Randon Entries:

Bits and Pieces - Edition 03 - 03/24/03
TIME: 10:18 p.m.

DATE: Monday, Mar. 24, 2003



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TODAY'S HEADLINES, HILARIOUS JUNK, AND SIDE STORIES

Here it is my friends, Another edition for Bits and Pieces...........

I decided to take all my time instead of doing surveys, I will be finding some great and some funky surveys. I think I found so many and so funny. Here it is: the third installment of Bits and Pieces.

This is the world of Bits and pieces. I look around the world and see what is funny and unusual in the world. It is so much easier to do this then anything else. IN fact, it is hard to pick them out when there is so many.

Heres the scoop on today�s and the articles below: The oldest living dude lives in Japan long away from the first sex museum that is a teaches as well as exhibits. I wonder if the oldest living man can teach a few people.

Wagers are going on for Saddam head but it is one dude�s lucky day to skip that and go for the high rollers of slot machines.

Sometimes a thief needs to take lessons from the ones that loves to steal that one road sign: don�t leave any identification. But hey another dude not only have identification, he just love to take pics of his buttocks�three folds. But one warning: don�t moon the judge. A cop and his friend while there is no dummy about this, the husband only has to remember one day for his families� birthday since they were all born on the same day.

The nude protest while the skinny guys loves his big macs. But not that chocolate bar with pork on it. Did I say Pork and sweet?

A guy was found sleeping in a dryer that hasn�t had the boy with the stinkest shoes ever.

A daughter puts her Dad online have people bid for him while the Son puts out a handgun for his mom�s honor. There were a bunch of hot dogs that ran across the street while the translator try to figure out what they are saying.

01. The world's oldest living man, retired Japanese silkworm breeder Yukichi Chuganji, celebrated his 114th birthday on Sunday. The world's oldest living person is Kamato Hongo, a 115-year-old Japanese woman who also lives on Kyushu. Japan has the world's longest life expectancy of just under 80 years. The number of Japanese centenarians hit a record high of 17,934 last year, compared with just 153 in 1963. More than 80 percent of the centenarians are women.

02. India's first sex museum in the western city of Bombay takes curious visitors on a journey into a world that is still considered taboo in the tradition-bound country. Unlike similar museums in the West, the Bombay museum aims to tutor rather than titillate.

03. While pundits around the globe speculated on the fate of Saddam Hussein others were putting money on it.

Offering wagers on the outcome of the war in Iraq has been scorned as distasteful by major bookmakers from London to Las Vegas, but several Web sites are giving gamblers the opportunity to put money on whether Saddam will survive. On the Web site Tradesports.com, people can buy contracts for $10 on future events, such as the Academy Awards and trade them. On Friday, as rumors swirled through financial markets that Saddam had been killed, futures reflecting the chance that Saddam would not be leader of Iraq by the end of March rose to 79 percent, from 65 percent earlier in the day, and from about 20 percent earlier this month, according to Tradesports.com.

04. A young man visiting America's gambling capital has hit pay dirt -- a world record $39 million (25 million pounds) on a slot machine.

The 25-year-old software engineer from Los Angeles, who requested anonymity, came up big at the Excalibur Hotel-Casino on the Las Vegas Strip on Friday, according to International Game Technology, which made the Megabucks slot machine. Friday's winner said he'd put in about $100 when he turned his head away for an instant. When he looked back, the winning symbols had lined up and he was $39,713,982.25 richer.

05. Defendant Moons Judge, Gets Extra 6 Months

ATHENS, Texas (AP) -- A man who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault had an additional six months tacked onto his eight-year sentence after he mooned the judge.

Judge Jim Parsons held 40-year-old Ray Mason in contempt of court Monday after he dropped his pants and showed Parsons and the rest of the court his backside.

"He said something like, 'Hey, judge, look at this," Assistant District Attorney Barry Spencer recalled. About 70 other people were in the courtroom at the time, Spencer said.

"I've been practicing criminal law for well over 20 years, and I've seen a lot of things," said Mason's defense attorney John Sickel. "This is the first time anything like that has happened."

06. Spellcheck Dumbs Down Good Writers

PITTSBURGH - How might you drag a good writer's work down to the level of a lesser scribe? Try the spell-check button.

