Call For Help Brings Cops

Evelyn DeLeon of Trenton, NJ wasn't home Wednesday morning when her neighbors heard desperate cries coming from her house. Calls of "Help me! Help me!" in a woman's voice caused so much concern that they called the police fearing someone was in terrible trouble.

When the police arrived at the house, they too heard the persistent pleas. They knocked on the door, no-one answered, so believing that someone was in serious trouble, the cops kicked down the door in order to provide assistance.

Instead of finding someone in dire need, the cops were confronted by a 10-year-old caged cockatoo named Luna. It appears that Luna was just practising a new sound she had picked up. According to Evelyn DeLeon, this was not the first time Luna has caused an alarm.

About seven years ago Luna was practicing her "baby crying" skills. She cried for hours and hours, causing people to believe that a baby had been abandoned in the house. This prompted a visit to the house by state welfare workers. DeLeon says her bird learns much of her ever-growing vocabulary from watching television, in both English and Spanish.

Hopefully Luna can be taught about volume control, while increasing her vocabulary, maybe Evelyn DeLeon should turn down her TV set.....remember what happened to the boy who cried "Wolf!"

The Upside Down Rainbow

The upside down rainbow is not a camera trick nor does it have anything to do with rain. It is a rare natural phenomenon known as a circumzenithal arc. Unlike a rainbow, the sky has to be clear of rain and low level clouds for it to be seen. Here is an explanation:

The arc only appears when sunlight shines at a specific angle through a thin veil of wispy clouds at a height of around 20,000 to 25,000 feet. At this altitude the cirrus clouds are made of ice crystals, the size of grains of salt.

Meteorologists say the clouds must be convex to the sun with the ice particles lined up together in the right direction to refract the light. This results in the sunlight bouncing off the ice crystals high in the atmosphere, sending the light rays back up and bending the sunlight like a glass prism into a spectrum of colour.

Well, if that didn't make sense, then here is a pictorial representation:

I have to admit that I don't completely understand it myself but I guess it is a rare enough occurrence to make it noteworthy. I have certainly never seen one myself.

Circumzenithal arc facts:

• In a circumzenithal arc, the colors are in reverse order from a rainbow, with violet on the top and red at the bottom.


• The arc usually vanishes quickly because the cirrus clouds containing the ice crystals shift their position.


• Ice particles in high cirrus clouds occur all year round, but circumzenithal arcs are usually obscured by lower level clouds.


• Circumzenithal arcs are so named as they go around the zenith - the point in the sky directly above the observer- rather than the sun.

Just for the fun of it, here are some real rainbows:

He Pingping - The World's Smallest Man

It's Official! the Guinness World Records has named He Pingping the world's shortest, non-disabled, man. Born July 1988, the 20-year-old is 2ft 5in tall and weighs just 16lbs. He Pingping was born in the city of Wulanchabu (also called Ulanqab) in northern China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, he has two married sisters who are of normal height. He Pingping is a keen poker player and smokes two packets of cigarettes a day.

According to his father, He Yun, at birth He Pingping was as small as his father's palm and had to be fed through a tiny straw because his mouth was so small. He has Primordial Dwarfism a rare form of dwarfism in which individuals are extremely small for their age, even as a fetus. It is rare for individuals affected by primordial dwarfism to live past the age of 30.

Meet He Pingping - The World's Smallest Man

He Pingping has some fun with a British guard:

He Pingping met up with Svetlana Pankratova, 36, who has the distinction of being the woman with the longest legs (4ft 3.9in long) in the world. The pair met to publicize the release of "Guinness World Records 2009" at Trafalgar Square's steps in central London. It was striking to compare the two of them side by side. He called Svetlana Pankratova's legs "very beautiful."

The world's smallest man has always been popular at home in Inner Mongolia and even has his own manager. It is rumored he is now so protective of his image, he refuses to have his photo taken unless he is paid a substantial fee. See some pics of He Pingping here.

Pingping's life changed after his brother-in-law Liu spoke to a local journalist about him, and they contacted Guinness. Despite his growing reputation, Pingping's ambitions are fairly modest.

"I just want to have a normal life, get married and have children," he said.

Elisabeth Fritzl Talks About Her Dad

Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, imprisoned and repeatedly raped for 24 years has begun to describe her life as a sex slave, kept alive only to serve the depraved sexual desires of her own father, Josef Fritzl. She bore him 7 children (6 of whom survived) while she was his captive in a dungeon built under his house. She and 4 of her 7 children had no contact with the outside world; they had no friends; they never once were allowed outside; they never even saw the sun; in fact nobody but Josef Fritzl even knew that they were alive.

On the 28 August, 1984, Josef Fritzl locked his daughter Elisabeth in the cellar of the family home in Amstetten, Austria. Her indescribable pain, suffering, humiliation and degradation would last 8,516 days until her release on the 26th April, 2008. See the complete story of their captivity and rescue in a 5 part video documentary entitled The Josef Fritzl Story.

