Breaking Bad News

ARE WE WITNESSING THE SLOW DEATH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM? | breaking ad news

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:45:00 +0000

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breaking bad news
The world keeps turning and the resources get used up. It’s really quite simple.

Despite that fact, the debates rage over Peak Oil, Peak Food and peak everything else. It’s about as sensible as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. So the “experts” continue to debate whether or not resources are running low. But the evidence is pretty clear, at least to this trader.

In the past year, we have seen the oil and agriculture markets explode. And this could be just the beginning of the rally, not the end, as some would have you believe. Personally, I think we are about halfway to the new top for many commodities. That means $200 oil (easily) and gold at $1,500-2,000. The agriculture markets have even further to go, in my opinion.

Key commodities are becoming more and more scarce. So we can expect to see more suffering in the poorest countries first. Then the economic impact will work its way up the food chain (no pun intended).

The facts are fairly grim if we look at them closely. There is going to be less of everything. Yet there will be more people who want those things. Let’s face it - wars have been fought over far less.

In her famous book, On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross describes the stages of grief:

* Denial: “It can’t be happening”
* Anger: “Why me? It’s not fair”
* Bargaining: “Just let me live to see my children graduate”
* Depression: “I’m so sad, why bother with anything?”
* Acceptance: “It’s going to be OK.”

In my opinion, the American public is going through the stages of grief right now. Rising prices are just a market-based signal that we are losing our economic and resource abundance. As the American dream fades away, it’s like a death in the family.

Right now, I think we are between the stages of denial and anger. Ask yourself these questions: What do you think when you pull up to the fuel pump and have to pay $4 for a gallon of regular gas, or nearly $5 for a gallon of diesel? Or how about when you go to the supermarket and have to pay $4 for a gallon of “store brand” milk, or the same price for a loaf of “store brand” bread? Are your emotions between disbelief and anger? Are you saying to yourself, “Hey, what the heck is going on?” (I’m cleaning it up a bit because this is a family-friendly publication.)

I think folks mistakenly thought prosperity would go on forever.

Dinner is always fun until the waiter brings the check. Or as my colleague Byron King once said, “It’s easy to look rich as long as you don’t ever pay the bills.”

No sector has recently hit Americans in the wallet harder than energy. But even with those dramatic price increases, major changes are still not happening. We have seen a very small decrease in gasoline usage - only about 1% or so.

But while some travel may be down as costs have gone up, the numbers are not really dramatic. No, I am not pointing fingers. I live here too. If I looked at my own lifestyle, I couldn’t say that I am making radical adjustments, either.

We still like to drive our big SUVs. We still drive alone to work. Most people rarely take public transportation (if there is any). And we love to run our air conditioners full blast while watching the documentaries on global warming and dying polar bears on our 62-inch plasma TVs.

Yes, we like to grumble when we fill up those big SUVs, mostly because it’s easier to complain than make the tough changes that are needed. We feel entitled to keep living as we do. Hey, after all, we’ve earned it. Right?

Rather than make difficult choices, we are in that denial stage and buy the line from the government and media that all is well.

The facts and the fiction often get mixed up when discussing the issue of “Peak Everything.” Take the surging price of crude oil. Some people (including a lot of politicians) want to blame the traders and speculators. Other people blame farmers and corn-based ethanol. A lot of people blame OPEC. The list of culprits goes on ad infinitum.

The fact remains that it’s not just one reason or another that we are in this energy disaster; it’s actually all of these reasons and others. It’s a culmination of many years of poor energy policy, shortsighted planning (if you can even call it planning) and an overdose of arrogance that only superpowers can have.

It’s like a football team saying, “We’re No. 1 and will always be that way.” So the team stops training hard. Players quit working out and coming to practice. The coaches just relax and forget about recruiting or developing new talent. Nobody designs new plays or bothers to scout the opponents to see what they are up to. And then the team expects to go out into the world and bring home the trophy every year. “Hey, we deserve it. Right?”

Or go back to the analogy of the Titanic. The ship was state-of-the art. It was not “supposed” to be able to sink. But now as the water rushes in and the ship is dropping lower and lower into the sea, the cold water is hitting us all in the face. Now our lawmakers are scrambling to plug the holes, and it’s not working. The smart people (or maybe they were just lucky) are already in the lifeboats.

