Articles 2.0

[adamnikyo]

Trail of Dead Get High, Break Instruments, then Push Each Other Around
(http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/39848)

[TomAz]

http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/04/mahler_1.html


the article is 5 years old but might be interesting to Radiohead fans. A classical music writer calls them "a new sort of classical music for the masses". He seems to mean it.

[amyzzz]

I'm reading the article, and this jumped out at me:

"Yorke is the essential spark of the Radiohead phenomenon. Like all greatly gifted people, he is not always easy to be around. When a stranger approaches him, wanting unscheduled attention, he can be unsettlingly mute"

Yeah, I tried to get autographs from the band back in 1995. I got Jonny Greenwood's, but Thom was hiding behind a pole and sneaking looks out. He managed to avoid me. At least I THINK it was Thom. Who else would be hiding behind a pole?

[TomAz]

He's skinny enough, that's for sure.

[mountmccabe]

RIAA Goes After Mixtapes (http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/statusainthood/archives/2007/01/dj_drama_and_do.php)

[york707]

Motor City Madman (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/18/texas.nugent.ap/index.html)

[york707]

The Arcade Fire play in a High School Cafeteria (http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=0738b3fe-9abc-4acb-9874-e0d6868faeb0&k=64820)

[kreutz2112]

This should go in the video section, but it is related to the Arcade Fire article above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfcuCLFHPao&eurl=

[york707]

Looks like somebody broke the no cameras rule.

That's my favorite version of Intervention yet.

Win is tall. He walked by me in the crowd at Lollapalooza after he jumped into the crowd and the set was over and he was heading back to the backstage area, shaking everyone's hands like he was a politician running for ***sident. At least 6'5"

[york707]

Shark Bait (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070123/sc_nm/australia_shark_dc)

[thinnerair]

http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/1550622/20070123/nirvana.jhtml

Are the re-formed Smashing Pumpkins set to rock Lollapalooza? Will the long-dormant Police return at Bonnaroo? How about a reunited Nirvana taking the stage at South by Southwest, only with Ben Kweller playing guitar and singing Kurt's vocals?

All three sound too good to be true, little more than the pipe dreams of manic music buffs with way too much free time. But incredibly, they're all "100 percent confirmed" by sources with intimate knowledge about such things.

But don't go crazy just yet. It's entirely possible that absolutely none of the above information is true. After all, we're smack-dab in the middle of speculation season — a magical time of year when blogs and 'boards spring to life with posts about rumored festival lineups, each more obscure and seemingly detached from reality as the last.

It's a time when "truth" is a relative term, one in which any dream list of reunited acts and up-and-coming buzz bands can be bolstered by shadowy "insider sources," hung on wobbly nails of deductive reasoning — "Hey, the Pumpkins are working on a new album, and they're from Chicago, so naturally, they must be headlining Lolla this year!"

Topping the slate of speculation this year are the aforementioned Police — who have performed in public together exactly once since they quietly disbanded in 1986 — and (depending on whom you ask) are a lock to appear at either Bonnaroo or Coachella. It's a rumor that has been picking up steam thanks to bloggers and message-boarders who cite an "insider" source at The Manchester Times — the newspaper in the tiny Tennessee town Bonnaroo takes over each June — and the fact that Coachella organizers chose the word "Roxanne" (the name of a Police song) as a presale password.

Whether those rumors pan out remains to be seen. After all, that's part of the fun of speculation season. The fact that a re-formed Rage Against the Machine are actually headlining Coachella (see "Rage Against The Machine To Reunite For Coachella Festival") only adds credence to the rumors. More often than not, the countless postings promising Smiths reunions carry about as much weight as a pile of daffodils.

And all of this begs a couple of questions: What drives these faceless music mavens to continually post these rumors in the face of cold, hard facts? And what do the festival organizers themselves think of all the rampant rumor-mongering? To find the answers, we delved deep into the void, speaking with bloggers and festival organizers, who — not surprisingly — tend to see the issue a bit differently.

On one hand, denizens of the 'Net view speculation season as a time to truly flex their inner-geek muscles and, as full-time pharmaceutical designer/ part-time blogger Cary Whitt puts it, "to play concert promoter without having to gamble any of your own money."

"I'm the typical music nerd ... so for me, every year as Coachella gets closer, you can feel the buzz forming. And trying to predict which bands the festival is going to try to surprise you with is part of the fun," Whitt said. "So I'll look at artist's pages, check Pollstar, listen to what people on Coachella message boards are saying, and then make a list of artists that I think are going to appear. And, of course, being first is important. ... You want to be the cool kid who's telling everyone else who's going to be appearing."

"I think as music fans, we just get excited when we find out the possibilities, and so the sooner we can get excited the better. ... It's also exciting to figure things out and talk about the possibilities," blogger (and fan of secret identities) the Brooklyn Vegan said. "So essentially, [my blog] does the grunt work for other music fans. It's more practical to know sooner when trying to figure out if you really want to travel to a festival. For instance, a band like the Jesus and Mary Chain reuniting is enough for some people to buy their plane tickets months and months in advance."

And while ego or altruism are enough to drive some bloggers to scour bands' MySpace pages for hours on end, there are still others who see their work as, well, something more: a certifiably punk-rock way of sticking it to the man.

Earlier this month, the Austin Chronicle reported that South by Southwest organizers were delaying the release of the festival's "confirmed band list" in order to make the planning of the many gigs that take place during SXSW but are not sanctioned by the festival near impossible. Responding to the report, writers for local site Austinist.com decided to take matters in their own hands by compiling a massive list of "confirmed" acts without the blessing of SXSW.

"We read the article, and we thought, 'Now, come on. That's just silly.' And we realized that lots of bands would just confirm that they were playing through their MySpace pages or their official Web sites, and so we figured that with a few phone calls and some digging that we could put together a pretty good list," Tom Thornton, a writer for the site, explained. "And though SXSW hasn't announced most of these bands, we feel pretty confident that they're all going to be here. Of course, there are some pretty ridiculous rumors out there; I heard there was going to be a Nirvana reunion, with Ben Kweller playing guitar, and there were some rumors that David Hasselhoff is going to be here. But, like I said, we're not about to include anything like that on our list."

It probably wouldn't matter if Thornton posted that the Beatles — with Yoko Ono on one guitar and George Harrison's son, Dhani, on the other — were set to appear at the festival, because his list would still be treated with the same sort of bemused disdain that it currently receives from SXSW organizers.

"The Internet makes this sort of information and disinformation rampant, a fact which is both annoying and humorous to me," SXSW creative director Brent Grulke told MTV News. "On one hand, it's very flattering that there's this level of interest in what we do, but on the other, I look at some of [the rumored lineups] and think, 'Where are these people getting these ideas? They have no basis in reality at all!'

"It all makes me wonder what sort of people have the time to speculate on something that — frankly — is trivial outside of the industry. At times I feel like people make those things up, just to see the reaction they would get. Because they're so absurd that it blows my mind," he continued. "Ultimately, it doesn't bother me ... but I wish that people wouldn't be so gullible. It's real simple: Everybody is trying to be first. And the sort of people who are already in awe of pop-stardom — as evidenced by them tracking this sort of thing — are the sort of people that would like that for themselves."

Grulke's attitude is not uncommon among festival organizers, many of whom seem to view the whole phenomenon of the rumored lineup as rather funny but find dealing with the subsequent phone calls from gullible reporters to be, well, decidedly less humorous.

"We pay attention to what's going on out there, but we've been through this a lot, so we're sort of used to it. It's sort of humorous, a little frustrating, but we understand that it's part of the world we live in and the way we do our business," said Rick Farman, co-founder of Superfly Presents, which organizes Bonnaroo. "I mean, it's not like most of the stuff out there is accurate. Every year, there's always some e-mail that makes the rounds, and every year people believe it. You start to hope that people are smart enough to realize that unless the information is posted on our Web site, it's meaningless."

Meaningless or not, it doesn't look like the rumor mill will be slowing down any time soon — not with Superfly promising to release the lineup for Bonnaroo 2007 sometime over the next few weeks, and with SXSW and Lollapalooza still on the horizon. After all, there really is no off-season when it comes to speculation, for better or worse.

"Everybody pays attention to those fake lineups, even though they're usually wrong. And if there's a lot of chatter about a smaller band, we take note of them," laughed Charles Attal, the booker of Lollapalooza and the Austin City Limits festival. "The bloggers, most of the time they're putting on there what they want and wish for, and they're never ridiculous, unless people don't realize that the artists they're saying are appearing are actually dead. And to be honest, some of them get it right some of the time. And, of course, some of them get it really wrong."


This report is provided by MTV News

[dorkfish]

you're an upgrade

[york707]

From McSweeney's:

Considered but Discarded Names for the Indie
Band; Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin.

BY JOHN FLOWERS

- - - -

Put Your Damn Shoe Back On, Nikita Khrushchev

Those Are Some Pretty Boss Eyebrows, Leonid Brezhnev

Not Everyone Remembers You, Yuri Andropov

Don’t You Die Too, Konstantin Chernenko

[york707]

WTF? (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070207/ts_nm/newyork_ipod_dc;_ylt=AgObuKVyUb8q6_i.epFahLoDW7oF) Are they also going to ban deaf people from crossing the street?

[TomAz]

steve jobs on DRM (http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/7002/jobs.html)

[york707]

Yeah, he doesn't see the irony. Wait, that's not irony... that's hubris and arrogance. I don't agree with the article's author as to the motivation of Jobs' open letter.

[TomAz]

i should have linked to the letter (http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/) instead

[TomAz]

Pazz & Jop 2006 (http://www.villagevoice.com/pazzandjop06/winners.php?type=album)

I know everyone has a year end best of list, but this one has always seemed the most legit & scientific to me.

[jackstraw94086]

Vista's already got a nasty virus out there (http://www.365mag.com/index.php?pg=news&recnum=3732&Title=Microsoft+introduces+Tiesto-gadget+for+Vista+on+365MAG+International+Music+Mag azine)

[full on idle]

bump

[TomAz]

Scrotum controversy (http://www.krdotv.com/story.cfm?nav=news&storyID=2382)

[TomAz]

XM, Sirius to merge (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117190978981912915.html?mod=djemalert)

[york707]

I wonder how many stations will get the ax because of that, due to redundencies.

