Dookie's "I dunno too much" News of the Weird

[Phobia]

Re: I pose this question...

Despite its critical acclaim and popular success, Gremlins has been criticized as culturally insensitive. Some observers have commented that the film presents gremlins as African Americans,<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-Rosenbaum_12-1>[13]</SUP> and in an unflattering manner. At the time of its release, some members of the African American community protested that the film was racist. These critics suggested that the creatures exhibit some of the worst stereotypical behavior attributed to blacks: wild, drunken, violent, murderous, seductive and lascivious. In Ceramic Uncles & Celluloid Mammies, Patricia Turner writes that the gremlins "reflect negative African-American stereotypes" in their dress and behavior. They are shown "devouring fried chicken with their hands", listening to black music, breakdancing, and wearing sunglasses after dark and big-apple slouch hats, a style common among African American males in the 1980s

This is flat out sad!!! Who would say they are sterotyping on ACTIONS!!!

Like the movie, just thought this little tid bit was flat out insane.

[yamabushi]

Re: I pose this question...

This is flat out sad!!! Who would say they are sterotyping on ACTIONS!!!

Like the movie, just thought this little tid bit was flat out insane.

All I know is that Ceramic Uncles & Celluloid Mammies is probably one of the most pointless and stupidest books ever written.

[CMH]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

Woman sues for 10M for being denied subway rides with dog

Awesome!

[Brandwin]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

Boy stops pit bull attack with jujitsu choke hold

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/37069754.html



A 9-year-old Bakersfield boy is being called a hero after he saved a girl and her dog from a pit bull attack.

Drew Heredia said he and a friend were walking a small dog Dec. 30 when a pit bull jumped on the dog. The unidentified 12-year-old girl reportedly tried to save her dog, prompting the pit bull to turn on her.

Heredia said he jumped on the pit bull and applied a choke hold that he learned while taking classes at a Brazilian jujitsu studio in southwest Bakersfield.

"It was kind of a hear-pounding moment," Heredia said. "It was very scary."

He said he held the dog for 20 minutes until an animal control officer arrived.

“At first, I wanted to kick it, but then I thought it’s not a good idea, because it could get my leg,” Heredia said.

The girl was taken to Mercy Southwest Hospital where she was treated for puncture wounds.

The pit bull was quarantined at the animal control office, where it will be euthanized after 10 days. No one has claimed the dog.

The girl's dog was injured, but it's expected to survive. The dog ran away during the attack but returned home Friday afternoon.

[Brandwin]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

Fake brands Shopping Center set to open in China

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...5875-21018152/
China has confirmed itself as the 'king of counterfeiters' with the building of a new shopping center dedicated to fake brands.

Some of the brand impostors at the mall in Nanjing, east of Shanghai, include a McDonalds look-a-like burger bar called McDnoald’s, a Starbucks-style coffee shop called Bucksstar Coffee, and a wannabe Pizza Hut called Pizza Huh.

City bosses are under pressure to ban the soon-to-be opened mall after pictures of the fake stores were leaked, causing uproar amongst angry consumers who feared they'd be ripped off.

[Brandwin]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

5 year old child elopers' Africa plan foiled

Two German children - aged five and six - have been stopped by police from eloping to Africa to tie the knot in the sun, reports say.

The budding lovebirds, identified as Mika and Anna-Lena, packed bathing costumes, sunglasses and a lilo and headed for the airport.

They even had the presence of mind to invite along an official witness - Anna-Lena's seven-year-old sister.

The three got as far as Hanover railway station before police intervened.

The young couple were "very much in love" and had decided to get married in Africa "where it is warm", police spokesman Holger Jureczko told the AFP news agency.

Sun-seekers

The idea for the getaway wedding was born as the children's families celebrated New Year's eve together and Mika regaled the two girls with stories of a recent holiday to Italy.

They can still put their plan into action at a later date
Holger Jureczko
Hanover police spokesman

The following morning, as their parents slept, the intrepid trio walked 1km (0.6 miles) to the local tram station at Langenhagen, where they hopped aboard a tram for Hanover central station.

But the group aroused the suspicion of a guard as they waited for a train to the airport, and police were called in.

Officers persuaded the children they would not get far without tickets and money, but consoled them with a free tour of the police station, where they were shortly picked up by relieved parents.

Although any marriage plans have been put on hold for now, police did not altogether rule out the possibility of an African wedding.

"They can still put their plan into action at a later date," AFP quoted the spokesman as saying.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7811686.stm

[Brandwin]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

Parents didn't report boy missing for over a decade.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/05/...ing/index.html

CNN) -- Authorities in Kansas are looking for a boy who disappeared about a decade ago, but was not reported missing until a few weeks ago.

