Pirated copy of ‘The Hurt Locker’ airs on national TV

During the leadup to the Oscars, Belarus’ National State Television decided to show its views some previous Oscar winning films. One of them was The Hurt Locker, which won last years's best picture award. Problem is the version they showed had been downloaded from the BitTorrent site Interfilm.ru –– essentially a priated copy. Interfilm was raided by police in 2009 and it is now involved in a $1.25 billion copyright infringement claim.

The smoking gun is a female voice-over during the film that says, "“This release is created exclusively for interfilm.ru.” This was apparently commonly inserted into movies obtained by Interfilm.

A spokeswoman for Belarus’ National State television said that proper licenses for the film were acquired. The phrase mentioning Interfilm.ru could be a “technical error”, she noted. While you might expect this from college kids, it's pretty wild that a state TV station even in Belarus,  would stoop to this ... or should I say have this type of "technical error". Read more on TorrentFreak.

Hurt Locker Clip with the voice-over

15 vintage products that are trying to kill you

Thank-you for this great list BuzzFeed. Here's product number 1:

To see the rest on BuzzFeed click here.

Video: Army exercise fails to deliver

I guess this is called a failure to deliver. Watch this quick video of an army exercise (don't ask me which army!) that goes off with a dud.

Plans for May 21? Forget it. This group of travelling "ambassadors" says the world will end on that day

What do you do when you are convinced that Jesus is coming on May 21, 2011 and the world will end on that day? Well, it seems you hit the road with your fellow wackos and spread the bad news. It's unclear (to me at least) why May 21 is the appropriate date for the world to end, but then again why not. These people left there families and jobs to spread the word, so why not give them the courtesy of listening – before we laugh.

From CNN: "They're wearing sweatshirts and other clothing announcing the "Awesome News," that Judgment Day is coming on May 21. On that day, people who will be saved will be raptured up to heaven. The rest will endure exactly 153 days of death and horror before the world ends on October 21. That message is splashed across their five sleek, vinyl-wrapped RVs, bearing this promise: "The Bible guarantees it!"

They're wearing sweatshirts and other clothing announcing the "Awesome News," that Judgment Day is coming on May 21. On that day, people who will be saved will be raptured up to heaven. The rest will endure exactly 153 days of death and horror before the world ends on October 21. That message is splashed across their five sleek, vinyl-wrapped RVs, bearing this promise: "The Bible guarantees it!""

Related articles

• What is the Rapture?. (greatriversofhope.wordpress.com)

The Disney movie you missed: "The Story Of Menstruation"

This 1946 Disney hit may have passed you buy, and that might just be a good thing. For reasons known only to old Walt, Disney produced this classic "The Story Of Menstruation". Then again, when your sponsor is Kotex ....

Study says its healthy for men to stare at women's breasts

I'm filing this in my every-growing "Useless Studies" folder. News flash: Staring at women's breast's is healthy for men.That is, until the slap comes. The study claims to have a control group of men who did not get to stare at women's breasts. They failed to mention that blind men were used for the control group. Watch this useless FOX NEWS report on the study, filled with ... lots of breasts!


News: It's Healthy To Stare At Women's Chests - Watch more Funny Videos

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• Good News Guys:Its officially healthy to oogle a womens breasts. (politics.ie)

Perhaps the nerdiest thing for a high school student to do this summer

Image via Wikipedia

The Waterloo Institute for Quantum Computing in Canada is offering and "exciting week-long program" in quantum cryptography for students in Grades 10-12 this summer. I know the kids taking this course will probably be my bosses in years to come, sneering at me from their $20-million-dollar mansions ... but it's hard for me not to remember those hot summer days or my youth, wasted doing absolutely nothing and enjoying every minute of it. Still, had courses like this been offered in my youth, and had I taken them ... In any event if you do want enroll here is the link: Enroll here!

Related articles

• New experiment would use quantum effects to perform otherwise intractable calculations (physorg.com)

Video: Banned University of Lincoln commercial

A student tried to show his university in a more modern light.  He makes a video ....

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89 million condoms to be given out at Brazil's carnival

Image via Wikipedia

I first thought the number was a typo, but calls to the CIA's condom intelligence division have confirmed. The Brazilian health ministry will be handing out 89 million condoms during the Rio Carnival, long noted as the party of parties. This is up significantly from the 26 million they handed out at last years' carnival. I have to think this makes Carnival the sexiest place/time in the world, short of Charlie Sheen's mansion.

There is a good reason for this. According to health officials in Brazil,  630,000 people in Brazil are infected with the AIDS virus. Fair enough.  Party on!

Related articles

• Rio de Janiero celebrates opening of Carnival (cbsnews.com)

Economist compares Chinese provinces to countries

This is a fascinating look at the provinces of China,  and how they rank when compared to various countries in the worldfrom the Economist. China as a whole, has the second largest economy in the world, behind the U.S. ,  but it's interesting to see just how strong some of the component economies are. From their report:

"Guangdong's GDP (at market exchange rates) is almost as big as Indonesia's; the output of both Jiangsu and Shandong exceeds Switzerland’s."

" Guangdong exports as much as South Korea, Jiangsu as much as Taiwan. Shanghai’s GDP per person is as high as Saudi Arabia’s"

Click on the graphic to go to the Economist's interactive graphic. It's worth looking at.

