Wacky & Weird News Thread

[MrRodry]

Man says he ate birds, turtles in 13 months adrift

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — It’s a story that almost defies belief: A man leaves Mexico in December 2012 for a day of shark fishing and ends up surviving 13 months on fish, birds and turtles before washing ashore on the remote Marshall Islands some 5,500 miles (8,800 kilometers) away.

But that’s the story a man identifying himself as 37-year-old Jose Salvador Alvarenga told the U.S. ambassador in the Marshall Islands and the nation’s officials during a 30-minute meeting Monday before he was taken to a local hospital for monitoring. Alvarenga washed ashore on the tiny atoll of Ebon in the Pacific Ocean last week before being taken to the capital, Majuro, on Monday.

“It’s hard for me to imagine someone surviving 13 months at sea,” said Ambassador Tom Armbruster in Majuro. “But it’s also hard to imagine how someone might arrive on Ebon out of the blue. Certainly this guy has had an ordeal, and has been at sea for some time.”

Other officials were reacting cautiously to the Spanish-speaking man’s story while they try to piece together more information. If true, the man’s ordeal would rank among the greatest tales ever of survival at sea.

Armbruster said the soft-spoken man complained of joint pain Monday and had a limp but was able to walk. He had long hair and a beard, the ambassador said, and rather than appearing emaciated he looked puffy in places, including around his ankles. Otherwise, he added, Alvarenga seemed in reasonable health.

Armbruster, who speaks Spanish, said the survivor told the following story:

He’s a native of El Salvador but has lived in Mexico for 15 years and fishes for a man he knows as Willie, catching sharks for 25 pesos ($1.90) per pound.

On Dec. 21, 2012, Alvarenga left Mexico in his 23 foot (7 meter) fiberglass boat for a day’s fishing, accompanied by a teen he knew only as Ezekiel, who was between 15 and 18.

A storm blew the fishermen off course, and soon they were lost and adrift.

“He talked about scooping up little fish that swam alongside the boat and eating them raw,” Armbruster said. “He also said he ate birds, and drank birds’ blood.”

After about a month, Ezekiel died, the survivor told officials.

Alvarenga also talked about eating turtles. Once near Ebon, he swam ashore.

“He thanked God, initially, that he had survived,” the ambassador said. “He’s very anxious to get back in touch with his employer, and also with the family of Ezekiel. That’s his driving motivation at the moment.”

Armbruster said the man said he had no family in Mexico but he does have three brothers who live in the U.S., although he could not immediately provide officials with contact details.

Gee Bing, the acting secretary of foreign affairs for the Marshall Islands, said he was somewhat skeptical of Alvarenga’s account after meeting with him Monday.

“It does sound like an incredible story and I’m not sure if I believe his story,” Bing said. “When we saw him, he was not really thin compared to other survivors in the past. I may have some doubts. Once we start communicating with where he’s from, we’ll be able to find out more information.”

Bing said the man had no identification with him and other details of his story remained sketchy, including the exact location of his departure from Mexico.

The survivor’s vital signs appeared good except that his blood pressure was a bit low, Bing said. After doctors give him the all-clear, Bing said, officials hope to repatriate him to Mexico or whatever country is appropriate. Bing said the Mexican ambassador in the Philippines, Julio Camarena, has been involved in the case. Camarena could not be contacted immediately.

Erik van Sebille, a Sydney-based oceanographer at the University of New South Wales, said there was a good chance a boat drifting off Mexico’s west coast would eventually be carried by currents to the Marshall Islands. He said such a journey would typically take 18 months to two years depending on the winds and currents, although 13 months was possible.

“The way that the currents in the Pacific work is that there is a very strong westerly current just north of the equator and that basically drives you directly from Mexico all the way toward Indonesia and in the path, you go right over the Marshall Islands,” he said.

There have been other cases of people surviving for months adrift in the Pacific. In a case with similarities, three Mexican shark fishermen in 2006 said they were lost at sea for nine months before being rescued near the Marshall Islands. In 1989, four men survived nearly four months in the Pacific Ocean near New Zealand after their multi-hulled boat capsized.

