SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. - Two practical jokers are behind bars for setting their passed-out drinking buddy's crotch ablaze while boozing in Grover Beach. Matthew Craig Pillers and Jack Brent Nicholas Keiffer pleaded no contest to a felony great bodily injury charge.
Prosecutors say the 22-year-old Pillers, a parolee, was sentenced to two years in prison and the 19-year-old Keiffer got 45 days in San Luis Obispo County jail.
Elliot Tuleja was passed out when the men poured cologne on the man's groin and set him on fire on Jan. 18. Tuleja had second-degree burns on his testicles.
LONDON RESTAURANT BLAST AT WORLD'S HOTTEST CURRY TITLE Thu Jul 10, 12:12 PM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A London restaurant was serving up Thursday what it hopes will be confirmed as the world's hottest curry, with even the chef admitting it is "too extreme" to keep on the menu.
Vivek Singh at The Cinnamon Club grabbed some of the hottest chilli peppers known to man to create the Bollywood Burner, a lamb-based dish with a fierce kick.
The curry is so hot that diners are asked to sign a disclaimer confirming they are aware of the risks involved before daring to eat it.
The Bollywood Burner is being submitted to Guinness World Records for verification of its status as the planet's hottest curry. The verdict should be announced within three weeks.
Student Toby Steele, 19, from Brighton on the southern English coast, was the first to taste the Bollywood Burner.
"I'm usually a korma man and I suspect this is the hottest thing I've ever tasted," he said.
"It was nice actually, you could really taste the spices.
"The initial taste isn't that hot but now, a couple of minutes later, I feel a bit floaty and light-headed."
The dish, inspired by cuisine from Hyderabad in southern India, includes the Naga and its seeds -- confirmed by Guinness World Records as the hottest chilli pepper in the world.
On the Scoville scale of piquancy, the Naga scores 855,000 -- more than 100 times hotter than the jalapeno, which measures 8,000 on the scale.
"We found a list of the 10 hottest chillies and decided to try and use some of them. I think it will be the hottest curry in the world," said Singh.
The curry will not be a regular feature on the menu, he added.
Lianne la Borde of the Daily Star newspaper said: "It is the hottest I have ever tasted. At first, it tasted delicious. Then my mouth caught fire. It even made me feel dizzy."
Metro newspaper's James Ellis said it was "innocuous enough at the first bite," but one helping "saw my taste buds melt in fury at the inferno in my mouth.
"Meanwhile, my heartbeat, which started at a resting pace of 68 beats per minute, zoomed up to 128 -- the equivalent of doing aerobic exercise."
"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck."
Under normal circumstances, the death of a celebrity is not something I would spend any time mulling over or caring one-tenth of one damn about. But today is different.
Anyone who knows me well knows what a huge George Carlin fan I am. The man has been a huge inspiration to me in more ways than I can count. He's made me laugh harder than I ever knew I could. He taught me some very important lessons that I will always hold dear to my heart:
It's more important to be honest than to be liked.
Question everything. Especially authority.
Everyone is full of shit. Everyone. Conservatives, Liberals, Democrats, Republicans, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Agnostics, Atheists, Government, Blacks, Whites, Browns, Yellows, Greens and Blues. Bullshit is everywhere. And everyone is full of it. Everyone. Including you. And me.
And, most importantly; laugh at everything. Everything. There is nothing that can't be joked about or laughed at. Beware anyone who tells you "That's not funny. You can't joke about that!" Bullshit.
George taught us that being able to step back from all these awful things in our world and detach from them just enough to be able to reexamine them under the magnifying glass of humor was taking the first steps towards righting this sinking ship. If we're to heal these wounds, why not let laughter serve as our guide? "I believe you can joke about anything. It all depends on how you construct the joke," he said.
He also said "It's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately." And cross it he did. His trademark brand of razor-sharp humorous wit, hilarious observational musings, and biting, critical satire was one-of-a-kind. Some called him vulgar. Perhaps his most famous routine, "The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" landed him in jail after he performed it in public and prompted a landmark indecency case after New York's WBAI-FM radio aired it in 1973. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 that the sketch was "indecent but not obscene," giving the Federal Communications Commission broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency on the airwaves.
He filled three best-selling books, more than 20 record albums and countless television appearances with his material. He hosted the first broadcast of "Saturday Night Live" in October 1975. He has influenced generations of young comedians and been an important figurehead in American culture for decades. He was a comedian, a poet, a philosopher, a cynic, a teacher, a smartass, an absurdist, an old soul, and nothing short of a genius. And today, he's gone.
George Carlin has died.
