hmmm...   November 2007

• Student artist charged over fake bomb → A student artist who placed a fake bomb that forced an AIDS charity to cancel part of a black-tie fundraiser at the Royal Ontario Museum has been charged by police. #
• Overnight shift to be classified as ‘probable’ cancer cause → Like UV rays and diesel exhaust fumes, working the graveyard shift will soon be listed as a “probable” cause of cancer. #
• Kid’s bracelet found in chicken 25 years later → It won’t fit him anymore, but a Massachusetts man has his metal identity bracelet back after it was found inside a chicken gizzard in this southern Minnesota city - more than 25 years after he lost it in his grandfather’s barn. #
• Subway announcer fired over spoof messages → An official announcer for London’s Tube system has been sacked after making spoof messages mocking American tourists, peeping Toms and sweaty commuters. #
• Iceland best place to live, Africa worst: UN → Iceland has overtaken Norway as the world’s most desirable country to live in, according to an annual U.N. table published on Tuesday that again puts AIDS-afflicted sub-Saharan African states at the bottom. #
• Internet outages could occur by 2010 as capacity stalls → Booming demand for Internet services combined with insufficient infrastructure investment could leave the Web vulnerable to brown outs within three years. #
• Indonesia prepares after psychic ‘predicts quake’ → Local officials in a quake-prone Indonesian province said Monday they were taking precautionary measures after a Brazilian psychic warned a powerful earthquake would strike next month. #
• World’s hottest chili to repel elephants → Wildlife experts in northeastern India are experimenting with a new weapon to prevent marauding elephants from destroying homes and crops and trampling people in villages close to their habitat — super-hot chilies. #
• Chinese pan for gold in the sewage → In one of the most extreme signs of China’s modern grasp of entrepreneurial possibilities, gold panners are striking deals with jewellery factories to buy the contents of their septic tanks. #
• Woman with half a brain → Doctors treating a Chinese woman who complained of feeling weak discovered she only had half a brain. #
• Gun chuck ends in tragedy → A Florida man died, and another was injured, after they found out the hard way that the really cool bit in movies where one guy throws a loaded gun and the other guy catches it doesn’t work quite as well in real life. #
• Man accuses sorceress over pant-eggs → Having marital problems? Have you tried putting egg in your underpants? #
• Cannibal turns vegetarian after joining Green group → THE world’s most infamous cannibal has become a vegetarian. #
• Why I and O are dull for synaesthetes → Synaesthesia is a baffling phenomenon. Some synaesthetes experience colours when they read words, others hear sounds when smelling certain odours. But little is known beyond the notion that it involves a mixing of the senses. #
• School board pulls ‘anti-God’ book → Halton’s Catholic board has pulled The Golden Compass fantasy book – soon to be a Hollywood blockbuster starring Nicole Kidman – off school library shelves because the author is an atheist. #
• Doctors untangle the strange case of the giant hairball → It may not be the most appetizing reading before a hearty holiday meal, but the New England Journal of Medicine is devoting part of its Thanksgiving issue to a giant hairball — and not the feline kind. #
• Boy George in court on imprisonment charge → Pop star Boy George was due to appear in court in London Thursday accused of falsely imprisoning a male escort by chaining him to a wall. #
• Potter stars react to gay twist → The stars of the Harry Potter films have been giving their reaction to JK Rowling’s revelation last month that the one of her characters, Hogwarts school headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is gay. #
• ‘Shut up Chavez’ ringtone a hit in Spain → Many Spaniards were so amused when their king told Venezuela’s president to “shut up” they want to hear the words every time their phone rings. #
• Parents say fake online ‘friend’ led to girl’s suicide → Megan Meier thought she had made a new friend in cyberspace when a cute teenage boy named Josh contacted her on MySpace and began exchanging messages with her. #
• Saudi court ups punishment for gang-rape victim → A court in Saudi Arabia increased the punishment for a gang-rape victim after her lawyer won an appeal of the sentence for the rapists, the lawyer told CNN. #
• Man, psychedelic toad arrested → A US man and his pet toad have been arrested after authorities accused him of using the critter to get high. #
• Incredible comet bigger than the sun → A comet that has delighted backyard astronomers in recent weeks after an unexpected eruption has now grown larger than the sun. #
• Russia sect holes up in cave to await end of world → At least 30 members of a Russian doomsday cult have barricaded themselves in a remote cave to await the end of the world and are threatening to commit suicide if police intervene. #
• Historic Gettysburg photo may contain Lincoln’s image → Abraham Lincoln photos are rare — especially those from the day of the Gettysburg Address. For years, only one such photo was thought to exist, but now that may not be the case. #
• Giant dinosaur skeleton found in museum drawers → A curator has rediscovered a nearly complete giant Barosaurus skeleton hidden for years in museum drawers. #
• Indian man marries dog to ward off curse → A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death. #
• Man fleeing police killed by alligator → A suspected thief disappeared into an alligator-infested lake as he fled police only to turn up dead the next day with gator teeth marks on his upper torso. #
• Indian government wants occult exorcised from TV → India’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry will soon issue a warning to television channels against airing programmes that promote superstition and occult practices. #
