Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

N.J. Man in Wheelchair Struck by Train

BELMAR, N.J. (AP) - A man who had been rolling back and forth across the railroad tracks in his motorized wheelchair was struck and critically injured by a commuter train, authorities said.

Warning lights were flashing and the gates were down Monday when the New Jersey Transit train struck Shelton Spizz, 59, transit agency spokesman Ken Miller said.

``Moments before, the engineer had observed this person in the wheelchair crossing back and forth across the tracks,'' Miller said. ``He sounded his horn and placed the train into an emergency braking procedure, but was unable to stop in time.''

Spizz was knocked out of his wheelchair and trapped under the train.


Miller said it was not known whether it was a suicide attempt. He said investigators have been unable to interview Spizz because of his injuries.


The man's son, Jason Spizz, said his father, an Air Force veteran, had been paralyzed last year in a boogie boarding accident.



07/01/03 15:54

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MADRID, Spain (AP) - Swedish scientists have produced healthy offspring from mice with transplanted wombs - an experiment that raises hopes of successful uterus transplants for women.

Experts say the results, presented Tuesday at a European fertility conference, are encouraging but major obstacles must be overcome before women can benefit.

Last year, Saudi scientists reported the first human womb transplant, which produced two menstrual periods before it failed and had to be removed.

Experiments led by Dr. Mats Brannstrom of Sahlgrenska University in Gothenburg, Sweden, involved genetically identical mice so there would be no problem of immune system rejection. Scientists sought to determine whether the wombs could be connected properly and function soundly.


Although thousands of women with other organ transplants have given birth to healthy babies after being on immune suppressing drugs throughout their pregnancies, there may be a special difficulty with womb transplants, said Dr. Hans Evers, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Academic University in Maastricht in the Netherlands.

"It's quite different to suppress the immune system not to reject a kidney than not to reject a uterus and have it perform its function," said Evers, who was not connected with the experiments.

"There are a lot of immune mechanisms in the uterus which prevent you from rejecting the fetus, so there's a double immune problem here," he said. "There's not only rejection of the donor tissue, but also not interfering with the regular immune systems within the uterus that allow a pregnancy to go to term."

Brannstrom said his group is now studying combinations of immune suppressant drugs. He said he was optimistic and expects to start transplants in humans in about three years.

In one experiment, the scientists inserted a transplanted womb next to the native uterus inside the mice, while in another they replaced the natural womb with a donated one.

The pregnancy rate was the same in both experiments, said Brannstrom.

"These offspring from the transplanted uteruses were mated and they were all fertile and the growth of the second generation was also normal," he said at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.

"If you use this in a clinical situation, you have to have immunosuppression, but it would be just for a restricted time. You would carry the uterus just as long as you needed for one or two babies," he said.

Mothers or sisters would be the most likely donors because close relatives are more likely to provide a better match than strangers, he said.

Brannstrom estimated that in about 3 percent of infertile women, the problem can be traced to the uterus.

Women who were born without a uterus would likely be the first to benefit from the transplants, he said. Other transplant candidates include women who had to have a hysterectomy after postpartum bleeding or due to a severe infection.

[Jolie Rouge]

Celebrity body parts: Million-dollar thighs and smiles
By Larry Getlen • Bankrate.com

We would guess not. On the other hand, it probably never occurred to you to buy an insurance policy for them either.

Unless, of course, you're a celebrity.

The tradition of celebrities insuring talents and body parts is a long and storied one, ironically re-introduced to public consciousness lately by a fiction -- the insuring of Jennifer Lopez's body (or booty) for $1 billion. While the story was widely reported, Lopez's representatives insist it never happened, and there's no evidence that it did.

Although juicy tales of Lopez's body being priced in parts like a fine Holstein (legs -- $400 million, breasts -- $200 million, or so went the rumors) proved false, many other celebrities have provided us with a menu of limbs and other, um, attributes, neatly broken down by price per part.

Alan J. Levin, a partner at Edwards & Angell, LLP, in Coral Gables, Fla., traces the origins of celebrity insurance to the 1920s, when silent movie star Ben Turpin, famed for his crossed eyes, took out a $20,000 policy against them uncrossing.

Crooner Jimmy Durante followed suit years later, taking out a $50,000 policy on his moneymaker -- his infamous schnozzola.

Female stars, perhaps more conscious of their attributes, raised the stakes. Marlene Dietrich insured her voice for a cool $1 million, and Betty Grable insured her dynamite legs for the same amount -- thus coining the phrase "million-dollar legs." (By comparison, dancer Fred Astaire had his legs insured for a paltry $75,000 per.)

Other stars of the day took out unusual insurance, including Bette Davis' $28,000 policy against weight gain.

