Canada’s parliamentary restaurant will be serving seal meat on Wednesday in a gesture of defiance aimed at a European Union ban on imports of seal products.

Canada’s Conservative government says it will fight the EU ban, which was imposed last July on the grounds that the annual seal hunt off the east coast was cruel and inhumane.

A dish of double-smoked bacon-wrapped seal loin in a port reduction will be on the menu on Wednesday, the office of Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette said on Monday.

“All political parties will have the opportunity to demonstrate to the international community the solidarity of the Canadian Parliament behind those who earn a living from the seal hunt,” she said in a statement.

Ottawa says the hunt — which takes place in March and April — provides valuable income for Atlantic fishing communities. The seals are either shot or hit over the head with a spiked club called a hakapik.

An aide to Hervieux-Payette said that, depending on supplies, seal meat could be available once a week when in season.

SOURCE: Reuters.com

LAS VEGAS — To some men, she might seem like the perfect woman: She’s a willowy 5 feet 7 and 120 pounds. She’ll chat with you endlessly about your interests. And she’ll have sex whenever you please — as long as her battery doesn’t run out.

Meet Roxxxy, who may be the world’s most sophisticated talking female sex robot. For $7,000, she’s all yours.

“She doesn’t vacuum or cook, but she does almost everything else,” said her inventor, Douglas Hines, who unveiled Roxxxy last month at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Lifelike dolls, artificial sex organs and sex-chat phone lines have been keeping the lonely company for decades. But Roxxxy takes virtual companionship to a new level.

Powered by a computer under her soft silicone “skin,” she employs voice-recognition and speech-synthesis software to answer questions and carry on conversations. She even comes loaded with five distinct “personalities,” from Frigid Farrah to Wild Wendy, that can be programmed to suit customers’ preferences.

“There’s a tremendous need for this kind of product,” said Hines, a computer scientist and former Bell Labs engineer.

Roxxxy won’t be available for delivery for several months, but Hines is taking pre-orders through his Web site, TrueCompanion.com, where thousands of men have signed up.

“They’re like, ‘I can’t wait to meet her,’ ” Hines said. “It’s almost like the anticipation of a first date.”

Women have inquired about ordering a sex robot, too. Hines says a female sex therapist even contacted him about buying one for her patients.

Roxxxy has been like catnip to talk-show hosts since her debut at AEE, the largest porn-industry convention in the country. In a recent monologue, Jay Leno expressed amazement that a sex robot could carry on lifelike conversations and express realistic emotions.

“Luckily, guys,” he joked, “there’s a button that turns that off.”

SOURCE: CNN

A family in New Mexico was mortified when they found their recently deceased grandmother’s brain had been sent to them with her personal effects.

The bag, which had been sent to them by the DeVargas Funeral Home in Espanola Valley, New Mexico, was left inside a family member’s truck overnight, and when one of the family noticed a ‘foul odour’, they soon made the gruesome discovery.

Opening the bag, they found among their gran’s possessions a bag labelled with her name and the word ‘Brain’, the lawsuit alleges.

“No loved one’s brain should ever be part of those belongings,” said lawyer Richard Valle, representing the family.

Johnny DeVargas, owner of the funeral parlour, insisted his company was not at fault and that blame lay with another funeral home in neighbouring Utah.

“All I can say is DeVargas did absolutely nothing wrong and that the family was well cared for,” DeVargas told the Albuquerque Journal.

“The family was very meticulously cared for and they were very pleased with our service.”

The woman, identified only by her initials in the lawsuit, was killed in a road accident in Utah last September.

SOURCE: METRO.co.uk

LYNNWOOD, Wash. — Burglars in this north Seattle suburb apparently didn’t know what they were stealing when they grabbed a little wooden box.

Turns out it was the cremated remains of the homeowner – 67-year-old Ken Heggen – who died of cancer in October.

Now Heggen’s family is asking for his ashes to be returned so they can be spread in Puget Sound as they were planning.

Karen Heggen, one of six children, tells The Herald of Everett that one of her sisters discovered the burglary last Wednesday. She says the family was going through the process of separating things for the grandchildren when the burglary happened.

She says her parents owned the home on Lake Stickney for about 10 years. Ken Heggen’s wife, Judy, died in March and both parents were under hospice care and died at home, Karen Heggen said.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the burglary, spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said.

SOURCE: KOMO News

LIKE many adopted children, Matthew Roberts set about finding his biological parents with a mix of nerves and excitement. In particular, he hoped that discovering his father’s identity would help him to work out what made him the man he had become.

But nothing could have prepared him for being told his dad is… serial killer Charles Manson.

