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A man in Tennessee had an unusual complaint when he called the police last week - he was furious that cows wouldn't stop licking his house.
Cows: tongues of doom
Jerry Lynn Davis of Rogersville, Tennessee, said that the force of the cows' incessant tongues had done $100 worth of damage to his house, including breaking a gutter and ripping off a screen window.
The cows belonged to Davis's neighbour - the cows' pasture fence being just a few feet from his house. Apparently, the cows had managed to poke their heads far enough through the fence to get within licking distance of Mr. Davis's abode.
Sheriff's deputies were able to resolve the cow situation amicably, contacting the bovines' owner, who said he's sort the problem out.
It's not clear exactly why the cows were so keen to lick Davis's house.12-08-09 02:14 PM - Cardboard windscreen freezes trucker's eye shut
A trucker in China who drove 500 miles with a cardboard windscreen became so cold that one of his eyes froze shut.
Blind spot: Sing Li's cardboard windscreen
The trucker has now lost his licence, after he drove 800km (500 miles) down a motorway with a sheet of cardboard covering his shattered windscreen.
Sing Li, 24, navigated by sticking his head out of the driver�s window. Unfortunately, this caused him to become rather cold - when he was arrested in Henan, eastern China, not only was one eye frozen shut, but his head was blue from the cold.
'I didn't want to fall behind in my delivery schedule and I couldn't afford a repair,' he told a court.12-09-09 06:10 AM - Cold Iguanas Free-Fall From Trees
Iguanas Go Into Hibernation State In Cold Weather
POSTED: Wednesday, January 6, 2010
UPDATED: 3:10 pm EST January 6, 2010
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Record lows across South Florida are literally freezing the invasive iguana in its tracks.
Kamikaze iguanas, plummeting from their treetop perches, have long been a Floridian urban legend. On Wednesday morning, Local 10 caught the free-falling lizard on tape.
?Watch: Video (non-WAP)
?Photos: Slideshow (non-WAP)
Scientists said these seemingly suicidal lizards are a result of South Florida's record cold weather. Iguanas prefer temperatures in the 80s and 90s. With Wednesday morning's temperatures at around 35 degrees, a handful of lifeless lizards hung from branches and fell to the ground.
While these iguanas appeared dead, experts said they are not. When temperatures drop below 40 degrees, iguanas go into a type of hibernation in which their bodies essentially turn off, only allowing the heart to pump blood. When the temperature rises above 40 degrees again, the iguanas are revived.
"It's almost like they go totally to sleep. Generally speaking, if it warms up afterwards, they can recover," said Ron Magill of Miami Metrozoo.
According to Magill, the nonnative lizard was first introduced to Florida by careless pet owners and has become one of the state's most invasive species. While Florida has similar weather to the iguanas' native home of South America, it is clearly not identical.
Magill expects most of the iguanas to survive. While the lizards' comatose state provides a perfect opportunity to reign in the invasive species, Magill had a warning.
"I knew of a gentleman who was collecting them off the street and throwing them in the back of his station wagon, and all of a sudden these things are coming alive, crawling on his back and almost caused a wreck," Magill said.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com01-07-10 06:24 PM - UK Holiday Inns Piloting 'Human Bed-Warming' Service
PRESS RELEASE -- Hotels, 2010-01-19 09:08:37 PST
As the big freeze envelops Britain, Holiday Inn has taken the unprecedented step of introducing human bed warmers into its hotels, helping guests get a great night's sleep and keep the cold at bay.
With temperatures plummeting as low as -17 degrees Celsius in the UK, Holiday Inn has teamed up with renowned sleep psychologist Dr. Chris Idzikowski and a dedicated team of bed warmers to heat up guests' beds. Dressed in all in one sleeper suits, the bed warmers will work as human electric blankets, bringing the bed temperature up before guests climb in so guests can be toasty warm from the moment their heads hit the pillow.
As dzikowski, director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre explains: "There's plenty of scientific evidence to show that sleep starts at the beginning of the night when body temperature starts to drop. The decline occurs partly because the blood vessels of the hands, face and feet open up and release heat.
"A warm bed - approximately 20 to 24 degrees Celsius - is a good way to start this process whereas a cold bed would inhibit sleep. Holiday Inn's new bed warmers service should help people achieve a good night's sleep especially as it's taking much longer for them to warm up when they come in from the snow.
Jane Bednall, spokeswoman for Holiday Inn said: "People want to leave the cold outside and climb into a warm bed. The new Holiday Inn bed warmers service is a bit like having a giant hot water bottle in your bed, warming it up before guests climb in to give them a great night's sleep away from the cold. And of course they jump out before you jump in!"
The bed warmers toasting suits were specially designed to maximise sheet heating efficiency. The complimentary five-minute bed warming service will trial at Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum, Holiday Inn Kingston South and Holiday Inn Manchester Central Park. Sessions should be booked to take place between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., from January 18 to 25.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com02-05-10 11:24 AM - Only thing missing, are the pictures.
WAPers do it With A Passion
If everyone spoke Wulfanese�, they wouldn't need to click here for a translation.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com02-08-10 03:23 PM - Police 'beat up man for burping'
Burping may be an unpleasant habit - but it's probably not deserving of a beating. However, one American man is claiming that he was beaten by sheriff's deputies while being held in jail, because they didn't like his burping.
Vandegrift says that he was handcuffed and beaten over his burping
Thomas Scott Vandegrift of Roanoke, Virginia, had been arrested on a drunk driving charge in 2008 when, he claims in a lawsuit filed last week, he suffered from persistent burping, caused by acid reflux.
