'Shocked' Man Sues Bars That Served Him
March 3, 2000

TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida man who said he was shocked by 13,000 volts of electricity after climbing up a transformer in a "drunken stupor" has sued six bars and stores that allegedly sold him alcohol.

Ed O'Rourke also named Tampa Electric Co. as a defendant in the lawsuit filed on Thursday in Hillsborough County Circuit Court in Tampa. He said the utility did not do enough to prevent him from slipping into a fenced, gated and locked substation and scaling the electrical transformer late one night in May 1996.

O'Rourke said he was thrown more than 40 feet from the transformer and burned over 60 percent of his body, leaving him with permanent immobility in his right arm and severe scarring. He is seeking unspecified compensation for emotional and other damages.

The lawsuit said O'Rourke is "unable to control his urge to drink alcoholic beverages" and that the bars and stores negligently served or sold him alcohol despite his "continual consumption."

The owner of The Waterhole Sports Bar, one of those O'Rourke sued, said he remembers the transformer incident but denied that O'Rourke drank at his bar the night it happened. "Because he was previously thrown out of here because he was writing on the bathroom walls," bar owner Bruce Martin told the Tampa Tribune.

"I think it's frivolous. I think it's ridiculous," he said of the lawsuit.

Man Fearing Gators Tapes Himself to Tree
April 20, 2000

TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - A man who became lost in a Florida swamp during a trip to photograph alligators was rescued by police after taping himself high up in a tree to ensure the reptiles didn't attack him while he slept.

Gemini Wink, 26, of Louisville, Kentucky, was still taped to a tree limb 40 feet (12 meters) off the ground when Hillsborough County deputies found him late Saturday night, sheriff's deputies said on Wednesday. "The deputies arrived and helped him get down," sheriff's office worker Vilma Bean said. "He'd been up there several hours."

Wink, who was visiting friends in Tampa, set out on his alligator trek using duct tape to mark his trail. After taking shots of an alligator Wink realized he was lost and found himself in waist-deep water with night falling. Fearing an alligator attack, Wink climbed a tree, secured himself with duct tape and resolved to sleep there.

His friend grew worried when Wink did not return and called sheriff's deputies. Meanwhile, Wink heard noises from a nearby house and yelled for help. Someone at the house heard his cries and also called deputies, who launched a search.

With a helicopter overhead and police dogs sniffing his trail, Wink continued to call out.

Deputies found him about 400 yards (meters) from his friend's home, untaped him and drove him back. "I'll definitely visit again, I'll probably stay out of the swamps," Wink told the Tampa Tribune from Louisville.

US Parents Troubled by 'Panty Raider' CD-ROM Game
May 3, 2000

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Parents and critics are pressing a unit of prestigious publisher Simon & Schuster to reconsider releasing an Internet game "Panty Raider," in which participants find models to strip them down to their underwear to satisfy space aliens threatening to destroy Earth.

Women's groups and family advocates, who have sent e-mail letters to Simon & Schuster Interactive complaining about what they believe is the portrayal of women and girls as sexual objects and boys and men as angry and violent, say they are neither censors nor have they lost their sense of humor.

A company press release in February described "PANTY RAIDER: From Here To Immaturity," the full title of the game.

"PANTY RAIDER takes gamers to Model Isle where a supermodel photo shoot is taking place. The player is on a mission to photograph specific styles and colors of panties worn by supermodels to satisfy three testosterone-driven aliens and keep them from blowing up the Earth," it said.

To win, participants must strip a supermodel down to her bra and panties then give photographs of her to aliens who have "worn out" their underwear catalog. If they don't, "then the frustrated aliens are forced to take their hormone driven anger out on the planet."

Boy Recovers After Snooker Cue Impaling
June 6, 2000

GRIMSBY, England (Reuters) - A British schoolboy impaled himself on a snooker cue which pierced his scrotum and emerged through his stomach.

Surgeons at a the Diana, Princess of Wales hospital in Grimsby, northern England, worked for an hour to remove the cue. A spokesman said Monday the boy, Porl French, 11, was recovering at home.

"Other children say he was stood on a chair pretending the cue was a pogo stick. He was apparently holding it between his legs when he slipped off," the manager of the snooker club, Tony Graham, told a Grimsby newspaper.

Radio Shack Finds One of the Last Clutter-Free Places to Advertise
June 15, 2000
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Radio Shack Corp. is boldly going where no other advertiser has gone before.

The Fort Worth, Texas, retail giant has signed up with a tiny Arlington, Va., start-up called LunaCorp to sponsor a most unusual marketing event: a mission to explore the moon with an advanced robotic vehicle, set for 2003.

In exchange for an estimated $1 million in the first year alone, the retailer gets to put its logo on the moon rover -- and also in several higher-visibility venues here on earth. These opportunities include a planned Web site and simulators LunaCorp hopes to place in U.S. science centers giving the public a chance to "ride" the rover.

LunaCorp says it is still looking for about four more sponsors willing to cough up $5 million to $10 million each. In addition, LunaCorp says it hopes to sell video content from the mission to broadcasters in the U.S. and abroad and to sell the rights to an Internet portal, including more content from the mission. It also plans to sell data about lunar water and ice to the National Aeronautic and Space Administration or another buyer.

Iranian Transsexual Unhappy With Experience As Woman
June 19, 2000

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian man who recently had a sex change to become a woman wants to reverse the operation because she finds life as a woman insufferable in Iran, a newspaper said Monday.

The 25-year-old Maryam, formerly Mehran, underwent a sex change last year, despite strong parental opposition. But she soon regretted the decision, finding it difficult to cope with "restrictions" surrounding a woman's life in the conservative Islamic society.

"I can't go on living with the new identity, after years of living as a man with no restrictions," she told the daily Iran. "First I thought I would get used to it, but life has become painful and intolerable. So I want a new sex change."

Sex change operations are legal in Iran, but there are no provisions for would-be transsexuals to test out their new identity first.

Women struggle under the burdens of a legal code and a value system that severely limits their freedom of action and subordinates them to husbands, brothers and fathers. Iran has a mandatory dress code for women, requiring them to cover their hair and body. While men get on public transport through the front door, women must use the back door. Official statistics show suicide rates among women far outstrips those of men -- the opposite of Western societies.