enzudesignblog

General rants and ravings, the visual diary of Nigel Evans.

Sep 15th, 2009 @ 4:43 am

Top 10 Unusual Lawsuits

10. Man Sues Michael Jordan For Looking Like Him.

Everybody wants to be like Mike, except for Allen Heckard of Portland, Oregon. In 2006, Heckard sued Michael Jordan and the Nike corporation for over $800 million after alleging that his uncanny resemblance to the NBA superstar had led to defamation, permanent injury, and emotional pain and suffering. “I’m constantly being accused of looking like Michael,” Heckard said at the time, “and it makes it very uncomfortable for me.” Heckard included Nike founder Phil Knight in the case for his role in promoting Jordan’s public persona, saying that he couldn’t go out in public without people mentioning he looked like Jordan. Heckard, who is only six feet tall, said that people at his gym had even accused him of playing basketball like Michael Jordan.

9. Man Sues Budweiser For False Advertising.

In 1991, a man named Richard Overton filed a lawsuit against Anheiser-Busch for false advertising that had led to emotional distress, mental injury, and financial loss. Harris alleged that, unlike the what happens to guys in their ads, when he drank Bud Light the ladies weren’t attracted to him, nor did beautiful women and tropical settings appear out of thin air, as they did in another Budweiser commercial that was airing at the time. To add insult to this grave injury, he also asserted that when he drank beer, he would often wake up hung over. Overton sued for $10,000, but the case was thrown out before ever making it to trial.

8. Man Sues Himself.

n 2006, Curtis Gokey filed a lawsuit against the city of Lodi, California when one of their dump trucks accidentally backed into his car. The problem? Gokey, a city employee, was the guy driving the dump truck. Even though he freely admitted the accident had been his fault, Gokey sued the city for $3,600 in damages. After the city denied the claim and asserted that he couldn’t legally sue himself, Gokey filed a new lawsuit, this time in his wife’s name. A city attorney alleged that this too was illegal, but Gokey’s wife went through with suit anyway, and even raised the damages to $4,800, saying, “I’m not as nice as my husband is.”

7. Surfer Sues Over Stolen Wave.

One thing all surfers hate is when someone “snakes” a wave that they were in a better position to ride. A California man once took this anger to the courts when he supposedly sued another surfer for “stealing a wave” that he believed was meant for him. The man alleged that he had endured “pain and suffering” as a result of not being able to carve up the surf, and attempted to take the wave thief to court. The case was eventually dismissed when the court stated that there was no way to put a price on the pain and suffering of being denied a chance to ride a monster wave.

6. Student Sues For Right To Smelly Feet.

Teunis Tenbrook, a philosophy student at Erasmus University in the Netherlands, sued his school after he was thrown out for having unusually smelly feet. Professors and other students had complained that the smell was overpowering and made it impossible to conduct classes, and Tenbrook was eventually expelled from both the school and its library. He sued, and after a ten-year legal battle, a judge ruled in 2009 that having smelly feet is no excuse to prevent a student from continuing their studies. Upon delivering this verdict, the judge stated: “Our considered opinion is that the professors and other students will just have to hold their noses and bear it.”

5. Russian Astrologer Sues NASA.

Marina Bai is a Russian astrologer who sued NASA in July of 2005 for allegedly “disrupting the balance of the universe.” At the time, NASA had just fired the Deep Impact space probe into the comet Tempel 1 in the hope of studying its interior. Bai sued for damages and “moral sufferings,” alleging that the comet and “the natural balance of forces in the universe” would never be the same, and that her astrology business would be adversely affected as a result. Bai’s case was originally thrown out, but was reintroduced after her lawyer was able to show that NASA’s office in the American embassy fell under Russian jurisdiction. She sued for over $300 million, which was roughly the same as the space mission’s total budget, but her case was eventually rejected after a physicist argued that the probe had no real effect on the comet’s trajectory.

4. Man Sues Corporations For Witchcraft.

In 2008, a Canadian man brought a $2 billion lawsuit against several corporations after claiming that the companies had repeatedly dabbled in witchcraft, satanic rituals, and brain wave control in an attempt to bolster profits. The man, named Jerry Rose, alleged that companies like Microsoft and Wal-Mart had subjected him to “invasive brain computer interface technology, research, experiments, field studies and surgery.” Rose also named several universities and professors as defendants in the case, saying that they had helped engineer the “brain-drain” technologies that had made the mind control tactics possible. Lawyers from the companies argued that the case was outrageous and deserved to be dismissed on the spot, but the judge in charge of the proceedings agreed to hear it, arguing that all of the charges were capable of being litigated.

3. The Cable Car Nymphomaniac.

In San Francisco in 1964, a woman named Gloria Sykes was injured after the cable car she was riding on malfunctioned and careened down a hill. Sykes suffered a black eye and some scratches in the accident, but she filed a $500,000 lawsuit against the city for a much more curious reason: she claimed the accident had triggered a “demonic sex urge” in her. Sykes said the trauma from the accident had led to her developing an uncontrollable nymphomania, and that after it happened she’d had sex with over 100 men, as many as 50 in one week. The case made headlines in the Bay Area when it went to court, and many called it one of the most egregious abuses of the legal system in history. But after Sykes’ attorneys successfully argued that she had developed a bizarre form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, she was eventually awarded $50,000 in damages.

