Armed Madhouse

Dubai gets refrigerated sand for rich people

Monday, December 15th 2008 at 11:49 am

The world's first refrigerated beach is to be built at a luxury hotel in Dubai so the filthy rich holidaymakers don't burn their feet on the scalding hot sand.

The revolutionary beach will sit next to the new Palazzo Versace hotel and will include a system of heat-absorbing pipes built under the sand and giant wind blowers, designed to keep tourists cool in the searing 40-50C heat.

The hotel, which is due to open late next year or early 2010, will be controlled by thermostats linked up to computers and feature a cooled swimming pool. However, the city's continued expansion will also add to its huge carbon footprint. Each person living in Dubai has a carbon footprint of more than 44 tons of CO2 a year.

Despite the environmental fears, Versace says the beach will be environmentally sustainable. Soheil Abedian, president of Palazzo Versace, said: 'We will suck the heat out of the sand to keep it cool enough to lie on. This is the kind of luxury that top people want.'

A source added: 'The super rich want pure luxury. They don't want to walk on scalding sand.'A British firm, Hyder Consulting will oversee the project, and it is hoped the 10-storey hotel will help attract some of the 800,000 Brits who visit Dubai each year.

Doctor cuts off man's penis, gets upset he has to pay for it

Friday, December 5th 2008 at 11:27 am

Surgeon Naum Ciomu was operating on patient Nelu Radonescu, 36, to correct a testicular malformation when he suddenly lost his temper. He cut off Radonescu's penis and then chopped it up into small bits on a nearby operating room table. He then ran out of the operating room. The injustice? The union objects to a court judgment imposing 100,000 in damages to pay to reconstruct the man's penis from tissue in his arm.

It appears that it is not a crime to chop up a person's body party (even if the initial amputation was a mistake). The union is outraged because doctors in the country make little money as it is and Ciomu has already been punished enough after having his medical licence suspended.

They insist that he cut off the penis by mistake and then 'overreacted' due to stress in his life. Here is my favorite qoute from Vasile Astarastoae, Vice-president of the Romanian Doctors Union: 'Ciomu's case is a dangerous precedent for all Romanian doctors. In future doctors may have to think very carefully about what work they undertake.'

If this will make doctors think "very carefully" before cutting off the wrong body part and chopping it up into small pieces, I'm okay with that.

Are you a WOW maniac, too?

Thursday, December 4th 2008 at 8:35 pm

Chances are pretty good you've at least heard of World of Warcraft (WOW), and you've probably played it too. I'll be the first to admit, I never really got into World of Warcraft like some of my friends, but I didn't have a lot of time to build up my character.

But I found a site that you can buy cheap wow accounts at, and I might have to start playing again. It's great, they own all the characters that they sell, so it's not an auction site or a 3rd party site, you buy from a reputable, established business.

You have to sign up and be a member for 30 days before your purchases will be instant, but until then they just verify who you are (for security purposes, I'm sure) and you get your character pretty fast. And you can't reserve characters and pay for them later, so act quickly.

They also guarantee your account. If the owner ever tries to reclaim the character, they will work hard to get your character back. If they can't (it happens), they will give you a new character of equal value, so you can't lose.

If you love World of Warcraft, you have to check it out. You can always use another account, and it's nice having a beastly character to torture noobs with.

12 year old student arrested for farting in class

Saturday, November 22nd 2008 at 10:51 am

A 12-year-old Florida student was arrested earlier this month after he "deliberately passed gas to disrupt the class," according to police. The child, who was also accused of shutting off the computers of classmates at Stuart's Spectrum Jr./Sr. High School, was busted November 4 for disruption of a school function.

A Martin County Sheriff's Office report, a copy of which you'll find below, notes that the 4'11" offender admitted that he "continually disrupted his classroom environment by breaking wind and shutting off several computers." The boy, whose name was redacted from the police report released today, was turned over to his mother following the arrest. The young perp turned 13 on November 15.

Home Depot CEO says non-GOP supporters should be shot

Thursday, November 20th 2008 at 11:10 am

Bernie Marcus, one of the founders of Home Depot, has the blogosphere all atwitter over remarks he made on a conference call Monday. From Tom Frank of The Wall Street Journal:

"If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys," Mr. Marcus said, apparently referring to Republican senators facing tough re-election fights, then those retailers "should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs."

