18CARATBRASS.COM - WEIRD NEWS AND FUNNYS

Weird Facts – Floating Porcupines?

18CARATBRASS — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:14:31 +0000

Saturday mail delivery in Canada was eliminated by Canada Post on February 1, 1969! In Tokyo, a bicycle is faster than a car for most trips of less than 50 minutes! There are 18 different animal shapes in the Animal Crackers cookie zoo! Should there be a crash, Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane as a precaution! Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second! The king of hearts is the only king without a moustache on a standard playing card! There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos! There is one slot machine in Las Vegas for every eight inhabitants!
	The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. It was the fashion in Renaissance Florence to shave them off!
Every day 20 banks are robbed. The average take is $2,500! The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad! Tablecloths were originally meant to be served as towels with which dinner guests could wipe their hands and faces after eating! Tourists visiting Iceland should know that tipping at a restaurant is considered an insult! One car out of every 230 made was stolen last year! The names of Popeye’s four nephews are Pipeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and Poopeye! Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia! The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts three naked men with their hands on each other’s shoulders! When glass breaks, the cracks move faster than 3,000 miles per hour. To photograph the event, a camera must shoot at a millionth of a second! A Boeing 747 airliner holds 57,285 gallons of fuel! A car uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the average automobile!
	The Philadelphia mint produces 26 million pennies per day!
A lightning bolt generates temperatures five times hotter than those found at the sun’s surface! A violin contains about 70 separate pieces of wood! It is estimated that 4 million “junk” telephone calls, phone solicitations by persons or programmed machine are made every day in the United States! It takes glass one million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times! Forest fires move faster uphill than downhill! Almost half the newspapers in the world are published in the United States and Canada!

The two-foot long bird called a Kea that lives in New Zealand likes to eat the strips of rubber around car windows! Most lipstick contains fish scales! Skepticisms is the longest word that alternates hands when typing! One ragweed plant can release as many as one billion grains of pollen! It’s illegal to drink beer out of a bucket while you’re sitting on a curb in St. Louis!
	The first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys gum!
No piece of square dry paper can be folded more than 7 times in half! A group of geese on the ground is a gaggle, a group of geese in the air is a skein! Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people! There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building! If you counted 24 hours a day, it would take 31,688 years to reach one trillion! Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive! A crocodile always grows new teeth to replace the old teeth! The sun is 330,330 times larger than the earth! Clinophobia is the fear of beds! A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second! Porcupines float in water! Thanks to StrangeFacts.com

Filed under: 18CARAT BLOG, 18CARAT MUSE, 18CARAT WEIRDNESS Tagged: Animal Crackers, bar code, floating porcupines, left handed accidents, Mona Lisa, strange facts, tipping is insulting, violin facts, weird facts

18CARAT-RETURN – Come say hello?

18CARATBRASS — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:55:27 +0000

18Carat - Return

You may or may not have noticed a slight … well rather large …. gap in my news and posts lately, this will change very shortly.

I will be trying to post or shedule more news and posts in the coming weeks/months so you wont have to wait weeks for a slice of humour or relivant news. I have also reset the 18CaratBrass twitter account and will be testing my newly found twitter skills in the weeks to come so please add me – @18CARATBRASS

Any suggested news or funny video will be posted.

This is a site for YOU so please do share your opinions and pictures.

Note: I will also be adding help guides as i learn more and more about twitter to help other newbies like me

Filed under: 18CARAT NEWS Tagged: 18caratbrass, funny news, return, twitter, wtf

Drunk man’s beer-buying efforts achieve internet video fame

18CARATBRASS — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:48:09 +0000

It’s a situation that many of us will, regrettably, have been in – you’ve had a bit too much to drink, and yet you want more booze. So you stagger off in search of beer.

Drunkest. Guy. Ever: Our stability-challenged hero has a little lie down

Fortunately for most of us, our incompetent attempts to procure more alcohol haven’t been caught on video and put on the web entitled ‘Drunkest Guy Ever Goes for More Beer’ for millions of viewers to giggle at.

WATCH THE ‘DRUNKEST GUY IN THE WORLD GOES FOR MORE BEER’ CCTV VIDEO BELOW

That’s not the case for this poor man, whose rather unsteady attempts to buy a case of beer have been seen by over a million amused internet users in under a day since being uploaded to Break.com.

The video is from CCTV cameras in an unidentified shop, and sees our hero swaying on his way into the store in a manner not unlike Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow.

He heads straight – well, straight-ish – for the chilled beer cabinet and, after narrowly avoiding falling flat on his back as he grasps for the door handle, executes a delightful swing around the cabinet door that is reminiscent of Gene Kelly in Singin’ In The Rain.

Having finally managed to get a case of beer in his hands, it looks like our man might actually successfully make a beer purchase. Unfortunately, gravity has other ideas, and he falls back – a position from which it proves surprisingly hard to get back up.

However, despite his difficulties, the man retains an impressive level of poise and sang-froid as he tries to convince concerned onlookers that he’s just having a little rest and is otherwise totally fine.

What’s most worrying about the whole affair, however, is that the date and time stamp on the CCTV footage reveals that the man had achieved this state of intoxication at just after 10 o’clock on a Tuesday morning (10:47 on Tuesday October 6, 2009, to be precise)

The origin of the video remains unknown at this point – but we sincerely hope that it documents a real incident, and isn’t some insidious viral marketing for the Temperance Society.

