NEWS ITEMS: bizarre, unsettling, puerile, but ultimately trivial. POST IT HERE.

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Forget another woman, Taipei divorce granted over home-wrecking cat
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Many couples divorce because the wife refuses to share her husband with another woman. For one Taiwanese couple, the home wrecker was a cat.
Frequent squabbles over the cat — who frequently wet the bed — made it difficult for the couple to live together, Chen Tsai-wang, a Panchiao District Court judge in suburban Taipei, ruled Monday in granting the couple a divorce.
“The couple has been estranged for a year, and it would be too late to make remedies,” Chen said.
The husband had allowed the cat to urinate “on the bed and anywhere at home,” according to the woman’s brother, identified only by his surname.
“He refused to put the cat in another room. This showed how he had ignored my sister’s feelings,” the brother said.

Huk-L, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

See, cats ARE evil. Rid yourselves of them.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:28 (twenty years ago)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/03/01/china.rice.mortar.reut/index.html

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Rice fills the bowls on many Chinese tables -- and also the cracks in its ancient buildings, and maybe even the Great Wall, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The legend that ancient Chinese craftsmen used glutinous rice porridge in the mortar while building ramparts has been verified," it said in a report seen on Monday.

Jimmy Mod Has Returned With Spices And Silks (ModJ), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:30 (twenty years ago)

This gives new meaning to my childhood saying, "I'm so hungry I could eat the mortar out of the ramparts of the Great Wall of China!"

Huk-L, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:31 (twenty years ago)

Asia is funny

Sven Bastard (blueski), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

when you have that many people, the chance for mischief/wierdness rises as well.

Jimmy Mod Has Returned With Spices And Silks (ModJ), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:36 (twenty years ago)

Marijuana party leader joins Liberals, says it’s best chance for legalization
MONTREAL (CP) — The former leader of the Marijuana party says he’s joining the Liberal party where he’ll have a chance to further the cause of legalizing marijuana.
Marc-Boris St-Maurice, who ran in Prime Minister Paul Martin’s riding in 2004 and won only several hundred votes, says he’s now a member in good standing of Martin’s party.
He said on Monday he will attend the Liberal policy convention this weekend to help rally support for a resolution calling for the legalization of marijuana.
“To take this to the next level will require a political organization with power,” he said, adding the Liberals are the party most likely to legalize pot.
“There’s actually quite an open mind out there in regards to this issue in the Liberal party,” he told CBC Radio in Montreal.
As an observer at the convention, St-Maurice said he’ll drum up support for a motion from Alberta Liberals urging Ottawa to legalize marijuana and distribute it to Canadians with large taxes on it.
But St-Maurice, who is to face trial this spring on a charge of possessing three grams of marijuana, said he won’t bring pot to the meeting or smoke it there.
“I think it would be rather inappropriate to be consuming anything of that kind,” he said.
St-Maurice noted he lives in Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe’s Montreal riding and could help the Liberals build their support there.
Federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre greeted the news that St-Maurice has joined the Liberals with an open mind.
“Well, welcome,” said Lapierre, who gave a speech to the Montreal Board of Trade. “This is a big tent,” he said of the Liberal party.
St-Maurice led the Marijuana party from its inception in 2000 until 2004.

Huk-L, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

Alberta Liberals
yeah, go smoke another doob, Maurice.