"We don't know what happened to Adam Herrman past '99, when he was last seen," Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy said at a news conference in El Dorado.

"Is he alive, is he dead? That one I can't answer because we don't know," he added.

Adam was 11 or 12 when he was last seen, Murphy said. At the time, he was living in a mobile home park in Towanda, a small town in southern Kansas, with his adoptive parents, Doug and Valerie Herrman. The couple did not report him missing, Murphy said.

A few weeks ago, a person notified Sedgwick County Exploited and Missing Children's Unit of a "concern" regarding Adam, Murphy said.

The agency did not immediately return CNN's phone call seeking additional information.

Wichita attorney Warner Eisenbise, who is representing Adam's adoptive parents, said the couple "really rue the fact that they didn't" report the boy missing.

"They feel very guilty" about not doing that, he said in a telephone interview. The couple told him the boy had run away frequently, he said, and they believed him to be either with his biological parents or homeless.

Although the Herrmans did not report him missing, "they were very worried about him," he said.

Authorities have searched the Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park, where the family had lived, and discovered an "answer" to one of their questions, Murphy said, without explaining.

"We did find one of the answers we were looking for, but I am holding that one very tightly," he said.

Eisenbise said authorities also executed a search warrant on December 15 at the Herrmans' home in Derby, a town just outside of Wichita. They took the couple's computer, he said.

Murphy said the couple is cooperating and had not been charged with anything.

Citing a relative, the Wichita Eagle reported the Herrmans had taken Adam into foster care and later adopted him.

Michelle Ponce of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, which oversees adoption and foster care, said she could not release any details regard Adam's case, and could confirm only that he had been in foster care at some point, but was no longer in foster care in 1999.

Adam had been placed in the Herrmans' care when he was about 2, Murphy said in a phone interview. He had been named Irvin Groeninger III when he was born on June 8, 1987, Murphy said, and it was not clear when his name was changed.

His biological parents relinquished their rights as parents about two decades ago, and Adam and his siblings were put in different foster homes, CNN affiliate KWCH reported.

"I thought what I was doing for them was in the best interest of the children and evidently it wasn't," Irvin Groeninger told KWCH. "If he was still in my custody this would have never happened."

Adam's sister, Tiffany Broadfoot, 22, said she last saw her brother about 14 years ago at a birthday party.

A year or two later, he sent her a Christmas card, she said. "And that was the end of my contact with him," she told KWCH.

"He had the cutest little round face, little bitty freckles right up here on the tip of his cheek," she remembered.

"I'm just awestruck as how something like that could actually happen, and how he could be missing as long as he's been and nobody say anything," she said.

Murphy said Adam's name appears on a legal document later than 1999. "We know that he was listed in a legal action as if he was still living at home, and I'm not certain of the date, but it was beyond 1999," he told CNN.

[J0nnD0ugh]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

Parents didn't report boy missing for over a decade.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/05/...ing/index.html

I started to post this story. But didn't want to anger the whiners here w/"too many" bizarre news stories. The child protection services in this country really stinks. Instead of paying billions of dollars to bailout corporate & banking execs, why not use that money to create government jobs in social services, medical care & the justice system?

[Brandwin]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

Soldier dies after bar fight over Jimmy Buffett song

<HR style="COLOR: #000000" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title -->
A soldier from Fort Bragg died this morning in Denver from injuries suffered from a bar fight in Steamboat Springs on Friday night over a Jimmy Buffett song.

Richard Lopez, 37, of Fayetteville, N.C., was pronounced dead at 4:16 a.m. today at Denver Health Medical Center. An autopsy by the Arapahoe County Coroner's office is scheduled for Tuesday.

"This is a very sad and serious case," said Capt. Joel Rae with Steamboat Springs police.

So far, no suspects have been arrested, although police have talked to two individuals involved in the fight.

"We know where they are and they have been interviewed," said Rae.

The case is being investigated as a homicide.

The incident occurred before 12:15 a.m. Friday when police were called to a fight between five people outside the Tap House.

"The initial disagreement was about music being played on the jukebox," said Rae, adding that it was a Jimmy Buffet song.

"Richard Lopez and two other individuals put on the song, but two other individuals did not agree with it."

It was not known which Jimmy Buffett song was being played at the time, but the fight was taken outside the bar.

By the time officers arrived on scene, the fight was over and Lopez was on the ground at Lincoln Avenue and Seventh Street.

Two of Lopez's friends, who were not identified by police but are from Steamboat Springs, were also injured in the fight.

Lopez was initially taken to Yampa Valley Medical Center, but later airlifted to Denver Health Medical Center.

