Strange & Stupid: Amusing News

Mobile phones ‘more dangerous than smoking:’Brain expert warns of huge rise in tumours and calls on industry to take immediate steps to reduce radiation
Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take “immediate steps” to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The study, by Dr Vini Khurana, is the most devastating indictment yet published of the health risks.

It draws on growing evidence – exclusively reported in the IoS in October – that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop, invalidating official safety assurances based on earlier studies which included few, if any, people who had used the phones for that long.

Earlier this year, the French government warned against the use of mobile phones, especially by children. Germany also advises its people to minimise handset use, and the European Environment Agency has called for exposures to be reduced.

Noting that malignant brain tumours represent “a life-ending diagnosis”, Khurana adds: “We are currently experiencing a reactively unchecked and dangerous situation.” He fears that “unless the industry and governments take immediate and decisive steps”, the incidence of malignant brain tumours and associated death rate will be observed to rise globally within a decade from now, by which time it may be far too late to intervene medically.

“It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking,” says Professor Khurana, who told the IoS his assessment is partly based on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smoke. Smoking kills some five million worldwide each year, and exposure to asbestos is responsible for as many deaths in Britain as road accidents.

Late last week, the Mobile Operators Association dismissed Khurana’s study as “a selective discussion of scientific literature by one individual”. It believes he “does not present a balanced analysis” of the published science, and “reaches opposite conclusions to the WHO and more than 30 other independent expert scientific reviews”.

from Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.

Should minors should be required to get parental consent — or at least notify their parents — before having abortion.
The first version of Obama’s questionnaire responds with a simple “No.”
The amended version, though, answers less stridently: “Depends on how young — possibly for extremely young teens, i.e., 12- or 13-year-olds.”

By 2004, “I would oppose any legislation that does not include a bypass provision for minors who have been victims of, or have reason to fear, physical or sexual abuse,” he wrote.

whether Obama supports capital punishment and state legislation to “ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns?”
He responded simply “No” and “Yes,” respectively, to those questions on both questionnaires.

But a fact sheet provided by his campaign flatly denies Obama ever held those views, asserting he “consistently supported the death penalty for certain crimes but backed a moratorium until problems were fixed.”
On guns, the fact sheet says he “has consistently supported common-sense gun control, as well as the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”

That “was a long time ago,” she said. “And anybody who hasn’t refined their ideas over that period of time … is not anybody I’m interested in,” she said. Dobry asserted Obama’s views have evolved mostly at the margins and that he’s still the same person she met in the 1990s.
“He always was right from the start very, very clear on where he was coming from on most issues,” she said, “and he certainly wasn’t letting anybody else decide that for him.”

Melee breaks out at Good Time Emporium with 200 people jumping in the fray
Somerville - Just after 7 p.m. Easter, Somerville police responded to reports of “an out of control melee” at the Good Time Emporium on Sturtevant Street, according to reports. Police said as many as 200 people had begun rioting inside the amusement center and sports bar, and several of them were armed with baseball bats and knives.

One responding officer, James McNally, said in his report he arrived to find tables and chairs flying in every direction, and fights breaking out in all corners of the building. McNally said police tried several times to evacuate the building.
“We were running around trying to break up each new altercation that erupted,” McNally wrote in his report of the incident.

Somerville Officer James Slattery: “I made my way into the crowd, and there was a lot of pushing and shoving. I requested every available unit to be sent to assist.” Somerville Housing Authority police, State Police and Tufts University cops all came to assist.

During the chaos, McNally said a woman approached him and told him someone had threatened her with a knife. The woman identified 17-year-old Regina Hunter, of 119 Highland Ave., Randolph, as the one who had waived a knife at her earlier in the brawl.

Hunter attempted to leave, McNally’s report states, but she was stopped by a Good Time Employee and a state trooper. Officers, who finally had to pepper spray her in order to cuff her. The found a 6-7-inch pocket knife in her coat during a subsequent search.

“We were being verbally threatened, harassed and physically intimidated,” McNally wrote in his report. “[We] had to resort to swinging our expandable batons around to keep the crowd from physically coming at us.”

Reade Armstrong, 18, of 37 Sycamore St., Roslindale, also had to be pepper-sprayed in order for police to subdue him. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, as was 17-year-old Kwmaine Davis, of 94 Crawford St., Dorchester.

GALVESTON, Texas (AP) — Jurors who rejected a young father’s claim that he was insane when he burned his infant daughter in a microwave must now decide his punishment.

Prosecutors are asking that Joshua Mauldin be sentenced to life in prison for stuffing his daughter Ana in a microwave and turning it on for 10 to 20 seconds.

Galveston County Prosecutor Xochitl Vandiver asked jurors to give Mauldin a life sentence because Mauldin had given his daughter a life sentence as well — one of physical and emotional scars. CHEEESSSSYYYYY

Mauldin at first told police his daughter had been severely sunburned, later changing his story and saying he had accidentally spilled hot water on her while making coffee.

Ana suffered second- and third-degree burns to her left ear, cheek, hand and shoulder and required two skin grafts after being in the microwave. Part of her left ear had to be amputated.
“She will always for the rest of her life be reminded just by looking in a mirror,” Vandiver said.

Prosecutors said Mauldin was angry that he was in a loveless marriage and took it out on his daughter. Just before putting her in the microwave, Mauldin had punched the baby and put her in the hotel-room safe and refrigerator.

They also said Mauldin had a history of violence and of lying about being mentally ill to get out of trouble.
Class Act.