[york707]

Bush's Budget (http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/48278/)

[TomAz]

that's the 2nd most troubling thing I've read this week. the 1st being Britney shaving her head.

[amyzzz]

Bush's budget was covered on at least part of the Diane Rehm show recently. I remember hearing about that plan that Bush wants to cut giving 1 bag of groceries to low-income seniors each week.

[Hannahrain]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/22/porn.sword.ap/index.html

[kreutz2112]

I was just going to post that sword porn article...so funny

[Hannahrain]

In the February issue of SOMA there's an article about LCD soundsystem, and one about Peter Bjorn and John, if anyone's interested. there's also a hilarious john waters interview.

[york707]

I was going to come up with some obvious pun for this, but I'll just let the article speak for itself. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070226/sc_afp/indonesiaenvironmentmud;_ylt=Ao9BFM46IeNUOFmYxnHNE EcDW7oF)

[J~$$$]

Germany's World Cup Baby Boom

Last year's soccer World Cup in Germany brought the host nation more than a respectable third-place finish in the international tournament showcasing the best of the best in the beautiful game - it has also produced a mini baby boom.

As reported by Spiegel Online International and Reuters, an expected jump in birth rates nine months after the fact can be directly attributed to those heady and fun-filled days last summer. "The party mood which gripped much of the nation between June 9 and July 9 last year helped couples who had struggled for years to conceive as well as leading to productive new liaisons," Reuters reported on Wednesday.

"We are looking at a 10 to 15 percent jump in births in early March which goes back to the World Cup," Rolf Kliche, head of the Dr Koch clinic in the city of Kassel near Frankfurt, told Reuters. "Biological factors are related to people being relaxed and in a good mood which explains the phenomenon."

His clinic delivered its first "World Cup Baby" on Feb. 11. Pia Schmidt said her daughter Farina, born five weeks early, was conceived after Germany's 1:0 victory against Poland.

"I remember it perfectly. There was a great atmosphere, we had friends over and later the celebrations continued in the bedroom," Schmidt, 27, told Reuters from her hospital bed.

"We had wanted a child for some time and the midwife said the positive vibes during the World Cup released my hormones."

[TomAz]

Royalty-Rate Hike Alarms Web Broadcasters
Small Radio StationsFear
Increase Will Force Them
To Abandon the Internet
By SARAH MCBRIDE
March 7, 2007; Page B1

Internet radio broadcasters face the alarming prospect of paying much higher royalties to song performers, a burden that could silence some online stations.

The Copyright Royalty Board, an obscure federal agency charged by Congress in late 2004 with setting sound-recording royalty rates for online radio stations, has carried out its mandate -- with the result that some broadcasters could be on the hook for millions of dollars more than they had planned.


The rates set by the board, effective retroactively to 2006, start at .08 cents per song, per listener. While that might not sound like much, it rises every year and adds up fast. And that's in addition to the sizeable royalties Internet radio companies pay to the songwriters and composers of the underlying works. "With these rates, there's no Pandora," asserts Tim Westergren, co-founder of Pandora.com, an online radio service with about six million registered users.

The schedule is likely to take up a big part of the agenda at a congressional hearing on the future of radio scheduled for today. RealNetworks Inc., a Web company, is among those testifying. While the hearings aren't expected to affect the new rates, the industry can appeal the decision at the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals.

But it's the small broadcasters that are hit especially hard. Until now, Congress has kept the stations' royalty costs artificially low to encourage a nascent industry. Previously, those smaller groups could pay 12% of revenue to a music group called SoundExchange, which collects royalties for digital spins of a song and doles them out to song performers and record labels. Because the smaller stations paid a percentage of revenue, they never faced a situation where their royalty bills exceeded their operating revenue, as many will now.

At the same time, music labels facing faltering revenue have been eager to make sure that everyone pays for their music. The board's new rates appear to be close to those sought by SoundExchange, an offshoot of the Recording Industry Association of America that now operates independently. But the Internet radio broadcasters say the rates hit one of the few bright spots in the moribund music business and thus end up shooting the labels in the foot. "People buy a lot more music because of what they hear online," says Mr. Westergren of Pandora.

"Internet radio is one of the best things happening to the record industry," agrees Kurt Hanson, owner of the online radio company, Accuradio. The entrepreneur calculated that under the old rules Accuradio's sound-recording royalty payments last year would be about $50,000. But under the new schedule, Mr. Hanson figures that his bill now amounts to about $600,000 -- more than all of last year's revenue from his radio Web site.

The rates also hit public radio stations like those affiliated with National Public Radio, which has been charging hard into online music. The public-radio stations were previously allowed to pay a flat fee under a separate negotiation with the music industry association. Now the stations will be subject to the new rates, after a small number of exempted hours of streamed music.

"NPR is consulting with the public-radio community to determine what steps must be taken to reverse this decision and its dire consequences on public service media," says spokeswoman Andi Sporkin.

Internet radio counts over 50 million listeners in the U.S., many of them tuned in to tiny, niche-oriented online broadcasters. That's well in excess of the 14 million or so subscribers satellite radio can claim. Satellite radio pays sound-recording royalties under a different schedule that was separately negotiated with the music industry; it too is up for renegotiation.

The schedule highlights an inequality that has rankled many online entrepreneurs for years. Regular radio stations don't pay royalties to performers for their over-the-airwaves broadcasts, although they do pay royalties to composers and songwriters. "It's flat out unfair," says Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Washington-based Digital Media Association, which represents online music companies such as AOL. His organization is weighing its options, which include appealing the new schedule within 15 days. Judge James Sledge, who oversaw the proceedings at the Copyright Royalty Board, says the schedule "is our best determination" given the boundaries established by Congress.

[Hannahrain]

Brock thinks he's punk, slices up self (http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/41806-isaac-brock-self-mutilates-at-south-dakota-gig)

[Hannahrain]

Paul McCartney signs contract with starbucks (http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/21/starbucks.mccartney.ap/index.html)

Family keeps teen as slave (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/21/family.slave.ap/index.html)

[amyzzz]

Family keeps teen as slave (http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/21/family.slave.ap/index.html)
Can't get more whitetrash than that family. geez.

[J~$$$]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/tech/2007/03/22/tuchman.ufo.phoenix.lights.ktvk


Ufos are fo real.....bet.

[mob roulette]

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/tech/2007/03/22/tuchman.ufo.phoenix.lights.ktvk


Ufos are fo real.....bet.

if they ever do prove that this shit is real or else leak what they already know, phoenix is so going to be the center of this. over half the people who live here have at least seen SOMETHING strange in the skies. and it goes back for YEARS too. i've heard stories. shit you wouldn't believe.

[J~$$$]

Please informs us about UFO stories here or on BTMOW thread.

[mob roulette]

Please informs us about UFO stories here or on BTMOW thread.

well to begin with, there's the stuff everybody knows about: travis walton, the phoenix lights, countless strange superstition mountain stuff over the years. i believe that at least two of the major investigative ufo organizations had their start here as well. from wikipeida, i also learned that arizona has had 1324 officially reported sightings since 1946, the sixth most in the country. the "unreported" stories though are the really interesting ones. my aunt told me once that my grandmother was one of about a hundred people who sat and watched one fly over the fairgrounds in the early 1950's. unreported. supposedly one equal in size to the "phoenix lights" but closer to the ground moved across the west valley in the summer of 1987. unreported. supposedly the gila river indian tribe is well aware of this phenomenon and have documented sightings going back well over a hundred years. if this thing IS real, my guess is that it's always been here and that it is in fact "here" all the time, we just can't see it. i'm making the assumption that ufo's, should they prove to be real, have very little to do with "space" and everything to do with "time". just my two cents. i'm not sure i really believe in any of this per se, i just think it's interesting that so much of it seems to happen out here in the big expansive west. denver, aurora, and parts of nevada and new mexico are are all hotbeds for this sort of activity.

[J~$$$]

denver, aurora?

[J~$$$]

Where are most of the the gila river indian tribe located? mostly throughout the Phoenix area?

[mob roulette]

si. out past that new airport of yours. towards kansas. people see shit out there all the time. ask around.

[mob roulette]

Where are most of the the gila river indian tribe located? mostly throughout the Phoenix area?

south to southwest of the valley. sort of in between south mountain and the estrellas. if memory serves.

[J~$$$]

Its scary as hell out past the new airport. There are a ton of old missile silos out there.

[mob roulette]

i heard somewhere that half of denver proper lies on top of underground military shit. not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but that's one embedded city. there's like a hum in the air everytime i visit.

[full.on.idle]

Richard is real.

[J~$$$]

Yeah I hear it all the time, that they have a underground highway that runs from Norad to Denver for president/nuclear bullshity. Then you get all the DIA was built on miltary installations, which I believe because you can see the missile silos when you fly into DIA. Its was always fun to get a high as hell and sneak into them, all sorts of crazy shit down there. They are enormous.

[J~$$$]

So you have never seen any crazy shit Mob?

[ewiggy]

Virtual feds visit Second Life (http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/04/04/secondlife.gambling.reut/index.html)

this is interesting. the span of this game is just incredible. to think that people actually sell things in game and make real money from it blows my mind.

definitely blurs the line of reality a little.

[Hannahrain]

I do not like this, sam I am. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070405/film_nm/gorey_dc)

[thefunkylama]

My couch hates you. (http://www.thestar.com/article/200265)

[ewiggy]

it's a nice sofa.

[TomAz]

big feature article in the NYT today on Philip Anschutz. Coachella isn't mentioned but the timing is interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/business/yourmoney/22phil.html?ref=media

[devachan]

There is a pretty cool section in the LA Times right now on Coachella-Present and past here: Coachella (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/coachella/)

[J~$$$]

http://web.archive.org/web/20060428034330/http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijto/vol2n1/eggs.xml

ewww.

[Hannahrain]

I guess we all missed this since most of us were at coachella:

Hugh Grant arrested after attacking someone with baked beans. (http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSL2652442420070426)

[J~$$$]

LAWLZ!!!!! creepy ol dude.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007232453

[amyzzz]

That Bob Dylan one cracks me up. Actually, Hugh Grant does too.

