A 100-YEAR-OLD man fought off three teenage muggers after being surrounded at a bus stop. Buster Martin, who still works five days a week as a car washer and mechanic, was followed by the gang when he left a pub.
He said: "They pushed me against a wall and tried to take my money from me. "I went mad. I was lashing out on the floor and then I stood up and was kicking them all. "I pushed one and kung-fu kicked the other one between the legs. "They ran off scared after I did that and I still had all my money. "They thought I was an easy target but they didn't realise what a fighter I can be."
After the attack in Camberwell, south London, Buster staggered into hospital for treatment for a bruised rib and a bump on his head. But his boss at Pimlico Plumbers, Charlie Mullins, said Buster still turned up for work the next day.
A police spokesman said he had been interviewed and patrols in the area had been stepped up. "'E kicked 'im in the newts!"
#2
He should be arrested. According to the authorities, Britons are not supposed to fight back. He could be charged with assault. The poor young fellows should come forward and press charges. /sarcasm
A Milan schoolteacher lost her job after slashing a seven-year-old student's tongue with a pair of scissors to punish him for talking too much, the Education Ministry announced on Tuesday. "Faced with such grievous actions there is only one possible response: zero tolerance," Education Minister Giuseppe Fioroni said in a statement.
Holding a pair of scissors in her hand, the 22-year-old teacher apparently told a boy to "Stick out your tongue so I can cut it. That way you'll stop talking!" before proceeding to slash his tongue so badly that he needed five stitches, the Il Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
According to the Ansa news agency, the teacher admitted to threatening the boy with scissors, but insisted that she unintentionally cut him after he unexpectedly jerked his head.
While the scissors just happened to be poised at his tongue.
"The chief education officer in the [Milan] region has, in agreement with the minister, decided to begin dismissal procedures against the teacher with immediate effect," the Education Ministry said in a statement, adding that the woman had already been suspended. "The hundreds of thousands of serious teachers in the Italian education system do not deserve to be discredited by a few irresponsible" educators, Fioroni said.
#2
I have no problem at all with my entertainers being loony and crazed, or even self-destructive in amusing ways (for us customers of that big freaks show), that's when they try to pretend to be Moral or Intellectual Authorities (and that they're taken seriously - !!! - by the media complex) that I feel something's wrong.
#3
I'm disappointed. Madona isn't even on the list! I guess you really have to try hard if you want to make the top 50.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
02/28/2007 12:58 Comments ||
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#4
..As good as that article was (and for my money, Brian Wilson is the great underrated nutcase of American pop music)the other top lists on there are just as good.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/28/2007 13:02 Comments ||
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#5
They didn't even mention Franz Liszt, who was probably the first pop star. A totally brilliant nut who was not attractive, but drove women mad with lust. Throwing underwear and hotel room keys on the stage mad.
For years, his adventures crisscrossed Europe, with the likes of Lola Montez in hot pursuit, who smashed every piece of furniture in a Paris hotel room when he locked her in after she demanded sex; and she also did a disrobing dance on the table of a royal banquet given in Liszt's honor.
He took the lowest level of holy orders to escape from his female pursuers, but even the Catholic Church couldn't handle that level of scandal. He ran off to Russia and into the clutches of a Russian noblewoman who hated the smell of fresh air, so filled her mansion with smoke.
And kept her ex-husbands, mummified, in closets around the house.
It went on like that. He is such an icon of Rock 'n' Roll style musical excess that Ken Russell made a bizarre movie about him called "Lisztomania"--a real term used at the height of his popularity to describe fan fanaticism.
During his life, many professional pianists swore that some of his music was too difficult to be performed at all. Today, to win in a major piano competition, you almost have to play Liszt.
"Marathon" session, ya say? Oh, he was playing games...
BEIJING (Reuters) - An obese 26-year-old man in northeastern China died after a "marathon" online gaming session over the Lunar New Year holiday, state media said on Wednesday. I win! THUMP... The 150-kg (330-lb) man from Jinzhou, in Liaoning province, collapsed on Saturday, the last day of the holiday, after spending "almost all" of the seven-day break playing online games, the China Daily said, citing his parents. Nice parenting, by the way...
