NASA begins Flying Car contest, but one company says the future of air travel is here now.

Who said flying saucers were not from this world?

As NASA launches a US$2 million prize contest for a viable flying car or personal air vehicle (PAVs), a competition called the PAV Challenge, one company says it’s already light years ahead.

The US company called Moller International says it is ready to put a real flying saucer onto the market, so you and I can have a piece of the action.

Inspired by 1960’s cartoon series, The Jetsons, the California-based company has just begun production on the initial six airframes of its M200G Volantor.

Meet George Jetson!

Apparently, the personal flying pod can glide three metres off the ground and carry two passengers. It is powered by eight of the company’s rotary engines and with a maximum flying hight of just 3 meters above the ground, the flying saucer is said to act similar to a hovercraft without the restrictions of a rough surface, and can even “glide over terrain at 50 MPH.”

There are even prototype plans in the works for high-rise rescue pod configurations, and pods that can be equipped with weapons for use in the military, with reports this month that the US Department of Defence is looking at purchasing at least some of the technology.

 In the 1997 Sci-Fi/Action movie, The 5th Element, flying cars are the only way to get around…

The prototype has completed over two hundred flights with and without a pilot on board.

For safety, air-bags surround occupants in the cockpit, while the vehicle’s on-board computer system ensures that it does not enter regulated airspace.

But is this the real deal?

The owner of Moller International, Canadian Dr Paul Moller, has been working to sell flying car style products for some 40 years, and while nobody really doubts that his vehicle is able to lift off in the air at least for a few moments, it takes up a lot of energy to get a fully stable and viable, Jetsons style pod to work for transportation.

The same man and company is, or was, behind the well documented Skycar. That made waves in the media back in 2003, but the buzz around that soon subsided when Dr Moller and his company was sued by the US Securities and Exchange commission, a lawsuit that was settled for US$50,000.

The Moller Skycar prototype. It’s noisy, unstable, and doesn’t go very far at all. Couldn’t even sell it on eBay.

As to date, the company has never bought a viable vehicle to market, but Moller insists that this flying pod is going to be different. But with a pricetag of at least US$90-$125,000, evidence of a potentially successful product is still to be seen, so I wouldn’t be holding my breath, just yet anyway.

However, NASA is optimistic about the future prospects of Jetsons style personal air travel, a future that some thought would be a reality today. A future where flying cars are as common as cars on the road.

A recent report predicts that up to 45% of all miles travelled in the future may be in PAVs.  The prediction accounts for the need to relieve the future congestion at metropolitan hub airports and the roads and freeways that surround them.

It would also reduce the need to build new highways and save much of the 6.8 billion gallons of fuel wasted in surface gridlock each year.

I’d just like to know who gets to drive these future air cars, and what traffic system is in place to stop deadly accidents. A problem you can bet a flying car future would bring, given the death and destruction the humble car has unleashed on the worlds roads in the last 100 years.

See video of the pod, should I say very dubious as there is a big crane pictured off to the side of the test field. I wonder what that could be for.

Also the video looks to have been taken some time in the 1980’s, maybe even longer ago than that.

Go on, tell the world!

Amazing! Scientists awake patient from 6 years in coma like state.

In what could be a major breakthrough, scientists from the United States have been able to wake a man from a near vegetative state, and he can now talk to his family, watch TV and chew.

The 38-year-old from Ohio had been in a coma like state for 6 years, after being mugged and bashed, but when neuroscientists from New York and News Jersey used a pacemaker and two electrodes to send impulses into a part of the brain regulating consciousness, the mans quality of life was dramatically improved.

Media reports:

Unable to chew or swallow, the Cleveland patient, who has been identified only as an artist with two brothers, was fed by tube and could communicate solely through slight movements of his eyes and fingers.

Although he still does not initiate conversation, the surgery has allowed him to respond to questions with answers of up to three words. Several weeks ago, he recited the first half of the U.S. oath of allegiance without help.

The patient has also regained some movement in his limbs.