EMBED-Worst Shopping Run Ever – Watch more free videos

Posted in 18CARAT BLOG, 18CARAT INTERWEB, 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT NEWS, 18CARAT WEIRDNESS Tagged: drunk, drunkest guy ever, funny, jack sparrow, johnny depp, ruseel howard, wtf

Leaked Sales Figures ? – Rage Against The Machine Have The Christmas Number One

18CARATBRASS — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:07:33 +0000

CREDIT – http://www.sheamus.co.uk/ratm-xmas-number-one -

KEEP COMING BACK FOR LIVE UPDATES!! PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS!!

At least, that’s how it seems. The sales figures for the UK Christmas top twenty have been circulating, and here they are.

1	KILLING IN THE NAME	RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE	502672
2	THE CLIMB	JOE MCELDERRY	450838
3	BAD ROMANCE	LADY GAGA	61677
4	THE OFFICIAL BBC CHILDREN IN NEED MEDLEY	PETER KAY'S ANIMATED ALL STAR	52605
5	STARSTRUKK	3OH3 FT KATY PERRY	40742
6	YOU KNOW ME	ROBBIE WILLIAMS	38435
7	3 WORDS	CHERYL COLE	36232
8	RUSSIAN ROULETTE	RIHANNA	34094
9	DON'T STOP BELIEVIN'	JOURNEY	33337
10	MEET ME HALFWAY	BLACK EYED PEAS	32517
11	TIK TOK	KESHA	26571
12	YOU ARE NOT ALONE	X FACTOR FINALISTS 2009	24404
13	DOESN'T MEAN ANYTHING	ALICIA KEYS	23415
14	DECEMBER SONG (I DREAMED OF CHRISTMAS)	GEORGE MICHAEL	22243
15	LET THE BASS KICK IN MIAMI GIRL	CHUCKIE & LMFAO	21556
16	MORNING AFTER DARK	TIMBALAND/NELLY FURTADO/SOSHY	19687
17	FIGHT FOR THIS LOVE	CHERYL COLE	18859
18	FAIRYTALE OF NEW YORK	POGUES FT KIRSTY MACCOLL	18457
19	WHATCHA SAY	JASON DERULO	18278
20	LOOK FOR ME	CHIPMUNK FT TALAY RILEY	17775

If true, as you can see RATM have secured the #1 spot this Christmas, and by a healthy 50,000.

This is still unofficial. At the time of writing, I’m listening to Mariah Carey at #21 in the charts with “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. You can monitor the countdown from this point forward and if any of the songs above is not in the correct place then the entire list is likely a little suspect. However, it has been completely right from #40-#21 thus far. Make of that what you will.

UPDATE 17:31 – Accurate up to #’18, Fairytale Of New York, thus far.

UPDATE 17:47 – Correct up to #14, December Song.

UPDATE 17:55 – X Factor finalists at #12!

UPDATE 18:05 – Bring on the top ten. 100% accurate so far.

UPDATE – #9 JOURNEY (CORRECT)

UPDATE – #8 RIHANNA!!! (CORRECT)!!!

UPDATE – 18:16 #7 COLE – CORRECT!!!

UPDATE – 18:20 – ROBBIE WILLIAMS #6 – CORRECT!!!

UPDATE – 18:24 – #5 30H3!! – CORRECT!

UPDATE – #4 BBC PETER KAY – CORRECT!!!

UPDATE – 18:37 #3 LADY GAGA!!! (CORRECT)

DRUM ROLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE – #2 AND LOSING THIS FIERCE BATTLE……. JOE!!!!

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE #1!!

Posted in 18CARAT BLOG, 18CARAT INTERWEB, 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT MUSE, 18CARAT MUSIC, 18CARAT NEWS, 18CARAT REVIEWS, 18CARAT WEIRDNESS Tagged: christmas #1, christmas number 1, facebook, Joke, leaked sales figures, rage against the machine, rage against the xfactor, ratm, ratm4xmas, sales figures

Avatar: review of reviews of James Cameron’s 3D space opera

18CARATBRASS — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:19:45 +0000

Avatar: review of reviews of James Cameron’s 3D space opera

Avatar, James Cameron’s 3D spectacular, had its world premiere in London last night. Stand by for the official verdict from the Guardian, but the shock of the night is that everyone else seems to have loved it

It’s going to be titanic … Avatar

A fortnight ago it all looked so different. An early review of selected footage from James Cameron’s space opera, posted anonymously on Gawker, comprehensively panned what had been hailed as a game-changingly ambitious and successful foray into the world of 3D. Avatar, said the writer, apparently an industry insider, was “literally vomit inducing”. Despite some “beautiful moments”, concluded the review, “overall it’s a horrible piece of shit”.

Avatar
Production year: 2009
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 12A
Runtime: 161 mins
Directors: James Cameron
Cast: CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldana
More on this film

This morning, the first official reviews are in, and the anticipated sneers, jeers and retches have been gazumped by notices that will afford the poster designers an embarrassment of riches. “Bottom Line: A titanic entertainment – movie magic is back!” ran the first line of the Hollywood Reporter’s rave.

“A dozen years later,” it continues – referring to 1997’s game-changing Titanic, “James Cameron has proven his point: He is king of the world.” The trade paper’s chief critic, Kirk Honeycutt, goes on to call the film a “jaw-dropping wonder”, and to praise all aspects of the film, from the acting to the special effects to the pace (never flagging, apparently). There will be no danger of Twentieth Century Fox failing to recoup their investment, he concludes. The only note of caution is wondering how Cameron can ever top this?

