NEWS OF THE WEIRD
6/23/08
“This,” as the judge’s order memorably put it, “is the case of the Naked Cowboy versus the Blue M&M.” Hard to beat that in the federal courts on a boring afternoon.
Earlier this year, Robert Burck, the tighty-whitied plaintiff in the case, sued Mars Incorporated, claiming that the candy maker had purloined his persona by outfitting a dark blue M&M with boots, hat, underpants and a six-string guitar in an animated cartoon it ran on two video billboards in Times Square. Mr. Burck (“doing business as the Naked Cowboy,” as his suit contends) not only argued that Mars had trampled on his trademark rights, but also falsely suggested that he actually endorsed the offending M&M.
On Monday afternoon, Judge Denny Chin of United States District Court in Manhattan ruled that Mr. Burke’s trademark rights had not in fact been stepped on since the law protects the “name, portrait or picture of a living person” but not a character created by a person — no matter how famous (or naked) he might be.
But a partial victory goes to the cowboy: Judge Chin also ruled that the suit could proceed since Mr. Burck “plausibly alleges that consumers seeing the defendants’ advertisements would conclude — incorrectly — that he had endorsed M&M.”
6/9/08
You can say what you want about this tragic display of creativity but this Harajuku girl will always have a warm seat on the Wu Tang tour bus.
Tomoe Shinohara rocked a killer hair piece made out of premium yaki to the Chanel Mobile Art event in Tokyo, Japan on Thursday. That T. Error Mari really out did herself this time! Gold star for you!
5/22/08
ID-protection pitchman who broadcasts his Social Security number is hit by identity theft
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Todd Davis has dared criminals for two years to try stealing his identity: Ads for his fraud-prevention company, LifeLock, even offer his Social Security number next to his smiling mug.
Now, Lifelock customers in Maryland, New Jersey and West Virginia are suing Davis, claiming his service didn’t work as promised and he knew it wouldn’t, because the service had failed even him.
Attorney David Paris said he found records of other people applying for or receiving driver’s licenses at least 20 times using Davis’ Social Security number, though some of the applications may have been rejected because data in them didn’t match what the Social Security Administration had on file.
Davis acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that his stunt has led to at least 87 instances in which people have tried to steal his identity, and one succeeded: a guy in Texas who duped an online payday loan operation last year into giving him $500 using Davis’ Social Security number.
Paris said the fact Davis’ records were compromised at all supports the claim that Tempe, Ariz.-based LifeLock doesn’t provide the comprehensive protection its advertisements say it does.
“It’s further evidence of the ineffectiveness of the services that LifeLock advertises,” said Paris, who is lead attorney on the three new lawsuits, the latest of which was filed this month.
Davis learned about the fraud in Texas when the payday-loan outfit called to collect on the loan, he said. He didn’t get an alert beforehand because the company didn’t go through one of the three major credit bureaus before approving the transaction.
Davis said it’s possible driver’s licenses have been issued to other people in his name because of the widespread availability of his personal information — and because of what he described as the flimsy mechanisms in place to report that kind of fraud.
Paris noted that LifeLock charges $10 a month to set fraud alerts with credit bureaus, even though consumers can do it themselves for free.
But Davis stands by his company and his advertising gimmick, which has appeared in newspapers and on billboards, radio and MTV. He even broadcasts it by bullhorn on walking tours through crowded downtowns.
“There’s nothing on my actual credit report about uncollected funds, no outstanding tickets or warrants or anything,” he said. “There’s nothing to indicate my identity has been successfully compromised other than the one instance. I know I’m taking a slightly higher risk. But I’ll take my risk for the tremendous benefit we’re bringing to society and to consumers.”
The lawsuits, for which Paris is seeking class-action status, highlight the fundamental limits on how much security identity-theft companies can provide.
Companies like LifeLock can help guard against only certain types of financial fraud by helping consumers set up alerts with credit bureaus, which inform them when someone tries to open a new line of credit or boost their credit limit to finance a buying binge, for example.
The services don’t guard against many types of identity theft such as use of a stolen Social Security number on a job application or for medical services, or even the instance of an arrestee giving police a stolen Social Security number to shield his own identity.
LifeLock is also being sued in Arizona over its $1 million service guarantee, which the plaintiffs claim is misleading because it only covers a defect in LifeLock’s service, and in California by the Experian credit bureau. Experian accuses LifeLock of deceiving consumers about the breadth of its protection and abusing the system for attaching fraud alerts to credit reports.
Security experts say complaints about the company reinforce the time-honored wisdom of keeping your Social Security number secret.