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NEW YORK (Billboard) - Many have tried, but so far nobody has been able to pry the decade-in-the-works Guns N’ Roses album “Chinese Democracy” from the hands of lone remaining original member Axl Rose.

Now, Dr Pepper thinks it’s up to the challenge. The soft drink company says it will give a free can of Dr Pepper to “everyone in America” (excluding ex-Guns members Slash and Buckethead) if “Chinese Democracy” arrives anytime during the calendar year 2008.

Rose responded on his band’s web site (http://www.gunsnroses.com) that the band was “surprised and very happy to have the support of Dr Pepper.” But the offer did not prompt him to rose to the challenge.

“Chinese Democracy” was most recently scheduled for release in March 2007, but promptly vanished from the schedule without a new date being set. Rose said at the time that all the recording had been completed, but there were some “scheduling difficulties.”

It will be the first album of fresh Guns N’ Roses material since the 1991 sets “Use Your Illusion I” and “Use Your Illusion II.” Rose has reportedly burned through $13 million in recording expenses for “Chinese Democracy,” and also burned his bridges with the bandmates who helped him turn Guns into one of the biggest rock groups in the world by the early 1990s.

CBS-Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Barack Obama stood side-by-side once again Thursday, nearly four months after their mystery breakfast outing at a Manhattan diner. This time, Obama was in town to deliver what was billed as a major speech on the economy, while many believed Bloomberg was poised to deliver his endorsement.

With all eyes on the mayor as he walked onto the stage at The Cooper Union, Bloomerg introduced the Illinois senator, and while there was plenty of speculation of the endorsement, instead he played it down the middle.

“I’m glad that Sen. Obama has chosen come to our city to speak out on the economy. There will be plenty of opinions on what he has to say, this is New York, after all. And I’m not sure that all of us will agree with every idea, myself included,” he said. “But it is critical we know where each candidate stands as we make perhaps the most important decision of our lives next November.”

Obama was equally cordial, joking about treating Bloomberg to breakfast a few months ago during his last visit to the big apple.

“The reason I bought breakfast is because I expect payback for something more expensive. I’m no dummy,” Obama joked. “The mayor was a cheap date that morning. There are some good steakhouses here in New York.”

Interesting. I wonder if that is a real possiblility? I’m gonna go ahead and say….YES.

A man who ripped the head off a live duck in a Minnesota hotel has been sentenced to the workhouse and community service.

Scott D. Clark apologized in court Wednesday and says he takes full responsibility for his actions. He pleaded guilty in January to felony animal cruelty.

He was at the Embassy Suites in St. Paul in September when he cornered a duck from the hotel’s lobby pool and ripped its head off.

Two words that describe ample situations of 2007: Train Wreck.

From Spears to Lohan to Hilton, from bipolar attacks to coke binges to, well…jail.
Each celebutante had her own spiral downward - and oh, did they spiral.

If your taste in just desserts ran more esoteric, the displays of personal collapse available on the Internet were downright Dada-esque: you could watch the former television action hero David Hasselhoff splayed across the floor of his hotel room while eating a hamburger; see Vanessa Hudgens, the squeaky-clean star of “High School Musical 2,” posing in the nude; or hear Alec Baldwin haranguing his 11-year-old daughter in a profane voice mail message that could have come straight out of “Glengarry Glen Ross.”
Does this seem exessive? Have we gone too far in our adoration of these “stars”?
Or was it just that this year, gossip coverage has become so widespread — you could hardly pick up a magazine or newspaper, turn on a television or read a blog without encountering another tale of a celebrity who’d gone off the rails — that it made routine bad behavior seem even worse? Think of CNN, MSNBC, Fox in the wake of the Anna Nicole death…WALL TO WALL COVERAGE. Not for the war, not for the finance crisis, but for Anna Nicole. Is it because we care? Or do they force us to be unable to turn a blind eye?

All of these scandals were so appalling, Lisanti (of defamer.com) said, that they “fed this insatiable hunger to find out more and more and more, which pushed more outlets to keep revealing more details about these people.”

Where larger media companies once considered gossip Web sites too untrustworthy to follow their lead on breaking stories, these same organizations began relying on the Web sites and blogs as if they were articles from The Associated Press. “When we broke a story,” said Harvey Levin, the managing editor of TMZ.com, “it used to be we’d get a call from CNN and they’d say, ‘Who are your sources?’ Two days later they’d realize we were right. And like Pavlov’s dog, you train them.”

On the downside, it is unlikely that the audiences for these newly created outlets remain faithful to any of them for long. “Viewers and readers who like sensationalism are not necessarily loyal,” said Tony Potts, a host of the television shows “Access Hollywood” and “Celebrity Exposé.” “The titillating aspect of a story will always be superseded by something else, and they just want the next quick fix.”

And who can forget semi-celebs like Larry Craig, Michael Vick, and Andrew “Don’t Taze me” Meyer? Imus, The VTech shooter…all got absurdly bright spolights for generally unnewsworthy things (don’t get me wrong, the VTech shootings Were ABSOLUTELY newsworthy…but Cho’s plays were not. His short stories were not. That was a limelight on a character much less than worthy of the fame.)

“We live in a society where there are virtually no repercussions,” said Min of Us Weekly. The repeat offenders who most often populate our gossip, she said, know full well they can “get arrested one day, walk a red carpet the next, and still have as many photographers shouting their names and wanting their pictures.”

As Min recalled, it was hardly a year ago that she and her staff were assembling an astonishing story about Britney Spears. “We reported that she took her older son to a cosmetic dentist, to see if she could get his teeth whitened,” Min said. “Which at that point seemed incredibly shocking. That seems very quaint and simple now.”