Sex toy triggers bomb scare in Sweden

 

Vibrating sex toy triggers bomb scare in Swedish apartment garage

updated 4:55 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 16, 2008

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - A Swedish bomb squad called out to disarm a suspicious package on Wednesday did not find a ticking bomb. But they did find a vibrating sex toy.

A janitor alerted police after he found the package in a garage of an apartment building in Goteborg, the country's second-largest city, police spokesman Jan Strannegard said.

The package was humming and vibrating suspiciously, so police took no chances and sent out a team of explosives experts. After having cordoned off the area, they opened the package with bomb disposal equipment, only to find the battery-operated device inside.

"The package was vibrating when the janitor found it, but I think it had sort of died out by the time it was disarmed," Strannegard said.

Sex toy triggers bomb scare in Sweden - Weird news- msnbc.com

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ABC News: 50-Pound Face Tumor: One Man's Nightmare

 

By DAN CHILDS
ABC News Medical Unit
Jan. 11, 2008

To see the face of 32-year-old Huang Chuancai is to witness a rare genetic condition in its most terrible form.

Chinese doctors say Huang, of China's southern Hunan province, suffers from a disease known as neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder of the nervous system that primarily affects the development and growth of neural cell tissues.

For many of its sufferers, the disease means abnormal growth of these tissues and, as a result, facial disfigurement. But Huang's case could well be the most extreme case of such disfigurement in the world today.

Before surgical intervention, 50 pounds of tumor tissue had pulled and twisted Huang's face into a distorted form, nearly unrecognizable as human. According to wire reports, doctors found that the heavy mass that droops from his head and face had deformed his backbone, stunting his growth. The tumor had totally covered his left eye, while his left ear hung down to his shoulder, and his right ear and jaw were completely engulfed.

Now, after more than two decades of suffering the horrific advance of his tumor, Huang is recovering from a second round of surgery on Monday to remove the massive growth. The initial operation, which took place last July, was a risky one-and-a-half-hour procedure that removed the largest of Huang's tumors, which weighed about 33 pounds.

While many more operations will be needed to remove all the excess tissue, Huang is reportedly hopeful that the treatments will allow him to lead a more normal life.

"I hope that when my illness is cured, I can go back home and have a nice spring festival with my family," he told Reuters.

Unfortunately, plastic and cosmetic surgeons say, it is highly unlikely that the surgeries will result in a normal appearance.

There is "zero chance of [Huang] looking normal, since the muscles, nerves, eye, bone and sometimes brain can be involved," notes Dr. Henry Kawamoto, clinical professor of plastic surgery at UCLA and director of the university's craniofacial clinic.

"I doubt that this patient will look 'normal' as suggested by [past media coverage]," agrees Park Avenue plastic surgeon Dr. Darrick Antell. "The patient would certainly be substantially better, but the degree of the problem is so large that 'normal' is unlikely in my opinion."

ABC News: 50-Pound Face Tumor: One Man's Nightmare

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Cost of coitus: Male monkeys pay for sex

 

PARIS (AFP) - Selling sex is said to be humankind's oldest profession but it may have deep evolutionary roots, according to a study into our primate cousins which found that male macaques pay for intercourse by using grooming as a currency.

Michael Gumert of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore made the discovery in a 20-month investigation into 50 long-tailed macaques in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia, New Scientist reports on Saturday.

On average, females had sex 1.5 times per hour.

But this rate jumped to 3.5 times per hour immediately after the female had been groomed by a male -- and her partner of choice was likely to be the hunky monkey that did the grooming.

Market forces also acted on the value of the transaction.

If there were several females in the area, the cost of buying sex would drop dramatically -- a male could "buy" a female for just eight minutes of nit-picking.

But if there were no females around, he would have to groom for up to 16 minutes before sex was offered.

The work supports the theory that biological market forces can explain social behaviour, the British weekly says.

"There is a very well-known mix of economic and mating markets in the human species itself," said Ronald Noe of France's University of Strasbourg.

