Tijuana police are now armed with slingshots!

Tijuana police issued slingshots

Guns confiscated amid allegations of collusion with drug runners

TIJUANA, Mexico – The police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers.

Municipal police spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said Monday that the slingshots, along with bags of ballbearings, were given to officers patrolling areas of the city visited by tourists.
Tijuana’s police force of 2,000 officers has been without guns since Jan. 5, but some patrol alongside armed state police.

President Felipe Calderon sent 3,300 soldiers and federal police to Tijuana at the beginning of January to hunt down drug gangs. The soldiers swept police stations and took officers’ guns for inspection amid allegations by federal investigators that a corrupt network of officers supports smugglers who traffic drugs into the U.S. The weapons are still being checked.

About 100 police demonstrated outside Tijuana town hall on Monday demanding the return of their guns. “The arms are our tools for work,” said officer Juan Manuel Nieves. “Do they want more police to be killed?”

More than 300 people were slain in Tijuana last year including 13 police officers.

Well they’re still a bit more heavily armed than British police officers, but this is a very amusing development! If you’ve been to TJ the Federales tend to be a frightening sight, mexicans with automatic weapons who can throw you in jail for looking at them wrong. They tend to have no qualms planting evidence on your person (happened to a number of people I know) and throwing you in jail. They are very open to bribes though – and they often use their corruption to make money.

There was a time in TJ when my cousin and I were driving a rental car down there (oops!) and on our way back we got pulled over by a TJ officer who told us we went the wrong way down a road (yeah right) and we had to follow him to the station to pay a fine of $80. My cousin was wise enough to ask, “Can we pay here?” and he told us that would only be $40… so we handed it over and he left. Not a bad deal for him, getting 40 for bringing false charges against some tourists…

Anyway, the world will probably be a better place when Federales are armed now only with slingshots.

Mark

San Diego classified ads.

Duck comes back to life, again!

This duck now has a better track record than Jesus!

 

 

Duck comes back from dead, again

Perky the duck has had a difficult couple of weeks

A duck that survived being shot and spending two days in a refrigerator has now overcome major surgery – despite briefly dying on the operating table. Florida vets working to repair gunshot damage to Perky’s wing panicked when the duck twice stopped breathing.

But they managed to resuscitate the bird, who leapt to fame when she was found alive in a hunter’s fridge two days after being shot.

Perky now has a pin in her wing, but is expected to make a good recovery.

Lifesavers

The ring-neck duck entered surgery with vets confident that she would survive the procedure despite serious injuries to her wing, leg and beak.

But they struggled to fully sedate Perky, who briefly lost consciousness, said Susan May, treasurer of the Goose Creek Animal Sanctuary in Tallahassee.

The vet turned and said: ‘I’m sorry, she’s gone’ Susan May Treasurer, Goose Creek Animal Sanctuary

“The first time she stopped breathing a quick thump on the chest brought her back,” Ms May told the BBC News website.

“But once the surgeon started sewing her back up she stopped breathing again, this time for 15 seconds.”

When a second thump failed to bring Perky round, veterinary surgeon David Hale tried manipulating the duck’s beak, before using a needle to shock her into consciousness.

At one point the duck was given pure oxygen through a face mask, Ms May said.

“At that point the vet turned and said: ‘I’m sorry, she’s gone.'”

The room fell into shocked silence as those present took in the news, but then Perky raised her head and began flapping her wings.

‘Emotional rollercoaster’

The relief reduced everyone to tears, Ms May said, describing one of her colleagues as “extremely emotional” as she left the room.

“For the duck to have gone through all of this and then to die at that time was a real shock,” Ms May said.

“This duck has taken us all on an emotional rollercoaster,” she said, adding that Perky has since recovered well and is staying out of trouble.

Perky first made international headlines when she shocked a hunter’s wife who found her alive after being stored inside a refrigerator for two days.

Mr Hale said the duck’s slow metabolism helped her survive the low temperatures for so long.

Now volunteers at Goose Creek are hoping a t-shirt on sale through a local firm will raise enough cash to provide long-term care for the bird.

That duck has definitely been through a lot. If Jack Bauer were to become a duck, he would be that duck.  That duck is a goddamn hero.  Now everybody give money to provide long term care or he’ll just wind up as french stew anyway.

Mark

San Diego classified ads

Man fights his way out of a shark’s mouth!

