The Inquisitr » Paul Short

Orlando Mass Shooting Details Coming In

Paul Short — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:46:03 +0000

Orlando shooting: There has been a mass shooting in an Orlando, FL office building at 1000 Legion Place. It’s been confirmed by local authorities that there are 2 dead, 6people shot in total and 5 have been transported to ORMC Hospital in Orlando.

Police are currently searching for a Hipspanic male – 40 year old Jason Rodriguez born on 9/28/69. Rodriguez is driving a silver Nissan SUV, plate number D11 9UX.

Rodriguez was apparently laid off from his job at an engineering firm operating out of the 8th floor of the building. He then left but returned with a gun and opened fire.

Police are appealing to the public via live television news for more details on the whereabouts of the suspect.

More details as we have them…

Admit it guys, women are better at troubleshooting gadget problems than you are

Paul Short — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:51:17 +0000

A U.K. tech and gadget help line, appropriately called Gadget Helpline, did a study of 75,000 calls to their service recently and found that there’s a huge gender gap in how men and women approach problems they’re having with their gadgets. Some of the findings of the study are listed below:

1. 64% of male callers, vs. 24% of female callers had not read their instruction manuals before calling the service.

2. 12% of male callers, vs. 7% of female callers had actually forgotten to plug in or turn on their gadgets before calling.

3. Women spent 32% longer on the phone with the help line, but 66% of the staff at the service preferred talking with the women than with men.

Joanna Bawa, chartered psychologist and editor of the Usability News website, told the BBC:

“There is evidence of a gender divide in technology, although a lot of it comes down to interpretation. In general terms men treat technology as something to be understood and conquered while women are more motivated by appliances that benefit them.”

In other words, guys need to RTFM before picking up the phone.

The Gadget Helpline also mentioned that, unsurprisingly, syncing up gadgets to communicate with one another is one of the most common things people call for help with.

I guess the old attitude problem men have on road trips, where even though they have no idea where they’re going they still won’t stop and ask for directions, carries over to their gadgets as well. Not that I’ve ever done that or anything. Really, I haven’t.

Source: The Beeb.

Is Lindsay Lohan sporting a Baby Bump?

Paul Short — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:42:52 +0000

Is Lindsay Lohan pregnant? Is that a celebrity baby bump we’re seeing in this photo?

Celebitchy has photos up of Lindsay Lohan taken on Nov. 5th ‘09 (yesterday as I write this) and they appear to show an unusually plump tummy. Yeah, Lindsay could be experiencing a little (ok, a lot!) bit of bloating, but still, after her partying and rumored meetups with a number of men lately, you never know. Here’s the big picture:

Inquisitr readers, does Lindsay Lohan look pregnant in the photo above? Weigh in with your comments below. We’d love your input.

Photo credit: Pacific Coast News, via Celebitchy.com

Sexomnia, or Sleep Sex, a legitimate medical disorder

Paul Short — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:43:09 +0000

Sexomnia, also known as Sleep Sex or informally as “banditing,” is a form of parasomnia (similar to sleepwalking) where the person afflicted goes to great lengths to initiate sexual behavior while sleeping.

Back in 1996, Dr. Colin Shapiro and Dr. Nik Trajanovic, researchers at the University of Toronto, Canada, and Dr. Paul Fedoroff from the University of Ottawa, Canada, wrote a research paper on the sleep disorder. The paper, entitled “Sexsomnia – A New Parasomnia?” was published in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry in June 2003. Before the paper was published, sleep sex or sexsomnia sufferers and medical professionals alike were aware the condition existed but were afraid to acknowledge it or legitimize it for fear that friends and peers would dismiss it as willful behavior rather than a legitimate medical condition.

But after the paper, “Sexsomnia – A New Parasomnia?” was published, sleep sex was further legitimized in both the medical fields and legal system, being cited in court cases worldwide as part of defense attorney’s cases against rape and sexual assault charges against their clients. In November 2005, a Toronto, Canada court acquitted a man of sexual assault after it was brought up in his defense that he had been diagnosed with sexsomnia. The court’s decision was appealed but the appeals hearing upheld their decision in 2008. An American from New York was cleared of three rape charges while visiting Britain in 2005 and a British RAF officer was cleared of rape charges after using sexomnia to explain that he was not in control of his actions when he repeatedly raped a 15 year old girl in 2005.

Sexsomnia has also been widely discussed in the media in different lights, from being a devastating disorder and breaking up relationships to being a humorous measure of one’s sex drive.

However it’s viewed, it is legitimate, although people afflicted with sexomnia often go for years without notifying their doctors of the symptoms for fear of being ridiculed by friends and family.

