I'm no expert, but isn't this one of those things that are hard not to notice?
Mich. man helps deliver wife's surprise baby
Force is strong for Jedi police
BBC News
Published: 2009/04/16 16:40:22 GMT
Eight police officers serving with Scotland's largest force listed their official religion as Jedi in voluntary diversity forms, it has emerged.
Strathclyde Police said the officers and two of its civilian staff claimed to follow the faith, which features in the Star Wars movies.
The details were obtained in a Freedom of Information request by Jane's Police Review.
Strathclyde was the only force in the UK to admit it had Jedi officers.
In the Star Wars films, Jedi Knights such as Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda use the Force to battle the evil Darth Vader, who has strayed to the dark side.
Jane's Police Review editor Chris Herbert, who requested the information, said: "The Force appears to be strong in Strathclyde Police with their Jedi police officers and staff.
"Far from living a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, some members of the noble Jedi order have now chosen Glasgow and its surrounding streets as their home."
Provided voluntarily
A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police confirmed: "At the time of the request, 10 (eight police officers and two police staff) had recorded their religion as Jedi."
She added that the force monitored "six strands of diversity" - age, disability, gender, race religion and belief, and sexual orientation.
The force said the information was provided voluntarily and securely stored.
About 390,000 people listed their religion as Jedi in the 2001 Census for England and Wales. In Scotland the figure was a reported 14,000.
The Office for National Statistics did not recognise it as a separate category, and incorporated followers of Jedi with the atheists.
Last year, brothers Barney and Daniel Jones founded the UK Church of the Jedi - which offered sermons on the Force, light sabre training, and meditation techniques.
Strathclyde Police employs 8,200 police officers and 2,800 civilian staff.
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I'm no expert, but isn't this one of those things that are hard not to notice?
Mich. man helps deliver wife's surprise baby
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Being 7 months pregnant at the moment myself, this guy musn't be paying a lot of attention to his wife to think she'd just gained weight. Particularly if she'd been pregnant twice before.
The only way I could think he could "miss" noticing would be if she was already morbidly obese, then only a maybe...
Here's one...
Wayne Industries collapses - Batman doing Infomercials
Battlerock X - inv/str tank, Justice Server
http://battlerockx.blogspot.com - The Battlerock X Chronicles
http://guardiansofthedawn.wordpress.com - fan-based comic book series "The Guardian Powers"
http://twitter.com/BattlerockX
--
"With Me - Against Me" Mission Arc 230667
I'm calling it now, this is going to be a movie someday...
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From heavy hearts, a song soars
Day after boy is slain, shaken schoolmates triumph at choral contest
The Boston Globe
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff | May 13, 2009
It was the kind of tragedy no school should have to endure. Students - young children, really - wept in the hallways Thursday as word swept through the Warren-Prescott School in Charlestown that an eighth-grader, Soheil Turner, was dead, shot that morning as he waited for his bus.
So it felt strange and not quite right the next morning as members of the school choir boarded a bus for a statewide singing contest and a trip to an amusement park. Some of the students looked sad and uncertain.
Their music teacher, Olivia Thompson, felt unsettled, too. But she offered words of reassurance: It's OK to be sad, but it's also OK to have fun.
"The music you're making is part of what's good in the world, and it's important to keep doing that," Thompson told them.
What happened later that day stunned the students, their teacher, and the school. The fledgling choir from Charlestown, the only elementary school singing group in the competition, earned the highest point total, beating a roster of larger, better-established choruses from middle and high schools. They did it with a heartfelt rendition of "What a Wonderful World," on a day that, as sixth-grader Mary Evers later said, didn't feel wonderful at all.
Judges were left in awe, audience members in tears.
The choir's unexpected triumph brought needed emotional uplift to a small, close-knit school hit hard by a violent act. It also vividly illustrated the resiliency required to be a student in many urban schools and the sheer challenge that students and teachers often face simply to achieve a sense of normalcy.
"You can feel empathy and sympathy, but you also have to do what you've been trained to do," said principal Dominic Amara, sitting in his office yesterday. "You can put a plaque on the wall or a tree in the ground, and those are nice things, but the best way to honor Soheil is to be a good kid."
Turner, 15, was shot in Roxbury. The man who killed him has not been identified. The boy had attended Warren-Prescott since first grade, and many of the 437 students knew him well.
The school - a low, brick complex sandwiched into a dense neighborhood a few blocks from the Bunker Hill Monument - offered kindergarten through sixth grade until three years ago, when it added grades seven and eight. "We get to know the kids and want to keep them," said Amara. Pots of pansies sit by the front door; students in all grades wear uniforms, matching navy-blue polo shirts. The school motto is "Persist and Prevail."
