Despite being the larges Hajj ever, with over 3 million attending, the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca ended without any deaths due to stampede or stoning. There were no notable political protests either.
Ain't that a wonderment.--Cliff Robertson as Cole Younger in The Long Riders
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
This vintage Sheboygan, Michigan photo in the Sheboygan Press' calendar has raised questions.
Many think this is a dead horse, so they want to keep beating it. Even though it is written on the back of the photo that it's a picture of a man sitting on a dead horse, I think the horse might not have been dead. There is an oft-used horse training method (shown in the movie The Horse Whisperer) in which people sit or even stand on a horse that is lying down. This is supposed to show the horse is totally submissive to humans, yet not frightened enough for it's instincts to overpower it's training. While I don't agree the method is necessary to get a horse to do what you want, it is quite commonly utilized, I think it's still a lot better than the old horse-breaking methods often depicted in old West movies and glorified in the bucking broncos in rodeos, a method where a horse is saddled and ridden, bucking and snorting until it submits or dies.
A bald eagle was stuck hanging upside down in a tree in Lake Red Rock in Iowa this past weekend. It appeared to have snagged one talon in a knothole in the branch it landed on, ending up upside down when it tried to take off. A sharpshooting Jason Sandholdt, a state botanist called to the scene by alarmed Army Corps of Engineers personnel, armed with a .50 calibre muzzleloading rifle, shot the knot off the branch, freeing the trapped eagle to fly off into the sunset, apparently in good condition. Sandholdt figures he had to have taken the eagle's talon off with the shot as well.
Kneeling or spread-eagle, that was a hell of a shot.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Russell Gillett appearing to be under the influence of drugs was eventually booked into the county jail for investigation of impersonating a police officer, disorderly conduct and packing a concealed weapon. While searching his car police found a weapon that may have been discharged in a domestic dispute, dozens of driver's licenses and other identification, and the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize belonging to Dr. Kay Miller, who previously had rented her basement out to Gillett. Dr. Miller's 1985 Nobel prize is for being a member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War.
What a winner.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Burj Dubai is about to become the world's tallest skyscraper and it's only 2/3rds complete. They are not setting any speed records at 3 days per floor, but they are determined to set a record towering over 2300 feet tall, considerably above the current record, the Taipei 101 Tower which has 101 floors and is 1671 feet in height, or even the current world's tallest structure, Toronto's CN Tower which is 1815 feet high.
Man, that is one huge erection.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Funny, I can think of more dangerous vehicle oddities than that.
I would think the most dangerous vehicle on the road would be one full of teenagers w/ a teenage driver. So many accidents happen when there is more than one teenager in a car. Kids not paying attention.
Or a drunk driver, we tend to have a shit load of those kind of people around here.
Then you have the people that are higher than a kite trying to drive, then again most of them end up parking on the side of the road before they cause an accident and sleep it off.
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“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”~~Mark Twain
Assistant high school athletic director, Joe Bieger took his two dogs for a walk, then forgot where he was going, where he lived, and who he was. He experience what is known as psychogenic fugue, a disorder where someone forgets who they were, goes on to create a new life. During the fugue they have no memory of their former life. Afterward they have no memory of their activities during the fugue.
Joe wandered about 20 miles from his home in Dallas, Texas, ending up being found in the suburb of Carrollton. He had been sighted previously in Plano. When he was found 25 days after he left his house, he sported a gray beard on his normally unshaven face and had lost 25 pounds.
BTW, the dogs were found a few hours after his disappearance. Joe's wife was worried, but always figured he was alive. After all, this was at least his third experience with amnesia, previous episodes lasting only a few hours.
Forget about all those previous diets or anything else you ever knew about weight loss, lose 25 pounds in 25 days on the Psychogenic Fugue Diet!!!
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
A chunk of ice the size of a small refrigerator fell out of the sky in Florida, smashing a Ford Mustang. There is no official explanation for this. The FAA reports there were no aircraft over the area at 9:00 AM when a neighbor heard a whooshing sound followed by witnessing the chunk hitting the car. Other explanations fell to a possible weird weather phenomenon or something paranormal, such as an extraterrestrial spacecraft (UFO).
