Random Linkage

An Egyptian family asked to play with the lions. Two dollars, said the zookeeper. The mother nodded and the zoo employee motioned to them to come to a side door away from the row of cages and mesmerized onlookers.

The zookeeper looked nervous, peering up and down the sidewalk. Seeing none of the authorities, he swung the door open and beckoned the family of four inside. By the time the family had entered, the zookeeper had grabbed a lion cub and hoisted it into the arms of the startled teenage son. Another lion cub looked on from a few feet away.

The second-hand Fiat Uno, worth around $6,500, was left in the spot when the two Romanian immigrants who had been using it were arrested and deported, reported the Austrian Times.

Although the owner, who now lives in France, refused to pay the fine, local laws prevent towing cars unless they block traffic.

Ed and Nina Otto are two rich crybabies that just couldn’t deal with the cancer death of their dog Sir Lancelot Encore in January, 2008. So what did the couple do? Be happy with their eight other dogs? Adopt another one from the pound? Hell no, that would be too logical. Instead, the Otto’s paid $155,000 to have Sir Crapalot cloned by South Korean company BioArts International.

Instead, the 20-year-old Colorado man is staring down a maximum of 10 years in the slammer for his alleged recent e-mails sent directly to the Federal Bureau of Investigation threatening to “assassinate” President Barack Obama. Another message said he had “rigged 40 pounds of C4″ to blow up vehicles in the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis, according to an indictment (.pdf).

Edward Richardson, 41, stabbed wife Sarah, 26, to death in a “frenzied and brutal” attack at her parents’ home in Biddulph, central England, last May after she altered her profile on the Internet social networking site.

The couple had been living apart since the previous month, said Fiona Cortese, a spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service, which is responsible for prosecuting cases in England and Wales.

The proposed act would fall under the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s domain, and would provide the status of a “safety requirement”. The current draft of the legislation also demands that the camera click would have to be audible from a “reasonable distance”, though the legal definition of “reasonable distance” has not yet been laid out or determined.

The thieves got away with Heuss’ car, cell phone and some cash.

Heuss filed a police report and then met his friends to drown his sorrows, Ludlow reported. One of his friends came up with an idea to contact the thieves.

“He said ‘I’m going to text these guys, I’m going to blow some smoke their way,’” Heuss said. “He said. ‘I’m going to tell them I’ve got a bunch of hot chicks, as if I’m texting you, and that we’ve got some drugs, too.’”

The carjackers took the bait, Ludlow reported.

Following complaints that its child-porn blacklist has led multiple British ISPs to censor innocuous content on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the Internet Watch Foundation has confirmed the blacklist contains images housed by the 85-billion-page web history database.

When police searched Harbert’s house, they examined his computer. They found evidence of Google searches a few days after the accident for search terms including “auto glass reporting requirements to law enforcement,” “auto glass, Las Vegas,” auto parts, auto theft, and the Moraga Police Department. He allegedly also searched for “hit-and-run,” which led him to a Web page dealing with the death of Kaur that said police had a lead on the vehicle.

During the trial, the prosecutor told the jury: “And I think what he did afterwards is extremely telling, also, the computer searches and Web pages. Auto parts, auto dealers out-of-state; auto glass, Las Vegas; auto glass reporting requirements to law enforcement, auto theft… The defendant didn’t offer you any explanation for the auto theft, one, and he had a series of excuses for the other ones. But when you put them all together, the only reasonable conclusion was he was going to try to get the car fixed somewhere else far away so he wouldn’t be found out, he was going to try and avoid having anything reported to law enforcement.”

The goat “suspect” is being detained over an alleged attempt to snatch a Mazda car. The mysterious goat, according to the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tunde Mohammed, while briefing bewildered journalists at the Force headquarters, is an armed robber who attempted to snatch the said car, Wednesday night, and later transformed into the goat in a bid to escape arrest.

He explained that men of a vigilance group in Anifowose Ipata/Oloje areas of the state capital had chased two armed robbery suspects who wanted to demobilise the Mazda car with the intention of stealing it, and “while one of them escaped, the other was about to be apprehended by the team when he turned his back on the wall and turned to this goat. They quickly grabbed the goat and here it is.’’ Mohammed said.