Learn more about sexomnia at Wikipedia.

Amazing Photo of a Chimpanzee Funeral

Paul Short — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:47:24 +0000

The amazing photo below shows a group of Chimpanzees at the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Centre in eastern Cameroon lined up solemnly near a fence after one of their fellow chimps died an is taken away.

Chimpanzees are normally very noisy creatures, but after the passing of one of their fellow chimps, an elderly female named Dorothy, the entire group rushed over to the fence and watched in silence as her body was buried. They sat there by the fence with their hands on each others shoulders as if mourning and consoling each other.

The photo was taken by Monica Szczupider, a worker at the rescue center. She said Dorothy the chimp was well into her thirties when she died of heart failure after being ill.

Szczupider said:

“This is a funeral shot. We were burying Dorothy. We brought her in the wheelbarrow to let the others see.

“It was unbelievably emotional. We were all struck. Even the employees, all of whom grew up as villagers potentially eating apes, before they were a delicacy, were emotional.

“I think every last one of us was silenced by their silence.”

R.I.P. Dorothy.

Photo and story: TheSun.co.uk

Worst Pickup Tactic Ever: Busty woman hit on via mail-order lingerie shipment

Paul Short — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:54:41 +0000

23-year-old Emily McNulty from London, U.K. is an attractive woman who also happens to have a large bust, so she’s probably used to guys gawking and propositioning her. But she was gobsmacked recently when she opened up a mail-order package containing some specialty lingerie she had ordered.

Inside the package containing her expensive new 32JJ lilac bra and thong set was a note that read:

“Hey Georgeous, Nice stuff! If you fancy giving me a private show, call me on 07841 ******, Matthew J xx.”

So Emily called the number and a man who identified himself as Matthew Jones answered. When confronted about the note, Jones hung up the phone and wouldn’t answer when she tried to call back.

Emily, a clothing store manager, told The Sun:

“I opened the box and saw the note on the wrapping around the underwear. I thought it must be a joke, that a friend put it there.

But then I realised it had been in the packaging and had not been opened. It’s really creepy. It could be someone playing a joke or some weirdo being sleazy.”

During a call to the company she ordered the lingerie from, which specializes in making underwear for large busted women, Emily was told that no-one by the name of Matthew Jones worked there and that no Matthew works there at all.

A company spokesperson then tried to offer McNulty vouchers as a show of good will but she refused.

Photo via TheSun.co.uk

Watch the Ares I-X rocket launch live streaming video here

Paul Short — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:38:49 +0000

NASA is about to launch it’s Ares I-X rocket for a test flight and we’ve embedded the live video stream below.

The Ares I-X rocket is NASA’s next generation space vehicle.

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

From Wikipedia’s page on the Ares I-X

Ares I-X is the first test flight in the Ares I program, a launch system for human spaceflight currently under development by the United States space agency NASA. Along with the Ares V launch system and the Altair lunar lander, Ares I and Orion are part of NASA’s Constellation Program, which is developing spacecraft for U.S. human spaceflight after the Space Shuttle fleet is retired from service in 2010.

Ares I vehicles are intended to launch Orion crew exploration vehicles. The vehicle used for the Ares I-X suborbital test flight will be similar in shape, weight and size to the planned configuration of later Ares I vehicles, but will have largely dissimilar internal hardware. Ares I-X is scheduled for launch on October 27, 2009, the 48th anniversary of the first Saturn I launch.

Info from Wikipedia. Video via Ustream.tv

A runway fashion show for dogs? (VIDEO)

Paul Short — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:56:57 +0000

A runway fashion show for dogs held in Kaunas, Lithuania drew a crowd of more than 1500 people recently, and after you watch this video you’ll see why. These puppies are so adorable!

Did anyone else notice that the dog owners who won were both cute, blonde and could easily win awards of their own? Just sayin’…

Daylight savings time 2009 reminder

Paul Short — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:46:42 +0000

Daylight savings time ends on November 1st, 2009 at 2am. The time goes back one hour, so if you go to bed at 11pm, turn your clocks back to 10pm.

There’s been quite a bit of controversy about daylight savings time and whether we really need it at all. The modern practise of turning clocks forward at the beginning of spring was originally proposed by George Vernon Hudson, a New Zealand entomologist in 1895. Less daylight early in the mornings and more daylight in the late afternoons benefits retail businesses, sporting events and other activities that rely on daylight to operate.

Back when it was introduced, daylight savings time also cut down on power usage because oler incandescent lighting used a lot of electricity. Auto accidents and fatalities are also reduced when there’s more light in the late afternoon and early evening. But in recent years where heating and electricity usage differ greatly from back when daylight savings time was originally introduced.

