Man Finds Severed Hand in a Garage

But don't worry, it's a pretty old hand. Whoever lost their hand did so about 50-80 years ago. Still, how would you like finding a decaying hand while you are painting?

This is precisely what happened to Bo Jesperson when he was renovating an old house. At first, he thought it was a prop but then discovered decaying bone. I find his description of the hand to be both humourous and grisly.

He didn’t cut his nails," he added, describing it as a "workingman’s hand."

The wrist portion appeared jagged, Jespersen said, as if the hand had been removed violently, and 6 to 8 inches of what appeared to be tendons were looped around it.

The hand looked as if it had dried slowly.

"It looked like beef jerky," he said.

Severed human hand found in Waldoboro garage

I don't know about you, but I don't think I'm going to be eating beef jerky for a long time. There's a little part of me that will always wonder if I'm eating someone's decaying hands. It is irrational of me to feel this way, I know. But aren't all fears irrational?

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"Anyone here been raped and speaks English?"

I was reading an article on Slate today about the inevitable media backlash in regards to the overcoverage of the Virginia Tech shootings, and I came across this gem of an anecdote.

The gold standard for journalistic insensitivity was established in the 1960s by an unnamed British TV reporter who was trawling for news at a Congo airport. According to foreign correspondent Edward Behr's 1978 memoir, the Brit walked through the crowd of terrified Belgian colonials who were evacuating, and shouted, "Anyone here been raped and speaks English?"

In Praise of Insensitive Reporters

Talk about chutzpah. Even more absurd than this question is what I imagine to be an even more absurd response as a newly raped Belgian lady makes her way to the reporter.

"Why indeed," the Belgian lady would say, "I have been raped. It's been such a dreadful experience. I would much rather not go through that experience again but it's all been worth it now that my face shall be on television. Hi mom!"

But yeah, in response to the Slate article, I do think oversaturation and sensationalism by the media does create a narcotizing effect. I do not necessarily mean this in the sense that we have become desensitized to violence but that we have become too sensitized to it. Let's be honest, it was only a matter of time before a mad gunman would go on a rampage yet again. It was only a matter of time before the media would offer 24/7 coverage of it. It was only a matter of time before we would all be in front of our TV sets looking to discover the next detail.

Many of us are unfeeling towards events like these because, as tragic as they are, we know it's going to happen again.

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News Report From 1993: "There's a New Revolution Called 'Internet'..."

Ah, the days when Peter Mansbridge had a few tufts of hair on his chrome dome. Here he is announcing to Canada the arrival of "internet" — a global network where, for $200 a year, 15 million people can share recipes. And to think MySpace has more subscribers now than the internet had in 1993.

I find this news report to be absolutely hilarious. It's not because of how they speak about computers as not just "glorified calculators" but "tools of the human spirit". That part is true. The eerie "planetarium" music alongside this commentary slays me though. As does the bad geek haircuts of the early 90s.

Here's another funny comment: "You put out a general question... and you wait." Yeah, that's the part of the internet that I always found annoying in the 90s. In this report, it's being described as one of the more revolutionary aspects of the internet. Of course, that is true too. I've forgotten what a privilege it is to have my "general" questions answered by someone who might know something. Today, I can't stand waiting for my information whatsoever.

The remark that there are "no borders on the internet" is pure nonsense even for 1993. It seems to me that the internet enables people to isolate themselves from divergent opinions as there are bountiful news, blog, and social networking sites wherein one never has to encounter a perspective different from one's own. In other words, I still think one is able to encounter greater human diversity simply by driving into another neighbourhood in your town.

And of course, 1993 also has this gem of a statement from Patty: "[Internet] has more soul than any human being I know!" Something tells me Patty is busying herself writing slashfic right now or keeping a LiveJournal.

Some Changes

As you've probably noticed by now, this blog has gone through a lot of changes this week.

For starters, it's no longer quixoticals.blogspot.com, but now it's simply quixoticals.com. This takes into effect immediately. Don't worry, though, you won't be losing an of your bookmarks as the old domain forwards everything to the new domain. You're going to find that everything's a lot easier to remember, you won't be typing as much, and you can now have an easier time telling your friends about me.

The other difference, of course, is the look and feel. I added a banner that I feel is more reflective about what this blog is about. I also changed the layout, using a fonts that are easier on the eye. In short, it's prettier.

Finally, quixoticals is now on MySpace, so you can check us out on http://myspace.com/quixoticals. Don't be afraid to friend me if you like. Perhaps you can drop me a link or two.

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Man with Weird Voice Catches Fish with Teeth

The clip is pretty self-explanatory. I just want to say what I think this guy sounds like. Remember Beaker from the Muppets? Well, if he could actually enunciate words, he would talk like this fisherman.

As for the fish, I think it's Nature's misbegotten way of trying to rip out the man's vocal chords. The fish was supposed to jump out of the ocean and bite down hard on his neck. But the fish got greedy and took the bait. Literally.

So now he's on CNN.

Man Marries Foam Cut-Out of Himself

A few years ago, there were some women in my town who got together, called the newspaper, and each got married to herself. No, they were not lesbians. They all just realized they were going to be single for the rest of their lives so they might as well stop waiting around. Thus, they wanted everyone to know they were finally happy with their singlehood.

I thought the whole thing was stupid, and I still do. The whole thing reeks of the Oprah-watching, granola-eating soft feminism I loathe so much. But while the women I spoke about before were trying to put a positive spin on their situation, not so the man in this story Ananova reports upon. Lui Ye, the man in the photo above, married himself to express his "dissatisfaction with reality".

This was no life-affirming new age ceremony either. This guy created a life-sized cardboard cut-out of himself in a bridal dress. After claiming himself "whole", he also admitted that he was "narcissistic" — in a totally non-gay way, that is. Hence, this whole ceremony was based upon disappointment. In my opinion, that's the worst reason to get married.

So I guess the reason why I feel compelled to write about this is because I know I can't afford a ticket to China just so I could tell Lui Ye my whole opinion on this "marriage". Let me have my say here, then. If you are dissatisfied with reality, it is time you change it. If you do not like the way things are, there is no reason why you cannot make it a point to get up in the morning and do things differently. You do not need marriage.

Man Banned from Touching Muscles

In one of the most bizarre criminal cases I've seen in quite some time, behold the sorry fate of Akinwale Arobieke, a 45-year-old man from Liverpool. The court has banned him from feeling people's muscles and asking them to exercise in public.

Merseyside Police applied to Liverpool Magistrates' Court for a Sexual Offences Prevention Order against Arobieke - despite the fact he has not been convicted of a sex crime...

Under the terms of the order Arobieke cannot touch, feel or measure muscles or ask people to do squat exercises in public. Neither can he approach or do paid or voluntary work with any young person under 18...

[H]e cannot loiter near educational establishments, gyms or sports clubs.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Merseyside | Man banned from touching muscles

I am not educated in legal affairs. However, it seems to me the judge got it all wrong in this case. It strikes me that if he has been convicted of 15 counts of harrassment in regards to "feeling people's muscles and asking them to exercise", he has an unhealthy fascination with muscles. Rather than simply punishing the fellow, he should be put under psychiatric evaluation. This isn't simple sexual deviation, and in fact, it is questionable whether there is sexual motivation at all.

Afterall, if he is treated as, let's say, an obsessive-compulsive, perhaps he won't ever harrass people again.