Matthew, 41 – who bears a haunting resemblance to his father – sank into depression after discovering his identity.

He has since been in contact with his dad in a series of letters to his California prison and Manson has replied – each time chillingly signing off with a swastika.

Now Matthew, who was given up for adoption as a baby, has told of his horror at finding out he was the son of a monster.

He says: “I didn’t want to believe it. I was frightened and angry. It’s like finding out that Adolf Hitler is your father.

“I’m a peaceful person – trapped in the face of a monster.”

Matthew grew up in Rockford, Illinois, and didn’t know he was adopted until his sister told him when he was ten.

He loved his adoptive parents but always knew he was different. He says: “My parents were great people, but very conservative.

“They were products of the Fifties and I didn’t relate to them. My biological parents were products of the Sixties and I take on a lot more of those characteristics.”

He also reveals his adoptive father tried to discourage him from getting in contact with Manson, telling him: “Nothing good will come from this.”

Matthew, who now lives in Los Angeles, began investigating his family history 12 years ago when he contacted a social services agency who located his mother, Terry, in Wisconsin.

He wrote to her straight away and their early exchanges will be familiar to adopted children everywhere.

She confirmed she was his mum and told him she had named him Lawrence Alexander – and that she would tell him his last name in time.

The jigsaw of his life was beginning to take shape but it was still missing a crucial piece – his father.

Terry remained tight-lipped about his identity but after Matthew pressed her for details in a string of letters, she eventually revealed the awful truth.

She said she met commune leader Manson in 1967 – two years before the infamous “Manson Family” murders in Los Angeles for which he is still in jail at the age of 75.

But back in 1967, Terry had been one of many who were transfixed by Manson’s charms.

Her father had tried to chase him away when he met Terry, calling him a “white-trash biker bandit” but she found him charismatic and hypnotizing.

So she hopped on a bus with his Family and ended up in San Francisco. There she claims she was raped by Manson in a drug-fuelled orgy, after which she returned home and Matthew was born on March 22, 1968.

Terry always believed Manson was the father of the baby she gave up for adoption. And after seeing a picture of Matthew, her worst nightmare was confirmed. For he is the spitting image of Manson, with the same nose, mouth, eyes and large forehead. They even have the same thick, arched eyebrows and long, thick, dark hair.

Like his father, Matthew is a songwriter and poet. He is even worried that he may have inherited his father’s schizophrenia.

Matthew, now working as a DJ, recalls hearing mum Terry’s bombshell: “She even said, ‘You look just like him’.

“I’m not nuts but I’ve got a little bit of it. It’s scary and upsetting. If I get worked up, my eyes get really big and that’s really freaked some people out before.

“I’ve tried to tone that down quite a bit. I don’t like having that effect on people.

“I don’t even like the fact that I’m big. It makes me even scarier. My hero is Gandhi. I’m an extremely non-violent, peaceful person and a vegetarian.

“I don’t even kill bugs. I’ve had long hair all my life. I could make it go away, but I can’t let the world and their fears change me.” After discovering the truth, it took Matthew five years to pluck up the courage to write to his father at Corcoran State Prison in California.

Manson replied to Matthew’s letter straight away and has since sent him a string of ten handwritten notes and postcards signed with the wartime Nazi symbol.

Matthew says: “He sends me weird stuff and always signs it with his swastika. At first I was stunned and depressed. I wasn’t able to speak for a day. I remember not being able to eat.”

According to Matthew, the letters mainly rambled and said “crazy things” but Manson did confirm he could be his father.

In one twisted letter he wrote: “The truth is the truth. The truth hurts.”

In another note Manson talked about meeting Matthew’s mother. He wrote: “I remember her. We came back to LA on the super-cheap train.”

And Manson – who grew up without a father figure – even compared his childhood to Matthew’s.

He said: “You got the same father I got. A hobo just left on the midnight train and died, lost at sea.” Then in a postcard two years ago, addressed to Matthew’s birth name Lawrence Alexander, Manson sent his son his prison phone number.

But Matthew has never made the call to his dad.

He says: “There’s always a subconscious block.

“What I’m worried about is that you think you’re going to meet your birth mother or father and they’re going to love you and welcome you with open arms. But he’s not that kind of person.”

Despite Manson’s evil actions, Matthew confesses he now battles confused emotions towards his biological father.

He says: “If I did talk to Charlie on the phone, I would say, ‘I truly understand what it’s like to be you, more than anyone could ever imagine on so many levels’.

“He’s my biological father – I can’t help but have some kind of emotional connection. That’s the hardest thing of all – feeling love for a monster who raped my mother.

