[sunnykerr]

From the old thread:

Footage of Japanese politician crying at press conference becomes internet hit Ryutaro Nonomura wails and bangs fists on desk as he tries to explain his profligate use of public funds A 47-year-old provincial politician was rapidly becoming an internet phenomenon in Japan on Wednesday after crying as he tried to explain his profligate use of public funds. Television chatshows carried looped footage of a press conference in which Ryutaro Nonomura wails and bangs his fists on the desk as tears stream down his face. He shouts incoherent excuses in between gut-wrenching sobs, punctuated by the long intakes of breath necessary to power the next outburst. Nonomura, who was elected to the assembly in Hyogo in western Japan in 2011, is suspected of misusing ¥3m (£17,000) of official allowances. According to media reports, he spent the money on 195 trips he made to four locations in one year, including 106 visits to the same hot spring resort, all without producing a receipt or a report. During the three-hour press conference in Kobe he cried while saying: "I finally became an assembly member … with the sole purpose of changing society … This Japan … I want to change this society … I have staked my life … Don't you understand?" Social media users were merciless in their response. "Is he alright as a member of society, let alone a member of an assembly?" asked Twitter user @nagatokimura "There was a kid like that when I was in elementary school. A kid who tried to explain by crying like that. lol," wrote @chiko86 One YouTube posting had been viewed more than 600,000 times by Wednesday afternoon.

So he's basically throwing a toddler tantrum, I gather.

He and Oscar Pistorius should go bowling.

Originally Posted by canflam (View Post) Pistoris though is fighting for his life. So what do you guess will happen to this guy?

Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post) Well, I don't really know how the Japanese criminal justice system functions... I mean, it seems like there are grounds for charges and some sort of sentence here, but I wouldn't presume to know how that works over there. However, it seems pretty clear to me that his political career is over. But, hey, apparently Youtube loves the guy, so call it "where a door closes, a window opens" or however that goes... What's your opinion?

Originally Posted by canflam (View Post) I don't think he should re-sign based on his crying am curious to see if the allegations of how he spent how all that money is true. If so then I'd understand him crying. Though seems he did it to himself.

[sunnykerr]

If this were the United States, he'd probably have been forced to resign by now, no?

Granted, this seems a small amount of money to have embezzled or misused or whatever compared to the amounts that usually come up in U.S. scandals.

The thing is, if this was his defense?

Isn't he kinda screwed?

[sunnykerr]

Show me potato salad: Kickstarter campaign passes $40,000 mark No, he's not a chef. Yes, his middle name is made up. And no, there are no exciting incentives to inspire funding for his project and its $10 initial goal. Zack Danger Brown is just making potato salad, and he's getting more than $40,000 through the crowdsourcing service Kickstarter to do it. But the Columbus, Ohio native's brazen, tongue-in-cheek pitch has gone viral and earned him more than 3,000 backers since he posted it last Thursday. With tens of thousands of dollars pledged and nearly a month left until the project closes, Brown has added many new "stretch goals" and is promising to throw a potato salad party for the internet community as a thank you. Simple crowdfunding pitch His magical pitch was simple: "I'm making potato salad," he wrote on his Kickstarter page. "Basically I'm just making potato salad. I haven't decided what kind yet." Then later, he posted: "UPDATE: WE DID IT." Brown's initial stretch goals included making four times the potato salad ($35), holding a pizza party ($75) and trying two – yes, two – different potato salad recipes ($100). After blowing through those targets, Brown set slightly more ambitious goals like using better mayonnaise, live streaming the salad-making process and, at $3,000 in pledges, renting out a party hall and inviting people to have some of his potato salad. The project blew up online thanks to the social link-sharing site reddit, where Brown is an active member of the online community. He hosted an "Ask Me Anything" session Sunday to answer questions ranging from "Why?" to "Will there be onions in it?" "I never thought it would go this far," he said in the AmA. "$10 seemed like a good, conservative goal. I think the people are responding to the opportunity to come together around something equal parts absurd and mundane. Potato Salad isn't controversial, but it seems to unite us all." Other users upset But not everyone online is jumping onboard. "I can't even raise the money to complete a 4-year degree and this guy gets 23k for a bowl of potato salad… I feel dead inside," user greywizard77 said on a related reddit thread. "I feel terrible for all the legitimate Kickstarter projects that just barely fell short of their couple hundred or a few thousand dollars," user Equeon added. Brown's project offers plenty of potato salad-themed incentives for its backers, including a potato salad haiku for $20 pledgers and a spot on the dedication page of his potato salad recipe book for pledges of $50 or more. But even the minimum $1 pledge comes with it perks. "You will get a 'thank you' posted to our website and I will say your name out loud while making the potato salad," Brown’s Kickstarter site says. Those perks carry through to all higher levels, meaning Brown will have a lot of names to say out loud while making his salad. Brown listed only one risk to the project on his Kickstarter page."It might not be that good," he wrote. "It's my first potato salad."