Pictures of the survivor (?) at the source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/man ... story.html

 

[Shaun__]

Why didn't he get scurvy?

 

[LilyEvans]

Why didn't he get scurvy?

Vitamin is found in organ meat as well as fruits and vegetables. Inuit people survive on a diet almost entirely devoid of plant matter and it's largely because they consume high amounts of organ meat from marine life. Other animals such as oysters also provide a lot of vitamin C. The reasons so many sailors and travelers suffered from scurvy is because they ate mostly dried meats and grains.

Holy shit, it's like Life of Pi minus the tiger and the man-eating meerkat island!

Edit: after reading the article, it does sound like he was suffering from scurvy, although not bad enough to kill him:

Armbruster said the soft-spoken man complained of joint pain Monday and had a limp but was able to walk. He had long hair and a beard, the ambassador said, and rather than appearing emaciated he looked puffy in places, including around his ankles. Otherwise, he added, Alvarenga seemed in reasonable health.

 

[Bocefish]

Yep, from what I understand, all it takes to ward off scurvy is a 10 milligram average daily dose of vitamin c which is obviously way less than the recommended daily intake of 75 milligrams for women to 90 milligrams for adult men. When raw organ meats are on the menu, those crucial 10 milligrams of vitamin c scurvy prevention are easily provided. Raw kelp also provides something like 20-30 milligrams IIRC.

 

[ThunderWeasel]

Suicide bombing trainer in Iraq accidentally blows up his class.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/w...tor-accidentally-kills-iraqi-pupils.html?_r=3

 

[Shaun__]

Restaurant in Nigeria shut down for selling Soylent Green, they were caught when a customer questioned the high cost of his bill. Link

 

[Sevrin]

Norwegian boy takes parents' car to visit grandparents, claims he's a dwarf

(Reuters) - A ten-year-old Norwegian boy came up with a novel excuse after he drove his parents' car into a snowy ditch on Wednesday morning: he told police he was a dwarf who forgot his driving license.

Source

 

[Sevrin]

All Norway, all the time!
Mass murderer Anders Breivik vows to go on hunger strike because he wants his PlayStation 2 to be upgraded to a PlayStation 3 in his prison cell

'The hunger strike won't end until the Minister of Justice (Anders) Anundsen and the head of the KDI (the Norwegian Correctional Services) stop treating me worse than an animal,' he said, adding that he would 'soon' make public the starting date of his protest action.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z2tLtz3gUr

 

[LilyEvans]

All Norway, all the time!
Mass murderer Anders Breivik vows to go on hunger strike because he wants his PlayStation 2 to be upgraded to a PlayStation 3 in his prison cell

'The hunger strike won't end until the Minister of Justice (Anders) Anundsen and the head of the KDI (the Norwegian Correctional Services) stop treating me worse than an animal,' he said, adding that he would 'soon' make public the starting date of his protest action.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z2tLtz3gUr

This...this makes my goddamn eye twitch.

 

[Bocefish]

OJ Simpson is on a hunger strike too...

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/oj-simpson-hun ... es-1436251

 

[Shaun__]

All Norway, all the time!
Mass murderer Anders Breivik vows to go on hunger strike because he wants his PlayStation 2 to be upgraded to a PlayStation 3 in his prison cell

'The hunger strike won't end until the Minister of Justice (Anders) Anundsen and the head of the KDI (the Norwegian Correctional Services) stop treating me worse than an animal,' he said, adding that he would 'soon' make public the starting date of his protest action.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z2tLtz3gUr

This...this makes my goddamn eye twitch.

I know, why not hold out for the PS4 at least. Of course it was already obvious that he makes bad decisions in life, since he is a mass murderer in prison. Maybe they will tell him no, and let nature take its natural course.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

I know, why not hold out for the PS4 at least. Of course it was already obvious that he makes bad decisions in life, since he is a mass murderer in prison. Maybe they will tell him no, and let nature take its natural course.

