The idiot of the day

[Van Basten II]

Eye trouble threatens to bring Mundine's career to a halt

Email Print Normal font Large font August 7, 2007

Anthony Mundine's career may be in jeopardy.

THE career of champion boxer Anthony Mundine is in doubt because of a serious eye infection.

The WBA super-middleweight champion and former rugby league star re-entered a Sydney hospital suffering from limited vision, the Nine Network reported last night.

Mundine's left eye, operated on last week, reportedly became infected over the weekend after he removed a protective contact lens at a restaurant and cleaned it with his mouth.

Mundine returned to the hospital and at one stage feared the eye would have to be removed. "I feared the worst, I feared I could lose the eye," he said. Mundine also feared for his boxing career, saying: "I just felt that maybe this it for me. The doctor said it could be weeks, could be months for the natural healing process to take place."

The mishap scared him.

"You put yourself in that situation and you think you're going to lose an eye, or a lot of your sight," he said. "You'd definitely be scared, too, especially if you're 'The Man' Mundine."

AAP

Edited August 6, 2007 by Van Basten II

[Van Basten II]

When dumb gets dumber

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/AL...M_Rvi4AvYzmSfRg

Legally blind boxer Anthony Mundine vows to fight on

1 day ago

SYDNEY, Australia - WBA champion Anthony Mundine, who says he is legally blind in one eye, will fight for the undisputed world super-middleweight title next year.

"I don't need two eyes to beat them," Mundine said Thursday. "I'll fight with one eye."

Mundine, 32, suffered impairment to his sight when he infected his left eye two months ago after using his tongue to clean a contact lens.

He underwent surgery to remove a growth behind the eye and has since been treated with steroids and antibiotics.

"My vision is not great - maybe 40-50 per cent - which is pretty much legally blind at the moment," Mundine said. "It's not sore but there's still a bit of cloudiness in the eye."

Mundine, who last defended his super middleweight title against Argentina's Pablo Zamora Nievas in June, said he is determined to carry on with his career.

He said his priority is to fight Denmark's Mikkel Kessler next year.

The undefeated Kessler, who outpointed Mundine in a WBA title defence at Sydney in June 2005, is scheduled to fight unbeaten WBO champion Joe Calzhage in Cardiff on Nov. 3.

"I'm the only guy that's got the tools to beat Kessler, and he knows it, and hopefully I can get the fight in next year, with God's will," Mundine said.

"All I need is for my eye to be about 60 per cent," he said. "If I can see a silhouette under them lights in my left eye, I feel that I can still become what I have always desired."

Edited September 29, 2007 by Van Basten II

[Dan Gould]

When dumb gets dumber

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/AL...M_Rvi4AvYzmSfRg

Legally blind boxer Anthony Mundine vows to fight on

1 day ago

SYDNEY, Australia - WBA champion Anthony Mundine, who says he is legally blind in one eye, will fight for the undisputed world super-middleweight title next year.

"I don't need two eyes to beat them," Mundine said Thursday. "I'll fight with one eye."

Why not? It worked for Rocky Balboa.

[MoGrubb]

I coudda been a contendah!

[Swinging Swede]

Here's another genius:

Man Bitten By Rattlesnake After Putting It in His Mouth

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. — Snake collector Matt Wilkinson of Portland grabbed a 20-inch rattler from the highway near Maupin, and three weeks later, to impress his ex-girlfriend, he stuck the serpent in his mouth.

He was soon near death with a swollen tongue that blocked his throat. Trauma doctors at the Oregon Health and Science University saved his life.

"You can assume alcohol was involved," he said. Actually, not just beer. It was something he called a "mixture of stupid stuff."

Calls from cable network television stations poured in Tuesday, when he still had sore muscles and nerves from the venom.

It happened at a barbecue with friends.

Wilkinson, 23, had downed a six-pack and his ex-girlfriend asked him for a beer. He handed her one, not realizing the snake was also in his hand.

"She said, 'Get that thing out of my face,'" Wilkinson said. "I told her it was a nice snake. 'Nothing can happen. Watch.'"

So he stuck the snake in his mouth.

"It got a hold of my tongue," he said.

He was having breathing problems when his ex-girlfriend drove him to the hospital. "She was the only one sober," Wilkinson said.

En route, they spotted a police car and asked for help.

His next memory, he said, was waking up at the hospital.

Doctors could not get a breathing tube down his throat.

Dr. Richard Mullins cut a hole in Wilkinson's neck to insert the breathing tube. Physicians started giving antivenin, moved him to intensive care and kept him sedated until the swelling went down.

The Poison Control Center sees about 50 people a year with snake bites, usually hikers. Deaths from rattlesnake bites in Oregon are extremely rare.

