today's news

[DüM]

Edward Smith, who lives with his current "girlfriend" – a white Volkswagen Beetle named Vanilla, insisted that he was not "sick" and had no desire to change his ways.

"I appreciate beauty and I go a little bit beyond appreciating the beauty of a car only to the point of what I feel is an expression of love," he said.

"Maybe I'm a little bit off the wall but when I see movies like Herbie and Knight Rider, where cars become loveable, huggable characters it's just wonderful.

"I'm a romantic. I write poetry about cars, I sing to them and talk to them just like a girlfriend. I know what's in my heart and I have no desire to change."

He added: "I'm not sick and I don't want to hurt anyone, cars are just my preference."

Mr Smith, 57, first had sex with a car at the age of 15, and claims he has never been attracted to women or men.

But his wandering eye has spread beyond cars to other vehicles. He says that his most intense sexual experience was "making love" to the helicopter from 1980s TV hit Airwolf.

As well as Vanilla, he regularly spends time with his other vehicles – a 1973 Opal GT, named Cinnamon, and 1993 Ford Ranger Splash, named Ginger.

Before Vanilla, he had a five-year relationship with Victoria, a 1969 VW Beetle he bought from a family of Jehovah's Witnesses.

But he confesses that many of the cars he has had sex with have belonged to strangers or car showrooms.

His last relationship with a woman was 12 years ago - and he could not bring himself to consummate it, although he did have sex with girls in his younger days.

Mr Smith, from Washington state in the US, kept quiet about his secret fetish for years, but agreed to be interviewed as part of a channel Five documentary into “mechaphilia”. He is shown meeting other enthusiasts at a rally in California

Talking about how his unusual passion developed, Mr Smith said: "It's something that grew as a part of me when I was a kid and I could not shake it.

"I just loved cute cars right from the beginning, but over the years it got stronger once I got into my teenage years and was my first having sexual urges.

"When I turned 13 and the famous Corvette Stingray came about, that car was pure sex and just an incredible machine. I wanted it.

"I didn't fully understand it myself except that I know I'm not hurting anyone and I do not intend to."

He added: "There are moments way out in the middle of nowhere when I see a little car parked and I swear it needs loving.

"There have been certain cars that attracted me and I would wait until night time, creep up to them and just hug and kiss them.

"As far as women go, they never really interested me much. And I'm not gay.”

Mr Smith is now part of a global community of more than 500 “car lovers” brought together by internet forums.

GO WASHINGTON!

[RFKorp]

http://au.news.yahoo.com/080522/2/16z4i.html

Friday May 23, 09:31 AM

Gambian leader threatens to behead gays

Eccentric Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has threatened to behead gays unless they leave the country, according to reports.

"The Gambia is a country of believers ... sinful and immoral practices (such) as homosexuality will not be tolerated in this country," the president told a crowd at a political rally on May 15, local journalists told AFP on Thursday.

He went on to say he would "cut off the head" of any gay person caught in The Gambia.

The anti-gay campaign continued in the Gambian pro-government media this week with the Daily Observer publishing a virulent editorial.

"We have said it before and we will say it again. This is a Muslim and Christian country. Both the Koran and the holy Bible condemn homosexuality - pure and simple," the paper wrote on Monday.

British gay rights group Outrage said on Thursday the Gambian leader's comments came as no surprise.

"Jammeh has a long history of homophobia," spokesman Peter Tatchell said.

"If he tries to carry out these threats, international aid donors are likely to withdraw their support, and foreign tourists will stay away in droves, thereby damaging the Gambian economy," he added.

The tourism industry is vital to Gambia's economy as the West African nation lacks other natural resources.

Jammeh drew condemnation from African AIDS groups after he claimed in January to have found a "miracle" treatment for HIV/AIDS.

The method was based on medicinal plants and a Koranic verse. All participants were ordered to give up their antiretroviral drugs.

Somehow I don't think describing him as "eccentric" even begins to cover it.... At least he gave a warning?

