten years. "We just had so much fun together," she said. Zigler's family members became concerned when they did not hear from him for an extended period of time, finally contacting police, who entered the home on Friday and found the body. Chase has not been arrested but is under investigation for financial fraud. Zigler's 48-year-old son said that his father received checks from Social Security, the Veterans' Administration and a pension fund. Chase continued to cash the checks, just as she had when he was alive. She said that she knows people will think it strange that she kept Zigler's body for so long, and that she doesn't entirely understand why she did what she did. She told a reporter from TV station WLNS, Channel 6 that at 72, she feels that she's lost too many people in her life. "I know this is horrible, but after awhile, you get…" she said, tears welling up in her eyes, "I don't know what you call it, I don't know." |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 12 Jul 12 - 05:31 AM Texas Man Reunited With Stolen Austin-Healey 42 Years Later When we lose something, we search for it for about a week, get frustrated, complain that the cops aren't doing enough, and eventually forget about whatever it was that was lost. We've never had a car stolen, though. Bob Russell has, and even after 42 years, he was consistently on the hunt for his long lost beauty. Russell's 1967 Austin Healey 3000 was jacked from his Philly apartment the morning after his second date with now-wife Cyndy. For decades, Russell, a 66-year-old retiree, checked random Austin-Healeys on the road as he searched and searched and searched. Once the World Wide Web became available, his methods changed entirely, hunting on online auctions frequently for that particular VIN. On Friday, May 11, Russell's eyes must have looked the size of the car's bugeye headlights, as he found the car at Beverly Hills Car Club on eBay. He had the original police report reactivated, had the car impounded and ended up spending about $1,500 and six days of travel and hotel costs to get the car back in his possession. This has us believing there really is one true love you're supposed to be with. |
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Subject: BS: Hawk or Mohawk? From: Bert Date: 26 Mar 12 - 11:23 AM It really isn't funny, but.... Man who shot woman says he thought Mohawk was bird GRAND JUNCTION — A 49-year-old Grand Junction man who said he shot a woman in the head when he mistook her large red Mohawk for a fowl that had been harassing his cats has been sentenced to five years probation. Derrill Rockwell told police he fired one shot at what he thought was a bird sitting on a hill near his home Oct. 5, and soon after, he heard a woman moaning in pain. Prosecutors say the "bird" turned out to be a 23-year-old woman who may have been sleeping on the hill. Her injury was not life threatening. The Daily Sentinel reports Rockwell was sentenced Friday for felony possession of a weapon by a prior offender. Prosecutors say the woman, who is believed to be a transient, has left Colorado and could not be reached to testify. Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/robbery-135807-early-springs.html#ixzz1qEjXVd00 |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Mar 12 - 01:50 PM Great one, Sandra. That is the photo of the day only today. To find it later, go to http://htwins.net/scale2/ Here's a short and sweet story: PA zoo gives aging gorilla a bunny companion photo. An elderly gorilla that lives at a Pennsylvania zoo has a new companion: a bunny named Panda. The Erie Zoo's gorilla, Samantha, has been without a full-time friend since the death of Rudy, a male gorilla, in 2005. But officials say the 47-year-old western lowland gorilla is too old to be paired with another gorilla. So they opted last month to introduce her to Panda, a Dutch rabbit, last month. The Erie Times-News reports Samantha and Panda get along well. Samantha will gently scratch under the bunny's chin and share her food. Officials at the zoo say Samantha has always had a gentle personality. She was hand-raised and was more comfortable around humans even when Rudy was alive. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 12 Mar 12 - 03:55 AM APOD - Astronomy Picture of the day 2012 march 12 The Scale of the Universe - Interactive Flash Animation Credit & Copyright: Cary & Michael Huang Explanation: What does the universe look like on small scales? On large scales? Humanity is discovering that the universe is a very different place on every proportion that has been explored. For example, so far as we know, every tiny proton is exactly the same, but every huge galaxy is different. On more familiar scales, a small glass table top to a human is a vast plane of strange smoothness to a dust mite -- possibly speckled with cell boulders. Not all scale lengths are well explored -- what happens to the smallest mist droplets you sneeze, for example, is a topic of active research -- and possibly useful to know to help stop the spread of disease. The above interactive flash animation, a modern version of the classic video Powers of Ten, is a new window to many of the known scales of our universe. By moving the scroll bar across the bottom, you can explore a diversity of sizes, while clicking on different items will bring up descriptive information. make sure your cursor starts at left (micro-miniature to bewilderingly gi-normous) to see the sequence properly. sandra |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 07 Mar 12 - 02:14 AM Spider webs surround house The big wet has led to a glut of spiders in the flood-bound inland town/city of Wagga Wagga - more info about the unseasonably big wet on this thread BS: Australian floods Everyone OK? |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 06 Mar 12 - 03:42 AM very clever bird |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Mar 12 - 10:46 PM Long swim, but I agree! |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Amos Date: 05 Mar 12 - 08:17 PM Oh, I hope he gets away and swims all the way to the Antarctic. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 05 Mar 12 - 05:08 PM Zoo hunts for escaped penguin The hunt is on for a penguin that scaled a sheer rock face to escape from a Tokyo zoo, and was last seen swimming in a river in the Japanese capital. The one-year-old Humboldt penguin was snapped bathing in the mouth of the Old Edogawa river, which runs into Tokyo Bay, after fleeing its home in the east of the city in an echo of the hit animated film Madagascar. Takashi Sugino, an official at Tokyo Sea Life Park, said the 60-centimetre bird appeared to have got itself over a rock wall twice its size and made a run for it. READ ON & check out the pic! |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Bettynh Date: 27 Jan 12 - 01:07 PM Thar link is gone already. This one has several pictures, at least for the moment. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 27 Jan 12 - 05:23 AM I've been admiring the cape since I saw the story yesterday - the colour is superb |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Jan 12 - 11:13 PM Silk harvested from Golden Orb spiders go into a cape. No Spiders Were Harmed in the Making of This Golden Silk Cape SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Jan 12 - 07:49 PM I hope there wasn't anything of a grocery nature in the car - 17 days without refrigeration could render that new car undrivable! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 06 Jan 12 - 06:39 PM Runaway car parks itself in neighbour's garage A car reported stolen last month in the Adelaide Hills is believed to have rolled into the garage of a nearby home, parking itself perfectly. The car's owner from Upper Sturt had parked the vehicle on a slight slope outside a shop in Stirling early on December 18. He returned 15 minutes later to find the car was gone, and then called police. The man had only owned the vehicle for two days. The mystery was still unsolved when the new owners of a house opposite the shops returned from holidays on Wednesday. Noticing their garage door had received minor damage and been pushed off its tracks, they suspected a break-in. Upon inspection, they found the car inside. Police say the owner probably did not put the transmission in park when he left the vehicle on a slight slope. Senior constable Tim Dodds says they reconstructed this sequence of events. "It had rolled out of the shopping centre car park, across the road, down the driveway, into the garage, through the garage door which then closed on itself and there was the man's stolen car," he said. "It remained under cover for 17 days and so we've recovered the stolen car and cleared up the break-in. "It even made us have a bit of a laugh here in the office." The driver says he can recall hearing a loud bang while he was away from the car. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Dec 11 - 02:18 PM If you look to the right side of the story you'll see related stories. This is a growing problem around here. A growing problem with "adverse possession" scams in North Texas. MANSFIELD -- Squatters were ordered to vacate a Mansfield home they had tried to claim, then the couple was arrested and handcuffed, accused of burglarizing the house. Andrew LaTour II and Alicia LaTour had removed deadbolt locks and garage door openers on the $224,000 house, said Constable Clint C. Burgess, adding that they took a house that wasn't theirs. "We are going to hold these people accountable," he said. The couple had appeared early Tuesday at an eviction hearing before Justice of the Peace Matt Hayes, contending that the case against them should be thrown out. Their attorney, Bob Frisch of Dallas, argued that GMAC, the servicing agent for the bank holding the mortgage, had no authority to represent the house owners. "They have no standing in this court," Frisch said. But a GMAC attorney said that the couple had no legal right to the home. "Mr. LaTour is a squatter and a trespasser under Texas law," Aaron Holland told the court. Hayes would not recognize the LaTours' affidavit of adverse possession, filed in July with the County Clerk, calling it fraudulent. He then ordered the couple to leave the house. After the judge issued his order, Frisch said that the couple understood they would likely be asked to leave the house, but said they wanted time to get their belongings from it. However, as the couple left the courtroom, constables were waiting and pulled out handcuffs. "I have a warrant for your arrest. You are being arrested for burglary," they said. The LaTours were taken to the county jail for booking. Attending Tuesday morning's hearing was Ken Robinson, who has filed an affidavit of adverse possession on a Flower Mound home and who had wanted to testify on the LaTours' behalf, but did not. The LaTours have said they turned to him for advice on using the affidavits. He said he was attending to show support for the couple and declined further comment. Also attending the hearing was Andrew LaTour's mother, Sandra LaTour, who also has filled affidavits on Mansfield homes. No proceedings have been initiated against her so far. But Burgess said that more arrests may be coming. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 12 Dec 11 - 10:37 PM Teddy bear among the bins A giant teddy bear, perhaps resigned to its fate, sits among the wheely bins at Mt Druitt in western Sydney. I hope he was rescued! A few months back I saw a slightly smaller damaged bear sitting on top of a neighbour's wheelie bin & took him home for repairs (he needed 2 small seams re-sewn.) While he was in my place he needed a chair to sit on & I had a struggle getting him up the road with 2 shopping bags of other unwanted stuff to the charity (goodwill) shop & I'm sure he found a good home, where someone had a spare chair for him. sandra |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Dec 11 - 12:31 PM That had to hurt - the drivers, the owners of the cars, and the insurance companies. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 05 Dec 11 - 03:43 AM Supercars crash on Japanese highway - check out the video There has been a pile-up with a difference on a highway in Japan - involving a small fleet of expensive supercars. Japanese police say eight Ferraris, two Mercedes Benz and a Lamborghini crashed into each other when the lead car hit a central barrier as they drove through the country's west. Speeding was mentioned as a possible cause for the crash, with witnesses saying they thought the lead car was travelling too fast before it slid across a wet road surface. TV footage showed wreckage spread across over 400 metres of highway in Yamaguchi prefecture, as well as a trail of crumpled red sports cars. Some of the damaged Ferraris are believed to be worth several hundred thousand dollars. Police say 10 people - five men and five women - sustained slight injuries in the accident and were taken to hospital. "It is highly possible that they were driving in couples," highway patrol lieutenant Eiichiro Kamitani said. Police say the lead car slid into a guard rail and those behind slammed on their brakes, but for many of them it was apparently too late. "I've never seen such a thing," lieutenant Kamitani said. "Ferraris rarely travel in such large numbers." "Many of them were probably on their way to Hiroshima," some 130 kilometres to the east, for a gathering of supercars there, lieutenant Kamitani said. He said the lead Ferrari was being driven by a 60-year-old self-employed man from Chikushino, near Fukuoka, on the southern island of Kyushu. "Speeding was possible but we have yet to determine the exact cause," he said. 'Great mess' An unidentified male eyewitness told the TBS network: "A group of cars was doing 140-160 kilometres per hour. One of them spun and they all ended up in this great mess." The speed limit on that section of the highway is 80 kilometres per hour. "The front car crashed into the left embankment and bounced off toward me," another man told public broadcaster NHK. One of the Ferraris was reported to be a F430 Scuderia, a model with a top speed of 320 kilometres per hour. Japanese media says the total cost of the pile-up could run to nearly $4 million. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 28 Nov 11 - 10:26 PM Remarkable that the card still was readable. I hope the photos were of the guy's wife and not of his mistress! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 28 Nov 11 - 10:12 PM Camera lost at sea returned with the help of social networking Just how tough is your average DSLR memory card? Apparently tough enough to survive a year at the bottom of the ocean. Naturalist and aspiring photographer Markus Thompson was scuba diving in Deep Bay near Vancouver, British Columbia, when he found a Canon EOS 1000D. Curious, he brought it to the surface and took out the SD card, and was actually able to recover about 50 photos. With a bounty of pictures and a desire to find the camera's owner, Thompson took to social networking for help. He posted his find to Google+, including pictures of the camera itself as well as the photos he was able to recover from the SD card. "Approximately 50 pictures on the card from a family vacation. If you know a fire fighter from British Columbia whose team won the Pacific Regional Firefit competition, has a lovely wife and (now) 2 year old daughter — let me know. I would love to get them their vacation photos," he posted. The social network's hive mind then went to work. Details on just who the camera belonged to were slim at first, but after social network sleuths began scouring the photos, more information began to surface. The camera contained images that were shot at a region firefighting competition, and appeared to suggest that the camera's owner was on the winning team. After comparing faces to those on various websites that covered the event, the possibilities were narrowed down. The owner, a firefighter from British Columbia, was finally identified. His station was then contacted, bringing an end to the pricey camera's unlikely journey. The waterlogged Canon — which can cost upwards of $500 in new condition — made its splash in August of 2010, and had been soaking ever since. Unfortunately, not further details are available on just how the device managed to find a home on the ocean floor, but we imagine a bump off the side of a leisure boat is a likely explanation. We've seen the power of social media to spread information about important events and natural disasters, and it's nice to see it work on a much smaller and more personal scale. And while obviously the camera is a total loss, the family was able to secure their vacation photos, not to mention a story they'll be able to share for a lifetime. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Nov 11 - 12:22 PM Every so often, after you've concluded you won't find a more bizarre story, something like this comes along: Not a Halloween Costume: Washington Man Cuts Off Arm With Guillotine MANY unanswered questions in this story. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 31 Oct 11 - 10:19 PM Police find gun in patient's artificial leg Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital went into lockdown yesterday as police investigated a patient with a gun hidden in his artificial leg. The concerns were first raised when a doctor called police saying there was a gun in a 66-year-old patient's room. Police were called and the hospital was locked down while officers investigated. When they arrived at the level nine room, they found the man, his 18-year-old son, and the son's 23-year-old girlfriend. The gun was found in a stocking covering the patient's prosthetic leg. The man's son and girlfriend were found to have two bullets for the gun. The 66-year-old and the 18-year-old have been charged with illegally possessing a gun and ammunition and the 23-year-old woman has been charged with possessing ammunition. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 23 Sep 11 - 08:05 AM Speeding driver trying to dry his car A Tasmanian motorist caught driving 45kph over the speed limit told police he had just washed his car and wanted to dry it. The Hobart Magistrates Court heard Adam White was clocked at 125kph in an 80kph zone on the Brooker Highway near Hobart in April. Magistrate Glen Hay told the father of two it was the strangest reason he had heard for driving while disqualified. White was given a 28-day suspended jail sentence and a 12-month good behaviour bond. He was disqualified from driving for 10 months and fined $900, and lost six demerit points. Mr Hay told him it would have been cheaper to buy a couple of hairdryers. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 Sep 11 - 10:26 AM I see there is a petition to bring back Santa. Probably lots of signatures in crayon. :) |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 09 Sep 11 - 02:56 AM Claus for concern as shopping mall cancels Santa Australia - Traders in the Albury Centro shopping centre in New South Wales have started a petition urging centre management not to cancel Santa this year. Centro management told retailers on Tuesday that Santa would not be making an appearance in the busy shopping centre this Christmas. John McMillan, who runs a store in the mall, has started a bring-back-Santa petition. He says traders have been told the centre cannot afford Santa this year. "We had a meeting with management, the traders that is on Tuesday and they just matter-of-factly announced it," he said. "We were just dumbfounded. It's Christmas without Santa in a shopping centre." He says a number of reasons were given for cancelling Santa. "One was budgetary, the other was they were lacking room in the centre, which I find amazing," he said. "Apparently Santas are difficult to get because of all the issues that go with working with children." |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: GUEST,CrazyEddie Date: 28 Jul 11 - 11:21 AM Breaking news on Sky: NOTW targeted Sarah Payne's mother's phone. The number was given by Rebekah Brooks, says The Guardian. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 28 Jul 11 - 07:27 AM follow the link to see a pic! Jaywalking croc captured on busy Cairns street (northern Australia) Authorities have captured a crocodile on a busy street in Cairns in far north Queensland. Road workers were cleaning a drain on Mulgrave Road when the two-metre reptile emerged. It was an anxious wait for wildlife authorities to arrive, with a policeman using a broom to keep the croc away from onlookers. ABC producer Phil Staley, who witnessed the wrangling attempt, says there were some tense moments when a ranger approached. "It jumped up and its tail started thrashing. No-one knew what to do," he said. Staley says the ranger threw a towel over the croc's head as several men restrained it. "So you had a RoadTek bloke, a Queensland Parks and Wildlife ranger and a police officer sitting on the back of this crocodile on the main street of Cairns," he said. "The police officer has got the croc by the tail, there's a bloke on the croc's back, and there's a bloke holding the croc's jaw closed with a towel." The crocodile is now in the custody of Queensland Parks and Wildlife. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: saulgoldie Date: 25 Jul 11 - 09:27 PM Do they know how stupid they look? The reporter on Current TV (where Olberman landed) was doing a documentary on the "drug trade" in Mehico. He was being filmed as drug agents were, get this, burning a huge marijuana crop in several fires all around the reporter. After several minutes "documenting" the activity, the reporter "suddenly" realized that he was effectively taking a huge bong hit. And another, and so on. And the agents??? Jayzus f***ing Keerist! Are they really that daft??!!! Saul |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: katlaughing Date: 24 Jul 11 - 01:19 AM Didn't want to start a new thread, so decided to put this in here, though it isn't as funny, well not at all funny, as some of the other postings. I hope some of you will decide to sign the petition found HERE. I don't believe a mother, whose 4 yr old was struck and killed by a drunk driver, herself also injured, should have to go to prison for her son's death because she didn't use a crosswalk! Please read the petition. Thanks! |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 07 Jun 11 - 09:34 AM Boat owner pays price for Titanic mistake Most people would think twice before buying a boat named Titanic II. And sure enough, when Briton Mark Wilkinson took the 4.8-metre cabin cruiser out for its maiden voyage, it promptly sank. "If it wasn't for the harbourmaster, I would have gone down with the Titanic," Mr Wilkinson, who had to be fished out of the sea at West Bay harbour in Dorset, southern England, told local media. "It's all a bit embarrassing and I got pretty fed up with people asking me if I had hit an iceberg." Mr Wilkinson, in his 40s, had only recently bought the boat and brought it by road from his home in Birmingham in central England for its first outing. After a successful fishing trip, things started to go wrong when he entered the harbour and the boat began taking on water. Mr Wilkinson was forced to abandon ship and pictures showed him clinging to a rail before he was rescued. One eyewitness said: "It wasn't a very big boat - I think an ice cube could have sunk it!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 30 May 11 - 09:33 PM thanks, stilly - had I but known how ... but you fixed it! |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 30 May 11 - 10:52 AM Sandra, I like this one also! You should have posted the article in comic sans ms! Comic Sans was released by Microsoft in 1994, as a font that looked friendly and childlike but most importantly did not look 'techie'. etc. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 30 May 11 - 10:01 AM since when is Comic Sans ugly - it's my favourite font! ============== Ugly font may improve learning Inspired by comic strips and hated by font designers, new research suggests Comic Sans may help people remember what they read. Comic Sans was released by Microsoft in 1994, as a font that looked friendly and childlike but most importantly did not look 'techie'. But the font does not enjoy overwhelming support. A few years ago there was an internet campaign to have it banned, and there are forums where designers and typographers whinge about the font's awkward weighting and haphazard kerning. US researchers from Princeton University and Indiana University decided to test what affect 'difficult to read' fonts such as Comic Sans have on learning and retention. They recruited 28 volunteers to complete a task that involved remembering a set of features for three fictional characters. One group received the list in 16-point Arial font, while the other two groups received lists printed using 12-point Comic Sans MS or 12-point Bodoni MT. Connor Diemand-Yauman, lead author of the study published in the journal Cognition, says the results showed Comic Sans has its advantages. "The study in our paper found that in a very controlled laboratory setting we could improve our subject's memory of certain facts by having them read information that was written in a font that was slightly more difficult to read," he told ABC Radio National. "Participants remembered the information significantly better if it was in a font that was harder to read. We were real excited by this finding." In the second part of their study, Mr Diemand-Yauman and colleagues moved their experiment into the classroom. "For the second study all we did was take the reading material of students from six different classes, over 220 students, and we just changed the fonts to make it a little more difficult to read," Mr Diemand-Yauman said. Students were randomly assigned to a disfluent group and given reading material in a hard-to-read font such as Comic Sans or Monotype Corsiva, or to a control group. "Students [in the disfluent group] significantly remembered the information better because it felt slightly more difficult," Mr Diemand-Yauman said. Challenging our visual cortex Jonah Lehrer is a neuroscience writer and a contributing editor to Wired Magazine. He fears that e-readers, with their crisp fonts and clear display, could make our brains lazy. "I do worry that it will become so easy for the brain to read on an e-reader that we may actually start to see a decrease in what we remember and take away from a book," Mr Lehrer told ABC Radio National. "This is all just speculation, but what really interests me is this surprising link between the difficulty of reading and what we actually remember from it." But according to Mr Lehrer our brains are likely to adapt in order to deal with the new technology, we just do not know how that will happen. "It's important to remember that a good third of our visual cortex ... is devoted to literacy, reading. This 5000-year-old cultural invention has usurped a huge chunk of the brain," he said. "One of the trade-offs of this is that people who can read are a little worse at 'quote-unquote' reading the natural world and remembering objects such as plants and animals, because so much of our visual vortex is devoted to letters, syllables, and words." Mr Lehrer suggests using cognitive psychology studies such as Mr Diemand-Yauman's to improve our learning. "Maybe we should read every book on an e-reader in Comic Sans," he said. "Little things like that could help us do a better job of dealing with the inevitable tradeoffs." |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 14 May 11 - 12:06 AM Human snail completes marathon after 26 days A man dressed as a snail has completed the London Marathon 26 days after the race began. Lloyd Scott, a former professional footballer, inched his way along the 42-kilometre course face down on a metal sled for up to eight hours a day. His costume, a children's television character called Brian, was equipped with a periscopic camera to see where he was going. Mr Scott was attempting to raise money for children with mobility issues. Crossing the finishing line, he admits it was a relief to finish. "It was very difficult. I had consistent nose bleeds, I had to go to hospital to have my nose cauterised and treated, I kept being sick in the snail," he said. "I even slept in the snail as well. I've chosen to make this difficult for myself but these kids don't have that choice. "I mean, it's the children that are here today that's really been foremost on my mind and have been driving me forward." clik on link for photo! |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 06 May 11 - 06:04 AM Man answers phone during pizza store break-in A man who broke into a pizza shop in Adelaide (Australia) answered the phone while in the premises. Police said the store in Bank Street in the city was broken into just after midnight, activating an alarm. When the alarm monitoring company rang the pizza store, the offender picked up the phone. Police arrived and arrested a 27-year-old man outside the store. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: VirginiaTam Date: 19 Apr 11 - 02:47 AM This is so good (thanks Amos) it really deserves its own thread Electric Highways! |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Apr 11 - 11:26 AM Revisiting a radio story from this date a few years ago. One Man's Sad Goal? Make Opera Positiveby Alice Furlaud April 1, 2006 On Cape Cod, an impresario seeks rewrites of the world's great tragic operas. He wants to give them a happy ending for performances by his children's opera company. Some might call it a fool's errand. JOHN YDSTIE, host: IF you found that last piece a little bleak, here's something to cheer you up. Cape Kids Opera, a small summer company producing children's operas in Eastham on Cape Cod, is getting a new name and undergoing a total makeover. That's because the company has recently acquired a very rich sponsor. Reporter Alice Furlaud has the story. ALICE FURLAUD reporting: Hamilton Banks is a first time impresario at he age of 75. A new resident of Wellfleet, he's long been an opera fan, and the huge fortune he acquired from enterprises ranging from software to real estate has inspired him to bring opera to the Cape. His kind of opera. I spoke to Mr. Banks in his massive new house overlooking Cape Cod Bay. Mr. HAMILTON BANKS (Opera Impresario): I've been an opera fan all my life. And for a long time I've worried about the gloomy feeling a lot of these operas give you. An opera like Madame Butterfly. She kills herself, for God's sake, must have a very negative effect on the opera-goers. We're in troubled times and we don't need -- I've been a kind of disciple of the late, great Norman Vincent Peale, the power of positive thinking. I used to hear him preach at the Marble Collegiate Church on 5th Avenue in New York. What a speaker. So I started thinking, what if I applied Dr. Peale's positive thinking to some of my favorite operas. FURLAUD: How are you going to do this, Mr. Banks? Mr. BANKS: Well, I've given them happy endings. Yes! And I bought this little opera company and we're going to perform the happiest operas you've ever heard. FURLAUD: Banks is calling his new venture the Positive Opera Company, and he's actually launching it with a Mozart opera, the one he calls the Positive Don Giovanni. Mr. BANKS: Remember how Don Giovanni, Don Juan, has seduced and abandoned over a thousand women? Terrible womanizer. And he's killed the father of one of these ladies in a duel. He's a military officer. At the end, there's this scary scene where a statue of this father, the commendatory, comes alive and tries to scare Don Giovanni into repenting. FURLAUD: I remember, and he says, Don Giovanni, and he clutches him with his marble hand. Mr. BANKS: Right. And when he won't repent, the commendatory sends him to hell. That's terrible, isn't it? Listen, I'll play some of the last scene to you. (Soundbite of the opera Don Giovanni) Mr. BANKS: Doesn't cheer you up, does it? Now, in my libretto, Don Giovanni does repent; in fact, he's born again. Born again. And he marries Donna Elvira and it's beautiful. FURLAUD: Banks insists the radical plot shift will do no damage to Mozart's music. Mr. BANKS: With Don Giovanni, that's no problem. You remember the soprano aria, Batti, batti, bel o bel Basetto. Well, I'm giving that to Don Giovanni to sing about being born again. And the ending, well, you remember the happy, peasant wedding music from act one? All that la, la, la and being happy? That one was easy. Now for the positive La Boheme... FURLAUD: Don't tell me, Mimi is cured of TB? Mr. BANKS: And my General Director, Jim Bryant(ph), the one who's run kids opera all these years, is taking the Puccini ending and composing his own Puccini ending. He happens to be a natural composer. So far, he's only composed hymns, but they're great hymns. (Soundbite of piano music) Mr. JIM BRYANT (Director, Composer, Positive Opera Company): The orchestra swells right here. FURLAUD: I went to see director Bryant at his little opera house