FUCK OFF

The lost pets of hurricane Katrina

2009-05-12T14:29:00.001-07:00

Near New Orleans a small oil-slickened dog was seen wandering in Chalmette, Louisiana, as cleanup crews recovered oil from a ruptured refinery tank on September 6, 2005. Tens of thousands of barrels of oil had spilled and mixed with receding floodwater from Hurricane Katrina.

Three dogs waited for rescue in Pass Christian, Mississippi, on August 31, 2005, one day after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast town. The dogs were later saved by a local police officer.

Surrounded by litter left by refugees, a dog remained tied to the railing of a highway ramp in New Orleans on September 3, 2005, six days after Hurricane Katrina. Like many of the city's newly stranded pets, the dog may have been refused passage by rescuers as they evacuated its owners.

A New Orleans resident waded along Canal Street with a dog he rescued on August 30, 2005, the day the local levee system failed and flooded the city.

The Hitch vs Mos Def

2009-04-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

"Mr Hitchens..."
"Mr Definitely..."
Amazing. You got merced Mos Def.

Last one.

2009-04-17T09:45:00.001-07:00

And again.

2009-04-17T09:27:00.001-07:00

Been fannying about with Photoshop this morning...

2009-04-17T03:38:00.000-07:00

Cocky motherfuckers

2009-04-15T01:53:00.000-07:00

They literally don't give a shit. Even after a yank sniper popped three of their lot with three clean shots, whilston a boat in five foot seas. Sweet. Despite this yesterday the plucky wankers had another pop at a US ship.

Pirates attacked another US-flagged cargo ship off the coast of Somalia with rockets and automatic weapons - but failed to board the craft.

Those crazy, crazy bastards.

Pirates

2009-04-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

What year is this? Last time I check the East India Trading Company was out of business and amputee's could expect something a little more advanced than a wooden leg or a hook hand - With the exception of Abu, but he's a prick. But no, it seems these vagabonds in Somalia are still having a pop at every passing frigate and dingy. True they got a licking from some yanks today. The crew of the Maersk Alabama re-took their ship from a bunch of pirates. They have taken the pirate captain hostage and the rest of the nefarious bastards are described as being 'in the water.' But the point remains that this is the sixth hijack in recent days, including a British and Taiwanese ship. Isn't it about time we steamed over there with the Navy and fired a couple of Exocets into these pricks? Or how letting the SBS have a run-a-round? It's not like they have a political agenda, they're just thieves. Come on, lets show these arseholes what we can do.

I will find her...

2009-03-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

And when I do, she is going to get the staring at of her life!

Dreams.

2009-03-29T08:19:00.000-07:00

Martin Luther King had a dream, and in it he dreamt that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." He also dreamt that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. And then he dreamt that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. And of course that his four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Now, I don't wish to undermine the man in anyway, he was a really good sort and was the fulcrum responsible for change in America's view on race. But I had a dream as well, and it looked like this...

Pretty sweet huh?

In the absence of...

2009-03-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

Titties.

Nature in all its awesomeness

2009-03-16T11:03:00.000-07:00

Lucky little tinker

2009-03-16T10:59:00.001-07:00

Obama and the limits of liberalism

2009-02-18T10:02:00.001-08:00

After only a month in office, President Barack Obama has bumped up against the realities of war-and-peace decisions that face any American president. The president's order not to withdraw from Afghanistan but to get further into it shows that there are limits to the liberalism he has espoused.

Every cloud...

2009-02-15T05:22:00.000-08:00

Damn: 'The severity of global warming over the next century will be much worse than previously believed, a leading climate scientist has warned.'
But hang on: 'There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.'
YEEEEEESSSSSSSS, DANCE SPACE GIRL DANCE!

2009-02-15T05:18:00.001-08:00

NOT A CUNT.

2009-02-14T11:41:00.000-08:00

REAL MEN 2009: No. 1

2009-02-13T04:27:00.000-08:00

Sergeant H.A. Marshall of The Calgary Highlanders. Canadian snipers in the Second World War were also trained scouts. Specialized equipment includes Lee Enfield No. 4 Mk I(T) rifle and scope combination and a camouflaged Denison smock.

PGC EXCLUSIVE

2009-02-04T09:41:00.001-08:00

Thats right. We have our first exclusive! The world premier of the trailer for the Jerry Bruckmeister blockbuster, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The films stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton and ben Kingsley. It's based on the video game, which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. Cooo. Here's the trailer. SMASH!

Ha ha, goats suck at flying

2009-01-30T09:52:00.001-08:00

Louise Theokritoff, 18, of Nottingham, who has just started at the University of Birmingham studying English and American literature, on the recession

2009-01-23T06:37:00.001-08:00

"As a first-year student, the recession's impact seems fairly unimportant in relation to me. I came to university expecting huge expense, and I am prepared to rack up a large debt in the name of a further education and three years of partying. It's what I've always expected, really. Know what I mean?"

AN UNEASY PEACE IN GAZA

2009-01-19T10:06:00.000-08:00

Parkour

2009-01-14T06:05:00.000-08:00

Parkour (sometimes also abbreviated to PK) or l'art du déplacement[1] (English: the art of movement) is an activity with the aim of moving from one point to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body.[2] It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment—from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls—and can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Parkour practitioners are referred to as traceurs, or traceuses for females.[3]

Parkour, in truth, is the cultural equivalent of a Dan Brown book. A lame idea wrapped up in a lot of window dressing, it's just jumping off stuff, as the above hero proved. But then this is coming from someone who'd walk the long round to avoid letting people see that he gets short of breath scaling a low dry-stone wall.

"Wait, what did you say? What do you mean I spelt it wrong? Geez, now I just look like an idiot and my whole argument makes no sense..."

2009-01-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009-01-03T08:17:00.000-08:00

We won't make another...

It's getting cold...

2008-12-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

So be careful on the ice.

OWL-U-MENTARY

2008-12-30T05:58:00.000-08:00

Arn't Japanese people strange! Stange and so very, very cruel...

Parkour from 1930

2008-12-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas is fucking brilliant...

2008-12-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

...isn't it!

2:26 is where the weekend starts...

2008-12-12T09:56:00.000-08:00

It's a crying shame that you never get to see the Reg have a proper runaround these days...

2008-12-12T02:36:00.000-08:00

And here are the fighting men of the 22 giving the Taliban a bit of vim and vigour...

Apropos of nothing...Just quite impressive

2008-12-11T10:37:00.001-08:00

Real life Miss Marple shit

2008-12-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

An actor slit his throat on stage when the prop knife for his suicide scene turned out to be a real one. The fucking douche...

Daniel Hoevels, 30, slumped over with blood pouring from his neck while the audience broke into applause at the "special effect". Police are investigating whether the knife was a mistake or a murder plot. They are questioning the rest of the cast, and backstage hands with access to props; they will also carry out DNA tests. Things went wrong at Vienna's Burgtheater as Hoevels' character went to "kill himself" in the final scene of Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart, about Mary Queen of Scots, on Saturday night It was only when he did not get up to take a bow that anyone realised something had gone wrong. Though bleeding profusely, Hoevels survived because the knife missed the carotid artery as it sliced into his neck. Wolfgang Lenz, a doctor who treated him, said: "Just a little bit deeper and he would have been drowning in his own blood." One officer told Austrian TV news: "The rumours are wild, with some claiming that he was the victim of jealous rival. "We don't know anything for sure yet; we have to work through everyone." The knife was reportedly bought at a local shop; one possibility is that the props staff forgot to blunt its blade. "The knife even still had the price tag on it," an investigator said. After emergency treatment at a hospital, Hoevels declared that the show must go on, and returned to the stage on Sunday night with a bandage tied around his neck, ready to once again meet his mock demise.

Clint Eastwood: Still kicking ass at 78

2008-12-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

Here is the trailer for Gran Torino, propbably Clint Eastwoods final film as an actor. The man is unstoppable. So commanding. I bet the producers were all like, "Uh, Clint don't you think it would be cool if you bought back the orange chimp to help you fight these assholes? It's a one line fix...One of the Chinese kids could be all like, 'wow, it's a good thing he bought that chimp back from Korea.' This shit write itself."

Clint: "Get off my lawn"

Producer: "Um, sir, we're in an office, there's no lawn."

