[stone monkey]

The one thing the internet teaches us is that the world will never run out of strange people

http://www.huffingto..._n_1589153.html

[worry]

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...igh-school.html

Longish article, but you can get the gist easy enough:

2nd hypnotist rescues students stuck in trance

Private school show unfurls after hypnotized students don't snap out of it

A show at a private girls' high school in Sherbooke, Que., went strangely awry when a young hypnotist left several students in "mass hypnosis" limbo and he had to call in his mentor to snap them out of it.

One student at Collège du Sacré-Coeur was reportedly left hypnotized for five hours until Maxime Nadeau, the young hypnotist, called his mentor to the school for an emergency intervention.

It all happened at an end-of-school year event last week, when Nadeau was hired to stage a hypnotism show for a small group of 12- and 13-year-old girls.

He worked on a small group while others watched the show. When it came time to end the event, several girls in the audience remained mesmerized and couldn't snap out of it, no matter what Nadeau did.

Nadeau didn't panic, because "it wasn't dangerous," he recalled in an interview with CBC's French-language service.

"Being in a trance is a state of well-being," Nadeau explained. "I wasn't stressed. I knew they would get out of it."

He called his mentor and trainer, Richard Whitbread, who made the hour-long trek to the school from his home in the town of Danville.

Whitbread found several girls were still under the effects of "mass hypnosis."

"There were a couple of students who had their heads lying on the table and there were [others] who, you could tell, were in trance," he said. "The eyes were open and there was nobody home."

Whitbread said he went through the process of making the girls think they were being re-hypnotized and then brought them out using a stern voice.

Whitbread said because his protégé is a young, attractive man, the girls could have been particularly influenced because they were keen to follow his directions.

Nadeau kept his cool dealing with worried teachers and parents, Whitbread said, but his overall inexperience may have played a role in the event's outcome.

Nadeau received about 14 hours of instruction prior to the show —. the basic amount of intensive training most people receive for basic hypnotism techniques.

[Tsundoku]

The Truth is In Her ...

----------------------------------------------

http://www.news.com....i-1226447730623

The truth is out there: Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny reportedly hook up

news.com.au
August 10, 2012 4:25PM

HOT news from the XXX-Files: Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny are rumoured to have finally hooked up.

Nerds everywhere - permission to drool granted.

The X-Files co-stars of nine, beautiful seasons (and two, not-so-beautiful films) are reportedly dating, according to the Huffington Post.

An unnamed source has linked the pair, but Anderson was recently coy when asked if she had a partner.

In an interview with the Sunday Times magazine, she said: "Um... yes... umm... umm... say yes."

Celebrity Dirty Laundry went one further - suggesting the pair have moved in together.

Mulder and Scully? Together? It's just so... paranormal.

---------------------------------------

If it's true ... lucky bastard.

[Baco Xtath]

This is fucking horrible and I advise you against clicking the link but http://news.yahoo.co...859.html?_esi=1
There, there it is. Sweet dreams, good night, don't worry, this shit is rare..............or is it?

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Seems legit.

http://www.abc.net.a...robbery/2575996

'Magic' goat arrested for armed robbery
Updated January 24, 2009 12:52:00

Police in Nigeria are holding a goat on suspicion of attempted armed robbery.

Vigilantes took the black and white beast to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

"The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car," Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed told Reuters by telephone.

"They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat.

"We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat."

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in parts of Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation.

Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

-Reuters

[Shiara]

Woman born without a thumb and finger grows them back as part of a phantom limb after hand amputated

http://www.heraldsun...w-1226448484876

Quote

University of California neuroscientists in San Diego said the experience of the woman - known as RN - showed the brain has its own internal template of how the body should look, regardless of what they actually look like .

The woman was born with only three fingers on her right hand and had the hand amputated after a car accident when she was aged 18. She later began to feel that her missing limb was still present and developed a "phantom" hand.

"But here's the interesting thing," Paul McGeoch at the University of California, San Diego, told New Scientist. "Her phantom hand didn't have three digits, it had five."

However RN's phantom thumb and index finger were less than half the usual length and were painful.

Dr McGeoch and Professor V.S Ramachandran used a mirror box which reflected the woman's left hand to make it look like she had a pair of limbs.

After two weeks of training RN was able to extend the short fingers on her phantom limb, which relieved her pain.

McGeoch said the study indicates that there is a hardwired representation in the brain of what the body should look like, regardless of how it actually appears in real life. It showed more about the balance between the external and innate representations of a limb, he said.

"The presence of the deformed hand was suppressing the brain's innate representation of her fingers which is why they appeared shorter, but after the hand was removed and the inhibition taken away, the innate representation kicks in again."

