16 year old marries 40 year old coach!

Wow, isn’t this illegal?        

The Hagers are trying to figure out how life went off track for their teenage daughter, Windy.   

They envisioned that life for the good student and promising athlete would be filled with dreams of the prom and college, but that all changed this week when Windy, 16, married her high school track coach.

“She was a dream kid,” said her mother, Betty Hager. “We’d never have to worry about Windy trying to get by with something.”

At South Brunswick High School in North Carolina, Windy’s greatest passion was track and field.“She just always was outside, always running, and her name’s Windy — I guess she was predestined to do love to do that,” Betty said.

But that passion led her down a troubling path.

Special Attention From Coach

During Windy’s freshman year, her 38-year-old track coach, Brenton Wuchae, began taking a more active interest in her, offering to give the 14-year-old rides home from practice.

“He just seemed like a genuine guy, like he was there for the kids,” said Windy’s father, Dennis Hager.

But the Hagers eventually grew uneasy. Their phone bills showed text messages between Wuchae and Windy as late as 2 a.m.

They also discovered worrying e-mails. In one, Windy wrote to a friend, “I don’t care to look at anyone other than him. He is the apple of my eye, I’ve never felt this way for someone, but I just don’t want to lose him because of my parents’ power trips.”

The Hagers confronted Wuchae.

“He assured me there was nothing like that going on, [and that] they were just friends. His intentions were purely appropriate,” Dennis said.

Not satisfied with that answer, the Hagers turned to the school district, which spoke to the coach.

The principal of the high school wrote to the Hagers, “I have seen nothing but a cooperative attitude from the teacher, and to the best of my knowledge, he has not had any contact with Windy since then.”

“School officials can’t be responsible for what happens the other hours of the day, and I would think the relationship developed much more outside of school,” said Brian Shaw, an attorney for the school district.

The Hagers contacted police; they even tried to get a restraining order.

“We’ve tried everybody. We’ve been to the law. We’ve been to the school board,” Betty said. “Our family has come and tried to talk to her. We’ve had people on the phone with her for hours,€” family, friends. We’ve been to our pastor asking for guidance. We’ve been to his pastor.” 

Meanwhile, the Hagers say Windy withdrew, refusing to speak to them until she asked them to sign a consent form so that she and her coach, a man more than twice her age,€” could get married.

Although anguished, her weary parents gave in.

“Signing those consent forms was the hardest thing I did in my whole life, but we had to move on, it was going to kill us all,” Dennis said.

Monday, Windy and Wuchae married, and he resigned from the school.

But was Windy really old enough to understand her decision? Experts say it’s a difficult situation.

“With most teenagers, they’re not sure yet who’s who and what’s what and what should be done,” said Henry Paul, author of the book “Is My Teenager OK?” “It’s obviously up to the adult figure to set the boundaries.”

Windy and her new husband would not comment for this story, but the Hagers realize what they’ve lost.

“She could have done anything,” Betty said. “She could have set the world on fire. She threw it all away.” 

     Ok, well maybe this thing is illegal in California, but I’m not terribly surprised to hear this story arising from  North Carolina!  

There is only one way to resolve this issue between parents and newlyweds… either a reality tv show or an appearance on Jerry Springer!

 Mark

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Porn lies to us!

In porn lesbians are always really hot, but the reality is that lesbians are twice as likely to be obese? Aww man!

 

LESBIANS are twice as likely as heterosexual women to be overweight or obese, which puts them at greater risk for obesity-related health problems and death, US researchers said.

The report, published in the American Journal of Public Health, is one of the first large studies to look at obesity among lesbians.

Ulrike Boehmer of the Boston University School of Public Health and colleagues looked at a 2002 national survey of almost 6000 women, and found that lesbians were 2.69 times more likely to be overweight and 2.47 times more likely to be obese.

“Lesbians have more than twice the odds of (being) overweight,” the authors wrote.

This would put them at a higher risk for diabetes and heart disease, among other ailments.

