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Company Equips Buses With Emergency Bricks Screenshot-sm 7

As long as you travel on a select few of Harbin Public Transport Company's buses, you won't have to worry about breaking a window to escape a potentially deadly crash anymore. The company has equipped each bus with two yellow emergency bricks for passengers to use to break windows. A safety hammer used to be provided but they were stolen frequently because everyone can use a good hammer. "We don't think anybody will be interested in stealing bricks," a spokesman said. The company plans on putting bricks on all 700 of its buses if the customer feedback is smashing.
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Top 10 Foods to Avoid While Driving Screenshot-sm 7

Noting that distractions cause 80% of vehicle crashes, the good people at Insurance.com have released a list of the 10 worst foods to eat while you are driving. It's unclear how they came up with this list as it includes such things as soda and coffee, but overlooks much more dangerous culinary/driving endeavors such as cheese fondue, and bananas foster.
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White-Collar Crooks Hiring Prison Coach Screenshot-sm 4

Are you wealthy and going to prison? Want to know the best way to pick up dropped soap? Do you even know what a shank is? Maybe it's time you hired prison coach Steven Oberfest. For $200 an hour, Steven will teach you the ins and outs of prison etiquette and how to defend yourself from attack. He says, "These guys have never been in a fight in their lives — they don't know what violence is, and now they're entering a world where anything can happen."
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DIY Car Seat Screenshot-sm 1

I'm not sure this meets National Highway Traffic Safety Administration standards.
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Avalanche Safety Jacket to Help Extend Survival Time Screenshot-sm 17

Worried about suffocating after being hit by an avalanche? Thanks to the AvaJacket safety system you won't have to worry anymore. The Avajacket features airbags that restrain the head from being twisted into potentially dangerous positions, and an air-cleaning breathing system. I look forward to the release of the Moltencoat early next year. Finally, I'll be able to explore a volcano with peace of mind.
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Missouri Car Dealer To Give Away AK-47 With New Truck Screenshot-sm 66

Frizbie writes "Max Motors in Butler, Missouri is giving away free AK-47 assault rifles with the purchase of a new truck. The promotion starts in the beginning of August. The video of CNN's coverage of the promotion shows Mark Muller being interviewed by a woman who was taking a very strong stand against what Muller had to say; however, it seems to have backfired pretty heavily."
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Senator Ends Treasury's Search For Cartoonist Screenshot-sm 3

The chairman of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, Byron Dorgan, has put an end to the Treasury Department's search for a cartoonist who had the "ability to create cartoons on the spot about [Bureau of the Public Debt] jobs." The senator became aware of the opening after a link to the job ad was posted on the Drudge Report. The posting indicated that the cartoonist would need to create presentations for the bureau's management meetings and added, "The contractor shall conduct two, 3-hour Humor in the Workplace programs that will discuss the power of humor in the workplace [and] the close relationship between humor and stress."
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Postal Worker Gets Prison For Stealing Kids' Birthday Money Screenshot-sm 5

East Linda, CA must have a babies with a candy shortage, because postal worker Dean Hudson had to resort to stealing money out of children's birthday cards. Postal officials started an investigation after receiving complaints about opened mail. The investigation led to Hudson pleading guilty to opening mail and taking money out of the birthday cards. US District Judge Edward Garcia sentenced him to five months in federal prison followed by five months of home detention, and Hudson must pay nearly $3,000 in restitution.
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Detroit to Stop Prosecuting "Low-priority Crimes" Screenshot-sm 17

Wayne county prosecutor Kym Worthy has told commissioners that proposed budget cuts won't allow the her office to prosecute low-priority crimes like breaking and entering. "We can't even cover our courtrooms anymore. At some point, if the budget continues to be cut, we're going to have to start making decisions about what crimes we prosecute," Worthy said. The county is facing a $105-million deficit in its 2009-10 budget. This might not be so bad. There is almost nothing worth breaking into or stealing in Detroit anyway.
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Man Fights Mountain Lion With a Chainsaw Screenshot-sm 6

Dustin Britton's bad-assness has been cemented in stone after he fought off a mountain lion with a chainsaw. The 32-year-old mechanic and ex-Marine was cutting wood about 100 feet from his campsite when the big cat attacked. "It batted me three or four times with its front paws and as quick as I hit it with that saw it just turned away. You would think if you hit an animal with a chain saw it would dig right in. I might as well have hit it with a hockey stick," he said. Britton escaped the fight with only a small puncture wound and a 50% increase in testicle growth.
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Children Traumatized By "War of the Worlds" Abduction of Teacher Screenshot-sm 29