Matthew Longo at Birkbeck, University of London, told Mail on Sunday that the case study. "Contributes to a growing literature suggesting that our conscious experience of our body is, at least in part, dependent on the intrinsic organisation of the brain, rather than a result of experience."

[King Lear]

Rush Limbaugh and the incredible shrinking penis:

http://www.salon.com...hrinks_penises/

Quote

Rush: Feminism Shrinks Penises
A study finds male genitalia has gotten smaller and the radio host knows who to blame

Rush Limbaugh characteristically stressed the power and importance of feminism on his Thursday show. The firebrand host attributed to feminists (“feminazis” as he puts it) the power to determine the size of male genitalia.An Italian study found that penises are on average around 10 percent smaller today than 50 years ago. The study cited weight gain, pollution, stress and smoking as possible factors in the shrinkage, but Rush suggests otherwise.

Scoffing at the idea that air pollution might influence our physical constitution, he stated, “I think it’s feminism… it’s tied to the last 50 years — the average size of [a male's] member is 10 percent smaller than 50 years — it has to be the feminazis, the chickification and everything else.”

[Satan]

No more bacon for you, my friend!

Quote

Europe's pork and bacon supply is contracting fast

A world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable, says Britain's National Pig Association. But British supermarkets can protect consumers from shortages and steep price rises if they pay Britain's loss-making pig farmers a fair price, to help them remain in production.

New data shows the European Union pig herd is declining at a significant rate, and this is a trend that is being mirrored around the world. Pig farmers have been plunged into loss by high pig-feed costs, caused by the global failure of maize and soya harvests.

All main European pig-producing countries report shrinking sow herds. Falling numbers in the 12 months to June 2012 have been reported by Denmark (-2.3), Germany (-1.3), Ireland (-6.6), Spain (-2.8), France (-3.2), Italy (-13), Hungary (-5), the Netherlands (-3.6), Austria (-2.8), Poland (-9.6) and Sweden (-7.2).
"British supermarkets know they have to raise the price they pay Britain's pig farmers or risk empty spaces on their shelves next year," said NPA chairman Richard Longthorp. "But competition is so fierce in the high street at present, each is waiting for the other to move first."

In its Save Our Bacon campaign, NPA is asking shoppers to make a point of selecting pork and bacon with the British independent Red Tractor logo, as an increase in demand for British product now may help persuade supermarkets to act before it is too late.

Sainsbury's has increased the price it pays to a few of its pig farmer suppliers and NPA has welcomed this gesture. But it says the major supermarkets need to do much more, if they want to protect their customers from shortages and high prices next year.

British Pig Executive Mick Sloyan warned a private meeting of British and mainland Europe retailers at a Brussels summit yesterday that a fall of only 2 percent in slaughterings next year will cause prices to rise by 10 percent.

NPA believes slaughterings could fall by as much as 10 percent in the second half of next year, which indicates a doubling of the price of European pork and pork products. "If supermarkets act now, they can prevent this happening,"

Sauce: http://www.npa-uk.or...s_Releases.html

This post has been edited by Satan: 25 September 2012 - 12:03 PM

[Ain't_It_Just_]

Because ducks.

http://www.huffingto..._n_1968032.html

New Zealand Teen Proclaims 'Ducks Could Take Over The World' If Gay Marriage Is Approved

A homeschooled, New Zealand-based teen offered up a bizarre anti-gay rant in a local newspaper, claiming that "ducks could take over the world" if same-sex marriage is approved.

In a letter to the editor of New Zealand's Northern Outlook, the 14-year-old, who is identified by Gawker and a number of other media outlets simply as Jasmin, writes:

"If homosexuality spreads, it can cause human evolution to come to a standstill. It could threaten the human position on the evolutionary ladder, and say, ducks, could take over the world. Ducks always nest in pairs and we if allow same-sex marriage, then the ducks will have evolved further than we have. We will be in danger of all being equal, with ducks more equal than us."
Noting that she doesn't want her children "to have to compete with ducks," Jasmin adds: "If you believe in evolution, you can't be in favor of homosexuality, or the ducks will get you in the end."

Needless to say, the creative, if unintentionally hilarious, letter has prompted some fiery responses. Wrote PZ Myers of Science blogs: "Because you think ducks are all heterosexual, and your children will all be heterosexual (brace yourself, you might get a few surprises in 10 or 20 years there), and a policy of tolerance will turn every other human being homosexual, you're afraid your kids will be competing for mates with ducks?"

Added one Gawker reader: "Couldn't this newspaper have found something a little more enlightening, or at least coherent, to publish? Or did it put this out there so the whole community could have a good laugh at a 14-year-old whose parents have opted to basically lock her intellect in a cage for the majority of her young life?"

Same-sex marriage has been a hot topic in New Zealand as of late. In August, local politicians overwhelmingly cast a first vote in favor of a marriage equality bill that, according to the Associated Press, was given impetus by U.S. President Barack Obama's public support of the cause.

