Weird News of the World Thread

[KevanG]

What would I do? Scream?

 

[Anubis]

Wake up from the nightmare I'm obviously having cuz there's no way I would be f**king around in the GD ocean in the first place.

 

[Teelie]

World's Best Cat Fetches Weed, World's Worst Cat Owners Narc On It

https://news.yahoo.com/cannabis-cat...-184336360.html;_ylt=AwrBEiRE9XxTGBkAbCPQtDMD

What a funny thing for a cat to find. Too bad the owner was such a prude

The cat probably mistook it for cat-nip (the equivalent of weed for cats) and wanted the owner to open the bag.

 

[Mike_D202]

https://news.yahoo.com/cannabis-cat...-184336360.html;_ylt=AwrBEiRE9XxTGBkAbCPQtDMD

What a funny thing for a cat to find. Too bad the owner was such a prude

Not breaking the law and contacting the authorities after finding drugs hardly constitutes one as a "prude."

 

[Anubis]

Yes it does.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Not breaking the law and contacting the authorities after finding drugs hardly constitutes one as a "prude."

Did you read how expensive bud is there? Even if she wasn't one to partake in it she could have at least made a quick buck

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

​Tennessee Brings Back the Electric Chair

Tennessee has a solution to the nationwide shortage of lethal injection drugs: It's bringing back the electric chair.

A new law signed on Thursday by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam will allow the state to electrocute prisoners to death if the approved lethal injection drugs cannot be obtained.

From the Associated Press:

Tennessee is the first state to enact a law to reintroduce the electric chair without giving prisoners an option, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization that opposes executions and tracks the issue.

"There are states that allow inmates to choose, but it is a very different matter for a state to impose a method like electrocution," he said. "No other state has gone so far."
"This is unusual and might be both cruel and unusual punishment," Dieter later told CNN.

Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of the bill in April, with the Senate voting 23-3 and the House 68-13.

One lawmaker, Republican state Sen. Ken Yager, the bill's main sponsor, said he introduced the bill because he was worried the state might have trouble legally killing people.

"[There was] a real concern that we could find ourselves in a position that if the chemicals were unavailable to us that we would not be able to carry out the sentence," he said.

Following the botched execution of Clayton Lockett in Oklahoma, several states have scrambled for new (or, more accurately, old) ideas for effectively killing inmates, including Utah, where lawmakers want to bring back firing squads.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/tennessee-signs-bill-allow-electric-chair

That didn't take them long at all

 

[KevanG]

"[There was] a real concern that we could find ourselves in a position that if the chemicals were unavailable to us that we would not be able to carry out the sentence," he said.

We needs to be killin!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Man Miraculously Catches Baby Falling From Second Floor Window

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Amazing video has emerged of a man catching a baby who fell from a second-floor apartment window during a recent thunderstorm in China.

The CCTV footage shows the man standing beneath the window ledge, waiting with his arms out, until the young child finally comes crashing down.

The man, identified as Mr Li, was one of several people in Xiaolan Town, Zhongshan City who spotted the baby on the ledge, which Li thinks may have climbed to while searching for its mother.

"Some people put down cardboard to avoid serious injuries to the baby if I fail to catch him," Mr Li told a local news station. "I didn't think too much at the time. I was just afraid of failing to catch him. It was nothing but human instinct to do so."

At the end of the video, Li and another man later hand the unharmed baby to his grateful mother.

http://nypost.com/2014/05/23/man-catches-baby-who-fell-from-window/

Seems like one could make some money in the baby-proofing industry over in China

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Cement truck narrowly avoids destroying every car on the highway

Close calls don't get closer than this: A driver avoids a fairly minor accident, slows down and, suddenly, a fast cement truck appears out of nowhere trying to regain control. Miraculously, the skillful—and lucky!—truck driver manages to avoid a potential carnage.

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That could have ended up way worse

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Hackers Broke Into a Public Utility Control Room By Guessing a Password

In a rare gesture of transparency, the Department of Homeland Security just announced that hackers recently targeted and compromised a public utility's control system. They didn't say exactly where, but it happened inside United States borders. And it doesn't sound like it was even that hard.

Specific details about the breach are scant. However, DHS did say that it thinks the hackers broke into the utility's control system by accessing an internet portal that employees use to sign on remotely. It didn't even require hacking really. The intruders just mounted a "brute force" attack, guessing every possible password combination until they found one that worked. It's a more advanced, probably computer-aided version of the technique when trying to log on to your neighbor's Wi-Fi. It's also more than unsettling that the DHS doesn't know for sure how the hackers did it.

While DHS says that the utility's operations weren't affected, this is all very scary. A hacker breaking into a city's infrastructure is exactly the kind of cyber attack President Obama warned Americans about a couple years ago, when he was beefing up our cyber security capabilities. But when a terrorist is only one password away from accessing a cyber control center, it's clear that we still have a long ways to go. It's also clear that these kinds of attacks can happen virtually, though hackers have mounted physical attacks on urban infrastructure.