They have also compared stated in the U.S. to countries of the world. From the report:

"California on its own would rank as one of the biggest economies of the world. These days, it would rank eighth, falling between Italy and Brazil on a nominal exchange-rate basis."

"Who would have thought that, despite years of auto-industry hardship, the economy of Michigan is still the same size as Taiwan's?"

Click on the map to go to the Economist's interactive map.

Video: House lifted by balloons to 10,000 feet

The real life "Up"! Watch this house being lifted by 300 helium balloons in southern California to a height of 10,000 feet. The stunt will be part of the upcoming National Geographic series "How Hard Can it Be" :

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

World's largest shark jaw up for auction

What is being billed as the world's largest  shark jaw is up for auction at the Heritage Auction Galleries in Dallas in June. Reserve bid: a cool $625,000 plus buyers premium. That's a lot of cabbage but then again that's a lot of teeth.

Here's part of the description about the jaw: "The ferocious Megalodon was the largest predaceous shark ever to have swum the oceans of our planet; completely dominating the marine food chain for almost twenty million years. That it could reach the length of two city buses is immediately apparent from this tremendous, astonishing jaw, containing 182 first-class fossil teeth, each with superb enamel coverage, coloring, serrations, and measuring up to 7 5/8 inches along the diagonal, amongst the largest Megalodon teeth ever discovered." 

Care to place your bid? Click here. 

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Lady Gaga suing human breast milk ice cream maker

Image by Jazmin Million via Flickr

The thought of ice cream made from human breast milk is sickening to begin with. Is this really a product people want? Capital FM is reporting that Lady Gaga is suing a London ice cream parlour over their new flavor "Baby Gaga", which is indeed made from breast milk. Business owner Matt O'Connor told AOL News the he sees the flavor as more of a tribute. "We named it 'Baby Gaga' because she's the queen of 'shock and roll,'" O'Connor told AOL News when the flavour was introduced Feb. 25. "Some people are turned off by the idea, but, really, it raises the philosophical question: Is it better if we use milk from cows injected with hormones who are artificially induced with pregnancy every few months, or human milk?" O'Connor said.

Count me among the "turned off".  Good luck to you Lady Gaga.

Video: The 1st annual "Crackhead Tossing Competition"

No typo here. As billed. I'm sure the Olympic committee is looking into this for the upcoming Stupidity Games.

Crashed plane in Google Maps images

Somewhere over Alameda, CA this plane crash was picked up in a Google Maps image:

School apoligizes for mock slave auction

Image via Wikipedia

An Ohio school district apologized after Chapelfield Elementary School put on a mock slave auction in an American history lesson. Ten year old Nikko Burton, who is black, was not amused. "I ended up being a slave. At first I didn't care, but after people were bidding on people it kind of made me a little mad and stuff."

The class was divided into slaves and masters. Students who were playing the role of master were told to feel the students playing slaves to see if they were worth buying, according to Burton. "They got to look in your mouth and feel your legs and stuff and see if you're strong and stuff."

A school district spokeswoman said the slave auction was part of state required curriculum and that it was a one-time lesson.

This leaves me wondering if they have been using old issues of the National Lampoon for lesson plans.

Related articles

• Chapelfield Elementary School Sorry For Making Black Student 'Slave' (huffingtonpost.com)

Video: Testing jetpack on skis @47mph - awesome (sort of)

Dare devil and sometime stuntman Troy Hartman is shown here testing out his new jetpack on skis. He had this to say about it: "50% throttle yielded a speed of 47 mph. A second set of test runs demonstrated ascents of black diamond rated slopes. More details to follow at troyhartman.com ."



Testing New Jetpack on Skis - Troy Hartman from Troy Hartman on Vimeo.

Christchurch earthquake rock that destroyed house up for auction

The owner of a large boulder that destroyed his house in Christchurch, New Zealand during the recent earthquake has put the offending boulder –– nicknamed "Rocky" –– up for auction. The current bidding is up to $8,150.00. Proceeds are going to the Christchurch Earthquake Relief Fund.

"For sale 1 owner 25 - 30 tonne landscape feature (answers to the name Rocky) ...
He is in pristine condition (just a little bit of concrete dust). Suitable for garden feature, or as in our case a magnificent addition to your living area.
Rocky will enhance your "indoor outdoor" flow considerably, especially if you load him in through the garage roof like we did.
Sorry, but we are unable to deliver Rocky but would be happy for you to pick him up and roll him away (please mind our neighbours when you do) :-)
Highest bid (should there be one) gets personalised photo with Rocky (when cordon lifts) and of course a wonderful addition to your home."

 

Click here to go to the auction site

Libraries fight privatization with really dumb video

Libraries in Camarillo, Santa Clarita and Ventura (California) are being targeted for privitization. I'm not condoning or condemning this, but this is a really dumb video:

Click here to go to their website.

Laid off steel workers burn company executive to death

Norm from Cheers

Layoffs are always difficult and emotional. We've all heard the stories or disgruntled workers coming back to seek vengeance after being fired. In India, it appears, handing out those pink slips is even more dangerous. After learning they were laid off at a steel factory, a mob of fired workers burned a senior executive to death. The mob apparently attacked the exec's Jeep, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. Police are detaining two people in the case. 

They might just want to think about hiring Norm from Cheers to give the bad news next time.