[adamnikyo]

It's like everything I think is funny or interesting on digg, Justin does too.
You're my soul mate. I miss your smell.

[J~$$$]

I<3 u Adamnikyo.

[adamnikyo]

http://images.inmagine.com/168nwm/medioimages/frd023/frd023057.jpg

[J~$$$]

you bet ur sweet ass.

[lindseyb]

ok, i really can't handle this.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/05/09/state/n082738D47.DTL

[Hannahrain]

From Yahoo:


Well, as we all know by now, last week the judge threw the book at part-time pop star Paris Hilton..... when the judge refused to let Elliot take the fall, the harebrained heiress changed her strategy...and asked her fans to sign a petition urging California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon her because she provides "beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives"

I sure am glad Paris is around to spice up my otherwise mundane existence.

[CuervoPH]

If anyone starts up a petition to Schwarzenegger to urge him to consider capital punishment for Paris, I'll sign. Let me know.

[full on idle]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/technology/18apple.html

Who's getting one?

[jackstraw94086]

_____'s on a _____ (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/24/ap/strange/main2849934.shtml)

[Hannahrain]

Man in underwear wrestles leopard out of bed (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070529/ap_on_fe_st/israel_cat_call;_ylt=AnKsg8KUzPFYuirsvurmNDXMWM0F)



Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.

Imagine how traumatized this girl must be after freaking out about just a mosquito.

[TomAz]

there is nothing special about this article. I just post it because it is yet another example of why I hate the Arizona Republic so much.

note: the headline says the exact opposite of what the story says. It's like the page editor is either too stupid or too lazy to comprehend what a simple 5-sentence article says.


Smoker stabbed in throat after refusing to move
Becky Bartkowski
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 5, 2007 09:48 AM

An argument about smoking in front of a bar led to a man being stabbed in the throat with a pocketknife on the 4100 block of East McDowell Road early Tuesday morning.

The victim asked 40-year-old Isman Warsame not to smoke near a doorway of Wander Inn Bar and the two argued, according to Phoenix Police documents.

Warsame then took out a pocketknife and stabbed the victim's throat, according to those documents. The victim is in serious but stable condition.

Police are searching for Warsame, who authorities believe fled the scene, according to Phoenix Police documents.

[amyzzz]

So the smoker was the stabber? Oh man. That is seriously poor editing. I used to subscribe to the Republic back in 2000, but I never had enough time to read the whole thing, and my god, all that paper garbage. And of course the writing is shit. No thanks.

[kreutz2112]

This (http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070604/full/447618a.html) is great news!!

[J~$$$]

Do you make more than the neighborhood meth man

http://nymag.com/news/features/2007/profit/?feed=rss

[Courtney]

This is how I imagine Tom interacting with his daughter(s?). (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/fashion/07Cyber.html)

[TomAz]

This (http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070604/full/447618a.html) is great news!!

Not that great:

"This is really dangerous. We would never transplant these into a patient," says Jaenisch. In his view, research into embryonic stem cells made by cloning remains "absolutely essential".

[J~$$$]

This is how I imagine Tom interacting with his daughter(s?). (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/fashion/07Cyber.html)

LOL. Tom would have a emo facebook page.

[TomAz]

This is how I imagine Tom interacting with his daughter(s?). (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/07/fashion/07Cyber.html)

ahahahahahahhahaa that's funny. but she's right only creepy adults like ken do that shit.

I liked this part the best:

“I can’t really comment on your family dynamics,” said Brandee Barker, a Facebook spokeswoman. “But I can say that more than 50 percent of Facebook users are outside of college now. As our original demographic gets older, we want to be able to include their social networks.”

“Maybe I should lay off my daughter,” I said.

“Facebook is all about being a reflection of real-world relationships,” she said. “The same thing you’re experiencing with your daughter online is a reflection of how you’re not a part of her social network in real life.”

“I thought you weren’t going to comment on my family dynamics,” I said.

[kreutz2112]

Not that great:

This work is in its initial stages, not only does it make it easier for one to investigate what makes an embryonic stem cell an embryonic stem cell it also allows one to bypass the ban on embryonic stem cell research that is currently being upheld in the U.S. If the law is not overturned, this method of studying embryonic stem cells will be key if the U.S. wants to keep up with the rest of the world in this field.

[TomAz]

yes but the research is not just for research's sake, right? I mean eventually we'll want to be able to apply what we wll have learned. And to do that we're back to the egg/embryo roadblock. at least for now.

you're the expert, have I understood that right?

[kreutz2112]

You are exactly right, I am counting on the "roadblock" to be lifted. However, in order to keep up with the rest of the world, until the ban is lifted, these de-differentiated cells provide a novel tool for embryonic stem cell research in the U.S. I am hardly an expert, but, with more work done on these cells and understanding what causes them to go back to their (semi)pluripotent state I see no reason why they could not have the same potential as cells taken directly from an embryo.

[psychic friend]

HOW MAINSTREAM IS YOUR MUSIC

http://mainstream.vincentahrend.com/user/

[TomAz]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/11/teen.sex.case/index.html

I think they could have been more, um, careful in writing the headline.

[mountmccabe]

HOW MAINSTREAM IS YOUR MUSIC

http://mainstream.vincentahrend.com/user/

I am still hugely confused by that site. I'm not sure I understand the skewed bell curve they show. And various other mitigating factors.

Also I hover around 15%.

[bmack86]

Off subject, but I just read Cat's Cradle, and realized where your name comes from, John. Excellent.

[mountmccabe]

Haha, nice, Bryan. I hope it wasn't too scary, coming across my name in a book like that.


Yesterday I read a review of Boxer which mentioned Alligator as being like "Williard Grant Conspiracy gone post-punk." At the time I laughed at this (and other, more ridiculous statements) but I'm listening to Flying Low this morning and I kinda hear where they're coming from.

The voice is a little more gravely but it's still mellow and lazy. The music has a little more old time country roughness to it but there's no twang. The strings and such are there, too. Also I love both bands.

I know this is a little worthless without linking the review (which was no longer than this post) but whatev.

[jackstraw94086]

discuss (http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_159222541.html)

[Hannahrain]

I predict a huge increase in people saying things like "who gaybombed this party?". This is terrible news for witty banter.

[psychic friend]

SEEhowYOURcarCRASHES (http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/safety-recalls/carcrashtest/crashtestvideo.htm)

[Courtney]

Hmmm. Good/Acceptable. Although that video still is disturbing.

[kreutz2112]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/21/six.flags.accident/index.html

Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags in Kentucky

(CNN) -- A girl's feet were cut off Thursday when a free-fall thrill ride malfunctioned at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Amusement Park in Louisville, Kentucky, police said.

A cord wrapped around the 16-year-old's feet and severed them at her ankles while she was on the "Superman Tower of Power," a police dispatcher said. The girl was taken to a local hospital.

An unidentified witness told CNN affiliate WLKY she saw a cable on the ride snap.

"The people on the ride just came and hit the ground," she said. "When I got up there, the lady she was just sitting there, and she didn't have no legs. ... And she was just there, calm, probably in shock from everything."

"That could have been all of us -- riding that ride," witness Whitney Sandfer told CNN affiliate WDRB/WMYO.

The incident took place shortly before 5 p.m. ET, according to Six Flags spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg. The park remained open, but the ride in question was shut down and will remain so until the full investigation is complete, Goldberg said.

During the ride, passengers are lifted to 177 feet, suspended momentarily and then dropped, according to the park's Web site.

Passengers drop 154 feet at 54 mph, stopping "just 20 terrifying feet above the pavement," it adds.

"I seen the car go up. Then, like, the cable broke, I heard -- pwchh -- and I heard a lot of people screaming," Chris Stinnett, who was at a ride next to the Superman Tower of Power, told WDRB/WMYO.

"The cable went under the car -- and I seen it pull up and hit a lot of people -- and I seen them bring their legs up," Stinnett said.

The ride was introduced in 1995.

[roberto73]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/21/six.flags.accident/index.html

Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags in Kentucky

...

"I seen the car go up. Then, like, the cable broke, I heard -- pwchh -- and I heard a lot of people screaming," Chris Stinnett, who was at a ride next to the Superman Tower of Power, told WDRB/WMYO.

Frankly, I need to hear someone pronounce "pwchh," because I just can't make it work in my head. Having grown up in Southwestern Ohio, though, it's nice to be able to hear the rest of the quote in that distinctive Kentucky accent.

[Mr.Nipples]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/21/six.flags.accident/index.html

Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags in Kentucky

(CNN) -- A girl's feet were cut off Thursday when a free-fall thrill ride malfunctioned at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Amusement Park in Louisville, Kentucky, police said.

A cord wrapped around the 16-year-old's feet and severed them at her ankles while she was on the "Superman Tower of Power," a police dispatcher said. The girl was taken to a local hospital.

An unidentified witness told CNN affiliate WLKY she saw a cable on the ride snap.

"The people on the ride just came and hit the ground," she said. "When I got up there, the lady she was just sitting there, and she didn't have no legs. ... And she was just there, calm, probably in shock from everything."

"That could have been all of us -- riding that ride," witness Whitney Sandfer told CNN affiliate WDRB/WMYO.

The incident took place shortly before 5 p.m. ET, according to Six Flags spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg. The park remained open, but the ride in question was shut down and will remain so until the full investigation is complete, Goldberg said.

During the ride, passengers are lifted to 177 feet, suspended momentarily and then dropped, according to the park's Web site.

Passengers drop 154 feet at 54 mph, stopping "just 20 terrifying feet above the pavement," it adds.

"I seen the car go up. Then, like, the cable broke, I heard -- pwchh -- and I heard a lot of people screaming," Chris Stinnett, who was at a ride next to the Superman Tower of Power, told WDRB/WMYO.

"The cable went under the car -- and I seen it pull up and hit a lot of people -- and I seen them bring their legs up," Stinnett said.

The ride was introduced in 1995.

gnarly...theres already cell pictures floating around the net...pretty fucked up.

[Good Days Last]

The Hagers are trying to figure out how life went off track for their teenage daughter, Windy.

They envisioned that life for the good student and promising athlete would be filled with dreams of the prom and college, but that all changed this week when Windy, 16, married her high school track coach.

