Thursday, October 25, 2012

World's strongest beer [VIDEO/PHOTO]

World's strongest beer [VIDEO/PHOTO]. A Scottish brewery claims to have produced the world's strongest beer,  Brewmeister's Armageddon, with an alcohol by volume (ABV) of a whopping 65 percent.

For a little perspective, most beers have an alcohol content of between 3 to 7 percent.

The brewery says on its official web site that the beer's ingredients include crystal malt, wheat, flaked oats and 100 percent Scottish spring water. The beer then undergoes a process called freeze fermenting, which involves cooling the beer to freezing. The water freezes, but the alcohol does not --  leaving behind only the richest alcohol content.

When asked about its potency, Brewmeister's co-founder, Lewis Shand, said that the beer, which has a "viscous quality to it," delivers quite a punch. "Delivers a supersonic-charged explosion and conveys the taster to Drunksville" is probably more appropriate," said Shand. "In some respects, it is closer to a liqueur than a beer, but it is classified as a beer and we are pleased with it."

Brewmeister brewers have cautioned that the beer should be sipped and served in the brandy-sized doses.

Strong beers are a trend for Scottish breweries. BrewDog, which is from Fraserburgh on the North coast of Scotland, previously introduced a 41 percent ABV beer called Sink The Bismarck! At the time, it held the title of strongest beer ever brewed.

World's longest airline route [VIDEO]

World's longest airline route [VIDEO], The title of the world's longest commercial flight will go to Qantas after Singapore Airlines announced it will end its nonstop flight between Singapore and Newark next year, a distance of about 15,300 kilometers.

The ultra long-haul flight, which runs nonstop from Singapore to Newark, New Jersey, typically takes just under 19 hours to complete. In total, the trip covers roughly 10,000 miles -- and sometimes takes passengers over the North Pole.

The all-business-class flights began in 2004 and will end in the fourth- quarter of next year, the airline said in a statement yesterday

So far this year, at least three other ultralong-haul flights—generally considered to be flights of more than 15 hours—have been cut, including Thai Airways International's nonstop between Bangkok and Los Angeles, Delta Air Lines' service from Detroit to Hong Kong and American Airlines' Chicago-New Delhi flight. Go here for an in-flight video.

Rare ladybug [PHOTO]

Rare ladybug [PHOTO], headless! Sleepy Hollow has its headless horseman and now Montana has a headless ladybug.

A newly discovered insect that tucks its head into its throat is becoming an unwitting star.

Ross Winton captured the insect in 2009 in traps he set in a sand dune while an entomology graduate student at Montana State University.

Winton sent his discovery to scientists in Australia working on this group of insects and the headless ladybug was formally described in a recent issue of the peer-reviewed journal Systemic Entomology.

Just two specimens of the tan, pinhead-sized ladybugs, also known as ladybird beetles, have ever been collected, a male in Montana and a female in Idaho, scientists said, making it the rarest species in the United States.

Winton has named the new headless ladybug species after one of his MSU professors, Michael Ivie, calling it Allenius Iviei on an official basis and “Winton Ladybird Beetle” as its common name.

Virgin auction [PHOTO/VIDEO]

Virgin auction [PHOTO/VIDEO]. So, that virgin auction just ended, and we have a winner. And by winner, we mean enormous loser, because what grown man buys a virgin off the internet?

A man from Japan known as "Natsu" came out on top with the winning bid.

Natsu beat out five other bidders after a feverish final day where the price of Catarina Migliorini's virtue jumped from $190,000 on Oct. 23 to the final $780,000 price tag.


Ms. Migliorini said she plans to use the funds for charitable causes, primarily to build houses in her hometown. Go here for photos. Video below.

Mystery monkey caught [VIDEO]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A wild monkey that bit a woman and was on the lam in St. Petersburg, Florida, for two years has been apprehended.

Authorities report that a wildlife official darted the monkey with a tranquilizer gun on Wednesday. The monkey then fled into the woods and trappers were able to snare it. The primate was taken to an animal hospital for a checkup.

The monkey was able to elude capture for years as it combed the neighborhoods. A Facebook page was created for it and most recently the crafty Rhesus Macaque bit a woman, causing trappers to ramp up their efforts to grab him.

Animal trapper Vernan Yates was hired by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservative Commission to catch him. It wasn't immediately known if he was with wildlife officials when the monkey was finally caught.

Rubber Band Patent

Rubber Band Patent [VIDEO], Samsung last night informed US District Court Judge Lucy Koh that Apple’s “rubber band” patent has been tentatively invalidated by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The rubber band gun, it would seem, has backfired.

The USPTO did not declare the patent obvious, but rather cited “prior art” in the form of two previous patents that anticipate this one.

Strangely enough, one of the patents is in the name of the same Apple user interface designer, Bas Ording, as the “rubber band” patent.

The patent office also cited a European patent filed in 2003 by AOL, which relates to detecting the layout of a webpage, comparing the layout to the window it's being displayed in, and reformatting the page to align with the window.

