Urban legends are not all myths it seems

We have all heard a tale or two about revenge on a cheating spouse.
The most popular when I was younger was the tale of the load of wet cement supposedly dumped in the cheater's sports car.
The details often differed but the main thread stayed the same - revenge!

Now an Australian woman has proven that 'truth' is stranger than fiction, if The Tech Herald is to be believed.

Specifically, the woman in question -- known only as "annastella007" through her eBay seller identification -- has held a public auction for a pair of lacy black panties worn by her husband's lover, and also an empty condom packet belonging to her husband....
eBay has since informed annastella007 that the sale of actual used underwear violates the service's sales policy, so the 'Tart's knickers' have now been replaced by a photo of the 'Tart's knickers'. The seller has reduced the price accordingly, stating that $0.99 AUD was perhaps a little ambitious.

The last time I looked at this eBay entry (which includes a story of the affair) the current bid had risen to US $31,849.62 with only 23 hours left to go in the auction.

I can hear a generation of deserted and divorced women cheering mightily and hoping that myth does indeed turn to fact.

The Olympic elephant in the room wins doubt, doubt, doubt!

Great performance [by Michael Phelps] but if there is any doubt carry out every test on the super star and free him on any doubt. The 100th of a second win may create doubt as the finish video [7th gold medal] leaves me in doubt. Money may be involved ?
APPSIE
Clarence Valley

The Star Tribune lays out the foundation of similar concerns to Appsie's in Here's trying to believe in Michael Phelps.

GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them.
Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak@live.com.au for consideration.

"We'll nuke Poland" says Russian general. Yeah? Well I'll tell my mother on you!

It seems that Russia has entered a silly season all of its own, if this piece below is any indication.

Can't say that I am all that impressed by what has to be a barely credible veiled threat to use nuclear weapons by Анатолий Алексеевич Ноговицын. [Pic from U.K. Telegraph]

If it looks like a nong, and talks like a nong - then it's a nong as far as I'm concerned.
Don't think the Kremlin was too happy with Anatoly either. Tsk. tsk.

"Poland agreed on Thursday to host elements of a US global anti-missile system after Washington agreed to boost Poland's own military air defences.

"The USA is engaged in an anti-missile defence for its own government, and not for Poland. And Poland, in deploying (elements of the system) opens itself to a military strike. That is 100 percent," Interfax quoted Nogovitsyn as saying.

Nogovitsyn said Russia allows nuclear weapons to be used in circumstances defined by its current security doctrine.

The Russian government revamped its national security doctrine in 2000, broadening the range of conflicts in which nuclear weapons could be used."

Why Anatoly thinks nukes are needed is not all that obvious when Russia can just walk in and bash down the bedroom door anywhere it likes, courtesy of Bush, Blair and Howard's previous comprehensive trashing of international law.

There is absolutely no need for the Russian Government to pretend it has kultury when these three amigos publicly turned barbarian.

One thing's for sure - this is going to make 'fitness to lead' a bigger question in the U.S. presidential race, if Russia continues to throw its military might around and threatens to nuke the Ukraine as well if it signs on the dotted line for the U.S. anti-missile network.

Have you heard the one about....

Have you heard the one about a Clarence Valley retiree (who doesn't appear to know one end of a slide rule from another and is famous for not thinking outside the square) filing a patent application for inventing a method of amplifying energy using centrifugal force, in conjunction with a company which was registered in the same month of the international filing date noted by World Intellectual Property Organisation.
Is this a case of divine inspiration or simply cashing in on patents which ceased due to failure to pay renewal fees?
There have been previous patent applications along the lines of the one above with reported novel engines being numerous and, currently the Orbital Engine Company's technology package includes over 1000 patents or patent applications lodged in more than 20 countries worldwide, covering innovation in all aspects of engine and control system technology.
Clarence Valley locals are betting the retiree's application will fall foul of existing patents.
New energy sources have been noted in an article about amateur inventors, which may indicate where this particular invention is heading.

A daft Sunday post with feathers

Photo from Adorablog:Penguins Archive

This is Nils Olaf, an Emperor Penguin.

According to BBC News Scotland on Friday:

A penguin who was previously made a Colonel-in-Chief of the Norwegian Army has been knighted at Edinburgh Zoo.
Penguin Nils Olav has been an honorary member and mascot of the Norwegian King's Guard since 1972.
Over the years, he has been promoted through the ranks after being adopted by Royal Guard who visited the zoo.
During the ceremony, Nils had a sword dubbed on each side of his head, where his shoulders should be, to confirm his regimental knighthood.
A crowd of several hundred people joined the 130 guardsmen at the zoo. A citation from King Harald the Fifth of Norway was read out, which described Nils as a penguin "in every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of knighthood".

I suspect that Nils may be brighter than many human knights of the realm I have known.

Water diversion as an act of terrorism?

With the Murray Darling Basin news growing gloomier by the day, South Australian Premier Mike Rann has called Queensland Government-approved private water diversion and storage on the Paroo River treacherous and "environmental terrorism".

A recent Murray-Darling Basin Commission audit said that of 23 rivers tested, only the Paroo was in good health.

Let us hope that Mr. Rann remembers the terms he employed if there is another push, from local government or individuals in his state, to dam and divert fresh water from the NSW North Coast Clarence River catchment.

Communities in the Clarence Valley do feel sympathy for those dependent on the Murray Darling river system, but the writing is now on the wall for many with the need for further water buybacks, illegal water extraction still rampant, water-greedy crops underproducing, a Federal Government delaying the inevitable need to turn-off water to irrigators by deciding to replicate the CSIRO water audit, and therefore wrecking the economy, health and environmental flows of the Clarence River or its tributaries would not halt the train wreck occurring in the Murray Darling Basin.