FIGHT OBESITY...BY PLAYING MORE VIDEO GAMES

From the Financial Times : "A Japanese entertainment company is to help children in West Virginia fight the battle of the bulge by getting them to dance along to its video game during gym classes.

"All 765 of West Virginia’s public schools will incorporate Konami’s “Dance Dance Revolution”video game in the curriculum within the next two years in an effort to fight the state’s growing epidemic of childhood obesity. The move marks the first partnership of its kind."


The insidious machine that will con innocent
kids into getting fit, when they think they're
actually just playing a video game.


OBESITY CAN BE 'CAUGHT' FROM A VIRUS (AND TRIPLE CHEESEY EXTRA CHEESE WITH CHEEZY CRUST ON DOUBLE CHEESE BASE PIZZAS)

"A sharp increase in the number of Britons who are severely overweight may be the result of a virus that allows people to “catch” obesity, controversial research suggests.

"A study by American scientists, published today, offers evidence supporting the theory that fat is infectious and is caused by a family of viruses that affect certain people."

This man needs a video game, now.

BUT DON'T WORRY, THERE MIGHT BE A VACCINE FOR THAT OBESITY VIRUS

"Although in early stages, the findings could lead to the development of a ‘fat vaccine' reducing the mounting pressure on food manufacturers, who have been held largely responsible for the disease."

THE EARTH AND THE SKY PUT ON A SHOW

A volcano erupts a river of lava as the Northern Lights flare and dance.

Photo found on www.fark.com

"WE'RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER GRENADE"

JAPAN BREAKS OUT THE EXPLODING HARPOONS FOR MASSIVE WHALES

From the London Times :

"The explosive harpoons hurl shards of metal through the whale’s body to sever major nerves and blood vessels and so cause rapid death.

"The new weapon uses a 'warhead' redesigned to penetrate the thickest layers of skin, blubber and bone. The body of the harpoon has also been redesigned, using research from battlefield weapons, so that it shatters into sharper fragments.

“Because new species have been added to the research project this year which are larger than a minke whale, we thought we would need a bigger grenade on the end of the harpoon to ensure the killing is instantaneous."

"To international condemnation, Japan announced last year that its whaling fleet would kill up to 50 endangered humpback whales and 50 fin whales, along with the 935 minke whales that it would catch within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica this season. Tokyo does not recognise the sanctuary."

THE FROZEN TIDAL WAVE


Or 'Ivu', as the Alaskan locals call them. Ivus are frozen slabs of sea ice, pushed dramatically ashore by strong winds from Russia and eastward currents. Ivus this big haven't been seen in Anchorage, Alaska, since 1978. Link.

DEMENTED US ANTI-SMOKING AD SHOWS KIDS EATING RATS, CAT VOMIT


Without doubt the world's strangest series of anti-smoking ads. They're beauitfully made, and haunting, but will they discourage children from smoking, or will the ads increase the incidents of children eating crap and filth?

Go here to watch the 'Ashtray Mouth' ads.

NATURAL DISASTERS OR ECO-TERRORISM?

Secretary of State, William Cohen, during an address at the 'Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and U.S. Strategy' conference, in April, 1997, said the following :

"There are some reports, for example, that some countries have been trying to construct something like an Ebola Virus, and that would be a very dangerous phenomenon, to say the least.

"...some scientists in their laboratories trying to devise certain types of pathogens that would be ethnic-specific so that they could just eliminate certain ethnic groups and races.

"...and others are designing some sort of engineering, some sort of insects that can destroy specific crops.

"Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves.

"So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations. It's real...."

So according to William Cohen, the US Secretary of State, the US government was aware of scientific programs to create both pandemic and race-specific viruses, to breed super plague insects for crop elimination, to "alter the climate" and to trigger earthquakes and volcanoes using energy as a weapon.

And he said all that back in 1997.

Are we now living in this predicted age of eco-terrorism and eco-warfare?