I was thinking if he was going to keep at it they should just take away his PS2 now and give it to someone else, since he doesn't want it anymore.

I still have a PS2 with around 90 games, don't even own any newer console.

 

[bawksy]

Ellen Page is gay. Did Juno about this?

http://www.tmz.com/2014/02/14/ellen-page-gay-lesbian-coming-out/

 

[Sevrin]

Ellen Page is gay. Did Juno about this?

http://www.tmz.com/2014/02/14/ellen-page-gay-lesbian-coming-out/

Homosexuals coming out is weird or wacky? What year is this?

 

[bawksy]

Homosexuals coming out is weird or wacky?

Not exactly. I'd more say, people who you didn't think were gay coming out is wacky in that it's definitely a WTF moment.

 

[BBellvue]

Homosexuals coming out is weird or wacky?

Not exactly. I'd more say, people who you didn't think were gay coming out is wacky in that it's definitely a WTF moment.

There were people who didn't think Ellen Page was gay? I guess 16 year old me was just a dreamer :lol:

 

[bawksy]

There were people who didn't think Ellen Page was gay? I guess 16 year old me was just a dreamer :lol:

My gaydar is quite broken. Unless someone acts like a flaming faggot (pic related), I have no idea. I still look at Ellen DeGeneres and have a hard time seeing "lesbian".

 

[MrRodry]

Mass killer Anders Breivik threatens hunger strike for better video games, end of “torture”

Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik has threatened to start a hunger strike over his living conditions in jail, it has emerged.

Breivik, who killed 77 people in 2011, compared prison to “torture” and bemoaned, among other things, the lack of an up-to-date video games console in his cell.

His comments were made in a four-page hand-written letter to penitentiary officials, which contains a dozen requests, including making his jail time compliant with European regulations. They also tackle issues of fundamental rights, such as a daily walk and communication.

Breivik requests the Playstation 2 he has access to is replaced by a more recent Playstation 3. “Other inmates have access to video games for adults while I can only play the less interesting children video games. One example is ‘Rayman Revolution,’ a game designed for 3-year-olds,” the 35-year-old wrote.

Breivik, in solitary confinement since 2011 for security reasons, claims he has behaved “in an exemplary fashion” and deserves an improved “activities offer” compared to other inmates.

Breivik also requests the doubling of his weekly allowance of 300 Norwegian crowns (36 euros), to help pay for postage stamps. All the mail he sends and receives is thoroughly searched and filtered by prison staff, which, he laments, slows his exchanges considerably.

He also requests the end to the “almost” daily body searches, access to a PC rather than “worthless typewriter, technology that dates back to 1873,” and more contact with the outside world.

“You have put me through hell (…) and I won’t be able to survive it much longer. You are killing me,” Breivik writes to the prison authorities, brandishing the threat of a hunger strike.

“If I die, all the far right radicals and extremists in the European world will know exactly which individuals tortured me to death (…)This could have consequences for some individuals on the short term but also when Norway will have a new fascist regime in 13 to 40 years,” warns the killer, who considers himself a “political prisoner.”

In his letter, Breivik writes that a hunger strike seems like “one of the few and rare alternatives.”

“The hunger strike will not stop until [Norwegian Justice Minister Anders] Anundsen and [Norwegian Penitentiary affairs director] Marianne Vollan stop treating me worse than an animal,” he adds, before saying he will “soon” announce the beginning of his hunger strike.

In previous letters, Breivik, claiming he was a “human rights activist,” had already complained about his living conditions and had attacked the media for not publicising his “torment.” In January 2013, his lawyers announced Breivik had filed a complaint for “aggravated torture”.

