When Dana Acker went to check on her 15-year-old son in the bath, she never imagined she would never see him alive again. Joshua Dean Knight died after inhaling from an aerosol can used to clean electronics.

More and more kids around the country are engaging in a dangerous practice they call “computer dusting.” The product, made by a variety of manufacturers, produces a burst of air which is meant to blow dust off keyboards, cameras or other hardware.

Acker says more and more kids are dying each year because they don’t realize the burst of air contains a chemical, Freon, which is used in refrigerators and air conditioners. She says officers who responded to her son’s death told her it’s a growing problem. { KUSA TV/9NEWS | Continue reading }

The CIA tried to uncover the Kremlin’s deepest secrets during the 1960s by turning cats into walking bugging devices, declassified documents show.

In one experiment during the Cold War a cat, dubbed Acoustic Kitty, was wired up for use as an eavesdropping platform. It was hoped that the animal - which was surgically altered to accommodate transmitting and control devices - could listen to secret conversations from window sills, park benches or dustbins.

Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer, told The Telegraph that Project Acoustic Kitty was a gruesome creation. He said: “They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that.”

Mr Marchetti said that the first live trial was an expensive disaster. The technology is thought to have cost more than £10 million. He said: “They took it out to a park and put him out of the van, and a taxi comes and runs him over. There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead.” { The Telegraph | Continue reading }

illustration { Mitchell O’Connell }

Miscreants have hacked into the ABC Island inside the virtual reality world of Second Life, reducing the two-month-old facility to rubble. The vandalism, which wiped out months of painstaking work, was discovered this morning.

These types of attacks are not uncommon in Second Life. Virtual “atom bombs” were recently used by the self-styled Second Life Liberation Army against in-world stores owned by Reebok and US retailer American Apparel.

In the most infamous case, vandals last year unleashed images of flying phalluses into a meeting attended by a Chinese property developer, whose avatar goes by the name of Anshe Chung, making her abandon the event. { The Sydney Morning Herald | Continue reading }

Craig Preston, head of technology for ABC innovation, said only the digital transmission tower was left standing on the island, which cost the ABC tens of thousands of dollars to create.

The vandals left logos for sports brands Nike and Puma on the island, prompting speculation that the attack could be the work of a commercial rival jealous of the ABC’s success. { News | Continue reading }

A 45-year-old man who “blurred the line between reality and make believe” and adopted the character of magical elf Buho from Shadowrun to rob a Belfast lingerie store at knifepoint, has been brought down to Earth with a two-year jail sentence, The Times reports.

Robert Boyd, of Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, told Belfast Crown Court at a hearing in March he’d been involved in the fantasy role-playing computer game when he slipped into a blond Harpo Marx wig, glasses, and beanie hat, “threatened a female shop assistant and made off with bras, knickers, suspender belts, and stockings worth £250″.

This explanantion failed to impress the jury, who found the former lab assistant at Queen’s University guilty by a wholly realistic 10-2 majority. { The Register | Continue reading }

photo { Harpo, silent harp-playing Marx Brother }

{ Alfa 147: Stay Alive | 1861 United, Italy }

Glen Fergusson - Sales and Marketing manager for a brand new Californian Porsche dealer - has lost his job and faces possible legal proceedings as the company strives to reclaim the costs of the 18 Porsches given away free under Glen’s Opening day “buy one get one free promotion”.

“I admit I didn’t really do the numbers properly on this one” said Glen who told reporters that he had “seen the concept work really well for coffee stores” and in terms of numbers you could argue that Glen’s campaign worked. As the new Porsche dealer sold 18 Porsches in the first hour of the store opening.

It took the head office a full hour to realise what was going on and subsequently shut the store.

Local man Bruce Stepper took out a second mortgage on his home after getting a promotional flyer in his mailbox. “I am ecstatic - I brought a shiny red Porsche today, got another one free and I have sold just sold it on EBay, all up I end up getting a Porsche 911 for $5000″ .

Jane Cameron was arguably even more entrepreneurial. The local Janitor purchased a Porsche using the dealers “no deposit finance plan for low income earners”, sold both cars, paid off the finance account and walked away with $120,000 profit. The finance plan was another one of Glen’s initiatives that has now been cancelled.

A red faced Glen stated “I have never really been too good at Math and I was sure the whole time we were making money - I was initially blown away by the amount of cars we were selling in that first hour.”

{ Stuffed | Continue reading }

Related: Porsche hit by a bird at 250 kmh/155 mph

Century 21 property manager Ryan Froerer was alerted by a Realtor to come check on a townhouse in Ogden, Utah, that the latter described as “the sickest thing he’s ever seen.”