The choir members range from kindergartners to teenagers. When the group began four years ago, anyone could join; now, students must audition. Practices are held after school on Mondays, when the 39 students cram onto risers in a small room off the auditorium.
They worked for months on two songs for the Music in the Parks competition, held at the Six Flags New England theme park in Agawam. They were especially proud of "What a Wonderful World," their finale, with two student accompanists, on piano and trumpet, and a voice solo by a third-grader.
Then, the day before the trip, came news of Turner's death. Students who knew him were devastated; younger children were scared and confused.
"I didn't feel like singing," said Evers, the 12-year-old. "I said to my friend it's not such a wonderful world."
Elizabeth Pardy, another sixth-grader, sought a way to take solace in the music.
"Watching my friends lose someone was very upsetting," she said. "But then I thought, 'I'll sing for Soheil,' and that made me feel better."
The same thought came to Brandy Giles, 13.
"It was hard to see everyone crying," she said. "But I thought we shouldn't stop, that he would want us to keep going. People were expecting to hear this beautiful sound. If we didn't put our whole heart into it, it wouldn't be as joyful."
Standing onstage that morning, they said, they felt nervous, worried by the competition, which included middle school choirs from Georgetown and Tewksbury, but ready to do Soheil proud.
Watching from the audience, parent John Strachan felt swept by emotion.
"Just to think about what they were going through and to see them walk out onstage was this amazing dichotomy," he said.
The judges recorded their critique of each choir. On the tape sent home with Warren-Prescott, one judge pauses to listen, then remarks, "This is what music should be," according to Thompson.
The Charlestown choir "demonstrated a wonderful sense of discipline, as well as a true love of music-making," the judge, Frank Ward Jr., wrote in an e-mail. "It was a very satisfying and enjoyable performance from such a young group of students."
The choir took home two trophies, for best elementary and best middle school choir, and two of its soloists, Chloe Shea and Emily Ringrose, won individual prizes. When the winners were announced, "all the girls were screaming so much it hurt my ears," said choir member Declan Coleman, 9.
Yesterday, the buzz about the choir was still spreading through the school. Students passing the main office between classes bent low to brush the shiny trophies with their fingers, peering closely at a photo of the beaming choir members.
Parents plan to pitch in to fix up the school's display case for the new prizes.
"It's phenomenal what they did, and it's something special about kids," Amara said. "If you had adults in this kind of trauma, I doubt they could perform as well."
That is a really awesome story. 
Thank you for sharing it Manoa.
::sniffles::
@Arwen Darkblade
Proud Member of Hammer of the Gods and Sanguine Syndicate
Arc ID #86194 "Cry Havoc"
Arc ID #103934 "Dr. Thomas' First Day"
[URL="http://tobyfife.blogspot.com/"]Hero Girl[/URL] - my geek culture blog
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That is a really awesome story. Thank you for sharing it Manoa.
::sniffles::
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Indeed.
And I agree it will be a movie. Get Whoopie to play the choir teacher and you just might have something.
"His Imperial Majesty's Minister of Restraints and Leather" -LHF
Two naughty acronym teams / Ascension / Convenient / Artic and the Chillz / Fap / Other teams I can't remember (sorry.. mind is goin')
I liked this one.
Nebraska boy, 6, takes wheel after dad passes out
This one is relevant to your interests.
@Ba'alat/@Zizka
"Plausibility is nothing compared to nerdrage." --PumBumbler
Soldier responds to enemy attack in flip-flops and boxers.
Gates told an audience in New York about Specialist Zachary Boyd, routed from sleep by enemy fire on his post in eastern Afghanistan.
"He immediately grabbed his rifle and rushed into a defensive position clad in his helmet, body armor, and pink boxer shorts that said 'I Love New York,'" Gates said Thursday night.
Gates said Boyd, from Forth Worth, Texas, later told his parents he might get fired. Gates assured his audience at the Intrepid museum, and Boyd, that his job is safe.
"Any soldier who goes into battle against the Taliban in pink boxers and flip-flops has a special kind of courage," Gates said, adding that Boyd may have hit on a new kind of psychological warfare. "I can only wonder about the impact on the Taliban.
Bwahahaha! Boyd is a P.I.M.P.
"His Imperial Majesty's Minister of Restraints and Leather" -LHF
Two naughty acronym teams / Ascension / Convenient / Artic and the Chillz / Fap / Other teams I can't remember (sorry.. mind is goin')
That's how they roll in the big NYC. Flip flops and boxers, [censored].
