50th Anniversary of the Death of James Dean

"Dream as if you'll live forever, Live as if you'll die today." -James Dean

With that quote we will pay our respects to a 24 year old actor and legend that was tragically killed in a car accident on September 30 1955.

The Facts:

James Dean was driving his Posche Spyder to a race in Salinas, California. It was September 30, 1955. At 3:30 that afternoon, Dean had received a speeding ticket for going 65 in a 45 mile zone.
A few minutes after dusk, and Dean and Rolf Wutherich, his friend and mechanic, were headed to Paso Robles to spend the night before the race. Donald Turnupseed, driving a Ford sedan, tried to make a left turn off Highway 41, north onto Highway 466.


Just before the impact, Dean remarked to Wutherich that the other vehicle was bound to see them, that it had to stop. It did not stop. The autopsy said James Dean died of a broken neck and other injuries, either immediately or shortly after being extricated from the Porsche. Wutherich was thrown clear but badly injured. Turnupseed had only minor injuries.

At this time of year at 5 pm, every year people stand at the intersection and see what Dean couldn't, the portion of the road he was traveling on is completely blind to a person making a left onto it because to the position of the sun, the guy never saw him coming...



Crowds gather at the spot where Highway 41 and Highway 466 (now 46) meet outside Cholame California (near Paso Robles), Some dressed in Poodle Skirts others looking just like Dean did in his films, while others claim to have seen his ghost hitch hiking up the road from the accident...Ok and the person I transported down there for the 40th anniversary to deposit her COUSINS ASHES in the exact spot of the collision...In the land of FREAK SHOWS this one rates 5 STARS on the FARNHAM METER..



James Dean was buried in his hometown of Fairmount Indiana and laid to rest in the Winslow family plot in Park Cemetery, Fairmount, is a short distance from the farm on which he grew up.

Funeral services were held at the Fairmount Friends Church on October 8, 1955.

James Dean's ironic PSA for Driver Safety, done to settle a speeding ticket can be watched HERE. In it Mr. Dean tells young kids to "drive safely and that the life you might save, could be his"...

WEBCASTS FOR ALL THE JAMES DEAN ANNIVERSARY ACTIVITIES CAN BE SEEN HERE.

And the actual intersection has its OWN website right HERE.

Women bypass sex in favour of '"instant pregnancies"

Women are increasingly seeking inappropriate IVF treatment because they do not have the time or inclination for a sex life and want to "diarise" their busy lives.

The cost of a single IVF treatment is at least £2,500

Wealthy career women in their 30s and early 40s, some of whom have given up regular sex altogether, are turning to "medicalised conception" - despite being fertile and long before they have exhausted the possibility of a natural conception.

They are prepared to pay thousands of pounds for private IVF treatments - even though they have unpleasant and potentially harmful side effects - because they believe it offers them the best chance of "instant" pregnancy.

Many fertility experts believe that IVF offers women the best chance of pregnancy - a one in three chance of success or better in one cycle if the woman is under 35, whereas natural conception has no better than a one in four chance for a woman of the same age even if a couple have an active sex life.

An active sex life aimed at pregnancy is considered to be unprotected sex at least once every three days.

Each year about 43,000 women receive IVF treatment, most of them privately. The cost of a single treatment - and often several are needed - is at least £2,500.

Government guidelines on when women should receive treatment (on the NHS) say IVF should be given only to those aged between 23 and 39 who have an identified cause for the fertility problem or who have suffered unexplained fertility problems for at least three years."
Michael Dooley, a gynaecologist, obstetrician and fertility expert, said that in the past five years he has seen a 20 per cent increase in the number of patients seeking "inappropriate or premature" IVF treatment.
"Many of these couples are simply not having sex or not having enough sex," he said. "Conception has become medicalised. It's too clinical. There has been a trend away from having sex and loving relationships towards medicalised conception."

Mr Dooley practises at Westover House clinic and the Lister Hospital, both in south-west London, and a clinic in Poundbury, Dorset. He said: "I have people who come to me for IVF who haven't got time for sex. Those people don't care about looking for a lifestyle or maximising their natural potential."

Emma Cannon, who runs the fertility programme at Westover House, said: "I have patients who diary sex in. When the they don't fall pregnant they panic and think they need IVF.
"People want everything now. If they can't have a baby now, they want IVF. They think it's no different from putting your name down for a handbag. Some people are horrified by the idea that they have to have sex two to three times a week. About 10 per cent of people I see don't have time to have sex. It's usually when you have two professionals who are based in the city and are very busy.

"Mothers might be working or their children sleep in their bed. I told one of my patients who is going through IVF that another IVF patient had just conceived naturally. She said: 'What? She's having sex? Bloody Luddite'."

Dr Tim Evans, the founder of Westover House and the Queen's GP, said: "People are increasingly trying to control it [conception]. They are testing, testing, testing when they should just have sex."

Prof Gedis Grudzinskas, the medical director of the London Bridge Fertility, Gynaecology and Genetics Centre, said: "If a woman over the age of 40 says she has been trying to conceive for six to 12 months and wants IVF, it would be a silly person who said 'no'. In my view, it's wise to go straight to IVF even though it's not without its complications.

"Many people in their late 30s or early 40s without children are completely absorbed in their professional lives and have less opportunities to conceive. Many couples I see have one of them working abroad and the most they see each other is at weekends."

Prof Bill Ledger, a specialist in fertility problems at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, in Sheffield, said that the number of women seeking a "fast track" to IVF was increasing rapidly. He estimates one woman of about 40 seeks urgent IVF treatment each week from the hospital.

"I am reluctant to put anyone on an IVF programme unless they have tried for at least six months to conceive naturally," he said.

"But the older a woman is the less is the window of opportunity and fast tracking [to an IVF programme] has to be an option."

Christian School Expels Girl Because Parents Are Lesbians

ONTARIO, Calif. -- A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter.

Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario Christian School on Thursday.
"Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, the girl's biological mother.

Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship," The Los Angeles Times reported in Friday's edition.

Stob could not be reached for comment by the newspaper. Shay and her parents said they won't fight the ruling.

School administrators learned of the parents' relationship this week after Shay was reprimanded for talking to the crowd during a football game, Tina Clark said.

Clark and her partner have been together 22 years and have two other daughters, ages 9 and 19.

Censored in the Name of the Lord

What are decent-minded, US Christian conservatives to do if they want to watch a film without upsetting their sensibilities? Now they can watch their favorite blockbuster stripped of any sex and violence, thanks to two new companies.

