Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Good News If You Love French Fries

French fries won't kill you. That's the word from an international team of researchers that has concluded there is no association between eating fried or baked potatoes and an increased risk of cancer as was reported by Swedish scientists last year, reports Reuters. The Swedes determined that when potatoes, as well as other high-carbohydrate foods such as crackers and certain kinds of cereals, were cooked at high temperatures, high levels of acrylamide formed during the cooking process. It was the carcinogen acrylamide that was linked to a higher cancer risk. But go get some fries and smother them with ketchup! According to the International Journal of Cancer, the latest research provides "reassuring research evidence for the lack of an important association between consumption of fried and/or baked potatoes and cancer risk."

Led by Dr. Claudio Pelucchi of the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche in Milan, Italy, this new study re-examined the work done by the Swedish researchers in the 1990s involving more than 7,000 Italian and Swiss men and women who had contracted various types of cancer, reports Reuters. These included cancer of the mouth, pharynx, esophagus, larynx, colon, rectum, breast, or ovary. The participants answered questionnaires about their diet, including how much fried and baked potatoes they ate every week. They were also compared to a larger group of healthy people. But this new team found NO evidence for an interaction between potatoes and cancer.

There's just one gotcha:

Pelucchi warns that his study applies only to southern Europeans. Northern Europeans and Americans use different cooking processes and cooking oils that were not included in this study. "There is no indication, however, that the (cooking oil) used is a crucial factor in the generation of acrylamide during frying or baking of potatoes," the authors write

[Jolie Rouge]

Too Much Flesh! MTV Censors Aguilera

She may have a whole new look with the dark brown hair, but Christina Aguilera is still up to her "dirty" ways. The New York Post and Knight Ridder Newspapers report that MTV has "put the brakes" on Aguilera's new video, "Can't Hold Us Down" because there's just too much flesh and a suggestive scene that isn't suitable for broadcast.

The video was shot by celebrity photographer David La Chappelle, who has been ordered by MTV to tone it down. And Christina is not happy about this. No, no, no. Knight Ridder describes her as "livid." An Aguilera spokeswoman told the Post's Page Six gossip column, "She doesn't say that a male performer would get away with it, but she does feel that there are double standards."

The video will air because La Chappelle and Aguilera made the required changes. MTV's representative curtly informed the Post, "MTV has a standards department like any other network. We asked them to make changes, and they did it. The video will air."

...a suggestive scene that isn't suitable for broadcast.

ON MTV ? I have seen stuff that looks like soft (and not-so-soft core) porn ! What is too risque for MTV ?

[Jolie Rouge]

Snail Mail, Email and Now ... Whale Mail?

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The small Pacific island state of Vanuatu has opened what it says is the world's first underwater post office.

Planted on the seabed under 10 feet of turquoise sea in the Hideaway Island marine sanctuary, the fiberglass kiosk is manned by postal workers in diving gear and sells waterproof postcards.

"Marine life and water are very important to Vanuatu and tourism is pretty important so we just thought we'd see what we could do to boost tourism, do something different and have a bit of fun," Ian Hollins of Vanuatu Post told Reuters on Friday.

"When you're out snorkeling it's quite an easy duck dive and you're there," Hollins said from the tropical state of 80 islands and 190,000 people, 1,400 miles northeast of Sydney.


The submarine post office is open for one or two hours a day, depending on how busy it gets, and has a special underwater franking machine that embosses the plastified postcards.



07/07/03 09:10

[Jolie Rouge]

Fascinating Discovery In South Africa

The fossilized remains of a 1.8-ton dinosaur that is the earliest known example of a sauropod have been found in South Africa--without ever lifting a shovel or turning a mound of dirt. The bones of this plant-eating creature that roamed the Earth some 205 million years ago were found boxed up at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Really.

Reuters reports that the specimen was dug up in 1981, but at the time it was incorrectly classified. Now the researchers realize the treasure they have: This fossil represents a new species of sauropod that would have been the largest land animal of its time, stretching 26 to 33 feet from nose to tail. It was found--in the ground--by veteran fossil hunter James Kitching 22 years ago, but was incorrectly classified as belonging to the prosauropod group. So it was left to gather dust in the university's archeology institute, reports Reuters. And then the fossil was found all over again--this time in the university--by paleontologist Adam Yates, who correctly classified it. So Yates gets to name it, which he has done: Antetonitrus ingenipes.