Admitedly, I don't get it.

I really don't get it.

But it's not like this engineered this success. Some of the aspects of his social-media life have obviously helped, but he had no way of knowing this would happen.

So he could have easily been a non-event or even fallen on his face.

I do wonder if this guy's success will have an impact on the popularity of Kickstarter as a crowdfunding site, though.

[sunnykerr]

U.S. man 'claims' land in Africa so his daughter can be a princess ABINGDON, Va. -- An American man says he has claimed a kingdom in Africa so his daughter can be a princess. Jeremiah Heaton tells the Bristol Herald Courier that he recently trekked to a small, mountainous region between Egypt and Sudan called Bir Tawil. No country claims the land. Heaton says he planted a flag designed by his children there so that he could become a king -- and more importantly, so his 7-year-old daughter Emily could be a princess. They named the area the Kingdom of North Sudan. Shelia Carapico, a professor of political science and international studies at the University of Richmond, says Heaton would not have political control over the land without legal recognition from neighbouring countries, the United Nations or other groups. Heaton says he hopes to get Sudan and Egypt to recognize the kingdom.

Well, that's nice and all.

But surely a political science professor understands precisely why Bir Tawil hasn't been claimed.

What an idiot.

[sunnykerr]

Japan 'vagina artist' arrest sparks debate The arrest on obscenity allegations of a woman who makes art based on her vagina has sparked debate in Japan. Tokyo-based artist Megumi Igarashi, 42, was arrested on Saturday for sending data that could be used to create 3D models of her vagina. She had sent it to people who had donated money for a project to make a vagina-shaped kayak using a 3D printer. The arrest made headlines in national media and triggered discussion on Japan's obscenity laws. Ms Igarashi also goes by the moniker Rokudenashiko, which means "no-good girl" in Japanese. A police spokesman told AFP news agency she had distributed data that could "create an obscene shape". On her website, Ms Igarashi says she has made several pieces of art based on her genitals using a silicone mould, saying she wants to make vaginas "more casual and pop". The vagina "has been such a taboo in Japanese society... (it) has been thought to be obscene", while penises are regarded as "part of pop culture", she said. According to Japan's Asahi newspaper, Ms Igarashi told police she rejected the charges. "I cannot agree with the police's decision to label the data as obscene," she reportedly said. "To me, my vagina is like my arms and legs. It's nothing obscene." Japan's obscenity laws ban the depiction of genitalia, which are blurred in broadcast media and images. Ms Igarashi's arrest comes a month after legislators voted to ban the possession of child pornography. Japan was previously the only country in the 34-strong Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) without such a prohibition. However the law does not apply to animation, known as anime, or comic art, known as manga.

This is such a weird line to draw in the sand for me.

I mean, so long as all involved were adults, is this really the way Japan wants to legislate obscenity?

I mean, they sell dirty underwear in shops over there. Some of their comics have "tentacle porn" in them.

Come on...

