Walk Or Dance Your Way To A Cleaner House

A new pair of shoes have been invented that vacuum as you walk.

These vacuum shoes, which makers Electrolux call the Dustmate, have a tiny rechargeable vacuum inside the base.

The shoes are made of green nylon with a flexible rubber sole and elastic sock to fit any foot making it comfortable to wear.

A spokesman for Electrolux said: "We all have to vacuum our home - this product is designed for busy people who want to keep the housework down to a minimum. Dustmate provides a cleaning solution that doesn't take up any precious free time."

"As you walk, the base of the shoes collect dust on the floor without requiring any effort. It is a simple yet creative cleaning concept."

The designers came up with the invention after asking consumers what they wanted and finding that they were just too busy to spend lots of time doing housework.

The next step would be to make your guests wear these shoes as they walk around your house.

No Bargains For The Natives

Time works its changes in mysterious ways.

Recently I read the New York Times article about bargain hunters traveling from London to New York because of the dollar’s weak economic performance against the pound.

According to the article in the NYT, the pound was about $1.96, up from about $1.60 four years ago. This was enough to get Londoner’s to come to New York and shop.

“The British are pretty savvy travelers and are pretty keenly aware of the exchange rate,” said Fred Dixon, the vice president for tourism development at NYC & Company. “The British and the Irish will come to New York for a long weekend to shop like we would go to Boston.”

But that is not whole story. On Dec.26th I went to find some homespun after Christmas sale items in the clothing stores on Broadway between Houston and Canal. That stretch of Manhattan features the likes of Banana Republic, American Eagle, and Bloomingdales SoHo, Max Mara, Mexx, Prada, Armani Express and many other known names on the side streets off of Broadway.

Now I wasn’t expecting wholesale prices in the after Christmas sales but I thought there would be quite a few items discounted 30 percent or more.

Not this year, not only were post Christmas prices not very discounted, there were few items on sale.

But shoppers were in a state of frenzy, buying everything in sight.


I was in a state of shock. All that I knew as a New Yorker was at risk. Maybe purchasing at close to wholesale in the city was going the way of the VCR tape deck.

That might be the case. Almost everyone cheerfully carrying a shopping bag was not speaking English. I could recognize German, French, Russian, Spanish, Italian and British English. Those who looked and spoke New York were by and large not buying anything.

I asked Alfonso, the floor manager of Bloomingdales SoHo how many of his current customers were foreign tourists. He replied about 85%. With customers shopping the exchange rate there was little need for his or other stores in the area to drastically reduce prices.

But here, here in the capital of “I can get it wholesale”, those days of discounts may be gone.

Jesus Stolen From Nativity Scene, Replaced With Beer Can

PLAISTOW, N.H. (AP) - A homeowner said Friday that whoever stole the baby Jesus from his manger scene was disrespectful by replacing it with an empty beer can.

Bob Chooljain said that the Jesus figure was stolen from the manger scene on Wednesday night.
Chooljain said that he made the nativity scene more than three decades ago with his children.
“It’s something we kind of did together,” he said.
“You just wonder, what was in the person’s mind that actually did that? What was the reason for it? Why leave the beer can? What’s the connection?” said Chooljain, doesn’t want to press charges.

Wooden cutouts of sheep and cows remain; only two of the three wise men stand on either side of the manger. Chooljain said the third was stolen eight years ago.

Chooljain said he will replace the illuminated figure with another doll for the time being.

Brown Dress Saga

For one year dancer and activist Alex Martin has refused to change her dress.

It's a simple frock in a warm chocolate color. But, since July 7, 2005, it has played a principal role in Alex's "one-woman show against fashion" and consumerism.

Over the past 365 days, the dress has endured holes, rips, and a perpetually loose waist button.

This website has Alex and her dress’s story

http://littlebrowndress.com/

2006 Movie Mistakes

As 2006 draws to a close, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is the clear winner (or loser), with by far the most mistakes of any movie released this year - 147.

Find More Mistakes At: http://www.moviemistakes.com/

Jakarta Hotel Puts $110 Hamburger On Menu

JAKARTA (Reuters) - A hotel in Indonesia is dishing out a hamburger that costs more than twice the monthly minimum wage in some parts of the country.

The $110 (56 pounds) hamburger offered by the Four Seasonss is made of Kobe beef with foie gras, Portobello mushrooms and Korean pears -- served with french fries, of course.

