.Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Dead Man Talks
Furious mourners have demanded the scrapping of high-tech talking tombstones where the dead can send messages from beyond the grave.The headstones — fitted with screens and speakers — play recordings of their life when their loved ones come to pay their respects.
But spooked visitors have asked graveyard officials at Linz, Austria, to ban the gadgets.
Eva Langer, 67, said: "I was beside my husband's grave saying a prayer when I heard a voice, and then laughter and music.
"When I looked round I saw a dead man's face talking to me from the tombstone next door."
Inventor Wolfgang Gollner defended the speaking stones.
He said: "Talking tombstones are very popular in America already and it won't be long before they are a common site in European graveyards so people will have to get used to them."
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Small Bits of News You Didn’t Know you Needed
Woman Accused in Porn Star Prostitution Ring
A woman is accused in California of making more than $8.5 million from an online prostitution business that claimed to employ porn stars and fashion models.
Michelle Braun appeared Monday in federal court in Orange County and was allowed to remain free pending her next pretrial hearing next month.
In Boca Raton, Florida, the woman is accused of charging clients $50,000 or more to spend the night with adult film stars, models, and actresses, The Orange County Register reported. Prosecutors say she used her travel business to launder the money.
Braun pleaded not guilty in March to money laundering and transporting someone for prostitution purposes. Prosecutors say she's expected to change her plea to guilty before her next hearing.
Braun and her lawyer declined to comment.
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Hacked ATMs Steal $500G From Bank Customers
A sophisticated band of thieves managed to steal personal information and more than half a million dollars from hundreds of New York City bank customers by rigging ATMs in what police say is further evidence of the continued assault on personal data by identity thieves.
Police said the identity thieves installed devices on ATM machines at Sovereign Bank branches in Staten Island that enabled them to collect account and PIN numbers, the New York Daily News reported Monday.
First they placed skimmers on the slots where customers inserted their bank card that could read and store the information. Then a tiny camera was hidden in the lighted sign on the ATM that filmed customers typing in PIN codes, the Daily News reported.
"This crew is sophisticated," Deputy Inspector Gregory Antonsen, head of the NYPD's special investigations division, told the Daily News. "And they are coming up with new ways to steal your identity every day."
The ATM-riggers managed to steal more than $500,000 from more than 250 victims.
They also created fake ATM cards with the same magnetic codes as the victims and used the cards at different banks, police said.
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You never know when you will become a Sitting Target
A Taiwanese man became a sitting target for a snake, which bit his penis as he sat on the toilet at his rural home, local media reported on Monday.
"As soon as he sat down, he suddenly felt a knife-like pain and reacted instinctively by standing up," the China Times said. "When he looked down, he saw the big snake."
The 51-year-old man, from Nantou County, was under medical care with minor injuries, a director at Puli Christian Hospital said.
"As soon as he has passed the risk of infection, he can go," the director, who declined to be named, said. "A snake's mouth isn't always clean."
Local television images showed the black and yellow reptile, reportedly a species of rat snake, being uncoiled and plucked slowly from the toilet bowl.
Snakes regularly enter rural homes in Taiwan and other sub-tropical regions of Asia.
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Brothers Born on Same Day Have Different Dads
Like most twins, 11-month-old Justin and Jordan have a lot in common. But it’s what they do not have in common that has a lot of people, including their parents, calling them a miracle of science.
"I have twins, but they’re by different fathers," said Mia Washington.
The twins' parents wanting to go public with their story. Washington admits she had an affair that resulted in two babies, born at the same time, fathered by two different men.
"Out of all people in America and of all people in the world, it had to happen to me. I’m very shocked," Washington said.
The parents went to Dallas DNA Lab Clear Diagnostics after noticing the twins have different facial features.
According to the paternity test, there’s a 99.999 percent chance Justin and Jordan do not have the same father, and zero percent chance they do. The lab has never seen this type of result, nor do they expect to see it again.
"It is very crazy. Most people don’t believe it can happen, but it can," said Clear Diagnostics President Genny Thibodeaux.
When twins have two fathers, doctors call it heteropaternal superfecundation. It’s so rare; there are only a handful of documented cases in the world.
"This is likely to be the only time that we will ever see this occur in the city of Dallas; it’s that rare," said Dr. Chris Dreiling, who has not met the family.
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A woman is accused in California of making more than $8.5 million from an online prostitution business that claimed to employ porn stars and fashion models.
Michelle Braun appeared Monday in federal court in Orange County and was allowed to remain free pending her next pretrial hearing next month.
