Schwarzenegger lets MTV ‘pimp’ his ride

In the latest promotion of his environmental agenda, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to make an appearance Sunday on the popular MTV show “Pimp My Ride.”

The actor turned politician uses the opportunity to praise the show’s hosts, rapper Xzibit and Mad Mike, for showcasing what he describes as an environmentally hip project. It is the latest environmentally themed event for Schwarzenegger, who continues to generate international attention for signing a landmark global warming law last year.

For the show, mechanics converted a 1965 Chevy Impala, installing an 800 horsepower engine that runs on biodiesel fuel and goes from zero to 60 mph in three seconds. The governor said the converted car’s emissions of greenhouse gases will be 50 percent lower.

“We take this cool show and they did something, and added something that was environmentally hip,” Schwarzenegger recently told a student crowd at Georgetown University.

The show was taped previously and will air Sunday as part of a special Earth Day episode.

Although biodiesel is considered cleaner than traditional gasoline, it is not a solution advocated by most scientists and environmentalists, who favor more fuel-efficient vehicles.

“At the end of the day, if we’re going to switch from guzzling gasoline to guzzling alcohol, we’re not going to solve our climate problems,” said Patricia Monahan, deputy director of the clean vehicles program with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Schwarzenegger has sought to remake his image on the environment. When he ran for governor in 2003, he was criticized for popularizing the gas-guzzling Hummers. He has since reduced his Hummer fleet to four, two of which he says have since been converted to run on alternative fuels. One runs on hydrogen and the other runs on biofuel, according to Schwarzenegger’s office.

Teen pockets $25,000 in texting contest

OMG! Thirteen-year-old Morgan Pozgar, of Claysburg, Pa., was crowned LG National Texting champion on Saturday after she typed “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” from “Mary Poppins” in 15 seconds.

“I’m going to go shopping and buy lots of clothes,” the teen said after winning her $25,000 prize from the electronics company LG.

Morgan defeated nearly 200 other competitors at the Roseland Ballroom in Manhattan to become East Coast champion and then beat West Coast champion Eli Tirosh, 21, of Los Angeles.

She estimated that she sends more than 8,000 text messages a month to her friends and family.

A doctor dressed as Captain America was arrested after groping a woman at a bar and fighting with her boyfriend, authorities said.

Patrons at the bar were dressed in costumes as part of a bar crawl Saturday night, police spokeswoman Jill Frederiksen said.

A man carrying a burrito and dressed as Captain America approached her, began to say dirty things and touched her inappropriately, police said. He then brawled with her boyfriend, authorities said.

Several patrons who had dressed as the super hero were asked to step outside so the woman could identify the suspect, Frederiksen said.

She picked out Raymond Adamcik, 54, police said.

After he was arrested, he tried to flush marijuana down a toilet at a police station, police said.

Adamcik was released on a $2,500 bond and faces charges of possession of marijuana, destruction of evidence, disorderly conduct and battery.

A secretary at Adamcik’s office said he was on leave and that the office was not accepting messages for him.

The real stars-and-stripes-clad superhero made news recently after he was killed in a March issue of the comic book.

Sony PlayStation: Once a hero, now a goat

Many believe violent video games are unhealthy for kids. Last month, Sony proved it: A decapitated goat was the centerpiece of a party the company threw last month in Greece to promote the PlayStation 2 title “God of War II.”

The theatrical dramatization, which according to reports, also featured topless women feeding grapes to party goers, was supposed to be in keeping with the video game’s Greek mythology theme. But according to media reports from Europe, animal rights groups were outraged and video game critics said the scene was symbolic of the industry’s blood lust.

Sony issued a press release apologizing and also denied some reports that party guests were invited to dine on offal removed from the goat’s stomach.

Being accused of butchering a goat to sell video games couldn’t come at a worse time for Sony. Observers were already questioning the company’s instincts on consumer tastes following the dismal debut of the PS3 video game console. Detractors are sure to point out that by presenting slaughtered animals as a conversation piece, Sony is guilty of the poorest taste.