“There’s been a lot of marketing, a lot of hype about LifeLock,” said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy with the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. “The question is, ‘How much protection does it really buy you?’”
“There is no company that can guarantee they can protect you (completely) against identity theft,” Stephens said. “Absolutely nobody can do that.”
5/5/08
Mom arrested in Calif. after 32 years on the lam
A woman who escaped from a Detroit prison 32 years ago has been arrested in San Diego, where she was married with three children and living under a false name, authorities said.
Susan LeFevre, who had been using the name Marie Walsh, was arrested April 24 by federal marshals at her home in the posh Carmel Valley neighborhood of San Diego. An anonymous caller tipped Michigan officials to her location.
Her husband said Wednesday that the wife he knew was kind and compassionate.
LeFevre, 53, of Saginaw County, Mich., walked out of the Detroit House of Corrections, now known as the Robert Scott Correctional Facility, in February 1976 after serving the first year of her 10- to 20-year sentence on state drug charges.
She was charged with escape but was not traced until marshals matched her fingerprints to California driver’s license records for Marie Walsh.
4/23/08
BISCUITS WANTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER IN DRIVE BY SHOOTING
(The actual AP headline)
Linda Burnett, 23, a resident of San Diego, went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up and with her eyes closed, with both hands behind the back of her head.
One customer who had been at the store for a while became concerned and walked over to her car. He noticed that Linda’s eyes were now open, and she looked very strange. He asked her if she was okay. Linda replied that she’d been shot in the back of the head during a drive by shooting, and had been holding her brains in for over an hour.
The man called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and Linda refused to remove her hands from her head. When they finally got in, they found that Linda had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head. A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gun shot and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head. When she reached back to find out what it was,
she felt the dough and thought it was her brains. She had initially passed out, but quickly re-covered and tried to hold her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her aid.
And yes, Linda is a blonde.
3/23/08
Fleeing shoplifter forgets son
A shoplifter looking to make a quick getaway from a Dutch supermarket after stealing a packet of meat left police a crucial piece of evidence — his 12-year-old son.
In his haste the 45-year-old thief made a solo dash to his car, batting away a supermarket worker who had flung himself on the vehicles’ bonnet in a bid to stop the escape.
Police in the southern Dutch town of Kerkrade said they managed to contact the thief via the boy, but he had refused to return and collect his son. The man told officers to get hold of the youngster’s mother instead.
The thief later turned himself in Thursday, a police spokeswoman said.
3/13/08
Donate Sperm and go to a concert for Free
Sperm donors are to be offered free tickets to any music festival in Europe under a new initiative.
Passes to a festival of their choice will be offered to any donors in Europe who contribute to Ireland’s sperm reserves.
Irish stocks are apparently dwindling, with demand far higher than is sustainable, and donations down by 40% over the last four years.
2/29/08
William Shatner Opts Not To Sell His Hip Bone
William Shatner has chosen not to sell the hip bone he recently had replaced - because it would be in bad taste.
The former Star Trek star sold a kidney stone for $75,000 last year, and donated the proceeds - together with $20,000 from his Boston Legal co-stars, to Habitat For Humanity for the organization’s house building program in devastated New Orleans, Louisiana.
And he considered approaching online site GoldenPalace.com - the company that bought his kidney stone - to see if they were interested in his hip bone after a photo he was sent of the happy family, who had moved into the house his cash had built, brought tears to his eyes.
He says, “GoldenPalace.com gave me $75,000 for my ugly little kidney stone (and) I had this hip replacement less than four weeks ago and I thought, `How bad taste would it be to sell my hip bone?’ I then decided it was bad taste, and, for me to decide something is bad taste… it was really bad.”
2/15/08
This recent picture released by Swiss car maker Rinspeed shows people aboard Rinspeed’s new model, the sQuba, the world’s first real submersible car that will be presented at the 2008 Geneva car show in March. The zero-emission electric sports car, with power supplied by rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries, can perform a submerged stabile flight at a depth of 10 meters.
1/24/08
Viagra Oysters: Eyeing the Asian market, Australian oyster farmer George May started tossing pulverized Viagra pills into his oyster tanks. The little buggers absorb the blue boner pills, creating the ultimate appetizer!
