In Brazil, checking your email after hours may be overtime

Brazilian workers who find themselves answering work emails on their smartphones after the end of their shifts can qualify for overtime under a new law.

The new legislation was approved by President Dilma Rousseff last month.

It says that company emails to workers are equivalent to orders given directly to the employee. Labor attorneys told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper this makes it possible for workers answering emails after hours to ask for overtime pay.

This issue has come up in the United States as well. In May, Chicago policeman Jeffrey Allen filed a class action suit against the city, asking for unpaid overtime compensation.

source

Those were the days

Best ad imaginable for Mcdonalds

Oops, paramedics drop heart en route to emergency transplant

Bungling medics are at the centre of a media storm in Mexico after they dropped a human heart being rushed to a transplant patient by police helicopter.



With the nation's media following every step of the dramatic journey to the capital's hospital, efforts to get the organ to its destination in time for a life-saving operation almost came unstuck just metres from its destination. Two medics dashing off the helicopter tipped the cooler containing the heart over onto the pavement.

Scooping it off the ground with their bare hands, the men placed the organ back in its icy storage leaving a bag of saline on the ground behind them as they rushed towards the operating room. Despite the mishap the doctor in charge of the operation was not too concerned.

He told reporters: "It was a trip on one of the potholes on the road. It's arrival was a bit scary but fortunately it all went well. Because we had the heart perfectly protected as it was packed in three layers." According to Mexico City daily Reforma, the operation was a success and the patient is responding well to the new heart.

I want this ferret that plays dead

Dysfunctional snowmen week

Olivia Munn is the latest naked celebrity to appear in a PETA ad

What better way to get the public's attention. It works for Playboy.

Flashback Friday - Sly and the Family Stone

Winter hit Toronto today

This 2 minutes of the most amazing volleyball play I've ever seen

What is Jaromir Jagr doing with his hand?

Did he catch sight of a hot patron behind the bench and just let go right on the bench? Don't tell me he was just adjusting his cup.

Midget prosecutor sues witness who laughed at her size in the dock

A lawyer just 3ft 8in tall is suing a witness who spent his time in the dock laughing at her height.

Wadim Golanev, 25, doubled up in hysterics when he saw prosecutor Silke ­Schoenfleisch-Backofen.

He was laughing so much he couldn’t answer her ­questions. Instead he pointed at her and sang “Heigh-ho heigh-ho!” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

But as he left the witness box at Frankfurt State Court he was handed a summons to appear next month over his “obscene insults” towards Schoenfleisch-Backofen, 29.

Known as a “power frau” — a mighty woman — she is regarded as one of Germany’s toughest prosecutors.

She became a lawyer so that she could sue the health ministry after failing to get into medical school because of her size.

And Schoenfleisch-Backofen is a leading figure in the Federal Association of Small People and Their ­Families.

source

Dysfunctional snowmen week

South Africa has a different policy regarding police chases

Iranian nuclear scientists are randomly blowing up

Another Iranian nuclear scientist was killed today by a magnetic bomb attached to his car. Iran blames the U.S. and/or Israel, but couldn't this have just been an accident? Who hasn't had a magnetic bomb attached to the underside of their car at one time or another? You know cars are made of steel and will naturally attract magnetic bombs.

A similar thing happened back in November, 2010. It seems being a nuclear scientist in Iran is much more hazardous then expected.

The Iranians are pissed off and blaming all kinds of people. Something about a Jewish conspiracy.

There was a flap over a Fuckin' Sale

Now what would have been more entertaining they sitting in on the meeting where the marketing team for this Osaka department store came up with the idea for their "Fuckin' Sale," spotted early this month by a reader of Jake Adelstein's Japan Subculture blog.

The store, Gallerie, caught wind of the global snicker in the final days of the Fuckin Sale and took down the fuckin' signs. Apparently fuckin is an unfortunate pun on fukubukuro—"lucky bags." It's a New Years tradition for Japanese retailers to put their overstock from last year into big grab bags and sell them at a discount.