A few years ago, it dawned on American food manufacturers there was an intriguing hole in the market to fill: vegetarians who wanted to eat hamburgers while remaining vegetarian, or vegans who had a craving for egg salad.

Today, the supermarkets are filled with bean curd-based meatless burgers and eggless egg salads, and they are hot sellers. Vegan cafés boast menus filled with bacon, steak and all manner of other forbidden items that have been made safe for the meat-averse.

As with food, so it is with films.

What are decent-minded middle-American Christian conservatives to do if they abhor sex, bad language, illicit drug use and gut-spilling violence but still have an urge to see Saving Private Ryan? Or Goodfellas? Or The Amityville Horror? The beginnings of an answer came a few years ago with the advent of CleanFlicks, a kitchen-sized Utah company that decided to offer videos and DVD for rental - after they had been edited to remove all content likely to be offensive to the local Mormon population.

Today, that kitchen-sized enterprise has turned into a veritable industry, spanning numerous states and attracting the attention of both lawyers and politicians all the way to Washington. CleanFlicks is going from strength to strength, offering its services on a monthly subscription basis much like the wildly successful mainstream company Netflix. And a second, even more sophisticated, company called ClearPlay, also based in Utah, has sprung up.

ClearPlay doesn't edit the films as such, but rather offers a series of filters so individual consumers can decide how much sex or violence they want to tolerate. Fancy seeing A Mighty Wind, the gentle Christopher Guest satire spoofing folk music, but without the "revealing clothing"? No problem. Want to see a gritty urban drama like the recently released Crash, which examines racism in Los Angeles, but without the "implied premarital sex"? Just press the appropriate button on your DVD menu and you can relax in the knowledge that all suggestions of illicit nookie have been purged ahead of time.

The service has not only proved popular in conservative states such as Utah. There is some evidence it appeals to a much broader range of movie consumers, particularly families concerned about the content Hollywood is throwing at their children, even at a tender age. The sanitizing companies have even set to work on Shrek and Shrek II, finding the animated smash hits replete with squirm-inducing sexual innuendo and language that may not be cursing as such but is still too salty for their puritan tastes.

The film industry, as might be expected, has not reacted well. Starting three years ago, when CleanFlicks started making its first serious commercial inroads, the Directors Guild and the Writers Guild have been railing at what they see as a straightforward infringement of intellectual property.

For while their work is modified and edited all the time - for broadcast on television or on commercial plane flights, for example - the difference is that these modifications are done with their permission, through formal licensing agreements. CleanFlicks and ClearPlay don't ask for permission from anyone, arguing instead that their adjustments and amendments fall under the category of "fair use".

The two sides quickly fell into a predictable legal dispute, which dragged on until earlier this year when the Bush administration itself decided to get involved and passed the Family Movie Act, which sanctioned what the sanitizers were doing and was signed into law explicitly to make the legal challenge from the Hollywood bigwigs - among them Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and a host of other first-rank directors - vanish into the judicial ether.

As far as the White House was concerned, the law was an easy way of appealing to the Republican Party's fundamentalist Christian base and bashing one of its favorite targets - Hollywood's free-speech liberals. Quite a few Democrats jumped on board as well, partly because of a perceived need to defer to the conservative "family values" agenda and partly because the Bill also embraced a handful of anti-piracy provisions that the film industry was keen to see entered into law.

From a cultural point of view, though, the debate has left several questions unanswered. One, if people really don't like watching films where characters behave badly, drink alcohol, have sex or slice each other with carving knives, why don't they simply avoid them altogether? Two, aren't they conflating the very different issues of protecting children from Hollywood inanity and mauling the work of genuine film artists who have a specific vision to express, and a specific way to express it? And three, if Christian fundamentalists are really so sensitive about entertainment products featuring distinctly non-Christian behavior, how come the Bible Belt watches television shows like Desperate Housewives - about a group of bored, drug-addled, adulterous suburban women - more avidly than any other region in the country?

The hypocrisies of excessive puritanism have been an irresistible spectator sport for centuries, not just in the United States, and the advent of the DVD profanity police is no exception. Part of the fun of visiting the ClearPlay website, over and above the intriguing categories available for censorship (what, one wonders, qualifies as a "non-graphic injury/wound"?), is seeing where the content police were forced to give up. The site's listing for Crash, for example, includes this line: "Filter settings not available: ethnic and social slurs." In a film preoccupied to the point of obsession with racist attitudes and behavior, one would think not. But surely someone somewhere will still take offense? The CleanFlicks site ("It's about choice!" screams the banner headline) is even funnier when it delves into the technical minutiae of censorship. The list of profanities the company says it systematically excises includes "the B-words, the H-word when not referring to the place, the D-word, the S-word, the F-word etc ..." It also includes references to deity (G-word and JC-words etc), only when these words are used in a "non-religious context". One could spend an afternoon figuring out exactly what all these forbidden terms are, or else marvel at how conversant those easily offended clearly are with the objects of their offense

The criteria for violence are intriguing, not least because the puritan right wing in the United States has clearly had much less of a problem over the years with blood and guts than it has, say, with teenage kissing. (Pain being a much less problematic category for them than pleasure.) Sure enough, CleanFlicks tells us it doesn't edit all violence - "only the graphic depictions of decapitation, impalements, dismemberment, excessive blood, gore etc."

The founder of CleanFlicks, Ray Lines, first had the idea for his business in the late 1990s, when he prepared a sanitized version of Titanic for his Mormon neighbors minus the relatively brief moments of nudity and sex. Soon he was taking it upon himself to decide all kinds of sensitive cultural questions. He once told The New York Times about Schindler's List, the Oscar-winning Holocaust drama: "Every teenager in America should see that film. But I don't think my daughters should see naked old men running around in circles."

ClearPlay, meanwhile, is the brainchild of Lee and Matt Jarman, two brothers from the heavily Mormon town of Orem, who developed the software that enables them to place filters on commercial DVDs. Copyright lawyers and entertainment executives tend to have fewer problems with their operation, because the DVD that arrives in the consumer's hands is intact, and it is up to each individual viewer how to edit the content, much as they might on their own - albeit more crudely - with the fast-forward button on their remote.

CleanFlicks, on the other hand, not only modifies the films without permission, but then makes money on the basis of those modifications. Without the Family Movie Act, it seems likely the company would have fallen foul of the law and lost its legal battle with the Directors Guild.
Despite the passing of the Act, the federal judge who had been hearing the case indicated his displeasure at the video companies' behavior by ordering them to meet their own costs even as he threw out the case against them. The companies had been looking for a complete vindication - in fact, back in 2002, CleanFlicks had pre-emptively sued the Directors Guild precisely to seek a declaration that what it was doing was legal. But Judge Richard Matsch (previously best known for presiding over the trial of the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh) refused to grant what they were looking for.