• Woman seen scattering ashes at Disneyland → Workers at the Anaheim theme park spotted a guest on the ride sprinkling an unidentified substance into the water, prompting them to close the attraction and alert police. #
• Woman found dead in house full of dogs → When Pasco Fire Rescue went to the home of an elderly woman Wednesday morning, they found her dead and the home filled with 20 dogs and dog feces. #
• Censors sued for cut steamy sex scenes → A Chinese moviegoer is suing China’s film watchdog in frustration with the censored version of Ang Lee’s steamy World War Two drama “Lust, Caution.” #
• Swiss tell German guy to learn German → A 70-year old German seeking Swiss citizenship was told to go back to school to learn his own native tongue despite being proficient in German. #
• Matt Damon is the sexiest man alive today → Matt Damon has been named the “sexiest man alive” by People magazine, an honor that has been bestowed twice on his pals George Clooney and Brad Pitt. #
• Silicon Valley’s richest bachelor to wed → Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page, whose stake in the Internet search leader is worth about $20 billion, and Lucy Southworth are getting married in a ceremony scheduled for the weekend of December 8. #
• 100,000 bees invade university building → More than 100,000 bees have invaded a building at the University of Houston, KPRC Local 2 reported Wednesday. #
• So you want to live forever? → Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is testing a fountain-of-youth pill in humans. You won’t live forever, but it may slow aging and increase lifespan. So far, it’s working. #
• Blood-sucking leeches removed from patient’s ear → Doctors have removed seven leeches from the ear of a farm worker in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. #
• Cat’s daily routine baffles owner → A cat is baffling his owner by wandering off at night before expecting to be collected by car every morning at exactly the same time and place. #
• 4 transplant patients get HIV from donor → An organ donor infected four transplant patients with the AIDS virus in what a donor group says is the first such transmission in the U.S. in at least 13 years. #
• NY police kill unarmed man who was holding hairbrush → Officers shot and killed an 18-year-old man believed to be armed, New York police said Tuesday, but he was only hiding a hairbrush. #
• Alicia Keys gets fisted phished → It’s easy to see how visitors to Alicia Keys’ MySpace page could have accidentally clicked on the wrong spot last week and gotten whisked off to a Chinese website that tried to install malicious code onto their computers. #
• The tables turn for Dilbert’s creator → THIS is yet another story about a clueless but obtrusive boss — the kind of meddlesome manager you might laugh at in the panels of “Dilbert,” the daily comic strip. #
• More than 1 million reported chlamydia cases sets STD record → More than 1 million cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States last year — the most ever reported for a sexually transmitted disease. #
• Man hurt using gun to change tyre → A US man has injured himself in both legs after attempting to loosen a stiff wheel-nut by blasting it with his gun. #
• Woman fnds boyfriend dead in cat door → Authorities in Florida launched an investigation into what they called one of the strangest accidents they’ve ever seen. #
• Unexplained blue cloud floats, darts around customers at gas station → A strange blue cloud seen floating and darting around customers, freezing for 30 minutes and then speeding from an Ohio gas station, remains unexplained even though it was caught on security cams. #
• Marvel, other comics go online — cautiously → Marvel is putting some of its older comics online Tuesday, hoping to reintroduce young people to the X-Men and Fantastic Four by showcasing the original issues in which such characters appeared. #
• Scam artists with toxic teacups victimizing elderly Chinese in S.F. → Scam artists who use a toxic chemical in a teacup to make their elderly victims feel dizzy and in need of “healing” are on the loose in the Chinese American community, San Francisco police warned today. #
• Things you should never do at work → From the e-mails we “forget” to return to the voicemails we “never received,” telling little white lies has become a very real part of our workplace routine. #
• Survey says gift cards are popular, but many go unused → Gift cards may be touted as the easiest gift to give, but more and more of them are going unused by forgetful, time-strapped consumers. #
• Chocolate began as beer-like brew 3,100 years ago → The chocolate enjoyed around the world today had its origins at least 3,100 years ago in Central America not as the sweet treat people now crave but as a celebratory beer-like beverage and status symbol. #
• Which politician do Australian voters want to see nude? → More Australian voters would like to see Labor Opposition leader Kevin Rudd naked than their current prime minister, John Howard, a poll showed on Sunday just two weeks out from a hard-fought general election. #
• ADHD kids’ brain areas develop slower → Crucial parts of brains of children with attention deficit disorder develop more slowly than other youngsters’ brains, a phenomenon that earlier brain-imaging research missed, a new study says. #
• Eerie sounds from Saturn → NASA recently published several audio recordings collected during the Cassini-Huygens space probe’s exploration of the Saturnian system, and it couldn’t sound more like a theremin-laden soundtrack to a 2001: A Space Odyssey sequel. #
• Prosecutor: Murder was ‘thrill kill’ → Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said two teens accused in the “bone-chilling” killing and beheading of River Rouge resident Daniel Sorensen had carefully planned the attack for no other reason than the thrill of it. #