On July 22, 2011, Breivik first killed eight people with a bomb near the government headquarters in Oslo, then killed a further 69, mostly teenagers, after opening fire on a Young Labour activists meeting on the island of Utøya.

source http://www.euronews.com/2014/02/14/far- ... ames-end-/

 

[Jupiter551]

Pussy Riot members beaten by Russian security officials with horsewhips in Sochi

O.O
The video is worth watching, the singing is pretty crap in the video but wow, talk about abuse of power. Totally disgusting to see police handling people, especially women, like that.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-20/p ... hi/5271378

 

[Sevrin]

Pussy Riot members beaten by Russian security officials with horsewhips in Sochi

O.O
The video is worth watching, the singing is pretty crap in the video but wow, talk about abuse of power. Totally disgusting to see police handling people, especially women, like that.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-20/p ... hi/5271378

They understood the risks. Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova just spent 2 years with labour in Russian prison. They're used to a lot worse treatment. Those were Cossack militia, by the way, not the regular police, who stood by doing nothing.

 

[Sevrin]

Mars One appeal for fatwa against Muslims applying to take part in trip to the Red Planet to be called off by Islamic council

The organisation planning the first manned mission to Mars has asked for the Fatwa issued against living there to be lifted, calling for clerics to remember Islam’s rich tradition of exploration and allow Muslims ‘to witness God’s creation in heaven’.

Mars One is planning on setting up the first human colony on Mars in 2025, but the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowment (GAIAE) in the UAE declared recently that a trip there would be un-Islamic.

The committee argued that an attempt to dwell on the planet would be so hazardous as to be suicidal and killing oneself is not permitted by Islam.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... lanet.html

 

[Bocefish]

Location, Location, Location...

Girl Scout Sells Cookies Outside of Pot Dispensary :lol:

By LAUREN ZIMA
Video transcript provided by Newsy.com http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/national/ ... ies/ndXXL/

One San Francisco Girl Scout is proving a shrewd businesswoman — making money off the munchies.

The Green Cross, a marijuana dispensary — posted photos to its Facebook page this week of 13-year-old Danielle Lei selling her cookies outside its doors. (Via Facebook / The Green Cross)

"After 45 minutes she had to call for reinforcement cookies — backups. And her mother was quoted as saying she sold about 117 boxes in two hours."

 

[Jupiter551]

Location, Location, Location...

Girl Scout Sells Cookies Outside of Pot Dispensary :lol:

By LAUREN ZIMA
Video transcript provided by Newsy.com http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/national/ ... ies/ndXXL/

One San Francisco Girl Scout is proving a shrewd businesswoman — making money off the munchies.

The Green Cross, a marijuana dispensary — posted photos to its Facebook page this week of 13-year-old Danielle Lei selling her cookies outside its doors. (Via Facebook / The Green Cross)

"After 45 minutes she had to call for reinforcement cookies — backups. And her mother was quoted as saying she sold about 117 boxes in two hours."

What's even funnier is there's a bay area mj strain called Girl Scout Cookies (GSC) that is huge right now :lol:

 

[Sevrin]

Arrested for not returning 2005 JLo movie

According to a Feb 13 arrest report, 27-year-old Kayla Finley rented Monster-in-Law in 2005 from now defunct video store Dalton video. The woman failed to return the video within the 72 hour rental limit, eventually leading up to her arrest 9 years later.

http://www.examiner.com/article/kayla-f ... right-next

 

[Bocefish]

Update:

I figured it probably wouldn't last.

Colorado Girl Scouts Not Allowed To Sell Cookies Outside Pot Shops
February 22, 2014 11:33 PM

DENVER (CBS4) – Customers of some marijuana shops are finding they don’t have to go far if they have a case of the munchies since Girl Scouts are selling cookies right outside the front door.

A Girl Scout in San Francisco sold about 117 boxes in just two hours outside a medical marijuana shop.

But those in Colorado will have to go a lot further for cookies because Girl Scouts here are keeping their distance.

Katherine Kneeland is a Girl Scout troop leader and said she would never ask her troop to make more money by trying to sell to people who buy marijuana at stores that sell the drug legally.

“I don’t think I’d want my daughter to set up a booth in front of a dispensary,” said Kneeland.

Although pot shops are becoming a big market in the state, it’s one the Girl Scouts of Colorado don’t want to get into.

They issued a statement that reads, “We recognize these are legitimate businesses, but we don’t feel they are an appropriate place for girls to be selling cookies in Colorado.”

