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World News; News from around the world
Tweet Topic Started: May 4 2008, 04:19 PM (2,755 Views)
Auntie Maine Jul 3 2008, 10:56 PM Post #261
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Researchers open secret cave under Mexican pyramid

By Miguel Angel Gutierrez Thu Jul 3, 12:22 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilization's largest cities.

The soaring Teotihuacan stone pyramids, now a major tourist site about an hour outside Mexico City, were discovered by the ancient Aztecs around 1500 AD, not long before the arrival of Spanish explorers to Mexico.

But little is known about the civilization that built the immense city, with its ceremonial architecture and geometric temples, and then torched and abandoned it around 700 AD.

Archeologists are now revisiting a cave system that is buried 20 feet beneath the towering Pyramid of the Sun and extends into a tunnel stretching for some 295 feet (90 meters) with a height of 8 feet.

They say new excavations begun this month could be the key to unlocking information about the sacred rituals of the people who inhabited the city, later dubbed "The Place Where Men Become Gods" by the Aztecs who believed it was a divine site.

"We think it had a ritual purpose. Offerings were placed at the very end of the tunnel as part of the pyramid's construction process," Mexican archeologist Alejandro Sarabia told Reuters.

"We want to find out why the Teotihuacan people sealed it and when," he said.

Sarabia said the tunnel was first discovered in the early 1970s but it was closed soon afterward, and most of the information about it was lost when the archeologist who found it died.

Teotihuacan is Mexico's oldest major archeological site and during its heyday in 500 AD, the city was home to some 200,000 people, rivaling the size of ancient Rome at that time, according to archeologists.

Today, it is surrounded by encroaching slums spilling over from the outskirts of Mexico City, but swarms of tourists still visit the giant 212-foot (65-meter) sun pyramid each year to celebrate the spring equinox festival marking the sun's return to the northern hemisphere.
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Denovissimus Jul 4 2008, 06:28 AM Post #262
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Beware the ruins! :priest
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la anaconda de chocolatee Jul 4 2008, 03:33 PM Post #263
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haha! That is what came to my mind, too jesse
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Jane Jul 5 2008, 08:54 AM Post #264
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70 year old woman becomes world's oldest mother with birth of twins


She's old enough to be her brand new son and daughter's GREAT grandmother.

A 70-year-old Indian woman has become the world's oldest mother giving birth to twins.

"If I am the world's oldest mother it means nothing to me," Omkari Panwar said after the arrival of the babies, a boy and girl born a month premature and weighing just two pounds each. "I just want to see my new babies and care for them while I am still able."

The babies’ father, who will be sharing in the sleepless nights, is 77 years old retired farmer Charan Singh Panwar, who sold off his buffalo, and burned through his life savings just to pay for the invitro fertilization treatments that got enabled his wife to become pregnant.

The desperate measures were a gambit to produce a son for the couple; an heir to their modest farm holdings.

"We prayed to God, went to saints and visited religious places to pray for an heir," he said. "The treatment cost me a fortune but the birth of a son makes it all worthwhile. "I can die a happy man and a proud father,"after doctors said it was likely that both babies were strong enough to survive.

The couple already have two adult daughters and five grandchildren. “I have given birth before, so I knew what to expect,” said Omkari as she recovered in the mud hut home of one of her daughers.

"Sometimes, you have to face the pain if you want something good. All I care about is that my children are healthy.

"My daughters' have got a little brother, my husband and I have got an heir – that is all we ever wanted."

Doctors in Muzaffarnagar, seven hours drive north of New Delhi, said they performed an emergency operation to save her life and at first could not believe she was pregnant.

The previous recorded oldest woman to give birth was then-66-year-old Romanian Adriana Iliescu, who welcomed a daughter in 2005. That official record may stand, since Panwar doesn't have a birth certificate and estimates her age by claiming she was nine years old when the British left India in 1947.






I was so angry about this!!!! Not even so much that they are selfish enough to want to have a baby so late, a child that will likely lose its parents when it is quite young, but the make heir thing.

They have 3 grown up daughters to leave their crappy farm to!! They also have 5 grandchildren, surely one of those will be male? The way they talk about the birth and totally disregard the female twin, what will happen to her? I bet they wish they could have aborted her in the womb.
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la anaconda de chocolatee Jul 5 2008, 12:42 PM Post #265
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I agree Jane! That is outrageous! MAYBE if they NEVER had any kids, but only to produce a son when you already have grown children who are daughters? WHY CANT A DAUGHTER BE A FUCKING HEIR!!!! :jesse :jesse :jesse :jesse :jesse fucking asshole sexist indians!
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Noname Jul 5 2008, 08:37 PM Post #266
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The babies’ father, who will be sharing in the sleepless nights, is 77 years old retired farmer Charan Singh Panwar, who sold off his buffalo, and burned through his life savings just to pay for the invitro fertilization treatments that got enabled his wife to become pregnant.



