Daily Rotten Archives January 11, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 Salmon growers coping with Mad Cow equivalent Guardian | Submitted by: wingnut "Salmo salar, the Atlantic salmon, is no stranger to health scares... Researchers based at the University of Albany in New York revealed in the journal Science how they found high levels of contaminants such as PCBs, dioxins and pesticides in Scottish fish, which is marketed around the world as a premium product. Eating more than three portions a year, they warned, risked increasing the consumer's chances of developing cancer... Much of the blame for the high contamination readings has been heaped on the feed used to raise the fish. Environmentalists have long criticised this aspect of the industry as it relies on wild fish being caught and ground into pellets to feed their captive cousins. They have pointed out that it takes three tons of wild fish to produce one ton of the farmed variety... this feed, harvested from the polluted waters of the North Sea, results in the fish farmed in the area being more contaminated than those elsewhere." [It gets worse.] Read article... Suicide bomber arrested in England The Australian | Submitted by: thejosh "An Islamic terrorist suspect linked to al-Qa'ida has been arrested after apparently preparing himself for a suicide bombing in Britain. The man, an Algerian asylum-seeker, had left suicide notes to his mother and sister warning them that he planned to 'martyr' himself. When he was strip-searched, police discovered he had shaved off all his body hair - a religious obligation often observed by would-be suicide bombers so that they are 'clean' before entering heaven." Read article... Scientists propose global warming countermeasures Guardian | Submitted by: Liddell "Extreme technological fixes include deploying tens of billions of wafer-thin metal plates less than a centimetre wide into the Earth's low orbit via space rockets. These would be specially built to allow space-bound rays to pass while at the same time absorbing a significant amount of solar energy before bouncing it back into space. They would be designed to stay in place for a century. Similar solutions include the release of massive nets of ultra-fine metal mesh into the upper atmosphere by aircraft to prevent the Sun's rays from reaching Earth. Alternatively, millions of metallic-coated super-pressure balloons - similar in design to a children's party version, although a fraction of the size - would be filled with helium and released until they reach the stratosphere 35,000ft above the Earth. Trapped in parcels of air, they would stay up for about five years before falling to earth and being replaced. All the methods are designed to block about 1 per cent of the Sun's rays, enough to protect at least one million square kilometres of the Earth and significantly cool the planet." Read article... Dentist charged with battery against patient Chicago Star | Submitted by: JuanDurdyBassTurd "An Oak Lawn dentist is facing two counts of misdemeanor battery for allegedly ripping a tooth cap out of a female patient's mouth because he thought she owed him money, police reports say... [Dr. Leon Gombis], moments after implanting the cap, misread his account records and thought the woman, who is 58, owed him $200 for previous dental work, the report states. Gombis then reached back into the woman's mouth with pliers and yanked out the cap, she said. After an assistant told Gombis that the woman was paid up, the dentist forced the cap back into his patient's mouth and stormed out of the room, the police report says. The woman said she was bleeding so much she spent the evening in a hospital emergency room." Read article... Cheney abandons principles on gay marriage issue Fox News | Submitted by: optional "Vice President Dick Cheney, who has said states should handle the issue of gay marriage, now says he would support President Bush if he proposes a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage... Cheney's [lesbian] daughter, Mary, did not comment on the interview. A well-known figure in the Colorado gay community, Mary Cheney has worked for the Colorado Rockies baseball team and the Coors Brewing Co. where, among other duties, she worked on outreach to gays and lesbians. She also worked as a personal aide to her father in the 2000 presidential campaign, and joined the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign last July as the Director of Vice Presidential Operations." [Now give them 110%, girl!] Read article... Elderly loses fingertips in fireworks explosion New York Daily News | Submitted by: MeMe "An elderly widow blew off the tips of several fingers yesterday by lighting a powerful firecracker she mistook for a candle, officials said. The loud boom sent neighbors on Pearson St. in Flatlands, Brooklyn, scurrying from their homes for fear the building had exploded. They found 86-year-old Esther Wallace standing in her kitchen - covered in blood, surrounded by broken glass, screaming in terror... 'We're shocked,' said neighbor Edward Scafidi, 46. 'Nothing ever happens around here.'" Read article... Woman charged with felony over naked chick painting Indianapolis Star | Submitted by: geoff "An Indianapolis woman was arrested and her boyfriend's vintage Buick impounded because an image of a naked exotic dancer painted on it was visible to children... Erica Meredith, 25, was charged Thursday with disseminating matter harmful to minors, a Class D felony, after police saw the painting when she was stopped for driving the 1976 Buick with a broken taillight. In his report, the arresting officer wrote that the painting on the flat part of the trunk, 'applying contemporary standards, displays a theme which appeals to the prurient interest of sex.' The painting shows a naked woman hanging on to a pole as two men, one smoking a cigar, watch from the audience. Her breasts and pubic area are visible." Read article... McDonald's attempts to pass as health food Fox News | Submitted by: thejosh "In prominently-displayed posters and brochures at its New York-area restaurants, McDonald's is revealing how much fat and carbs are in some of its meals and telling its customers how to modify its menu - by leaving out the bun or cheese, for example - to reduce fat, carbohydrates and calories... Jeff Cronin, a spokesman at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, called McDonald's new initiative 'a step in the right direction.' But he said 'if McDonald's really wants to give consumers good information about their choices, they would at least put calorie counts on menu boards right alongside the price, where consumers could see them at the point of decision-making.'" Read article... Iraqi bootleggers smuggling booze into Iran New York Times | Submitted by: A. P. Palled "Alcohol is banned inside the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is perfectly legal in secular Iraq, even if most Iraqis avoid it for religious reasons. Not only is liquor legal here, it is untaxed and cheap. Stores sell liter bottles of Johnny Walker Red Label for just $10. In Iran, the same bottle commands at least five times the price, people here say. 'A tractor-trailer load of Jack Daniels is worth a few million dollars on the other side,' said Staff Sgt. David Spence-Sales, 34, of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. 'It's illegal to bring alcohol into Iran but it's not illegal to ship it out of Iraq... They call us infidels for our loose moral standards,' he said. 'But they live just like everyone else. You have to balance the rhetoric with what really happens.'" Read article...