TORONTO -- Research In Motion Ltd.'s ubiquitous BlackBerry experienced a "critical severity outage" on Monday afternoon that left users stranded without wireless e-mail access, its maker said.

RIM notified its clients of the outage IN AN EMAIL.

Labels: Oddities

Heh.

Angry Thai Women Lead the World in Penis Slashings

Labels: Oddities

You know: Go the extra mile, work the extra hours, finish that impossible project, and reap the rewards.

But you shouldn't be given incentives to do the most basic functions of your job. For that, you already get a paycheck. And if you perform those functions day after day, week after week, year after year, you get to keep your paycheck and not get fired. Not getting fired is a great incentive.

Doctors, nurses and other health-care workers at Canada's largest research hospital will soon learn that cleanliness is not only next to godliness - it also brings them that much closer to a Timbit.

In an effort to persuade hospital workers to properly clean their hands, a roaming posse of infection control staff at University Health Network will give a $2 Tim Hortons gift certificate to some of those caught cleaning their hands at its Princess Margaret, Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals.

In the real world, if you do not perform the basic functions of your job, you lose it. A "disincentive", I believe it's called. Maybe that's what we need, instead.

Labels: Apocalypso, Health, Oddities

Billionaire out to gobble up Wendy's

Err, billionaire or not, you're buying me dinner first!

Labels: Oddities

Because "asskicking is what's called for."

Ok, so Bill Maher is a leftie, but in the pecking order, he's nowhere near as low as the "truthers".

Maher helped remove a rowdy protester from the audience.

It happened during a panel discussion on science when an audience member with a sign stood up and started shouting something to the effect of "9/11 is a cover up for fraud." When Maher tried to shout him down, the man became agitated. And when guards couldn't budge him, Maher ran into the audience and personally helped shove the protester out the door.

"Yes, and you are a nutcase, Building Seven..."

Labels: Bill Maher, Oddities, Truther

There are so many moments of hilarity in this (Wagstaff?), I don't know where to begin. Thanks, Sondra.

Labels: Oddities, Ostriches, Random News

The newspaper reported Kear's last words as being "don't worry - it's nothing a drink can't fix" before he succumbed to the cobra's venom.

One of the best headlines I've read in a while.

Labels: Oddities

Driving along today I noticed how many people have dedications on the back windows of their cars. In loving memory of so-and-so, 1956-2001. A car is such a fleeting thing, gone within a few years. Why not a memorial bench or a tree? Why drive your remembrance?

Odd.

Labels: Hawaii, Oddities

I'm not the mothering kind, but should I ever breed, there is no doubt I would stay home to raise my kids. And here is yet another good reason why.

Young babies will be assessed on their "crying, gurgling, babbling and squealing" under a new national curriculum for under-fives published today.

Staff in every nursery in England will monitor children from birth on their progress towards a set of 69 Government "early learning goals". These goals cover the skill levels expected of five-year-olds in reading, writing and rudimentary maths.

Parents' groups attacked the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum, which will be a legal requirement for all childminders and children's centres from September 2008.

Margaret Morrissey, from the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: "I think it's really sad that we have reached the point now where instead of reducing children's stress we have increased it.

"Will nurseries be worrying more about children reaching these targets than caring for our children?

"It worries me that we are expecting children to reach these targets when they have not even had their first birthday."

Horrific. Kids of the latter generations have already missed out on the real education and love the receive by having a mother at home (or in my case, a Nana). Now those mothers, already feeling guilty for abandoning their kids to daycare, will be made to feel worse if the babies don't squeal at the right pitch. Who comes up with this junk-science?

As one of the commenters of the story put it

Moral: don't put your baby in a nursery; look after it yourself. If you can't do that, it probably means you shouldn't have had the poor mite in the first place.

Labels: Europe, Oddities, Science

Wow. Frederico Fellini and Sigmund Freud would be pleased to know that Canada now has a television station geared towards men called Spike, and one geared toward women called Slice. The imagery in my head is rockets blasting off, trains going through tunnels...

Labels: Oddities

Iran plans a female-only island to boost tourism in a northwest province, the Tehran-e Emrouz newspaper on Wednesday quoted a local official as saying.

It will be on the Urumiyeh lake in Western Azerbaijan province, a municipality official identified only as Aghai said.

Under Iran's strict Islamic law, mixing with men in public is forbidden. Strict sex segregation actually protects women rather than restricting their rights, officials argue.

"There will be no men on the Arezou (Wish) island. Public transport, restaurants and other facilities will be staffed only by women," Aghai said.