:faint

India... India... India.
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la anaconda de chocolatee Jul 6 2008, 07:07 PM Post #267
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AUSTELL, Ga. (AP) - A teenager was decapitated by a roller coaster after he hopped a pair of fences and entered a restricted area Saturday at Six Flags Over Georgia, authorities said.

Six Flags officials are uncertain why the unidentified 17-year-old from Columbia, S.C. scaled two six-foot fences and passed signs that said the restricted area was both off-limits and dangerous to visitors, spokeswoman Hela Sheth said in a news release.

Authorities were investigating reports from witnesses who said the teenager jumped the fences to retrieve a hat he lost while riding the Batman roller coaster, said Cobb County police Sgt. Dana Pierce. Police have declined to release the teenager's name until an autopsy is completed.

The teen was struck and killed by the roller coaster "while it was in operation," according to the park's news release. Police said the ride was going full-speed when the teen was struck. The ride's top speed is 50 mph, according to the park's Web site.

No one riding on the roller coaster was injured, Sheth said. The teen was with another boy who also entered the restricted area but was not injured, Pierce said.

Six Flags said it closed the roller coaster after the Saturday afternoon accident out of respect for the teen's family. The ride is expected to reopen on Monday, a spokeswoman said.

The teen and his parents were at the park with a group from the Oakey Spring Baptist Church near Springfield, S.C., police said. There was no answer to a phone call to the church Saturday night.

In May 2002, 58-year-old groundskeeper Samuel Milton Guyton of Atlanta was killed after he wandered in a restricted area under the Batman roller coaster's path and was struck in the head by the dangling leg of one of the ride's passengers. The ride was closed for a day to allow the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to inspect the ride. It was deemed safe for passengers.

In June 2007, a teenager's legs were severed when cables snapped on the Superman Tower of Power ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville, Ky. Doctors were able to reattach Kaitlyn Lasitter's right foot, but she had to have some of her left leg amputated and subsequent surgeries.

State officials blame a faulty cable and slow response by an amusement park ride operator in the accident. Her family is suing Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, claiming the park failed to maintain the ride and equipment and ensure riders' safety. The amusement park has denied liability in court filings.



see, this is why I never go to Six Flags. There is one in New Jersey, but I refuse to go.
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la anaconda de chocolatee Jul 6 2008, 07:08 PM Post #268
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2008 Darwin awards...

Eighth Place
In Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate to retrieve his car keys.

Seventh Place
A 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker, who 'totally zoned when he ran,' accidentally, jogged off a 1 00-foot high cliff on his daily run.

Sixth Place
While at the beach, Daniel Jones, 21, dug an 8 foot hole for protection from the wind and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on t he beach used their hands and shovels trying to get him out but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him. Jones was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Fifth Place
Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed as he fell through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth to keep his hands free rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor.

Fourth Place
Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four bullets into his mouth and pull the trigger.

Third Place
After stepping around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door, a man walked into H&J Leather &Firearms intent on robbing the store. The shop was full of customers and a uniformed officer was standing at the counter. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up, and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, and several customers al so drew their guns and fired. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop. The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds. Ballistics identified rounds from 7 different weapons. No one else was hurt.

HONORABLE MENTION
Paul Stiller, 47, and his wife Bonnie were bored just driving around at 2 A.M. so they lit a quarter stick of dynamite to toss out the window to see what would happen. Apparently they failed t o notice the window was closed.

RUNNER UP
Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from a local bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more heated and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30 AM. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who h ad continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable, lay near by. They secured one end around Bingham's leg and then tied the other to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. Bingham's foot was never located.

AND THE WINNER IS...
Zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt ( Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally got relief. Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the relieved beast unloaded. The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground where he struck his head on a rock as the elephant continued to evacuate 200 pounds of dung on top of him.
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Julesy Jul 6 2008, 10:19 PM Post #269
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Adolf Hitler Waxfigure Beheaded

BERLIN (Reuters) - A man tore the head from a controversial waxwork figure of Adolf Hitler on the opening day of Berlin's Madame Tussauds museum Saturday, police said.