When I heard the news, I sat stunned at my desk. I had just arrived at work, and got an email from a good friend. As I was reading it, the tears started flowing. Even now, as I'm typing this, they are welling up again. I don't normally like the word "hero," but George was my hero. I can't believe he's gone.
He was a true legend and a great man. There will never be another George Carlin.
ANTARCTICA BASE GETS 16,500 CONDOMS BEFORE DARKNESS
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday.
Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.
The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.
"Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.
About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.
The first sunrise will occur on August 20 and McMurdo's population will start to increase again in September when supply flights resume, peaking at more than 1,000 during the summer period.
Anyone involved in a shark attack would be considered unlucky – but few could claim to have been as luckless as Sam Hawthorne.
The teenager survived a terrifying ordeal when he was bitten in the face by one of the killer beasts – in his own bedroom.
The 'attack' happened when the 14-year-old sleepwalked into a long-dead souvenir shark hanging on the wall of his nautical-themed room.
He was left with the creature embedded in his cheek and blood pouring from a wound. His mother, Susan, said: 'It was like something out of a horror film.'
Jaws struck in the middle of the night at the family home in Dudley, West Midlands.
Mrs Hawthorne was woken by her son's screams but arrived too late to fend off the deadly fish – a holiday souvenir.
'The shark must have been embedded in Sam's cheek for about 15 minutes and he was in a lot of pain,' she said.
Fortunately, Sam escaped with just a small scar. 'It was the most frightening experience of my life,' he said.
TOKYO - When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.
Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.
He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.
"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.
"We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said.
The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years.
But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials.
"I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said.
So here we are; good ol' 2/14. Valentine's Day. The one holiday that people have come to collectively loathe. It's become quite fashionable to bash V-Day these days. So much so, in fact, that all the emails and snide comments attacking this most lovey-dovey of days have become more trite and unimaginative than the very cliched notions at which they are poking fun.
"Happy Greeting Card Day!" "Happy Made Up Holiday!"
Ooh! Good one! Hardy-har, I say!
It's just a day like any other, is it? Well, yes and no. It is what you make of it. This year, and from now on, it's a special day to me. Why?
It was a year ago today I confessed to Heather that I was in love with her.
So, to Hell with all your snarky, hipster cynicism! I'm here to say I love Valentine's Day! I love having a day dedicated to reminding this amazing woman that she is the love of my life. I relish the trip to the florist to find the perfect flowers that I know will make her smile that adorable smile of hers. I can't wait to get out of work so that I can wrap her in a big hug, plant a big wet kiss on her and tell her how much she means to me.
If it makes you nauseous, too bad!
OK, that was a bit more confrontational than I intended. My point is this: Even if Valentine's Day is a fabrication perpetuated to boost Hallmark's sales, so what? Even if it is Capitalistic exploitation of something as genuine as love, so what? Is Christmas any different? No! Why? Because you make it your own day. You think back to when you were young, and the magic of waking up early and rushing out to the living room to see all those presents under the tree. I remember when I was little, and in school we would all pass around Valentine's Day cards. They were loaded with candy. I couldn't wait! We were too young at the time to acknowledge the opposite sex as anything more than "icky girls" or "ewww, gross boys," so the whole thing strikes me as a rather odd exercise now. But I will always think back on it fondly.
And now, I have a new memory to attach to February 14th. And, if I'm lucky, I will have many more to come as I continue to share my life with the most amazing person I have ever known. She's my love, my light, my anchor, my heart, my beautiful girlfriend; Heather. I never knew I could love someone like I love her. Sometimes it really amazes me. And every day I find a new reason to love her even more.
So happy Valentine's Day, baby! Hell, happy Valentine's Day to you all!
OK Computer: 10 Years Later
Current mood: peaceful
I haven't posted much lately, and I'm even a few weeks late on this, but this is one blog post I needed to make.
A few days ago marked the 10-year anniversary of the release of Radiohead's "OK Computer." This almost slipped by me, but I happened to catch an article on the good ol' Interwebnet that brought this to my attention. I had to say something to commemorate such an event. But, out of fear that someone has said this much more eloquently than I, or perhaps just laziness on my part, I thought I would let the folks at Pitchfork Media say what needed to be said:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A little more than a decade ago, Radiohead issued their third album, OK Computer; in the time since, it's become arguably the most lauded album released over the past 10 years, claiming spots on Rolling Stone's 90s/00s-starved Top 500 albums countdown, as well as all-time lists created by Time and NME. In 2005, Spin also selected it as the best album in the magazine's first 20 years, while we at Pitchfork had pegged it as the best album of the 1990s two years earlier.
