YouTube - The Real Hustle - Car Clamp Con - BBC Three - An episode of a show where people get conned, with tips on avoiding confidence scams. This would never work in Singapore - everyone (show producers, 'con artists' and con victims, even, would be put in jail.

Condoms 'too big' for Indian men - "A survey of more than 1,000 men in India has concluded that condoms made according to international sizes are too large for a majority of Indian men."
Funny, I thought it'd be the opposite. In related news: South Africans need bigger condoms

Will's Web Site - Programs (vbrfix) - "With VBR you can get fairly random times and as most songs start with silence you usually get the predicted song length as much more than it is. Also when you jump throught the file in VBR 50% throught the file is not 50% throught the song. A VRR Null frame is placed at the beggining of the file to tell the MP3 player information about the song length and indexing throught the song. Some poor encoders don't produce this NULL frame or do it incorrectly so this program calculates a correct Null frame and replaces it. It can also fix other problems with mp3s as it deletes all non-mp3 content(other than tags you state you want to keep). It can help when merging two VBR mp3s together with a merging tool and then needing a newly calculated bitrate."

An IM Infatuation Turned to Romance. Then the Truth Came Out. - Summary: A 48 year old pretended to be an 18 year old Marine, hooked an 18 year old girl online, got jealous and shot a 22 year old; the 18 year old turned out to be 45.

Girl commits suicide over MySpace hoax - "MySpace bulletins started circulating about her that said things like “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat.” It bothered her so much that Megan Meier took her own life. That’s not even the worst part. Worst Part #1: Josh never existed and this was all done by adults. Worst Part #2: No criminal charges are being filed."

English 'bitch': Insult that landed an Irishman living in Wales in court for racial harassment - "A grandfather has been given a prison sentence for racial harassment after calling a Welsh woman "English". Mick Forsythe used the term during an argument over a scratched car in his Welsh home town. He called the vehicle's owner, Lorna Steele, an "English bitch". She and her husband took great offence at the jibe and decided to take him to court. The 55-year-old former lorry driver was found guilty of racially aggravated disorderly behaviour, and received a ten-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months."

Bosses fire worker who put up 'Dilbert' comic - "A Fort Madison man who posted a "Dilbert" comic strip on an office bulletin board has lost his job for implying his bosses were a bunch of "drunken lemurs."... Shortly after the comic was posted to the bulletin board, managers at the casino reviewed surveillance tapes and determined Steward was responsible for the act. At a recent state hearing dealing with Steward's unemployment benefits claim, the casino's human resources director, Steve Morley, testified that "upper management" at the casino found the cartoon to be "very offensive" and fired Steward as a result. "Basically, he was accusing the decision-makers of being drunken lemurs," Morley testified. "We consider that misconduct when you insult your employer.""

China bans firemen from receiving sexual bribes - "China's firemen have been banned from receiving sexual favours, bribes and other kickbacks as part of a new anti-corruption drive, the police ministry has announced. Receiving sexual favours is listed as one of the "non-material gains" that have been banned for anyone in the fire services department, said the ministry notice dated Thursday."

Randy Cassingham's Blog: The Winner of the 2007 Weirdest Story of the Year Award - "Two convicted murderers are among 13 escapees from a prison in Sudbury, Derbyshire, England, in recent months. But most of the men, including the murderers, are still at large because police won't release their photos, since that could breach their human rights. "When making a decision to release any photograph, police forces must take into account numerous factors including the public interest test," lectured a police spokesman, "whether there is a strong local policing purpose and, of course, the Human Rights and Data Protection Acts." So now what? The spokesman said by escaping, the felons "abuse the trust we have placed in them," and "it's up to us to trace their whereabouts.""

Man drinks hairspray in store; busted for shoplifting - "A man was arrested for shoplifting two bottles of White Rain Hair Spray, which he drank in the Wal-Mart on Beal Parkway, according to an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office report... When White confronted him, he noted the man appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. The man admitted drinking two bottles of spray. He also told White that he is “a hard-core alcoholic,” who drinks the spray for the alcohol in it."

W.Va. cop says woman wiped nose on him - "A woman in this Charleston suburb was charged with battery on a police officer after the officer said she wiped her nose on the back of his shirt... Battery on a police officer is defined as intentionally making physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with an officer."

Snorting a Brain Chemical Could Replace Sleep - "A nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A reversed the effects of sleep deprivation in monkeys, allowing them to perform like well-rested monkeys on cognitive tests. The discovery's first application will probably be in treatment of the severe sleep disorder narcolepsy."