YOUR FIRST CHALLENGE IS:
Posted by KlarthWho can find the craziest, most outlandish news article before the 25th?
You can post anything from BBC, CNN, MSNBC or any other news source which you consider reputable.
Preferably worksafe material.
Have at ye.
Posted by Proto ManCouple questions. Exactly what is the point to these challenges? What do we gain from them, immunity of some sort?
Also, do we PM the articles to you, or post them publicly?
Posted by Klarth- You don't gain any immunity, other than perhaps swaying the observers' opinions of you. Still haven't decided on whether you get a sig banner or something of that ilk - Not really much point as to interweb prizes.
- You post the articles in this thread.
Posted by mis0http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060516/od_nm/japan_oxygen_dc
[quote=Yahoo News and Reuters]
TOKYO (Reuters) - Exhausted Japanese workers in need of a pick-me-up will soon be able to get a hit of canned oxygen at their local convenience store.
Seven-Eleven Japan will start marketing the new product, "O2 Supli," at select stores in the Tokyo area later this month and expand sales nationwide in June.
"People are under a lot of stress and can't get much exercise, so they aren't getting enough oxygen," said Minoru Matsumoto, a spokesman for Seven & I Holdings Co Ltd, Seven-Eleven's parent company.
"This is especially true of people who do long hours of desk work in front of a computer. They don't breathe that deeply."
The oxygen will be sold for 600 yen ($5.50) in 3.2-liter spray cans of 95 percent pure oxygen, each of which comes with a small plastic mask attached to the top.
Users place the mask over their mouth and nose, then push a nozzle, which dispenses the oxygen for two to three seconds.
Each can contains enough oxygen for about 35 doses, in either a grapefruit or peppermint fragrance.
"The peppermint should be really good for mornings when you're tired, or when you're driving, or when you really have to concentrate," Matsumoto said.
"The grapefruit should be good before you do sports or while you're working really late."
People involved in product testing gave favorable reports, Matsumoto said, noting that he had tried it himself.
"Everyone found it extremely refreshing," he added.
Now that's pretty out there.
Posted by mis0Or this, perhaps: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/05/02/malaysia.wedding.ap/index.html
[quote=CNN News and AP]
Woman, 104, takes man, 33, as husband No. 21
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; Posted: 6:25 p.m. EDT (22:25 GMT)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A 33-year-old man in northern Malaysia has married a 104-year-old woman, saying mutual respect and friendship had turned to love, a news report said Tuesday.
It was Muhamad Noor Che Musa's first marriage and his wife's 21st, according to The Star newspaper, which cited a report in the Malay-language Harian Metro tabloid.
Muhamad, an ex-army serviceman, said he found peace and a sense of belonging after meeting Wook Kundor, whom he said he initially sympathized with because she was childless, old and alone, the report said.
"I am not after her money, as she is poor," Muhamad reportedly said. "Before meeting Wook, I never stayed in one place for long."
He said he hoped to help his new bride to master Roman script while she taught him Islamic religious knowledge.
The report did not say if any of Wook's previous 20 husbands are still alive.
Malaysian Muslim men are allowed by their religion to take up to four wives at a time, but reports of women who marry more than once are rare. Muslim women do not practice polygamy.
Malaysia's 26 million population comprises about 60 percent Muslims, almost all ethnic Malays. Large ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities are Buddhists, Hindus or Christians.
Posted by sniperHere's a section of the article, rest can be found at http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/14606899.htm.
[quote]A GENITAL REMINDER
By DANA DiFILIPPO
[email]difilid@phillynews.com[/email] 215-854-5934
WITH THEIR wedding anniversary less than two weeks away, Howard Randolph was thinking romance. He hoped to take his wife, Monica, out for an intimate dinner and maybe an oldies-but-goodies show to celebrate 11 years of matrimony.
But yesterday, his mind was more on divorce and jail for his wife after she almost became Philadelphia's own Lorena Bobbitt.
Monica Randolph didn't need a kitchen knife. She took matters into her own hands.
The Nicetown man said he had been sleeping peacefully in the couple's bed Tuesday night when his wife pounced on him without warning, grabbed his groin, dug her manicured fingernails in and flayed him, leaving his gore-slicked gonads dangling much lower than normal.