Now that everyone's good and frightened, we have to figure out what to do. The scary news itself almost reads like a call to arms—a real life example of the time the White House simulated an attack on New York City's power grid to teach the Senate a lesson. The very fact that DHS disclosed the details of this most recent attack is evidence that they want the rest of the government to know how real the threat is. And you know the need for better cyber security is serious when the FBI starts considering hiring pothead hackers to fight the good fight.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/21/us-usa-cybercrime-infrastructure-idUSBREA4J10D20140521

Well doesn't that make you feel all safe and secure

 

[Teelie]

The public utility control systems of a lot of places is laughbly lax and easy to break into or destroy. They are in need of much tighter security. Some of these are on the internet for no reason at all.

 

[Marvolo]

Cement truck narrowly avoids destroying every car on the highway

That could have ended up way worse

That was some crazy good driving! He threaded the needle with a freaking cement truck!

 

[Guts]

Flying tire crashes into a car on the road out of nowhere

Does anyone else think that filming yourself while driving has some weird way of attracting something bad to happen to you? It almost seems that way to me

Donnie Darko may somehow be involved in this.

 

[Alex_Spider]

THE WORLD'S FIRST PANCAKE PRINTER

Every kid loves pancakes, especially when they are able to drown them in maple syrup and sprinkle some powder sugar on top. There are probably very few foods that get the respect of a child’s taste buds, pancakebot-1 like that of pancakes. This creation however, may take the cake (or should I say ‘pancake&#8217. What if your kids had the ability to pick any object and have a pancake printed in its likeness? That’s just what the PancakeBot does.

The open source PancakeBot, was initially created by a man named Miguel Valenzuela, using a Lego set in 2010. This was after the begging of his 3 year old daughter. Today, the latest version of the machine will be unveiled at the Bay Area Maker Faire. Unlike the original, this one features an acrylic body. It also uses a couple of Adafruit motor shields, and an Arduino Mega board for the brain. The latest version does not use Legos, as you can see in the image below.

With 3D printing taking the world by storm, this in essence is a 3D printer of pancakes. Having said that, the printer only moves in two dimensions, along an X and Y axis. However, the batter coming out of the extruder is not flat like ink would be on paper. Whether this is technically a 3D printer or not, doesn’t matter much. All that matters here is how incredible a pancake of the Eiffel Tower looks and tastes after it’s been printed and cooked.

There are no plans to commercialize the PancakeBot just yet, however one would guess that if priced right, there could be a substantial market for such a machine. What do you think? Would you consider buying one of these if they are affordably priced? Let us know at the PancakeBot forum thread on 3DPB.com Check out the video below of the PancakeBot printing out an Eiffel Tower pancake.

Here is another video created by Miguel Valenzuela, along with his two daughters Lily and Maia. It’s titled ‘Breakfast Gallup.” The video was made with only breakfast food, and took 7 days, and 50 pancakes to create.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BEJZDng1UBs

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j17COO-nWf4

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Professor Falls 70 Feet Into Himalayan Crevasse And Survives

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Western Kentucky University professor John All fell 70 feet and into an icy crevasse while conducting climate research on Mount Himlung in the Himalayas. With a broken arm and ribs, it took him hours to climb out.

"Well I'm very well ****ed," All starts his series of videos of his slow and steady ascent up the ice. He knew that another fall would likely be disastrous. Per CNN:

"It probably took me four or five hours to climb out. I kept moving sideways, slightly up, sideways, slightly up, until I found an area where there was enough hard snow that I could get an ax in and pull myself up and over," he told HLN's "RightThisMinute" on Thursday.

"I knew that if I fell at any time in that entire four or five hours, I, of course, was going to fall all the way to the bottom of the crevasse. Any mistake, or any sort of rest or anything, I was going to die."
After finally climbing out, All hiked the three hours back to his tent, where a rescue team was able to find him the next morning.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/22/world/asia/nepal-climber-rescue/

That is hardcore man, wow

 

[KevanG]

"Well I'm very well ****ed,"

Being able to assess the situation in an emergency is very important to do.

Really though that's pretty awesome. Dunno if I'd have made it.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Mike Myers: Kanye West Was Right About George W. Bush

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Mike Myers has long been considered collateral damage of Kanye West's infamous "George Bush doesn't care about black people" speech, his face a mix of terror and exasperation as the rapper seethes over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. But in a new interview with GQ, Myers says that he was "proud" to be standing next to Kanye.

In fact, Myers iterates that he believes it takes away from Kanye's core message to focus on his face, as opposed to—as he puts it—someone speaking truth to power.

