Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy[size=1]
Wednesday, September 3, 2003 Posted: 10:17 AM EDT [size]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Movi...eut/index.html


BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Hollywood star Johnny Depp said on Wednesday the United States was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed.

The 40-year-old actor, who stars in the "Pirates of the Caribbean," told the German news magazine Stern he was happier staying in the south of France with his wife, the French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis, and their two children.

"America is dumb, it's like a dumb puppy that has big teeth that can bite and hurt you, aggressive," he said.

"My daughter is four, my boy is one. I'd like them to see America as a toy, a broken toy. Investigate it a little, check it out, get this feeling and then get out," said the star of the off-beat films "Edward Scissorhands" and "Dead Man."

Depp slammed George W. Bush's administration for its criticism of French opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.

"I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots," he told Stern.



{{{I guess I will be keeping my "stupid, aggressive" American dollars in my pockets, rather than see him ...}}

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[Jolie Rouge]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/09/01...eut/index.html


Experimental tourism catches on

Monday, September 1, 2003 Posted: 9:14 AM EDT

ytourism -- a roll of the dice may determine if Paris' Basilique du Sacré Coeur is visited.

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Sick of sightseeing? Tired of tour guides? Then why not try experimental tourism, a novel approach to travel that starts with a quirky concept and can lead anywhere from Bora Bora to a bus stop.

Take monopolytourism. Participants armed with the local version of a Monopoly game board explore a city at the whim of a dice roll, shuttling between elegant shopping areas and the local water plant -- with the occasional visit to jail.

Or countertourism, which requires you to take snapshots with your back turned to landmarks like the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben.

Joel Henry, the French founder of the Laboratory of Experimental Tourism (Latourex), has developed dozens of similar ideas since coming up with the concept in 1990.

"You increase your receptiveness," the 48-year-old writer said by telephone from his home in Strasbourg in eastern France. "You work out a set of constraints and you stick to it, and that is your sole purpose for the period you decide to devote to the experience. You are open to all the surprises that will pop up along the way," he explained.

Despite its name, there is nothing scientific about Latourex. Potographs and souvenirs collected along the way are usually "analyzed" over a glass of wine. It functions along the lines of the Oulipo, short for Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle or Workshop of Potential Literature, a group founded by authors and mathematicians in 1960 which places arbitrary constraints on the writing process.

In the same spirit as Georges Perec wrote a novel without ever using the letter "e," the hardy experimental traveller might walk in a straight line from a city's first street in alphabetical order to the last, a concept known as alphatourism.

In London, that makes for a 19-km (12-mile) trek from Abbess Close south of the Thames to Zoffany Street in the north. Alternatively, you could restrict yourself to destinations with double names, like Bora Bora or Walla Walla.

Devotees make it a point of honor to stick to the parameters of the game. "Some people are tempted to try it precisely because it's a challenge to fulfill all the requirements. I would even say there is a certain amount of rivalry between participants over who sticks to the rules closest," said Francois Burgard, a regular.


'Erotourism'

Traditional 'not-to-be-missed' sites are often not quite so important in some experimental tourism rules. Henry said his most unusual invention was erotourism, where a couple heads to the same town but travels there separately. The challenge is to find one another abroad.

He and his wife of 30 years have engaged in the erotic pursuit in five cities and have managed to hook up every time. "Each time we were convinced that this time, we wouldn't find each other, and each time we did," he said.

Some of his ideas are legally dubious, like kleptotourism, the theft of fragments of monuments like Rome's Colosseum or the Great Wall of China. Others sound plain boring, although Henry maintains there is no such thing as an inferior destination. "A fundamental condition for taking part in Latourex is to refute the idea of banality itself, because we consider that nothing is mundane," he explained.

The father-of-three is equally happy roaming the bridges of Venice searching for his wife as he is playing croquet on a busy traffic roundabout. "There are some very entertaining and beautiful roundabouts. They can be quite interesting," he said earnestly.


Burgard takes a similar view. He said his most exotic outing with Latourex was a weekend in the suburbs of Strasbourg, best known for their grimy council estates, during which participants were barred from setting foot in the city center. "It's slightly destabilizing, maybe more so than elsewhere where you are in an abnormal setting anyway, whereas here we were a stone's throw away from home," he said.

