The latest oddities
#851
Posted 23 September 2010 - 20:06
F O R T H E N S
#852
Posted 24 September 2010 - 05:00
Quote
New Zealand has an abundance of native bird species, including the famous kiwi, but has no native land mammals.
That means that introduced animals such as cats and stoats have had a devastating impact on bird numbers.
Canterbury University researcher Jim Briskie says it appears New Zealand birds suffer from body odour, making them an easy target for predators.
Mr Briskie says unlike their overseas counterparts, which evolved alongside mammals, New Zealand birds emit a strong smell when preening as they produce wax to protect their feathers.
He says kiwis smell like mushrooms or ammonia, while the flightless and endangered kakapo parrot smells like "musty violin cases".
The Marsden scientific research fund has given Mr Briskie a $460,000 grant to study native bird body odours over the next three years in the hope of making them less exposed to predators.
"Down the line, if we do find some species are particularly smelly or vulnerable, perhaps I can design a deodorant for kiwis," he told the Dominion Post newspaper.
#853
Posted 24 September 2010 - 05:53
Quote
Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do.
And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure.
- Vladimir Solovyov
#854
Posted 24 September 2010 - 21:53
Alias, on 24 Sep 2010, 7:00, said:
Quote
New Zealand has an abundance of native bird species, including the famous kiwi, but has no native land mammals.
That means that introduced animals such as cats and stoats have had a devastating impact on bird numbers.
Canterbury University researcher Jim Briskie says it appears New Zealand birds suffer from body odour, making them an easy target for predators.
Mr Briskie says unlike their overseas counterparts, which evolved alongside mammals, New Zealand birds emit a strong smell when preening as they produce wax to protect their feathers.
He says kiwis smell like mushrooms or ammonia, while the flightless and endangered kakapo parrot smells like "musty violin cases".
The Marsden scientific research fund has given Mr Briskie a $460,000 grant to study native bird body odours over the next three years in the hope of making them less exposed to predators.
"Down the line, if we do find some species are particularly smelly or vulnerable, perhaps I can design a deodorant for kiwis," he told the Dominion Post newspaper.
You almost say that New Zealand's fauna are nearly half as weird as Australia's .
The brave hide behind technology. The stupid hide from it. The clever have technology, and hide it.
—The Book of Cataclysm
#855
Posted 24 September 2010 - 22:38
Actually it may be just as wierd, but nowhere near as horrifying!
Edited by SquigPie, 24 September 2010 - 22:38.
Quote
Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do.
And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure.
- Vladimir Solovyov
#856
Posted 26 September 2010 - 17:34
Quote
Embarrassed officials were at a loss to explain how Jean-Pierre Treiber, 45, a double murder suspect, managed to elude detection in the box he had built himself at a workshop in the high security prison of Auxerre, Burgundy.With its hidden human cargo, the box was loaded with dozens of others onto a lorry for delivery to the Yonne region, southeast of Paris.
During the 100-mile journey, he broke free and leapt from the lorry. The driver only realised there was a problem once he had reached his destination, when he spotted a hole in the tarpaulin covering the boxes, some of which were flattened.Police have sealed off roads and a huge area of woodland in the hunt for Treiber using helicopters and sniffer dogs.Treiber has been in prison awaiting trial since 2004, charged with murdering French actor Roland Giraud's daughter Geraldine, and her friend Katia Lherbier.
He is due to stand trial early next year in a case that shocked France. Treiber is believed to have sneaked inside a cardboard box at 10.30am on Tuesday while he was left alone in a prisoner's workshop. He had earlier told guards that he had an afternoon meeting with his parole officer – and nobody noticed his absence until later that evening, giving him seven hours to make good his escape. Roland Giraud, 67, one of France's best-known actors, said Treiber's escape was an "avowal" that he had murdered his daughter. The bodies of Geraldine Giraud, 36, and Katia Lherbier, 32, were both found dumped in a well on Treiber's property in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, near Paris. They had been strangled. But Treiber's lawyer, Eric Dupond-Moretti, said his escape proved nothing. "One can either say he's guilty and that this is proof of his guilt... or one can say he's desperate, that he no longer has faith in the justice system because he's pleaded his innocence for so long and hasn't been heard."