"She didn't use no weapon - this was just sheer brute strength and fingernails. She grabbed me by my [scrotum] and ripped it apart with her bare hands," Randolph said yesterday from his hospital bed at Albert Einstein Medical Center, where he was in stable condition with stitched and bandaged genitals.
I hope spousal genital shredding is still considered outlandish.
Posted by Iris
Quoting Paul Strand, CBN News]Exposing Faith Through the XXX ChurchA survey done by Christianity Today magazine found 37 percent of pastors admit to struggling with pornography.
[URL="http://www.cbn.com/"][COLOR=#0000ff]CBN.com[/COLOR][/URL] –: [COLOR=#0000ff]xxxchurch.com[/COLOR][/URL] (Triple X Church) said, "We've talked to people who've lost jobs because they've been looking at it at work. We've talked to people who've gone bankrupt. We've talked to people whose marriages have been destroyed."
With pornography becoming more of a radical problem in society, at least a couple of southern California pastors have decided it needs to be dealt with...radically."
So Mike Foster and Gross started up a web ministry that calls itself "The number one Christian porn site." And they set up booths at America's biggest porn conventions. The purpose? To help people break free from porn.
Foster said, "I think it's time for Christians to be aware of the issues and be pro-active, and not simply let the wave of pornography sweep over us."
And it does hit Christians.
Gross said, "We found that the church and the secular world, there's really no difference in who's struggling." For instance, a survey of men at a Promise Keepers rally showed half had looked at porn in the week just before the rally.
"For so long it kind of was the dirty little secret," Gross continued.. "The church really wanted to pretend and hoped that this thing just goes away."
But a survey done by Christianity Today magazine found 37 percent of pastors admit to struggling with pornography.
Gross said, "And that's why I think they don't want to talk about it amongst the congregations, because it's something they're personally struggling with."
One way to fight back is the [URL="http://www.cbn.com/redir/XXXchurch.asp"][COLOR=#0000ff]xxxchurch.com[/COLOR][/URL], a web address deliberately picked to lure porn-seekers who type in the letters "XXX."
"And if you are personally struggling, go to this site, and you are going to realize, you're not alone, that there are other people out there struggling with the same things," said Gross. "We have sections for wives, sections for parents, sections for teenagers. One of them is a prayer wall where you can post your prayers and read about how porn is really affecting others. We have an 800 number where you can call in."
Another freebie that xxxchurch.com offers is "accountability software" that shoots off a biweekly list of web sites you've been visiting to two people of your choosing.
Gross says, "It takes away the secrecy, and a lot of the problems that people have on-line, if you're willing to let someone else see what you see."
The other major purpose of xxxchurch is to let porn industry professionals know Jesus loves them. Gross and Foster have been to several porn conventions, accompanied by their mascot Rex the Rabbit, their answer to the Playboy Bunny.
At these porn shows, they pass out postcards that say "Jesus loves porn stars." And it is this outreach that has caused outrage in some Christian circles.
Foster said, "We have people going 'how do you go to a porn show and keep your purity and, ya know, keep from falling into it?' And the reality is, we're just two guys going to a place where Jesus would be. The church, for the most part, thinks people are going to come to us. That's not the reality of the situation. We have to go to them."
It was at one such convention that Gross and Foster first crossed paths with "Jimmy D" DiGiorgio, an actual porn director.
DiGiorgio said, "I've probably directed in excess of a hundred adult movies." Jimmy D sat in his booth for three days observing the pastors in theirs. "And I can't for the life of me figure out what they're all about," said DiGiorgio. "I saw 'xxxchurch, number one Christian porn site. Finally I got up and walked across the way and sat down and spoke with them for awhile, and I found out they were like missionaries in a sense, coming to the porn convention. 'Oh, I get it. You guys are like Jesus walking with the lepers.'"
Just on a lark, this director of such porn flicks as "Lesbian Talent Scouts" offered to shoot, without charge, a commercial for the pastors.
DiGiorgio said, "'You're probably not going to accept this offer,' and they said, 'Why wouldn't we? You're going to shoot it for free!'"
The team decided to aim the ad at kids, because they are getting hit with porn at younger and younger ages - the average age when they first see it is now 11.
Part of the commercial read, "Have you come across a bunch of magazines in your dad's closet that show pictures of lots of naked mommies? Did it make you feel kind of yucky?" The ad was done, the friendship cemented.
"They're great guys and they're actually fun to hang out with," commented DiGiorgio.
