Nosedigg

LHC Restarts This Week

2010-02-24T19:16:00.003+01:00

A mere seven trillion electron volts could still find "God particle," collider scientists speculate.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is slated to be reawakened Thursday, at the earliest, LHC directors say. The reboot comes after a run at the highest energies yet for any particle accelerator—or atom smasher—and a scheduled winter break.

The Large Hadron Collider will be run at only half power, because equipment upgrades are needed before full-power operation is advisable, LHC scientists decided.

But the LHC should still be capable of some stunning discoveries, experts say—perhaps even the detection of extra dimensions or evidence of the Higgs boson, or "God particle."

Particle accelerators use electric fields to channel particles into extremely narrow, fast-moving beams. (Learn more about atom smashers.)

By colliding some of these beams, the physicists at the Large Hadron Collider hope to recreate the intense conditions just after the big bang and to solve other scientific riddles, such as the nature of dark matter, the invisible material that scientists think makes up most of the universe's mass.

Operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Large Hadron Collider is housed in an oval-shaped, 7-mile-long (27-kilometer-long) tunnel beneath the French-Swiss border.

Large Hadron Collider: On Again, Off Again

After more than a year of repairs to fix electrical malfunctions that occurred during its initial run in September 2008, the Large Hadron Collider was restarted in November 2009.

In December scientists obtained the first scientific results from the LHC before a scheduled shutdown to save on electricity costs. (See "LHC Gets First Results; Step Toward 'God Particle'?")

Prior to the December shutdown, the Large Hadron Collider had set a new world record in high-energy physics by accelerating two beams of proton particles to 1.8 tera (trillion) electron volts (TeV) each and smashing them together, for a combined collision energy of 2.36 TeV.

Toward Full LHC Potential

Scientists have even more ambitious plans for the round beginning this week.

The current schedule calls for operating the machine at a level that would result in collisions with the energy of 7 TeV (3.5 TeV per beam) until late 2011 or early 2012.

The Large Hadron Collider will then be shut down once again so superconducting hardware can be upgraded to support collisions of 14 TeV—the Large Hadron Collider's maximum operating energy.

The 2012 rest period should last about a year, though the LHC team is "still looking at the planning of this shutdown, to try to devise ways of reducing its length," said Paul Collier, head of the beams department at CERN.

"God Particle" Proof Possible, Even at Half Power?

Even though the Large Hadron Collider won't be operating at its full potential, there are still plenty of exciting scientific discoveries that could be made, said Dan Green, a particle physicist at Fermilab in Illinois and a member of the Large Hadron Collider's Compact Muon Solenoid experiment.

"The energy increase matters," Green said. "At 7 TeV we open up new physics searches at high masses."

Even at half power, the LHC could yield evidence backing up the theory of supersymmetry, which says all the particles we know have more massive, but as yet undetected, partners, Green said.

The collider, he said, could also uncover "states reflecting large extra dimensions" beyond the three we know: the first (often represented by a line), second (a plane), and third (a cube).

Extra dimensions are predicted by string theory, an unproven concept that suggests that subatomic particles operate like tiny vibrating cords.

Evidence for the Higgs boson, which physicists think is responsible for mass in the universe, might also be found at the Large Hadron Collider's lower energies, Green added.

That's a tall order for an apparently delicate machine, but so far the Large Hadron Collider has performed admirably during current systems checks, CERN's Collier said.

"I am very impressed with it," Collier said. "It has already proved to be very stable and reproducible," meaning that LHC-experiment results can be reproduced—a key tenet of the scientific method.

"The evidence is in the speed with which we managed to get the machine up and running for early physics runs" in late 2009.

www.news.nationalgeographic.com

Photograph courtesy Maximilien Brice, CERN

Laptop kills Canadian woman

2010-02-24T18:59:00.001+01:00

VANCOUVER - In a freak incident, a young Canadian woman was killed by her laptop during an accident in the Indian-dominated city of Surrey near here, investigation reports said Thursday.

According to police, investigation has established that 25-year-old Heather Storey was killed when she was hit by her laptop while driving to work last month.

The unsecured laptop hit the woman’s head from behind when she had to brake hard to stop her vehicle suddenly.

Police said the impact of sudden braking sent the laptop flying and hit her in the head.

The force of the impact was so severe that it shattered the woman’s head, the laptop screen and bent its frame.

Investigators said the woman would have survived had she secured the laptop and warned people not to leave their belongings unsecured in the back of their vehicles.

Brit woman plans to marry laptop!

2010-02-24T18:57:00.000+01:00

LONDON - A woman who plans to marry her laptop has become an internet sensation.

Hermione Way has posted a video on YouTube expressing her desire to walk down the aisle with her 17 inch MacBook Pro.

