Recently in Headlines Category

Are you bored? If so, here's a newsflash for you:

In a commentary to be published in the International Journal of Epidemiology in April, experts say there's a possibility that the more bored you are, the more likely you are to die early. Annie Britton and Martin Shipley of University College London caution that boredom alone isn't likely to kill you — but it could be a symptom of other risky behavior like drinking, smoking, taking drugs or having a psychological problem.

Got it? Now get your lazy ass up and do something. Or not.

Being bored could be bad for your health [AP]

For an executive at the US bank Wells Fargo, a repossessed $12m beach house in southern California proved just too tempting. The financial institution has fired a top loans officer for using a luxurious Malibu property for a series of family getaways, culminating in a summer party at which guests arrived by yacht. The beach house, in an exclusive gated development where neighbours include the Hollywood actor Tom Hanks, fell into the hands of Wells Fargo when its owners lost their savings to the Wall Street fraudster Bernard Madoff, leaving them unable to service loans on the property.

Talk about adding insult to injury...

Wells Fargo fires executive who partied at repossessed Malibu mansion [Guardian]

Via Telegraph:

A schoolboy has survived a direct hit by a meteorite after it fell to earth at 30,000mph. Gerrit Blank, 14, was on his way to school when he saw "ball of light" heading straight towards him from the sky. A red hot, pea-sized piece of rock then hit his hand before bouncing off and causing a foot wide crater in the ground. The teenager survived the strike, the chances of which are just 1 in a million - but with a nasty three-inch long scar on his hand.

Damn! Lucky chap!

Via AP/Yahoo! News:

CAIRO – An 8-year-old Saudi girl has divorced her middle-aged husband after her father forced her to marry him last year in exchange for about $13,000, her lawyer said Thursday. Saudi Arabia has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad for permitting child marriages. The United States, a close ally of the conservative Muslim kingdom, has called child marriage a "clear and unacceptable" violation of human rights.

Unbelievable! Do you still remember this?

Via CNN:

Some lawmakers lashed out at the CEOs of the Big Three auto companies Wednesday for flying private jets to Washington to request taxpayer bailout money. "There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they're going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses," Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-New York, told the chief executive officers of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee.

How friggin' ridiculous is that!?

A British couple who married in a lavish Second Life wedding ceremony are to divorce after one of them had an alleged "affair" in the online world. Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.

Jesus friggin' Christ! Don't you sometimes get the impression that Second Life is for people who don't have a first?

Second Life affair ends in divorce [CNN]
Revealed: The 'other woman' in Second Life divorce... who's now engaged to the web cheat she's never met [MailOnline]

Check this out:

A US judge has thrown out a case against God, ruling that because the defendant has no address, legal papers cannot be served. The suit was launched by Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers, who said he might appeal against the ruling. He sought a permanent injunction to prevent the "death, destruction and terrorisation" caused by God. Judge Marlon Polk said in his ruling that a plaintiff must have access to the defendant for a case to proceed. "Given that this court finds that there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant this action will be dismissed with prejudice," Judge Polk wrote in his ruling. Mr Chambers cannot refile the suit but may appeal.

How friggin' stupid is that!?

[Via BBC]

Via The New York Times:

Sometimes it seems like Facebook is the most backward-looking innovation ever expected to change the future. Especially for people who throw up only a perfunctory Facebook page, the site seems mostly useful for entree points into the past -- random hellos and what-are-you-up-tos and updates from people they once saw around campus or played kickball with in elementary school or sat next to in a cubicle for a few years back in the late 1990s.

[...]

Such is the nature of Thirty Something and Grew Up in Park Slope, a Facebook group with close to 500 members that started about six months ago. For current Park Slopers, for anyone fascinated by recent urban history, the site captures the same unusual experience of childhood that animates "The Squid and the Whale," the heartbreaking divorce drama by the former Park Sloper Noah Baumbach that portrays bohemian Brooklyn.

NYTimes writes the most important story ever. Wait, what!? Am I missing something here?

Via Telegraph:

The owner of the Storchen restaurant in the exclusive Winterthur resort will improve his menu with local specialities such as meat stew and various soups and sauces containing at least 75 per cent of mother's milk.

"We have all been raised on it. Why should we not include it into our diet?" Hans Locher, who has become Switzerland most controversial restaurant owner, said.

Mr Locher attracted the attention of the leading media of the German-speaking world this week after he posted ads looking for women donors, who will receive just over three pounds for 14 ounces of their milk.

[link]

Via IdahoStatesman.com:

On Monday, a Boise waitress got a $25 tip and a sticker that could be worth as much as $5 on eBay. The 2-by-2 green sticker has a logo for Poison, the 1980s glam rock band with such hits as "Talk Dirty to Me" and "I Want Action" Cheri White, a waitress at Cracker Barrel on Overland Road and Interstate 84, waited on Poison members Monday afternoon. "I didn't know who they were. I just walked up and took their order," White said.

