... Finally Friday ...5-9-2008

Slide 2: Mega Tokyo Bay Pyramid to Provide 750,000 People Housing   Hoping to relieve its stress of alarming overpopulation, the world's most crowded city - Tokyo's construction industry has trained its sights on the only vacant lot around -- the waters of Tokyo Bay. Witness the impossible dream of city planners: to build a 3,000-foot pyramid over the water, with skyscrapers suspended like peapods within its enormous frame. Called the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid, it would stand a kilometer tall and provide housing for up to 750,000 people. Even more amazing, the entire construction process may proceed without the work of a single human builder. With the invention of new super-lightweight materials, humanoid robots and self-assembling structures, the pyramid might be the first city in the world to build itself!

Slide 3: Passengers Behaving Badly May 6, 2008 Besides being a repository for magazines, newspapers, books, iPods and air-sickness bags, seatback pockets get stuffed with all kinds of disgusting trash, from toenail clippings to mushy meals. People do things on airplanes that they would never do in other public settings. They pluck eyebrows, polish nails and pick noses. They stick chewed gum in places only other passengers will discover. They blow noses into blankets that get folded up for the next weary traveler. They prop bare feet up on bulkheads and seats. Sometimes they even engage in sex acts. "If you sit in a middle seat, never look in -- those are the riskiest ones," he said, noting that children often sit between parents and that passengers will dispose of their grossest things in an unoccupied middle seat. While some people are testing boundaries or acting out when away from spouses, friends or seemingly any authority, experts say that for others, air travel leaves people psychologically off-kilter and more likely to do things they wouldn't normally do. Some lose control because the flying experience strips them of all control -- you're told where to sit, when to sit and when you will arrive. In addition, many people have difficulty being stuffed in close proximity with others and forced to share space, whether it's overhead bin space, armrests or space taken away when the person in front reclines. As planes get more crowded, people get more cramped. The decline in air service likely has also exacerbated the problem. Some people are simply mad at airlines and seek retribution. What's more, air travel is largely anonymous and, removed from everyday reality, people perceive few consequences to bad behavior. With little interaction with airline employees, some of whom may be grumpy and surly anyway, customers have little emotional connection to airlines, so why worry about trashing their airplanes? Wall Street Journal

Slide 4: California Man Believes He Sees Virgin Mary In Wound 5-6-08 MONTEREY, CA (NBC) -- A California man says he can see the image of the Virgin Mary in his leg after a motorcycle accident. Marc Lipton said he was riding his motorcycle when he lost control and slid about 50 feet along the road. Lipton said he wasn't wearing leather chaps at the time because he was close to home. Lipton said he believes the Virgin Mary protected him from further injury when the motorcycle slid out from underneath him. The Roman Catholic Church has very strict guidelines regarding what is deemed an official sighting of the Virgin Mary. There has been no word on if the Diocese of Monterey will investigate Lipton's leg as a legitimate apparition of the Virgin Mary. WLBZ2 Bangor News

Slide 5: Woman Aims For Breast Implant Record 07 May 2008 . The National Cancer Institute is conducting a study to determine the long-term health effects associated with silicone breast implants, including any changes in breast cancer risk. We met up with 28-year-old Sheyla Hershey during a recent photo shoot. She's a famous model and actress in Brazil. She says breast implants have given her a high self esteem for the first time in her life. "I want to look better each day. Everyday. Everybody's got their dream inside. It's good when you can make you dream come true," Hershey said. Eight years ago Sheyla weighed close to 200 pounds "I wasn't happy the way I used to look. That really depressed me." Her whole life she wanted to be like country music star Dolly Parton. "I was 9 years old and she was on Tv on a concert in England. She was singing and I saw a beautiful angel." Then she took it to the extreme. Her goal was to make history with the largest breasts. Now she's done that in country's version of the Guinness Book Of World Records with size 34 triple f. "It's kind of serious. My doctor he says he don't want to operate on me no more. Because in 5 years I've changed 8 times." Fox News …………….*See her photo’s next slide

Slide 7: Blind man falls into sewage hole "Frightening": excavation in Gateshead Road continued this week as engineering firm Balfour Beatty  launched an investigation into the incident involving a blind man and his guide dog. A blind man has spoken of his shock after he fell into a hole created by roadworks in a Borehamwood street. John Cooper was walking along Gateshead Road two weeks ago with his guide dog, Faith, when the pair dropped into the three-foot deep hole, which is believed to have contained sewage. The 60-year-old, who is chairman of governors at Merryfield Primary School, received minor injuries and said the accident highlighted the potential dangers for blind people walking around the town. Local London

Slide 8: Woman castrated her partner and blamed her pet dog May 2, 2008A 64-year-old Frenchwoman has been handed a 12-year jail sentence for castrating her partner while he was unconscious and then blaming her pet dog. The victim, aged 39, was rushed to hospital in northern France in June 2005 with his penis sliced off. His partner called the ambulance herself, saying the dog had bitten off and eaten his genitals. Knocked out after taking a cocktail of alcohol and medicine, the man had no recollection of the incident. Seriously traumatised, he is currently in a psychiatric hospital. Police never recovered either a weapon or the missing body part. Daily Telegraph