Would you mess with someone walking down the street who was wearing flip flops, boxers and kevlar? No.
If he has a rifle.. no. If he's unarmed and eying my woman.. HUZZAH!! 
"His Imperial Majesty's Minister of Restraints and Leather" -LHF
Two naughty acronym teams / Ascension / Convenient / Artic and the Chillz / Fap / Other teams I can't remember (sorry.. mind is goin')
$14 trillion scam leads to arrest
MIAMI, FL -- Marlon Moore is in federal custody and is scheduled to go before a federal judge on Thursday.
The US Attorney's Office says that Moore sent fraudulent documents to the US Treasury Department and the IRS seeking payments for
over $14 trillion.
Federal investigators also say that Moore claimed he was owed a $10 million refund on his income tax return.
Marlon Moore is facing charges that he obstructed and impeded IRS laws.
Billy Mays is dead at age 50.
Infomercial pitchman Billy Mays died at his Tampa, Florida, home Sunday morning, authorities told CNN.
The 50-year-old known for his shouting OxiClean ads was pronounced dead at 7:45 a.m. The Hillsborough County medical examiner will perform an autopsy, Tampa police Lt. Brian Dugan said.
Mays was on the US Airways flight from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Tampa on Saturday that had a hard landing at Tampa International Airport when the plane's front tire blew out. There were no reported injuries on Flight 1241, US Airways told CNN.
According to a local Tampa TV station, Mays said: "All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping. It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."
Airline spokesman Jim Olson told CNN Sunday there were no reported passenger injuries from flight 1241. The airline vowed to "cooperate fully" with authorities in the investigation.
"We were very sad to learn of Billy Mays' passing and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family," Olson said. Tampa officials say the Medical Examiner's Office expects to complete an autopsy by Monday afternoon. In a statement, Deborah Mays said that although "Billy lived a public life," the family does not plan immediate public statements about his death.
Mays was a spokesman for Orange Glo and detergent OxiClean and appeared in commercials for other products.
advertisement
He is featured on the reality TV show ''Pitchmen'' on the Discovery Channel, which follows pitch people in their jobs.
"It is with incredible sadness that we have to report that Billy Mays died in his sleep last night," said a statement from the Discovery Channel. "Everyone that knows him was aware of his larger-than-life personality, generosity and warmth. Billy was a pioneer in his field and helped many people fulfill their dreams. He will be greatly missed as a loyal and compassionate friend. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family at this time of incredible loss."
@Arwen Darkblade
Proud Member of Hammer of the Gods and Sanguine Syndicate
Arc ID #86194 "Cry Havoc"
Arc ID #103934 "Dr. Thomas' First Day"
[URL="http://tobyfife.blogspot.com/"]Hero Girl[/URL] - my geek culture blog
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
4 celebrities in a week, is that some kind of a record?
What the hell is going on? I thought these things only went in threes! This is totally messed up, man. 
Still not sure if this is a joke or not....
China Bans Gold Farmers
In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services.
Virtual currency, as defined by Chinese authorities, includes "prepaid cards of cyber-games," according to a joint release issued by China's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce on Friday.
"The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services," the Ministries said.
The Chinese government estimates that trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is currently equal to about $146 million.
The ruling is likely to affect many of the more than 300 million Internet users in China, as well as those in other countries involved in virtual currency trading. In the context of online role playing games like World of Warcraft, virtual currency trading is often called gold farming.
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Still not sure if this is a joke or not....
China Bans Gold Farmers
In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services.
Virtual currency, as defined by Chinese authorities, includes "prepaid cards of cyber-games," according to a joint release issued by China's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce on Friday.
"The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services," the Ministries said.
The Chinese government estimates that trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is currently equal to about $146 million.
The ruling is likely to affect many of the more than 300 million Internet users in China, as well as those in other countries involved in virtual currency trading. In the context of online role playing games like World of Warcraft, virtual currency trading is often called gold farming.
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I'm sure its just a ploy to get a cut of the action. Soon you'll see the Government regulated gold farmers.
@Radmind - Justice Server
ClintarCOH - Twitter
ClintarCOH - Twitter
[/center]
**********************SPOILER ALERT!!!**********************
If you don't want to read anything about the, ahem, "plot" of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, stop reading NOW!
I mean it! And yes, I realize the pun, but that was just a happy accident. 
**********************SPOILER ALERT!!!**********************
Burning Questions: The 10 Most Confusing Things in 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'
Burning Questions: The 10 Most Confusing Things in 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'
by Matt McDaniel.