The clip shows the British technology entrepreneur take her laptop, which she calls ‘Alex,’ on a protest outside the House of Commons.

Then, the machine using typed text-to-voice converting software demands the legalisation of computer to human marriages.

The mini documentary reveals that the pair will exchange unofficial vows on January 31.

It adds that they have not spent a day apart in two years.

Also, Way’s mum Jane is present in the short film.

“We know Hermione will be happy and that’s all we ever want for her,” the Sun quoted her as saying in the video.

Way added: “The great thing is Alex doesn’t care what I look like and I can just be myself with him.

“We spend every minute together and as long as it’s not hurting anyone, why shouldn’t you be allowed to be happy?

“It is definitely love. I’ve never ever felt this way about someone. We spend a lot of time together in my bed. He’s one heck of a machine and his hard drive works perfectly.”

Way insists marriage to machine should be legalized just the same way civil partnerships for homosexuals have been made legal in the UK.

The video has attracted 30,000 views in the past week. (ANI)

Mysterious lake creature terrified kids

2010-02-19T16:35:00.003+01:00

TERRIFIED locals in a South American town are running scared after a strange creature they describe as "Gollum" crawled out of a lake and charged schoolkids.

The beast — which has "sparked fear and confusion" in the small town of Cerro Azul, Panama — was spotted on Saturday when four 14 to 16-year-olds were playing by the waterfront.

According to their account, reported by Panamanian news service Telemetro, the youngsters "screamed" when the five-foot creature emerged from a cave and started clambouring over rocks towards them "as if to attack them".

In a "desperate bid to defend themselves" the four terrified boys said they hurled rocks at the strange creature to kill it, before throwing its corpse in the water and running away.

Their disbelieving parents returned to the lake the following day — and were stunned to discovered the beast's body washed up on the shore.

Experts have yet to examine the images — or make any statements regarding their discovery.

But locals told Panama news channels, who ran the story, that the water-monster was "Gollum from Lord of the Rings".

One said: "I have only seen that creature once before - and it was in the Tolkien film."

The fictional Gollum — originally known as Smeagol — was a hobbit whose later name was derived from the "disgusting gurgling, choking cough he made".

JRR Tolkien — who wrote the Middle Earth adventures — said of the character: "He had become deformed and twisted in both body and mind by the corruption of the Ring.

"His only desire was to possess the Ring which had enslaved him, and he pursued it for many years after he lost it."

www.thesun.co.uk

Breeding Ancient Cattle Back from Extinction

2010-02-15T18:17:00.003+01:00

The only place to see an aurochs in nature these days? A cave painting. The enormous wild cattle that once roamed the European plains have been extinct since 1627, when the last survivor died in a Polish nature reserve. But this could soon change thanks to the work of European preservationists who are hoping they can make the great beast walk again. If they succeed — through a combination of modern genetic expertise and old-fashioned breeding — it would be the first time an animal has been brought back from extinction and released into the wild.

The aurochs was a massive creature, standing more than six feet tall at the shoulder and weighing more than a ton. It had forward-facing horns and a white stripe running down its spine. The prehistoric animal was domesticated about 8,000 years ago, but some aurochs also remained in the wild until the end of the Middle Ages, when scientists believe they became extinct due to overhunting and loss of habitat.

The hope for its resurrection now lies in its tame descendants, domesticated cattle. Here's how the process is expected to work: Scientists will first scour old aurochs bone and teeth fragments from museums in order to glean enough genetic material to be able to recreate its DNA. Researchers will then compare the DNA to that of modern European cattle to determine which breeds still carry the creature's genes and create a selective-breeding program to reverse thousands of years of evolution. If everything goes as planned, each passing generation will more closely resemble the ancient aurochs. "Everything will be put together in a genetic mosaic," says Donato Matassino, head of the Consortium for Experimental Biotechnology in Italy and one of the scientists involved in the project. "Once we have all the roads, we'll try to follow them back to Rome."

Stichting Taurus, the Dutch preservationist group leading the project, is hoping a reborn aurochs could help restore the European countryside to a more natural state. To that end, the group would eventually like to replace the domesticated cattle that currently graze in Holland's nature reserves with the recreated wild cattle. "The aurochs was part of an ecosystem," says Henri Kerkdijk, manager of the project. "If you want to recreate the flora of the ecosystem, you also have to recreate the fauna." The idea came to Kerkdijk during a trip to Africa, where he was struck by the abundance of giant herbivores, even in areas where people were living. "It just bothered me that we don't have that in Europe anymore," he says. His group has already introduced English Exmoor ponies — the closest living representatives of the wild horses painted alongside aurochs on cave walls — to the Netherlands' nature reserves. "You could also talk about recreating the giant deer," Kerkdijk says. "But there, we don't have a modern animal to work from."