Wilkinson, who works in construction, has yet to return to work. His three Western diamondback rattlers have been removed from his home.

He says co-workers have been pretty blunt.

"They were like, 'What the heck were you thinking?'" Wilkinson said.

The answer? "It's my own stupidity."

[porcy62]

Well, what about Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter? I know he died and it may be of bad taste name him here, but I always tought that what he usually did in front of camera was just the opposite a true naturalist and wildlife documentarist, (I was one of them for a while) should do. His death was the consequence of a stupid, dangerous and uneducate approach to nature.

[Van Basten II]

Maybe not an idiot but surely a weirdo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7019998.stm

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Maybe not an idiot but surely a weirdo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7019998.stm

Check out "Million dollar secret" by Helen Humes. (Or, for a man's viewpoint, by Red Holloway.)

MG

[Tim McG]

Idiot of the day?

Hope Solo.

U.S. goalie Hope Solo gets the boot at Women's World Cup

By STEPHEN WADE, AP Sports Writer

September 29, 2007

SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- The Women's World Cup is taking on some edge for the United States, just as the Americans are getting ready to say goodbye.

U.S. coach Greg Ryan tossed goalkeeper Hope Solo off the team for Sunday's third-place game against Norway. His decision, which has the support of the remaining 20 players, came after he benched Solo for Thursday's semifinal in which Brazil routed the U.S. 4-0.

Solo lashed out in an interview, saying Ryan made the "wrong decision" in dropping her in favor of veteran Briana Scurry against the quick and creative Brazilians.

The 36-year-old Scurry will face Norway on Sunday in a game that precedes the championship between defending champion Germany and Brazil.

Ryan said Solo would not even attend the Norway game. The U.S. practiced Saturday without her, and officials said she remained in China, meaning she probably will return home with the team.

"We have moved forward with 20 players who have stood by each other, who have battled for each other," Ryan said. "And when the hard times came -- and the Brazil game was a hard time -- they stood strong."

Solo hadn't allowed a goal for almost 300 minutes when she was benched. Ryan chose the smaller, quicker Scurry, who led the U.S. to its last World Cup title in 1999 and held off Brazil in the 2004 Olympic final.

Captain Kristine Lilly and star striker Abby Wambach said Solo apologized at a team meeting. On her myspace page, Solo wrote that she didn't intend to criticize Scurry. She maintained, however, that Ryan's decision was wrong.

"This is our chance to get back on the field and show our country and our fans how we can play soccer," Lilly said. "That's really what's important for this group right now."

Sunil Gulati, president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, tried to find something positive in this ruckus.

"The fact that people care about this ... the fact that people care about the decision on goalkeepers, that we got drubbed in one game -- that's all good," Gulati said.

Wambach, who has four goals in the World Cup, called the dispute "uncharted territory" for the U.S. women, who were unbeaten in their first four games in an otherwise low-key tournament: a tie with North Korea, and wins over Sweden, Nigeria and England.

"It just goes to show you have to be professional all the time and you have to watch what you say," Wambach said.

Ryan said he made the decision to drop Solo after meeting with team leaders.

"The circumstance that happened and her going public has affected the whole group," said Lilly, the 36-year-old striker who is playing in a record fifth World Cup. "And having her with us would still be a distraction."

Ryan and Wambach said Solo may still have a future with the U.S. team, but Ryan has suggested there is depth at goalkeeper, with young players coming up.

"Everybody has a potential to have a future with this team," Ryan said. "I think what's got to occur is reconciliation and that is a very slow process."

In her interview after Thursday's loss, Solo said of her benching: "It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that. There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves. ... You have to live in the present. And you can't live by big names. You can't live in the past."

The Americans were beaten 3-0 by Germany four years ago in the semifinals, but rallied to win Olympic gold. Wambach hopes for a repeat.

"I made it a point the other night to watch the other team celebrate," she said. "Only time will tell, but I know those memories of Brazil, those goals are etched in every single one of our minds."

The United States was unbeaten in 51 straight games before the Brazil loss, but the lopsided defeat and the last-minute goalkeeping decision have left Ryan's future unclear.

Gulati said Ryan's contract was up at the end of the year. He did not say if Ryan would coach the team at next year's Beijing Olympics.

"In all events like this ... we do a pretty quick analysis of what's happened -- what's gone well, what's not gone well," Gulati said.

"That will happen even more quickly in this case," he added. "We'll analyze this situation after tomorrow (Sunday). We've already starting analyzing it."

[Aggie87]

Why was Solo benched for an inferior Scurry in the first place? Scurry's a big name, but clearly not the player Solo is at this point. The coach's questionable decision is what caused this mess, it appears to me.

