Silly/Odd News Stories from around the World

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

News about the US legislation and economy are starting to crack me up, so more of them are to be moved here instead of being in the normal News thread :

Is your child a tax cheat?

What's next? Forcing the child to go to work so he can start paying income taxes?

No wonder they say the Fed is bankrupt : both monetarily and ethically.

I can kinda see the point. Children have been used for worse than tax evasion before.

[ChainLegacy]

Originally Posted by Tiberium Wolf

By George Carlin standards this is a sophisticated form of child abuse.

I wouldn't go that far, but George's definitely on to something. Gender roles are a natural thing. The problem is inequality and the inability to defy your gender role if you so choose. Eliminating gender roles all together is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[Tiberium Wolf]

Originally Posted by ChainLegacy

I wouldn't go that far, but George's definitely on to something. Gender roles are a natural thing. The problem is inequality and the inability to defy your gender role if you so choose. Eliminating gender roles all together is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

It's more the like for the Adults feel better because those little kids can't think nor express themselves.

[ganbaru]

Rapper atop pole stops traffic in Times Square
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-28-16-37-10

NEW YORK (AP) -- A rapper awaited word Tuesday on whether he would face charges after stopping traffic in Times Square by staging a performance - from atop a light pole.

Seattle police leave rifle unattended on cruiser
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-28-19-05-58

SEATTLE (AP) -- A Seattle police spokesman says the department is embarrassed after officers left a police rifle unattended on a patrol car outside a busy downtown area. Spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb says the department has launched an investigation.

[LoweGear]

Dispatch.com: Woman charged in breast milk assault

Wut

[Endless Soul]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Dispatch.com: Woman charged in breast milk assault

Wut

Uhmm... hmm.

I'm rather confused over if I should be laughing or wtf stunned.

[Ithekro]

Would that could as spray and pray?

[ganbaru]

Man pays $1 Orlando parking fine 35 years late
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-29-07-42-16

[Xellos-_^]

http://gawker.com/5816825/hidden-cam...eating-on-wife

To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen has apparently been caught making sweet extramarital deviance to a woman 21 years his junior. The National Enquirer has hidden camera footage of Hansen, 51, appearing to cheat on his wife with Kristyn Caddell (pictured at right), a 30-year-old Florida news reporter and former NBC intern. How the sexy sting went down:

looks like someone caught Chris Hansen

[Anh_Minh]

In his defense, a 51 years old man sleeping with a 30 years old woman isn't the same as a 30 years old man sleeping with a 9 years old girl.

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

In his defense, a 51 years old man sleeping with a 30 years old woman isn't the same as a 30 years old man sleeping with a 9 years old girl.

it is not, but there is a certain kind of irony there.

[Ascaloth]

Well, I guess he needs...



...to take a seat over there.

[ganbaru]

Police: Polite New-Jersey burglar offers to repair screen
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-30-06-33-54

Authorities say a burglar offered to repair the screen that he damaged breaking into a New Jersey home after he was confronted by the homeowner and told her he meant to break into a neighbor's home.

Edit: Birthers Sue Esquire Over Parody, Seeking More than $200 Million
http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffbercovic...g-120-million/

[Xellos-_^]

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/02/flying.fish/index.html

As the Fourth of July approaches, public services announcements warn of firework and campfire dangers, but near the Suwannee River in Northwest Florida the message to the public is: Beware of flying fish.

wasn't there already a movie about flying killer fish?

[Anh_Minh]

Like this?

Spoiler for size:

[ganbaru]

Bicyclists report getting smacked by angry bird
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...07-02-21-14-46

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

Bicyclists report getting smacked by angry bird
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...07-02-21-14-46

Dammit, for a moment I thought people are throwing those red and blue fluffy balls at them because they are being pigs blocking pathways and roads.

[MrTerrorist]

Wait a Minute, Could Uploading Video of Video Games Really Send You to Prison?

[ganbaru]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Dammit, for a moment I thought people are throwing those red and blue fluffy balls at them because they are being pigs blocking pathways and roads.