Only time will tell if the United States can actually move into the acceptance stage. But in the meantime, commodities will continue to dwindle.

Regards,

Kevin Kerr
for The Daily Reckoning

Food Banks Are Running Into Troubles | Breaking Bad News

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:58:00 +0000

breaking bad news
STOCKTON, Calif. — Jackie Hoffman sifted through a laundry bin filled with aging loaves of bread. Like nearly a third of the first 50 customers to arrive at the Emergency Food Bank of Stockton that morning, Hoffman was new to the pantry. But since she lost her sales job at a local newspaper in December, she has not found work. “I’m down on my luck,” Hoffman said, squeezing and sniffing the bread. “And food is going through the roof. I need help.”

Hoffman, 55, is one of the growing number of “nontraditional” food-pantry clients across the country. They include formerly independent senior citizens, homeowners and people who used to call themselves “middle-class” — those who are not used to fretting over the price of milk.

In Washington state, “We’re hearing dozens of these stories every week,” said Shelley Rotondo, executive director of Northwest Harvest, which distributes food to 300 hunger programs statewide and operates a food bank in downtown Seattle.

“A lot of working folks are coming to us, people who were making it, but they’ve been pushed over the edge because of the cost of food and the cost of fuel,” Rotondo said.

Rotondo said food banks are “getting squeezed on both ends,” weathering sharp increases in food and fuel costs at the same time the need is increasing. The number of clients at the Seattle food bank has risen 10 percent in the past three months, while the agency has had to pay “fuel surcharges” adding up to 50 percent to the fuel cost of some shipments.

“What scares me the most is the uncertainty about where this is going to stop,” Rotondo said.

April saw the biggest jump in food prices in 18 years, according to the Labor Department. At the same time, workers’ average weekly earnings, adjusted for inflation, dropped for the seventh straight month.

To meet growing demand, America’s Second Harvest — The Nation’s Food Bank Network, pressed lawmakers for the past year to increase the annual level of funding for The Emergency Food Assistance Program, (TEFAP), from $140 million to $250 million annually.

A survey it conducted of 180 food banks in late April and early May found that 99 percent have seen an increase in the number of clients served within the past year. The increase is estimated at 15 percent to 20 percent, though many food banks reported increases as high as 40 percent.

The money was included in the Farm Bill recently approved by Congress but won’t be available until the next fiscal year, which starts in October.

“The way it’s going, we’re going to have a food disaster pretty soon,” said Phyllis Legg, interim executive director of the Merced Food Bank, which serves 43 food pantries throughout foreclosure-ravaged Merced County in California.

Food banks across the country are in similar straits. Some have had to cut back on how much food they give, or how often.

“If gas keeps going up, it’s going to be catastrophic in every possible way,” said Ross Fraser, a spokesman for America’s Second Harvest.

Stories of want and need are mounting. In informal surveys, America’s Second Harvest has found a growing number of food banks in crisis mode.

• In Albuquerque, N.M., the Roadrunner Food Bank reported that the pantries it serves are turning people away.

• In Baton Rouge, La., the public school system has found students hoarding their free and reduced-price lunches so they can bring them home and have something to eat at night.

• In Merced, the food bank is planning to curtail a brown-bag program, which supplies groceries to senior citizens, from once a week to once every two weeks, Legg said.

Even in San Francisco, a city that has been relatively unscathed by the foreclosure crisis and economic downturn, food pantries are seeing hundreds of new clients.

“We’ve gone from serving about 450 to 600 clients a day since Christmas,” said Sara Miles, director of The Food Pantry.

“This is one of the worst times that our food banks have experienced in recent years in terms of the level of need and our ability to meet the need,” said Vicki Escarra, president and chief executive officer of America’s Second Harvest.

The Emergency Food Bank of Stockton, which operates out of a warehouse at the fringe of town, now finds customers lining up several hours before it opens at 10 a.m.

That’s because, clients say, the best food — the fresh meat and eggs — goes first.

“If I get here too late, I’ll be left with Marshmallow Fluff for 14 days,” said Sondra Pearson, a mother of seven. “Not,” she added, “that I’m going to turn that down.”

[Via - SeattlePI.Com]

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Breaking Bad News: Violinist Smashes $1 Million Fiddle

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:58:00 +0000

breaking bad news
LONDON (AP) ― Can his fractured fiddle - a million-dollar Guadagnini - be fixed? It’s too early to tell.