Clint: "I said get off my lawn..."

Producer: Okay, we'll come back later

Clint: *Jangles loose change in his pocket*

Snow forecast for much of Britain

2008-12-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

"Parts of northern Britain could see snowfalls of 20cm (7.8in) in the coming days," Say weather forecasters...

YES!

2008-12-01T06:00:00.003-08:00

Not boasting or anything, but I just bought my return train ticket home for Christmas for £29.00. I have a seat booked and everything. So no rushing to the station on Christmas Eve, spending £80 and having to stand up for three hours. Fucking right, I'm so organized I'll probably have time to get a burger or sandwich for the journey...It doesn't get any better than this.

Alan Moore

2008-11-27T05:51:00.001-08:00

SEX TITAN

"Sexually progressive cultures gave us mathematics, literature, philosophy, civilization and the rest, while sexually restrictive cultures gave us the Dark Ages and the Holocaust. Not that I’m trying to load my argument, of course."

GET SHORTY

2008-11-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

MORE LIKE GET SHORT LIZARD! AM I RIGHT? GO FUCK YERSELF*

*Slams head in cupboard door

Daz Sampson

2008-11-23T10:38:00.000-08:00

This is what Europe thinks British people are like...

RED ARMY

2008-11-23T06:03:00.001-08:00

2008-11-13T10:14:00.000-08:00

And Billy Ocean.

The Hermit of Les Ecrehous

2008-11-12T03:13:00.000-08:00

Incredible story...

A new moon shone that Saturday night in March 1960 in St. Martin, a picturesque dot of a town on the coast of Jersey, largest of the bucolic Channel Islands. As the village slept, a silent intruder broke into a small cottage, abducted a 14-year-old girl from her ground-floor bedroom and led her to a nearby field, where he raped her and nearly strangled her by twisting a rope around her neck. The girl's ordeal was only the latest in a series of similar horrors, and it sent waves of fear through the area. It was not long before those fears found a focus: brawny, broad-shouldered Alphonse Le Gastelois, a sometime woodworker and full-time eccentric who lived alone in a tumble-down St. Martin cottage. Le Gastelois had no friends. Most nights, he could be spotted in his baggy clothes, loping along St. Martin's roads and footpaths. What was he up to? "I love nature," he would say. "I listen to the sounds of the dark and the silence." Soon Le Gastelois began hearing other sounds. As the months wore on, bringing five more unsolved sex crimes, suspicion turned to hostility and then violence. Le Gastelois was stoned and spat upon when he walked through the village. Hooligans tore his cottage apart. By the summer of 1961, he had had enough. He fled to a stony, wave-swept reef seven miles offshore known as Les Ecrehous (the Rocky Islets). On his barren refuge, no larger than a football field, he learned to subsist on lobster, crab and boiled sea lettuce, plus gifts brought by curiosity- seeking tourists. "Only by going away could I clear my name," he would tell them. "I was sure the terrible attacks would continue and my innocence would be recognized." Uncle Ted. Le Gastelois was right on both counts. Nine more attacks occurred after his flight, bringing the total to 21, on young boys as well as girls. Last week, after more than a decade of terror, a three-judge Jersey court convicted a St. Martin building contractor, Edward Paisnel, on 13 counts of assault, rape and sodomy in six of the attacks. His sentence has not yet been determined. It was not surprising that Paisnel, 46, a balding, mustached man, had escaped suspicion for so long. Though he fitted the few scraps of description offered by the victims—rough hands, a habit of softly muttering "Jesus"—Paisnel was a respected businessman, husband, and guardian of several foster children. Every year, "Uncle Ted" faithfully appeared at the local orphanage, dressed as Father Christmas, I! I to hand out sweets and toys. On other occasions, it later developed, his costume was quite different. Last July police caught him in a stolen car. He was wearing a jacket studded with nails at the shoulders and on the lapels, and had with him a rubber mask, a woman's wig and several lengths of rope. "I belong to a religious secret society," he explained feebly. "I'm on my way to a sex orgy." Behind a cupboard in his home, police found the entrance to a windowless room containing books on black magic and witchcraft, a nail-studded raincoat, and an altar draped with black velvet. During his five-day trial, it came out that Paisnel believed that he was a descendant of Gilles de Rais, the original Bluebeard. De Rais was hanged in 1440 after admitting that he had murdered something like 200 children whom he had lured to his castle in France "for my daily pleasure.

Le Gastelois got the news by radio last week, but it was years too late. The old woodworker, 57, ragged and wild-eyed, would not leave his rock. "This is my home now!" he raged. "Jersey crucified me."

50! 50! 50!

2008-11-05T11:07:00.000-08:00

I'VE BEEN AWAY...

2008-11-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

Visiting the heavy metal River Styx and seeing the ghost of Dimebag Darrell

Mark Knopfler can haz cheezburger

2008-10-24T09:43:00.000-07:00

AWESOME HEAT

2008-10-15T11:49:00.000-07:00

Shipped semen available.

www.moonshadowarabians.net/awesome

HATRED, a wee band from Scotland keep the torch burning for a new generation

2008-10-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Anne Frank once said...

2008-10-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death."
Right on Anne...

THE INVASION

2008-10-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

Of INVASION.

God bless Skill Wizard.

"Damn Jerry, up the Bucks, see you in Strasbourg."

2008-10-09T10:47:00.000-07:00

Rob Halford's...GAY?!

2008-10-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought it with moves like this...

WE HAVE A WINNER!

2008-10-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

This guy rules so hard...
In an elaborate robbery scheme that's one part The Thomas Crowne Affair and one part Pineapple Express, a crook robbed an armored truck outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Wash., by hiring decoys through Craigslist to deter authorities.
It gets better: He then escaped in a creek headed for the Skykomish River in an inner tube, and the cops are still looking for him. "A great amount of money" was taken, Monroe police said, but did not provide a dollar value. It appears to have unfolded this way, according to a Seattle-based NBC affiliate: around 11:00 a.m. PDT on Tuesday, the robber, wearing a yellow vest, safety goggles, a blue shirt, and a respirator mask went over to a guard who was overseeing the unloading of cash to the bank from the truck. He sprayed the guard with pepper spray, grabbed his bag of money, and fled the scene. But here's the hilarious twist. The robber had previously put out a Craigslist ad for road maintenance workers, promising wages of $28.50 per hour. Recruits were asked to wait near the Bank of America right around the time of the robbery--wearing yellow vests, safety goggles, a respirator mask, and preferably a blue shirt. At least a dozen of them showed up after responding to the Craigslist ad. "I came across the ad that was for a prevailing wage job for $28.50 an hour," one of the unwitting decoys, named Mike, said to the NBC station. As it turns out, they were simply placed there to confuse cops who were looking for a guy wearing a virtually identical outfit. Authorities eventually found the getaway inner tube (a getaway inner tube!) and suspect that accomplices may have picked up the robber in a boat. According to the NBC affiliate, police hope to track him down by figuring out who posted the Craigslist ad in the first place

HE TOTALLY FALCON KICKS THE POLICE!

Bill O'Reilly vs. 2 Pac

2008-10-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

vs.

VIKING FUN

2008-10-03T10:06:00.000-07:00

It's the W.E.E.K.E.N.D

MENAGERIE RACE

2008-10-02T10:50:00.001-07:00

THERE IS NO GOD

2008-10-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

Snake Attacks After Losing Body - Watch more free videos

"Hurry up, ma'am, because I think I'm going to pass out."

