Don't Panic! Lighten Up!S

Grey Alien

Toyota's Acceleration Problems Prove the Existence of UFOs and Extraterrestrial Visitations

Image
© unknown
Congress, the general media, what seems like the entire legal profession, and the public-at large are convinced that Toyota automobiles are all subject to "sudden unintended acceleration" and are hazardous to drive. They are convinced to the point that any other explanation is now open to ridicule, including the completely preposterous idea that drivers could be at fault for the reported incidents.

The evidence that has allowed the truth about Toyotas to become revealed are the few hundred anecdotal reports from drivers, one heartbreaking 911 phone call report involving a police officer, and one in-the-lab test conducted under un-natural conditions. Armed with this information dozens, if not hundreds of lawsuits have already been filed against Toyota. Congress has put aside other issues to conduct hearings, and the U.S. Secretary of Transportation has decreed that people should not drive their Toyota vehicles*.

The purpose of this article is not to judge the validity of the Toyota SUA stories
and claims, or to contradict Ray LaHood's no-drive mandate. In fact, being a believer in extraterrestrial civilizations and visitations, I rather like the certainty that can determined from overall Toyota finding.

Heart

Everything is OK in Cambridge

Some clips from my recent trip to Cambridge. What a lovely city. Thanks to Simon for putting me on the train there.

Piano track is by Yann Tiersen, from soundtrack to Amelie


Smiley

Canada: "Hello Police? I Need You to Buy Smokes for Me!"

Ontario - Sixty-seven-year-old Moira Williams of #508-303 Macdonald Avenue was arrested this morning at 3:15 a.m. at her residence and charged with one count of mischief.

It is alleged that throughout the evening of the 1st of March and into the early morning hours of the 2nd, the accused, while under the influence of alcohol, repeatedly called 911 requesting the police to go to a store and purchase cigarettes for her.

After being warned several times by police not to call back unless it was an emergency, she continued to call and was charged.

Yoda

The Love Police: How to Escape a Terror Stop

The Love Police was doing the usual, enjoying free speech in a corporate zone, and the Beefeaters (Royal Guardians) of the Tower of London called the Police on us. Again. This time, the Police knew to send more than one officer. They sent an Inspector (rather senior), two Sargeants, and five officers. 4 Police cars. Sirens. This is our attempt to show you how to stop yourself getting arrested under this RIDICULOUS and OVER-USED Terror Act.

Do not consent.
No one rules if no one obeys.
Live Free. Die Free


Eye 1

Satire: Google Responds To Privacy Concerns With Unsettlingly Specific Apology

Google street view
© The Onion

Google expressed regret to some of its third-generation Irish-American users on Smithwood between Barlow and Lake
Responding to recent public outcries over its handling of private data, search giant Google offered a wide-ranging and eerily well-informed apology to its millions of users Monday.

"We would like to extend our deepest apologies to each and every one of you," announced CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking from the company's Googleplex headquarters. "Clearly there have been some privacy concerns as of late, and judging by some of the search terms we've seen, along with the tens of thousands of personal e-mail exchanges and Google Chat conversations we've carefully examined, it looks as though it might be a while before we regain your trust."

Added Schmidt, "Whether you're Michael Paulson who lives at 3425 Longview Terrace and makes $86,400 a year, or Jessica Goldblatt from Lynnwood, WA, who already has well-established trust issues, we at Google would just like to say how very, truly sorry we are."

Arrow Down

Man Loses License for Reckless Dog-Walking

London - An English dog-owner has been fined after taking his pet for a stroll while driving next to the animal in his car.

Prosecutors said Paul Railton was spotted driving at low speed along a country lane in December, holding his dog's leash through the car window as the animal trotted alongside.

Railton pleaded guilty Monday to not being in proper control of a vehicle.

His attorney, Paul Donoghue, said the 23-year-old Railton acknowledged that "it was a silly thing to do and there was an element of laziness" while he was exercising his lurcher, a type of crossbred sighthound.

Star of David

Iran Develops Powerful Super-Binoculars To 'Spy On Israel'

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Aaanan Gissin, Israel's infamous Media advisor to Benjamin Netan-yahoo, looked the press-pack square in the eye, and jabbed a podgy finger of warning:

'Be in no doubt', he said, 'Tehran has the weapon, they have it! -And as we speak, I am in no doubt, they are watching us with those big binoculars.'

Many assembled press-men, followed his nervous glance toward the window, myself included.

'Oh yes, they watch us all the time,' he continued. 'They watch us as we drive our children to school, they watch our politicians as they draw up defensive plans to strike Iran, they could even, God forbid, watch us in our private moments.'
Image

During the course of his paranoid diatribe, Gissin seemed to be becoming more and more agitated. Eventually he broke:

'For God's sake, will someone please close those curtains!' he screamed.

Family

Ohio: Woman Gets Married, Has Baby on Same Day

An Ohio woman taken to a maternity ward in her wedding dress became a newlywed and a new mom on the same day.

Jamie Phillips says she felt contractions while her father walked her down the aisle during her wedding ceremony Saturday in Toledo in northwest Ohio, but she thought it was a false alarm. It wasn't until after her water broke at the reception that she was rushed to a hospital in Sylvania.

The baby boy, named Tova, wasn't due until March 7. His mother and her new husband, Mark Phillips, didn't think the baby would come quite so soon when they planned the wedding two weeks earlier.

Mr. Potato

It was only Rick'n'roll but we liked it (updated)

Rick Astley
© Mauro Carraro/Rex FeaturesRick Astley โ€ฆ still rocking, but no longer rolling?
Rickrolling - duping people into watching a Rick Astley video on YouTube - will no longer work in many cases because YouTube has removed the video [update: and has now restored it]

The rickroll, one of the internet's favourite memes, has been badly hit by the removal of the video on which it was based. Instead of being tricked into watching Rick Astley singing Never Gonna Give You Up, victims who click the link get a YouTube message: "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation".
Update: If you clicked the above link earlier, then you just might have been meta-rickrolled. It turns out that the video was removed by mistake, after YouTube suspended a user account flagged by a member of its spam team. So RickRoll'D is back, and it still has more than 30m views.

Smiley

Herhold: A dog's story

Gerry
© Herhold FamilyGerry, Scott Herhold's dog, will turn one year old on March 12, 2010.
You are, perhaps, surprised that I can write. Let me clear that up. I have a ghost writer: my human.

Unusual? I guarantee you the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan, has a ghost writer. A guy who spends all his time around dogs needs one. So bury the skepticism, please.

You may know my story: I am a yellow Lab, born on March 12, 2009, in Bakersfield, a good place to be from. In a conspiracy engineered by my human's two sons, I arrived at my new San Jose household last Mother's Day, a surprise to my human's wife, Sarah.

For obvious reasons, her approval has not come easily. I'm a 75-pound Lab: I've dug a hole in the backyard and trashed the lawn. I've eaten a bicycle pedal, chewed the pillars of the house, barked noisily and destroyed two sets of earphones.

Sarah thinks I'm unaware that she sometimes refers to me as the "DD," for "damn dog." When she hands me a treat, she'll sometimes drop it in fear. But the other day, as she arrived home, I heard her say distinctly, "Hi, baby!"

"Hi, baby!" I think I've come a long way. Not as far as I'd like, but still, those two words bespeak an achievement for the canine race.