1/10/08
Oregon woman nine times over state blood alcohol content limit
JANUARY 10–In what may be the most extreme drunk driving case ever, an Oregon woman was arrested last month with a .72 blood alcohol level–nine times the state’s legal limit. Terri Comer, 42, was arrested after she was discovered unconscious in her car, which sheriff’s deputies found running and in a snow bank on a highway in Klamath County at 11:30 AM on December 28. After breaking a car window, rescuers removed the comatose Comer from her Toyota and transported her to a local hospital, where a blood draw revealed the .72 BAC. She was reportedly hospitalized for a day before being released. As seen in a police photo, Comer’s vehicle came to a stop about 50 feet in front of one of those portable traffic signs reminding motorists not to drink and drive. Comer is pictured below in a 2006 mug shot snapped after a prior drunk driving arrest. In that case, her BAC was recorded in the relatively minor .3 range. In November, another Oregon woman, Meagan Harper, was nabbed for drunk driving with an extreme BAC. In her case, Harper’s BAC was measured at .55. Comer’s .72 edges out what TSG has previously identified as the highest BAC we’ve ever seen. That fallen record (.69) was held by Willard Ashley III, an Indiana man who was busted in October 2003.
12/21/07
A Detroit school bus driver taking children to class is accused of trying to buy sex from an undercover officer posing as a streetwalker. Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans didn’t identify the 30-year-old driver.
Evans said the man stopped twice Wednesday to talk with the officer posing as a prostitute. The first time he had one child aboard and the second time he had four children, ages 5 to 9 on the bus.
The sheriff said the driver gave the officer a paper with his phone number and told her he wanted to rendezvous after delivering the children. Instead, deputies arrested him and delivered the children themselves to McKenny Elementary School.
The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press said prosecutors are considering what charges to bring.
12/17/07
15 Weirdest Work Stories of 2007
Natural disasters, revolutionary technology, pro-athlete scandals and national calamities marked 2007 as an unforgettable year. Yet, amid these major happenings arose stories that were overlooked, unseen or ignored altogether: tales of our nation’s work force.
Here are 15 headlines that exemplify the strange happenings that took place in the workplace in 2007.
1. “Employee eats 32 vending machine items for charity”
A juvenile probation officer ate one of every item in a county courthouse vending machine in one day. She consumed more than 7,000 calories and more than 300 grams of fat, eating such items as beef sticks, candy bars, Pop Tarts and potato chips – all to win a bet with co-workers and raise $300 for charity.
2. “Cola wars get physical as Pepsi worker attacks Coke employee”
Two employees from the rival companies got into a tiff over shelf space in the aisle of a Wal-Mart in Indiana. The Pepsi worker allegedly assaulted the Coca-Cola employee, hitting him in the face, giving him a black eye and breaking his nose. Police say the two were also accused of trying to run each other over with pallets full of soda bottles.
3. “Alleged robber asks victim out for date”
After two men robbed a Domino’s Pizza delivery woman, one of them called the victim from his cell phone to apologize – and to ask her out.
4. “Four women fired for gossiping”
Four women employed in a small New Hampshire town were fired for gossiping about a relationship between the town administrator and a fellow co-worker. They were fired on the basis that “gossip, whispering and an unfriendly environment are causing poor morale and interfering with the efficient performance of town business.”
5. “Eau de Lawsuit: Woman sues over scent”
An employee in the Detroit planning department sued the city, saying a female co-worker’s strong fragrance prohibited her from working. The woman claimed she is severely sensitive to perfumes and her co-worker not only wore a strong scent, but also plugged in a scented room deodorizer.
6. “Salt lands McDonald’s employee in jail”
A McDonald’s employee was arrested, jailed and is facing criminal charges because a police officer got sick after a hamburger he ate was too salty. The employee accidentally spilled salt on some hamburger meat and told her supervisor and co-worker, who “tried to thump the salt off.” The employee was charged because she served the burger “without regards to the well-being of anyone who might consume it.”
7. “Carpenter free to ply trade in the nude”
A carpenter caught hammering nails and sawing wood in the nude says he prefers working in the buff because it’s more comfortable and helps keep his clothes clean. The carpenter was found not guilty of indecent exposure.
8. “Southwest Airlines employee tells passenger her outfit won’t fly”
A Southwest employee asked a young woman in a short skirt to leave the airplane, saying she was dressed too provocatively for the family airline. The young woman was eventually allowed to complete her trip after covering up. On her return flight, she came home with no problem – in the same outfit.
9. “Employee accused of faking being cop”
A Taco Bell employee was arrested for impersonating a law enforcement officer and attempting to arrest his managers and co-worker. He passed himself off as an undercover narcotics investigator, going as far as typing fake criminal histories on the general manager, two shift managers and an employee and telling them they were going to be arrested.
10. “Employee took 1 million screws home from factory”
An assembly worker hid screws in a specially designed hiding place and took up to 7,000 home with him every day. Over a two-year period, he stole more than 1.1 million screws with an estimated value of $155,000. He allegedly sold the screws over the Internet at discount prices.
