Archive for June, 2011

After generations of inbreeding, Britain’s Royal Family appears to finally be getting serious about adding photogenic depth to the family gene pool.

Prince Harry's new GF looks familiar to those who pay attention to ads.

Curiously, Prince Harry is taking a stab at it by dating his lingerie modelling cousin.

Fortunately for any pending mingling of chromosomes, she’s a distant cousin — eight times removed, according to The Telegraph.

Florence Brudenell-Bruce, a blonde like the prince’s mother, will give future queen Kate Middleton a run for her money in the looks department. The British media is already following her every move — one headline alerted the world the young lady wore THREE outfits in one day. And her face appears on a curling iron box.

According to people who keep up with such things, Brudenell-Bruce is a descendant of the seventh Earl of Cardigan, Lieutenant General James Thomas Brudenell, who famously led the Charge of the Light Brigade against the Russians during …

Continue reading Prince Harry dating lingerie model cousin »

Loose lips sink more than ships.

MSNBC hosts duck for cover, but Halperin (right) has already dropped the bomb.

MSNBC indefinitely suspended senior political analyst Mark Halperin just hours after he called President Barack Obama a [bleep] Thursday morning.

Halperin, an editor for Time and a regular on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, apologized on-air immediately after making the remark.

The gaffe occurred after Halperin asked the show’s host, Joe Scarborough, if the show was using a seven-second delay.

Scarborough said yes, and Halperin made his fatal error.

Scarborough appeared shocked by the comment.

It seems the show’s producer was not familiar with delay button functionality.

MSNBC issued the following comment:

Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable.　 We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, …

Continue reading MSNBC analyst Halperin suspended for Obama comment »

If you’re a real American, you’re hoping lightning will strike for the U.S. team competing in the 2011 Women’s World Cup.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made a lot of pro golfers sick when he scored 11 hole in ones the first time he ever played golf.

Unfortunately for the dozen or so North Korean “football” fans, their team’s first round loss to the U.S. was due to literal lightning striking their team during training.

North Korean coach Min Kim said members of his squad were “hospitalised with electrocution” but still managed a good game, according to an article by the BBC.

Oddly, there was no mention of the lightning strike, which allegedly occurred June 8, until after Tuesday’s 2-0 loss.

How did the U.S. score two goals?

The North Korean goalkeeper was likely feeling a little frazzled after her gigajoule jolt.

“The goalkeeper and the four defenders were most affected [by the lightning],” said coach Kim, without naming names. “The physicians said the players were not …

Continue reading Lightning strike blamed for N. Korea’s soccer loss to U.S. »

It’s difficult to explain the behavior of even sober drivers. During a recent rainstorm, I saw professional truckers illegally using their hazard lights while motoring up I-75.

And on Ponce, after a different storm, motorists were treating a flashing yellow light like a four-way stop.

Driver education clearly ain’t what it used to be.

But drunk drivers really ramp up the tragic and bizarre.

In Texas, a drunk driver accused of killing a pedestrian was reportedly unaware he was driving around with the dead man in his passenger seat.

KTRK-TV in Houston, an ABC affiliate, reports James John Onak, 49, did not appear to notice a legless body was riding shotgun until police pulled him over and asked him to exit the vehicle.

Onak’s Mazda had “considerable front end damage,” presumably from hitting a 32-year-old man on I-45 whose car had broken down.

The body smashed through Onak’s windshield, police say, but he kept driving until police stopped him two miles down the road. He later …

Continue reading Police: DUI motorist kills pedestrian, drives around with body »

What does UGA have in common with Harvard and Princeton?

Brooks Brothers clearly enjoys a challenge.

That’s not the the beginning of a joke, though I’m sure Tech fans will calculate a clever punchline.

According to Bloomberg business wire, Brooks Brothers, the alleged “oldest” and probably “stuffiest” men’s clothier chain in the U.S., has deemed UGA worthy of its first attempt at licensed college merchandise.

Fifteen schools made the cut, and a few of them don’t even have decent football teams. Brooks Brothers included a string of Southern schools because, according to the Bloomberg article, men here like to “wear ties” to football games.

We also like to stick bottles of Jack Daniels in our boots, so hopefully the distillery and Tony Lama will call soon.

The Bloomberg article says college sports fans spend more money than followers of any pro sport. It’s a good thing we’ve got the NCAA around to keep the sins of cash away from student-athletes.

Gawker, in a …

Continue reading Brooks Brothers places UGA among preppy elite »

Farewell Firefox 4, I hardly knew ye.

Pick your poison.

Many users of the popular Mozilla browser have to wonder if something is amiss when prompted to download Firefox 5, which became available June 21.