Electrodes were inserted into his thalamus, the region believed to be key in consciousness, to boost its speech and movement signals.

His mother said: “My son, as well as the entire family, had little hope of further recovery. Now he can eat, express himself and let us know if he is in pain.

“He can cry and he can laugh and, most importantly, he can say, ‘Mommy’ and ‘Pop’ and he can say, ‘I love you Mommy’. I still cry every time I see my son but it is tears of joy.”

The story is detailed HERE in the journal of Nature.

See related story on Jan Grzebski who suddenly woke up from a 19 year coma earlier this year.

Go on, tell the world! Bookmark this story.

“Vegansexual”: No sex for meat eaters!

 

 

Sex?
‘Yes please! But not with you carnivores’

Talk about taking the term ‘you are what you eat’ a little too far.

A new phenomenon among vegetarians in New Zealand takes a very extreme stance on that concept, because apparently an exchange of body fluids with meat eaters would violate the philosophies of Veganism.

Annie Potts from Canterbury University in New Zealand has coined the term “Vegansexual” to describe people, “who do not eat any meat or animal products, and who choose not to be sexually intimate with non-vegan partners whose bodies, they say, are made up of dead animals.”

In her research she quizzed 157 Kiwis on issues ranging from battery chickens to sexual preferences.

New Zealand media reports:

Many female respondents described being attracted to people who ate meat, but said they did not want to have sex with meat-eaters because their bodies were made up of animal carcasses.

“It’s a whole new thing – I have not come across it before,” said Potts.

One vegan respondent from Christchurch said: “I believe we are what we consume, so I really struggle with bodily fluids, especially sexually.”

Another Christchurch vegan said she found non-vegans attractive, but would not want to be physically close to them.

“I would not want to be intimate with someone whose body is literally made up from the bodies of others who have died for their sustenance,” she said.

Christchurch vegan Nichola Kriek has been married to her vegan husband, Hans, for nine years.

She would not describe herself as vegansexual, but said it would definitely be a preference.

She could understand people not wanting to get too close to non-vegan or non-vegetarians.

“When you are vegan or vegetarian, you are very aware that when people eat a meaty diet, they are kind of a graveyard for animals,” she said.

European Princess claims she can “talk to angels”

 

I don’t know if that European heat wave is affecting parts of Scandinavia, but it sounds like the 4th in line to the Norwegian throne is going a little bit….crazy.

Media Reports:

Princess Martha Louise of Norway has claimed that she is a clairvoyant, saying that she realised as a child that she could read people’s inner feelings, and that she owes her ability to make contact with angels to her experiences with horses.

“It was while I was taking care of the horses that I got in contact with the angels,” she says.
“I have lately understood the value of this important gift and I wish to share it with other people, maybe with you.”

The 35-year-old Princess – the daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja, is a trained physical therapist – and made the claims on a web site for her alternative education centre.

Web site here.

The Norwegian Royal Palace confirmed that the Web site accurately reflected the Princess’s views, but declined further comment.

Sounds like somebody has been spending way too much time in the Royal Palace.

  6th sense or publicity stunt?

75-year-old downloads movies in 2 seconds, fastest net connection in world.

 

Sweden may be ranked number one in The Economist Intelligence Units Index of Democracy (who would have guessed), but now it can lay claim to another big hand waving #1 honour.

75-year-old Swede Sigbritt Lothberg is the owner of “what is believed to be” the fastest residential internet uplink in the world.

She uses technology so fast that it can download a movie in just 2 seconds by allowing the sending of data between two routers placed up to 1,240 miles apart, without any transponders in between.

MSNBC.com reports:

 Hafsteinn Jonsson, head of the Karlstad city network unit and Lothberg’s son, Peter, worked together to install the connection.

“We wanted to show that that there are no limitations to Internet speed,” he said.

Peter Lothberg, who is a networking expert, said he wanted to demonstrate the new technology while providing a computer link for his mother.

“She’s a brand new Internet user,” Lothberg said by phone from California, where he lives. “She didn’t even have a computer before.”

