People wait in line to visit an upside-down house built at the Centre of Education and Promotion of the Region in the village of Szymbark, northern Poland July 31, 2007. The upside-down house created by Daniel Czapiewski is supposed to describe the times of the former communist era and the present times in which we live. REUTERS/Peter Andrews (POLAND)

jay: this thing is pretty rad. i don’t know if i would have picked up the communist thing. still though, nice job.

By CHARLES POPE, P-I WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT

WASHINGTON — By design, Congress deals with problems that are important, intractable and at times “disgusting.”

One was added to the list Thursday that is covered by all three — meth mouth, the gruesome consequence on oral health of methamphetamine addiction. Meth rots teeth. It turns them black and leads to enormously expensive dental care to repair the damage.

It has become a large enough — and expensive enough — problem that Congress has taken notice.

“It is disgusting, utterly disgusting to see a little kid’s teeth rotting out,” Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said at news conference Thursday, flanked by four huge pictures of gaping mouths with blackened, rotting teeth.

It is also expensive, which is why Baucus appeared with Washington Reps. Rick Larsen and Brian Baird to unveil legislation aimed at reducing meth use among youths and providing federal money to help cover the cost of dental care for prison inmates.

Larsen has written legislation that would provide federal money for an educational and prevention campaign about meth use as well as for research into the “interrelationships between addiction and oral health.”

“Meth is a chemical cocktail that literally rots away your teeth,” said Larsen, who is chairman of the House Meth Caucus. “We need to educate young people about what meth does to your body. We need to stop kids from doing meth the first time so they don’t become addicts.”

A second bill, offered by Baird, would provide federal grants to prisons hard hit by the cost of treating prisoners with meth mouth.

“Meth mouth destroys and disfigures people’s teeth and gums, can lead to a whole host of other illnesses and prevents their ability to find a job or develop social relations,” Baird said.

“This is particularly true in our nation’s correctional facilities, where the burden is placed on local, county and state prisons that are forced to divert funds to treat inmates suffering from meth mouth,” Baird said.

jay: mostly i think he likes saying ‘meth mouth’. i mean, it’s kinda fun. METH MOUTH!

METRO.CO.UK - In the continuing adventures of the world’s tallest man, Bao Xishun, our hero shakes hands with He Pingping, who is currently aiming for a place in the Guiness Book of Records as the world’s shortest man.

The historic meeting between Bao, who stands 2.36 meters (7.9 feet) tall, and He, who only reaches 73 centimeters (2.4 feet) in height, took place in Baotou, in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Friday.

We have previously seen Bao, a herdsman from Inner Mongolia, as he saved the lives of two dolphins by using his long arms to reach down their throats and remove plastic shards from their stomachs.

[full story]

rob: i don’t know where to start. beyond the epic size/height disparity and the craziest photo ever, what were dolphins doing in inner mongolia? and who forgot to tell bao that it was a black tie event (or pingping that it wasn’t)?

dan: all good questions, rob. here’s some more: is pingping being held up, or is he just a little wobbly? why is his jacket so frumpy? I assume they tailored it, no? and why won’t they make eye contact — do you think there’s some bad blood here?

finally, do you think that former chinese food and drug czar zheng xiaoyuif would be alive today if bao had been around to jam his arm down those 10 peoples’ throats?

BBC — More than 70 people were forced to leave a cinema in Bedford after a man set fire to himself in the foyer.

The man went into Cineworld in Aspects Leisure Complex on Monday evening and poured petrol over himself before setting it alight.

The cinema manager managed to get the 21-year-old man outside and rolled him on the ground to put out the flames before he was taken to hospital.

It is believed the man had earlier been sacked from his job at the cinema.

He was taken to Bedford South Wing Hospital where he is in a critical care unit with burns to his chest, legs and arms.

The cinema manager was treated in hospital for smoke inhalation.

Bedfordshire Police said there was some fire damage to the foyer and smoke damage to other areas, and the cinema is expected to be closed for two days.

cates: if you work in a cinema, you get exposed to a lot of negative influences.

TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese man who set a world record by wolfing down dozens of hot dogs within minutes has suffered a severe jaw injury due to his rigorous training, making his next title uncertain.

Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi said he can only open his mouth to make a gap the size of a fingertip after being diagnosed with jaw arthritis.

In an entry on his blog entitled “Occupational hazard,” Kobayashi said: “My jaw refused to fight any more.”

The injury occurred only a week after the slender 29-year-old started training to win his seventh straight title at the annual July 4 Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating event on New York’s Coney Island.

“I feel ashamed that I couldn’t notice the alarm bells set off by my own body,” he said. “But with the goal to win another title with a new record, I couldn’t stop my training so close to the competition.

“I was continuing my training and bearing with the pain but finally I destroyed my jaw.”

Kobayashi, who has become a niche celebrity in Japan and the United States, had already halted his competitive eating activities for several months due to mourning after his mother’s death earlier this year.

But he said he still wanted to go to the competition in New York.