Brooklyn jewelry store in trouble for selling swastika earrings

A Brooklyn jewelry store found itself under attack from city lawmakers for selling earrings in the shape of an ancient Buddhist symbol now much better known for its association with the Nazis. The swastika earrings on sale at the Bejeweled store represent "the most hateful symbol in our culture, and an insult to any civilized person," Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer charged. The store's manager disagreed. "It's not a Nazi symbol. I don't know what's the problem. My earrings are coming from India as a Buddhist symbol." The swastikas on the earrings are angled like Buddhist ones, not Nazi ones.

What do you think?

source

Dysfunctional snowmen week

She's got a great pair of personalities

This woman lost her virginity twice

Hazel Jones always wondered why she suffered from terrible cramps and heavy periods during puberty. But it wasn't until she turned 18 that she was given her astonishing diagnosis - she had two vaginas.

The blonde 27-year-old from High Wycombe has the million-in-one condition uterus didelphys, which means she has two separate uteruses and cervixes as well.

Hazel Jones: Lost her virginity twice due to her rare condition

But she told ITV's This Morning she was comfortable with having the condition, despite the fact she had to effectively lose her virginity twice.

'Once I found out what it was I told everybody,' she told TV hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.

'I thought it was amazing and it's definitely an ice-breaker at parties'

She added: 'If women want to have a look, I'm quite happy to show them, it's not something I'm embarrassed by.'

Hazel went to the doctor after her long-term boyfriend told her she was 'different' in the genital area.

She added that she once asked a school friend which 'hole' she should use for a tampon, but became too embarrassed to continue the conversation after her friend thought she meant she put it up her bottom.

I love this woman going on TV and running around talking about her two vaginas. I can't believe her boyfriend had to tell her to go to a doctor to find out why she was "different." Seriously there is no way I would want to deal with a woman who has two periods a month.

UPDATE: This woman loves to talk about her twin vaginas. This link takes you to a video of her visiting doctors to consult on conditions and there are actual shots of her vaginas.

source

Woman wakes up in ambulence to find paramedic "touching" her

A paramedic accused of sexually assaulting an unconscious patient admitted to police that he touched the woman inappropriately, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.

The affidavit for Mark Powell, who is on unpaid leave from American Medical Response, outlines the 22-year-old victim’s statement to police and details Powell’s alleged confession.

Police Thursday charged Powell, 49, of 90 Clintonville Road, North Haven, with first-degree sexual assault and unlawful restraint. He will be arraigned Jan. 19 in Superior Court in Meriden.

According to the warrant, Powell first told police the reason he manipulated the woman’s genitals was to “apply pain stimuli to elicit a response” or wake the woman, and that at no point during the ambulance ride to Yale-New Haven Hospital did she become conscious.

The victim said when she woke up in an AMR ambulance, an employee was pinching her breast, causing pain, and that his fingers touched her genitals and penetrated her, causing pain, the warrant said, and that she was conscious only for possibly 30 seconds to a minute while the incident was occurring.

Powell also said that in the past he had seen nurses use pain stimuli to the nipple of hospital patients and that the technique could be used on men and women. He also allegedly indicated to police that it was not an appropriate technique.

I'm glad to see he had a perfectly good explanation. It's like when my wife wakes up in the middle of the night and asks me what I'm looking for and I tell her my car keys.

source

Woman upset with 'Judge Judy' attacks man with hammer

A 62-year-old woman was arrested Sunday morning after she hit a 65-year-old man on the head with a hammer, police say.

Janet Knowles, of Jupiter, was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery using a deadly weapon.

Jupiter Police responded to the defendant's house around 11:30 a.m. Sunday after dispatchers received a call of a domestic disturbance.

When police arrived, they interviewed the alleged victim - who was not named in the probable cause affidavit - while he held bloody paper towels on his head.

The victim told police he was watching "Judge Judy" on television while sitting on his recliner, when Knowles got "upset with Judge Judy," the affidavit says.

Knowles then hit him in the head with a hammer and the victim received a "large cut" to his head and left forearm.

Knowles told police she was upset because Judge Judy was on television. She became "mad" and then hit the victim on the head with the hammer.

source

Love how these students do Daft Punk's 'Harder Better Faster Stronger'

But you can't beat the Groovy Dancing Girl, Sophie Merry who is going strong on YouTube.