[King Lear]

That 14-year-old obviously hasn't come across mallard ducks before....

Also, go, go marriage equality bill! Me and my friend signed the current petition yesterday. We saw some people with clipboards and a big rainbow flag and went up to them and asked what they were collecting signatures for. The guy said 'Marriage equality bill' and we said 'Say no more!'. A quite a few people came up to the table and asked to sign. It's rather nice to see that, since most of the time people trying to get petitions signed have a much harder job of chasing people around trying to get them sign stuff when they're doing other things.

Kinda feel sorry for that kid, with parents like that.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

King Lear, on 20 October 2012 - 11:14 PM, said:

That 14-year-old obviously hasn't come across mallard ducks before....

Also, go, go marriage equality bill! Me and my friend signed the current petition yesterday. We saw some people with clipboards and a big rainbow flag and went up to them and asked what they were collecting signatures for. The guy said 'Marriage equality bill' and we said 'Say no more!'. A quite a few people came up to the table and asked to sign. It's rather nice to see that, since most of the time people trying to get petitions signed have a much harder job of chasing people around trying to get them sign stuff when they're doing other things.

Kinda feel sorry for that kid, with parents like that.

Fierce bastards, are they? Actually once I was riding my bike down a little wetlands road and three ducks burst out of the bushes and came after me snarling. I DON'T HAVE BREAD LEAVE ME BE

Where do you live again KL? I wanna sign such a petition!

[Primateus]

I suppose that someone has to throw the cliché out there...

"sigh"

Ahem....

I, for one, welcome our new billed overlords!

[Adjutant Stormy~]

I, for one, welcome our new homosexual anatidae overlords!

[King Lear]

Ain, on 21 October 2012 - 07:48 AM, said:

King Lear, on 20 October 2012 - 11:14 PM, said:

That 14-year-old obviously hasn't come across mallard ducks before....

Also, go, go marriage equality bill! Me and my friend signed the current petition yesterday. We saw some people with clipboards and a big rainbow flag and went up to them and asked what they were collecting signatures for. The guy said 'Marriage equality bill' and we said 'Say no more!'. A quite a few people came up to the table and asked to sign. It's rather nice to see that, since most of the time people trying to get petitions signed have a much harder job of chasing people around trying to get them sign stuff when they're doing other things.

Kinda feel sorry for that kid, with parents like that.

Fierce bastards, are they? Actually once I was riding my bike down a little wetlands road and three ducks burst out of the bushes and came after me snarling. I DON'T HAVE BREAD LEAVE ME BE

Where do you live again KL? I wanna sign such a petition!

They're a bit, err, gangrapey It's traumatising when it's lunchtime at school and you think ducks are helping an injured comrade but actually they are dragging it off the bushes. Ducks are NOT NICE. It's not heterosexual pairing in my book, that's all I'm saying.

And I'm in NZ, so feel free to hop over the pond

[Primateus]

[Gnaw]

I don't know that I'd consider it weird, but this is fairly cool.

http://online.wsj.co...1575356160.html

You don't see many people that age do the "sell everything and travel the world" thing. Of course they're not doing it backpack and youth hostel, but still interesting to me at least.


Edit: reminds me a bit of Heinlein's "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants".

This post has been edited by Gnaw: 22 October 2012 - 06:17 PM

[Tsundoku]

It's all about soul.

-------------------------------

http://www.news.com....6-1226507452687

Scientists offer quantum theory of soul's existence

news.com.au
October 31, 2012 12:20PM

Maybe Patrick Swayze was onto something when he walked off to heaven at the end of 'Ghost'.

A PAIR of world-renowned quantum scientists say they can prove the existence of the soul.

American Dr Stuart Hameroff and British physicist Sir Roger Penrose developed a quantum theory of consciousness asserting that our souls are contained inside structures called microtubules which live within our brain cells.

Their idea stems from the notion of the brain as a biological computer, "with 100 billion neurons and their axonal firings and synaptic connections acting as information networks".

Dr Hameroff, Professor Emeritus at the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology and Director of the Centre of Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, and Sir Roger have been working on the theory since 1996.

They argue that our experience of consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects inside these microtubules - a process they call orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR).

In a near-death experience the microtubules lose their quantum state, but the information within them is not destroyed. Or in layman's terms, the soul does not die but returns to the universe.

Dr Hameroff explained the theory at length in the Morgan Freeman-narrated documentary Through the Wormhole, which was recently aired in the US by the Science Channel.

The quantum soul theory is now trending worldwide, thanks to stories published this week by The Huffington Post and the Daily Mail, which have generated thousands of readers comments and social media shares.

"Let's say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum state," Dr Hameroff said.

"The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can't be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large.