Troy
Brad Pitt has been summoned to kill his enemy. He raises his sword, runs towards him, and then ... er, not much. CleanFlicks cuts away to another shot. "The point we would make here is that you still see the guy dies, you still see that Brad Pitt killed him, and so you don't really take away from the story of what's going on," explains company founder Ray Lines.

Gosford Park
The refined world portrayed in Robert Altman's film is even more buttoned-up after ClearPlay has done its work on Julian Fellowes' screenplay. When one valet, describing his master, says: "He thinks he's God almighty. They all do," the first sentence is cut out, leaving just: "They all do." The result? A rather cryptic comment which makes no sense whatsoever.

Braveheart
Foul language is muted rather than skipped in this stirring tale of Scottish nationalism, while close-ups of bodily contact and battle wounds are kept in. But the famous mooning scene, involving Mel Gibson's bottom and the English army, is skipped altogether and most of the battle is eliminated. William Wallace would be turning in his grave...

Saving Private Ryan
The notorious 24-minute opening scene involving D-Day death and gore on the Normandy beaches is made far more palatable, as is the generally brutal depiction of battle throughout. Despite director Steven Spielberg's insistence that these images are critical in showing the sacrifice of troops and the true nature of warfare, CleanFlicks finds them too much to take.

The Matrix Revolutions
For an action flick, the edited version of The Matrix Revolutions doesn't contain much action. Viewers expecting foul-mouthed threats and a cut-throat fight between good and evil are more likely to be entertained by such dastardly warnings as: "The only way you're getting through this door is over my big dead (muted word)!"

The Godfather
In the sanitized version of The Godfather, Sonny Corleone (played by James Caan) does not die in a hail of bullets pounding relentlessly into his car. He just... well, he's sort of there one minute and gone the next. And the notoriously gory horse's head bit? Eighteen seconds is cut from one of the most famous scenes in recent cinema history

LEGOS: The Church

So Amy Hughes is a little over the TOP, she has built this WHOLE church out of Legos. She purchased them at retail prices, it's 7 feet by 5 1/2 feet by 30 inches (2.2 m x 1.7 m x .76 m) .



The following are a few quotes from folks who have viewed her little project, "I'm pretty sure this is sick."--jpoulos, Metafilter ,"disturbingly impressive."--sixtwenty3dc, Metafilter "This is one of those people that I'm very happy to have seen on the web, but are too scary to meet in real life."--ZeroLogic, Slashdot" "I'm pretty sure with the cost of the Legos she could of built a REAL church" --Chuck Farnham

From 7/8/2000 - 1/8/2002 she worked and worked (yes she had a goundbreaking ceremony) , some 75,000 Legos bricks , 3976 windows and 1372 minifigs later she was done...

Shes named the "people" attending the dedication service for the church, but shes "says" she doesn't "talk" to them. Cough ya...I'll bet... and BTW , its dedicated to her CAT who helped her build it...

I always enjoy finding projects done by people who are obsessed with the subject matter, anyone who spends that much time as an adult with a Lego product, well my hats off to you, it shows focus, creativity,dedication and oh ya, that your NUTS....congratulations...

Who commits suicide first?

I ponder this in light of the past weeks celebrity news, Who has the better odds of killing themselves before christmas, country star Mindy McCready who has tried TWICE recently, or the waif like model Kate Moss who is living with her DRUG DEALER boyfriend rocker Pete Doherty?

It's so close, I'm not sure I could bring myself to place a bet, may I should add Courtney Love into this mix...even then its still to close to call...

With 3 obvious TRAIN WRECKS here one wonders WHERE ARE THEIR FRIENDS, people can stop this madness, there are ways to actually HELP PEOPLE WHO SO OBVIOUSLY NEED IT even if they don't want it...I for one will be watching PEOPLE MAGAZINE for the results...

Armed and dangerous - Flipper

Dart firing dolphin let loose by Katrina

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels.

Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'

Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.

The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them.

Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.

The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.

Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins became more secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port.

Someone for EVERYONE

They say that somewhere there is someone for everyone, I guess that explains why hookers and crack addicts always seem to have boy and girlfriends , right KATE MOSS? That lovely boyfriend of hers, Ex Libertines singer Pete Doherty is a POSTERCHILD for the statement...

And then there are the dating services, Match.com, etc,etc, and of course Craigslist, and the bottom of the food chain Russian Dating services...

SO what about those Russian Mail Order places you ask?, well even they have a pecking order...

That brings us to the photo in this article and our friends at : http://frantana.ru/.

They have interesting MARKETING:

"I've opened this rubric first of all because it's concerned with disabled people. I get many letters with requests to find a woman with different invalid groups. There are marriages already. Really, why not to love a disabled woman, help her to be sure in many aspects of life, love her and be a devoted friend and assistant? It's not her head disabled and it means that everything might be changed and corrected. It's terrible when a person has problems with his head, actions, behaviour and thoughts. It's a real problem.

But all these women are smart and think fine. All of them have a kind heart and a strong wish to love and be loved."

They have a FINE photo Gallery and their motto:

"Representing Russian Amputee ladies. HONEST SERVICE !"

that really says it all...

Photo from Presidents trip to New Orleans

While the Presidents mother was off suggesting the people displaced by the Katrina Hurricane were living better in the shelter at the Houston Astrodome than their homes in THE BIG EASY, a father and son fishing trip was arranged for a closer look at the destruction of the levees in Louisiana.

StormWatchers: Hurricane RITA

For those interested in tracking Hurricane Rita this weekend please click on the Storm Watchers link in the RIGHT Column.

All of the currently posted BLOGS from the area along with LIVE PODCASTS can be reached from that link or HERE.

This information will be more current that the local news as its direct from the homes of the people in the path of the weather.

Zestra gives hope to Women awaiting Female Viagra

Zestra, which is remarked as a possible female Viagra, promised better orgasms for women soon after National Institutes of Health Panel allowed it to undergo a large clinical trial as the next step towards sexual dysfunction treatments. 200 women diagnosed with reduced libido or decreased orgasms will be invited to join the trials.