Dysfunctional snowmen week

Hump day hottie

Rosamund Pike

Sign of the day

i should have bought a large bag

Woman fakes pregnancy then abducts baby from hospital

A woman falsely claiming to be pregnant allegedly attempted to abduct a baby from Middlemore Hospital and got the child to a parked car before she was stopped.

It's understood Neha Narayan carried the baby out of the hospital to a waiting car last Wednesday after being handed the one-day-old girl by a staff member who assumed she was the mother.

The alleged abduction was only foiled after the girl's parents saw the woman leave and alerted hospital staff.

Counties Manukau police spokeswoman Ana-Mari Gates-Bowey said Narayan had falsely claimed to be pregnant for nine months before telling her partner she was overdue and needed to be taken to hospital to be induced.

The partner dropped the 24-year-old Fijian-Indian off and she allegedly then spent several hours "moving through the birthing unit attempting to uplift a child".

Narayan is alleged to have then left for the car park where her partner and another person were waiting.

Both those in the car were under the impression the woman was pregnant, Gates-Bowey said.

She said hospital staff went to the car park and intervened as the woman allegedly attempted to leave.

Police later arrested Narayan and charged her with abduction of a young person.

source

Grandmother with bomb strapped to ankle forced to withdraw cash from bank

Authorities were searching Monday for man suspected of holding a 73-year-old woman and her husband hostage at their home, then forcing her to try to rob a bank with what she thought was a bomb strapped to her ankle.

The woman, Betty Davis, told employees at the bank in Fayetteville about the device, and authorities were able to safely evacuate the building on Monday before a bomb squad could remove it from Davis' leg, police said. Authorities were testing the device to see if it really was dangerous.

Davis told police that a man had been holding her and her husband captive in their home, and sheriff's deputies dispatched there found her husband tied up but unharmed. Authorities didn't release Davis' husband's name.

The couple's pickup truck was missing, and Fayetteville TV station KHOG reported Monday evening that sheriff's deputies found an abandoned truck believed to be the couple's.

The couple could only vaguely describe the suspect as a white male of an indeterminate age who was wearing blue jeans.

source

Parents pissed about 'pornographic' school supplies

Typo's product line includes a travel mug that says "Porn is my saviour" and an iPhone cover featuring a naked woman sitting provocatively in a cross-legged pose with the word "dirty" above her.

A notebook featuring a topless woman pouting in front of a bullseye is also for sale, while another appears to be trying to emulate the front of a porn magazine.

The words "entertainment for men" appear over a photo of a naked woman.

An online petition calling for the withdrawal of the products gathered more than 500 signatures in a day.

Anti-child exploitation group Collective Shout spokeswoman Melissa Tankard-Reist said parents should boycott Typo and companies like City Beach, which sells a pencil case featuring topless women.

"This all seems to be part of a theme where pornography has invaded the back-to-school sale," she said.

"A notebook with a topless woman in front is glamourising violence against women.

source

Parents kind of pissed about math problems referring to slavery, beatings

Several Gwinnett parents are outraged after their children brought home a maths assignment that referenced slavery and beatings. Christopher Braxton said he couldn't believe it when he read his 8-year-old son's math homework. "It kind of blew me away," Braxton said. "Do you see what I see? Do you really see what I see? He's not answering this question." The question was a word problem that said, "Each tree had 56 oranges. If eight slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?"

Another maths problem said, "If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in one week?" "I was furious at that point in time," Braxton said. "Something like that shouldn't be imbedded into a kid of the third, fourth, fifth, any grade," parent Terrance Barnett said. "I'm having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a maths problem. That hurts." Both fathers said they contacted the principal of Beaver Ridge Elementary school in Norcross.

They wanted to know what the third-grade math teachers were thinking. Kavanaugh took that question to Gwinnett County School District officials. "In this one, the teachers were trying to do a cross-curricular activity," district spokeswoman Sloan Roach said. Roach explained the teachers were trying to incorporate social studies lessons into the maths problems, which is something the school district encourages. But the problem with the questions is there is no historical context.

source

Dysfunctional snowmen week

No pants subway ride 2012

Enough already!

