Brazilian footballer forced to wear dress in training
BRAZILIAN club Figueirense have incorporated cross-dressing into their training sessions. Coach Roberto Fernandes makes out-of-form players train in a skimpy frock (see photo). What would Brian Clough have made of it? Not much, we imagine.The dress is credited with an upturn in the form of midfielder Jairo, who is the man in the picture to your left.Fernandes claims Jairo put in his best performance for the second-division club in the next match after wearing the dress in training.
Japanese space underwear set to invade Earth? | Crave – CNET
For some reason, every time high-tech underwear news hits the Internet, my editors think it’s something I need to cover (pun intended). This time, though, it’s underwear from space. And it’s Japanese underwear from space that lasts up to a week before you have to change it–for better or worse.According to Reuters, the clothing called J-ware is currently being tested aboard the International Space Station, perhaps to the dismay of Koichi Wakata’s fellow astronauts.
The skivvies, developed by textile specialists at Japan Women’s University in Tokyo, are meant to absorb moisture, kill bacteria, and generally be comfortable in situations where there are no laundry facilities and you really can’t be as freshly dressed as you’d like.
Thankfully, so far the tests have been successful. Wakata has been quoted as saying, “Nobody has complained, so I think it’s so far, so good.” The question is, if the tests are fully successful, will the general, non-space-going world buy into the idea? There are plans for Earth-bound mass marketing of the week-long underwear. I for one am not into the idea, even if it works fine.
reportonbusiness.com: Even Santa feels the economic chill
The global recession is forcing even Santa Claus to cut back.Santapark Ltd. in Rovaniemi, Finland, which is billed as Santa’s hometown, has seen a 12-per-cent drop in visitors and slumping profits because of the economic slowdown. The situation is so dire the Finnish government, which owned 35 per cent of the park, has brought in new owners to overhaul the operation.
There will “definitely be a very tight handling of expenses,” said Ilkka Lankinen, who bought the government’s stake yesterday and now owns 56 per cent of Santapark. “The government was more concerned about the future and they wanted to have professional Christmas people to run it.”
Santa Claus is big business in Rovaniemi, a city of about 60,000 located just outside the Arctic Circle. More than 280,000 tourists arrive every Christmas season to visit various Santa-related enterprises. There’s a Santa Claus Hotel, Rudolf Hotel and the city has even trademarked its airport as the “Official Airport of Santa Claus.” The city is also home to Santa’s office, located in the Santa Claus Village, and Mr. Lankinen owns Joulukka, another area theme park where visitors can learn about “Santa’s hidden Command Centre.”
Santa isn’t alone in struggling to attract visitors. Theme parks everywhere, from Six Flags to Disney World and Universal Studios, are cutting costs, laying off staff and offering steep discounts in a bid to combat falling attendance.
BERNARD MADOFF Prison number wins lottery – Bild.de
A man from New York has won the lottery – after using Bernard Madoff’s prison numbers as inspiration! According to the ‘New York Daily News’, Ralph Amendolaro, a construction worker from Queens, noticed the numbers on the disgraced financial fraudster’s prison mugshot, and decided to have a punt. He said: “I’m going to be a winner with this guy even though everyone lost money with him. Somebody had to get a little lucky with him.” He went on to win $1,500, and is planning to splash out: “I’m not going to invest it, put it that way!”
Porn Sting Goes To The Dogs – March 18, 2009
MARCH 18–Meet Michelle Owen. Concerned that an ex-boyfriend had used her laptop to search for child pornography, the Indiana woman asked police to search the computer for illegal images, but had her plan backfire when cops discovered two videos of her engaged in illicit acts with a dog. Owen, 24, was charged last week with two felony bestiality counts in connection with the video files, which a detective found in the laptop’s “recycle bin.” At the time Owen asked cops to search the computer, she was locked up in the Johnson County Jail on a public intoxication charge (which violated the terms of her release in a prior drunk driving case). According to a police affidavit, a copy of which you’ll find here, a cop told Owen that he had found videos of her on the laptop and asked if she “knew what those files might be.” Owen, pictured in the below mug shot, replied, “The one with the dog.” Cops believe that the dog in question, Toby, is a beagle. After asking if she was “going to be charged with this,” Owen said that the videos “were just something she did when she was drunk and barely remembers it,” adding that she tried to “delete them the next day when she was sober.”
