Woman, Son Convicted in Mouse-In-Soup Scam – Charges were filed after a necropsy showed the mouse died of a fractured skull. It had no soup in its lungs and had not been cooked, signs that the rodent was dropped into the soup after its death. Sigh… another Wendy’s incident.
Bit of Finger Mistakenly Served to Diner – A diner found a piece of human flesh on his hamburger shortly after a restaurant worker accidentally cut his finger, and a spokeswoman said the company was “very, very sorry.” At least this was a legit incident. Though it seems that they won’t be satisfied with just an apology. The diner called police, but an officer told him that it was not a criminal matter, Detective Sgt. David Drake said.
The best Super Soaker commercial ever: The Oozinator (from Deadlock) – pretty hilarious (or maybe gross) video. I couldn’t believe this was actually a real commercial. But apparently it was a real product: SUPER SOAKER OOZINATOR. Shoot out globs of gooey bio-ooze and then drench ‘em with water!
ABC.com: Full Episode Streaming (from /. and Ars Technica) – Welcome to the only place online where you can watch full episodes of your favorite ABC television shows! Current shows available for watching include Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias, and Commander in Chief. There’s still advertisements which you aren’t allowed to “skip”, but it’s free. Resolution is a bit weak (320×240 I believe).
How does Dyson make water go uphill? – James Dyson’s uphill water feature has been the striking image of this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. But how did he do it? An interesting piece of art work. I’d like to see a video of it.
Colbert’s smart bomb (from MS newsgroup) – I saw a lower quality version of it yesterday, but Steven Colbert (from Colbert’s Report – pronounced col-bear re-pore) did a hilarious stand up at the White House Correspondents’ Association. The site doesn’t require registration, but you have to click on that advertisement link (direct download). At the same dinner, Bush apparently pulled a trick of his own. ‘Double-You’ Bush delights media – Playing up to his public persona, Mr Bush sent himself up alongside impersonator, Steve Bridges. … Steve Bridges, who lampoons Mr Bush on television, was invited by the president to mimic him at the dinner.
Hyperactive (from MS newsgroup) – a video of Lasse Gjertsen doing a random sound track with noises he made. It was pretty funny. You can find more of his films at: LasseFilm, but they appear to be all animations besides another one where he gets run over by a car.
Next step in pirating: Faking a company – After two years and thousands of hours of investigation in conjunction with law enforcement agencies in China, Taiwan and Japan, the company said it had uncovered something far more ambitious than clandestine workshops turning out inferior copies of NEC products. The pirates were faking the entire company. Wowza! Impressive!
Study of ‘Pheromone’ Products – Modern Day ‘Liquid Panty Remover’ (from Deadlock) – Real pheromones can work very well. The problems is cutting through the hype to find out which ones are real and work, which ones are real and kinda work, and which ones are totally worthless. Here are the ratings. Haha. Someone’s gone and actually tried all these. I wonder how he managed to rate how well it worked. To see if he was able to pick up any ladies at the bar that night?
The Logitech Quickcam Orbit MP is pretty bad ass (from Deadlock) – Pretty interesting video showing the Logitech Quickcam software that has motion detectors that draws stuff on your face.
Firefox Flicks Video Contest Winners Announced (from /.) – These flicks are actually pretty good an funny.
Crazy Quarters Skills (from Esca) – I think I’ve posted this video before, but here it is again. Bouncing quarters off the table and into a cup. I wonder how many times they’ve tried for certain tricks before actually making it. Didn’t they have this as part of the game in Leisure Suit Larry?
Gadgets for the Lazy (from /.) – In today’s automated world, there’s a fine line between efficient time management and laziness. Here are a few gadgets we think cross the line most egregiously. Check out our other photo galleries on our photo blog. The ones that caught my eye include: Ice-cream turner, The bird 2.0, Bugle emulator, Shoe mops
Mexico to decriminalize pot – Possessing marijuana, cocaine and even heroin will no longer be a crime in Mexico if they are in small amounts for personal use under new reforms passed by Congress that quickly drew U.S. criticism. You no longer have to fly to Amsterdam to legally smoke pot. Mexico is just a south of U.S. borders.
Last ninja: ‘Be able to kill your students’ (from /.) – The teachings of Grand Master Masaaki Hatsumi echo through my head as he entreats me to attack a blackbelted disciple with a practice sword. “Always be able to kill your students,” he says. Chilling words from a shockingly fit 76-year-old man who bills himself as the world’s last ninja and stocks his training chamber with weapons such as throwing stars and nunchucks. Especially to a neophyte whose closest brush with martial arts was watching Bruce Lee matinees as a kid. An interesting quote:
I have studied under Hatsumi, years ago. Before a lot of the current ‘purpose built’ combatives were created for military and govt. use, he and his instructors would train select U.S. govt. and military personnel.
Someone mentioned that “ninjitsu is the art of assassination”. An inaccurate statement.
Ninpo Taijitsu (a very rough translation would be ninja combat), as taught under the Bujinkan, consists of several different schools. Stealth, sword combat, locking/holding/throwing, striking, etc. are some examples of the different schools, each with their own head instructor.
There is a famous story from the ’50s (?, maybe ’60s) where the Japanese National Judo Champion (at the time he was also the world champion) essentially ‘called out’ Hatsumi and ninpo taijitsu as a ‘fraud’. Said champion was invited to face off with Hatsumi. Hatsumi proved he was no fraud, and shortly thereafter the Judo champion became one of the senior instructors at the ‘judo’ school of the Bujinkan.
Hatsumi is the real deal. I’ve seen him run along the top of chain link fences. At one seminar, a 250+ lb. Marine spoke up and said “Ok I know you’re good, but really…in combat – what are you going to do to me?”. Hatsumi sqared off with the Marine, and had him on the ground and incapacitated very rapidly. No ego, no bravado – just a teacher who understands that you must be able to demonstrate that what you teach will work for real.
Hatsumis instructor, Takamatsu, was (for lack of a better term) a real life ‘ninja’. He was an agent/assassin/etc. for hire that worked for various warlords in the late 1800s.
Do some searches on Hatsumi and Takamatsu – I believe you guys will find some very interesting reading.
Sadly, when Hatsumi leaves us the Bujinkan will probably never be seen again in its current form, with one true Master overseeing all of the various schools that comprise Ninpo Taijitsu. It will truly be the end of an era.
Regards,
Former (novice) student of the Bujinkan
Da Vinci judge’s secret code revealed – A secret code embedded in the text of a court ruling in the case of Dan Brown’s bestseller “The Da Vinci Code” has been cracked, but far from revealing an ancient conspiracy it is simply an obscure reference to a Royal Navy admiral. … High Court Justice Peter Smith, who handed down a ruling that Brown had not plagiarised his book, had embedded his own secret message in his judgement by italicising letters scattered throughout the 71-page document. … But the lawyer, Dan Tench, cracked it after a day of puzzling. The judge’s code was based on the Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical progression discussed in the book.
Show asks porn stars to test acting skills – A new television reality show invites porn stars to test their serious acting abilities in London’s theatre district, raising the question: Debbie can do Dallas, but can she take on Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”?
Transsexual should get pension at 60 – EU – A British transsexual woman should have her pension paid from her 60th birthday instead of her 65th as a man would, Europe’s highest court ruled on Thursday. Maybe if you want to retire early, it’s time to change genders.
And the world’s sexiest woman is… – British actress Keira Knightley was voted the world’s sexiest woman in a magazine poll on Thursday, beating model Keeley Hazel and Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson into second and third place respectively. Keira is so セクシー.