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As prosecutors prepare the case against Josef Fritzl, which will hopefully go to trial before the end of the year, his enslaved daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, has given her testimony to Austria's top female judge, Andrea Humer, excerpts of which were published in the Sun. In her interview with Ms Humer, Elisabeth said that her father threatened to leave them to rot in the cellar, which had no windows and was sealed by an electronically-locked door.

"He said he could close the door whenever he wanted and then we would soon see how we survived," she said.

The judge asked: "Did you take these threats as real?" Elisabeth replied: "Yes."

Elisabeth told the judge that she was raped up to three times a week by her father. She said that it was useless to resist because if she refused him, he would take it out on herself and the kids. He also threatened to leave her and the children to die in the cellar if they did not follow his commands.

"He was very brutal against me, and when I did not agree to have sex, then the kids would suffer. We knew he would kick us or be bad to us."

Elisabeth said she tried to give her children as normal a life as possible in their captivity, locked away in the dungeon. Whenever her father was not around, she would entertain them by singing to them and telling them stories. But when her father came to visit, the entire atmosphere dramatically changed.

"When he went away we led our own lives. When he was down here it was all silence. When he came down to the cellar we just tried to survive. He was just all-powerful."

She said her father regularly bullied them into subdued silence, punishing them if they dared to answer back.

"He wouldn't let the kids develop their own personalities. He didn't like them to talk back. At the beginning, when they were small, it wasn't such a problem. But as they got bigger and started developing a personality it was more of a problem. He did not like it and he tried to stop it. He would not allow the kids to have their own will."

It has been reported that the children are unwilling to testify against their father, but with the detailed description provided by Elisabeth of her experiences, their testimony may not add anything of value to the prosecutor's case.

Josef Fritzl himself gave an interview earlier to try and defend his actions. Fritzl maintains he acted out of love in imprisoning Elisabeth when she was 18 and keeping her in his cellar dungeon, where she was tortured and raped, giving birth to seven children.

"I grew up in the Nazi times, and that meant the need to be controlled and respect authority. Yet, despite that, I am not the monster that I am portrayed as in the media."

Josef Fritzl would be hard pressed to find anyone who agrees with him. Along with his own admission of having sex with his daughter and her testimony to judge Andrea Humer, prosecutors are hoping to bring as many as 3,000 counts of rape against the 73-year-old Josef Fritzl. In fact they are also looking into adding manslaughter charges for Fritzl's role in the death of one of his children, Michael, who died shortly after birth in 1997 and whose body Fritzl burned in an incinerator.

Matt Brown Caught with his Pants Down

Kiama MP, Matthew James BROWN, 36, BMath, LLB(Hons) was forced to resign only 3 days after being appointed as NSW Police Minister, over allegations that he danced semi-naked and simulated a sex act with Wollongong MP Noreen Hay during a late-night party three months ago. Ms Hay has denied that the incident took place.

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"Matt has tendered his resignation to the Premier tonight and the Premier has accepted his resignation over an incident he deeply regrets," a spokesman for Mr Brown said last night. "He apologizes for any embarrassment he has caused the Government."

According to the newspaper the Australian, quoting a witness, reported Mr Brown stripped down to his "very brief" underpants and danced to loud “Oxford Street-style” techno music on a green leather Chesterfield couch he had recently ordered for his office. The witness also said Mr Brown "mounted the chest" of Wollongong MP Noreen Hay.

The witness said Mr Brown called out to Ms Hay's adult daughter during the performance: "Look at this, I'm tittie-f..king your mother!"

Ms Hay admitted there was a function, but said: "I can tell you I have never seen Matt Brown without his clothes. If anything such as that was to occur, it was certainly not while I was present."

Mr Brown, who has a son, Isaac James Brown is separated from his wife. He denied using those words but said:

"I can confirm there was a party during a parliamentary sitting evening. It is unacceptable behavior. I have spoken to the Premier and he has made it very clear that such behavior will not be tolerated. I regret the incident."

However Mr. Bown's apology was not enough to satisfy the Premier, Mr. Nathan Rees, who demanded his resignation. In a statement to the press, Mr Brown who resigned from state cabinet just three days after being sworn in as police minister, apologized to the people of his Kiama electorate for his "mistake" saying:

"I'm a human being and I made a mistake and I'm going to cop the consequences of that mistake. During that celebratory night I behaved in a manner not befitting a minister. There has been some scurrilous allegations about a female work colleague. I want to say categorically they are lies, they are not true. They are appalling offensive allegations and I reject them.''

Mr Brown ended the press conference by saying he wanted to spend the day with family and friends and refused to take any questions from the media about the specifics of his behavior. Tony Kelly would be the new Police Minister, taking on the portfolio in addition to his existing responsibility for Industrial Relations, Emergency Services and Lands. Mr. Brown also left in doubt whether he would be staying on as the member for Kiama.