2008-09-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

A MAN calmly called an ambulance on his mobile phone moments after being sliced in half by a train. The wheels cut off Truman Duncan's right leg at the thigh along with his left leg, pelvis and kidney. But he survived. And the railway worker told an astonished emergency services operator: "I think I'm cut in two." When she asked if someone was run over, he said: "It was me. Hurry up, ma'am, because I think I'm going to pass out." Truman, 38, stayed conscious for 45 minutes waiting for help after tumbling from a moving train in sidings in his home town of Cleburne, Texas. This week, he said one thought kept him alive. The father-of-three said: "I wanted to see my babies grow up." He even made a heart-wrenching call to his family while blood pumped from his wounds. Eldest son Trey, 19, said: "I told him I loved him with all my heart and he was the best dad I could wish for." Truman's injuries were so horrific, few who saw him before he had surgery in a Fort Worth hospital thought he had any chance of survival. Dr David Smith said: "I thought I'd be pronouncing somebody dead." He said the train's weight could have kept pressure in Truman's arteries. Truman said his Red Cross training helped, as he knew he was going into shock. But he never thought he was going to die. Surgeons spent three-and-a-half hours saving Truman's life and cleaning dirt, grass and gravel from his wounds. He was in a coma for three weeks and had at least 23 further operations. Two years on, he insists he still does everything he used to do, including driving, swimming and playing with his kids. And he's looking forward to learning to get around with prosthetic limbs. Truman had not spoken of his trauma until he was on US TV yesterday. He said: "Life is good - goes on, you know."

Scientists glimpse 'dark flow' lurking beyond the edge of the universe

2008-09-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Distant clusters of galaxies are all shifting inexorably towards the same spot in the sky, beyond the boundary of what we can see.
A survey of hundreds of moving galaxy clusters, each of which contains hundreds of millions of stars, shows that they are defying expectations by moving at roughly two million miles per hour towards a particular location that may lie beyond the horizon of our observable universe. The universe is approximately 14 billion years old and the "cosmological horizon" is defined by the distance from where the light emitted at the moment of the big bang reaches us today - roughly 14 billion light years. The spot is a patch of sky between the constellations of Centaurus and Vela and the strange finding flies in the face of the current theories of the universe which would predict such motions as decreasing at ever greater distances.
Uh-Oh, here we go agaiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnn

Hedgehogs...

2008-09-28T08:16:00.000-07:00

"Underrated." Noam Chomsky, 2008.

R.I.P JASPER

2008-09-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

My cat got put down, so I made this tribute video. He was a better man than you'll ever be. I fully blame the Taliban for his death...

"My face just fucking melted!"

2008-09-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

God I wish I hadn't quit the guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano and trumpet when I wasn't good straight away.

Top ten paranormal mysteries...SOLVED

2008-09-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

New mysteries, same tired old jokes...

The mystery
No.10 The Taos Hum
The Taos Hum is a mysterious low-frequency humming noise of unknown origin that reportedly exists in Taos, New Mexico. Other occurrences of this phenomena have been reported all over the world and most have been attributed to industrial sounds. What makes the Taos Hum interesting is that the hum is often intensified inside of buildings and is only heard by around 2% of the local population.
Generally, the Taos Hum is thought to be one of the following:
Man-made noises (subwoofers, industrial machinery, etc)
Infrasound from different possible sources, possibly geologic or plate tectonic in nature.
Pulsed microwaves
Electromagnetic waves caused by meteors
Extremely low frequency communications systems (submarine communication, etc)
Ionospheric heating systems (HAARP)

All WRONG.
The Taos Hum is infact...The singer from popular 90's minstrels The Crash Test Dummies practising for a comeback on the back of that song that was in Dumb & Dumber. But he lives in a lake or something...

Whatever.

Cannibal Corpse.

2008-09-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

BOX

2008-09-22T10:42:00.000-07:00

What was in the cardboard box that made Brad Pitt ask the murderer John Doe, "What's in the box?" at the end of the popular murder mystery film Se(7)ven?

Any chance of a cat dressed as a pirate?

2008-09-22T10:40:00.001-07:00

Sure.

The grizzly pole dancers of North West Montana

2008-09-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

The USGS (United States Geographical Survey) were suprised after a program set up in Montana to monitor the activity of bears turned up some interesting results. BEARS ARE WHORES.
(A bear whoring yesterday)

Footage of the furry concubines wanking for pennies has been taken down, but here is some footage of them pole dancing against tree's. The dirty bastards.

It seems Montana is some kind of weird bear brothel catering for all sorts of fucked up bear baiting scientists. "To get a better view of the population, the USGS set up hair traps (with video cameras) to collect bear hair. The hair trap consists of barbed wire and a scent lure. When the bears investigate the scent lure, they inevitably leave behind a few hairs on the barbed wire. The USGS group later collected the hair and performed DNA analysis to learn about the grizzly population. Using DNA analysis, they were able to identify the species, sex, and identify individual bears." Those sick, sick fucks.

Fright Night

2008-09-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Great film. Great poster...

SAXOPHONE SOLO'S RULE OKAY

2008-09-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

FUCK ON - IT'S THE WEEKEND

2008-09-12T10:10:00.001-07:00

Wingman

2008-09-11T11:29:00.001-07:00

"Too close for missiles..."

"I'm switching to guns."

Coincidence?

2008-09-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

Turn the sound off on this video of the Taliban, but keep watching it...

Then turn the sound right up on this video here...

Song of the moment.

2008-09-09T10:54:00.001-07:00

They're turning on the Large Hadron Collider tomorrow...

2008-09-09T10:52:00.001-07:00

We be fucked...

WOOP! WOOP!

2008-09-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

LOOK-A-LIKE

2008-09-05T10:20:00.001-07:00

Michael - the blind bloke of Big Brother

The monsters off The Descent

AN ARGUMENT FOR STERALISATION

2008-09-05T10:16:00.001-07:00

CAT/LADY

2008-09-05T10:12:00.000-07:00

Symmetry, blah, blah, blah. Lighting, whatever. Light playing off the woman's soft skin, fuck off. Imagine the cat wearing the same knickers as her!

WEEKEND

2008-09-05T10:03:00.000-07:00

As it’s the weekend, I racked my brain for a video of something that truly sum’s up the joie de vivre of two days off from the weekly grind. And I concluded that a nine minute video of The Who playing Baba O’Riley, with John Entwistle’s bass isolated. Ten minutes! Doeseny get any better than that…

THE CUTEST SNAKE IN THE WORLD

2008-09-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

GOOD TO KNOW THERE ARE STILL A FEW PROPER SERIAL KILLERS ABOUT

2008-09-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

War crimes just wear you down after a while...
Officials in Los Angeles are offering half a million dollars to help catch a serial killer who has murdered at least 10 women and one man in two sprees over the past 20 years.

The killer is thought to have struck at least 11 times in Los Angeles
All the victims were black and were found in or near South Los Angeles. Police believe some of the women were prostitutes.
Seven women and a man were killed by the same handgun in a three-year period starting in August 1985. The women had been sexually assaulted and their bodies were often dumped in the same alley.
Los Angeles City Council has now approved a reward first proposed by city councilman Bernard Parks, who as police chief in 2001 ordered the department to look into a backlog of unsolved cases.
Alicia Monique Alexander was the last known victim in the first round of killings. Porter Alexander last saw his youngest daughter one evening in September 1988 as the 18-year-old ran out for what was supposed to be a quick trip to the shop.
"I said make sure you go to the store and come back. She says, 'okay'," Porter Alexander said. "She left, and that was the last time I saw my baby." Four days later, police knocked at the front door of the family home. They had found her body in a nearby alley with a gunshot wound in the chest. A 13-year break followed Miss Alexander's death, police said, and investigators retired or moved on to other cases.

"What accounted for that gap, we still don't know," police Captain Denis Cremins said at a news conference. "We try not to engage in conjecture." The break ended in March 2002, when 14-year-old Princess Berthomieux was found beaten and strangled in an alley in the city of Inglewood. DNA samples linked her to the suspect in the earlier murders.
Another killing came in 2003, and the most recent homicide was in January 2007 when the body of Janecia Peters, 25, was found shot and covered in a rubbish bag. The length of time between the killings prompted the LA Weekly newspaper, which first reported the case, to dub the killer the "Grim Sleeper". Though police have a DNA sample, only one physical description of the killer exists, taken from a victim who survived a 1988 attack. She said the assailant was a black man in his 30s driving an orange Ford Pinto. "But that's one person's account who was traumatised," Captain Cremins said.
Investigators are poring through prison and jail records to screen prisoners with a violent history who were locked up during the break in the killings. Authorities also hope to search DNA databases to see if there are any possible matches to the killer's family members.

HELL DRIVERS RULE OKAY

2008-09-03T10:18:00.001-07:00

Doug Danger? Make mine a double...Look out for the exploding man box at the 50 second mark.

Triangles are bent...