As the Antetonitrus dinosaur evolved over time, it eventually reached a weight of 100 tons. "This discovery tells us a lot about the way the group actually developed," Yates explained to Reuters. Antetonitrus is not a giant yet but it gives us some clues as to the evolution of gigantism." Sauropods had four short legs of equal length; they were the first dinosaurs to walk on all four legs. The findings were published in the published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.

See the massive leg bone from a newly-named dinosaur Antetonitrus ingenipes.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news...fs=&floc=wn-nn


Check out this amazing fossil recently found in Antarctica--something that totally surprised scientists.

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news...ica&floc=wn-nn

It's just a tiny fossil of a fly that scientists found some 300 miles from the South Pole. But this fossil will help them:

figure out what life was like millions of years ago in ancient Antarctica and
help explain global changes in today's climate.
One of the biggest surprises of the discovery: No one even knew there were flies in this frozen land where summer temperatures are a bone-chilling 20 degrees below zero. The fly fossil is from the Cyclorrhapha family, the so-called "higher flies" that include the common housefly, reports CNN.

Geologist Allan Ashworth, who found the fossil and is recognized as a pioneer in using insect fossils to research climate changes, speculates that flies could have existed during a short-lived warm spell in Antarctica several million years ago. They could also have been part of the animal life on a mega-continent called Gondwana that later split up and formed Antarctica, South America, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa.

Finding such fossils is "painstaking stuff," Ashworth admitted. But the payoff can be huge because so much can be learned from them. CNN reports that the fossil Ashworth found in Antarctica is 5 to 7.5 millimeters long. The fly is actually in the puparium stage, which is similar to the butterfly's cocoon state--a transition period between the larva and adult insect. Ashworth told CNN he was looking at a rock under the microscope and saw sand, seeds, and the head or leg of a weevil. And then he spotted an unusual circular pattern with what appeared to be the back end of a fly in the pupa stage. The circular pattern was a spiracle, which is the mechanism a fly pupa uses to breathe.

Ashworth's research partner, Christian Thompson at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History, said finding the fossil was a "Eureka" moment. Speaking of ancient Antarctica, Thompson told CNN, "It was definitely a lot warmer than it is today, so we have to rethink the rate and ability of these flies to disperse across great land masses. We also have to think more about the climate fluctuations in the last 40 million years."

Ashworth, who is a geology professor at North Dakota State University in Fargo, says the landscape of Antarctica then was much like the west coast of Greenland now. "There was a lake, ice sheets that are much smaller than they are today, and some patchy, tundra-like vegetation," he told CNN. What kept that fly company? Beetles, snails, algae, mollusks, and some fish.

So now the big question to be pondered: If a warm spell in Antarctica allowed the fly to live there, what caused the temperatures to rise? Some 15 million years ago, it was not greenhouse gases to blame. So what was it? This ancient clue could help scientists learn more about global warming now.

The findings were published in the British journal Nature.

[Jolie Rouge]

14-Foot-Long Python on Loose in R.I. Town

GLOCESTER, R.I. (AP) - The police are looking for him, the town has been put on alert, but Slick remains on the lam. The 14-foot-long yellow and orange Burmese python slithered from his 300-gallon tank on July 4.

Snake owner Jeffrey Fine called the police Friday morning to report that Slick had slinked off sometime after 11 the night before, when Fine checked the tank before going to bed.

Fine said it was his fault that Slick got out. He hadn't tightened the clip on the right end of the 6-foot-long tank as much as he should have.

``I feel terrible that he's gone, and I want him back,'' Fine told The Providence Journal.


The snake worked his way out of the tank, onto the floor and up onto the computer table. Slick slid past the computer, knocked a picture frame down, nudged a clock out of the way and pushed up against the screen in the window that looks out on the lake.


The window is about 10 feet from the water. Slick moves very slowly on land, but if he has gone into the lake, he could move quickly there and there's no telling where he'd come out.


Slick is not venomous and doesn't have fangs, Fine said. The snake eats rats and rodents.


``He does not eat small children,'' Fine said. ``He couldn't even eat a cat. He could eat a kitten, but not a cat.''



07/08/03 10:15

[Jolie Rouge]

Elephant Sex Logo Criticized for Lack of Condom



BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thai community groups wanted to use a logo featuring two elephants having sex for next year's World AIDS conference in Bangkok but the plan was criticized by health authorities because the bull was not using a condom.

"The logo fails to convey any meaning," Dr Sombat Tanprasertsuk of the Thai government's disease control department was quoted as saying in the Nation newspaper on Tuesday.

"There is only one message which people will get: that community workers are obsessed with sex. And it doesn't show the male elephant wearing a condom."

