Double decker

Tonight's automotive don't-try-this-at-home video:

Urban hack

Tonight's fun with buildings:

Cemetery worker shoots self without gun

From the Sunshine State:

Sheppard initially said the ammunition was on a shelf and one of the bullets may have discharged because he threw a hammer and a string trimmer on the shelf, police said. After being pressed, he told Hudson that he secured the sixth bullet in a vise clamp, placed a metal punch into the cartridge primer and hit the punch with a hammer. [emphasis added]

Article here. Sigh. Sometimes, stupid hurts.

Working our bums off ...

To bring you hard-hitting news stories, like this one, the "World's Most Beautiful Bottom" contest:

Flamingo tango

Tonight's avian odyssey - Chilean flamingos doing a little mating dance:

It's People Power, sort of

From Beverly Hills, the plastic, sorry, cosmetic surgery capital of the world, comes this story:

For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend's Lincoln Navigator.

Love handles can power a car? Frighteningly, yes. Fat--whether animal or vegetable--contains triglycerides that can be extracted and turned into diesel. Poultry companies such as Tyson are looking into powering their trucks on chicken schmaltz, and biofuel start-ups such as Nova Biosource are mixing beef tallow and pig lard with more palatable sources such as soybean oil. Mike Shook of Agri Process Innovations, a builder of biodiesel plants, says this year's batch of U.S. biodiesel was likely more than half animal-derived since the price of soybeans soared.
...
Using fat to fuel cars might be environmentally friendly, but it's definitely illegal in California to use human medical waste to power vehicles, and Bittner is being investigated by the state's public health department.
Although it's unclear when Bittner started and stopped making fat fuel or how he made it, his activities came to light after recent lawsuits filed by patients that allege he allowed his assistant and his girlfriend to perform surgeries without a medical license.

Article here. Ponder that as you recover from that big Christmas dinner. Now, the fat corpulent potbellied, er, "abdominally muscular" can just think of themselves as a mobile biodiesel storage facility. :)

Just what's up there, anyway?

From the Palm Beach Post:

RIVIERA BEACH — A day after he was hit by a stray bullet in the back of the head, 74-year-old E.T. Strickland was back at work today - with the slug still stuck in his skull.

"I am the luckiest guy in the world," Strickland said from his business, Sunrise Financial Corp. in Palm Beach Gardens. "An inch more to the front and it would have hit me straight on. As it is, it just glanced around and lodged in the back."

The bullet hurts, he says, but not enough to stop him from going back to work.

"We sell commercial real estate so it's got to go on," Strickland said. "I didn't know what else to do and I felt pretty good."

Strickland and his wife, Pam, were driving home to Singer Island from a belated birthday dinner at Taboo in Palm Beach on Tuesday night when he was hit by a bullet from an attempted armed robbery outside the Walgreens near Broadway and Blue Heron Boulevard.

"The instant it hit me, I felt like somebody had hit me with a baseball bat," he said. "I saw the hole in the window and the blood. I pulled over so I could bleed outside the car."
...
Meanwhile, he says he's not going anywhere even though his home has been broken into twice, his car was once stolen on Singer and his wife's car was broken into on mainland Riviera Beach.

"It would be unlikely that a fifth thing would happen," Strickland said, "but then again, that is what I said about the fourth thing."

Article here. Lucky guy.

Honey, how bout you hold the glass next time?

Reportedly shot in the thirties, a husband shoots an early version of bullet resistant glass while his wife holds the pane:



Must be true love! :)


Here are some more recent tests. The following tests are on on plate, tempered, and bullet-resistant glass:




And what test would be complete without the big .50 BMG against 2.5 inches of bullet resistant glass:



Clean through -- gotta love the big fifty!

So easy, even a monkey could do it

Chimp Ayumu in Japan is touching numbers from 1 to 9 in order on a touchscreen, based on a brief view of the random arrangement of numbers. Impressive.

Fireball tennis

Tonight's video, for the sporting pyromaniacs out there:

Prosecutors can't prove gun is a gun

Here's an interesting case:

OMAHA, Neb. -- A unique case in an Omaha courtroom involved U.S. attorneys trying to use an unusual method to convict a man.

KETV in Omaha reported that attorneys had a conundrum on their hands -- they had the evidence to prove the convicted felon was in possession of a gun, but they couldn't prove the gun was a gun.

What attorneys had on their hands was an American double-action revolver that was manufactured between 1880 and 1941.

The problem is that federal code states that the weapon is not a firearm unless it was manufactured after 1896. Without a definitive production date, the gun was inadmissible as evidence.