2008-09-03T10:15:00.001-07:00

A complete list of 'events' in the Bermuda Triangle...

1908, January 22 BALTIMORE - A bark that disappeared east of Hampton Roads, Virginia with 9 persons
1908, January 27 GEORGE R. VREELAND - A schooner that disappeared east of Hampton Roads, Virginia with 7 persons.
1909, September 18 GEORGE TAULANE JR. - A schooner that vanished off the coast of Georgia with 7 persons.
1909, November 14 SPRAY - A 30 something foot vessel owned and sailed by Joshua Slocum. A world famous sailor and the first man to sail around the world in a small boat. He is the author of the book "Sailing Alone Around the World"
1909, December 16 MARTHA S. BEMENT - A schooner disappeared east of Jacksonville, Florida with 7 persons
1909, December 18 MAGGIE S. HART - A schooner disappeared east of Jacksonville, Florida with 8 persons
1909, December 23 AUBURN - A schooner disappeared east of Jacksonville, Florida with 9 persons
1909, December 25 ANNA R. BISHOP - A schooner disappeared east of Jacksonville, Florida with 7 persons
1910, March 15 U.S.S. NINA - US Navy Steam Tug Boat. The first steamship on record to vanish in the triangle
1910, March 26 CHARLES W. PARKER - A steamship that disappeared east of the southern Jersey coast with 17 persons.
1913, December 17 GEORGE A. LAWRY - A schooner, disappeared east of Jacksonville Florida with 6 persons on board.
1914, January 29 BENJAMINE F. POOLE - A schooner disappeared east of Wilmington North Carolina.
1914, February 27 FITZ J. BABSON - A schooner disappeared east of Jacksonville Florida with 7 persons.
1915, April 10 BERTHA L. BASKER - A freighter that disappeared while en route from New York to St. Martin.
1915, April 20 MAUDE B. KRUM - A schooner that disappeared east of St. Andrews Florida with 7 persons
1916, November 3 BROWN BROTHERS, or BROWN BROS. - A bark that disappeared east of Savannah Georgia with 12 persons on board.
1917, March 6 TIMANDRA - A freighter that vanished east of Norfolk Virginia with 19 persons on board.
1918, March 17 U.S.S. CYCLOPS -
This is one of the classic Bermuda Triangle disappearances. Volumes have been written about this vessel, and the more that come to light, the more confusing and mysterious it becomes. Two of her sister ships the PROTEUS and the NEREUS disappeared on almost the same route in 1941. The loss of those two ships was overshadowed by the onset of World War II. Click here for a list of the 21 officers and 285 enlisted men officially listed as dead on June 14th, 1918.The ironclad steamer KICKAPOO carried the name CYCLOPS from 15 June to 10 August 1869, then was renamed KEWAYDIN.The second Cyclops, a collier, was launched 7 May 1910 by William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, Pa., and placed in service 7 November 1910, G. W. Worley, Master, Navy Auxiliary Service, in charge. Operating with the Naval Auxiliary Service, Atlantic Fleet, the collier voyaged in the Baltic during May to July 1911 to supply 2d Division ships. Returning to Norfolk, she operated on the east coast from Newport to the Caribbean servicing the fleet. During the troubled conditions in Mexico in 1914 and 1915, she coaled ships on patrol there and received the thanks of the State Department for cooperation in bringing refugees from Tampico to New Orleans. With American entry into World War I, Cyclops was commissioned 1 May l917, Lieutenant Commander G. W. Worley in command. She joined a convoy for St. Nazaire, France, in June 1917, returning to the east coast in July. Except for a voyage to Halifax, Nova Scotia, she served along the east coast until 9 January 1918 when she was assigned to Naval Overseas Transportation Service. She then sailed to Brazilian waters to fuel British ships in the south Atlantic, receiving the thanks of the State Department and Commander-in-Chief, Pacific. She put to sea from Rio de Janiero 16 February 1918 and after touching at Barbados on 3 and 4 March, was never heard from again.Her loss with all 306 crew and passengers, without a trace, is one of the sea's unsolved mysteries.
1919, January 4 BAYARD HOPKINS - A schooner that disappeared east of Norfolk Virginia with 6 persons.
1920, February 20 AMELIA ZEMAN - A schooner that disappeared east of Norfolk, Virginia with 9 persons.
1920, April 18 WILLIAM O'BRIEN - Wooden steamship, new, 3143 tons, going from New York to Rotterdam
1920, October 1 ALBYAN - Russian bark sailing from Norfolk, Virginia
1920, October 19 GENERAL MORNE - British schooner, Lisbon to Newfoundland
1920, November 17 YUTE - 2974 ton, Spanish Steamer
1921, January, After the 20th HEWITT - Steel Steamer, between Texas and Boston
1921, January 31 CARROLL A. DEERING - Size given as either a 2,114 or 3,500 ton five masted schooner found abandoned and aground on Diamond Shoals.
1921, February 2 MONTE SAN MICHELE - Italian steamer, 4,061 tons. Sailing from Portland, Maine to Genoa.
1921, February 3 CABEDELLO - Steamer sailing from Norfolk, Virginia
1921, February 6 OTTAWA - Steamer, sailing from Norfolk, Virginia to Manchester, England
1921, April 4 CANADIAN MAID - British Schooner sailing from Monte Cristo to New York
1921, October 27 BAGDAD - Lost off Key West, Florida with eight persons.
1922, February 11 SEDGWICK - Schooner, Lost east of Charleston, South Carolina with 6 persons.
1925, April RAIFUKU MARU - This is the ship responsible for the famous "DANGER LIKE DAGGER NOW" radio message.
1925, December COTOPAXI - Steamer, possibly two vessels with the same name as records indicate another COTOPAXI sighted an unknown 35 foot abandoned craft in 1969
1926 PORTA NOCA - An island taxi ferry operating by Cuba
1926, March - The week of the 14th - 22nd SUDUFFCO - A freighter shipping from New Jersey to Los Angeles.
1928, November VESTRUS
1931, June CURTISS ROBIN MONOPLANE - An aircraft that disappears off Palm Beach, Florida with 2 persons.
1931, October STAVENGER - Lists the date only as 1931. A freighter lost south of Cat Island with 43 people
1932, April JOHN AND MARY - Listed as a schooner found abandoned 50 miles south of Bermuda
1935,December WACO BIPLANE - Havana to the Isle of Pines.
1938, March ANGLO - Australian freighter, Lost southwest of the Azores with 39 persons.
1940, February 3 GLORIA COLITA - Abandoned 125 foot schooner found 150 miles south of Mobile, Alabama (Gulf of Mexico)
1941, March 12 MAHUKONA - Lists the date only as 1941 also states that it was a freighter renamed the SANTA CLARA prior to some wreckage found 600 miles east of Jacksonville, Florida.
1941, November PROTEUS, U.S.S. - Sister ship to the CYCLOPS and the NEREUS. Sailing from St. Thomas to Atlantic seaports. Lost with all hands.
1941, December NEREUS, U.S.S. - Sister ship to the CYCLOPS and the PROTEUS. Vanished on the same route as the PROTEUS, St. Thomas to Atlantic seaports, Lost with all hands.
1942, November PAULUS - Listed as a passenger ship en route from the West Indies to Halifax
1943 MARTIN MARINER AIRPLANE - Lost 150 miles south of Norfolk, Virginia with 19 persons.
1944, October 22 RUBICON - Cuban cargo freighter found abandoned off the coast Florida. 90 gross tons. All hands missing, ship seaworthy with all personal effects still on board.
1944, December NAVY BOMBER AIRPLANES - Five of them which seem to disappear a year before Flight 19.
1945, January B-25 AIRPLANE - Lost between Bermuda and the Azores with 19 people.
1945, Summer BOMBER AIRPLANE - A small bomber with 2 people on board. Took off from Cecil Field, Florida.
1945, July 18 NAVY PRIVATEER AIRPLANE - PB-4YW, 4 engine. Lost between Miami, Florida and the Bahamas
1945, December 5 FLIGHT 19 -
Five Grumman TBM Avenger Torpedo Bombers. - At about 2:10 p.m. on the afternoon of 5 December 1945, Flight 19, consisting of five TBM Avenger Torpedo Bombers departed from the U. S. Naval Air Station, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on an authorized advanced overwater navigational training flight. They were to execute navigation problem No. 1, which is as follows: (1) depart 26 degrees 03 minutes north and 80 degrees 07 minutes west and fly 091 degrees (T) distance 56 miles to Hen and Chickens Shoals to conduct low level bombing, after bombing continue on course 091 degrees (T) for 67 miles, (2) fly course 346 degrees (T) distance 73 miles and (3) fly course 241 degrees (T) distance 120 miles, then returning to U. S. Naval Air Station, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In charge of the flight was a senior qualified flight instructor, piloting one of the planes. The other planes were piloted by qualified pilots with between 350 and 400 hours flight time of which at least 55 was in TBM type aircraft. The weather over the area covered by the track of the navigational problem consisted of scattered rain showers with a ceiling of 2500 feet within the showers and unlimited outside the showers, visibility of 6-8 miles in the showers, 10-12 otherwise. Surface winds were 20 knots with gusts to 31 knots. The sea was moderate to rough. The general weather conditions were considered average for training flights of this nature except within showers.
A radio message intercepted at about 4 p.m. was the first indication that Flight 19 was lost. This message, believed to be between the leader on Flight 19 and another pilot in the same flight, indicated that the instructor was uncertain of his position and the direction of the Florida coast. The aircraft also were experiencing malfunction of their compasses. Attempts to establishcommunications on the training frequency were unsatisfactory due to interference from Cuba broadcasting stations, static, and atmospheric conditions. All radio contact was lost before the exact nature of the trouble or the location of the flight could be determined. Indications are that the flight became lost somewhere east of the Florida peninsula and was unable to determine a course to return to their base. The flight was never heard from again and no trace of the planes were ever found. It is assumed that they made forced landings at sea, in darkness somewhere east of the Florida peninsula, possibly after running out of gas. It is known that the fuel carried by the aircraft would have been completely exhausted by 8 p.m. The sea in that presumed area was rough and unfavorable for a water landing. It is also possible that some unexpected and unforeseen development of weather conditions may have intervened although there is no evidence of freak storms in the area at the time.
All available facilities in the immediate area were used in an effort to locate the missing aircraft and help them return to base. These efforts were not successful. No trace of the aircraft was ever found even though an extensive search operation was conducted until the evening of 10 December 1945, when weather conditions deteriorated to the point where further efforts became unduly hazardous. Sufficient aircraft and surface vessels were utilized to satisfactorily cover those areas in which survivors of Flight 19 could be presumed to be located.
One search aircraft was lost during the operation. A PBM patrol plane which was launched at approximately 7:30 p.m., 5 December 1945, to search for the missing TBM's. This aircraft was never seen nor heard from after take-off. Based upon a report from a merchant ship off Fort Lauderdale which sighted a "burst of flame, apparently an explosion, and passed through on oil slick at a time and place which matched the presumed location of the PBM, it is believed this aircraft exploded at sea and sank at approximately 28.59 N; 80.25 W. No trace of the plane or its crew was ever found.
