SUPERMAN RENOUNCES U.S. CITIZENSHIP!

Georgian woman cuts off web access to whole of Armenia

Tom Parfitt in Moscow

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 April 2011 20.12 BST

Entire country loses internet for five hours after woman, 75, slices through cable while scavenging for copper.

An elderly Georgian woman was scavenging for copper to sell as scrap when she accidentally sliced through an underground cable and cut off internet services to all of neighbouring Armenia, it emerged on Wednesday.


The woman, 75, had been digging for the metal not far from the capital Tbilisi when her spade damaged the fibre-optic cable on 28 March.

As Georgia provides 90% of Armenia's internet, the woman's unwitting sabotage had catastrophic consequences. Web users in the nation of 3.2 million people were left twiddling their thumbs for up to five hours as the country's main internet providers - ArmenTel, FiberNet Communication and GNC-Alfa – were prevented from supplying their normal service. Television pictures showed reporters at a news agency in the capital Yerevan staring glumly at blank screens.

Large parts of Georgia and some areas of Azerbaijan were also affected.

"It was a 75-year-old woman who was digging for copper in the ground so that she could sell it for scrap," said a spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry said yesterday.

Dubbed "the spade-hacker" by local media, the woman – who has not been named – is being investigated on suspicion of damaging property. She faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted.

A spokesman for Georgia's interior ministry said the woman was temporarily released "on account of her old age" but could face more questioning.

The damage was detected by a system monitoring the fibre-optic link from western Europe and a security team was immediately dispatched to the spot, where the woman was arrested. The interior ministry said she had no accomplices.

The cable is owned by the Georgian railway network. It is heavily protected, but landslides or heavy rain may have exposed it to scavengers.

Pulling up unused copper cables for scrap is a common means of making money in the former Soviet Union. Some entrepreneurs have even used tractors to wrench out hundreds of metres of cable from the former nuclear testing ground at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2011

Why Masturbation Helps Procreation - Newsweek

Why Masturbation Helps Procreation - Newsweek

I really can't think of an ad to put with this article!! AG.

Maine legalizing switchblades for one-armed people

(Reuters) - Maine lawmakers on Wednesday approved legalizing switchblades for people with one arm, moving close to becoming the first state to make such an exception to laws that ban use of the spring-action knives.

Backers of the measure say legalizing switchblades would eliminate a need for one-armed people to be forced to open folding knives with their teeth in emergencies.

The bill to allow amputees and other one-armed people to carry the quick-opening knives cleared Maine's Senate on Wednesday after passing the House on Tuesday, Senate officials said.

Until now, Maine banned the use of switchblades by anyone.

In most states, carrying switchblades is illegal in most circumstances, though owning the knives may be allowed in some states.

Federal law allows their use by a person with one arm only on federal property if the blade is shorter than three inches.

The Maine bill requires that the knives have a blade that is three inches or shorter.

Governor Paul LePage is expected to sign the measure into law in the next couple of days, said spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett.

(Reporting by Zach Howard, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Greg McCune)