But while superstars added a new element to the insurance business, some celebrities of a lesser caliber kept it equally interesting. Harvey Lowe, winner of the first World Yo-Yo Contest in 1934, had his hands insured by the Cheerie Yo-Yo Company for $150,000.

And while Britain's skiffle craze was on its way to influencing The Beatles (who themselves were insured for $1,000,000 on their first American tour), a washboard player named Chas McDevitt protected his own career by insuring his fingers for £5,000. Unfortunately, he didn't think to insure the popularity of skiffle, an early form of rock 'n' roll that eventually melted away.

Celebrity insurance stayed strong in the '60s as Angie Dickinson insured her Sinatra-loved legs for a cool mil, and a topless dancer in Las Vegas named Carol Doda, in what would become another bizarre insurance practice, insured her breasts at Lloyd's of London (the standard bearer for this sort of thing) for $1.5 million.

The insuring of breasts and other sexual attributes has become standard among the A-list and B-list alike. Dolly Parton insured her infamous, theme-park-inspiring 42-inch breasts for $600,000, since who knows where her career would be without them.

In Brazil, a 20-year-old Playboy model named Susana Alves, famous in that country for portraying an S&M queen on television, got what is perhaps one of the best insurance deals ever. A company there insured her buttocks, knees and ankles for $2 million in exchange for placing her image on its billboards. In Brazil, in fact, policies on celebrity rear ends are so commonplace that insurers coined a name for them -- bumbum policies.

Equal rights advocates will be happy to note that sexual insurance is not merely the province of women. A British male stripper named Frankie Jakeman insured his penis for $1.6 million -- no doubt inspiring shrieks of laughter from Jakeman's ex-girlfriends nationwide.

And sometimes, gender is irrelevant. One of the oddest examples of celebrity insurance came when a 24-year-old Thai transvestite performer named Poh was told her breast implants could explode at high altitude if she flew to an appearance in Edinburgh. The implants were therefore insured for $500,000.

While the body parts themselves produce healthy profits for insurers, voices also generate business. Bruce Springsteen has a legendary policy on his for somewhere in the $6 million range, and Rod Stewart has insured his scrubbed-with-steel-wool pipes as well.

Other body parts also rate protection. Liberace, French pianist Richard Clayderman and Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards -- an unlikely trio -- all insured their hands.

Surprisingly, one category where you would expect lots of insured parts -- the world of sports -- yields none. While one would expect that superstars like Kobe Bryant, Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens would have more insured arms that the United States military, it turns out that the sports world finds little time to quibble with details.

Sports teams take an all-or-nothing approach. Why just insure a part when you can insure the whole package? These teams, rather than insuring their main attractions' body parts, just take out special disability insurance on the athlete himself -- like the St. Louis Cardinals did with a $12 million disability policy on now retired Mark McGwire.

Even in this area, though, teams take wildly divergent approaches to insurance. Over the past few years, The San Francisco Giants insured only one player -- Barry Bonds. That policy wasn't renewed in 2001, however, because at that time Bonds was in the last year of his contract, and the deductible was more than the premium. Other teams, such as the Seattle Mariners, insure no one as their draw is more dependent on fan loyalty at this point than on any one superstar.

And sometimes, players take on the insurance burden themselves. Outfielder Juan Gonzalez, for example, while a free agent, purchased a $50 million personal disability policy that was transferable to whichever team signed him in order to reassure teams concerned about his history of back trouble (he eventually re-signed with his old team, the Texas Rangers).

And in football, where there are no guaranteed contracts, the insurance risk falls solely on the player, leading superstars such as Rams quarterback Kurt Warner to purchase policies for themselves as soon as they take on major roles. Warner bought his when he took over the starting quarterback position.

Of course, some athletes are so successful -- and so rich -- that they are beyond insurance. Golfer Tiger Woods, for example, makes so much money that to insure himself against injury would cost him $10 million to $20 million a year, more than he made in 2002 from golf. Most of his money, more than $69 million a year, comes from endorsements.

But luckily, non-sports celebrities do not have these restrictions, and keep themselves "covered" from head to toe.

Actress Kerry Wallace needed to shave off her hair for one of the Star Trek films, and purchased a policy insuring that it would grow back.

And, perhaps since much of this insurance has been handled over the years at England's Lloyd's of London, that country seems to have (or at least publicizes) more than its share of odd policies. British food critic Egon Ronay insured his taste buds for $400,000; comic actor Ken Dodd insured his teeth for £4 million; and a cricket player named Merv Hughes took out a £200,000 policy on his moustache.

