Bizarre News: the strange and different.

This is how they made him out to be a racist.

(Newser) – NBC has issued a mea culpa for how it edited a phone call between George Zimmerman and a police dispatcher before the killing of Trayvon Martin, reports the Washington Post. In the bit that aired, Zimmerman says this:
"This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black."

The full version fills in the gaps between those sentences and shows that Zimmerman offered that Trayvon was black only after being asked:
Zimmerman: "This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about."
Dispatcher: "OK, and this guy—is he black, white or Hispanic?"
Zimmerman: "He looks black."


NBC's statement, obtained by the Post's Erik Wemple: "During our investigation it became evident that there was an error made in the production process that we deeply regret. We will be taking the necessary steps to prevent this from happening in the future and apologize to our viewers."

I seriously lol'd last night when I read their apology. They call it an error, the fact that it was edited this way. Unfortunately, that's been the norm for media outlets the last few years.

About the Zimmerman thing...I couldn't GAF less what race either of them is...fact of the matter is Zimmerman observed, then pursued and confronted someone. Depending on how he did so (of which there is no witness) I don't think it can be called self-defense. If he hadn't pursued he'd have been fine, if he hadn't confronted he'd have been fine. I call this...manslaughter.

Orithil said:

About the Zimmerman thing...I couldn't GAF less what race either of them is...fact of the matter is Zimmerman observed, then pursued and confronted someone. Depending on how he did so (of which there is no witness) I don't think it can be called self-defense. If he hadn't pursued he'd have been fine, if he hadn't confronted he'd have been fine. I call this...manslaughter.

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Fact Award

Orithil said:

About the Zimmerman thing...I couldn't GAF less what race either of them is...fact of the matter is Zimmerman observed, then pursued and confronted someone. Depending on how he did so (of which there is no witness) I don't think it can be called self-defense. If he hadn't pursued he'd have been fine, if he hadn't confronted he'd have been fine. I call this...manslaughter.

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Call the Zimmerman thing what you want too. We are talking about news editing, not Zimmerman.

It was improper news reporting with very slanted editing. The people involved should be fired.

Winter Woman said:

Call the Zimmerman thing what you want too. We are talking about news editing, not Zimmerman.

It was improper news reporting with very slanted editing. The people involved should be fired.

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But they were just doing their Jobs... All in a days work. The people involved were just doing as they're told, unfortunately.. Sad state of affairs

Give us dirty laundry....

Winter Woman said:

Call the Zimmerman thing what you want too. We are talking about news editing, not Zimmerman.

It was improper news reporting with very slanted editing. The people involved should be fired.

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If we stopping popping our corks every time someone said anything that might even be slightly half-way indicative of them being racist, maybe it wouldn't be such a tempting thing to do. Realize it now, Americans are the problem in America, and voting for the lesser of two evils, compromising freedom for security, or sensationalizing news like this only helps keep those Americans fighting about shit that doesn't matter and ignoring the bigger issue that humanity, as a SPECIES, is making damn sure we don't make it much further along the chain of civilization. And here I was hoping we might actually make it to a space-faring civilization by the time I was old.

I guess my point is, if we weren't such idiotic racist fucks in America, maybe they couldn't use doctored racially-charged shit to jack up their ratings. The act was a symptom, the cause is ignorance. So how about we stamp out the real problem?

Orithil said:

Just because polar bears need a layer of blubber to keep warm doesn't mean everyone does. Some of us are more tropical...for instance, I'm in Wisconsin...tropical for some.

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Yah I heard about your torrid climate ... "eight months of winter and four of bad sledding". cn

Orithil said:

If we stopping popping our corks every time someone said anything that might even be slightly half-way indicative of them being racist, maybe it wouldn't be such a tempting thing to do. Realize it now, Americans are the problem in America, and voting for the lesser of two evils, compromising freedom for security, or sensationalizing news like this only helps keep those Americans fighting about shit that doesn't matter and ignoring the bigger issue that humanity, as a SPECIES, is making damn sure we don't make it much further along the chain of civilization. And here I was hoping we might actually make it to a space-faring civilization by the time I was old. I guess my point is, if we weren't such idiotic racist fucks in America, maybe they couldn't use doctored racially-charged shit to jack up their ratings. The act was a symptom, the cause is ignorance. So how about we stamp out the real problem?

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well put. 'like'

Architects have made a splash with a bold design for new towers in Mumbai featuring swimming pools enclosed in glass instead of balconies. Known as Aquaria Grande, the 37-storey skyscrapers were the result of a collaboration between Hong Kong-based architect James Law and Indian real estate company Wadhwa Group. The complex would have 200 apartments, three levels of car parking, a gym and sauna.



But not everybody feels inspired by the ambitious vision, with technology blog Gizmodo describing it as an 'architectural nightmare'. Writer Jesus Diaz claims on the site that the design is a 'deadly accident waiting to happen'. He adds: 'No matter what you want to call this, I would call it crazy.' Another blogger for the mymodernmet site, however, appeared to find the idea of swimming pool balconies more appealing. Contributor Pinar said the design represented an 'unbelievable skyscraping residential complex'. She said the pools were among its 'most outstanding and eye-popping features.'

There is no way in heck I would want to live in, near or under those. Also, how will they ever enforce the "only cute skinnydippers" ordinance? cn

cannabineer said:

There is no way in heck I would want to live in, near or under those. Also, how will they ever enforce the "only cute skinnydippers" ordinance? cn

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You can flush the ugly ones.

Carne Seca said:

You can flush the ugly ones.