"There are many examples of rich old men getting young attractive ladies."

Cost of coitus: Male monkeys pay for sex - Yahoo! News

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Music makes children brainier, more agile, expert stresses

Hamburg, Germany - Not only does it soothe the savage beast, but music also makes unruly children calmer while at the same time honing their facilities for cognitive skills and physical coordination, according to a leading expert. A mother's soft lullaby, granddad's whistling or granny's humming in the kitchen or the dulcet tones of father singing in the shower - all of these seemingly innocuous musical activities serve to help an infant not only in acquiring linguistic skills, but also in learning how human beings interact on a social level.

"Experiments have shown that unborn babies in the womb appear to relax in response to certain music and also that they seem to recognize this music after birth," says Professor Michael Schulte- Markwort, head of child psychology at Hamburg's University Hospital in Germany.

"From the outset, music helps the language centres in the brain to develop so that children who have been exposed to music at an early age tend to learn to speak earlier than those who are born into non- musical homes," he says.

"Music also helps in the development of motor skills while at the same time reducing tension," says Dr Schulte-Markwort.

"Learning the tunes and lyrics to songs also aids in developing memory skills for other tasks," he adds.

Rhythm and dancing also skills young muscles in coordination so that musical children are healthier and better coordinated than children whose parents never teach them to sing and dance and play a simple drum or other instrument.

"Children develop a feel for musical tones and associate certain tone patterns with certain rhythms," he points out.

"As soon as they learn to walk, they also begin to move rhythmically in time to musical stimuli and thus automatically begin to dance. Good and attentive parents naturally encourage their offspring to sing and dance rhythmically," he adds.

"That is why pre-schoolers should engage in games involving rhythmic movement and dancing, games that encourage children to clap in time with the beat or to beat out the rhythm on simple percussion instruments such as bells and chimes and little drums," says Schulte- Markwort.

Age five or six is ideal for teaching children to play a musical instrument because their minds are most receptive to learning the skills involved.

"If they have already been exposed to music and to rudimentary instruments, then at about age five or six they will think of learning to play an instrument as a kind of a game," he says.

"We are not talking about the violin or bassoon, which involve very fine motor skills, and we are also not talking about tedious piano lessons which bore young minds. But instead we are talking about simple flutes and other instruments which produce a melodic sound easily and enjoyably," he says.

"It is important to remember the fun factor. Singing, dancing and playing musical instruments must first and foremost be fun for children," he stresses.

Quoted from http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/159814.html:

Music makes children brainier, more agile, expert stresses : Health

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James Daley: Insurers are cannier than you think

The amazing story of John Darwin's "resurrection" and arrest on suspicion of fraud made for captivating reading this week. I should be clear from the outset that there is no evidence that Mr Darwin or his wife have committed any kind of fraud, but the whole episode left me wondering just how common deception really is in the insurance world.

According to a recent report by the Association of British Insurers, more than one in 10 general insurance claims have a fraudulent element to them. Most of these are car or homeowners inflating the value of the items that have been lost, stolen or damaged. For example, when their house is burgled, a sizeable proportion of people will happily throw in a few extra items on to the list of stolen goods, or will claim that their Casio watch was in fact a Rolex.

The report also reveals that certain demographic groups are more likely to make fraudulent claims than others. People who live in the north of England, for example, are 1.7 times more likely to commit insurance fraud than the average person. Men, as well as people with unsecured debts of over £1,000, are also more likely to exaggerate or falsify a claim.

But perhaps more surprisingly, the ABI discovered that people with high levels of savings are also more likely than the average person to make a fraudulent insurance claim, illustrating the fact that modern-day insurance fraud has become a very middle-class crime.

According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, one of the most common types of deception these days is a practice called "fronting", where families name one of the parents as a primary driver on their child's car, and put the teenager down as a secondary driver. This dramatically reduces what are usually punitively expensive premiums for younger drivers – but is totally fraudulent and illegal. According to Zurich insurance, more than one in 10 (predominantly middle-class) families are now guilty of fronting, many of whom are not even aware that they are in breach of the law.

