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A prize-winning author of children's books has revealed an unsavory secret ingredient used to craft her latest work – rats' urine. Emily Gravett has just won the most coveted award for children's illustration with Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears. The book explores the phobias of a mouse who is afraid of everything. Gravett has dedicated the work to her two pet rats on account of the help they gave her in producing the book's distinctive look. She wanted to make the pages look as if they had been nibbled by a nervous, hungry mouse. Her two pets, Button and Mr Moo – sadly now dead – were happy to nibble away at pieces of paper. "They are easy to persuade," she told The Guardian. "You just have to bribe them with food." "They like anything with fat," she added. "They are real gluttons." The urine, she said, was added to give the pages a yellow tinge and make them look "properly ratted". She scanned the chewed, urinated-on pages and used them as background for her illustrations. Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears won the CILIP medal for book illustration. Gravett also won the prize for her debut picture book Wolves, in 2005. Source
An Illinois father has confessed to keeping his two young daughters locked in a cage in his truck while he worked, the Chicago Tribune reports. The trash and scrap-metal collector told police that he kept the girls, ages 2 and 5, locked up because he couldn't find a babysitter—and he didn't want them to run away. He was arrested after a woman heard one of the children sobbing. "My dad tightens both of us with his belt by my leg and my sister was on the other side of the cage tight with another belt," one of the girls told investigators. The children's mother was investigated for neglect in 2006, but the girls remained with the family. They are now in foster care and their father faces a misdemeanor child endangerment charge, which may be upgraded to a felony. Source
An American man who was born female but underwent gender reassignment has given birth to a female baby, US media have reported. Thomas Beatie, 34, is legally male but kept his female reproductive organs after having breast surgery to remove glands and flatten his chest. Both Mr Beatie and his daughter are reported to be doing well in a hospital in Bend, Oregon. He was inseminated using sperm from an anonymous donor. The birth was natural, a source at St Charles Medical Center in Bend told ABC News, and took place on Sunday. Source, Source
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Denmark, with its democracy, social equality and peaceful atmosphere, is the happiest country in the world, researchers said on Monday. Zimbabwe, torn by political and social strife, is the least happy, while the world's richest nation, the United States, ranks 16th. Overall, the world is getting happier, according to the U.S. government-funded World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists. It found increased happiness from 1981 to 2007 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed. "I strongly suspect that there is a strong correlation between peace and happiness," said Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, who directed the study. And, said Ingelhart, there is a strong correlation between happiness and democracy. "Denmark is the happiest country in the world in our ratings," Inglehart said in an audio statement released by the National Science Foundation, which paid for the analysis. "Denmark is prosperous -- not the richest country in the world but it is prosperous." Puerto Rico and Colombia also rank highly, along with Northern Ireland, Iceland, Switzerland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden. Source
An alleged brothel-on-wheels that authorities said they busted over the weekend gives a whole new meaning to keeping the party moving. Miami Beach undercover detectives who paid a $40 entry fee and boarded a stretch limousine bus Sunday found women onboard offering oral sex and lap dances for money, authorities said. Authorities arrested Christine Morteh, 29, of Miramar, and the driver, Clyde Scott, along with four other people Sunday. Miami-Dade jail spokeswoman Janell Hall said Morteh faces charges including offering to commit or engage in prostitution, conducting business without a license, directing another to a place of prostitution and deriving support from prostitution. Hall said Morteh was released on $7,000 bail on Tuesday and does not yet have an attorney. A telephone listing for her couldn't be found. Scott, 41, also faces charges including directing another to prostitution, possession of a controlled substance and deriving support from prostitution, Hall said. He was released Sunday on $11,500 bond. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney. Source
A New Mexico appeals court on Friday ruled against a Los Alamos man who wanted to change his name to a phrase containing a popular four-letter obscenity. The man appealed after a state district judge in Bernalillo County refused his request to change his name to "F-- Censorship!" Judge Nan Nash ruled that the proposed name change was "obscene, offensive and would not comport with common decency." The man - whose current legal name is Variable - argued on appeal that it was improper government censorship to deny him the name change. "We do not believe that the district court's action infringes on petitioner's right to free speech," a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals said in its ruling. The man has the right to call himself whatever he wants, unless there's fraud or misrepresentation involved, the judges said. But once he seeks court approval for a name change, the court has the authority to turn him down on several grounds, including if the name is offensive to common decency and good taste, the judges ruled. That law was clarified in a 2004 case in the same court that apparently involved the same petitioner. In that case, an Albuquerque man whose name was Snaphappy Fishsuit Mokiligon got the go-ahead from the appeals court to change his name to Variable. Source ...ok so it went from Snaphappy Fishsuit Mokiligon to Variable and now Fuck Censorship! is pending.