HotSop: Random musings

Someone edited the entry on comedian/movie star/celebrity Sinbad to claim that he'd died of a heart attack. In fact, after an avalanche of phone and email messages received from grieving fans (or just a fan sending multiple copies), Sinbad announced that, while his career may be on life support, he's still very much alive.

I did a little snooping, and I discovered that this is part of a fun game:

In the Basant Festival in Lahore province in Pakistan, kite flying is a fun endeavor enjoyed by young and old. Unfortunately, 11 of them are dead, due to:

- stray bullets


- sharpened kite-strings


- electrocution


- people falling off rooftops

From this:

An attorney challenging the authority of the city's police chief wants the department's police dog to appear in court as an exhibit, because he says the dog and the chief have criminal justice degrees from the same online school.

The issue gives "one pause, if not paws, for concern" ab

Finally, a solution to the Global Warming Crisis that Al Gore can sink his teeth into. Former Canadian defense minister Paul Hellyer wants world governments to use the UFO technologies they've obtained from the numerous crashes:

"I would like to see what (alien) technology there might be that could eliminate the burning of fossil fuels within a generation ... that could be a way to save our planet."

The Burger Wars are sizzling again, as Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Clearfield in central Pennsylvania (site) recently shocked the world with the introduction of quite possibly the world's largest hamburger, weighing in at 123 pounds! Called the "Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger", it's a "whopper"!

Time Center sources were reportedly disturbed by news that Earth sources had developed a "real-life" tricorder.

Then, they all had a laugh, realizing that it was only being called that by Purdue Professor R. Graham Cooks:

"We like to compare it to the tricorder because it is truly a handheld instrument that yields information about the precise chemical composition of samples in a matter of minutes without harming the samples."

In a shock announcement, the Oscar Committee - the group headed by Jeff Zucker and David Geffen and which distributes the Oscar awards given for best movie and television show - has announced that they've selected Al Gore's global warming documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" to win this year's globe. For tomorrow night's - at this point, purely formal - event, polar bears will be flown in from ice floes in Antarctica on which they've been stranded by a team of C-130 cargo planes, piloted by John Travolta and Laurie David.

Oops! Britney Spears has gone nuts again:

It happened like this:

Britney went to Kevin's house in the San Fernando Valley last night around 7 pm and rang the bell at his gate three times with no answer.

Back in '72, Ray McAllister - ocean engineering professor at Florida Atlantic University - had a brilliant idea: dump used tires in the ocean in order to promote the growth of reefs. The reefs would lead to marine life, leading to fish and stuff like that. Goodyear donated tires, the ties to hold them together, and even used their blimp to drop a gold-painted tire into the sea as a ceremonial gesture.

Will potato seeds exposed to space rays in outer space on Chinese mission cause gigantism and other effects when those potatoes are brought back to Earth and sold as delicacy? CNN reports.

Trendy hub Shanghai is epicenter of new fad: Purple Orchid Three taters, sweet and purple, put even in drinks!