"She was a dream kid," said her mother, Betty Hager. "We'd never have to worry about Windy trying to get by with something."

At South Brunswick High School in North Carolina, Windy's greatest passion was track and field.

"She just always was outside, always running, and her name's Windy — I guess she was predestined to do love to do that," Betty said.

But that passion led her down a troubling path.

Special Attention From Coach

During Windy's freshman year, her 38-year-old track coach, Brenton Wuchae, began taking a more active interest in her, offering to give the 14-year-old rides home from practice.

"He just seemed like a genuine guy, like he was there for the kids," said Windy's father, Dennis Hager.

But the Hagers eventually grew uneasy. Their phone bills showed text messages between Wuchae and Windy as late as 2 a.m.

They also discovered worrying e-mails. In one, Windy wrote to a friend, "I don't care to look at anyone other than him. He is the apple of my eye, I've never felt this way for someone, but I just don't want to lose him because of my parents' power trips."

The Hagers confronted Wuchae.

"He assured me there was nothing like that going on, [and that] they were just friends. His intentions were purely appropriate," Dennis said.

Not satisfied with that answer, the Hagers turned to the school district, which spoke to the coach.

The principal of the high school wrote to the Hagers, "I have seen nothing but a cooperative attitude from the teacher, and to the best of my knowledge, he has not had any contact with Windy since then."

"School officials can't be responsible for what happens the other hours of the day, and I would think the relationship developed much more outside of school," said Brian Shaw, an attorney for the school district.

The Hagers contacted police; they even tried to get a restraining order.

"We've tried everybody. We've been to the law. We've been to the school board," Betty said. "Our family has come and tried to talk to her. We've had people on the phone with her for hours — family, friends. We've been to our pastor asking for guidance. We've been to his pastor."

Meanwhile, the Hagers say Windy withdrew, refusing to speak to them until she asked them to sign a consent form so that she and her coach — a man more than twice her age — could get married.

Although anguished, her weary parents gave in.

"Signing those consent forms was the hardest thing I did in my whole life, but we had to move on, it was going to kill us all," Dennis said.

Monday, Windy and Wuchae married, and he resigned from the school.

But was Windy really old enough to understand her decision? Experts say it's a difficult situation.

"With most teenagers, they're not sure yet who's who and what's what and what should be done," said Henry Paul, author of the book "Is My Teenager OK?" "It's obviously up to the adult figure to set the boundaries."

Windy and her new husband would not comment for this story, but the Hagers realize what they've lost.

"She could have done anything," Betty said. "She could have set the world on fire. She threw it all away.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3305652&page=1

That last line even stings me. Giving up potential for love? The f***.

[fatbastard]

Spice Girls spark speculation of comeback Fri Jun 22, 9:26 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The Spice Girls are to make an announcement about their future plans next week, sparking speculation that one of the world's most successful girl bands is set to reunite for a new album and concert tour.

The Spice Girls sold more than 30 million albums and topped charts around the world before Posh, Scary, Sporty, Baby and Ginger decided to pursue solo careers with differing levels of success.

Geri "Ginger Spice" Halliwell left the group in 1998 and the other four quit in 2001.

"The Spice Girls are set to make an official announcement to the world regarding future plans on Thursday 28th June," their management said in a statement on Friday.

"No further information can be given at this time but given the band's unique history you can be sure to expect the unexpected," Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment said.

[amyzzz]

That's it. No high school sports for my girls.

[Mr.Nipples]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/21/six.flags.accident/index.html

Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags in Kentucky

(CNN) -- A girl's feet were cut off Thursday when a free-fall thrill ride malfunctioned at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Amusement Park in Louisville, Kentucky, police said.

A cord wrapped around the 16-year-old's feet and severed them at her ankles while she was on the "Superman Tower of Power," a police dispatcher said. The girl was taken to a local hospital.

An unidentified witness told CNN affiliate WLKY she saw a cable on the ride snap.

"The people on the ride just came and hit the ground," she said. "When I got up there, the lady she was just sitting there, and she didn't have no legs. ... And she was just there, calm, probably in shock from everything."

"That could have been all of us -- riding that ride," witness Whitney Sandfer told CNN affiliate WDRB/WMYO.

The incident took place shortly before 5 p.m. ET, according to Six Flags spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg. The park remained open, but the ride in question was shut down and will remain so until the full investigation is complete, Goldberg said.

During the ride, passengers are lifted to 177 feet, suspended momentarily and then dropped, according to the park's Web site.

Passengers drop 154 feet at 54 mph, stopping "just 20 terrifying feet above the pavement," it adds.

"I seen the car go up. Then, like, the cable broke, I heard -- pwchh -- and I heard a lot of people screaming," Chris Stinnett, who was at a ride next to the Superman Tower of Power, told WDRB/WMYO.

"The cable went under the car -- and I seen it pull up and hit a lot of people -- and I seen them bring their legs up," Stinnett said.

The ride was introduced in 1995.

i forgot to mention this before.heres a fucked up story. if you lived in the bay around the turn of the millenium you are most likely familiar with this. my friends older sister worked at great america( a local theme park owned by paramount) doing crowd control(security). she was posted near the arcade section which is next to a ride called the "drop zone stunt tower", which is a 250 ft free fall pretty much. anyways, one day this kid goes on the ride(it was later discovered that he was retarded) and manages to wiggle out of the harness when the cart is at its highest and he falls all the way down to the ground. from what i remember she said "his feet hit the ground first and broke in reverse and then his torso, and then his head split into peices". the thing i most remember is her description of an employee who was standing about 10 feet from the impact zone and getting pretty much the entire contents of this kids head all over his work shirt, to which he stood there for about a minute shocked, took off his soiled shirt, throwing it on the ground, saying "fuck this" and then walking right out of the park... my friends sis ended up having to deal with about 100 screaming panicked people including the grandparents of the dead kid, which she ended up having to go to therapy for. the strangest thing about all of this is about a month after, she quit. and a week after her quitting, she got a letter from the disney corporation stating that they had heard about her fine handling of the situation and they offered her a job as a head of security for toon town...

[kreutz2112]

that is fucked

[Mr.Nipples]

i forgot to add that they had to remove a section of the park called "nickleodeons Splat City" after the incident, due to complaints...

[kreutz2112]

jesus

[fatbastard]

Brutal.

[menikmati]

say no to amusement park rides....and screw six flags, I want the old marine world back, not this "animal kingdom + rides" shit

[Mr.Nipples]

say no to amusement park rides....and screw six flags, I want the old marine world back, not this "animal kingdom + rides" shit


marine world africa USA > six flags vallejo

[amyzzz]

I like amusement park rides. The deaths are extremely rare as far as I can tell.

[fatbastard]

AMA softens video-game addiction measure By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer
Wed Jun 27, 1:51 PM ET

The American Medical Association on Wednesday backed off calling excessive video-game playing a formal psychiatric addiction, saying instead that more research is needed.

A report prepared for the AMA's annual policy meeting had sought to strongly encourage that video-game addiction be included in a widely used diagnostic manual of psychiatric illnesses.

AMA delegates instead adopted a watered-down measure declaring that while overuse of video games and online games can be a problem for children and adults, calling it a formal addiction would be premature.

"While more study is needed on the addictive potential of video games, the AMA remains concerned about the behavioral, health and societal effects of video game and Internet overuse," said Dr. Ronald Davis, AMA's president. "We urge parents to closely monitor children's use of video games and the Internet."

Despite a lack of scientific proof, Jacob Schulist, 14, of Hales Corners, Wis., says he's certain he was addicted to video games — and that the AMA's vote was misguided.

Until about two months ago, when he discovered a support group called On-Line Gamers Anonymous, Jacob said he played online fantasy video games for 10 hours straight some days.

He said his habit got so severe that he quit spending time with family and friends.

"My grades were horrible, I failed the entire first semester" this past school year because of excessive video-game playing, he said. "It's like they're your life."

Delegates voted to have the AMA encourage more research on the issue, including seeking studies on what amount of video-game playing and other "screen time" is appropriate for children.

Under the new policy, the AMA also will send the revised video-game measure to the American Psychiatric Association, asking it to consider the full report in its diagnostic manual; the next edition is to be completed in 2012.

Dr. Louis Kraus, a psychiatric association spokesman, said the report will be a helpful resource.

The AMA's report says up to 90 percent of American youngsters play video games and that up to 15 percent of them — more than 5 million kids — might be addicted.

The report, prepared by the AMA's Council on Science and Public Health, also says "dependence-like behaviors are more likely in children who start playing video games at younger ages."

Internet role-playing games involving multiple players, which can suck kids into an online fantasy world, are the most problematic, the report says. That's the kind of game Schulist says hooked him.

Kraus, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Chicago's Rush Medical Center, said behavior that looks like addiction in video-game players may be a symptom of social anxiety, depression or another psychiatric problem.

He praised the AMA report for recommending more research.

"They're trying very hard not to make a premature diagnosis," Kraus said.

In other action on the final day of the AMA's annual policy meeting, delegates:

• Voted to have the AMA support government policies requiring fast-food restaurant chains to provide menus detailing nutritional information including calories, fat and sodium content. A key way to fighting the obesity epidemic "is that people know what they're eating," Davis said.

• Recommended more research on a potential link between high fructose corn syrup and obesity. A measure had sought to have the AMA seek government restrictions on the popular sweetener and food labels declaring that excessive consumption of it may lead to obesity.

• Rejected a move to lobby for limits on the noise levels of in-ear headphones used with iPods and other music-playing devices. A resolution supporting limits said devices with in-ear headphones can generate sound well above 100 decibels — more noise than a chain saw makes and levels that have been linked with permanent hearing loss. AMA delegates voted instead to seek more research on the issue.

[fatbastard]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/uhaul/la-na-haul24jun24,0,4383195.story

From the Los Angeles Times
DANGER IN TOW
Driving with rented risks
U-Haul International is the nation's largest provider of rental trailers. A Times investigation finds the company's practices raise the risk of accidents on the road.
By Alan C. Miller and Myron Levin
Times Staff Writers

June 24, 2007

TUCSON — Marissa Sternberg sits in her wheelchair, barely able to move or speak. Caregivers are always at her side. Progress is measured in tiny steps: an unclenched fist, a look of recognition, a smile for her father.