Huk-L, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

Oregon high school football coach accused of licking players’ bloody cuts
HALSEY, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon state panel plans to investigate a high school football coach who acknowledged licking a bloody cut on the knee of one of his players.
The Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission decided to look at the case after a parent complained Central Linn High School coach Scott Reed’s behaviour threatened student safety and health.
Reed, 34, who also teaches science, acknowledged the incident last year after the parent’s complaint. The school district placed him on probation and required him to take a “bloodborne pathogens” course.
Police investigated but Reed was not arrested.
“Sometimes there are actions that are socially unacceptable or bizarre that aren’t necessarily criminal,” Linn County Sheriff Dave Burright said.
The student whose knee was licked told police Reed had given team members a pep talk about a coach licking and healing injured players’ wounds so they could get back in a game.
Team members urged Reed to do the same for a bleeding scab on the student’s knee and Reed did after asking permission. A witness said Reed seemed to be “joking around” and the licked athlete was not offended, the police report said.
Contacted by the Register-Guard newspaper of Eugene, Ore., Reed refused comment.
Saliva-to-blood contact poses a small risk of disease transmission, said Dr. Sarah Hendrickson, public health officer at Lane County Public Health in Eugene.
“We do know that animals lick their own wounds,” she said.
“And it may be that saliva has some healing properties. But my very strong recommendation is that you confine yourself to licking your own wounds.”
The state commission licenses and disciplines teachers and administrators.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 9 March 2005 15:18 (twenty years ago)

Police try to crack the case of the missing peanuts west of Kingston
KINGSTON, Ont. (CP) — Napanee provincial police are trying to crack the case of a stolen tractor-trailer and more than 18,000 kilograms of peanuts.
The shelled peanuts were contained in 20 tote bags inside a trailer parked at a gas station off Highway 401 in Napanee, just west of Kingston.
Police say the peanuts are worth about $18,000 and were destined for the Krafts Foods processing plant in Montreal.
The trailer was white with red, yellow and blue stripes on the side.
It also had the words “We go the distance” emblazoned on its sides.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 9 March 2005 17:52 (twenty years ago)

Was al Qaeda targeting Russell Crowe?
Actor tells GQ terror network wanted to kidnap him

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Russell Crowe says Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network wanted to kidnap him as part of a "cultural destabilization plot," according to an Australian magazine.

In an interview published in the March edition of Australia's GQ magazine, Crowe said FBI agents told him of the threat in 2001, in the months before he won a best actor Oscar for his role as Maximus in "Gladiator."

"That was the first (time) I'd ever heard the phrase 'al Qaeda,' " Crowe said. "It was about -- and here's another little touch of irony -- taking iconographic Americans out of the picture as sort of a cultural destabilization plot," he added.

Crowe was born in New Zealand and has a ranch in eastern Australia but made his name in Hollywood.

It was not clear if there were other targets in the plot.

Crowe said he was shadowed by FBI agents after the threat and hired private security guards.


The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

Maybe ObL just wanted to rid the world of Crowe's terrible band.

Huk-L, Wednesday, 9 March 2005 18:41 (twenty years ago)

Turkish man poses as his dead mother in attempt to draw her pension
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) — Police have detained a man who buried his dead mother in his basement and disguised himself as her to draw her retirement pension, a Turkish news agency reported Friday.
Tipped off by suspicious bank employees, police detained Serafettin Gencel, 47, in his home after he tried to withdraw his dead mother’s pension, Anatolia news agency reported.
A bank employee had become suspicious upon hearing Gencel’s male-sounding voice and notified the bank manager who told Gencel to come back in two days time for the money, Anatolia said. The manager secretly photographed him and called police who raided his home and detained him.
The photo, which was released by Anatolia, showed Gencel dressed in a woman’s overcoat and wearing a headscarf and stockings and carrying a walking stick.
Gencel reportedly told police that his mother died two years ago of natural causes at the age of 68, and that he buried her body in his basement to carry on collecting her pension.
Authorities exhumed the body and were conducting a forensic study into the woman’s death.
Gencel faces possible charges of fraud, suspicious death and conducting a burial without notifying authorities, Anatolia said.
Gencel, who has previous convictions for armed robbery and carrying firearms, had withdrawn the equivalent of about $7,800 Cdn since his mother’s death, Anatolia said.

Huk-L, Saturday, 12 March 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

http://www.thelouisvillechannel.com/news/4253510/detail.html

Woman Accused Of Naked Dog Wrestling
Friend Says Woman Has Been Acting Strangely Recently

UPDATED: 11:42 am EST March 4, 2005

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- A 40-year-old woman described as a transient was jailed in Grand Junction -- accused of jumping a fence to wrestle naked with a dog.

