The BBC reported on 4th July 2010 narcotics police in Colombia has seized a replica World Cup trophy made of 11kg of cocaine. It was mixed with acetone / gasoline so that it’s mouldable, then gold-painted. The 36cm (14in) trophy was inside a delivery box in a warehouse at Bogota airport, about to be sent to Spain.

Earlier, on 13th March 2010, it was reported that Colombian police found 16kg of cocaine inside replicas of three sculptures by renowned Colombian artist Fernando Botero, also on the way to Spain. The drug was mixed into the clay of the sculptures as they were being cast. It was found in a Bogota warehouse.

Botero’s statues are usually oversized figurines

On 20th March 2009, it was reported that Spanish police has seized a 42-piece dinner set made entirely of compressed cocaine weighing more than 20 kg. The set contained blue-sunflowery plates, cups, pots and saucers – painted blue and decorated with sunflowers.

It had been sent from Venezuela to Barcelona through London.

A video of the set being unpacked:

Click here to view the embedded video.

On the 6th of March 2009, a 66-year-old Chilean man with a broken leg in a cast was arrested at Barcelona airport after the “cast” was found to be made of cocaine and not plaster. He arrived from Santiago. As if that’s not enough, he was also carrying 6 cans of beer and 2 small hollowed-out stools that contained… you guessed it right: cocaine. Total loot: almost 5 kg. The police said he might even have broken his leg on purpose.

That’s it – as a result of that stunt, I’d say it’d be impossible for our man to get life insurance quotes.

Why all these cases targeted Spain? Because of the common language, and because Spain is Europe’s second highest consumer of cocaine in Europe after Britain.

If you’re caught by Islamist militants, you’d be lucky to escape with mere flogging in public.

Instead of watching matches, these gangs spend their time patrolling around looking for people to catch red-handed in front of a TV.

Just a few days ago, they killed 2 people caught watching a game in the privacy of their home.

Yes, their World Cup fever is slightly different.

Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aros, of Hizbul-Islam, one of the militant groups was quoted to have said:

We are warning all the youth of Somalia not to dare watch these World Cup matches. It is a waste of money and time and they will not benefit anything, not even get any experience by watching mad men jumping up and down.

Yes, folks, Mr Abdi Aros thinks Lionel Messi is a lunatic and Cristiano Ronaldo is basically a monkey in disguise.

Somali football fans are probably all squinty eyed, for they have one eye on the TV, and another on the door, while huddled under a massage table cart just in case them enforcers come crashing in.

Source
The BBC, 14 June 2010

It had been there for many years and General Manager Billy Martin explained it as follows: “it’s all in good fun. We’re not trying to be malicious. It’s an Irish joke kind of thing.” Yeah, and probably quite effective fat burners too – I imagine there’d be fistcuffs or hurried walks on a daily basis.

However, in May 2007, the signs were taken off, by order of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, for “lack of signage properly designating bathrooms.”

If McGuire’s did not take it off, closure was threatened.

The issue came to fore when someone filed a complaint, that “a college-age man walked in on his 15-year-old daughter” and that “his daughter was embarrassed and left the restaurant crying.”

However, thousands of pub patrons have signed a petition, demanding that the sings are put back.

Source
Northwest Florida Daily News, 16 May 2007

That’s already horrible news, but I was caught totally unprepared when reading another newsreport dated 21st May 2010, about Ardi Rizal, 2 of South Sumatra, Indonesia who smokes TWO packs of cigarettes a day!

Yep, hooked on 40 sticks a day even before he knows what acnepril is.

Just like Tong, he started at 18 months and throws a tantrum if his parents don’t give him any.

And just like Tong, his parents are ignorant about the health risks. Ardi’s father was quoted to have said:

I’m not worried about his health, he looks healthy. He cries and throws tantrums when we don’t let him smoke. He’s addicted.

Video of Ardi Rizal smoking away:

Source
Daily Mail (UK), June 2009
Daily Mail (UK), May 2010

It has been described as the world’s most modern and humane prison. In other words, a prison that doesn’t feel or look like one.