Treiber has always denied the murders despite having used the victims' credit cards to withdraw cash. When he was arrested and the first body discovered, his cryptic reaction was: "He bumped her off." Mystery still surrounds unknown DNA that does not match Treiber's on adhesive tape used to gag the girls' mouths. Police admitted they had a tough task finding Treiber, a former forest warden, who knows the Othe woods 20 miles north of Auxerre like the back of his hand. "We're searching the places where he used to hunt," said a policeman. "But he might well have fled further afield".
Snake!?
F O R T H E N S
#858
Posted 26 September 2010 - 17:51
Perfect planning and timing? Fuck that! This mothafucka just hops into the nearest cardboard box and hopes for the best!
Quote
Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do.
And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure.
- Vladimir Solovyov
#860
Posted 26 September 2010 - 18:37
#861
Posted 26 September 2010 - 20:05
500 or 1000 posts?
Quote
Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do.
And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure.
- Vladimir Solovyov
#862
Posted 26 September 2010 - 20:15
#863
Posted 26 September 2010 - 23:55
Chyros, on 24 Sep 2010, 23:53, said:
Alias, on 24 Sep 2010, 7:00, said:
Quote
New Zealand has an abundance of native bird species, including the famous kiwi, but has no native land mammals.
That means that introduced animals such as cats and stoats have had a devastating impact on bird numbers.
Canterbury University researcher Jim Briskie says it appears New Zealand birds suffer from body odour, making them an easy target for predators.
Mr Briskie says unlike their overseas counterparts, which evolved alongside mammals, New Zealand birds emit a strong smell when preening as they produce wax to protect their feathers.
He says kiwis smell like mushrooms or ammonia, while the flightless and endangered kakapo parrot smells like "musty violin cases".
The Marsden scientific research fund has given Mr Briskie a $460,000 grant to study native bird body odours over the next three years in the hope of making them less exposed to predators.
"Down the line, if we do find some species are particularly smelly or vulnerable, perhaps I can design a deodorant for kiwis," he told the Dominion Post newspaper.
You almost say that New Zealand's fauna are nearly half as weird as Australia's .
Seeing how three thirds of the bird species already went extinct this is probably quite necessary =O
#865
Posted 28 September 2010 - 12:04
Quote
Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do.
And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure.
- Vladimir Solovyov
#866
Posted 29 September 2010 - 09:09
Quote
Vuvuzelas provoked strong emotions in South Africa, with some fans loving the distinctive low-pitched bellow while others, including many players, coaches and commentators, were driven to distraction.
About 10,000 plastic vuvuzela horns have been sold in Delhi through official merchandising outlets at a cost of 250 rupees ($5.70) each.
Suresh Kumar, chairman of the Games' official merchandising company Premier Brands, said 50,000 vuvuzelas had been imported from China and 10,000 had been bought from stalls, shops and mobile vans.
"People here like them because in India we associate celebrations with noise," he said.
"Vuvuzelas are the most popular item we are selling. We expect the rest to go by the middle of the Games. And if we have a shortage, we can't get any more because they were ordered from China."
Vuvuzelas became the unofficial symbol of the World Cup but they drowned out crowd chants and made it nearly impossible for players to communicate with each other.
The horns have since been banned by several sporting organisations.
Harris Mbulelo Majeke, South Africa's high commissioner in Delhi, showed locals last week how to blow the horn with a long, loud blast.
"We are going to make a lot of noise. We are going to have lots of fun," he said.
"We are going to blast the stadiums with vuvuzelas."
DO NOT WANT
#867
Posted 29 September 2010 - 09:45
#868
Posted 29 September 2010 - 09:47
Quote
Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do.
And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure.