The official logo for the meeting depicts three elephants standing in line. Elephants are Thailand's national symbol.



07/08/03 10:19

[Jolie Rouge]

Nude Protest Against Running of the Bulls

PAMPLONA, Spain (Reuters) - Animal rights activists stripped naked to protest against the running of bulls through the streets of Pamplona, condemning one of Spain's most famous traditions as cruel to animals.

Activists from all over Western Europe had planned to run nude along the route for the annual bull runs, but police in the northern Spanish city said the protest was unauthorized and blocked their way.

About 20 men and women went ahead with the protest near the city center however, stripping completely. Some put on plastic horns or fake bull's heads. They were joined by scores of other protesters who kept on all or part of their clothing.

"In the running of the bulls, you have terrified animals slipping and sliding along the cobbled stone streets. Many of them suffer from broken bones," said Sean Gifford, of the U.S.-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals group that organized the Saturday protest.


"At the end of that terrified stampede, a gruesome death in the bullfighting ring awaits them," he said. "Forty thousand bulls are slaughtered in Spanish bullrings every year in the most horrific of ways. This is a tradition that needs to end."


The ancient San Fermin festival began on Sunday, kicking off a week of celebrations that attract thousands of tourists from around the world.



07/07/03 09:33

[Jolie Rouge]

Latest Mobile Ringtones Evoke Call of the Wild

LONDON (Reuters) - The sweet birdsong of the nightjar, the roar of a lion or the grunt of a hippo could soon replace the trilling and beeping of Britain's mobile phones.

The British Library is offering mobile telephone operators some of its 100,000 recordings of the world's birds and beasts as alternative ring tones. "Some of the new sounds are lovely, although the hippo does sound rather like someone vomiting," a spokesman at the British Library said on Monday.

The new tones will be only be available on the latest third generation phones following a commercial tie-up between the British Library Sound Archive and iTouch and Mobiletones.



07/07/03 09:31


"oh where oh where has my Widget gone; oh where oh where can she be ? She finds strange tales and she posts them here; there is no one else here but me ...

[Jolie Rouge]

How Shopping Choices Can Reveal Your Insecurities

http://www.theonion.com/onion3926/in...laid_bare.html

OWINGS MILLS, MD—The insecurities of Wal-Mart shopper Anita Dolger, 40, were laid painfully bare Monday, when her deepest fears and self-doubts manifested themselves in her purchasing choices.

"One look at [Dolger's] shopping cart betrays her deep-seated anxieties about everything from her family's financial outlook to her ability to hold her husband's interest sexually," said psychotherapist and bestselling author Dr. Shari Berman. "From the looks of her cart, that poor woman is hanging on by a thread."

Roughly half of the items filling Dolger's cart were beauty aids, revealing a woman gripped by the fear that her looks are fading. In addition to a tube of Rembrandt whitening toothpaste and a bottle of L'Oreal shampoo for "flat, limp hair" were no fewer than six skin-related items. Among them: a container of Almay Kinetin Age-Decelerating Daily Lotion, a package of Biore pore-cleansing strips, and Tan In A Bottle bronzing spray.

"Based on these three items, it appears that Dolger feels her facial skin is not firm enough, clear enough, or tan enough," said Berman, as she nodded gravely. "If she feels this way about her skin, just imagine how she feels about the rest of her body."

Berman said that Dolger, despite being only a size 11, clearly feels insecure about her weight. "Let's see... diet soda, sugar-free candy, low-carb meal-replacement bars. We've even got a pair of control-top pantyhose here," Berman said. "This is not a woman who likes what she sees in the mirror."

Judging from the presence of the book Personal Finance For Dummies, Dolger also seems to feel insecure about her family finances. "Mrs. Dolger's choice of books would be unremarkable if her husband hadn't recently taken a pay cut at work," Berman said. "With two young kids and no real gameplan for paying for their college education, she can't be feeling too happy about that. Then there's her concerns about her own career, which has been nonexistent ever since the birth of Corey, her oldest child. Not good."

The various stresses appear to be taking their toll, as evidenced by Dolger's selection of a Pure Moods CD. "Pure Moods is one of those 'As Seen On TV' CDs that's a compilation of all this really soothing easy-listening stuff," Berman said. "It's got [Enigma's] 'Return To Innocence' and that 'Sail away, sail away...' song by Enya. Basically, music for women about to lose their sh1t."

"Looking into this blue plastic cart is like peering into her soul," Berman said. "I see fear for her future and shame over her current economic status in this roll of Sam's Club bargain-brand toilet paper. In these scented candles, I see a desire to escape life."

