Scanner : water

While You Were Sleeping: Lindsay Lohan's Strip Show

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:04:00 GMT

Christopher Hitchens recalls the night no one wanted him to get loaded, so he went to Hunter Thompson's house to get bombed and fire off some guns. Someone explain to me why life is worth living without that man in this world.

Tomorrow's South Park is about pirates.

An Australian town chorus posed nude for charity.

The Food Network Magazine benefits in this economy-- maybe because no one can afford food, so they decide to read about? Not sure on this one.

Madonna may have lied about paparazzi causing her fall from a horse. Ya think?

This guy is right about his water bill-- there's no way he used 300,000 gallons in one month... and he's also right that no one, not even a well-meaning anonymous donor should have to pay the price for the water company's clerical error.

Rumors are brewing that Lindsay Lohan is considering joining a topless revue. Man, the internet will believe anything Perez Hilton tells them, huh?

And Stephen Hawking is apparently in serious condition in an English hospital.

While You Were Sleeping: Drunk Breastfeeding

Heroes of the Day: Those Who Gave Money To Elderly Man With $3,000 Water Bill

Brian Fairbanks — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 21:38:00 GMT

In these trying economic times, even charities are suffering. Food banks are packed with starving, unemployed families while their stockpiles are depleted quickly and their donations plummet.

So, you'd be forgiven for thinking that an 84-year-old man, slapped with a $3,000 water bill, is going to be out of luck when asking people to help him out this holiday season...

Nope, they did, and in spades and droves and whatever you want to call it:

The Appleton, Wisconsin man has received $4,027 in donations to help offset the bill he received when he was away from home and his pipes cracked, allowing for tens of thousands of cubic feet of water to flood his meter. The organizers of the fundraising effort, which saw donations of $5 to $500, actually had to tell people not to continue donating and the stunned citizen, Norman Beckman, will donate the rest of the cash to an underfunded charity.

Related:

While You Were Sleeping: 93% Prefer Real Boobs

Hero of the Day: Girl Who Talked Her Way Out of a Kidnapping

Hero of the Day: Dad Who Killed A Sex Offender Turned Home Invader

Penis Eating Fish Plague Australian Harbor

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:25:00 GMT

How's this for a lead: "An Australian immigrant with a penis fetish is terrorising the Waitemata Harbour."

Har har, since it's rather misleading...

The story is about a student named Jeremy Barker who is studying the barnacle as part of his master's program. He says that, in the course of his research in the harbor, he's discovered multiple oysters with barnacle penises in their stomachs.

AUT University student Jeremy Barker says the unusual looking fish targets the barnacle’s phallic appendages.

And he wants to know why.

"We have found a large number of penises inside their stomachs," he says.

"It’s not killing the barnacles but it will stop the next generation being produced."

We're 100% supportive of science but, Jeremy, we'd rather you didn't find out why the fish are targeting dicks. We already have enough nightmares about castration thanks to that one ex-girlfriend...

Read the full story here, via Stuff.co.nz

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While You Were Sleeping: Pete Wentz Exposes... His Past

Jamie Bell's First Sex Scene Marred By Boner

Today in Penis-Shaped Candy: Gummy Lighthouses

This Is How They Do It: Flatworm Penis Fencing

UPDATE: A Plethora of Penis Photos

Howard Schatz Reminds Us How Much Steamier Sex Is Underwater

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:41:00 GMT

Fleshot has alerted us to photographer Howard Schatz's stunning collection of underwater nudes, which are now available on his website. Most of these were published in his celebrated 2007 book H20.

H20 is now exhibiting in Innsbruck, Montreal, and Louisville... but we present a grand tease of some of the finest shots we've come across...

To read more about Schatz and his show, check out his website here.

Scanner Highs And Lows: Michael Phelps Rules The Blog

Skinny Dip Sandwich Free To All Plungers

Video of the Day: Are the Olympics a Trap?

Secrets of Synchronized Swimming

The Whole World Would Get Naked In The Rain For Spencer Tunick

Today in WTF: Roman Beachgoer Scandal

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:35:00 GMT

On Saturday afternoon, two girls drowned in the sea off the southern coast of Italy, near Naples.

The girls had been swimming with some friends after selling some trinkets and begging for change on the beach when violent waves overpowered them. Rescuers were able to save the friends but could not reach the 12 and 13-year-old cousins, Violetta and Cristina, in time. Their bodies lay covered in beach towels, awaiting the police and a set of coffins.

And that's when things took a demented turn...