PLANTS BEHAVE JUST LIKE HUMANS

And you thought carrots didn't really scream when they're pulled violently from the ground.

An Australian gardener and a chemistry professor said, after reviewing ten years of research, plants are not that far removed from humans in their behaviour and they are somewhat sentient beings, meaning they can assess the environment around them and make a calculated guess as to the best plan of action.

They say plants can communicate with each other by using a range of chemical signals.

"If a plant muncher such as a caterpillar or even a koala starts chewing on a plant, the plant will start sending chemicals to its leaves in an effort to repel the chewer," Mr Burke said.

"Nearby plants will also start emitting these same chemicals, anticipating that they'll also be attacked.

"So essentially they call in the cavalry, they call in good insects to attack the ones that are attacking them," he said.

A stunning, yet extremely weird, series of research papers have been flowing over the past few years revealing vegetarians may be killers of intelligent life, just like meat eaters.

If a slaughterhouse is a foul and cruel method of death for cows and horses, then what would intelligent plant life make of lawnmowers, harvesters and all those other shiny metal, multi-bladed devices of death that are used to tear our leafy green friends from the warm earth?

WORLD'S TALLEST, FASTEST ROLLERCOASTER

It's 420 feet high.


You will hit speeds of more than 120 mph on your way down


Like these people. Please note, they are so scared they cannot scream.

It's called the Top Thrill Dragster coaster, and you will find it in Cedar Point, Ohio.

SNAKE MAKES BEST FRIEND OF HIS AFTERNOON SNACK
The hamster was dumped in the rodent-eating snake's cage at a Japanese zoo. But the snake decided he wanted to be friends with the hamster instead, as reported on BBC.

The hamster, naturally, though becoming friends with the snake, instead of being eaten was a particularly fine idea.

So trusting has the hamster become of his new 'friend' that it oftens sleeps curled up beside, or lying across, the snake.

But are they really friends? Or is the snake just fattening up his 'special meal' for later on? Four months into their special friendship and 'Gohan' the hamster (Gohan is Japanese for meal) just keeps on growing.

"I don't think there's any danger. Aochan seems to enjoy Gohan's company very much," said zookeeper Kazuya Yamamoto.

Yeah, for now. Why should Aochan, the snake, settle for one little hamster every month or two, when he can farm one until it's three times bigger?

Other cross-species animal friendships :



Squirrel and deer share treat. Squirrel obviously worried by the deer's interpretation of "just one small bite".


Baby hippo adopted by 100 year old tortoise


The Lioness and The Oryx. A three day old oryx, and this is the third oryx this lioness has adopted. An adult female oryx is allowed close enough to feed the newborn. The lioness' last adopted oryx was eaten by the lions of the pride when she wasn't looking. The lioness reportedly howled in anguish for days.

MUTANT BABY TWIN BROTHER FOUND
IN TUMOUR IN MAN'S BACK

The toes of Igor's 35 year old twin brother

"LET THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL ORGANISM LIVE" SAYS LOCAL VILLAGERS

It was only once the tumour was cut out of 35 year old Igor Namyatov's back that the surgeons realised the tumour was in fact an unborn embryo, with hands and feet.

Surgeons? Doctors? What do they know? The villagers in Namyatov's home town knew exactly what it was. An extraterrestrial organism.

"It's pity they removed it," one of the villagers said. "They should have waited to see what would become of it later on. That would have been a great scientific find.”

Igor refused to leave the body of his unborn twin brother at the hospital for further examination. He took it with him.

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Is Russia one of the true lightning bolt countries for bizarre, surreal and downright weird events? Or is it simply the media there loves to report these kinds of stories so vividly?

Russia is now four days into a Siberian cold snap beyond imagining. One day last week the temperature warmed up from (Celsius) -32 to -24 in Moscow. Thousands of factories, businesses and stores have had their power cut to the massive energy drain of millions of heating units going full throttle, and Russia is now cutting gas exports to Finland and other EU countries to conserve supply for its own people. The minus double digit temperatures are expected to last another week, or weeks. So how are the locals coping?