David Garrett, a former model who has been called the David Beckham of the classical scene, said he tripped while carrying his 18th century violin as he was leaving London’s Barbican Hall after a performance, smashing it to bits.

“I had it over my shoulder in its case and I fell down a concrete flight of stairs backward,” Garrett said Thursday. “When I opened the case, much of my G.B. Guadagnini had been crushed.”

Garrett said he bought the 1772 violin for $1 million in 2003, and he is now hoping to get it repaired in New York, where he is based.

“I hope and pray that it can be fixed, but if it can’t, I hope my insurance policy will let me buy another great violin,” the 26-year-old musician said. He told The Associated Press that other published accounts saying the violin was a Stradivarius were incorrect. Guadagnini is believed by some to have been a student of Antonio Stradivari.

The accident occurred Dec. 27 but only became known this week when he returned to London for another concert at the Barbican and told British reporters what had happened.

For his Valentine’s Day concert there, he is playing a Stradivarius that’s been lent to him.

Garrett gained attention as a child prodigy. Before he was 10, he played as a soloist with the London Philharmonic, according to his Web site.

When he studied at the Juilliard School in New York, he became a part-time model to help supplement his income.

[Via - CBS.Com]

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Breaking Bad News: Crazy woman makes 10,000 calls to ex

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:51:00 +0000

A dumped girlfriend plagued her ex with more than 10,000 calls and text messages in 65 days, a British court has heard.

Timothy Mortimore, 37, received the equivalent of one call or message every eight minutes, Britain’s Daily Mail reports.

His 23-year-old ex, Lee Amor, reportedly ignored police warnings about her behaviour after the end of a six-month relationship.

Pregnant, and wrongly convinced the baby was Mr Mortimore’s, she contacted him an “astronomical” number of times, the paper says.

The Daily Mail report says Amor appeared before South Devon Magistrates’ Court and admitted harassment “in texting, sending mobile video messages, telephone calls, and in person”.

She was given a two-year conditional discharge, told to pay £200 costs and made the subject of a restraining order barring contact with Mr Mortimore.

Mr Mortimore, of Torquay, told the court the experience had caused him “physical and emotional fatigue”.

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Breaking Bad News: Germany’s beer sales hit lowest point in 15 years

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:49:00 +0000

breaking bad news
BERLIN — Germany and beer go together like Porsches and the autobahn, but health-conscious residents are turning from the country’s traditional beverage in favor of juices and bottled water, sending suds sales down to the lowest levels in 15 years.

According to a government report released today, the amount of beer sold in Germany fell to the lowest sales figure since 1993 — dropping by 2.7 percent in 2007 to 22 billion pints, down 612 million pints from 2006.

The Federal Statistics Office said the drop in beer sales came as the demand for beer mixed with fruit juices, soft drinks and other nonalcoholic beverages rose 18.1 percent from 2006 to 2007, with some 887 million pints consumed by thirsty buyers.

Beer consumption in Germany has been falling steadily for more than a decade, a trend that experts have attributed to an increasingly health-conscious public and an aging population that is less likely to binge.

For last year’s decline, the German Brewers Association blamed a rainy summer, noting that foul weather dampens the mood for lifting a stein on a summer evening.

But the group also pointed to shifting tastes.

“Our regular customers are getting older and don’t drink as much anymore, and generally Germans prefer milder tastes today, and are more health conscious,” spokesman Marc-Oliver Huhnholz said.

For the country’s remaining beer drinkers, there’s more scary news: Their beloved beverage — often called ‘liquid bread’ because it is a basic ingredient of many Germans’ daily diet — is getting more expensive.

Some breweries have already raised prices, and many others say they will follow later this year.

The director of the famous Hofbraeuhaus beer hall in Munich said the brewery would increase its prices by about 74 cents per case in April.

“This is not about profit, it’s about cost increase,” Michael Moeller said, adding that the raw materials for the national beverage — barley malt and hops — have been getting more expensive.

Moeller said that per case of beer, the price of malt had increased by 30 cents and hops by 7 cents, and that energy costs to brew beer had risen by 10 percent.

On top of all the bad news, the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has said it is considering a ban on selling beer from midnight to 6 a.m.