Diver says he was partly swallowed by a shark!SYDNEY, Jan 23 (Reuters Life!) – An Australian abalone diver told rescuers he was partly swallowed head-first by a Great White Shark on Tuesday but managed to fight his way free, suffering a broken nose and bite marks around the chest.

Diver Eric Nerhus, 41, was underwater with his 25-year-old son and other divers off Cape Howe, near Eden on Australia’s southeast coast, when the 3 meter (10 foot) shark attacked.

Rescuers earlier mistakenly reported his age as 25.

“He stated that he was head-first into the shark,” a spokeswoman for Snowy Hydro SouthCare rescue service told Reuters after airlifting the diver to hospital.

“When he came to us he was conscious and alert but had a broken nose and lacerations to both sides of his torso and chest — bite marks all the way around,” the spokeswoman said.

Nerhus told fellow divers he didn’t see the shark coming as the water was so dirty that visibility was severely limited.

“It was black. He didn’t see it coming, but he felt the bite and then started getting shaken, and that’s when he knew he was in the mouth of the shark,” said local diver Michael Mashado.The shark bit Nerhus around the head first, crushing his face mask and breaking his nose, fellow diver and friend Dennis Luobikis told Reuters.

NOTHING BUT THE VEST

“He was actually bitten by the head…the shark swallowed his head,” said Luobikis, adding a second bite by the shark saw it clench its jaw around Nerhus’ torso.

“The brunt of the bite was taken by his lead-weight vest. Its all over your torso. Eric said to me at the wharf that his weight vest saved him,” he said.

Abalone divers spend sometimes 6 to 8 hours underwater and use lead weight vests, not lead belts, to stay down. The vests spread the lead weight across the body, minimising back strain.

Nerhus fought frantically to free himself from the shark’s jaws and was eventually pulled back aboard his boat by his son.

“He pushed his abalone chisel into its head while it was biting and it let him go and swam away,” said Luobikis.

Luobikis said it was a miracle his friend had lived.

“Eric is a tough boy, he’s super fit. But I would say that would test anyone’s resolve, being a fish lunch,” he said.

Attacks by Great White Sharks are usually fatal because of the massive size of the predators, which breed in Australia’s cold southern waters, and the sheer force of their bites.

Sharks, including Great Whites, are protected in Australia.

Australia has had a number of shark attacks in the past year.

In December, a surfer off the southern coast survived an attack with minor injuries, while a 15-year-old boy swimming off a remote southwest beach had his leg bitten.

Last January, a scuba diver off the Western Australian city of Perth survived an attack by a Great White after fighting it off with his speargun and then his hands.

A 21-year-old woman died last January after she was attacked by three sharks while swimming off an island on Australia’s northeast coast. She lost both forearms and suffered wounds to the legs and torso.

The U.S. state of Florida annually records by far the most shark attacks.

Between 1990 and 2005 there were 341 shark attacks off Florida, according to the U.S.-based International Shark Attack File, http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm.

Over the same period, Australia reported 74 attacks, South Africa 72, Brazil 62 and Hawaii 57.

That guy is hardcore! That’s all I can say. He must be some kind of relative of Chuck Norris or Jack Bauer.

Mark

San Diego classified ads

An awesome job!

Private Investigators getting paid to have sex.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Sydney officials have paid private detectives thousands of dollars to have sex with prostitutes to gather evidence needed to shut down illegal brothels, a newspaper reported Sunday.

Nine local councils have paid private investigators a total of 25,000 Australian dollars (US$19,740) over the past three years to go undercover and root out the illicit trade, according to The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

Nick Ebbeck, the mayor of Kuringai council, which has reportedly spent A$7,000 (US$5,520) in the past month employing detectives to have sex with prostitutes, said extreme measures were necessary.

“We have to employ private investigators to actually go through with the act and come up with reports that will suffice in a court process,” he was quoted as saying.

“On numerous occasions over numerous days and times they had to fulfill the act.”

He said the evidence given by the investigators was successful in closing two illegal brothels this month.

Licensed brothels are legal and relatively common in Sydney, but a number of unlicensed premises operate throughout the city. Some councilors have complained that the burden of proof for shutting down illegal brothels is too high.

As long as you took the right safety precautions this would be an amazing job… I sooo have to move to Australia and become a Private Investigator!

Mark

San Diego classified ads

Sex Offender convinced child molesters he was 12

This has to be one of the best news stories ever!