Every one of the 10 reviews listed on reviews aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives it a “fresh” rating. Hollywood bible Variety, whose newly-introduced paywall doesn’t seem to impede access to its review, raises a few more doubts: there’s a certain lack of explanation, and the politics are foggy. But the experience, says Todd McCarthy, is “all-enveloping and transporting”. He even quashes doubts about the dramatic plausibility of the alien Na’vi race, whose unusual appearance has been unfavourably compared with Smurfs: “But once they’re introduced in the context of the picture, these blue-skinned, yellow-eyed creatures quickly become captivating, even sexy, with their rangy height, slim and elongated bodies and skimpy wardrobe.” Special praise is reserved for Sigourney Weaver, as “a scientist so unimpeachable that she can get away with smoking on board an intergalactic spaceship”.

We’ll presumably have to wait until next Thursday, when the film is released, to hear the opinion of newly-appointed film critic Alex Zane in the Sun, as last night’s verdict was delivered by his anonymous predecessor, the Sneak. Still, one doesn’t feel he need fear the wrath of the publicists too much: “It’s unashamedly populist. Just like Titanic,” he tells readers, before reassuring them: “But don’t worry. This isn’t a preachy story. It’s big action. The only reason that Avatar won’t top Titanic at the box office is that there are not enough digital screens around the world to show it in all its 3D wonder.” The Sneak rounds things up with a shout-out to Avatar’s studio, Fox, part of the Murdoch News International empire that, happily, also owns the Sun: “But you have to admire the film’s backers for being brave enough to take a risk on funding such ground-breaking technology. The Sneak’s advice is to make sure you can say you were there when the future of cinema began.”

Their News Corp sister paper the Times contains a more qualified rave by film critic Wendy Ide, that doesn’t detract from the Sun’s enthusiasm but does sound the odd note of caution. In a four-star review, Ide describes “a world that takes a little getting used to,” referencing Cameron’s nods to both Hayao Miyazaki and naff Aussie animation FernGully: The Last Rainforest – early reviews of the trailer had also been struck by the similarity. “At times,” admits Ide, “it verges on the tacky, like a futuristic air freshener advertisement with the colour contrast turned up to the max”.

“Actually rather good,” was the Independent’s take: Anna Keir confirmed that you could sit through it without feeling ill, though she admitted such a long stretch in 3D does lead to some eye-rubbing.

That Empire felt moved to give Avatar five stars was less of a shock, though reviewer Chris Hewitt does manage to contain himself long enough to take a pop at the Leona Lewis’s closing credits theme tune (“bloody awful”) and the “New Age-y, hippy-dippy language and images that suggest that Cameron is one mung bean away from dropping out, man, and going all Swampy on our asses”. He’s also the only reviewer to point out “a fair amount of unintentional laughter [to be] had from watching hundreds of Na’vi, swaying like extras from the Zion rave scene in The Matrix Reloaded, surrounding something called the Tree Of Souls and banging on about becoming one with Mother Eywo … But it’s hard to imagine even the most jaded and cynical having any issues with the last forty minutes, in which Cameron uncorks the action and shows all the young pretenders – the Bays and the Emmerichs and the Von Triers – how it’s done.”

Has his enthusiasm got the better of him? You can see how Michael Bay or Roland Emmerich would be green with jealousy. But Avatar directed by Lars Von Trier? That would be a real game-changer.

What they’re saying about Avatar on Twitter

PeterSHall: “The gut reaction is to be overwhelmed by the level of detail, but the more I write about it, the more I like about it.”

Chase Whale: “This is a giant step forward. I just hope every other filmmaker has $500 million to spend.”

Aint It Cool News’ C Robert Cargill: “It was pretty great…if by pretty great I mean OMFGHOLYFUCKINGSHITOMGOMGOMG. Because that’s what it was.”

Peter Sciretta from /Film: “I’m not allowed to say anything about what I thought of Avatar, but saw it in a screening room with neill blomkamp, who didn’t sign an NDA. He loved it… I will say this, it’s hard to disagree with Neil

Simon Pegg: Avatar …………………… tweetless. Just tweetless in the best possible way. Just left the party. The movie is a game changer. Still buzzing. Tweet over.

Posted in 18CARAT INTERWEB, 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT REVIEWS Tagged: avatar, avatar review, buy avatar, download, film, review

Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

18CARATBRASS — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:13:29 +0000

By Tim Masters

Harry In love?

Entertainment reporter, BBC News

After the relentless bang-boom-crash of summer sequels like Transformers and Terminator, the sixth Harry Potter film comes as something of a relief for those seeking a little more humanity, even if it is of the magical variety.

Lord Voldemort has returned, dark forces lurk beyond the enchanted gates of Hogwarts School – while teenage hormones rage within.

The regular cast is back, with the addition of Jim Broadbent as the Potions Professor, Horace Slughorn, whose memories are key in the battle against the Dark Lord.

“This is very dark stuff, very dark indeed.”

CHILD’S EYE VIEW
Felix, aged nearly nine-and-three-quarters, Berkshire “ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a very scary film with a lot of surprises. The sound effects are really good, with brilliant music changing all the time. All the special effects are excellent, such as really realistic fire in two parts of the film.

It also had amazing graphics: Hogwarts had every tiny detail and was really clear. The film missed out a lot from the book but added quite a bit!

The Half-Blood Prince is probably the best Harry Potter film made. It has plenty of everything, but maybe a bit too much kissing. ”

So says Slughorn, in one of the story’s flashbacks to Voldemort’s childhood.

This really is a film with little daylight. Gone are the sun-kissed Quidditch pitches of the early movies. More than ever, Hogwarts seems in the grip of an eternal winter.

And let’s not forget those hormones dripping down the castle walls.

Bridge attack

Director David Yates, staying on after 2007’s Order of the Phoenix, has thrown his energies into the lavish visuals and the emotional landscape.

Those wanting noisy spectacle and endless action will be disappointed. This is a talky Potter.