It’s no wonder the Germans lost the title of biggest per capita beer drinkers to the Czechs a few years ago.

But, Huhnholz said, they still drink more than the Irish, who closely follow Germans.

[Via Passed Out Drunk]

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Breaking Bad News: Iraq’s Missing Billions

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:15:00 +0000

breaking bad news
A documentary created by Disptaches for Channel 4 in the UK. This report clearly highlights the massive ineptitudes involved with handling the Iraqi billions. This has to be the single and largest fraud ever.

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Breaking Bad News: Riders Take Off Pants For ‘No Pants Day’

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:29:00 +0000

breaking bad news
SALT LAKE CITY - Dozens of people riding on TRAX on Saturday were caught with their pants down — despite the January chill — as part of a national stunt.

Riders were encouraged to ride light rail without pants in conjunction with a comedy organization based in New York City. ‘Improv Everywhere’ organized Saturday’s event, which was part of a 10-city stunt designed to create unusual scenes and fun for riders of public transportation.

Improv Everywhere says nearly 1,000 people took part in Saturday’s events around the world. Besides Salt Lake City, the “No Pants 2k8″ train rides also took place in New York, Boston, Washington DC, Portland, OR, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Adelaide, Australia and Baltimore, MD.

In New York City, pants-less riders navigated the city’s vast subway system while amused commuters looked on. In Salt Lake City, riders boarded near the EnergySolutions Arena and traveled around the so-called “Free fare zone.”

Utah Transit Authority did not sponsor or sanction the event in any way, but says the riders taking part in the public stunt were breaking no laws.

Pants-less riders were required to follow guidelines of dress to stay within the laws of public standards. Riders were asked to ride in their underwear, however no revealing attire — like thongs or lingerie — was allowed.

Formed in 2001, Improv Everywhere says its purpose is to cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places. This is the 7th straight year of the organization’s “No Pants” train stunt.

[Via - Weird Odd News]

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Breaking Bad News: Boy glues self to bed to avoid school

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:22:00 +0000

A 10-year-old Mexican boy glued his hand to his bed to avoid going back to school after the Christmas break, authorities said Monday.

“I thought if I was glued to the bed, they couldn’t make me go to school,” the boy, Diego, told AFP. “I didn’t want to go, the holidays were so much fun.”

“I remembered my mom had bought a very strong glue,” he said of the industrial strength shoe glue he used to stick his hand to the bed’s metal headboard, where he stayed stuck for two hours.

His mother Sandra Palacios was unable to free him and called paramedics and police to help. Diego watched cartoons while they worked to unglue him, eventually using a spray to dissolve the chemical adhesive.

“I don’t know why this happened. He is a very good boy,” said his mother.

Diego eventually made it school a few hours late.

[Via - Yahoo!News]

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Breaking Bad News: Man Cuts Off, Microwaves His Own Hand Because Bible Says “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away”

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 17:19:00 +0000

breaking bad news
HAYDEN, Idaho — A man who believed he bore the “mark of the beast” used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called 911, authorities said.

The man, in his mid-20s, was calm when Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies arrived Saturday in this northern Idaho town. He was in protective custody in the mental health unit of Kootenai Medical Center.

“It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived,” sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. “He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn’t bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad.”

It was not immediately clear whether the man has a history of mental illness. Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson would not say whether an attempt was made to reattach the hand, citing patient confidentiality.

The Book of Revelation in the New Testament contains a passage in which an angel is quoted as saying: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury.”

The book of Matthew also contains the passage: “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

Wolfinger said he didn’t know which hand was amputated.

Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press

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Breaking Bad News: Something That Doesn’t Happen In A Restaurant Every Day

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 16:39:00 +0000

breaking bad news
A man cut off his penis with a knife in a packed London restaurant.

Police were forced to use CS gas to restrain the man when they entered the Zizzi restaurant in The Strand on Sunday evening.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said the man was aged between 30 and 40 and that his injuries were self-inflicted.

The man was then taken to hospital in south London where his condition is stable. It is understood surgeons were unable to reattach his penis.

A spokeswoman for Zizzi said the man was not thought to have any connection with the restaurant.

She said: “At around 9pm on Sunday, a man walked into the Zizzi restaurant on The Strand, down the stairs to the basement restaurant area and tried to enter a kitchen.

