A Welsh View

Daily Links

Man Found Frozen To Death May Have Been Outside Running Nude
Baltimore-Washington International Airport Evacuates Towers Due To Strange Odor - Turns out to be paint.
Teen Uses Sword To Capture Escapee In Basement
911 Rings To Man's Home

The Pingu Fan Club

I think some people have taken there love for Smack the Pingu too far. The site has two souped up versions of the game.

[via Pya]

Sperm Wars

Take control of Stewie from Family Guy and destroy all the sperm. Planet Family Guy hav other Family Guy games to play.

[via Milk and Cookies]

The Poop Report

Exploding Grenade

The company that manufactures the camera used to take this sequence has a flash animation of the greande exploding. There are also images and animations of other explosions.

Lawninen Surfer

Roll down the hill on your giant snowball making sure that you avoid the crevasses. How far can you get?

[via Entensity]

Holy Man Rolling 1,500 Miles To Pakistan

Local6: Holy Man Rolling 1,500 Miles To Pakistan

A holy man in India is rolling 1,500 miles from his home in Ratlam to Pakistan to congratulate the country's president for ongoing peace process between the two countries.

The holy man known as Ludkan Baba said he does not plan to eat during the rolling journey to Pakistan. He plans to only take sips of water and smoke an occasional cigarette.

Baba sometimes rolls quickly and slowly at other times to break the monotony of the long journey.

Baba already holds a world record for rolling the longest distance when in 1994, he rolled his body from Ratlam to the shrine of Vaishno Devi in Jammu, a distance of 2,485 miles.

His body was covered with blisters after completing the journey to the temple.

Online Scrabble

Play Scrabble in your web browser. [via Kottke.org]

'Black Widow' Wins Wing Eating Contest

Sonya Thomas, a 99-pound woman known as 'The Black Widow,' won Philadelphia's annual Wing Bowl chicken-wing eating contest in a dramatic overtime on Friday.

Thomas, from Alexandria, Va., consumed 167 wings, beating Ed 'Cookie' Jarvis by two wings in a two-minute overtime round, the first in 10 years.

In December, Thomas was crowned the Fruitcake Champion after downing nearly five pounds of the treat in 10 minutes, beating her closest rival — 405-pound Eric Booker_ by a single bite.

Despite her size, Thomas is no lightweight on the professional eating circuit. She's eaten 43 tacos in 11 minutes to claim victory in the World Champion Chicken Taco Eating Contest. She also holds the female world record for eating 24 hot dogs in 12 minutes and for eating 68 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes.

[via Yahoo!]

Weird Nature Related Stories

Lawyer posts poisonous snake to neighbour

A US lawyer and his son are facing jail for sending a man a deadly snake in the post.

Jerrod Castleman, 20, sent the copperhead to neighbour Albert Coy Staton after a row about a car repair bill.

Man caught with 450 frogs in suitcase

A man arrested in Peru with 450 tropical frogs and a selection of unusual beetles in his luggage claimed he wanted to start a zoo.

Man lets poisonous snakes loose in bank

A man released deadly snakes in a bank in Johannesburg because he was angry about his car being repossessed.

He walked boldly into the reception area of the bank with the box and opened it to let the snakes wriggle out before calmly walking off.

Dog electrocuted by 'live' lamppost

A dog has died after it urinated on a lamppost that had been made 'live' by faulty wiring.

Television Thief Still In Jail After 33 Years

Ananova: Television thief still in jail after 33 years

A US man who was jailed in 1970 for his first and only criminal conviction - stealing a television - says he hopes to be released in December.

Junior Allen, 63, says he has applied again to the North Carolina Parole Commission for release following 25 straight rejections.

The state said Allen's behaviour is one of the reasons he is still in jail. In 33 years, he has committed 62 infractions - about average for a maximum security inmate. All but eight were considered moderate by the Department of Correction.

His lawyer, Rich Rosen said: "Disobeying an order, gambling. If you're asking me whether I think this shows that he's dangerous to the public, the answer's clearly no."

Daily Links

Burglary Suspect Dies After Hiding In Slough
Crystal Ball Starts Fire at Okla. Home
Swedish Chef Fired For Succeeding

Policeman Fired For Selling Masturbation Video

Yahoo! U.S. cop wrongly fired for masturbation video

A San Diego policeman who sold videos of himself masturbating after removing a police uniform was wrongly dismissed from the force, a U.S. appeals court has ruled.

An officer named in court documents only as John Roe sold the videos on the Internet vendor eBay, where his hobby was discovered by his supervisor. Roe never identified himself as a San Diego police officer in his sales pitch and gave a fictitious address in northern California.

The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed on Thursday with Roe that his dismissal by the San Diego Police Department in 2001 was unjust because his off-duty actions were protected by First Amendment rights to free speech.

What I want to know is how his supervisor discovered these videos. It's not exactly something that you go looking for on eBay unless you're into that kind of thing.

Nit-Pickers Guide To The Lord of The Rings

An exhaustive list of the differences between the books and the films. It may interest someone. [via /.]

Instructor Develops Air Guitar Aerobics Work-Out

Ananova: Instructor develops air guitar aerobics work-out

A fitness instructor has devised a work-out to help air guitar fans gets into shape in their living rooms.

US dance tutor Laila Hardman says by mimicking the likes of Slash and Eddie Van Halen people can develop all the major muscle groups.

She says by recreating the Townshend Windmill, the Angus Young Shuffle, the May Mosh and the Parfitt Sway to high-tempo rock music participants can have a "full-on cardo-vascular work-out."

The instructor says the work-out has been modelled on Punk Rock Aerobics which has become popular in New York.

Another gimmick.

Guess Who Made This Comment

[He] looked at a photograph of the battered victim and said, "Why would he want to rape her? She doesn't look like a day at the beach."

Who would make such a comment? Only the judge preciding on the rape trial of the woman in the photograph!

Circuit Judge Gene Stephenson on Thursday publicly apologized for insulting comments he made about a rape victim and removed himself from the case.

"The remarks were inappropriate. It's something I've never done before and won't do again," Stephenson said.

Read more.

[via Fark]

Exploding Whale - Another Picture

It looks as if the whale's guts are still pouring out. The guy in the picture seems to be taking a keen interest in the entrails.

DJs Mix CDs Attacked In Attempt To Control Copyright

DJMag: DJs mix CDs attacked in attempt to control copyright

The Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) has launched a new campaign against DJs in an attempt to control copyright infringement.

They have already confiscated $100,000’s worth of mix CDs from independent record stores across the US.

DJ mix CDs, sold in almost every independent record store are on the whole unlicensed and technically illegal to distribute. However, DJs and producers alike often rely upon these illegal mixes in order to gain credibility, and to promote themselves to the general public.

The practice is in fact approved of by most producers who see it as fundamental to the survival of the dance scene - even if it is their tracks that are being copied and played without permission.

This latest attack by the RIAA is therefore hypocritical – they claim that their pursuit of copyright infringement is primarily in the interest of the artist, yet most dance producers actually approve of and rely upon this illegal distribution.

The dance scene relies upon these ‘illegal’ ways to survive, and it seems that the only people who actually care about this particular copyright infringement are not the artists themselves but the record companies – who are only involved in the dance scene for profit.

Having been into the dance scene for the last 10 years, this is something that it can do without. Mix tapes have been around for decades and both DJ's and producers have benefitted from them. They are a way of promoting both the DJ and the producers.

The dance scene is not about making huge sums of money it's about people making and playing music that they love.

Sugar Packet Collecting

In case you are wondering why the Condiment Packet Museum doesn't include sugar packets it's because there are actually pages dedicated just to Sugar Packet Collecting. They even have 'Sugar Packet Exchange Meetings'!

If all this is interesting you why not join the UK Sucrologist Club - The First & Only Sugar Packet Collector's Club in the U.K.

The Club is run by fellow sugar wrapper collectors on a voluntary basis. At present we have over 200 members in the U.K., Europe, Asia and the U.S.A. including Hawaii.

We all collect the little packets of sugar you get when you order tea or coffee in a cafe or restaurant. There are thousands of different ones, square, rectangular, tube shaped, pyramid shaped, some plain and simple right up to the really exotic multi-coloured ones from around the world.

The Condiment Packet Museum

The Condiment Packet Museum has a collection of over 700 different condiment packages. You'll find ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce....[yawn]...salt....

[via Attu sees all]

License Plates Of The World

License plates from practically every country, territory, state, etc. in the world. And if that interests you why not take a look at just American plates.

[via The Ultimate Insult]

Wire Frame Skeleton

Control your own skeleton.

Woman 'Gives Birth To Her Grandchildren'

Ananova: Woman 'gives birth to her grandchildren'

A woman has given birth to her own grandchildren after acting as a surrogate mother for her daughter and son-in-law, it has emerged.

The couple, who live in Ilford, Essex, are said to be "very happy" after the 43-year-old woman gave birth to healthy twins - a boy and a girl - by Caesarean section.

The birth, which took place a few days ago, happened in Gujarat in India, where the grandmother lives.

The young woman, 26, has a rare condition - Rokitansky syndrome - which means the uterus does not develop normally and she cannot give birth. But the couple were able to have IVF treatment to produce the embryos which were then implanted into the grandmother.

In Internet Auctions, Bad Spelers Pay A Price

IHT: In Internet auctions, bad spelers pay a price

When Holly Marshall wanted to sell a pair of dangling earrings, a popular style these days, she listed them on eBay once, and got no takers. She tried a second time, and still no interest.

Was it the price? The fuzzy picture? Maybe it was the description: a beautiful pair of chandaleer earrings. Such is the eBay underworld of misspellers, where the clueless - and sometimes just careless - sell labtop computers, throwing knifes, Art Deko vases, camras, comferters and saphires.

They do get bidders, but rarely very many. Often the buyers are those who troll for spelling slip-ups, buying items on the cheap and selling them all over again on eBay, but with the right spelling and for the right price.

An article for both sellers and bargain hunters.

Pingu: Crazy Sledging

Not to be confused with Smack The Pingu, Pingu: Crazy Sledging is a 3D game featuring different characters and courses.

[via Pya]

Daily Links

Wrong-Turn Turnip Tractor Stuns Motorists
Actors Find Crime Really Does Pay
Two Arrested Over Baby Found Entombed In Concrete
Brothel Stake-Out Cops Arrest Police Chief

The Top Ten Handhelds That Never Made It

The Top Ten Handhelds That Never Made It

You should be able to recognise some of them but some of them you probably won't.

[via Madville]

The Society For Barefoot Living

The Society For Barefoot Living

We are a group of people who love going barefoot pretty much everywhere, all the time (not just around the house or at the beach), as a lifestyle choice, including out and about on streets, stores, in the country, and hiking.

We enjoy walking barefoot as nature intended, taking delight in feeling the many textures the world has to offer, like having tough, callused soles, and even think it's cool to get them dirty. We also hate wearing shoes and, if we had our way, would never wear them again. Shoes are unnecessary ballast. Plus, bare feet are cool and look great!

Ever take off your shoes and walk barefoot through the grass, on the beach, etc? We bet you have. Why did you do it? Because it feels good! We've just extended that to everyday life. Know what? It feels even better!

Hmmm, I'm not sure. I don't think I'd want to walk around on a floor covered in crap.

[via Good Grief]

NFL In A Nutshell

With Superbowl XXXVIII fast approaching the BBC have produced a simple guide to the rules of the game. Great for us Brits who are only used to watching rugby and the 'real' football.

[via Wizbang]

Topix

From this week's Online section in the Guardian.

News fiends should take a look at Topix.net, which offers news sorted into a larger number of categories. The front page carries the start of one story from each of the main subject areas; it also offers a range of people from Ann Miller to Vanessa Redgrave, and local US news by post code or city. Dive into a section such as Science/Technology News and you get offered even more topics. In this case, they run from Agriculture to Space via Chemistry and Nanotechnology. Computer topics include FreeBSD, Linux and Microsoft Windows. The site trawls news stories from more than 3,000 sources to create more than 150,000 "topically based, individual news-pages", so there's a good chance you'll find something of interest.