It feels long – but not in a bad way. The main characters and the complex plot get a chance to breathe.

Writer Steve Kloves sensibly excises the padding from JK Rowling’s novel – adding new scenes such as the opening attack on London’s Millennium Bridge.

But Death Eater attacks aside, relationships are what interests Yates.

Even when we first meet Harry in a cafe at Surbiton station, he is effortlessly catching the eye of a waitress.

“Harry, you need a shave my friend,” says Dumbledore later, as if we need reminding that the boy Harry is becoming a man.

Dark streak

For fans of old-school Potter, there are plenty of familiar ingredients: Hogwarts Express (check), Quidditch (check), Marauder’s Map (check), exploding potions (check) – even Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing.

Of more interest, however, is what’s different: Tom Felton gets a chance to do more than sneer as the tortured Draco Malfoy, Alan Rickman’s Snape comes to the fore, and even Rupert Grint gets to act beyond his usual Ron Weasley persona (he gets a snog, at least).

Broadbent, as you might expect, is excellent as Slughorn, the dotty professor with a dark streak.

While there are plentiful flashes of humour, it is the gothic horror that lingers in the memory – although werewolf Fenrir Greyback (Dave Legeno) is sadly underused.

It is perhaps inevitable that the sixth film – like the sixth book – feels like it is setting up the grand finale. If slightly muted in places, Half-Blood Prince shows every sign that Yates will deliver something special for the two-part Deathly Hallows in 2010/11.

BUY HARRY POTTER – HALF BLOOD PRINCE & OTHERS IN THE SERIES >>>

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is released on 15 July.

ROUND-UP OF HALF-BLOOD PRINCE REVIEWS

called the Half Blood Prince an elegant addition to the series and gave it three stars: “ Not a lot happens for 153 minutes, though, and I thought my sons – now 12 and nine and followers of the films since more or less the start – would be bored. But they liked the chat, the comic Quidditch game, the sense of evil stirring. They were engrossed throughout. This, I think, comes down to two qualities that have helped to make the Potter films the most successful film franchise of all time. The first is the relationship between the central trio of Ron, Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Hermione (Emma Watson). Film-goers have seen these actors grow up, and watched their performances deepen and change. ”

the film three stars out of five, saying even though the characters have grown up it is still clean cut: “ There’s lots of blushing, stammering and smooching. Will Harry lock lips with Ginny? Is Ron smart enough to see that Hermione … well, it’s not Skins. Hands are kept above the waist at all times. Putatively winsome all this may be, but what it actually does is throw the series’ biggest weakness into sharp relief: film-making can (and does) control pretty much everything – except how the cute juvenile leads grow up. Still, director David Yates knows how to play all the cards. ”

the film three out of five, asking for more action: “ If you’ve not read the book you’re going to find the plot pretty tough to follow at times. It feels a bit thin on BIG action scenes. ”

Half Blood Prince three stars out of five for being too similar to the other Potter films: “ The latest instalment is more of the same tried and tested formula to be sure, but it’s a formula that produces pure gold as far as the fans are concerned. ”

the film’s “dark intensity” and “romantic yearning”: “ The film looks great and Delbonnel gives the picture a modern real-world sensibility in a fantasy setting. The dark intensity and romantic yearning on display in Half-Blood Prince compel me to await the two Deathly Hallows films with an eagerness I hadn’t realised I possessed. I must be under a spell. ”

the film four out of five, saying the film was both funny and scary: “ It is a film of light and shade. Comic relief comes in the way all of the teenage cast members are struggling with affairs of the heart …This is storytelling at its most spellbinding – streets ahead of the rival summer blockbusters. ”

In the

Harry Potter four out of five but said the film was too different from the book:

“ The Half-Blood Prince is frightening, funny, romantic and entertaining but as the end credits rolled, I still felt disappointed. I had waited all year to see my second-favourite Potter book brought to life. If I wasn’t a die-hard fan, I’m sure I would have loved it. My gripe is that the film was simply too different from the book – the writers inserted pointless scenes and took out others crucial to the narrative. ”

BUY HARRY POTTER – HALF BLOOD PRINCE & OTHERS IN THE SERIES >>>

Posted in 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT NEWS, 18CARAT REVIEWS Tagged: cheap, dies, draco malfoy naked, dumbledore, emma watson, ginny, half blood prince, harry potter, hermione naked, jk Rowling, novel

Binge drinking death cop not actually a martyr, Chinese police say

18CARATBRASS — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:33:13 +0000

A Chinese police chief has been suspended for saying that a subordinate who drank himself to death at an official banquet was killed in the line of duty.

Booze: drinking yourself to death is not part of your official duties as a policeman

Giving the dead officer the designation of ‘martyr’ would have made the man’s family eligible for greater compensation.

Xie Feiyong, director of the traffic bureau in Shenzhen, took Chen Lusheng and other off-duty officers to a banquet with local officials where, following rounds of toasts, Chen vomited, passed out and suffocated, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Xie was suspended indefinitely this week after he called for Chen to be designated a martyr, so that his relatives would be eligible for more compensation, Xinhua said.

Chen’s family would be eligible for up to 650,000 yuan ($95,000) in compensation under that designation, though the family is reportedly pressuring the government for at least 4.8 million yuan ($700,000), the China Daily newspaper reported Monday.

Excessive drinking at official functions is common in China and deaths are not unheard of. Last month, a Communist Party official in eastern Anhui province died from alcohol poisoning after drinking heavily while entertaining business associates during an official banquet; earlier in the year, two government officials in southern China also died in separate incidents after they fell into comas following official banquets.