The current effort isn't the first attempt to resurrect the ancient cattle. The aurochs played an important role in early German culture, and in the early 20th century the Nazi government funded an attempt to breed them back as part of its propaganda effort. The result, known as Heck cattle, may to some extent resemble the ancient aurochs, says Kerkdijk, but they're genetically quite different. "We want a breed that resembles the aurochs, not only in phenotype, but in genotype," he says. Heck cattle, for example, are more aggressive than aurochs because they were bred, in part, using Spanish fighting bulls. "They will attack without a prior threat display," says Kerkdijk. "When I'm in Africa, herbivores won't attack me. They give some type of warning: Back off, one step further or you're dead meat."

Other groups are also trying to bring different animals back from extinction through breeding. In South Africa, scientists are attempting to recreate the quagga, an extinct subspecies of the zebra, and in the U.S., breeders are trying to bring back a giant Galápagos tortoise that was killed off in the 1800s — a process that could take close to a century.

Back-breeding has an advantage over cloning in that it creates a whole population, rather than just an individual animal. Last year, Spanish scientists used cloning to successfully recreate an ibex that disappeared in 2000, and in Poland another group is trying to clone the aurochs using DNA from bone and teeth samples. But for a species to survive once it's brought back to life, it must have enough genetic variability to reproduce. "A population needs to be adaptive," says Johan van Arendonk, a professor of animal-breeding and genetics at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, adding that the Dutch project probably needs to produce at least 100 animals to succeed in the long term.

That's not the only obstacle. Recreating the aurochs from modern cattle won't work if any of its DNA was lost as breeds split apart, experts say. And it will take a lot of time. "The only way we can make recombinations is by having the animals produce a new generation," says van Arendonk. "It's still a very open question if it all can be done.

time.com By STEPHAN FARIS

Denmark Leads Europe's Electric-Car Race

2010-02-15T18:12:00.002+01:00

An electric-car race is under way in Europe and countries are rushing out their plans for the future — each one more ambitious than the last — in an effort to prove who's the greenest of them all. Spain aims to have 1 million electric or hybrid cars on the road by 2014 (though it hasn't specified how many of each). Britain is trying to persuade Japanese automaker Nissan to make its Sunderland plant the European base for its little electric car the Leaf, and London plans to have 25,000 charging stations hooked up to the grid by 2015. France has put big money into building a countrywide network of charging stations, as well as a plant to produce electric-car batteries. Not to be left out, Portugal is gearing up to be one of the first markets for Renault-Nissan's electric cars in 2011.

Are all these plans feasible? Most of Europe's projects have hardly left the racing pits. Vehicle production by a major automaker won't start for at least a year or so. Renault looks set to be the first off the line, with plans to roll out four mass-market models in 2011 and 2012. And then there's the problem of the lack of a universal charging standard — European countries have yet to agree on a single plug and socket for electric cars, a process that could take years. And some analysts still question whether there will be enough demand for the vehicles — and if governments will pony up the necessary financial incentives to make them attractive to buyers.

One country, however, appears to be better prepared than the others: Denmark. The biggest Danish power company has partnered with a California start-up company, Better Place, to build a nationwide grid to support electric cars, composed of thousands of charging poles in towns and cities and service stations along highways where depleted batteries can be swapped for fresh ones on long trips. (They're called "switching stations.") This isn't pie-in-the-sky stuff, either — Better Place announced last week that it had raised $350 million to support the venture, one of the largest rounds of venture capital for a clean-tech company ever. (The company is also planning to build charging networks in Israel and Portugal, but its Danish project is a bit further along.)

Just as importantly, the Danish government is firmly behind the project. Late last year, it promised not to impose the normal vehicle-registration tax of 180% on electric cars until 2012 — a tax break of at least $40,000 for early buyers — and to provide drivers with free parking in downtown Copenhagen. Not only that, but the company has signed a deal with Renault to supply 100,000 cars — the company's new Fluence ZE model — to Denmark and Israel by 2016.

Jens Moberg, the head of Better Place Denmark, says the company is aiming to have the first cars on the road in Denmark by the second half of 2011. Within one year, he expects the number of vehicles to be "in the thousands," and by 2020, he believes there will be more electric cars sold in Denmark than combustion-engine cars. "We've managed our business in a responsible way and the Danish government has said we want to support this," he tells TIME. But he knows there's also an inherent risk in being first, particularly when it involves building an expensive infrastructure before any cars have been sold. "We think it's important to be ahead of the curve, but you don't want to put out charging spots in the thousands without any cars on the roads," he says.