Zestra is already available in the market as a female arousal fluid. It is applied in the female genital area. Zestra doesn't require FDA certification as it is not a drug. The new research will convince experts on whether the fluid is really effective or not. Till now, experts were working on a drug to enhance the poor blood flow to the genitals. But unlike the cause of erectile dysfunction in men, sexual dysfunction in women is primarily instigated by dulled nerves in the pleasure paths. A study reveals that recovering these nerves can improve orgasms and sexual desires in women.

Doctors discover a life saving drug in Viagra

Viagra, the drug that treats male impotence has a vital ingredient that can treat pulmonary hypertension [PPH], a serious vascular disease. Dr Mohamed Khalifa of Pfizer pharmaceuticals detailed this Viagra breakthrough to a group of leading Omani practitioners recently.

Doctors claim it a significant breakthrough as the life expectancy of a patient diagnosed with PPH is only two years and eight months. Viagra, already approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administration to treat PPH, expects to improve the life expectancy of people who suffer from the disease.

PPH is a severe condition in which the high blood pressure moves from the heart to the lungs resulting in fatigue, dizziness and breathing difficulties. It affects people irrespective of their age or gender.

Pfizer's commitment to develop cures for all types of medical disorders gets a good start with Viagra, an extremely safe oral therapy drug. The doctors witnessed improvements in patients who took the clinical trial by covering a six-mile walk. It is a standard efficacy of pulmonary arterial hypertension trials after taking Viagra.

Today 23 million men all over the world take Viagra. It is in high demand amongst the youngsters in Dubai since the last four years.

Sex offenders pleasure up with Government-supplied Viagra

The recent news that New Jersey and some other states have been giving free Viagra to convicted sex offenders has become the hot issue for late-night TV hosts.

But the greater concern here that arises is what the Government is doing to control its exploding healthcare costs.

The state needs to check the policies in its HealthCare programs - Medicare & Medicaid - which supply its participants the Erectile Dysfunction (ED) drugs. Currently, the expensive ED Drugs could be prescribed when a physician deems it "medically necessary." Instead, ED drugs should be supplied when the man's condition is serious and not caused by the natural process of aging.

Also, these restrictions should be made applicable to the new Medicare prescription drug program for the elderly; where the impotence is merely a consequence of getting older or men wanting to enhance their normal performance.

There are other directions which require the dollar amount that goes into the ED prescriptions from the government. The prime one being extension of the health insurance to more children and expanding dental care for the poor.

It is high time now that the prescription of such drugs to sex offenders and to those who doesn't really fit in the criteria through a government funded supply is checked and brought under control for the benefit of the truly needy.

Obese men score less than normal men in sexual performance

Obese men share the same sexual interests as that of normal men but lag behind when it comes to performance in bed. Researchers consider low self esteem due to their bodily image as a growing reason for performance anxiety. In the study nearly 80 percent of men who suffered erectile dysfunction were obese. Though men experienced impotence, they were free of heart diseases and hypertension.

American males between the age group of 40 and 70 suffer erectile dysfunction infrequently and most of these men fall in the overweight category. Exercises like walking or jogging can help men overcome obesity which in turn can boost a man's sexual performance. There's no expense involved and it's less risky when compared to certain diet pills we learn about.

Fergie: Black Eyed Peeing

Those Blackeyed Peas shows are alot more entertaining than I would of thought for the money they charge....You don't see that at a Neil Diamond Concert.

Terrorist attack sparks off Erectile Dysfunction

Acts of terrorism can cause a state of fear and panic in men, exposing them to psychological problems, stress and male impotence. An increase in sale of erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra supports the new study conducted on UK and American citizens. The sale of anti depressives has also up surged, indicating raised stress levels and continuing anxiety over future attacks.

In America, many workers abstain from work due to terrorist mental health issues causing million dollar damages to the nation. An effective way to treat health disorders concerning terrorist attacks is to openly talk about it. Experts say that sharing feelings about the attacks will relieve people of excessive stress which is the root cause for male impotence and depression.

School Bus FULL CONTACT RACING

The United States of America is a wonderful place, land of the free, home of the brave, all that and more...

It's a place where anyone with a weird or crazy idea can create a sporting event, its the land of Nascar, Professional Wrestling, Sled Dog Racing, Professional Bowling, Roller Derby, Motorcycle Ice Racing and Demolition Derbys.

Even those events can be modified for more entertainment, lest we forget midget professional wrestling and Sly Stalones mother's "GLOW" Gorgous Ladies of Wrestling product of years past...

Well, Saturday nite it was a WHITE TRASH LOVE FEST at the Stockton 99 Speedway, School Bus Demolition Derby and FULL CONTACT SCHOOL BUS RACING !!! (you know the rule where if you finish 1st in a 10 lap event but haven't crashed into a co-racer you lose...)

They even included a San Mateo County Sheriffs Transport Bus, these folks were so forward thinking...

I don't think I've ever seen 5000 people happier than I did last night, and this was the conclusion of an evening that saw an ALL FEMALE Speedway race that included a CRASH and ROLL OVER, at the end of the race the woman driver of the "rolled over" car did a burnout that probably contributed to spectators inhaling enough cancer causing agents to change the mortality rate in central california.

Each of the three images above when clicked will take you directly into full video action of this amazing event. YOU WILL FEEL LIKE YOU WERE THERE, DRINKING THE 3 DOLLAR DISCOUNTED BEER....TRUST ME...after all it was FAN APPRECIATION NIGHT !!!

And if you bought the family pack, you got a FREE CASE OF CAR OIL, NOW THATS WHAT AMERICAS ALL ABOUT !!!

Note: you might need the latest CODEC for proper viewing, and you can get it right HERE.

FedEX Furniture: The Lawsuit

SO Jose Avila needed a little furniture, of course he does, but no cash, so with a little quick thinking Jose goes over to his local FedEX office and gets a bunch of those FREE shipping boxes that the people from FedEX have been GIVING WAY for years...

He made an L-shaped desk, a chair, a small bookshelf, a dining room set, and a bed — all of Fed Ex boxes and padded envelopes.

He was proud of his handmade furniture, and thought he could show other people who were broke how to do it themselves. So, he created a Web site called FedExfurniture.com.

"I thought I could go out there and maybe inspire somebody and show people that, 'You know what? It's okay to be ghetto when you're in a bind and feeling down. Go out there and be creative and you can get by," he said.

But the site earned him a phone call and threatening letters from Fed Ex, ordering him to "cease and desist" and requesting that he "transfer registration of the domain name fedexfurniture.com to Fed Ex."

Avila was stunned. "I really didn't have enough money to go out and buy furniture and they're over here threatening to sue me into oblivion," he said.