A study at the University of Pittsburgh indicates spell-check software may level the playing field between people with differing levels of language skills, hampering the work of writers and editors who place too much trust in the software. In the study, 33 undergraduate students were asked to proofread a one-page business letter � half of them using Microsoft Word with its squiggly red and green lines underlining potential errors.

The other half did it the old-fashioned way, using only their heads.

Without grammar or spelling software, students with higher SAT verbal scores made, on average, five errors, compared with 12.3 errors for students with lower scores. Using the software, students with higher verbal scores reading the same page made, on average, 16 errors, compared with 17 errors for students with lower scores.

Dennis Galletta, a professor of information systems at the Katz Business School, said spell-checking software is so sophisticated that some have come to trust it too thoroughly. "It's not a software problem, it's a behavior problem," he said.

Microsoft technical specialist Tim Pash said grammar and spelling technology is meant to help writers and editors, not solve all their problems. The study found the software helped students find and correct errors in the letter, but in some cases they also changed phrases or sentences flagged by the software as grammatically suspicious, even though they were correct.

For instance, the letter included a passage that said, "Michael Bales would be the best candidate. Bales has proven himself in similar rolls."

The software � picking up on the last "s" in "Bales" � suggested changing the verb from "has" to "have," as if it were a plural. Meanwhile, the spell-check ignored "rolls," which should have been "roles." Richard Stern, a computer and electrical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University specializing in speech-recognition technology, said grammar and spelling software will never approach the complexity of the human mind.

"Computers can decide the likelihood of correct speech, but it's a percentage game," he said.

07. Man makes 3 photocopies of his buttocks

CLAYTON, Mo. � Police arrested a man who allegedly dropped his pants in the crowded lobby of the St. Louis County Courthouse and made photocopies of his buttocks. Police found Daniel Everett holding two copies he had already made. He was making a third. ''What did I do? What did I do?'' witnesses said Everett asked police. Everett, an immature 38, told police that the copies were intended as a practical joke for his girlfriend.

08. Harleyville sign makes for popular theft

CHARLESTON, S.C. � In Harleyville, S.C., the town limits sign has disappeared from the same spot for the fourth time in five years. And town officials think they know who has the signs: Harley-Davidson fans. A motorcycle shop owner says swiping Harleyville signs, which have been spotted as far away as Florida, is a point of pride among some bikers. ''I've seen them coming with a beer in one hand and a sign in the other like I'd give them a brownie point or something,'' he said.

09. When stealing, don't leave identification

MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, Mich. � A suspected shoplifter was found when, after dropping her purse at the scene of a crime, she called police to claim her bag. The woman allegedly set off an anti-theft alarm as she fled a Family Dollar store. She dropped her purse in an parking lot while being chased. When she went to the police station to retrieve her lost purse, she was promptly arrested.

10. Hungry? Try a "Fat in Chocolate"

KIEV, Ukraine � A Ukrainian candy company has begun marketing what may be the stickiest, richest and most fattening treat on the market: pure pork fat covered in chocolate. Cracking open a finger-sized stick of ''Fat in Chocolate'' reveals exactly that: a vein of white fat. The dark chocolate product pokes fun at the traditional Ukrainian snack of salo, or salted pork fat, usually consumed with vodka and pickles.

11. Who gets to blow out the candles?

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. � Expect a big birthday party next year in the Greco household. Suzanne and Michael Greco celebrated their shared birthday Saturday by welcoming their first child, 8-pound, 8-ounce Maxwell Allen Greco. ''We're wondering what the odds are of having the whole family born on the same day,'' said Vicki Greco, Michael's mother. ''It's just amazing.''

12. Cop's dummy partner not deductible

SAN FRANCISCO � A police officer whom voters let patrol with a 10-pound wooden dummy partner can't deduct the campaign costs as a business expense, a court said. Robert Geary spent nearly $11,500 of his own money to get the measure on the 1993 ballot, a move designed to counter the brass who ordered the ventriloquist dummy to remain in a locker because they said it made the department look silly. San Francisco voters, though, approved of using the Howdy Doody look-alike, Officer Brendan O'Smarty, to calm children. Now, Geary must pay the Internal Revenue Service $3,500 in back taxes.

13. Nude protesters stop traffic

(FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.) � Wearing nothing more than masks and body paint, nine women protested the war in Iraq at a busy intersection just blocks from the University of Arkansas campus.

