Thunder Horse Platform in Gulf of Mexico post Hurricane Dennis. (New name Limping Horse??)
!SR

Granny on Board

My favourite urban legend. From Snopes, other versions are available.

There was a family from Surrey who decided to spend their vacation in France, taking their elderly grandma with them. Granny spent all their stay complaining. Well, not quite all of it, because a little way into the holiday, she died on them.

Deciding that the old woman whould hate not to be buried in her beloved Blighty, the family set about returning her home, and, mindful of the customs and other problems they might face, they resolved to hide her. So they bought a cheap bit of carpet, and rolled the wrinkled little corpse up in it. Granny's body was by now too stiff to bend on to a car seat, so they had to strap her on the roof-rack. In this way she was driven across France for two days, through driving rain and baking sunshine, across the Channel by ferry, and finally all the way home.

Unhappily, having made it back without a hitch, the family were devastated when, after a well-earned cuppa, they went outside to find the car stolen -- carpet, Granny and all. And they were never recovered.

!SR

Jumping the lights

Wired has a story that devices that flip red lights to green are now ciminal.

But I was just impressed to find out that such devices exist!

How cool is this?!

The Safe Intersections Act, part of the transit bill signed Wednesday by President Bush, makes it a misdemeanor for unauthorized users to wield a "traffic signal pre-emption transmitter," a special remote control used by police, firefighters and ambulance drivers to change traffic lights to green as they approach an intersection.

Link here

!SR

Roaming Gnomes

Gnome Liberation Front.

This organization has come into being for the sole purpose of liberating Gnomekind everywhere.

No longer must Gnomes suffer the extreme heat of summer, nor the severe and biting cold of winter.

Links here and here

Gnomes hit the News

Gnomes responsible for matter:

No one knew how or why atoms interacted with each other until very recently, when a study done by me while drunk showed atoms to actually be bands of fighting gnomes.

Link here

!SR

Kubricks Psychos

We who consider ourselves moral and upright are often fascinated by the behavior of the pitiless, merciless, and guiltless psychopath. Like a magnificent black panther: powerful, dangerous, and alien, the psychopathic character can have a dark, perfect beauty that simultaneously attracts and repels us. We will explore the use of such characters in the films of Stanley Kubrick, the 20th century film auteur as it relates to his view of the nature of both individuals and human institutions.

Find it here

!SR

I'm Spartacus!

From an interview at Emporium of Mirth


Best Heckle you’ve heard (where and when)
I wasn’t at the gig but a mate told me about seeing Kirk Douglas’s other son Eric Douglas do a turn at the Comedy Store. He was going down badly and Douglas berated the rowdy audience, “Hey lissen up I’m Eric Douglas and who the fuck are you? To which some wag replied, “I’m Spartacus” and then the whole audience started,” No, I’m Spartacus” No I’M Spartacus! etc. How awful for him on so many levels.


!SR

Woman's Possessions Taken After Ad Error

Aug 5, 10:31 AM (ET)

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - Kris Bryan couldn't believe it when she came home and realized strangers were taking away her stuff - including her 7-week-old kitten. A legal notice in the Lawrence Journal-World for unclaimed property mistakenly listed Bryan's address. The notice said the items would be thrown out if they weren't picked up from the apartment.

"I was freaking out," said Bryan, 22. "I told them, 'That's my apartment - there's been some mistake.'"

Sgt. Dan Ward, a spokesman for the Lawrence Police Department, said Bryan confronted the people at her home, who showed her the Journal-World ad. They returned the items they had taken, but others had already made off with an estimated $3,300 worth of possessions - everything from a TV and a DVD player to video games and Bryan's kitten.

Ward said it was unclear how people got into Bryan's home. There were no signs of forced entry and Bryan told authorities she believed her door was locked.

Police are still trying to find her possessions. Despite the ad's confusion, those who took them could also face charges.

"Just that ad in the newspaper doesn't give someone permission to go in and take items," Bryan said.

The Journal-World's chief operating officer, Ralph Gage, said Thursday that the matter has been settled, but would not elaborate on the terms.

"We made a mistake in a legal ad," he said. "It's totally settled to the satisfaction of all parties."

From Excite news

!SR