Mr. Froerer found the residence possessed of a sickening smell, its front door blocked by debris, the furnishings inside buried under mountains of beer cans, and rooms stacked to the ceiling with beer boxes.

The 8-year resident of the building was apparently exceedingly fond of Coors Light beer, drinking a couple of dozen cans a day, every day, for the length of his residence, saving all the empties as well as the cartons they came in. Despite his unusual behavior, the occupant of the townhouse was described as a reliable tenant who paid his rent on time, never complained, and maintained such a low profile that the local mail carrier thought the residence was vacant. { Snopes | more photos }

Michael Angelo Batio invented and successfully played the very first ‘quad’ guitar. However, the instrument was stolen during a Nitro show in El Paso, Texas, and only two of the four parts required for its assembly have ever been recovered. It is because of this that he has not played the quad guitar in many years. However, Dean Guitars recently finished production on a new quad guitar for Batio. The Double Guitar is another of his innovations, which he commonly uses live, but never in studio recordings.

{ 4-Neck Fender Stringmaster }

Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen with a Five Neck (four necks with six strings, plus a 12-string).

Fred Mangan’s guitar made from the pipes of an Organ built in the 1800’s.

Fred Mangan’s satellite dish, old film reel and BC Rich guitars.

On eBay: Sword Angel Guitar custom made for the Alfee’s guitar player Takamizawa.

AK-47 guitar and Bass Guitar.

Colombian musician Cesar Lopez holds a guitar made from the rifle of a demobilized paramilitary member as part of a government campaign to transform weapons into musical instruments. | M16 rifle-shaped guitar which belonged to the late Jamaican reggae star Peter Tosh.

{ SiFeet Pussy Foot }

A woman blames the devil and not her husband for severely burning their infant daughter after the 2-month-old was put in a microwave, a Houston television station reported. Eva Marie Mauldin said Satan compelled her 19-year-old husband, Joshua Royce Mauldin, to microwave their daughter May 10 because the devil disapproved of Joshua’s efforts to become a preacher. “Satan saw my husband as a threat. Satan attacked him because he saw (Joshua) as a threat,” Eva Mauldin told Houston television station KHOU-TV.

A Galveston County grand jury indicted Joshua Mauldin last week on child injury charges after hearing evidence that he placed his daughter in a motel microwave for 10 to 20 seconds. The infant, Ana Marie, remains hospitalized. She suffered burns on the left side of her face and to her left hand, police said. Eva Marie Mauldin, the girl’s 20-year-old mother, told the television station that her husband is “not the monster people are making him out to be. That was not my husband; my husband is a wonderful father.” { Houston Chronicle | Continue reading }

photo { Tinypic }

A 24-year old man who murdered two children in Kobe in 1997 when he was 14 has sent a letter of apology to the family of one of the victims, the victim’s father said Sunday.

It is the second time the man has directly expressed an apology to the family of Jun Hase, an 11-year-old boy whose head was cut off and left outside a school gate in Suma Ward, Kobe, in May 1997. According to Mamoru Hase, 51, the letter was delivered May 12 to his family by lawyers representing the man.

The man sent a letter of apology for the first time in August 2004 to the parents of Hase and the other victim, Ayaka Yamashita, a 10-year-old girl who died after she and three other schoolgirls were attacked in February and March 1997.

The man’s name has been withheld because he was a minor at the time of the crimes. He was released on parole in March 2004 from a Tokyo medical reformatory. The incident shocked the nation and led the government to change the juvenile law in 2001 to lower the minimum age to apply criminal punishment from 16 to 14. { Japan Times | Continue reading }

illustration { Trevor Brown }

new york craigslist > women seeking men

An EPIC mount! (warcraft players look inside) - w4m
Date: 2007-04-08, 8:07PM EDT

Hello I need 5000 world of gold for my epic flying mount. In return you can mount me.

You have to have an account on the laughing skull server and I want the 5000 gold BEFORE we do anything, we can make the trade at your place since I can’t host. EDIT: Because I am having a lot of dumb guys message me who clearly don’t have the gold make SURE to send: a picture of yourself and a screenshot of your character with the 5000g, I will be checking armory profiles, thanks.

I play a level 70 night elf druid and would prefer someone who was into roleplaying (I have a costume!) but honestly anyone will do, as long as you have the gold. I would also be ok with a woman too, as long as you have the gold! Also not adverse to the idea of groups\anal.

Please send a pic and be real and drug\disease free with 5000 gold on the laughing skull server.