Guiding principle:

Repressive prisons do not work and that treating prisoners humanely boosts their chances of reintegrating into society.

Well, judging from the appearance of the front, it does seem so right?

Features:
- Area: 75 acres (30 hectares)
- cells look like college dorm rooms, with flat-screen TVs & mini fridges
- cells have long vertical windows to let in natural light
- no bars on windows or doors
- every 10 – 12 cells share a living room and kitchen.
- living room look like Ikea showrooms: stainless-steel countertops, wraparound sofas & birch-coloured coffee tables
- sound studio
- jogging trails
- freestanding two-bedroom house where inmates can host their families during overnight visits. Wow, I suppose they can even call for a baby eczema treatment cream in the middle of the night, courtesy of the Norwegian government of course?
- “kitchen laboratory” where inmates are offered cooking courses.

But probably the best feature of all:
- Guards do not carry guns, and they routinely eat meals and play sports with prisoners, to create a sense of family

The prison received it’s first inmates March 1, 2010 but was officially opened on April 8 by the Norwegian King Harald V.

Source
Time, 10th May 2010

Thereupon, unemployed Ryan Yates, 29, kitchen knife in hand, approached them, with the stated intention of killing the woman, in order to be able to rape the 2 girls. Later, his statement to police stated that as he walked out of his house that day, it was his specific plan to “look for some children to have sex with”.

Then, silently and methodically he stabbed the woman in the chest. In the ensuing struggle, Yates told her that “he’d let her go if she let go of the knife.” When she refused, Yates spat in her face.

Only 5 days earlier, he was released for another sex-related assault.

Fortunately, a passer-by intervened, and Yates calmly walked away.

He has admitted to all the charges & to be chemically castrated.

On 29th January 2010, his own mother, Ann, 50 was quoted by The Sun to be so disgusted that she’d said:

I brought him into the world – and I’d take him out of it.

She said that her son got started in the world of sex crimes at 14, would never stop, and that she’d willingly kill him with her own hands. His father had passed away.

Among other vile things Ryan had done were:
- at 15, he had tried to rape his own mother!
- he had stripped a female relative as he threatened her with a knife.
- had attacked women on many occasions
- at 14, he walked up to a stranger and asked her for a kiss!
- at 12, he was allegedly found in bed with an even younger girl

Incredibly, he always informed his mother of his misdemeanors, even though she never failed to make police reports.

One could argue that having a job, any job, like selling scales and keeping oneself busy could divert one’s energies from things like these, but perhaps for some individuals, the normal rules don’t apply.

She was a major American star actress during MGM’s Golden Age, and at the same time, an engineer, who co-invented “an early form of spread spectrum communications technology, a key to modern wireless communication.”

Usually cast as glamorous and demure, she acted in 18 films from 1940 to 1949, including her role as Delilah in Cecil DeMille’s Samson and Delilah, the highest earning film of 1949. In 1941 she was in Ziegfeld Girl alongside Hollywood legends Lana Turner and Judy Garland. Cementing her reputation as a formidable actress, Lamarr has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

During the same period, Lamarr and composer George Antheil developed the concept of frequency-hopping spread-spectrum, a secret communication system in June 1941, for which they were granted a US patent in August 1942. It used a piano roll to move between 88 frequencies and has the capability to cause radio-guided torpedoes harder for enemies to detect or jam. It was so ahead of its time that it was not practicable due to the current state of mechanical technology of that time, and was only implemented in 1962 by the US military during a Cold War blockade of Cuba.

This frequency-hopping idea is a basis for modern spread-spectrum communication technology, like CODFM and CDMA, which many ICT-related industrial products uses.

Groovy actress indeed!

But what is sex addiction? According to Mayo Clinic:

symptoms range from rampant promiscuity to spending hours looking at pornography and using sex to escape from problems such as depression or stress. It is often accompanied by secrecy and shame, and sufferers have difficulties with emotional intimacy.

Does romantic attachment to Hinkley lights count?

It is estimated that 3-5 % of Americans, including women, are affected.