Indeed, the chances of failure are high. Already, Better Place has run into problems with Renault over Denmark's promised tax exemptions. Last year, the former Climate and Energy Minister, Connie Hedegaard, suggested the government might extend the tax break until 2015, but months later, a decision on that has yet to be made. "If we don't get a clarification, then we at Renault want to focus on other countries for the first electric cars," head of Renault Denmark, Henrik Bang, told the Berlingske Tidende newspaper last month. Renault has since reaffirmed its commitment to the project, and Denmark's new Climate and Energy Minister has promised to resolve the issue quickly.

Still, the charging network is incredibly expensive to build. Better Place's system hinges on the switching stations, which make electric cars viable for long-distance trips and thus, more attractive to potential buyers. Here's how it works: after consumers buy their cars, the company provides them with batteries and charges them a fee to use them, based on the miles they drive. When the batteries run out of juice on long trips, drivers can replace them at switching stations in the amount of time it takes to fill a tank of gas. Better Place says the stations — which will reportedly cost about $500,000 apiece to build — will eventually stock several different batteries to accommodate all the various car models on the road.

And then there's the lack of a standardized European plug and socket. Germany, with Renault's support, is pushing its seven-point version to be the standard, but other countries have their own ideas of what the connectors should look like. "Because Europe is fragmented and countries are putting forth their cars, it's going to be more difficult to come to a federal conclusion," says Calum MacRae, an automotive expert with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. "Obviously, if you standardize [the connectors], you bring the cost down." And when it comes to selling the public on electric cars, price will be crucial.

time.com By JUSTIN BERGMAN / LONDON

Banker caught on TV looking at topless girls instead of charts

2010-02-02T16:52:00.001+01:00

I'm no banker but I'm pretty sure those pictures have nothing to do with endowment mortgages or bouncing cheques.

Skip to 60 seconds in.

A closer view:

Russian scientist photographs souls

2010-01-30T19:19:00.001+01:00

The activity of Konstantin Korotkov, deputy director of the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Physical Culture and world-renowned authority on Kirlian photography, was recently highlighted by Life.ru. Korotkov is the developer of the gas-discharge visualization (GDV) technique in Kirlian photography.

Kirlian photography takes its name from Soviet electrician Semyon Kirlian, who discovered the process in 1939. It was the subject of extensive research in the 1970s in the Soviet Union and the West. It is commonly described as photographing an object’s aura. According to a website associated with Korotkov, he “confirmed earlier observations… that the stimulated electro-photonic glow around human fingertips contained astonishingly coherent and comprehensive information about the human state – both physiological and psychological.”

In other words, the GDV technique, which was developed in the late 1990s, can be used for diagnostic and assessment purposes. It is already used to measure stress and monitor the progress of medical treatments. In its most sophisticated form, the GDV technique is incorporated with computer imaging.

Now scientists have taken GDV photographs of a person as he was dying. In the photos, it could be seen that the area of the belly lost its life force (the purported soul) first, followed by the head. The heart and groin were the last to lose their life force, in that order.

Scientists using the GDV technique say that the aura of those who die unexpectedly or violently differs from those who experience a calm death. The souls of the former remain in a state of confusion for several days and return frequently to their bodies, especially at night. Korotkov ascribes that phenomenon to unused energy retained by the soul. He suggests that the GDV technique will also have applications for distinguishing genuine psychics from frauds.

How To Creep The Hell Out Of People

2009-11-05T21:24:00.002+01:00

Creeping the hell out of people is an important task and should be executed as proficiently as possible to get the desired effect.

How to make a girl smile

2009-09-12T19:01:00.002+02:00

1. Don't hug her friends or your friends that are girls cause she'll feel left out
2. Hold her hand at any moment . . . even if it's just for a second.
3. Hug her from behind
4. Leave her voice messages to wake up.
5. Wrestle with her
6. Don't go hang out with your ex when shes not with you, you might not realize how badly it hurts her.
7. If you're talking to another girl, when you're done talking, walk over and
hug her and kiss her.... let her know she's yours and they aren't.
8. Write her notes or call her just to say "hi"..and not just at night after you've already been out with other girls.
9. Introduce her to your friends . . . as your girlfriend.
10. Play with her hair.
11. Pick her up
12. Get upset if another guy touches her and she doesn't like it.
13. Make her laugh, if you can make her laugh, you can make her do
anything.
14. Let her fall asleep in your arms.
15. If she's mad at you, kiss her.
16. If you care about her, then tell her
17. Every guy should give their girl 3 things: a stuffed animal(she'll hug it every time she goes to sleep), jewelry (she'll treasure it forever), and one of his t-shirts (she'll most likely wear it to bed).
18. Treat her the same around your friends as you do when you're alone.
19. Look her in the eyes and smile.
20. Hang out with her on weekends
21. Kiss her in the rain
22. Kiss her just for the heck of it
23. If your listening to music, let her listen too.
24. Remember her birthday and get her something, even if
it's simple and inexpensive, it came from YOU. it means all the world to HER. it's the thought that counts.
25. When she gives you a present on your birthday, Christmas, or just whenever, take it and tell her you love it, even if you don't (it'll make her happy.)
26. Always call her when you say you will, it may not seem like it, but it does hurt her and makes her think you don't care so call even if you can only talk for a minute. Girls don't necessarily have to have hour-long conversations every night but it's nice for us to hear your voice even for a quick hello.
27. Give her what she wants
28. Recognize the small things . . . they usually mean the most.
29. Tell her she's beautiful, she needs to know her striving is working.
30. Hang out with her whenever you are free and u should be free to hang
with your girlfriend all the time
31. If u care about her...SHOW it!