Foster said, "The reality is the porn industry, for the most part, are nice people who are just normal people just like church people, just like me and Craig, and we've actually struck up some great relationships with them."
Meanwhile, the pastors just go on being outrageous. They decided to turn their car into one huge billboard for xxxchurch.com, much to the dismay of quite a few churchgoers.
"We've actually been to a couple of churches where they've actually called the police on us because they were scared of the car," said Foster.
DiGiorgio remarked, "They take a lot of heat for what they do. They're also quite outrageous in their approach to it. They have that Barnum and Bailey kind of thing going for them."
But does any of this work? Have they seen any fruit from this at all?
Foster said, "Well, actually one of the fruits is standing right there. We spent a lot of time talking about Jesus, talking about Jimmy, and where his relationship is at with the Lord."
When asked if the pastors were getting through to him, DiGiorgio replied, "I'm sure that you and your viewers would love to have me say 'yes.' But unfortunately, 'no. I feel the faith that they have, okay, if you will, I sense that about them. I can feel it. It's a real thing. It's almost a tangible thing. Has it become contagious to me? I have to answer 'no.'"
Foster admits Gross and he are not seeing any converts to Christ yet in the porn industry, but they're belligerently optimistic.
Foster said, "And so it's a tough ground that we're planting seeds on, but I really think, with ***'s power, we're going to see a lot of great fruit come from that."
The web site's been much more successful. More than 50 million hits so far. Many believers back the pastors' efforts, but says Foster, "...then there's the other side of the church that thinks we're complete nut-zos, and we're doing the work of the devil."
But Gross says the church needs to get the log out of its own eye before judging others. He said, "For Christians, our message is really clean up your lives, because we think porn and sin keeps you from doing the work that *** wants you to be doing."
First time I've heard of a porn church.
Posted by Lord of Spam[url=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v329/penguinbob/gangstairaq.jpg]You never said it had to be real.:cool:[/url]
Posted by sniperNiggas getting blasted is far from outlandish.
Posted by Lord of SpamYour face is outlandish.
I win.
Posted by sniperYour forehead is outlandish in proportions.
WIN THAT
Posted by Randomhttp://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/mcdonalds.crash.ap/index.html
This is not only REAL... Bizarre... AND CRUELTY!!
**EDIT**
Title of the story is:
'Smiling' driver runs over 3 toddlers, 2 adults
Heres another one thats Bizarre.. Atheist sues Priest for saying JESUS EXISTED... What has this world come to?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-01-30-italy-atheist_x.htm
Posted by KlarthPrize announced: Winner gets to mod the house until the next contest!
Posted by Lord of Spamfor the sake of protoman and somebody random, pray that i dont get the prize.
I promise that I will abuse the hell out of it if I get it.
Posted by Proto Man[URL="http://www.strangereports.com/portabletoiletv.php"]Here is my article[/URL]
Posted by Random
Quoting Klarth: Prize announced: Winner gets to mod the house until the next contest!
is it the prize for this specific mission or the overall winner?
Posted by KlarthThis specific mission.
Posted by Proto ManWho won?
Posted by KlarthNobody yet, but your entry was late, so it wasn't submitted. Sorry.
Posted by Proto Man
Quoting Klarth: Nobody yet, but your entry was late, so it wasn't submitted. Sorry.
WHAT? You said by the 25th! TODAY IS THE 25TH! I SUBMITTED MINE THE 24TH!!!
Oh well nvm then.
Posted by KlarthNot by my timezone, which is what we're operating on.
Posted by Proto Mangrrr.... I was an hour late your time by my calculations... oh well.
Posted by RandomWell then I guess it was good that I posted it when I had. Otherwise I might be left out too. I thought about waiting til today but I found a couple articles and they're legit too!
ok so i'm not sure if we were only supposed to have 1 article or not. I saw some posting more than one. And it's probably too late to post a third but I thought this was rather bizarre..
Its even a video link..
http://www.cnn.com/video/index.html
Baby Burial Mix Up O_o
Posted by Lord of Spam"its too late to submit anything, so dont bother"
"oh, k, just one more submissions =^.^="
I hope you realize why I dont want you to be alive.
Posted by mis0
Quoting Lord of Spam: "its too late to submit anything, so dont bother"
"oh, k, just one more submissions =^.^="
I hope you realize why I dont want you to be alive.
BOL'D.