As fraud levels have grown over the past few years, insurers' techniques to catch the perpetrators have become all the more ingenious. A number of insurance companies now regularly use lie-detector technology to analyse customers' voices when they call in to make a claim, referring them to a specialist investigator for an hour-long interrogation if they fall foul of the test.

One of the insurers most vocal about its use of such techniques has been Esure. The company claims that it has had great success with its lie-detector software (technology that was originally designed for Israeli border-control guards, no less).

Once it has singled out someone using its software, Esure gets one of its investigators to spend an hour getting the customer to tell the story again. Then the investigator goes back to somewhere in the middle of the timeline and asks the customer to talk about what happened just before. This jumping around almost always trips up fraudsters.

Disappointingly, very few perpetrators of insurance fraud are ever actually prosecuted. With the average fraudulent claim coming in at around £800, it's not worth the insurer's costs to take a civil case – after all, they've already saved themselves having to pay the claim.

The Crown Prosecution Service is also reluctant to take on such cases because of a lack of resources, even though the insurers have usually already done most of the work for them. This means that, perversely, there's no real incentive to not give relatively small-time insurance fraud a go. Fortunately for the insurance companies, the vast majority of people are too honest to try it on.

Quoted from http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/invest_save/article3231443.ece:

James Daley: Insurers are cannier than you think - Independent Online Edition > Invest & Save

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Brain 'irrelevance filter' found

Scientists believe they have located a new brain area essential for good memory - the "irrelevance filter".

People who are good at remembering things, even with distractions, have more activity in the basal ganglia on brain scans, the Swedish team found.

The work in Nature Neuroscience could help explain why some people are better at remembering things than others.

Clinically, it could also aid the understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The ability to hold information in the mind so that it is immediately accessible is known as working memory.

We use working memory all of the time - for example, when doing a simple maths calculation in our head or recalling a telephone number.

There will be many brain regions that filter irrelevant information, so it is too early to tell if these findings will have a bearing on conditions such as ADHD John Duncan Medical Research Council scientist

Working memory is important because it gives a mental workspace in which we can hold information whilst mentally engaged in other relevant tasks, which is crucial for learning.

Its capacity is limited and seems to vary from person to person.

These variations are not just due to having a larger or smaller memory store, but also due to differences in how effectively irrelevant items are kept out of memory, the Karolinksa Institute researchers believe.

Distracters

Dr Torkel Klingberg and colleague Fiona McNab used a special brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track what was happening in the brains of 25 healthy volunteers.

The volunteers were asked to perform a computer-based task that required them to respond to target visual images, with or without distractions.

A noise informed subjects when an upcoming visual display would contain irrelevant distracters along with the targets.

When this cue occurred, neural activity increased in the basal ganglia and the prefrontal cortex before the visual display appeared, suggesting the brain was preparing to "filter out" the upcoming distracters.

Also, greater activity in a specific part of the basal ganglia - the globus pallidus - correlated with less unnecessary storage in another part of the brain, the posterior parietal cortex, which is sensitive to the amount of information held in memory.

The team is currently investigating methods of improving attention and working memory in children with ADHD and monitoring any changes with fMRI.

Medical Research Council scientist John Duncan said: "This is very interesting work and gives a window on important parts of the brain.

"The basal ganglia are very strong candidates for involvement in brain disorders where people have difficulty with attentional control.

"But there will be many brain regions that filter irrelevant information, so it is too early to tell if these findings will have a bearing on conditions such as ADHD."

Quoted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7132829.stm:

BBC NEWS | Health | Brain 'irrelevance filter' found

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Man freed after 100 hours trapped in a lavatory

LONDON (Reuters) - A retired Scottish school teacher was recovering on Monday after spending nearly four days trapped inside a men's toilet with no food or mobile phone.

David Leggat was locked inside the bathroom at a lawn bowling club near the Scottish city of Aberdeen after the door jammed and the handle on the outside fell off.