I don't think so either. But the question itself is a little beside the point of what actually went down in New Orleans. For me it isn't about the look of embarrassment on my face, it is truly about the injustice that was happening in New Orleans. I don't mind answering the question but the emphasis of it being that I'm the guy next to the guy who spoke a truth. I assume that George Bush does care about black people—I mean I don't know him, I'm going to make that assumption—but I can definitively say that it appeared to me watching television that had that been white people, the government would have been there faster. And so to me that's really the point—the look on my face is, to me, almost insulting to the true essence of what went down in New Orleans. You know, there's a great line by the great Northern English poet Elvis Costello, as sung by Nick Lowe: "What's so funny 'bout peace love and understanding?" [Myers seems both dubious and slightly irked when I tell him that it was the other way round—the song was written by Nick Lowe but made famous by Costello.] The point being that. What is so funny about peace, love, and understanding? To have the emphasis on the look on my face versus the fact that somebody spoke truth to power at a time when somebody needed to speak? I'm very proud to have been next to him. Do you know what I mean?
Myers seems almost to accept his position in history as being assigned by the cosmos.

I'm not downplaying its remarkableness. I mean it is what it is, dude. You know, I'm having a remarkable experience on this planet, a truly extraordinary experience. Given where I'm from, I am so grateful for the extraordinariness of it. I'm having an extraordinary experience on the planet.

GQ's Chris Heath does not specify if Myers immediately ripped a bong after that statement.

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201406/mike-myers?currentPage=3

And it only took him how many years to say he agrees with that statement?

 

[Pink Ranger]

THE WORLD'S FIRST PANCAKE PRINTER

I wouldn't be surprised to see the equivalent of Star Trek food replicators in my lifetime (likely at the end of my lifetime when I am rotting away in a state-run nursing home praying for death to take me). You've got powdered carbs right there, we're making advances in cloning meat, I'm sure once cloned meat becomes commercialized we can print vegetables as well; imagine going to a 3D printer and getting it to make you a BLT on the spot.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Woman Slips Out of Her Car Just Before an Oncoming Train Totals It

A Florida woman narrowly escaped with her life after her car stalled out on the tracks in front of a commuter train Monday. State officials released unbelievable video of the incident from the train's perspective, showing the woman's car door opening just before the impact.

More from the station:

According to police, the driver suffered non-life-threatening injuries while scrambling to get out of her car before the 285,000-pound train hit it at 40 mph. She was struck by debris from the crash as she was moving away from the tracks.

No one on the train was hurt.

Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Olson said officials are slightly frustrated that the message to stay off the train tracks has not sunk in with drivers.

"We're trying pretty hard to get the message out there," Olson said. "We'll continue to do that."

The driver, a 28-year-old woman, was apparently pulling ahead to make a turn at the intersection just past the tracks, when the warning gates pinned her in and the car stalled. She was found at fault and ended up being ticketed for negligence.

http://www.wesh.com/news/video-show...pe-sunrail-train-crash/26124716#ixzz32YHx3Nhw

Talk about the knick of time, she was very lucky. Full vid at the link

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Iowa Man Steals Weatherman's Name to Pick up Women

This strapping young lad attempted to pick up women on social media. Nothing unusual about that, right? Well, he posed as Davenport, Iowa meteorologist Greg Dutra in order to score.

Matt Wendt's little plan fell apart when the real Greg Dutra tweeted at his girlfriend on Twitter, and one of Wendt's prospects started questioning the real Dutra as to why he never mentioned that he was in a relationship.

The resemblance is uncanny.

The whole thing is creepy, but the real Greg Dutra seems to have a good sense of humor about it. Wendt, on the other hand, is facing a possible two years in jail.

http://qctimes.com/news/local/crime...utm_campaign=hot-topics-2&utm_medium=internal

How boring are things in Iowa if the biggest celebs name you can pretend to be is a weatherman?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Soldier drops grenade, gets saved by his supervisor at the last second

Watch a Chinese soldier dropping a grenade backwards during training—only to be saved at the last second by his supervisor. It looks like the grenade slips from his hand as he was throwing it.

The reader Wateverworks was kind enough to translate into english what the instructor said in the interview at the end of the video:

"At the moment, when I judged that this soldier has dropped the grenade near our right, I immediately used all my strength and pulled him to the left into the trench"

One of my Marine buddies told me a similar story that happened to a guy in his boot camp

 

[Pink Ranger]

Soldier drops grenade, gets saved by his supervisor at the last second

: Okay, from now on, you only carry this wooden grenade around!

: But sir ...

: Shut up, Pyle!

: Wait, how is that a valid cultural reference in this country?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Causes of death across all age groups in the United States

Here's a fascinating look at the different causes of death across all age groups in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is data from 2010—the latest compilation. There's many more interesting graphics.

Evolution of death causes since 1958

Rate of deaths per age group

Life expectancy evolution by race and sex

Infant mortality evolution

And finally, the ranking of deaths for leading causes of death. These are our real enemies, folks:

Heart disease: 597,689
Cancer: 574,743
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 138,080
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 129,476
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 120,859
Alzheimer's disease: 83,494
Diabetes: 69,071
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,476
Influenza and Pneumonia: 50,097
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 38,364

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

Good to know

 

[Teelie]

Woman Slips Out of Her Car Just Before an Oncoming Train Totals It

http://www.wesh.com/news/video-show...pe-sunrail-train-crash/26124716#ixzz32YHx3Nhw

Talk about the knick of time, she was very lucky. Full vid at the link

I still don't see how people manage to perfectly stop themselves ON train tracks.