[Chicken]

Edward Smith, who lives with his current "girlfriend" – a white Volkswagen Beetle named Vanilla, insisted that he was not "sick" and had no desire to change his ways.

h5sOCEUpGZI

i lol'ed at the part about having sex with a helicopter. great article.

[Chicken]

Somehow I don't think describing him as "eccentric" even begins to cover it.... At least he gave a warning?

maybe he'll have sex with a tranny by accident and have to chop his own head off.

[calvin1663]

Mom who caged teen son gets 20 years behind bars

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A mother was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday for keeping her 17-year-old adopted son caged in her home.

Brenda Sullivan, accused of caging her 17-year-old son, pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated child abuse.

Brenda Sullivan pleaded guilty in January to three counts of aggravated child abuse. Prosecutors agreed to drop lesser child neglect charges.

The teen weighed 49 pounds when child welfare workers found him in 2005 in what appeared to be a cage. Sullivan told a judge at the time that Ohio authorities told her to keep the boy, who had severe medical and emotional problems, in a crib.

"There's only one conclusion when you look at the medical evidence in this case, and that is that she literally starved him," prosecutor Julie Schlax said.

Two other children, 13-year-old twins the Sullivans adopted as infants, both testified they were kept in similar cages.

Sullivan's husband was also arrested, but died in January 2007 while awaiting trial.

Sullivan's lawyer, Charles Fletcher, said he didn't think prison was the right option because she does not pose a threat to society. He said they would appeal the sentence.

from cnn

[DüM]

just realized the article of the "car lover" has pictures.

[thejimbo]

Baby For Sale On Ebay For One Euro

A seven-month-old baby boy has been taken away from his parents after they advertised him for sale on eBay for one euro.

Police in southern Germany took the child away on Saturday after they received calls from surfers who had seen the advert on the online auction site.

Officers have now launched an investigation into possible child trafficking charges against the parents - who claim it was "all a joke".

The 23-year-old mother told German newspaper Bild: "It was only a joke.

"I just wanted to see if someone would make an offer.

"They've taken my son to hospital and I've got to take psychiatric tests next week."

No offers were made for the child in the two hours and 30 minutes he was posted for sale.

The ad read: "Baby - collection only. Offer my nearly new baby for sale because it cries too much.

"Male, 70 cm long."

eBay has deleted the advert and the child is currently in the care of "youth services" in the southwestern Allgaeu region of Germany.

You know what makes me laugh is that when the playstation 3's were out to buy in Asia before Europe, i tried to sell some on eBay. They removed my auction straight away saying i cant sell this product because it isnt available in Europe, which was the whole point i was doing it. But they let some parents in germany sell their baby.

[broneck]

Edward Smith, who lives with his current "girlfriend" – a white Volkswagen Beetle named Vanilla, insisted that he was not "sick" and had no desire to change his ways.

"I appreciate beauty and I go a little bit beyond appreciating the beauty of a car only to the point of what I feel is an expression of love," he said.

how does he...where does he...does he...

:confused:

[domdomdomdom]

how does he...where does he...does he...

:confused:

[Blicero]

With 6.5 billion people on the planet, every possible manifestation and combination of sexuality is expressed in reality.

That dude like to wear a corset. AND he happens to enjoy fucking the tailpipes of cars.

Venn diagram THAT shit.

[jayrock]

12 year old girl to get state-sponsored sex change over dad's objections

[Chicken]

free pot !

Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport

An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan's Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say.

A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security.

Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in.

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials.

"This case was extremely regrettable. I would like to deeply apologise," said Narita International Airport's customs head Manpei Tanaka.

more...

[dismalfuture]

Damn, that would be a gift from heaven.

[Chicken]

^ yeah, i don't know why the guy was apologizing.

[domdomdomdom]

i guess thats good news for people shipping to tokyo

[Blicero]

you think you got it bad?