Calling it a "Code Pink" emergency, the bare protesters, who ranged in age from 18 to 71, stopped traffic at an intersection Wednesday while carrying a banner that read "Women of the World Say No War." The words "No War" were painted in pink on their backs. They also used the pink paint to cover their private parts.

14.Don Gorske is already in the Guinness Book of World Records for eating Big Macs -- but it's not about the fame anymore.

Gorske, who downed his 19,000th Big Mac Tuesday, said he wouldn't know what else to eat if it weren't for Big Macs.

"I'd be clueless," he said, adding that he ate a piece of pizza recently, but it "just wasn't the same."

"It wasn't my first choice," he said.

Gorske, 49, of Fond du Lac, eats two Big Macs per day and drinks little else beside Coke. He also keeps track of everything he eats in a notebook.

"I admit I'm obsessive compulsive," he says. "I have so many compulsions."

At 6 feet tall and 180 pounds, Gorske said he proves that foods you love don't have to make you fat.

In fact, attorneys defending McDonald's against a lawsuit claiming its food makes people fat used Gorske as an example of someone who frequently ate fast food but stayed slim.

15. Military shoe honored with "most rotten sneaker" title

(MONTPELIER, Vt.) � An annual rotten sneaker contest included a little international competition when an entry came in from the crew of the USS Montpelier submarine.

The sneaker arrived double-bagged from an undisclosed location in the Persian Gulf where the submarine is currently deployed. But the shoe arrived with an unmistakable odor of fish. Contestants are required to be under the age of 15, but contest organizers still gave the military shoe an honorary title of "most rotten sneaker."

"That's a weapon of mass destruction right there," said commentator Dave Moody, who moderated the 28th annual contest.

The rotten sneaker contest began in 1975 as a way to help a local sporting goods store sell shoes.

Ten-year-old Jeffry Soto walked away with the contest's top prize Tuesday -- a $500 savings bond. However, he's not taking full credit for the sneakers, which stumped a judge in the "heels" category because they didn't have any heels left.

16. Man found sleeping in clothes dryer

(LAKE CARMEL, N.Y.) � What sounded like a murder case to police turned out to be a man sleeping in a clothes dryer.

In Putnam County, a woman screaming about a leg in a clothes dryer had Kent Police thinking they had a murder case. Sgt. Ronald Yeager went to the 24-hour Self Service Laundromat in Lake Carmel at 6:30 Sunday morning and saw a human leg hanging out of the large commercial dryer, just where the woman said it was.

But when Yeager opened the door and looked inside the dryer, he found Kevin Johnston, of Lake Carmel, sleeping inside.

Police say Johnston, 41, told them he was walking home from a nearby tavern and decided to seek temporary shelter from the cold. He climbed into the dryer and fell asleep.

Johnston was allowed to go home.

17. (OSLO, Norway) � Nina Mehlum Groenland loves dear old dad, but having him as roommate isn't the 25-year-old Norwegian's idea of keeping family ties close.

One classified ad on the Internet later and Odd Kristiansen, 52, may not have found a new home, but definitely a renewed sense of interest from several nice women.

"Giving away my daddy to a good-natured lady in Trondheim," Groenland's electronic ad read. "Daddy is tall, dark, slim and in his best age. I'm sick of him since he is living in my house. Furniture included."

Groenland told The Associated Press Monday that the advertisement was a gentle jab at her dad. The two live in Trondheim, 310 miles north of the capital, Oslo. He and Groenland's mother are divorced.

"It started as a joke, but we've had one serious call," she said.

18. Neighbors turn tables on prank-playing teen

(Tuscumbia, Alabama) � Putting on a Scream mask and scaring people isn't the way to make friends.

Police in Tuscumbia, Alabama, say a 15-year-old boy pounded on a woman's door wearing the mask and a boxing glove. But he got quite a scare himself, when the woman's adult son showed up with a shotgun. The victim of the prank had been on the phone with her daughter-in-law, who in turn told her husband. The man held the teen-ager until police arrived.

Officers say the kid was acting on a dare and told them he was trying to make friends.

19. Hot dogs line highway after truck loses load

Utica, Mo.) � A tractor-trailer crash caused quite a pickle when hot dogs spilled across a highway in northwest Missouri.

