The Slightly Indifferent Product Review Episode 3
The Slightly Indifferent Product Review Episode 3
Hosted By Slothen
Testers - Loreandlaw, Kobayashi, and the 470M1C W17CH.
Product - Atwater Vanilla Java Porter.
Ending Song - Glorious(SuperSloth) by Patient Zero
The Missing Dialogues Episode 6
The Missing Dialogues Episode 6 (Unfair Dismissal Laws and Affirmative Action)
This Episode we have Loreandlaw, Kobayashi, Slothen, The 470M1C W17CH, and RU486.
Champion rat killer wins colour TV
A Bangladeshi farmer who killed more than 80,000 rodents this year has won a colour television as he was crowned the country's 2009 champion rat killer, officials said.
Mokhairul Islam disposed of 83,450 rats from January to September, more than double the tally of last year's winner, department of agriculture director Abdul Hannan said on Wednesday (local time).
The annual competition was launched in the impoverished country by authorities in a bid to reduce the loss of crops eaten by rats.
"Islam deposited the dead rodents' tails at the district agriculture office," Mr Hannan said.
"During the special drive, our farmers and school kids killed 6.5 million rats, saving more than 8 per cent of the wheat crop."
Mr Islam, who used traps, poison, electric barriers and flooding to capture his quarry, was due to collect his television from the agriculture minister at a ceremony in Dhaka later on Wednesday.
The government estimates that up to 10 per cent of Bangladesh's crops - mostly rice, wheat and potatoes - is devoured by millions of rats every year.
Last year an invasion of rats in the south-eastern Chittagong hill tracts region wiped out crops and caused a famine in some remote villages.
The UN's World Food Program distributed food aid to 120,000 people for four months after the invasion forced affected tribal people to live on wild roots.
- AFP
Church pastor wins gong for sexist comments
AN evangelical church pastor who blamed the Victorian bushfire tragedy on the state's abortion laws has taken out the annual top gong for sexist comments.
Now in its 17th year, the Ernie Awards are bestowed on those whose public utterings are regarded as the most sexist.
The winner is determined by how loud the crowd boos and hisses.
About 250 women who attended the gala event at NSW Parliament House on Wednesday decided that comments by Pastor Danny Nalliah, head of the Catch the Fire Ministries, were worthy of the top prize, the Gold Ernie.
Shortly after the deadly February bushfires, the pastor said: "God's conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia, in particular Victoria, for approving the slaughter of innocent children in the womb.''
Second prize, the Silver Ernie, was shared among several men, including shock jock Kyle Sandilands, as well as the NSW Police Force for exhibiting outstanding sexism.
The police force came under fire from equality groups in September after reports an employee was made to work overtime for every minute she spent expressing breast milk for her baby.
Sandilands, who also took out the Clinton repeat offender award, earned his Silver Ernie for his response during a radio stunt in which a teenage girl revealed she had been raped.
Sandilands replied: "Right, is that the only experience you've had?'' before the interview was brought to an end.
His award was cemented by his second blunder for the year, in which he said actress Magda Szubanski could become skinny if she was in a concentration camp.
The Sporting Ernie, the Warnie, went to Newcastle under-20s centre Simon Williams who insensitively remarked on recent NRL scandals involving group sex: "It's not during the act, it's the way you treat them after. (It) could have been avoided if they had put them in a cab and said thanks.''
Drunken soldiers on rampage after Guinea massacre
Soldiers are continuing to terrorise civilians in the capital of Guinea after massacring more than 150 opposition protesters earlier this week.
Eyewitnesses in the capital, Conakry, say soldiers smelling of alcohol have taken to the streets firing their guns into the air.
On Monday, troops stormed a stadium and fired on 50,000 people who were demonstrating against the military-run government.
The military junta claims 57 were killed but human rights groups believe more than 150 people were killed and 1,253 injured, while opposition leaders say as many as 200 people were killed.
Opposition leader Sydia Toure, who was arrested during the demonstrations, says he witnessed civilians being killed and raped.
"They deliberately opened fire on the protesters and at times they were shooting at point-blank range," he said.
"We witnessed scenes that were beyond belief. We saw people raping women."
Other witnesses say dozens of civilians were shot and bayoneted by the soldiers.
The head of the country's military junta, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, admits some of his soldiers have lost control.
Box of dropped RAF leaflets kills girl
A YOUNG Afghan girl died after a box of public information leaflets, dropped by a Royal Air Force plane over Afghanistan, landed on her, a newspaper said Wednesday.
Britain's Ministry of Defence said it was investigating the accident which it described as "highly regrettable,'' The Times said.