An arrest affidavit indicated that Katherine Earle scaled the four-foot fence just before midnight Tuesday, then stripped in order to wrestle with the male Labrador retriever-blue heeler mix.

Residents of the home awoke from the noise and called police.

Responding officers said Earle told them she was having sex with the dog, and that she does it all the time. The dog's owner, Six Starr, said that Earle has been friendly with the dog, but that Earle has been acting strangely for the past six months.

“What took place last night, I don’t even want to guess,” Starr told the Grand Junction Sentinel.

The dog wasn't injured, according to KMGH-TV in Denver.

Police arrested Earle on a previous warrant and took her to the Mesa County Jail to serve a 25-day sentence.

Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 13 March 2005 06:52 (twenty years ago)

"Friend Says Woman Has Been Acting Strangely Recently"

Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 13 March 2005 06:54 (twenty years ago)

Manitoba man buries wrong cat; his own pet returned months later
MORDEN, Man. (CP) — It wasn’t the next day, but the cat came back.
Nearly five months after burying an orange tabby cat believed to be his beloved pet Remy, Dustin Fehr’s cat came home.
“It was last Thanksgiving Day, a very warm autumn day, when my cat disappeared,” said Fehr, a Morden resident who immediately put up posters all over town in the days following Remy’s disappearance.
“Two weeks later, a lady called and said she’d found an orange cat that was dead in the ditch.”
Fehr found the remains lying on the side of the highway, saw the orange fur and believed it was Remy.
The poor cat had obviously been struck by a vehicle, so Fehr gave it a burial.
“I told my fiance I was 99 per cent certain it was my cat,” he said, adding he didn’t have the heart to examine the remains for the identifying tattoo in the cat’s ear.
The winter months passed. Then Fehr received a phone call from someone claiming to have found his cat.
“I was in shock. I said, ‘This can’t be true, I buried my cat,”’ said Fehr.
After a bit of convincing the caller, Angie Braun of nearby Winkler, a town about 10 kilometres from Morden, assured Fehr she had his cat.
“Apparently, Remy made her way to Winkler and was living as a stray behind Genesis House, a women’s shelter,” said Fehr.
The cat-loving Braun took Remy in and began caring for her. After noticing the tattoo in the cat’s ear, she phoned the vet, who traced the feline back to Fehr.
“I have no idea how she got to Winkler. She has a little tuft of hair missing from her tail, so maybe she jumped under someone’s car and went for a ride,” said a baffled Fehr.
Remy was thrilled to be back with her owner.
“We went to pick her up, and as soon as she saw me, she was happy,” said Fehr. “She knew who I was right away.”
There’s still one thing, though.
“It boggles my mind — whose cat did I bury?” Fehr said.
He said he likely will never find out the real identity of the cat buried in his backyard, which reinforces in his mind the importance of responsible pet ownership.
“The biggest thing I tell people now is to get their cats tattooed,” said Fehr. “Because they can go missing.”

Huk-L, Monday, 14 March 2005 15:36 (twenty years ago)

(from the dog wrestler story) scaled the four-foot fence wtf? is this woman two-feet tall?

Huk-L, Monday, 14 March 2005 15:44 (twenty years ago)

I was imagining her vaulting over. Just because I can.

Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 14 March 2005 15:54 (twenty years ago)

I didn't know where else to put this:
ihttp://zone.artizans.com/supersize.htm?img=FUL591.pvw.jpg

Huk-L, Monday, 14 March 2005 16:13 (twenty years ago)

Isn't there a thread for political cartoons?

Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:18 (twenty years ago)

The dogs owner was called Six Starr?