If roundabouts and parking lots do not sound like a promising sales pitch for a holiday, it is because Henry has nothing to sell. He does not make a penny from Latourex, which functions as a gathering point rather than a travel agency, with participants paying their own costs. The group now has some 200 informal members, more than half of whom live outside Strasbourg.

Henry does admit to taking the odd "normal" holiday. Just don't expect to run into him at Club Med, the chain of French holiday resorts famed for its eat-all-you-can buffets and round-the-clock activities. "Although having said that, I would almost consider that going away with Club Med is on the verge of experimental tourism," he said with a mischievous chuckle.

[Jolie Rouge]

Milk with bubbles reaches market
Sunday, August 31, 2003 Posted: 8:42 PM EDT

"Refreshing Power Milk"

MILFORD, New York (AP) -- Adding bubbles to milk is tricky. Pump in too many, and it foams over. Add too few and why bother.

George and Mary Ann Clark, husband-and-wife entrepreneurs, have spent the past seven years trying to find the balance. Last week, they started production on a carbonated milk-based drink called Refreshing Power Milk -- RPM -- and they already have orders coming in from school districts.

Mary Ann Clark, a registered nurse, said she was pained to see children drinking cola and shunning milk when she worked in schools so she decided to do something about it.

"If you take water and add carbon dioxide to make soda, why can't you do that with milk?" she asked. She and her biochemist husband started work on a carbonated milk drink in 1996 and founded Mac Farms Inc. in 1998. The company already sells eMoo, another carbonated milk drink. On Wednesday, in a factory with a barn-red roof and purple-and-yellow cow out front, the first batch of RPM was bottled.

The Clarks combined water and powdered milk to create a slightly fizzy, mildly milky-tasting drink with the nutritional value of skim milk and 40 percent of the recommended daily amount of calcium.

Each 12-ounce serving contains 90 calories and 12 grams of sugar, compared to 150 calories and 40 grams of sugar in a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola. RPM contains 9 grams of protein compared to none in a can of Coca-Cola, but is higher in sodium: 115 grams to 52 grams per 12-ounce serving.

The flavors: vanilla cappuccino, Brazilian chocolate and chocolate raspberry.

Researchers at Cornell University had been looking for ways to extend the shelf life of dairy products using carbonation when the researchers teamed up with the Clarks several years ago.

Joe Hotchkiss, chairman of the Department of Food Science at Cornell University, said the drink was designed to attract people who like soda. "People consume food based on their sensory properties, taste, what kind of emotional feelings it gives them," said Hotchkiss. "Our role is to provide that similar kind of satisfaction in foods, but also couple that to foods that are more nutritionally sound."

[Jolie Rouge]

Schwarzenegger vows 'people's takeover' of Sacramento
Actor skipping first debate of recall campaign
Wednesday, September 3, 2003 Posted: 9:46 PM EDT

Hit on the shoulder by an egg during a campaign appearance, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger asks for bacon to go with it

LONG BEACH, California (CNN) -- Gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, shaking off being the target of an egg-thrower, vowed Wednesday to lead a "people's takeover" of California's government, saying career politicians have left the state in a shambles.

Speaking in advance of a candidates' debate he has decided to skip, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, described his candidacy as a "movement for change."

"Help me send a message to Sacramento -- game is over," Schwarzenegger told the enthusiastic crowd at California State University in Long Beach. California voters will decide October 7 whether to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and who should replace him if he is ousted. The ballot will includes 135 names for voters to pick from.

As he arrived on campus, Schwarzenegger was greeted by a crowd of young supporters, but one apparent opponent pelted the actor with an egg. Schwarzenegger was not harmed. He later joked about the incident, saying he needed bacon to go with the egg and he dismissed the incident as part of "free speech."

The Austrian-born immigrant noted that he has made a fortune as an actor in the movies, and he credited California with providing him with that opportunity.

"Now, I want other people's dreams to come true," he said.

Schwarzenegger's speech was rich in one-liners and scarce in specifics. He promised to fix the state's economy without saying how and he vowed to improve the state's education system without providing any details.

