NationStates Jolt Archive


Odd News and such

Sumamba Buwhan
27-08-2004, 17:08
Is it so wrong that he is offering to sale his vote? So what if he gets $50 to give his vote away. :p

Ohio Man Offers Vote for Sale on EBay


ELYRIA, Ohio (AP) - It took authorities just 12 hours to hear about and stop a man's eBay offer to sell his vote.

James Pengov, 36, of Elyria, said he was hoping to land enough money from selling his vote to pay medical bills.

"Up for auction is MY VOTE!," said Pengov's Aug. 19 posting on the online marketplace. The item, advertised as "Presidential Vote for Sale," with a starting bid of $50, was yanked 12 hours after it was posted.

"Simply tell me who to vote for, after paying the auction, and it will be so," his listing said. "If you care, buy my vote and you will have twice the power in the upcoming election!!!!"

Pengov said he didn't know that selling a vote was illegal.

The fraud unit of the California secretary of state's office, which has been alerted to votes for sale on eBay in previous elections, came across the posting and notified Ohio authorities.

Pengov told buyers he generally votes Republican, but expressed dissatisfaction with both parties.

Hani Durzy, eBay spokesman, said the online auction service screens the 29 million listings for violations of its policies, but because 3.5 million are added daily, it relies on outside help to catch inappropriate listings.

lol, okay so you wanna buy a bridge?


Entire Bridge Stolen in Southern Bosnia
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) - In what could qualify for Ripley's Believe It or Not, seven thieves stole an entire 13-yard bridge near the southern Bosnian town of Mostar, police said Friday.

Over several days, the group dismantled the metal bridge built during the Austro-Hungarian empire 150 years ago, transported the parts to a local junk yard and sold them, a police statement said.

While it all happened in a remote mountainous region, local villagers saw the thieves loading parts of the bridge into vans and alerted police last Friday. The seven men were arrested and are being held pending a decision by a prosecutor.

Without disclosing their names, police said the Gypsies, or Roma, sold the metal parts for $170.

Fiancee got you down? Kill her and yourself... that doesnt mean you can't still be married...

Dead Couple to Be Married

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A South African man who shot his pregnant fiancée dead before killing himself will be posthumously married to her at the weekend.
Police Captain Mohale Ramatseba said David Masenta shot 25-year-old Mgwanini Molomo after a quarrel before turning the gun on himself. But Johannesburg's Sowetan newspaper said family and friends wanted to remember them as a happy couple destined for a happy life together.

The groom's corpse would be dressed in a cream suit and his bride's in a gown for the ceremony, at which a priest in the rural village of Ceres in Limpopo will bless the union before the two are buried, the Sowetan said.

"In African culture, there is no death -- there is merely the separation of body and soul," said cultural expert Mathole Motshekga. "It is also important because the families are married together."

"This does not mean the relationship has irretrievably broken down."

How sweet it is!

Revenge Really Is Sweet, Study Shows

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Revenge feels sweet, and Swiss researchers said on Thursday they have the brain scans to prove it.

In a study investigators said might help explain how social norms arose and regulate behavior, brain centers linked to enjoyment and satisfaction lit up in young men who punished others for cheating them.

Dominique de Quervain of the University of Zurich and colleagues tested 15 male students, telling them they were doing an economic study. The men all sat in positron electron tomography, or PET scanners, that recorded brain activity.

In the study, published in the journal Science, they paired the men in an exchange of cash. Player A could give all or some of his money to player B, who could then give some or none of it back.

If the first player gave all his money, the amount was quadrupled and player B could share the reward with player A. This scenario would obviously benefit both the most, so player A had an incentive to share.

If player B declined to share, player A could punish him by taking away imaginary points or taking away money.

"We scanned the subjects' brains while they learned about the defector's abuse of trust and determined the punishment," the researchers wrote.

The PET scans showed a clear pattern of activity in the brain's dorsal striatum, involved in experiencing satisfaction, when one player penalized the other for selfishness.

This was the case even when player A had to use some of his own money to inflict the punishment.

"Instead of cold, calculated, reason, it is passion that may plant the seeds of revenge," commented psychologist Brian Knutson of Stanford University in California.

He likened the feeling to a driver refusing to let another he considers a cheater squeeze in front of him in traffic.

"After squeezing back the intruder, you can't help but notice a smile creep onto your face," Knutson wrote in a commentary.

That instinct probably evolved to grease the wheels of human social interaction, the researchers said.

"For thousands of years, human societies did not have the modern institutions of law enforcement -- impartial police and impartial judges that ensure the punishment of norm violations such as cheating in an economic exchange, for example," they wrote.

"Thus, social norms had to be enforced by other measures, and private sanctions were one of these means."
Sumamba Buwhan
27-08-2004, 17:11
Oh I forgot to post this story!

This is something I have wondered about before. Can someone walk around outside in their underwear without being charged with indecent exposure? Apparently not.

Underwear in Public Not Indecent, Court Says

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - Wearing underwear and nothing else in public does not constitute indecency, a Massachusetts court declared on Thursday as it tossed out charges against six animal rights protesters.
Members of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were arrested and charged with indecency and disturbing the peace after a chilly rally in March near Harvard University where they stripped to their skivvies and staged a nearly naked pillow fight to protest against fur.

Six months and three court dates later, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, judge threw out the indecency charges against all six PETA members.

All but one of the protesters -- PETA Vice President Dan Mathews -- were also cleared of disturbing the peace. Mathews was ordered to pay a $300 fine.

Mathews told Reuters he was relieved that the indecent exposure charges were dismissed, noting that a conviction on such a charge would have forced him and the other demonstrators to register as sex offenders in Massachusetts.

Ladies, you can now walk around in panties and bra
Lunatic Goofballs
27-08-2004, 17:51
So, what constitutes 'underwear'? What about jockstraps? A strategically placed sock? THis opens op a rather pleasant can of worms, doesn't it? :)
Sumamba Buwhan
27-08-2004, 19:04
good question.

I think thongs should be acceptable. Hell I think jockstraps should be as well.

I wonder if stains on said underwear would change their minds.