Today was the 5th annual No Pants Subway Ride in Toronto. A celebration of anti-social behaviour just for the hell of it. I happened to have been in the subway system at the time but managed to keep my pants on.

School employee faked daughter's death certificate for time off for holiday

A New York school employee forged a death certificate for her daughter to get a week's vacation to Costa Rica, city investigators said.

A recently released report from Richard Condon, special schools investigator for the city, said Joan Barnett, 58, a parent coordinator at the Manhattan High School of Hospitality Management, had one of her daughters call the school to say her sister had suffered a heart attack in Costa Rica, the New York Daily News reported Monday.

Condon's report said Barnett then had another daughter call to say the heart attack was fatal and the family was traveling to Costa Rica for the funeral. The report said Barnett forged a death certificate for "Xinia Daley Herman" to meet the school system's requirement for bereavement days.

A school official became suspicious of the death certificate because it contained "slightly different fonts which were not aligned properly," Condon's report read.

Costa Rican government officials confirmed the certificate was a fake and investigators determined Barnett had purchased her plane tickets three weeks prior to her trip.

source

Man appears in court on drug charges wearing jacket showing recipe for crack

A man facing drug trafficking charges made a strong first impression at his court appearance in Broward County when he showed up wearing a "crack shirt."

The man's shirt included instructions for making crack cocaine.

Michael Weinstein, the attorney who took a picture of the shirt, said, "I realized the gentleman who was up at the podium in front of a judge charged with trafficking is wearing a jacket with a how-to manual of how to cook crack cocaine. I couldn't believe the gumption this person had."

The judge at the court appearance remained professional and did not comment on the man's choice of clothing.

Are there really people this stupid? Why not show up in court with a t-shirt that says "I'm a Drug User" or "I'm a Fucking Liar"? I'm sure his lawyer will be talking about this one for years to come. The judge showed considerable restraint.

source

PSA on texting and walking

No joke I almost fell down a flight of stairs today while texting and walking.

Do you recognize this crack?

Police have released CCTV stills of an armed robber in the hope someone can identify him - from his builder's bum.

The man - dressed in a black balaclava and wearing dark clothing jumped onto the counter of a petrol station brandishing a kitchen knife. He demanded cash but the woman cashier refused and he fled empty handed.

Now police have released photos of the robbery in the hope someone may recognise the robber from his ill-fitting clothes - or any other distictive features. The man, who struck on Friday, December 23 at around 8.30pm, is described as white, of medium build.

Detective inspector Caroline Dawson said: "Someone out there may have information that would assist in identifying the person who committed this crime and we would encourage them to come forward. We hope that by releasing images of the items of clothing worn during the robbery they may help us identify the man involved."

Dysfunctional snowmen week

Vermin Supreme one of the lesser known Democratic candidates

Democratic presidential candidate Vermin Supreme put on quite a show at the Lesser-Known Democratic Candidates Presidential Forum in New Hampshire last month.

The candidate with the catchy name and a boot on his head is running on a platform of good oral hygiene (and bad oral hygiene puns), and has also renewed his 2008 campaign promise to provide a free pony for every American.

This girl must have been conceived by aliens

How many names do you recognize from the new Celebrity Apprentice cast?

This season's lineup for Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice has finally been announced, and while the roster is always a bit...underwhelming, calling this group "celebrities" is really a stretch, even for the Donald. How many of these names do you recognize?

The 18 celebrities, who will be "subject to long hours, grueling deadlines, intellectual challenges, personality clashes, and intense scrutiny," are Arsenio Hall, Clay Aiken, Adam Carolla, Lou Ferrigno, Penn Jillette, Dee Snider, George Takei, Michael Andretti, Paul Teutul, Sr., Cheryl Tiegs, Debbie Gibson, Tia Carrere, Victoria Gotti, Lisa Lampanelli, Dayana Mendoza, Aubrey O’Day, Patricia Velásquez, and Teresa Giudice.

Watching this show is like watching a train wreck.

Dysfunctional snowmen week