One industry in particular that would benefit greatly if daylight savings time was done away with is the entertainment industry. Night time venues that rely on darkness, such as music concerts and other outdoor activities would have that extra hour of darkness without it being too late on the clock. Large employers and factories that run 24/7 wouldn’t have the inconvenience of changing their schedules twice a year and television and other broadcast media wouldn’t have to change their programming schedules.

At any rate, daylight savings time for fall 2009 is just a few days away.If you’d like more information, see Wikipedia’s daylight savings time info.

Australian Police under fire for verbally abusing, feeding prisoner garbage

Paul Short — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:17:36 +0000

Police at a station in the Northern Territory of Australia have come under some much deserved scrutiny recently for verbally abusing a burglary suspect in their custody and feeding him garbage.

The prisoner was the butt of jokes at the station because he was arrested while sleeping at the scene of the place he robbed. Yes, he wasn’t very smart and being teased because of the circumstances of his arrest can be expected. But that’s where the fun should end. Instead…

Security camera footage taken inside the police station shows one officer picking toast and a carton of milk out of a trash can and giving it to the prisoner. The man was also verbally abused by Police, being called a “loser, retard, dickhead, stupid idiot and piece of s**t.”

After enduring the abuse for a time, the prisoner was so distraut that he tried to commit suicide or seriously injure himself by jumping high into the air and landing on his head. One officer allegedly said: “Go ahead, do it.”

Northern Territory Ombudsman, Carolyn Richards was informed of the inappropriate treatment of the prisoner and in her annual report she criticized their behavior. Police then disputed the report, saying she was biased and didn’t consider how provocative the prisoner had been.

According to the NT News, Ombudsman Richards responded to the Police by saying: “Hard as it might be for police officers to deal with provocative and insulting behavior, a trained officer must at all times conduct him/herself professionally and not sink to the standards of those who have no respect for the law.”

Teasing is one thing, but Police feeding someone food taken from the trash and encouraging them to try to kill themselves while in custody is abuse.

Source: NineMSN.com.au

How do you feel about this? Leave your comments below.

Garth Brooks Concert Tickets Sold Out at Wynn, Las Vegas

Paul Short — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:31:03 +0000

Tickets for the first five weekends of Garth Brooks concerts at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas have sold out. Tickets for his 20 confirmed concert performances went on sale on Saturday, October 24 at 8 a.m. and were completely sold by 1 p.m.

Other relevant parts of the press release announcing the Garth Brooks tickets sold out are below:

The Wynn Las Vegas Web sites and phones were inundated with traffic for concert tickets this morning. The resort phone lines were able to accommodate 141,934 calls before the system reached maximum capacity and callers received a busy signal. Over the course of the morning, the Web site received more than 5.4 million page views with up to 40,000 people waiting in an online queue at any given time. Every effort was made to ensure the systems were operating at peak and processes will be examined to ensure improved performance when future concerts are placed on sale.

The first series of concerts will take place on December 11, 12, 13, January 1, 2, 3 and 22, 23, 24, February 12, 13, 14 and 26, 27, 28. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays, 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 8 p.m. Sundays.

Future Garth Brooks concert dates will be announced soon. Tickets will be priced at $125 plus a $5 service charge and a $13 tax to equal a total of $143.

Fans still stand a chance to obtain tickets for sold out concerts. Returned or unclaimed tickets will be released to a stand-by line that will form at the Wynn box office on show days.

Via: PRNewsWire

Man charged with DWI after crashing his motorized La-Z-Boy armchair

Paul Short — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 08:22:29 +0000

A man from Duluth, Minnesota, has pled guilty to drunk driving (DWI) after crashing his motorized La-Z-Boy armchair into a parked car.

62 year old Dennis LeRoy Anderson told police at the scene of the accident that he left a bar in Proctor, Minnesota after drinking 8 or 9 beers. He was driving his motorized La-Z-Boy armchair along the street towards his home when he crashed into a car parked on the side of the road.

Anderson was not seriously hurt in the August 2008 accident, but prosecutors say his blood alcohol content at the time was 0.29, which is more than three times the legal limit in Minnesota. On Monday he was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 2 years probation.

Anderson’s La-Z-Boy was heavily modified, powered by a converted lawn mower. The ‘vehicle’ was even equipped with headlights, a CD player, speakers and ~~beer~~ cup holders. Sweet ride.

Man under house arrest begs for jail to get away from nagging wife

Paul Short — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:39:59 +0000

An Italian man currently under house arrest has requested to spend the rest of his sentence in jail, to get away from his nagging wife.