Treatment usually involves psychotherapy (group meetings as is done in Alcoholics Anonymous) and depending on the situation, medication which could decrease libido. Relapse is common, because, recovering alcoholics are expected never to drink again, but how can one expect that of something as natural as sex?

On 19th February 2010, golf megastar Tiger Woods (born 1975) admitted on TV that he had been unfaithful to his wife, and that he had been in a therapy program for 45 days.

On 28th August 2008, David Duchovny (born 1960) announced that he had checked himself into a rehabilitation facility for treating his sex addiction.

The first top-grade celebrity to be rumoured to have gone for this kind of rehab was Michael Douglas (born 1944) in 1992. However he denied it and said he was seeking treatment for his drinking problem. His first wife, Diandra had labeled him a sex addict.

Those are celebrities who really or allegedly entered treatment, other addicts that were not reported to have gone to rehab include Charlie Sheen, Wilt Chamberlain (allegedly slept with 20,000 woman in his lifetime!), Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones bassist), Magic Johnson (basketball star), Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead), Jack Nicholson, Ilie Nastase (tennis), Engelbert Humperdinck, Julio Iglesias, Gene Simmons (Kiss), Eric Benet, Billy Bob Thornton, Tom Sizemore, Bill Murray.

The following is a partial list of the rich and famous who committed suicide through lethal suspension by a ligature.

Alexander McQueen, CBE, 40, four-time British Designer of the Year. On 11th February 2010, he was found dead, hanging in his wardrobe.

Jonathan Brandis, 27, who was a teen idol in the early 1990s when he played scientific prodigy Lucas Wolenczak in the TV series seaQuest DSV. Hanged himself November 2003. Friends were quoted to have mentioned that he was “lonely and depressed” about his faltering career.

Ian Curtis (1956 – 1980), lead singer, songwriter and lyricist of Joy Division, whose song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is considered by some as the best single of all time, and is listed in Rolling Stone magazine’s top 500 songs of all time. On 18th May 1980 he hanged himself in his kitchen.

Justin Fashanu (1961 – 1998), professional English footballer who in 1981 became Great Britain’s first GBP1 million black soccer player when he moved to Nottingham Forest. In 1990 he became the first, and still the only prominent footballer to announce that he was gay. In the early hours of 3rd May 1998, he was found hanged in a lock-up garage he’d broken into.

Michael Hutchence (1960 – 1997), lead singer of rock band INXS, who’ve sold more than 30 million records worldwide. On 22nd November 1997, while INXS was on a world tour, he was found dead in his hotel room, in “a kneeling position facing the door” and “had used his black leather belt to tie a knot on the automatic door closure at the top of the door, and had strained his head forward into the loop so hard that the buckle had broken.”

Paul Hester (1959 – 2005), drummer of rock band Crowded House, which produced such classics as “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” “Fall at Your Feet” and “Weather with You”. On 26th March 2005 he committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in a park near his house.

Chris Benoit (1967 – 2007), Canadian professional wrestler for WCW and later WWE, two-time world heavyweight champion, one of the most popular and talented technical wrestlers ever. On the weekend of his death, he was booked to win his 3rd world heavyweight championship. After killing his wife and son, he created a noose from the end of the cord of a weight machine to hang himself.

Slim all these years, all those standing up and walking around sure proved to be effective fat burners.

He has been an employee at the hotel for almost 70 years (since 1942), and a doorman for 18 years, and has seen it all:

- a Japanese Zero fighter plane crash-landed on the hotel grounds during World War II
- sex symbol Ursula Andress danced in the ballroom on New Year’s Eve 1976.
- hobnobbed with people such as Emperor Hirohito, Richard Nixon, Sir Laurence Olivier, George Bernard Shaw, Lord Mountbatten, Princess Elizabeth, Jawarharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Yuri Gagarin and Arthur C. Clarke.

He has made the cover of some of the world’s top travel publications, and his life story told in them.

It’s no wonder that guests would scramble to have a photo opportunity with him:

He still walks the one mile to work every morning and takes the bus home at the end of his afternoon shift.

When will he retire? In his own words: “Walking to work and the busy life at the hotel keeps me going.”

Source
Yahoo News, 13th Feb 2010