World News(Stuff to Discuss) Free For All

Fighter 'gouges friend's heart, eyeball out'

A US mixed martial arts cage fighter is facing murder and torture charges after allegedly gouging out his friend's heart and eyeball while he was still alive.

Jarrod Wyatt, 26, is accused of committing the act after drinking mushroom tea, the Times Standard newspaper reports. He has pleaded not guilty to the murder charges.

Prosecutors allege witnesses noticed Wyatt, from California, acting strangely earlier in the day after drinking "some kind of mushroom tea".

An alarmed witness later called police after seeing Wyatt standing naked over his friend.

Wyatt allegedly told the witness he was about to cut his friend's heart out.

Police arrived at the house to find the victim's body on the couch. Many of the man's body parts, including his heart, had been removed through an incision in his chest.

The man's face was partially missing and his eyeball was found in the centre of the living room.

The victim is believed to have bled to death when his beating heart was removed.

Wyatt has been charged with torture because the victim is believed to have been conscious during at least part of time his organs were removed.

The Times Standard reports Wyatt's lawyers plan to present enough evidence in his pre-trial hearing scheduled for next week to have the murder charges thrown out.

Wyatt did not initially enter a plea when he first appeared in court in March because he was judged to still be under the influence of the mushroom tea.

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[MrGoutHimself]

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I've never heard of him, so he must not have been a great MMA fighter... shame you can't pull the temple of doom move in the octagon.

Let's get the rate of childhood obesity climbing like America. Good job Canada!
The rich kids' parent at French Immersion wouldn't stand for this i bet.


Bottled water out, soda in at schools



May 31, 2010
Carmelina Prete
The Hamilton Spectator
(May 31, 2010)

Banish the bottled water but bring on the soda pop.

Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board's new nutrition policy bans the sale of bottled water at all its public schools but caffeine-free diet pop will still be available.

From a nutritional standpoint, health experts agree water is a top choice for hydration.

Bottled pop? Not so much.

"Pop doesn't have any nutritional value. None," said Shauna Lindzon, a Toronto-based registered dietitian.

"It's made of chemicals and carbonated water."

Parents such as Cathie Lesnick are scratching their heads too. She says it's hypocritical to ban bottled water for environmental reasons but then continue selling cans of pop.

"Let's be smart about it," she said. "If you're going to get rid of it, get rid of it all."

The board plans to vote on the nutrition policy today.

Under the strict nutrition policy, pop is grouped along with flavoured waters and lemonades as a beverage schools can sell as long as they contain fewer than 40 calories and are caffeine free.

Trustee Tim Simmons said although the nutrition policy is new, the decision about bottled water has already been voted on and there are no plans to reopen the debate.

In April 2009, over the objections of their two student representatives as well as staff, Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board trustees voted to bar the sale of bottled water in its 96 elementary schools as well as in all administration buildings. That ban took effect in September.

The second phase of that ban begins this September when bottled water is removed from vending machines and cafeterias at all 18 high schools.

The change affects more than 34,000 elementary pupils and more than 18,000 high school students.

Those students will still be able to buy soft drinks and juice packaged in the same polystyrene bottles used for water.

Simmons said trustees discussed banning pop, but allowing it "was one of those compromises."

Plus, he added, although the bottled water ban is included in the nutrition policy, it's really more of an environmental issue.

"The two things are really very different," he said. "We can provide an alternative with water that doesn't require bottles or cans with our water fountains and taps."

Students can still bring bottled water, or whatever beverages they choose, to drink from home.

The nutrition policy received the highest number of public responses compared to any other school policy consultation in the past five years.

In the section dealing with bottled water, it states "no schools or worksites will use, serve or sell commercially bottled water."

The majority of responses in that section, 81 per cent, expressed concern.

"This document focuses on nutrition. How does banning bottled water improve child nutrition? ... When did water become so un-nutritional?" wrote one.

Another said: "The section regarding the purchase of bottled water is excellent as long as there are no issues with the tap water, such as lead content in the older schools."

The water infrastructure at every elementary school was inspected this year, said Simmons, with the majority of schools requiring upgrades or maintenance.

Simmons said he plans to ask for the same inspections to occur at all high schools next year.

"It's an indirect aspect of this bottled water ban because it's meant we've had to upgrade our water infrastructure to the schools ... and that's a good thing."

Students and staff will be allowed to bring bottled water to school. They will be encouraged to use reusable containers.

John Challinor, director of corporate affairs for Nestle Waters Canada, said he was not permitted to address the school board when they voted on the issue last year.

"Their decision was made for philosophical reasons," he said. "It's difficult to have a discussion if, for philosophical reasons, they're fundamentally opposed to any other view."

Challinor spoke to Hamilton city councillors in April when they decided to back away from a ban on bottled water and instead encourage Hamiltonians to rely on their taps.

Hamilton is one of only three school boards in Ontario to ban bottled water, he said.

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Tropical storm leaves more than 115 dead in Central America
May 31, 2010

The office of Guatemala's president handed out this aerial view of a crater that opened up after Agatha hit

(CNN) -- At least 115 people have died after a tropical storm battered Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador over the weekend, officials in those countries reported.