However, reaction to this statement is split.

“If it’s safe go for it. I’m sure they’ll sell a lot of freaking cookies because people will get high and want to eat food,” said a Denver resident.

“I think whatever they feel is right is what they should do,” said Denver resident Amanda Legos, who buys cookies every year.

Kneeland hopes the Girl Scout’s idea in California doesn’t catch on and change tradition.

“It brings something to light, something to mind, and will start a discussion,” Kneeland said.

Aside from pot shops, the Girl Scouts of Colorado said other places that are off limits are bars, strip clubs, casinos and liquor stores.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/02/22/c ... pot-shops/

 

[MrRodry]

California Couple Finds $10M in Gold Coins Buried in Yard

A Northern California couple out walking their dog on their Gold Country property stumbled across a modern-day bonanza: $10 million in rare, mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree.

Nearly all of the 1,427 coins, dating from 1847 to 1894, are in uncirculated, mint condition, said David Hall, co-founder of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, which recently authenticated them.

Although the face value of the gold pieces only adds up to about $27,000, some of them are so rare that coin experts say they could fetch nearly $1 million apiece.

"I don't like to say once-in-a-lifetime for anything, but you don't get an opportunity to handle this kind of material, a treasure like this, ever," said veteran numismatist Don Kagin, who is representing the finders. "It's like they found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

Kagin, whose family has been in the rare-coin business for 81 years, would say little about the couple other than that they are husband and wife, are middle-aged and have lived for several years on the rural property where the coins were found.

They have no idea who put them there, he said.

The pair are choosing to remain anonymous, Kagin said, in part to avoid a renewed gold rush to their property by modern-day prospectors armed with metal detectors.

This image provided by the Saddle Ridge Hoard discoverers via Kagin's, Inc., shows one of the six decaying metal canisters filled with 1800s-era U.S. gold coins unearthed in California by two people who want to remain anonymous.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cal ... ard-n38471

"(...) mint-condition gold coins buried in the shadow of an old tree."

 

[Sevrin]

Selfie news:

Beware of the Selfie: Celebrity Pastime 'Behind Rise In Head Lice'

Social media favourites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are now laden with image of teens and celebrities pouting away for self-snapped camera shots at every opportunity and at any venue.

But now a health expert has warned that huddling up with mates for a 'selfie' is causing a rise in the incidence of head lice.

Marcy McQuillian, who runs two Nitless Noggins treatment centrers in Los Gatos and Scotts Valley, in the US, claims that head bumping for group selfies has contributed to the rise in the number of young people in the US, especially teenage girls, contracting headlice.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/beware-selfie- ... ce-1437986


Barbara Walters, 84, denies she has a vibrator named 'selfie'

The 84-year-old revealed on Wednesday that she's been pestered by photographers ever since Monday's The View in which she said she had a vibrator named 'selfie.'

So she held up her hands and admitted today that she and Whoopi Goldberg were having a laugh, she said: 'We were joking. Joking!'

'I don't have a vibrator! I don't even put my cellphone on vibrate!' she explained.

Walters then added for emphasis: 'Can I say it again? I do not have a vibrator!'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/ar ... -joke.html

 

[Jupiter551]

Millions of yahoo video-chats captured over 4 year+ period, mostly genitalia, according to Snowden docs :?
I wonder if it will come out that Skype is also spied upon? They certainly would/will if they can if they do it to Yahoo!
http://trove.com/me/content/4qHEV

Report: UK spies intercept webcam pics, nudity

RAPHAEL SATTER, The Associated Press

2 hours ago

LONDON (AP) — Britain's signals intelligence division is stealing screenshots from hundreds of thousands of innocent Yahoo users' webcam videos, according to the Guardian newspaper, which also reported that the years-long operation has swept up a huge haul of intimate photographs.

The newspaper said GCHQ has been scooping up the sensitive images by intercepting video chats such as the kind offered by Yahoo Messenger, an effort codenamed OPTIC NERVE. It's not clear how many Yahoo users were spied on in this way. The Guardian said that in one six-month period in 2008, GCHQ intercepted the video communications of 1.8 million users, but it's possible that the program, which the Guardian says was still active in 2012, has either grown or shrunk in scope since then.