“I want to be the pride of my mother,” he said in the blog entry posted Sunday.

jay: before the mother and the lockjaw, this movie was going to be boring. now it’s getting closer to being a (probably) totally hilarious farrelly brothers blockbuster. kobayashi, you sure do know how to reel us in.

cates: i notice that kobayashi goes by the sobriquet “tsunami”. does this describe the hot dogs on the way in or on the way out?

dan: by the way, have you seen kobayashi’s abs? here:

dan: guy’s a beast! you cannot stop a tsunami!

By FRANK ELTMAN
AP - GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - It’s what kids do: squeal in delight when they’re having fun.

But to some Long Island residents those squeals were unwelcome noise, and they wanted two neighborhood girls playing in a backyard pool to pipe down.

The complaints fell on deaf ears Wednesday night when Bayville’s acting village justice dismissed a summons accusing the girls’ parents, William and Rachel Poczatek, of violating a village noise ordinance.

“I think the village did the right thing,” William Poczatek said.

Poczatek said he was shocked when he and his wife were slapped with a summons. Sure, he said, Ashley, 11, and 5-year-old Chloe make noise when they’re outside enjoying their aboveground swimming pool.

“What, are you telling me that a kid can’t make noise?” he protested. “It’s not fair.”

The Poczateks were cleared because the ordinance is usually reserved for “the shouting and crying of peddlers, hawkers and vendors, which disturbs the peace and quiet of the neighborhood,” their attorney said.

jay: if i remember my long island protocol correctly, the next step after ‘rejected summons/justice was not served’ is arson. if i were you, mr. poczatec, i’d make sure that my smoke detectors were in working order.

dan: jay, i haven’t spent much time on the long island. is there really a big problem with peddler noise? like, what’s the fishmonger population, roughly speaking?

jay: fair question. long island, being an island of some size, is exactly one-half fishmonger and one-half other assorted hawker/vendor (all of whom are both arsonists and volunteer firefighters), which is why the ordinance was on the books in the first place. unfortunately, it does not apply to small children not yet accepted to the fishmonger guild.

The Daily Telegraph — A truck driver travelled for several miles along a US highway after unwittingly picking up an extra passenger when a wheelchair became hooked onto the front of his cab.

The handles of 21-year-old Ben Carpenter’s electric wheelchair became tangled in the grille of the lorry which had stopped briefly at a red light.

Horrified motorists alerted police as they watched the wheelchair hurtling along the two-lane highway in Michigan at speeds of up to 50mph.

[…]

Mr Carpenter, who has muscular dystrophy, was unharmed, but said afterwards he thought he might not make it through the ride.

“I was probably thinking that this is going to keep going and not stop anywhere,” he told a local television station.

However, the only casualty of his trip was the contents of a drink he was holding when the truck picked him up.

His wheelchair escaped damage except for losing most of the rubber on its wheels.

“It’s a very bad story that ended very well,” Mr Carpenter’s father Donald said. “We’re just thrilled that he’s still around.”

cates: amazing. he only spilled his drink. i would have spilled my entrails into my underpants.

jay: also, a new north american landspeed record in the wheelchair division. if only this had happened on the salt flats…

dan: what’s the big deal? michael j fox did this in back to the future, and that was what, 20 years ago? 25? and he’s got parkinson’s. i’m sorry, cates. I just don’t see why this is news.

BBC — A German woman in Dusseldorf blocked the entrance to an underground station when she mistook it for a subterranean car park, police said on Wednesday.

The 52-year-old drove her Volkswagen Beetle across the pavement and into the entrance, where it came to a halt five steps down.

Police estimated the damage to the station at around 1,500 euros (£1,000).

The VW Beetle-Cabrio remained balanced on the fifth step and the woman was able to get out unaided and unharmed.

The accident happened in the Nordstrasse underground station, in the centre of Dusseldorf.

A truck later towed the car out of the stairwell.

cates: i hate beetles. i think somebody should be in charge of driving them all underground so that i don’t have to see them any more.

dan: yes, but how will the little dashboard flowers survive without sunlight?

BBC — An obese American tourist who fell ill on a cruise ship had to be carried off by helicopter because of his size.

The man, who weighs 32 stone (203kg), was onboard a luxury five star cruise ship anchored in the Firth of Forth when he suffered gastric problems.

Forth Coastguard realised he was so heavy that its usual rescue procedures would have been impossible.

It called in an RAF Sea King helicopter to winch the man off the boat before carrying him to hospital.

[…]

A spokesman for Forth Coastguard said the man had visited the ship’s doctor, who recommended that he was evacuated after his condition worsened.

cates: evacuated. snigger.

jay: apparently aussies (and maybe the brits?) call americans “seppos”. when i asked why, i got one answer in two parts. 1. rhyming slang. seppo, short for septic tank, rhymes with yank. 2. as for why septic tank: we’re round and full of shit. evacuated, indeed.

AP — HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Michael Lusher apparently is a sound sleeper. A small-caliber bullet struck the 37-year-old Altizer man in the head as he slept Sunday morning, but he didn’t realize it until he awoke nearly four hours later and noticed blood coming from his head, said Cpl. R.H. McQuaid of the Cabell County Sheriff’s Department.