Not good.

Here's a sample of some recent weird yet true stories from MosNews And Pravda :

MAN KILLS DOG, WIFE COMPLAINS ABOUT DEAD DOG COOKING, MAN KILLS WIFE

"Nikolai Sanin, 54, killed a dog and brought its corpse home in order to melt the animal’s grease, but his mate Valentina, 50, did not like it and asked him do it at another place. Nikolai went angry and killed Valentina with the same knife he used to do away with the dog. Soon she died of injuries."

CANNIBAL GETS 14 YEARS FOR TURNING BEST FRIEND INTO BAD PASTA DISH

"According to the investigation, Chingis Bubeev killed a man who had visited him, cut his body into pieces and used his flesh to cook pelmeni, a Siberian dish resembling raviloi. Bubeev could not consume all the meat and sold some to his neighbors saying it was horse meat."

MAN DRINKS 17 TIMES LEGAL DRIVING LIMIT FOR BOOZE, WALKS HOME INSTEAD, GETS KILLED BY CAR

“The cause of death has been marked down as a road accident, although the alcohol level would most likely have killed him anyway.”

POLITICIAN KIDNAPPED, TIED UP, FACE TATTOOED WITH OBSCENITIES ON ELECTION EVE

"(He) was returning home at night from his election headquarters and was attacked by four men who beat him up and forced him into their car where he was tied up with duct tape and the assailants tattooed obscene words on the candidate’s cheeks and forehead using a homemade electrical needle. Afterwards the attackers threw him out of their car."

SCIENTISTS FREEZE DOG FOR 95 MINUTES, RAISE IT FROM THE DEAD< THEY WANT TO DO THE SAME TO HUMANS FOR IMMORTAL LIFE

Anibiosis is a decades old science developed in Cold War Russia. To freeze and then revive the dead, that was the mission. They claim they succeeded.

"We were able to bring back to life 100% of animals subjected to freezing. The temperature was lowered to the freezing point of water. Then the temperature was raised to regular body temperature level. The minimum of zero degrees Celsius was maintained for 95 minutes. During that period of time animals were kept in a state of clinical death. The cardiac activity was reported to have stopped at three degrees Celsius."

RUSSIAN SEAL COMPLETES 200th PAINTING AMIDST ARTISTIC CRISIS

"As a regular artist, Tito (the seal) brings his emotions out on the paper when something troubles him. Once after quarrelling with Nessy (his seal girlfriend), Tito painted a depressed piece the trainers named 'Tito’s Girlfriend'.

However, sometimes the seal has bad days, when he feels unhappy with his work and throwing aside the brush desperately tries to wipe the paint off the paper with his flippers."

While there are plenty of elephants, monkeys and birds that have taken up the brush, Tito is the first seal to batter a canvas. Disturbingly, Tito also seems to have the ability to paint a likeness of what he sees.

OUTSIDE IT'S 30 DEGREES BELOW ZERO, BUT THE RUSSIANS STILL LOVE THEIR ICE CREAMS

And the ice-cream vendors are stoked because they don't have to pay refrigeration bills. It's colder out in the streets in Moscow today than it is inside most freezers. The story doesn't explain why Moscovites want to eat ice-cream when the spit in their mouth could freeze after seconds of exposure to air that damn cold.

30 BELOW BUT THEY STILL GO SWIMMING THROUGH A HOLE IN THE ICE AND THEY LOVE IT

So why do these Russians get into such absurdly cold water? Well, for religious reasons, obviously.

"Russian Orthodox Christians have a tradition of celebrating the Twelfth-Night (the Eve of the Epiphany) by swimming in ice-holes that symbolize the baptism of Jesus Christ in the river Jordan by John the Baptist."

Rivers in ancient Palestine would have been considerably warmer.

Would Christianity have taken off it the weather was much colder? How about raising one of the world's top five religions in a Siberian winter?