Guatemala was hit hardest, with at least 92 deaths, 54 people missing and 59 injured, emergency officials said. Nearly 112,000 people have been evacuated and more than 29,000 areliving in temporary shelters, Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom said in an address to the nation late Sunday.

The devastation has been widespread throughout Guatemala with mudslides destroying homes and buildings and burying some victims. At least nine rivers have dramatically higher levels and 13 bridges have collapsed, the nation's emergency services said.

In the northern part of Guatemala City, the downpour created a giant sinkhole that swallowed up a space larger than the area of a street intersection. Residents told CNN that a three-story building and a house fell into the hole.

A local newspaper reported that a private security guard was killed when the sinkhole opened up, but authorities had not confirmed the fatality. Residents said that a poor sewage drainage system underground was to blame for the sinkhole. A similar hole opened up nearby last year, they said.

Classes have been canceled this week throughout the nation.

In Honduras, where 14 people have died, President Porfirio Lobo declared a state of emergency Sunday.

Nearly 3,500 people have been evacuated from their homes and nearly 3,300 are living in shelters, the Honduran emergency agency said Monday. More than 140 homes have been destroyed and another 700 have been damaged, the Permanent Commission for Emergencies reported.

The situation in El Salvador, where nine people died, was improving Monday, officials said. The rain stopped Sunday afternoon and river levels were beginning to diminish, officials said. Classes nationwide remained canceled, however, until further notice.

More rain was possibly forecast for Monday, though, and Salvadoran officials said they were closely monitoring the situation.

Agatha was demoted from a tropical storm to a tropical depression Saturday night and lost its status as a depression Sunday evening.

It was the first named storm for the Pacific hurricane season. The Atlantic hurricane season starts Tuesday.

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Desert storm: Huge cloud of sand descends on Chinese village

1st June 2010

Like a scene from a Hollywood disaster movie, a towering cloud of sand dwarfs the rows of uniform houses as it descends on a small village in central China.

Residents hid inside their homes with their windows and doors locked shut as the dust storm swept through the region advancing 70ft a minute.

On the move: A massive sand storm hits a village in Golmud in the Qinghai Province. The region is near the edge of the Gobi desert

Day turned to night as tons of dust temporarily blocked out the sun and reduced visibility to around 600ft. But suddenly the storm calmed and the mile-high cloud settled back to Earth again, leaving villagers with a major clean-up operation.

Golmud is home to 200,000 people with 140,000 living in the city centre. The new industrial city is built on a flat expanse close to the borders of the Gobi desert, which is the largest desert in Asia. Although not an ideal place to live, tens of thousands of people have relocated there to work at the salt lakes in the region.

But the prospect of a good job and lots of living space comes at a price. Every spring strong winds blow across the Gobi creating huge columns of dust and sand, which are then dumped nearby. The dust can cause frequent power blackouts, transport delays and respiratory illness.

These buildings didn't need their camouflage paint as the sand quickly hid the village from view in mid May


The massive sand storm swept along at 70ft a minute

The Gobi sand even travels as far as Beijing, with nearly a million tons of desert blown into the city each year. In March this year China's capital turned orange during a particularly ferocious dust storm.

More than a quarter of China - around one million square miles - is covered in sand with the Gobi covering northern parts of the country.

The bad news for the government is that the desert is growing despite their best efforts to contain it. The process of desertification has been worsened by over-grazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and an increasingly erratic climate.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences estimates that the number of sandstorms has jumped six-fold in the past 50 years to two dozen a year. Around 80 per cent of them occur between March and May.

Unless the government can find an effective way to stop the desert from spreading these impressive storm scenes will continue.

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[maxbailey]

E-mail error ends up on road sign



When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.

Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated".

So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket.

"When they're proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh," said journalist Dylan Iorwerth.

Swansea council got lost in translation when it was looking to halt heavy goods vehicles using a road near an Asda store in the Morriston area.

All official road signs in Wales are bilingual, so the local authority e-mailed its in-house translation service for the Welsh version of: "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only".

The reply duly came back and officials set the wheels in motion to create the large sign in both languages.

The notice went up and all seemed well - until Welsh speakers began pointing out the embarrassing error.

Welsh-language magazine Golwg was promptly sent photographs of the offending sign by a number of its readers.

Managing editor Mr Iorwerth said: "We've been running a series of these pictures over the past months.

"They're circulating among Welsh speakers because, unfortunately, it's all too common that things are not just badly translated, but are put together by people who have no idea about the language.

"It's good to see people trying to translate, but they should really ask for expert help.

"Everything these days seems to be written first in English and then translated.

"Ideally, they should be written separately in both languages."

A council spokeswoman said: "Our attention was drawn to the mistranslation of a sign at the junction of Clase Road and Pant-y-Blawd Road.

Other confusing signs

"We took it down as soon as we were made aware of it and a correct sign will be re-instated as soon as possible."