As evidenced in the disturbing photo above, most the beachgoers continued to sit within feet of... the feet. With two dead bodies almost within reaching distance of some relaxing citizens, the police worked around the unfazed living souls.

Photographs show sunbathers in bikinis and swimming trunks sitting close to where the girls' feet can be seen poking out from under the towels concealing their bodies. A photographer who took photos at the scene told CNN the mood among sunbathers had been one of indifference.
"While the lifeless bodies of the girls were still on the sand, there were those who carried on sunbathing or having lunch just a few meters away," Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.

Check out the guy on the right... you can almost make out his disgusted reaction to the goings-on around him.

Since I, Scanner Brian, am Italian, I can't say I'm surprised to hear that this happened in Italy. However, what I still don't get is why the police let these idiots stay on the beach-- here in America, there would've been some big, burly detective clearing the sand with a bellowing "what the hell do you people think you're doing? Did you see it happen? No? Then get your Cheetos and ratty old boombox and get outta here!" or something...

Via CNN.

This is Your Sewage On Drugs (And Maybe Your Drinking Water)

Emily Farris — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:50:00 GMT

Environmental scientists have begun sampling raw sewage at municipal sewage plants to test for overall drug use in major cities. And what have they found so far? That people do illegal drugs everywhere.

What they've also found is that those drugs are going everywhere.

We learned earlier this year that traces of prescription drugs had been found in our drinking water, but as we all know, everyone poops—even the people who use crack and cocaine. So if your uncle's Viagra is going into the drinking water, chances are good that your cousin's cocaine is going there, too.

But don't worry, or start holding your nose, because to get a single dose of cocaine you'd have to drink 1,000 liters of raw sewage.

The only thing we think might save our drinking water from your cousin's coke-infested poop is the hope that the most strung out folks just squat on the street, but according to the L.A. Times, poop don't lie: "Law enforcement officials have long sought a way to come up with reliable and verifiable calculations of narcotics use, to identify new trends and formulate policies. Surveys, the backbone of drug-use estimates, are only as reliable as the people who answer them. But sewage does not lie."

[LA Times: One big drug test for L.A.: sewage analysis]

Colonic Irrigation: Everybody's Doing It

Video of the Day: Never Pull Off The Road To Poop

[Image]

Sex Hormones (and More) Found in America's Drinking Water Supply

Emily Farris — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:44:00 GMT

Just when we were starting to feel okay about consuming water straight from the tap, sex hormones, angina medication, anti-anxiety drugs, and over-the-counter pain killers like acetaminophen and ibuprofen have been found in drinking water systems across the country, according to the AP.

You know how it goes: you take drugs, you pee those drugs out, that pee goes into the drinking water? Sort-of, because that's apparently how drugs get into the water supply:

People take pills. Their bodies absorb some of the medication, but the rest of it passes through and is flushed down the toilet. The wastewater is treated before it is discharged into reservoirs, rivers or lakes. Then, some of the water is cleansed again at drinking water treatment plants and piped to consumers. But most treatments do not remove all drug residue.

And while researchers do not yet understand the exact risks from decades of persistent exposure to random combinations of low levels of pharmaceuticals, recent studies - which have gone virtually unnoticed by the general public - have found alarming effects on human cells and wildlife.

"We recognize it is a growing concern and we're taking it very seriously," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Members of the AP National Investigative Team reviewed hundreds of scientific reports, analyzed federal drinking water databases, visited environmental study sites and treatment plants and interviewed more than 230 officials, academics and scientists. They also surveyed the nation's 50 largest cities and a dozen other major water providers, as well as smaller community water providers in all 50 states.

Here are some of the key test results obtained by the AP:

-Officials in Philadelphia said testing there discovered 56 pharmaceuticals or byproducts in treated drinking water, including medicines for pain, infection, high cholesterol, asthma, epilepsy, mental illness and heart problems. Sixty-three pharmaceuticals or byproducts were found in the city's watersheds.

-Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California.

-Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey analyzed a Passaic Valley Water Commission drinking water treatment plant, which serves 850,000 people in Northern New Jersey, and found a metabolized angina medicine and the mood-stabilizing carbamazepine in drinking water.

-A sex hormone was detected in San Francisco's drinking water.

-The drinking water for Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas tested positive for six pharmaceuticals.

-Three medications, including an antibiotic, were found in drinking water supplied to Tucson, Ariz.

Kudos to the AP for going all Erin Brockovich on us. Back to the bottled water.

[Wired: AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water]

Image via kidneyinthenews.wordpress.com