Preteen’ boy toy dupes Az men, is found to be 29

‘This is the weirdest case I’ve seen in 18 years’

BOB CHRISTIE
The Associated Press

PHOENIX – A 29-year-old convicted sex offender from Oklahoma allegedly conned two Arizona men into believing he was a 12-year-old boy, moving into their home and having an ongoing sexual relationship with them, sheriff’s officials in Yavapai County said Friday.

The ruse was discovered Wednesday after one of the men tried to enroll the fake 12 year old in a charter school in Chino Valley, about 90 miles northwest of Phoenix, using the name Casey Price.

School officials became suspicious and called deputies, telling them they thought the guardianship papers and birth certificate presented by a man who said he was the “12 year old’s” grandfather appeared to be fake and that “Price” looked much older than 12, said Susan Quayle, a spokeswoman for the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office.

“They were very upset when the detectives told them they had been having a sexual relationship with a 29-year-old man and not a pre-teen boy,” Quayle said, referring to the two men.

Sheriff’s detectives investigating the case learned that the “grandfather” was Lonnie Stiffler, 61, who lived in a home in Chino Valley with Robert James Snow, 43, a sex offender who had failed to register with authorities, and the “12-year-old.”

Deputies served a search warrant at the home Thursday and found Stiffler, Snow, Brian J. Nellis, 34, and the phony pre-teen boy, who turned out to be Neil Havens Rodreick II, 29.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections online records show that Rodreick was convicted in 1996 of lewd and indecent proposal to a minor and served time in prison from Nov. 19, 1996, to Jan. 30, 2002. The records show that Nellis was convicted in 1997 of lewd molestation and was imprisoned from July 24, 1997, to July 28, 2000.

During interviews with the men, detectives learned that Stiffler and Snow met Rodreick through an Internet chat about two years ago, Quayle said, and they began to trade sexually explicit photos. He convinced them he was “Casey Price” and was only 12.

Stiffler and Show went to Oklahoma and met Rodreick at a hotel, then brought him back to live with them in Arizona and began an ongoing sexual relationship, Quayle said.

Rodreick apparently shaved his body hair and used makeup to keep up his guise as a pre-teen boy, Quayle said. He also dressed as a juvenile and tried to act and talk like a pre-teen.

“He looks young, I would not have guessed that he’s almost 30,” Quayle said, though she noted he certainly looked much older than 12.

When detectives unraveled the case and told Stiffler and Snow that “Price” was named Rodreick and was in fact 29, Quayle said they became dismayed and angry that they had been “conned.”

Nellis was apparently Rodreick’s cell mate in an Oklahoma prison and is also a registered sex offender, Quayle said.

Detectives have evidence that Stiffler and Snow enrolled Rodreick in other Arizona schools, possibly in Payson, El Mirage and Prescott Valley. They have notified law enforcement agencies in those jurisdictions to begin investigating, Quayle said.

“I think what we’re looking at is that he’s being used to troll for other kids,” she said.

All four men made an initial appearance in Yavapai County Justice Court Thursday, with all but Stiffler being held on $50,000 bond on a charge of failing to register as sex offenders. Stiffler was booked on two counts of forgery and one count of hindering prosecution and ordered held on $100,000 cash bond.

All four men were assigned public defenders, but Yavapai County Public Defender Janet Lincoln said her office had not seen any reports by Friday afternoon or met with the men and would have no comment. The county attorney’s office issued a statement saying that decisions on additional charges would be made by Monday afternoon. Quayle said deputies are looking into other possible charges, but are not asking for child molestation charges involving Rodreick.

“We can’t charge them with child molest because he was not a child,” Quayle said.

Quayle praised officials at the Mingus Springs Charter School where Rodreick tried to enroll Wednesday.

“This school, they really deserve congratulations,” she said. “They jumped on it, they were not fooled and they called us right way.

“This is the weirdest case I’ve seen in 18 years,” Quayle said. “Even the detectives said it was the weirdest. If it wasn’t so sad it would be funny.”

I think the best part (by far) is that they became so upset to find out that their pre-teen butt buddy was in fact an adult almost 30 years old… It’s so strange that they only like pre-teen boys for their homo urges and not adults, kind of disgusting actually.

In any case, this is a wonderful example of the lowest rungs of humanity!

Mark

San Diego classified ads

One more reason Amsterdam rocks!