[sunnykerr]

The Cornish beaches where Lego keeps washing up A container filled with millions of Lego pieces fell into the sea off Cornwall in 1997. But instead of remaining at the bottom of the ocean, they are still washing up on Cornish beaches today - offering an insight into the mysterious world of oceans and tides. "Let me see if I can find a cutlass," says Tracey Williams, poking around some large rocks on Perran Sands with a stick. She doesn't manage that, but does spot a gleaming white, pristine daisy on the beach in Perranporth, Cornwall. The flower looks good for its age, seeing as it is 17 years old. It is one of 353,264 plastic daisies dropped into the sea on 13 February 1997, when the container ship Tokio Express was hit by a wave described by its captain as a "once in a 100-year phenomenon", tilting the ship 60 degrees one way, then 40 degrees back. As a result, 62 containers were lost overboard about 20 miles off Land's End - and one of them was filled with nearly 4.8m pieces of Lego, bound for New York. No-one knows exactly what happened next, or even what was in the other 61 containers, but shortly after that some of those Lego pieces began washing up in both the north and south coasts of Cornwall. They're still coming in today. A quirk of fate meant many of the Lego items were nautical-themed, so locals and tourists alike started finding miniature cutlasses, flippers, spear guns, seagrass and scuba gear as well as the dragons and the daisies. "There's stories of kids in the late 1990s having buckets of dragons on the beach, selling them," says Tracey, who lives in Newquay. "These days the holy grail is an octopus or a dragon. I only know of three octopuses being found, and one was by me, in a cave in Challaborough, Devon. It's quite competitive. If you heard that your neighbour had found a green dragon, you'd want to go out and find one yourself." She says the ship's manifest - a detailed list of everything in the containers - shows a whole range of Lego items, not all sea-themed. After all this time "it's the same old things that keep coming in with the tide", particularly after a bad storm. Tracey runs a Facebook page which documents the Lego discoveries, and recently received an email from someone in Melbourne who found a flipper which they think could be from the Tokio Express spillage. US oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer has tracked the story of the Lego since it was spilled. "The mystery is where they've ended up. After 17 years they've only been definitely reported off the coast of Cornwall," he says. It takes three years for sea debris to cross the Atlantic ocean, from Land's End to Florida. Undoubtedly some Lego has crossed and it's most likely some has gone around the world. But there isn't any proof that it has arrived as yet. "I go to beachcombing events in Florida and they show me Lego - but it's the wrong kind. It's all local stuff kids have left behind." Since 1997, those pieces could have drifted 62,000 miles, he says. It's 24,000 miles around the equator, meaning they could be on any beach on earth. Theoretically, the pieces of Lego could keep going around the ocean for centuries. "The most profound lesson I've learned from the Lego story is that things that go to the bottom of the sea don't always stay there," Ebbesmeyer adds. The incident is a perfect example of how even when inside a steel container, sunken items don't stay sunken. They can be carried around the world, seemingly randomly, but subject to the planet's currents and tides. "Tracking currents is like tracking ghosts - you can't see them. You can only see where flotsam started and where it ended up." But there's also a dark side to the story, he says. If Lego is on land then it's fun. If it's on the ocean it's deadly, a poison for birds. If you lose one container with 5m pieces of Lego in it, that is a catastrophe for wildlife. Lego spokeswoman Emma Owen says the Tokio Express incident "was of course very unfortunate, however this had nothing to do with the Lego Group activities". "We share an overall concern for the environment and we are very focused in our environmental efforts at our production sites to eliminate the waste that potentially could become a marine litter problem." Elsewhere in Cornwall, Martin Dorey of Bude is all too aware of the Lego being washed up. He runs the 2 Minute Beach Clean group which encourages people to pick up litter on beaches, and gets in touch with companies whose produce ends up on the shoreline as a result of this kind of accident. "I know it's not their fault, it's the way the ships are stacked," he says. "But while container spills are all resolved from the insurance point of view, it's not resolved from the marine point of view." The 2 Minute Beach Clean group has a Twitter hashtag and an Instagram page, which Dorey says allows litter pickers "to see that their work is adding to the work of others". Claire Wallerstein runs the Rame Peninsula Beach Care group, which cleans up beaches in south-east Cornwall. The group has collected more than 1,000 sacks of beach debris since it began its monthly collections in March last year, and one recent intensive clean up led to 576,664 pieces of plastic being recovered from a cove (including 42 pieces of Lego). "The Lego isn't a one-off thing - it happens all the time. There's a certain type of cigarette lighter that's from a container spill more than 20 years ago which is still washing up on Cornish beaches today. "If you look at the washed-up Lego, it looks perfect, like it's just come out of the box. Plastic in the sea is not going to just decompose and go away." Chris Koch, the president of the World Shipping Council, says there is an "array" of legislation in force regarding the construction of containers - each one costing £2,927 ($5,000, 3,671 euros) - and how they are stacked aboard container ships. "The predominant cause of loss is very, very bad weather, when the forces of nature overcome the forces of lashing the containers to the ship. The industry does what it can, but it can't control Mother Nature." Back on Perrin Sands, Tracey continues to pick up debris thrown up by the tides on each of her daily beach walks. "It's a never-ending job. Sea debris, and plastic, doesn't go away. It's filling up the sea and our beaches. "Very often you find a lot of Lego when you're bending down with a litter-picker. It's like a reward for picking up the rubbish."