More: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type

Christmas Night

Smell-o-Vision Is Back In A Magazine Near You

Kraft Foods is sponsoring a special holiday issue of Time
Warner’s People magazine that comes with an olfactory
twist: 5 of the 31 Kraft ads in the issue are scratch and sniff.

This will let the readers to experience the smell of one of the
products being advertised i.e., strawberry cheesecake,
cinnamon coffee, cherry Jell-O, and white chocolate.

The issue will be sent to only 1 million of the 2.3 million
subscribers – targeting only women 25-54 households with
children.

Prosecutors won't seek charges for exhumation in Billy the Kid case

PRESCOTT, Ariz - Prosecutors won't seek charges against two men who exhumed the remains of a man who claimed to be the celebrated outlaw Billy the Kid.

Tom Sullivan, former sheriff of Lincoln County, N.M., and Steve Sederwall, former mayor of Capitan, N.M., dug up the bones of John Miller in May 2005. Miller was buried at the state-owned Pioneers' Home Cemetery in Prescott nearly 70 years ago.

"It appears officials in charge of the facility gave permission and the people who were attempting to recover samples of the remains believed they had permission to do so," said Bill FitzGerald, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which made the decision not to seek charges.

Sullivan and Sederwall obtained DNA from Miller's remains. The samples were sent to a Dallas lab to compare Miller's DNA to blood traces taken from a bench that is believed to be the one Kid's body was placed on after he was shot to death in 1881.

Sullivan and Sederwall have been hunting for the Kid's bones since 2003.

Zombies on the web

A zombie is physically identical to a normal human being, but completely lacks conscious experience. Zombies look and behave like the conscious beings that we know and love, but "all is dark inside."

There is nothing it is like to be a zombie. On this website you will meet all varieties of zombies, from the Hollywood and Haitian zombies to the little known Philosophical zombie.

http://consc.net/zombies.html

Survey America - Love & Sex

What surveys say about Americans

Love & Sex

2 out of 5 have married their first love.

Only 4% asked the parents' approval for their bride's hand.

29% of us are virgins when we marry.

56% of men have had sex at work.

60% of men and 54% of women have had a 1-night stand.

Women buy 4 out of every 10 condoms sold.

1 in 5 men proposed on his knees.

6% propose over the phone.

Musical Condom Hits The High Notes

A musical condom designed to play louder and faster as lovers reach a climax is to go on sale in Ukraine.

Grigoriy Chausovsky, from Zaporozhye, said his condoms came fitted with a special sensor that registers when the condom is put on.

It transmits a signal to a miniature speaker in the base of the condom which play a melody.

He told local media: "As the sex becomes more passionate, it registers the increased speed of the movements and plays the melody faster and louder.


http://uk.gizmodo.com/2006/10/03/get_your_rocks_off_with_musica.html

Slow Cooked Squirrel

Have you ever gone to a park or watched squirrels running about looking for nuts and thought there goes some four footed food?

If so then this recipe is for you.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Slow-Cooked-Squirrel/Detail.aspx

"This stew recipe is for those of us who are hunters and are more of the country ilk. It is easy that you can go to work while it simmers in your pot and when you return home, dinner is ready."

6 servings

Old Brooklynites Understand

© Lionel Martinez

If you ain't from Brooklyn, just forget this; you wouldn't understand.

You're truly from Brooklyn if you can relate to any of the following:

1.Alternate side of the street parking.

2.Ate at Chock Full O' Nuts Shops (date nut bread and powdered
donuts that were crunchy).

3.Ate dinner every Sunday night at Fong Fongs on Church Avenue.

4.Ate Italian food at Collaro's on Coney Island Ave.

5.Bought bobka at the original Ebingers on Flatbush Avenue. Or
Butterbun on Nostrand Ave.

6.Bought Ebinger's Black-Out Cake (and didn't count the calories)

7.Bought knishes from Mrs. Stahls in Brighton, or Ruby the Kinish
Man.

8.Bought knishes on the beach and didn't mind the sand.

9.Bought pickles out of a barrel. The salt made you pucker.

10.Can name all the Brooklyn High Schools. Just try and do that today


11.Don't speak with an accent - everybody else does.

12.Drove over the Marine Park Bridge for a 10-cent toll, and Brooklyn
Battery Tunnel for 35 cents.

13.Everybody knows somebody from the neighborhood, even if it is
your mother's cousin's son-in-law's sister's boyfriend.

14.Got a "Kitchen Sink" at Jahn's.