The patent office decision is not final, but it is interesting. Go here for videos.

Colin Powell endorsement

Colin Powell endorsement [VIDEO] predictable. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell broke with the Republican party during the 2008 election, to endorse then-candidate Barack Obama for president, calling Obama a "transformational figure."

So it should come as no surprise that Obama, whose proposal to maintain current defense spending has been attacked by challenger Mitt Romney, picked up the endorsement of retired Army Gen. Colin Powell, a former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and former secretary of state.

"I voted for him in 2008 and I plan to stick with him in 2012 and I'll be voting for he and for Vice President Joe Biden next month."

Powell explained his choice to Charlie Rose and Norah O'Donnell:

“We’ve come out of the dive and we’re starting to gain altitude,” Powell said. “The unemployment rate is too high, people are still hurting in housing, but I see that we’re starting to rise up.”

Powell said that when Obama took over “the country was in very, very difficult straits. We were in the one of the worst recessions we had seen in recent times, close to a depression.”

“The fiscal system was collapsing: Wall Street was in chaos, we had 800,000 jobs lost in that first month of the Obama administration,” he said. “Unemployment peaked at 10 percent, so we were in real trouble. The auto industry was collapsing, housing was started to collapse, and we were in very difficult straits.

“And I saw over the next several years stabilization come back in the financial community,” Powell added. “Housing is now starting to come back after four years; it's starting to pick up. Consumer confidence is rising."

The four-star general also said that Obama “got us out of one war, started to get us out of a second war, and did not get us into any new wars.”

“The actions he has taken in respect to protecting us from terrorism have been very solid,” Powell said. “We ought to keep on the track we are on.”

Nothing like throwing the administration you worked for under the bus just to score points with others.

Downey California business shooting

Downey California business shooting [VIDEO]. A gunman targeted a family-owned fire extinguisher business Wednesday, gunning down three people at the office and shooting two more at a family home nearby, police said.

At least three people are dead and two others have been wounded in shootings in Downey, according to Downey Fire Department Capt. Robert Hohn.

The facts surrounding the shooting are not yet clear, but authorities have been working two active crime scenes on Cleta Avenue.  One is a private residence and the other is a business. It is not yet clear if the two incidents are related.

“We do not believe this was a random act of violence,” Milligan said. “We do believe there is a specific reason this family was targeted and we want to know why.”

The shooting occurred about 11:30 a.m. in the 8700 block of Cleta Avenue.

The suspect does not appear to be a former employee, friend or family member.

Police have not been able to interview the woman survivor at length because of her injuries.

Jim Moran Voter Fraud [VIDEO]

Jim Moran Voter Fraud [VIDEO], The voter ID law is a solution searching for a problem. There is no issue with voter ID. There have not been any real cases of fraud. OOPS!

James O'Keefe unveiled his latest expose, this time catching a Democratic congressman's son advising an undercover member of O'Keefe's team on how to commit voter fraud.

The video, O'Keefe says, "takes an unprecedented inside view of voter fraud in the United States, something that many claim doesn't even exist."

In it, O'Keefe's unidentified colleague (who's never shown) approaches Patrick Moran, son of and reelection field director for Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), in a cafe and says he's concerned that President Obama may lose, and is looking for help casting votes in the names of 100 people who haven't voted in the previous few elections.

Here’s Examiner Virginia reporter Steve Contorno’s report:

In the video, Patrick Moran is approached by a man claiming to have the names of 100 Virginia residents who are registered to vote but unlikely to do so. The man, who is holding a hidden camera, asks Moran how he can cast votes for those Virginians.

Moran encourages the man to focus his time on legitimate get-out-the-vote efforts. But he also tells the man to forge utility bills with the names and addresses of the 100 Virginians and use those documents as a form of voter ID when casting votes in their name.

“So, if they just have the utility bill or bank statement — bank statement would obviously be tough — but faking a utility bill would be easy enough,” Moran says in the video.

Patrick Moran, the field director for his father’s re-election campaign, announced his resignation just hours after the video was released.

Swing State Voters Barrage

Swing State Voters Barrage [VIDEO], Around lunchtime every day, the latest missives that promote or pillor Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney arrive mailbox's everyday. Before long, they end up in the trash.

Tear and toss has now become routine for battleground-state voters overwhelmed in angry mail ads from the presidential candidates, political parties and their allied groups.

All the attention is funneling into a small number of hard-fought states comes at a personal price for many voters.

Traffic snarls when a candidate comes to town. The phone rings during a favorite TV show. TV ads spew out mostly negative vibes. Bills get buried in a stack of campaign fliers. A campaign volunteer turns up on the doorstep during dinner.

The effects are cumulative and out of control. Go here for videos.

Fastest highway in America

Fastest highway in America [VIDEO], SAN ANTONIO –  SAN ANTONIO – On one brand new stretch of toll road southeast of Austin, Texas, you can cruise at 85 mph and not worry about being pulled over for speeding.

That is because beginning on Wednesday, on this 41-mile segment of road, 85 mph is the legal speed limit.