His mother isn’t exactly making the most of her high-speed connection. She only uses it to read Web-based newspapers.

Så njuta av din långsam så helvete Internet tjänst förloraren!

Yuck! Live rats a culinary delight after plague in China.

 

Yummy rat!

A few days back I wrote about the estimated 2 billion rats that have been plaguing a rural are of China after flooding of the giant Dongting Lake (includes Reuters video).

The unbelievable scene of rats pilled on top of each other and havoc local farmers had many crops ruined.

Well, now it turns out, in the true spirit of China’s new found capitalism that some people have been cashing in on the misfortune.

Live rats are being captured by locals, and trucked into the counties south, where fresh rat seems to be a culinary delight for thousands of wealthy restaurant goers.

Yes, with the new found wealth of many Chinese, it is customary to eat “exotic things” as a way of showing off your riches. And the consumption of rat is the latest in an extravagant eating trend, which also sees the consumption of other interesting creatures such as snakes and owls.

News Reports:

“Recently there have been a lot of rats … Guangzhou people are rich and like to eat exotic things, so business is very good,” the China News Service quoted a vendor as saying.

Some vendors had asked people from a village in Hunan province, near Dongting Lake, to sell them live rats, the Beijing News said today.

“The buyers offered 6 yuan (9c) for a kilo, but as to where they will sell the rats, they would not say,” the newspaper quoted a local resident as saying, adding that villagers had to catch the rats live.

“If we want to do that, there is no problem. We could catch 150 kilos of rats in one night .. .but we will not do this against our conscience,” the villager was quoted as saying.

Some Guangdong restaurants were promoting “rat banquets”, charging 136 yuan ($20.70) for one kg of rat meat, the newspaper said.

Chinese media reported last week that some internet users from Guangdong had offered rat recipes as a way to deal with the problem.

Scientists have also blamed China’s massive Three Gorges Dam project and climate change for the Hunan rodents’ flight to dry land.

So, just for a laugh I thought I would organise some info on the sorts of nasty things rats are known to carry.

Eat up!

Man sits on $5 billion riches, but he’s not interested in it.

 

Jeffrey Lee is one Australian not interested in becoming the world’s next billionare.

As the last living member of an Indigenous Australian clan, he is the custodian to a sacred piece of land near the world famous Kakadu National Park, called Koongarra. A swath of land in Australia’s Northern Territory that French nuclear energy giant Areva would love to mine for pricey uranium.

At a potential Australian $5 billion (US$4.5B) plus windfall, Jeffrey isn’t interested in the temptation of riches; he’s much more interested in preserving this amazing part of the world for the future.

But he may be running of time. He has no partner and doesn’t have any children.

Although the Australian Government has promised the land won’t be mined unless the traditional land owners give the green light, if Lee doesn’t have any children before he dies and the land doesn’t become world heritage listed, then his wishes may be denied.

“I’m not interested in money. I’ve got a job; I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That’s all that matters to me.”

Sydney Morning Herald has more on the last of the Djok clan.

Alien mystery deepens, 60 years on.

 

It is 60 years ago this week since the Roswell Army Air Field released a press statment that said it had recovered a crashed “flying disc” from a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, a statement quickly retracted a few hours after.

With a 60th Anniversary festival planned for the town reliant on the UFO tourist dollar, the mystery, which has inspired movies, TV shows and documentaries has deepened, with witness testimony shining light about what happend at the old air base just south of the site of the first ever atomic bomb test.

A sworn affidavit from the deceased 1947 Roswell Army Air Field public relations officer.

News.com.au reports the story:

Last week came an astonishing new twist to the Roswell mystery.

Lieutenant Walter Haut was the public relations officer at the base in 1947 and was the man who issued the original and subsequent press releases after the crash on the orders of the base commander, Colonel William Blanchard.

Haut died last year but left a sworn affidavit to be opened only after his death.

Last week, the text was released and asserts that the weather balloon claim was a cover story and that the real object had been recovered by the military and stored in a hangar.

He described seeing not just the craft, but alien bodies.

