Weird News Stories

[ShadySands]

Since I'm still awake I thought I'd go for the trifecta

 

First documented marijuana overdose?

[Mor]

I read about it, I am not certain that it was a marijuana overdose per se. No more that people dropping dead in the steam room from hear attack is steamroom overdose..

[Raithe]

Norwegian boy takes parents' car to visit grandparents, claims he's a dwarf

 

 

(Reuters) - A ten-year-old Norwegian boy came up with a novel excuse after he drove his parents' car into a snowy ditch on Wednesday morning: he told police he was a dwarf who forgot his driving license.

 

The boy lives near Dokka, a town about 110 kilometers north of Oslo. Sometime before 0600 local time, he loaded his 18-month old sister into the car and headed for their grandparents in Valdres, about 60 kilometers away, local police said.

He drove more than 10 kilometers before he veered off the road. A snowplow driver found him and alerted the police.

 

"The parents woke up and discovered that the children were missing and that someone had taken off with their car. They were pretty upset, as you can imagine," said Baard Christiansen, a spokesman for the Vest Oppland police district.

"The boy told the snowplow driver that he was a dwarf and that he had forgotten his driver's license at home."

 

Police said no charges would be filed and the case was closed.

"We have talked to them, and I'm pretty sure they're going to pay very close attention both to their children and to their car keys in the future," Christiansen said.

The children were not injured and the car was not damaged, police said.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Raithe

[ManifestedISO]

No wonder the 'wegians are winning the medal count, now. Their children can drive 3,000lb machines in arctic snow drifts, carrying other, smaller children and get away with it. Stay strong, little man! 

[213374U]

Why, of course I'm not a robot, sir!

[ShadySands]

Police arrest man for child pornography after tipoff from burglars

 

A central California man has been arrested for possession of child pornography, thanks to a tip from burglars who robbed the man's property, authorities said.

 

Last month, a juvenile and a 19-year-old illegally accessed the property of Kraig Stockard, 54, of Delhi, California, according to a statement from Deputy Tom MacKenzie of the Merced County Sheriff's Department. They broke into Stockard's barn and stole about 50 CDs they believed were blank.

 

Stockard filed a police report on the incident on September 12, according to MacKenzie.

 

But the young people who stole the CDs were in for a surprise. When they began putting the discs into their computer, they discovered that some of them contained pornographic images of children, the statement said.

 

Despite having obtained the CDs under decidedly shady circumstances, the pair decided to report Stockard to the police.

 

A search warrant was served and three more computers and three laptops were taken from Stockard's home, along with several external hard drives. Police said there were thousands of pictures and movies on the CDs -- more than 30 of the 50 discs had child pornography on them.

 

Investigators said Stockard has been downloading indecent images of children since 2004. He has admitted possessing the pornography on the CDs but has refused to say whether there is pornography on the computers, they said. Stockard was booked for possession of child pornography and posted $25,000 bail.

 

The two burglar suspects who reported Stockard have not been arrested.

 

Their case has been sent to the Merced County District Attorney's Office for review. When reached for comment, a press officer told CNN the office could not comment on the case because one of the informants in question is a juvenile.

Edited February 18, 2014 by ShadySands

[Hiro Protagonist]

Nun Faces up to 30 Years for Breaking Into Weapons Complex, Embarrassing the Feds

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/01/nun-megan-rice-sentencing-y-12-nuclear-weapons-security

 

 

 

An update on this post. The 84 year old Nun was sentenced to 3 years in jail.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/18/us-usa-security-nuclear-idUSBREA1H0SS20140218

 

 

Elderly nun sentenced to 35 months for Tennessee nuclear break-in

 

Good to know this dangerous radical is off the streets and serving time. Justice and the law, keeping society safe. :/

Edited February 20, 2014 by Hiro Protagonist

[Gfted1]

Yes, she should be exempt from the laws of the land.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Yes, she should be exempt from the laws of the land.

 

Who said she should be exempt? I was commenting on the severity of the sentence. Sure give her punishment of some sort, but 3 years jail?

[TrashMan]

 

 

The chinese desperately needs to have an honor-system in their culture. Selling fakes? Family honor has been revoked, the only way to restore it is to commit seppuku. I give it a generation or two and things will improve immensly. 

 

 

You're thinking Japan, not China.

 

[Gfted1]

 

Yes, she should be exempt from the laws of the land.

