The General News Thread

Discussion Open Forum
1

Just thought I’d start a general news threads about local stuff we read from home, or things of a non-political nature…anywho…

[quote]
ALBANY, N.Y. - If you plant some trees, is it OK to drive an Escalade?

The question isn’t as silly as it sounds. People worried about global warming increasingly are trying to “offset” the carbon dioxide — the leading greenhouse gas — they spew into the atmosphere when they drive, fly or flick on a light. One idea popular with the eco-conscious is to have trees planted for them. You get to keep driving and flying, but those trees are supposed to suck in your trail of carbon.[/quote]
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070527/ap_ … and_people
Why not have a TreeTax?

[quote]
LANSING, Mich. - For nearly a decade, Dr. Jack Kevorkian waged a defiant campaign to help other people kill themselves. The retired pathologist left bodies at hospital emergency rooms and motels and videotaped a death that was broadcast on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” His actions prompted battles over assisted suicide in many states. But as he prepares to leave prison June 1 after serving more than eight years of a 10- to 25-year sentence in the death of a Michigan man, Kevorkian will find that there’s still only one state that has a law allowing physician-assisted suicide — Oregon.[/quote]
Eight years for giving people and their families what they asked for. He’s out just in time to run for President!
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070527/ap_ … _s_release

[quote]LOS ANGELES - A woman who lost both legs and an arm as a child is poised to become a doctor for children.

Kellie Lim, who became a triple amputee at age 8 because of bacterial meningitis, is to graduate from UCLA’s medical school on Friday, and she plans to focus on childhood allergies and infectious disease.

The Michigan native, 26, does not use a prosthetic arm and manages to perform most medical procedures — including giving injections and taking blood — with one arm. She walks on a pair of prosthetic legs.[/quote]
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/amputee_med_student
:rainbow: :notworthy:

2

[quote]WELLINGTON, New Zealand - A 44-year-old woman who needed an electric oxygen pump to breathe died after an energy company cut the power to her home because of a $122 unpaid bill, her family claimed Wednesday.

Police said they had launched an investigation into Folole Muliaga’s death, which happened within two hours of state-owned company Mercury Energy cutting power to her house Tuesday.[/quote]
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070530/ap_ … npaid_bill

ouch

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[quote]The family says Ms Muliaga, 44, pleaded that she be given a chance to pay her outstanding power bill. Ietitaia said the contractor replied, “I’m just here to do my job”. Then he left.[/quote]’'Lord spare me officious wankers!

And elsewhere . . . in the guns don’t kill people, fuckwits do . . .

[quote]Off-duty cop shoots daughter who snuck out
An off-duty American police officer in Connecticut shot and critically wounded his 18-year-old daughter, apparently mistaking her for an intruder after she sneaked out of their home and re-entered through the basement.

Eric Scott, 41, on the New Haven police force for nine years, has not been charged in Tuesday’s shooting.

“Mr Scott was under the impression his daughter had gone to bed for the night,” Stratford Captain Thomas Rodia said.

“He did not expect his daughter to be outside or down in the basement.”

Investigators said Tasha Scott left her home late on Monday to meet a boyfriend. She triggered a backyard motion sensor light as she tried to enter through a basement door.

Awakened by the light, Eric Scott spotted someone moving in the basement bathroom, police said. He fired his department-issued pistol once, hitting the teen in the knee. The bullet travelled up her leg and lodged in her thigh area, police said.

The teenager underwent surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition on Wednesday morning.

Scott has been on leave since being struck by a truck while on duty in November. A telephone listing for him had been disconnected this morning, and a message left for him at the New Haven department was not immediately returned.

AP[/quote]

HG

4

Hong Kong student pays 7,000 dollars for ‘magic’ shortness cure

…this does not mention that the seller was someone with an Aussie accent.

5

Who is ‘The General’? What’s the latest news on him?

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news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/engl … 706401.stm

God I miss English eccentricity…

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wnyt.com/article/stories/S95484.shtml?cat=300

I go with wood!

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[quote=“TainanCowboy”]Hong Kong student pays 7,000 dollars for ‘magic’ shortness cure

…this does not mention that the seller was someone with an Aussie accent.[/quote]

The next one might! Thanks for the heads up. So all those dumpoy legged Cantos want some height, eh? Superb!

HG

9

I’m assuming this qualifies as ‘general news’. Gotta hand it to those Winnipeggers…YIKES!

[quote]Former Winnipegger convicted on child porn charges also had diaper fetish
PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — A court in Saskatchewan has heard that a man caught with child pornography on his computer was also once nabbed for stealing diapers.

Wayne Leitz, who originally hails from Winnipeg, pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography in March and was sentenced to 45 days in jail followed by 22 months of probation.

Police searched his Prince Albert home in January and found computer files that depicted pre-teen and children posing nude, and in some photographs were engaged in sexual acts.

Leitz’s previous conviction for stealing diapers came up during a sentencing hearing on Monday, when the court was discussing his criminal record.

Prosecutor John Field says Leitz admits to having a diaper fetish.

Field told Judge Sam Goldstein in Prince Albert Provincial Court that his client knew the fetish was abnormal, but said [color=red]wearing diapers made him feel safe[/color].

Field told the court that Leitz was completely cooperative with police when they searched his home for the child pornography.

He said his client gave them the passwords to the computers and directed them to where the pornography files could be found.[/quote]

10

He may really regret doing that.

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[quote]MANAMA, Bahrain - U.S. military officials said Wednesday that a Navy ship recently fired on pirates who overtook a Danish vessel off Somalia’s coast.
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The USS Carter Hall, part of a U.S. task force that helps maintain security off Somalia and nearby countries, engaged the pirates after they hijacked a Danish cargo ship, the Danica White, in international waters, said Lt. Denise Garcia, a public affairs officer at U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain.