It is the highest in the country.

We love to drive fast, especially on the open road. It's a hallmark of America. Since 1995, 35 states have raised speed limits to 70 MPH or higher on some portion of their highways.

Strange as it sounds 85 MPH in Texas might not be the highest speed limit we see here in the U.S.

Not long ago few could imagine speed limits of 75 or 80 MPH. Now they’re becoming increasingly common.

7k Strip Club Bill

7k Strip Club Bill [VIDEO], The Missouri athletics department has tightened employee use of school-issued credit cards after an audit found a series of improper purchases. They included bills for more than $7,600 from a Las Vegas strip club.

Department spokesman Chad Moller said on Tuesday that director of video operations Michael Schumacher had repaid $7,605.50 for two credit charges from a May 5, 2011, visit to Olympic Garden.

One of the charges included a $2,000 tip on a $4,400 bill at a nightclub billed as the "only Vegas strip club on the Strip."

Schumacher apparently was traveling alone and representing the school at a professional conference when he visited the strip club. Thankfully he paid back the charges.

The audit also flagged a $3,000 dinner several members of the basketball staff had at a Texas steakhouse. The school has deactivated 32 of the 120 credit cards that had been issued to school employees before the audit. Go here for the videos

Top earning dead Celebrities 2012 [VIDEO]

Top earning dead Celebrities 2012 [VIDEO], The thirteen celebrities who make up this year’s Top-Earning Dead Celebrities list earned a total $532.5 million in the past 12 months.

Forbes compiled the ranking by analyzing the dead celebrities’ earnings between October 2011-2012.

Their second ranked celebrity, Michael Jackson, still earns big from his own music and his stake in Sony‘s ATV catalogue which includes music from The Beatles, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift.

Jackson, who died in 2009, dropped into second place with earnings of $145 million, followed by Elvis Presley with $55 million.

But the top ranked celebrity, Elizabeth Taylor, landed in the No. 1 position thanks to a huge Christie’s auction.

The star’s jewelry, costumes and art collection were sold off over several days in New York and London. The most expensive being a Van Gogh painting which sold for $16 million.

In addition to the Taylor auction, which totaled $184 million, the actress, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 79, also earned $75 million from sales of her top selling perfume White Diamonds.

Romney Liberace Yearbook

Romney Liberace Yearbook [PHOTO] Fake. This afternoon, a supposed yearbook photo of a young Mitt Romney adopting a stereotypical, limp-wristed pose with the caption “Uproarious old Mitt does his best Liberace!” began to circulate on social media sites, with a wariety of commentary about Romney’s record on gay rights.

The photo of a young Mitt Romney mocking a gay person may have seemed believable but they are not.



Magazine Vanity Fair mocked up several “yearbook photos” of Mitt Romney engaged in various pranks, most echoing positions the GOP candidate espouses and that VF presumably disagrees.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Bobbi Kristina Brown Pregnant

Bobbi Kristina Brown Pregnant [PHOTO], Bobbi Kristina Brown is currently promoting her new Lifetime reality show, The Houstons: On Our Own.

The National Enquirer (and others) have had Brown dating, engaged to, married to, and doing drugs with live-in step “brother” and “boyfriend” Nick Gordon.

And we think we could know why. She’s pregnant!

So is Bobbi Kris really having a baby? Perhaps, as only time will tell. Go here for the photos.

Most likely, however, this rumor is just a way for the tabloids to sell more papers. The more scandalous the claims about Whitney Houston or her family at this point, the more papers the tabloid will sell.

Houston, died on February 11 from accidental drowning brought on by heart disease and cocaine use. She was 48.

1970s Florida Killer facing execution

1970s Florida Killer [PHOTO/VIDEO] facing execution, The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed a stay of execution imposed by a lower court blocking the scheduled execution of a South Florida mass killer.

Florida officials immediately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the stay.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision came during a flurry of court rulings over claims that 64-year-old John Errol Ferguson suffers from mental illness so severe he cannot be executed.

Ferguson, a paranoid schizophrenic with delusions he's the "prince of God," had faced a planned lethal injection at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Florida's death chamber.

Ferguson was convicted in the fatal, execution-style shootings of six bound and blindfolded people in South Florida in 1977, and of killing a teenage couple in 1978.

Previous judges have ruled that he is legally competent to be executed.

Downey California Shooting [PHOTO/VIDEO]; 5 shot 2 Dead

Downey California Shooting [PHOTO/VIDEO]; 5 shot 2 Dead, United States Protection Services. At least three people are dead and two others have been wounded in shootings in Downey, according to Downey Fire Department Capt. Robert Hohn.

The facts surrounding the shooting are not yet clear, but authorities have been working two active crime scenes on Cleta Avenue.  One is a private residence and the other is a business. It is not yet clear if the two incidents are related.

The two injured in the shooting are being taken to a hospital.

The LA Times reports that one shooting occurred about 11:30 a.m. in the 8700 block of Cleta Avenue, the site of a fire protection business.