“Members of staff stopped him, at which he ran into a second kitchen area.

“The man then picked up a kitchen knife and slashed himself across the wrist and groin areas before running back into the restaurant, where he continued to stab himself.

“This happened in a matter of seconds and was obviously extremely frightening and distressing for the many customers and staff in the restaurant at the time.”

She added: “Apart from the man, we understand that no-one else suffered any physical injuries.”

Source - Man Cuts His Nuts Off In A Restaurant

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Breaking Bad News: Man Trapped In A Lavatory For 100 Hours

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 18:09:00 +0000

breaking bad news
LONDON (Reuters) - A retired Scottish school teacher was recovering on Monday after spending nearly four days trapped inside a men’s toilet with no food or mobile phone.

David Leggat was locked inside the bathroom at a lawn bowling club near the Scottish city of Aberdeen after the door jammed and the handle on the outside fell off.

The 55-year-old kept warm by dipping his feet in hot water but only managed to get about three hours’ sleep a night in the freezing temperatures, the local Evening Express newspaper reported.

He was rescued when the cleaner at the club, which is little used in winter, turned up to collect her cleaning equipment.

Leggat said a survival course he had once done had helped him endure his captivity. The cleaning lady said he looked shaken and grey when he emerged. Leggat was stoical.

“At least there was a toilet to use,” he said. “The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar.”

[Via - Reuters]

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Breaking Bad News: Man Died Of Working Too Much

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:34:00 +0000

breaking bad news
A Toyota Motor Corp employee died of overwork after logging more than 106 hours of overtime in a month, a judge ruled Friday, reversing a ministry’s earlier decision not to pay compensation to his widow.The Toyota Labor Standards Inspection office, a local branch of Japan’s labor ministry, refused to pay the widow the usual compensation for a spouse’s work-related death, saying the man had only logged 45 hours of overtime in the month before he died, Japanese media reported.

But the court ruled that the employee had worked far more than that, said Yomiuri Online, a Japanese news website. The Nagoya District Court in central Japan said the ruling overturned the labor ministry’s decision.

“We want to think of how to respond to this ruling by discussing it with relevant agencies,” an official at the Toyota Labor Standards Inspection Office told Reuters.

The employee, who was working at a Toyota factory in central Japan, died of irregular heartbeat in February 2002 after passing out in the factory around 4 a.m.

“(The employee) worked for extremely long hours and the relationship between his work and death is strong,” Yomiuri Online quoted Judge Toshiro Tamiya as saying.

Overworking is a serious issue in Japan, where an average worker uses less than 50 percent of paid holidays, according to government data.

In fiscal year 2005-2006, the labor ministry received 315 requests for compensation from the bereaved families of workers who died of strokes and other illnesses seen as work-related.

Toyota said in a statement it would further improve the management of its employees’ health.

Source - Reuters

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Breaking Bad News: Top 10 Strangest Deaths Of All Times

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:51:00 +0000

1. The RoofFuckers

breaking bad news In 2007, a cab driver found the naked bodies of a young man and young woman at the base of a 50-foot building in Columbia, S.C. Later, authorities found their clothing on the roof, leading them to believe the couple fell to their deaths while having sex.

2. Jennifer Strange

A strange death for Jennifer Strange indeed. Jennifer Strange, seen on the right, died of water intoxication while trying to win a Wii console in a Sacramento radio station’s “Hold Your Wee for a Wii” contest. It involved drinking large quantities of water without urinating. Strange finished second.

3. The Starcraft Death

In 2005, a 28-year-old Korean, Lee Seung Seop, collapsed and died after playing the video game Starcraft for nearly 50 hours at an Internet cafe

4. Grizzly Man And His Girlfriend

Environmentalist Timothy Treadwell loved grizzly bears so much that he lived with them in Alaska during 13 consecutive summers. In 2003, one of them killed and then partially consumed him, and also killed his girlfriend. Treadwell was the posthumous subject of the documentary film “Grizzy Man.”

5. The Pizza Bomber

When pizza deliveryman Brian Wells was caught after robbing an Erie, Penn., bank in 2003, he told police he’d been coerced by people who’d placed a bomb around his neck. The bomb exploded. Four years after his death, police said Wells had been part of the plot all along.