15.Got a J.D. card and feeling like Al Capone.

16.Had a prom date at the Club Elegante.

17.Had roller skates with keys.

18.Hand ball in the park.

19.Hit two sewers in punch ball.

20.It's not the "shore", its the "beach" idiot.

21.Kings Plaza.... how come we get the crappy mall?

22.Knew who the neighborhood wise guy was, but you'd never tell the
cops.

23.Know that NBC's main production studio is on Avenue M.

24.Know what E.J. Korvettes stands for (Eight Jewish Korean
Veterans).

25.Know what the F.W.I.L. on the Lundy's Restaurant in "The Bay"
stands for (It's the brothers, Frederick, William, Irving and
Louis).

26.Know, or at least your hips do, what a Charlotte Russe is.

27.Owned a pair of pumps from Miles or National's.

28.Played at ( Eddy) Faber's Fascination and Skeeball - saved tickets
for junk.

29.Played hide and go seek at dusk.

30.Played Hit The Penny, Stoop Ball, Skelly, and Potsy.

31.Private beach? What's that?

32.Remember a time when the Greeks didn't own ALL the diners and
the Koreans didn't own ALL fruit stands. Except the Greeks on
Utica and Church, where you just said going to the Greeks for
lunch.

33.Remember Bohack's, Packer's, and Smilen Brothers fruit stand.

34.Remember Coney Island fireworks every Tuesday night in the
summer. Watching from your roof.

35.Remember submarine race watching at Plumb Beach. Heck, if you
even know where Plumb Beach is.

36.Sheepshead Bay is for fishing and seafood.

37.Shopped on Fulton Street and Pitkin Ave. before the mall and all
the dreck.

38.Swear that Grabstein's Deli had the l-e-a-n-e-s-t pastrami.

39.The first bar that you hung out in when you were 15 is "so young
now".

40.There is a bagel bakery a few blocks away.

41.There is at least one pizzeria within 1 block of your house and a
candy store on the corner.

42.Thought "Buddy's Fairyland Kiddie Park" on Utica Ave. was a major
amusement park.

43.Thought going "away to college" means NYU, Pace, or Pratt.

44.Waited for the Good Humor or Bungalow Bar guy to come around
your block.

45.Walked along the Coney Island Boardwalk, with a Shatzkins knish.

46.Washed it down with a Sunny Boy orange drink.

47.Went to a Bar Mitzvah at the Colonial Mansion, sometimes two on a
weekend.

48.Went to Big Daddy's on Coney lsand Avenue as a change from
Nathan's.

49.Went to Brennan and Carr for a double dip roast beef that dripped
all over you.

50.Went to Murray the K rock concerts at the Brooklyn Fox or the
Brooklyn Paramount. Went the night before for good seats.

51.Went to Saturday matinees at the Oriental, Canarsie, Kingsway,
Avalon, Rugby, Sheepshead, Mayfair or Marlboro theaters.

52.You ate at the Horn and Hardart Automat.

53.You can correctly pronounce places like Long I-land, but aren't
exactly sure where it begins.

54.You curse. A lot. Or can at least out curse anyone from anywhere
else.

55.You don't go to Manhattan, you go to "The City."

56.You have no reason to go to Queens, except for Met games.

57.You know and go to the REAL Nathan's - Coney Island.

58.You know someone with mob ties.

59.You know the difference between going with, seeing, fooling around
with and going out with someone.

60.You know what a "johnny pump" is.

61.You love "Welcome Back Kotter" (and not because of the crisp
writing or great acting).

62.You made a scooter from orange crates and an old skate.

63.You made carpet guns that shot old linoleum projectiles.

64.You never realize you have an accent until you leave.

65.You waited for the rides on a truck to come to your neighborhood
for 10 cents a ride.

66.You walk down "The Avenue" and see at least a handful of the
people you knew growing up.

67.Your friends came over to hang out on the stoop.

68.You've had a pigeon crap on your car and/or your head.

AND the most important reason that you are a Brooklynite, or at least
have the soul of one, is You're still angry that the Dodgers left.

YOU DON'T HAVE A PRAYER:

A study of more than 1,800 heart bypass operations shows that praying for the patient has no effect on recovery rates.

In fact, the $2.4 million Harvard Medical School study shows, if the patient knows he's being prayed over, complication rates increased.

It was thought because the patients figured they were in bad shape if they needed prayers.