“Our findings indicate that lesbian sexual identity is linked to a greater prevalence of overweight and obesity,” the authors wrote in the study, released this week.

They reviewed smaller studies that have suggested a higher prevalence of obesity among lesbians and the possible reasons why.

“The results of these studies indicate that lesbian women have a better body image than do heterosexual women,” they wrote.

But the authors said they placed little confidence in the idea that lesbians were more muscular than straight women, and thus were more likely to have a high body mass index, or BMI, while having little body fat.

High muscle mass is “unlikely to lead to classification as obese,” the researchers said.

“We reported greater odds of both overweight and obesity in lesbians and we feel confident in asserting that these differences are a result of increased adiposity,” the researchers wrote.

Well, there go my fantasies of jumping into the middle of a hot lesbian orgy. =P

Though maybe that South Park Episode was right, maybe a couple lesbians are more than a match for an army of persians.

Mark

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The worst Canadian in history…

Given all the tyrants, despots and evil bastards to populate this planet and our history, you may be wondering who the worst Canadian (a land of super nice people) was… Now they’re trying to find out.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – A Canadian history magazine plans to highlight how a country stereotyped for its polite and somewhat boring citizenry is also home to its share of scoundrels through a survey seeking “the worst Canadian.”

“Our international reputation has us as this very nice, quiet, friendly place,” said Deborah Morrison, president of Canada’s National History Society, which publishes The Beaver magazine.

“We thought it would be fun to show people our seamier side and take a look at some of our more villainous characters, and how they’ve helped to shape our country,” Morrison said.

So far, visitors to the magazine’s Web site at http://www.thebeaver.ca have nominated pop singers like Celine Dion and Shania Twain as well as criminals and prime ministers, she said.

But she said currently in the lead is “somebody only Canadians could know and hate:” the late Harold Ballard, former owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team.

“We take our hockey very seriously,” Morrison said.

Ballard, a self-described misanthropic “miserable old bastard” was loathed by fans and served time in jail for fraud and tax evasion.

The magazine’s August 1 issue will publish poll results for “Canada’s most foul, useless, maligning and destructive human forces” as well as more rigorous opinions from historians and Canadian writers, she said.

Morrison said the magazine cribbed the idea from BBC History Magazine, whose readers chose serial killer Jack the Ripper as the worst Briton in history in a 2005 poll.

Well, if the worst they have is a Hockey Team Owner who served jail time for fraud, it seems like their plan is going to completely backfire.

In the US some of our celebrities/heroes are arrested for fraud! Look at Martha Stewart, she’s just as big a home-making idol as she was before. Whoever the Canadians come up with as their national villain, there’s no way it could compete with the villains of history (Hitler, Genghis Kahn, and a lot more) and no way it could compare with most notorious Americans… Not even Shania Twain or Celine Dion can match the evil, hypocritical and disruptive nature of someone mild like Ted Haggard.

It would be funny if Celine Dion won of course, or if some random guy like “the egregious knitter” (a guy who steals balls of thread for knitting – made up) would be funny too.

Hell, if the worst they have is a tax evading hockey team owner, I’m moving up there.

Mark

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Study Finds that Booze Shrinks Brains!

Yet another study to show us what we already know...

Drinking too much alcohol on a regular basis may speed the shrinking of the brain that comes with age and accelerate mental decline, a study showed.

Brain scans of more than 1,800 people showed that those who consumed more than 14 drinks a week had about 1.6 percent less brain volume compared with nondrinkers. The effect was more pronounced among women than men, said lead researcher Carol Ann Paul, an instructor at Wellesley College near Boston.

Size reductions in certain parts of the brain have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease in previous research. More than 12 million Americans could be diagnosed as alcohol dependent, and consuming 12 to 15 drinks a week places a person at risk of the condition, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

“The study is a snapshot in time,” Paul said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We’re not looking at their entire history. The next steps would be to look at the longitudinal effects of alcohol, the effects over a lifetime.”