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — A school has confiscated an 8-year-old boy's birthday party invitations after they were handed out during class because it said it had a duty to ensure against discrimination. The boy handed out invitations to classmates at his school in Lund, southern Sweden, but did not invite two boys because they were not his friends, the Sydsvenskan newspaper reported earlier this week. The report on Friday did not name the boy or his family. It said the boy's father has filed a complaint with the parliamentary ombudsman. The father told the newspaper that the two classmates were not invited because one had bullied his son and the other had not invited his son to the classmate's birthday party. "My son has taken it very hard," the father told Sydsvenskan of the school's decision. "It's like taking someone's mail." The parliamentary ombudsman has asked the school board to decide on the issue before Sept. 8. Source, Source
A two-year-old boy has driven his parents to despair by refusing to eat any food apart from yoghurt. Little Bobby Glarvey eats his way through 14 pots of his favourite dairy food every day and refuses to eat anything else that his parents put in front of him. The toddler has been diagnosed with a rare food phobia that means he can't bear to have any lumpy food in his mouth. Parents Craig Glarvey, 28, and Sally Green 33, even have an extra fridge - just to store Bobby's mountain of yoghurts. The couple , from Warmsworth, Doncaster, have a daughter Cameron , seven, who has always been a normal eater. Bobby's mother said : "We have tried all ways to get him to eat other food but he just spits it out. He's never had a hot meal in his life. "We have had advice from a child psychologist who says we shouldn't worry and eventually he should grow out of it. In the meantime we have to let him decide what he wants to eat, so long as he eats something it doesn't matter." Bobby's daily diet starts with five pots of yoghurt for breakfast ,followed by another three for lunch and four for his evening meal. His day finishes with two or three more for his supper. His father Craig, a lorry driver said: "Bobby is really lively and bright but he is under weight and very tiny and it's because he won't eat other food. "We have tried all ways to persuade him to eat but now we have been told not to put any other food in front of him. Now we have to have our own meals and if he says he wants anything he says we can try him . "It's a bit embarrassing when we go out for a meal and take the kids because we all have a nice meal but Bobby has yoghurts we take with us. "When we try to give him something he just screams." The couple were put in touch with a child psychologist but even that has had little effect as they tried to slowly introduce Bobby to other foods. Mr Glarvey said : "We were really worried about Bobby but the experts have told us he will grow out of it eventually . They say we shouldn't force other food on him because it will just stress him out." Source
SARATOGA SPRINGS (NY)- A 19-year-old man dressed as a penis was arrested for disturbing a high school graduation today at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Calvin Morett allegedly interrupted the Saratoga Springs High School graduation by marching across SPAC's stage in an inflatable 6-foot penis costume while diplomas were being given out, Saratoga Springs Police Sgt. Sean Briscoe said. Morett purchased the full-body costume and sprayed parts of the 5,000 people in the crowd with Silly String, Briscoe said. His motive? "He thought it would be funny," Briscoe said. Morett was ticketed for disorderly conduct, a violation, and will face the charges in City Court on Tuesday, Briscoe said. Morett graduated from Saratoga Springs High School last year. He tried to streak away from law enforcement, but could not. "Once I stopped laughing, he was pretty easy to catch because he was tripping on the lower portion of the costume," said Briscoe, who made the arrest. Source
Article Submitted by blizzloader. Two Orange County, California, teenagers have been charged with breaking into high school offices and using stolen usernames and passwords to change lackluster grades to A's. Omar Khan and Tanvir Singh, both 18, are facing multiple felony charges following a series of break-ins at Tesoro High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. Khan was arrested Monday, and Singh was expected to turn himself into court on Tuesday for arraignment. According to prosecutors, Khan changed the D's and C's he was receiving in Spanish, Calculus and English to two A's and a B+. He's also charged with stealing tests before they had been given and using a stolen username and password to break into school computers and change the grades of 12 other students. He is also alleged to have installed spyware software on the computer hosting the school district's grades database so that he could remotely access this system. The police were called in after Khan requested a copy of his transcript and school officials noticed his stellar grades, the Orange County district attorney's office said. If convicted, Khan could be sentenced to more than 38 years in prison. Singh, who faces fewer charges, faces three years in prison. He's charged with breaking into the school with Khan in order to steal an English test on May 19. According to court filings he sent a text message to Khan around 4 p.m. planning the crime. "Hey wana go to the school tonight," he wrote. "I need someone with balls there with me." Source, Source