Page 10 of 344

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Wed August 07, 2013 11:29 pm
by 4/5
McParadigm wrote:You know, this merge actually feels like a political statement, in its own special way.
:lol:

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 08, 2013 3:10 am
by simple schoolboy
While I generally consider medical marijuana to be a counter productive run around towards legalisation, this caught my eye: http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/ch ... index.html I am one of the first to mock those who claim that cannabis can solve all of our material and energy needs, but I had heard something about endocanabanoids, which makes this sound vaguely plausible.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 15, 2013 7:05 pm
by Biff Pocoroba
This reminded me of stories of donkeys painted to look like zebras in Tiajuana or Gaza:

Chinese zoo tries passing off dog as an 'African lion'
Image

The People’s Park of Luohe in the Chinese province Henan has an amazing “African lion” on exhibit for spectators. But the most amazing fact about this proud creature is that it’s actually a dog, not a lion.

As Agence France-Presse reports, the hoax was exposed when the dog, a Tibetan mastiff, started barking.

According to the state-run publication Beijing Youth Daily, a mother and son heard the unexpected sound coming from the alleged lion during a recent visit to the zoo.

The paper says the zoo has been replacing exotic species with substitutes, including placing two rodents in a snake’s cage, a white fox in a leopard’s den and a common dog in a wolf’s pen.

“The zoo is absolutely cheating us,” the visitor, Sharon Liu, told the paper. “They are trying to disguise the dogs as lions.”

Liu and other zoo visitors reportedly paid 15 yuan ($2.45) for the chance to see the dog and other substitute animals up close.

And this is far from the only case of animal impersonation in China. There have also been recent reports of Chinese zoo officials painting dogs black and white to make them look like pandas.

Liu Suya, chief of the zoo’s animal department, told the paper that the actual lion has been temporarily sent to a breeding facility.

"The wolf is somewhere else in the pen and the dog is a pet,” another zoo official told the Oriental Daily. “The African lions will be back. They went to another zoo to breed."

The zoo’s head also told the paper that the signs outside the African lion cage would be changed until the actual lion returns.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 15, 2013 7:59 pm
by Jorge
They also had a smaller dog disguised as a penguin. What a shih tzu.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 15, 2013 8:03 pm
by Let's all laugh at Rangers
That is 1 amazing dog

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 15, 2013 8:30 pm
by doug rr
Let's all laugh at Rangers wrote:That is Yuan amazing dog

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 15, 2013 9:14 pm
by Norah
doug rr wrote:
Let's all laugh at Rangers wrote:That is Huan amazing dog

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 15, 2013 9:51 pm
by harmless
Should've gone with Wan.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Tue August 20, 2013 12:25 am
by shinkdew
WTF?

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... were-bored
Baseball player killed in Oklahoma
Updated: August 19, 2013, 8:15 PM ET
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Australian man attending an Oklahoma college on a baseball scholarship was shot and killed in what police described Monday as a random act of violence by three "bored" teenagers who decided to kill someone for the fun of it.

Christopher Lane, 22, of Melbourne, was found dead Friday while visiting the town of Duncan, where his girlfriend lives. Three boys, ages 15, 16, and 17, are in custody and face a court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford said Monday a woman called 911 after she saw Lane stagger across the road and fall to the ground in the south-central Oklahoma town of about 24,000 residents. Ford said Lane, who was staying with his girlfriend and her family in Duncan, had jogged past a home where the three boys were staying. He said the shooting appeared to be completely random.

Autopsy results are pending. Ford wouldn't say how many times Lane was shot.

Ford said the 17-year-old has given a detailed confession to police, but that investigators have not been able to locate the murder weapon.

"They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: `There's our target," Ford said. "The boy who has talked to us said: `We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.'

"They followed him in the car to that area, shot him in the back and drove off," Ford said.

He said the district attorney is expected to file first-degree murder charges Tuesday, and all three will be arraigned at Stephens County District Court. It wasn't known if the three will be charged as adults or as juveniles.

Sarah Harper, Lane's girlfriend, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the two had only returned to the United States from Australia last week.

"He didn't deserve any of this," Harper told the network. "It's heartbreaking that it was such a random choice those guys made that drastically altered so many lives in the process."

