Oddly Enough...or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Strange

[safra23]

A Panda Love Story of sorts?

Big chill, high hopes 
from 7days.ae

Pornography, diets and sperm donation have all failed, but Thai authorities said that a rare cold spell has boosted hopes the country’s famously celibate giant pandas could reproduce.
The Chiang Mai zoo has struggled to make its star residents - nine-year-old Chuang Chuang and his eight-year-old partner Lin Hui - mate since they arrived from China in 2003.

But zoo director Thanapath Pongpamorn said temperatures that have fallen as low as 4C have in fact steamed up the pair.
“They normally live in a climate-controlled room but they seem happier with the cold weather at the moment,” Thanapath said.

He said Lin Hui has shown signs of being ready to mate, including following her partner around, and it has also helped that the cold snap has coincided with the regular mating season.
“Because of the readiness of their physical condition and the weather, we hope we will have good news soon,” Thanapath added.
Lin Hui received semen from her companion in April 2007 after the pair showed no interest in reproducing the traditional way, but she failed to become pregnant.

The previous year Chuang Chuang, who had been deemed too heavy to mate, lost 7kg on a low-carb diet, and was then shown 15-minute video clips of successful panda couplings. But the panda porn did little to inspire.

 
 

[ak]

Man smears feces on his lawyer, flings it at jury
Jan 28, 2009

SAN DIEGO – A San Diego judge has declared a mistrial in a kidnapping and assault case after the defendant smeared excrement on his lawyer's face and threw it at jurors. The judge boosted defendant Weusi McGowan's bail from $250,000 to $1 million after the Monday incident.

Prosecutor Christopher Lawson says McGowan was upset because the judge refused to remove public defender Jeffrey Martin from the case.

McGowan had smuggled a bag of feces into court and spread it on Martin's hair and face before flinging the excrement at jurors. No jurors were hit.

McGowan has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping for robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and other counts in connection with a 2007 home invasion.

[sulphurhead]

Is he trying to get off on a temporary insanity claim?

[shariqq]

LOL!!

Super Bowl porn hits US viewers

US sports fans in Arizona got a surprise when their TV coverage of American football's Super Bowl was interrupted by a pornographic film.

Tucson-based KVOA-TV said it was "dismayed and disappointed" after some cable viewers had their match coverage disrupted towards the end of the game.
The company said the material was only seen by viewers of one cable network.
"KVOA will investigate what happened and make sure our viewers get answers," company president Gary Nielsen said.
"When the NBC feed of the Super Bowl was transmitted from KVOA to local cable providers and through over-the-air antennas, there was no pornographic material," he added.

Comcast, the cable company whose viewers saw the material, said it was investigating.
Local media outlets reported that they received calls from furious viewers.

The clip showed a woman unzipping a man's trousers, followed by a graphic act between the two.
"I just figured it was another commercial until I looked up," viewer Cora King told the Arizona Daily Star.
"Then he did his little dance with everything hanging out."

The interruption happened just after the last touchdown by the Arizona Cardinals, who lost the match to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

...and this is apparently what interrupted the broadcast (NSFW)!

[ak]

It was Tyler Durden, I tell ya!

[shariqq]

ID uncertain, twins acquitted in drug trial
They escape death penalty in Malaysia; police couldn't say which had drugs

Both men were charged, but Kuala Lumpur High Court Judge Zaharah Ibrahim ruled Friday that only the twin with the key could be proven to be the owner of the drugs.

Because the brothers' identical features made it impossible for officers testifying to point out which one had been found with the key, she had no choice but to acquit both men.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Identical twin brothers escaped the death penalty in a Malaysian drug trafficking trial after the court ruled authorities could not prove which man committed the crime, news reports said Saturday.

"I ... can't be sending the wrong person to the gallows," the New Straits Times newspaper quoted the judge in the case as saying.

Police arrested the 27-year-old brothers in August 2003 after they found large amounts of opium and marijuana in a house to which one of the twins had the key, the New Straits Times and national news agency Bernama reported.

She called the ruling "a very unique case." Court officials familiar with the case could not immediately be reached.

The twins wept and hugged each other after the judge read her verdict, the reports added.

Malaysia has a mandatory penalty of death by hanging for drug trafficking. More than 200 people have been executed since capital punishment was implemented for the offense in 1975.

[fizz]

ak's thats a movie script with a twist ending right there...

[ak]

This is a perfect example of a political concept (from a realist's perspective) I've been reading about: The Prisoner's Dilemma. According to this, countries do not trust each other, like prisoners in a jail cell. They are in a constant state of distrust. But if the two countries, like two prisoners, trust each other *100%* then there will be no conflicts.

Or, to take it another way: two guys are caught. The DA puts both of them in different cells (remember Guy Pearce's character in L.A. Confidential?), and tries to break them, by turning one against the other. If one of them squeals, the other gets fucked. If both men squeal on each other, then both get fucked. However, if none of the men squeal, then both can go free.

In the above case, the two brothers chose to *trust* each other completely, and got what they wanted.

[fizz]

Which is why doubt (both the concept and the film) isn't such a good thing.

[ak]

Doubt arises out of a lack of conviction. Distrust and doubt are not mutually exclusive.

[ozzylogic]

Doubt arises out of a lack of conviction. Distrust and doubt are not mutually exclusive.

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

[madali]

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

[ak]

It's interesting how sci-fi frequently taps into philosophy...it's about time we got another really really good science-fiction film (no, Timecrimes wasn't it!).

[madali]

Science-fiction is a genre that is rarely handled well, and it makes me cry.

[ak]

Do I smell a Best Sci-fi Films Ever list...? Ha ha.