He wasn’t the first Roswell witness to talk about alien bodies.

Local undertaker Glenn Dennis had long claimed that he was contacted by authorities at Roswell shortly after the crash and asked to provide a number of child-sized coffins.

When he arrived at the base, he was apparently told by a nurse (who later disappeared) that a UFO had crashed and that small humanoid extraterrestrials had been recovered.

But Haut is the only one of the original participants to claim to have seen alien bodies.

UFO pieces handed around

Haut’s affidavit talks about a high-level meeting he attended with base commander Col William Blanchard and the Commander of the Eighth Army Air Force, General Roger Ramey.

Haut states that at this meeting, pieces of wreckage were handed around for participants to touch, with nobody able to identify the material.

He says the press release was issued because locals were already aware of the crash site, but in fact there had been a second crash site, where more debris from the craft had fallen.

The plan was that an announcement acknowledging the first site, which had been discovered by a farmer, would divert attention from the second and more important location.

The clean-up operation

Haut also spoke about a clean-up operation, where for months afterwards military personnel scoured both crash sites searching for all remaining pieces of debris, removing them and erasing all signs that anything unusual had occurred.

This ties in with claims made by locals that debris collected as souvenirs was seized by the military.

Haut then tells how Colonel Blanchard took him to “Building 84″ – one of the hangars at Roswell – and showed him the craft itself.

He describes a metallic egg-shaped object around 3.6m-4.5m in length and around 1.8m wide.

He said he saw no windows, wings, tail, landing gear or any other feature.

Haug ’saw the alien bodies’

He saw two bodies on the floor, partially covered by a tarpaulin.

They are described in his statement as about 1.2m tall, with disproportionately large heads.

Towards the end of the affidavit, Haut concludes: “I am convinced that what I personally observed was some kind of craft and its crew from outer space”.

What’s particularly interesting about Walter Haut is that in the many interviews he gave before his death, he played down his role and made no such claims.

Had he been seeking publicity, he would surely have spoken about the craft and the bodies.

Did he fear ridicule, or was the affidavit a sort of deathbed confession from someone who had been part of a cover-up, but who had stayed loyal to the end?

The US government came under huge pressure on Roswell in the ’90s.

In July 1994, in response to an inquiry from the General Accounting Office, the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force published a report, The Roswell Report: Fact Versus Fiction In The New Mexico Desert.

Weather balloon ‘cover story’

The report concluded that the Roswell incident had been attributable to something called Project Mogul, a top secret project using high-altitude balloons to carry sensor equipment into the upper atmosphere, listening forevidence of Soviet nuclear tests.

The statements concerning a crashed weather balloon had been a cover story, they admitted, but not to hide the truth about extraterrestrials.

A second US Air Force report concluded claims bodies were recovered were generated by people having seen crash test dummies that were dropped from the balloons.

Sceptics, of course, will dismiss the testimony left by Haut.

After all, fascinating though it is, it’s just a story. There’s no proof.

But if nothing else, this latest revelation shows that, 60 years on, this mystery endures.

Women’s clothing the best cover.

Wearing a burqa as a clever undercover disguise is the new in thing these days, with the head to toe Islamic garment used as a convenient cover by everyone from European bank robbers to Indian pop stars.

On Tuesday it was reported that a group of armed men in Bosnia stormed into a Sarajevobank bank branch, ordering customers to hand over belongings and emptied out the day’s takings, getting away with around US $40,000.

Last week Indian composer and music star Himesh Reshammiya created an uproar after he visited a 13th century Islamic shrine in the traditional women’s clothing to avoid thongs of fans mobbing him.

Himesh likes it under-cover.

And today it was reported that a radical Islamic Pakistani cleric tried to give security forces the slip after a mosque siege in Islamabad.

Oh Canada! Pass the test? Doesn’t look like it!

 

A survey taken just days out from the Canadian national day of celebrations, has revealed that 60% of Canadian natives would fail to pass a citizen exam given to new migrants to the country.

However, an “outstanding majority” or 70 percent of newcomers scored a passing grade when administered the same quiz.