They are building a statue to honor prostitutes!

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Amsterdam’s red-light district will soon get a new attraction: a statue to honor prostitutes around the world.

The statue, designed by artist Els Rijerse, will likely be unveiled at the end of March, Dutch news agency ANP reported.

“In many countries, prostitutes struggle and people have no respect for them whatsoever. The statue is meant to give all those men and women strength,” Mariska Majoor, a former prostitute who commissioned the statue, told ANP.

ANP said the statue, made of bronze, shows a woman who confidently looks out into the world.

Hey, it is the world’s oldest profession and I guess we have to pay tribute to it somehow. I mean we have statues for generals, leaders, and people who change the world – so why not prostitutes? I’m sure Cleaopatra would appreciate the gesture…

Mark

San Diego classified ads

Musical Condoms!

This is like something I’d talked about before… I wish I had pursued the idea because I could have been first to this market and made a lot of money!

Start sex on the right key with musical condoms

HONG KONG, Jan 19 (Reuters Life!) – Forget chocolates or roses this Valentine’s Day — a gift of musical condoms is bound to be more entertaining.

Hong Kong’s Ondo Creation, which makes designer condoms, hopes its Idom sheathes will put a more romantic spin on safe sex — and reduce the risk of a slap on the face that a pack of six might elicit among some conservative Asians.

The Idom itself doesn’t sing — but the mint, strawberry, chocolate and banana flavored condoms come in an attractive package with a music CD to get you in the mood for love.

“We create an environment for lovers who would like to try a different experience,” said Victor Tsang who runs Ondo Creation.

“We try to create products that are not embarrassing, but very trendy and hip. It’s a lifestyle product,” he added.

Cynics may scoff at the marketing gloss, but the 18 month start-up’s products sell across the world. The firm also won a bronze medal in the Industrial Design Excellence Awards run in conjunction with BusinessWeek magazine, which said Ondo had managed to “revitalize the image of condoms.”

Tsang, a former IT executive, says his product was inspired by a desire to promote safe sex and to provide a fun, relaxed alternative for what he calls “more conservative” customers.

The brand eschews regular prophylactic distributors, instead peddling its wares in bookstores, record shops and trendy nightspots in a long list of cities that includes Hong Kong, London, Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Singapore.

“We’re targeting more lifestyle stores, rather than 7-11’s and pharmacies,” said Tsang.

“There’s a market gap in the condom industry that we may be able to make fun — and also penetrate,” said Tsang who expected a 30 percent surge in sales ahead of Valentine’s Day.

The Idom’s Exotica, Chocotasy and Loveberry brands come with CD compilations of chillout, acid jazz and dance music.

“The music starts slow, then medium, then becomes fast before getting slow again,” said Jack Wong, who helped with the music.

He shrugs off the fact that the CDs run for exactly 18 minutes: “Whether this is long enough or not, really depends on the individual.”

They have an interesting choice here in product and marketing. I love that the music runs for only 18 minutes, that means some of us are going to have to stumble out of the bed to go press play again. :p

I hope they add the option for Stairway to Heaven… millions of people had sex to that song in the 70s.

Mark

San Diego classified ads

New Beer gives women bigger breasts!

I wonder what my girlfriend would think about this:

Breast-boosting beer

European men are flocking to Bulgaria to buy ‘breast-boosting beer’ after EU accession led to customs duties on the drink being abolished.

The millet-ale called Boza which is made from fermented wheat flour and yeast is being snapped up by bar owners, shopkeepers and shoppers from across Europe.

They are said to be keen for their wives and girlfriends to benefit from its reported ability to make women’s breasts grow.

Constantin Barbu crossed the Danube from Romania to buy Boza in the Bulgarian border town of Ruse.

He said: “I’ve bought a case for my wife to try out. I really hope I see an improvement.”

And Austrian landlord Klaus Schmidt from the ski resort of Schladming said he was planning a trip soon.

He added: “I had heard of Boza before but it was always so expensive once the tax was added. But now that’s gone I’m going to start offering the drink to my après-ski customers.”

This would be an awesome thing to import to the US! Beer that enhances jubblies? That is a miraculous thing! It combines two of the greatest things (beer and tits) and they improve each other!

Though I can actually see lobbyists from plastic surgeons specializing in boob jobs complaining and trying to stop this… That’s not so bad of course, let the boob war begin!