Even though Jose never offered to sell the furniture he made , he received legal threats saying he was "commercially exploiting" Fed Ex, and that the Web site "willfully infringed" Fed Ex's rights. And because he used the free boxes for furniture, not shipping, Fed Ex said, he "did not obtain the packaging lawfully."

Fed Ex says Avila's Web site must come down, but Avila doesn't want to back down. "I feel like if I take the site down, it'll show companies that it's okay to push around the little guy and just toss lawsuits at somebody to get them to take down the information that you don't like."

Jose isn't alone with his cardboard furniture, a site called Cardboard Construction Company dis cusses various ways to create things out of discarded boxes.

What about the guys who made Gladiator costumes out of Coors Boxes?, Sport Illustrated made bikinis out of beer caps, Lizzy Gariner made a dress out of American Express cards, and of course all those grandmothers back in the 1970's CROCHETING HATS MADE WITH BEER CANS?

Its nice to see the little guy fight back....

THE TAMPA 14

Well , it was back in July 2005 that I remember seeing this little item, Tampa police with nothing better to do , ran a STING operation in 5 strip joints, those would be: Bare Assets, Lollipops, Extasy, Brass Flamingo, and Calendar Girls located along good old US Highway 19 in Florida.

The busted 15 employees on a variety of charges, you know prostitution, exposure of a sexual organ...blah blah blah...

Your dream dates mugshots can be found HERE, and if you click on the photos you can cycle through all 14, some are happy, some are sad, some have too much makeup, some have cold sores, ones missing an eye...you know , the usual...

Britney: I See "?!@#$"

Joke of the Week

Question: What's President Bush's position on Roe vs. Wade?

Answer: He doesn't care how people get out of New Orleans.

723rd consecutive trip to the BEACH

Little Kile was beginning to have trouble recognizing his mother at the beginning of his 3rd year of consecutive daily trips to the beach...

George Need a POTTY BREAK, Mr General Secretary

Showing ONCE AGAIN that he is the biggest MORON in modern times, President George Bush is caught writing a note to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City on September 14th.

Apperently George is unaware of media cameras with telephoto options, or he is a HICK who just needed to take a dump, you make the call...

Inventor: I never used dead cats for fuel

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German inventor said he has developed a method to produce crude oil products from waste that he believes can be an answer to the soaring costs of fuel, but denied a German newspaper story implying he also used dead cats.

Christian Koch, an inventor and patent holder of the "KDV 500" that he said produces high quality fuel, said he can transform waste products such as paper, rubbish and plastic materials into fuel.

But Koch, 55, said there was no truth to stories published in Bild newspaper Tuesday and Wednesday that suggested he used dead cats as part of the mix for his organic diesel fuel.
"I use paper, plastics, textiles and rubbish," Koch told Reuters.
"It's an alternative fuel that is friendly for the environment. But it's complete nonsense to suggest dead cats. I've never used cats and would never think of that. At most the odd toad may have jumped in."

Bild Tuesday wrote a headline: "German inventor can turn cats into fuel -- for a tank he needs 20 cats." The paper on Wednesday followed up with a story entitled: "Can you really make fuel out of cats?"

A spokesman for Bild told Reuters the story was meant to show that cat remains could "in theory" be used to make fuel with Koch's patented method.

The author of the story said Koch had never told him directly that he had used dead cats as the story implied.

The website of Koch's firm, "Alphakat GmbH," says his patented "KDV 500" machine can produce what he calls the "bio-diesel" fuel at about 23 euro cents (30 cents) a liter, which is about one-fifth the price at petrol stations now.
"I drive my normal diesel-powered car with this mixture," Koch is quoted saying in Bild, next to a large picture of a kitten. "I have gone 170,000 km (106,000 miles) without a problem."

Inventor fuels car with dead cats

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A German inventor has angered animal rights activists with his answer to fighting the soaring cost of fuel -- dead cats.

Christian Koch, 55, from the eastern county of Saxony, told Bild newspaper that his organic diesel fuel -- a homemade blend of garbage, run-over cats and other ingredients -- is a proven alternative to normal consumer diesel.

"I drive my normal diesel-powered car with this mixture," Koch said. "I have gone 170,000 km (106,000 miles) without a problem."

The Web site of Koch's firm, "Alphakat GmbH", says his patented "KDV 500" machine can produce what he calls the "bio-diesel" fuel at about 23 euro cents (30 cents) a liter, which is about one-fifth the price at petrol stations now.

Koch said around 20 dead cats added into the mix could help produce enough fuel to fill up a 50-liter (11 gallon) tank.

But the president of the German Society for the Protection of Animals, Wolfgang Apel, said using dead cats for fuel was illegal.

"There's no danger for cats and dogs in Germany because this practice is outlawed in Germany,"
Apel told Bild on Wednesday in a story entitled "Can you really make fuel out of cats?"
"We're going to keep an eye on this case," Apel said.

Moon, Sun and Yosemite Align for Photo

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - Astronomers have pinned down the exact time and date that renowned photographer Ansel Adams snapped his ethereal picture, "Autumn Moon," and have determined that the sun, moon and mountains will align in the same positions on Thursday.

The Texas State University astronomers, who have earned a reputation for nailing down historical dates and events, reached their conclusions after poring through celestial history, plotting lunar phases, building a special computer program and calculating shadow angles.

They concluded that Adams snapped the shutter at 7:03 p.m. on Sept. 15, 1948 — not in 1944 as was long believed.

Yosemite officials expect a crowd of photographers, astronomers and Adams aficionados will gather atop Glacier Point to relive the scene that Adams captured. The scene repeats every 19 years.

"It's interesting that astronomy can do this," said Matthew Adams, the photographer's grandson and president of the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite. "And it's great that there's this ongoing interest in Ansel. We're planning to go out and see it for curiosity's sake."

"Autumn Moon: the High Sierra From Glacier Point" depicts a gauzy moon hanging in the darkening sky above the jagged peaks of the Clark Range.

In 1994, the "forensic astronomers" led by astrophysicist Donald Olson pinpointed the moment Adams shot his famous photograph of the moon rising over Half Dome in Yosemite Valley.

They also have nailed down where Vincent van Gogh set up his easel to paint some of his famous celestial portraits, and determined that a Marine Corps landing craft became beached in the South Pacific during World War II because a rare lunar cycle caused an extremely low tide.
Adams died in 1984.