Rumpsy Pumpsy (Rumpie), Monday, 14 March 2005 16:33 (twenty years ago)

Japanese court rules that birds and crabs have no right to sue
By Mari Yamaguchi
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese court threw out a lawsuit Tuesday against a land reclamation project after taking a close look at the plaintiffs — which include mudskippers, fiddler crabs and Dunlin birds.
The suit, filed by residents on behalf of animals living in Isahaya Bay wetlands in southern Japan, claimed the project was destroying the critters’ habitat.
The Nagasaki District Court, however, ruled that nature itself has no rights under the law, and therefore cannot act as plaintiffs in a lawsuit, said court spokesman Michiharu Kawasaki.
“It is difficult to find the basis for nature’s rights under the current law,” Kyodo News quoted Judge Joji Ito as writing in his ruling.
Five plaintiffs argued that a seven-kilometre-long dike built across the Isahaya Bay wetlands on Kyushu island harmed the mudskippers — fish that can breath air and walk on land using their fins as legs — as well as other animals that inhabit the area.
The project to reclaim 700 hectares of the bay for farmland was already suspended last year after the Saga District Court ruled in favour of fishermen and seaweed farmers who had filed another lawsuit, saying it disrupted the tides and hurt their livelihoods.
The government is challenging the Saga ruling, arguing the land reclamation was necessary for flood control.
The plaintiffs in the Nagasaki case claimed they had the right to sue on behalf of Isahaya Bay and the creatures that lived there. They also argued that the project was destroying nature and that the rights of the environment were being infringed upon.
Isahaya Bay is an important habitat for a number of endangered migratory birds.
Critics say the dike has changed weather and water conditions in the area, resulting in a poor seaweed harvest.
The Sierra Club in the United States appealed to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to halt work on the dike three years ago, saying it could endanger wildlife in nearby wetlands.

Huk-L, Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:11 (twenty years ago)

http://www.nickelodeon.com.au/blammo/nicklo/nimages/muddy.gif

tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 15 March 2005 15:50 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...
Man renews driver’s licence after crashing into Alaskan agency’s building
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A man drove his car into a wall at the Division of Motor Vehicles building, then walked in and renewed his driver’s licence, police say.
Police believe the man was driving while impaired on medication and charged him with driving under the influence.
No one was injured.
The man’s car went up over a sidewalk Thursday, denting the building’s metal siding, cracking the inside of the wall and startling workers sitting nearby in the agency’s accounting department.
“I saw the guy back up, get out of his car and walk into the DMV like nothing happened,” said agency employee Michelle Steinman.
No one in the public area of the licence agency noticed the accident. Workers in accounting notified higher-ups and pointed out the driver, who had taken a number, apologizing to a clerk that he had “tapped” the building.
By the time police arrived, the man had paid the equivalent of $25 Cdn and renewed his licence.

Huk-L, Friday, 8 April 2005 18:39 (twenty years ago)

LONDON (Reuters) - A 66-year-old British grandmother who has a taste for marijuana casserole and admitted to sharing cannabis-laced cookies with fellow pensioners was spared jail on Friday.

Police said they raided Patricia Tabram's home after a tip-off in May last year and found 31 cannabis plants along with hydroponic cultivation equipment. In a later raid they found 47 bags of "skunk", a particularly strong form of the drug, with a street value of around GBP12,000.

Tabram, from East Lea in the north east of England, who said she ate cannabis in food to alleviate pains in her neck and back, pleaded guilty to possession of the drug with intent to supply.
But Judge David Hodson said he would not make a "martyr" of her when she returned to Newcastle Crown Court for sentencing. Instead, she received a six-month suspended prison sentence.

Outside the court, she said she intended to keep taking the drug "because it is far better than any tablets you can get from the doctor".

The grey-haired granny has become a symbol for those who want Britain to legalise pot. She is even writing a book, called "Grandma Cooks With Cannabis".

Si Carter (Si Carter), Friday, 8 April 2005 18:56 (twenty years ago)

eleven years pass...

http://thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/iowa-ruler-guy-739208

It is unclear from the complaint whether the rulers were homemade.

Neanderthal, Sunday, 25 September 2016 16:13 (eight years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.