Upgrade your browser!
Skip to Content
Sign-In
Community
Exp Leader Board
Don't have an account? Create one and start earning XP!
Video:
A 39-year-old Southern California man has been arrested for misdemeanor child annoyance after allegedly paying a teenager $31 to spit in his face. The Ventura County Sheriff's Department says Charles Hersel was arrested Wednesday in a sting operation at a mall in Thousand Oaks. He's free from jail pending a court hearing. A sheriff's statement says Westlake High School students claimed Hersel paid them to yell profanities, spit and slap him in the face. Several also claimed he offered them cash to urinate and defecate on him. A motive wasn't clear. Authorities say Hersel contacted some teens through the MySpace social networking site. Hersel couldn't be reached for comment Friday. He had no listed phone number in Thousand Oaks. Source
A teenager from Dorset has been told by the NHS that he must wait until puberty to have a sex change. The boy, known as Georgie Smith, has wanted to be a girl since he was a toddler. He said: "I'm old enough to know what I want. What I want is to be a girl." His mother Carole, 41, has criticised the NHS for preventing treatment until Georgie reaches puberty – meaning that his hormones will give him a manly appearance. She wants him to be given hormone blockers now. She told The Sun: "With his puberty suspended, he wouldn't grow to six foot or have big hands." The mother-of-three said that her son wanted to be a girl from the age of two, and twice attempted suicide after realising he was in the "wrong" body. Aged eight, he confessed to his mother that he wanted to be a girl like his favourite children's programme, Tracy Beaker. Carole said: "Even when he was into Thomas the Tank Engine, he only liked the girl engine." School bullies targeted her son from the age of eight, calling him a "freak". His secondary school in Dorset has refused to let him wear girls' uniform, so now he wears make-up and bangles with the boys' version. Ms Smith said that she had looked into sending Georgie to America, where teenagers can begin the sex-change process earlier, but did not have the £16,000 needed to pay for his treatment. She said: "It should be available on the NHS." The Department of Health has said it is reviewing the age at which youngsters can begin taking hormone blockers. Source
MOAB, Utah, -- A 48-year-old man who has not used money in nine years and resides in a desert cave in Moab, Utah, said he loves his simple existence. Daniel Suelo said he shops for clothes by going through garbage and he is content with living an existence in which he does not have to worry about a job, mortgage or other concerns that most people have to deal with, The Denver Post reported. "The understanding that, really, we all possess nothing is the cornerstone of all spiritual endeavors and religions," Suelo said. A former Peace Corps volunteer, Suelo said he also will not barter for food or rent because he considers bartering another form of currency. Suelo took up his lifestyle nine years ago despite having a master's degree in accounting and a degree in anthropology. He says he will never embrace a conventional lifestyle again. "I have no idea what the future holds, and I don't worry about it. But the longer I do this, it seems absurd to go back," he told the Post. "It would be like going back to slavery." Source
MELBOURNE, Australia – A kangaroo startled by a man walking his dog attacked the pair, pinning the pet underwater and slashing the owner in the abdomen with its hind legs. The Australian, Chris Rickard, was in stable condition Monday after the attack, which ended when the 49-year-old elbowed the kangaroo in the throat. He said he was walking his blue heeler, Rocky, on Sunday morning when they surprised a sleeping kangaroo in Arthur's Creek northeast of Melbourne. The dog chased the animal into a pond, when the kangaroo turned and pinned the pet underwater. When Rickard tried to pull his dog free, the kangaroo turned on him, attacking with its hind legs and tearing a deep gash into his abdomen and across his face. "I thought I might take a hit or two dragging the dog out from under his grip, but I didn't expect him to actually attack me," Rickard, 49, told The Herald Sun newspaper. "It was a shock at the start because it was a kangaroo, about 5 feet high, they don't go around killing people." Kangaroos rarely attack people but will fight if they feel threatened. Dogs often chase kangaroos, which have been known to lead the pets into water and defend themselves there. Rickard said he ended the attack by elbowing the kangaroo in the throat, adding Rocky was "half-drowned" when he pulled him from the water. Source
A car crash victim who was believed to have been in a coma for the past 23 years has been conscious the whole time. Rom Houben was paralysed but could not let doctors know that he could hear every word they were saying, reports the Daily Mail. "I dreamed myself away," said Mr Houben, now 46, who doctors thought was in a persistent vegatative state. Doctors conducted a series of coma tests before concluding that his consciousness was "extinct". But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally. Mr Houben said: "All that time I just literally dreamed of a better life. Frustration is too small a word to describe what I felt." His case has only just been revealed in a scientific paper released by the man who 'saved' him, top neurological expert Dr Steven Laureys. "Medical advances caught up with him," said Dr Laureys, who believes there may be many similar cases of false comas around the world. Mr Houben, a former martial arts enthusiast, was paralysed in 1983. He is never likely to leave hospital, but as well as his computer he now has a special device above his bed which lets him read books while lying down. Mr Houben said: "I shall never forget the day when they discovered what was truly wrong with me - it was my second birth. "I want to read, talk with my friends via the computer and enjoy my life now that people know I am not dead." Source