1945, December 27 VOYAGER II - A 70 foot schooner.
1946, December 5 CITY BELLE - A 120 foot schooner found abandoned.
1947, July 3 C-54 AIRPLANE - Took off from Kindley Field, Bermuda en route to Morrison Army Airfield, Palm Beach, Florida.
1948, January 30 STAR TIGER AIRPLANE - Airliner sister ship to the STAR ARIEL, both are Tudor IV, 4 engine model.
1948, March AL SNYDER - Disappears in The Triangle.
1948, March TENDER, BOAT - A 16 foot tender for the EVYLYN K disappears.
1948, December 28 DC-3A AIRPLANE - Known as "The Holiday Plane" this twin engine plane disappears within 50 miles south of Miami, Florida.
1949, January 17 DRIFTWOOD - 36 foot cabin cruiser.
1949, January 17 STAR ARIEL AIRPLANE - Sister ship to the STAR TIGER. A 4 engine Tudor IV that disappears en route from Bermuda to Jamaica.
1950, June SANDRA - A 350 foot freighter sailing from Savannah, Georgia to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela with 300 tons of insecticide.
1950, July 9 DC-3 AIRPLANE - The plane was being used for missionary work by the New Tribes Mission group.
1951, October 3-4 SAO PAULO - Brazilian Warship, De-commisioned
1953, February 2 BRITISH YORK - Transport plane
1954, October 30 NAVY SUPER CONSTELLATION - From Patuxent River Naval Air Station to the Azores
1954, December 5 SOUTHERN DISTRICTS - Converted navy LST
1955, January HOME SWEET HOME - Schooner
1955, September 26 CONNEMARA IV - Motor yacht found abandoned
1956, November 9 NAVY PATROL BOMBER, MARTIN MARLIN, P5M - Twin engine patrol flying boat, 350 miles north of Bermuda.no debris recovered, crew of 10.
1958, January 1 REVONOC - A 44' yawl disappears in bad weather from Key West to the Caribean with Harvey Conover on board.
1962, January 8 PLANE, KB-50J AIR TANKER - Langley,Virginia to the Azores.
1963, February 4 MARINE SULFUR QUEEN - A 523' type T2-SE-A1 tanker with a load of molten sulfur.
1963, July 2 SNO BOY - 63 foot chartered fishing boat lost with 55 on board, possible wreckage found.
1963, August 28 KC-135, 2 AIRPLANES - Two airplanes lost, possible mid-air collision.
1963, September 22 C-133 CARGOMASTER AIRPLANE - Lost between Dover, Delaware and the Azores.
1964 CRYSTAL - Reported missing in 1964, found in July of 1968, 4 years after being reported missing.
1964, January 13 ENCHANTRESS - A 59 foot yacht that disappeared during bad weather and gale warnings approximatley 150 miles S/E of Charleston.
1965, June 5 C-119 FLYING BOXCAR AIRPLANE - Lost from Homestead Air Base to Grand Turk.
1965, October 28 EL GATO - 45 foot catamaran houseboat.
1966, October 29 SOUTHERN CITIES - A 67 foot harbor tug lost in the Gulf of Mexico. The SOUTHERN CITIES had problems on three other occasions causing the NTSB and Coast Guard to blame her lack of "seaworthiness" for her disappearance.
1967, January 14 BEECHCRAFT BONANZA AIRPLANE - Piloted by Robert Van Westerbork.
1967,December WITCHCRAFT - A 23 foot cabin cruiser that disappeared a mile offshore of Miami near the number 7 buoy about 9pm.
1968, May 21 SCORPION, USN SUBMARINE -Number SSN 589, Skipjack class. This was the sixth Scorpion. It was laid down on August 20th,1958, at Groton, Connecticut at the General Dynamics Corp. Electric Boat Division. The Scorpion launched on the 19th of December, 1959. The ship was sponsored by Mrs. Elizabeth S. Morrison and was commissioned on July 29th, 1960 under Commander Norman B. Bessac.The Scorpion displaced 3,075 tons on the surface and 3,500 tons when submerged. The ships beam was 31' 7" and it's length was 251' 9". The armament consisted of 6 torpedo tubes with a payload of ?? torpedoesAssigned to Submarine Squadron 6, Division 62, Scorpion departed New London, Conn., on 24 August for a two-month deployment in European waters. During that period, she participated in exercises with units of the 6th Fleet and of other NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] navies. After returning to New England in late October, she trained along the eastern seaboard until May 1961, then crossed the Atlantic again for operations which took her into the summer. On 9 August, she returned to New London and, a month later, shifted to Norfolk, Va. With Norfolk her home port for the remainder of her career, Scorpion specialized in the development of nuclear submarine warfare tactics. Varying her role from hunter to hunted, she participated in exercises which ranged along the Atlantic coast and in the Bermuda and Puerto Rican operating areas; then, from June 1963 to May 1964, she interrupted her operations for an overhaul at Charleston, S.C. Resuming duty off the eastern seaboard in late spring, she again interrupted that duty from 4 August to 8 October to make a transatlantic patrol. In the spring of 1965, she conducted a similar patrol in European waters.During the late winter and early spring of 1966, and again in the fall, she was deployed for special operations. Following the completion of those assignments, her commanding officer received the Navy Commendation Medal for outstanding leadership, foresight, and professional skill. Other Scorpion officers and men were cited for meritorious achievement.On 1 February 1967, Scorpion entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for another extended overhaul. In late October, she commenced refresher training and weapons system acceptance tests. Following type training out of Norfolk, she got underway on 15 February 1968 for a Mediterranean deployment. She operated with the 6th Fleet, into May, and then headed west for home. On 21 May, she indicated her position to be about 50 miles south of the Azores. Six days later, she was reported overdue at Norfolk. A search was initiated, but, on 5 June, Scorpion and her crew were declared "presumed lost." Her name was struck from the Navy list on 30 June.The search continued, however; and, at the end of October, the Navy's oceanographic research ship, Mizar (T-AGOR-11) located sections of Scorpion's hull in more than 10,000 feet of water about 400 miles southwest of the Azores. Subsequently, the Court of Inquiry was reconvened and other vessels, including the submersible Trieste were dispatched to the scene and collected a myriad of pictures and other data.Although the cause of her loss is still not ascertainable, the most probable event was the inadvertent activation of the battery of a Mark 37 torpedo during a torpedo inspection. The torpedo, in a fully ready condition and without a propeller guard, then began a live "hot run" within the tube. Released from the tube, the torpedo became fully armed and successfully engaged its nearest target, Scorpion. Alternatively, the torpedo may have exploded in the tube owing to an uncontrollable fire in the torpedo room.The explosion--recorded elsewhere as a very loud acoustic event--broke the boat into two major pieces, with the forward hull section, including the torpedo room and most of the operations compartment, creating one impact trench while the aft section, including the reactor compartment and engine room, created a second impact trench. The sail is detached and lies nearby in a large debris field.Owing to the pressurized-water nuclear reactor in the engine room, deep ocean radiological monitoring operations were conducted in August and September 1986. The site had been previously monitored in 1968 and 1979 and none of the samples obtained showed any evidence of release of radioactivity.
1969, MARCH 23 BEECHCRAFT AIRPLANE - Lost with Dr. James Horton and Dr. Charles Griggs. A twin engine airplane lost en route from Kingston to Nassau.
1969, June 7 CESSNA 172 AIRPLANE - Lost with Miss Cascio and Mr. Rosen onboard. The pilot can not see land while flying over it, but the plane is observed from the ground.
1969, July TEIGNMOUTH ELECTRON - A 41 foot trimaran skipperd by Donald Crowhurst, found abandoned in mid atlantic.No trace of Crowhurst was ever found.
1969, July 2 VAGABOND - Found abandoned by the GOLAR FROST in the mid atlantic
1969, July 4 UNIDENTIFIED ABANDONED 35 FOOT YACHT - Sighted by the COTOPAXI
1969, July 8 ABANDONED CRAFT - 36 Foot upturned hull found by HELISOMA between the Azores and Portugal
1969, September LIGHT TWIN ENGINE PLANE - Mr. and Mrs. Hector Guzman are listed on board.
1969, November 2 SOUTHERN CROSS - Yacht discovered abandoned 10 miles N.E. of Cape May, New Jersey.
1971, July 26 LIGHT PLANE - Two couples vanish while flying Cub airplane from Curacao to Barbados
1971, September 10 F-4 PHANTOM FIGHTER PLANE - Disappears off radar
1971, October 12 EL CARIBE - A 338 foot motor ship
1971, October 20 SUPER CONSTELLATION AIRPLANE - With a cargo of frozen beef
1971, October 26 LUCKY EDUR - A 25 foot fishing yacht found abandoned off of the Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey
1971, December 25 IXTAPA - A 53 foot cabin cruiser
1972, February 2 V. A. FOGG - A 572 foot tanker that sank in the Gulf of Mexico with a cargo of Benzene and Xylene. Debris and the ship are found. It is rumored that all the bodies had disappeared from the wreck but there is photographic proof of human remains in the wheelhouse.
1972, June 19 8 FOOT DINGHY - Two teenagers disappear from Fort Lauderdale beach
1973, March, 23 DEFIANCE - Yacht, 88'
1973, APRIL, 7 ROBERT STONE - Boat, 14' In the Gulf of Mexico
1973, MAY, 17 ALFRED WILLIS - Boat, 21' Found abandoned three miles from Wildwood Crest, in Delaware Bay
1973, DECEMBER, 20 SEA BOY II - Yacht, 56'
1974, MARCH, AFTER THE 10TH SABA BANK - Yacht
1976, October 13/15 SYLVIA L. OSSA - A 590 foot ore carrier disappeared approximately 140 miles west of Bermuda with a crew of 37
1991, August 28 AMERICAN AIRLINES INC AIRBUS - Makes emergency landing due to turbulence
1993, March 13 CHARLEY'S CRAB, CHARLES MUER - Restaurateur Charles Muer, his wife Betty and friends George and Lynn Drummey disappear between the Bahamas and Florida on the Muer's 40 foot ketch Charley's Crab in 30 foot seas with 70 mph winds in what is later referred to as "the storm of the century". No trace of victims or wreckage was recovered.
1994, November 28 AMERICAN AIRLINES INC AIRBUS A300 - Battered by clear air turbulence over Martinique
1995, March 20/24 JAMANIC K - A motor vessel (mv) of 357 gross tons, lost in route from Cape Haitian to Miami
1995, June 25 CONTINENTAL AIRLINES INC FLIGHT 207 - Flight encounters clear air turbulence
1996, October, 14 INTREPID - A 65 foot yacht missing thirty miles off Fort Pierce, Florida after issuing a quick MAYDAY
1996, January 17 AMERICAN AIRLINES INC AIRBUS A300 - Hit by heavy turbulence over the Bahamas
1999, April 15 MISS FERNANDINA - An 85 foot shrimp trawler lost off Flagler Beach, Florida
1999, April 23 GENESIS - A motor vessel (mv) of 196 gross tons that disappeared in route from Port of Spain, Trinidad to St. Vincent
1999, June 14 CESSNA 210 - Drops off radar from Freeport to Nassau
1999, July 8 CONTINENTAL AIRLINES BOEING 737-800 - Forced to make emergency landing in Bermuda due to turbulence
2001, March 26 COMAIR FLIGHT 5054 - Ice damage on the flight from Nassau to Orlando, Florida