I thought something lke that at first.
God, I hate when those block the way by going dide by side insted of going on a fine...

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

I thought something lke that at first.
God, I hate when those block the way by going dide by side insted of going on a fine...

Well, there is this female friend of mine who takes photos of bicyclists who block her car on the road. She admits she's a horrible driver, hence she doesn't want to lose her license to a cyclist who doesn't know about the dangers of cycling on the road.

Anyway :

Dealtalk: Google bid "pi" for Nortel patents and lost

(Reuters) - At the auction for Nortel Networks' wireless patents this week, Google's bids were mystifying, such as $1,902,160,540 and $2,614,972,128.

Math whizzes might recognize these numbers as Brun's constant and Meissel-Mertens constant, but it puzzled many of the people involved in the auction, according to three people with direct knowledge of the situation on Friday.

"Google was bidding with numbers that were not even numbers," one of the sources said.

"It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi," the source said, adding the bid was $3.14159 billion.

"Either they were supremely confident or they were bored."

It was not clear what strategy Google was employing, whether it wanted to confuse rival bidders, intimidate them, or simply express the irreverence that is part and parcel of its corporate persona. Whatever its reasons, Google's shenanigans did not work.

A group of six companies -- Apple, Microsoft, RIM, EMC, Ericsson and Sony -- won the auction of 6,000 Nortel patents and patent applications with a $4.5 billion bid.

The final figure was three times the amount expected by some analysts -- a sign of the lengths to which Google's rivals were willing to go to get their hands on the treasure trove of wireless technology, and thwart the Internet powerhouse's mobile ambitions.

Google had been expected to emerge victorious after it set a $900 million stalking horse bid in April. But the auction that started on Monday and saw 20 rounds of bids over four long days ultimately hit a price that became too much even for Google, the sources said.

The Internet company might have had $36.7 billion in cash as of March 31, but it was only willing to go up to $4 billion for these patents, one person said.

FIVE BIDDERS

Five parties, including two consortiums, initially started bidding for the bankrupt Canadian telecoms company's patents -- Apple, Intel, Google, a consortium of Ericsson, RIM, Microsoft, Sony and EMC, and a group led by patent risk solutions provider RPX, the sources said.

Intel started the bidding around 9 am on Monday with a $1.5 billion bid, one source said.

The RPX-led consortium, which included Chinese firm Huawei, dropped out after the first round of the auction held at the offices of law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. The consortium remained on the sidelines looking to partner with someone else but never did, the source said.

"It did become clear to us very quickly that this was something that a bunch of big companies with humongous balance sheets had decided was strategic for them," RPX Chief Executive John Amster said. "Clearly at a price at this level it had to be strategic, and they could afford that."

The auction tested the limits of even the giants, and it took behind-the-scenes maneuvering and a series of alignments for a winner to emerge.

FAST AND FURIOUS

On Tuesday night, the Ericsson consortium stopped bidding, and started looking for a partner, which it found in Apple, the source said.

"When people drop out, you try to partner people," another source said. "It is pretty common in auctions because you are trying to get together people who have reached their individual limits and they still have interest in the assets."

By Wednesday, Intel dropped out as well -- a move that was followed by heated negotiations over the next 24 hours as the two remaining parties both tried to court the chip giant to join their side. Intel chose Google, one source said.

The field narrowed to two -- the Apple consortium called "Rockstar," and the Google bidding vehicle named "Ranger", the sources said.

"Then it was fast and furious $100 million allotments until they got to $3 billion, at which point Google asked for permission to bid more," a source said. "They bid through $4 billion and tapped out."

Google declined to comment for this article, but called the auction results "disappointing."

Lazard Ltd advised Nortel in the deal, while Jefferies advised its creditors. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP was legal adviser to Nortel's creditors, while Cleary Gottlieb advised the company.

Nice one Google. Those 6,000 patents aren't worth more pie than it should - good job at making other companies waste money.

I don't think Nortel Network's patents are worth that much : their last year's financial earnings are only 620m in revenue, so at most we can give it a 200% inflation to 1.24b. 4.5b is ridiculous.