In a Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2007 file photo, Dianne Odell watches her favorite soap opera at home in Jackson, Tenn. The family of 61-year-old Dianne Odell said she died early Wednesday, May 27, 2008, after a power failure shut down the machine that kept her breathing, and family members were unable to get an emergency generator working . Odell spent her life in the iron lung, cared for by her parents and other family members.

[salo]

Billions of electronic-eating 'crazy rasberry ants' invade Texas

Tom Rasberry, the exterminator, with the alien ants he first identified as a problem

Chris Ayres in Los Angeles

It sounds like the plot of a farfetched science fiction movie. Unfortunately for the residents of Texas, it is very much a reality: billions of tiny reddish-brown ants have arrived onshore from a cargo ship and are hell-bent on eating anything electronic.

Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food by the flea-sized ants, for reasons that have left scientists baffled.

Having ruined pumps at a sewage facility, the ants are now marching towards Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre and William P. Hobby airport, Houston, putting state officials in a panic. “They’re itty-bitty things, and they’re just running everywhere,†said Patsy Morphew, a resident of Pearland, on the Gulf Coast.

She spends hours sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. “There’s just thousands and thousands of them. If you’ve seen a car racing, that’s how they are. They’re going fast, fast, fast. They’re crazy.â€

Related Links

• Metrosexual ant recolonises Australia

• Ask the Experts: The exterminator

Crazy is the the right word. The ants are known as “crazy rasberry antsâ€: crazy because they seem to move in a random scrum as opposed to marching in regimented lines, and rasberry after a pioneering exterminator, Tom Rasberry, who first identified them as a problem.

The ants – also known as paratrenicha species near pubens – have so far spread to five counties in the Houston area. Scientists are not sure from where they originate but they seem to be related to a type of ant from the Caribbean. “At this point it would be nearly impossible to eradicate the ants because they are so widely dispersed,†said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist. He added that the only upside to the invasion was that the crazy rasberry ants ate fire ants, which sting humans during the long, hot Texas summers.

Unfortunately, the ants also like to suck the moisture from plants, feed on precious insects such as ladybirds and eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered type of grouse known as the Attwater prairie chicken. They also bite humans – although not with a sting like fire ants.

Perhaps their most remarkable characteristic, however, is that they are attracted to electrical equipment. Pest control specialists say that they are inundated with calls from homes and businesses now that the warm, humid season has begun, with literally billions of the ants wreaking havoc across the state. Worse, the ants refuse to die when sprayed with over-the-counter poison. Even killing the queen of a colony doesn’t do any good, because each colony has multiple queens.

The Texas Department of Agriculture said that it was working with researchers from A&M University and the Environmental Protection Agency to find new ways to stop the ants.

[RFKorp]

Man.... today is just wacked out news up the wazoo.

Cat turns into woman in P/Harcourt - 5 killed as cultists clash

Bolaji Ogundele, Port Harcourt - 22.05.2008

http://www.tribune.com.ng/22052008/news/news2.html

WHAT could be described as a fairy tale turned real on Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as a cat allegedly turned into a middle-aged woman after being hit by a commercial motorcycle (Okada) on Aba/Port Harcourt Expressway.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that three cats were crossing the busy road when the okada ran over one of them which immediately turned into a woman. This strange occurrence quickly attracted people around who descended on the animals. One of them, it was learnt, was able to escape while the third one was beaten to death, still as a cat though.

According to a source who witnessed what happened, the cat-woman said she and the two other cat-fellows had travelled from Abuja to Port Harcourt to kill three people. “The woman said they came to Port Harcourt from Abuja and that they came to kill three people. She said they had succeeded in killing two people, but the third person, whom I guess might be a pastor, was difficult for them and that they were preparing to go back to Abuja,†said the source.

Another witness, who gave his name as James, said the woman started faking when she saw that many people were gathering around her. “I have never seen anything like this in my life. I saw a woman lying on the road instead of a cat. Blood did not come out of her body at that time. When people gathered and started asking her questions, she pretended that she did not know what had happened," he said.