30 year old Santo Gambino, who was charged and convicted for dumping hazardous waste, spend part of his sentence in prison, but was transferred to his home near Palermo, Sicily to serve the rest of his sentence. Gambino, a construction worker who spent much of time working, was not accustomed to spending so much of his time at home with his wife. The couple had argued often and his wife constantly blamed him since his inability to work due to the house arrest caused financial problems for the family.

So against the conditions of his house arrest, Gambino left the house and went straight to the police station, demanding to be arrested and put back in jail.

Police did charge him for violating the conditions of his house arrest sentence, but instead of jailing him, they sent him back home to make peace with his wife.

The 7 Coolest Pumpkin Carvings You’ll See Today

Paul Short — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:22:54 +0000

It’s almost Halloween and if you’re looking for really cool pumpkin carving patterns, there’s no better way to get ideas than to browse through some pics. Below you’ll find 7 of the best ones we found today. I personally like the autopsy pumpkin and the one spouting steam on the bar, mainly because it’s on a bar, but I digress!

7 cool pumpkin carvings

1. The Steampunk Pumpkin

2. The Baby Eating Pumpkin

3. The Autopsy Pumpkin

4. The Exploding Toolbox Pumpkin

5. The Perverted Flasher Pumpkin

6. The Alcoholic Drunken Pumpkin

7. The Suicidal Pumpkin

Photos via Uniscoop.

5 year old body builder’s Guinness World Record performance (VIDEO)

Paul Short — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 01:37:20 +0000

5-year-old Giuliano Stroe, from Romania, lives with his parents in Italy and has been going to the gym with his father since he was 2. In an episode of the popular Guinness World Records show that aired in Spain in June, Giuliano wowed the audience and viewers alike with a show of strength and stamina. The boy, then only 4, walked 10 meters (32.8 feet) across the stage on his hands with a soccer ball between his knees.

At Giuliano’s Youtube page you can watch clips of him training and performing different stunts and shows of strength.

Explosion near San Juan, Puerto Rico caused by plane crash

Paul Short — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:43:02 +0000

UPDATE: Reports are coming in that the explosion outside San Juan Puerto Rico was caused a small plane. It has caused an industrial fire at a gas refining facility outside the city.

Again, the Associated Press is reporting they have official word that the explosion was caused by a small plane crash..

My personal apologies to anyone who may have been affected by my original report being inaccurate. The original article is shown below in it’s entirety, unedited.

DEVELOPING STORY: A dramatic explosion near San Juan, Puerto Rico tonight is believed to be [redacted] on it’s way to Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan.

The airplane was reportedly an [redacted]. Authorities aren’t giving any details except to say that emergency crews are currently responding to a large explosion outside the island city.

More as the story develops.

Story via @RodrigoBNO of BNONews.com. Photo via Picasa user, Guillermo Carrion

Editors Note: We apologize that the original version of this post was inaccurate. The writer accepted at face value an external report from a trusted news supplier that was incorrect, backed by public data (flight tracking data) that confirmed strangely that a flight was seriously overdue. The story was corrected shortly after it went live, although a cached version of the original may have been shown to some readers. We will be implementing a review to consider if there is a way to avoid errors like this in the future.

Twitter Lists and Real Time Search deals – The Big Picture

Paul Short — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:32:16 +0000

I’ve spent the past few hours searching around the tech blogs, SEO blogs, forums and Twitter but haven’t been able to find anyone who has made the connection between the recent Twitter Lists feature and the Twitter search deals between Bing and Google. Surprising, really, so I’ll take a stab at it.

On September 30, 2009, Nick Kallen wrote an official Twitter blog that they had just rolled out a new lists feature to selected users. Rather than rewrite a summary of that blog here, I’ll quote the main points below, followed by my thoughts. Nick wrote:

“The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.”

Essentially, Twitter users will be able to categorize the people they follow. How does this have anything to do with the later announcements of search deals between Microsoft’s Bing search engine and the Google search deal?

Categorizing accounts adds a new layer of meta data to the enormous amount of random bits of information spewing out of Twitter at any given point in time. That meta data makes it much easier for the search engine software to quickly crunch the data for search queries. For instance, someone goes to Google or Bing and searches for “Lakers game tonight.” Rather than having to crunch all the data coming out of Twitter in the past 24 hours, then find and output relevant tweets, the software first looks for tweets by members who are on lists categorized as Sports, Basketball, Lakers, etc. and give those tweets priority.

Nick then goes on to say:

“This means lists have the potential to be an important new discovery mechanism for great tweets and accounts.”