T-Shirt Hell does it AGAIN

Those fine folks at Tshirt Hell have come up with another classic to make fun of a bad situation, comes up to 5x and is only 18.00, how could ya pass this up, be the first on your block to send the wrong message...hahaha

Drunk woman dies in cemetery accident

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - An inebriated Belgian woman died in a freak accident when she ended up beneath a heavy grave stone at a cemetery, local news agency Belga said Wednesday.

The 33-year-old was on her way home from a bar in the Belgian town of Pulle in the early hours of Saturday when she took a short cut through the cemetery.

But she urgently needed to relieve herself and crouched down between two gravestones. As she lost her balance, she grabbed one of the stones which gave way and landed on top of her.

The public prosecutor's office said she died of suffocation as she was unable to lift the heavy stone.

World's fastest blind driver...

MAFIKENG, South Africa (Reuters) - A South African became the world's fastest blind driver Thursday after driving across a remote airstrip at 269 kph (167 mph).

Blind since birth, 33-year-old Hein Wagner of Cape Town had a sighted navigator for his record attempt. After crossing the airfield, he told reporters he wanted to do it again but was considering piloting an aircraft for his next record attempt.

"I'm very happy," said Wagner, whose drive in a borrowed Maserati V8 GranSport was monitored by motoring organization Motorsport SA and filmed for the Guinness Book of World Records.

The drive, on an airstrip near South Africa's border with Botswana, was aimed at increasing public awareness of problems facing blind people and raising money for a national charity for the blind.

The previous record, set by a blind British bank manager, was 233 kph (145 mph).
"I drove it with no insurance. No one wanted to give any to us," Wagner told national news agency SAPA.

Mandy Moore: I see Boobies...

Soap opera lures Brazilians to United States

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilians are illegally entering the United States in record numbers in hopes of finding jobs and better lives -- just like characters in a wildly popular Brazilian soap opera "America."

The number of undocumented Brazilians caught on U.S. soil is set to rise over four fold this year from 2004 -- a much bigger increase than for illegal immigrants from other Latin American countries, according to U.S. officials.

As authorities search for factors spurring the exodus, they have begun to look at the passion of Brazil's poor for "America," a soap opera that debuted in early March and shows illegal immigrants risking their lives to enter the United States to find jobs and romance amid the hardship.

"Any publicity raises the idea in people's minds they can make it," said one U.S. diplomat who did not want to be identified.

Like half of all Brazilian TV viewers, Tarcila Madureira Silva tuned in each night to the Globo network soap opera. She watched heroine Sol make it as a dancer in Miami and send money home to help her family, in between passionate scenes with her American lover.
Silva, 20, had already watched her neighbors build homes with money they earned from illegal work in the United States.

"I decided to seek a better life for my family," says Silva, who in July left behind her mother and two young brothers in the farming town of Gonzaga, Minas Gerais to make the 5,000 mile journey to the U.S.-Mexican border.

Like one in four illegal immigrants, she was picked up by U.S. authorities shortly after crossing. Though many get out on bail and get away, Silva was deported.

"The soap opera is true; here in Brazil poor people have no chance," said Silva, as her mother fretted over how they will buy food and pay the $65 monthly rent for their crumbling, mud-brick home.

VIRTUAL REALITY TV

Brazilians in the past few months have become the second-largest group of illegal immigrants detained in the United States after Mexicans -- overtaking Hondurans -- as up to a third of residents in some poor Brazilian towns seek work abroad. Teen-agers as young as 15 are making the trip.

Driving poor Brazilians are dreams they can find hope, money and glamour they lack at home.
Brazil's economy is growing but unemployment is still near 10 percent. Nearly half the population lives in poverty and fights for a limited number of jobs that pay a minimum monthly wage of $128 that is difficult to live on.

As U.S. officials tried to explain this year's surge in numbers they first noticed a three-year-high in Brazil's local currency made it cheaper to pay the $9,000 fee traffickers charge to smuggle migrants across the Mexican border.

Also, talk that Mexico will impose tighter immigration controls may have prompted more Brazilians to make the trip, a U.S. Embassy official said.

Since 2001, the United States has tightened immigration controls, raising the number of Brazilians crossing illegally.

But when the number of Brazilians caught on the border between April and May rose to over 7,000 -- nearly the same as during the whole of 2004 -- U.S. officials began to look for other factors and came across the soap.

U.S. Embassy officials in Brazil have been glued to "America" ever since.

The show has tripled the number of Brazilians heading for the border, said Leonardo Monteiro, a lower house deputy and member of a Congressional inquiry into emigration.

Migrant rights group say it has had a huge influence.

"It shows most people in great difficulties, but the fact one or two do well creates the image people can make it," said Luis Bassegio, head of the Brazilian Catholic Church's migrant relief service.

GRITTY UNDERBELLY

Critics like Monteiro say "America" glorifies illegal immigration by showing Brazilians living in a cozy fantasy world rather than the country's gritty, illegal underbelly.

The soap's producers say it shows reality, albeit in the glossy, lavishly produced form of a melodrama.

"The soap shows Brazilians that go in search of dreams of a better life and end up as excluded and segregated immigrants in a foreign land," said Gloria Perez, the author of "America."
"America" portrays Brazilians suffering discrimination, exploitation and racial segregation -- everything they face at home in big cities.

The difference is that in the soap, as in real life, they get jobs as maids and construction workers that pay in a couple of days what they get during a month in Brazil.

The 1.3 million Brazilians in the United States -- half of them illegal -- send around $2 billion back home each year. Those that return home with money inspire thousands more to follow in their footsteps.

Stories of Brazilians found drowned in the Rio Grande or dead in the desert don't even make it to newspapers.

Wearing a thick gold chain and a T-shirt reading "Massachusetts Home Sweet Home," Fabiano da Silva sits outside the restaurant he opened in the farming town of Guanhaes, Minas Gerais, with his U.S. nest egg.

He worked illegally in the United States for four years as a gardener and in restaurants. "I'd do it all again," da Silva tells his friends, as they listen to his American tales.

Restaurant Busted For Selling Donkey Flesh Marinated In Tiger Urine

SHANGHAI, China -- Tiger, donkey. Whatever.

A restaurant in northeastern China that advertised illegal tiger meat dishes was found instead to be selling donkey flesh -- marinated in tiger urine, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Hufulou restaurant, located beside the Heidaohezi tiger reserve near the city of Hailin, had advertised stir-fried tiger meat with chilies for $98, as well as liquor flavored with tiger bone for $74 a bottle, the China Daily reported.

Raw meat was priced at $864 per kilogram.

The sale of tiger parts is illegal in China and officers shut down the restaurant, only to be told by owner, Ma Shikun, that the meat was actually that of donkeys flavored with tiger urine to give the dish a "special" tang, the paper said.