Jesus's beard would have snap-frozen during John's blessing, and could even Jesus have convinced his disciples to help him hack a hole in the thick ice of the river so he could then submerge them, one by water, in water that damn cold?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For more Russian bizarrity, go to Your New Reality for a trip through a funny, but obviously demented anti-drugs waxworks exhibition now on display in Moscow. It features extremely creepy wax people getting very high, very messed up, very cold turkey and very, very dead.

ROBOTS FIGHTING TERROR WAR SLAUGHTER
18 MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN

These US robot planes have no pilots and can fly above 40,000 feet, armed with Hellfire missiles, GPS and thermal imaging to lock onto the heat of your body.

Finally, the dreams of Donald Rumsfeld, and other Dark Sith Lords, are coming true. Now the Rummy-robots are getting in on War On Terror action.

18 men, women and children were killed last week when four robot planes flew into Pakistan from Afghanistan and launched ten Hellfire missiles at a cluster of houses close to the border.

Prime Al Qaeda targets in the War On Terror were supposed to be inside. Instead it was a couple of families eating a meal.

It's the largest casualties dealt out by the Terror War robots so far.

The US State Department and Pentagon say they didn't have anything to do with it. And maybe they're not lying, they're just not being straight. Do they have to say "we did it" when a robot actually did it?

It should only be science fiction, but it's not. Robots are now scoring major-league confirmed kills, bringing to life Rumsfeld's vision of a world where mega-armed robot planes roam this planet's skies, with the ability to kill by missile, laser or beam energy weapon.

These killbots will be linked with other killbots on the ground, be they on wheels, running upright or flying in swarms, who will rush to the ruins of an aerial strike and machine gun, burn or microwave the survivors.

That's one of his plans, anyway.

There's a lot of science fiction writers, like Philip K Dick, rolling all around their graves as they realise their stories didn't stop the dark futures they dreamed, they simply gave military workers far too many ideas in the first place.

There's killer robots galore in this look at the 50 Greatest Robots Ever, the real ones and the ones from the movies.

This is a piece from Science Daily in 2001. Dances With Robots details some of the plans the US Army was working on to militarise robots.

This is a piece from GlobalSecurity.org about portable weapons platforms. Robots with guns.

These are some of the robots that have already served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan:

This one has machine guns.


This is a remotely operated gun-heavy dune buggy


This is Talon. A camera, a gun, robot death.


Machine guns, missile and grenade launchers, kill bots roll into Iraq War

The headline can be true, 'Robots Fight Terror War', they've been deployed in Iraq since day one. Now they're walking, running, flying, swimming. They can carry burn holes through buildings with lasers, they can give humans the ex0skeletal strength of supermen. They can be used for torture, they can sew up wounds and they crawl the backstreets of Fallujah and broadcast the sounds of screaming children at ear-piercing volume and project holographic images of nightmare-world ghosts and demons through living room windows and down dark streets.

The robots don't get paid, they don't have medical problems, just mechanical ones, they don't have wives and families back home, they will never complain about conditions, they will never cave in to guilt or survival instinct and refuse to do a dangerous mission, they will never cheat you, or hate you, or try and cut your throat, they will not be around in decades to come to complain and sue about a life and body destroyed by the war.

Armed robots now patrol the skies of our planet, and they can find you by your cell phone. You wouldn't even know it was coming.

"THE ANTICHRIST HAS NO EYES"
or
"WHERE ARE BUSH'S EYES?"

Those were the two titles of the same photo sent here twice last week. The eyes are definitely strange. But what are those things on the end of the flag poles?

Can anyone confirm whether this is the real thing or not?

FUN POLICE CLAIM KEY CHAIN CONDOMS 'BLASPHEMOUS'.

ALSO LIKELY TO OFFEND "ALL PATRIOTIC AMERICANS".

Apparently this is what blasphemy in the 21st century looks like :


There musn't be that much quality blasphemy going on in the world today
if this is the worst of the worst.