Chinese academics have estimated that government officials spend about 500 billion yuan ($73 billion) in public funds each year on official banquets, nearly one-third of the nation’s expenses on dining out.

Posted in 18CARAT BLOG, 18CARAT INTERWEB, 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT NEWS, 18CARAT WEIRDNESS Tagged: china, chinese, dead drunk, drunk policeman, funny, weird

Drunk boob flash while on the lash leads to crash

18CARATBRASS — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:43:26 +0000

A flasher who exposed her breasts to traffic was hit by a car whose driver she distracted.

Flash, bang, wallop: Cherelle Dudfield recreates the breast-flashing incident for a TV station

Cherelle May Dudfield was struck by the vehicle after she ran out into the road following a dare by friends.

The 18-year-old had been drinking with her mates when the incident happened, and had to be treated in hospital for cuts she suffered.

The teenager was also landed with a £120 fine for disorderly behaviour.

‘I stood on the centre line, flashed a couple of cars, got back in and they [her friends] told me to do it again, so I did,’ said Dudfield.

‘And then I saw a car coming towards me, on the middle of the centre lane driving up towards me, so I decided to run. And then I got hit.’ To demonstrate exactly how silly she had been, she later re-enacted her stunt for a TV station – but this time she was fully sober, and no one crashed.

And Dudfield also gave a repeat performance to cows on her farm

However, police officers did not see the funny side of her exposure, which happened in the small New Zealand town of Invercargill.

‘This was obviously an alcohol- involved offence,’ said Olaf Jensen, of Invercargill Police.

‘This girl put herself at risk with the actions she undertook – not only herself, but the motorists on the road.’

Posted in 18CARAT BLOG, 18CARAT INTERWEB, 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT MUSE, 18CARAT MUSIC, 18CARAT NEWS, 18CARAT REVIEWS, 18CARAT WEIRDNESS Tagged: crash, flash, flasher causes crash, funny, whore, wtf

Rage Against The Machine 36,000 Sales Ahead Of X Factor’s Joe McElderry!

18CARATBRASS — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:22:37 +0000

Rage Against The Machine are still ahead of X Factor’s Joe McElderry in the Christmas chart race, despite the physical copy of the 18-year-olds single going on sale yesterday.
‘Killing In The Name’ has shifted 253,476 downloads compared to ‘The Climb’s meagre 216,795 – which includes his physical sales.

Although yesterday’s lead of 65,000 has been cut to 36,000 it’s still a positive step considering industry experts’ predictions that the physical format would claw things back for McElderry.

Fans of the Facebook led campaign have until midnight on Saturday night / Sunday morning to download the track in their droves.

As well as Tom Morello donating some of the proceeds to Youth Music, Jon and Tracy Morter, who founded the Facebook campaign, have set up a Justgiving page for Shelter which you can pledge to HERE

NEWS: Rage Against The Machine sing ‘Fuck You I Won’t Do What You Tell Me’ live on the BBC!

SUPPORT THE RAGE! – Spare change, to change the chart! (FACEBOOK GROUP – http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2228594104&ref=ts OR http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=nf&gid=37655682127 )

AMAZON – YES IT DOES COUNT – ONLY 29p

http://bit.ly/ratm-amazon

iTUNES – 99p – track #2 (click on ‘view in itunes’ on the right)
http://bit.ly/ratm-itunes

PLAY.COM – 65p – it’s the only track on the page
http://bit.ly/ratm-play

7DIGITAL – £1.19P – track #2
http://bit.ly/ratm-7digital

HMV.COM – 79p (careful – this is track #1)
http://bit.ly/ratm-hmv

TUNETRIBE – 49P – track #2 – LIVE version (yes it counts)
http://bit.ly/ratm-tunetribe
or
http://bit.ly/rage-tunetribe (Studio Version)

TESCO DIGITAL – 67p – track #2
http://bit.ly/ratm-tesco

WE7 – £1.07p – track #2
http://bit.ly/ratm-we7

Posted in 18CARAT BLOG, 18CARAT INTERWEB, 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT MUSE, 18CARAT MUSIC, 18CARAT NEWS, 18CARAT REVIEWS, 18CARAT WEIRDNESS, 273 Tagged: amazon, cheapest, dave grohal, download, joe, Jon Morter, Killing In The Name, McElderry, rage, rage against the machine, rage against the xfactor, ratm4mas, ratm4xmas, the climb, Tracy Morter, xfactor

Cardboard windscreen freezes trucker’s eye shut

18CARATBRASS — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:01:26 +0000

A trucker in China who drove 500 miles with a cardboard windscreen became so cold that one of his eyes froze shut.

Blind spot: Sing Li’s cardboard windscreen

The trucker has now lost his licence, after he drove 800km (500 miles) down a motorway with a sheet of cardboard covering his shattered windscreen.

Sing Li, 24, navigated by sticking his head out of the driver’s window. Unfortunately, this caused him to become rather cold – when he was arrested in Henan, eastern China, not only was one eye frozen shut, but his head was blue from the cold.

‘I didn’t want to fall behind in my delivery schedule and I couldn’t afford a repair,’ he told a court.

WANT A FREE DAILY DOSE OF FUNNY STORIES AND REVIEWS? – CLICK THE SUBSCRIBE BUTTON TOP RIGHT

Posted in 18CARAT BLOG, 18CARAT INTERWEB, 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT MUSE, 18CARAT NEWS, 18CARAT WEIRDNESS Tagged: 500 miles, cardboard, china, coldeye, freeze, funny, trucker, windscreen

Crying woman gets speeding fine present

18CARATBRASS — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:00:41 +0000

A young woman in Germany who burst into tears when police fined her for speeding received an early Christmas present when another woman caught for the same offence paid the charge.