In Boca Raton, Florida, the woman is accused of charging clients $50,000 or more to spend the night with adult film stars, models, and actresses, The Orange County Register reported. Prosecutors say she used her travel business to launder the money.
Braun pleaded not guilty in March to money laundering and transporting someone for prostitution purposes. Prosecutors say she's expected to change her plea to guilty before her next hearing.
Braun and her lawyer declined to comment.
.
Hacked ATMs Steal $500G From Bank Customers
A sophisticated band of thieves managed to steal personal information and more than half a million dollars from hundreds of New York City bank customers by rigging ATMs in what police say is further evidence of the continued assault on personal data by identity thieves.
Police said the identity thieves installed devices on ATM machines at Sovereign Bank branches in Staten Island that enabled them to collect account and PIN numbers, the New York Daily News reported Monday.
First they placed skimmers on the slots where customers inserted their bank card that could read and store the information. Then a tiny camera was hidden in the lighted sign on the ATM that filmed customers typing in PIN codes, the Daily News reported.
"This crew is sophisticated," Deputy Inspector Gregory Antonsen, head of the NYPD's special investigations division, told the Daily News. "And they are coming up with new ways to steal your identity every day."
The ATM-riggers managed to steal more than $500,000 from more than 250 victims.
They also created fake ATM cards with the same magnetic codes as the victims and used the cards at different banks, police said.
.
You never know when you will become a Sitting Target
A Taiwanese man became a sitting target for a snake, which bit his penis as he sat on the toilet at his rural home, local media reported on Monday.
"As soon as he sat down, he suddenly felt a knife-like pain and reacted instinctively by standing up," the China Times said. "When he looked down, he saw the big snake."
The 51-year-old man, from Nantou County, was under medical care with minor injuries, a director at Puli Christian Hospital said.
"As soon as he has passed the risk of infection, he can go," the director, who declined to be named, said. "A snake's mouth isn't always clean."
Local television images showed the black and yellow reptile, reportedly a species of rat snake, being uncoiled and plucked slowly from the toilet bowl.
Snakes regularly enter rural homes in Taiwan and other sub-tropical regions of Asia.
.
Brothers Born on Same Day Have Different Dads
Like most twins, 11-month-old Justin and Jordan have a lot in common. But it’s what they do not have in common that has a lot of people, including their parents, calling them a miracle of science.
"I have twins, but they’re by different fathers," said Mia Washington.
The twins' parents wanting to go public with their story. Washington admits she had an affair that resulted in two babies, born at the same time, fathered by two different men.
"Out of all people in America and of all people in the world, it had to happen to me. I’m very shocked," Washington said.
The parents went to Dallas DNA Lab Clear Diagnostics after noticing the twins have different facial features.
According to the paternity test, there’s a 99.999 percent chance Justin and Jordan do not have the same father, and zero percent chance they do. The lab has never seen this type of result, nor do they expect to see it again.
"It is very crazy. Most people don’t believe it can happen, but it can," said Clear Diagnostics President Genny Thibodeaux.
When twins have two fathers, doctors call it heteropaternal superfecundation. It’s so rare; there are only a handful of documented cases in the world.
"This is likely to be the only time that we will ever see this occur in the city of Dallas; it’s that rare," said Dr. Chris Dreiling, who has not met the family.
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Monday, May 11, 2009
Ingenious Orangutan makes great escape
An "ingenious" 62kg orangutan short circuited electrical wires and climbed a fence using a makeshift ladder in an aborted escape attempt from Adelaide Zoo.The elaborate plot by 27-year-old Karta got her to within meters of the public, and resulted in the closure of the zoo on one of its busiest days of the year.
The alarm was raised by a member of the public about 11am.
Zoo curator Peter Whitehead said Karta had twisted a stick into hot wires that encircled her enclosure, short circuiting the wires and allowing her to enter a vegetated area near the concrete and glass fence that separated her from the public.
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30-year-old delivers twin brother
A plumber in agony as his stomach ruptured — and the embryonic remains of his twin spilled out.The lumpy mass forced its way out after lying inside Gavin Hyatt’s abdomen since he was born 30 years ago.
In a scene echoing the horror movie Alien, Gavin staggered into his GP’s surgery bleeding from his belly button.
His stunned GP Dr Joe Santos said: "It was like something from Alien. I didn’t believe Gavin when he said something was coming out of his belly button until I saw him."
Medics said the growth was a parasitic twin — Gavin’s identical brother who died in the womb early in their mom’s pregnancy.
The 4cm foetus then became embedded in Gavin’s tissue and stayed in his stomach for the next 30 years.
There are just a handful of cases worldwide — with the majority reported in Asia.
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