Silly/Odd News Stories from around the World

[ganbaru]

NYC mayoral hopeful: Don't stop trains for kittens
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...08-30-20-00-44

Colorado potty peeper sentenced to 3 years in prison
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...08-30-19-39-17

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by ganbaru

NYC mayoral hopeful: Don't stop trains for kittens
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...08-30-20-00-44

He is right. Unless it is an object that can derail the train, don't stop for it.

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

He is right. Unless it is an object that can derail the train, don't stop for it.

Kitty Hater!

No Nekogirls for you then!

[NoemiChan]

Walk-in vagina' kindles anger, approval in S.Africa

"By talking off your shoes, essentially you are respecting it, making it a divine space, a sacred space," said Chhiba.

LOLs.....

[AnimeFan188]

4 Otherwise Normal Animals Who Are Going on Crime Sprees:

"People may think that petty theft is restricted to life in the big city. However, your
wallet, purse, and personal belongings are in just as much danger out in the
wilderness, because we've recently discovered that the animal kingdom will rob you
blind the first goddamn chance it gets."

See:

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4...-crime-sprees/

[willx]

Originally Posted by GenjiChan

Walk-in vagina' kindles anger, approval in S.Africa



LOLs.....

[aohige]

Originally Posted by AnimeFan188

4 Otherwise Normal Animals Who Are Going on Crime Sprees:

"People may think that petty theft is restricted to life in the big city. However, your
wallet, purse, and personal belongings are in just as much danger out in the
wilderness, because we've recently discovered that the animal kingdom will rob you
blind the first goddamn chance it gets."

See:

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4...-crime-sprees/

.............?

I was born and raised in Osaka, and it's common knowledge here that monkeys steal anything they can get their hands on from humans. We have wild ones in the Mino mountains, and pretty much every kid in Osaka learns the lesson in elementary school hiking trips.

[Ecolo]

http://americanlivewire.com/mahant-a...-for-38-years/

People do weird stuff, I tell you...

[Kotohono]

John McCain caught playing POKER on his iPhone during crucial Senate hearing

While America's most senior foreign policy and military officials made President Obama's case for using military force against the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain was busy playing poker on his iPhone.

A Washington Post photographer snapped an over-the-shoulder picture of McCain casually betting play money on his electronic cards, while Syria's fate was the subject of passionate statements and often carefully manicured rhetoric.

Minutes after the Post published the photo online, McCain cracked a joke in the hope of limiting what is bound to be an embarrassing news cycle.

'Scandal!' read his sardonic tweet. 'Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!'

As the news broke, McCain was waiting to appear on CNN to discuss the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

'Occasionally I get a little bored,' he admitted on the air, 'and so I resorted.'

CNN associate producer Ashley Killough tweeted afterward that McCain 'said he lost "thousands" of fake dollars' during the marathon Capitol Hill session.

I am honestly not sure how to react to this, besides to laugh .

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by Konakaga

John McCain caught playing POKER on his iPhone during crucial Senate hearing



I am honestly not sure how to react to this, besides to laugh .

I see nothing wrong in that. Let the man play his games. At least it's not porn.

Oh wait.

Parliamentary porn consumption laid bare in official figures

[Ridwan]

Originally Posted by MrTerrorist

I see nothing wrong in that. Let the man play his games. At least it's not porn.

Oh wait.

Parliamentary porn consumption laid bare in official figures

So they do this too abroad ? Thought 'tis was an Indon thang.

[ganbaru]

1,200 Calif. chickens to retire on the East Coast
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-04-18-25-23

Runaway truck flattens vehicle, hits home in Utah
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-05-16-00-51

[SaintessHeart]

2020 Olympics city contest becomes ‘least-ugly parade'

(Reuters) - Would-be 2020 Olympic cities of Madrid, Istanbul and Tokyo parade before the Games' organizing body on Saturday in a "least ugly" contest as they attempt to conceal their blemishes and win the right to host the world's biggest sporting extravaganza.

All three cities are wrestling different demons which, in another contest and another time, would likely rule them out of winning the honor to stage the Games.

But in Buenos Aires on Saturday, the some 100 members of the International Olympic Committee must choose the least worst option and trust the winning city can deliver on their promises.

All three cities will present their bids to the IOC membership, with Istanbul first up, followed by Tokyo and then Madrid. Each city is being represented in person by leading statesmen.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will represent his capital city, with his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan backing Istanbul, while Prince Felipe of Spain is part of Madrid's official presentation.

IOC members will then hear a report from an internal Evaluation Commission formed of IOC members and Olympic experts, before voting begins.

Should a city not obtain an outright majority of votes, the candidate with the least votes will be eliminated and the two remaining cities will go head to head in a second round.

Madrid continues to suffocate under a recession, Istanbul is saddled with the specter of military strikes in neighboring Syria and internal unrest while Tokyo is back in the headlines after a series of damaging disclosures about the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant 230 km (140 miles) from the city.

LEAST-UGLY PARADE

Publicly, the membership of the International Olympic Committee is smiling through the crisis, but privately many concede that this is now an exercise in evaluating risk rather than celebrating sport.

"What is usually a celebration... a good news event, is now a contest of the least-bad news," an Olympic insider familiar with the selection process told Reuters. "It is not a beauty contest, it is a least-ugly parade."

Spain, once an outsider due to the recession which had stymied their ambitions, is gathering pace all the time in Argentina, as Olympic bosses seek the safest option.

"The economic crisis is starting to get better," Madrid Mayor Ana Botella told reporters, adding that 90 percent of the infrastructure needed to host the event is already in place.

