World News(Stuff to Discuss) Free For All

[maxbailey]

Sesame Street pair Bert and Ernie 'will not marry'

The makers of Sesame Street say characters Bert and Ernie will not marry in a same-sex ceremony despite an online petition calling for the union.

Campaigners say the best friends should marry as a way to encourage tolerance of gay people.

Nearly 7,000 have signed the petition, with more than 3,000 joining a Bert and Ernie Get Married Facebook page.

A statement from the show's makers said: "They remain puppets and do not have a sexual orientation."

But they conceded that the pair are "male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics".

The confirmed bachelors have lived together for 40 years and sleep in the same bedroom, albeit in single beds.

"Bert and Ernie are best friends," the statement from Sesame Workshop added. "They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.

The online petition states: "We are not asking that Sesame Street do anything crude or disrespectful," adding, "It can be done in a tasteful way. Let us teach tolerance of those that are different."

Sesame Street was created by TV producer Joan Ganz Cooney and psychologist Lloyd Morrisett in 1969 and gained a huge following, led by the creations of master puppeteer Jim Henson.

Beloved characters include Elmo, the Cookie Monster and Big Bird.

It is still watched in more than 140 countries and averages 120 million viewers worldwide.

[maxbailey]

Korea-obsessed student undergoes tongue-lengthening op so she can speak the lingo

MANY of us struggle to learn a new language - but we don't resort to surgery for help.

Rhiannon Brooksbank-Jones is so obsessed with Korea, she had her tongue surgically lengthened to pronounce the words better.

While taking lessons, she found she could not make crucial sounds in the nation's alphabet.

Her dentist suggested her tongue might be too short.

Now Rhiannon, 19, has had a lingual frenectomy, where an incision is made in the skin that joins the underside of the tongue to the mouth.

As a result, her tongue is 1cm longer - and she can say words that were previously impossible.

Rhiannon said: "The surgical procedure was my only option.

"Some might say it's extreme but you could apply the same argument to plastic surgery. That makes people feel confident looks-wise, and this made me feel confident language wise."

Rhiannon, of Beeston, Nottingham, is awaiting her A-level results and hopes to do Korean studies and business management at the University of Sheffield.

The four-year course includes a year at Yonsei University in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Mum Fiona, 56, said she was happy about her daughter's op at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.

She added: "Since meeting a Korean friend, she has simply been fascinated with all things Korea."

Terrifying Video of the Deadly Indiana State Fair Stage Collapse

There are a now-confirmed five dead and 40-plus injured

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRkdwrmzYXg

[TheJuice]

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Video here

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[MrGoutHimself]

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Now doctors can produce artificial o-rings if your ass-gasket gets blown out for some reason. Only working on mice so far, but they're made from human materials, so...

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what if you just want more than one asshole?

[maxbailey]

Rockers AC/DC launch own label Australian wine range

Australian rock band AC/DC are launching their own range of wine.

They're selling varieties named after some of their biggest hits, including Highway to Hell cabernet sauvignon, Hells Bells sauvignon blanc and You Shook Me All Night Long muscat.

The group, fronted by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, have teamed up with Australian winemaker Warburn Estate for the release of AC/DC The Wine.

The range will be available in Australia from Thursday.

The four different bottles will be sold in Woolworths stores across the country.

"We wanted to make sure that AC/DC's home fan base could have easy access to their rock icons' wines," said Steve Donohue, general manager of buying for the Woolworths Liquor Group.

"For us it was a no-brainer to make it available nationally, no-one misses out. This is a worldwide phenomenon and a first in the marketplace."

AC/DC aren't the first rock group to launch their own drinks brand.

Kiss, The Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden and Whitesnake have all brought out own brand wines as has pop star Madonna.

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Ask Satan for access to the n00b section, I hear there's an endless supply in there.