Just minutes after the museum opened, the 41-year-old German man pushed aside two security men guarding the figure before ripping off the head in protest at the exhibit, a police spokesman said. The police were alerted and arrested the man.
The waxwork figure of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker during the last days of his life was criticized as being in bad taste. A media preview of the new branch of Madame Tussauds Thursday was overshadowed by a row over the exhibit.
Critics said it was inappropriate to display the Nazi dictator, who started World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews, in a museum alongside celebrities, pop stars, world statesmen and sporting heroes.
Dressed in a grey suit, the figure of Hitler gazed downwards with a despondent stare, his arm outstretched on a large wooden table with a map of Europe on the wall of his gloomy bunker.
About 25 workers spent about four months on the waxwork, using more than 2,000 pictures and pieces of archive material and also guided by a model of the "Fuehrer" in the London branch of Madame Tussauds where he is standing upright.
It is illegal in Germany to show Nazi symbols and art glorifying Hitler and the exhibit was cordoned off to stop visitors posing with him.
Unobtrusive signs asked visitors to refrain from taking photos or posing with Hitler "out of respect for the millions of people who died during World War Two." Camera surveillance and museum officials were meant to stop inappropriate behavior.
Institutions such as the foundation for Germany's central Holocaust memorial site condemned the idea of the exhibit as tasteless, saying it had been included to generate business.
The wax figure is the latest in a gradual breaking down of taboos about Hitler in Germany more than 60 years after the end of the war and the Holocaust in which some six million Jews were killed.
The 2004 film "Downfall" provoked controversy as it portrayed the leader in a human light during the last days of his life and last year a satire about Hitler by Swiss-born Jewish director Dani Levy was released in Germany.
(Reporting by Paul Carrel and Sabine Ehrhardt; editing by Philippa Fletcher


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:toot
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Denovissimus Jul 7 2008, 12:08 AM Post #270
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That watermelon one is so funny! :ha
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la anaconda de chocolatee Jul 7 2008, 01:01 PM Post #271
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I am going to order that movie Downfall from Netflix. They used that movie for primary spiffs that were hysterical.



Anyways, here is an interesting article I found on yahoo:

Most Obnoxious Tourists? The French

By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS Sun Jul 6, 10:45 PM ET

Remember the tightwad tourist whose baggy shorts, frequent complaining and shouted questions about why none of the locals spoke any English made the ugly American the world's Visitor From Hell? Well, it's time for Archie Bunker to move over and make way for Petulant Pierre. According to a recent international survey, the French are now considered the most obnoxious tourists from European nations, and behind only Indians and the last-place Chinese as the worst among all countries worldwide. And it's not only the rest of the world that have a gripe with the Gallic attitude: the French also finished second to last among nations ranking the popularity of their own tourists who vacation at home.
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But it's the unflattering image being reflected from abroad that may give pause to the millions of French travelers now heading off to summer vacation destinations across the globe. Will that move them to improve behavior the poll characterized as impolite, prone to loud carping and inattentive to local customs? If so, that's just the start: the study also describes the voyageur franÇais as often unwilling or unable to communicate in foreign languages, and particularly disinclined to spending money when they don't have to - including on those non compris tips. Over all, French travelers landed 19th out of 21 nations worldwide, far behind the first-place Japanese, considered most polite, quiet and tidy. Following the Japanese as most-liked tourists were the Germans, British and Canadians. Americans finished in 11th place alongside the Thais.

The survey was carried out among employees in 4,000 hotels in Germany, the U.K., Italy, France, Canada and the U.S. for the French travel website Expedia.fr. The study asked respondents to rank clients by nationality on criteria of general attitude, politeness, tendency to complain, willingness to speak local languages, interest in sampling local cuisine, readiness to spend money, generosity, cleanliness, discretion and elegance. Many replies simply conformed to long-established reputations: Italians, for example, were described as the best-dressed tourists, with the French not far behind.

American tourists fared well in some surprising ways: despite being notoriously language-limited, for example, they top the list of tourists credited with trying to speak local languages the most, with the French, Chinese, Japanese, Italians and Russians coming in last in the local language rankings. Does that mean Americans are the most polyglot tourists on the planet? Maybe not, says Expedia's marketing director for Europe, TimothÉe de Roux, who notes the poll's focus on hotel operators may explain the counterintuitive outcome.

"Most hotel staffs around the world speak English, meaning they'll communicate far more easily with native English-speaking American or British clients than with French or Italians who - it's true - are pretty bad with foreign languages," de Roux says.