World’s strongest vagina breaks own record lifting 14 kilos

2009-09-02T19:16:00.001+02:00

A Russian woman has set a new world record, lifting a 14-kg. glass ball with her vagina muscles. Tatiata Kozhevnikova of Novosibirsk, aged 42, has been exercising her intimate muscles for fifteen years, and has already made her entrance into the Guinness Book of Records as the possessor of the world’s strongest vagina, she proudly told Life.ru.

“After I had a child, my intimate muscles got unbelievably weak. I read books on Dao and learned that ancient women used to deal with this problem using wooden balls,” she said. “I looked around, saw a Murano glass ball and inserted it in my vagina. It took me ages to get it out!”

The embarrassing first experience did not scare Tatiana off. She developed quite a taste for vagina fitness, and now she has her exercising balls custom-made.

“You insert one of the balls in your vagina, and it has a string attached to it with a little hook at the very end. You fix a second ball onto this hook.”

The Russian recommends vaginal exercises to all women who want to improve their sex life.

“It’s enough to exercise your vagina five minutes a day, ladies, and in just one week you’ll be able to give yourself and your man unforgettable pleasure in bed,” she says.

Russian woman on trial for raping 10 men

2009-06-20T21:05:00.001+02:00

A young Russian woman, a devoted collector of horror films and spiders, is on trial for sedating and raping ten men.

The police were shocked that 32-year-old Valeria K., a quiet good-looking woman from the city of Tambov, was the mysterious rapist who abused ten local men after poisoning them with clonidine, Life.ru reports.

Valeria, who has already been nicknamed the Black Widow for her love of spiders, would get acquainted with men and invite them to her place.

She gave them drinks with clonidine, which almost immediately sent them to sleep for almost 24 hours.

After that, she undressed her victims and raped them, tightening a rope on their male organs to kep them erect.

Waking up in hospital with clonidine poisoning and penis trauma, all the victims could remember was a friendly brunette who gave them drinks.

Finally, local police identified the offender and arrested her.

At present, the police know about ten of Valeria’s victims, although one of them refused to file a complaint against her.

“It was great,” the unnamed man said.

“I like hot women. I only wish she hadn't use the clonidine on me.”

Woman blasts off boyfriend’s penis with firecrackers

2009-06-16T01:46:00.002+02:00

A Russian woman got so upset by the news that her boyfriend intended to leave her that she tied several firecrackers to his penis and exploded them, the Life.ru web-site reports.

The 33-year-old victim, identified as Alik D. had lived with the woman whose name was reported as Kira V. for about two years, but when the girlfriend started suggesting that they should marry, the man refused and said that he would rather return to his first wife with whom he had a son.

When Alik started moving out Kira suggested that they had a farewell dinner. After a hearty meal and some heavy drinking Alik fell asleep. The girlfriend tied several firecrackers to Alik’s penis and exploded them. The man was rushed to intensive care and doctors are reported to be fighting for his life.

Even if the man survives the girl will face up to 12 years imprisonment.

WoW farm factory pays Russian porn star $500 000 for breast tatoo ad

2009-06-14T13:29:00.002+02:00

A Russian porn star has been paid $500,000 for tattooing a World of Warcraft farm factory advertisement on her breasts.

The tattoo with the logo and url of MyMMOShop.com, a website selling World of Warcraft Gold goods, will decorate Anna Morgan’s breasts for two years, the company said in a press release.

Anna Morgan was born in the city of Zeya in Russia’s Far East, and at 19 has a natural DD breast size .

According to MyMMOShop.com’s expectations, she is likely to star in 50 to 100 movies per year. The target audience of the movies she appears in is very close to that of WoW Gold, and will burst the website's sales, the press release says.

Anna Morgan is into tennis, hockey and computer games. She has recently signed a contract with Top Studios adult movies production in LA, California.