If the program expanded, millions more could have had their video communications intercepted. Yahoo Messenger had 75 million users worldwide in late 2011, according to an estimate by digital analytics company comScore, although numbers have fallen steadily since then.

The Guardian said the documents were provided by former U.S. intelligence worker Edward Snowden, who remains in Russia after having sought temporary asylum there.

If confirmed, the newspaper's report would represent "a whole new level of violation of our users' privacy," Yahoo Inc. said in a written statement. The Sunnyvale, California-based company said it was unaware of such snooping and would never condone it, calling on governments across the world to reform their surveillance practices.

Like the NSA's collection of millions of innocent people's phone, email, and credit card data, the webcam surveillance program was carried out in bulk, creating a massive database where the communications of hundreds of thousands of people could later be scanned by analysts for clues or patterns.

However, unlike the phone database, OPTIC NERVE also automatically downloaded the content of video communications — taking a screenshot from the video feed every five minutes, the Guardian said. One snippet of a leaked document published to the Guardian's website appears to show that GCHQ hoped to eventually "collect images at a faster rate," or perhaps even download all the webcam videos in their entirety.

Even at one screenshot every five minutes, material published to the Guardian's website appeared to show U.K. analysts being deluged with X-rated footage.

"It would appear that a surprising number of people use webcam conversations to show intimate parts of their body to the other person," another snippet of an intelligence document published said. It went on to say that an informal study had found that between 3 and 11 percent of all the images carried "undesirable nudity."

The Guardian said that OPTIC NERVE was intended at least in part to identify targets using automatic facial recognition software as they stared into their computer's webcams. But the stockpiling of sexually explicit images of ordinary people had uncomfortable echoes of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four," where the authorities — operating under the aegis of "Big Brother" — fit homes with cameras to monitor the intimate details of people's personal lives.

"At least Big Brother had the decency to install his own cameras," British media lawyer David Banksy said in a message posted to Twitter after the revelations broke. "We've had to buy them ourselves."

The collection of nude photographs also raises questions about potential for blackmail. America's National Security Agency has already acknowledged that some analysts have been caught trawling databases for inappropriate material on partners or love interests. Other leaked documents have revealed how U.S. and British intelligence discussed leaking embarrassing material online to blacken the reputations of their targets.

GCHQ refused to answer a series of questions about OTPIC NERVE, instead returning the same boilerplate answer it has given to reporters for months.

"It is a longstanding policy that we do not comment on intelligence matters," the agency said, insisting all its work was legal, necessary, proportionate, and subject to rigorous oversight.

___

Michael Liedtke in San Francisco contributed to this report.

 

[Bocefish]

^^ Spooks can be pervs too.

Seriously though, people better start standing up for their rights or they'll be gone forever. I especially like the way some women protest...

 

[Bocefish]

WTF!?

Idaho parents sent to penalty box for cheering at kids’ basketball games​

Published February 27, 2014

You can cheer, but please be quiet about it.

Parents at an Idaho high school basketball game were told not to vocally cheer for their kids or face being sent to a penalty box for one minute, The Coeur d’Alene Press reported.

"They think the only way they can encourage their kids is verbally," Justin Brown, the Post Falls recreation coordinator, told the paper.

He billed the events as "Silent Cheer Day." These parents were allowed to hold up signs and clap, but if they got caught yelling encouragement to a player, they'd be handed a red penalty card and sent to a designated area for 60 seconds, the report said.

Brown's theory is that the lack of yelling could help eliminate some negativity during games.

"Nobody had ever heard of this before," Lorna Allen, a grandmother at the game, said. "I thought, ‘I’m going to get thrown out right off the bat."

Brett Webb, 18, was one of the referees who monitored the fans. He told the paper a total of 15 red cards were handed out during a trial run of the ban.

"Obviously, they want to cheer for their kids," he said. "It's hard to say, 'Hey, stop doing that.'"