11. “Deputy nabbed twice for DUI – by husband”
An off-duty jail deputy was pulled over and charged with driving under the influence – by her husband, a fellow deputy. She supposedly left before he could give her a Breathalyzer test, so he pulled her over again and called for backup. She was placed on administrative leave.
12. “Workers killed after seeking raises”
A car dealership owner killed two employees because they kept asking for more pay. The employer told police he was having financial problems and was under a lot of stress.
13. “Man demands coupons from radio station employee”
A radio station employee was threatened at gunpoint when an angry patron was unhappy with the promotional bumper stickers he received. The patron demanded McDonald’s coupons instead; when the employee didn’t have any, the man flashed what looked like a handgun. She searched her car and found a coupon for a free cheeseburger. The man took it, made a derogatory comment about the radio station and rode away on his bike.
14. “Wienermobile gets cop roasted”
When a 27-foot-long, 11-foot-tall vehicle – known to most as the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile – was slowing traffic in a construction zone in Arizona, an officer ran its “YUMMY” license plate to make sure it was street legal. A bad computer entry erroneously showed the Wienermobile as having stolen plates, forcing the officer to pull it over. After further investigation, the officer learned that the entry should have read that license plate had been stolen – but only if found on any vehicle that isn’t a giant hot dog.
15. “Drive-through dispute gets suspect jail food”
Workers at a Burger King in New York got into a dispute with a customer after he refused to turn his music down while ordering at the drive-through. The customer grabbed the restaurant’s manager, tried to pull her through a window and then attempted to run over a worker who came to help the manager.
12/16/07
Strange Things Happen To Paula Abdul
American Idol judge Paula Abdul once experienced theft at the hands of an obsessed fan, after a medical employee stole a sample of her urine.
The 45-year-old was shocked when her doctor asked her to provide a second urine sample, because the specimen she had previously provided was taken by a member of hospital staff.
She recalls, “Well, this is gross, but I was once at the gynecologist and my doctor said, ‘We asked you to do a urine sample, so where is it?’
“I told him that I’d left it out in reception, and when he came back he said, ‘This is really embarrassing but a man who works here is your biggest fan and he stole it.’ Needless to say he got fired. In hindsight it’s a funny story.”
12/15/07
The girl with half a brain: Doctors stop rare disease by splitting organ in two
Doctors have split a teenage girl’s brain in two to stop the spread of a rare brain disease.
Janine Leach, 15, from Sunderland, has a disorder known as Rasmussen s Encephalitis, that eats away at her brain.
The youngster was diagnosed with the condition when she was 11. She could have up to 100 seizures a day as surges of electricity in her brain made her nervous system misfire.
Janine’s mom, Tracey Podd said: “Sometimes the fits were only a minute apart. I used to sit at the hospital and watch every seizure she had. It was awful.”
Janine made the tough decision this year to have radical brain surgery after doctors told her the disease would continue to spread and leave her handicapped.
Doctors cut away the diseased half of her brain but left it inside her skull to prevent an increased risk of blood cots.
The surgery left Janine paralysed on the left hand side of her body but doctors hope with physiotherapy she will eventually walk.
11/7/07
Two hugs equals two days of detention for 13-year-old Megan Coulter. The eighth-grader was punished for violating a school policy banning public displays of affection when she hugged two friends Friday.
“I feel it is crazy,” said Megan, who was to serve her second detention Tuesday after classes at Mascoutah Middle School.
“I was just giving them a hug goodbye for the weekend,” she said.
Megan’s mother, Melissa Coulter, said the embraces weren’t even real hugs — just an arm around the shoulder and slight squeeze.
11/6/07
Iowa mom runs classified ad to sell spare breast milk, two bucks an ounce
An Iowa mother with extra breast milk on her hands this week placed a newspaper ad offering to sell the milk for $200 (or the best offer she receives). Martha Heller’s unorthodox offer, which first appeared in Tuesday’s edition of The Gazette, came after Heller, 22, was stuck with 100 ounces of frozen milk when her four-month-old daughter refused to nurse from a bottle. Heller’s ad ran in the “Children’s items” category of the Gazette’s classified section and follows an ad offering a Barbie jeep for $150. A spokesman for Iowa’s Department of Public Health told The Gazette that he was unaware of any laws barring the sale of breast milk, but that state officials frowned upon such offers.
10/26/07
A man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle.
Robert Stewart was discovered in his room by two cleaners at the Aberley House Hostel in Ayr, south west Scotland, in October last year.