The lawsuit alleges that deputies were so annoyed by the burping that they twisted his arm behind his back, handcuffed him, forced him to the ground and beat him, according to the Roanoke Times.
The lawsuit says that the deputies also refused to let Vandegrift have medical attention, but he was treated at hospital after being released for abrasions to his ear and his side, and for strains to his wrist and arm.
Vandegrift was eventually given a suspended six month sentence and a $750 fine for the driving offence, to which he pleaded no contest.
His lawsuit seeks $6million in damages from each of the defendants - several deputies, the sheriff, the sheriff's office and the city. A spokeswoman for the sheriff's office said they had no comment on the allegations.02-10-10 07:20 AM - He has apparently since found a way to turn his talent, into a burgeoning career.
WAPers do it With A Passion
If everyone spoke Wulfanese�, they wouldn't need to click here for a translation.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com02-10-10 11:43 AM - (ok... what's this guy's Crackberry name?)
Semi-naked man arrested after showing drugs to police officer
A semi-naked man has been arrested after he waved a bag of drugs at a police officer while hiding in a ditch wearing woman's trousers, exposing his genitals, and surrounded by pornography.
Methamphetamine: don't do it, kids
The man also had his underwear around his neck.
Police were called on Saturday night after a resident reported that a suspicious man was hiding in a ditch in Mesa, Arizona.
Upon investigation, a police officer found that the man was shirtless, with his underwear around his neck, and was wearing woman's trousers with a hole in the crotch exposing his genitals.
A variety of pornographic items were scattered on the ground around him.
According to The Arizona Republic, when approached by the officer, the man - identified as Edward Rodriguez - removed a bag filled with a white powdery substance from a drainage pipe and showed it to the officer.
The substance later tested positive for methamphetamine, and Rodriguez admitted using the drug.
He was arrested on charges of possession of a dangerous drug and possession of drug paraphernalia.02-10-10 11:46 AM - I bet my Wonderful knows his name.
:::: digs back in his subscription arcive for her errrr, laptop thread ::::
WAPers do it With A Passion
If everyone spoke Wulfanese�, they wouldn't need to click here for a translation.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com02-10-10 11:58 AM - The pea aphid is one of the weirdest and most versatile creatures around. It can reproduce sexually or asexually, can breed winged or unwinged babies, and is also a symbiote. This week, its genome has been sequenced.
PLoS Biology published information about the sequenced pea aphid genome this week, including loads of interesting details about how the tiny bug is able to use a bacterial symbiont to digest its main food source: plant sap. In fact, the aphid and its symbiont have co-evolved for so long that they actually have what you might call complimentary genomes. Write the authors of the genome analysis:
"Genes encoding the synthesis of a number of essential amino acids are distributed between the genomes of the pea aphid and its symbiont."
In other words, some of the genes crucial to the life cycle of the aphid are actually stored outside its body, in the genome of its symbiont.
This weird aphid is what biologists call a "model organism," partly because it is so simple but also because it is so versatile, demonstrating how one genome can code for dramatically different phenotypes in the same species. Imagine if humans could breed a new generation of winged humans simply because the weather or food sources changed. Or if humans could choose to fertilize themselves sometimes, then later on have babies created via fertilization from another human. That's the sort of insane versatility you find in the many expressions of the pea aphid genome.
Here's to studying the fully-sequenced pea aphid genome, in the name of making our genomes more awesome.
Full Article Below:
PLoS Biology: Genome Sequence of the Pea Aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum
02-24-10 01:17 AM - Russian police say they have arrested a man who hacked a video billboard to show a porn movie, bringing traffic to a standstill on a busy Moscow road.
Videos showing the porn billboard circulated on the internet
The two-minute clip, displayed on a video screen above a main road south of the Kremlin, caused midnight traffic jams and a frenzy of excitement across the Russian blogosphere as videos of cars slowing to look at it were posted online.
Police said the hacker gained control of the screen by breaking into an online company's server in the volatile southern region of Chechnya as 'he didn't think the police would go looking for him there.'
'(The hacker) is a highly-educated, temporarily unemployed and extremely advanced Internet user,' police said. 'The scandalous film was the talk of the town.'
The 40-year-old man said he wanted to 'give people a laugh', the popular daily Kommersant reported.
Rossiya-24 television said an elderly motorist suffered a heart attack at the wheel after seeing the porn billboard.02-24-10 07:34 AM - Any time you wake up in a ditch, with wearing someone else's pants, with your own underwear around your neck, two things are pretty clear. Methamphetamine: don't do it, kids
The man also had his underwear around his neck.
Police were called on Saturday night after a resident reported that a suspicious man was hiding in a ditch in Mesa, Arizona.
Upon investigation, a police officer found that the man was shirtless, with his underwear around his neck,
1). It was a one heck of a party.
2). You have some really interesting friends.
Oh yeah and it might be time to wave the drugs at the police to tell them, "Officer, I have had enough... I don't remember the party and judging by home I'm dressed I missed a pretty good one!"02-24-10 01:30 PM - An argument over a parking space escalated quite dramatically on Tuesday night - and ended up with a shoot-out between a man and the police.
A gun: not recommended as a means of resolving parking disputes
The incident, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began when one man, who had shovelled the snow from a parking space, got annoyed that another man then parked his car there. He asked the man to move.
In response, the second man, identified as 61-year-old Errol Parker Sr, punched him, and produced a gun.
The police were called, and ordered Parker to come out of his house. Instead, he fired his gun at them.
Further shots were exchanged before Parker was eventually persuaded to surrender. No injuries were reported in the gunfight.
Parker was arrested, and now faces charges including attempted homicide and assault of a police officer.02-25-10 08:38 AM
Add having a bad day to the mix and it might be worth murdering someone 