Sony said the goat was acquired by a butcher in Athens, where the party was held. Taking a page out of the reality-TV genre, promoters created a list of challenges for the journalists in attendance. Sony later explained that the “entrails” that party goers were invited to feast on were really a meat soup provided by a local caterer.

Sony has launched an internal investigation, the company said in a statement.

“The goat was returned to the butcher,” Sony said in its statement. “On this occasion we recognize that we fell short of our normal high standards of conduct.”

Doctor finds spiders in ear of Oregon boy with earache

These guys weren’t exactly Snap, Crackle and Pop.

What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy’s ear, “like Rice Krispies”,ended up as an earache, and the doctor’s diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear.

“They were walking on my eardrums,” Jesse Courtney said.

One of the spiders was still alive after the doctor flushed the fourth grader’s left ear canal. His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear, “like Rice Krispies.”

Dr. David Irvine said it looked like the boy had something in his ear when he examined him.

When he irrigated the ear, the first spider came out, dead. The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. Both were about the size of a pencil eraser.

Jesse was given the spiders, now both dead, as a souvenir. He has taken them to school and his mother has taken them to work.

“It was real interesting, ‘cause, two spiders in my ear, what next?” Jesse said.

DID A HOP HOP CONCERT BREAK OUT? Was that 1950 cent showing up?

Fight Breaks Out at Boston Pops

Something else popped at the Boston Pops opening night concert a fight broke out in the audience at Symphony Hall.

Television video of the fight Wednesday night showed two men struggling in the balcony, one with his shirt pulled off, as several people stood around them and the orchestra and singer / songwriter Ben Folds performed a medley from the movie “Gigi”.

Conductor Keith Lockhart briefly halted the performance while the men were escorted out.

Witnesses said they heard a scream from the balcony, and the sound of chairs falling, then a second scream as the fight escalated.

“The first time there was a scream, Keith looked up that way but he kept going,” audience member June MacIndoe told Boston’s WHDH-TV. “Then about a minute and a half later ... there was a big scream and you could hear chairs falling over and you could see them up there, fists going.”

At that point, Lockhart stopped the performance for a couple of minutes, she said. “He just stood there, you know, quiet.”

Boston police spokesman David Estrada said police officers on security detail at the hall escorted the men off the property, and no charges were filed. No injuries were reported, he said.

A Boston Symphony spokeswoman did not return a call for comment.

Michael Lusher apparently is a sound sleeper. A small caliber bullet struck the 37 year old Altizer man in the head as he slept Sunday morning, but he didn’t realize it until he awoke nearly four hours later and noticed blood coming from his head, said Cpl. R.H. McQuaid of the Cabell County Sheriff’s Department.

The bullet that struck him was one of five that someone sprayed across his mobile home and truck at about 4:20 a.m. Sunday, McQuaid said. The one that struck Lusher apparently lost velocity as it traveled through two walls.

“We’re just glad he didn’t suffer any life threatening injuries with a head wound,” he said.

Lusher came home from a night on the town about an hour before he was shot while lying in bed, McQuaid said.

He remained hospitalized at St. Mary’s Medical Center on Monday. His condition was not immediately available.

Death wish

What is it about our death row inmates and sports?

Robert Comer was asked whether he wanted to make a final statement before receiving a lethal injection.

He answered: “Go, Raiders” and then was dispatched to spend eternity in the netherworld, which is about how long the Raiders will be there.

Anyway, we recently told you about a man who was charged with burglary and murder who was asked after his conviction if he wanted to make a statement to the court.

“I do have one thing I’d like to get on the record,” he told the judge. “Please tell (Jerry) Colangelo not to make any more deals with Boston. (Red) Auerbach really took him in that (Rick) Robey deal.”

The convicted murderer was Ronald Williams, who is scheduled to follow Comer into Raider (dam)Nation just as soon as West Virginia hands him over.

OH DEAR!

BRAINERD, Minn. Kandi Hanson has a history of run ins with deer. She totaled her first car and damaged two others in collisions with deer.