Lane attended East Central University in Ada, about 85 miles west of Duncan. He started 14 games at catcher last year and was entering his senior year.

"He was an absolute joy to coach," baseball coach Dino Rosato said in a statement issued by the school. "Chris was an extremely well-respected teammate. ... He set a great example for all of his teammates, but more importantly for the younger players. He was a mature student-athlete who his teammates could look to for advice and support.

Ford told Oklahoma City television station KOCO that one of the teenagers said they shot Lane for "the fun of it."

The chief told the Duncan Banner that police detained the three boys near a car and had retrieved a dismantled shotgun from the vehicle, but that Lane had been shot with another gun that had not yet been found. He said police have had "problems" with two of the three juveniles previously. He did not elaborate.

Peter Lane, the boy's father, told Australian broadcasters there was no explanation for his son's death.

"It is heartless and to try to understand it is a short way to insanity," he said.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Tue August 20, 2013 12:41 am
by @SkitchP
Oklahoma hates foreskin.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Tue August 20, 2013 12:58 pm
by broken iris
"Jogging while white". It's the new "walking down a dark alley in a mini skirt".

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Tue August 20, 2013 1:05 pm
by broken iris
http://rt.com/news/fukushima-sea-radiation-highest-686/

Radiation levels in Fukushima bay highest since measurements began - reports
Published time: August 19, 2013 18:43

Readings of tritium in seawater taken from the bay near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has shown 4700 becquerels per liter, a TEPCO report stated, according to Nikkei newspaper. It marks the highest tritium level in the measurement history.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has detected the highest radiation level in seawater collected in the harbor of the crippled nuclear plant in the past 15 days, Nikkei reports.

TEPCO said the highest radiation level was detected near reactor 1. Previous measurements showed tritium levels at 3800 becquerels per liter near reactor 1, and 2600 becquerels per liter near reactor 2. The concentration of tritium in the harbor’s seawater has been continuously rising since May, according to Nikkei.

Also on Monday, a leak of highly contaminated water was discovered from a drain valve of a tank dike located on the premises of the nuclear plant, according to Fukushima’s operator responsible for the clean-up.

The level of radiation at the site was estimated at 100 millisieverts per hour, while the safe level of radiation is 1-13 millisieverts per year, according to ITAR-TASS news agency. The plant’s operator is currently investigating reasons for the leak, TEPCO said in a statement.

Earlier, Tepco admitted that an estimated 20 to 40 trillion becquerel’s of tritium may have flowed into the Pacific Ocean since the nuclear disaster.

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen which is produced by nuclear reactors. It is potentially dangerous if inhaled or ingested. The legal limits for Tritium in terms of becquerels per liter vary from country to country. The World Health Organization has a limit of 10,000 Bq/l, but the European Union’s limit is much lower, at 150 Bq/l.

Three of the plant’s reactors suffered a nuclear meltdown in March 2011 after a massive earthquake struck the area, triggering a tsunami. The plant has been accumulating radioactive water ever since, as groundwater passing through the premises becomes contaminated.

Protective barriers installed to prevent the flow of toxic water into the ocean have failed to do so. The level of contaminated water has already risen to 60cm above the barriers, which has been a major cause of the daily leak of toxic substances, TEPCO admitted.

Japan’s Ministry of Industry recently estimated that around 300 tons of contaminated groundwater has been seeping into the Pacific Ocean on a daily basis. TEPCO has promised to reinforce protective shields to keep radioactive leaks at bay.

:shock:

At what point does the world stand up and demand action here? The ocean currents will distribute this all over the pacific into a billion people's food supply.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Tue August 20, 2013 1:34 pm
by Electromatic
The IAEA could appeal for more support I guess. They have to take this cleanup away from Tepco.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Tue August 20, 2013 6:26 pm
by Let's all laugh at Rangers
shinkdew wrote:WTF?

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... were-bored
Baseball player killed in Oklahoma
Updated: August 19, 2013, 8:15 PM ET
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Australian man attending an Oklahoma college on a baseball scholarship was shot and killed in what police described Monday as a random act of violence by three "bored" teenagers who decided to kill someone for the fun of it.