He brushed aside criticism of the recall, saying it was not a "right-wing takeover" but an expression of the people's will. And he promised to work with Democrats if elected.

Waving his finger for emphasis, he described Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante -- the top Democrat in the recall race -- as cut from the same mold as the unpopular Davis.

"They are the twin terminators of Sacramento," Schwarzenegger, making a reference to his popular Terminator movies.

"I'm not afraid of the Democrats," he said. "Remember, I'm married to one." Schwarzenegger is married to television journalist Maria Shriver, a niece of President Kennedy.

Earlier, aides to Schwarzenegger announced they were seeking a change in the format of the September 24 debate -- the one debate that Schwarzenegger has said he will participate in. The aides proposed that the questions for that forum not be released in advance, but sponsors of the debate said the format was not open to negotiation.

Schwarzenegger has been under fire for limiting his appearances and not participating in Wednesday night's planned debate of five top candidates in Walnut Creek, California. Davis will address that forum.

Critics said Schwarzenegger only agreed to the September 24 debate because he would have the questions in advance, a charge his campaign has denied.

At a news conference following his speech, Schwarzenegger also returned to a controversial 1977 interview with an adult magazine in which he talked in graphic terms about group sex and drugs.

Asked about the interview, Schwarzenegger said he had no memory of the interview or of the incidents described in it.

He described the 1970s as "an outrageous decade" and suggested he said some of the things just for shock value. "I have the utmost respect for women," he said.

--Written by CNN.com Producer Sean Loughlin in Washington.

[Jolie Rouge]

Freshmen know 'bling bling,' not Paul Newman
List bridges cultural gap between students, professors
Wednesday, September 3, 2003 Posted: 12:01 PM EDT


MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- For this year's college freshmen, computers have always fit in a backpack and Paul Newman has always made salad dressing. Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie are old enough to be their parents. Those are just a few of the cultural reference rifts between the students and their professors this year, according to Beloit College's sixth annual Mindset List.

The list aims to bridge the gap so professors can communicate better with students. But who, some University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee freshmen asked Tuesday, is this Paul Newman? Or Pete Rose, who the list points out has always been a gambler in their lifetime?

"I've never heard of those people," said Pamela Westmoreland, 18.

By the time Westmoreland was born, the list informs us, Russian leaders had already taken to looking like leaders everywhere else and a test could screen for AIDS.

"We're really just trying to illustrate the generation gap," said Beloit College humanities professor Tom McBride, one of two who developed the list.

"Professors will teach by referring to cultural information for purposes of analogy or illustration. But the kind of information they're using may simply not be relevant to 18-year-old minds."

Rapid change

He said it's not surprising that even those in their 20s feel old reading the list, since the pace of cultural change is swift these days. Marketers target students in such a specific age range that even people just a few years out of college have different references.

"Adults today really look upon 18-year-olds as if they're from Borneo or outer Mongolia," McBride said.

"Oh my God, Bert and Ernie are old enough to be my parents!"
-- Sarah Hugill, 19

But it's up to the professors to teach the next generation.

For this year's class, "Ctrl+Alt+Del" is as basic as ABC, and the Osmonds have never been more than talk show hosts. Sarah Hugill, 19, said she doesn't agree with the list's assertion that to her generation: "An automatic is a weapon, not a transmission."

"The only access to guns I've ever experienced is hunting rifles," said Hugill, who comes from a farm in Livingston, Wisconsin. But she laughed while reading other entries: "Oh my God, Bert and Ernie are old enough to be my parents!"

The list also highlights expressions that have grown up along with the freshmen: "bling bling" (flashy jewelry) and "dissing" (treating with disrespect). Hugill's high school graduating class voted to add "bling bling" tassles of fake crystals to their graduation caps -- for an added fee of $7, she said.

Adults may not understand college freshmen, but McBride cautioned them not to dismiss the younger generation just because they have their own references. The point of a liberal arts education, after all, is to teach some history and context, he said. "I think it's also important that we try to understand something about the way they look at the world, not just what they don't know," he said.