 

Who said she should be exempt? I was commenting on the severity of the sentence. Sure give her punishment of some sort, but 3 years jail?

 

 

Severity? The article states that she could have gotten 20 years. The judge specifically gave her a lower sentence than the other two in recognition of her lack of a criminal record. She got off easy, imo.

[Meshugger]

Mamoru Samuragochi (who was credited for music on the Dual Shock version of RESIDENT EVIL and OMNIMUSHI: WARLORDS) considered by some to be Japan's Beethoven has announced that he actually had a ghost writer write his music as he was too deaf to do more than suggest themes.

 

The ghost writer came forward (apparently distressed that their music was being used by one of Japan's figure skaters) and said that not only did Samuragochi hire him to compose music, but that Samuragochi can't compose music himself.

 

Oh and that Samuragochi isn't actually deaf.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/arts/music/renowned-japanese-composer-mamoru-samuragochi-admits-fraud.html?_r=1

 

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/02/winter-olympics-japan-figure-skating-composer-daisuke-takahashi/

 

 

Lies.

......

.....

....

...

..

.

It's Nobou Uematsu or Joe Hisaishi that are the Japanese Beethovens.

[Amentep]

Uematsu and Hisaishi are deaf like Beethoven (because that was the reason for the comparison with Samuragochi)?

[Wrath of Dagon]

 

Yes, she should be exempt from the laws of the land.

 

Who said she should be exempt? I was commenting on the severity of the sentence. Sure give her punishment of some sort, but 3 years jail?

 

It's pretty severe, considering hard core criminals often get away with less, but I think it's meant as a warning to others more than anything, because it really is a national security threat. Also Feds tend to be quite ruthless.

[Mor]

I am not certain what her (or the other two guys) profession has todo with anything. They have taken trip to a remote classified restricted area, defined as National Security Complex. Other than trespassing, damage to property(cut several security fences with bolt cutters) and tripping over National Security acts. This is not the first time their group done this and they used the media exposure to call for further acts. They wanted attention, they got it.

[Raithe]

DHL pranked UHL into advertising for them

 

http://youtu.be/vHVWegNfQl0

 

 

 

The dramatic increase of online shopping has fanned the flames of competition between shipping companies. Which is why, using thermal-activated ink, DHL figured the best way to advertise just how fast and efficient its shipping services are was to trick its competitors into doing it for them.

 

The prank was simple and brilliant. DHL hired companies like UPS and TNT to deliver large black boxes to addresses that were particularly difficult to find. But the boxes weren't actually black. Instead, they were covered with a temperature-activated ink that appeared black when the boxes were chilled to sub-zero temperatures at the time of pickup. But as they warmed up in the back of delivery trucks, the black ink faded revealing a large message on the side of the boxes boasting that "DHL is faster."

 

The deliverymen had no choice but to deliver the trojan packages, which were big enough to be incredibly awkward and extremely noticeable by anyone nearby. Well played, DHL. Well played

 

 

[Meshugger]

Uematsu and Hisaishi are deaf like Beethoven (because that was the reason for the comparison with Samuragochi)?

 

Of course not, they have the same talent as Beethoven. That was the comparison.

[Raithe]

Fears as Bitcoin Exchange Collapses

 

 

The sudden disappearance of one of the largest bitcoin exchanges has intensified the mystery and mistrust surrounding the virtual currency.

Prominent bitcoin supporters said the apparent collapse of the Tokyo-based Mt Gox exchange was an isolated case of mismanagement that would weed out "bad actors".

But the setback raised serious questions about bitcoin's tenuous status and even more tenuous future. At least one supporter said the blow could be fatal to bitcoin's quest for acceptance by the public after it was just beginning to gain legitimacy beyond the technology enthusiasts and adventurous investors who created it.

A coalition of virtual currency companies said Mt Gox went under after secretly racking up catastrophic losses. The exchange had imposed a ban on withdrawals earlier this month.

 

By yesterday its website returned only a blank page. The collapse followed the resignation on Sunday of chief executive Mark Karpeles from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a group seeking wider use of the exotic currency.

 

Mt Gox's origins are rooted in fantasy instead of finance. The service originally specialised in trading colourful cards featuring mythical wizards and derives its name from a game. The initials stand for Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange.

 

San Francisco-based wallet service Coinbase and Chinese exchange BTC China sought to shore up confidence in the currency by saying the Mt Gox's situation was isolated and the result of abusing users' trust.