Christopher Lane, 22, of Melbourne, was found dead Friday while visiting the town of Duncan, where his girlfriend lives. Three boys, ages 15, 16, and 17, are in custody and face a court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford said Monday a woman called 911 after she saw Lane stagger across the road and fall to the ground in the south-central Oklahoma town of about 24,000 residents. Ford said Lane, who was staying with his girlfriend and her family in Duncan, had jogged past a home where the three boys were staying. He said the shooting appeared to be completely random.

Autopsy results are pending. Ford wouldn't say how many times Lane was shot.

Ford said the 17-year-old has given a detailed confession to police, but that investigators have not been able to locate the murder weapon.

"They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: `There's our target," Ford said. "The boy who has talked to us said: `We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.'

"They followed him in the car to that area, shot him in the back and drove off," Ford said.

He said the district attorney is expected to file first-degree murder charges Tuesday, and all three will be arraigned at Stephens County District Court. It wasn't known if the three will be charged as adults or as juveniles.

Sarah Harper, Lane's girlfriend, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the two had only returned to the United States from Australia last week.

"He didn't deserve any of this," Harper told the network. "It's heartbreaking that it was such a random choice those guys made that drastically altered so many lives in the process."

Lane attended East Central University in Ada, about 85 miles west of Duncan. He started 14 games at catcher last year and was entering his senior year.

"He was an absolute joy to coach," baseball coach Dino Rosato said in a statement issued by the school. "Chris was an extremely well-respected teammate. ... He set a great example for all of his teammates, but more importantly for the younger players. He was a mature student-athlete who his teammates could look to for advice and support.

Ford told Oklahoma City television station KOCO that one of the teenagers said they shot Lane for "the fun of it."

The chief told the Duncan Banner that police detained the three boys near a car and had retrieved a dismantled shotgun from the vehicle, but that Lane had been shot with another gun that had not yet been found. He said police have had "problems" with two of the three juveniles previously. He did not elaborate.

Peter Lane, the boy's father, told Australian broadcasters there was no explanation for his son's death.

"It is heartless and to try to understand it is a short way to insanity," he said.
I think the bit you've bolded says it, don't appear to be racially motivated to me :?

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Tue August 20, 2013 7:52 pm
by Fuck You Jobu
shinkdew wrote:WTF?

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story ... were-bored
Baseball player killed in Oklahoma
Updated: August 19, 2013, 8:15 PM ET
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Australian man attending an Oklahoma college on a baseball scholarship was shot and killed in what police described Monday as a random act of violence by three "bored" teenagers who decided to kill someone for the fun of it.

Christopher Lane, 22, of Melbourne, was found dead Friday while visiting the town of Duncan, where his girlfriend lives. Three boys, ages 15, 16, and 17, are in custody and face a court appearance Tuesday afternoon.

Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford said Monday a woman called 911 after she saw Lane stagger across the road and fall to the ground in the south-central Oklahoma town of about 24,000 residents. Ford said Lane, who was staying with his girlfriend and her family in Duncan, had jogged past a home where the three boys were staying. He said the shooting appeared to be completely random.

Autopsy results are pending. Ford wouldn't say how many times Lane was shot.

Ford said the 17-year-old has given a detailed confession to police, but that investigators have not been able to locate the murder weapon.

"They saw Christopher go by, and one of them said: `There's our target," Ford said. "The boy who has talked to us said: `We were bored and didn't have anything to do, so we decided to kill somebody.'

"They followed him in the car to that area, shot him in the back and drove off," Ford said.

He said the district attorney is expected to file first-degree murder charges Tuesday, and all three will be arraigned at Stephens County District Court. It wasn't known if the three will be charged as adults or as juveniles.

Sarah Harper, Lane's girlfriend, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the two had only returned to the United States from Australia last week.

"He didn't deserve any of this," Harper told the network. "It's heartbreaking that it was such a random choice those guys made that drastically altered so many lives in the process."

Lane attended East Central University in Ada, about 85 miles west of Duncan. He started 14 games at catcher last year and was entering his senior year.

"He was an absolute joy to coach," baseball coach Dino Rosato said in a statement issued by the school. "Chris was an extremely well-respected teammate. ... He set a great example for all of his teammates, but more importantly for the younger players. He was a mature student-athlete who his teammates could look to for advice and support.