[Jolie Rouge]

Man Charged in Fatal Crash Into Lake

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/crim...04.htm&sc=1110


CLINTON, Ill. (AP) - A man who was behind the wheel of a car that sunk in Clinton Lake and killed three children inside has been charged with driving under the influence of drugs, authorities said.

Maurice Lagrone Jr., 28, of Clinton also is charged with driving with a suspended license, DeWitt County State's Attorney Jerry Johnson said.

Lagrone and his girlfriend, Amanda Hamm, 28, of Clinton, escaped the car after it went off a boat ramp Tuesday evening, DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey said. Hamm's children died.

On Wednesday the community grieved at the restaurant where Hamm worked. The school attended by two of the children offered counseling to students.

``We have a small community here dealing with some big tragedy,'' Massey said.

Hamm called 911 from a pay phone and emergency workers were at the scene in about five minutes, according to police reports. Massey said the children were in the water 10 to 15 minutes.

Brothers Christopher Hamm, 6, and Austin Brown, 3, were pronounced dead within minutes of their arrival at Dr. John Warner Hospital in Clinton. Kyleigh Hamm, 23 months, was flown to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, where she died after 2 p.m. Wednesday, the Peoria County coroner's office said.

Authorities said a special prosecutor will be assigned because Hamm's mother works for the state's attorney.

The children were frequent visitors to the restaurant where Hamm works, and customers and staff members there spent Wednesday talking about the accident. Hamm's co-workers said they would solicit donations to help the family with expenses.

Restaurant manager Brenda Fouts said it was difficult reporting to work. ``I'm doing OK, if you consider crying in spurts to be OK,'' she said.

Clinton schools Superintendent Roger Little said it is important to comfort students at Douglas Elementary School, where Christopher was a first-grader and Austin attended early childhood classes. ``All we can do is help the children who may need to talk about it,'' Little said.



09/04/03 09:20



{{{Am I the only one who finds this odd ?

Why did she let him drive if he had a suspended license ?

How did they "escape" the car after it went off a boat ramp but let the kids behind ( I assume in car seats ? ) If it were my children, I would be down there trying to free them - by any means nessassary }} The water would be ten to fifteen feet - deep but not impossiably so ...

Hamm called 911 from a pay phone and emergency workers were at the scene in about five minutes, according to police reports. Massey said the children were in the water 10 to 15 minutes

something "hinky" about this time frame ...}}}

[Jolie Rouge]

Sad News For Cyclist Lance Armstrong

Five-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, 31, and his wife, Kristin, 32, have separated and are planning to divorce, The Associated Press reports. The couple, who have been married for five years and have three children, separated two weeks ago soon after they moved to Austin, Texas from their European home in Girona, Spain. They are now living in two separate homes while using mediation to seek a divorce settlement.

"It's an unfortunate situation," Kristin Armstrong told the Austin American-Statesman. "We are making the best of it for the sake of our kids." The couple first separated in late January, but reunited. They underwent counseling in an attempt to save their marriage. "We both have (legal) representation, and we're doing this peacefully," Armstrong told AP. "The craziest thing is, we're closer now and better friends than ever before. We're truly committed to maintaining a good relationship, but not a marriage." The entire family--Kristin along with 3-year-old Luke and 22-month-old twins Isabelle and Grace--were on hand to cheer Lance's Tour victory on July 27.

Lance and Kristin met in January 1997, soon after he finished intense chemotherapy for advanced testicular cancer. They started dating in June of that year and were married in May 1998. "The kids are our first priority," Lance told AP. "We're also going to be respectful of each other. Neither of us wants to get in the situation where when we drop off the kids, we can't look at each other."

[Jolie Rouge]

Top 10 Dumbest CEO Decisions
By Motley Fool Staff
August 26, 2003


It usually takes just a few minutes for guests on our radio show to relax and let their hair down (probably something to do with the drinks we serve them). Some of the most revealing moments come when the chief executives of multimillion-dollar companies talk about their biggest mistakes. Here, then, are the:


Jim Keyes, 7-Eleven (NYSE: SE) convenience stores

We packaged a more convenient pantyhose for ladies and it has helped us to bring more female shoppers into the store, but we were a little bit out there when we introduced fishnet hose at 7-Eleven Stores. I would say that was one of the dumber decisions.