"The amount we would have to invest over seven years is very small compared to the budget of the state, the autonomous community of Madrid and the city hall," she said.

EASING CONCERNS

Such an unsexy claim, made in the wake of the announcement of a sixth month of falling unemployment, would in other circumstances carry little weight in the rarefied Olympic world of bombast and boast.

But in this contest it strikes to the heart of the matter, and is aimed at easing concerns.

Staging an Olympics is an expensive proposition and is categorized in two ways - the "Games budget" which covers the cost of staging the 16-day event, and the "non-Games budget" which includes venue construction, and indirect Olympic-related projects like access roads and transportation.

The Spaniards officials say that with much of the infrastructure already in place, it will be the first time a projected Games budget of some $3.1 billion exceeds investment of just under $2 billion in projects linked to the hosting of the event but not directly related.

That compares with Istanbul's massive non-Games budget of around $17 billion, dwarfing expected Games expenditure of $2.9 billion. Tokyo, which hosted the Games in 1964, is also planning to incorporate existing venues and has estimated a non-Games budget of around $4.4 billion compared to $3.4 billion for the actual event.

The Japanese, too, must ease concerns and Prime Minister Abe is flying into Argentina having broken away early from a Group of 20 summit in Russia.

FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR PLANT

The disclosures in recent weeks about the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant 230 km (140 miles) from Tokyo came as an unwelcome shock to an Olympic membership not appreciative of surprises.

The plant's operator has been forced to reverse denials and admit that hundreds of tons of radioactive water are pouring into the Pacific Ocean each day, and radiation levels have spiked.

Abe's government said this week it will spend almost half a billion dollars to try to fix the water crisis and critics said the government's sudden embrace of the issue was aimed largely at winning the Olympic bid.

"During our presentation, I look forward to conveying Tokyo's safety, strong finances, world class transportation and organizational ability," Tokyo governor Naoki Inose said on Friday.

"We believe we have shown that Tokyo is the right partner for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and will host a safe and incredible city-centre celebration.

"Considering the world economy recently, for a true celebration, for a party for mankind like the Olympic and Paralympic Games, strong evidence exists that Tokyo has the ability to deliver."

Istanbul launched its bid on the back of an Islamic card, of becoming the first Olympics in a predominantly Muslim country and the first staged across two continents simultaneously - Asia and Europe.

But instead of promoting that angle, the bid team has been fending off fears of unrest following weeks of protest in June after police cracked down on anti-government demonstrators, leaving four people dead and 7,500 injured.

Now it is also forced to contend with fears a potential U.S. military intervention in neighboring Syria could stop the bid in its tracks.

"This is a global issue ... now the world leaders are dealing with it," Turkish bid chief Hasan Arat told Reuters when asked whether unrest in the region could harm the city's chances.

But geopolitics could weigh on Turkey, which has felt the strain of a refugee exodus from Syria's civil war.

More than 2 million refugees have fled Syria, the United Nations said this week, calling the crisis "the tragedy of the century".

That is totally the most ridiculous, yet ironically true, headline I have read in a week's worth of mornings.

[Xellos-_^]

imo, Tokyo would be the least ugly of the 3. otoh i would like to see Constantinople get it, just to see how a Islamic country deal with this

Within hours, word of the nearly vacant property had spread. Popping up once every two years, the Olympic Village is a boisterous city within a city: chock-full of condos, midrises and houses as well as cafés, barbershops, arcades, discos and TV lounges. The only thing missing is privacy -- nearly everyone is stuck with a roommate. So while Lakatos claimed a first-floor suite for himself, the remaining rooms were there for the taking. The first to claim space that night were some Team USA track and field fellas.

"The next morning," Lakatos says, "swear to God, the entire women's 4x100 relay team of some Scandinavian-looking country walks out of the house, followed by boys from our side. And I'm just going, 'Holy crap, we'd watched these girls run the night before.'"

And on it went for eight days as scores of Olympians, male and female, trickled into the shooter's house -- and that's what everyone called it, Shooters' House -- at all hours, stopping by an Oakley duffel bag overflowing with condoms procured from the village's helpful medical clinic. After a while, it dawned on Lakatos: "I'm running a friggin' brothel in the Olympic Village! I've never witnessed so much debauchery in my entire life."



http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2...-espn-magazine

[AnimeFan188]

NSA Chief's Former War Room Was Modeled After the Starship Enterprise:

"When he was running the Army's Intelligence and Security Command, Alexander
brought many of his future allies down to Fort Belvoir for a tour of his base of
operations, a facility known as the Information Dominance Center. It had been
designed by a Hollywood set designer to mimic the bridge of the starship Enterprise
from Star Trek, complete with chrome panels, computer stations, a huge TV monitor
on the forward wall, and doors that made a "whoosh" sound when they slid open and
closed. Lawmakers and other important officials took turns sitting in a
leather "captain's chair" in the center of the room and watched as Alexander, a lover of
science-fiction movies, showed off his data tools on the big screen."

See:

http://gizmodo.com/nsa-chiefs-former...ars-1277508181

[maplehurry]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

He is right. Unless it is an object that can derail the train, don't stop for it.

what about people

[SaintessHeart]

Asia's cash-short consumers clean out their closets

I don't know about Hong Kong, but in Singapore I guess most of the credit came to put money into the hands of either education or house loans.

[ganbaru]

Long-lost painting by Van Gogh is identified
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-09-16-46-30

Stork detained as spy in Egypt found dead
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...09-07-14-17-37

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by maplehurry

what about people

Well, they want to die. You're doing them a favor, really.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

Well, they want to die. You're doing them a favor, really.

What about the traumatized driver of the train? The passengers?