June 30, 2009
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" made over $200 million last week. What it didn't make, however, was one lick of sense.
Now, suspension of disbelief is usually not a problem for me. Tell me that a billionaire could put on a bat suit and swoop around fighting crime and I'll buy it. Or that a different billionaire could build flying armor in his basement. Or that in the future people will beam onto spaceships with their pointy-eared best friend. I'll accept all of it. I'll even take your word for it that a mechanized alien race can come to our planet, scan some cars, and turn themselves into vehicles.
That being said, there were moments in this new "Transformers" movie that were so confusing, so contradictory, or so corny that they completely took me out of the movie. Even days after watching it, some new inconsistency or plot hole would pop into my mind.
I can hear it already: "It's a popcorn movie. It's based on a bunch of toys. It's just supposed to be fun." And yes, all of those things are true. But that doesn't mean I can't ask questions about what in the world was going on. Here are the ten that I most want answered. (WARNING: contains spoilers).
1. In "Transformers," there was this giant battle in the middle of downtown Los Angeles -- excuse me, Mission City -- that was witnessed by thousands of people at the very least. But somehow the government was able to cover up the whole thing, and now the existence of alien robots is just an internet rumor? How did they do it? Pay off everyone who was there and quickly fix millions of dollars in damage? Also, didn't Keller (Jon Voight) go on TV and tell everyone we were being attacked by "a technological civilization far superior to our own"? How did they spin that?
2. There are two pieces of the Allspark cube left: the military has one under lock and key, and Sam discovers another. The Decepticons steal one and bring Megatron back to life. But when Sam (Shia LaBeouf) wants to bring back Optimus, he has to find the Matrix of Leadership on the other side of the globe. Why not use the other piece? Mikaela (Megan Fox) has it in her backpack the whole time. It brought his kitchen appliances to life, why can't it do the same for Optimus?
3. Speaking of Megatron's rebirth, when the Decepticons venture deep into the ocean to revive him, the Navy crew tracking them reads five contacts. When they get down there, they tear apart one of the robots for parts to rebuild Megatron. Then as they rise to the surface, the same Navy guys say they spot six contacts. The little "Doctor" robot popped out down there, but he's about a third of the size of a person. Would he have shown up on sonar?
4. That reminds me: even if I were to forgive the Doctor's German accent -- and director Michael Bay is asking me to forgive a lot of ridiculous accents -- why would a robot need glasses? He has little lenses that flip in front of his mechanical eyes. Couldn't he just get his eyes adjusted? You'd think with all the laser guns, someone could perform a Lasik procedure.
5. Apparently, Transformers can look like people now. How? And how is it that even though the robo-girl (Isabel Lucas) is made of metal, she can still straddle Sam without crushing him. And if Bumblebee knows something's wrong with her, why does he spit antifreeze at her instead of telling Sam? Yes, his voicebox is broken, but wasn't it fixed at the end of the last movie?
6. The Fallen is the last of the Primes, since they all sacrificed themselves to stop him from destroying the sun. But then he says that Optimus is a descendant of the Primes. First, Transformers have kids? And second, how could he descend from them if they were all dead? And if the Fallen could only be destroyed by a Prime, why didn't the originals just gang up on him back in the day? And what makes Optimus so special, anyway? Megatron beat him earlier, but all it takes is a few spare parts from creaky old Jetfire for him to take out the Fallen?
7. Sam, Mikaela, and Simmons (John Turturro) go to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. to find Jetfire. Then they walk out the back onto a wide open field with old planes and mountains in the distance. When did the National Mall start to look so much like to Tucson, AZ (where they really filmed that scene)?
8. The geography is just as bad when they go to Egypt. The stone city of Petra in Jordan is over 250 miles away, over mountainous terrain, with few paved roads and the Israeli border between them, so how can they drive from one to the other in a couple of hours. And the Pyramids are said to be shooting distance from the Mediterranean, but they are actually well over 80 miles inland. Even if the Navy ship had a secret rail gun, and even if the captain would take an order to fire from a former agent of a government branch that no longer exists (over a walkie-talkie that inexplicably starts working again), how could it hit a moving target from that distance?
9. Sam briefly dies and goes to Robot Heaven. Robot Heaven?!?!
10. Where does Sam's bandage come from? What about his extra sock? Why does Sam's roommate not contribute anything at all? What was the Fallen doing for those thousands of years Megatron was frozen in ice? How does one satellite receive transmissions from everywhere on the planet? Why does Wheelie hump Mikaela's leg? Why do we have to see John Turturro's thong? Why are robots who join together to become Devastator also seen fighting the Army at the same time? Why does the government want only our military fighting Decepticons when our weapons seem unable to make so much as a dent on any of them? Why did the ancient Egyptians build a pyramid around the sun-destroying machines instead of just breaking it? Why is the Matrix of Leadership bigger in the Fallen's hand than in Sam's? And how do Mikaela's pants stay so clean?