Authorities confiscated the restaurant's profits and fined Ma $296.

Before changing his story, Ma claimed meat came from dead tigers sold to him by the management of the Heidaohezi reserve. Heidaohezi's director denied that.

Hunter Thompson : The Suicide Note

The following were the last words written by Gonzo Journalist and annual Dead Pool candidate Hunter S Thompson. He commited suicide in February, his ashes were BLOWN into the air via fireworks over his compound near Woody Creek Colorado in August.

"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun _ for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax _ This won't hurt."

R.L Burnside : Gone but not Forgotten

R.L. Burnside passed away in at St. Francis Hospital in Tennessee September 1. Burnside gained prominence late in his career, to become one of the most popular Blues musicians of the past two decades. His final album, A Bothered Mind, was released in 2004. He was 78.

If you want to hear a persons soul in their music you will find none better then RL Burnside.

420-Pound Man Charged With Second Beer Heist At Same Store

POCATELLO, Idaho -- A 420-pound man was charged with felony robbery, accused of stealing beer from the same store he stole from in January, authorities said.

Levi Timbana, 23, of Fort Hall was accused of walking into the Cowboy Oil store Aug. 9 and taking a swing at a clerk who refused to sell him beer after hours. Prosecutors say the clerk held Timbana at bay with a metal pipe until police arrived; Timbana's companion allegedly fled with two cases of beer.

Police said Timbana punched a different clerk at the store during a January beer heist. He spent 43 days in jail in that case.

"You have to wonder if he's done this before and got away with it because of his size," Police Capt. Kirk Nelson said.

If convicted of felony robbery, Timbana could face up to life in prison. He remained in the Bannock County Jail in lieu of $70,000 bond. Arraignment was set for Monday.

Thailand's Leader On Quest To Find Out Who Got Penis Enlargement

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand's leader is trying to ferret out a government minister who allegedly had a penis enlargement, saying news of it is affecting the Cabinet's reputation.

According to a news report the prime minister told his ministers "Who did it? Tell me," triggering a round of banter and causing some to squirm in their chairs.

The leader added that he didn't want people to think Cabinet members were "obsessed with this kind of thing."

A woman embroiled in a lawsuit with a plastic surgery clinic made the enlargement claim last week. She said a Cabinet member had received the procedure at the same clinic she accuses of disfiguring her. She urged the official to come forward as a witness in her defense.

No one has admitted to the procedure. Though some ministers have joked about various ways on how he could be identified.

Britney Spears - I see Boobies...

New Orleans: A Map & the Presidents Mother

Since it appears that News Orleans has really become THE BIG EASY, easy to find DEAD BODIES IN THE STREETS, EASY TO LOOT ,EASY TO FIND A COP THAT SAYS"EVERY ONE FEND FOR THEMSELVES"... and a zillion national guard troops off fighting a war for oil in a sandbox thousands of miles from where they are needed...

I thought I'd drop in this scaleable map of the city so that people from the outside can check on the homes of friends and families, cause we all know and have seen in recent days the goverments ability to help its citizens is ZERO, protect oil and kiss the butt of oil rich nations , we bend over backward for that...

All makes sense to me...NOT!!

HEY GEORGE, Why don't you bring the ARMY CORE OF ENGINEERS HOME from IRAQ and allow them to fix the broken LEVEE system in THE BIG EASY? hummm....

Oh and it gets better, Georges mom and dad toured relief centers in Houston today, to QUOTE the Ex-FIRST LADY TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE CURRENT PRESIDENTS MOTHER:

"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (she chuckled)--this is working very well for them."...Listen for yourself HERE!

And the Department of Homeland Security is in charge of the situation, hahahahahahaha...

Apple+Motorola+Cingular

Thursday, Motorola and Apple Computer will unveil the first of Motorola's iTunes ROKR cell phones.The phones will be the first product of Motorola's strategic partnership with Apple, aimed at enabling music fans to transfer their favorite songs from Apple's iTunes jukebox software to compatible Motorola mobile handsets.

The two companies cut a deal with Cingular and will be shipping for the holiday season, the funny part , Apple Computer still thinks PEOPLE care and have been very very secretive about their deal with Motorola...

Motorola is planning a huge party at Webster Hall in NYC thursday night.

Look for Veggie Steve to announce Apples deal with Madonna, a single availible at iTunes first and her whole album with bonus track availible a day earlier than the rest of the planet...whooohoo, I can sleep now...

BTW: The Cousin Lovers, a punk bluegrass band...ROCKS...buy that baby and smile...

Large pot farm in National Forest busted

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOENIX - Authorities have uncovered a vast marijuana farm in a remote ravine north of Strawberry on the Coconino National Forest.

The mile-long field included "thousands and thousands and thousands" of plants, though it was unclear exactly how many, said Sgt. Mike Johnson of the Gila County Sheriff's Office.

A Department of Public Safety commander told the Arizona Daily Sun that it may be one of the biggest busts on record.

Members of the Gila County Narcotics Enforcement Task Force had been investigating and doing surveillance since July on the farm north of Strawberry on the southernmost part of Coconino National Forest.

A man was seen tending the plants and camping in the garden in July and August, according to court paperwork released Tuesday.

Last week, another man was spotted in the garden, and on Monday, two others were seen there.

The men, who were heavily armed, were confronted by law enforcement and arrested.

Three of them admitted they had been paid to tend the marijuana plants. All were illegal immigrants, according to paperwork filed with U.S. District Court in Flagstaff. The men were identified in federal court paperwork as Jesus Castillo Malendrez, Gerardo Manzo Pulido, Oscar Nunez Medina and David Valencia Gonzalez. Castillo, Manzo and Valencia are from Mexico.

The investigation involved numerous agencies, but most were referring calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which refused to answer questions about the size and scope of the farm until a news conference scheduled for Thursday.

Johnson said the farm near Strawberry was one of a number local authorities have discovered on Forest Service land this year. Five others were found on the nearby Tonto National Forest.
"We've had so many of them it seems like," he said.

Raquel Poturalski, a spokeswoman for the Coconino National Forest, said only a few marijuana plants have been documented in that forest in the last few years, but cases are not unheard of.

The portion of the forest where the farm was discovered was in the Fossil Springs Wilderness Area, just north of Strawberry. It is heavily forested with steep canyons, difficult to access by road.