Thank You For Driving Cafefully

Perhaps it is not a good idea to read a sign too closely while driving.

Guerrilla Gardening

Based in London this blog has a global green guerrilla reach. It has a map page to over 50 international links.

Membership is free, but unlike most blogs there is no way to comment on the blog.

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

Travelers To Africa, Asia Returning With New Virus

ATLANTA - Travelers to parts of Africa and Asia are returning with a new mosquito-borne virus and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Thursday it could become entrenched in new areas.

Some people returning to Europe, the United States, Canada, Martinique and French Guyana reported cases of Chikungunya fever (CHIKV) in 2006 and large outbreaks have been reported in Indian Ocean islands and in India, according to the report.

The virus first emerged in Tanzania in 1953 and, though no deaths have been recorded, it can cause a debilitating illness whose symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, muscle and joint pain and rash. No specific drug therapy or vaccine exists to treat it.

"Some risk exists that CHIKV might be introduced into previously nonendemic areas by travelers with viremia, leading to local transmission of the virus," the report said.

It singled out tropical or subtropical areas of the U.S. including the Gulf Coast, Hawaii and the Virgin Islands as particularly at risk.

Here's Looking At You Kid

In the very near future you will be able to securely lock and unlock your cell phone, pay bills by that cell phone and with a single swipe of the phone purchase items like you would with a credit card.

All this will be possible with iris recognition technology in your cell phone.

So what happens in the near future, when your phone recognizes you and decides it doesn’t like you anymore?



On November 6, Oki Electric announced the development of iris recognition technology for camera-equipped mobile phones. Unlike Oki’s previous iris recognition technology that relies on infrared cameras for the iris scan, the new technology uses ordinary cellphone cameras.

With plans to make the technology commercially available in March 2007, Oki hopes to boost the security of cellphone payment systems.

According to Oki, any camera-equipped cellphone or PDA can perform iris recognition once the special software is installed. Identification accuracy is said to be high, with only 1 in 100,000 scans resulting in error, and the system can tell the difference between flesh-and-blood eyes and photographs.

Sources: Nikkei Net, Oki press release

Cats and Dogs

The dog's diary:

7 am- Oh boy! A walk! My favorite!
8 am- Oh boy! Dog food! My favorite!
9 am- Oh boy! The kids! My favorite!
Noon- Oh boy! The yard! My favorite!
2 pm- Oh boy! A car ride! My favorite!
3 pm- Oh boy! The kids! My favorite!
4 pm- Oh boy! Playing ball! My favorite!

6 pm- Oh boy! Welcome home Mom! My favorite!
7 pm- Oh boy! Welcome home Dad! My favorite!
8 pm- Oh boy! Dog food! My favorite!
9 pm- Oh boy! Tummy rubs on the couch! My favorite!
11 pm- Oh boy! Sleeping in my people's bed! My favorite!

The cat's diary:

Day 183 of my captivity. My captors continued to taunt me with
bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while
I am forced to eat dry cereal. The only thing that keeps me going is
the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction I get from clawing the
furniture.

Tomorrow I may eat another house plant. Today my attempt to kill my
captors by weaving around their feet while they were walking almost
succeeded - must try this at the top of the stairs.

In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once
again induced myself to vomit on their favorite chair - must try this on
their bed, (or car.....)

Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body in an
attempt to make them aware of what I am capable of, and to try to
strike fear in their hearts.
They only cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was.
Hmmm, not working according to plan...

There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed
in solitary throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise and
smell the food. More important, I overheard that my confinement was due
to my powers of inducing "allergies." Must learn what this is and how
to use it to my advantage.

I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches.
The dog is routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He
is obviously a half- wit. The bird, on the other hand, has got to be an
informant and speaks with them regularly. I am certain he reports my
every move. Due to his current placement in the metal room, his safety
is assured. But I can wait; it is only a matter of time...

A Different Kind Of Political Humor

Diddly Squat Video

Think you have seen everything when it comes to political humor?
Well you haven't until you watched Diddly Squat and son.

Diddly On YouTube

Pagan Prisoners Get A Day Off On Halloween

In England and Wales, hundreds of Pagans serving prison sentences will be free of their duties during their "holiday" this Tuesday.

Prison Service bosses have instructed their staff to grant the convicts, who include Devil worshippers and Satanists, special privileges during Halloween.