This weekend, the deer struck back.

As Hanson approached the halfway mark of the 10-kilometer Sour Grapes Half and Half run Saturday, a spooked deer darted out of the woods and crashed into Hanson, tossing the 28 year old into the air and sending her sprawling onto the grass before disappearing into the woods.

“There were two deer and the first one literally flew by right in front of us and brushed us,” the Pequot Lakes woman said.

Hanson and two friends, Lottie Oehrlein and Robin Warden, shrieked at their encounter with the first deer before cautiously continuing their run, oblivious of the second deer.

“We started running a little bit again and Lottie yelled out, ‘Here comes another one’ and I couldn’t get out of the way fast enough, it plowed into me.”

Hanson didn’t know how to react.

“I was very surprised, my eyes were huge, I was part crying, part laughing. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

But Hanson spit the dirt out of her mouth, brushed herself off and finished the race. She escaped with only minor scrapes, bruises and soreness.

Sour Grapes director Jeanne Larson said race organizers were prepared for common runners’ ailments, but not this.

“When I’m running I consider myself lucky to even see a deer. Getting hit by a deer while running I don’t consider so lucky,” she said.

Although Hanson finished in 31st place, the middle school teacher didn’t come away empty-handed. She received a first place plaque for being airborne the longest.

Too much too Bear?

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — State bear managers seeking to capture and collar female grizzly bears as part of a population count recently trapped a 7-foot, 6-inch male grizzly that weighed 750 pounds after a winter of hibernation.

Mike Madel, bear management specialist with the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said it took two scales and a hydraulic crane to weigh the 8-year-old bruin that had 3 1/2-inch claws and a neck circumference of 4 feet.

“This bear was just a beautiful bear,” Madel said.

Madel said the big male with the bronze head, golden back and dark chocolate legs could weigh as much as 900 pounds by the fall.

“This is really a large male,” he said. In fact, it is the second-largest male grizzly ever recorded in the Northern Rockies Region, Madel said.

Madel captured the bear he dubbed “Big Daddy,” on May 24. He was trying to capture female grizzlies near Choteau to fit them with radio collars to track their movements and whether they have cubs.

“We actually were trying to avoid males,” Madel said.

But he decided to put a radio collar on the bear to track its range.

Madel said he didn’t know the big bear even existed.

“Here’s a bear that’s down on the Front, and he’s accustomed to moving in and around human activity, and he’s never caused a conflict before,” Madel said.

The average-sized male grizzly along the Rocky Mountain Front is 600 pounds, while females are around 300 to 325 pounds.

Madel, who has been managing bears on the Front for 24 years, wonders if the bear he trapped this spring was sired by the largest male grizzly ever recorded in the Northern Rockies: an 8-foot, 800-plus pound bruin trapped in 2003 in the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area northwest of Choteau.

“This bear,” he said, “looked very much like that bear.”

Madel collected hair from the 2003 bear, but an Idaho lab lost the samples, making it impossible to know if they’re related.

Madel said the younger bear captured this spring hasn’t reached its full size.

“He’s got some growing to do,” Madel said.

Edinburg firefighters inhale too much pot smoke during blaze.

Federal authorities were trying to find out today who stored 2,000 pounds of marijuana in a warehouse that caught fire.

It took more than 35 firefighters about half an hour to extinguish Wednesday’s blaze with 1,000 gallons of water and five gallons of chemical suppressant, Edinburg Fire Chief Shawn Snider said.

Snider said the firefighters were exposed to so much marijuana smoke they would not be able to pass a drug test, despite the air packs they wore to prevent them from inhaling toxic or hazardous fumes.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were called in to investigate the origin of the drugs, and the Hidalgo County fire marshal was investigating whether arson might have been the cause.
======================
There is no truth to the rumor that fire fighter applications increased 100% nor did the fire fighters make a munchie run on the way back to the fire station.