The U.S. ship fired several warning shots across the Danica White’s bow and also destroyed three small boats the pirates had used in their assault and were towing behind the Danish vessel, according to Garcia, who said the incident occurred Saturday[/quote]
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070606/ap_ … vy_pirates
NOw, about those ninjas…

[quote]
BLOOMFIELD, Conn. - Police looking for clues in the yearlong disappearance of a 15-year-old girl said they found her Wednesday, pale but alive, locked in a hidden room in a home owned by an acquaintance of her parents.
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Bloomfield police went to the home Wednesday in nearby West Hartford to serve search warrants for DNA and other evidence and found the girl locked inside a tiny room hidden underneath a staircase and blocked from view by a dresser.[/quote]
WTF is going on these days with these long term “kidnappings?”
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070606/ap_ … girl_found

[quote]
SAN ANTONIO - In their simple convent, where rows of chairs are arranged in front of a television and a crucifix, the 23 nuns of the Salesian Sisters of Mary Immaculate Province briefly put aside their pleas for the sick and the poor to pray for the San Antonio Spurs.
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With basketball players’ names pinned to white smocks beneath their habits, the sisters faithfully gather at game time in the convent’s community room, yelling “Make that basket!” and “C’mon!”[/quote]
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070606/ap_ … ering_nuns
WE got God yes we do! We got God how bout you!?[/img]

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OK JDS…I see where you’re heading with this thread…

newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html

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:astonished:

Under the ‘Justice’ section of the Taipei Times, comes this.

[quote]
JUSTICE
Nose-picking compensation
A man surnamed Chiang was awarded NT$600,000 (US$18,100) in compensation by the Taipei District Court for a car accident that fractured his left hand, in part because he can no longer enjoy his favorite hobby – nose-picking. In its decision, the court said that Chiang’s hand injury had forced him to leave his construction job for an administrative position, a move that resulted in a net loss of income. The court also upheld Chiang’s claim that his arm injury negatively affected his life, making it impossible for him to hold his child or even pick his nose, a favorite pastime of his. The court emphasized that the loss of Chiang’s nose-picking ability was only a small consideration in its decision. Beside the injury to his left hand, Chiang also suffered abrasions to his face. Chiang had originally sued for NT$3.7 million.[/quote]

14

“It causes drowsiness and lethargy, as well as euphoria, excessive thirst and disorientation.”
Gee, sounds like a lot of fun…:idunno:

Deadly $2 cheese heroin targets teens

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[quote]BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt — more than a century ago. Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale’s age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old.
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“No other finding has been this precise,” said John Bockstoce, an adjunct curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.[/quote]
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070613/ap_ … _old_whale

Oh, and Alaskans eat whale. That’s why it was “caught.”

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[quote]Sag your britches somewhere else, this Cajun-country town has decided. Mayor Carol Broussard said he would sign an ordinance the town council approved this week setting penalties of up to six months in jail and a $500 fine for being caught in pants that show undergarments or certain parts of the body.

Broussard said he has nothing against saggy pants but thinks people who wear them should use discretion. “It’s gotten way out of hand out here,” he said.[/quote]
abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3 … SFeeds0312

Say no to crack…or else.

17

ET TAKES LAKE!!!

[quote]
Park rangers at Bernardo O’Higgins National Park said they found a 100-feet-deep crater in late May were the lake had been in March. Several large pieces of ice that used to float atop the water also were spotted.

“The lake had simply disappeared,” Juan Jose Romero, head of Chile’s National Forest Service in the southernmost region of Magallanes, said Wednesday. “No one knows what happened.”[/quote]
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070621/ap_ … ssing_lake

It’s AL Gore’s plot. Cause a disaster and then overreact to it, get the world to follow you for a bit and invade someone…

Where does he get these ideas from?

18

[quote]The Hagers are trying to figure out how life went off track for their teenage daughter, Windy.

They envisioned that life for the good student and promising athlete would be filled with dreams of the prom and college, but that all changed this week when Windy, 16, married her high school track coach. [/quote]
Wow, that blows.
abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3305 … SFeeds0312

[quote]
The oft-told tale is that Bush’s grandfather, Prescott Bush, and some of his buddies at Yale, dug up the grave of Apache chief Geronimo, removing his skull and femur and placing them in a glass case in the lobby of the Tomb, the headquarters of the university’s notorious Skull and Bones society back in 1917.

It’s a story that’s become legend at Yale, passed down from generation to generation. Despite the lack of clear evidence, every new clue or rumor just adds to its allure.

But could a medicine man in Mescalero, N.M., be able to definitively prove whether the story is true?

Harlyn Geronimo, the great grandson of the Apache warrior, wants to prove that the skull is authentic by offering his DNA to see if it matches the bones, and he’s demanding the return of the remains.

“I really believe that that’s my great grandfather’s skull,” Geronimo tells ABCNews.com. “We want to return him to the Gila Wilderness, where he was born, so the spirit can complete its journey and go on to the next world. Presently, he’s buried as a prisoner of war and it still has that status over him.” [/quote]
cool
abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=32996 … SFeeds0312

19

This is rich.

Thai officials hope Hello Kitty can shame errant cops

[quote]BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) – Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring “Hello Kitty,” the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.

The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.[/quote]

20

[quote=“Mer”]This is rich.

Thai officials hope Hello Kitty can shame errant cops

[quote]BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) – Thai police officers who break rules will be forced to wear hot pink armbands featuring “Hello Kitty,” the Japanese icon of cute, as a mark of shame, a senior officer said Monday.

The striking armband features Hello Kitty sitting atop two hearts.[/quote][/quote]

The ultimate punishment!