[sunnykerr]

Well, I can't say as I'd oppose a no-popcorn rule in theatres. For one thing, it really does stink. For another, it's gross and disgusting.

Mostly, though, it's just yet another way for the owners to bilk customers out of money.

[vc318]

I don't have a link but I had to post this news. According to my local news station somebody in my neighborhood found a lightpole knocked over by Tropical Storm Fay and thought they could toss it in the bed of their truck and sell it for scrap metal. I swear I don't know what this guy was thinking. Did he not think anybody was going to notice this 40 foot pole hitched on the back of his truck?! I get a headache just thinking about how stupid this guy's actions was.

[sunnykerr]

You know what they say; there's one born every minute.

[vc318]

That guy isn't going to last long with his popcorn-free theatres. It's like banning rides at an amusement park.

More bizarre news:

BizarreNews.Org - U2 fan ordered to destroy CDs

U2 fan ordered to destroy CDs
Wednesday, 20 August 2008

U2A man living in South Wales, United Kingdom was ordered to destroy his entire music collection after creating a ruckus by listening to the music at an extremely high volume. Police seized his stereo equipment in a raid. Karl Wiosna, a 44-year-old resident of Graig in Pontypridd, was playing Cher's album Believe at extremely high volume. His neighbours complained under the Environmental Protection Act and he was warned not to play the album at such high volume. However, he thought the warning was only for the Cher album, and he then started to listen to a U2 album a week later. His neighbors said they could hear the lyrics in their living room.

Before the Rhondda Magistrates' Court Wiosna admitted breaching the noise abatement notice, with which he was served. He was ordered to pay a £200 fine. He was also ordered to pay £50 in costs, £15 in victim surcharge, and to destroy his music collection.

"They took £500 to £600 worth of stuff," complained Wiosna. "I don't think they should be able to do it, it isn't right."

"A legal notice under the Environmental Protection Act was served on Wiosna demanding he reduce the volume or stop playing music," read a statement by the Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council. "Just a week after the legal notice was received, officers were called to the address during an out-of-hours emergency by a neighbour."

"In this case, the swift and effective actions of environmental health officers enabled the issue to be dealt with and I hope it serves as a reminder to others, that we can take them to court and seize their belongings if they do not cease causing a nuisance to others," said Councillor Mike Forey, the cabinet member for environmental health.

I didn't think people were still listening to CD's these days! Maybe he'll invest in an IPOD now.

[Lain]

Hey, I still listen to CDs too you know. Mostly I just download music and burn them in to CDs. Yup, I'm behind the times but money usually sucks and the iPod shuffle is at least $78

[vc318]

I confess - I'm one of these CD playing people too. My husband bought me an IPOD and he ended up keeping it because it was collecting dust. It was probably for the best.

Here's some more funny news I found:

Pigeon in custody for smuggling drugs to Bosnian prisoners - Yahoo! News

Pigeon in custody for smuggling drugs to Bosnian prisoners

Thu Aug 21, 2:20 PM ET

SARAJEVO (AFP) - Bosnian police have impounded a pigeon after discovering prisoners used it to smuggle drugs into one of the country's highest security jails, an official said Thursday.

"The guards suspected the animal might be involved in drug smuggling once they noticed four prisoners visibly intoxicated shortly after the pigeon landed on a prison window," Zenica prison official Josip Pojavnik told AFP.

All four inmates had tested positive for heroin, said Pojavnik, adding disciplinary proceedings had been launched against the inmates.

The drugs, he added, had probably been stuffed into tiny bags attached to the legs of the carrier pigeon, which one of the prisoners had previously been allowed to keep as a pet in his cell.

"We suspect that the pigeon carried the drugs from Tuzla," a town around 70 kilometres (more than 40 miles) northeast of Zenica in central Bosnia, he added.

The pigeon had been taken into custody by police, who have launched an investigation aimed at identifying those who had loaded it up with the drugs.

"We do not know what to do with the pigeon, but for the time being it will remain behind bars," Pojavnik said.

The incident had prompted the prison administration to consider closing down a prisoner pigeon-breeding project established in a ward of the jail as part of a rehabilitation programme, he added.

Pojavnik insisted those birds had not been involved in the incident.

A similar case of carrier pigeons being used by prisoners was reportedly uncovered earlier this year at a jail in Brazil, where the birds were being used to deliver drugs and even mobile telephones.

PETA is going to be all over this. Shouldn't the bird be entitled to a fair trial or something?

[sunnykerr]

It's hardly the first time in history that an animal (or an insect, for that matter) is being brought up on charges. I was listening to the radio the other day (the classical music channel) and the host spend his four-hour block discussing tales of animals on trial throughout history in between the music.

Hopefully, the bird gets a good lawyer.

[vc318]

Not hilarious really but quite strange:

Mom Finds Son Spinning Around Inside Running Washing Machine - Miami News Story - WPLG Miami

Mom Finds Son Spinning Around Inside Running Washing Machine
Child Expected To Be OK

MIAMI -- A 6-year-old boy is recovering after his mother said he became trapped inside a running washing machine.

Timothy "T.J." Clark and his 4-year-old sister were playing in what they apparently thought was a broken machine at a laundromat off Northwest 79th St. and 22nd Ave.

The boy’s mother, Saraco Black, told Local 10 that her daughter went running to her for help.