And all of that over a box of lost Legos.

It's pretty impressive, isn't it?

[sunnykerr]

Brooklyn Bridge 'white flags' stump police Authorities in New York are investigating who raised two large white flags on the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge early on Tuesday. The flags briefly flew atop two towers at either end of the landmark in the place of two American flags apparently removed by the perpetrators. As many as five people were caught on CCTV on the bridge in the minutes prior to the switch. Police officials said they would not treat the prank as a joke or statement. "We keep these things in perspective for what they are, but we also want to send a clear message that there will be an investigation," John Miller, deputy New York police commissioner for intelligence and counter-terrorism, told reporters. "They will be prosecuted. We don't take these things lightly or as a joke or as art, or within the realm of speech." He said the incident would be treated as trespassing that endangered the perpetrators and others. "I'm not particularly happy about the event," Commissioner William Bratton said. 'Pre-operational planning' Mr Miller said security video showed four to five people crossing the bridge at 03:10 local time (07:10 GMT) on Tuesday. Around 03:30, a light illuminating the American flag on the Brooklyn side of the bridge appeared to go out. The same occurred on the Manhattan side of the bridge around 03:42. At 05:30, construction workers on the bridge noticed the American flags had been replaced with the white flags. Police officers trained to climb the bridge found two large flags - 20ft (6m) by 11ft - which appeared to be American flags with the red stripes and blue canton bleached white. Two aluminium pans were also found affixed as covers to the lights beneath each flag. The security gates under each tower were in place and remained locked when authorities arrived on scene. There was a "good deal of pre-operational planning" involved, Mr Miller said of the incident, noting the complexity suggested the perpetrators had "experience climbing, in construction or bridgework". But, he added, the incident appeared to have "no practical nexus to terrorism or even politics". Authorities removed the white flags and are now searching social media for clues. More than 120,000 vehicles, 4,000 pedestrians and 3,100 bicyclists cross the Brooklyn Bridge every day, according to the New York Department of Transportation.

So harassing women who go into an "abortion clinic," that's freedom of speech. The KKK passing out pamphlets, that's freedom of speech.

But some morons risking their necks to put two white flags on a landmark, that's definitely not freedom of speech?

Well, admittedly, there isn't much speech in it.

I just think they're taking this whole thing way too seriously.

It's a stupid stunt.

Thank goodness no one was hurt climbing up there and leave it at that.

[sunnykerr]

Indian teen has 232 teeth removed from mouth MUMBAI, India - Dental surgeons in India's largest city say they have removed 232 small "tooth-like structures" from the mouth of a teenage boy with a rare medical condition. They said the 17-year-old from a small village in western India had been suffering from jaw pain and swelling for more than 18 months. Surgeon Dr. Vandana Thoravade said Ashik Gavai suffered complex odontoma, a rare condition in which a tumour grows under a gum and creates smaller tooth-like growths called denticles. "We are very happy, while operating, we were removing one after another denticles and passing on to the medical staff to keep, but when surgery was over and when we spread the denticles and started counting ... while doing the surgery we were unaware that (there were) so many, so many, so many denticles." He said the team of dental surgeons took seven hours to remove all the denticles in the operation earlier this week. They were surprised at how many they totaled when counted up and believe it may be the most ever in a case of odontoma. The teen is recovering.