The chunk of ice was itself a UFO prior to landing.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Designed by Roto-Rooter, it has a 20-inch flat screen TV, TiVo, iPod with toilet paper in docking station; bike-pedal exerciser, laptop computer, Xbox 360, DVD player, refrigerator with beer tap, cup warmer/cooler, fan, and a couple of other things.
I want it.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Casper, WY - Man was handling his newly purchased 9mm handgun, loaded a round into the chamber, gently lowered the hammer and shot himself through the hand, the bullet continuing through walls to hit a man in the chest then bouncing to the bathroom floor. The victim, thinking he was being shot at, grabbed his own gun and went outside to confront his assailant. Outside is where he encountered the man with the hand bleeding profusely apologizing profusely. The shooter was transported to the hospital. The shootee, hit with the force of a thumb in the chest, was urged by the landlord to call the police.
Being Wyoming, the police had only this to say to the shooter: "You're hitting low and to the left."
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Turkish manufacturers are rushing to send some of their socks to infamous neocon Bush appointee and World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, even though he certainly can afford to buy socks, after they saw pictures of him in his holey socks when he took his shoes off to enter an Ottoman-era mosque.
The cheap bastard.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
Designed by Roto-Rooter, it has a 20-inch flat screen TV, TiVo, iPod with toilet paper in docking station; bike-pedal exerciser, laptop computer, Xbox 360, DVD player, refrigerator with beer tap, cup warmer/cooler, fan, and a couple of other things.
Police in Atlanta shoot and kill a 92 year old woman in her home, but not before she shot and wounded three policemen as they broke through her front door. Police had a search warrant, saying they had made a drug buy at the house. They say they announced themselves before breaking through the door, but Kathryn Johnson let 'em have it with her own handgun. It was reported that "suspected narcotics" were found during a search Mrs. Johnson's home.
Let's review:
1. She lived in a bad neighborhood.
2. A 72 year old neighbor had been recently raped.
3. Someone's breaking through her door.
What would a reasonable person do in her place?
Police Face Charges in 92-Year-Old Woman's Death
BET.com News Staff & Wire Services
Posted Feb. 8, 2007 – Prosecutors in Fulton County say they plan to seek justice for the 92-year-old Atlanta woman who was shot to death in her home by Atlanta Police by seeking criminal charges against three officers involved.
The proposed indictment against officers Gregg Junnier, Jason R. Smith and Arthur Tesler accuses them of felony murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, burglary, making false statements and violation of oath.
Smith is accused of falsely telling detectives that he instructed an informant to make a police-monitored drug buy at the house. Tesler is accused of lying to the FBI when he told them he witnessed such a drug buy. Junnier is accused of falsely stating that the two other officers met with the informant.
Shortly after the shooting, a local TV station interviewed an unidentified man who said he was the informant. He said the officers told him to lie about what happened and offered to pay him.
The woman, Kathryn Johnston, was shot to death on Nov. 21 after three officers, who were not in uniform, allegedly kicked down her door without knocking to respond to a report of drug activity in Johnston's home.
The woman's niece, Sarah Dozier, said she bought her aunt Kathryn the gun to protect herself and that her aunt had a permit for the gun. Dozier said that she opened fired on the officers because they didn't identify themselves and she was scared.
An autopsy found that she had been shot five or six times.
Narcotics officers said an informer had claimed there was cocaine in the home, but none was found.
Attorneys for the officers call the indictment "overbroad," but in a letter to the victim's family, District Attorney Paul Howard wrote, "The death of Mrs. Johnston constitutes one of the greatest tragedies ever to occur in Fulton County. I will not rest until every person responsible for her death is held accountable."
NTM
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A man only needs two tools in life. WD-40 and duct tape. If it moves and it shouldn't, use the duct tape. If it doesn't move and it should, use WD-40.
I have to say I'm surprised the cops got the book thrown at them. The way it seemed to be developing I feared it would end up with the usual "terrible mistake/line of duty/bad neighborhood/drugs are bad, mkay" brush-off.
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