Stop whining buddy, just consider it an expensive life lesson, like the rest of us guys.
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Court: Vasectomy ‘gift’ not recoverable

Lost love carries no refund, even if you have a receipt. The Utah Court of Appeals rejected an ex-fiance’s request to recover thousands of dollars spent during his engagement on a vasectomy, a cruise to Alaska, a trip to France and other purchases.

Layne D. Hess sued Jody Johnston after she returned an engagement ring to him in April 2005 and called off a wedding planned for that summer.

Hess accused her of unjust enrichment and breach of contract, claiming he spent the money because of their upcoming marriage.

“Hess urges this court to adopt the position that any gift given during the engagement period carries an implied condition of marriage. We decline to do so,” the appeals court said last week in upholding a lower court’s ruling.

“If we were to imply a condition on all gifts given during the engagement period, every gift would be recoverable regardless of the size, cost, significance or nature of the gift,” the court said.

Hess’ expenses included $2,400 to help Johnston’s son buy a car.

An engagement, the court noted, is a “test period” for people to test their feelings for each other.

“We see no benefit in discouraging or penalizing persons who realize ... for whatever reason they are unprepared to take such an important step,” the court said of marriage.

The court found Hess didn’t lose everything: Johnston at least returned the ring.

UPDATED 07/05/07****

A Japanese man who set a world record by wolfing down dozens of hot dogs within minutes has suffered a severe jaw injury due to his rigorous training, making his next title uncertain.

Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi said he can only open his mouth to make a gap the size of a fingertip after being diagnosed with jaw arthritis.

In an entry on his blog entitled “Occupational hazard,” Kobayashi said: “My jaw refused to fight any more.”

The injury occurred only a week after the slender 29-year-old started training to win his seventh straight title at the annual July 4 Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating event on New York’s Coney Island.

“I feel ashamed that I couldn’t notice the alarm bells set off by my own body,” he said. “But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn’t stop my training so close to the competition.

“I was continuing my training and bearing with the pain but finally I destroyed my jaw.”

Kobayashi, who has become a niche celebrity in Japan and the United States, had already halted his competitive eating activities for several months due to mourning after his mother’s death earlier this year.

But he said he still wanted to go to the competition in New York.

“I want to be the pride of my mother,” he said in the blog entry posted Sunday.

Last year, Kobayashi put down a world-record 53 and three-quarters hot dogs in just 12 minutes.

In addition to the Nathan’s Famous titles, he holds world records for scoffing cows’ brains and rice balls.

In 2004, he founded the United Food Fighters Organisation in hopes of making people take competitive eating seriously as a sport.

Despite Japanese people’s reputation as moderate eaters, Kobayashi helped to turn competitive eating into a television sensation with “food fighters” downing everything from sushi to cakes.

But Japanese television began to shy away from such contests after a 14-year-old junior high school student choked to death in 2002 trying to imitate competitive eating during school lunch.

*****07/05/07
In a gut-busting showdown that combined drama, daring and indigestion, Joey Chestnut emerged Wednesday as the world’s hot dog eating champion, knocking off six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi in a record-setting yet repulsive triumph.

Chestnut, the great red, white and blue hope in the annual Fourth of July competition, broke his own world record by inhaling 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes — a staggering one every 10.9 seconds before a screaming crowd in Coney Island.

“If I needed to eat another one right now, I could,” the 23-year-old Californian said after receiving the mustard yellow belt emblematic of hot dog eating supremacy.

Kobayashi, the Japanese eating machine, recently had a wisdom tooth extracted and received chiropractic treatment due to a sore jaw. But the winner of every Nathan’s hot dog competition from 2001 to 2006 showed no ill effects as he stayed with Chestnut frank-for-frank until the very end of the 12-minute competition.

Once the contest ended, the runner-up suffered a reversal — competitive eating-speak for barfing — leading to a deduction from his final total. Kobayashi finished with 63 HDBs (hot dogs and buns eaten) in his best performance ever.

Competitors receive credit for anything in their mouths at the 12-minute mark, provided they can swallow it.