The 55-year-old kept warm by dipping his feet in hot water but only managed to get about three hours' sleep a night in the freezing temperatures, the local Evening Express newspaper reported.

He was rescued when the cleaner at the club, which is little used in winter, turned up to collect her cleaning equipment.

Leggat said a survival course he had once done had helped him endure his captivity. The cleaning lady said he looked shaken and grey when he emerged. Leggat was stoical.

"At least there was a toilet to use," he said. "The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar."

(Reporting by Luke Baker; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

 

Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1032522120071210?rpc=92:

Man freed after 100 hours trapped in a lavatory | Oddly Enough | Reuters

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China cremator dumps half-burnt bodies to save fuel

HONG KONG, Dec 7 (Reuters) - China's worst fuel crunch in years has led a crematorium to dump half-burnt corpses to try to save on diesel costs, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Friday.

Villagers in Hengyang county, in the southern province of Hunan, discovered the practice when an "unbearable stench" started coming from the site, and tried to block a road on Wednesday to stop funeral vehicles from delivering more bodies.

The village sent people to investigate the smell and the South China Morning Post said they saw "crematorium workers putting half-burnt human remains and organs in plastic bags and throwing them into a nearby ditch".

"As the price of diesel rose, we saw more and more bags thrown out from the crematorium," the paper quoted Xiao Gaoyi, a village representative and one of the witnesses, as saying.

China was hit by its worst fuel supply crisis in four years from October to November, as a widening gap between low, state-regulated domestic prices and market-driven international prices forced Chinese refiners to cut output.

Fuel in many parts of the country was rationed and there were long queues at petrol stations.

An increase of nearly 10 percent in the prices of domestic diesel and gasoline from Nov. 1, the first in almost a year and a half, failed to lift refining margins back into the black. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

 

Quoted from http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKHKG6025220071207?rpc=92:

RPT-China cremator dumps half-burnt bodies to save fuel | Markets | Reuters

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Kangaroo farts could ease global warming

AUSTRALIAN scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.

Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.

While the usual image of greenhouse gas pollution is a billowing smokestack pushing out carbon dioxide, livestock passing wind contribute a surprisingly high percentage of total emissions in some countries.

"Fourteen per cent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep,'' said Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the Queensland Government.

"And if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they're actually up around 50 per cent,'' he said.

Researchers say the bacteria also makes the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers.

"Not only would they not produce the methane, they would actually get something like 10 to 15 per cent more energy out of the feed they are eating,'' said Mr Klieve.

Even farmers who laugh at the idea of environmentally friendly kangaroo farts say that's nothing to joke about, particularly given the devastating drought Australia is suffering.

"In a tight year like a drought situation, 15 per cent would be a considerable sum,'' said farmer Michael Mitton.

But it will take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria, before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to cattle and sheep.

Another group of scientists, meanwhile, has suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos.

The idea is controversial, but about 20 per cent of health-conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already.

"It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal,'' said Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies.

"It doesn't get drenched, it doesn't get vaccinated, it utilises food right across the landscape, it moves around to where the food is good, so yes, it's a good food.''

It might take a while for kangaroos to become popular barbecue fare, but with concern over global warming growing in the world's driest inhabited continent, Australians could soon be ready to try almost anything to cut emissions.

 

Quoted from http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22879895-13762,00.html:

Kangaroo farts could ease global warming | NEWS.com.au

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England flops shafted by enormous todger

 

Croatian national anthem gaffe delights the crowd

By Lester Haines

Opera singing Brit Tony Henry has become a Croatian hero for mispronouncing a line in the country's national anthem before its team consigned a lamentable England to the dustbin of footballing history on Wednesday night.

The ditty is "written in the old Croat style", the Telegraph explains, and instead of singing Mila kuda si planina - "You know my dear how we love your mountains" - Henry thundered Mila kura si planina, or "My dear, my penis is a mountain".