The bullet that struck him was one of five that someone sprayed across his mobile home and truck at about 4:20 a.m. Sunday, McQuaid said. The one the struck Lusher apparently lost velocity as it traveled through two walls.

“We’re just glad he didn’t suffer any life-threatening injuries with a head wound,” he said.

Lusher came home from a night on the town about an hour before he was shot while lying in bed, McQuaid said.

He remained hospitalized at St. Mary’s Medical Center on Monday. His condition was not immediately available.

jay: wow. he must have felt something. did he think he got tagged by an extraordinarily aggressive mosquito? other? drunk?

rob: i believe in west virginia parlance, the man is simply “harder than woodpecker lips.”

The London Paper — British Airways has banned staff from using microwaves for non-airline food after an exploding curry cost the company £20,000 in damages.

An air hostess caused chaos on a flight from Heathrow to Miami after her ready meal blew up at 35,000ft.

Staff had to use a fire extinguisher to control the flaming high-power microwave, but British Airways insists that the incident did not endanger passenger safety.

However, the explosion caused extensive damage to the Boeing 747 which needed days of repairs.

British Airways has since banned cabin crews from using the ovens to prepare their own food and sent a warning email to its staff.

In a memo headed “microwave incident”, it instructed staff that food must be packaged carefully when using its club-class ovens because they are twice as powerful as regular domestic microwaves.

cates: there go my plans for a weaponless terrorist outrage. i had a backpack full of curries-for-one in my closet ready for some action.

jay: game on, player. they only banned cabin crews from using the microwaves. there was nothing in the memo about civilian non-weaponed terrorists.

Seattle PI — A Tacoma man who admitted stealing a kidney from “Bodies … The Exhibition” — a display of preserved human bodies on display in Seattle — was sentenced Friday to 240 hours of community service.

Tyler Conrad, 26, pleaded guilty last month to stealing the plasticized organ in February. He told detectives he did it as a prank. The kidney was returned to the exhibit.

jay: my guess is that the irony of the prank was lost on the curatorial staff. for those of you not in the know, word on the street has it that the bodies in ‘Bodies … The Exhibition’ came from executed chinese political prisoners, none of them have documentation stating that they were signing on for this. lame. also, chinese kidney thief!

cates: they’ve got the story wrong. the dude heard there was a lucrative black market trade in organs but nobody told him to go for the fresh ones. he circulated the prank excuse to make himself look less stupid.

dan: wait, you can’t do that?

dan: p.s. welcome cates!

cates: it’s a nice place you’ve found here. is it table service or should i go up to the bar?

Lake Luzerne, N.Y. (AP) — A young man shot himself without using a gun.

Damion M. Mosher, who put bullets in a vise and whacked them with a hammer to empty the brass shell casings, was hit in the abdomen by one of the shots, authorities said.

Warren County deputies said they were called to Mosher’s home in Lake Luzerne on Saturday afternoon after one bullet went about a half-inch into his abdomen. He was treated at Glens Falls Hospital and was released. No charges were filed.

Mosher, 18, told authorities he was trying to empty the .223-caliber rounds to collect the brass casings for scrap.

Sheriff Larry Cleveland said about 100 other rounds that Mosher hit had “fizzled,” but one was somehow sent with more force. It was unclear if the bullet ricocheted or hit him directly.

An employee of an Albany scrap metal company told The Post-Star of Glens Falls that the business pays $1.70 a pound for scrap brass shell casings.

Cleveland said Mosher’s shells amounted to just a few pounds.

jay: and then sometimes it don’t feel good to be a gangsta.

AP — TURNERS FALLS, Mass. — This nasty rescue is no fish tale.

Rescuers cut through a filtration tank of dense fish feces to reach four workers who fell into the sludgy dung Friday while cleaning the 18-foot tank at a western Massachusetts farm.

The workers became trapped for 45 minutes after a bracket holding a plastic filtration pad collapsed as workers stood on it to clean the fiberglass tank at the Australis Aquaculture fish farm, said Turners Falls Fire Capt. David Dion and the fish farm’s manager, Josh Goldman.

One of the farmhands was submerged in what Dion described as a sand-and-feces mix, while the other three had their heads above the sludge, he said.

Dion said rescue workers cut a hole in the side of the tank at the farm, which raises barramundi, a fish farmed as a replacement for grouper.

“It was very slimy and it was heavy,” he said. “Never seen anything like it in my life.”

jay: i hope this never happens to me.

AP — NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — Authorities were led on a high speed vehicle chase by an armless, one-legged man, and they said this wasn’t the first time the 40-year-old eluded police.

Michael Francis Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He spent time in prison for kicking a Florida Highway Patrol trooper after an accident in 1996. He led police on a 120 mph chase in 1998.

On Tuesday, Wiley sped off in a Ford Explorer when police approached him at a convenience store, New Port Richey police Capt. Darryl Garman said. Officers pursued, but called off the chase after eight minutes because they did not want to put others in danger, Garman said.

Wiley was arrested the next day on charges of fleeing from police and habitually driving without a license. He also is awaiting trial on separate drug charges and traffic violations. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

jay: i posted this just in case you were looking to share a folk hero with me.