"What's this?" Berman continued. "Do I spy a springform pan? Anita can just add that to all the others in the cupboard. I know she dreams of being a great chef, but that pan won't change the fact that she'll never muster the lifeforce necessary to cook a gourmet meal."

[Jolie Rouge]

How Old Is Your Bottled Water?

A study by researchers in Great Britain concludes that bottled water could be almost two years old by the time it's purchased by consumers, report two British newspapers, the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail.

Where has it been for all those months? Sitting on a warehouse shelf. The Standard reports that bottled water was found in one warehouse that had been there for 23 months. Still, the companies that make the bottled water insist the seals are airtight, which means the contents are safe to drink--even after two years. "People have a perception that bottled water is fresh because it's been sealed in a bottle, unsullied by human hands. But in fact it has probably spent most of that time in hot warehouses and on hot supermarket shelves," Jeni Colbourne, head of the Drinking Water Inspectorate, told the Evening Standard.

Jo Jacobius, a representative for a number of bottled water companies, including Evian and Perrier, did not dispute the findings but said, "'The water is absolutely fine to drink after two years because the seal stops oxygen getting in and stops all bacterial activity inside the bottle. It is not going to go 'off ' and the mineral content is kept the same."

[Jolie Rouge]

Elementary vice principal sought in five deaths

Wednesday, July 9, 2003 Posted: 8:14 AM EDT

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/07/0....ap/index.html

BAKERSFIELD, California (AP) -- A nationwide manhunt was under way for an elementary school vice principal considered a possible suspect in the shooting deaths of five people, including his estranged wife and children.

The FBI and law enforcement agencies across the country were asked to help search for Vincent Brothers, 41, after police discovered the three children, their mother and grandmother dead Tuesday morning in their Bakersfield home.

Police Capt. Neil Mahan said Wednesday that Brothers became a possible suspect based on witness statements, crime scene information and details about his prior behavior. He said more information would be released later in the day.

"That does not mean we are not looking at other angles," Mahan told ABC's "Good Morning America." Asked whether Brothers had fled, Mahan said "Mr. Brothers did have travel plans during this time frame."

Brothers' blue pickup was found Tuesday, but police would not say where.

The victims were identified by the Kern County coroner as Joanie Harper, 39; Harper's three children, Marques Harper, 4; Lindsey Harper, 23 months; and Marshall Harper, 1 1/2 months; and Harper's mother, Earnestine Harper, 70.

Police described Brothers and Harper as married but separated. The two were seeking an annulment, but it was unclear Tuesday whether a judge had approved it.

Brothers is the father of the children and had periodically lived with the family, said Darren Dixon, 22, a nephew of Earnestine Harper.

Police were called to the home at 6:55 a.m. Tuesday by a friend who had gone to check on the family. The bodies of Joanie Harper and her three children were found in a bedroom; Earnestine Harper was in another room.


Police investigate the house where the bodies were found.
Neighbors said the streets have been noisy with firecrackers for days because of the July 4 holiday so gunshots might have gone unnoticed.

The neighborhood has a reputation for gang activity, but friends and family described the family as active in the community and very religious.

The family was last seen alive Sunday morning at church. They ordinarily attended both morning and afternoon services at the local Church of Christ, but didn't show up in the afternoon, Dixon said. "It's shocking," he said.

Joanie Harper was a standout high school basketball player who worked with troubled children and refereed NCAA Division I basketball games, said Dixon. He said he saw no friction in her relationship with Brothers and didn't see any potential for violence.

Mahan also said there was no indication of violence in the relationship. "She liked him a lot. He was a very nice guy," Dixon said.

But Brothers has had a history of marital difficulties, according to court records and police.

Two previous marriages ended quickly, and he and Joanie Harper formally separated less than two weeks after their marriage in January 2000. He cited "irreconcilable differences," while she checked "nullification based on fraud" as the reason she wanted a divorce.

Still, they stayed involved in each other's lives and even lived together at times, friends and family members said.

In one earlier marriage, Brothers was convicted of spousal abuse, police said. In his 1992 marriage, his wife filed for a restraining order, saying Brothers "is violent and has threatened to kill me."

Brothers worked at Emerson Middle School, across the street from where the victims were found, from 1989 to 1996. He started as a teacher and worked his way up to vice principal, said Michael Lingo, an assistant superintendent with the Bakersfield City School District.

Since 1996, he has been an administrator at Fremont Elementary School, which has more than 1,000 students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.