More research is needed to help determine whether the results apply to a wider population and specifically what the connection means, Paul said.

Paul and her colleagues were looking for signs that alcohol might slow brain aging in a way similar to the reduction in heart disease that studies have shown for people who consume low- to moderate amounts. Paul presented the study results at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting in Boston yesterday.

The researchers examined results of brain scans performed on men and women 34 to 88 years old and without signs of dementia. Dividing the group into nondrinkers, former drinkers, low, moderate and high drinkers, the researchers measured brain volume in relation to skull size, considered a marker of brain aging.

People with a 12-year history of heavy drinking had less brain volume than those who began drinking more moderately during that period and later consumed greater amounts, Paul said.

Heavy drinking seemed to have the most negative impact on the brain volume of women in their 70s, she said. Past studies have suggested that older women have risk factors that make them particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of heavy drinking.

According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, almost 18 million Americans abuse alcohol. Each year, more than 100,000 Americans die of alcohol-related causes.

This reminds me of some sage words:

“In my country, scientists say women have brain size of squirrel.”

If they drink alcohol it’s a possibility! I guess my generation is doomed to be squirrel brained individuals hopelessly wandering around with our mouths agape and our eyes showing interest for only fleeting moments before the ADD takes hold again. We will become living zombies, walking around moaning and using hokey pick-up lines.

In fact the shrinking of brain matter may explain some of these guys you see in clubs who seem to genuinely think that a cheesy pickup line can work…

Anyway, it’s a study that demonstrates something we already know – alcohol kills brain cells. So next time you have a drink, be sure to commemorate the memories and cognitive faculties lost!

Mark

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Boy gets toilet seat stuck on his head

I hope the mother got lots of blackmail pictures:

LONDON (Reuters) – British firefighters said on Wednesday they had come to a boy’s rescue after he got a toilet seat stuck on his head.

The toddler, aged two-and-a-half, and his mother walked into a fire station in Braintree, Essex, Tuesday saying the boy had put his head through a small trainer seat for the toilet and now could not remove it.

“His mum had tried to get it over his head but couldn’t budge it so she walked him down here and asked us to have a look at it and we went to work and we managed to get it off in no time,” firefighter Chris Cox said.

“We simply put some dish washing liquid on his head and ears and it slid off nice as pie.”

 

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He said the boy had been “very brave” and “toddled away as happy as can be” after his ordeal ended.

When I was in Boy Scouts we would have killed him a “Knight of the Round Bowl.”

Mark

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Watch out Superman! Kryptonite on Earth!

Hopefully Lex Luthor doesn’t catch wind up this development!

LONDON, England (Reuters) — Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films.

A mineral found by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero’s nemesis Lex Luther to weaken him in the film “Superman Returns”.

“We will have to be careful with it — we wouldn’t want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!,” said Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London’s Natural History Museum.

Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula – sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.

“I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns,” he said.

The substance has been confirmed as a new mineral after tests by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London and the National Research Council in Canada.

But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and is non-radioactive.

The mineral, to be named Jadarite, will go on show at the London’s Natural History Museum at certain times of the day on Wednesday, April 25, and Sunday, May 13.

We must make sure this doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, or the caped wonder of the world will be rendered powerless.

Mark

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Orwell to turn in grave

I found this story from the Foreign Policy blog, and it links to this BBC article:

 

‘Talking’ CCTV scolds offenders

CCTV in action

“Talking” CCTV cameras that tell off people dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be extended to 20 areas across England. They are already used in Middlesbrough where people seen misbehaving can be told to stop via a loudspeaker, controlled by control centre staff.

About £500,000 will be spent adding speaker facilities to existing cameras.

Shadow home affairs minister James Brokenshire said the government should be “very careful” over the cameras.

An example of how talking cameras work

Home Secretary John Reid told BBC News there would be some people, “in the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions”.

“But the vast majority of people find that their life is more upset by people who make their life a misery in the inner cities because they can’t go out and feel safe and secure in a healthy, clean environment because of a minority of people,” he added.