Morgan will get inked on June 15.

Could YOU pass this test ?

2009-06-09T23:18:00.002+02:00

I was a very happy man. My wonderful girlfriend and I had been dating for over a year, and so we decided to get married. There was only one little thing bothering me…It was her beautiful younger sister. My prospective sister-in-law was twenty-two, wore very tight miniskirts, and generally was bra-less.

She would regularly bend down when she was near me, and I always got more than a nice view.. It had to be deliberate. Because she never did it when she was near anyone else.

One day her ‘little’ sister called and asked me to come over to check the wedding invitations. She was alone when I arrived, and she whispered to me that she had feelings and desires for me that she couldn’t overcome. She told me that she wanted me just once before I got married and committed my life to her sister.

Well, I was in total shock, and couldn’t say a word. She said, ”I’m going upstairs to my bedroom, and if you want one last wild fling, just come up and get me.” I was stunned and frozen in shock as I watched her go up the stairs. I stood there for a moment, then turned and made a beeline straight to the front door. I opened the door, and headed straight towards my car.

Lo and behold, my entire future family was standing outside, all clapping! With tears in his eyes, my future father-in-law hugged me and said, “We are very happy that you have passed our little test. We couldn’t ask for a better man for our daughter. Welcome to the family.”

And the moral of this story is: Always keep your condoms in your car.

Pimp paid prostitute with chicken nuggets

2009-06-07T14:33:00.002+02:00

An Australian man who pimped a 16-year-old schoolgirl paid her with chicken nuggets for having sex with men, a court has been told.

Ronald Vikash Gander, 27, and his 16-year-old girlfriend devised a plan to prostitute a teenage girl so they could afford the weekly $1,050 rent on a serviced inner-Brisbane apartment, the Brisbane District Court was told.

The court was told the girl made $4,500 for having sex with five middle-aged men in June last year.

Gander and his girlfriend used the money for living expenses and paid the girl nothing except for the occasional box of chicken nuggets.

The court was told Gander's girlfriend - who cannot be named - threatened the student, who had run away from home, with eviction if she didn't continue having sex with clients to earn her keep.

Judge Marshall Irwin described the prostitution offences as "sordid".

"The girl was used as if she was a piece of meat ... and your conduct can properly be described as that of a sleaze merchant," Judge Irwin said.

Gander pleaded guilty on Monday to one count each of procuring prostitution with a circumstance of aggravation and knowingly participating in the provision of prostitution with a circumstance of aggravation.

The court was told he had a substantial criminal history of dishonesty offences, and that he was on parole when he committed these offences.

Gander was jailed for six years in 2004 for 15 charges relating to an attempt to pull off a multi-million dollar fraud involving the sale of a Brisbane high-rise building.

That sentence was reduced to five years in 2005 by the Court of Appeal, and Gander was released in 2007.

Judge Irwin sentenced Gander to two and a half years' jail, to be suspended after nine months, for the latest offence.

Judge Orders Man To Pay “Idiot Tax”

2009-06-07T14:26:00.001+02:00

A Reading man escaped time behind bars today for throwing a flaming gas can at cars, but will have to pay a special fine that the judge said properly describes his actions. “We’ll call that an idiot tax,” Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Norbert Nadel told Christopher Keim. Keim, 33, pleaded guilty Jan. 29 to attempted aggravated arson in exchange for prosecutors dropping a felonious assault charge stemming from a July 25 incident.

Keim threw a burning plastic gasoline container under a car as it passed his Reading home. The gas container stuck under Joshua Metcalf’s 1997 car as it drove by and destroyed it. Metcalf’s name also is spelled Medcalf in court documents. Metcalf was able to get out of the car with only burned leg hairs before it was destroyed. Initially, Keim denied any involvement. Then he said he was using the gas to burn bank statements and somehow the gas container caught fire and he panicked and threw it.

But assistant prosecutor Jeff Heile said another witness told police that she had a fireball thrown at her car as she passed Keim’s house and when she turned around to see what had happened, she saw Metcalf’s car ablaze. Keim paid Metcalf $3,000 for the car, hoping to avoid jail. Metcalf told officials he had to quit a second job he had because he lost the car, his only way to get to that job.

He did avoid jail, but it still cost him. Nadel placed Keim on probation for three years – telling him if he violated it, he would go to prison for five years – and ordered him to do 40 hours of community service. The judge also fined Keim $2,500 for an “idiot tax,” ordering it to go to Metcalf if his bills from the incident had not been covered by Keim.

Russian kills friend with vodka after a drunken row

2009-06-05T22:47:00.002+02:00

Police have found and arrested the Russian man who killed his drinking buddy by splashing vodka all over him and then setting him on fire.