Ford told Oklahoma City television station KOCO that one of the teenagers said they shot Lane for "the fun of it."

The chief told the Duncan Banner that police detained the three boys near a car and had retrieved a dismantled shotgun from the vehicle, but that Lane had been shot with another gun that had not yet been found. He said police have had "problems" with two of the three juveniles previously. He did not elaborate.

Peter Lane, the boy's father, told Australian broadcasters there was no explanation for his son's death.

"It is heartless and to try to understand it is a short way to insanity," he said.
The tough guys...
http://www.news.com.au/national-news/vi ... 6700172461

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Wed August 21, 2013 10:31 pm
by dimejinky99

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Tue August 27, 2013 4:17 pm
by Fuck You Jobu
http://news.yahoo.com/modest-start-swit ... 14325.html

Modest start for Switzerland's first drive-in 'sex boxes'

Greeted by a press pack rather than prostitutes, the first customer to roll up to Switzerland's sex drive-in on opening night took one lap of the facility before making a hasty exit.

The second car, a family vehicle driven by a man in sunglasses under cloudy evening skies, broke down and needed jump starting in front of a host of photographers, sniggering into their cameras.

Zurich authorities had said they expected a modest start to the country's first so-called "sex boxes", a row of drive-in wooden garages on a looping track where clients in cars can visit prostitutes, shielded from prying eyes and security cameras.

With an estimated annual turnover of around 3.5 billion Swiss francs ($3.79 billion), prostitution has been legal in Switzerland since 1942, with sex workers in Zurich required to have a special permit, health insurance and pay tax.

View gallery."A poster recommending the use of condoms is pictured …
A poster recommending the use of condoms is pictured inside an illuminated so-called 'sex box' durin …
The number of prostitutes in the Alpine nation has risen sharply over the last decade, due to the decriminalization of procuring and passive solicitation of sex alongside agreements between Switzerland and the European Union on free movement of people.

The sex boxes, which echo similar drive-in systems in the Netherlands and Germany, are being touted as a way to get large numbers of prostitutes and their clients off Switzerland's otherwise pristine streets.

BOXES AND CAMPER VANS

Complete with panic buttons in each shed, showers, a laundry room and on-site health workers, supporters say the system offers relative security to sex workers and privacy to their clients, while reducing the disturbance to locals.

"The existing strips were simply too strained," said Ursula Kocher at Zurich's welfare department.


"The conditions for the women were completely unhygienic and dangerous, they had to work in woods or secluded car parks," Kocher said, standing in front of the boxes.

Only four prostitutes were on site at the start of the evening, but Kocher said she was sure more women would come to the compound, where they would have access to contraceptives, counseling and sexual health checks.

Between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., men can cruise along the track and choose a prostitute from wooden shelters before parking in one of the nine drive-in boxes.

Though clients must arrive alone in a car, they also have the option of parking and visiting two smaller boxes or one of four camper vans on foot.

Prostitutes at the facility declined to talk to journalists or allow them to take their pictures.


LEGAL PROSTITUTION

Some critics have voiced concern that the novel fascination with the sex boxes, which have cost taxpayers more than 2 million francs to construct, is a distraction from more serious issues about exploitation and human trafficking.

"It would be more revealing to ask: what sort of men buy sexual services of young women on the street?" said Andrea Gisler, president of Zurich's Frauenzentrale women's group, adding the boxes only relocated red light activities to the outskirts of the city.

"The prostitutes and their protection has never come into it," Gisler said.

The conditions for sex workers may be better in countries where prostitution is legal, but a global study showed this year that they also report higher influxes of human trafficking.

View gallery."A ticket machine, where prostitutes have to pay their …

One author of the study, Eric Neumayer at the London School of Economics, said the new system in Zurich could aid monitoring of human trafficking.

"If it's a very controlled environment, it should be easier to do checks on where the women come from, if they are there against their will," Neumayer said.

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 29, 2013 8:37 am
by dimejinky99
Best. Prank. Ever.
http://youtu.be/zZGNk8pUj4Y

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 29, 2013 11:47 pm
by LetMeSleep

Re: Not worthy of a thread News

Posted: Thu August 29, 2013 11:58 pm
by BurtReynolds
the is full of smoke right now!