WTF's News of the weird

[UxKa]

I refuse to let anyone tell me it's hazardous to my health to lick my balls.

[geerussell]

LOL@people

Advance-fee fraud (AFF), also known as 419 scams and Nigerian scams, exploded in 2009, with victims losing more money than ever before. This is according to the latest analysis from Dutch investigation firm Ultrascan—a company that has been monitoring the activities of 419 scammers since 1996—which says that victims lost almost 50 percent more money in 2009 than 2008.

Considering that 419 scams have been well-known since the 1970s, this trend is particularly disturbing. However, Ultrascan says scammers are expanding their operations and shifting their focus to emerging Internet markets, where there's more fresh meat getting online every day.

According to the firm, which analyzed 8,503 cases across 152 countries in 2009, victims lost $9.3 billion in the last year alone, compared to $6.3 billion on 2008. Although the majority of AFF is still organized by people living in Nigeria, it's not always carried out by people there anymore—Ultrascan's 225-page report says that a minimum of 51,761 scammers perpetrated their crimes from 69 other countries with another 250,000 doing so from Nigeria.

A major reason for the growth is that scammers are no longer simply sending their "proposals" to the US and Europe. China, India, South Korea, Vietnam, and other countries are falling prey to 419 scams en masse, it seems, though Ultrascan points out that people in different countries tend to fall for specific variations of the scam. For example, the Chinese tend to fall for lottery or cash-on-delivery scams, while those in India tend to fall for low-end job and student visa scams.

[Uncle Mxy]

Fraternity assbranding... it's not just for black people anymore.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/texas-frate...9688654&page=2

[Vinny]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100130/..._torn_arrested

SALISBURY, Conn. – Actor Elmore "Rip" Torn has been charged with breaking into a Connecticut bank and carrying a loaded handgun while intoxicated.
State police say the 78-year-old Salisbury resident was arrested Friday night after police found him inside the Litchfield Bancorp with a loaded revolver.
The "Men in Black" actor has been taken into custody and booked on charges including burglary and possession of firearm without a permit. He is being held on $100,000 bond and is scheduled for a Monday appearance in Bantam Superior Court.
Last year, Torn was given probation in a Connecticut drunken driving case and granted permission to enter an alcohol education program. He also has two previous drunken driving arrests in New York.
A spokesman for Torn did not immediately return phone calls Saturday.

[MoTown]

WTF??? Is he that bored this late in his life?

[geerussell]

Furry harbinger of death.

A cat with an uncanny ability to detect when nursing home patients are about to die has proven itself in around 50 cases by curling up with them in their final hours, according to a new book.

Dr David Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Brown University, said that five years of records showed Oscar rarely erring, sometimes proving medical staff at the New England nursing home wrong in their predictions over which patients were close to death.

Dr Dosa first publicised Oscar's gift in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007. Since then, the cat has gone on to double the number of imminent deaths it has sensed and convinced the geriatrician that it is no fluke.

The tortoiseshell and white cat spends its days pacing from room to room, rarely spending any time with patients except those with just hours to live. If kept outside the room of a dying patient, Oscar will scratch on the door trying to get in.

When nurses once placed the cat on the bed of a patient they thought close to death, Oscar "charged out" and went to sit beside someone in another room. The cat's judgement was better than that of the nurses: the second patient died that evening, while the first lived for two more days.

Dr Dosa and other staff are so confident in Oscar's accuracy that they will alert family members when the cat jumps on to a bed and stretches out beside its occupant.

"It's not like he dawdles. He'll slip out for two minutes, grab some kibble and then he's back at the patient's side. It's like he's literally on a vigil," Dr Dosa wrote.

[DrRay11]

Yeah, I read that article a long time ago. There was some theory to it that made a lot of sense, but I forget exactly what it is... Something about scents...

[Tahoe]

Is the white cat named Glen?

[Uncle Mxy]

This letter was sent out to parents of elementary school kids in one of the Phoenix 'burbs:

Dear Parents,

Turn off the TV for once and pay attention.

Regarding math:

The math we do is really easy. If your child is either too lazy or too stupid to finish it in class, I’m sending it home so that you can work with them and judge for yourself whether it is laziness or idiocy that inhibits your child’s progress. We do part of it in class. How on earth they can NOT finish it is beyond me, but please help them with the part that we do NOT do in class. If your child is one of the mediocre few who excels on the homework, please congratulate them with a warm handshake or perhaps a halfhearted high-five, since finishing this homework is the equivalent of a twenty-year-old wanting to be congratulated for knowing how to tie his shoes.

Regarding Field trip lunches:
We have a peanut allergy in our room and a few in second grade in general. Because of this, everyone must eat nut-free foods. We also have a child who is mourning their puppy who got run over last week by a garbage truck, so we ask that no one wear anything resembling puppy fur, or that is red and flat. Further, one of our students has a nervous tick that causes him to slap himself in face several times a minute. In order to help this child not feel conspicuous, we ask that your child imitate a crazed masochist for the length of this field trip.”

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news...020210-CR.html

[Fool]

From the principal.

Way to not want your job.