This evidently delighted Croatian players Vedran Corluka and Luka Modric, who were seen "grinning at each other" at the gaffe, and fans claim the slip helped relax the team before its 3-2 drubbing of McClaren's lacklustre side.

Accordingly, Croatians are now calling for Henry to be awarded with a medal and appointed their team's official mascot for Euro 2008. Mate Prlic, of Croatian footie mag Torcida, suggested: "He obviously relaxed the players so why not invite him to Euro 2008 to keep the winning streak going?"

Henry's agent, Douglas Gillespie, said: "Tony had a great reception from the Croatian fans and already feels part of their campaign for Euro 2008."

England flops shafted by enormous todger | The Register

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Cat's daily routine baffles owner

A cat is baffling his owner by wandering off at night before expecting to be collected by car every morning at exactly the same time and place.

Sgt Podge, a Norwegian Forest Cat, disappears from his owner's home in Talbot Woods, Bournemouth, every night.

The next morning, the 12-year-old cat can always be found in exactly the same place, on a pavement about one and a half miles (2.4km) away.

His owner, Liz Bullard, takes her son to school before collecting Sgt Podge.

She said the routine began earlier this year, when Sgt Podge disappeared one day.

 

Ms Bullard rang the RSPCA and began telephoning her neighbours to see if anyone had seen him.

An elderly woman who lived about one and a half miles away called back to say she had found a cat matching Sgt Podge's description.

Ms Bullard collected him but within days he vanished again. She rang the elderly woman to find Sgt Podge was back outside her home.

 

She said a routine has now become established, where each morning she takes her son to school before driving to collect Sgt Podge from the pavement between 0800 and 0815 GMT.

It is thought Sgt Podge walks across Meyrick Park Golf Course every night to reach his destination.

Ms Bullard said: "If it's raining he may be in the bush but he comes running if I clap my hands."

All she has to do is open the car passenger door from the inside for Sgt Podge to jump in.

Wandering the streets

Ms Bullard also makes the trip at weekends and during school holidays - when her son is having a lie in.

She does not know why, after 12 years, Sgt Podge has begun the routine but explained that another woman who lived nearby used to feed him sardines, and that he may be on the look-out for more treats.

"As long as you know where they are you don't mind as a cat owner," Ms Bullard said.

"I know where to collect him - as long as he's not wandering the streets."

Back at home, Sgt Podge has breakfast before going to sleep by a warm radiator.

 

 

Quoted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7092301.stm:

BBC NEWS | England | Dorset | Cat's daily routine baffles owner

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Hilton tries to help drunken elephants - Yahoo! News

 

By WASBIR HUSSAIN, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 13, 12:04 PM ET

GAUHATI, India - With Rwanda off her charity calendar, Paris Hilton has turned her attention to the plight of ... drunken elephants in India.

"The elephants get drunk all the time. It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them," the 26-year-old socialite was quoted as saying by the World Entertainment News Network's Web site.

In the wake of her jail term for an alcohol-related reckless driving case, Hilton is seeking to remake her image from club-hopping party girl to world-traveling do-gooder. She announced plans to do charity work in Rwanda, but the trip was postponed until next year.

Then opportunity for Hilton's "global elephant campaign" knocked last month when six parched pachyderms broke into a farm in the state of Meghalaya and guzzled farmers' homemade rice beer. The elephants went on a rampage, then uprooted an electricity pole and were jolted to death.

"There would have been more casualties if the villagers hadn't chased them away. And four elephants died in a similar way three years ago. It is just so sad," Hilton was quoted as saying in last week in Tokyo, where she was judging a beauty contest.

Sangeeta Goswami, head of animal rights group People for Animals, told The Associated Press: "I am indeed happy Hilton has taken note of recent incidents of wild elephants in northeast India going berserk."

"As part of her global elephant campaign, Hilton should, in fact, think of visiting this region literally infested with elephants," Goswami said.

Hilton's publicist couldn't immediately be reached Tuesday to verify her comments. Another conservationist said elephant alcohol abuse was just a symptom of the real problem. (No, he wasn't talking about celebrities.)