Nearly four years ago, Sternberg was a high-spirited 19-year-old bound for veterinary school in Denver. She rented a U-Haul trailer to move her belongings, hitched it to her Toyota Land Cruiser and hit the road with her two dogs and a friend.

That evening, as the Land Cruiser descended a hill in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico, the trailer began to swing from side to side, pushing the SUV as if trying to muscle it off the road.

"I knew something bad was going to happen," recalled Corina Maya Hollander, who was taking a turn behind the wheel. "We both knew."

The Land Cruiser flipped and bounced along Interstate 25. The trailer broke free and careened off the road. Hollander crawled from the wreckage, her head throbbing.

Sternberg, who had been thrown from the SUV, lay sprawled on the highway, unable to move.

"Where are my dogs?" she screamed. "Somebody go find my dogs!"

Sternberg fell victim to a peril long familiar to U-Haul International: "trailer sway," a leading cause of severe towing accidents.

Traveling downhill or shaken by a sharp turn or a gust of wind, a trailer can begin swinging so violently that only the most experienced — or fortunate — drivers can regain control and avoid catastrophe.

U-Haul, the nation's largest provider of rental trailers, says it is "highly conservative" about safety. But a yearlong Times investigation, which included more than 200 interviews and a review of thousands of pages of court records, police reports, consumer complaints and other documents, found that company practices have heightened the risk of towing accidents.

The safest way to tow is with a vehicle that weighs much more than the trailer. A leading trailer expert and U-Haul consultant has likened this principle to "motherhood and apple pie."

Yet U-Haul allows customers to pull trailers as heavy as or heavier than their own vehicles.

It often allows trailers to stay on the road for months without a thorough safety inspection, in violation of its own policies.

Bad brakes have been a recurring problem with its large trailers. The one Sternberg rented lacked working brakes.

Its small and midsize trailers have no brakes at all, a policy that conflicts with the laws of at least 14 states.

It relaxed a key safety rule as it pushed to increase rentals of one type of trailer, used to haul vehicles, and then failed to enforce even the weakened standard. Customers were killed or maimed in ensuing crashes that might have been avoided.

The company's approach to mitigating the risks of towing relies heavily on customers, many of them novices, some as young as 18. They are expected to grasp and carry out detailed instructions for loading and towing trailers, and to respond coolly in a crisis.

But many renters never see those instructions — distribution of U-Haul's user guide is spotty.

To those who receive and read it, the guide offers this advice for coping with a swinging trailer: Stay off the car's brakes and hold the wheel straight. Many drivers will reflexively do the opposite, which can make the swaying worse.

Yet when accidents occur, U-Haul almost always blames the customer.

Proper loading of the trailer is crucial in preventing sway. U-Haul tells customers to put 60% of the weight in the front half and suggests a three-step process to check that the load is balanced correctly.

But the company has declined to offer an inexpensive, portable scale that would help renters get it right.

U-Haul vigorously defends its safety record. Executives say that the company diligently maintains its fleet of more than 200,000 trucks and trailers, and that decades of testing, experience and engineering advances have steadily reduced its accident rates.

"Our equipment is suited for your son and daughter," said Edward J. "Joe" Shoen, chairman of U-Haul and its parent company, Amerco. "On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say U-Haul is rated 10 in safety."

It is unknown how many U-Haul customers have crashed because of trailer sway. No government agency keeps track of such accidents, and U-Haul declined to provide a comprehensive count or year-by-year figures.

But statistical snapshots the company has produced in civil litigation hint at the scope of the problem and show that it has persisted for decades.

In a lawsuit stemming from the Sternberg crash, U-Haul listed 173 reported sway-related accidents from 1993 to 2003 involving a single trailer model.

In a case from the 1970s, the company disclosed 1,173 such crashes involving all trailer types during a 3 1/2-year period.

In other cases, it has listed up to 650 reported sway-related wrecks from about 1990 to 2002 involving two-wheeled trailers called tow dollies.

Still, U-Haul says statistics indicate that drivers towing its trailers are less likely to crash than are other motorists. This is so, U-Haul says, because people drive more cautiously when moving their families and belongings.

The claim has not been independently verified and is viewed skeptically by some outside experts.

Shoen said sway-related accidents almost always result from customer mistakes, primarily failing to load the trailer properly and exceeding U-Haul's recommended top speed of 45 mph. The company said both errors contributed to the Sternberg crash.

"U-Haul customers drive the equivalent of to the moon and back over 10 times a day," Shoen said in a recent conference call with investors, "and, regrettably, accidents occur."

TRAILER SWAY

U-Haul International Inc., founded in 1945, is the leader of the do-it-yourself moving industry. It sends millions of Americans out on the road annually in its signature orange-and-white trucks and trailers.

The Phoenix-based company, built on low cost and convenience, has about 1,450 company-owned centers and 14,500 independent dealers. It took in about $1.5 billion from equipment rentals last year.

Many U-Haul customers are college students, weekend movers and others who have never hauled a trailer before.

It is not unusual for a trailer to swing slightly. This normally poses little or no threat, but can be a sign of trouble.

Accidents often happen when a driver gains speed going downhill. The trailer whips from side to side more and more powerfully and finally takes control of the tow vehicle — a situation known as "the tail wagging the dog."

Peter Keith, a Canadian safety expert, described the danger in a 1984 report for transportation officials in British Columbia.

"When the trailer suddenly starts [to] swing violently, the driver can often be caught unawares and is further faced with a very dangerous situation which requires considerable skill and presence of mind to resolve," Keith wrote. "Probably only a small minority of drivers are in practice capable of bringing the vehicle combination back under control."

The weight of the tow vehicle relative to the trailer is a crucial factor. The heavier the tow vehicle, the easier it is to control the combination.

Richard H. Klein, an authority on trailer dynamics who has served as an expert witness for U-Haul, underscored the point during one court appearance. He was asked if he'd rather be driving "a larger tow vehicle than a smaller one" if a trailer began to swing.

"Yes," he replied. "That's like motherhood and apple pie."

In keeping with this tenet, other major companies do not allow customers to pull rental equipment with passenger vehicles. Penske Truck Leasing and Budget Truck Rental compete with U-Haul in renting two types of tow equipment: tow dollies and auto transports.

But Penske and Budget provide equipment only to customers who rent large trucks to pull the load. They say safety is the reason.

Penske's trucks are "engineered to pull these types of loads," said spokesman Randolph P. Ryerson. The company has "no way to make sure other vehicles would have the same adequate towing capabilities," he said.

U-Haul allows customers to tow its trailers, tow dollies and other equipment with passenger vehicles as well as with the company's large trucks. Most renters use SUVs or pickups, which have a high center of gravity and are prone to rollovers.

Moreover, customers are permitted to pull trailers that weigh as much as or more than their own vehicles.

Under U-Haul rules, the company's largest trailers, which are equipped with brakes, can outweigh the customer's vehicle by up to 25% when fully loaded. Smaller units, which do not have brakes, can weigh as much as the tow vehicle.

U-Haul says extensive research at an Arizona test track and other sites has shown that its weight rules are safe, provided customers use its equipment as instructed.

But the rules conflict with the safety recommendations of some auto manufacturers.

Ford Motor Co., for example, advises owners of the 2007 Crown Victoria, which weighs about 4,100 pounds, to tow no more than 1,500 pounds. Owners of the lighter Mustang are advised not to pull a trailer weighing more than 1,000 pounds.

U-Haul will allow a Crown Victoria to tow a trailer weighing up to 4,400 pounds and a Mustang to pull up to 2,500 pounds.

(U-Haul has banned towing with Ford Explorers since late 2003. Shoen said the SUV was not unsafe but had become "a magnet for attorneys.")

Honda Motor Co. says its vehicles should not pull trailers that weigh more than 1,000 pounds unless the trailers have brakes. General Motors offers the same advice for many of its models. Nissan Motor Co. tells owners of its Pathfinder SUV that trailer brakes "MUST be used" with a trailer weighing 1,000 pounds or more.

Yet U-Haul permits customers driving Pathfinders as well as Honda and GM vehicles to tow un-braked trailers that weigh more than that.

Some vehicle makers also recommend using sway-control devices with trailers above certain weights. These devices come in various forms and include bars or brackets that limit side-to-side movement of the trailer.

U-Haul says such equipment is not needed when "towing a properly loaded U-Haul trailer."

Automakers say their guidelines are meant to promote safety and prevent undue wear on engines, brakes and other components.

"We would consider it unsafe to tow outside of those recommendations because that is what we tested the vehicle to be capable of towing," said Honda spokesman Chris Martin. "We'd rather be safe than have someone get into an accident."

In response, U-Haul said: "Our recommendations are based upon 61 years of experience, knowledge of our rental trailers and exhaustive testing spanning decades."

TOWING HAZARDS

Cargo trailers are not the only U-Haul equipment that is vulnerable to sway. It can also happen with the company's tow dollies.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Americans use these two-wheeled trailers to haul vehicles across town or across the country.

U-Haul imposed tough conditions when it began renting the devices in 1982. It required that the tow vehicle weigh at least twice as much as the one to be towed. This would "ensure adequate braking and control," a company manual said.

But the rule crimped sales. Towing a typical-size car required a giant pickup or similar vehicle. John C. Abromavage, U-Haul's engineering director, testified in one lawsuit that the 2-to-1 standard "doesn't make sense other than to restrict your own market."

In 1986, U-Haul relaxed the rule, requiring that the tow vehicle be only 750 pounds heavier than the one behind it. Over the next few years, the company increased the maximum weight of vehicles that could be hauled on dollies, and lifted a ban on towing with small jeeps and SUVs.

The new policy boosted dolly rentals. But it conflicted with the guidelines of Dethmers Manufacturing Co., an Iowa firm that produced many of the U-Haul dollies used in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Dethmers recommended that the tow vehicle weigh at least 1,000 pounds more than the dolly and the second vehicle combined.

U-Haul said its relaxed standard still provided a reasonable safety margin. But in the past employees and dealers frequently ignored the rule, sometimes with tragic results, The Times found.

Before renting a dolly, U-Haul agents were supposed to check a manual to make sure the tow vehicle was heavy enough. If not, the rental was to be rejected.