According to Jim Sediak, of the Americna Life League, key chains like
this have the power to offend hundreds of millions of Americans.

"Michelangelo gave us a beautiful image of Adam stretching out his hand
to God, with God's index finger about to touch Adam's index finger,"
told the Drudge Report.

Now "God is handing Adam a condom."

But he didn't have anything to say about cows wearing sunglasses.

This is anti-calf to the extreme :

Bovine offensive and full of cow-hate.

The phenomenon of cows wearing sunglasses is spreading.

AUSTRALIAN COPS FOUR MONTHS IN JAIL FOR BURNING A FLAG

JUDGE SAID BREAK AND ENTER WOULD HAVE BEEN LESS OFFENSIVE

A 24 year old Australian has been sentenced to a total of four months jail for burning an
Australian flag.

The magistrate who sentenced him said that burning an Australian flag was an "extreme act that caused emotional injury."

Go to Your New Reality for the story and images of US boy scouts and US soldiers burning the American flag during official ceremonies.

NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG IL AND HIS SUPER TRAIN DISAPPEAR IN CHINA
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as he appeared in the movie 'Team America'.

Axis of Evil figurehead and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il is reported to have disappeared on his supertrain as he travelled through China to Russia two days ago.

For more info, go to Your New Reality.

THIS IS THE CENTRE OF OUR GALAXY

And we are a long way away from it.

AUSTRALIAN WOMAN STABS BOYFRIEND SIX TIMES

WHY?

HE WOULDN'T STOP PLAYING ELVIS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN

By Darryl Mason

She could only take so much, then she could take no more....Elvis, that is.

You don't mess with Australian women, every Australian man knows that, and when an Australian woman says, "Stop playing that godammned song or I'm going to stab six kinds of shit out of you with these scissors," most Australian men would have done what exactly what he was ordered to do, and turn off the Elvis for a while.

But not this guy.

At 35 years old, the unidentified West Australian man just loved to listen to Elvis. At least, he loved to listen to one Elvis song, 'Burning Love'. Apparently he played it so much he got into a right old blue with his girlfriend about it.

It appears she told him to turn it off, but he refused.

So she allegedly stabbed him.

Six times.

With scissors. in the head, in the legs and in the back.

The woman has been charged by police with 'unlawful wounding' and faces court this week. It is not known at this time whether or not the woman's solicitor will argue in her defence for a charge of 'justifiable attempted homicide'.

Elvisologists have pointed out that there are many worse Elvis songs the man could have chosen if he was trying to make some point about his wife, or about the state of their relationship.

He could have chosen, for example, 'In The Ghetto'. Or 'A Little Less Conversation'. Or 'Your The Devil In Disguise' or 'Hard Headed Woman' or 'Mean Woman Blues'.

Perhaps it's the fact that there are over 1200 recorded Elvis songs to choose from that made her mind snap when her man chose to listen to just one.

Or maybe it was that wall-rattling finish where Elvis can virtually be heard thrusting his crotch all over the place as he repeats, to booms of percussion, "I'm just a hunk a burning love/A hunka-hunka burning love/hunka-hunka burning love..." and repeats it, for virtually the last third of the whole song.

The song police allege to be the incitement for the stab-fest was recorded in 1972 and was one of Elvis' last true hits in the US. But besides it's bombastic finale, it also contains a passionate declaration of a combustible love defined : 'Cause your kisses lift me higher/Like the sweet song of a choir/You light my morning sky/With burning love.'

Maybe the man's lucky she didn't set him on fire.

AMERICA'S YOUNGEST 'SUSPECTED' TERRORIST REFUSED PLANE RIDE TO....

GO VISIT HIS GRANDMA

(and in related news)

BEFORE YOU THINK OF BECOMING A SPACE TOURIST, YOU MUST ASK YOURSELF : "COULD I BE ON THE OUTERSPACE TERRORIST WATCH NO-FLY LIST?"

