Friday, June 24, 2011

Scantily dressed visitors must cover up to see Rikers inmates...

Reuters

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Thu Jun 23, 2011. An amateur soccer player fell foul of the referee, and could incur the wrath of his mother, after failing to prove he had removed a piece of jewelry from an intimate body piercing during a match in Melbourne.

Aaron Eccleston, who turned out for Old Hill Wanderers against Swinburne University reserves, was handed a second yellow card for the offence in the first half of last Sunday's match.
"During the first half, our player was struck in the groin by the ball, and left the field to receive attention," said a statement on the club website (www.oldhillwanderers.com).

"At this point the referee became aware that he had a body piercing.

"He subsequently received two yellow cards, firstly for re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission, and secondly for privacy reasons being unable to prove that he had removed the piercing."

The latter end of the incident was captured on amateur video and posted on the Internet.

Eccleston, who describes himself on his Twitter page as a "disillusioned Mansfield Town fan, down under," was shocked at how quickly the story had spread.

"I don't think my mum's going to be particularly happy!" he tweeted.

The club accepted the yellow cards had been issued "in accordance with the laws of football" and apologized to the referee for the "negative attention that may have been generated by this unfortunate event."

The laws of football forbid players from wearing "anything that is dangerous to himself or another player (including any kind of jewelry)."

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; editing by Peter Rutherford)

Intimate piercing earns Melbourne player red card...

Reuters

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Thu Jun 23, 2011. An amateur soccer player fell foul of the referee, and could incur the wrath of his mother, after failing to prove he had removed a piece of jewelry from an intimate body piercing during a match in Melbourne.

Aaron Eccleston, who turned out for Old Hill Wanderers against Swinburne University reserves, was handed a second yellow card for the offence in the first half of last Sunday's match.

"During the first half, our player was struck in the groin by the ball, and left the field to receive attention," said a statement on the club website (www.oldhillwanderers.com).

"At this point the referee became aware that he had a body piercing.

"He subsequently received two yellow cards, firstly for re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission, and secondly for privacy reasons being unable to prove that he had removed the piercing."

The latter end of the incident was captured on amateur video and posted on the Internet.

Eccleston, who describes himself on his Twitter page as a "disillusioned Mansfield Town fan, down under," was shocked at how quickly the story had spread.

"I don't think my mum's going to be particularly happy!" he tweeted.

The club accepted the yellow cards had been issued "in accordance with the laws of football" and apologized to the referee for the "negative attention that may have been generated by this unfortunate event."

The laws of football forbid players from wearing "anything that is dangerous to himself or another player (including any kind of jewelry)."

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; editing by Peter Rutherford)

Friday, June 10, 2011

Americans rated most hilarious in global poll...

Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) Wed Jun 8, 2011. The Germans have been voted the world's "least funny nationality" in a global poll, which names Americans the funniest overall and the Spanish the most amusing Europeans, ahead of the Italians and French.

The social network and dating website Badoo.com asked 30,000 people across 15 countries to name both the "funniest," or best at making people laugh," and "the least funny" nationality.

Americans took the funniest prize, followed by the Spanish in second and Italians in third.

The voting for "least funny" nationality confirmed the view of American novelist Mark Twain that "a German joke is no laughing matter."

The Germans won comfortably, ahead of the Russians and Turks.

Yet, the British -- whose "The Office" and Monty Python shows have become pillars of English-language humor -- learn from the Badoo poll that they are not as funny as they think. They placed just seventh out of 15 -- behind the Brazilians, French and Mexicans.

But they ranked higher when Badoo asked the opposite question: Which nationality do you find the least funny? Here, the British ranked fourth, just after the Turks.

"I'm afraid that we don't find some of the results very funny," said Badoo's Director of Marketing Lloyd Price, who is British.

The Americans topped the poll, as the folks who brought us TV sitcoms like Friends, The Simpsons, Frasier, Seinfeld and any number of comic greats from the Marx Brothers to Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Larry David, Ben Stiller or now Tina Fey.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Patricia Reaney)

Man accused of planting spyware to photograph women...

Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Thu Jun 9, 2011. A 20-year-old California man was arrested on Wednesday, accused of planting spyware on dozens of computers to secretly photograph women in a state of undress, police said.

Trevor Harwell was taken into custody at his home in Fullerton, where detectives found hundreds of thousands of the pictures on his computer, Fullerton Police Spokesman Sgt. Andrew Goodrich said.

Harwell is accused of installing the program, which gave him remote access to the user's computer and webcam, while working as a technician for a local computer repair company, Goodrich said.

"Once he had access, he would take photographs of the users, usually women. Often, the female victims were undressed or changing clothes," Goodrich said.

Harwell then allegedly stored the photos on a remote server and eventually downloaded them to his own computer.

Police say they began investigating Harwell after a Fullerton resident contacted authorities over a suspicious message on his daughter's computer.

The message mimicked a system error advising her of a problem with an "internal sensor" and advised: "If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."