The results are “frankly disheartening,” said Rudyard Griffiths of the Dominion Institute.

“Immigrants to Canada have accumulated more knowledge about the workings of the Canadian government, key moments in Canada’s past, and the geography of Canada than the general Canadian public.”

In 1997, only 45 percent of respondents failed an identical test, indicating that Canadians’ knowledge of themselves also appears to be sliding, Mr Griffiths lamented.

To pass the test participants had to correctly answer 12 of 21 questions on Canadian history, politics, culture and geography.

Sex in the office, Australia says YES! YES! YES!.

 

A survey on the work habits of Australian adults has found that 1 in 5 people claim to have had a sexual encounter in the office.

A survey by online job search website linkme.com.au said that about 20% of Aussies have not only been getting intimate at the office but also admit to doing ‘it’ during work hours.

The findings hinted at several possible reasons for Aussies getting so up close and personal with work colleagues, which also found that almost one in four Aussies had met their long term partner at work. 

Possible causes of widespread intimacy may stem from people spending more time in the office than ever before, leading to close freindships and socialising.

And colleagues who work in a similar field are likely to share interests and this is an element many people look for in a partner.

The survey found only 13 per cent of Aussies saw romantic relations in the office as unethical and a mere four percent of workers had a no fraternising clause in their contract.

Casual sex Friday?

iLoser. Sloths line up for hyped up Apple phone.

       Sloth of a time.

The Crazy News- Tool of the Week

Some people have all the time in the world.

Regular Homer Simpson, Greg Packer, is claiming his 15 minutes of fame for the second time in New York this week. Or is it the 3rd or 4th or 5th time?

The 43-year-old retired highway maintenance worker (retired? how much do they get paid) started lining up to be the first to purchase the new iPhone from Apple’s flagship store in Manhattan, 101 hours before it goes on sale 6pm Friday US eastern time.

  Apple Man

Packer has since been joined by about more than a dozen other iPhone fans and opportunists, who have also chosen to join in on the sit in, braving the concrete enhanced heat of the other famous Big Apple.

Packer says he is relying on food donations and the bathroom facilities at the Apple Store, which is open 24-hours a day.

 Sitting is fun.

This isn’t the first time our good friend has made headlines waiting for fancy new products to come on sale; he was one of the first to buy a Playstation 3 when that went on sale last November. Indeed, he even has his own wikipedia page, which says he has appeared in mainstrem media more than 100 times, quoted by various media organisations since the mid 1990’s infact.

And according to US TV news host Keith Olberman, this guy is a bit of a pest. The Associated Press even put out a memo to it’s journalists, warning them not to “indulge him”.

The iphone retails between $US499 for a 4GB memory and $US599 for one with 8.

And guess what! Our iPhone friend even has his own wordpress blog!

He’s looking for someone to donate him a comfy chair for all that sitting he’s been doing. It just goes to show, you don’t need to have much talent to be famous in America, just ask Paris Hitlon.

You also have to wonder, could this be a smart marketing stunt from the Jobs’ Apple team? Maybe you should ask..maybe I should ask. Naaa…

Update: Interview with iPhone Greg and fellow lineruperer David.

It’s a circus out there!

Meanwhile, on Friday, just hours before the iPhone went on sale in New York City, a camera crew doing a live interview had a number of those gathered in and near the line taunting and swearing at them. A bloke even tired to grab the reporter’s microphone, before being hammered to the ground by security/teamsters.

 

Politician puts dog on roof for 12 hour car trip, back in the 80’s

 

In American politics, if your running for office, particularly the Presidency, it appears anything you may or may not have done in the past is fare game. No matter how trivial or serious.

Mitt Romney is a former US State Governor and is now currently seeking the nomination for President from the Republican Party (the one George W. Bush belongs to).

About 25 years ago, on one of his many family road trip holidays, Romney decided it was a good idea to strap the family pet,  Seamus, to the car roof for a 12 hour journey from Massachusetts to Canada.

And now, a quater of a century later, animal rights activists are outraged.