At the time, the attorneys were trying to charge Lawrence Ray Cook with possession of the weapon.

Omaha police picked up Cook last September after a hit-and-run crash. U.S. attorney Joe Stecher said that Cook left the scene but he flagged down officers later to tell them he caused the crash.

"His testimony was that he swerved to miss two pedestrians and he hit another car. And as he was driving away they threw the revolver in the back of his car through the open window," Stecher said.

The attorney said that Cook couldn't explain how the revolver got into his pocket.

However, it didn't matter because attorneys couldn't prove what Cook had was a gun.

But they proved something else instead.

"Two rounds of live ammunition and an empty casing gave us the ability to prosecute for felony in possession of ammunition," Stecher said.

Article here.

Chicken stabilizer

Tonight's useless trivia:

British Police to protect drunk women by offering free slippers

The madness continues apace:

Drunk women who stagger about in high heels are to be protected - at public expense - from twisting their ankles.

They will be handed flip-flops to wear by police outside nightclubs as they wend their way home.

The scheme is part of a £30,000 drive by police and councillors to prevent 'alcohol-related harm'.

(Superintendent Chris Singer poses with two pairs of flip-flops. As part of a £30,000 health and safety scheme, flip-flops are to be given free to drunk women to prevent injuries on their walk home. Photo: UK Daily Mail)

It has been prompted by fears that women wearing stilettos or similar footwear could tumble over.

Officials also claim that female revellers are at risk of cutting the soles of their feet by walking barefoot.

The flip-flops will be given to anyone whose footwear is 'uncomfortable, inappropriate or soiled' and will be paid for with a Home Office grant.
...
The initiative has attracted criticism from campaigners, who said it was a waste of money and police time. Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'This is an idiotic waste of money.

'People don't pay their taxes for drunk women to get free flip flops. They want the police to fight crime.

'The police aren't there to be an emergency supply of flat shoes.'

Article here. You just can't make this stuff up.

Can you hear me now?

From New Orleans:

When Ronald "R.J." Richard jumps on his tractor to do yard work, he normally clips his cell phone to the hip pocket of his overalls.

But Saturday he decided to hook it to bib of the garment, just over his heart. It was a decision made without a second thought, but it was one that might have saved Richard's life a short while later.

"Something hit me in the chest really hard, " said Richard, who initially thought he had been struck by a rock kicked up by the motor.

But when he took off his sweater and opened the nylon case for his Motorola Razr phone, a .45-caliber bullet fell out.

The stray bullet, probably fired from the woods near his 5-acre property on North Lee Road near Covington, shattered Richard's cell phone but left him with little more than a bad bruise.

Article here. Lucky guy.

The Time Machine

Tonight's interactive time machine, er, waster -- at the end you get to make a decision on the course of the movie:



Happy trails!

A vicar, some curtains, and a potato

From the not-a-believable-story files, comes this, uh, gem:

A vicar attended hospital with a potato stuck up his bottom - and claimed it got there after he fell on to the vegetable while naked.

The clergyman, in his 50s, told nurses he had been hanging curtains when he fell backwards on to his kitchen table.

He happened to be nude at the time of the mishap, said the vicar, who insisted he had not been playing a sex game.

The vicar had to undergo a delicate operation to extract the vegetable, one of a range of odd items medics in Sheffield have had to remove from people's backsides or genitals.

Article here. Ah, the old Hanging-Curtains-While-Naked-and-Falling-on-a-Potato-that-Lodged-Up-Your-Rectum excuse. How many times have we heard that before? :)

Hope is toast -- Now, apparently literally

You just knew it had to happen sooner or later. Someone on eBay is selling a piece of toast purportedly with the image of Barack Obama that "miraculously" appeared. From the item description, for those with way too much money burning a hole in your pockets:

Barack Obama has miraculously appeared on a piece of toast I was preparing for breakfast. This is a one-of-a-kind item to celebrate his win as US President. The item is one piece of Wonder Bread that has been toasted. Nothing has been added to the bread - no butter or oils. The buyer will receieve this item as shown. Shipping charges will depend on the distance from New Jersey.

See photos of the beatific hunk of bread on eBay here.

[Hat tip to my friend Peter for the link]

Up, up, and away

Tonight's party balloon trick:

Swing

Tonight's not-your-kid's-swing video:

Kung Fu Election

Tonight's Flash game for your amusement -- election style Kung Fu matchups! Pick your major-party candidate, and battle it out. Click on image to go to the game.

Have fun! :)