Xu Yan, a local teacher, said the "dull life" during the holiday prompted many people to turn to computer games for entertainment. "There are only two options. TV or computer. What else can I do in the holiday as all markets, KTV and cafeterias are shut down?" the paper quoted Xu as saying. I dunno? Get laid? Kiss a girl? Order Chinese food?
China has seen an alarming rise in the number of teenage and young adult Internet addicts in recent years, despite attempts to restrict minors from cybercafes and limit online game playing times. About 2.6 million -- or 13 percent -- of China's 20 million Internet users under 18 are classed as addicts, state media have reported. Didn't they used to shoot addicts over there?
(Xinhua) -- A zoo worker was injured Tuesday when he was trampled by a male elephant in northern Malaysia. Whoa! That hadda hurt!
Mohd Hashim Ishak, 40, from the Taiping zoo in Perak state, was then sent to a local hospital to seek medical treatment for suspected fractures and internal injuries, local media reported. "And what brings you to the emergency room, Mr. Ishak?"
"I've been trampled by an elephant."
Speaking from his hospital bed, Mohd Hashim said he was cleaning a den where the 17-year-old elephant was kept Tuesday morning when the animal attacked him from behind. "Yeah. There wuz no warning! He snuck up on me!"
"One of the elephant's tusks hit the side of my chest and the next moment I was pinned down by his foot," he was quoted as saying by local newspaper The Star on its website. Some of his colleagues who saw the incident rushed into the den and pulled him out to safety. "Mahmoud! Come quick! Moe's been trampled by an elephant!"
Meanwhile, Taiping zoo director Kevin Lazarus told reporters the elephant was experiencing a "musth", in which condition an elephant turns aggressive. The period of musth may last from a few days to several months for different elephants, added the Kevin.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
That was a method of execution in the old days in Asia- chain the miscreant to an elephant's foot.
RON Blomberg is going to Israel. This is good news for Israeli baseball fans. For the Palestinians, it could be a learning experience. And for those like me who don't know who he is:
Blomberg, who played first base and outfield for the Yankees back in the '70s, made history in 1973 as baseball's first designated hitter. This summer, he is scheduled to manage the Beit Shemesh Blue Sox of the brand-new Israel Baseball League. Managers of other clubs include ex-big leaguers Art Shamsky and Ken Holtzman. The league's commissioner is Dan Kurtzer, the former U.S. ambassador to Tel Aviv. Trustees include Yankee President Randy Levine and the daughter of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Jewish ballplayers will be encouraged to come out for the teams. (Just in case, the league is also holding tryouts in the Dominican Republic.)
Few, if any, Israelis will play the first year: Baseball's never been an Israeli sport. This new league is founded on the "If you build it, they will come" principle. Which, when you think of it, was pretty much how Israel itself got founded.
In 1948, when Israel became independent, the population was 650,000, the biggest industry was orange growing and most people needed government-issued food-ration cards to get by. Today there are more than 6 million Israelis, and the standard of living is similar to the Mediterranean countries of the European Union.
Now, Israel is on an economic tear. Last summer's war against Hezbollah in Lebanon slowed things down for a couple of months, but 2006 still saw 5.1 percent economic growth. New figures out this week show growth at an astonishing 8 percent clip in 2006's final quarter. It looks like Israel will be able to afford the next round of war after all. I still wouldn't invest in the Israeli stock exchange, though -- they treat it like a blood sport.
Last spring, Warren Buffet bought Iscar, an Israeli blades and machine-tool company, for $4 billion. About the same time, Donald Trump announced plans to erect a 70-story skyscraper outside Tel Aviv. I guess The Donald doesn't expect a local 9/11, then... or even that Iran will be allowed to shoot off rockets.
These were not sentimental gestures. Neither Buffet nor Trump is Jewish - they're simply investors looking for a profit. Like Ron Blomberg, they look at Israel and see opportunity. Unlike the Palestinian Territories where, having destroyed their present with a resultant free-falling economy, are now destroying their future as Hamas and Fatah go after one another's universities, a point the writer expands on a bit too long.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/28/2007 18:18 Comments ||
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#5
Somebody please tell me where I can get some team gear? I would just love walking around SF with a Blue Sox Jersey. I bet I would get better response than when I wear my Club Gitmo shirt.