The prisons, which grant these same privileges for all other religions as well, will allow the 282 incarcerated Pagans in England and Wales to use certain religious artifacts like rune stones, flexible twigs and hoodless robes within their cells or communal worship.

Though prisons are allowing inmates to observe their religious holidays in order to avoid being sued by prisoners, some others are outraged at the idea of inmates, much less Pagan ones, being given permission to celebrate.

Secret UFO Bases

The Overlooked News

With the media filled with news with war, politics, and Paris Hilton, it is refreshing when something of note is reported.

Secret UFO Bases Along The Interface Of The Seven Large Tectonic Plates
From the India Daily Technology Team

UFO bases need to be deep under the ground because the UFO crafts need to be close to the mantle of the earth. Servicing of these crafts can be done in that electromagnetic environment only.

For more information: UFO

One Woman New York City Welcoming Committee

Recently this woman has been seen topless, except for large pasties, serenading tourists in the Time Square area with her guitar playing.


Truth be told she is doing this for tips which she puts in her boot. She also takes pictures with tourists for a fee.

The local police know her and just write a report every time she performs.

Welcome to New York!

Survey America - Religion

What surveys say about Americans

Religion

90% believe in divine retribution.

10% believe in the 10 Commandments. (That's one Commandment per person on average)

82% believe in an afterlife.

45% believe in ghosts.

10% of us claim to have seen a ghost. (Not Counting Casper)

49% believe in ESP.

Every 10-year-old kid knows that...

JOHANNESBURG - It's a "factual reality" that beans make you break wind, says South Africa's advertising watchdog.

A TV advert for sweet onions showed a rugby player eating beans that made him smell "stinky." The advert claims that "with sweet onions there are no tears, no burn and definitely no stink."

The country's Dry Bean Producers Organization complained about the advert on the basis that the "stinky" charge was untrue but the Advertising Standards Authority threw out the charge and said it was widely known that beans produce gas.

"It plays on an objectively determinable factual reality which cannot be denied..." the ASA said on its Web site.

Meet Chechnya's Psycho Zookeeper

Did Ramzan assassinate his harshest critic?
Contributed by a Misc-Reports Reader

Prime suspect in the murder of Russian journalis Anna Politkoskaya, other than scary Russian President Putin, is the even scarier Chechnyan
prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov.

Ramzan inherited the position on the death of his father and has
only just turned 30. He manages to combine the
life of a Scorsese gangster with an LA trust fund celebutante - in Grozny.

Little Known Ramzan Facts

* Is best friends with Mike Tyson, now called
Malik Abdul Aziz. Tyson has come to fight at
Ramzan's Grozny boxing club, "Ramzan".
Grozny is covered in posters showing Tyson
and Ramzan together.

* Bought a Siberian tiger cub, because Tyson
used to own one. He also has a lion, a wolf,
a bear and fighting dogs in his private zoo.

* Before cuddling any of his animals, spits
in their faces. To stop them giving him the
evil eye, of course.

* Hung the head of a prominent guerrilla from
a gas pipe, as a warning to would-be rebels.

* Human rights groups say his private army,
The Kadyrovtsky, is responsible for 70% of
all torture, rape, murder and kidnapping.

* Anna Politkovskaya recently claimed she
had video footage of a man identical in
appearance to Ramzan ordering murders and
kidnapping. His army have begun using their
picture phones to record videos of themselves
torturing Chechens.

Bush Sings

The WTF Video Clip Of The Week

The best way to describe this clip is as a surrealistic political video of unknown leanings.

Judge for yourself

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kKN92DASn0

Survey America

What surveys say about Americans

What We Shouldn't be Doing

13% of us admit to occassionally doing our offspring's homework.

91% of us lie regularly.

27% admit to cheating on a test or quiz.

Fortune Cookie Fortune

Numbers recommended by a fortune cookie resulted in a lottery win.

When the results began coming in from the 30 March 2005 Powerball drawing, lottery officials suspected fraud was underway.

While there had been only one winner of the $13.8 million jackpot, a record 110 players were claiming second prizes of either $100,000 or $500,000 (depending on whether they'd paid an extra dollar for the Power Play option that multiplies a win) for having matched the first five of the six numbers drawn.

Normally the lottery, which is held across 29 states, pays out only about four or five second-place prizes.

Having 110 claimants of second-place money appeared highly suspect. Yet it turned out there had been no chicanery afoot — the unexpected result had been just the way the cookie crumbled.