On Wednesday Mr Stewart admitted to sexual breach of the peace in Ayr Sheriff Court, where depute fiscal Gail Davidson described how he had been found by the hostel workers.
She said: “They knocked on the door several times and there was no reply.
“They used a master key to unlock the door and they then observed the accused wearing only a white T-shirt, naked from the waist down.
The accused was holding the bike and moving his hips back and forth as if to simulate sex.”
Both witnesses, who were extremely shocked, notified the hotel manager, who in turn alerted the police.
Mr Stewart was placed on the sex offenders’ register but his sentence was deferred until next month.
9/13/07
The abandoned monkey who has found love with a pigeon
They’re an odd couple in every sense but a monkey and a pigeon have become inseparable at an animal sanctuary in China.
The 12-week-old macaque - who was abandoned by his mother - was close to death when it was rescued on Neilingding Island, in Goangdong Province.
After being taken to an animal hospital his health began to improve but he seemed spiritless - until he developed a friendship with a white pigeon.
The blossoming relationship helped to revive the macaque who has developed a new lease of life, say staff at the sanctuary.
Now the unlikely duo are never far from each other’s side, but they aren’t the only ones to strike up an unusual friendship.
Earlier this year a pig adopted a tiger cub and raised him along with her piglets because his mother couldn’t feed him.
And in 2005 a baby dear named Mi-Lu befriended lurcher Geoffrey at the Knowsley Animal Park in Merseyside after she was rejected by her mother.
9/12/07
NRG Phoenix Fury: Caffeinated Potato Chips
NRG-brand “Phoenix Fury” potato chips are “fused with Taurine, Caffeine and B-Vitamins to deliver a fiery energy kick that will revitalize.” Because nothing primes you for serious exertion like some deep-fried starch!
Also, while I am not a trained flavor physician—my PhD is in “chunkiness,” a related snack discipline—I am fairly certain I never want to know what “fury” tastes like.
You can mail order NRG chips from manufacturer Golden Flake (the official potato chip of the Talladega SuperSpeedway!) for a surprisingly reasonable $30 for a case of 30 1.75-ounce bags, plus shipping.
9/12/07
Woman has 23 needles in body
Luo Cuifen, 29 of Beijing, China, consulted doctors after noticing blood in her urine. Turns out she has 23 inch-long needles in her gut. Surgeons will now carefully remove the needles that allegedly were inserted by her grandparents who were hoping to kill her. From the Associated Press:
Many of the needles have worked their way into Luo’s vital organs including her lungs, liver, bladder and kidneys, making their removal difficult, said Qu Rui, a spokesman for the Richland International Hospital in Yunnan province’s capital, Kunming…
Qu said doctors believe the woman’s grandparents may have inserted the needles long ago, hoping she would die and her parents might have a boy in her place. China limits most families to just one child, although rural Chinese may be allowed to have a second if their first is a girl, subject to the payment of fines.
It wasn’t clear whether further investigations into the case were planned, with media reports saying Luo’s grandparents had already died.
9/5/07
Math Prodigy, 9, Says University Too Easy
A nine-year-old mathematics prodigy has become Hong Kong’s youngest undergraduate, waltzing through his first day at university saying classes were too easy.
March Boedihardjo, an Indonesian-Chinese boy resident in Hong Kong, was accepted by Hong Kong’s Baptist University to study for a master’s degree after gaining straight As in entrance A-level exams usually taken at 17 or 18.
“It was too easy,” Boedihardjo told reporters after attending a convocation ceremony in a pint-sized black-gown and his first day of classes Tuesday, adding that he’d already learned the subject matter a year or two ago.
The University has designed a five-year program for the child, but it has stirred controversy among some education experts who say he might experience stunted personal and social development as a result.
9/3/07
Amount of caffeine in soft drink brands
Auburn University researchers analyzed a slew of carbonated soft drink brands to measure the actual caffeine content. They report their data on more than 100 beverages in the current issue of the Journal of Food Science. The table below is excerpted from a summary of the research published by Science News.
From the Science News article:
Although colas have a reputation for their nerve-jolting caffeine, citrus-flavored drinks actually offered substantially more of the stimulant. Diet and regular colas typically delivered 30 to 34 milligrams of caffeine per 12-ounce (0.35-liter) serving, whereas regular and diet citrus drinks provided an average of 50 and 55 mg, respectively. The soft drinks richest in caffeine in the entire survey were both citrus beverages: Vault Zero at 74 mg per serving and Diet SunDrop at 71.5 mg…
Because few soft drink labels report how much caffeine a beverage contains, the researchers recommend that manufacturers start reporting — and posting — these values prominently so that consumers can look for drinks that will offer the amount of caffeine they seek.
