news of the weird

[Ban Hammer 14,273]

Can you hear me now?

BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - They are calling it the "crossed legs" strike.

Fretting over crime and violence, girlfriends and wives of gang members in the Colombian city of Pereira have called a ban on sex to persuade their menfolk to give up the gun.

After meeting with the mayor's office to discuss a disarmament program, a group of women decided to deny their partners their conjugal rights and recorded a song for local radio to urge others to follow their example.

"We met with the wives and girlfriends of gang members and they were worried some were not handing over their guns and that is where they came up with the idea of a vigil or a sex strike," mayor's office representative Julio Cesar Gomez said.

"The message they are giving them is disarm or if not then they will decide how, when, where and at what time," he told Reuters by telephone.

Gomez said the city, in Colombia's coffee-growing region, reported 480 killings last year.

Crime and violence have dropped in Colombia since 2002 when President Alvaro Uribe was first elected promising to crackdown on left-wing rebels fighting a four-decade insurgency and the illegal militia groups who formed to counter them.

But cocaine-trafficking gangs and armed groups still roam parts of Colombia and murder and kidnappings remain a problem despite the fall in crime statistics.

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Spanish police embarrassed by porno film

MADRID, Spain - Spanish police officers settling in for a video presentation on how to get promoted to sergeant were instead shown footage from a hard-core pornographic film, officials said Tuesday.

Howling laughter rippled through the auditorium where 120 Madrid city police officers had gathered Monday to see the video on operations at an academy where they are to study, the Madrid regional justice and interior ministry said.

A ministry official said computer technicians have blamed the glitch on a Trojan Horse computer virus that activated when the computer containing the video was turned on.

"It was just bad luck that the virus activated right then," said the official, who could not be named because of department rules.

The person operating the computer stopped the video and turned it back on several times but each time the porno movie came back on, so the operator eventually just shut the computer off altogether, the official said.

ooops

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Man may have sent 2 billion spam e-mails

SYDNEY, Australia - An Australian man under investigation for illegal spamming sent more than 2 billion e-mails promoting Viagra in a year, an official said Wednesday.

Experts say that's a drop in the ocean compared to the number of spam e-mails sent globally each year, and the system he used probably wasn't very sophisticated.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority began investigating the man, whose identity was not immediately released, after receiving a tip-off from authorities in the Netherlands in May last year.

Danyel Molenaar, a project manager for the Dutch Independent Regulator of Post and Telecommunications, said the man had rented 35 servers for around 14,000 Australian dollars (US$10,493; euro8,256) each per month from a small Internet service provider in the Netherlands to carry out the alleged spam campaign.

"These 35 servers were used just for sending spam day-in, day-out for at least a year, probably longer," Molenaar said Wednesday. "This operation probably sent out billions and billions of e-mails."

Australia has some of the toughest laws in the world against spamming, the notoriously hard-to-stop practice of flooding as many inboxes as possible with unwanted sales messages in the hope some of the receivers will reply.

Under Australia's Spam Act of 2003, it is illegal for Australian residents to be involved in the sending of unsolicited commercial e-mails, even if they are generated from outside the country.

The Australian authority's chairwoman, Lyn Maddock, said the man had allegedly sent more than 2 billion e-mails, mostly promoting the anti-impotence drug Viagra, to Internet users around the world.

Officials from the authority, which is responsible for enforcing the Spam Act, had searched the man's home and were examining the evidence, Maddock said in a statement. The authority declined to give further details while the investigation was under way.

Peter Coroneos, the chief executive for Australia's Internet Industry Association, said he didn't know the specifics about the man's case. But he added that high-volume spammers don't usually use servers owned by commercial Internet service providers to generate their e-mails, because they are generally too easy to trace.

Instead, sophisticated spammers use parasitic software programs known as Trojan horses to hijack individual computers and use them as remote servers for sending spam. The method is virtually impossible to prosecute because spammers can take over an unsuspecting user's computer, send millions of e-mails in a few hours, and leave without a trace.

"An unprotected server on a reasonable connection can send out about half a million spam e-mails an hour," or more than a billion e-mails a day, Coroneos said.

Nevertheless, he said 2 billion e-mails was still "a significant amount of spam."