- Vladimir Solovyov
#869
Posted 29 September 2010 - 09:54
Alias, on 29 Sep 2010, 10:09, said:
Quote
Vuvuzelas provoked strong emotions in South Africa, with some fans loving the distinctive low-pitched bellow while others, including many players, coaches and commentators, were driven to distraction.
About 10,000 plastic vuvuzela horns have been sold in Delhi through official merchandising outlets at a cost of 250 rupees ($5.70) each.
Suresh Kumar, chairman of the Games' official merchandising company Premier Brands, said 50,000 vuvuzelas had been imported from China and 10,000 had been bought from stalls, shops and mobile vans.
"People here like them because in India we associate celebrations with noise," he said.
"Vuvuzelas are the most popular item we are selling. We expect the rest to go by the middle of the Games. And if we have a shortage, we can't get any more because they were ordered from China."
Vuvuzelas became the unofficial symbol of the World Cup but they drowned out crowd chants and made it nearly impossible for players to communicate with each other.
The horns have since been banned by several sporting organisations.
Harris Mbulelo Majeke, South Africa's high commissioner in Delhi, showed locals last week how to blow the horn with a long, loud blast.
"We are going to make a lot of noise. We are going to have lots of fun," he said.
"We are going to blast the stadiums with vuvuzelas."
DO NOT WANT
I'm wondering how they could make the Commonwealth games any less attractive right about now?
WILL NOT WATCH.
#870
Posted 29 September 2010 - 19:17
Alias, on 29 Sep 2010, 11:09, said:
Quote
"We are going to blast the stadiums with vuvuzelas."
DO NOT WANT
WEAK
TOTALLY NOT COOL D;
The brave hide behind technology. The stupid hide from it. The clever have technology, and hide it.
—The Book of Cataclysm
#871
Posted 01 October 2010 - 11:04
Quote
The 10-month-old porker is known by villagers as "Zhu Jianqiang" (Strong-willed Pig) after it was born with only two front legs and learned to balance on them well enough to walk.
According to its owner, Wang Xihai, it was one of nine piglets born in a litter this January.
He said: "My wife asked me to dump it but I refused as it's a life. I thought I should give it a chance to survive and unexpectedly it survived healthy."
Several days after its birth Wang decided to train the two-legged piglet to walk by lifting it up by its tail.
He said: "I trained her for a while each day. After 30 days she can now walk upside down quite well."
Wang said since the birth of the pig, which currently weighs 50kg (110lbs), his home has been besieged by visitors.
A circus even offered to buy for the pig for a large sum but Wang refused to sell.
He said "She proved to us that no matter what form life is it should continue to live on. I won't sell it no matter how much the offer is."
Source
Quote
A hapless sailor named 'Captain Calamity' has destroyed his catamaran after flipping it for the 13th time while attempting to ride Britain's biggest wave.
Glenn Crawley, 55, has repeatedly flipped his catamaran 'Mischief' and cost the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) £30,000 in a string of rescues.
The retired electrician and engineer began sailing the boat in 2003 and was forced to dial 999 three times in the first year alone. Since then RNLI crews have been called out on a further nine occasions after Mr Crawley's catamaran turned over, at a cost of at least £2,500 per rescue.
Officials have pleaded with him to give up sailing, with local coastguards calling him 'Captain Calamity'.
Mr Crawley's seafaring antics now look over after he crashed his boat for the 13th time in seven years. The 18ft boat has been left in pieces after he attempted to ride Britain's biggest wave, known as the Cribbar, at Fistral Beach in Newquay.
Mr Crawley tried to sail along the wave, dubbed 'The Widow Maker', but his vessel was hit by a giant wall of water and flipped over.
Despite admitting that Mischief is gone, Mr Crawley warned he could soon be back at sea, he still insists he is a ''man of the water'' and says his ''extreme sailing'' is pushing the boundaries of maritime adventure.
Mr Crawley said: ''People race cars or climb mountains but no one gets on their case.