6. Cher’s Hubby

Singer Sonny Bono survived years of marriage to Cher, intense local politics in Palm Springs, Calif., and campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives, only to be killed in 1998 when he hit a tree while skiing.

7. The Dumb Lawyer

At an after-work party in 1993, Canadian attorney Garry Hoy was showing a group of visiting law students how unbreakable the windows were in the Toronto-Dominion Bank Tower. He threw himself against one and it held. He did it again, and it gave way. Hoy plunged 24 stories to his death.

8. R. Budd Dwyer

In 1987, Pennsylvania State Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer held a news conference after being convicted of public corruption. He pulled a large pistol from a manila envelope, stuck the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger — on live television.

9. Great Actor Indeed

In 1987, actor and comedian Dick Shawn was on stage performing in San Diego when he had a heart attack and died. For several minutes the audience thought it was part of the act.

10. Death By Helicopter

Actor Vic Morrow, seen here in the TV movie “The Glass House,” was perhaps best known for starring in the popular ’60s TV drama “Combat.” In 1982, while filming the movie version of “Twilight Zone,” Morrow was decapitated by a helicopter blade.

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Breaking Bad News: Docs Operate On Wrong Side For 3rd Time

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:15:00 +0000

PROVIDENCE, R.I. breaking bad news — The Rhode Island Department of Health has fined Rhode Island Hospital $50,000 after a third doctor performed brain surgery on the wrong side of a patient’s head.

Health Department director David Gifford issued a statement saying he was “extremely concerned about this continuing pattern” at the hospital.

The hospital said it was re-evaluating its training and policies, providing more oversight, and giving nursing staff the power to ensure procedures are followed.

The Health Department said the most recent incident happened Friday when the chief resident started operating on the wrong side of an 82-year-old patient’s brain. Officials said the patient was OK.A patient died after a previous mistake.

[Via - Local6.Com]

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Breaking Bad News: We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly.

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 14:34:00 +0000

breaking bad news
LONDON (Reuters) - An official announcer for London’s Tube system has been sacked after making spoof messages mocking American tourists, peeping Toms and sweaty commuters.

Voiceover artist Emma Clarke, 36, recorded the announcements in the same smooth tones that have warned millions of passengers to “Mind The Gap” and posted them on her Web site.

The messages include:

* “We would like to remind our American tourist friends that you are almost certainly talking too loudly.”

* “Would the passenger in the red shirt pretending to read the paper but who is actually staring at that woman’s chest please stop. You are not fooling anyone, you filthy pervert.”

* “Would passengers filling in answers on their Sudokus please accept that they are just crosswords for the unimaginative and are not in any way more impressive just because they contain numbers.”

* “Here we are crammed again into a sweaty Tube carriage … If you’re female smile at the bloke next to you and make his day. He’s probably not had sex for months.”

Clarke said it was “just a bit of a laugh.” But Tube operator Transport for London (TfL) failed to see the funny side and dropped her, after eight years.

“London Underground is sorry to have to announce that further contracts for Miss Clarke are experiencing severe delays,” a TfL spokesman told the Evening Standard Monday.

[Via - Announcer sacked over spoof messages]

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Breaking Bad News: Brazilian girl forced to have sex for food while in jail

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:52:00 +0000

A teenage girl was locked up on theft charges in an Amazon jail for weeks with 21 men who she said would only let her eat in return for sex, according to authorities, setting off a national scandal over the treatment of women by Brazil’s justice system.

The 15-year-old said she was required to have sex with at least two inmates, police spokesman Walrimar Santos said by telephone Thursday from Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River, where the victim was transferred after nearly a month living with male inmates.

She said her only reprieve from obligatory sex was on Thursdays — when intimate visits were allowed — and things “calmed down,” Estado reported.

Police and human rights officials said the girl was out of touch in Belem and would not speak to reporters. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who may have been victims of sexual assault.

The girl was arrested Oct. 21 on accusations of breaking and entering a house and jailed with male inmates in Abaetetuba, a city of 78,000 outside the Para state capital of Belem.

She was transferred to a jail for women in Belem on Nov. 17, although police claim they requested her transfer earlier but were ignored.

Santos said separate jails for men and women do not exist in most towns in Para — a sprawling, largely lawless state twice the size of France.

Days after the case was divulged, the Brazilian Bar Association announced that a 23-year-old woman had been obliged to share a cell with 70 men in a police detention center in Parauapebas, in southern Para. It was not clear if she was forced to have sex.