Mark

San Diego classified ads

Car navigation systems can get you killed!

There has been an issue where German motorists for example crash when obeying their satnav (satellite navigation) system commands…

BERLIN (Reuters) – A 46-year-old German motorist driving along a busy road suddenly veered to the left and ended up stuck on a railway track — because his satellite navigation system told him to, police said Sunday.

The motorist was heading into the north German city of Bremen “when the friendly voice from his satnav told him to turn left,” a spokesman said.

“He did what he was ordered to do and turned his Audi left up over the curb and onto the track of a local streetcar line. He tried to back up off the track but got completely stuck.”

The police spokesman said about a dozen trams were held up until a tow truck arrived to clear the car off the track.

Several German motorists have crashed their cars in recent months, later telling police they were only obeying orders from their satnavs.

You know, this could just be a common excuse for bad driving… it wouldn’t be that unbelievable altogether. Though it’s also kind of funny that people just obey without thinking about it. “Take a left through that brick wall.” “Ok.”

Mark

San Diego classified ads

Canadian man beats entire US Military industrial complex!

From bears to bullets

suit

John Rennison, the Hamilton SpectatorHamilton-born Troy Hurtubise has developed a feature-filled suit of armour out of high-impact plastic, ceramic bullet protection and ballistic foam.

Inventor hopes to sell armour suit to the military

By Wade Hemsworth
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 11, 2007)The grizzly man is back, and this time he’s ready to take on bullets and bombs.

Troy Hurtubise, the Hamilton-born inventor who became famous for his bulky bear-protection suit by standing in front of a moving vehicle to prove it worked, has now created a much slimmer suit that he hopes will soon be protecting Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

He has spent two years and $15,000 in the lab out back of his house in North Bay, designing and building a practical, lightweight and affordable shell to stave off bullets, explosives, knives and clubs. He calls it the Trojan and describes it as the “first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armour.”

Using the hard-learned lessons of his Project Grizzly experience — a 20-year odyssey that included a National Film Board documentary, an appearance on CNN and personal bankruptcy — he’s ready to start selling his newest idea.

Already, he says, the suit has stood up to bullets from high-powered weapons, including an elephant gun. The suit was empty during the ballistics tests, but he’s more than ready to put it on and face live fire.

“I would do it in an instant,” he said. “Bring it on.”

Yesterday, he returned to Hamilton to show off the suit, hoping to generate some publicity that will get him the meetings he wants with military and police outfitters.

On Saturday, he plans to wear it to Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto and wait for the reporters. It shouldn’t take long to create a stir.

Hurtubise, 43, wore his suit — helmet and all — on the four-hour drive down south, partly as a way of making sure it would be comfortable enough in the field. Even sitting on his armoured butt cheeks, he said he was fine.

As he drove his black pickup in his black getup, other drivers gawked and honked. Just south of Huntsville, he was delighted to be pulled over and gave an apprehensive OPP officer a close-up look at the suit.

Once he established that he could see just fine in his helmet and that the guns attached to his magnetic holsters were just props, Hurtubise was free to continue his trip.

The whole suit — which draws design inspiration from Star Wars, RoboCop, Batman and video games — is made from high-impact plastic lined with ceramic bullet protection over ballistic foam.

Its many features include compartments for emergency morphine and salt, a knife and emergency light. Built into the forearms are a small recording device, a pepper-spray gun and a detachable transponder that can be swallowed in case of trouble.

Dangling between the legs, that would be a clock.

In the helmet, there’s a solar-powered fresh-air system and a drinking tube attached to a canteen in the small of the back. A laser pointer mounted in the middle of the forehead is ready to point to snipers, while LED lights frame the face.

The whole suit comes in at 18 kilograms. It covers everything but the fingertips and the major joints, and could be mass-produced for about $2,000, Hurtubise says.

He said he hopes to earn enough of a living from the suit so he can keep on inventing, but the real reason he did this, he says, is “for the boys.”

Wow. I WANT ONE!!

No this guy seems like a nut, but he’s done some very awesome (if nutty) things in the past. Perhaps he’s most famous for his grizzly bear armor, which could theoretically withstand any kind of pounding or attack a Grizzly bear could muster. To demonstrate it’s durability he gets beaten with wooden bats, falls off a cliff, gets hit with a log, gets struck by a car, forced against a brick wall and so on without any injury. You can look at his video here on youtube.

Mark

San Diego classified ads