 

"As with any new industry, there are certain bad actors that need to be weeded out, and that is what we are seeing today," the statement said.

Since its creation in 2009, bitcoin has become popular among tech enthusiasts, libertarians and risk-seeking investors because it allows people to make one-to-one transactions, buy goods and services and exchange money across borders without involving banks, credit card issuers or other third parties. Criminals like bitcoin for the same reasons.

 

For various technical reasons, it is hard to know just how many people worldwide own bitcoins, but the currency attracted outsize media attention and the fascination of millions as an increasing number of large retailers such as Overstock.com began to accept it.

Speculative investors have jumped into the bitcoin fray, too, sending the currency's value fluctuating wildly in recent months. In December, the value of a single bitcoin hit an all-time high of 1,200 dollars (£722). In the aftermath of the Mt Gox collapse, one bitcoin stands at around 470 dollars (£283).

 

Central banks across the world have been hesitant to recognise bitcoin as a form of money and yesterday's vanishing act is not helping.

Japanese government officials at the Finance Ministry and the Fiscal Services Agency said today that a virtual currency like bitcoin was not under their jurisdiction. Tokyo police declined to comment.

 

Mt Gox "reminds us of the downside of decentralized, unregulated currencies", said Campbell Harvey, a professor at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business who specialises in financial markets and global risk management.

"There is no Federal Reserve or IMF to come to the rescue. There is no deposit insurance."

But, Prof Campbell said, Mt Gox's disappearance "doesn't mean the end of the road" for bitcoin and other virtual currencies.

The collapse "might represent the end of the 'wild west' where anyone can set up shop and deal in crypto-currencies," he said. But "increasingly sophisticated investors" are funding serious ventures that will "raise both quality and confidence".

 

Peter Leeds, a publisher of newsletter focused on risky investments, doubts bitcoin will recover from the Mt Gox collapse and expects the currency to plunge below 300 dollars (£180).

 

"It's more likely that someone getting involved in bitcoin at this point of the game is going to lose," he said. "There are all sorts of problems inherent with bitcoin that are just now coming to light."

 

Documents purportedly leaked from Mt Gox lay out the scale of the problem. An 11-page "crisis strategy draft" published on the blog of entrepreneur and bitcoin enthusiast Ryan Selkis said that 740,000 bitcoins were missing from Mt Gox. That represents roughly 6% of the estimated 12 million bitcoins that have been created so far, translating into hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of losses, although figures are fuzzy given the currency's extreme volatility.

 

"At the risk of appearing hyperbolic, this could be the end of bitcoin, at least for most of the public," the draft said.

In a post to his blog, Mr Selkis said the document was handed to him by a "reliable source" and that several people close to the company had confirmed the figures. The Japanese government has not announced any formal investigation.

The scandal may cost customers dearly.

 

At the Tokyo office building housing Mt Gox, bitcoin trader Kolin Burges said he had picketed outside since February 14 after traveling from London in an effort to get back 320,000 dollars (£193,000) he has tied up in bitcoins with the exchange.

"I may have lost all of my money," said Mr Burgess, next to placards asking if Mt. Gox is bankrupt. "It hasn't shaken my trust in bitcoin, but it has shaken my trust in bitcoin exchanges."

 

Mr Karpeles did not immediately return messages seeking comment. A security officer at the office building said no one from Mt Gox was inside. Tibbane, an internet company of which Mr Karpeles is CEO, still has its name listed on the building's directory.

"I have no idea" where they are, said Mr Burges. "I'm both annoyed and worried."

Bitcoin's boosters say the currency's design makes it impossible to counterfeit and difficult to manipulate. But it has struggled to shake off its associations with criminality, particularly its role in powering the now-defunct online drug marketplace Silk Road.

 

Only last month, another member of the Bitcoin Foundation, vice chairman Charlie Shrem, was arrested at New York's Kennedy Airport on charges of money laundering.

 

The exchange's website displayed a notice today that said all transactions were closed "for the time being" to protect the site and customers.

[Mor]

Scientists cultivate bacteria from baby poop to make healthier sausages http://io9.com/scientists-cultivate-bacteria-from-baby-poop-to-make-he-1529898755

 

I did not want to know that!

[LadyCrimson]

Post count limit. I think we've had some fun with this thread so I'm going to create a continuation/2nd thread.