OK, so I went overboard at the end, but the questions remain. And I'm sure more will pop up next time I think about the movie. But the movie did make a ton of money, and it's earned a solid B+ rating from our users. Maybe I should go see it again. My questions probably won't get answered in a second viewing, but if I can just clear them from my mind I can be in Robot Heaven, too.
Cops in Michigan protect and serve doughnuts
CLARE, Mich. "Cops & Doughnuts" is more than a punchline. It's now a bakery in Michigan owned by nine full-time employees of the Clare Police Department.
The newly renamed bakery opened Wednesday, offering doughnuts, cookies, muffins, brownies and bread. It also has mugs and T-shirts bearing the "Cops & Doughnuts, 100 Percent Cop-Owned" logo, and phrases including "You Have the Right to Remain Glazed" and "Handcuffs and Cream Puffs."
Officer Al White says the officers were concerned when the Clare City Bakery's owners decided to throw in the towel. The 113-year-old bakery would have become the sixth empty storefront in Clare's three-block downtown.
The officers were on hand for the grand reopening but have hired a manager and will employ local students as staff.
Link to store's website
Noted from said site, it's not just 9 members of the local force, it's ALL nine members of the local force.
[ QUOTE ]
The little "Doctor" robot popped out down there, but he's about a third of the size of a person. Would he have shown up on sonar?
[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. Fishing sonars are capable of detecting fish weighing only a few pounds, military sonar is way, way better.
[ QUOTE ]
Cops in Michigan protect and serve doughnuts
CLARE, Mich. "Cops & Doughnuts" is more than a punchline. It's now a bakery in Michigan owned by nine full-time employees of the Clare Police Department.
The newly renamed bakery opened Wednesday, offering doughnuts, cookies, muffins, brownies and bread. It also has mugs and T-shirts bearing the "Cops & Doughnuts, 100 Percent Cop-Owned" logo, and phrases including "You Have the Right to Remain Glazed" and "Handcuffs and Cream Puffs."
Officer Al White says the officers were concerned when the Clare City Bakery's owners decided to throw in the towel. The 113-year-old bakery would have become the sixth empty storefront in Clare's three-block downtown.
The officers were on hand for the grand reopening but have hired a manager and will employ local students as staff.
Link to store's website
Noted from said site, it's not just 9 members of the local force, it's ALL nine members of the local force.
[/ QUOTE ]
And also on the subject of the boys in blue, this one didn't even have time to finish his doughnut before this happened!
NYPD rookie makes arrest moments after graduation
Fri Jul 3, 12:42 am ET
NEW YORK A New York Police Department rookie just couldn't wait to get started.
One of the NYPD's newest officers made his first arrest Thursday just minutes after graduating from the Police Academy in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden.
Officer Dariel Firpo, 23, was leaving the midtown Manhattan ceremony when he saw a 79-year-old man being robbed of his wallet and thrown to the ground by a mugger, police said.
The mugger tried to run away, but Firpo caught him without incident, they said.
"Officer Firpo made us all proud," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "He's off to a great start."
The man Firpo arrested, Jeffrey Grant, was being charged with robbery. Grant, 47, has 48 previous arrests and was just released last week from Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y., after serving time for a robbery conviction, police said.
Grant, of Manhattan, was in custody late Thursday and couldn't be contacted. The name of his attorney wasn't yet on record.
The mugging victim was treated at a hospital for a broken wrist.
Firpo's feat "may be the fastest police action upon graduation in department history," said chief police spokesman Paul Browne, who was at the graduation ceremony for the class of 250 new officers.
Firpo, who graduated from Lehman College in January with a degree in political science, said he wants to focus on community affairs while working in the nation's biggest police department.
"I'm really trying to stick in the community," he said.
========================================
I made my first arrest within a few minutes of me being admitted to Paragon City, but I set that mugger on fire. I guess that doesn't count. <.<
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Oh, check it out! They come in thigh highs...and some of them have garters!
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huh! somehow this doesn't shock me!
�One of the best lessons children learn through video games is standing still will get them killed quicker than anything else�
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Who uses brass knuckles anyway? Holding a roll of quarters does the job and isn't illegal!
[/ QUOTE ]
...yet...