OK Computer-- primarily written and recorded in 1996-- was created at a time when British rock was colored by nationalist backslapping and necrophilia. On both sides of the Atlantic, meanwhile, dance music was bigger than it had been in years-- despite becoming creatively unhealthy: A decade of almost unparalleled progression in dance had, in the UK, culminated in Big Box-like superclubs and a focus on superstar DJ and artist albums, while the U.S. music media made a belated and clumsy embrace to exalt what it called electronica.
In this environment, the Prodigy's The Fat of the Land was released in America the same day as OK Computer, and, not surprisingly, made a much larger initial impact, landing at No. 1 on the charts (OKC debuted at No. 21). In the U.S., the Prodigy were heralded as the bellwethers for electronica, while, in the face of electronic music-- and exponentially rising sales of country and hip-hop-- Radiohead were charged by some critics with the minor task of "saving" rock music. Oddly, the two records seemed to have opposite effects: Throughout the late 1990s and early 00s, Thom Yorke practically functioned as a Warp publicist, helping to expose rock fans to electronic textures and sounds, while the Prodigy-- along with Nine Inch Nails, Rage Against the Machine, and Korn-- inadvertently spawned the well-selling mook rock.
Crucially, OK Computer engaged with the textures and limitless sonic possibilities of electronic music while still retaining what Simon Reynolds called in Uncut the "complicated emotions, spiritual nourishment, and solace that rock at its best had always provided." Out of the wilderness of retro Britpop and the diminishing returns of dance, OK Computer was-- along with records by Spiritualized, the Verve, Primal Scream, and Björk-- among a handful of 1997 releases that split the difference between the two, embracing the possibilities and future of electronic music but retaining the charisma, scope, and grandeur of rock music.
Of the five, Radiohead accomplished the task best; a live performance in Chicago a week after the album's U.S. release seemed, at the risk of sounding corny, almost magical, the right music for the times, performed by curious, restless music fans who had a way with not only hooks and melodies but atmospherics as well. If Yorke's vocals and lyrics seemed vague or impressionistic-- one of the few regular complaints lobbied at the band-- they also expressed a fear of the unknown, an unsettling and prescient mix of technophobia, anxiety, and growing environmental concerns that we'd probably happily trade for today's more tangible global problems. (This desperate fear of unknown forces, apathetic to your individual plight, was best articulated in the "Karma Police" video, while the 90s apathy and indifference to the creeping dangers of global warming, terrorism, AIDS, and global poverty was best articulated by the clip for "No Surprises".)
Over the band's next two albums-- Kid A and Amnesiac-- it continued to craft even more forward-thinking rock music. Alas, the two records pushed a bit too far to the left of the "organic" and "authentic" (you know, instruments carved from wood) for many of those who had exalted Radiohead upon OKC's release. Many critics, when faced with having to both step outside their historical comfort zones and recalibrate their sensibilities or retreat back to the familiar, took the easy road and embraced the New Rock Revolution. Listeners, too, when faced with choosing something new and unique, have often valued the familiar and rote: In the UK, retro-rock regained its foothold, while on both sides of the Atlantic, the "spiritual nourishment" of Radiohead was embraced. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And here is their initial review of the album, from 1997: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thru space at 1.2 light years per hour, Radiohead's third piece of incredible work, OK Computer, is not only their best yet, but one the year's greatest releases.
The record is brimming with genuine emotion, beautiful and complex imagery and music, and lyrics that are at once passive and fire-breathing. OK Computer is like tossing David Bowie, old U2, Spacehog and lots of Pink Floyd into a blender and pushing the 'kill' button.
Thom Yorke's fragile vocals backed by the intricate guitar duels of Jonny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien, Phil Selway's intense, rhythmic pounding and the subtle but effective bass guitar of Colin Greenwood sends an energetic flare clean through your speakers, hurtling into the room around you and charging the air with static electricity. When Yorke sings, "In an interstellar burst / I am back to save the universe," you believe him.
OK Computer is the first album to intellegently express vehement hatred toward the corporate world's replacement of human emotion and personality with robotic behavior in their attempt to be "more professional." Yorke's disgust with self- help programs and "successful" businessmen is the focus, and if you're a person with any integrity whatsoever that's set foot in a Class A office building, you can probably relate.
Radiohead only seem to get better as time progresses, but Thom Yorke's expressed some doubt as to whether or not they can ever top this record. If they can, they'll have established themselves as one of the most outstanding rock bands the '90s had to offer. If not, they still came out of the deal with one album of unadulterated genius. Time will tell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Forward-thinking. Cathartic. Impressionistic. Limitless in scope. Revolutionary.
Call it what you will, but there will never be another OK Computer.
Currently
listening
:
OK Computer
By
Radiohead
Release date: 01 July, 1997
sad
peaceful