So you spend a few hundred grand to become a space tourist, you do the training, you do some turns on the 'Vomit Comet' to get used to magnificent, face flapping Gs, you get all decked out in your space suit and you look to the stars and say, "See you soon" but then...no, you're not going anywhere.

That's because your name might be on the no fly terrorist watch list, which now, apparenlty, extends to outerspace. All of it.

US Congress has taken it upon itself to decide who gets to fly high and who has to stay behind, which is curious because most governments of the world didn't know the US airspace now extends to outer space.

This means space tourism developer Richard Branson will find it very hard to
take no-fly listers like Cat Stevens and US senator Eward Kennedy beyond the pull of Earth's gravity to show off his space capsules and orbiting hotels.

All of this because US Congress fears that terrorists might disguise themselves as space-obsessed IT millionaires and then try and smuggle some WMD onto an outerspace bound vehicle so they can....blow it up, or something.

A report from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suggested terrorists might decide a high orbit, above the earth, might be a great place to lauch an attack on the US mainland....by blowing up their tourist craft, or something.

There is no confirmation as yet to clarify rumours that Osama-wannabes have been heard excitedly chattering, "Fantastic! We didn't even think of WMD-ing those Zi0nist pigs from outer space until the FAA report came out. But that's a brilliant idea! Usually we just get our best target and deployment ideas for major terrorist attacks from Tom Clancy novels, but this idea is so much better!"

The US Federal Aviation Administration has been first out of the gate as far as getting serious about locking up access to outerspace for us ground dwellers. They've issued detailed guidelines, not so big on health issues for space tourists, but well focused on what kind of people should be allowed to orbit the earth in a freezing cold tin can.

The FAA has suggested the Department of Homeland Security's 'Terrorist Watch No-Fly List' could be a good marker of whether or not a potential space tourist might actually be a terrorist who wants to blow up....space.

"The public interest is served by creating a clear legal, regulatory, and safety regime for commercial human spaceflight," said the FAA report.

Here's a short story about how effective the No-Fly list can be. The No-Fly list, accessible by all airlines and ticket desks at all US airports, pulled up an incredibly dangerous potential 'terrorist' at an American airport only a few weeks ago.

Meet Edward Allen.

For a short while late last year, Edward Allen was America's youngest
'suspected' terrorist, or potential terrorist, in American history.

His name was on the No-Fly list so he was told, "No-Fly."
Edward Allen is four years old.

Edward and his mother tried to board a plane at Houston's Bush Intercontinenetal Airport. But Continental Airlines was having none of that, at least at first.

The boy can't fly, little Eddie's mother was told, he's name on the no fly terrorist watch list.

"Are you kidding me?" she asked in disbelief.

Like many of the tens of millions of people who have found themselves on lists over the past century, little Eddie didn't like it one bit.

"I don’t want to be on the list," he said. "I want to fly and see my grandma."

Mother Sijollie Allen had to plead with the airline, and point out the fact that at four years little Eddie surely could be no major enemy of democracy, and he was definitely no Truth Hater.

But in a stunning breach of security, there was no official security check made to see if Eddie was a carrying a Teddy Bear Of Mass Destruction.

This was the second time in two months that Eddie had been told he was not flying nowhere because he happened to share the same name as some adult male who actually was on the terrorist watch no-fly list.

Four year old Eddie was still in his mother's womb when terrorists attacked the US on September 11, 2001.

But rules are rules, and regulations are there to save American lives....from four year olds who want to visit their grandmas.

Mother Sijollie Allen was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "Common sense should play a role. I know the government is trying to protect....because of the terrorist attacks, but common sense should play a role in it. I don’t think (Eddie) should go through the trouble of being harassed and hindered."

There was a happy-ish ending.

Eddie got to fly and he did visit his grandma and now the Department of Homeland Security is thinking about putting some kind of age range alongside the names of those who make the 'No-Fly' list. You know, just to make it a bit easier to tell the....oh, whatever.