Lopez's friends, identified by the Steamboat Pilot as Timothy Mottlau of Norfolk, Va., and Wesley Mottlau, of Fayetteville, N.C., were taken to the hospital with cuts and bruises.

Calls to the Mottlau's home in Steamboat Springs were not returned today.

Rae said that all three were on leave from the military - Lopez and one of his friends were with the Army, while the other friend was in the Navy.

A call to Fort Bragg indicated that Lopez was part of a special forces unit. More details were not available about his service.

Rae said the case is still under investigation.

"Somebody died," he said. "We're taking this very seriously."

While he said barfights were not uncommon in the town, it was unusual that a person died in a fight not involving any weapons.

"This is the first time that a physical fight has resulted in a loss of life from the use of hands and fists," he said.

"It's a shame that it had to happen."

[Brandwin]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

Holocaust survivor escaped with jewels

Holocaust survivor escaped with gems
A Pembroke Pines woman who hid her mother's diamonds while she was in Auschwitz tells her tale in a memoir.
BY JENNIFER COHEN
Special to The Miami Herald

Her mother gave her four diamonds to be used to buy bread should she ever find herself hungry during World War II, but those diamonds gave Irene Weisberg Zisblatt the fortitude to survive the Holocaust.

''I can not buy bread with your diamonds, mother, but as long as I am alive they will stay with me,'' she wrote in her memoir, The Fifth Diamond: The Story of Irene Weisberg Zisblatt.

A resident of Pembroke Pines since 1990, Zisblatt recently discussed her book and appearance in Steven Spielberg's documentary, The Last Days, at Nova Southeastern University.

Born Chana Seigelstein, Zisblatt lived in Hungary with her parents and five siblings. In 1942, when she was 11, her mother, Rachel, sewed the diamonds into the hem of her skirt before she was taken by the Nazis to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.

Zisblatt's entire family was killed in the gas chambers, and those four diamonds were the last mementoes of them. The only way Irene could keep the diamonds hidden was to swallow and retrieve them over and over again. She did this for 15 months.

Zisblatt told the audience how, as a young prisoner in the camps, she was a favorite of Dr. Josef Mengele, who performed experiments and surgeries on her and other prisoners without anesthesia. A girl named Sabka was another of Mengele's regular victims. Though they weren't allowed to speak, they formed a friendship and Zisblatt drew strength from their bond.

''The diamonds survived because, to me, they were the strength, the hope, the courage, and my mother, so they had to survive,'' Zisblatt said. In having a valuable secret from the Nazis, she felt that she was defeating her torturers. ``For every time that I was hungry, beaten or was tortured with experiments, I was hitting back by keeping my mother's diamonds.''

Mengele injected chemicals into her eyes in an attempt to change their color and forced her to remain in a cold room for days. He injected viruses under Zisblatt's fingernail and surgically experimented on her to find a way to remove the numbers tattooed on her arm. Afterward, he ordered the nurse to administer a lethal injection to both girls, but the nurse worked for the underground and was able to free them, one of many miracles Zisblatt experienced.

''Mengele was the most good-looking man,'' she said. ``He could have been the one scientist in the world who could have developed extraordinary things for humanity, but he became a murderer. He would look at me and smile and at times I could not believe this man could ever hurt me, he could be so charming. But the next minute, he was cutting me up into little pieces.''

In 1945, Irene and Sabka were part of a group of 5,000 prisoners forced to march in the cold. Every day, weakened prisoners dropped dead around her. After two months, they escaped. Exhausted and covered in lice, they walked through the forest and managed to stay alive by digging up food.

The pair were finally liberated by Gen. George Patton's Third Army, but Sabka died the very next day. Once again, Zisblatt lost her only family. After her recovery, she was taken in by relatives in America and began a new life with a new name. She married in 1956, and although she had been given watery soup filled with chemicals to destroy her reproductive organs, she gave birth to a son and a daughter in the 1960s.

Not wanting to remember her past, Zisblatt kept her mother's diamonds in a vault. Years later, at her husband's suggestion, she had the diamonds set into a pendant in the shape of a tear drop. She does not wear them regularly -- only when she speaks to future generations.

Zisblatt had vowed that if she survived, she would be a voice for her fellow prisoners. But it was not until her son asked her about the Holocaust that she was ready to share her story.

''For 50 years, I didn't say a word. I didn't want my children to live with my pain,'' she said.

After taking part in the March of the Living, a walk through the camps culminating in Israel, she began to share her story to educate children in order to rid the world of prejudice and indifference, and to teach future generations about the past and what hatred can do.