Very slow news day in Idaho...

Link

Via ScienceDaily:

Researchers in Canada report discovery of unusual proteins in a small group of Kenyan sex workers that appear to be associated with resistance to infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The discovery could lead to the improved design of vaccines and drugs to fight the deadly virus, which infects an estimated 40 million people worldwide, the scientists say in a new report.

Wait! What!?

Link

Via Guardian:

Police in Japan have been left red-faced by an apparent murder that turned out to be an unusual case of mistaken identity. [...] Fifteen officers were dispatched to the scene, where they discovered a human form wrapped in plastic and tightly bound around the neck, midriff and ankles, with hair protruding from one end. [...] But when they sliced open the wrapping, they were confronted not by a decomposing corpse, but by a life-sized sex doll.

LOL!

Link

Via Newsday:

Two Hofstra University students moving into an apartment in Franklin Square discovered that the landlord had hidden spy cameras in smoke detectors to wirelessly transmit video of their bedrooms to his personal computer, Nassau police said. The landlord, Michael Muratore, 44, who lives on the first floor of the Second Avenue house, was arrested Monday at the home and charged with unlawful surveillance.

That's crazy. Now you better check the smoke detectors in your apartment, too ;-)

Link

Via The NY Sun:

Manhattan real estate doesn't seem to be holding up. Recently released city records indicate that apartments in prime Manhattan neighborhoods are selling for less than their purchase prices — a phenomenon that until now was virtually unheard of in the seemingly invincible New York City real estate market.

About friggin time! I'm not that surprised either. Were the NYC landlords and real estate brokers hoping for this to go on forever?

Link

Via The New York Times:

As Russia struggled to rally international support for its military action in Georgia, Vladimir V. Putin, the country’s paramount leader, lashed out at the United States on Thursday, contending that the White House may have orchestrated the conflict to benefit one of the candidates in the American presidential election.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if he was right.

Link

Newcomers Adjust, Eventually, to New York - Sometime over the course of a person's first year in New York, there usually comes that moment. It can happen in the first days or weeks, or after 10 months. It can happen repeatedly, or without people noticing, at least not at first. Newcomers suddenly realize either that the city is not working for them or that they are inexorably becoming part of it, or both. [NYTimes]

Obama Wins Democratic Nomination; Bill Clinton Says Obama is "Ready to Lead America" [Gothamist]

Portal to Maya Underworld Found in Mexico? - A labyrinth filled with stone temples and pyramids in 14 caves—some underwater—have been uncovered on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, archaeologists announced last week. [NationalGeographic]

Via BBC:

[2008] appears set to be the coolest globally this century. Data from the UK Met Office shows that temperatures in the first half of the year have been more than 0.1 Celsius cooler than any year since 2000. The principal reason is La Nina, part of the natural cycle that also includes El Nino, which cools the globe. Even so, 2008 is set to be about the 10th warmest year since 1850, and Met Office scientists say temperatures will rise again as La Nina conditions ease.

Link

Via Reuters:

At least eight American blogger-activists and several other foreigners have been detained in Beijing as the government intensifies a crackdown on pro-Tibetan protests in the home stretch of the Olympics, rights groups said on Wednesday. Students for a Free Tibet earlier said authorities detained five self-styled "citizen journalists" who were in Beijing to promote Tibetan freedom on Tuesday. The New York-based group said activist-artist James Powderly had also been nabbed.

WTF!?

Link

Via Al Arabiya:

A 16-year-old Saudi girl drank a bottle of bleach in an attempt to commit suicide to escape a forced marriage to a 75-year-old man, press reports revealed Sunday. The girl identified only as, Shaikha, said her father was forcing her to marry the old man so that he could marry his 13-year-old daughter in an exchange deal, Bahrain's Tribune reported.

How crazy is that? When will the people of Middle East finally overcome such bullshit traditions?

Link

Fliers without ID placed on TSA list - The Transportation Security Administration has collected records on thousands of passengers who went to airport checkpoints without identification, adding them to a database of people who violated security laws or were questioned for suspicious behavior. [ABCNews]

15 of the Strangest Themed Restaurants: From Buns and Guns to Cannabalistic Sushi [WebUrbanist]

For Most People, College Is a Waste of Time - By CHARLES MURRAY. [WSJ]

Inflation Hits Annual Pace Not Seen Since 1991 [USA] - Inflation reached a 17-year high last month, fueled by high gasoline and food prices, all but assuring that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates at their current level for the time being. [NYTimes]