At least you can tell if there is someone shady in the next stall.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the beach....

Police have arrested a California man for allegedly trying to sell his 14-year-old daughter into marriage in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat. The police became aware of this shining example of fatherhood after he went to them to complain that the buyer had failed to make payment as promised. He was arrested on suspicion of human trafficking.

Greg Hardesty, 45, from Silverado Canyon, California was a little shocked when he received his phone bill last month. It's not everyday that you get a 440-page cell phone bill. His 13-year-old daughter Reina had sent an incredible 14,528 text messages in one month. Hardesty says, "First, I laughed. I thought, 'That's insane, that's impossible...And I immediately whipped out the calculator to see if it was humanly possible." If you crunch the numbers it comes out to be 484 a day or one for every two minutes she was awake, impressive!

boaworm writes "Tired of your old job? Tourism Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, offers this: The role of Island Caretaker is a six-month contract, based on luxurious Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. It's a live-in position with flexible working hours and key responsibilities include exploring the islands of the Great Barrier Reef to discover what the area has to offer. Living above the Great Barrier Reef is a pretty unique benefit, but the successful candidate will also be paid a salary package of AUD $150,000 for the six-month contract. You'll receive return airfares from your nearest capital city (in your home country), accommodation and transport on Hamilton Island, travel insurance for the contract period, computer, internet, digital video and stills cameras access, plus travel to a number of the other Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The six-month contract commences 1st July 2009 The full job offer can be found here" Sadly this position does not come with a little person side-kick in a white suit.

Not even Captain Planet is immune to the effects of climate change.

They went on a 12-city rampage the first night.

A_Mythago writes "Ever wanted to unleash your 'Inner Jedi' but have been put off by that pesky lack of midi-chlorians? Fear not, your salvation is at hand with a new EEG-controlled toy developed by Uncle Milton Industries that allows you to use 'the Force' to move a ball up and down in a tube using only the power of your mind. With levels of difficulty from Padawan to Jedi, it is sure to be a hit with the Star Wars geek in your life!" Let me know when they release the Dark Side version of this so I can practice my remote choking powers.

funfail writes "What's the Value of a Facebook Friend? About 37 Cents... To earn your free burger, download the Whopper Sacrifice Facebook application and dump 10 unlucky friends deemed to be unworthy of their weight in beef. After completing the purge, users are prompted to enter their addresses and the coupons are sent out via snail mail." Mmmmm....social isolation and hamburgers, sounds delicious.

It has taken Graham Parker almost his entire life, but today after 26 years he has finally solved his Rubik's Cube. Way back in 1983 when Graham bought the toy, Yuri Andropov was leader of the Soviet Union, and CDs were just starting to fill shelves. The 45-year-old from Portchester, Hampshire, says, "I cannot tell you what a relief it was to finally solve it. It has driven me mad over the years - it felt like it had taken over my life. I have missed important events to stay in and solve it and I would lie awake at night thinking about it. I have had wrist and back problems from spending hours on it but it was all worth it. When I clicked that last bit into place and each face was a solid color, I wept." Mr. Parker plans on spending the next 26 years untying a knot in his laces.

Who says carpentry can't be cool?

It's just a matter of time until they learn to drive.

PeterAitch writes "According to Reuters, Potsdam University in Germany is now teaching social skills as part of their IT courses. This is intended to 'ease entry into the world of work'. The 440 students enrolled in the master's degree course will learn how to write flirtatious text messages and emails, impress people at parties and cope with rejection(s)." The class is taught by a superficial model, who will fall in love with the nerdiest student at the end of the semester after realizing that he is beautiful on the inside.

A teacher at Peterson Elementary School had three 8-year-old girls shave off his beard in front of the classroom, then made them promise not to tell their parents. The girls parents are now angry and want their precious little one's transferred out of the class so they won't have to relive the horror of touching human hair. The teacher, Michael McLane, says the shaving was a "story starter" for a writing activity. A letter from Principal Nolan Harris reads, in part: "As you may be aware, the last week before the Thanksgiving break, Mr. McLane had the class participate in a face-shaving activity with an electric razor as a story starter for a writing assignment. He later instructed the students that if they told they would not have a Christmas Party. Needless to say, that instruction was inappropriate and was not well received by several parents, staff or the Administration. On behalf of myself and the District, we want to apologize to the students and parents."

Ana10g writes "Are you looking for a thruster for that spacecraft you've been building on the side? Matthew Krolak's How-To Article details how to build a Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster may have the answer. It actually seems to be fairly straightforward, and the parts are readily available." Looks like a great project to do with very small children in a garage full of oily rags.

Everyone needs something to believe in.

Kodak should hire this guy to part of an advertising campaign.

nandemoari writes "A six-year-old who recently stole his parents' car and drove it into a utility pole has passed the buck onto a familiar scapegoat: the video game, Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar Games' controversial Grand Theft Auto video game has been criticized by parent groups and crusaders (or in the eyes of gamers, nincompoops) like former lawyer Jack Thompson for years (Thompson once tried to link the Virginia Tech slayings to late-night Counterstrike sessions. He's since been disbarred). However, not as of yet has anyone under the age of, oh, ten, blamed the game for a car theft."

Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that more people need to donate their brains to medical research if cures for diseases like dementia are to be found and are urging healthy people as well as those with brain disorders to become donors. 'For autism, we only have maybe 15 or 20 brains that have been donated that we can do our research on. That is drastically awful,' said Dr Payam Rezaie of the Neuropathology Research Laboratory at the Open University. 'We would need at least 100 cases to get meaningful data. A lot of research is being hindered by this restriction.' Part of the problem, according to Professor Margaret Esiri at the University of Oxford, may be that people are reluctant to donate their brains because they see the organ as the basis of their identity. 'It used to be other parts of the body that we thought were important,' says Esin. 'But now people realize that their brain is the crucial thing that gives them their mind and their self.' Dr Kieran Breen, of the Parkinson's Disease Society, said over 90% of the brains in their bank at Imperial College London were from patients, with the remaining 10% of 'healthy' brains donated by friends or relatives of patients. 'Some people are under the impression that if they sign up for a donor card that will include donating their brain for research. But it won't,' says Breen. 'Donor cards are about donating organs for transplant, not for medical science.'"

Richard Batista, 49, is suing his estranged wife, 44-year-old Dawnell Batista, for the return of a kidney he donated to her in 2001 or the sum of $1.5 million. After discovering that his wife had an affair with her physical therapist in 2003, Mr. Batista lost that loving feeling and now wants the organ back. "I saved her life and then to be betrayed like this is unfathomable. It's incomprehensible," he told the Post. "She engaged in an extramarital affair and refused to go to marital counseling and reconciliation."