370 children at Southway Junior School were surprised when a spaceship landed near their school. They were terrified when aliens invaded the classrooms and started to abduct teachers; and their parents are furious that school officials decided to put on this production to "develop youngsters' writing skills" without notifying them first. The school did have the foresight to inform the local police however. Thinking it was a great idea, the cops provided sirens and flashing blue lights to signify the landing of the spaceship. A parent who wished to remain anonymous said, "God only knows what the school was playing at. I mean, to shock children into thinking that the aliens have landed and have abducted a teacher is just a little too much for seven-year-olds. My daughter was deeply upset by it all and came home looking shell shocked. She wasn't sure what had happened and really wanted to know that everything was going to be alright."
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Hugs Not Drugs Screenshot-sm 7

It's important to start terrifying children early.
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Huge Unidentified Organic Blob Floating Around Alaska Screenshot-sm 424

Z80xxc! writes "The Anchorage Daily News reports that a 15 mile-long blob of unknown, 'gooey,' probably organic material is floating past communities on Alaska's North Slope. The US Coast Guard sent pollution experts to investigate, who determined that it was not an oil spill or other type of pollution, but were unable to determine what it is. A sample is currently being analyzed by experts in Anchorage, while the blob is following the current northwards."
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NYPD Spends $1 Million On Typewriters Screenshot-sm 11

EdIII writes "Despite having most, if not all, of it's arrest forms computerized, the NYPD has spent nearly $1M dollars on new typewriters for its police officers to fill out property and evidence vouchers with carbon copies. Regardless of complaints from police officers about inefficiency, lack of common sense, and slow processing, typewriters are not going to be phased out anytime soon according to officials. As one cop put it, 'We have to sneak around the rest of the precinct in search of a ribbon to steal.' According to one study by Dr. Edith Linn, outdated equipment is part of the reason for officers being averse to making arrests for less-serious crimes. However, it's not all bad news, for the typewriter companies at least."
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Lawyer Offers $1M For Proof His Client Could Have Done It; Oops Screenshot-sm 362

A Florida attorney, Cheney Mason, made the mistake of offering a million dollars on a TV show to anyone who could prove that his client, Nelson Ivan Serrano, was able to travel across two states and kill four people in the time that prosecutors had alleged. Having a lot of free time, South Texas College of Law graduate Dustin Kolodziej decided to take Mason up on his dare. Dustin traveled the route prosecutors say Serrano took, completed the trip under the time allowed, and videotaped the whole process. He is now suing Mason in the federal district court — because the attorney doesn't want to pay, saying that his statement was just a joke.
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Indian Tiger Park Now Tiger-Free Screenshot-sm 170

Panna National Park is now officially tiger free making it the second Indian tiger sanctuary to no longer have a tiger population. A census was conducted in the park, after authorities reported no Bengal Tiger sightings for a long time. Three years ago the park had a population of 24 tigers; however, none were found this year. Forest minister Rajendra Shukla is optimistic about the news and says, "Panna is our only park which has lost on this count. Three of state's reserve forests — Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench — have been adjudged among the best managed tiger reserves in the country."
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China Bans Shock Treatment For Internet Addiction Screenshot-sm 113

angry tapir writes "China has banned the use of shock therapy to treat Internet addiction after its use at one hospital sparked nationwide controversy. The hospital drew wide media coverage in recent months after Internet users claiming to have received the treatment wrote in blogs and forums about being tied down and subjected to shocks for 30 minutes at a time."
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Michael Jackson's Music Good For Economy? Screenshot-sm 4

atlanticbreakers writes ""Dr. Phil Maymin is an Assistant Professor of Finance and Risk Engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. He holds a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Chicago, a Master's in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, and a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Harvard University. He found a correlation between the annual average beat variance of the songs in the US Billboard Top 100 since its inception in 1958 through 2007 to the standard deviation of returns of the S&P 500 for the same year. He makes an interesting statement about Michael Jackson's songs."
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Israel Accused of Boosting Gaza Sex Drive With Tainted Gum Screenshot-sm 8

An anonymous reader writes "According to this Yahoo! news article, 'Hamas suspects that Israeli intelligence services are supplying its Gaza Strip stronghold with chewing gum that boosts the sex drive in order to "corrupt the young." The story came to light after a Palestinian man filed a complaint that his daughter had experienced "dubious side effects" after chewing the offending gum, Israeli media reported.'"
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Hanna Montana Linux Screenshot-sm 16

boisepunk writes "OS News has reported on what some would consider an abomination. Hannah Montana Linux is reportedly a Linux Distro made specifically for fans of Hannah Montana. It is speculated that Disney may shut this down."

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