Why stop there? Put 'em all on an infidel-free island, and leave 'em there. Men, women, children, goat-mistresses... They can have a joyful little caliphate on their Allah Island - at least until their evil nature seeps out and they have to start killing again. But there will be no one to kill but other Muslims....

Ahhh, I see why they call it "Wish Island"... all it needs is a midget to greet the planes!

Labels: Islam, Middle East, Oddities

Suspected Islamic radicals have issued a Taliban-style warning to barbers in a Pakistani border town not to shave off or cut their customers' beards, saying it offends Islam, residents said Monday.

Pamphlets with the warnings were found at several shops in Inayat Kalay in Pakistan's Bajur tribal region near the Afghan border, said Bacha Khan, a barber in the market town.

"Barbers! Correct yourselves," said the handwritten, Pashto-language notes, one of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

"Any barber shop where acts against Shariah (Islamic law) - shaving or cutting of beards - are seen, are given a final warning to stop this anti-Shariah work and if they do not stop, they should take responsibility for whatever harm they come to," it said.

Labels: Islam, Oddities

Like us poor Canadians, forced to suffer through the tax-funded drivel on the CBC, the Brits are now going to be paying for a documentary tentatively entitled I love The C-Word, about how the word cunt has become mainstream.

Its presenter - who is expected to be a comedian, rather than an academic - will interview pundits, academics and artists about the use of the word over the past 30 years and the word itself will be broadcast uncensored.

Contributors will include feminist academic Germaine Greer and Eve Ensler, the author of The Vagina Monologues, an acclaimed stage play which features women talking about their genitals.

Personally, I use the word. I like it. I like its hard letters from start to finish. But would I want to pay for a documentary into my use of the word, instead of that money being spent on a nurse or something? Hell no! Only a cunt would be that stupid.

Labels: Oddities

That's always been my personal philosophy. And while the latter has landed me more than once in the emergency roon, it's reassuring to hear that the former may actually save my life.

Scientists have discovered the key to the ability of spicy foods to kill cancer cells.

They found capsaicin, an ingredient of jalapeno peppers, triggers cancer cell death by attacking mitochondria - the cells' energy-generating boiler rooms.

The research raises the possibility that other cancer drugs could be developed to target mitochondria.

And for all those years, people laughed at me for drinking hot sauce right out of the bottle and baking chili chocolate chip cookies. Ha! I may have no esophaegus or stomach lining left, but I may also be the first in my family to live to retirement!

Labels: Food, Oddities, Science

If this smells half as bad as some of Toronto's cabbies, then no thanks!

Now, if we could just come up with some sort of Mujahideen repellant....

Labels: Islamic Terror, Oddities

Mr. Right and I went to Chapters yesterday to buy light fluffy books for me to read on the beach. As we stood in the very loooooong line to the cash, we noticed a teeny-tiny Hanukkah display - cards, gifts, wrapping paper etc. I found it rather funny that the rest of the store (owned by Gerald Schwartz & Heather Reisman) was done up for Christmas, right to the girl behind the cash in the Mrs. Claus outfit, and this was all they had for Hanukkah. Then I realized that us Gentiles were pouring millions and millions of dollars into Chapters/Indigo over the season, and I guess for them that's Hanukkah enough.

I'm just glad that I can shop there again, since they've quit the Liberal party.

Labels: Oddities

Via Fausta comes this heartwarming Christmas tale:

Target, the retailer that distinguished itself last year by banning Salvation Army bell-ringers, has topped itself this yuletide by selling Che Guevara CD cases for a little tyrant-chic right under your tree.

The big box retailer has jumped onto the Guevara bandwagon, selling the murderous revolutionary's image as if it had just turned its stores into Marxist rally stalls.

What next? Hitler backpacks? Pol Pot cookware? Pinochet pantyhose? Target gives this monster a pass, while using common sense on almost everything else it sells.

Like Fausta says: nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a mass murderer under the tree

Personally, I'm going to hold out for the Jeffery Dahmer cookbook and the Charles Manson carving set.

Labels: Oddities

A crew of mechanics at Istanbul's airport were so glad to be rid of some trouble-prone British-made airplanes that they sacrificed a camel on the tarmac in celebration - prompting the firing Wednesday of their supervisor.

The photo of a worker raising a large piece of bloodied camel meat on the tarmac of Ataturk International Airport was published on the front page of at least two newspapers, drawing the wrath of transportation authorities.

Tuesday's sacrifice of a camel with small Turkish carpets over its humps at the busy airport was regarded as a disgrace and an embarrassment for the country at a time when it is seeking to join the European Union.

"This is a grave incident. Is it compatible with the image of a modern Turkey, trying to enter the EU?" said opposition lawmaker Huseyin Guler.

Labels: Oddities