9/3/07
Witchcraft practitioner wins Mega Millions lottery
Dude, talk about blessed be. Meet Elwood “Bunky” Bartlett, teacher of Wicca, winner of gajillions:
He and his wife, Denise, were on their way to the shop where he occasionally teaches Wicca and Reiki healing when they stopped at a liquor store and bought two $5 Mega Millions tickets for Friday night’s estimated $330 million jackpot. On Sunday, he said one of his tickets was a winner.
“If it wasn’t for this place I wouldn’t have won the lottery,” Bartlett said Sunday at Mystickal Voyage, the New Age shop.
Bartlett, an accountant from Dundalk, said he made a bargain with the multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs: “You let me win the lottery and I’ll teach.” Both tickets he purchased had numbers chosen randomly from the computer.
8/28/07
Teen trades hacked iPhone for new car
The teenage hacker who managed to unlock the iPhone so that it can be used with cellular networks other than AT&T will be trading his reworked gadget for a new car.
George Hotz, of Glen Rock, N.J., said he had reached the deal with CertiCell, a Louisville, Ky.-based mobile phone repair company.
Hotz posted on his blog that he traded his modified iPhone for “a sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones.”
“This has been a great end to a great summer,” Hotz wrote.
The 17-year-old Hotz said he will be sending the three new iPhones to the three online collaborators who helped him divorce Apple Inc’s popular product from AT&T’s network. The job took 500 hours, or about 8 hours a day since the iPhone’s June 29 launch.
Hotz made the deal with Terry Daidone, co-founder of CertiCell, who also promised the teen a paid consulting job.
“We do not have any plans on the table right now to commercialize Mr. Hotz’ discovery,” Daidone said in a statement.
8/21/07
Bronx Basement Lab Of Horrors
A locked Bronx basement was revealed yesterday to be a ghoulish laboratory of horrors, cops said - filled with preserved skulls, sulfuric acid and possibly a human fetus swimming in a jar of formaldehyde.
“It’s beyond voodoo,” said Dawn Jones, 22, who lives in the Holland Ave. building and never imagined the real-life fright film in the basement. “It’s like a freak show down there. It makes me feel ill.”
Jones, another tenant and a city inspector broke into the Holland Ave. building’s cellar about 1:45 p.m. to check on a faulty hot water heater, officials said.
Using a flashlight, they shuffled slowly through the dark. The trio turned a corner and spotted the twisted collection - including intravenous bags, test tubes, beakers, microscopes and a refrigerator used to store blood.
“My face was so stunned. I had to make a U-turn and walk as fast as I could to get out of there,” Jones said. “I couldn’t run because it was so cluttered.”
Building owner Barry Greene, 62, is in prison on charges of sexually abusing teenage boys, records show. Cops said it wasn’t clear if he owned the material.
“They found one jar that might contain a possible human fetus,” said an NYPD spokesman. “But they might get it to a lab and find out it’s rubber. The medical examiner will make that determination.”
Several jars were removed from the home, and city environmental inspectors were examining some with potentially explosive chemicals.
“The others contain animal remains,” the spokesman said.
Jones and another tenant in the two-family building in Morris Park said they have complained for months about a lack of hot water and intermittent electricity.
Inspectors have repeatedly cited violations in the building. City officials even made some repairs on the home and sent Greene the bill. A Department of Housing Preservation and Development inspector finally gained access to the basement yesterday after slapping Greene with a violation for keeping the basement locked on Aug. 8.
“HPD inspectors were out there today and made this discovery and reported it to the police,” said agency spokesman Neill Coleman.
Because Greene is behind bars, the tenants had been making out rent checks to his lawyer Harold Entes, who declined to comment on the gruesome finds.
8/21/07
Dwarf’s Penis Gets Stuck To Vacuum Cleaner
A dwarf performer at the Edinburgh fringe festival had to be rushed to hospital after his penis got stuck to a vacuum cleaner during an act that went horribly awry.
Daniel Blackner, or Captain Dan the Demon Dwarf, was due to perform at the Circus of Horrors at the festival known for its oddball, offbeat performances.
The main part of his act was for him to appear on stage with a vacuum cleaner attached to his member with a special apparatus.
The attachment broke before the performance and Blackner tried to fix it using extra-strong glue, but unfortunately let it dry for only 20 seconds instead of the 20 minutes required.
He then joined it directly to his organ. The end result? A solid attachment, laughter, mortification and … hospitalization.
“It was the most embarrassing moment of my life when I got wheeled into a packed emergency room with a vacuum attached to me,” Blackner said.