Police officer shoots mirror after seeing himself in it

Friday, November 14th 2008 at 1:19 pm

No one was injured Wednesday when a Pittsburgh narcotics detective fired two shots at a gunman in a dimly lit house in the Perry South area of the North Side, city police spokeswoman Diane Richard said.

Detectives were investigating a drug complaint in the woods in the 300 block of Elsdon Street when they encountered two men about 3:40 p.m. One man pulled a gun out of his pants and ran into a house, locking the door behind.

A detective identified himself as a police officer, forced his way into the house and saw what he thought was the man pointing the gun at him. It was later determined that what he saw was the gunman's image in a mirror, Richard said.

The detective fired two shots, breaking the mirror. There is no indication that the gunman, who dropped his weapon and fled, was wounded. A teenage boy inside the house was not hurt, police said.

Israeli soldier gets 21 days in jail for yawning

Thursday, November 13th 2008 at 12:00 pm

The commander of an Israeli Air Force base has sentenced a soldier to 21 days in jail for yawning during his memorial speech to mark the anniversary of the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. It appears that the yawn unbecoming a soldier was aggravated by his failure to cover his mouth.

The concerned woman said her son yawned "without covering his mouth" while the commander of his air force base in the north of the country was speaking during the memorial event Israel held on Monday.

When the commander spotted him, he stopped his speech and later ordered the soldier to spend 21 days in jail for what the commander called his "disrespectful act," the mother told public radio.

This could be a dangerous trend for our own leaders who routinely are captured yawning, snoring, and sleeping at major events. Bill Clinton once had a dream at a Martin Luther King speech.

Some interesting yawn facts both work for and against the military crackdown on yawning. First, 55 percent of people will yawn within five minutes of seeing someone else yawn. That threatens an entire regiment of yawners.

Since the average yawn lasts six seconds, you can have a cascading effect of continual yawning that can last hours in a closely packed military base. On the other hand, yawns are common among athletes at major sporting events ' suggesting that it is not boredom but anticipation that can produce yawning.

Virgina won't name or prosecute voter suppression flyer

Tuesday, November 4th 2008 at 5:11 pm

In 2000 and 2004, GOP activists misled voters with fake fliers that told democrats that they would vote on Wednesday rather than Tuesday. The fliers have appeared throughout Virginia and the culprit has been identified. However, the state officials have decided not to charge the person responsible.

State Board of Elections Secretary Nancy Rodrigues said Monday the flier bearing the Virginia seal and the elections board logo was simply a joke that got out of control. Officials have refused to release the name or to charge the individual.

I fail to understand how this act, which is a misdemeanor crime, falls under some joke exception with the state. It is hard to dismiss such an act as a joke when it was used for voter suppression in the last two elections. Is there now a laugh test for state officials. If a suppression device makes them giggle, no charges will be brought?

Given the growing failure of Rodrigues and her colleagues to guarantee sufficient staff and machines for this elections, it would be helpful to have more information on why criminal charges were not brought. The message of others is particularly bad: if you suppress votes as a joke, Virginia will give you a humor pass. More.

State Senator caught stuffing bribe money into her bra

Thursday, October 30th 2008 at 12:34 am

Democratic State Senator Dianne Wilkerson was caught on video, shown "allegedly" stuffing a $1,000 cash payoff into her bra during a meeting at an aptly named restaurant ' the Fill-A-Buster.

Wilkerson is accused of accepting eight bribes worth $23,500. She allegedly tried to influence legislation in the state Senate as recently as last week to help a developer.

Things look bad for the once rising star in the Democratic party. Not only is there the videotape but there are three cooperating witness and three undercover FBI agents. Showing the importance of staging, the FBI made sure that the 10 $100 bills were not in an envelope and were clearly visible in the photograph dated June 18, 2007.

10% of the bank bailout is going to CEO bonuses

Tuesday, October 28th 2008 at 12:13 pm

Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn ( 40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.

Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted criticism. The government's cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay would be curbed.

Pay plans for bankers have been disclosed in recent corporate statements. Pressure on the US firms to review preparations for annual bonuses increased yesterday when Germany's Deutsche Bank said many of its leading traders would join Josef Ackermann, its chief executive, in waiving millions of euros in annual payouts.

The sums that continue to be spent by Wall Street firms on payroll, payoffs and, most controversially, bonuses appear to bear no relation to the losses incurred by investors in the banks. Shares in Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have declined by more than 45% since the start of the year. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have fallen by more than 60%. JP MorganChase fell 6.4% and Lehman Brothers has collapsed.

At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn pay pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy the bank.