De Roux explains how external factors similarly account for why Americans wind up as the biggest-spending and best-tipping tourists, while Germans and the French are among the worst penny-pinchers. "Our findings show the average French employee will get 37 vacation days spread over seven trips in 2008, versus 14 for an American - who won't even take them all," de Roux believes. "That means the French tourist will more tightly budget his or her spending over more trips, while the American spends freely on the one or two vacations taken all year."

By contrast, poll finds the French and Americans similar in being perceived as critical and rude when they travel - though for different reasons. The same local attractions that make France the world's top destination for 92 million foreign visitors each year, says de Roux, also explains why over 85% of French vacation in-country - and wind up spoiled by it when they leave. "When they go abroad, French travellers demand the same quality they'd get at home," de Roux says. "Americans, by contrast, demand the same exceptional service they are used to at home, which is why they rank as the loudest, most inclined to complain, and among the least polite."
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Taman Jul 7 2008, 03:05 PM Post #272
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The 2004 film "Downfall" provoked controversy as it portrayed the leader in a human light during the last days of his life 


Yeah ehn... he was human though. We can all condemn his actions but what really scare us is the fact that he was human. Let's face it, most of us are cabable of monsterous acts. That's a good movie by the way. Hitler is so out of it at the end that you actually feel sorry for him. :alien
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Denovissimus Jul 7 2008, 03:56 PM Post #273
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Hitler was possessed by occult forces! :priest
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Rodney Jul 7 2008, 04:02 PM Post #274
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Saw the movie...would'nt say I felt sorry for him. But, it showed the human side of that monster. Which is an importyant part of the story. teaches people that real monsters walk amongst us and are capable of terrible things. And that they are human beings. Ther was nothing special about Adolf. The guy was an excellent strategist and media player and a total megalomaniac.

Had to laugh at that whole wax-doll thing. I can understand the Germans not feeling all that happy about having a statue of a guy they're not actually proud of in Madams Tussaud's. And I think that, they displayed the statue in a very good way. It's somewhere at the end of a small corridor to symbolize that Hitler does not take a place of honour in the building.

Anmd tyhe two guards standing there to discourage people from having their picture taken with them just made me laugh. I know I would be one of the callous assholes who'd try to make a picture with Hitlers statue and doing some "westside|" handgesture. Just to piss people of and to gain a shocked reaction from the PC-morality squad.
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Julesy Jul 7 2008, 04:54 PM Post #275
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lol Westsiiiiiiiiiiide!

People like Hitler are like, psychic vampires feeding off peoples pain to recharge .

lol thats from a Pike book where he wrote about Himmler and that was his reason for being so evil.
Damn ive been mentioning Pike alot lately. Seems I need a fix of him :clap
*edit*

I dont like movies about the Holocaust and Hitler. It puts me in a depressed and scared frame of mind. How people endured it I dont know
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Rodney Jul 7 2008, 05:14 PM Post #276
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I think it's important that movies about the Holocaust are made. teaches people to never forget. Warns people that", just saying that "such a thing should never happen again" isn't enough. It happened again, the media just decided not to focus on it when it was too late(think Sebrenica,Kosovo, Rwanda, Zimbabwe etc). It's happening again and again.
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Julesy Jul 7 2008, 05:19 PM Post #277
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I mean, Im aware of it but I cant sit there for a long period of time watching it.

Like when I saw Irreversible and the rape scene in the tunnel I just had to fast forward it. I know rape happens everyday but I dont really wanna watch it ya know?
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Rodney Jul 7 2008, 05:26 PM Post #278
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Totally. I see your point.

maybe it's because overhere, our faces are rubbed into it every year. Every year we remember the soldiers and victims who fell during the war on the 4th of May. The entire counrty goes quiet for an hour. I never really thought it was necissary or held any significance anymore. But, seeing that what happened in WW2 still happens today made me change my mind about it. Plus, I was born and raised in a city that still carries the scars of that time.

Either way, we are taught in school what happened in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. Reading Anne Frank's diary is par of the course and there are so many documentaries and films about it shown on national television during remembrance week.

On the 5th of may, shit kicks off,tho. parties everywhere. that was the day when the allied forces reached the Netherlands and liberated the country.
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la anaconda de chocolatee Jul 7 2008, 09:53 PM Post #279
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Rodney have you ever been to Anne Frank's hideout? Is it a tourist attraction that people can see for themselves? I know I would love to see it. That book made me cry so much. It was so tragic that only her father survived out of all of them. When he goes back at the end and finds her diary. Oh the waterworks!
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Auntie Maine Jul 7 2008, 10:54 PM Post #280
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Please don't call it a tourist attraction. :tapping
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