Let's throw a parade!
Weird things you have read about. Page 22
Quote: Aaron @ November 20 2008, 3:42 PM GMTSee people, we don't agree on everything.
Soooo?
You're still meant to be! 
An Al Qaeda terrorist serving 18 years for his involvement in a plot to bomb London was taught how to be a stand-up comic at his top-security prison.
Evil Zia Ul Haq was enrolled in an eight-day "comedy workshop" at Whitemoor jail, along with murderers and rapists.
An inquiry was launched today by the director of high security prisons to consider whether further action was needed, the Ministry of Justice said.
A spokeswoman added: "The director general of the National Offender Management Service is personally briefing governors from all prisons on the need to take account of the public acceptability test in relation to prison classes."
The 18 cons were given lessons in stand-up, comic drama, improvisation and scriptwriting.
Once they "graduated" they were due to get a certificate and display their new talents with a comedy show for fellow inmates and guards.
On Thursday Justice Secretary Jack Straw canned the "totally unacceptable" course. He
BEIJING (AP) -- A college student in southern China was bitten by a panda after he broke into the bear's enclosure hoping to get a hug, state media and a park employee said Saturday.
The student was visiting Qixing Park with classmates on Friday when he jumped the 6.5-foot (2-meter) high fence around the panda's habitat, said the park employee, who refused to give his name.
The park in Guilin, a popular tourist town in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, houses a small zoo and a panda exhibit. It was virtually deserted when the student scaled the fence surrounding the panda, named Yang Yang, the employee said.
He said the student was bitten on the arms and legs. Two foreign visitors who saw the attack ran to get help from workers at a nearby refreshment stand, who notified park officials, the employee said.
The student was pale as he was taken away by medics but appeared clear-headed, he said.
"Yang Yang was so cute and I just wanted to cuddle him. I didn't expect he would attack," the 20-year-old student, surnamed Liu, said in a local hospital, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/11/22/panda.bites.man.china.ap/index.html
No cha there!
WherecanIwatchthevideo.
Poor Argentinian. 
That's exactly what I thought too. (On both counts.)
Probably on YouTube soon.
Is it a bit sick that I have that video of Saddam Hussein being hung, and some American businessman who shot himself on live TV in the 1970s (I think) after allegations of a scandal? :/
Quote: DaButt @ November 21 2008, 11:40 PM GMTAn Al Qaeda terrorist serving 18 years for his involvement in a plot to bomb London was taught how to be a stand-up comic at his top-security prison.
Evil Zia Ul Haq was enrolled in an eight-day "comedy workshop" at Whitemoor jail, along with murderers and rapists.
An inquiry was launched today by the director of high security prisons to consider whether further action was needed, the Ministry of Justice said.
A spokeswoman added: "The director general of the National Offender Management Service is personally briefing governors from all prisons on the need to take account of the public acceptability test in relation to prison classes."
The 18 cons were given lessons in stand-up, comic drama, improvisation and scriptwriting.
Once they "graduated" they were due to get a certificate and display their new talents with a comedy show for fellow inmates and guards.
On Thursday Justice Secretary Jack Straw canned the "totally unacceptable" course. He
I knew some one who taught these courses and they often help towards expression and moving away from criminal behaviour.
They don't always work but sometimes they do.
Sometimes if you jsut get people to start talking...
Saudi Arabia deprogams AQ members with magic marker drawing.
Jack Straw is a reactive dick who deserves a kick up the bum and going to bed with out supper.
OMSL!!!!!!!!
Man commits suicide in front of live Webcam
Rasha Madkour, Associated Press
Saturday, November 22, 2008
(11-22) 04:00 PST Miami - --
A college student committed suicide by taking a drug overdose in front of a live Webcam as some computer users egged him on, others tried to talk him out of it, and another messaged "OMG" in horror when it became clear it was no joke.
Some watchers contacted the Web site to notify police, but by the time officers entered Abraham Biggs' home - a scene also captured on the Internet - it was too late.
Biggs, a 19-year-old Broward College student who suffered from what his family said was bipolar disorder, or manic depression, lay dead on his bed in his father's Pembroke Pines house Wednesday afternoon, the camera still running 12 hours after Biggs announced his intentions online around 3 a.m.
It was unclear how many people watched it unfold.
Biggs was not the first person to commit suicide with a Webcam rolling. But the drawn-out drama - and the reaction of those watching - was seen as an extreme example of young people's penchant for sharing intimate details about themselves over the Internet.
Biggs' family was infuriated that no one acted sooner to save him, neither the viewers nor the Web site that hosted the live video, Justin.tv. The Web site shows a video image, with a space alongside where computer users can instantly post comments. Only when police arrived did the Web feed stop.
"They got hits, they got viewers, nothing happened for hours," said the victim's sister, Rosalind Bigg, who spells her name differently than her brother. "It didn't have to be."
An autopsy concluded Biggs died from a combination of opiates and benzodiazepine, which his family said was prescribed for his bipolar disorder.
Biggs announced his plans to kill himself over a Web site for bodybuilders, authorities said. But some users told investigators they did not take him seriously because he had threatened suicide on the site before.
Some members of his virtual audience encouraged him to do it, others tried to talk him out of it, and some discussed whether he was taking a dose big enough to kill himself, said Wendy Crane, an investigator with the Broward County medical examiner's office.
A computer user who claimed to have watched said that after swallowing some pills, Biggs went to sleep and appeared to be breathing for a few hours while others cracked jokes.
Someone notified the moderator of the bodybuilding site, who traced Biggs' location and called police, Crane said.
As police entered the room, the audience's reaction was filled with Internet shorthand: "OMG," one wrote, meaning "Oh my God." Others, either not knowing what they were seeing or not caring, wrote "lol," which means "laughing out loud," and "hahahah."
An online video purportedly from Biggs' Webcam shows a gun-wielding officer entering a bedroom, where a man is lying on a bed, his face turned away from the camera. The officer begins to examine him, as the camera lens is covered. Authorities could not immediately verify the authenticity of the video, though it matched their description of what occurred.
Montana Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, said Biggs' very public suicide was not shocking, given the way teenagers chronicle every facet of their lives on sites like Facebook and MySpace.
"If it's not recorded or documented, then it doesn't even seem worthwhile," she said. "For today's generation it might seem, 'What's the point of doing it if everyone isn't going to see it?' "
Crane said she knows of a case in which a Florida man shot himself in the head in front of an online audience, though she didn't know how much viewers saw. In Britain last year, a man hanged himself while chatting online.
In a statement, Justin.tv CEO Michael Seibel said: "We regret that this has occurred and want to respect the privacy of the broadcaster and his family during this time."
Miami lawyer William Hill said there is probably nothing that could be done legally to those who watched and did not act. As for whether the Web site could be held liable, Hill said there doesn't seem to be much of a case for negligence.
"There could conceivably be some liability if they knew this was happening and they had some ability to intervene and didn't take action," said Hill, who does business litigation and has represented a number of Internet-based clients. But "I think it would be a stretch."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/22/MN8V149PA0.DTL
So if one of us kills ourselves whilst online BSG gets sued?
well, only if you use a webcam. Why are you thinking of it there sootyj?
Just faking it out of sheer badness.
I could never work a suicide hotline. I would be yelling, "well then f'ing do it", if they called twice.
Quote: sootyj @ November 22 2008, 5:31 PM GMTJack Straw is a reactive dick who deserves a kick up the bum and going to bed with out supper.
Agreed.
And he's still probably my favourite Labour minister. (It's a pretty small pool of acceptability to choose from though.)