Slide 9: Posted on Wed, Apr 30, 2008 Cop allegedly abused cows Animal cruelty added to list of sex charges MOORESTOWN –Additional charges have been filed against former Moorestown police officer Robert Melia after allegations surfaced last week that he performed several sexual acts with livestock, specifically cows. Melia, 38, of 126 Cottage Avenue in Moorestown has been charged with four counts of animal cruelty after purposely and knowingly tormenting an animal, specifically by having a cow perform fellatio, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor's office. Due to the nature of the investigation, authorities did not reveal how they uncovered the incidents involving the cows that occurred on four separate occasions between June and December of 2006 in Southampton, which is located within Burlington County.Police had arrested Melia and his ex- girlfriend, Heather Lewis, 32, of Pemberton, April 12 after allegations surfaced that the pair had sexually assaulted three juvenile females. Each were charged with three counts of first degree aggravated sexual assault and one count of second degree sexual assault.Melia has been held at Burlington County Jail with a bail of $500,000, according to authorities.AdvertisementLast week, Burlington County Superior Court Judge John Almeida added an additional $10,000 to that sum because of the new charges, according to authorities.Officials are still investigating the matter. South Jersey Local News

Slide 10: Cut cannabis use by selling it at the post office: expert The Sydney Morning Herald May 6, 2008 - 10:00AM CANNABIS would be sold legally in post offices in packets that warn against its effects under a proposal outlined by the head of a Sydney drug and alcohol clinic. The director of the alcohol and drug service at St Vincent's Hospital, Alex Wodak, said Australia needed to learn from the tobacco industry and the US Prohibition era in coming to terms with his belief that cannabis use would replace cigarette consumption over the next decade. "The general principal is that it's not sustainable that we continue to give criminals and corrupt police a monopoly to sell a drug that is soon going to be consumed by more people than tobacco," he said. "I don't want to see that [industry] fall into the hands of tobacco companies or rapacious businessmen. "I'd like to see it fall into the hands of the failed business people Australia seems so good at producing or the Australia Post that seems so successful in driving away customers." He made the proposal for taxed and legalized cannabis at the Mardi Grass festival in Nimbin on Sunday, but said he would be happy to express his opinion to the Federal Government. A spokesman for the Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, said the proposal would not be considered. Experts in the fields of drug and law enforcement yesterday opposed the suggestion, saying there was insufficient evidence that legalization would not increase harmful use or lead to other law enforcement issues. Dr Wodak believed his idea could reduce cannabis consumption, based on comparisons between consumption in Amsterdam and San Francisco. He said regulated availability would also reduce people's exposure to other illicit drugs when buying the product. His model would make cannabis advertising illegal, ban political donations from the cannabis industry, and demand proof of age on purchase.

Slide 11: $4.5 million pot bust in foreclosed house A bank employee inspecting a foreclosed house in Fontana stumbled upon a thriving business: more than 2,000 mature marijuana plants, part of a drug bust valued at $4.5 million. From The Sun of San Bernardino: "Angel Wayhang Kou, 30, of Rancho Cucamonga was booked into jail on suspicion of cultivating marijuana, maintaining a residence for drugs, theft of utilities and conspiracy. ... Police began investigating the case Thursday when the bank employee inspecting a foreclosed house in the 14500 block of Mammoth Place found pot plants inside." More: "Narcotics officers seized more than 2,000 mature marijuana plants. Evidence there led police to another house used to grow marijuana in the 6200 block of Long Cove in Fontana, where officers found 500 mature plants and 150 harvested buds weighing more than 150 pounds." Police estimated the total street value of the drugs seized at $4.5 million and described a sophisticated and expensive growing system inside the foreclosed home, consisting of hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of equipment. Los Angeles Times

Slide 12: 2008-05-04 AHN News Marijuana Protesters Light Up Key Cities In Canada Toronto, Canada (AHN) -- Thousands of marijuana activists from key Canadian cities puffed joints in public on Saturday as part of the Global Marijuana March - a worldwide protest on cannabis prohibition. Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg held similar protests which took place simultaneously in 239 major cities across the globe, according to a Cannabis News' website. This is the first time Toronto has joined the protests. Pot smokers, mostly recreational users and medical marijuana patients, gathered at Queen's Park in Nova Scotia to protest Canada's Bill C-26, which would impose a minimum of six months imprisonment on Cannabis growers. CTV News reported that the medical marijuana program has 2,300 registered participants in the city. "With the federal government talking about pulling exemption holders grow permits and forcing us to buy our marijuana from the government, it's going to put a lot of medical marijuana patients in a precarious situation," Debbie Stultz-Giffin of Maritimers United for Medical Marijuana said in the CTV interview.

Slide 16:                                                                                                                                   If you cannot decipher anything, then try  pulling  the corner of your eyes as if you were Chinese…… Chinese Eye Test

Slide 17: Beauty, a rescued Alaskan bald eagle, sits in her pen at a raptor recovery center near St. Marie's, Idaho, Wednesday, April 23, 2008. A surgery in May 2008 will provide Beauty with a new artificial beak, to replace the one damaged by a gunshot wound.

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