[Wood Dragon]

An Arkansas weatherman didn't predict he would wake up in a hot tub with a naked dead man, but that's exactly what police say happened. Now authorities are trying to determine what killed Dexter Williams, whose body was found with a "dog collar" around his neck, according to a police report.

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[NookieJunkie]

Millions left without power in US, Mexico
2011-09-09 09:54 CAT

San Diego - A massive blackout caused by "human failure" left nearly 5 million people without power in parts of California, Arizona and Mexico on Thursday, and officials said many residents may be out of service for a day or more.

The outage, apparently triggered by an employee who carried out a procedure at a substation in Arizona, snarled traffic on southern California freeways, knocked out water supplies in parts of San Diego county and Tijuana and sent some elderly residents to emergency rooms.

San Diego International Airport cancelled all outbound flights, traffic came to a standstill as the city's street lights failed and about 70 people had to be rescued by the city's fire department from stalled elevators.

San Diego schools were ordered closed until Monday as utilities could not guarantee that they would be able to turn on the lights in classrooms.

"There was a very major outage, a region-wide outage," San Diego Gas and Electric President Mike Niggli said. "There's no doubt this has never happened before to our system."

'Human failure'

But police in California's second-largest city, located between Los Angeles and the Mexican border, reported no major problems, and hospitals successfully switched to backup power, the Scripps Health chain said.

The ill-fated procedure in Arizona first caused the failure of a high-power line supplying electricity to southern California before unleashing a domino effect across the southwest, officials said.

That in turn led to a blockage at California's San Onofre nuclear energy plant, a second major source of power to the San Diego area, San Diego Gas and Electric said.

San Diego Gas and Electric said in a tweet that all 1.4 million of its customers in the San Diego area were without power. Blackouts also affected 3.5 million people in Baja California, according to local emergency services and state authorities.

The city of Yuma, Arizona, reported that more than 50 000 people had lost power.

"There appears to be two failures here - one is human failure and the other is a system failure. Both of those will be addressed," said Damon Gross, a spokesperson for Arizona utility APS.

By early evening, crews had restored service in the section of the line that triggered the massive event and had begun to restore power to parts of San Diego County.

But San Diego Gas and Electric told customers that power might not be restored overnight and urged them to conserve electricity.

"Prepare to stay home tonight without power," the utility, owned by Sempra, told customers.

'Lines everywhere now'

Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission said 180 000 customers had been brought back online in Baja California. The commission said it was making progress in getting power back on in state capital Mexicali, Ensenada and Rosarito.

Stuck without refrigeration, employees at the Cardiff Seaside Market, a grocery and specialty food store in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, north of San Diego, started grilling their inventory of fresh steaks and tuna in the parking lot and selling it cooked to passersby for cash.

Meanwhile, a line of about 50 customers waited at the front door for their turn to be led inside by a clerk to do their shopping in groups of two or three at a time.

"It's real hectic, there [are] lines everywhere now. But the customers are happy, everyone's patient, everyone's in a good mood, and we're serving them as quickly as we can," manager John Shamam, 33, said as he served up a plate of tuna.

Traffic snarl ups, air cons knocked out

Many of the tweets from San Diego residents revolved around air conditioning. "I'm going to die of heat in this house with no AC!" wrote Ashleigh Marie. "What am I supposed to dooo (sic)."

But San Diego resident Kiersten White tweeted that the power outage "makes me glad I don't have air conditioning to begin with ... nothing to miss!"

Other people were having a harder time. "Trapped outside of our rooms at the hotel," tweeted Rob Myers, visiting from Washington. Other members of his party got trapped in an elevator, he wrote.

Blackouts hit Mexico's Northern Baja California state in the afternoon, knocking out power to hundreds of maquiladora export assembly plants in the sprawling industrial powerhouse of Tijuana, south of San Diego.

The blackouts knocked out stop lights at intersections across Tijuana, causing traffic snarl ups, and also cut power to hospitals and government offices. The border crossing at Otay Mesa was closed to all but pedestrian traffic.
- Reuters