Firefox 4 was released only 3 months ago. Version 3 and its various updates lasted three years.

Why the short shelf life for the entirely revamped Firefox 4? Was something terribly wrong with it? Did it have a security hole the size of Bobby Cox’s trophy case?

Nope.

But, since Mozilla is no longer issuing vulnerability patches for version 4 — and hackers seem busier than ever lately — you’d be wise to upgrade to version 5 immediately.

Version 5 feels like version 4.1 to the end user, though there are some under the hood achievements.

Why was Firefox 4’s lifespan so short? Marketing, it seems.

Mozilla, the world’s No. 2 browser behind the Microsoft juggernaut Internet Explorer, is trying to fend of Google’s Chrome browser, which has surged in popularity recently.

Currently, …

Continue reading Firefox 4 quickly replaced by version 5 »

Sometimes, the news I find is just sad.

A 15-year-old girl died Tuesday in a dramatic, ill-advised, effort to save her cancer-stricken dog from euthanasia.

Taylor Mae Stinchcomb, 15, died trying to prevent her dog from being euthanized.

According to an article in the Chicago Sun Times, Taylor Mae Stinchcomb, 15, stole her family’s 2003 Dodge minivan and fled her Chicago-area home with her ill dog, Romulus, and a female friend, also 15.

When Taylor became too upset to drive, her unnamed friend took the wheel. Moments later, the friend lost control of the vehicle and crashed into several trees and a telephone pole.

The dog was thrown from the vehicle and died immediately. Taylor died of her injuries at a local hospital. The driver escaped almost without a scratch.

Drugs or alcohol were not a factor in the crash, police said.

Police are not sure where the girls were headed or what they planned to do.

Taylor picked the dog out while visiting an animal shelter on her 13th …

Continue reading Girl trying to save sick pet dies in stolen car crash »

What do zombies and cocaine have it common? Both can eat your flesh.

Have you heard about the flesh-eating cocaine? Though snorted, it can eat flesh anywhere on the body.

ABC News reports the snortable drug is responsible for an outbreak of a flesh-eating disease in New York and Los Angeles.

According to an April 2011 report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, 82 percent of street cocaine is laced with the veterinary drug levamisole, which is used to deworm cattle, pigs and sheep.

Levamisole can also rot the skin off noses, ears and cheeks, doctors says. Multiple cases of rotted flesh have already been reported.

Dealers usually use baking soda as a filler, but may have turned to the veterinary drug because it may extend the cocaine high, experts say.

Some drug users appear immune to the tainted blow, but others are severely affected. One doctor reported seeing a man whose entire body was black with dying flesh.

There’s more bad news: Levamisole also prevents the body’s …

Continue reading Flesh-eating cocaine reported in New York, L.A. »

Social media is a weapon in the hands of the disgruntled.

The yellow menace?

Take the case of Sy Haze, who, in a YouTube video, claims a Delta employee vindictively urinated on his luggage.

Is it true? Did a Mr. Haze actually fly on Delta? It seems so.

Delta answered Wednesday via an email that got caught in my spam filter. I found it Thursday; here’s what it says:

“We are talking with the customer to apologize for the misdirected bag and secure information on the condition in which his bag was returned to identify a cause and offer resolution.”

Haze alleges, in text accompanying the video, that he was flying from London to Minneapolis when an airline employee almost immediately divested him of his luggage, which traveled from London to Boston, back to London, back to Boston and then — four days later — to Minnesota.

Somewhere along the way, someone urinated on it, says Haze, though I didn’t spot any yellow-tinged garments among his camouflage fashion collection.

Haze …

Continue reading Man alleges Delta employee urinated on luggage »

Love often doesn’t last, but rarely does it go foul as quickly as it did with a Florida bride accused of abusing her husband.

How many honeymoons involve handcuffs AND police?

Bernadette Catan-Keeler, 30, was charged with domestic violence battery after her new hubby told police she bit him at a hotel and then later at their home in Lighthouse Point, Fla., the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Where did love go wrong? According to the article, the newlyweds were at their reception at a Ft. Lauderdale club Saturday night when the groom, Mike Keeler, spotted his  wife dancing with another man.

Keeler told police he went to their honeymoon suite at the W hotel, followed shortly by his wife, who was allegedly drunk. Catan-Keeler allegedly got into a scrum with her husband, biting him.

Mike Keeler retreated to their home, but she again followed him and ripped off his shirt, threw water and bit him, which may be some sort of mating ritual I’ve not heard about.

She was carted off to jail …

Continue reading Bride arrested for abusing husband »