''I'm the first one to admit I make the occasional mistake but you have to put it in context. People are so keen to criticise, they need to look at the big picture. I'm out there taking risks. I'm pushing the limits and seeing what can be done.
''I do what no one else is doing. So I'd appreciate it if people would get off my case and give me some support.
''If you don't capsize, you're not trying hard enough. Go hard or go home, that's my motto. I'm always going hard. The sea by its very nature is unpredictable. I'm going through a never-ending learning curve.
''Anyway I'll have a new boat after Christmas. They're not that expensive. We're not talking about the Titanic here.''
In 2007 he was rescued four times in four hours by local sailors and coastguards after he flipped his boat.
On one occasion RNLI lifeboat crews found Mr Crawley and his fellow sailor swimming towards the shore having abandoned the boat in the surf.
On the official log for the incident the rescue mission was detailed under the headline ''him again''.
But he finally destroyed Mischief after he took the boat through a crowd of 15 surfers to sail along the Cribbar. Known as Britain's biggest wave, the 50-tonne wall of water travels at 40mph to shore at Fistral Beach.
The Cribbar occurs just once or twice a year and is created by a low pressure system which causes gigantic swells in the Atlantic.
Source
Edited by Bob, 01 October 2010 - 11:10.
#873
Posted 01 October 2010 - 13:21
#874
Posted 01 October 2010 - 15:30
They would go on epic adventures to the core of Australia and get in fist-fights with bears and shit!
Standard dialogue example:
Kamina: OIOIOIOIOI! WE ONLY HAVE 2 SECONDS LEFT TO DEFUSE THE BOMB!
Samuel L. Jackson: Motherf*cking bomb!
Vin Diesel: AII LEEVE FOR DIS SHEET!
TLP: OINK! OINK!
Chuck Norris: You said it Piggie!
Spike Spiegel: I'm stuck with a bunch of idiots...
Creed: You are reading this in our voices!
FSF: CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!
Creed: Just as planned.
Edited by SquigPie, 01 October 2010 - 15:32.
Quote
Imagine a group of people who are all blind, deaf and slightly demented and suddenly someone in the crowd asks, "What are we to do?"... The only possible answer is, "Look for a cure". Until you are cured, there is nothing you can do.
And since you don't believe you are sick, there can be no cure.
- Vladimir Solovyov
#875
Posted 01 October 2010 - 16:55
Quote
Ten winners were declared at the ceremony held in Harvard University's Sanders Theatre, with eight of them on hand to receive their prizes.
The ceremony was broadcast on YouTube.
An idea to use a remote-control helicopter to collect whale snot won the engineering prize for a British-Mexican team, with the project under the authentically geeky title A Novel Non-Invasive Tool for Disease Surveillance of Free-Ranging Whales and Its Relevance to Conservation Programs.
A Dutch pair of scientists won medicine honours for their discovery that a roller-coaster ride can treat asthma symptoms, while a Japanese team took the transportation planning prize for use of "slime mould to determine the optimal routes for railroad tracks".
The physics prize went to researchers at the University of Otago, New Zealand, for helpfully demonstrating that socks worn outside of shoes reduce slipping on icy paths.
Three British researchers at Keele University were the surprise peace prize laureates for proving that swearing relieves pain, while an experiment determining that microbes cling to bearded scientists took the health prize.
The economics prize went to the executives of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers and other central players in the US economic crisis for "new ways to invest money - ways that maximise financial gain and minimise financial risk for the world economy".
A more scientific view of the business world was rewarded with the management prize, which went to researchers at the University of Catania, Italy, for "demonstrating mathematically that organisations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random".
Finally, a Chinese-British team of researchers walked off with the biology prize for revealing to the world documentary evidence of fellatio in fruit bats.
The Igs are Harvard's humorous take on the more famous and serious Nobel Prizes. They claim to "make people laugh and then make them think".
Real-life Nobel laureates, including 2004 physics winner Frank Wilczek and 1985 peace prize winner James Muller, handed out the awards.
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