When the Nigerian Tribune got to the scene of the incident near Garrison Junction, the cat-woman was seen sitting on the ground with blood all over her body. The right side of her face had a deep cut from what was gathered to be from a cutlass.

She was later taken to a hospital for medical attention. It took the intervention of policemen to prevent the mob from killing her.

When reached for information from the police, the Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State police command, Mrs. Rita Inoma-Abbey, said she had been taken to the hospital.

“She has been taken to Teme Clinic. Police will still be guarding her so that she will not disappear,†he said. In another development, at least five people have been confirmed dead while four others were said to be receiving medical treatment following a suspected cult clash in Aluu, one of the host communities of the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Nigerian Tribune gathered from sources around UNIPORT that the clash, which led to the loss of lives and injury to others, was between two cult groups; Vikings and Black Axe Confraternity, a spill over of the struggle between the two cult groups on the RSUST campus, Port Harcourt.

Man finds woman living in wardrobe

From correspondents in Tokyo

May 30, 2008 02:58pm

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23783158-2,00.html

A JAPANESE man puzzled by food mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he discovered a woman had been living in his home for months without permission, police said today.

The 57-year-old man who lives alone - or so he thought - in the western city of Fukuoka installed a security camera and called the police when he saw images of someone walking around his home while he was out.

"We searched the house in the man's presence. We found the woman in the closet," said a local police spokesman.

The woman, named as 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa, was found in a flat storage space only just big enough for a person to squeeze into lying down.

She had sneaked a mattress and several plastic bottles into the cubby hole, police said, adding that the women had been arrested.

"She told police that she had nowhere to live," the spokesman said.

"She seems to have lived there for about a year, but not all the time."

It is unclear how she managed to enter the home undetected. Police suspect she might have been closet-hopping, moving from house to house.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

[cinderella]

Would-be thieves leave nasty note

May 29, 2008

function NewWindow(height,width,url) {window.open(url,"ShowProdWindow","menubars=0,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,height="+height+",width="+width); } The note the burglars left behind was nothing fancy.

It had large letters scribbled in ink on a plain white piece of copy paper. It had no doodles or stickers or punctuation.

But its message was clear: “(Expletive) you and your safe”

“Apparently, they were upset that they couldn’t gain access to the safe,” West Des Moines Police Lt. Jeff Miller said.

The father-and-son burglary team of Randall Popkes, 41, of Urbandale, and Joshua Williams, 22, of Des Moines, allegedly broke into the Des Moines Golf and Country Club early Monday morning.

They used a reciprocating saw to cut into the safe but couldn’t get it open. Instead they left with tennis rackets and shoes, some of which tumbled out of their vehicle after they sped away when a security officer saw them in the parking lot at 1600 Jordan Creek Parkway.

The suspects were identified by the license plate on their vehicle. They turned themselves in to police and returned most of the stolen property, Miller said. Popkes and Williams face felony burglary charges and up to five years in prison.

As for the threatening note, it won’t likely carry any additional criminal charges.

“It wasn’t directed at anyone in particular,” Miller said.

[Chicken]

T9Yd-Qpof70

[Chicken]

and another news:

jOkpn0BN2HE

it's also some next level stuff.

[the Repeater]

$15.16 million, nigga. $15.16 MILLLLLLION.

[sleazie ninja number 47]

^^nice purchase sidneylo.

[Chicken]

^^ incredible. it's like otaku's wet dream.

btw, don't throw away those used grease:

As Oil Prices Soar, Restaurant Grease Thefts Rise

The bandit pulled his truck to the back of a Burger King in Northern California one afternoon last month armed with a hose and a tank. After rummaging around assorted restaurant rubbish, he dunked a tube into a smelly storage bin and, the police said, vacuumed out about 300 gallons of grease.

Nick Damianidis, an owner of Olympia Pizza and Pasta in Arlington, Wash., has had oil stolen.