It took the police more than a year to solve the mystery of the death of 33-year-old Alexander, whom the neighbors found burning alive in his apartment. The doctors could not save him, and the man died of vast burns three days after the incident, without regaining consciousness, Life.ru website reports.

However, eventually the police managed to solve the case and trace down the murderer, identified as Vitaly K., 48 years old.

On the day of the murder, Vitaly and Alexander were sitting peacefully drinking at Alexander’s apartment in Moscow, when they started arguing over some minor disagreement.

Soon, they were having a fight, and Vitaly, who had an opened bottle of vodka in his hands, splashed the 40% alcoholic liquor over his friend and threw a burning match at him.

When the man was enveloped by fire, Viraly realized what he had done and ran.

He now faces a lengthy prison term for a murder.

Jamaican Dance Craze Responsible for Threefold Increase in Broken Penises

2009-06-05T00:37:00.001+02:00

Over the past year, a new dance craze in Jamaica known as daggering has resulted in a threefold increase in fractured or broken penises among Jamaican men. The dance has been called “dry sex” on the dance floor, which usually includes them simulating various sexual positions, and often times, rough sex, to the beat of the music. Because of the obviously suggestive nature of the dance, it is not surprising that it has become popular activity in the bedroom, too. A Kingston doctor has said, “During very rigorous intercourse, the man can hit the woman’s pubic bone and sustain a fracture. There is a loud popping sound, excruciating pain and swelling.” The violent thrusting of the dance has also resulted in an increased number of cases of ruptured vaginas. The problem of broken penises has become so widespread that the Jamaican government is considering a ban on daggering, including music with daggering lyrics. For those who want to continue daggering in private, they may want to bone up on what to do in case the 'dagger' snaps off at the 'hilt.' Ouch! Video after the jump.

Father bites out his 4 years old sons eyes

2009-06-04T20:07:00.002+02:00

Kern County supervisors on Tuesday demanded that child protective services officials explain what happened in the case of a father accused of biting out the eyes of his 4-year-old son.

Angelo Mendoza, 34, faces four felony charges in the vicious attack on his son Angelo Mendoza Jr. on April 28.

Doctors have said that the child's left eye and muscle are gone, and his right eye is damaged beyond repair after "this evil person," as one supervisor called Mendoza, left the boy naked in a pool of blood to be discovered by neighbors.

Mendoza, who has used a wheelchair since being stabbed in the spine in 2004, has been involved in 22 criminal cases in Kern County, officials said.

In 2006, both Mendoza and the boy's mother pleaded no contest to willful cruelty to a child after being found under the influence of drugs.

On the day of the attack, Mendoza had apparently used PCP, but was left in charge of the boy nonetheless. After neighbors found the child, Mendoza was discovered in a vacant lot, chopping at his legs with an ax.

According to police reports, the child told officers, "My daddy ate my eyes," and, "Daddy bit my eyes and hands."

On Tuesday, county supervisors were briefed by child services director Pat Cheadle, who seemed clueless as to why the child was still in the care of his parents, despite their criminal history.

"This is an example of one of those horrible, horrible tragic situations that happen," Cheadle told the supervisors. "And certainly we wish there was an explanation for it at this time."

Supervisor Ray Watson wasn't satisfied with that answer. "I think the public is terribly frustrated that they're not able to have access to the issues that led up to this horrible tragedy," he said.

Supervisors pressed Cheadle to determine if information in the case could be made public under a new state law that allows release of information when a child dies or nearly dies.

"This evil person who did this act, if they were not interrupted, could we define it as 'near fatality' to show that to the public -- at least that we do have the checks and balances and the ombudsman who's evaluating it, and the investigation, so that we can be open, transparent and accountable to the public?" Supervisor Michael Rubio asked.

Mendoza was slated to be in Kern County Superior Court on Wednesday morning, but that was delayed because of his medical condition. Mendoza was listed in fair condition at Kern Medical Center.

Teen's amateur horror shoot turns into personal snuff film

2009-06-04T19:47:00.001+02:00

A 16 year-old teenager has accidentally hanged himself shooting an amateur horror film in the Russian city of Kondopoga, Northwest of Russia, Russian website Lenta.ru reports.

The teenager, who has not been named, was rehearsing one of the scenes of his horror film in his apartment on May 16. According to his scrip, the main character had to hang himself because of unrequited love. He put his neck in the noose and then unfortunately fell from the chair he was standing on.

The police discovered his body after two days. According to the medical experts, the cause of boy’s death was asphyxia. There were no other injures on his body.

No criminal case has been opened regarding the death. The investigators believe that it was suicide.

The boy’s friends said that he had been shooting his horror film for three weeks and that he wanted to post it on the Internet.