'If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the microtubules and the patient says "I had a near death experience".'

In the event of the patient's death, it was "possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body indefinitely - as a soul".

Dr Hameroff believes new findings about the role quantum physics plays in biological processes, such as the navigation of birds, adds weight to the theory.

[Ain't_It_Just_]

King Lear, on 21 October 2012 - 10:59 AM, said:

And I'm in NZ, so feel free to hop over the pond

Sure, be right there

And this man is either an affront of nature or humanity's biggest playa.

Ramjeet Raghav world's oldest dad at 96 says he has sex three times a night



The oldest dad in the world Ramjeet Raghav, 96, with his wife Shankuntala, 54, and sons Bikramjeet, 4, and the latest member of their family, baby Ranjeet.

AN INDIAN farmer has become the world's oldest dad aged 96 - beating the record he set himself two years ago.

Ramjeet Raghav was at his wife Shakuntala’s side as second son Ranjeet was born weighing 4lb 7oz, Indian and British media have reported.

The former wrestler had gained the world record in 2010 when Shakuntala , 52, gave birth to Vikramjeet.

Speaking at his home in the state of Haryana, near Delhi, Mr Raghav said: "What can I do? This is all God's wish. He wanted me to have another son."

Mr raghav admits that as proud as he is of having two healthy sons at his age, his neighbours are more jealous of his sex drive, The Daily Mail reports.

"I do it three or four times a night. My neighbours are jealous and they keep asking me for my secret but all I tell them is that it is God's will," he said.

"I'm healthy and I enjoy sex with my wife. I think it's very important for a husband and wife to have sex regularly.

"When she asks I will go on all night but for the sake of my child I've put our needs aside for now."

Mr Raghav told The Tiems of India that he had remained a bachelor and practised celibacy throughout his life until he met Shakuntala about 10 years ago.

"After staying together, we decided to extend our family and aspired for two sons. With God's grace, our wish has been fulfilled."

[Loki]

McAfee Antivirus Founder Wanted for Murder.

http://www.escapistm...nted-for-Murder

John McAfee is on the run from Belize police following the shooting of a fellow American last weekend.
John McAfee, one of the early pioneers of the antivirus software industry, is wanted for murder by the Belize national police force. He is currently a prime suspect in the shooting of American expatriate Gregory Faull, who was killed in his home sometime in San Pedro Town on Saturday night. Reports say that the two men had been on unfriendly terms for some time, with Faull even going so far as to file a formal complaint against McAfee for firing guns and displaying "roguish behavior".
McAfee Associates, now known as McAfee, Inc., helped popularize the concept of web security as early as 1987, when the world was still coming to grips with the internet. After selling the organization for $100 million, John McAfee moved to Belize to start a herbal drug operation, which is when things got a little odd.
Reports indicate that as McAfee's herbal company stalled, he became increasingly erratic. He found himself estranged from other American expatriates in the country, and stated that he'd hired criminals and drug traffickers for his security staff. More recently, McAfee reportedly began posting on the Russian-hosted website Bluelight about his efforts to purify bath salts, a drug known for its hallucinogenic effects. In April, police arrested McAfee and led a raid on his compound that uncovered a chemistry lab and an entire armory of weapons. After discovering that everything was licensed and legally obtained, McAfee was reluctantly released.
Faull was found by his housekeeper on Sunday morning with a gunshot wound to the head and his laptop and iPhone missing. Police are following several leads, but given McAfee's behavior and relationship with Faull, he is currently considered a prime suspect in the investigation. McAfee and Faull's most recent argument appears to have revolved around dogs, most likely guard dogs kept on McAfee's property.
A representative from McAfee, Inc. has stated that it will not comment on former employees, save to say that the company is no longer associated with its founder.
Sources: Gizmodo


UPDATE: According to Wired, McAfee is hiding from the authorities while proclaiming his innocence. The article explains that when McAfee saw the police approaching his property, he quickly buried himself in sand, placing a cardboard box over his head so he could breath. "It was extraordinarily uncomfortable," he said, "But they will kill me if they find me."
McAfee claims that he knows nothing about the shooting, and that his position as prime suspect is due to a government vendetta against him. McAfee also claims that the authorities poisoned his guard dogs. "The coast guard dropped off a contingent of black-suited thugs at 10:30 tonight at the dock next door," McAfee said, "They dispersed on the beach. A half hour later all of my dogs had been poisoned. Mellow, Lucky, Dipsy, and Guerrero have already died."
Belize's Gang Suppression Unit denies any attempt to poison McAfee's guard dogs. "This guy amazes me every day," unit head Marco Vidal said. "We don't have anything personal against Mr. McAfee. There is no need for us to poison dogs."
Source: Wired

[worry]

I'm shocked that this guy turned out to be paranoid.