The man was caught before he could slip away. In his truck, the police found 2,500 gallons of used fryer grease, indicating that the Burger King had not been his first fast-food craving of the day.

Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night.

“Fryer grease has become gold,†Mr. Damianidis said. “And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away.â€

Much to the surprise of Mr. Damianidis and many other people, processed fryer oil, which is called yellow grease, is actually not trash. The grease is traded on the booming commodities market. Its value has increased in recent months to historic highs, driven by the even higher prices of gas and ethanol, making it an ever more popular form of biodiesel to fuel cars and trucks.

In 2000, yellow grease was trading for 7.6 cents per pound. On Thursday, its price was about 33 cents a pound, or almost $2.50 a gallon. (That would make the 2,500-gallon haul in the Burger King case worth more than $6,000.)

[jpgm]

i'm sure at least a few of you have read about this alread, but i thought i'd share it anyway....

i find the notion of a people who have yet to be touched by the 'outside'/modern world absolutely fascinating. i just hope that these people are left alone to live the way they have for thousands of years.

Pleas to leave lost Amazon tribe alone

May 30, 2008 05:38pm

APPEALS have been made to leave alone the members of one of Brazil's last uncontacted Indian tribes, spotted in the Amazon jungle near the Peruvian border.

The Indians were sighted and photographed from an aircraft or helicopter during flights over the rainforest in remote Acre state, said Brazil's National Indian Foundation, known as Funai.

Funai said it photographed "strong and healthy" warriors, six huts and a large planted area.

The photographs show red-painted tribe members brandishing bows and arrows.

Funai said it was not known to which tribe they belonged.

"Four distinct isolated peoples exist in this region, whom we have accompanied for 20 years," Funai expert Jose Carlos Meirelles Junior said.

"We did the overflight to show their houses, to show they are there, to show they exist," he said.

"This is very important because there are some who doubt their existence."

The tribe spotted recently is one of the last not to be contacted by officials.

Funai does not make contact with such tribes and prevents invasions of their land to ensure their autonomy, the foundation said.

Survival International said the Indians were in danger from illegal logging in Peru, which is driving uncontacted tribes over the border and could lead to conflict with the estimated 500 uncontacted Indians now living on the Brazilian side.

There are more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, most of them in Brazil and Peru, the group said.

"These pictures are further evidence that uncontacted tribes really do exist," Survival director Stephen Corry said.

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct."

Mr Meirelles described the threats to such tribes and their land as "a monumental crime against the natural world" and "further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the 'civilised' ones, treat the world", the BBC reported.

One Australian-based linguist says the tribe should be left alone.

LaTrobe University professor Alexandra Aikhenvald said contact with white people had not brought much good to indigenous tribes in history so far.

"My reaction is excitement because it is always extremely interesting to see new peoples being discovered," she told ABC radio.

"But I think they would be extremely scared after seeing the aircraft.

"They may just leave because they may have this idea that is some sort of gigantic bird that wants to engulf them all or that it is some sort of invaders or anything like that caution and care."

Ms Aikhenvald doubts the tribe has never had contact with white people, but says it is not impossible.

"Many of them had contact with white people at different times in the past but basically in the 19th Century and then during the rubber boom, many of them just fled," she said.

"Maybe they are descendants of those groups that fled from white supremacy maybe 100 or more years ago."

Hidden tribe outed 'to prove they exist'

May 31, 2008 07:31am

DRAMATIC pictures of an isolated Brazilian tribe believed never to have had contact with the outside world were published to draw attention to threats posed to their way of life, officials have said.

The pictures, released by the Brazilian government's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), showed alarmed natives pointing bows and arrows at the aircraft carrying photographers.

The head of FUNAI's environmental protection unit responsible for the images, Jose Carlos dos Reis Meirelles, said the foundation had known of the existence of the tribe for years - located in thick rainforest near the Peruvian border - and many photos had been taken.