Time Magazine reports:

Seamus protested in a scatological way, going to the bathroom on the roof of the car.

Animal rights activists said the tale seems a little cruel.

“It is commonsense that any dog who’s under extreme stress might show that stress by losing control of his bowels: that alone should have been sufficient indication that the dog was, basically, being tortured,” Time quoted Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as saying.

Newkirk said it was “a lesson in cruelty that was … wrong for [his children] to witness.”

So, next time you strap your pet dog to the roof of your car for the 12 hour trip, make sure youre not running for President 25 years later, otherwise you might get yourself into trouble.

Lesson learned.

Speaking of PETA.

   PETA Pam

Pandas for all! China uses it’s native bear like currency.

 

Spanish King Juan with happy communist Chinese poltician.

King Juan Carlos of Spain will be presented with two cute and furry mammals as he departs a visit to Beijing, Chinese authorties said.

A pair of endangered pandas will be given as a gift of mutual freindship to Spains head of state, who is in China to ‘develope a strategic partnership’.

“It will be a lovely present for the Spanish people, and we hope this pair of pandas, as the friendly envoys of the Chinese people, can help promote mutual relations,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference.

Beijing presented a pair of pandas to the Chinese territory of Hong Kong in 1999 and another pair this year. It has also offered pandas several times to Taiwan, the independently governed island which China considers its own. Taipei has turned down all offers so far.

It is estimated that their is only about 2,000 Giant Pandas left in the world.

If the Chinese keep this up most of those won’t be located in the world’s 4th largest economy.

One old whale, 1880’s weapon fragment found in huge mammal caught off Alaska.

 

Fragments of a weapon used by whale hunters off Alaska in the 1800’s has been found lodged in a Bowhead whale, caught by the indigenous Inupiat people recently.

The fragment shows that the whale could be nearly 130 years old, said Craig George, a wildlife biologist with the borough’s Department of Wildlife Management.

“It was probably at least a yearling when it was struck, because the whalemen never took calves”

  

The Beautiful Bowhead whale in icy Alaskan waters.

The fragment of bomb lace was given to scientists by the Inupiat whalers, who are allowed to catch up to 50 of the speices a year in Alaskan waters.  The hunt is managed by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission. There is a population of around 8,000 Bowheads in Alaskan waters.

The Inupiat have long said that bowhead whales live for the equivalent of two human lifetimes, and the find suggest that knowledge is indeed right.

Commercial whaling is banned worldwide, althought the Japanese would like that to change. Native tribes from Alaska, Greenland and parts of Russia are allowed to hunt whales under a non-commercial agreement.

 In Alaska, meat from hunted whales is distributed to all residents of the hunters’ villages.

Inupiat in Alaska divide up whale meat.

National Geographic video: Bowhead Whales.

Back in the slamer, Paris? Drama never ending.

 View new, updated post ‘Paris “taken screaming” HERE.

 Paris Hilton may still yet be screwed around….

A Los Angeles judge has ordered Paris Hilton to appear in court in person today. It was initially understood that she was allowed to phone in, however, the judge ordered her to be physically in court, which will determine whether she should be returned to jail.

  The West Hollywood mansion.

As you probably know by know, Ms Hilton has been allowed to leave jail after only serving 3 measly days of a 45 day term. She is now confined to her mansion in West Hollywood. Hilton was given an electronic tag and ordered to remain under house arrest for the remainder of her sentence.  

The court apperance was prompted after L.A. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo demanded an explanation as to why the Sheriff’s Department allowed Paris to get out of jail when the judge had expressly ordered her to serve out her entire sentence.

Video: Exclusive video outside the West Hollywood mansion where the media frenzy continues. It is also safe to asume that there will be a massive media scrum at the court where Paris will attend very soon.

Video: To court she will go

“The decision whether or not Ms Hilton should be released early and placed on electronic monitoring should be made by Judge [Michael] Sauer, and not the Sheriff’s Department”-

At the time of Hilton’s release, Steve Whitmore, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said: “After extensive consultation with medical personnel, it was decided this reassignment should be done.”