Para Gov. Ana Julia Carepa said she was outraged by the alleged abuse at Abaetetuba. She suspended three top police officials pending an investigation and promised that the guilty parties would be “punished in exemplary fashion.”

“There’s no excuse for what happened,” she said in a statement. “I’m also shocked and indignant, as a woman and as governor. … A woman can never be jailed in the same cell as men.”

The federal government on Friday sent a task force of human rights officials to Belem to accompany the investigation after the girl and her family reported receiving death threats.

“First we will guarantee the safety of the minor, who will be included in the program for the Protection of Children and Adolescents threatened with death,” Marcia Ustra Soares, a director of the program, told reporters.

The victim’s father insisted in a televised interview that she was 15, and that police threatened to arrest him unless he produced a certificate showing she was 20.

“I want justice. The situation can’t stay like this,” he said.

Amnesty International said Brazilian women “are the hidden victims of a crumbling detention system,” and many cases of women abused under government custody go unreported or uninvestigated.

“We receive extensive reports of women in detention who suffer sexual abuse, torture, substandard health care and inhuman conditions,” said Tim Cahill, Amnesty’s researcher on Brazil.

Carepa said the government also was investigating reports that the girl was arrested purposely for the sexual gratification of the prisoners.

“This is an unfortunate practice that regrettably has been occurring for some time,” she said. “But it would be good to make this public, so that all society will be mobilized and we can end these practices. … We won’t allow this to happen again.”

The Brazilian Bar Association voiced skepticism that officials would take effective action.

“What has happened in the state of Para’s prison system shows that for authorities the concept of human dignity is only useful as a rhetorical instrument, not something to be taken seriously,” Britto said.

If police did not have the required separate cells, the government “must recognize its inefficiency and … release those citizens it cannot hold,” he said.

[Via - USA Today]

Breaking Bad News: Doctors untangle the strange case of the giant hairball (warning: picture is not something you want to see after meal)

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:24:00 +0000

breaking bad news
It may not be the most appetizing reading before a hearty holiday meal, but the New England Journal of Medicine is devoting part of its Thanksgiving issue to a giant hairball — and not the feline kind.

The prestigious journal details the case of a previously healthy 18-year-old woman who consulted a team of gastrointestinal specialists.

She complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss.

After a scan of the woman’s abdomen showed a large mass, doctors lowered a scope through her esophagus.

It revealed “a large bezoar occluding nearly the entire stomach,” wrote Drs. Ronald M. Levy and Srinadh Komanduri, gastroenterologists at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.

For the uninitiated, a bezoar is a hairball.

“On questioning, the patient stated that she had had a habit of eating her hair for many years — a condition called trichophagia,” they wrote.

“It seemed like she’d been doing this for several years,” Levy told CNN.

The woman underwent surgery to remove the mass of black, curly hair, which weighed 10 pounds and measured 15 inches by 7 inches by 7 inches, the doctors said.

Five days later, she was eating normally and was sent home.

A year later, the pain and vomiting were gone, the patient had regained 20 pounds “and reports that she has stopped eating her hair.”

Reached at his home in Chicago, Levy said he had no idea whether the journal’s timing of the publication on Thanksgiving was intentional.

Either way, he said, it would not affect the gastroenterologists’ holiday dinner plans — “We don’t get fazed by much.”

Source - The New England Journal Of Medicine

Breaking Bad News: Hailstorm Sets Off Bomblets in Lebanon

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:07:00 +0000

BEIRUT, Lebanon - The season’s first hailstorm Tuesday was a blessing in disguise for cluster bomb-infested parts of southern Lebanon, triggering blasts from previously unexploded bomblets. No injuries were reported.

After a long dry spell across Lebanon, hailstones as big as walnuts hit villages and struck undiscovered bomblets scattered across the landscape, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Dalya Farran, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center (MACC), confirmed that many cluster bombs exploded when they were hit by hailstones in villages near the town of Marjayoun.

[Via - NewsDay]

Shawn is for Real !

Weird Facts - Miami Woman Sues Missing Husband For Share of Lottery Win

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Breaking Bad News: A yawning husband almost died – after his mouth got stuck wide open.