“I don’t want to love him, but I don’t want to hate him either.”

SOURCE: The Sun

THOUSAND OAKS, CA — A Thousand Oaks man was arrested this week on suspicion of paying a teenager $31 to spit in his face, authorities said.

The 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of annoying a child, a misdemeanor, about 7:10 p.m. Wednesday at the Promenade at Westlake in Thousand Oaks, police said Thursday. The man had been paying male students at Westlake High School to yell profanities at him and slap and spit at him in his face, according to Thousand Oaks police.

Several teens also alleged that the man offered to pay them to urinate and defecate on him, police said.

The man initially contacted the teens through the MySpace social-networking Internet site, then word spread among local teens, police said.

The suspect was booked into county jail, then released on a promise to appear in court.

SOURCE: Ventura County Star

MOSCOW — Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house.

Suspicions were raised when dismembered parts of a human body were found near a bus stop in the outskirts of the Russian city of Perm, 1,150 km (720 miles) east of Moscow.

Three homeless men with previous criminal records have been arrested on suspicion of setting upon a foe with knives and a hammer before chopping up his corpse to eat, local investigators said.

“After carrying out the crime, the corpse was divided up: part was eaten and part was also sold to a kiosk selling kebabs and pies,” the Prosecutor-General’s main investigative unit for the Perm region said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear from the statement if any of the corpse had been sold to customers.

SOURCE: Reuters

A British stripper who tried to poison her lover by lacing his Angel Delight with anti-freeze got her just desserts when she was jailed for 33 months.

Sophie Mardon, 26, poured half a bottle of the toxic liquid into the pudding and served it to Martyn Kay, 31, his brother Neal, 26, and their father Neil, 55.

The three men tasted it but found it so disgusting they refused to eat any more.

Bristol Crown Court heard how Mardon, a clerical assistant, carried out the attacks because she was in an abusive relationship with Martyn who forced her to work as a stripper at night for extra cash. She would return to her lover’s father’s cramped house in Thornbury, Bristol, which she shared with the three men and would be expected to cook and do the housework.

She finally snapped over a supper of roast chicken when she laced the purple-colored pudding with anti-freeze.

Later Neal and Neil found notes from her hidden in their duvets apologizing for her actions.

She wrote to Neil: “I apologize the pudding I made had half a bottle of de-icer mixed in it. Glad now you didn’t eat it. Maybe next time I’ll get away with it.

“Thanks for allowing me to be a guest. I’m leaving at half three today. Good luck with the boys. Lots of love, despite attempted murder.

“Hugs and kisses, Sophie.”

SOURCE: The Sun

If ‘this man’ looks familiar to you, you are not alone, thousands of people claim he regularly appears to them while they sleep.

A website (ThisMan.org) has even been setup for people around the world to detail their nocturnal encounters and reports have come in from places ranging from Los Angeles to New Dehli.

It is claimed the image was first drawn by a New York woman for her psychiatrist — after repeatedly seeing him in her dreams. The drawing is then said to have been spotted by a fellow patient who also recognised the man from their own dreams.

The puzzled psychiatrist then sent the picture to some colleagues and since then over 2,000 claim to have seen him and there are a number of theories as to his recurring presence.

These range from one that it is an archetypal image of the collective unconscious, to the idea that this is what god looks like…oddly the site doesn’t detail the more cynical theory that this is a marketing campaign for an as yet unknown product.

SOURCE: NewsLite.tv

Five months after saying he wanted to embed a camera in his eye, Rob Spence has taken the first step towards becoming an eyeborg.

A former SpaceX avionics systems engineer, Kosta Grammatis, has designed a prototype of the eye camera, which Spence has implanted in his eye socket.

“If you lose your eye and have a hole in your head, then why not stick a camera in there?” he said in January. “The eyes are like no other part of the body. It’s what you look into when you fall in love with somebody and [it influences] whether you trust someone or not. With a video camera in there, it will change how people see and perceive me.”

The designers of the eye camera had to design an eyeball chassis that could form a watertight seal when closed. Traditional prosthetic eyes are made from a solid piece of polymethyl-methacrylate, a flexible polymer used in dentures, but this prosthetic had to be hollow in order to hold the camera.

Phil Bowen, the prosthetic-maker who worked on the project, said that the modified eye will be heavier than a normal human eyeball, and that the extra weight could affect the eye socket. “The weight might stretch out the lower lid,” he says, potentially disfiguring the face.

Grammatis had to create a camera module and transmitter that would fit into the prosthetic to broadcast the video footage that Spence captures as he looks around him.

SOURCE: WIRED.co.uk