Now this is how to rob a bank

The G4S facility outside Stockholm that was spectacularly robbed

“Show you have a sense of humor by placing a bag outside the cops’ helicopter hanger with the word BOMB written on it. This will stop the police chasing you in the sky.

Scatter small sharp objects on the roads around the bank you’re targeting to slow down approaching police cars.

Rather than targeting a regular bank, choose a facility that stores banknotes for them.

Get schematics of the building.

Plan the raid for the day before people get paid, so there’ll be lots of cash kicking around.

Hover the chopper over the bank while your men abseil in.

Have a pilot so good that authorities suspect military experience.

Set off some minor explosions to get to the cash.

Chuckle at the cops as they try to get into the fortified building using a battering ram.

Leave all the staff unharmed.

Return to the helicopter and fly into the pre-dawn sky.

Land the chopper in a field.

Disappear into the woods with the loot.

Roll around in your money.”

thanks to The Punch for the above photo and article.

Roomba Art: vacuum versatility is arty

People love the Roomba. Why? Because it allows you to vacuum a room while sitting on the couch. Also because it seems more attainable than the Segway. And then a cat rode one, and it was glorious. Now comes something truly groundbreaking -- Roomba art. As far as we can tell, the trend started on a blog called Signal Theorist, who got the idea to set up a camera, turn off all the lights, and take a long-exposure photo of the Roomba's path as it "did its thing." The result looked like an awesomely psychedelic electrical spider web. Now more people are getting inspired to try variations on the same technique, and the creativity seems to be concentrated in the Flickr group, Roomba Art.

• The above image that started it all, via signaltheorist
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Chief Red Cloud to Obama: Black Hills are not for sale

Chief Oliver Red Cloud, Lakota, issued a statement to President Obama requesting a meeting more than two weeks ago and is yet to receive a response. Chief Red Cloud, 90, told Obama the Black Hills are not -- and have never been -- for sale

Dear Mr. President:

I am the Itancan (chief) of the Oglala Lakota Band of the Great Sioux Nation and Chairman of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council, the traditional governing body of the eight bands of the Lakota Nation.
The Lakota Nation entered into and has always abided by the provisions of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868. However, the United States of America has repeatedly violated and unilaterally attempted to abrogate the Treaties in violation of accepted international standards and codified international treaty law.

Click here to read the rest at Censored News

Technorati Tags: black hills,obama advisors,chief red cloud,lakota nation

Gluttons for glory -- heroes for an obese nation

 

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 10/04/2009 10:27:17 AM PDT

For the first time since the Civil War, American life expectancy is projected to decrease, owing to the diseases associated with obesity such as diabetes, ultimately causing cardiovascular death.”

-- Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Vol.49-Issue 16

On July 4, 1993, eating for glory became a national competition. Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest paved the way for competitive eating. The contest was so popular, watching people “pig-out” went international in 1997.

The irony of competitive eating in a country where hundreds of thousands of people die each year from obesity-related causes, seems lost on the thousands who attend and view these contests. These events have been broadcast live on ESPN since 2004.

Click here to read the rest. Photo via Kinetic Carnival – The Coney Island Blog

Technorati Tags: gluttons,competitive eating contests,obesity

Liu Bolin...The Invisible Man...

This guy paints himself... no trick photography ... no photoshop ...he just paints himself...can you see him in this photo yet? There’s more examples of Bolin’s art here.

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Schwarzenegger asked to close prostitute website that rates women

Will “The Terminator” put a stop to “Punternet?” Or, will be be hesitant to put a California-based business - “out of business?” Stay tuned…this ought to be interesting:

LONDON (Reuters) – A British government minister asked California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to shut down a U.S. website that allows men to rate prostitutes, including many working in London.

Harriet Harman, minister for women and equality, told the ruling Labor Party's annual conference that "Punternet" fuels the demand for prostitution -- a vice she said degrades women and puts them at risk.