But the most common celebrity insurance seems to be for legs and faces -- the latter sparked, according to Levin, by the 1982 attack on actress Theresa Saldana in which her face was slashed. The insuring of the face by supermodels now seems standard practice. Christy Turlington has hers insured for $1 million, while Claudia Schiffer's is protected for $5 million.

Betty Grable inspired a legion of celebrities to protect their golden gams. Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart has her legs insured for $1 million dollars, as does actress Angie Everhart. Jamie Lee Curtis insured hers for $1 million while doing advertisements for a stocking company, and porn star Porshce Lynn has had her legs insured for the same amount.

In this area too, both genders are represented, as Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley insured his legs for an astounding £25 million.

Even the non-famous can enjoy this type of protection. When Miami resident Domitila Hunnicutt won a Most Valuable Legs contest sponsored by Jergens, the company insured her legs for $2 million for one year, thereby bestowing her title with literal truth.

While there are sound business reasons for much of this, rest assured that the insuring of attributes does have its limits. A British performer known as Mr. Methane sought coverage against the loss of his "talent," which consisted of performing standards such as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "How Much is That Doggy in the Window?" using his naturally-produced gases.

He was refused.




-- Updated: June 27, 2003

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Hey Jolie...I think you and I are the only "weird news" freaks out there.....lol

[Jolie Rouge]

Incredible Find Deep In Australian Cave

More than 200 Aboriginal cave drawings -- some of which are about 4,000 years old -- have been found deep inside a cave in the Wollemi National Park northwest of Sydney, Australia, reports Reuters. The drawings depict wildlife, including birds, lizards, and marsupials, as well as stencils of human hands and arms and of boomerangs and other tools. The most unusual drawing is of a wombat, something rarely seen in Aboriginal rock art.

The rock drawings are in 12 distinct layers.

The oldest date from 2000 B.C. while the newest were painted in the 1800s. To give a perspective on the age of the oldest drawings, they were created at the same time as the Egyptian pyramids and Stonehenge. "We know so much about the history of other cultures across the world, but we know very little about our own," Australian Museum spokeswoman Samantha Mattila told Reuters. "This is at the backdoor of Sydney, and it's untouched. It's pristine."


Click to see these incredible photos of the Aboriginal cave drawings.
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news...y=0&floc=wn-nn

[
Get a glimpse of the Aboriginal culture through these photos and essay.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/TRAVEL/DESTI...ure/index.html
The exact location of the cave will be kept secret so it will be protected. Reuters notes that it was found in 1995 by bushwalkers, but since the cave is in such a remote, densely wooded area, a team from the museum could only reach it for the first time two months ago.

[Jolie Rouge]

Really Bizarre Job Interview Questions

Question No. 1: What's the height of the Empire State Building as measured by a stack of quarters?

Got the answer?

Question No. 2: Now, what is the dollar value of those quarters?

Question No. 3: If you are on a boat and you throw your suitcase overboard, will the water level rise or fall?

Question No. 4: How many piano tuners are there in the world?

Question No. 5: Why are beer cans tapered at the top and bottom?

Question No. 6: Why do mirrors reverse right and left instead of up and down?



Don't be shocked if you're asked any of these questions--or something equally as bizarre--in your next job interview, reports Wired News.

Taking a cue from Microsoft, more companies are asking their job candidates the oddest questions--questions that have nothing to do with their ability to do the work but everything to do with their ability to think fast, analyze information, and solve problems creatively.

And it's catching job seekers off guard, notes Wired News. They go into an interview expecting to be asked about their previous job experience or educational background, and instead they are asked to do some brain teaser that feels like a jump back to ninth-grade math. Employers are using the technique to narrow the field. It wasn't too long ago that they took just about anyone who had pulse--and gave that person a huge signing bonus. Now there are multiple candidates for every position, and riddles and puzzles are one way to narrow the field.

"In this economy, companies can afford to be choosy," William Poundstone explained to Wired News. "The brain-teaser interview is a trend that has reached a broad cross-section of the Fortune 500." Poundstone knows of what he speaks. He wrote the book "How Would You Move Mount Fuji?" to explain how Microsoft uses puzzles and riddles to find and then hire the most creative thinkers.

But do these questions and answers really tell much about the candidate? Poundstone seems to think they do. "By asking candidates to solve a puzzle, interviewers hope to gain some insight into how well the candidates think on their feet," he told Wired News. Employers use this logic: Microsoft does it. Microsoft is successful. Microsoft's success is due to its employees and their ability to solve problems. So the technique must work.

Interviewers who use the puzzle questions say they do so not to see if the candidate gets the right answer, but rather to follow his or her thought process and to see if they have the determination to stick with it and come up with an answer.