That was news to two employees at a U-Haul dealer in Nogales, Ariz. In February 1999, one of them filled out a contract for a Ford Ranger to tow a Ford Tempo. The other hitched a tow dolly to the Ranger.

Because the two vehicles weighed nearly the same, the rental was prohibited under U-Haul rules. Both employees said later in depositions that they had never seen, much less used, the U-Haul manual.

Maria Lozano-Millan, 32, rode off in the Ranger with her 7-year-old son, Luis, and her sister. They drove to El Paso, picked up the sister's disabled Tempo, and headed back home.

They never made it.

Descending a hill on Interstate 10 south of Benson, Ariz., the tow dolly and the Tempo fishtailed, pushing the Ranger off the road. The pickup's roof was crushed as it skidded along a rocky outcropping, killing all three occupants.

U-Haul denied the weight violation caused the accident. Responding to the family's lawsuit, the company blamed Lozano-Millan's sister for speeding and for hitting the brakes when the trailer began to sway, contrary to U-Haul's safety instructions.

But a former U-Haul area manager said under oath that the employees' oversight caused the "senseless" tragedy.

When he learned of the wreck, testimony showed, he called the dealership's manager and said: "You just killed somebody."

U-Haul settled the case with an undisclosed payment. The company said it cut ties with the dealer, who violated "policies and procedures in the rental of this combination."

Mario Lozano, 50, Maria's companion and Luis' father, carries worn photos of them in his wallet and lights a candle in their memory on their birthdays.

"Every day that passes is getting me closer to joining them somewhere," he said.

DEADLY RATIOS

The Times reviewed police reports and other records on 222 crashes nationwide from 1989 through 2004 in which drivers lost control while pulling U-Haul tow dollies.

In 105 cases, the documents contained enough detail to determine the vehicle weights.

In 51 of those crashes — 49% — the rentals violated U-Haul's rule requiring the tow vehicle to be at least 750 pounds heavier than the one being towed.

In some of the crashes, the tow vehicle weighed less than the one it was towing.

At least 12 people were killed in the ensuing wrecks.

Unsafe weight combinations may not always be U-Haul's fault. The company relies on the renters of dollies to provide accurate information about what kind of vehicle they will tow, and some do not, former employees said. It could not be determined if that happened in any of the cases studied by The Times.

Casey Curtis, who rented a U-Haul dolly in 2002, said he was never asked what he planned to tow and didn't realize weight could be a safety issue.

Curtis, a construction worker from Orem, Utah, had the dolly hitched to his Suzuki Samurai and used it to tow a Geo Tracker, a vehicle of nearly equal weight.

Going down a hill in Utah in high winds, the dolly began to slide side-to-side. Fighting for control, Curtis overcorrected the steering, a police report said. The trailer came loose and flipped. Curtis crashed head-on into an oncoming car.

Several people were hurt. Curtis, then 25, escaped with minor injuries, but says he still has "slow-motion" nightmares about the wreck.

"They didn't even ask me what I was towing," he said. "I had no idea what kind of consequences came from not having a heavier tow vehicle."

Steve Taub, U-Haul's assistant general counsel, said the company has curbed weight violations. In 2001, it began phasing in a computerized towing manual that blocks the rental contract if an agent types in an improper combination. Taub said violations "are less of an occurrence now."

However, current and former U-Haul dealers and employees said the system, though an improvement, isn't foolproof. A determined customer could lie about what he is towing — just as a dealer could deliberately enter the wrong vehicle model to complete the sale.

U-Haul also says there have been fewer dolly accidents since a wider model, designed for greater stability, was phased in starting in the late 1990s. Shoen said it has eliminated sway: "We're not experiencing it in the new product."

But documents produced by U-Haul in a Kentucky lawsuit show that several dozen customers have filed claims alleging that they lost control and crashed using the wider dollies.

The Kentucky case involved just such an accident. Airline pilot Chris Burke was moving his family from Indiana to Florida in 2002, towing a Ford Contour. When the Contour fishtailed on Interstate 65 near Louisville, Burke's Explorer smashed into a guardrail and flipped onto its side.

Burke's infant son, Ryan, suffered a fractured skull. His wife, Corry, 25, sustained severe spinal-cord damage, leaving her a paraplegic.

The rental met U-Haul's current weight standard, but Burke's lawyers contended that the company should never have loosened its original 2-to-1 weight rule.

"They knew then and they know now that you needed a larger vehicle in front," lawyer Peter Perlman told the jury. "That's just simply physics."

U-Haul's lawyer responded that the current weight rule was "provably safe" and that the wider dolly "is safe, is stable, is controllable."

U-Haul contended that Burke was driving too fast — estimates of his speed ranged from 50 to 60 mph — and that he lost control on a rain-slick road.

Nevertheless, the jury found U-Haul liable for renting "unreasonably dangerous" equipment and awarded $11.6 million in damages, reducing the amount by about a tenth after finding that Corry Burke was not wearing a seat belt.

Chris Burke said the verdict has not diminished his bitterness.

"Profits are No. 1," he said of U-Haul. "Safety concern for their customer is last. My wife will never walk again. There's not a day in my son's life when she will be able to pick him up and hug him. A judgment can't return that."

'HORRIBLE CONDITION'

Marissa Sternberg was a born caregiver.

At age 12, she worked with disabled children in a therapeutic horseback-riding program. When her grandmother was going blind, Sternberg read to her and served as her chauffeur. In high school, she nursed her dog back to health when the boxer was stricken with a potentially fatal disease.

She went to grade school in Tucson with Corina Hollander's son. Despite the difference in age, the women became friends, sharing a love of animals.

In September 2003, Sternberg was set to start classes at a school in Denver that trains veterinary technicians, and she asked Hollander to make the drive with her.

Sternberg and her boyfriend, Michael Lemons, packed her bed, television and other belongings into a 6-by-12-foot U-Haul trailer.

They noticed the trailer was in "horrible condition," Lemons recalled. Springs in the suspension were so corroded that they resembled "stalactites," he said.

Sternberg called a U-Haul helpline, and a representative agreed that she should exchange the trailer. But the next morning — Sept. 3 — an employee at a local U-Haul center made some minor adjustments and sent her on her way. Hollander said Sternberg was "agitated" about the trailer's condition but eager to get going.

By 10 a.m., they were on the road.

As they left Tucson, the trailer began to rock Sternberg's Land Cruiser — "like a boat," Hollander recalled.

Sternberg tapped the SUV's brakes and the rocking stopped. This continued intermittently as they left Arizona and entered southern New Mexico.

Late that afternoon, they stopped for gas near Socorro, N.M., and Hollander took the wheel. Soon after, the Toyota reached the crest of a hill on northbound Interstate 25 in the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Below, the Rio Grande meandered through a lush valley rimmed with rugged mountains.

Hollander said she was going 45 to 50 mph and gained speed as she went downhill, reaching 60 mph. The trailer started to swerve. Hollander said she tapped the brakes but could not slow the vehicles. The swaying became violent.

"There was no way you could control it," she recalled. "It was sheer terror."

The Land Cruiser flipped, ending up on its side in the passing lane of the interstate. The trailer landed upside-down on the median.

Passersby stopped to tend to the two women and summon help. One of Sternberg's dogs was badly injured and had to be put down. The other lost a leg but survived.

In the ambulance, Hollander said she told Sternberg: "Marissa, just tell my family that I love them very much, in case I don't pull through this."

She said Sternberg responded: "Corina, we're lucky to be alive. We're going to be fine. We're all going to be fine."

INOPERABLE BRAKES

Experts who examined the trailer for Sternberg's family found that its brakes were badly corroded and inoperable.

A month earlier, a customer had rented the same trailer in Missouri, and the U-Haul agent told her "it had no brakes," she said in a deposition.

By the time Sternberg rented it, the trailer had not had a thorough safety check in more than eight months, according to its U-Haul inspection sticker. It had been rented 19 times in that period.

Under U-Haul's rules, the trailer should have undergone a "safety certification," including a check of its brakes, tires and other essential parts, at least every 30 days.

U-Haul initially said skid marks and other evidence suggested the brakes were working at the time of the accident. Later, Shoen acknowledged to The Times that they were not. Even so, the company said defective brakes did not cause the crash.

After its investigators examined the battered trailer, the company said Sternberg loaded it improperly. U-Haul faulted Hollander for going too fast and turning the wheel when the swaying began.

U-Haul also contended that Sternberg was not wearing a seat belt, although the state trooper who investigated the crash concluded that she was.

Without admitting liability, the company settled the suit in May 2005. Sternberg attorney Patrick E. Broom declined to disclose the terms.

Shoen said in an interview that the condition of the trailer was "totally unacceptable … whether we caused the accident or not."

U-Haul's larger trailers have surge brakes that activate when the trailer pushes against the vehicle in front. They are designed to reduce wear on the brakes of the tow vehicle and make it easier to stop the combination.

Safety experts say that once a trailer is swinging erratically, surge brakes won't help. But by reducing the trailer's speed, the brakes can help prevent swaying in the first place or limit it before it becomes severe, experts say.

"If you do try to slow down and you can't get adequate performance from the trailer brakes, it certainly would make it harder to get out of a sway situation," said Robert Krouse, a General Motors engineer who is chairman of a Society of Automotive Engineers panel on towing.

U-Haul says trailer brakes help with straight-ahead stopping but don't reduce sway. Nevertheless, the company says, they should always work.

The Times found recurring problems with U-Haul trailer brakes. As far back as 1966, U-Haul's own insurer told the company it needed to do a better job maintaining them.

"We are increasing the risk of an accident by sending a trailer with faulty brakes on a rental which we advertise and represent as being safely equipped with brakes," wrote Frontier Insurance Agency of Portland, Ore. The memo surfaced in a lawsuit years later.

A 1995 crash in Indiana drove home the potential consequences of brake failure. Two people were killed in the wreck, which police said was caused by inoperable brakes on a U-Haul auto transport.

Shoen said U-Haul recognized in the late 1990s that trailer brakes were not being maintained well enough and responded by requiring more frequent inspections.

In a statement, U-Haul said that despite isolated incidents, there was no "pervasive pattern" of brake failures.

Yet problems have persisted.