“Obviously, the last bit exited his mouth quite dramatically,” said Rich Shea of the International Federation of Competitive Eating. Kobayashi’s gastric distress was the only sour note in the tube-steak tussle, which aired nationally on ESPN.

Kobayashi’s previous best was 53½ in the competition that dates to 1916. The all-time record before Wednesday’s remarkable contest was Chestnut’s 59½, set just last month in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe.

The two gustatory gladiators quickly distanced themselves from the rest of the 17 competitors, processing more beef than a slaughterhouse within the first few minutes. The two had each downed 60 hot dogs with 60 seconds to go when Chestnut — the veins on his forehead extended — put away the final franks to end Kobayashi’s reign.

Kobayashi, through a translator, promised to return for the 2008 event.

The victory by the San Jose, Calif., resident ended Japan’s long dominance of the contest. The only previous non-Japanese winner since 1996 was New Jersey’s Steve Keiner in 1999. Third place this year went to another American, Patrick Bertoletti of Chicago, with 49.

“This title’s been held by Kobayashi for six years, so it’s about time it came home,” said Chestnut, holding an American flag in his arms. “I knew going into this contest that Kobayashi was going to give 100 percent.”

Is there a man named, “Buffy?”
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Man beats peacock, “he is a vampire.”

A peacock that roamed into a fast food restaurant parking lot was attacked by man who vilified the bird as a vampire, animal control authorities said.

Beaten so fiercely that most of his tail feathers fell out, the bird was euthanized, said Richard Gentles, a spokesman for the city’s Center for Animal Care and Control.

“It’s just unbelievable that someone would do something to a poor, defenseless animal and do it in such a cruel fashion,” he said.

The peacock, a male several years old, wandered into a Staten Island Burger King parking lot and perched on a car hood Thursday morning. Charmed employees had been feeding him bread when the man appeared.

He seized the iridescent bird by the neck, hurled it to the ground and started kicking and stomping the creature, said worker Felicia Finnegan, 19.

“He was going crazy,” she said.

Asked what he was doing, she said, the attacker explained, “‘I’m killing a vampire!“‘

Employees called police, but the man ran when he saw them. Authorities were looking for the attacker, described as being in his teens or early 20s.

It was not clear how the bird made his way to the Burger King, but a Staten Island resident who raises peacocks said he had given some to a person who lives near the restaurant.

A 5-year-old boy grabbed a rabid fox by the neck and pinned it to the ground during a family cookout, protecting six other children before his stepfather could step in.

“I wanted to protect my little brother,” said Rayshun McDowell, who battled the animal in the front yard of his home Sunday in Kingstown, a town about 50 miles west of Charlotte.

The fox bit Rayshun in the leg, but the 61-pound-boy held the animal down. Health officials later identified the fox as rabid.

“I looked out the window and Rayshun had the fox by the neck and was pushing it into the ground,” said his mother, Shinda Linder. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Rayshun’s stepfather, Ryan Thompson, pulled the boy off the animal and kicked it. A neighbor fired a handgun three times but the fox continued to advance.

Thompson, wearing a cast because of a broken leg, said he used a stick and his crutch to beat the fox to death.

Rayshun, meanwhile, asked only for a Band-Aid and didn’t complain of any pain.

“Rayshun was really calm and wasn’t upset,” his mother said. “I couldn’t believe he would do something like that. He was so brave, and I was a wreck.”

Rabies, which attacks the nervous system, is fatal unless treated before symptoms appear. It is transmitted through saliva and often makes animals aggressive.

Rayshun is undergoing treatment for rabies, as is a 6-year-old girl who was attacked by a fox earlier the same day at her home nearby.

Cleveland County now has 15 confirmed cases of rabies - twice as many as were reported by the same time last year. Sam Lockridge, a county health official, said the region’s rapid growth is likely pushing animals into neighborhoods as their habitat disappears.

Officials urged people to keep both themselves and their pets away from wild animals.

“I definitely wouldn’t advise anyone else to react the way the young boy did, because of the dangers,” Lockridge said. “But that shows a lot of heart, and it’s a good thing he reacted that way and helped those other children.”