No details of the medical problem could be given for “privacy reasons”, he said, but insisted she had received no special treatment.

                                                    Sick or special treatment?

Civil rights leader Rev Al Sharpton condemned the release as showing the “double standards” of the US legal system.

“This early release gives all of the appearances of economic and racial favouritism that is constantly cited by poor people and people of colour,” he said. “There are any number of cases of people who handle being incarcerated badly and even have health conditions that are not released.”

Early release is “unusual”

Assistant City Atty. Dan Jefferies said that the reason given for Hilton’s release made the case unusual and raised questions about special treatment. He said that releasing inmates due to overcrowding was common but said in his 25 years as a prosecutor, he could remember only two or three instances when people were let go early for medical reasons. In each case,he said, the individuals were extremely ill.

Delgadillo, his boss, agreed: “Los Angeles County jail medical facilities are well-equipped to deal with medical situations involving inmates.”

He added that if Hilton’s “medical condition truly warranted a change in her circumstances” her attorney “should have filed an emergency application with the court and provided my office with the opportunity to respond.”

This aintn over yet folks!
 

 El Mug.

  I’ll do anything to get out?

Jan Grzebski, 19 year coma patient, says 21st century people “never stop moaning”

 

A Polish man who miraculously woke up form a 19 year old coma says he is amazed at the amount of goods available in shops, is taken aback at the way people walk around talking on their mobile phones, and cried when he discovered the communists were no longer in power.

 Railway worker Jan Grzebski, 65, fell into a coma after he was hit by a train in 1988. Grzebski credits his amazing tale of survival to his wife Gertruda who moved her husband many times a day over a nearly two decade period to prevent bed sores, and spoon fed him.

Doctors gave him only two or three years to live after the accident, “Those who came to see us kept asking: ‘When is he going to die?’ But he’s not dead…it was Gertruda that saved me, and I’ll never forget it.”

 ”When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere…what amazes me today is all these people who walk around with their mobile phones and never stop moaning, I’ve got nothing to complain about,”Grzebski said  when asked on his thoughts of the Poland of 2007.

“I could not talk or do anything, now it’s much better…I wake up at 7 a.m., and I watch TV,” he said, smiling slightly.

Standing by her man:

“I would fly into a rage every time someone would say that people like him should be euthanized, so they don’t suffer,” his wife Gertruda told local newspaper Gazeta Dzialdowska. “I believed Janek would recover… This is my great reward for all the care, faith and love”.

“He remembers everything that was going on around him,” she said. “He talks about it and remembers the weddings of our children. He had fever around the time of the weddings, so he knew something big was taking place.”

What an amazing story, obviously a very lucky man indeed.

 Jan and wife Gertruda Grzebsky

 The amazing story of Jan Grzebski from the BBC…

Jericho; TV fans go nuts after cancellation, literally.

  Not crazy, its f*#king nuts!

Passionate fans of TV show Jericho have launched, and may be winning, a campaign to have the show put back on the air by sending millions of nuts to CBS TV executives across the United States.

In May, when CBS Television cancelled the show about life in a small rural town after a nuclear holocaust, legions of fans were incenced, and plans were soon hatched to have the show re-instated. The idea to send nuts was soon chosen, and with a little help of some smart marketing from nutsonline.com, the campaign took off, and now some rumours say the show may get 8 more episodes. 

Quoting an anonymous source, The Associated Press Tuesday said CBS is reconsidering its decision to cancel the show. A decision on whether to bring the show back, probably for a mid-season run, is imminent. Is this a PR stunt to stem the flow of nuts, or is it genuine? Only time will tell Jericho fans.

Jericho cast and babes…

Why nuts?

In the final episode of “Jericho,” the town is under siege from a neighboring community.  When asked to surrender, lead character Jake Green, played by Skeet Ulrich, has a one-word response: “Nuts.”

The response is a reference to Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, a U.S. Army general who in World War II was surrounded by Germans demanding his surrender. His response: “Nuts.”