Authorities in the western city of Aachen said the older driver was so moved by the woman’s crying at the police station that she pulled out her purse and handed over the money.

‘It is Christmas soon after all,’ local police quoted her as saying.

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Library book returned 60 years late

18CARATBRASS — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:53:24 +0000

A book has been mailed back to an Ohio library after six decades – accompanied by an anonymous letter of remorse.

A library (library picture)

The book – a biography, ‘Napoleon’ by Emil Ludwig – recently arrived at Toledo’s main library, with a brief note that read: ‘I removed this book from your stacks in 1949 and did not check it out. I apologize. It’s an excellent book and in good condition.’

The person who signed it ‘An ex-Toledoan’ also wrote, ‘Carrying guilt for 60 years is a terrible thing,’ according to The Blade newspaper.

Library spokeswoman Rhonda Sewell said the package – which had a Beverly Hills, California, postmark – came as a shock. She speculated that the holiday season may have moved the sender to right a longtime wrong.

Circulation clerk Harry Johnston said he thought that the most likely reason for the book’s original removal was that it was taken by a high school student in a hurry.

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Library book returned 60 years late

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Holy cow – calf born with ‘divine sign’ on head

18CARATBRASS — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:40:23 +0000

A calf with a cross-shaped sign has been born in rural Connecticut – and, naturally, is being hailed as a sign from above.

Moses the calf, complete with the ‘divine’ marking that’s sort of shaped a bit like a cross

The calf was born last week at a dairy farm in Sterling, a small rustic town on the Connecticut/Rhode Island border.

Owner Brad Davis told local television station WFSB-TV that he thinks the marking may be a message from above. He did admit, however, that he’s still trying to figure out what that message might be.

The mostly brown calf is half Jersey, half Holstein. Neighborhood children have named it Moses.

Ric Grummer, the chairman of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Dairy Science, told the Norwich Bulletin newspaper that it’s not unusual for a Holstein cow to have a white marking on its head - although says that the cross shape is unique.

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Rage Against The XFactor – Rage Against The Machine for Christmas Number 1 #RATM

18CARATBRASS — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:38:54 +0000

Why a Rage Against the Machine Christmas No 1 would be a great pop moment

If the sweary, shouty rap-rock mob prove to have the X(mas) factor it will be a victory for the democratised and downloadable nature of the pop charts in 2009

Rage against the pop machine … Zack de la Rocha gives Simon Cowell the finger. Photograph: Ken McKay/Chiaki Nozu/Rex/FilmMagic

What a lot of outrage over something so silly. In the fight for Christmas No 1 (and that’s a phrase we’ve not heard in a long time), familiar battle lines have been drawn.

In the rock corner, we have those who are “protesting” against Simon Cowell’s parade of X Factor winners hogging the top spot, and want to unleash something loud and sweary on the charts – Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the Name.

In the pop corner, we have those who think RATM fans are being pathetic, especially as the song is ancient and the band are hardly rock rebels these days (you can read some good points about the irony of using Killing in the Name for this campaign on Luke Lewis’s NME blog).

Personally, I’d love RATM to get to No 1, not because I think it would be a victory for “proper” rock. I actually think a RATM victory would be a triumph for pop. The song might be old, but having a fan-powered campaign propel it to the chart summit against the might of an entertainment powerhouse like SyCo would tell you more about the democratised, downloadable and downright free-for-all nature of the pop charts in 2009 than anything else. And besides, surely any kind of scrap for the top spot is better for pop lovers than none at all?

Critics have pointed out that Sony is behind both acts, and that ultimately the money will find its way to Cowell whoever wins. But that’s missing the point. Cowell hardly needs the cash that a Christmas No 1 would generate. But he does need – at least to some degree – to show that the X Factor brand can guarantee its winner a chart topper. Besides this, Cowell’s claim that a RATM No 1 would “spoil” it for the other contestants betrays a certain arrogance, as if the Christmas top slot is now reserved for his acts alone and that any other artist actually selling more records is cheating.

One familiar message-board criticism is that RATM fans are being childish and should “protest about something serious”, presumably landmines, climate change or youth unemployment. That’s a perfectly fair point, but if you’re going to take that viewpoint you could apply it to the act of buying pop singles in general. You’re paying 79p for a Joe McElderry ballad? Give the money to Katine instead, you thoughtless twerp! Again, the point is to not take it all so seriously. The Christmas chart is a bit of a laugh. People like to spend their money on having a laugh.

So, do I think RATM have the X(mas) factor? I can’t quite see it happening, but it would certainly be amusing if they did (the song has a special place in my heart, as I first heard it during that infamous Bruno Brookes chart rundown in 1992, shortly before picking up the shattered remains of my jaw from the floor).

When we look back in a decade’s time, and ask why an old rock song from the early 1990s went to No 1 in 2009, sticking out in a long line of overblown ballads like the proverbial sore middle finger … to me, that’s what the pop charts were made for.

Credit – guardian.co.uk

AMAZON – YES IT DOES COUNT – ONLY 29p

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iTUNES – 99p – track #2 (click on ‘view in itunes’ on the right)
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PLAY.COM – 65p – it’s the only track on the page
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7DIGITAL – £1.19P – track #2
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HMV.COM – 79p (careful – this is track #1)
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TUNETRIBE – 49P – track #2 – LIVE version (yes it counts)
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or
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TESCO DIGITAL – 67p – track #2
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WE7 – £1.07p – track #2
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Incredible sculptures made with dust

18CARATBRASS — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:29:42 +0000

Invite Paul Hazelton to your home and the chances are it will be spotless by the time he leaves. Why? He likes nothing better than scooping up dust, taking it home and turning it into sculptures.

