Interesting optical illusion

Interesting optical illusion

Zack Lynch posted this fabulous optical illusion. [Converted from Word to HTML/PNG in the interest of portable standards]

If you take a look at the following picture , let me tell you ... it is not animated. Your eyes are making it move. To test this, stare at one spot for a couple seconds and everything will stop moving. Or look at the black center of each circle and it will stop moving. But move your eyes to the next black center and the previous will move after you take your eyes away from it.... Weird

Hip-Swaying Dancing Doll Ridicules Saddam

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis used to dance to his tune, but in Baghdad toy shops a chubby, gun-toting Saddam Hussein doll now wiggles his hips to the "Hippy Hippy Shake."

Toy stores around Baghdad are doing a quick trade in dancing Saddam dolls -- foot-high battery-powered puppets of the former president, kitted out in full insurgent regalia, who swing their hips to cheesy pop music at the flick of a switch.

Decked out with hand-grenades, daggers, a walkie-talkie, binoculars and an AK-47, Saddam dances to the "Hippy Hippy Shake" when turned on.

"It's funny, isn't it?" said Mustapha al-Kadamy, a young father as he browsed through a toy store in the wealthy Mansoor district and prepared to buy one of the dancing Saddams.

"Tomorrow Saddam will go before an Iraqi judge and so today is a good day to make fun of him -- we need to be able to smile after all the horrible things he's done to us."

The owner of the store started offering the dolls shortly after Saddam's regime was overthrown in April last year.

A Turkish traveling salesmen turned up with the Chinese-made puppets, also featuring dancing Osama bin Ladens, Fidel Castros and George W. Bushes, and he placed an order.

At first it was the hip-shaking Osamas that sold best, but slowly Iraqis grew less fearful of ridiculing their deposed president and started buying the Saddam ones too.

"At the beginning we'd hide them under the counter and only sell them to those who specially asked because people were upset to see the former president as a doll," explained Asaad Majid, a salesman in the al-Jelawi toy store in Mansoor.

"Now we're not scared anymore, we display them openly, and people buy them regularly," he said, adding that demand peaked soon after Saddam was captured last December.

Thursday, the real Saddam and 11 of his associates will go before an Iraqi judge to be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Saddam's trial is not expected to begin until early next year.

There was little doubt about Saddam's guilt in the minds of customers and sales staff Wednesday.

"If he's executed, then that's the end of it -- it's too easy for him," said Ala, a sales assistant at Jelawi's.

"It would be better to keep him in prison for the rest of his life so that he has to suffer every day."

Hospital Sued Over Photo of Man's Genitals

DENVER (Reuters) - Two Denver hospital workers took a photograph of a man's genitals while he lay unconscious in an emergency room after being mugged, his attorney said on Wednesday.

Gregory Bradford, 35, was taken to Denver Health Medical Center in February last year with a cracked skull after being attacked outside a gay bar.

According to Bradford, a hospital employee pushed his blanket down and took a picture of his genitals with a small digital camera that Bradford had used to take pictures of his friends at the bar.

"They disrobe him and put him on display. People are coming in and out (of the emergency room) to see him," Bradford's lawyer Dan Caplis said.

"Then somebody gets the bright idea to take a photo of him and leave the photo on the camera," Caplis added. "They left the picture of him to humiliate him."

Bradford has filed notice of intent to sue.

A hospital spokeswoman said the incident had been investigated immediately and two employees alleged to have used the camera were no longer working for Denver Health.

News of the incident surfaced a week after Denver Health Medical Center announced it had fired five paramedics and disciplined 12 others for harassing or bullying patients in unrelated cases.

Exploding Vending Machine

Freakish things and people are plentiful--all over the world.
HOUSTON (Reuters) - An exploding vending machine turned the coolant freon into phosgene, a poisonous gas used as a chemical weapon in World War One, and forced the evacuation of 10 people from a Texas hospital, officials said on Thursday.

A food service employee was working on the refrigerated soft drink machine at the Park Place Medical Center in Port Arthur, Texas, when a small explosion and fire occurred inside it on Wednesday morning, Port Arthur Fire Marshal Mark Mulliner said.

"When freon gas from the cooling system came into contact with the heat from the fire, it changed composition to a phosgene gas," Mulliner said.

Phosgene irritates the lungs, eyes, mouth and nose and, in strong enough concentrations, causes fatal amounts of fluid to build up in the lungs.

Ten people on the third floor of the hospital were evacuated for several hours while the area was ventilated, said Heather Ross of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Two firefighters were kept in the hospital overnight for observation, Ross said.

Australia Cigarette Packs to Show Graphic Photos

Freakish things and people are plentiful--all over the world.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian smokers will soon have to look at the picture of a cancer-ridden lung or a gangrenous foot missing toes each time they light up.

Following a trend pioneered by Canada, the government said it wants cigarette companies to put graphic pictures and warnings on 30 percent of the front of each pack and 90 percent of the back.

One gruesome photo shows a color cross-section of a diseased lung. Another shows a blackened foot missing a toe and the rest twisted. "Smoking causes peripheral vascular disease," it reads. A third shows a dissected, bloodied brain with the caption, "Smoking doubles your risk of stroke."

"The experience in Canada showed there was a three percent drop in smoking," Trish Worth, parliamentary secretary for health, told reporters. Canada introduced the warnings and pictures of diseased organs in late 2000.

But Australian cigarette makers say the move will not alter smoking patterns, and one called it a desperate tactic.

Health Minister Tony Abbott said cigarette companies would have 18 months to make the changes once the government announces them officially.

Cell Phones May Affect Sperm

Freakish things and people are plentiful--all over the world.

LONDON (Reuters) - Mobile phones may damage men's sperm, Hungarian scientists say, in a study that fertility experts dismissed Monday as inconclusive.

Carrying a mobile in hip pockets or a holster on the waist could cut sperm count by nearly 30 percent, according to the research.

"The prolonged use of cell phones may have a negative effect on (sperm production) and male fertility," Dr. Imre Fejes, of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Szeged said in a summary of the study.

Fejes and his team analyzed sperm from 221 men and questioned them about their use of mobile phones. They found correlations between the use of the phones, even in a standby setting, and reduced sperm concentration and quality.

Fejes said more research is needed to support the findings, which will be reported to this week's conference in Berlin of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology.