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Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Sexy Sweets
A Catholic college has complained about new Haribo sweet wrappers which it claims portray fruit in sexual positions.
The sweets wrapped in bright yellow, red and green colours show lemons, limes, strawberries, cherries and oranges playfully romping with each other.
But the college sees it differently. They were especially opposed to the lemon flavoured chews, which "undoubtedly show a green figure having sex with a lemon.
"The lemon, which from the drawing looks female, is obviously enjoying it with the greatest of pleasure." - Ananova
It's certainly a strange way of advertising sweets to children. Does anyone have any idea what that green thing is supposed to be?
Microsoft Security Chief Uses Firefox
The INQ: Microsoft security chief uses Firefox
In a Wired interview, Microsoft's security chief, let slip that he uses a rival browser, namely Firefox.
"Security is really an industry-wide problem. Just this morning I had to install an update to Firefox to block a flaw that would've allowed an attacker to run a program on my system."
The INQ has a few possible reasons why he uses it...
1. His secretary downloaded it and he can’t work out how to uninstall it. He has to keep updating to prevent from being a hole in his system.
2. He finds the orange and blue colour scheme calming.
3. He ritually has to swear at it as part of a Vole management rite.
4. He uses it to see if it can’t download the same pages that IE can and then laugh if it can’t.
5. He is trying to know the enemy by using it.
On a related note, Channel 9 have some good interviews with Toulouse...
What Is A Virus?
Introduction To Microsoft's Security Response Center
How Can You Protect Your Computer
What Does "Responsible Disclosure" Mean To You?
Triple Triumph For Teen Bog Snorkeller
BBC:Triple triumph for bog snorkeller
A teenager from south Wales has retained his title in one of the world's most bizarre sports - bog snorkelling.
Philip John, 17, from Bridgend, has won the competition at Llanwrtyd Wells for three years running.
He did not manage to beat his own world record of 1min 35sec.
The competition is now in its 19th year...140 competitors from as far away as South Africa, Zambia, Australia and New Zealand were taking part.
Fark Headlines
Sometimes I wish that I could come up with the type of witty headlines featured on Fark. Yesterday I posted about this story of the lonely grandfather who was trying to find a family to adopt him. Here is the Fark headline...
Wanted: Family for lonely grandfather. Must be willing to hear about how he once wore an onion on his belt... which was the style at the time
Only Simpsons fans would find this headline funny.
Zip Code Man
Daily Camera: ZIP Code Man puts memory to test
The ZIP Code Man knows where you are from. You've told him your five digits and now David Rosdeitcher, 41, is mentally scanning through America's 48,000 ZIP codes to find a match for your hometown.
"Harrison, Arkansas!" he says.
No one outsmarts the ZIP Code Man, for he has worked long and hard to become one of America's most beloved buskers.
A New Way Of Dealing With Slugs
The Times: How beetle juice makes slugs run for their lives
Essence of beetle is being hailed as the new weapon in the gardener’s war against slugs.
Scientists have discovered that the mere whiff of a chemical excreted by the carabid beetle pterostichus is enough to leave the common slug Deroceras reticulatum a gibbering wreck.
Indeed, such are the powers of this mysterious aroma from the inch-long black foragers that the slug will flee for its life as fast as it is able.
Experiments at the Rothamsted Research Institute in Hertfordshire have also found that the beetle odour is so pungent that it kills the slugs’ appetite.
Ambulances Want To Carry Advertising
The Times: Ambulances to carry adverts to raise funds
A new sponsorship scheme for ambulances is expected to raise £250,000 a year for the health service as selected companies pay to have their logo or slogans displayed on the emergency vehicles.
Only companies that are judged to be appropriate will be allowed to advertise on ambulances — so brewers and tobacco manufacturers would not be welcome.
Hampshire Ambulance Service has applied to the Government to become the first to put advertisements on its vehicles.
I think this idea could almost be as bad as funeral directors advertising in the waiting area of our local hospital...
"I'm sorry sir but your wife didn't make it, but feel free to browse our excellent selection of funeral directors on the advertising board."
Monday, August 30, 2004
Olympic Games Museum
The Olympic Games Museum has everything you could ever want to know about the Olympics including the excellent "Worst Olympic Performances" page.
When Viruses Attack
Researchers at Purdue University have created a visually stunning animation of the T4 bacteriophage, or bacteria-eating virus, as it feasts upon an E.Coli bacterium. It makes you think about the things that go in the world that we can't see. Wired has more. [via Linkfilter]
Real-Time Earth Statistics
Real-time Earth stats. View the amount of births and deaths today, the number of cars produced this year (one every second), and the amount of poo created this year. [via Slowdown]
Music Pirates Buy More CD's
The Times: Death of high street CD is overplayed, research claims
Fears that internet piracy is harming the music industry are overplayed, according to new research which claims that illegally downloaded songs will take years to eclipse the market for CDs.
The survey by Entertainment Media Research (EMR), a market analyst, reveals that internet music pirates buy more CDs from the high street than most other internet-savvy consumers.
The study found that the most prolific online pirates bought 21 per cent more CDs than the average among such consumers. Some 86 per cent of music pirates say they still prefer their songs bundled as albums. The most avid users of legal internet music stores, such as MyCokeMusic and Apple's iTunes, bought 26 per cent more CDs than the average.
Patrick Johnston, a director of EMR, said that music pirates were also often “the music lovers”.
World's Most Pierced Woman
The world's most pierced woman, Elaine Davidson from Brazil, a resident in the Scottish city of Edinburgh, poses for a photographer during the 6th Ti-Tattoo Convention in Lugano, Switzerland, late Friday, Aug. 27, 2004. Davidson claims to have upwards of 1,900 piercings, and has an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records. - Yahoo!
Dog 'Gives Birth To Kitten'
Ananova: Dog 'gives birth to kitten'
A Cambodian man claims his pet dog has given birth to a kitten.
Hundreds of people have flocked to Te Huot's house after he claimed his 10-year-old pet Knou gave birth to a single grey kitten.
The owner said a forest monk who had visited him had told him that the dog had mated with a tiger.
Te Huot claims the birth is "a sign from the gods".
I wonder if pictures of this dog/cat animal will surface?
Wheelchair Jets To 65MPH
A Rolls-Royce jet engine speeds 19-stone Guiseppe Cannella at 65mph – in his mum-in-law’s wheelchair.
Guiseppe, 40, of Luton, hopes the power unit – a Lightning jet’s “starter motor” — will help him set a record speed at RAF Barkstone Heath, Lincs. - The Sun]
eBay Buyer Pays $2K for Picture of TV
WPVI: eBay Buyer Pays $2K for Picture of TV
Andrew Aquilini thought he snagged a great bargain for a 52-inch plasma screen television on eBay. Instead he ended up paying $2,000 for a 52-inch photograph of a TV set.
Aquilini, 51, of Edison, N.J., said he was enraged when the photograph arrived at his home, and e-mailed the seller, 18-year-old Brian J. Kim, for an explanation.
"He said I should have known that the advertisement was for a picture of a television," Aquilini said.
...What am I going to do with a picture of a TV?" Farris said.
Sexually Frustrated Chimp Takes Up Smoking
Yahoo! Sexually frustrated chimp takes up smoking
Sexual frustration has turned a Chinese chimpanzee from a mild-mannered simian into a problem primate who smokes cigarettes and spits at visitors, the Xinhua news agency says.
Feili, a female chimp in the city of Zhengzhou in the central province of Henan, picked up her nasty habits by imitating visitors who behaved "improperly" around her, Xinhua quoted zoo director Liu Bing as saying on Sunday.
Zoo officials said Feili was not addicted to nicotine, but the chimp has also demonstrated clever -- if not desperate -- behaviour to score a smoke.
"The chimp is spitting at tourists and smoking," Xinhua quoted a boy visiting the zoo. "Just now a tourist threw a cigarette butt to just outside the cage, she tried to get the butt with a stick."
DFL (Dead F***ing Last)
DFL - "celebrating last-place finishes at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens."
What a great idea. I wish I knew about this blog earlier. It details all the athletes who finished and came last and has a table of all the countries who had a least one athlete who came last. [via OuthouseRag]
Cup Of Dog
[via Pya]
The Internet At 35
CNN: Thirty-five years after computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable, testing a new way to exchange data over networks, what would ultimately become the Internet remains a work in progress.
Interesting article on current projects and how groups are trying to make the Internet experience even better.
Simpsons Quotes
Fark has a comment thread for favourite Simpsons quotes. Lots and lots of Simpsons goodness.
Man 'Suffers' From HIV For 8 Years, Learns He Hasn't Got It
MSNBC: HIV diagnosis turns out to be wrong
California man who once tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS has learned the diagnosis made eight years ago was mistaken and he never had the disease.
Jim Malone spent years battling depression and losing weight, expecting to die at any time. He attended support group meetings and accepted free meals from an AIDS charity.
Malone, who is gay and has lost friends to AIDS, said he is relieved but angry...
Man Decapitated In Bizarre Wreck
WSBTV: Man Decapitated In Bizarre Wreck
A Cobb County man is charged in a car wreck in which his passenger was decapitated.
Police say John Kemper Hutcherson, 21, was driving under the influence of alcohol Saturday night when his truck struck a utility pole. His passenger, Francis Daniel Brohm, was partially ejected. His head was severed by the pole's support wire, police said.
But police say Hutcherson continued home and went to bed, covered in blood. A neighbor walking with his baby spotted Brohm's body hanging out of Hutcherson's truck about 8 a.m. Sunday.
He must have been pretty wasted not to notice his headless mate hanging out of the car.
Sunday, August 29, 2004
Where Is Matt?
Track Matt wherever he goes thanks to the wonders of GPS. [via The Lost Links]
Man Burns Down House Trying To Kill Mosquito
Ananova: Man sets house on fire trying to kill mosquito
A Japanese man set his parents' house on fire as he tried to get rid of a mosquito.
Police say the property was gutted in the blaze caused by Tatsuo Onishi lighting a cigarette after spraying pesticide outside.
One consolation for unlucky Tatsuo is that police believe the mosquito was killed in the fire.
Britain Bounces As Tide Goes Out
The Times: Britain bounces as tide goes out
Scientists have mapped the phenomenon of Britain’s tidal “bounce” for the first time, discovering that the weight of sea water pushes down some parts of the country by as much as four inches every time the tide comes in.
Exposure to the weight of the Atlantic Ocean means that southwest England and northwest Scotland are the “bounciest” regions. Parts of the east coast, by contrast, weighed down by the far lower tides of the North Sea, bounce less than an inch.
Although the bounce occurs twice a day with the tides, it is not discernible in everyday life as it happens over a period of six hours and everything around rises and falls at the same time.
Saturday, August 28, 2004
Big Bagel
Fairgoers view a giant bagel that was created by Bruegger's Bagels at the annual New York State Fair, Friday, Aug. 27, 2004, in Geddes, N.Y. The bagel weighed 868 pounds, measured six feet in diameter and required a small crane to hoist it out of its custom-built oven. Until Guinness officially certifies Bruegger's achievement as the new world record _ a process expected to take between eight to 10 weeks _ the record will remain with rival Lender's Bagels, which produced a 714-pound blueberry bagel in Mattoon, Ill., on July 23, 1998. - Yahoo!
'Air-Conditioned' Jackets A Hit In Japan
Ananova: 'Air-conditioned' jackets a hit in Japan
Jackets with built-in electric fans are proving a hit in Japan during the country's record-breaking summer.
The prototype grey nylon coats have two fans in the back above the waist which are connected to a battery pack.
Despite their odd appearance, the jackets - which cost 9,900 yen (£87) - are proving very popular following a record run of high temperatures.
The air runs along the wearer's body and comes out at the cuffs and the neckline, drying off sweat which cools the skin as it evaporates.
View images of the jacket here.
Dead Couple to Be Married
iWon: Dead Couple to Be Married
A South African man who shot his pregnant fiancée dead before killing himself will be posthumously married to her at the weekend.
Police Captain Mohale Ramatseba said David Masenta shot 25-year-old Mgwanini Molomo after a quarrel before turning the gun on himself. But Johannesburg's Sowetan newspaper said family and friends wanted to remember them as a happy couple destined for a happy life together.
Microsoft Site Redesign
The newly redesigned Microsoft site does not get on very well with FireFox. Besides the colours not displaying correctly, the code examples on MSDN do not format correctly. Whilst searching for a C# code example today I noticed that it lumps all of the code in one block rather than adding line breaks like it does in IE.
Below are two screenshots of the page. The first shows how the page looks in FireFox (0.9.1), the second shows how it looks in IE(version 6 w/ SP2)...
Read the discussion about the Microsoft Redesign over at PhotoMatt.
BetaVote
What if the whole world could vote in the U.S. presidential election?
At the moment, 84% of people who have voted from around the world want John Kerry to be the next president.
Estimation Quiz
How well do you know things that you don't really know?
This quiz is geared towards British people. I scored 95 out of 310 points which equates to 31%. How well can you do? [via Linkfilter]
Bad News For Arachnophobes
According to entomologists we are never more than 3ft away from a spider, at least people in the US are never more than 3ft away. Not sure if that applies to other parts of the world.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Casting Videos Gone Wrong
Every time I watch this video I can't help but laugh.
Cleaner Bins Rubbish Bag Artwork
BBC: Cleaner bins rubbish bag artwork
A bag of rubbish that was part of a Tate Britain work of art has been accidentally thrown away by a cleaner.
The bag filled with discarded paper and cardboard was part of a work by Gustav Metzger, said to demonstrate the "finite existence" of art.
It was thrown away by a cleaner at the London gallery, which subsequently retrieved the damaged bag.
The 78-year-old artist replaced it with a new bag. The gallery would not reveal whether he would be compensated.
Compensated? It's worthless. It's just a pile of rubbish, literally!
Mother Killed 'Jack The Ripper' Son
Townsville Bulletin: Boy killed by schizophrenic mother
A Melbourne woman who killed her toddler son after hearing a voice tell her he was Jack the Ripper was ordered detained for 25 years in a top-security psychiatric hospital.
[Adele] Stuart...told a psychiatrist she had heard a voice say her son was Jack the Ripper, and that she should kill him before he killed her...
Deadliest States For Driving
CNN: Deadliest states for driving
Rural states, especially in the West, have the highest traffic fatality rates.
Widely dispersed populations connected by narrow two-lane highways are a recipe for dangerous driving, according to a simple look at state-by-state traffic fatality counts as reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Comparing the number of traffic deaths in each state to its population reveals that some states have death rates -- traffic deaths per 100,000 population -- that are more than double the national average. Other states, mostly in the urban Northeast, have death rates far below the national average.
Where does your state come in the table. View the complete list here.
Woman Jumps From 5th Floor Of Hotel, Dies
PilotOnline: Woman dies after fall from fifth floor of Virginia Beach hotel
A woman died Monday morning after she apparently jumped from a fifth-floor hotel balcony at the Oceanfront. She was pronounced dead at about 11:15 a.m. from multiple injuries, police said.
Her fall was witnessed by a couple on the same floor, Rimer said. They told police the fall appeared to be intentional.
Ironically, a couple who witnessed the woman committing suicide were attending a suicide prevention conference in the very same hotel!
New Jaw Bone Grown In Man’s Back Muscle
MSNBC: New jaw bone grown in man’s back muscle
A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer has enjoyed his first meal in nine years — a bratwurst sandwich — after surgeons grew a new jaw bone in his back muscle and transplanted it to his mouth in what experts call an “ambitious” experiment.
Ths site has a pictures of how the procedure was undertaken.
Advice On Selling A House
Make sure you check your pictures before publishing them. Take a closer look at the third picture. [via Fark]
25st Is 'Not Fat Enough'
The Sun: 25st is 'not fat enough'
A woman obsessed with getting fat is pigging out until she reaches 42 stone. Nicki McRoberts decided to pile on the pounds after becoming sick of magazine photos of stick-thin models. When she started binging a year ago she weighed just 10st.
Now Nicki, from Ontario, Canada, is 25st, has a 52-inch bust, 64-inch hips and her upper arms are 22 inches around.
She outgrows her clothes every month and has spent £2,500 on replacements.
“My goal is 42 stone. I get excited if I split my pants. In my new body I feel extremely beautiful.
Click here for pictures.