Architect Mark Letzer rented a U-Haul trailer in 2003 to move from Los Angeles to New Orleans. With his son, Devin, driving on Interstate 10 in Texas, the trailer whipped violently and their Honda Passport overturned.

The elder Letzer, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the vehicle and killed.

The family's lawsuit said faulty trailer brakes helped cause the crash. The plaintiffs presented evidence that there was little or no brake fluid in the trailer and some brake pads were missing. The trailer had gone two months without a safety certification, according to its U-Haul inspection sticker. It had been rented nine times during that period.

U-Haul said brake problems didn't cause the accident. It blamed improper loading and said Devin Letzer drove too fast and braked and steered improperly when the trailer began to snake. His father contributed to the crash by grabbing the wheel, the company said.

U-Haul settled the suit in February 2006.

Eric Christensen, an engineer, was moving his family from Utah to New Hampshire in 2001, towing a trailer behind his Explorer. His father, Ronald V. Christensen, was riding with him.

On an icy patch of Interstate 80 in Wyoming, the trailer whipped and both vehicles slid off the road. Neither man was injured, and they forged on, intending to exchange the trailer for a new one at a U-Haul center 70 miles ahead.

Minutes later, coming down a steep grade, the trailer began swaying wildly. The Explorer overturned and rolled twice, killing Ronald Christensen.

The family sued, citing expert reports that the trailer's brake-fluid reservoir was dry. U-Haul records indicated that the trailer was more than a month overdue for a safety inspection.

U-Haul contended that the brakes were working at the time of the accident and lost fluid later, when a hose was damaged in the towing of the wreckage.

The company blamed Eric Christensen for driving too fast and braking and steering too sharply. U-Haul settled the suit on confidential terms.

"My son's growing up without his grandfather," Christensen said recently. "I have to face my mom and my brothers and sisters thinking I was responsible for my dad's death."

Lew Jones was moving furniture from North Carolina to Rochester, N.Y., in 2005 when he veered to avoid another car. Jones said his U-Haul trailer jackknifed, pushing his Jeep Cherokee into a guardrail. Jones' wife escaped with minor injuries; he was unhurt.

A Virginia state trooper found no fluid in the trailer's brake reservoir. Because state law holds the driver responsible, he gave Jones an $86 ticket for driving with defective brakes. Jones' auto insurer slapped him with a three-year, $846 surcharge.

U-Haul denied the wreck resulted from a brake problem but declined to elaborate.

Trooper Scott T. Parsons said the accident might not have happened if the trailer had working brakes. "There's a reason those brakes are on those trailers," he said, "and that's to help in control of the vehicle."

NO BRAKES AT ALL

With some U-Haul trailers, the issue is not bad brakes but a lack of brakes.

Most states require surge brakes on larger trailers such as the model Sternberg rented. At least 14 states also mandate brakes on smaller trailers under common conditions. Yet U-Haul ignores this requirement, renting small and midsize trailers that have no brakes.

In general, the state regulations say that trailers below 3,000 pounds must have brakes if they exceed 40% of the tow vehicle's weight. By that standard, two popular, un-braked U-Haul cargo trailers are frequently in violation of the rules.

For instance, U-Haul's 5-by-8-foot trailer, which weighs 2,700 pounds fully loaded, would be required to have brakes unless the tow vehicle weighed at least 6,750 pounds. Only giant pickups weigh that much. U-Haul routinely rents the trailer to customers using much smaller tow vehicles.

Shoen acknowledged that U-Haul was not in compliance with the state motor vehicle codes but suggested it was a trifling matter. To make his point, he pulled out a news clipping about a 201-year-old North Carolina law barring unmarried couples from living together.

What's important, Shoen said, is that vehicles towing U-Haul equipment can stop within state-mandated braking distances.

"The laws you're referring to are well-known to people at the state jurisdictions," he said. "But what happens is they enforce, or don't enforce, depending upon what the public good is."

WITHOUT WARNING

John Abromavage, U-Haul's engineering director, once testified that as a witness for the company in some 200 cases, he had never seen an accident he regarded as U-Haul's fault.

Richard Klein, the trailer expert and U-Haul consultant, said in an interview that "U-Haul trailers and tow dollies are the most highly tested equipment in the industry…. Sway is not a problem with a properly loaded and driven trailer."

Peter Keith, the Canadian safety expert, offered a similar appraisal based on investigating tow-dolly crashes for U-Haul: "These accidents never occur when a vehicle is being driven in anywhere close to the manner in which it's meant to be."

The fault, in U-Haul's view, nearly always lies with customers — for loading the trailer incorrectly, driving too fast or otherwise failing to heed safety instructions.

They should know better, according to U-Haul. Taub, the U-Haul attorney, said the company's safety guide is given out "virtually without exception."

But former U-Haul employees and dealers said many customers did not receive guides. Some said they were too busy to distribute them. Steve Eggen, a former dealer in Alameda, Calif., said he left the pamphlets on a counter, and at most half his customers picked one up.

Tammie Wise, a onetime dealer and U-Haul general manager in Northern California, said that with long lines of anxious customers and few employees, "there just wasn't enough time" to make sure everyone got a copy.

In addition, the guides are not available in Spanish, though many customers are Latino. Shoen said a Spanish-language guide was "a nice idea," but "we don't have a big demand for it."

Christian S. Strong said he and Mindy Swegels were never informed of the risks when they rented a trailer to tow his motorcycle.

Strong and Swegels, who had just become engaged, were returning to Kentucky from a Florida vacation in May 2002. On Interstate 75 in Tennessee, the trailer swerved and their Ford Explorer flipped.

Swegels, who was not wearing a seat belt, suffered multiple fractures and a head injury that left her brain-damaged, according to her lawsuit. U-Haul blamed inattentive driving and excessive speed.

Swegels and Strong said that they never received the U-Haul user guide and that trailer decals citing a 45-mph speed limit were missing or illegible.

To bolster their case, their engineering experts rented 12 U-Haul trailers at various sites. They said they were given user guides only twice.

In February, the jury rejected the claim that the trailer was defective but found U-Haul negligent for failing to warn about the risks. It awarded nearly $2.6 million in damages.

Strong said that if he'd known about the dangers of towing above U-Haul's recommended 45-mph speed limit, he would have left his motorcycle behind.

"I'm not going to risk my life to take a bike 850 miles," he testified.

Even when clearly communicated, the 45-mph limit is problematic.

It's a challenge for anyone traveling cross-country or around California, since prevailing speeds are often at least 70 mph on interstates. Some experts say going 45 mph on a major highway is hazardous because it increases the chance of being hit from behind.

Shoen said the 45-mph ceiling was meant to "create a compensatory attitude." Customers may not go 45, but "maybe they'll go 55 or 60," he said.

Yet, when accidents happen, a standard U-Haul defense is that the driver exceeded the 45-mph limit.

Failing to properly distribute the load in the trailer is another customer error often cited by U-Haul. A company manual once called it "sheer suicide!"

The safety guide tells customers to put 60% of the weight in the trailer's front half to promote stability. The instruction is underscored by a line inside the trailer. The guide describes a series of measurements to make sure the weight is distributed correctly.

A portable scale that could help renters ensure proper loading has long been available. U-Haul has used such a scale during accident investigations, but it does not offer one to customers to help prevent accidents.

Sherline Products Inc. of Vista, Calif., sells a portable trailer scale to farmers, ranchers and owners of recreational vehicles for $110.

Craig Libuse, the company's marketing director, said executives wrote to U-Haul in the mid-1990s offering to design a version that could be built into U-Haul trailers. Another option was for U-Haul to rent scales to customers.

Sherline said the scale's wholesale cost would be $55.

Libuse said U-Haul never responded. U-Haul said it had no record of the proposal. The company said a scale was unnecessary because its loading instructions had proved sufficient.

"There's no mystery to loading a trailer," Shoen said. "You need it heavier in front. It's just that simple."

HOLDING ON

When Brian Sternberg arrived at the hospital in Albuquerque, he didn't recognize his daughter.

Marissa had suffered numerous fractures, as well as heart and lung damage and a severe head injury. The cumulative trauma caused brain damage that became evident soon after the accident.

By the time her father saw her, she could no longer speak or move. Physicians put the odds against her survival at 200 to 1.

But Marissa held on. She spent four weeks in the trauma unit of the University of New Mexico Hospital before being transferred to a rehabilitation center in Austin, Texas. Her mother, Lisa, spent eight months with her there.

Marissa's first word was: "Home." Since then, she has spoken only an occasional word.

The Sternbergs, who have long been prominent in Tucson philanthropic circles, built an airy, art-filled house for their daughter next to their own home in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains. Four caregivers tend to her around the clock.

"I'm looking to make her comfortable," said Brian, 48, who owns a wholesale food company with his brother.

After discovering that the nearest neurological rehabilitation center was more than 100 miles away in Phoenix, the Sternbergs funded construction of a state-of-the-art facility in Tucson.

The center has 100 patients and a staff of 10. Marissa, now 23, receives therapy there five days a week. She has made progress, but doctors have told the family the most they can expect is that Marissa will learn to "follow commands," her father said. He called this "the best case, and the worst case."

"It's not like tomorrow's going to be a different day," he said. "It's a dream we just haven't woken up from, a nightmare."

[Hannahrain]

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/27191822

[mob roulette]

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/27191822

Didn't they try this already? What happened? I'd probably totally go to this, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Good catch, though. Thanks for sharing.

[Hannahrain]

"A proposed summer amphitheater tour by the group never got off the ground, with Eddie Van Halen entering a rehabilitation facility for undisclosed reasons in March."

[Hannahrain]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070807/ap_on_fe_st/pencil_in_head;_ylt=AtXPUzSpQ5c5Hi.Zi99Jf8Kek3QF

[J~$$$]

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c193/mmmmdoughnuts/060403-5.gif

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/06/21/six.flags.accident/index.html

Girl's feet severed on ride at Six Flags in Kentucky

(CNN) -- A girl's feet were cut off Thursday when a free-fall thrill ride malfunctioned at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Amusement Park in Louisville, Kentucky, police said.

A cord wrapped around the 16-year-old's feet and severed them at her ankles while she was on the "Superman Tower of Power," a police dispatcher said. The girl was taken to a local hospital.