• Finnish school shooter linked to U.S. teen → A Pennsylvania teen jailed on suspicion of plotting a Columbine-style attack on his old school exchanged e-mail with the disturbed student who killed eight people in a similar shooting in Finland, the boy’s lawyer said Monday. #
• Italian musician uncovers hidden music in Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ → It’s a new Da Vinci code, but this time it could be for real. #
• The great swallower strikes again → Yikes! #
• Virginia man found dead, buried under pile of peanuts → A Virginia man was found dead and buried under a large pile of peanuts in a warehouse at the Severn Peanut Company where he worked. #
• Placenta ‘fools body’s defences’ → The placenta acts like a parasite to avoid attack by a mother’s immune system, researchers have discovered. #
• Scientists working to advance Wilhelm Reich’s sexual energy-cosmic life force work → Physician-scientist Wilhelm Reich, best known for his claims of a cosmic life force associated with sexual orgasm, died in federal prison, and the government burned tons of his books and other publications and destroyed his equipment. #
• Spain’s king tells Venezuela’s Chavez to “shut up” → Spain’s King Juan Carlos told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday to “shut up” during closing speeches by leaders from the Latin world that brought the Ibero-American summit to an acrimonious end. #
• Flasher strips off in court → A German flasher stunned lawyers during his appeal hearing on a flashing conviction by stripping off in court. #
• New Yorkers rally to help online Romeo → A tale of online love inspired usually cynical New Yorkers this week to help a young man find the girl of his dreams after he spotted her on a crowded subway train. #
• Man forgets car at gas station → A German man forgot his car after filling it up at a petrol station, police said Friday. #
• Why your decisions are always right → Sometimes we make the “right” choices, but other times we make the choices of fools. Oddly enough, those foolish choices don’t usually bother us for long. Instead, they are quickly rationalized until the guilt goes away. #
• Hundreds of puppies rescued from Va. breeding farm → A dog breeding operation that was home to more than 600 breeding females is now the site of a huge rescue operation, with the owner agreeing to relinquish nearly 1,000 dogs for treatment and possible adoption. #
• It’s splitsville for Prince Harry and longtime girlfriend → Prince Harry and his Zimbabwean-born girlfriend have ended their three-year romance, a newspaper reported Sunday. #
• Literary lion Norman Mailer dies → Norman Mailer, the outspoken author whose prize-winning works made him a towering figure on the American literary stage for more than 50 years, is dead. He was 84. #
• Enjoy a refreshing ham soda → Coming soon next to the Coke and Pepsi in a store near you: ham-and latke-flavored soda to make your holiday feast complete. #
• Superstore stampede kills shoppers → Shoppers eager to buy goods on sale stampeded at a Carrefour supermarket in southwestern China on Saturday, trampling three people to death and injuring at least 31, state media reported. #
• Underwear-obsessed stalker jailed → LONDON, England (AP) — The underwear-obsessed telephone stalker’s undoing proved to be the opening of a gym opposite the apartment that the 40-year-old shared with his mother. #
• Big chunk of the universe is missing — again → Not only has a large chunk of the universe thought to have been found in 2002 apparently gone missing again but it is taking some friends with it, according to new research at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH). #
• Dinosaurs breathed like penguins → Dinosaurs like Velociraptors owe their fearsome reputation to the way they breathed, according to a UK study. #
• Review: ‘Manhunt 2′ a shockingly average thriller → If the talented developers who created “Manhunt 2″ put half as much effort into making the game fun as they did shocking, it might be worth picking up. #
• ‘Twitching’ illness hits several students, staff at Virginia school → A mysterious illness causing an odd “twitching” symptom has stricken several students and a staff member at a Virginia high school. #
• Expert: grave-robbing contrary to witchcraft → Practitioners of witchcraft are reacting strongly to a story about a grave dug up in Hillsboro and suggestions that believers in witchcraft might have been responsible. #
• Serial killer proves unexpectedly seasonal → A German advent calendar for children has become a hot seller since word got out it has a picture of a notorious serial killer on it. #
• Cake thrower walks free → Norway’s Supreme Court has thrown out the prison conviction of John Waagaard, who became a national issue after he hit Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen in the head with a layer cake. #
• UK chooses ‘most ludicrous laws’ → Legislation said to prohibit people dying while in the Houses of Parliament has been voted one of the most ludicrous laws in the UK. #
• ‘Banana wave’ hits Dutch islands → Thousands of bananas have been washed up on two Dutch islands in the North Sea after several containers fell off a cargo ship in a storm, officials say. #
• Man calls 911 and demands beer → It may have seemed like an emergency at the time, but a Connecticut man is now regretting his call to 911. #
• Bear steals car → Vernon, N.J. - A brawny thief smashed through a minivan’s window yesterday, took the vehicle on a short ride and dumped it on the side of the road before fleeing on foot into the woods, township police said. #
• Governor seeks divine intervention to get some rain → With no rain in sight, Gov. Sonny Perdue is looking for a little spiritual help to get North Georgia out of its drought. #
• Sexy walks ‘keep men off scent’ → A sexy swing of the hips may attract admiring glances, but it is not a covert sign a woman is ready to breed, according to researchers. #

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• November 2007 (86)