Goodrich said many users who got a similar message took their laptops into the bathroom while they showered, where Harwell allegedly photographed them undressing or naked.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb. Edited by Peter Bohan)

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Customs seize 451 turtles in suitcases...

Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters) Thu Jun 2, 2011. Thai customs has found 451 turtles worth 1 million baht ($33,000) stashed in suitcases offloaded from a passenger flight from Bangladesh, the latest seizure of live creatures at Bangkok's bustling Suvarnabhumi airport.

Turtles of varying sizes worth around 2,000 baht apiece in Thai markets, and seven false gavials, a type of freshwater crocodile worth 10,000 baht each, were found on Thursday in small bags packed into cases after authorities received a tip off that a known trafficker was on his way to Thailand.

The alleged trafficker, a Bangladeshi national, did not collect the luggage and fled on arrival in Bangkok, customs officials said.

The discovery was the biggest since September last year, when 1,140 turtles were found by customs on a single day. A further 218 were seized a month later.

Thailand, which borders four countries, has seen its fair share of illegal wildlife trafficking and customs officials at Suvarnabhumi often seize reptiles and small animals in luggage.

They found a two-month old tiger cub in a bag last August, which was concealed by stuffed tiger toys and bound for Iran.

Prasong Poontaneat, director-general of Thailand's customs department, said it was likely the turtles were destined for Bangkok's Chatujak Market, a sprawling mass of 11,000 stalls and shops that has a dedicated pet section where endangered species are sometimes sold.

The market, which operates on weekends only, generates as much as 1 billion baht ($33 million) a month from some 350,000 foreign and local shoppers, according to the State Railway of Thailand, which owns the land.

Although Thailand has been at the forefront of a regional effort to combat wildlife trafficking, the country's multiple airports, sea ports and road network make it a major transit point for other destinations.

(Reporting by Sinthana Kosolpradit; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Elaine Lies)

U.S. police shoot fake alligator...

Reuters

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters Life!) Fri Jun 3, 2011.Police in a suburb in the state of Missouri recently encountered one tough alligator -- or so they thought.

Officers in Independence, a Kansas City suburb, responded to a call on a Saturday evening about a large alligator lurking on the embankment of a pond, police spokesman Tom Gentry said Thursday.

An officer called a state conservation agent, who advised him to shoot the alligator because there was little that conservation officials could do at that time, Gentry said.

As instructed an officer shot the alligator, not once but twice, but both times the bullets bounced off -- because the alligator was made of cement.

The property owner told police later that he placed the ornamental gator by the pond to keep children away. But residents had little to fear.

"There are no alligators around here, we are too far north, it's too cold," said Bill Graham, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Gentry acknowledged the incident is drawing a lot of attention.

"In hindsight, it's humorous," he said. "But we have to take every call seriously."

(Writing and reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Microsoft reveals Windows 8 desktop: it's blocky...

News - PC Tech Authority by William Maher on Jun 2, 2011

June 2-2011. New video showing the start screen for Windows 8 reveals the next official version of Windows will look drastically different.

Designing a new OS is always a difficult balancing act, but when it's the operating system used by millions of PCs around the world then it's no wonder you can't please everyone.

With Windows Vista fading into memory, and Windows 7 apparently a financial success, Microsoft has revealed a sneak peek at the next version of the OS, which they're calling Windows 8 for now.

What the video reveals is a starkly different Start screen. The first thing you notice is the desktop of tiny icons PC users have been familiar with for decades, has been replaced by big, blocky "tiles", as Microsoft calls them.

The idea is you'll be able to see information at a glance, without having to open up your email client, or calendar.

We've already commented how this live feed approach, instead of sifting through menus or a desktop sprawling with icons, is one of the key interface differences between Android, Windows Phone 7 and iOS.

On the phone, simplifying things with big, blocky icons, and reducing the need to open separate apps makes sense. You're not sitting in front of a phone; you want to glance at it, and get back to whatever you're doing. Time will tell whether the same approach makes sense on the PC or laptop.

To what extent users are locked into the new UI isn't clear. As the video shows, the Windows desktop interface today's users are familiar with still exists in Windows 8 - load Word or Excel and the interface reverts to something resembling Windows 7. As to whether users can toggle the new Start screen and live tiles on or off, Microsoft hasn't shed any light.

What is clear is that Windows 8, which will also run on devices running ARM chips, looks like being much easier to use on tablets than it is today. Users can switch between apps by dragging apps running in the background from the side of the screen. Internet Explorer 10 looks more finger-friendly, with a new touchscreen keyboard layout designed so you can use your thumbs.

It does appear that this new look isn't just for tablets. As Jensen Harris from Microsoft says in the video, it's going to run "on laptops, it's gonna run on desktops, it's gonna run on PCs with mouse and keyboard, it's gonna run on touch slates, it's gonna run on everything. Hundreds of millions of Windows PCs, powered by this new interface and new platform."

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