Month: October 2006

Children aghast as pelican swallows pigeon whole

Children aghast as pelican swallows pigeon whole | the Daily Mail
Families strolling through a London park were left shocked when a pelican picked up and swallowed an unsuspecting pigeon.

The Eastern White pelican struggled with the desperately frantic pigeon in its beak for more than 20 minutes before swallowing it whole.

The moment was caught on camera by photographer Cathal McNaughton, who was taking pictures of the wildlife in St James’s Park.

The pigeon was still alive when it reached the pelican’s stomach, he said.

Video of him trying to swallow the pigoen

Cell Phone Carriers Target Hispanics

Cell Phone Carriers Target Hispanics – Forbes.com
cell phone companies and other technology providers that are increasingly targeting a young, tech-savvy Hispanic population – at 43 million, the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S. – that is expected to have $1 trillion in buying power by 2010.

Latinos, on average, used 979 voice minutes per month in the third quarter of 2005, trailing only blacks in that area, according to estimates by Telephia Inc., a consumer research firm. Asians or Pacific Islanders used 845 minutes and whites used 632 minutes.

Fake Halloween Plane Crash Fools Police

News 8 :: KFMB Stations, San Diego, California
A shocking Halloween display is creating some extreme reactions in one Los Angeles-area neighborhood.

The display features a fake plane crash so realistic even the police were fooled.

“It caught my eye. I thought a plane had crashed, and when I spoke to the owner he advised me that he was setting up a Halloween display,” said Greg Andrachick with the Los Angeles Police Department.

The homeowner is an aircraft mechanic in training and the parts are from a real Gulfstream jet.

Just about everyone who’s seen the display so far likes it, once they realize it’s not a real accident.

The only complaint the homeowner says he’s received is that the display is creating a traffic jam in the neighborhood because so many people want to see it.

Here is a slide show if you want to see it

Azadeh Pourzand: A letter about Stoning to Death

Azadeh Pourzand: A letter about Stoning to Death

Click the link above for a poignant letter from a child who watched his mother stoned to death 26 years ago.
According to Article 83 of the Islamic Penal Code of Iran, stoning to death has been declared a permissible punishment for a few different types of adultery, based on this Koran text:
Volume 2, Book 23, Number 413:
Narrated ‘Abdullah bin ‘Umar :
The Jew brought to the Prophet a man and a woman from amongst them who have committed (adultery) illegal sexual intercourse. He ordered both of them to be stoned (to death), near the place of offering the funeral prayers beside the mosque.”

In stoning to death, the victims’s hands are tied behind their backs and their bodies are put in a cloth sack. Then, this human “package” is buried in a hole, with only the victims heads showing above the ground. If its a woman, she is buried upto her shoulders. This is to give her an seemingly equal (but nonetheless impossible) chance to escape recognizing her lesser physical strength.
After the hapless individual has been secured in the hole, people start chanting “Allah hu Akbar” (meaning, God is great), and throw palm sized stones at the head of the victim from a certain distance (a circle is drawn).
The stones are thrown until the person dies or until he/she escapes out of the hole and crosses the circle. Escaping is impossible, given that the individual’s hands are tied behind their backs and they are buried in a hole up to their necks or shoulders (in the case of males and females respectively). Click here to watch the Stoning-to-death video

Immigration | Don’t fence us in

Immigration | Don’t fence us in | Economist.com
But the fears can hardly be dismissed. In New Jersey, for example, the illegal population more than doubled during the 1990s to some 221,000, and has since grown to perhaps 425,000. In Georgia, the increase in the 1990s was some 571%, to 228,000, according to census figures (but could exceed 400,000 today). Atlanta is one of the so-called “new gateways” for immigration—sprawling cities, with abundant low-end jobs that are a magnet for immigrants. Much of America’s south-east (see map) has recently seen immigration levels surprising to anyone who thinks only in terms of the Mexican border.

One result is a swathe of local measures aimed at illegal immigrants. A law in Georgia, for example, imposes a 5% fee on non-citizens transferring money abroad; in Virginia, state workers are now required to verify the legal status of anyone applying for social benefits. In Arizona, voters in 2004 approved Proposition 200, which requires proof of citizenship before receiving state-provided public benefits or casting a vote. Thanks to Peggy Sadler for this post.

Why 112 French cars are burning every day

Why 112 cars are burning every day – World – Times Online
An average of 112 cars a day have been torched across France so far this year and there have been 15 attacks a day on police and emergency services. Nearly 3,000 police officers have been injured in clashes this year. Officers have been badly injured in four ambushes in the Paris outskirts since September. Some police talk of open war with youths who are bent on more than vandalism.

“The thing that has changed over the past month is that they now want to kill us,” said Bruno Beschizza, the leader of Synergie, a union to which 40 per cent of officers belong. Action Police, a hardline union, said: “We are in a civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists.”

RECIPE for making truly gross and disgusting Kitty Litter Cake for Halloween

RECIPE for making truly gross and disgusting Kitty Litter Cake for Halloween

1 spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 white cake mix
2 large pkg vanilla instant pudding mix, prepared (I like Bird’s® dessert mix)
1 large pkg vanilla sandwich cookies
green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls®

1 new kitty litter pan
1 new plastic kitty litter pan liner
1 new pooper scooper
Thank Chip Welfeld for this

Continue reading “RECIPE for making truly gross and disgusting Kitty Litter Cake for Halloween”

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