Delicate stuff: The artist often uses waste matter from friends’ homes for his sculptures, such as this one of a humanoid called Being And Nothingness

Mr Hazelton, who has been dubbed ‘the dustman’ and ‘human Hoover’, has created a humanoid, a briefcase and a moth from the waste matter.

The 43-year-old’s latest work is a bedroom complete with a television set, armchairs and a wardrobe, and some of his creations will even be on display at an exhibition in New York this Christmas.

Paul Hazelton’s work includes this model of a room, called Vacancy

‘I think it all has something to do with the fact that I was brought up in an immaculate environment that was really clean,’ said Mr Hazelton.

‘It all started when I noticed the dust on a mask and was able to pull it off.

‘I started collecting dust and working with it, finding ways of turning it into three-dimensional structures.’

Mr Hazelton starts by collecting dust from furniture, pictures and window sills – but not vacuum cleaners, which he says contaminate the waste.

This model of a briefcase is called Carrier

He then transforms the particles into sculptures – some of which are 50cm (20in) high – by wetting them, shaping them and carefully drying them.

‘Humans were supposedly made from dust, so it is interesting to create other things with it,’ added Mr Hazelton, from Margate, Kent.

‘It is a kind of recycling. The reaction of people when they see the art is one of incredulity.’

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Dentist creates amazing tooth art

18CARATBRASS — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:24:34 +0000

A dentist with a sense of humour has built miniture men at work in sets of teeth.

Molar power: Mini figures appear on the teeth

Open wide – it’s time to have some work done on your teeth. Only today, we’ve got the little fellas in…

These scenes of workmen cleaning enamel, digging out fillings, doing scale and polish and repairing holes were created by dentist Ian Davis from the casts of real mouths.

Brushing teeth

Filling the gap

Some of the tiny figures are mixing concrete, setting up scaffolding, or picking away with drills and shovels.

‘I recently had my surgery redone into a modern surgery and wanted to have something up on the walls,’ said Dr Davis, 36.

‘I thought it would be great to make it fun for patients and try to make them more relaxed.’

Dr Davis says he was inspired by a photography magazine which featured miniature figures in everyday scenes pictured close up.

‘I thought, “What if teeth were the size of a house or a car – how would they be treated?”’

Men at work

Tooth artTooth art

‘Even one set-up can take quite a long time. Because they’re so tiny, they’re extremely fiddly. Luckily I have a steady hand and lots of tools.’

One idea for a future display for his surgery in Golders Green, north London, is a model depicting root canal work, complete with deep-sea divers.

However, one scene that is so far missing is workmen downing tools and drinking tea…

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Woman charged over slapping boyfriend with steak

18CARATBRASS — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:21:50 +0000

The idea of a slap-up meal was taken a little too far by one woman accused of attacking her terminally ill boyfriend with a raw steak.

Elise Egan: accused of meat-slapping

Elsie Egan faces domestic abuse charges after the meaty onslaught – which followed a row over which kind of bread they should eat.

Disabled boyfriend Peter Schabhuttl, 49, said he was hit ‘on top of his head with an uncooked steak, approximately 10-16oz’ for wanting a bread roll instead of sliced bread.

Egan, 53, of Dunnellon, Florida, denied wielding the steak but said she slapped him several times ‘so he can learn’.

Police noted redness on Mr Schabhuttl’s cheek and crown.

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X-ray shows TV remote control up man’s bottom

18CARATBRASS — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:21:37 +0000

Medics in China couldn’t get to the bottom of a drunk student’s pain – until x-rays revealed he had a television remote control stuck up his bottom.

The x-ray of Huang Chen’s anally-inerted TV remote control

The amazing x-rays showed that 19-year-old Huang Chen had the TV remote lodged up his backside.

Police believe it was a part of a prank played by flatmates on Chen when he collapsed after a night’s drinking in Changsha, southern China.

‘We didn’t know what it was to start with. There was a little bit of blood but he didn’t say anything about a remote control. We couldn’t quite believe it when we saw the X-ray,’ said Dr Wei Lung Zhi of Hunan Hangtian Hospital.

‘He will be fine in time, but the remote was a write off,’ he added.

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One-legged man held after one shoe goes missing from shop

18CARATBRASS — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:30:32 +0000

Police say a one-legged suspect was caught after only one shoe went missing in a store in Belgium.

An amputee was an immediate suspect when a store attendant found one shoe missing from a shop in the western Belgian town of Maldegem.

Police spokesman Rik Decraemer said Monday authorities were alerted and quickly found the man who fit the description by shopkeepers. The shoe was also recovered.

// The suspect, a Russian asylum seeker, faces possible charges and was handed over to judicial authorities.

Posted in 18CARAT BLOG, 18CARAT INTERWEB, 18CARAT LIFE, 18CARAT MUSE, 18CARAT NEWS, 18CARAT WEIRDNESS Tagged: amputee, heather mills, hopping mad, one leg, one legged robber, Rik Decraemer, shoplifter, teif

Hungry bears love minivans, says study

18CARATBRASS — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:23:47 +0000

A bear: fond of minivans

Bears in California’s Yosemite National Park might have a reputation for rummaging through visitors picnic baskets – but scientific research has shown they’re actually most attracted by minivans.

A study published this month in the Journal of Mammalogy says that the bears’ favourite target is minivans driven by families with children – who leave behind a trail of spilled juice boxes, Cheerios and coolers carrying other snacks.

Park scientists have found that the bears tore into minivans more frequently than other types of vehicles.