Others don't agree the riddles work--but not for the reason you might think. A study about the job interview process conducted by researchers from Harvard University showed that most employers make up their mind about a candidate within two seconds--yes! two SECONDS--of meeting the person. So a riddle or puzzle won't mean much if your fate is already decided.

Still, even Poundstone, who thinks the puzzles are a great way to identify problem-solvers, cautions employers. "You have to be careful not to let it turn into a hazing stunt. In businesses where there's a fraternity culture, it sometimes becomes a matter of putting everyone through the same gauntlet of puzzles and high pressure," he told Wired News. "You don't want potential employees going away feeling harassed."

[SaraSmiles]

I read this this morning. Isnt that just too cool?

[Jolie Rouge]

Hey Jolie...I think you and I are the only "weird news" freaks out there.....lol

Nah -- we are just the only ones who will admit it !

184 Posts and 880 Views; we must be doing something right !

[Jolie Rouge]

Giant sea creature baffles Chilean scientists
Wednesday, July 2, 2003 Posted: 1:32 PM EDT

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americ...eut/index.html

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) -- Chilean scientists were baffled on Tuesday by a huge, gelatinous sea creature found washed up on the southern Pacific coast and were seeking international help identifying the mystery specimen.

The dead creature was mistaken for a beached whale when first reported about a week ago, but experts who went to see it said the 40-foot-long (12-meter) mass of decomposing lumpy grey flesh apparently was an invertebrate.

"We'd never before seen such a strange specimen, We don't know if it might be a giant squid that is missing some of its parts or maybe it's a new species," said Elsa Cabrera, director of the Center for Cetacean Conservation in Santiago.

Photographs showed a round leathery substance like a mammoth jelly fish, about as long as a school bus.

Giant squid live at a depth of 9,500 feet (3,000 meters) and only rise to the surface when they die. Specimens have been known to be as long as 60 feet (18 meters).

There was speculation that the mass might be a whale skin, but Cabrera said it was too big and did not have the right texture or smell.

Cabrera said she was contacting Chilean and international organizations in the hope that they could help shed some light on the find.

The Chilean Navy first spotted the mystery specimen along with another large mass, but the other dead animal turned out to be a dead humpback whale.

[Jolie Rouge]

'Idol' Star Has Run-In With Texas Police

"American Idol" stars Justin Guarini and Kelly Clarkson were enjoying Saturday afternoon on a Fort Worth, Texas lake in a personal watercraft when trouble broke out. Justin, who was at the controls, nearly ran over a 5-year-old girl at Joe Pool Lake in Loyd Park. That brought out the police, who then cited the "American Idol" runner-up for unsafe boat operation, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. And that is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and a maximum 180 days in jail.

The lake patrol supervisor on duty, Sgt. Chris Chopin, told the paper that Guarini and Clarkson "didn't understand what the laws were." Clint Heizer, the father of the little girl, told the Star-Telegram that Justin and Kelly, whom he didn't recognize at first, were with about five other friends and had been taking turns riding the watercraft for most of the day. It wasn't until Justin almost hit his daughter, Allison, that Heizer realized who he was. "I was in Justin's face talking to him about what he had just done, and that's when I realized who he was," Heizer told the paper, claiming that Justin rolled off the watercraft before it even stopped and then ran away laughing.

"If they were just apologetic, everything would have been all right," Heizer said. Instead, he claimed the two were rude and confrontational not only to him, but also to the police and Coast Guard when they arrived on the scene. Sgt. Chopin disagreed with that description of their behavior, saying the two were more "inquisitive" than confrontational. Still, the police kicked them off the lake and out of the park.

[Jolie Rouge]

School Bans Potter's Magic

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian Christian school has banned the new best-selling adventure of teenage wizard Harry Potter, saying the book promotes evil witchcraft and magic.

Bert Langerak, principal of the Maranatha Christian School in the southern city of Melbourne, said Wednesday none of the five books in author J. K. Rowling's blockbuster Harry Potter series was welcome on the school's library shelves.

"We would deal with, say, Macbeth and Hamlet, because evil there is being portrayed as evil and not as being good, whereas Harry Potter is on a quest to become the best possible wizard and that's being applauded by the author," Langerak told Reuters.

"And us poor muggles are being put in a bad light," he added, using the name by which the book refers to non-magical people.

The latest book in the series -- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix -- became an instant best seller around the world when it was launched last month.

Langerak said the school was leaving it up to parents to decide if they wanted to expose their children to Harry Potter and his unchristian magic turbo-charged brooms. "If they want their kids to read Harry Potter, so be it. But I think that parents also have to be given the opportunity to say, 'No, I don't want my child to read Harry Potter'."



07/02/03 08:13