What really upsets people is their night out being destroyed or their environment being destroyed by a fairly small minority of people John Reid

The talking cameras did not constitute “secret surveillance”, he said.

“It’s very public, it’s interactive.”

Competitions would also be held at schools in many of the areas for children to become the voice of the cameras, Mr Reid said.

Downing Street’s “respect tsar”, Louise Casey, said the cameras “nipped problems in the bud” and reduced bureaucracy.

“It gets across the message, ‘please don’t litter our streets because someone else will have to pay to pick up that litter again’,” she told BBC News.

“Half a billion pounds a year is spent picking up litter.”

‘Scarecrow policing’

Mr Brokenshire told the BBC he had a number of concerns about the use of the talking cameras.

“Whether this is moving down a track of almost ‘scarecrow’ policing rather than real policing – actually insuring that we have more bobbies on the beat – I think that’s what we really want to see, albeit that an initiative like this may be an effective tool in certain circumstances.

“We need to be very careful about applying this more generally.”

The talking cameras will be installed in Southwark, Barking and Dagenham, in London, Reading, Harlow, Norwich, Ipswich, Plymouth, Gloucester, Derby, Northampton, Mansfield, Nottingham, Coventry, Sandwell, Wirral, Blackpool, Salford, South Tyneside and Darlington.

HAVE YOUR SAY A very silly idea from a government that is bereft of wisdom and out of touch Stuart, Dunstable Send us your comments

In Middlesbrough, staff in a control centre monitor pictures from 12 talking cameras and can communicate directly with people on the street.

Local councillor Barry Coppinger says the scheme has prevented fights and criminal damage and cut litter levels.

“Generally, I think it has raised awareness that the town centre is a safe place to visit and also that we are keeping an eye open to make sure it is safe,” he said.

But opponent and campaigner Steve Hills said: “Apart from being absurd, I think it’s rather sad that we should have faceless cameras barking at us on orders from who? Who sets these cameras up?”

There are an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain.

A recent study by the government’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner, warned that Britain was becoming a “surveillance society”.

Now as Orwellian and foreboding as this is, I still think it would be fun to be the guy on the microphone watching the camera. “Hey, jackass with the stupid looking yellow hat, yeah you. Stop leaving your shit on the floor, clean it up!”

All kinds of potential for fun and abuse. =P

Mark

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Keith Richards snorted his father’s ashes!

From the wonderful, colorful bizarro world of Keith Richards.

LONDON – Keith Richards has acknowledged consuming a raft of illegal substances in his time, but this may top them all.

In comments published Tuesday, the 63-year-old Rolling Stones guitarist said he had snorted his father’s ashes mixed with cocaine.

“The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” Richards was quoted as saying by British music magazine NME.

 

“He was cremated, and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared,” he said, adding that “it went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.”

Richards’ father, Bert, died in 2002, at 84.

Richards, one of rock’s legendary wild men, told the magazine that his survival was the result of luck, and advised young musicians against trying to emulate him.

“I did it because that was the way I did it. Now people think it’s a way of life,” he was quoted as saying.

“I’ve no pretensions about immortality,” he added. “I’m the same as everyone … just kind of lucky.

“I was No. 1 on the ‘who’s likely to die’ list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list,” Richards said.

The rocker, who underwent an operation in New Zealand last year after reportedly falling out of a tree in Fiji, also took a swipe at some of the big musical acts of today.

“Everyone’s a load of crap,” he said. “They are trying to be somebody else, and they ain’t being themselves. Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party? Load of crap, load of crap. Posers, rubbish.”

Of course on the Rolling Stones website he made this statement:

“The complete story is lost in the usual slanting! The truth of the matter is that I planted a sturdy English Oak . I took the lid off the box of ashes and he is now growing oak trees and would love me for it!!! I was trying to say how tight Bert and I were. That tight!!! I wouldn’t take cocaine at this point in my life unless I wished to commit suicide.”