All I have to say is, what a waste of food.

See what all the fuss is about, 2006 Jericho promo. 

Prime Minister goes naked.

  ‘Iraq Triptych’

A 71 year old artist and sculptor protested his countries involvement in the war in Iraq by creating a drawing depicting British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie naked.

“I suddenly felt overcome with anger at the way Blair has messed up,”Artist Michael Sandle said. 

“There he was, elected by a huge majority, and he has allowed his vanity to destroy it all.”

The work, in charcoal and chalk, is based on medieval paintings of Adam and Eve being banished from the Garden of Eden. The centre of the drawing shows Tony and Cherie blair on the steps of their residence, 10 Downing Street, and side panels show Iraqi civilians being abused by British troops.

The art work is the centrepiece of the Royal
Academy’s Summer Exhibition.

 Michael Saddle, not happy with his PM

 Blair sporting a trendy mullett

Knoxville gets sued for genitals in a mousetrap prank.

 

Actor Perry Caravello is suing Jackass star Johnny Knoxville, TV host Jimmy Kimmel and radio personality Adam Corolla for US$10 million. Caravello alledges he was promised money and promotion of a movie if he carried out a stunt that involved putting his genitals in a mousetrap.

The stunt was intended as a promotion for the DVD release of Windy City Heat, in which Carolla, Caravello and Kimmel all appeared.

But the stunt went wrong and Caravello “was severely injured when the trap literally went on his manhood”, according to papers filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

“Cameras both hidden and exposed capture the fun and pain when Caravello is inexplicably cast as the star of a supposed film called Windy City Heat, in which he portrays a character named Stone Fury, a hard-boiled Chicago ’sports private eye.’

“It’s all just a complete goof, of course. But the real Caravello doesn’t know that,” said the paper in its October 2003 review of the telemovie.

Caravello is claiming US$10 million over the stunt, plus an extra US$500,000 for humiliation after the stunt-gone-wrong was distributed on the internet.

                                               You’ve gotta ask, is this for real, or just a really tame stunt to boost DVD sales of the movie Windy City Heat? (which was a flop)

Robot to guard school from ‘outsider seduction’

 A robot is to be deployed as a security guard at a South Korean school in what its creators claim is a world first.  

The robot, dubbed OFRO, will be posted at a Seoul middle school to test its potential before going on sale.Makers DU Robo said it could be used to alert staff to attempts by outsiders to seduce students.

“One possible scenario is that OFRO will alert officials when it detects someone trying to seduce a student,” the firm’s CEO Kang Jung-Won said.

Teachers could then either warn the offender through a loudspeaker or send human security guards.The firm claims it is the first time a robot has been used to guard an educational institution.“After going through the feasibility test, we (will) look to commercialise the feature-rich OFRO that retails at around $US100,000 as a school guardian,” said Kang.

OFRO moves at a leisurely maximum of five kph (three mph) and can either patrol pre-programmed routes or be manually controlled. It has a camera and microphone link to teachers or a security firm.

Nude photograher snaps again!

 A day of a thousand moons! At the Europarking building in Amsterdam.

Residents of Amsterdam, famous to many for its red-light district, have taken it all off in the name of art. World renowned photographer Spencer Tunick was doing what he does best last night, photographing women on bicycles, men at a service station, as well as models posing at one of the city’s famous bridges in Amsterdam’s historic centre.

Around 2,000 brave Amsterdam residents posed for Tunick who has orchastrated mass nudist shoots previously in  Belgium, France, Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States.

 ”It was very hard to find space in a city meant for such a small amount of people,” Tunick said. “I was very lucky to get almost 2,000 to fill a massive car park.”

“I get people to shed their inhibitions basically because the people shedding their clothing are interested in contemporary art,” Tunick said.

Photos from Sunday’s session were to be exhibited at an Amsterdam club Sunday night, and will be reproduced on billboards in the city later in the summer.

Tunick was once arrested for his work in New York City after a female model posed nude for him in Manhattan during the middle of the day.

         Tunick herding the nudists.