Man begs doctors to undo penis enlargement surgery

2009-06-03T19:15:00.002+02:00

Just one month after undergoing a penis enlargement surgery, a patient of a Moscow plastic surgery clinic has asked the doctors to restore the original size of his penis.

In February the 40-years-old man, identified as Konstantin F., came to the clinic complaining he was too small, Life.ru website reports Monday.

The man wanted to add an extra two-thirds to his penis and get 25 cm (9.8 inches) instead of his 15 cm (5.9 inches).

The doctors tried to persuade the patient that his penis was ideally sized, warned that he may be unhappy with the results of the surgery, and even showed him a life-sized replica of a 25-cm male organ. But the man stood his ground and demanded the operation.

The surgery was completed in two sessions, and happy Konstantin returned home almost twice as large as he used to be. But in just one month he was back at the clinic again, this time asking to undo the enlargement.

“He said no woman wants to be with him anymore,” Life.ru quoted one of the doctors as saying.

“He came here several times, begged us for new surgery, swore he would never be so stupid again.”

However it will take six to eight months before a second surgery can be performed.

“If there was a surgery to enlarge brains, we would offer him a free trial,” the doctor said.

English skydiver survives 2 km fall after parachute fails

2009-06-03T19:10:00.001+02:00

Through a stroke of luck an English skydiver has survived a 1,800 fall, without a parachute, onto a snow-covered mountain in Russia, Russian website NewsRu.com reports.

James Boole, 31 years old from Tamworth, was shooting a documentary film about a fellow skydiver during the jump and was supposed to pull his parachute at a given signal from his friend. But his partner failed to signal on time and Boole hurtled into a snow-covered mountain at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour).

Boole, who has one child, injured his back and broke several ribs in the fall. He also punctured a lung and lost twelve teeth. But despite this he is supremely happy that escaped death.

“It was like some big…big truck knocked me down. I was screaming with pain and coughing blood.” James Boole said.

“Honestly, I was praying and thinking about telling someone my last words.” He added.

But Russian doctors were able to treat him in time. James Boole is currently recuperating in a Moscow clinics, where the doctors say his condition is stable.

“He is on the mend now. Actually, he looks like the happiest man in the world.” A spokesman for the clinic said.

Mr Boole, a mechanical engineer by training, has been parachuting for 12 years and has completed more than 2,000 jumps.

As an aerial cameraman, his work has been featured on the BBC's Top Gear program.

Maniac kills 5 with self-made electric chair

2009-06-03T18:59:00.002+02:00

A Russian man has killed at least 5 people with a self-made electric chair before being detained by police, the Life.ru web-site reported on Friday.

The 30-year old killer was detained in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals Region in central Russia. He has pleaded guilty to killing one man whom he lured into his garage by posting a classified ad on the Internet claiming he wanted to buy some computer parts. Then, the maniac tied up his victim and put him into the car, wrapping his body in electric wire connected to a powerful capacitor. After electrocuting the victim he took the body to the outskirts of the city and burned it in a fire made with old car tires.

Despite the fact that the murder was committed in the presence of a witness – one of the killer’s friends – the case was solved only after the police had found and managed to identify the badly burnt body. When the maniac was detained, he immediately pleaded guilty and told the investigators that he would admit all similar crimes if more bodies were found.

Investigators think that in 2008 and 2009 the maniac killed at least 5 people, since that many people had left their homes to sell computer parts and went missing since then.

Police found a small power plant installed in the garage and linked to a computer. The detained killer said that he had designed a device with which he planned to kill people who passed by in their cars – one part of the machine would remotely stop the car engine and the other part, resembling a door mat – would electrocute and kill the exiting driver.

While staying in the pre-trial detention center, the criminal said that he also planned to make a device that would erase people’s memory with an electro-magnetic ray.

Tissue forgotten in patient’s heart kills him 14 years on

2009-06-03T18:42:00.002+02:00

Russian police are in search of the doctors who left a tissue in a patient’s heart, eventually causing his death of a heart stroke 14 years later.

The man, a resident of Krasnoyarsk Territory of Russia, had a weak heart. In 1995, he traveled to Moscow for heart surgery, which proved successful.

Fourteen years later, in January 2009, the man died of a stroke. A routine autopsy, however, revealed a strange object in his heart, Interfax reports Monday.

“During the operation, the surgeon left a surgical drape in the patient’s heart. Due to the presence of an alien object in the heart, the patient developed chronic fibrous pericarditis,” head of the Krasnoyarsk investigative department Anatoly Bagmet told Interfax.

“A year and a half later, he suffered a microinfarction, ten years later a stroke, and finally died in January 2009.”

Local police have launched an investigation of the accident. At the moment, they are looking for doctors who performed the surgery in 1995.