Landlord Opens Cemetery At Pub

Ananova: Landlord opens cemetery at pub

A pub owner has bought a plot of land near the hostelry so he can turn it into a cemetery.

Julian Taylor, the landlord of The Church Inn, Uppermill, Saddleworth, Greater Manchester, says regulars have already begun to snap up plots.

He said: "It's a beautiful spot to be buried, and a few customers have already picked out their own patch. One of them has even asked his friends to pop into the cemetery with their pints on Friday nights after he dies, so that he can still have a drink with his pals."

Defibrillator Spark Sets Patient On Fire

Local6: Defibrillator Spark Sets Patient On Fire

It wasn't what a Connecticut paramedic had in mind when he tried to use a defibrillator to restart a woman's heart.

Police in New London say a spark from the defibrillator instead set Brenda Jewett on fire in an ambulance Monday night. The 47-year-old woman was pronounced dead at a hospital. The cause of death is expected to be determined by an autopsy Wednesday. Local officials have asked for an investigation into the fire.

The National Center for Early Defibrillation says it doubts either the machine or the fire killed Jewett. A spokeswoman says a person who needs a defibrillator is "already dead," and that using it "can't make them any worse off than they are."

Exploding Whale Picture

Further to yesterday's post about the exploding whale, here is a picture of the aftermath.

Giant Snowball Stops Train In Its Tracks

Yahoo! Giant Snowball Stops Train in Its Tracks

A giant snowball stopped Dutch trains in their tracks Wednesday on a key route, and young pranksters thrilled by a rare snowfall were the prime suspects.

"The engine driver felt a smack and stopped the train. He walked back and reported a large snowball had rolled down the slope onto the rails," a spokesman for rail network operator ProRail said.

"We suspect it was pushed down the slope by some youths."

Couldn't the train simply have driven through it?

Fugitive Nabbed Because Of Date's Google Search

ChannelCincinnati.com: Fugitive Nabbed Because Of Date's Google Search

The man accused of bilking Cincinnati out of $184,000 finally was busted by a woman in New York City who did some background research before going on a date with him.

Investigators have been looking for LaShawn Pettus-Brown for about a year in connection with the failed Empire Theater project, according to WLWT Eyewitness News 5.

Pettus-Brown's prospective date, whose name has not been released, ran his name through the Google Internet search engine and found an FBI warrant for his arrest.

[via Good Grief]

Yet Another Version Of Smack The Pingu

This version is a bit stupid. One hit and pingu will bounce forever!

The Smallest Ice Cream Van?

2-Legged Dog Rounds Sheep

Stuff: Meg makes the most of things

Ian McDonald agrees the six-year-old may not be as quick as she was with all four legs but still does an admirable job, with no wheels attached.

Meg, a border collie, seems to have had the nine lives of a cat. Three years ago she was hit by a car and had her front left leg amputated. Meg quickly recovered but six months later collided with a four-wheel farm bike. Her crushed ankle was operated on and her leg was split. Two further operations failed to save her right rear leg and it was amputated in October.

Putting Meg through her paces, she moves with ease around a small flock of sheep responding to Ian's instructions and whistles – the only difference from a four-legged version is she drops down the moment she stops running.

Mauritania's 'Wife-Fattening' Farm

BBC: Mauritania's 'wife-fattening' farm

Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as "life-threatening".

A generation ago, over a third of women in the country were force-fed as children - Mauritania is one of the few African countries where, on average, girls receive more food than boys.

Now only around one in 10 girls are treated this way. The treatment has its roots in fat being seen as a sign of wealth - if a girl was thin she was considered poor, and would not be respected.

But in rural Mauritania you still see the rotund women that the country is famous for. They walk slowly, dainty hands on the end of dimpled arms, pinching multicoloured swathes of fabric together to keep the biting sand from their faces.

Buck's Backyard Steak Grad

If you are going to play this game make sure you turn the sound down. [via Pya]

Color Lock

I'm not even going to attempt to play this game. It's bound to frustrate me! It's like a Rubik's Cube but with circles.

Encyclopedia Titanica

The Encyclopedia Titanica is a huge resource for everything related to the Titanic. The site even has lists of all the passengers, how much they paid and which ones survived.