// It found that minivans represented 29 percent of the 908 vehicles targetted by bears between 2001 and 2007, even though they made up just 7 percent of the cars that visited Yosemite.

The researchers investigated the relationship after noticing that bears seemed to focus on that particular vehicle type more than any other.

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Non-zombie accused of being zombie, punched

18CARATBRASS — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 10:11:42 +0000

Some zombies: please make sure that the person really is a zombie before attempting to remove their head or destroy their brain

A man who was innocently trying to order a late-night meal in an Iowa City restaurant was attacked by a man who accused him of being a zombie.

Iowa City police are investigating the early morning assault, in which a man called the restaurant-goer a zombie, then punched him twice.

Police said the assault occurred at 1:17 a.m. on Sunday at a restaurant south of the University of Iowa campus.

// The man was ordering food when he was approached by the other man, who told him that he was a zombie, then hit him in the eye.

When the victim tried to call police on his cell phone, the would-be zombie-fighter punched him again, breaking his nose, and then ran out a back door.

The victim was taken by ambulance to a hospital. He is not believed to be a zombie.

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Dog-woman scares off burglar

18CARATBRASS — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:00:21 +0000

What the woman does not look like

A woman in Georgia scared off a burglar who was trying to break into her home – by pretending to be a large dog.

The attempted break-in occurred at around 11pm on Saturday night in Athens, Georgia, when the woman spotted a suspicious man trying to turn the doorknob of her front door.

Thinking quickly, the woman dropped to the floor, and started scratching at the door and imitating a dog – although, as the Athens Banner-Herald newspaper reports, ‘what dog-like behaviors she specifically mimicked remains unknown.’

// The woman said the man quickly ran away when she began her dog impersonation. Police searched the neighbourhood for the man, but did not find him; the investigation continues.

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The Incredible Dog leads the way at the Halloween Parades

18CARATBRASS — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:09:42 +0000

This ghoulish pooch made to look like The Incredible Hulk caused a stir at the 19th Annual Dog Halloween Parade in NYC

The trend this Halloween seems to be for proud owners to splash their costume cash on their pets. This weekend saw a host of pooch parades in cities around the world from New York to Tokyo.

The 19th Annual Dog Halloween Parade attracted large crowds to NYC’s Tompkins Square Park. With over 500 dogs in costume and 2,000 spectators, this is one of the world’s biggest dog shows with treats, cookies and iPod on offer to the winners.

In Tokyo, 1,000 children took part in the colourful Harajuku Omotesando Hello Halloween Pumpkin Parade 2009. They were joined by hordes of four-legged friends wearing witches hats, capes and charming pumpkin booties

Elsewhere a dog done up as Batman stole the show at the Family Pet Festival in Cali, department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Although he had tough competition from a four-legged Rastafarian.

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Latvia meteorite claims crash to earth as hoax is revealed

18CARATBRASS — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:02:02 +0000

Scientists have announced that a large crater in Latvia that was claimed to be the results of a meteorite crashing to earth is, in fact, a hoax.

Crash and burn: the hoax meteorite crater in the Mazsalaca region of Latvia

Experts had rushed to the site after reports that a meteorite had landed late on Sunday in Latvia’s Mazsalaca region, near the Estonian border, and footage of the flames caused by its landing were widely shown after being posted on YouTube.

Unfortunately, it turned out it was just a hole someone had dug in the ground. The video (see below) was shot by a group of film-making students, which might be seen as something of a gievaway.

// ‘This is not a real crater. It is artificial,’ Uldis Nulle, a scientist at the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center, said after inspecting the site on Monday.

Uldis and other experts who examined the hole in daylight said it was too tidy to have been caused by a meteorite.

‘It’s artificial, dug by shovel,’ said Girts Stinkulis, a geologist at the University of Latvia.

Earlier Uldis had said his first impression of the 27 foot wide and nine foot deep crater was that it had indeed been caused by a meteorite. He said there was smoke coming out of the hole when he arrived.

Dainis Ozols, a nature conservationist, said he thinks the perpetrators tried to make their freshly-dug hole look like a meteorite crater by burning some kind of pyrotechnic compound at the bottom. He added he would analyze some samples taken from the site.

Inga Vetere of the Fire and Rescue Service said they received a call about the alleged meteorite on Sunday evening from an eyewitness. She said a military unit was dispatched to the site and found that radiation levels were normal.

Experts outside Latvia said it would be unusual for such a large meteorite to hit the Earth. The planet is constantly bombarded with objects from outer space, but most burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the surface.

Asta Pellinen-Wannberg, a meteorite expert at the Swedish Institute of Space Research, said she didn’t know the details of the Latvian incident, but that a rock would have to be at least three feet in diameter to create a hole that size.

Henning Haack, a lecturer at Copenhagen University’s Geological Museum, said when it comes to alleged meteorite crashes, ‘there always is a pretty large margin of error.

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Mystery party guests don’t spot real-life crime

18CARATBRASS — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:05:05 +0000

What the burglar may have looked like

Guests at a murder mystery party spent several hours playing detective in a church – but completely failed to notice that a real crime had taken place.

The eight people who took part in the party spent the evening looking for fictional clues, but didn’t spot the signs that a burglary had taken place the night before.

The Elim Pentecostal church in Yeovil, Somerset, had been broken into, with the thieves stealing a large TV, laptop computer and the contents of a raided safe.

// But it was only as the vicar, Reverend Howard Davenport, came to open the church for the Sunday service that the break-in came to light.

Rev Davenport said: ‘You’d have thought that eight wannabe detectives might have noticed a real crime a few metres from them only hours earlier.’

Avon and Somerset Police said they are investigating the burglary and are appealing for witnesses.

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