The roughly one-in-three-million combination of 22, 28, 32, 33, and 39 had been selected by so many hopeful lotto players because it had been the "lucky numbers" given to them in their fortune cookies.

http://www.snopes.com/luck/cookie.asp

Strange Backwoods Medic

In September, after law enforcement officers in North
Carolina spotted a reportedly stolen ambulance and
chased it through three counties until forcing it into
a ditch north of Greensboro.

Inside, they found the driver to
be mohawk-hairstyled Leon Hollimon Jr., 37, who is not
a medical professional but was wearing a stethoscope
and with latex gloves in his pocket.

Strapped to a gurney in the back was a dead six-point deer, and
according to witnesses an intravenous line was
attached to it and a defibrillator had been used.

The Most Incredible Swiss Army Knife

This is the mother of all Swiss Army knifes. Check out the nine-inch, two and half-pound "blade" that sports 85 unique tools.

It seems like Wenger has made the one utility tool that will everything but pay your bills. The contraption “Giant Knife Version 1.0.” It debuted with all 85 features and can perform hundreds of functions. All of this can be yours for $1,200

The big, and I do mean big, question is “In what pocket is this monster supposed to fit?”

For Much More Information Click Here

Misirlou,' From the Del Tones to Pulp Fiction

The tune "Misirlou" has traveled quite a path, from klezmer music to 1950s exotica acts and finally to surf guitar and an appearance in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction.

Surf guitar legend Dick Dale & His Del-Tones turned the song into a surf guitar hit in 1962.

See the 1962 video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8

Learn More:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5134530

Penis-Melting Zionist Robot Combs

The phrase 'penis-melting Zionist robot combs,' while not widely known, does seem to be growing in popularity.

The phrase refers to a mass panic that swept through Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, in September 2003. The people of Khartoum feared that a Satanic foreigner was going around shaking hands with Sudanese men and thereby causing their penises to melt upwards inside their body.

In one case a man reported that he was approached by a stranger at the market. The stranger handed him a comb and asked him to comb his hair. "When he did so, within seconds... he felt a strange sensation and discovered that he had lost his penis."

For the full story go to:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/comments/1126/

Survey America - Driving

What surveys say about Americans

Driving

4 out of 5 sing in the car. (and probably 4 out of 5 can't sing for beans either)

12% of men never use their car blinkers.

45% of us consistantly follow the speed limit. (This is hard to believe - Get on a highway and go the exact speed limit. Are 45% of the people not passing you - I doubt it)

2/3 of us speed up at a yellow light.

1/3 of us don't wear seat belts.

71% can drive a stick-shift car.

44% of men tailgate to speed up the person in front of them.

Diebold Voting Machines Opened With Hotel Minibar Key

Vote Smirnoff

Contributed by a Misc-Reports reader

The key that controls access to a standard Diebold voting machine is a common key that can be ordered from the Internet, also used to open hotel minibars.

The access panel door on a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine — the door that protects the memory card that stores the votes, and is the main barrier to the injection of a virus — can be opened with a standard key that is widely available on the Internet...

Using such a standard key doesn’t provide much security, but it does allow Diebold to assert that their design uses a lock and key. Experts will recognize the same problem in Diebold’s use of encryption — they can say they use encryption, but they use it in a way that neutralizes its security benefits.

The bad guys don’t care whether you use encryption; they care whether they can read and modify your data. They don’t care whether your door has a lock on it; they care whether they can get it open. The checkbox approach to security works in press releases, but it doesn’t work in the field.

Link http://www.freedom-to-tinker.com/?p=1064

Meat Cake at SupersizedMeals.com

Overeating and then feeling remorseful about it is one thing. Overeating, taking photographs of the evidence, and then posting them online is something else.

Such ill-advised hubris is on display at SuperSizedMeals.com. The site encourages visitors to forgo baby steps and instead take a running leap toward obesity by gorging themselves on Bunyanesque burgers, burritos, pizza and “Meat Cake”.

While many of the submissions come from folks who found their glutton's paradise at restaurants, an alarming number are from people who cooked up their own gargantuan meals.

http://www.supersizedmeals.com/food/

THE DUMBEST GUY ON EARTH!

This picture is real - not doctored in any way. It was taken by a Transportation Supervisor for a company that delivers building materials for 84 Lumber.

When he saw it in the parking lot of IHOP, he ran to buy a camera to take pictures.

The car is still running, as can be witnessed by the exhaust.

