Lonely man calls directory enquiries 10,000 times

A Japanese man has been arrested over allegations that he called directory assistance over 10,000 times – because he was lonely.

It is reported that 37year-old Takahiro Fujinuma made the calls because he enjoyed being told off by the operators. He would apparently whisper 'darling' at the operators as he began the call, before begging female operators not to hang up on him.

He told police that he became thrilled when operators got annoyed with him. 'I would go into ecstasy when a lady scolded me,' the Jiji Press quotes him as saying.

Fujinuma is reportedly unemployed, and single.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

Unemployed. Single. No shit.

Definitely NOT World's Greatest Boss

Coroner's deputy: As body hanged, I ran errands

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A deputy coroner testified Wednesday that she was delayed in getting to a public suicide victim because she had to make personal deliveries for her high-profile boss, who is being tried on suspicion of using county staff to benefit his lucrative private practice.

Darlene Craig said a supervisor told her to deliver documents or other items for then-Coroner Cyril Wecht as she left for the suicide call, which was a half-hour drive from the coroner's downtown office.

"So I made those three deliveries before I actually went to the hanging," Craig testified. "And the body was hanging outside."

"Literally hanging?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Stallings asked.

"Yes," Craig said.

Wecht, 76, built a multimillion-dollar practice that has spawned books and television appearances by inquiring into the deaths of Elvis Presley, JonBenet Ramsey and Vincent Foster, among others.

He is charged in a 41-count indictment with using his Allegheny County staff as bookkeepers, secretaries, couriers and gofers for his private practice and his family. Wecht, who earned no more than $64,000 a year as county coroner, resigned when he was indicted in January 2006.

Another deputy, Richard Lorah, said Wecht intervened when a supervisor was debating whether to send Lorah on a Wecht errand or to the scene of a woman killed when her car was driven off a parking garage.

"They're not going anywhere; just let them lay there," Wecht said of the victim, according to Lorah.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE

Schmuck. I think this guy's been on Oprah. Hey, does this guy look a little like Ray Milland?

Monsters Posing as Mothers

Microwaved baby trial begins in Ohio

DAYTON, Ohio - Jury selection began Monday in the trial of a woman accused of killing her 1-month-old daughter by burning the child in a microwave oven.

If convicted of aggravated murder, China Arnold, 27, could face the death penalty.

Police investigators believe Arnold killed 1-month-old Paris Talley by putting her in a microwave at her Dayton home in 2005. Coroner's officials said the baby suffered high-heat internal injuries and had no external burns.

MORE...

According to the "mother," she passed out drunk on the couch with the baby on top of her and sometime later, the boyfriend woke her up and she thought "something" was wrong with her baby. She claims to have no idea how her baby died by being burned from the inside-out.

Smiley of the Moment

PLEASE NOTE: Internet Explorer may not automatically display the contents of Google Gadgets and IE users might have to click on the blank space (inside an iframe) and hit "Refresh" before you can enjoy the gadget. Also, you need to hit "Refresh" if you want to see a new picture.

So, what is wrong with this picture?

Two workmen were sent out to install barriers so no one could park next to the building. Study the picture. Think about it... for all of two seconds.

Places to See Before You Die

PLEASE NOTE: Internet Explorer may not automatically display the contents of Google Gadgets and IE users might have to click on the blank space (inside an iframe) and hit "Refresh" before you can enjoy the gadget. This one is definitely worth it. Also, you need to hit "Refresh" if you want to see a new picture.

A Fun Way to Thank Our Soldiers -- YOU can do it -- for free!

Let's Say Thanks!

1. Select the card you like best from among the many cards in this website's image gallery (done by children).

2. Personalize by adding a message, a name, and your hometown.

3. Click "send." You're done!

Let'sSayThanks.com gives you a great opportunity to say thank you and to send a free printed postcard to U.S. military personnel stationed overseas. Our soldiers need our support. One little postcard could cheer up somebody's whole day. It means a lot to know one is appreciated.

What is wrong with this picture?

This is British celeb Amy Winehouse being supported (help upright) by her mother-in-law as they arrive for the criminal trial of Amy's husband (accused of a bar fight and attempting to bribe a witness).

Does this mother-in-law or the husband or anyone else in Amy Winehouse's life not care that Amy looks like the walking dead? Just look at her. She is obviously dying and from the British tabloids, it's apparently from drug and alcohol abuse.

Is Amy surrounded only by enablers? No matter what she's done or said in the past, she is a human being. Her human life is just as sacred as anyone else's.

Why was she allowed to stumble into court like this, dirty and disheveled and barely able to hold herself upright (thus the required assistance from the mother-in-law)? If she was to be assisted anywhere, it should have been into a hospital.

If someone looking this ill and disoriented and weak were on the streets of Los Angeles, a hospital is exactly where she would be taken, even if she had to be taken there by police.

I'm going to pray for Amy. I think she's a very unhappy self-destructive human being, but human being she most definitely is. And so she requires our compassion.

