Thursday, May 01, 2003

Don we now our tin foil beanies!
Elle 'lined baby's cot with lead':
Supermodel Elle Macpherson has reportedly lined her baby's cot with lead to shield him from cosmic rays on planes.

Macpherson, 40, allegedly also used foil blankets to shield herself and sons Flynn, five, and Aurelius, 12 weeks, from radiation, British newspaper The Sun said yesterday.

The lingerie designer is said to have spent thousands of pounds on the custom-built cot, which Macpherson's partner Arpad Busson carried aboard a British Airways flight from the Bahamas to London recently.
Hmm, how much lead is enough? 1/4 inch thick or one inch or more? Don't tell Elle or Arpad will have a hernia in his future.

Another bizarre cult raises concern:
Japanese police said yesterday they were ready to crack down on a bizarre "white-costume" cult which has stirred unease among local people by occupying a public road and shrouding the surrounding area with mysterious white screens.

Police started questioning white-clad members of the Pana Wave Laboratory cult who, since last Friday have been occupying a 200-metre stretch of a mountain road with a caravan of 15 white-shrouded cars and vans in Gifu, about 300 kilometres west of Tokyo.

The local authority on Wednesday issued an expulsion order to the cult, which claims the earth is in danger because of electromagnetic waves used with evil intent by communists, according to its website.
Sounds like a pretty fair description of CNN.

Traffic ticket leads to 9-hour jury trial. It's not as mundane as it sounds:
Diewald, who identifies himself as ''The Rev. Chu Bbakka,'' was stopped by Plemons in Sheffield Township on Sept. 28 for non-working brake lights, according to a police report, and he failed to show a valid Ohio driver's license.

Instead, Plemons said, he pulled out a homemade ''international driver's license'' provided by his organization, ''The Sovereign Nation of Earth.''

Diewald testified yesterday in front of Judge Mark Mihok that his organization helps the homeless and he has no allegiance to ''any geo-political entity.''

''You can't play by society's laws, so you make up your own?'' countered Assistant Prosecutor Jeff Szabo.

''Their society doesn't want me,'' Diewald said.

Diewald called several members of his organization to the stand, including one of the ''founding fathers'' of the Sovereign Nation of Earth, James Bisso, and the secretary and treasurer of the nation, Mary Francis Cummings.
...
Szabo cross-examined Bisso, asking him where the Sovereign Nation of Earth is located.

''According to Chewy, it encompasses the whole earth,'' Bisso said.
Some people just shouldn't be allowed to watch Star Wars!