Dick Kinzel, Cedar Fair (NYSE: FUN) amusement parks

We put a $4 million building around this dog ride and named it "Disaster Transport." I still remember on opening day a gentleman walked out of the ride and came over to me and said, "You named that one right -- that's a disaster." And you know what, he was right. That was by far the dumbest thing I ever did.



Bob Wright, ConAgra Foods (NYSE: CAG) Butterball Turkey unit

We had a promotional event a couple of years ago where we were trying to convince people to use turkey in the "off season." We created an event called "Thanks Grilling" and we invited the public to celebrate with us. But, quite frankly, we way underdelivered the amount of food and drinks that we needed and wound up sending a whole lot of people home with coupons.



Steve Sanger, General Mills (NYSE: GIS)

One of the dumber ones was at the time we announced the Pillsbury acquisition. I boldly told the market that I thought we could get through the regulatory review and close the deal in six months or less. That may have been what I thought, but given that we were dealing with the United States government, it was not within my control. So 18 months later when we closed the deal, I found myself having to apologize for the fact that my prediction was so far off.



Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN)

The biggest mistake we made was our investment strategy during sort of the land rush phase of the Internet. We invested in companies like Living.com and Pets.com. Those investments didn't work out well and we wasted a bunch of money.



Jim Sinegal, Costco (Nasdaq: COST) food warehouse

I suppose it was exiting the Midwest, which we did about 15 years ago. We opened up in the Midwest and we were not immediately successful and we exited, and I think it took us a long time to get up the courage to go back into that market. Had we stayed the course at that point in time we might have been much more successful in the Midwest today.



Bob Davies, Arm & Hammer maker Church & Dwight (NYSE: CHD)

In the middle '70s, we went zooming into the personal deodorant and antiperspirant business with an aerosolized can of baking soda. We had two huge problems. Many of the cans clogged, and those that didn't clog did worse -- they massively stung people's underarms. We lost around $6 million in that venture and that was back when we were a tiny little company. I almost lost my job.



Fred Smith, FedEx (NYSE: FDX)

My dumbest idea was probably to appear as myself in the Tom Hanks film Castaway, which proved that my acting ability was worth the 18 seconds they gave me in the movie.



Jack Soden, Elvis Enterprises, the business entity created by the estate of Elvis Presley

We licensed a company that made bedroom slippers. They were big, furry slippers and they had this rubber image of Elvis' head on the toes. It was one of those things that when you saw them in the store, it was like, "What were we thinking?" We pulled the license and got them off the market as fast as we could.


[]
Ron Sargent, Staples (Nasdaq: SPLS) office products stores[/b]

April 22, 1996. Obviously, it's burned in my mind. That was the day we flipped on a new computer system. That decision brought us to our knees in the business and it probably took us a year to dig ourselves out. If there's a lesson for me, it's to be maybe less date-driven and more event-driven. It's a lesson I've used very well since then, that there's no substitute for extensive testing when it comes to IT systems.

[jaybird]

Roger Freeman, an Encino, Calif., dentist and lecturer on infectious diseases, wants to start an epidemic. Well, not really: his new company is pushing a line of neckties with magnified pictures of diseases from microscope slides. "The gonorrhea tie is the best looking tie in the whole lot," Freeman says, allowing that "The syphilis tie is gorgeous. The plague tie is pretty, [but] it's sold out." In addition, patterns showing tuberculosis, herpes, staphylococcus, AIDS, chlamydia, ebola, influenza and several other pathogens are available. Don't want to wear your favorite disease around your neck? Matching underwear is also available. (Reuters) ...Next year, he hopes to debut a new line of condoms.

[jaybird]

With This Ring I Me Wed
Janet Downes thinks she has found the secret for a happy marriage: she's marrying herself on her fortieth birthday. The Bellevue, Neb., woman says the wedding ceremony celebrates that she is "happy with herself," and plans to exchange vows with herself in the mirror. The ceremony will include a wedding gown, flowers, a traditional cake, and a choir.

((wonder if she has a hand in planning her wedding night?))

[Jolie Rouge]

Why doesn't she just throw a Birthday Party like everyone else ??