February 20, 2003
HE'S BAD
This picture, created by computer experts who produced an
artificially aged image based on photographs from Michael Jackson's
face during his youth, shows what the pop star might look like today -
age 44 - if he had never had any plastic surgery done on his face.
(abcnews.com)
HOW TO CREATE MONSTERS
A very interesting article written by Anne
Summers in the Sydney Morning Herald answers the question: Why are
George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld so adamant that Iraq possesses weapons
of mass destruction, even though the UN Inspectors have found nothing
but inconclusive evidence? The simple answer is that the U.S.
government knows exactly what Saddam Hussein has in his stockpile,
because the U.S. knows exactly what they've sold to him. In 1983,
Rumsfeld visited Iraq with the great news that the U.S. was ready to
play "a crucial role in shoring up Iraqi defenses." In 1994, a US
Senate investigation discovered that during the 1980's the US shipped
dozens of biological agents to Iraq, including anthrax and other
chemicals that could be used in weapons. The German newspaper Die
Tageszeitung ran a report last December disclosing all of the
suppliers who have armed Iraq in the past two decades. At the top of
the list sits the United States. Twenty-four American companies,
including the Departments of Defence, Energy, Trade and Agriculture
all helped deliver weapons in Hussein's hands. Among the largest
suppliers were Hewlett-Packard (nuclear weapon, rocket and
conventional weapons programs), Tektronix (nuclear, rockets), Eastman
Kodak (rockets), Honeywell (rockets, conventional) and American Type
Culture Collection (biological).
(Sydney Morning Herald)
WILL THEY PROGRAM IT TO HATE IT'S PARENTS IN ABOUT 13 YEARS?
Sony is
almost ready to unveil its prototype of a robot human child. After the
success of their Aibo robotic dog, Sony has started developing a
60-centimeter humanoid robot, called the Sony Dream Robot, or SDR4X.
The robot child will be able to interact with its "parents", and
express emotions through words, songs, and body language. It will also
be able to recognize 10 human faces and voices and will adapt its
behaviour according to how it is treated. Sony hopes to launch the
robot on April 7, 2004, which is the fictional birthdate of AstroBoy,
the rocket-powered robot-boy of 1960s Japanese comic book fame. The
first round of robot children will sell for between $60,000 and
$80,000. (theage.com.au)
I BARELY TRUST MY LICENSED DENTIST
Undercover investigators in
Florida have busted two flea market jewelers who were using superglue
to inlay gold onto people's teeth. Working out of the back of their
10-year-old Honda, the two served several customers a day for over a
year before police were tipped off by an unhappy customer whose teeth
were damaged during the procedure. "We found Superglue-like adhesives
in the suspects' car and extremely unsanitary conditions," said an
official from Florida's health department, which estimates that
between 300 and 400 people practice dentistry without a license in and
around Miami.
(Reuters)
THAT'S TOO BAAAAD
A couple in Massachusetts lost their lawsuit last
week which asked for compensation due to "loss of companionship" after
a neighbour's dog killed their seven pet sheep. The judge ruled that
the legal definition of "companionship" only referred to humans, but
the couple argued that the sheep were their "babies." According to
court testimony, the husband and wife team spent six to seven hours a
day with their sheep, gave them names, celebrated their birthdays with
special food and balloons, baked snacks for them, bottle-fed them and
let them live in their house whenever the sheep got bored of the
backyard. (Springfield Union-News)
ONE OF THE MANY WAYS GOD AMUSES HIMSELF
A British man who is
attempting to row across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Australia in a
fund-raising attempt for the British Epilepsy Association hasn't made
any progress in 73 days. Andrew Halsey, 45, has rowed about 31 miles
per day, theoretically covering 2,300 miles, but adverse wind
conditions and unhelpful ocean currents have left him 8,108 miles from
Brisbane, the same distance as the day he left on his journey. Halsey
claims he is determined to keep going in order to finish his task ,
despite already having suffered four epileptic seizures since he left.
(The Guardian)
SELF-LOVE HURTS
The folks at
masturbationhorror.com have been so kind
as to compile a few dozen horror stories about the dangers of unsafe
masturbation. "We've combed through the medical journals to find the
most horrific examples of masturbation mishaps. From misplaced
household items to self-mutilation to accidental death..." they boast.
The stories are separated into four categories: Vacuum Disasters,
Women in Trouble, Injury and Death, and Reader Stories. Don't miss
this chance to impress your friends by submitting your own
masturbation nightmare.