"If the average spam e-mail takes five seconds to identify and delete, you multiply that by (two) billion and that's essentially the amount of time he's costing Internet users," he said.

Penalties for spamming in Australia range from 220,000 Australian dollars (US$164,765) per day for first-time corporate offenders to A$1.1 million (US$823,826) per day for repeat offenders.

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Viagra works, but chocolate works better

LAGOS (AFP) - Viagra may heat up one's sex drive, but chocolate can make it sizzle.

So said Dr. Dora Akunyili, the director of Nigeria's Federal Agency for Food and Medicine, in advising Nigerians on Monday to forego the little, libido-boosting blue pills in favor of a measured dose of cocoa.

To back up her claims -- made during a meeting with the vice-governor of one of Nigeria's states -- the good doctor cited a recently published study extolling the libidinal qualities of cocoa beans.

The report, produced by Nigeria's national committee for the development of cocoa, may be a bit skimpy on double-blind scientific tests, but it does refer to the marketing campaign of a British trade association making similar claims.

Baptized "Feeding Your Imagination", the campaign will soon launch a product line of six energy chocolate bars containing essential oils said to enhance one's mood, and especially one's sexual appetite.

Costing about six US dollars (5 euros) per 100 grams, the bars are fetchingly named Sexy, Beautiful, Dreamy, Fantastic, Sensual and Lovely, according to the website foodnavigator.com.

Britons already lead the European Union in chocolate consumption, eating nearly 10 kilos on average per year, and Britian is thus considered a promising market for sex candy.

For Akunyili, chocolate is the obvious lover's choice. Viagra, she said, can have unwelcome side effects, but chocolate is all good: it is the best anti-oxidant known and -- beyond its sexual virtues -- can help prevent heart attacks, hypertension and diabetes.

The vice governor, who also happens to head a committee for the promotion of chocolate, is even more enthusiastic about cocoa's curative powers, claiming it can "cure breast cancer, get rid of chronic coughs, and enhance brain power".

Akunyili did caution, however, that any new products containing chocolate will be thoroughly tested before going to market.

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Edited September 13, 2006 by charlesandnessa

[Ban Hammer 14,273]

All charges dropped in ####### pump case

CHICAGO - Prosecutors dropped all charges Wednesday against a man who claimed an airport security guard misheard him when she thought he'd said a sexual device in his backpack actually was a bomb.

Mardin Amin, who appeared in a Cook County circuit court Wednesday morning, has said he actually told the female security guard at O'Hare International Airport last month that the small, black object was a "pump" — as in a ####### pump.

Prosecutors chose to follow the lead of the Transportation Safety Administration, which recently concluded that the matter did not warrant prosecution, said Cook County state's attorney spokesman John Gorman.

Amin, 29, of Skokie, had been charged with felony disorderly conduct and faced up to three years in prison if convicted.

His attorney, Eileen O'Neill-Burke, did not immediately return a message Wednesday seeking comment.

She explained earlier that her client was embarrassed to explain the object to the security guard in front of his mother, who was traveling with him — so he whispered. The guard misunderstood, and thought he had said "bomb," O'Neill-Burke said.

The attorney added that Amin, an Iraqi, has a thick accent and she herself had trouble understanding him until he brought the pump to her office. She said she recently learned Arabic speakers sometimes have trouble distinguishing "p" and "b" sounds.

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[Hilarious Clinton 452]

What about chocolate flavored viagra? I think it could work.

[Mirorgate 0]

What about chocolate flavored viagra? I think it could work.

Pure Genius

[Ban Hammer 14,273]

Man dies after girlfriend douses him with gas

Daytona Beach, Florida - Volusia County authorities say a man died from second and third-degree burns days after his girlfriend doused him with gasoline.

Sheriff officials say Karianne Cregar threw the gasoline on AJ Cregar after the two fought about his alleged drug use Saturday.

AJ Cregar died Tuesday afternoon at the hospital.

Karianne Cregar was once married to her boyfriend's brother, Charles.

A police report says she dumped a small container of gasoline on AJ Cregar in an attempt to ruin crack cocaine he had in his pocket. She told investigators she didn't see a lighter and cigarette that he was holding.

Charges of battery/aggravated domestic violence and arson are likely to be upgraded. Karianne Cregar has been released on bond.

Her attorney says she's very shaken by the incident.