A woman is either asleep or otherwise out of it in the front seat passenger side. The driver was jogging up and down on Rt. 925.(in the background) The driver finally came back after the police were called, and they found him crouched behind the rear of the car, attempting to cut the twine around the load.

Luckily, the police stopped him and had the load removed.

The materials were loaded at Home Depot. Their store manager said they made the customer sign a waiver.

While the plywood and 2X4's are fairly obvious, what you can't see is the back seat, which contains 10 bags of concrete @ 80 lbs. each.

Both back tires had exploded, the wheels were bent and the back shocks had been driven through the floorboard.

The car, with FLA plates, was headed for Clanton, AL where the couple planned to build a new house.

British Prostitute Takes Client To Court After He Refuses To Pay

Wins Case And Still Loses

LONDON — A British prostitute took a client to court after he admitted he could not afford to pay her after sex, the Liverpool Echo newspaper reported.

Tracy Harper complained to police after unemployed Matthew Bushell, 33, told her he could not afford the $1,400 he owed her for their six-hour liaison, the northwest England regional daily said.

Bushell from Southport, near Liverpool, was bankrupt and owed $29,000 from using phone sex lines and escort girls, the evening newspaper added in its court report from the town.

He pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining sexual services and was made subject to a two-year supervision order. Magistrates also ordered him to pay $124 in court costs at a hearing on Monday.

No compensation order was made for Harper, from Bradford, in northern England.

BMW Makes Self-Parking Car

BMW says that it will have developed a fully automated, self-parking car within the next three years.

The system draws on components already found in some of BMW's current models, and augments them accordingly.

If all goes according to plan, all you'll have to do is push a button and the luxury carmaker's parking-assist technology will park your car for you in your garage or regular in-and-out spot (parallel parking isn't included) as you stand outside and watch

For more information and to watch the video go to:
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/autotech/0,71344-0.html

And Don't Forget To Get Your Decoder Ring

Real Time Satellite Tracking
In case you ever want to track your favorite satellite this is the place to find it.


http://www.n2yo.com/?s=99999

Woman Faked Death To Dodge Parking Fines

An Iowa woman allegedly faked her own death to avoid paying parking tickets.

Police say Kimberly Du, 36, was caught out after she got another ticket a month after her 'death', reports KCCI News.

Investigators said Du, of Des Moines, faked her own obituary and forged a letter telling a judge she had died in a car crash.

She allegedly included a phony obituary, made to look like a page from The Des Moines Register's website.

"The state still has to convince a jury of 12, but faking your own death is not a good idea," said Bob Rigg, of the Drake Law Clinic.

The case began to unravel when investigators said Du was stopped for another traffic ticket - a month after the obituary was dated.

She now faces up to five years in prison for fraud - instead of the $500 fine she might have expected for failing to pay her parking tickets.

Holland launches Fun Burials

This Is Fun?

A Dutch entrepreneur is offering what he hopes will be the latest extreme sport - 'fun burials'.

For 75 euros, people can be buried 5ft down in a coffin for an hour - under a 3.5 tonne concrete block, reports Nu.nl.

The coffin has an oxygen supply, a panic button and is linked by webcam to a computer which friends and family can watch.

Dutch entertainer Eddy Daams, from Eexterveenschekanaal, is behind the idea which he calls Fun Burials.

He said: "After bunjee jumping, this wil become the new extreme kick. It is very safe, nothing can go wrong.

"If the person in the coffin is having a panic attack, he can push the panic button to heave off the block."

Mr Daams is running the project in his own garden and says it should be up and running commercially this summer.

Looking For A Husband?

Men out number the women in United Arab Emirates and Qatar by 2 to 1. In Kuwait the ratio is 50 percent more and in Bahrain and Oman it is 30 percent.

Of course there may be some language and tradition differences, but look at the odds of finding that someone special.

Yo Yo Yo Yo Yo

Its not about Yo-Yo Ma, it is the most comprehensive archive of yo-yo images, historical memorabilia, and information in the world.

Whether you're a long-time yo-yo collector, or just looking for that long lost treasure from your childhood, this is the place


http://www.theyoyomuseum.com/

God or No God?

KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled
to
death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a
zoo official said on Monday.

The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope
into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the
official said.

"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid
artery."

Contributed by a MISC-Reader

Stop the Madness

Confused by the swirl of current events?
Mad as hell with no way to express your anger?

“Stop the Madness” items helps you make your feelings known.

http://www.cafepress.com/stopmad