Thousands of Ball Park Beef Franks _ some in boxes, some in shrink-wrapped packages and others scattered individually _ were strewn across U.S. 36 just west of Utica after the top of the trailer split open.

The truck crashed early Friday as it came over the crest of a hill about 100 feet before the eastbound lanes merge from two lanes into one. The transition involves a 30 degree curve to the left. The area is marked with a flashing warning barrier, as well as "Construction Ahead" and "Left Lane Ends" warning signs several hundred feet before the transition.

"I didn't notice the sign that said 'Left Lane Ends,"' said driver Charles Dennis, 25. "I thought the lane was going to merge into my lane. As I was going down the hill, I saw the flashing lights. I didn't expect the curve to be so close to the lights. I began braking and my trailer ended up in the median."

Dennis, who drives for C.R. England of West Valley, Utah, was not injured.

And lastly, This is my favorite story of all time> I wish they had one for cats...........

20. U.S. barking for dog translator

If you're wondering why your pooch howls at the moon, growls at the postman or barks uncontrollably at squirrels, the answer may be only a click away.

A Japanese toy maker claims to have developed a gadget that translates dog barks into human language and plans to begin selling the product -- under the name Bowlingual -- in U.S. pet stores, gift shops and retail outlets this summer. Tokyo-based Takara Co says about 300,000 of the dog translator devices have been sold since its launch in Japan late last year. It is forecasting far bigger sales once an English-language version comes to America in August. The United States is home to about 67 million dogs, more than six times the number in Japan. "We know that the Americans love their dogs so much, so we don't think they will mind spending $120 (76 pounds) on this product," said Masahiko Kajita, a Takara marketing manager, during an interview at a pet products convention in Atlanta. "YOU'RE TICKING ME OFF" Cited as one of the coolest inventions of 2002 by Time magazine, Bowlingual consists of a three-inch (eight-cm) long wireless microphone that attaches to a dog collar and transmits sounds to a palm-sized console linked to a database. The console classifies each woof, yap or whine into six emotional categories -- happiness, sadness, frustration, anger, assertion and desire -- and displays common phrases, such as "You're ticking me off," that fit the dog's emotional state. Takara says it has spent hundreds of millions of yen developing the device in cooperation with acoustics experts and animal behaviourists and hopes to sell one million units in the United States in the first eight months after its launch. It is undeterred by those who scoff at the idea of paying $120 to read a dog's mind. "Of course people are always really sceptical at first, but once they see a demo they are amazed and impressed," said Takara spokesman Kennedy Gitchel. GLOBAL TENSIONS MAY BOOST SALES It is no secret that the product is being launched at a time of solid growth in the $30-billion U.S. pet products market, often considered to be one of the best examples of a recession-proof industry. Sales in this niche sector have been buoyed in recent years by a steady rise in pet ownership, which has fuelled demand for basic pet necessities as well as up-market items such as air-conditioned kennels and rhinestone ferret collars. The increasing importance of the industry was highlighted by the country's reaction to the September 11, 2001, attacks. Many Americans found consolation in the familiar routines of their pets and were willing to pay to pamper their furry friends. That trend continued in the months afterward as the U.S. authorities tightened security across the country and moved closer to a military attack on Iraq industry insiders say. "As fear, tension and insecurity continue to rise in the nation, people are turning to their pets for comfort," said Robert Vetere, executive vice president of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group. "They don't mind spending more on them." Whether the same will hold true when Bowlingual hits the U.S. market is anybody's guess.

Sharper Image Corp. and Petsmart Inc., the No. 1 U.S. pet products company, are among the retailers to express an interest in carrying the product, but so far no deals have been reached, according to Takara. One thing that does appear certain is that the market for animal translation products will likely remain a dog's world since Takara has no plans to develop a similar device for cats. "They are too unpredictable," Kajita said.

Take a Step Backwards - Go ON Forward

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Backup Five Steps

I will be here tomorrow - Wednesday, Feb. 09, 2005

Gosh I think I am able to breath - Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2004

That is my relative, ziggy - Monday, Nov. 01, 2004

no bright eyes but always bushy tail - Thursday, Oct. 28, 2004

litte update from me.... - Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004

Other Diaryrings are below!!!
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