READ THE NEWS STORY

Men Are Like Videos...

2007 Darwin Awards

Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.

And the winners are (Stories Ranked by Vote)...
Coitus Interruptus 8.0 (8929 votes)
The Enema Within 8.0 (4212 votes)
Weight Lift 7.8 (2169 votes)
Support Group 7.8 (3712 votes)
Stop. Look. Listen. 7.7 (1745 votes)
Beer for Bears 7.6 (2210 votes)
Mole Hunt 7.5 (5355 votes)
A Prop-er Job 7.4 (4418 votes)
Oil Tank Trampoline 7.4 (5721 votes)
Superior Momentum 7.1 (2103 votes)
Elephants Press Back 7.1 (1236 votes)
Barn Demolition 7.1 (3324 votes)
Electronic Fireworks 7.0 (3607 votes)
Fatal a-Traction 6.0 (10 votes)
The Laptop Still Works! 5.7 (1160 votes)
Cow-ard 5.6 (8 votes)
Fatal Foaming Action 4.9 (1433 votes)

The Ultimate Anti-Brain Fart

Reversal Of Alzheimer's Symptoms Within Minutes In Human Study

ScienceDaily (Jan. 9, 2008) — An extraordinary new scientific study, which for the first time documents marked improvement in Alzheimer’s disease within minutes of administration of a therapeutic molecule, has just been published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

This new study highlights the importance of certain soluble proteins, called cytokines, in Alzheimer’s disease. The study focuses on one of these cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha(TNF), a critical component of the brain’s immune system. Normally, TNF finely regulates the transmission of neural impulses in the brain. The authors hypothesized that elevated levels of TNF in Alzheimer’s disease interfere with this regulation. To reduce elevated TNF, the authors gave patients an injection of an anti-TNF therapeutic called etanercept. Excess TNF-alpha has been documented in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s.

The new study documents a dramatic and unprecedented therapeutic effect in an Alzheimer’s patient: improvement within minutes following delivery of perispinal etanercept, which is etanercept given by injection in the spine. Etanercept (trade name Enbrel) binds and inactivates excess TNF. Etanercept is FDA approved to treat a number of immune-mediated disorders and is used off label in the study.

The use of anti-TNF therapeutics as a new treatment choice for many diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis and potentially even Alzheimer’s, was recently chosen as one of the top 10 health stories of 2007 by the Harvard Health Letter.

MORE...

See also:

Health & Medicine
Alzheimer's Research
Crohn's Disease
Diseases & Conditions

Mind & Brain
Alzheimer's
Disorders & Syndromes
Depression

Reference
Rheumatoid Arthritis
Infllammation
Arthritis
Adipose tissue

HELP! THIS POST HAS SPRUNG A LEAK!

Just kidding.

Here, Kitty, Kitty... dinner is served!

I'm not sure why, but in my browser (IE), it is necessary to click inside the iframe and hit "refresh" to see the Goggle Gadget.

The Infamous Exploding Whale

That was no urban legend fakery, kiddies. That really happened. A beached whale was making a stinky sticky mess on the sand. It had to be gotten rid of and so the community leaders did just that-- with a bang!

READ THE STORY - SEE THE PICTURES

99 Ways to Open a Beer Bottle Without a Bottle Opener

Somebody has a lot of time to sit around drinking beer and thinking about this stuff. Funny. VISIT THE WEBSITE.

Don't Tell the Anorexics

Too much sugar-free gum linked to bowel problems

LONDON (Reuters) - Consuming too much sorbitol, a sweetener widely used in "sugar-free" chewing gum and sweets, can cause serious bowel problems, German doctors said on Friday.

The warning follows the cases of two patients who suffered chronic diarrhea, abdominal pain and severe weight loss after ingesting large amounts of sorbitol.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, the doctors from Berlin said the patients -- a man and a woman -- had consumed some 15 to 20 sticks of chewing gum a day. When they kicked the habit, both regained normal bowel function.

Sorbitol, also known as E420, is poorly absorbed by the small intestine and is known to have laxative properties. But Dr Juergen Bauditz and colleagues of the University of Berlin said many consumers might fail to link it with their gastrointestinal problems.

"Our cases demonstrate that sorbitol consumption can cause not only chronic diarrhea and functional bowel complaints but also considerable unintended weight loss -- about 20 percent of usual body weight," they wrote.

LINK TO STORY

The Definition of a Brain Fart

Once upon a time there were three roomates. They were old geezers, and only one of them had any source of income - his Social Security check. And that guy had the absolute bad manners to up and die on his poor roomates who had no way to pay the rent or buy the groceries.

Unless they cashed their dead friend's Social Security check.

So they bundled dead Virgilio up and set him in his wheelchair and off they went to the storefront where Virgie usually cashed his Social Security check. Pushing a dead guy along a bumpy sidewalk in a wheelchair is not an easy thing to do. These two guys attracted a lot of attention from onlookers as poor Virgie flopped around like a... well, like a dead guy.