She said the web site was a "very sinister development" in the trade and exploitation of women and allows guests to compare and rate services in the same way as they would a restaurant, a hotel or a holiday.

Pimps put women on sale for sex on the site then clients offered their comments on line, she said.

"Punternet has pages and pages of women for sale in London," said Harman, who is deputy leader of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labor Party.

She said she had raised the issue with the U.S. ambassador to Britain and asked California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to close it down as it is based in that state. Read the rest here.

Technorati Tags: london prosititutes,punternet,governor schwarzenegger,california-based business,labor party

Some reasons why we lost the Olympic bid

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Reports: Obama traveling to Denmark in support of Kenya 2016

US relinquishes control of the internet

• Icann ends agreement with the US government
• Move will give other countries a prominent internet role

By Bobbie Johnson

“After complaints about American dominance of the internet and growing disquiet in some parts of the world, Washington has said it will relinquish some control over the way the network is run and allow foreign governments more of a say in the future of the system.

Icann – the official body that ultimately controls the development of the internet thanks to its oversight of web addresses such as .com, .net and .org – said today that it was ending its agreement with the US government.

The deal, part of a contract negotiated with the US department of commerce, effectively pushes California-based Icann towards a new status as an international body with greater representation from companies and governments around the globe.

Icann had previously been operating under the auspices of the American government, which had control of the net thanks to its initial role in developing the underlying technologies used for connecting computers together.

But the fresh focus will give other countries a more prominent role in determining what takes place online, and even the way in which it happens – opening the door for a virtual United Nations, where many officials gather to discuss potential changes to the internet.

Icann chief Rod Beckstrom, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Washington insider who took over running the organisation in July, said there had been legitimate concerns that some countries were developing alternative internets as a way of routing around American control.”

Click here to read the rest at the UK Guardian

Technorati Tags: internet,Icann,us department of commerce

Quotations about Statistics

The following is from The Income Team Blog and was gathered by Steven;

The average human has one breast and one testicle.  ~Des McHale

Torture numbers, and they’ll confess to anything.  ~Gregg Easterbrook in The New Republic

69.8% of all statistics are made up.  ~Author Unknown

Statistics are like bikinis.  What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.  ~Aaron Levenstein

Say you were standing with one foot in the oven and one foot in an ice bucket.  According to the percentage people, you should be perfectly comfortable.  ~Bobby Bragan, 1963

Statistics can be made to prove anything - even the truth.  ~Author Unknown

Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.  ~Author Unknown

Lottery:  A tax on people who are bad at math.  ~Author Unknown

He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts - for support rather than for illumination.  ~Andrew Lang

Do not put your faith in what statistics say until you have carefully considered what they do not say.  ~William W. Watt

Then there is the man who drowned crossing a stream with an average depth of six inches.  ~W.I.E. Gates

There are two kinds of statistics, the kind you look up and the kind you make up.  ~Rex Stout, Death of a Doxy

I always find that statistics are hard to swallow and impossible to digest.  The only one I can ever remember is that if all the people who go to sleep in church were laid end to end they would be a lot more comfortable.  ~Mrs. Robert A. Taft

There’s more here.

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'Suit & tie' jailbreak guy caught

By LARRY CELONA, PHILIP MESSING and LAURA ITALIANO

“An inmate who casually walked out of a Manhattan courthouse posing as a lawyer was nabbed last night, as new details emerged indicating a correction officer's stunning breach of protocol could have allowed the escape.

Ronald Tackman, 56, was arrested as he got off a bus near a friend's house in Washington Heights just before 9 p.m. sources said.

Officers received a tip he'd be in the area, and he was arrested without incident.

Earlier yesterday, sources revealed that on Wednesday, a guard removed Tackman's handcuffs and those of eight other arrivals from Rikers Island as they stood in the 12th-floor hallway at 100 Centre Street.” Click here to read the rest at The New York Post.

Technorati Tags: jailbreak,rikers island,manhattan courthouse