“I just wished the ground could swallow me up. Luckily, they saw me quickly so the embarrassment was short-lived.”
8/21/07
Dogs Being Poisoned With Crystal Meth In Chelsea
An upsetting trend is developing at the Chelsea Dog Run — hounds getting high on a mystery drug that some are saying is crystal meth. We’re actually, astoundingly, not joking here. Three dogs have died and many more have fallen ill after consuming mystery substances while playing at the park on 22nd Street. The organization NYCdog has issued a warning to pet owners across the city. “After the first incident, it was believed to be an isolated case where an illicit drug may have fallen out of someone’s pocket,” a press release said. “But now, with nine reported cases, it appears to be the act of deliberate poisoning.” Some report that owners even saw a stranger feed their dogs before they fell ill.
7/27/07
Wis. Grave Robbers’ Sex Assault Charges Dropped
Nicholas Grunke
(AP) Madison, Wis. Three men who dug up a young woman’s corpse to have sex with it after seeing her obituary photo cannot be charged with attempted sexual assault because Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
A judge was correct to dismiss the charges against twin brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke and Dustin Radke, all 21, because lawmakers never intended to criminalize sex with a corpse, the District 4 Court of Appeals said in a 3-0 ruling.
Alexander Grunke
The three men went to a cemetery in Cassville in southwestern Wisconsin on Sept. 2 to remove the body of Laura Tennessen, 20, who had been killed the week before in a motorcycle crash.
The men used shovels to reach her grave. They abandoned their plan and were eventually arrested after a vehicle drove into the cemetery and reported suspicious behavior, authorities said.
They said the men had seen an obituary of Tennessen with her photo and wanted to dig up her body to have sexual intercourse. Such an act is known as necrophilia.
The men were charged with attempted third-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor attempted theft charges. But Grant County Circuit Judge George Curry dismissed the sexual assault charges in September, saying no Wisconsin law addressed necrophilia. Prosecutors appealed his ruling.
Dustin Radke
At issue is a provision in the sexual assault law saying criminal penalties apply “whether a victim is dead or alive at the time of the sexual contact or sexual intercourse.”
The appeals court said the law was ambiguous but the most reasonable interpretation was that it does not ban necrophilia. Instead, the court said, the law was meant to make sure prosecutors could bring sexual assault charges in rape-murder cases in which the victim ends up dead.
Outrage over the case might soon change the law.
Sen. Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, introduced legislation Wednesday that would make having sex with a corpse a felony with punishment of up to 6 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The bill would levy the same penalties against anyone who intentionally disturbs a burial site or a buried human corpse.
Defense lawyer Suzanne Edwards, who represents Nicholas Grunke, said the appeals court made the proper ruling. She called instances of necrophilia “extremely rare” and said she doubted a criminal ban was needed.
“I think the instances of that are so rare that I’m not sure that it’s worth the time, money, resources and efforts of the Legislature to create that,” she said.
She said it’s unclear if prosecutors will pursue the attempted theft charges against her client and the other defendants. “They may throw in the towel,” she said.
7/24/07
Five-toed athletic sandals for barefoot comfort
Vibram Fivefingers are outdoor sandals with individual toes. Wearing them is said to mimic the feeling of going barefoot, without the blisters and no-shoes/no-service hassles. They’re certainly cool-looking!
7/12/07
Mom Says She, Toddler Kicked Off Plane
A woman said she and her toddler son were kicked off a plane after she refused a flight attendant’s request to medicate her son to get him to quiet down and stop saying “Bye bye, plane.”
Kate Penland, of suburban Atlanta, said she and her 19-month-old son, Garren, were flying from Atlanta to Oklahoma last month on a Continental Express flight that made a stop in Houston.
As the plane was taxiing in Houston en route to Oklahoma, “he started saying ‘Bye, bye plane,’ Penland told WSB-TV in Atlanta. The flight attendant objected, she said.
“At the end of her speech, she leaned over the gentleman beside me and said, ‘It’s not funny anymore. You need to shut your baby up,’” Penland told WSB-TV in Atlanta.
When Penland asked the woman if she was joking, she said the stewardess replied, “You know, it’s called baby Benadryl.”
“And I said, ‘Well, I’m not going to drug my child so you have a pleasant flight,’” Penland told the TV station.
Penland said other passengers began speaking up on her behalf, and the flight attendant announced they were turning around and that Penland and Garren were going to be taken off the plane.
Penland and her son were let off the plane and did not complete the trip to Oklahoma, said Kristy Nicholas, spokeswoman for Express Jet Airlines, which flies as Continental Express on behalf of Continental Airlines.