behind Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Store in Eastham, the next town to Wellfleet. He was onstage, trying out new endings for La Boheme. Mr. BRYANT: And gradually the orchestra swells to a nice, happy, positive ending. So it's very rough, still, but that's what we're working on at the moment. FURLAUD: I asked Jim Bryant how he felt about the Positive Opera Company as a permanent addition to culture on Cape Cod. Mr. BRYANT: Well, I think it's quite a challenge. As you know, we've only produced children's opera up until now. So tackling some of the powerhouses of the grand opera world is really quite a daunting thing. But it's very invigorating at the same time. It's a very big challenge. But Hamilton has just been so wonderfully optimistic and enthusiastic about the whole project that it really is infectious to all of us who are involved in it, and of course we're very grateful to have the funding that we have. I don't know if you've been up to his house, but I think it has something like 19 rooms. FURLAUD: Before buying Mr. Bryant's children's opera company, Hamilton Banks asked several famous composers, John Williams for one, to compose his happy opera endings, but all of them turned him down. So has the Metropolitan Opera and the distinguished Boston Lyric Opera Company. I telephoned Linda Cabot Black, one of the Company's board members and a consultant, to get her take on the project. Ms. LINDA CABOT BLACK (Board Member, Boston Lyric Opera Company): Oh, yes, Hamilton Banks did approach Boston Lyric Opera and offered us a fortune to change the endings. Of course we turned him down, thought it was a silly idea. People want to be moved, they want sob. Look at Butterfly, people flock to it so they can cry their eyes out. Why on earth doesn't he just simply go and produce the comic operas and the operas with happy endings? There are many of them, some by Mozart. How on Earth would Puccini and Wagner and the other great composers, what would they think about changing the endings? It would be just ludicrous. FURLAUD: I put that question to Hamilton Banks on the Positive Opera Company's stage. Mr. BANKS: I'll tell ya, Alice, I'm convinced that if Puccini and Verdi and Wagner and librettists had been able to read The Power of Positive Thinking, you know, and if the wonderful anti-depressant drugs we have today had been available, they'd never have written those depressing endings and maybe they'd never written the whole opera. Now, here's my most exciting plan. Tristan and Isolde, Wagner's love-making music, remember? And poor old Tristan dies of his wounds after that. (Soundbite of the opera Tristan and Isolde) Mr. BANKS: Liebestod, the love death. I'm going to make it the love life. Listen, here's what happens. Isolde comes across the sea to find Tristan's wound is only a scratch, it's not even infected. Jim, how are you getting on with that end? (Soundbite of piano music) Mr. BRYANT: Well, Mr. Banks, I'm having a little bit of trouble sounding Wagnerian, but... Mr. BANKS: Oh, I can hear it, it's good. Maybe a flute or oboe? Mr. BRYANT: Yes, as orchestra swells, I was also hearing some French horn crescendo. Mr. BANKS: French horn, oh, I adore the French horn. FURLAUD: Whether or not Jim Bryant can pull that one off, he's gonna have a good try. With Mr. Banks' bankroll behind him, he's obviously thinking as positively as he can. For NPR News, I'm Alice Furlaud on Cape Cod. |
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Subject: RE: BS: News of Note (was 'I Read it . . .') From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 01 Apr 11 - 01:40 AM Man discovers rich deposit under outback dunny A geologist sitting on a bush toilet in a remote part of the Northern Territory has discovered a potentially lucrative mineral deposit. Rum Jungle Resources chief executive David Muller said the company was already looking for phosphate on a site near Barrow Creek, north of Alice Springs, but it was not expecting to find anything of value where it had set up its camp toilet. "One observant geologist was sitting on it one day and kicking the rocks around and he suddenly identified some nodules and he thought, 'Oh we better assay this'," he said. "And they put the hand-held spectrometer over it and sure enough it was full of phosphate, which is what we were looking for - and we thought we were on sterile ground." Mr Muller said the discovery of phosphate under the toilet encouraged the company about the size of the phosphate deposit. "Obviously, you don't put the camp where you're meant to be drilling so this actually found some phosphate and we all had a bit of a laugh about it. "But it also gave us a bit of encouragement that this blanket of mineralisation is very widespread." |