The Brits tonk the Taliban!

2008-09-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

WALLOP!
British forces completed one of their most complex and daring operations since the Second World War early this morning when they delivered a giant turbine to the Kajaki hydroelectric dam in Afghanistan's insurgency-racked southern province of Helmand.
A convoy of 100 vehicles, protected by 5,000 troops and dozens of attack helicopters and fighter jets, drove the turbine and other equipment, weighing about 220 tonnes, for five days across 100 miles of hostile territory. The Times was granted exclusive access as it arrived at about 2.30am today, edging through British forces' Camp Zeebrugge at Kajaki in a huge cloud of dust as helicopters circled overhead and several mortars were heard landing in the distance. About 2,000 US and Canadian forces protected the convoy for the first 50 miles of its journey from the southern city of Kandahar, but 3,000 British troops handled the perilous final leg through known Taleban strongholds.

BOSH!
"It's been pretty exciting and emotional at times," said Corporal Barry Guthrie, 29, from Stirling, who drove one of the nine 36-wheeler lorries carrying the equipment all the way from Kandahar to Kajaki. "All the way we were expecting to get whacked, but it never happened," he told The Times, as the turbine, transformers and other equipment were unloaded with a 90-tonne crane, also brought in by the convoy. The Taleban repeatedly attacked the forces protecting the convoy, but were overwhelmed and lost more than 200 men.

One soldier was reported as saying, "Damn the Fuzzies, up the Bucks. See you in Strasbourg!" before popping in his monocle and doing a loop the loop in a Sopwith Camel.

Bummer.

2008-09-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

About two and one-half billion years ago, life on Earth was still in its infancy. Complex organisms such as plants and animals had not yet appeared, but the planet was teeming with microscopic bacteria which thrived in the temperate and nutrient-rich environment. Greenhouse methane lingered in the atmosphere and trapped the sun's warmth, creating a climate very accommodating to the stew of microbes life that made their home on primitive Earth.

