Dr. Cul-De-Sac
By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 15 Oct, 2007
From a secretly taped conversation between an officer from the diplomatic protection squad and Salient Editor Steve Nicoll. The officer wished to meet with Steve after concerns were raised by American diplomats after the photoessay “How to destroy the United States of America” appeared in Salient 23.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 8 Oct, 2007
The following phrases are generated by “Bawlingual”, a device that can be attached to dogs’ collars to translate their barks into Japanese or English.
My friend!
Tell me your secrets.
Bend down so I can see you. More
By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 24 Sep, 2007
From the October 2006 sentencing of Timothy Bowers in the case of Ohio v. Bowers. In May Bowers robbed a bank in Franklin County, Ohio. Dan Cable is the assistant prosecuting attorney. Jeremy Dodgin is Bowers’s attorney.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 17 Sep, 2007
From testimony taken in June last year in Oklahoma v. Thompson. Lisa Foster was the court reporter for Judge Donald Thompson, the defendant, from 1988 until 2003, when she was served with a subpoena to testify against him. In 2005, Thompson was charged with four counts of indecent exposure, and last winter he was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to four years in prison. Patricia High is the assistant prosecuting attorney. More
By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 10 Sep, 2007
From a request by Salient Editor Steve Nicoll for an interview from H. Westfold concerning feminism. Westfold is a prominent writer of letters to the editor - especially to the Capital Times. The article in which Westfold would have appeared in is on page 20.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 3 Sep, 2007
From the website of Huggable Urns, a company that sells cremation urns in the form of stuffed animals and pillows. In 2005, the company introduced a new line of teddy bear-shaped urns wearing t-shirts with the logos of the U. S. Armed Forces.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 1 Sep, 2007
From a candidate statement by Michael Hansen. Hansen is a mayoral candidate in the Christchurch elections and is a member of the Economic Euthenics party:
The main issue this election is the treatment of mayoral 3rd party candidates, the use of a type of ray which can pass thru walls and sting, slow cook and annoy candidates to try to tireout and upset them before nomination day, should not be happening during the time of a Labour Govt. More
By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 13 Aug, 2007
From questions asked of applicants to Oxford and Cambridge universities during interviews, compiled by Oxbridge Applications, an admissions advice consultancy.
What is your opinion of spontaneous human combustion?
Why don’t we have just one ear in the middle of our face? More
By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 6 Aug, 2007
From the instructions for REALdoll, a life-size silicone sex doll. Customers can choose among nine body types, 15 faces, five skin tones, and three pubic-hair styles. The company has sold 3,400 dolls in the last 10 years.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 30 Jul, 2007
From the last words of prisoners executed by injection in Texas in the past 15 years. Texas has executed 322 people since 1990. Fifteen death row inmates have been exonerated on the basis of new DNA evidence.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 16 Jul, 2007
From editorial revisions made to government reports on global warming by Philip A. Cooney, then Chief of Staff for the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality. Cooney’s previous employer had been the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade and lobbying group of the petroleum industry.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 9 Jul, 2007
The man who sold the moon
From letters written to President Bush by Germans in response to his January 14, 2004 announcement of United States plans to build a deep-space launch pad on the moon. The letter writers are among more than 1,200 Germans who purchased moon lots from U.S entrepreneur Dennis Hope, who claims legal ownership of the moon under a loophole in the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty. More
By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 28 May, 2007
From a list of 10,660 entries submitted in 1993 to the Big Bang Challenge, a contest organised by Sky & Telescope magazine to “rename the Big Bang.” The contest’s judges were unable to find a worthy replacement for ‘Big Bang’ among the entries. According to Carl Sagan, one of the judges, “There’s nothing [in the list] that even approaches the phrase Big Bang in felicity.” More
By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 21 May, 2007
From personal ads posted on “Asexual Marriage Net,” a marriage broker website in China. More than 7,000 people have joined since the website was launched in 2005.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 14 May, 2007
From a March 14 report by Scott Murray on an India vs New Zealand cricket match, published on the Guardian website.
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By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 7 May, 2007
From the “Sample book review documentation form,” supplied by the Fairfax, Virginia, activist group Parents Against Bad Books in Schools, for you by parents when registering a complaint about a book in a school library or on their child’s reading list. More
By Dr Cul-De-Sac | 30 Apr, 2007
Allah of Burgers
From a September interview with Rashad Akhtar, a twenty seven year old British Muslim, who alleges that the graphic used on the lid of Burger King icecream cones resembles the Arabic spelling of “Allah”. The interview was conducted by Davina Patel, a reporter for the London newspaper Eastern Eye. Burger King apologized and said they would redesign the lid.
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