"Elephants appear on human settlements ... because they have no habitat left due to wanton destruction of forests," said Soumyadeep Dutta, who heads Nature's Beckon, a leading regional conservation group. "A celebrity like Hilton must focus her attention on this fact."

Hilton tries to help drunken elephants - Yahoo! News

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Attack Plane Taranis Can Fly Without Pilot

Pilotless Plane Can Launch Own Attacks

By Geoff Meade
Defence correspondent
Updated:09:31, Friday November 02, 2007

 

It sounds like something straight out of a Terminator film script.

Future air battles may be fought by robots with minimum human input.

Attack plane has no pilot

 

The Ministry of Defence is spending £124m developing a prototype of Britain's first unmanned fighter-bomber.

Named Taranis after the Celtic god of thunder, the sinister bat-wing shape will be the size of one of the Red Arrows' Hawk display jets. Its range will be intercontinental.

It can carry bombs, missiles and canon. And, for the first time, it will be capable of shooting down other aircraft.

"This is a machine able to think for itself," said Chris Allam, project director at BAE Systems' top secretworks at Salmesbury, near Preston in Lancashire.

"It's a new generation of UAV (unmanned air vehicles). It won't need a pilot on the ground with a joystick. It will be assigned an area to operate in and then will acquire and track targets autonomously."

The prospect raises obvious fears. What if the deadly machine turned on its creators?

That's science fiction say the designers. "At no time will the machine be able to take the decision to release a weapon. That will always require human authorisation."

Although that may reassure flesh and blood pilots, there is strong lobbying for unmanned aviation.

A conventional fast jet costs £40,000 an hour to operate. Drones can be cheaper and - because no life is at stake - more expendable.

"They're valuable for operations that are dull - such as protracted surveillance - dirty, operating in a contaminated environment or dangerous, where there's heavy anti-aircraft fire," explained aviation writer Jon Lake. "But their sensors are far inferior to a human being's whose eye can take in detail in an instant."

I was the first TV journalist to be allowed inside the factory to see the first metal being cut on the prototype.

The builders are justly proud of a project which restores Britain to the premiership of aerospace innovation. It should fly within two years and could be operational in ten.

The French are developing a similar weapon, whilst America is building a solar-powered plane to stay aloft for a year.

This really could be the rise of the machines.

Quoted from http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1291122,00.html?f=rss:

Attack Plane Taranis Can Fly Without Pilot |Sky News|UK News

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Tax ruling leaves 150 Raytheon workers out in cold

Pay for Antarctic work not considered by IRS as earned outside US

By Jonathan Berr, Globe Correspondent | October 31, 2007

Meghan Prentiss thought working for Raytheon Co.(RTN) as a meteorologist at McMurdo Station in Antarctica was "like going to the moon for a year." But as far as the IRS is concerned, she never left the state of Massachusetts.

What the 31-year-old Boston resident describes as "the ultimate adventure" seven years ago turned into a painful lesson in tax law. Prentiss is among about 150 people who worked on the frozen continent for the Waltham-based defense contractor who were penalized by the Internal Revenue Service for claiming on their taxes that they were working outside the United States.

Because other federal courts have ruled that Antarctica is a foreign country with regards to tort claims and the Fair Labor Standards Act, the workers believed they were on safe ground claiming the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion, which allows some US citizens who work overseas to exempt as much as $82,400 in income from federal taxes.

But the Tax Court, which handles disputes between the IRS and taxpayers, thought otherwise. In a January ruling that's binding for all the cases, the court said the workers' arguments were "irrelevant or without merit" since they were based on laws other than the tax code, which specifies that foreign countries must have governments recognized by the US government. The US rejects any territorial claims over Antarctica.

"I guess I fought the law and the law won," joked Prentiss, whose case was officially decided this month.