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A DRUNK Brit drowned in a hotel pool during a tragic birthday game to find out who could hold their breath the longest.

Richard Mamphey — celebrating his 24th — was declared the winner by pals before the horrific truth dawned on them.

Richard, from East London, had been drinking with 20 pals on the Greek island of Kos when they decided to take it in turns to see how long each could spend underwater.

Police captain Christos Dimopoulos told how witnesses said the group had spent the evening in a nightclub and were “very drunk, some were vomiting, and some laughing hysterically”.

He said a coroner had ruled that Richard had drowned.

A three-week police investigation since the tragedy last month yesterday ruled out foul play.

None of the group of British holidaymakers will face charges.

But the hotel’s management will be questioned over possible negligence.

Richard’s dad Ray questioned the cops’ findings that there was a game.

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[Ban Hammer 14,273]

Man forced into circumcision

Wednesday, 13th September, 2006

A UGANDAN from Bugisu had to bear the brunt of forced circumcision in the sprawling Kibera slums of Nairobi on Sunday.

However, the victim’s mother, Hellen Naliaka, supported the move by the residents, saying it was the only way to attain manhood.

The man, in his early 30s, was stripped naked, smeared with millet brew (malwa) before being frog-marched into an open space in the slums, where he was circumcised.

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[almaty 19]

damn

[Mirorgate 0]

damn

you ca say that again

[Ban Hammer 14,273]

Widow rented rotary phone for 42 years

CANTON, Ohio - A widow rented a rotary dial telephone for 42 years, paying what her family calculates as more than $14,000 for a now outdated phone.

Ester Strogen, 82, of Canton, first leased two black rotary phones — the kind whose round dial is moved manually with your finger — in the 1960s. Back then, the technology was new and owning telephones was unaffordable for most people.

Until two months ago, Strogen was still paying AT&T to use the phones — $29.10 a month. Strogen's granddaughters, Melissa Howell and Barb Gordon, ended the arrangement when they discovered the bills.

"I'm outraged," Gordon said. "It made me so mad. It's ridiculous. If my own grandmother was doing it, how many other people are?"

New Jersey-based Lucent Technologies, a spinoff of AT&T that manages the residential leasing service, said customers were given the choice option to opt out of renting in 1985. The number of customers leasing phones dropped from 40 million nationwide to about 750,000 today, he said.

"We will continue to lease sets as long as there is a demand for them," Skalko said.

Benefits of leasing include free replacements and the option of switching to newer models, he said.

Gordon said she believes the majority of people leasing are elderly and may not realize they are paying thousands of dollars for a telephone.

Skalko said bills are clearly marked, and customers can quit their lease any time by returning their phones.

Strogen says she's not a big fan of her new push-button phone.

"I'd like to have my rotary back," she said. "I like that better."

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[Ban Hammer 14,273]

A 14-hour standoff — and no one home

After a 14-hour standoff, police broke down the door of a townhouse in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Bells Corners and searched it — only to find there was no one inside.

Police surrounded the house on Richmond Road near Moodie Drive at about midnight on Wednesday, intending to arrest a 35-year-old man for an earlier domestic assault and uttering threats.

The suspect was in the house at that time and refused to leave, police said.

They believed he was alone and unarmed.

Early Thursday morning, armed police officers cleared people out of townhouses on both sides of the residence, although many people stayed in the area to watch.

Meanwhile, they shouted at the man through a megaphone, asking him to come out with his hands up.

Eventually, police officers obtained a new warrant that allowed them to search the house.

They smashed the clasp of the front door with a sledgehammer.

Then they threw a volley of tear gas into the house and continued to shout for the man to come out — but drew no response.

Finally, at about noon, the officers broke down the door.

CBC reporters outside heard the sound of gunshots from inside the house.

It turned out that officers found two pit bulls and shot them dead.

What they did not find was the man they were looking for, despite searching the house from top to bottom, said Const. Steven Desjourdy.

"Police searched the whole building, including the attic. There are no holes in the walls to suppose that he did go into another apartment. So we can only suppose that he might have left last night."

The man presumably escaped despite the fact that police had the house surrounded since Wednesday night.

Fifteen to 20 police officers left the scene after the thorough, but futile search.

Police continue searching for the Ottawa man.

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