The blunder is not the only time Welsh has been translated incorrectly or put in the wrong place:

• Cyclists between Cardiff and Penarth in 2006 were left confused by a bilingual road sign telling them they had problems with an "inflamed bladder".
  
• In the same year, a sign for pedestrians in Cardiff reading 'Look Right' in English read 'Look Left' in Welsh.
  
• In 2006, a shared-faith school in Wrexham removed a sign which translated the Welsh for staff as "wooden stave".
  
• Football fans at a FA Cup tie between Oldham and Chasetown - two English teams - in 2005 were left scratching their heads after a Welsh-language hoarding was put up along the pitch. It should have gone to a match in Merthyr Tydfil.
  
• People living near an Aberdeenshire building site in 2006 were mystified when a sign apologising for the inconvenience was written in Welsh as well as English.

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[gimmebeer]

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CREATIONISM and intelligent design will be taught in Queensland state schools for the first time as part of the new national curriculum.

Creationists dismiss the science of evolution, instead believing that living things are best explained by an intelligent being or God, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.

The issue of creationism being taught in schools has caused huge controversy in the US, where some fundamentalist religious schools teach it as a science subject instead of Darwin's theory of evolution.

In Queensland schools, creationism will be offered for discussion in the subject of ancient history, under the topic of "controversies".

Teachers are still formulating a response to the draft national curriculum, scheduled to be introduced next year.

Queensland History Teachers' Association head Kay Bishop said the curriculum asked students to develop their historical skills in an "investigation of a controversial issue" such as "human origins (eg, Darwin's theory of evolution and its critics").

"It's opening up opportunities for debate and discussion, not to push a particular view," Ms Bishop said. Classroom debate about issues encouraged critical thinking ? an important tool, she said.

Associated Christian Schools executive officer Lynne Doneley welcomed the draft curriculum, saying it cemented the position of a faith-based approach to teaching.

"We talk to students from a faith science basis, but we're not biased in the delivery of curriculum," Mrs Doneley said. "We say, 'This is where we're coming from' but allow students to make up their own minds."

But Griffith University humanities lecturer Paul Williams said it was important to be cautious about such content.

"It's important that education authorities are vigilant that this is not a blank cheque to push theological barrows," Mr Williams said.

"I would be loath to see it taught as theory.

"It's up there with the world being occupied by aliens since Roswell."

Ms Bishop said there were bigger problems with the national curriculum.

History teachers are planning to object to repetitive subject matter, such as World War I being a major part of the Year 10 course and repeated in Year 11.

[nzdawghaus]

The Pittsburgh Penguins are looking for 250 students to help with an important task and there's only one major requirement: You must know how to flush a toilet.

Construction is near completion on the NHL team's new arena, the Consol Energy Center. But like with any new arena or stadium, officials need to simultaneously flush all the toilets and urinals to make sure everything is working. The Penguins are calling the June 10 event the "Student Flush," a spinoff of their popular ticketing program known as "Student Rush."

Students already involved in the ticketing program can enter for a chance to win. Students must be 18 or older to participate in the flush-apalooza.

In all, there will be 400 flushers, including some construction officials, on hand that day.

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[gimmebeer]

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A pedestrian injured by a motorist while following an online route has filed a lawsuit claiming Google Inc. supplied unsafe directions.

Lauren Rosenberg filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking more than $100,000 in U.S. District Court in Utah. It also named a motorist she says hit her.

Rosenberg used her phone in January to download directions from one end of Park City to the other.

Google Maps led her to a four-lane boulevard without sidewalks that was "not reasonably safe for pedestrians," according to the lawsuit filed by the Northridge, Calif., resident.

The case has become a sensation on tech blogs, websites and cable television channels, with critics assailing the woman for ignoring her own safety to blindly follow online directions. Her lawyer, Allen Young, said the truth was different.

Rosenberg believed she could reach a sidewalk on the other side of Deer Valley Drive and tried to cross the boulevard, but didn't even make it to the median, he said.

She was struck by a speeding car on a pitch-black night and received multiple bone fractures that required six weeks of rehabilitation, Young added.

"We think there's enough fault to go around, but Google had some responsibility to direct people correctly or warn them," Young said. "They created a trap with walking instructions that people rely on. She relied on it and thought she should cross the street."

Rosenberg is seeking compensation for medical bills, plus more for lost wages and punitive damages. The lawsuit provided no other information about the woman, who has been misidentified online as a Los Angeles publicist by the same name.

Young said the woman is a native of Northridge in her mid-20s and is unemployed. No phone listing could be found for her.

Google spokeswoman Elaine Filadelfo said the company had not received a copy of the lawsuit and couldn't discuss it, but she disputed Young's assertion that Google Maps provides no warning that walking routes may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths.

Every software version for desktop computers and mobile devices has had that disclaimer since Google Maps was launched in 2008, she said.

Park City police said some segments of Deer Valley Drive have sidewalks but not the stretch that Rosenberg reached. The boulevard has a walking path on the side Rosenberg failed to reach, police Capt. Rick Ryan said.

Young said the walking path was "totally snowpacked" and of no use to pedestrians in January.