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8
#1 /my fav .gif ever #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10
Patrons claim service was so bad, they had to get napkins and silverware for themselves. If you’re frustrated by poor service at a restaurant, think twice before you decide to not tip. You may be in for a bit more than just a dirty look from the waiter. "Nobody, nobody wants to be forced to pay a tip or be arrested for terrible service," Leslie Pope said when her happy hour ended in handcuffs. Pope and John Wagner were hauled away by police and charged with theft for not paying the mandatory 18 percent gratuity totaling $16 after eating at the Lehigh Pub in Bethlehem, Pa. with six friends. Pope claimed that they had to wait nearly an hour for their order and that she had to get napkins and silverware for the table herself. “At this point I became very annoyed because I had already gone up to the bar myself to have my soda refilled because the waitress never came back,” Pope said. After the $73 bill came, the group paid for food, drinks, and tax but refused to pay the tip. After explaining the bad service to the bartender in charge, Pope claimed he took their money and called police. The couple was handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car. “I understand that, you know, we didn’t pay the gratuity, but it was a gratuity, it wasn’t something that was required,” said Wagner. The owner admitted that the group waited unusually long for their food, but said the pub was extremely busy that night. He said managers offered to comp the food, a claim the couple denies ever happened. “Obviously we would have liked for the patron and the establishment to have worked this out without getting the police involved,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Stuart Bedics. Police charged them with theft since the gratuity was part of the actual bill. However, it is doubtful that the charges will hold up in front of a judge. The couple is scheduled to appear in court next month. Source
An eminent rabbi was so exhausted after three days of constant cocaine-fuelled partying with escorts that his pimp grew worried and cancelled that day’s supply of girls, a jury was told. Rabbi Baruch Chalomish, 55, who has a £6 million fortune, was a scholarly academic, an accomplished businessman, a charity giver and a dutiful family man until his first wife died of cancer and his world fell apart. He turned to alcohol in his depression, then took refuge in cocaine, spending up to £1,000 a week. He lived in squalor, seeking comfort from prostitutes, Manchester Crown Court was told. The prosecution said that Chalomish was the financier in a commercial cocaine supply business while Nasir Abbas, 54, a convicted drug dealer, provided the drugs and the customers. The pair rented a luxury flat in Manchester and for ten days over the new year enjoyed a non-stop party. Mr Abbas admitted to police that he procured a supply of girls from an agency called Pure Class. They were also offered cocaine. The court was told that on the ninth day, and after the rabbi had stayed up for three straight days, Mr Abbas was so concerned about his health that he scrapped that day’s supply of prostitutes. In a text message to a woman called Clio he wrote: “Hi Clio, I have tried to wake Shel up but I don’t want to wake him. He was very tired because he had no sleep for three days, needed to rest, because he is going to his office to work on Monday at 8. Please cancel the party today.” Michael Goldwater, for the prosecution, said that at 9am on January 5 police raided the flat finding evidence of a substantial drugs operation including cocaine, cutting agents and scales. Officers found an equal amount of the drug at Chalomish’s home in Prestwich, in the heart of Manchester’s Orthodox Jewish community, as well as cutting agents and more than £15,000 in cash. Chalomish denies supplying the drug but admits having it. Mr Abbas, who said that he was too scared to attend the trial after the rabbi “sent around some heavies” to threaten him, faces charges of having cocaine with intent to supply. Jonathan Goldberg, QC, for the defence, said that the rabbi’s fall from grace was a tragedy. He said that his client never supplied the drug but hoarded large supplies of pure cocaine to evade “unscrupulous dealers” known to use rat poison and other dangerous mixing agents. The trial continues. Source
It is one of the few writing traditions that has not fallen by the wayside in the world of e-mailing and texting. But American children sending off letters to Santa Claus at the North Pole could be in for a disappointment this year - they are unlikely to get a reply. The US Postal Service is stopping its system that any letters addressed to Santa Claus, North Pole, get sent to the Alaskan town of North Pole where volunteer 'elves' write a personal reply on behalf of Father Christmas. The move comes after it emerged that a volunteer in the postal service's wider Operation Santa programme was a registered sex offender. The scare was serious enough for it to impose tighter restrictions. It is these which now make the North Pole service unfeasible, local officials said. The service said children could still write to Santa and get a reply, it is only letters sent specifically to Santa Claus, North Pole, which would be affected. The letter programme is a revered Yuletide tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like sweet canes and streets have names such as Santa Claus Lane. The town's mayor, Doug Isaacson, said he recognised caution was necessary to protect children but added: 'It's Grinch-like that the postal service never informed all the little elves before the fact.' Source