In this clip, Good Morning America travels to the homes of the women who buy Reborns, which the women treat like real infants. One woman throws her dolls birthday parties and invites actual children to attend the events. Another woman carries her dolls around with her and has to inform cooing strangers that her life-like dolls are not actually living babies. Awkwardness all around!

In California a 13 year old girl was able to rack up an astounding 14,528 text messages in one month. For those keeping track that’s 484 a day which breaks down to 20 an hour or 1 every three minutes, for the entire month!

When asked, Reina Hardesty’s replied that “I just like to talk”, which is ironic because she was texting and not actually talking. Her parents were at least wise enough that they did sign her up for unlimited texting but if they had not her bill would have amounted to $2,811. For more information about the cost of text messaging to the carrier you can read this article as previously reported on Neowin.

According to officials, the teen was arrested Monday, Dec. 29, for inducing panic after patrol officers and medics responded to the boy’s home in the 3000 block of Pimlico Court. The charge is a first-degree misdemeanor.

The teen was having an online conversation with a representative of Blizzard Entertainment, an online video game company, when he typed that “he was suicidal and that the game is the only thing he has to live for,” according to the report.

The company representative called 911.

2) Top U.S. General in Iraq Killed; Troops Return

According to St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), in Iraq “there will be a general that will be hurt and possibly killed. At that time, because of his leanings in the political arena, many soldiers will be sent home.” In case you’re wondering how a 14th century Italian nun could predict 21st century warfare by Americans in Iraq, the information was delivered via psychic Elizabeth Baron, who claims to be “the world’s most documented medium.” Needless to say, no top military general has been wounded or killed in Iraq.

I had thought of her as one of the brightest people I knew and her subsequent career supports that view. What she said bothered me. I kept thinking about it; sometime the next day, it hit me. Science makes me feel stupid too. It’s just that I’ve gotten used to it. So used to it, in fact, that I actively seek out new opportunities to feel stupid. I wouldn’t know what to do without that feeling. I even think it’s supposed to be this way. Let me explain.

Facebook is standing firm on a policy that has led to the removal of some photos posted by women that show breastfeeding.

The deletions have spurred Facebook members to stage protests both online and offline. Dozens of supporters gathered last Saturday at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., while online, more than 11,000 members participated in a virtual “nurse-in,” or changed their profile photos to images depicting women breastfeeding.

The box of crackers Debra Rogoff bought from the grocery store had some crackerjack in it — an envelope stuffed with $10,000.

. . .

Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. In a mix-up the store restocked the box rather than composting it.

Barry Baker, 59, dialled [sic] 999 [the UK equivalent of US 911] from his home in Patcham, near Brighton in the early hours of November 29 and said that he was suffering from severe chest pains.

. . .

“Apparently their first reaction was to comment on the untidy and unkempt state of the house. Then they are heard to comment on seeing Mr Baker and allegedly saying that it was not worth bothering to try to carry out resuscitation to try to save him. They then are heard discussing what to tell ambulance control and allegedly decide to say that he was already dead when they arrived.

“Obviously the crew did not realise that the phone was still connected and, of course, the 999 call was all recorded on tape,” said the source.

I have a copy of 4 webcam video clips of you and [your boyfriend] having sex… you know what i’m talking about…! have attached one of the video clips as well as prove that i do have them…if you don’t want me to send them to all your friends and professors, send me a video clip of you stripping slowly and masturbating til orgasm (must be able to see your entire body including face…and clearly) and pics of yourself similar to those shown (in terms of position and clarity). If you do this, then i will not send to anyone else and noone else will see them, and you wil not hear from me again. However, if you tell anyone about this or report this, then I will send them to everyone you know.\

BURBANK, Calif.—Five teenagers have been arrested in Burbank for allegedly shining a laser beam at a police helicopter.

Investigators say the juveniles, ages 13 to 16, were booked Saturday night for investigation of felony shining a laser at a law enforcement aircraft.

Those convicted of pointing lasers at aircraft can face penalties of up to three years in prison and a $2,000 fine.