Bus Driver Suspended After Circling With Children On Board (5 Hours)
NEW YORK — The driver of a school bus that circled Brooklyn for nearly five hours while carrying about a dozen kindergartners and first-graders has been suspended. Authorities say the 53-year-old driver claimed he had gotten lost Wednesday while ferrying the children from the Achievement First Brownsville Charter School to their homes. Parents say their children were shaken by the ordeal that ended when police were called and were finally able to reach the driver. Though he was arrested, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office has decided not to prosecute the driver.
Talking Points Memo | Wow, I Needed That
As part of their efforts to make the scale and scope of Bernie Madoff’s crimes clear to Judge Denny Chin in deciding the terms of his plea, confinement and eventual sentencing, the folks at the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York submitted emails from Madoff’s victims describing the injury they had suffered and the punishment they believed Madoff deserved.When you read through the emails, though, you do sort of wonder what level of vetting was applied to these emails or who some of those people even are. And when you get to the email on page 36 you get the sense that the quality control on which emails they threw on the pile maybe wasn’t all that high.
Here’s the text of that email …
From: [redacted]
Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 6:38 PM
Subject: REPLY MEMy Name is Mr. [redacted] but my origin is from Republic of Congo. I have an inherited fund I want to invest in a business in your country with a help of a local. I don’t know about what business but I found it wise to invest the funds in your country with your collaboration with me.
Ever since I move to Dubai due to the problem in my country, I have not been able to invest the funds in Dubai due to security reasons. Now I am seeking foreign assistance to transfer the funds in your country based on the news of their development.
If you can assist, I am willing to give you 10% of the funds that is US$3.5Million. You will understand that my entire life and future depend on this money and I shall be very grateful if you can assist me. The major thing I demand from you is the absolute assurance that the funds will be safe and you will not sit on it when it is transferred into your account.
I will be willing to coming to your country once everything has been done and the funds are in your bank to discuss on lucrative investment in your country.
I hope to hear from you so that we might get to talk better on this issue. Please do give me your contact information in order for me to call you ASAP.
If this email offends your moral value, do accept my apology.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Best Regards,
[redacted]
I have to confess I couldn’t stop laughing for maybe 10 or 15 minutes after I read this. Really a bang on this one, guys. How many of the rest of these ‘victim’ emails are just crank emails?
Prostitution Tax Pitched for Nevada | News10.net | Sacramento, California | Entertainment News
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Talk about a sin tax! A Nevada lawmaker wants a five-buck tax on hookers’ services. State Senate Taxation Chairman Bob Coffin says his tax proposal would bring in at least $2 million a year from sex acts in Nevada’s legal bordellos. He says even the brothel owners support the tax. But the hooker tax may not get past the governor, if legislators pass it. A spokesman for Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons says as a rule, the governor opposes tax increases.
US comedian Stephen Colbert reaches for the stars after Nasa contest win | Science | guardian.co.uk
An American comedian has embarrassed Nasa, the US space agency, by winning a competition to have part of the International Space Station named after him.Space scientists had urged the public to select Serenity as the name of the third new “living room” aboard the orbiting outpost to match the existing Unity and Harmony modules.But Nasa may have to name it Colbert instead after almost a quarter of a million fans voted to give the satirist Stephen Colbert a giant leap into space.The comedian’s name beat the agency’s preferred choice by more than 40,000 votes in a total ballot of 1.2m.
Other Nasa recommendations included Venture, Earthrise and Legacy, while Myyearbook and Socialvibe were among the public’s suggestions.Colbert’s trip to the stars, however, may yet be grounded when the final decision is made next month. John Yembrick, a Nasa spokesman, said his bosses would give the winning suggestion “the most consideration” but reserved the right to give the new module an “appropriate” name when it is launched aboard the space shuttle Endeavour next spring.
Among the hi-tech equipment due to occupy the extra room aboard the 10-year-old space station is a unit that will convert astronauts’ urine into drinking water.Entering Colbert’s name in competitions has become something of a tradition for fans of his late-night TV show, The Colbert Report. Also named after him are a peregrine falcon in California and a flavour of Ben and Jerry’s ice-cream, Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream.
funniest comment on that story:
A hi-tech method of converting urine into drinking water? Pfft. Just pee in a cup and add a spoonful of Tang to it. We’re in a budget crisis here people!
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