“She came to me and said 'Mommy, my brother is inside the washing machine.' When she said that I got up, went over to the machine and my baby was spinning around inside,” Black said.

After three tries, and with the help of two men who were in the laundromat, Black was able to pull open the washing machine's door.

The boy was rushed to Ryder Trauma Center. He needed stitches but is expected to be OK.[/b]

This could've been a really bad situation. Imagine if he had been in a dryer!

[sunnykerr]

I guess the machine must not have filled with water?

Because I'm on board with a dryer being bad... but it's the water on top of the spinning that would scare the bejesus out of me.

[Jen Jaree]

Everytime my dad and I watch an American news station we count the number of shootings we hear. Last time it was 4 on a half hour program and it was a Seattle based station.

[fetch]

Ananova - Man, 71, 'pregnant'
A 71-year-old US man who was admitted to hospital with abdominal pains was told by doctors that he was pregnant.

[sunnykerr]

Please they were merely being cruel and not actually that stupid...

[Lain]

I was reminded of the guy who had his name changed to something similar...only that it dealt with KFC.

CutoutDissection.com is teen's new name - Weird news - MSNBC.com

CutoutDissection.com is teen's new name The girl changes her legal name to protest animal dissections in schools The Associated Press updated 10:30 a.m. HT, Mon., Oct. 13, 2008 ASHEVILLE, N.C. - A 19-year-old Asheville teenager said she legally changed her name to CutoutDissection.com to protest animal dissections in schools. The Asheville Citizen-Times reported that Asheville High graduate Jennifer Thornburg now wants to be called Cutout. Her new legal name is the Web address for an anti-dissection page of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' site. The teenager said she began opposing dissections in middle school, after a class assignment to dissect a chicken wing made her uncomfortable. She helped create a policy at her high school that allows students who object to dissections to complete an alternative assignment. She is now an intern for PETA. She said most of her family members still call her Jennifer.

[sunnykerr]

Well, see, she had me till the name change.

I think it's wonderful for high-school students to get involved like that. I also thing that an alternative programs for kids who, for whatever reason, would rather not dissect part of a fellow sentient creature (I guess we know where I fall on that debate...) is a reasonable proposition.

But you change your name to a dot-com and it raises all kinds of questions. Like what happens when you're site shuts down?

And, of course, PETA... If ever there was an organization with a laudable goal but god-awful tactics and logic...

[sunnykerr]

Keeping the beat for CPR? Hum ‘Stayin’ Alive’
Study shows the disco hit helps bystanders remember lifesaving rhythm

Under most circumstances, it's best to keep the beat of the Bee Gees song “Stayin' Alive” out of your head, but heart specialists have come up with one good reason to remember: It could save someone's life.

Turns out the 1977 disco hit has 103 beats per minute, a perfect number to maintain — and retain — the best rhythm for performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.

A small study by University of Illinois College of Medicine researchers in Peoria has found that 10 doctors and five medical students who listened to the "Saturday Night Fever" tune while practicing CPR not only performed perfectly, they remembered the technique five weeks later.

“It’s a song everyone seems to know, whether they want to or not,” said Dr. David Matlock, the resident and researcher who led the study. He hopes further research will confirm its use in lay people trained in CPR as well.

Results of the study are set to be presented later this month at the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians in Chicago.

One trouble with CPR training, Matlock said, is that most practitioners, from trained medical professionals to people who take classes at the local fire department, fail to perform the potentially lifesaving technique aggressively enough.

“We stress that you have to push hard and you have to push fast,” he said. “If you don’t push hard enough and you don’t go fast enough, you don’t push that blood where it needs to go.”

A nudge from a song like “Stayin’ Alive” appears to help ensure that pace.

Participants in the study listening to the song performed CPR at the recommended rate, about 100 beats per minute. Five weeks later, without the music, they performed at 113 beats a minute, which is within an acceptable range, Matlock said.

Matlock stressed that the CPR-music connection was not his idea. The notion actually was suggested in 2005 by Dr. Alson Inaba, a pediatric emergency specialist at the University of Hawaii, after the American Heart Association came out with new guidelines for CPR.

“Both the message of the title and the mechanics of the music support the CPR message,” said Mary Fran Hazinski, a nurse at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville and senior science editor for the heart association.

‘Do something rather than nothing’

Performed quickly and accurately, CPR has been demonstrated to save lives when implemented in the first minutes after someone's heart has stopped, Hazinski said. It’s not necessary to have formal training, she added. People who witness an emergency should call 911 and then begin hands-only compressions.

“The important thing is that bystanders should do something rather than nothing,” she said, noting it could save tens of thousands of lives a year.

The idea of using a song to remember rhythm is appealing to Glenda Henry, 56, an office worker at the University of Illinois College of Medicine who wants to be prepared but worries about performing correctly in a crisis.

"I've taken CPR before, but I forget," she said. "But if someone teaches me with 'Stayin' Alive,' I could do it.'"

Neither Matlock nor the heart association have compiled lists of other CPR-friendly songs, though many popular tunes do have the appropriate beat. One suggested song has the right rhythm but the wrong message:

It’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” by Queen.

Keeping the beat for CPR? Hum 'Stayin' Alive' - Heart health - MSNBC.com

I guess you could file this one under... "Huh?"