But a billion years of bacterial evolutionary progress was soon stunted by a catastrophic global event. Geologists find no signs of a great meteor impact nor a volcanic eruption, but they have uncovered the unmistakable geologic scars of rapid worldwide climate change. Average temperatures, which were previously comparable to our present climate, plummeted to minus 50 degrees Celsius and brought the planet into its first major ice age. This environmental shift triggered a massive die-off which threatened to extinguish all life on Earth, and paleoclimatologists have good reason to believe that this world-changing event was unwittingly caused by some of the planet's own humble residents: bacteria.

The period in history is known as the Paleoproterozoic era, and prior to that time the Earth's ecology and environment were significantly different. The iron-rich waters of the oceans lent them a green tint, and the atmosphere was comprised of gasses other than oxygen. Although oxygen atoms were abundant, such as those found in water molecules, unbound oxygen was extremely rare. The sea was host to a plethora of anaerobic microorganisms, but there were also a few members of a newly evolved variety: a blue-green algae known as cyanobacteria. These adapted bacteria were the first to use water and sunlight for photosynthesis, producing oxygen as a by-product of their metabolism.

The cyanobacteria were a struggling minority at first, but scientists believe that these new microbes began to dominate with the help of meltwater from a few glaciers scattered across the young continents. These glaciers spent centuries scraping across the Earth collecting minerals, ultimately depositing their rich nutrient payloads into the oceans. The cyanobacteria flourished in the presence of the increased minerals, and the rapidly growing population was soon venting increasingly large amounts of its poisonous waste oxygen into the environment.

At first the damage was limited to the oceans' ecosystems. The underwater oxygen began to chemically react with the abundant iron, eventually scrubbing the seas clean of the element through oxidation. The oxidized iron settled to the ocean floor, and the oceans' green tint began to fade. This series of developments was nothing short of an ecological disaster– oxygen was poisonous to most of primitive Earth's inhabitants, and many bacteria relied on the iron as a nutrient.

Once the oceans' supply of iron was exhausted, oxygen began to seep from the sea into the air. With very little competition for resources, cyanobacteria continued to proliferate and pollute. The free oxygen they produced reacted with the air, gradually breaking down the methane which kept the Earth's atmosphere warm and accommodating. It took at least a hundred thousand years– a short duration in geological terms– but the Earth was eventually stripped of her methane, and with it her ability to store the heat from the sun. Temperatures fell well below freezing worldwide, and a thick layer of ice began to encase the oxygen-saturated planet.

Not even cyanobacteria were immune to the effects of this major ice age. The traits which had once given them such an evolutionary advantage were creating an environment which was completely inhospitable, even for themselves. As the centuries marched on, the surface became increasingly cold and frozen, with the ice at the equator eventually reaching up to one mile in thickness: Earth was an ice planet. Thermal vents on the ocean floor provided pockets where some resilient bacteria managed to survive, and certain organisms which lived underground were insulated from much of the destruction; but these reservoirs of life were scarce. Almost every living thing on Earth died as a result of this massive bacteria-induced climate change, an event known as the oxygen catastrophe.

As told by the Earth's ancient rocks, the story of the Paleoproterozoic era is one of near-extinction for all life on the planet. The rocks that lined the ocean floor during that period are layered with oxidized iron… the remains of the iron that was removed by the oxygen. Layers from previous periods have no such banded iron formations. The fossilized microbes in the rocks are also indicative of violent climate change.

The survivors of the oxygen catastrophe eventually adapted to consume the abundant oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. This greenhouse gas very gradually made its way into the atmosphere, increasing in concentration and nudging temperatures back into the hospitable range over millions of years. Had temperatures been slightly colder during the first major ice age– if Earth had been in a slightly more distant orbit– the planet would have remained an icy wasteland because the carbon dioxide would have frozen solid before it could promote the greenhouse effect.Banded iron formation, caused by layers of oxidized iron Temperatures reached as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius, and carbon dioxide freezes into dry ice at minus 78 degrees. Indeed it seems that life on Earth was spared by a very tiny margin.

Today all life on the planet can trace its lineage back to those few microorganisms which survived the great dying of 2,500,000,000 BC, and now cyanobacteria are among the most common bacteria on Earth. In the billions of years since the first ice age, the environment has been dramatically altered on numerous occasions by greenhouse gases which trap heat; by shifting tectonic plates which reroute ocean currents; by our sun's varying radiation levels; and by volcanic activity which alters the atmosphere. But at least once in Earth's long history, its own occupants seem to have unwittingly brought all life to the brink of extinction. The sun is warmer now than it was then, so such a "Snowball Earth" is a bit less likely to occur… but the cautionary tale catalogued in ancient rocks warns us that the environment is certainly not impervious to the actions of those living in it.

It's 17:57 and the headlines are...BONG: Hurricane Gustav batters US coast. BONG:EU 'to warn Russia over Georgia'...

2008-09-01T09:37:00.000-07:00

I said do something cat...

2008-08-22T10:05:00.001-07:00

YEY! LONG WEEKEND

2008-08-22T10:01:00.001-07:00

Two of the saddest stories in the world

2008-08-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Aussies slot an orphan whale...

A baby whale abandoned by its mother in the waters off north Sydney has been put down, after veterinarians decided it could not survive on its own. The humpback whale calf had been trying to suckle from boats, which it apparently mistook for his parent. The plight of the starving two-tonne animal, dubbed Colin, has captivated Australia since last weekend. The whale was first given a sedative, then a lethal dose of anaesthetic, which took 10 minutes. The calf had suffered shark bites and was having trouble breathing "It's a tragic end to a programme that dozens of people have put their hearts and souls into," National Parks and Wildlife Service official John Dengate told Australian radio. A vet report and blood tests on Thursday had revealed the calf, believed to be only two to three weeks old, was suffering from shark bite wounds and breathing difficulties.

But this is probably the winner by a tear...
One of three children who survived the Madrid air crash thought he was in the middle of a film and asked his rescuer when it was going to end. Stories of heroics and heartbreaking moments are emerging from rescue workers Firefighter Francisco Martinez, who was one of the first on the scene, said the young boy asked: "When will this film end? Where is my Dad?" The youngster made the comments as he was pulled from the wreckage of the Spanair MD-82 jet which crashed moments after taking off, claiming 153 lives - more than likely including his parents. Mr Martinez also told how he found passenger Amalia Filloy alive at the crash scene but she insisted he rescued her 11-year-old daughter, Maria, first. He did so but when he returned Mrs Filloy had died.

Oh man, "Where is my Dad?" There truly is no God. But there are good people, have a drink for Amalia Filloy.

No Easy Road to Freedom speech by Nelson Mandela

2008-08-21T10:40:00.000-07:00

"You can see that there is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow (of death) again and again before we reach the mountain tops of our desires. Dangers and difficulties have not deterred us in the past, they will not frighten us now. But we must be prepared for them like men in business who do not waste energy in vain talk and idle action. The way of preparation (for action) lies in our rooting out all impurity and indiscipline from our organisation and making it the bright and shining instrument that will cleave its way to freedom."
Nelson Mandela

Dubai: OUT OF CONTROL.

2008-08-15T09:55:00.000-07:00

IT'S THE WEEKEND...

2008-08-15T09:48:00.000-07:00

P.A.R.T-WHY? Because I don't think I'll survive another night alone!

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, incredible Russian author and dissident, died on August 3rd, aged 89

2008-08-15T09:33:00.000-07:00

Here is The Economists obituary.

'PEOPLE knew it was there: the vast amazing country of Gulag which, “though scattered in an Archipelago geographically, was, in the psychological sense, fused into a continent—an almost invisible, almost imperceptible country.” Trains went in, and people were sent to administer it from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But until Alexander Solzhenitsyn had spent eight years there, laying bricks and smelting metal in the intensest heat and cold, hearing fellow-inmates, like rats, stealing his food in the dark, wearing wrist-crushing handcuffs for the least infraction, this land was not fully revealed to the outside world. “The Gulag Archipelago” was a book carried out of the camps “on the skin of my back”, to bear witness on behalf of everyone still inside.