''I am a survivor of man's hatred,'' Zisblatt said. 'We were dragged from our homes, robbed of our childhood, yanked from our mothers' arms. I was living in a factory of death.''


http://www.miamiherald.com/news/brow...ry/819285.html

[Brandwin]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

man shot in back by cop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKy-WSZMklc

[Brandwin]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

Conn. Man's Last Lotto Ticket Wins $10M for Widow

Conn. Man's Last Lotto Ticket Wins $10M for Widow

Saturday, January 3, 2009 8:30 PM

Article Font Size

DANBURY, Conn. -- On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.

Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.

On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers.

"I'm numb," Charlotte Peters, 79, said at Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill.

Donald Peters usually bought the tickets for 10 weeks at a stretch, so the winning ticket he bought Nov. 1 for the Dec. 2 drawing was among several that Charlotte Peters put aside as she, their three children and two grandchildren coped with his sudden death.

"I was in the grocery store and I had it checked and they told me I was a winner," she said. "I had no idea how much it was."

She said she thought she had won $6 million but was surprised to learn from lottery officials she'd won $10 million.

Charlotte Peters has 60 days to decide whether to take a $6 million pre-tax lump sum payment or stretch the winnings into 21 yearly payments of almost $477,300 each.

She does not yet know what she will do with the money.

"I've always wanted a Corvette, but I don't think I'll buy one. I'll stick to a small car. I might go to Mohegan Sun," she said, referring to the casino in Connecticut. "I'm going to go home and sit and think."

The Peters children think their father would have appreciated the irony.

"He'd be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money," said Brian Peters, one of the couple's three children. "He'd say, 'Figures!'"

© 2009 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
<!-- / message -->

[J0nnD0ugh]

Re: The 10 most disturbing animals on Earth.

man shot in back by cop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKy-WSZMklc

I have no idea how this story hasn't made national headlines. A couple days ago, I tried to search for it on cnn.com & came up w/nothing. This is a hand in the cookie jar type of thing. There's one video where the girl who shot the video ducks into the BART & the female officer tries to confiscate the camera. They were more concerned w/protecting their own instead of arresting someone who executed somebody in full open view like the Gestapo or Red Army.

This is why I get so ticked off @ criminal cops. Police have got their bad seeds just like any profession. But when you have the protectors, even when they aren't involved, putting up the Blue Wall for their comrades, its disgusting. I wish the good cops would blow the whistle on their own bretheren.

[Brandwin]

Whole town as diarrhea

Well this is a poopy situation...

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...005961,00.html

A MAYOR says he’s “got the s..ts” with reports that almost all the people in one town have got diarrhoea from drinking contaminated water.

Central Highlands mayor Peter Maguire disputed Bluff resident Tim Cummings' claim that "the water is so crook, just about everyone gets gastric sooner or later".

Mr Maguire said the town in central Queensland had endured problems with its drinking water with runoff from a coalmine increasing salinity and a mechanical breakdown at the Blackwater Water Treatment Plant, about 20km away, leading to partially treated water entering the drinking supply on December 15.

“The whole town doesn’t have diarrhoea,” he said.

“The story is that everyone in the town has got diarrhoea but that’s not true and it (the report) has given me the s..ts.”

Mr Cumming told The Courier-Mail almost everyone in town had contracted diarrhoea from drinking water contaminated by the Ensham mine.

"There's about 300 to 400 here and the water is so crook, just about everyone gets gastric sooner or later," Mr Cumming said.

"If it's that good how come the mines have been suppling miners with bottled water?" he said.

"Reckon the Government is not looking after its citizens out here. I won't feed it to my dog."

The Environmental Protection Agency allowed the mine to discharge water this week after heavy rain, The Courier-Mail reports .

The mining company said it had no choice but to resume discharges into the Nogoa River when its three dams filled to capacity after heavy rain.

An EPA spokesman said Ensham would ensure salinity levels - such as from sodium, potassium and magnesium - did not exceed 500 microsiemens a centimetre, a standard well within approved limits.

Tests showed water being discharged from the mine was about 300 microsiemens a centimetre.

Mr Maguire said he could definitely taste the salt in the water after an earlier release of water from the coal mine but he did not believe it had caused a diarrhoea outbreak.

“We’ve just had a lot of rain that has flushed out all that dirty water,” he said.

“And they tell me there’s 1000 times more salt in a jar of vegemite than there is in our water.”

Residents of Blackwater and Bluff had been advised to boil their drinking water after the December 15 breakdown at the water treatment plant.

A note on the council’s website advised residents that the situation has now been resolved.

“Over the Christmas period council had engaged in works designed to flush the system out of any non-desirable water,” the statement said.

“This has now been completed and has resulted in sample analysis of the drinking water showing compliance with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines.”

[baumy300]

Re: Whole town as diarrhea

Well then...

I would say it's just diarrhea for now. It's only the s**ts if you don't make it in time.