2. Man Sues God.

In 2005, a Romanian prisoner named Pavel Mircea attempted to sue God for fraud and gross negligence. Mircea, who had spent twenty year behind bars for murder, claimed that God had failed to deliver him from evil, as he had been promised at his christening, and that this was tantamount to a breach of contract. Mircea sued for an undisclosed amount, partially to be reimbursed for money he had spent on prayer candles and other religious goods, and directed his case toward the Officials of the Romanian Orthodox Church, whom he considered to be God’s representatives on Earth. The courts eventually rejected the case, with at least one report claiming that it was thrown out because God is not subject to ordinary law.

1. The World’s Most Litigious Man Sues.

When it comes to filing unusual lawsuits, few compare to Jonathan Lee Riches, who has filed an enormous amount of them in U.S. District Courts. Known variously as “Johnny Sue-Nami,” “the Litigator Crusader,” and “the Patrick Ewing of Suing,” Riches has been known to try and take anyone and anything to court. Targets of his over 4,000 lawsuits have included George W. Bush, the Somali pirates, NASCAR, NFL quarterback Michael Vick, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, Martha Stewart, and Steve Jobs. Riches, who is currently doing time in an Oklahoma City prison, has even attempted to sue historical figures like Plato, Nostradamus, and Che Guevara, as well as inanimate objects like the Eiffel Tower, the Lincoln Memorial, and Plymouth Rock. Arguably his most famous–and certainly his most ironic–lawsuit occurred in May of 2009, when Riches sued the Guinness Book of World Records for naming him “the World’s Most Litigious Man,” claiming that the company had no right to publish his “legal masterpieces.”

If you enjoyed these frivilous lawsuits, take a look at more here - link

Sep 14th, 2009 @ 10:50 am

haha it’s my dog.

@ 10:36 am

LOLZ ….

@ 10:28 am

Windows FAIL !!

@ 10:21 am

Playstation 3 Slim

ps3 slim

IT’S SMALLER, it’s lighter and it’s half the price of the original.

There is a lot to like about Sony’s newest PlayStation, nicknamed the PlayStation 3 Slim.

Undoubtedly an effort to move consoles en masse before Christmas, this games machine seems like a cunning purchase for those who didn’t jump on board the PlayStation 3 bandwagon in 2007 when the machine cost $999.

This slimmed-down $499 model replaces that pricey machine, and Sony insists it is just as good. Connect broke the new games machine from its packaging to find out if that is true.

One thing is certain about this new console: it’s slimmer and prettier than the one before. The new PlayStation is neither as wide nor as tall as its predecessor, giving the 32 per cent smaller machine a fresh and sleek appearance.

Also improving its aesthetics is the finish on this console: it now has a textured feel on its top and bottom, with glossy accents on the sides alone, limiting fingerprint smudges.

Other changes are more subtle, including the new PS3 logo on its top and the physical eject and on buttons that replace their touch-sensitive counterparts.

It’s worth noting that this console also consumes 34 per cent less power than the other PS3, and is 36 per cent lighter.

The game machine still weighs 3.4kg, however, so while convenient this weight loss is not likely to make the PS3 a regular passenger in your carry bag.

Like the last model, this PS3 has only two USB ports, down from four on the original, and no slot for a memory card.

It does, however, boast a sizeable 120GB hard drive that Sony intends to put to use in future with more PlayStation Network games for download and, by the end of the year, movie downloads.

Tricky techy users can also swap this hard drive for an even larger model with instructions provided in the pack.

The operation can be as simple as undoing one screw and slotting in the replacement drive, and goes a long way to future-proofing this device.

The new PS3 still works as a Blu-ray DVD player, making it one of the cheapest players on the market, and it comes with wireless internet connectivity built-in and a DualShock3 SIXASIS controller.

The new model comes with an optical cable that plugs into the red, white and yellow AV ports on older TVs, though it also has an HDMI connection you can use if you own a spare HDMI cable and high-definition TV.

After setting it up, there is no discernible difference between the $1000 original PlayStation 3
and its new, half-price replacement. The graphics are slick, the sound punchy and the controller quakes in your hands as if you really are holding a rifle.

The only difference is if you try and insert a PlayStation 2 game disc into the new machine.

As it lacks the Emotion Engine of the original model, it cannot play these discs and a sad message appears to inform you that “this PS3 is not compatible with PS2 software”. As long as you keep a working PS2, this should be an inconvenience rather than a deal-breaker.

The new PlayStation 3 seems like it delivers a lot of technology for the money, and is further proof that good things come to those who wait.

With this machine on the market, and a fresh price cut to the top Xbox 360 model, new gamers
appear to be in for an interesting Christmas.