They made it to the storefront and left Virgie in his wheelchair outside on the sidewalk as they went in with the check. As they dickered with the store owner over cashing the check, a crowd began to gather around dead Virgie.

And that attracted the attention of a detective eating lunch at the nearby Empanada Mama.

Oops.

READ THE ARTICLE: "Corpse Wheeled to Check-Cashing Store Leads to 2 Arrests."

Who's the crazy one here? Dr. Phil drops in on Britney

Brit Blindsided By Phil -- Hospital Acts Curiously

The article discusses the TV doctor's strange uninvited unannounced intrusion on Britney Spears' privacy who was, at that time, a patient at Cedars-Sinai Hospital.

Even more curious than the TV ratings stunt of Dr. Phil's was Cedars-Sinai's deliberate violation of Britney Spears' HIPAA (privacy) rights. What legitimate hospital allows an intruder onto the floor of a locked ward, behind closed doors, when their intrusion is not wanted by their intended victim?

Dr. Phil's claims would seem to suggest that Britney Spears' forfeits any privacy rights if he asks permission from one of her family members to do what he did.

Apparently, he's letting Britney's publicity-loving Mom onto his Monday program and getting in to see Britney was part of the deal.

Britney is obviously in need of legitimate help from people who have her best interests at heart. Where are THOSE people?

experimenting

Okay, this was a little blog widget thingamajiggie that I found and I like the idea of it but I'm too dumb to figure out how to add photos to an already created slideshow. Oh well.

Creativity :: Engineering Challenge : Spaghetti Cantilever

Engineering challenges are fun activities that are frequently assigned to students in physics or engineering classes, but they can easily be used outside of these venues. An engineering challenge usually has a simple goal and some rules about what sorts of materials you are allowed to use. These are great ways to get people thinking creatively and to foster teamwork and competition. Try an engineering challenge at a birthday party, office outing, scout meeting, or any other gathering where you want to have fun and exercise your creativity.

The Spaghetti Cantilever challenge is a fun one. Each team is given a small package of spaghetti, a roll of tape and a table. The objective is to construct a cantilevered structure that extends as far from the table as possible without touching the ground. The structure must be attached to the top of the table and nowhere else. Because spaghetti is very brittle, the engineering becomes very important. Measurements should be taken from the edge of the table to the furthest point of the spaghetti structure.

FIND MORE CREATIVITY EXERCISES HERE

The First Ten

The First Ten Things I Get From Google's Search on:

War
War (2007)
Directed by Philip G. Atwell. With Jet Li, Jason Statham, John Lone. An FBI Agent seeks vengeance on a mysterious assassin known as.
War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
War is any large scale, violent conflict.
War The Band Official Web Site - Intro, video
THE WAR PBS
Check local listings for encore presentations of THE WAR » ... The War - A Ken Burns Film
WAR
Includes information about the film, images and downloads.
War (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
War should be understood as an actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between political communities.
War in Iraq - Special Reports from CNN.com
News, analysis, commentary, interactives, photos, video, audio and web resources. USA.
W.A.R. - WHITE ARYAN RESISTANCE
A white supremacist organization headed by Tom Metzger and based in California.
Apple - Trailers - War
Selection of trailers for the movie.
WAR Task
(The War task is a shortcut for specifying the particular layout of a WAR file. The same thing can be accomplished by using the prefix and fullpath ...)

apple crisp
Apple Crisp Recipe & Photo - Joyofbaking.com
Apple Crisp Recipe - Delicious Apple Crisp Recipe
An easy apple crisp with an oatmeal topping. Apple crisp recipe, along with links to more apple dessert recipes.
Best Apple Crisp Ever - Allrecipes
Apple Crisp from Betty Crocker
If blueberry crisp is your cup of tea, simply use 4 cups fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) blueberries for the apples.
Apple Crisp Recipe Internet Cookbook Dessert Fruit Cinnamon
Cooks.com - Recipes - Apple Crisp
Blend remaining 1/2 ... good recipe for apple crisp if you don't like ... pie, ... MISTY'S APPLE CRISP: Heat oven to 375 F. Grease 10x6 baikng dish.
Apple Crisp Recipe
We prefer a soft apple that will almost become apple sauce. Delicious! Apple Crisp is easier than pie, quick and great with ice cream!
Simply Recipes: Apple Crisp Recipe
Crunchy, crispy apple crisp recipe. Baked sliced tart apples topped with a streusel oat topping, with plenty of brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon.
Apple crisp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Apple crisp in the United States or Apple crumble as it is known in the United Kingdom is a dessert consisting of baked apples topped with a crispy crust.
Apple Crisp Recipe Dessert Pie Cobbler Internet Cookbook
Apple Crisp Recipe on the Internet Cookbook.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE "FIRST TEN" POSTS...