Many Raytheon workers claimed the foreign income deduction for years, according to Dean Klein, who spent 12 seasons at the South Pole. Raytheon took over running the Polar research stations for the National Science Foundation in 2000. The company hires about 1,000 contract workers at the South Pole and employs 400 there full-time, supporting three year-round research stations and two vessels.

"Until Raytheon took over, there was never an issue with the IRS," said Klein, 45, a North Carolina resident who hasn't been hired back by Raytheon since 2005. "I was told that you didn't need to worry."

But a company spokesman, Jonathan Kasle, said workers hired for Antarctica are told during orientation that they can't claim the foreign income exclusion.

Many of the workers who had the tax problems used a Colorado accounting firm run by former IRS official Joyce Zeglin, said Scott Saltzman, a former Raytheon worker from Brockton. At Zeglin's suggestion, they hired a tax attorney together. "The idea was power in numbers," Saltzman said.

It didn't work out that way. Zeglin said she was disappointed with the ruling. Larry Harvey, the Colorado lawyer who represented the workers, said he isn't filing an appeal because chances are slim for prevailing.

The question of who owns Antarctica is unsettled as a matter of international law. New Zealand claims sovereignty over the Ross Dependency, where McMurdo and Palmer Station are located. The United States doesn't recognize New Zealand's claim.

"Not all [New Zealand] law is automatically applied to or exercised in the Ross Dependency," said Lorraine Schofield, a spokeswoman for the New Zealand Embassy in Washington, who said she was unable to determine if tax law was applicable. "It is significant to note, though, that [New Zealand] does not exercise jurisdiction over other national programs in Antarctica, including the US"

Tangling with the IRS has taken its toll on the former polar workers. When she first was notified the agency had questioned her taxes, Prentiss immediately posted a $5,000 bond, which forced her to borrow more than she planned to go to graduate school. Other former Raytheon workers found themselves in worse shape.

Saltzman fell down a flight of stairs at Palmer in 2002, breaking his neck leaving him disabled. He took the same deduction Prentiss did in 2001 and now owes the IRS $12,604.71, which includes $1,665.75 in penalties, and $2,112.93 in interest, which he's paying off in monthly installments of $171. The IRS seized his social security benefits from his bank account and wouldn't release them until he worked out a payment arrangement.

"I got a raw deal," said Saltzman, 43, who lives in Florida part of the year because he can no longer take New England winters. "Now, if I miss a payment they will take my disability away again."

Quoted from http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/10/31/tax_ruling_leaves_150_raytheon_workers_out_in_cold/:

Tax ruling leaves 150 Raytheon workers out in cold - The Boston Globe

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Police seek public help for kangaroo afoot in Denmark

Danish police appealed for public help Tuesday to track down a kangaroo that escaped from its owner's home in Copenhagen.

Two of the fleet-footed native Australian marsupials escaped from their owner's residence in the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Amager on Monday.

One found its own way home on Tuesday but the second remains on the loose, police said.

"Passersby saw it on Tuesday afternoon and its owner, Jan Passer, is on his way to try to persuade it to return home," a police officer told AFP.

"He is very nice, according to his owner, and easy to cajole with just a carrot," he added.

Quoted from http://breitbart.com/article.php?id=071030161447.ov1zrmu2&show_article=1&catnum=9:

Police seek public help for kangaroo afoot in Denmark

 

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He's not undead, just unsober...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Passengers on a German train mistook a Halloween reveler dressed up as a gore-covered zombie for a murder victim and called the police.

The 24-year-old man fell into a drunken slumber on his way home from a Halloween party in Hamburg, police in the northern town of Bad Segeberg said Monday.

Believing his hands and face were smeared with blood, passengers alerted police after getting no response from him.

A first aid team called to the scene soon cleared up the confusion. Police told the man to remove his make-up after which he was allowed to continue his journey.

"Bad Segeberg is in a rural area and Halloween isn't very well known there," police spokeswoman Silke Tobies said. "So people weren't expecting anyone to be dressed up in the train."

Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSEIC94583820071029:

He's not undead, just unsober... | Oddly Enough | Reuters

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Man fined for assisting old lady

 

23 October 2007

BRUSSELS – A man who assisted an elderly woman on Monday after train doors closed on her was "thanked" by the conductor with a 60-euro fine.

"I apparently could have caused a delay and that is not permitted," Daniël Dewulf from Ostend told newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.

Dewulf managed to get on the Bruges-bound train just before the conductor's whistle. "Then I noticed that an elderly woman had tried to get on after me. The doors had closed on her, trapping her. In order to prevent a tragedy I pushed the door open and helped her get in. She thanked me profusely."

The conductor was less enthusiastic. "He gave me a fine because my actions increased the chance of a delay," Dewulf explained. "The train arrived right on time in Bruges in any event. The conductor did not see my point that I may have saved the woman's life as a mitigating circumstance. Result: 60-euro fine."

The Belgian Railways has since admitted that Dewulf should not be blamed and that he did help to prevent a worse accident. He will not have to pay the fine in the end. "We also offer our apologies. We should have in fact fined the woman in question for boarding the train after the whistle."

Man fined for assisting old lady, Belgian News, Belgium, Expatica

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Prostitutes sew lips together in protest

 

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Prostitutes in the Bolivian city of El Alto sewed their lips together Wednesday as part of a hunger strike to demand that the mayor reopen brothels and bars ordered closed after violent protests by residents last week.

"We are fighting for the right to work and for our families' survival," Lily Cortez, leader of the El Alto Association of Nighttime Workers, told local television.

"Tomorrow we will bury ourselves alive if we are not immediately heard. The mayor will have his conscience to answer to if there are any grave consequences, such as the death of my comrades," she said, surrounded by about 10 prostitutes who had sewn their lips together with thread.

Some 30 other women were shown fasting inside a medical clinic nearby.

Mayor Fanor Nava told local radio he would not reopen the brothels and bars closed after city residents fed up with underage drinking and crime stormed the red-light district in El Alto, an impoverished city just north of La Paz.

Prostitution in Bolivia is legal but pimping is outlawed.

Student activists who want the bars and brothels permanently shut down were also on a hunger strike, along with the leaders of an association representing bars, restaurants and karaoke establishments.

"It's not only us owners and the sex workers who are affected, there are thousands of waiters, cooks, bartenders, taxi drivers and street vendors who will be without income," said Ramiro Orellana, spokesman for the business group.

El Alto is one of the largest urban areas in Bolivia, with nearly 1 million inhabitants, mostly Aymara and Quechua Indians.

Prostitutes sew lips together in protest | Oddly Enough | Reuters

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Well, you don't see something like this every day

 

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian barmaid has been fined for crushing beer cans between her bare breasts while an off-duty colleague has been fined for hanging spoons from her friend's nipples, police said Wednesday.

Police in Western Australia said the 31-year old barmaid pleaded guilty in the local magistrate's court to twice exposing her breasts to patrons at the Premier Hotel in Pinjarra, south of the state capital, Perth.

The woman "is alleged to have also crushed beer cans between her breasts during one of the offences," in breach of hotel licensing laws, police from the Peel district of Western Australia said in a statement.

The barmaid and the hotel manager were both fined A$1,000 ($900), while an off-duty barmaid was fined A$500 for helping to hang spoons from the woman's nipples, police said.

"It sends a clear message to all licensees in Peel that we will not tolerate this type of behavior in our licensed premises," local police superintendent David Parkinson said.

Well, you don't see something like this every day | Oddly Enough | Reuters

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Tipsy driver alerts police by mistake

 

VIENNA (Reuters) - An Austrian motorist too drunk to change a tire phoned a police emergency number by mistake instead of the breakdown service and wound up losing his license, police said on Thursday.

"He mixed up emergency service numbers," a police official in the central town of Andau told Reuters.

"On the phone it was clear he was highly intoxicated and we sent over a patrol car. He doesn't need his vehicle now because we took his license."

Tipsy driver alerts police by mistake | Oddly Enough | Reuters

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