Of course it’s hard to tell how much Keith Richards may even remember of the discussion or the last several years of his life in general. The guy is nuts. I bet when they cremate him, everybody in attendance will get high from the smoke!

Mark

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Egyptians go to France to recover stolen mummy hairs!

I guess they really like their ancient hairs:

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt sent an archaeological team to France on Thursday to retrieve 3,200-year-old strands of hair from the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II, who presided over an era of great military expansion in Egypt, state media said.

The existence of the hair came to light last year when some of the strands were offered for sale on the Internet for between 2,000 and 2,500 euros ($2,668 and $3,336), in addition to tiny pieces of resin and embalmed cloth taken from the mummy.

The seller had said he obtained the relics from his deceased father, who had worked in a French laboratory entrusted with analysing and restoring the body of Ramses in the 1970s. He had offered to provide certificates of authenticity to buyers.

 

French archaeologists had reacted with horror to news that the hairs were on sale and French authorities arrested the suspected seller in November.

Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass praised the efforts of French authorities to stop the sale of the hair, and said that the “theft of the mummy’s hair was not appropriate behavior”, state news agency MENA said.

Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, was born around 1304 BC and ruled Egypt for more than 60 years during the 19th dynasty of pharaohs. He is a popular feature on Egyptian postcards and is traditionally believed to be the pharaoh mentioned in the biblical story of Moses.

Ramses’s mummy was discovered in 1881 and shortly afterwards moved to Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. In the early 1970s authorities noticed his body was deteriorating and sent it to Paris, where it was treated for a fungal infection.

 

Don’t they know about the ancient Egyptian mummy hair curse? If you take a mummy’s hair you will wind up growing very hairy palms, which would make life (and other things) a lot harder.

 

I can already hear what my girlfriend would say. “If he still has hair after thousands of years, I have to know what kind of shampoo and conditioner he used!” =P

 

Mark

 

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Hooters in the “Holy Land”

I love this restaurant.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. restaurant chain Hooters, known for waitresses in low-cut blouses and short skirts, will open its first branch in Israel this summer, in the Mediterranean seaside city of Tel Aviv.

“I strongly believe that the Hooters concept is something that Israelis are looking for,” Ofer Ahiraz, who bought the Hooters franchise for Israel, told Reuters Monday. “Hooters can suit the Israeli entertainment culture.”

At Hooters, waitresses the company calls Hooters Girls serve spicy chicken wings, sandwiches, seafood and drinks.

Ahiraz said a specific location in Tel Aviv, Israel’s most cosmopolitan city, had yet to be chosen, but he said it would not open restaurants near large religious populations, and they would not be kosher.

He said his plan was to open as many as five Hooters restaurants in the next few years, including one in the southern resort city of Eilat.

The Tel Aviv version of Hooters is expected to mimic most of the chain’s other 430 restaurants in the United States and in 23 countries including China, Switzerland, Australia and Brazil.

Ahiraz said, however, he expected some minor modifications to meet Israeli tastes since U.S. chains have had a mixed response in Israel.

Food chains such as Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Hard Rock Cafe failed, Kentucky Fried Chicken closed many locations, while others such as Burger King and McDonalds have thrived by altering their offerings to suit the Israeli market.

“It shows that if you are flexible and listen to your customers you can be a success story,” Ahiraz said.

The opening of Hooters in Israel is part of the chain’s global expansion. Privately held Hooters said it planned to open 17 restaurants in Colombia, Dubai, Guam, New Zealand and India in the next two years.

“International expansion is a major focus for our company, and we are very excited to add Israel to our family,” John Weber, executive vice president of franchise operations for Hooters of America, said in a statement.

This is just one example of how advanced Israel is becoming, though I’m not sure if the religions out there will appreciate this kind of thing… If any terrorists blow themselves up inside a Hooters I say that’s ground for turning counties into glass parking lots.

Random bombings is a terrible atrocity, but targeting babes is punishable by divine retribution. =P

Mark

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