"We have been watching this isolated indigenous community for at least 20 years. The idea in revealing the photos was to raise the alarm over the risk threatening them," he said from western Brazil, where the indigenous group is located.

He explained the tribe had been pushed slowly out of Peruvian territory into Brazil by loggers cutting down their Amazon basin habitat, and that the pace of the illegal deforestation was now accelerating.

"Peruvian authorities recently said this indigenous community doesn't exist. Well, they do exist and they are facing an enormous risk," Mr Meirelles said.

"But they weren't just discovered today. All this region is a cultural mosaic and there are four different identified groups living close to one another," he said.

He said he did not know - "and didn't care to know" - what ethnic group the isolated tribe came from. "All I care about is protecting them, keeping them in their isolation."

The pictures show the tribe's members, their skin painted red and black, in a village of huts with thatched roofs.

The head of FUNAI's Isolated Indians Department, Elias Biggio, said that Mr Meirelles's team had not had any physical contact with the tribe.

Survival International, a British group lobbying on behalf of indigenous people around the world, said on its website there were fears illegal logging in Peru could also endanger the Brazilian tribe by forcing displaced Peruvian tribes into contact with it.

It said there were an estimated 500 isolated indigenous people living on the Brazilian side of the border.

"The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct," Survival International director Stephen Corry said.

His group said there were more than 100 uncontacted indigenous tribes worldwide.

photos - http://www.news.com.au/gallery/0,23607,5032070-5007150,00.html

[Chicken]

^ yeah, cool discovery and story. check out this link for more possible explanations about these pics jpgm posted.

[beberthur]

Kurt Cobain's ashes stolen

[hawkeye]

1 Killed After Alleged Drunk Driver Plows Into Bike Race

Tuesday , June 03, 2008

A car driven by an alleged drunken driver plowed into a bicycle race along a highway near the U.S.-Mexico border Sunday, killing one cyclist and injuring 10 others.

Juan Campos was apparently drunk and had fallen asleep at the wheel before crashing into the race in Monterrey, Mexico, police investigator Jose Alfredo Rodriguez said.

A photograph taken by a city official shows the horrifying moment of impact. The force of the collision sent bicyclists and equipment high into the air and Matamoros newspaper El Mañana described children crying, women shouting for help and men trying to lynch Campos before police arrived to arrest him.

Killed in the crash was Alejandro Alvarez, 37, of Monterrey.

Campos told police he was an American citizen from Brownsville, Texas. The U.S. consulate could not immediately confirm that.

"We are looking into the incident in terms of whether American citizens were involved,'' consulate spokesman Todd Huizinga told the Associated Press.

The crash happened 15 minutes into the race along a highway between Playa Bagdad and Matamoros, authorities said.

A total of 452 cyclists were participating in the 21-mile race, which was canceled after the incident.

[Chicken]

^ making texans proud, i suppose. (10)

Japanese patient's 'tumour' turns out to be 25-year-old towel

Doctors who carried out surgery on a Japanese man to remove a "tumour" had good news and bad news for him. He did not have cancer -- but the "growth" that had been causing him pain was in fact a 25-year-old surgical towel.

The patient had been carrying the cloth since 1983, when surgeons at the Asahi General Hospital in Chiba prefecture near Tokyo left it in him after an operation to treat an ulcer, a spokesman for the hospital said.

The man, now 49, went in to another hospital in late May after suffering abdominal pain.

When examinations found what was believed to be an eight-centimetre (3.2-inch) tumour, he underwent the operation to remove it. It was only then that surgeons realised it was a towel.

"The towel was greenish blue although we are not sure about its original colour," the Asahi General Hospital spokesman said, adding it had been crumpled to the size of a softball.

Asahi hospital officials visited the man and apologised, he said.

The former patient has no plans to sue the hospital, which is in talks with him over compensation or other measures, the official said.

Japanese media reports said the man, who was not identified, still had his spleen removed.

[Bona Drag]

http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showthread.php?t=53544