#6
I wonder if Israel will start to get a nostalgia for Jewish America of the 1920s through the 1960s. Jews in the United States were for the most part enjoying both their Yiddish culture and their American freedom and prosperity.
They were behind much of the US entertainment industry, less in control than just by being profusely creative. They were also at the forefront of positive social change in the US, and were influential throughout society.
But with the founding of Israel, much of the cultural progress and creativity was set aside, and the Israelis just lived under a different set of rules, as if progress was just for the benefit of gentiles.
There is much about life in Israel today that hearkens back to the "bad old days". So much so that Jews who were raised to appreciate social progress must feel someone uncomfortable in its absence.
#7
"Rosenthal to Levin to Liebshutz" doesn't have the same ring as "Tinker to Evers to Chance".
It wouldn't anyway, GORT, 'cause it'll be in Hebrew. "Rosental l'Leveen l'Leebshutz" is as close as that would could ever come. Let's not even think about "Play ball!"; I don't remember enough Hebrew to guess at that one.
Cyber Sarge, there's a Wikipedia article with links, but I couldn't open the IBL page either from there or directly. With a June start of play, they may be otherwise occupied at the moment. But it seems they're holding another round of try-outs in Los Angeles on April 15 in Los Angeles -- perhaps they'll have t-shirts and such for sale there.
The rest of you are just as silly as I hoped when I posted this. :-D
Fishing buddies Jim Fuss and Joe Leiterman spent long hours in their boat talking about what they would do if they ever owned a business.
Turns out, they planned it pretty well. S&M Tool, their custom-parts manufacturing shop, is one of 39 Wisconsin businesses nominated for the 19th annual Wisconsin Manufacturer of the Year Awards to be presented Thursday in Milwaukee...
#5
Nothing fixes a plumbing problem like a Ridgid Tool
Posted by: Steve ||
02/28/2007 14:52 Comments ||
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#6
I'm sure stories like this have happened a million times in our glorious capitalist environment. But leave it to Rantburg to take it down to sexual innuendo.
I say good on them and anyone willing to do the work and make the sacrifices necessary to succeed in a business.
P.S. I got something in my eye during the shop tour. My lawyer will be in touch with yours, capitalist pig.
Baltimore will join hundreds of communities across the nation that prohibit smoking in bars after the City Council approved a smoking ban last night with a margin of support that swelled in the hours leading up to the final vote.
Nine council members - one more than needed for approval - stood to support the smoking ban just weeks after it appeared dead, a rapid turnaround that some attribute to lucky timing and others to an 11th-hour lobbying effort by Mayor Sheila Dixon. The ban, which Dixon said she will sign, takes effect Jan. 1. With Baltimore's ban set, attention now shifts to Annapolis, where the General Assembly is considering a statewide ban that has failed in past legislative sessions.
Nearly half of Maryland's population will be covered by stringent smoking prohibitions by next year, and supporters hope that will prompt the state to act. "This is a historic night in this chamber and for our city," said City Council Vice President Robert W. Curran, the lead sponsor of the bill who has been methodically working toward its approval for nearly two years. "Lives will be saved."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Love the graphic!
Posted by: DanNY ||
02/28/2007 0:13 Comments ||
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#2
Baltimore is #2 or #3 consistently in terms of heroin use/importation among U.S. cities, has been for decades, and the local city government is spending their time on this?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/28/2007 6:48 Comments ||
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#3
Baltimore is #2 or #3 consistently in terms of heroin use/importation among U.S. cities, has been for decades, and the local city government is spending their time on this?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/28/2007 6:48 Comments ||
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#4
the local city government is spending their time on this?
#5
I don't smoke, and I used to look forward to the time when I would go into a restaurant and hear the hostess say to the person ahead of me that the only smoking table wouldn't be free for some time, but there were plenty of non-smoking tables. However, I believe that market forces should drive this, not government regulation. If I don't want to eat in a restaurant where someone is smoking, I'll just go someplace else.
The whole secondhand smoke is extremely dangerous is junk science.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Baltimore will join hundreds of communities across the nation that prohibit smoking in bars after the City Council approved a smoking ban last night with a margin of support that swelled in the hours leading up to the final vote.