Its appearance, in 1973, immediately led to his expulsion from the Soviet Union. But his work was done. He had exposed the fissures in the system, a truth-telling that had begun, 11 years earlier during the Khrushchev thaw, with the publication in Novy Mir of “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”. That tale began with the cacophony of reveille for the prisoners, “sounded by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail” through windows coated in frost two fingers thick. With that banging, even through their imperviousness, the Russian people began to stir to the evils of the cult of personality under which they had lived for too long; after this, though with desperate slowness, the disintegration of the Soviet state was only a matter of time.

He was not another Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. Often the characters in Mr Solzhenitsyn’s books were one-dimensional, the tone sardonic, the detail turgid. But his indestructibility gave him, over the years, a prophet’s voice. He survived the war, the camps and abdominal cancer that was carelessly treated. He was told he would never have children, but had three sons. He believed he would never return to Russia after his exile, but in 1994 was welcomed back to the post-Soviet state. Each miracle increased his sense of mission. He was not simply a writer, but a visionary who would mend Russia; and, as such, he believed he was on equal terms with Soviet leaders. In 1973, in a letter to them, he laid out his proposals. There was nothing wrong with a Soviet empire; but they had to cast off “this filthy sweaty shirt” of Marxist ideology, all these “arsenals of lies”. Socialism, he wrote, “prevents the living body of the nation from breathing.”

Behind his impassive kulak’s face lay intense self-scrutiny, adamantine moral and physical courage and a sometimes unsettling disregard for the smaller and softer things in life. But he did not necessarily think he was better, or wiser, than other men. Only a fluke, he said, had kept him out of the NKVD, Stalin’s secret police, when they came recruiting at his university. As for the war, though the Nazis had unleashed atrocities on Russia, “I remember myself in my captain’s shoulder-straps and the forward march of my battery through East Prussia, enshrouded in fire, and I say: ‘So were we any better?’” In one poem, “Prussian Nights”, he wrote:

The little daughter’s on the mattress,
Dead. How many have been on it
A platoon, a company perhaps?
A girl’s been turned into a woman,
A woman turned into a corpse
Salvo after salvo rattled from the Solzhenitsyn typewriter, always interleaved with carbon copies for fear that the secret police would seize the manuscript. Some fell on deaf ears—wilfully deaf, in the case of the European left. The notion that Stalin was a great wartime leader, for example, should never have survived the devastating portrait of sickly paranoia in “The First Circle” (1969). Yet it has persisted to this day.

Though supporters in the West lumped Mr Solzhenitsyn with the rest of the intelligentsia, he stood monumentally alone. A friendship with an Estonian prisoner, Arnold Susi, had exploded his lingering belief in Marxism; but he detested the self-regarding and snooty Russian intellectuals, the “well-read ones”, as he referred to them. Unlike Andrei Sakharov, he had no belief in liberalism or human-rights campaigns. The fact that scientists might be deprived of visas left him unmoved. He cared about the fate of peasants and the general citizenry, Russians in the mass. Ivan Denisovich was not an intellectual: he was a peasant who was horrified to discover, in a letter from his wife, that the farmers in his village were now working in factories rather than haymaking. The creation of Soviet man was the horror Mr Solzhenitsyn chiefly wished to reverse.

Neither East nor West
Yet he had little time for the West either. Bundled on to a plane to West Germany in 1974, he turned his fire on other targets, thundering against materialism, shallowness and the silliness of popular Western culture. He would be no cold-war figurehead against the Kremlin and all its works; he was, to the core, a Russian nationalist. As communism fell he came to loathe Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s leader, seeing him as the author of chaos and humiliation. But bitterness and envy may have played a part, too. Bitterness because his hero’s welcome had turned into indifference to this dishevelled, hectoring, old-fashioned figure. And envy because Yeltsin stood in the place he should, he believed, have occupied himself.'

But to my mind, nobody could express my feeling better than Warrant
Heaven isn't too far away A-Sol, heaven isn't too far away...

Bear serves camera trap hard

2008-08-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

This story features three of my favorite things. Bears, animals doing stuff and animals taking revenge on infidel humans. One for your dead Homies bear, one for your Homies...

"Under my Umber-ella-ella-ella. Woah! WTF was that? Was that lighting? I can''t hear thunder. What's up with that. Hey...is that a camera?"

"That IS a camera..."

"I'll just take a closer look here. Hmmm"

"BOOM. That's for Diana motherfuckers. She was the Queen of ALL our hearts."

Fuck you say?

2008-08-12T10:26:00.000-07:00

Canadian beheading gets nastier/ ghostlier

2008-08-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

More news on the guy who hacked another guys head of and ate some of his flesh for no apparent reason. Turns out he was possessed, which makes it okay. Edmonton ethno-historian Nathan Carlson is one of the world's leading experts on Windigo phenomenon, and the recent horrific beheading and alleged cannibalism on a Greyhound bus bound for Winnipeg from Edmonton rocked him to his very core. As the grisly details of Tim McLean's last moments on Earth came to light in the following days, Carlson sank deeper and deeper into a fog of horror and revulsion. Vince Weiguang Li is accused of abruptly attacking McLean, who by all accounts he didn't even know -- while McLean slept on the bus. Up until a few days before the killing, Li held a part- time job delivering newspapers in Edmonton. He was well thought-of by his boss and considered a nice guy, if a bit quiet and shy. On July 20 - just 10 days before the killing - Li delivered copies of the Sun that contained an extensive interview with Carlson about his research into the Windigo, a terrifying creature in native mythology that has a ravenous appetite for human flesh. It could take possession of people and turn them into cannibalistic monsters. Yo, what's up with that?

I don't like football, but...

2008-08-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is some sweet Muay Thai shit.

IT'S THE WEEKEND, SO...

2008-08-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Put A Donk On it!

Chicks n’ Bears: There is NO downside.

2008-08-06T10:04:00.001-07:00

MCROCKLIN STILL ROCKLIN

2008-08-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

This video shows an 11-year-old axeman, Thomas McRocklin (his real name) owning a pub in Donnington. So just like Woodward and Burnstein spending two years exposing the Watergate scandal, I spent twenty minutes at lunch Googling McRocklin to find out what happened. After appearing on a BBC documentary, McRocklin was spotted by ethereal guitar virtuoso and probable sexual deviant, Steve Vai. He took McRocklin’s fledgling fingers and put them to work in Vai’s metal child labour factory. The result? Bad4Good. Under Vai's guidance, the band released one album in 1992 called Refugee, which featured the hit song nineteen, which was about being nineteen.

Despite critical praise, the album was a commercial flop, and the band disbanded shortly after. McRocklin now lives in Newcastle and works in a music shop. Sucker. Here is his MySpace page.

RUGBY: THE MOVIE

2008-08-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

Kill me now. Some guy with a jawbone or something and a 'prison rugby team' battle against the indigenous Maoris of America. Honestly, this shit writes itself. Also, the fat gay hobbit is the coach because he motivated Frodo up that mountain.

N.B One thing that always bothered me about Lord Of The Rings. If they could get picked up off the mountain by the eagles, why didn't they just fly over and drop the damn ring in the fire in the first place. Thats bad management on Magneto's part.

Scientists discover first dinosaur stag-do.

2008-08-04T11:16:00.000-07:00

August 3, 2008
WARSAW (Reuters) - Palaeontologists digging in a brickyard in southern Poland have discovered the fossilised remains of a dinosaur that they say is a previously unknown ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The predator dinosaur, given the working name "Dragon", lived around 200 million years ago, team member Dr Tomasz Sulej of the Polish Science Academy told Reuters. It was 5 metres (yards) long and moved on two legs. Its longest teeth were 7 cm (2 inches) long. "This is a completely new type of dinosaur that was so far unknown," Sulej said on Friday. "Nobody even expected that members of this group lived in that time, so this gives us new knowledge about the whole evolution of the T-Rex group." The incomplete skeleton was excavated from a brickyard in Lisowice village, about 200 km (125 miles) from Warsaw. The palaeontologists will continue examining the bones and fully document the discovery before they decide what scientific name to give to the new dinosaur. They will exhibit the findings in Lisowice on August 7, Sulej said. At the same site the group also found a dicynodon -- a reptile that was a direct predecessor of mammals. "We are almost certain that "Dragon" hunted animals like this herbivorous dicynodon, which looked like a hippopotamus but was much bigger," Sulej said.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/odd/4848332/ancestor-trex-dinosaur-unearthed-poland
Dinosaurs are KING!