Romanian teenagers crash while engaging in oral sex

This week, a teenager lost his license after crashing his car at high speed while his girlfriend performed oral sex on him! Robert Filip, 19, who was naked when police arrived at the scene, must also pay for damages caused during the collision. Filip apparently lost control of his car after forgetting to turn right on a curve in the city centre of Craiova, southwest Romania.

Police initially told reporters that Filip and his girlfriend Andrea Popescu, 18, were so carried away that they even continued their sex romp after the crash, oblivious to spectators who had rushed to the rescue. It was soon discovered however, that the force of the impact had caused a vacuum effect in the young girl's throat causing the amorous couple to become firmly stuck together.

Luckily, doctors at Craiova's main hospital were able to free the young girl of the blockage in her windpipe, but not until Filip had managed to deliver a little lubrication to the affected area.
"He's a very lucky boy!", Dr. Getemov told reporters. "If he had been driving any faster, the force of the impact would have almost certainly caused the young girl's teeth the clench tightly together resulting in an extreme biting action." "It would have been like that awful un-anaesthetized sex change incident in 'The World According to Garp' movie", he added thoughtfully.

A police spokesman confirmed: "We hope the fact he will have to pay for damages and the 90 days suspension of his licence will teach him a lesson for the future."

Filip later apologized, saying: "I am sorry for what happened but at the time I just could not stop myself." The teenagers had apparently only met that day.He added, "But I've certainly learnt my lesson. The next time my girlfriend decides to blow me - I'll make sure she does the driving!"

Tanning Bed Must Be Removed From 9-1-1 Call Center

ROGERSVILLE, Tenn. -- Hawkins County officials are taking a dim view of their emergency dispatchers using tanning beds.

The Hawkins County 911 Board voted Thursday that the tanning bed, which employees bought with their own money, must be removed from the Central Dispatch center. The center handles emergency calls for fire and law enforcement departments.

County Commissioner Syble Vaughan-Trent said she was concerned about taxpayer outrage.
"It's the impression it leaves as much as it is the money involved, but I think taxpayers are going to be highly upset to find out their money is paying utility costs for a tanning bed at 911," Vaughan-Trent said.

Board chairman Chili Sanders said he approved putting the tanning bed on county property.
"The employees paid for it, and I told them they could put it in there, but they cannot use it while they're on the clock," Sanders told his fellow board members. "Our employees sit for 12 hours, and they get kind of stiff, so they go in there after clocking out. They say it helps -- the heat on their back."

But when they get the munchies, watch out!

Russia's long winter will just fly by for a herd of Russian cows which, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, will be fed confiscated marijuana over the cold months.

Drug workers said they adopted the unusual form of animal husbandry after they were forced to destroy the sunflowers and maize crops that the 40 tonnes of marijuana had been planted among, Novye Izvestia daily reported.

"There is simply no other way out. You see, the fields are planted with feed crops and if we remove it all the cows will have nothing to eat," a Federal Drugs Control Service spokeswoman for the Urals region of Sverdlovsk told the paper.
"I don't know what the milk will be like after this."

Drug use in Russia took off with the decline of the Soviet Union and police have been fighting drug smugglers -- often shipping heroin from Afghanistan -- for years.
Such large hauls are relatively common, although they are normally burned.

Local Inmates Fall Ill After Using Staples To Make Tattoos

Deputy Says Inmates Have Too Much Time On Their Hands

CLARK COUNTY, Ind. -- Five inmates at the Clark County Jail are being treated with antibiotics after they got infections from using a staple to get home-made tattoos.

One inmate was infected so badly that he had to be taken to Clark Memorial Hospital because of an infected arm, WLKY NewsChannel 32 reported.

Jail officials said they're working to keep the facility clean, urging inmates not to share personal items like towels and razors.

They said the inmates receiving antibiotics should be healthy next week, WLKY reported.
A sheriff's deputy said the inmates just have too much time on their hands.

A Little Courtroom Feces

Prisoner sentenced after throwing feces

Kaazim Muhammad grinned, laughed and talked loudly in a courtroom Wednesday as a Fayette County judge sentenced him to 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison for throwing human feces at corrections officers.

"Your behavior indicates you have no interest in behaving in a civilized manner," Judge Steve Leskinen told Muhammad, adding that Muhammad "likely will never be released from prison."
Muhammad already is serving a 12 1/2- to 25-year sentence for convictions ranging from aggravated assault to kidnapping. His crimes were committed in Philadelphia County in 1999.

The term that Leskinen imposed yesterday will run consecutively with the time that Muhammad now is serving.

After a trial in May, a jury took just 10 minutes to convict Muhammad, 24, of aggravated harassment by a prisoner.

Police said Muhammad threw feces on a corrections officer through the meal slot of his cell door last Aug. 15. The incident occurred at the State Corrections Institution at Fayette in Luzerne Township, where Muhammad is in the long-term segregation unit, or LTSU.

Inmates in the LTSU are considered so unruly that they cannot be placed elsewhere in the state corrections system. Placement there is based on inmates' behavior behind bars -- not the crime that landed them in prison.

Muhammad appeared in court yesterday, wearing a yellow prison jumpsuit, laughing and giggling as he was led to the counsel's table. At one point, he slid his chair close to Assistant Public Defender Krista Martin, but a court bailiff slid it back. The defendant responded by laughing.

"I feel sorry for the people who have to deal with you in prison," Leskinen said.

Muhammad's case highlights the problems that county Sheriff Gary Brownfield and his four deputies have faced in transporting prisoners from SCI-Fayette to the county courthouse for legal proceedings.

"These prisoners are serving so much time, it doesn't matter to them," Brownfield said from his courthouse office, a floor below where Muhammad had just been sentenced. "Some of these guys are never getting out of jail, so they're just playing the system."

Two important changes, Brownfield said, are that state corrections officers -- not sheriff's deputies -- now transport the LTSU prisoners to and from the courthouse, about 15 miles away. Preliminary hearings for prison offenses are conducted inside the state prison so that inmates don't need to be transported.

Brownfield said SCI-Fayette Superintendent Harry Mitchell schedules state corrections officers to transport all LTSU prisoners. District Justice Herb Mitchell of Brownsville conducts preliminary hearings for prisoners at the prison.

"Harry's been fantastic working with us," Brownfield said. "It's one burden we no longer have. And since Herb's been conducting hearings inside the prison, it keeps us from having to transport prisoners outside the prison and through local communities."

Brownfield said transporting defendants to hearings, along with inmates who serve as witnesses, "presents potentially dangerous situations."

Muhammad, meanwhile, was talking and laughing on the way out of the courtroom as he was returned to SCI-Fayette to resume serving his time.