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 15:16:00 +0000

breaking bad news
Tired Ben Shire was making a cuppa when he strained his jaw so much he dislocated it.

The horrified store worker, 34, collapsed in his kitchen unable to breathe or swallow.

His frantic wife dialled 999 as he lay choking on his saliva.

Ambulancemen rushed him to hospital with his jaw still locked – and brought him back from the brink of death using a suction device.

Ben said yesterday after medics won a four hour battle to close his mouth: “We can laugh about it now – but it wasn’t funny at the time.

“I couldn’t breathe because I was choking – it felt like two fingers down my throat.

“The more I panicked the more I struggled for breath.”

His wife Sam – a hotel cleaner – said in Horsham, West Sussex: “I was really panicking and didn’t know what to do.”

A spokesman for East Surrey Hospital in Redhill – where Ben’s jaw was finally reset – praised the quick-thinking ambulance crew.

[Via - The Sun]

Home-Made Helicopters - weird facts

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Breaking Bad News: Pastor’s Ex-Wife Wants Part Of The Church After Divorce

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:05:00 +0000

breaking bad news
MINEOLA, N.Y. - The estranged wife of a pastor claims her husband blended his professional and personal finances so thoroughly that his church should be counted as an asset in their divorce.

A judge agreed in a decision published this week to hear arguments on the claim, and he ordered a financial appraisal of the church. Lawyers said it could represent the first time anyone in New York state has tried to treat a religious institution as a marital asset.

The wife argues that her husband of 31 years used his Brooklyn church as a “personal piggy bank,” setting his own income, spending the congregation’s tithes as he pleased and running a catering business from the building, according to the decision by state Supreme Court Judge Arthur M. Diamond. The couple’s names were redacted from the decision.

The wife said $50,000 of the couple’s money went into starting the church, and that the church property is partly hers.

“That church is no different than any other business he might have opened,” said the wife’s lawyer, Robert Pollack.

The pastor maintains he is simply a church employee, and the institution’s funds should not be considered his, according to Diamond’s decision.

“My client can’t own the church,” said the minister’s lawyer, Eleanor Gery.

[Via - AZCentral]

More Breaking Bad News:

Indian Man Forced To Marry A Dog

Halo 3 player punched mom after she took away game

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Breaking Bad News: Indian Man Forced To Marry A Dog

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:04:00 +0000

breaking bad news
A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death - an act he believes cursed him - a newspaper reported Tuesday.

P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.

Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.

“After that my legs and hands got paralyzed and I lost hearing in one ear,” he said in the report.

The paper said an astrologer had told Selvakumar the wedding was the only way he could cure the maladies. It did not say whether his situation had improved.

Deeply superstitious people in rural India sometimes organize weddings to dogs and other animals, believing it can ward off certain curses.

The paper showed a picture of Selvakumar sitting next to the dog, which was wearing an orange sari and a flower garland.

The paper said the groom and his family then had a feast, while the dog got a bun.

[Via - Speed Dating News]

More Breaking Bad News:

Halo 3 player punched mom after she took away game

Breaking Bad News: Halo 3 player punched mom after she took away game

noreply@blogger.com (tvsm22 gmail com) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:01:00 +0000

breaking bad news
A juvenile fan of the video game Halo 3 is accused of punching his mother after she forced him to end his game Sunday night and fighting with sheriff’s deputies as they tried to restrain him, according to reports released Wednesday.

Indian River County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Harnage reported responding to the family’s home at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday in reference to an “out-of-control child.”

The parents told deputies their son was playing Halo 3, and it was getting late and he needed to shut it off. When the son refused to turn off the game, the parents reportedly took the air card out of his machine so he couldn’t play anymore.

Reports show the son became enraged, went through the house looking for the air card, and then punched his mother, prompting the parents to call the Sheriff’s Office.

After the boy retreated to his bedroom and locked it, the mother knocked on the door and told him he needed to come out and talk to the deputies, the report stated. But the juvenile allegedly responded with profanity.

Harnage and another deputy entered the room using a key from the parents to arrest the son, according to the report. The son fought the deputies - at one time punching Harnage on the lip - until they handcuffed him.

He was later turned over to state juvenile authorities on charges of battery-domestic violence and battery on a law-enforcement officer.

The son’s and parents’ names are being withheld because of the juvenile’s age.

[Via Sun Sentinel]