An unidentified witness told CNN affiliate WLKY she saw a cable on the ride snap.

"The people on the ride just came and hit the ground," she said. "When I got up there, the lady she was just sitting there, and she didn't have no legs. ... And she was just there, calm, probably in shock from everything."

"That could have been all of us -- riding that ride," witness Whitney Sandfer told CNN affiliate WDRB/WMYO.

The incident took place shortly before 5 p.m. ET, according to Six Flags spokeswoman Wendy Goldberg. The park remained open, but the ride in question was shut down and will remain so until the full investigation is complete, Goldberg said.

During the ride, passengers are lifted to 177 feet, suspended momentarily and then dropped, according to the park's Web site.

Passengers drop 154 feet at 54 mph, stopping "just 20 terrifying feet above the pavement," it adds.

"I seen the car go up. Then, like, the cable broke, I heard -- pwchh -- and I heard a lot of people screaming," Chris Stinnett, who was at a ride next to the Superman Tower of Power, told WDRB/WMYO.

"The cable went under the car -- and I seen it pull up and hit a lot of people -- and I seen them bring their legs up," Stinnett said.

The ride was introduced in 1995.


Wait....they have a 6 flags in Kentucky?

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

"A proposed summer amphitheater tour by the group never got off the ground, with Eddie Van Halen entering a rehabilitation facility for undisclosed reasons in March."

$10 says the tour ends before it begins...Van Halen's ego is just too big...

[J~$$$]

NEW YORK - A man smuggled a monkey onto an airplane Tuesday, stashing the furry fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it perched on his ponytail, an airline official said.
ADVERTISEMENT

The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. After landing Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport.

During the flight, people around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Russell said.

"Other passengers asked the man if he knew he had a monkey on him," she said.

The monkey spent the remainder of the flight in the man's seat and behaved well, said Russell, who didn't know how it skirted customs and security.

Airport police were waiting for the man and his monkey when the plane landed about 3 p.m., and the man was taken away for questioning. It was unclear whether he would face any criminal charges.

The city's animal control agency said the monkey appeared healthy. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was planning to take it for disease testing and keep it quarantined for 31 days, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

If the monkey is healthy, it could wind up in a zoo.

"It is kind of a spirited monkey," Russell said. "That will be the nickname of the monkey: Spirit."

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

NEW YORK - A man smuggled a monkey onto an airplane Tuesday, stashing the furry fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it perched on his ponytail, an airline official said.
ADVERTISEMENT

The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. After landing Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport.

During the flight, people around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Russell said.

"Other passengers asked the man if he knew he had a monkey on him," she said.

The monkey spent the remainder of the flight in the man's seat and behaved well, said Russell, who didn't know how it skirted customs and security.

Airport police were waiting for the man and his monkey when the plane landed about 3 p.m., and the man was taken away for questioning. It was unclear whether he would face any criminal charges.

The city's animal control agency said the monkey appeared healthy. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was planning to take it for disease testing and keep it quarantined for 31 days, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

If the monkey is healthy, it could wind up in a zoo.

"It is kind of a spirited monkey," Russell said. "That will be the nickname of the monkey: Spirit."


I really thought he was just happy to see me. :)

[Hannahrain]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070808/wl_uk_afp/britainsciencemen


Alright, boys. When are we going to Sephora?

[mob roulette]

I sense a trend here. But it's not your problem. It's mine. I am an anachronism. A virtual dinosaur. An evolutionary failure. Why don't I just lay down and die?

[Hannahrain]

Because you can't have a game show without a host.

[mob roulette]

Thank you for that.

[fatbastard]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070808/wl_uk_afp/britainsciencemen


Alright, boys. When are we going to Sephora?

Right after Burke Williams

[TomAz]

This guy is my new hero. Srsly. Check it out. (http://phoenixnewtimes.com/2007-08-09/news/the-yoda-of-9-11/)

[TomAz]

Van Halen to tour with David Lee Roth (http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2007/08/go_ahead_and_jump_van_halen_to.php)

too funny

[disgustipated]

I am dog sitting for a friend for a while because he got called on this tour to do sound. I guess he will be there for the production part for a few weeks then have some time off before the tour starts.

[TomAz]

The feel-good story of the summer. (http://www.theonion.com/content/news/barry_bonds_home_run_scandal)

[mob roulette]

I haven't really read any good articles today, but this is my new favorite sentence:

"Howell admits that he got so cold that he had to spoon Charlie Sheen, while Sheen tells of a moment where it got so cold during filming that Howell cried."

-From a review of the Red Dawn: Collector's Edition DVD

[amyzzz]

Space hotel. This kind of thing excites me, although I don't have $4 mill to spend on it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070810/tc_nm/space_hotel_dc;_ylt=AtaAE7F.Gdip2uH1dKqDnDNT.3QA

[mob roulette]

Making the rounds today:

Coldplay Singer Gets Coldcocked

Cops nab Seattle woman after bizarre karaoke bar meltdown

AUGUST 10--A Washington man's karaoke performance of a Coldplay song apparently triggered a female bar patron to attack him early yesterday at a Seattle bar. According to a Seattle Police Department report, Lindsey Lawrence, 21, assaulted the unnamed victim while he was performing with "two other subjects" at Changes Tavern, where patrons sing karaoke Wednesday and Thursday night from 9 PM until 1 AM. When the assault victim launched into Coldplay's "Yellow," Lawrence allegedly told the man that his "singing sucked" and that the song "fucking sucked." She then grabbed at the man's microphone and "pushed him and punched him in order to get him to stop singing," cops reported. When employees escorted Lawrence from the bar, she "became very violent" and struck several other people (and was hostile towards police and fire department medics who responded to the scene). Lawrence was booked into the Seattle Correctional Facility, where she is currently being held on an investigation of an assault rap. It is unclear why Coldplay's music apparently made Lawrence snap, though a famous June 2005 New York Times appraisal by Jon Pareles may offer an insight. The critic called the British group "the most insufferable band of the decade," adding that, "the lyrics can make me wish I didn't understand English."

[Hannahrain]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_fe_st/odd_identical_quadruplets

[full on idle]

I wonder which one will be the favorite.

[psychic friend]

The RIAA has sent a new wave of 503 pre-litigation settlement letters to 58 universities on behalf of its record company members.

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3ided21673370e52a309d6a5f8ad8e5a93

busted..

[TomAz]

Wal Mart to sell music downloads without DRM (http://www.azcentral.com/business/consumer/articles/0821biz-walmarttunes21-ON.html)

[fatbastard]

Making the rounds today:

Coldplay Singer Gets Coldcocked

Cops nab Seattle woman after bizarre karaoke bar meltdown

AUGUST 10--A Washington man's karaoke performance of a Coldplay song apparently triggered a female bar patron to attack him early yesterday at a Seattle bar. According to a Seattle Police Department report, Lindsey Lawrence, 21, assaulted the unnamed victim while he was performing with "two other subjects" at Changes Tavern, where patrons sing karaoke Wednesday and Thursday night from 9 PM until 1 AM. When the assault victim launched into Coldplay's "Yellow," Lawrence allegedly told the man that his "singing sucked" and that the song "fucking sucked." She then grabbed at the man's microphone and "pushed him and punched him in order to get him to stop singing," cops reported. When employees escorted Lawrence from the bar, she "became very violent" and struck several other people (and was hostile towards police and fire department medics who responded to the scene). Lawrence was booked into the Seattle Correctional Facility, where she is currently being held on an investigation of an assault rap. It is unclear why Coldplay's music apparently made Lawrence snap, though a famous June 2005 New York Times appraisal by Jon Pareles may offer an insight. The critic called the British group "the most insufferable band of the decade," adding that, "the lyrics can make me wish I didn't understand English."


Please send her a pair of tickets for 08.

[thefunkylama]

Disneyland of the Past. (http://cityguides.msn.com/citylife/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5317443&GT1=10269) Some of these are just downright bizarre.

[Jenniehoo]

House of the future actually looks like it would have been pretty cool.

[thefunkylama]

I'm pretty sure I saw a show about it when I was younger, on the disney channel. Stuff popping up out of the counter, shit like that. I remember being impressed and resentful because not even stains came out of my counters.

[amyzzz]

I liked the Submarine Voyage. The Mission to Mars was so lame.

[Mr.Nipples]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...

http://www.spinner.com/2007/08/23/pete-dohertys-cats-test-positive-for-cocaine/

Pete Doherty's Cats Test Positive for Cocaine
Posted Aug 23rd 2007 10:30AM by David Sprague
Filed under: News, Humor, Holy Hell

Given the fact that Pete Doherty has a lot on his professional plate -- what with gigs as a full-time pharmaceutical tester and part-time musician -- we're surprised that he's found the time to pursue the admirable hobby of myth-debunking. But we're happy to hear that he's started with a biggie -- that being trying to disprove the notion that cats have nine lives by turning one of his pet kittens into a crack addict.
Britain's Daily Star reports that Doherty's female cat Dinger -- Cockney slang for "syringe" -- gave birth to a litter of young 'uns, one of which turned up at a veterinarian's office feeling rather poorly. A few tests elicited a diagnosis that's pretty rare in the feline realm -- a copious amount of cocaine in the bloodstream. The RSPCA, which is said to have seized the animals in question, didn't specifically name Doherty in its tut-tutting statement on the incident, calling it "a police matter." Still, we can't help but think the Babyshambles dartboard on the wall of the animal group's local pub qualifies as a hint

[amyzzz]

Pete Doherty is scum.

[fatbastard]

http://rock.samaratoday.ru/images/artists/libertines_pete_doherty_keith_moss.jpg

[psychic friend]

not really an article - fun at the hipster olympics

kAO4EVMlpwM

[fatbastard]

Norm Chomsky and banana bread:)

[suprefan]

I just saw this. American Apparel replay, score!

[roberto73]

Report: Actor Owen Wilson in Suicide Try

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 26 (UPI) -- Actor Owen Wilson was taken to a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif., Sunday, reportedly after attempting suicide.

Wilson was transported to St. John’s Hospital. Citing sources, The National Enquirer and Star magazine said the star of "Wedding Crashers" and "Starsky & Hutch" had cut his left wrist and taken an undetermined amount of pills.