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lol! The usual fixture for that is mercifully opaque. In fact, an image search for "glass toilet" yielded a merciful absence of them. cn

Vibrator Museum Organizers Hope To Create A Buzz (PHOTOS)

This Detwiller pneumatic vibrator from 1906 was powered by compressed air, making it more explosive than the potential orgasms.

San Francisco's newest museum is sure to cause a buzz when it opens April 12 -- because it's devoted to vibrators of the past.The Antique Vibrator Museum is designed to showcase kinky collectibles from the late 1800s to the 1970s and, in the process, the history of health and sexuality between 1890 and 1970, according to curator and sexologist Carol Queen.

"The new exhibit contextualizes the vibrator's role in society and highlights how our attitudes around sex and female pleasure have evolved," Queen said. "It really gives us an appreciation for how far both society and technology have come."

The museum showcases vibrators collected since 1977 by the proprietors of Good Vibrations, a sex shop with five locations in San Francisco and Oakland, and an additional one in Brookline, Mass.

They were donated by Queen, the Good Vibrations Corp., and its founder Joani Blankby. "All of the stores have these vintage vibrators on display and we decided we wanted to showcase these better," Queen told The Huffington Post.
The new 300-square-foot museum is in the back of the Good Vibrations shop on Polk Street -- which those with an adolescent sense of humor will note is pronounced "poke." The sex shop owners established the museum figuring that it will attract sales; admission is free.

With a strong vibration and a sound like a ratchet, this early model reminds us that what vibrators do best besides provide massage is foster blood circulation -- the key to early vibrators' claims that they could address a wide range of health complaints.

The history of sex toys can be traced back thousands of years to dildos made of stone or wood, but Queen says the museum is pegged strictly toward 20th century erotic instruments.
"We're not doing ancient sex implements. The oldest we have dates back to 1890," says Queen, who is one of the founders of International Masturbation Month, celebrated in May.
Queen says it is a coincidence that the museum is opening at a time when women's sexual health is being attacked by people such as Rush Limbaugh and Rick Santorum.
"It is a fluke that the antique museum opens at a time of antique discourse," she says.
In the so-called Gay '90s, many doctors prescribed genital vibration as a way to cure a condition known as hysteria, but Queen is quick to jump on assumptions that vibrators were marketed solely for that purpose.
"Some said that massage and vibration was good for tuberculosis and it does help with blood circulation," Queen says. "It was sort of a fad, kind of like when chlorophyll was sold as a cure-all for bad breath in the 1950s.
Vibrators exhibited include a hand-cranked model that was made for homes without electricity. "It's actually come back as a 'green' alternative," Queen notes.
Some of the items sound bizarre, but Queen thinks the reaction of patrons is going to be more of familiarity. "You're going to see things that you once found in grandmother's closet and you'll say, 'I never knew that was a vibrator,'" Queen says.
Case in point: the Stim-u-Lax scalp massager from the early 1960s, which was ostensibly designed for barbers to rub the heads of customers, but soon found other purposes.
"It fits on a finger," she says. "My dad was a barber and that's how I discovered it. I don't know what my parents thought when I took it and never gave it back."
Some vibrators are going to shock people, such as a pneumatic-powered one from 1906, powered by compressed air, and therefore more explosive than the orgasms it might provide.
Although it might seem that a vibrator museum might raise some eyebrows, Queen has not seen any negative reaction so far. "This is San Francisco," she says. "We're more likely to get an opening day proclamation from the city council."

cannabineer said:

lol! The usual fixture for that is mercifully opaque. In fact, an image search for "glass toilet" yielded a merciful absence of them. cn

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I found this one rather intriguing.

Avalanche buries scores of Pakistani soldiers
By NBC News and news services

Updated at 12:15 p.m. ET: ISLAMABAD -- An avalanche with snow up to 80 feet deep slammed into a Pakistani military camp near the disputed Kashmir border with India, burying more than 100 soldiers, the army said Saturday.

Other soldiers using sniffer dogs and helicopters worked frantically to dig out the troops. There were no signs of survivors 15 hours later, Reuters reported.

"This avalanche hit a (military) headquarters. Over 100 soldiers and personnel are trapped," army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas told Reuters, adding that a total of 117 soldiers were stationed there.
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Snow from the avalanche was up to 80 feet deep, state television reported, suggesting their chances of survival were slim. State television, quoting the army spokesman, also said the avalanche covered an area 0.62 miles (1 kilometer) wide, Reuters reported.

The soldiers were trapped in one of the most unforgiving environments on earth, at an altitude of 15,000 feet near the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram mountain range near the Indian border.

Earlier reports spoke of 130 and 150 troops being buried.

Siachen is in the northern part of the Himalayan region of Kashmir. Pakistani and Indian troops have faced each other in the area -- dubbed the world's highest battlefield -- since 1984. Many troops from both sides have died because of the extreme cold weather.

Over the years, several attempts to find a diplomatic solution that would see troops pulled back to peace-time positions have failed.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was due to visit India Sunday.

Though his visit is officially to pray at a Muslim shrine at Ajmer city, he will be attending a lunch in his honor held by the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

A Pakistani government official said the two leaders would hold talks that "would encompass all issues including Siachen and Sir Creek."

Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC's Fakhar ur Rehman in Pakistan contributed to this report.

Carne Seca said:

I found this one rather intriguing.

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I could VERY much enjoy using those facilities.!

lokie said:

I could VERY much enjoy using those facilities.!

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Alone or with someone? Hmmmm, the exhibitionist in me is coming out.