That poor boy.

He must have suffered so much.

The thing the story doesn't say, but I hope it's not one of those things where these denticles will come back, you know?

[sunnykerr]

A really terrible case of happenstance:

Lightning strike kills man on Venice Beach, Los Angeles One man has been killed and several people have been hurt by lightning strikes on crowded Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. The lightning struck amid a rare summer thunderstorm, spreading panic among bathers and visitors. Lifeguards fanned out across the beach and the water to attend to the injured, many of whom were treated at the scene. Elsewhere in California, emergency crews are battling to contain wildfires that are threatening hundreds of homes. At least 14 homes have been destroyed in the fires, which have blazed across drought-stricken grassland and forest. The two fires in the centre of the state were 65% and 70% contained by Monday morning, and some of the 1,200 people evacuated as the fires advanced were allowed to return to their homes. Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman said firefighters have limited the spread of one of the fires through air support. 'Big flash of light' The man killed at Venice Beach was identified on Monday as Nick Fagnano, 20. The exact cause of his death is not yet known, and it is unclear if he was struck directly. His family told the San Jose Mercury News newspaper their son was an only child and a 2012 high school graduate who was about to enter University of Southern California as a third-year student. He planned to study urban development. Friends told the newspaper Fagnano had decided to go into the water to rinse off when the lightning struck. Witnesses say the sky darkened suddenly and screams filled the air as the storm hit the beach on Sunday afternoon. Eight people were admitted to hospital. One of the injured is said to be in a critical condition. Several people received treatment for milder symptoms, including anxiety. Stuart Acher told KABC-TV he was hit by lightning while playing volleyball. "All of a sudden there was a big flash of light and a boom, and it felt like someone punched me in the back of my head," he told the station. "It went down the whole side of my right body, and my calves sort of locked up, and I fell over. And I looked up and everybody else was, you know, falling over." Steve Christensen told Associated Press news agency that his friend had tried to help lifeguards searching for a missing swimmer. "He went out to the water to find him and walked right into him," he said. "He was face down on the bottom." Lightning also hit Catalina Island, near Los Angeles. A 57-year-old man who was playing golf was injured in the strike. His condition is said to be stable. Until the latest strike, at least 15 people had been killed this year by lightning in the US, according to the National Weather Service.

Such a young age to die.

[sunnykerr]

Famous Italian statue in thong and feather boa row A row has broken out in Italy after a photographer dressed up a famous 2,500-year-old statue in a leopard-skin thong and pink feather boa. The Riace Bronzes, of Greek warriors, are two of the nation's greatest archaeological treasures. Photographer Gerald Bruneau was given permission to shoot the warriors at their museum in Reggio Calabria. However, work was halted when he was discovered dressing the statues. The museum called the images "terrible". A local politician has now demanded a judicial inquiry. The images were published on Italy's Dagospia website. The National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria houses the two Greek warriors, who date from the 5th Century BC. The BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome says the statues were discovered buried in the seabed off the Italian coast in 1972. They had lain there for 2,000 years, are in an extremely fragile state and have only just been very delicately restored, he says, so the idea that someone has been able to kit them out in outrageous gear will raise concern about how well they are being cared for. Archaeological department head Simonetta Bonomia said permission had been given to Bruneau because an earlier shoot with a veil carried out at the Gallery Borghese in Rome had been done tastefully. But the museum was unaware of the photographs with the controversial attire and staff intervened to stop the artist as soon as possible.

I understand the concerns regarding safety and integrity of the statue.

I have no problem with that aspect of the story.

But the outrage over the kinds of clothes used?

Seriously?

In this day and age?

[Ann357]

Originally Posted by sunnykerr (View Post) I understand the concerns regarding safety and integrity of the statue. I have no problem with that aspect of the story. But the outrage over the kinds of clothes used? Seriously? In this day and age?

I agree. Who cares about the clothes. The integrity and safety of the statue...well that seems to be what they should worry about.

[sunnykerr]

The restoration alone must have been such a long process, it would have been really terrible if whomever did this had jeopardized all those efforts.