See the paragraph I wrote above…

“We started working on this feature because of the frequent requests we received from people who were looking for a better way to organize information on Twitter. Of course, that means not just twitter.com – the Platform team will follow up in a few days with information on the Lists API. This will allow developers to add support for Lists into your favorite Twitter apps.”

And the new lists API will no doubt be used by Bing and Google as well.

There have been rumors swirling around for nearly a year now about real-time search. Pundits and tech bloggers have been wondering which of the big search engines would be the first to do “real” real-time search and do it right. The biggest problem that’s been standing in the way of real-time search, in my honest opinion, is the sheer amount of random data being produced by social media and the real-time web. Or rather, no plausable way to make that data easily discoverable on the receiving end where the search engines are.

Other big user generated content sites have turned to allowing their users to categorize and tag things in the past. Look at how Flickr encourages it’s users to tag, categorize and comment on photos and video. From the beginning, Myspace and Wordpress.com have benefited tremendously by making it natural for users to categorize, comment on and tag stuff. And long before Facebook started tearing down it’s walls, much of it’s tremendous growth has been due to making it easy for users to grow content and networks by making their data easily discoverable. Of late, Google itself has been encouraging searchers to interact with it’s content by voting up and down, removing items from their search pages and add tags or descriptions to photos.

All of what I mentioned above adds meta data that can be used to deliver more relevant results to searchers, faster.

Twitter is a business with a massive amount of user generated data being produced 24 hours around the clock. Those speculating about Twitter’s business model can finally put the subject to rest. They’ve made their product more usable and at least 2 huge companies have jumped committed to using that product.

Meta data. Twitter lists are just the beginning.

George H.W. Bush: “…you may have gotten my Ass Email”

Paul Short — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 03:28:18 +0000

Former U.S. President, George H. W. Bush spoke at a community service promotion event in Texas A.& M. on Friday and made an embarassing slip-up during his speech.

“Some of you may have gotten my Ass email…”

The former commander and chief then realized his mistake and corrected himself, but not until after the faux-pas was broadcast live on CNN. Check out the video clip below and listen for yourself. Priceless.

Charges pending against Heene family over Balloon Boy Hoax

Paul Short — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:29:06 +0000

According to the developing balloon boy story over at dirt-digging blog, TMZ, “The Larimer County Sheriff’s Department is preparing to file charges against members of the Heene family over the balloon incident earlier this week.”

Sheriff Jim Alderden told the blog that misdemeanor criminal charges could be filed against balloon boy’s dad, Richard Heene and other members of the family for orchestrating the elaborate hoax. Alderden says he is consulting with both the District Attorney’s office and the FAA.

Richard Heene was supposed to appear at a press conference tonight but in light of Sheriff Alderden’s announcement, it’s expected that the event will be canceled.

If misdemeanor charges are persued against the family, authorities could potentially sue them for costs incurred because of the incident and resulting investigation.

See the Inquisitr’s previous coverage of the balloon boy fiasco here.

U.K. Airport Bans Nude X-ray Photos of Kids over Child Porn Fears

Paul Short — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:35:47 +0000

Airport security workers at Manchester Airport’s terminal 2 have been banned from subjecting minors to a new X-ray booth that sees passengers nude bodies through their clothing.

The device, a booth that passengers stand in while electromagnetic rays look through their clothing for hidden items like weapons and explosives, was launched last week at the U.K. airport. While standing in the booth, the outline of the persons body is seen through their clothing on computer monitors. The 20 second scan reveals any hidden items, but it also reveals the person’s genitals and every contour of their body. The scanner is so sensitive that it can also detect things like breast implants and their bone structure.

The problem is that legislation was passed in the U.K. back in 1978 called the Protection of Children Act which criminalizes the creation of nude or pseudo-nude photos of children. Using the “Rapiscan machines” to scan anyone under the age of 18 would subject airport security staff to potential criminal prosecution under the legislation.

Airport security officials were aware of the legislation before bringing the new airport scanner online and initially intended to let children be scanned with their parents consent, but even that stepped into a legal gray area, potentially subjecting parents to the child protection legislation for allowing their children to be photographed in a revealing way.

From the Daily Mail:

Last night a Manchester Airport spokesman confirmed that all staff had been told not to allow children to be scanned by the new equipment. He said: “Our lawyers and child welfare groups have warned us this is a legal grey area.

We do not want to open ourselves or our staff to the possibility of legal action, so we have decided children will not be subjected to these scans and will continue to face normal security checks.”

The scanner was hoped to speed up the processing of passengers at the airport by shortening the amount of time it takes to perform security checks on each individual.

Photo: AFP/Getty Images via dailymail.co.uk