The drop occurred over a rural area of Afghanistan's southern Helmand province on June 23 as part of an information campaign, the newspaper said.
"Sadly one of the boxes failed to fully open and on landing caused serious injuries to an Afghan child,'' an RAF spokesman said.
"The child was treated at the local medical facility in Kandahar where, despite the best efforts of staff, she died as a result of her injuries.''
Officials said it was not known what type of leaflet was being dropped.
The accident came amid anger in Afghanistan over civilian casualties in the conflict between foreign and Afghan forces and an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency to secure the war-torn country.
Legal bid against breast cancer gene patents
Women in the United States are being charged $3,700 for a breast cancer genetic test because only one company has the patent over the two key breast cancer genes, BRCA 1 and BRCA 2.
Myriad Corporation in Utah owns the patents over the genes and is not allowing any other laboratory to look at or test women to see if they are more susceptible to developing breast and ovarian cancer.
A landmark court case has begun in the United States to decide the vexed issue of whether patents should exist on human genes.
At stake are hundreds of gene patents, which have been granted on the basis that isolating the genes out of the human body and into a lab environment is an "invention" and not a "discovery".
The court case, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, was prompted by the actions of patent owner Myriad Corporation.
An Australian Senate inquiry into gene patents has just decided to commission draft amendments to the law to see whether it is practical to remove patents from human genetic material.
Currently the two patents over the breast cancer genes are not being enforced in Australia but the situation in unresolved.
In America, Myriad Corporation does all the BRCA analysis and it does not allow a second opinion from another lab.
Genetic mutation
Lisbeth Ceriani is a 42-year-old single mother from Boston and has full custody of her nine-year-old daughter, Bella.
She has had weeks of chemotherapy and radiation and a double mastectomy to remove tumours on both sides of her breasts.
Ms Ceriani only found out about her family history after she was diagnosed. She learned that several female relatives on her dad's side developed cancer in their 40s, and died in the early 50s.
‘Vengeful teen chops off dad’s hands’
A TAIWANESE teenager has been arrested after chopping off his father's hands, allegedly to avenge years of physical abuse, a report said today.
The victim, identified only by his surname Fan, was in critical condition at a hospital in central Taiwan's Miaoli county after his son hacked at his wrists more than ten times while he slept early on Monday, the Apple Daily said.
The 17-year-old showed no remorse, saying he could not care less if his father survived the attack, according to the report.
"I don't feel a thing if he's going to die. It's like killing a chicken or a duck. I wanted to take him out two years ago,'' he was quoted by the paper as saying.
According to the report, 37-year-old Fan, who was divorced, regularly yelled at his son and beat him.
Xinjiang bans separatist discussions on internet
AUTHORITIES in northwest China have approved a law making it a criminal offence for people to discuss separatism on the internet, according to state media.
The Bill passed by authorities in the Xinjiang region bans locals from using the internet in any way that undermines national unity.
It also bans them from inciting ethnic separatism or harming social stability, the China News Service reported.
The Bill requires internet service providers and network operators to set up monitoring systems – or strengthen existing ones – and report anyone who breaks the law, the report said.
The Bill did not specify what punishment offenders would face, but its apparent aim is to allow authorities to arrest individuals behind emails and web posts within the region that they deem to be a threat.
"The introduction of the 'Information Promotion Bill' is timely and necessary," the report quoted the Bill as saying.
"It ensures internet criminals can be quickly and effectively controlled in the future."
Several media sites and social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are already blocked in China and the country's web censors often do not allow search engines to display results for politically sensitive topics.
The Bill said terrorists, separatists and religious extremists used the internet, telephones and mobile text messages to spread rumours and hatred as violence erupted in the region's capital Urumqi on July 5, the report said.
In one of the biggest known internet shutdowns anywhere, authorities quickly cut off internet access to the region and disabled text messages, restricting the flow of information going in and out of Xinjiang.
Despite these efforts exile, communities used video-sharing sites such as YouTube to release images of the unrest hours before they appeared on China's state-controlled media.
Members of the ethnic Uighur minority – most of whom are Muslims – went on a rampage July in attacks directed mainly at members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.
The riots were the worst ethnic violence in China in decades, leaving 197 people dead, most of them Han, according to the Government.
The Bill was announced in the lead up to the 60th anniversary of what China calls the "liberation" of Xinjiang.
Many of Xinjiang's Uighurs – a central Asian people with vast religious, cultural and linguistic differences from the Han – accuse China of decades of oppression and complain of unwanted Han migration to the vast desert region.
China blames the seething unrest in Xinjiang on "separatists" but has provided no evidence.