Daily Bleed

The Daily Bleed

"Calendar of eclectic events, public secrets..." and even noteworthy dates for fictional characters. Select a date and get a list of events for that day in world history, spanning all subjects, in chronological order.

[via Linkfilter]

What's That Smell?

Expatica: Man shuns bath for 18 years

Police in Berlin were called in to deal with a man who has neglected to take a bath or shave for the past 18 years, according to press reports Tuesday.

The self-styled urban hermit, identified only as Mario, also professed to not having changed his clothes since New Year's Day 2001.

Investigating officers, who said they had no reason to doubt Mario's claims about his personal hygiene, were summoned after a chimneysweep reported discovering a "caveman" living in an abandoned apartment.

For The Child Who Has Almost Everything

A motorized scale replica of Porsche's ledgendary and infamous 550 Spyder. The automobile that changed Porsche from an obscure brand into a houshold name.

Only 550 Spyder's will be produced. Prices start at $5900 and can be customised. Click here to view a video.

Daily Links

Man Rescues Cat; Cat Saves Man From Fire
Sleeping Man Dumped Into Recycling Truck
Boy Bites Snake
Norwegian Met African Princess On The Internet

Looney Tunes Games

A selection of 8 games featuring Looney Tunes characters.

World's Smallest PC?

At about the size of an orange, this has to be one of the world's smallest computers. Whilst it's not the fastest computers around it's still impressive.

52mm(just over 2") by 52mm by 45mm, weight 165 grams(5.8oz). In the computer is used MIPS processor NEC VR5701 clocked at 400 MHz, 64 MB or 128 MB of memory. T-Cube also has slot for Compact Flash memory, two USB 1.1 ports, RS-232C, Ethernet adapter, audio input and output. Can display resolution up to 1280x1024. it uses it's own custom OS T-kernel based on T-Shell. Comes with internet browser, text editor, graphic editor, etc.

A large compact flash card can compensate for thelack of hard drive (whilst it would be more expensive). More info here. [via Milk and Cookies]

Russian Man Freezes Penis To Bus Shelter

Orange: Russian man freezes penis to bus shelter

A Russian man had to be rescued after his penis stuck to a frozen bus shelter while he was urinating.

The young man was on his way home from a bar in the southern city of Stavropol, in temperatures of -30C.

He stopped to urinate, leaning against the bus shelter for support, but swayed at a crucial moment and his penis stuck to the frozen metal.

The BBC reports the man was apparently taken by surprise by the cold temperatures, as Stavropol is normally one of the warmest Russian regions.

A large crowd gathered, shouting advice. Finally passerby Valery Levchenko was able to free the man using a kettle of warm water borrowed from a chemist.

The man reportedly refused further medical help before running off.

[via Diversionz]

New Explorer Hole Could Be Devastating

TechWorld: New Explorer hole could be devastating

A security hole in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer could prove devastating.

Following the exposure of a vulnerability in Windows XP earlier this week, “http-equiv” of Malware has revealed that Explorer 6 users (and possibly users of earlier versions) could be fooled into downloading what look like safe files but are in fact whatever the author wishes them to be - including executables.

It is therefore only a matter of imagination in getting people to freely download what could be an extremely dangerous worm - like, for instance, the Doom worm currently reeking havoc across the globe.

However what is more worrying is that this hole could easily be combined with another Explorer spoofing problem discovered in December.

The previous spoofing problem allowed Explorer users to think they were visiting one site when in fact they were visiting somewhere entirely different. The implications are not only troublesome, but Microsoft’s failure to include a fix for the problem in its January patches has led many to believe it cannot be prevented.

If the same is true for this spoofing issue, then it will only be a matter of time before someone who thinks they are visiting one website and downloading one file will in fact be visiting somewhere entirely different and downloading whatever that site’s owner decides.

We also have reason to believe there is no fix.

So how bad could it get? Just off the top of our heads - suppose someone set up a fake Hutton Inquiry site today with a link to the report’s summaries - how many people across the UK would download a worm this afternoon? And imagine the computers it would end up on.

Doesn't sound good at all.