[Dan Gould]

Why was Solo benched for an inferior Scurry in the first place? Scurry's a big name, but clearly not the player Solo is at this point. The coach's questionable decision is what caused this mess, it appears to me.

I agree, given what little I know about the situation. But the thing was that Solo was told not to speak to the press and then turned around and minutes later bitched and moaned about the benching, and kept saying how you can't make decisions based on the past - meaning that just because Scurry won the Gold doesn't mean she belongs out there four years later.

Also, Solo is seriously nice looking.

[Van Basten II]

We have a new contestant

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics...h-cut-free.html

Man 'who had sex with park bench' cut free

A man had to be cut free by doctors after becoming stuck while trying to have sex with a park bench.

Police and medical personnel were called to Lan Tian park in Hong Kong after the man, named as 41-year-old local Le Xing, got into difficulty after he put his penis through a hole in the bench and got stuck when he became aroused.

Mr Xing, described in reports as "lonely and disturbed", told police that he thought it would be fun to have sex with the bench.

When officers and doctors arrived at the scene they tried to release some of the pressure by removing some of his blood. But their efforts proved unsuccessful, forcing them to cut the bench from the ground and take it, with Xing attached, to a city hospital.

It took doctors four hours to cut him free. They later said that if he had been stuck for just an hour longer they may have been forced to amputate his penis.

There have been several recent cases of people having sex with unusual objects. In May 2008, Edward Smith, claimed to be involved in an intimate relationship with a white Volkswagen Beetle.

Separately, Scot Robert Stewart was placed on the sex offenders register after being caught having trying to copulate with a bicycle.

Edited August 15, 2008 by Van Basten II

[7/4]

A man had to be cut free by doctors after becoming stuck while trying to have sex with a park bench.

Ha!

When I did it, I never got stuck.

[papsrus]

Given certain physiological responses -- including the ability to sustain an erection uninterrupted while being transported to the hospital attached (somehow) to a park bench -- I'm going to take a wild guess and venture that this here tale is a ... tall one.

... unless, of course, some sort of pharmaceutical products were involved, in which case he may have had one of those four-hour deals that you're supposed to alert your doctor about (not bloody likely!) in the event that they occur ...

Edited August 15, 2008 by papsrus

[jostber]

Another goodie:

BURLINGTON, Maine –

A fire chief in Penobscot County has been charged with being drunk behind the wheel while driving a fire truck with its lights on and its sirens going.Russell Banks of Burlington was arrested around midnight Saturday after a resident complained that Banks was racing a fire tanker by his home even though there was no fire in the area.

Banks, 34, is chief of the Triangle Fire Department, a volunteer association that provides service for Burlington, Lowell and Grand Falls Township.

When a Penobscot County sheriff’s deputy responded, he located the truck and noticed that Banks smelled of alcohol and had bloodshot eyes. A blood alcohol test showed Banks was at twice the legal limit.

Deputy Chief Troy Morton said the resident told police that Banks was blasting his siren in retaliation for a neighborhood dispute.

Banks could not be reached for comment.

[Van Basten II]

Playing around with what seems new function on google called igoogle, found an item called Bonehead of the day that seems in the spirit of this thread here are a few items that were on the tracker today.

http://bonehead.oddballs.com/bonehead.rss

Two Perfectly Matched Partners In Crime Attempt Escape While Handcuffed Together

Should we go left or right? I know, let's take a pole! 16 sec. video

Man Tells 911 Dispatcher To Hold On So He Can Finish Buying Cocaine. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

He should be happy with the quick police response

Shopaholic Dies At Home In Clothing Avalanche. Police Need 2 Days To Find Her Body

Plenty of material evidence

Apparently This Does Need To Be Said. It Is Never A Good Idea To Use A Blow Torch To Melt Ice On Your Porch

The good news: There's no more ice on the porch. No, not that porch. The old porch.

Did You Ever Think Anyone Would Would Be Dumb Enough To Drive Their Pickup Truck Over A Semi-Frozen Pond? Me Neither

When thick people meet thin ice, it all goes down wrong

The Best Of Dynamic Italian Politics. Italian Senator Giulio Andreotti Has A Senate Moment During A TV Interview

At least he won't be proposing any stupid laws

Answer: 'Half Your Life' Question: 'How Long Must You Wait To Get Urgent Medical Treatment From The UK NHS?'

Woman given less than 2 months to live if untreated is told she has to wait 25 days to get medication

If You Claim You Can't Walk 20 yds Without Crutches, And You Accept $17K Benefits, Don't Run A 10km Road Race And Then Boast About It In The Newspaper

With stupid comments thrown in because he 'walks the walk and talks the talk'

In Reality, They Can't Find You. But Virtually, They Can. And You Are Still In Real Trouble

First use of Facebook to serve legal documents. A 'weird extra' report.