“I was crying, I was upset and I was thinking, ‘What am I going to do? I don’t have anything with me, I don’t have any more diapers for the baby, no juice, no milk,” Penland told WSB.
Nicholas said, “We received Ms. Penland’s letter expressing her concerns and intend to investigate its contents.”
6/14/07
An aggressive squirrel attacked and injured three people in a German town before a 72-year-old pensioner dispatched the rampaging animal with his crutch.
The squirrel first ran into a house in the southern town of Passau, leapt from behind on a 70-year-old woman, and sank its teeth into her hand, a local police spokesman said Thursday.
With the squirrel still hanging from her hand, the woman ran onto the street in panic, where she managed to shake it off.
The animal then entered a building site and jumped on a construction worker, injuring him on the hand and arm, before he managed to fight it off with a measuring pole.
“After that, the squirrel went into the 72-year-old man’s garden and massively attacked him on the arms, hand and thigh,” the spokesman said. “Then he killed it with his crutch.”
The spokesman said experts thought the attack may have been linked to the mating season or because the squirrel was ill.
6/1/07
Man punished for using open Wi-Fi network
A Michigan man was arrested by police for accessing a coffee shop’s public Wi-Fi hotspot. He was charged with a felony and faced up to 5 years in jail, but he took an offer of “paying a $400 fine, doing 40 hours of community service and staying on probation for six months.”
The coffee shop owner said she was surprised by the arrest of 39-year-old Sam Peterson, who is a toolmaker, volunteer firefighter, and secretary of a bagpipe club. “He could have just come in the cafe, even if he didn’t have any money, I would let him get on it,” said the owner. Before the arrest, Peterson had no criminal record.
In the article about the incident, Sparta police chief Andrew Milanowski and Kent County assistant prosecuting attorney Lynn Hopkins come off as brittle, badly-programmed automatons.
“I was sitting there reading my e-mail and he came up and stuck his head inside my window and asked me who I was spying on,” Peterson told FOXNews.com.
Someone from a nearby barbershop had called cops after seeing Peterson’s car pull up every day and sit in front of the coffee shop without anybody getting out.
“I just curiously asked him, ‘Where are you getting the Internet connection?’, you know,” Sparta Police Chief Andrew Milanowski said. “And he said, ‘From the café.’”
Milanowski ruled out Peterson as a possible stalker of the attractive local hairdresser, but still felt that a law might have been broken.
“We came back and we looked up the laws and we figured if we found one and thought, ‘Well, let’s run it by the prosecutor’s office and see what they want to do,’” Milanowski said.
A few weeks later Peterson said he received a letter from the Kent County prosecutor’s office saying that he faced a felony charge of fraudulent access to computer networks and that a request had been made for an arrest warrant.
5/23/07
Lady teaches cat how to eat with fork and chop sticks!
5/22/07
Man busted while drunk driving in wheelchair
A wheelchair-bound German stunned police when they pulled him over for using the road and found he was 10 times over the legal alcohol limit for drivers.
“He was right in the middle of the road,” said a spokesman for police in the northeastern city of Schwerin Tuesday. “The officers couldn’t quite believe it when they saw the results of the breath test. That’s a life-threatening figure.”
The 31-year-old told police he had been out drinking with a friend and was a little over a mile from home when a squad car stopped him as he passed through the village of Ventschow.
Police said that because the man was technically traveling as a pedestrian, he could not be charged with a driving offense.
“It’s not like we can impound his wheelchair,” the spokesman said. “But he is facing some sort of punishment. It’s just not clear yet what exactly that will be.”
5/18/07
Glowing Green Baby Lamp
This glowing Martian baby lamp also comes in luminescent orange and blue. Fill the nursery with these and make baby wonder why he isn’t glowing and brightly colored. (www.geniusjones.com)
5/9/07
Gas Station Owner Told To Raise Prices
MERRILL, Wis. - A service station that offered discounted gas to senior citizens and people supporting youth sports has been ordered by the state to raise its prices.
Center City BP owner Raj Bhandari has been offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon.
But the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says those deals violate Wisconsin’s Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.
Bhandari said he received a letter from the state auditor last month saying the state would sue him if he did not raise his prices. The state could penalize him for each discounted gallon he sold, with the fine determined by a judge.
Bhandari, who bought the station a year ago, said he worries customers will think he stopped the discounts because he wants to make more money. About 10 percent of his customers had used the discount cards.
Dale Van Camp said he bought a $50 card to support the local youth hockey program. It would have saved him about $100 per year on gas, he said.
5/8/07
Doctor Finds Spiders In Boy’s Ear
These guys weren’t exactly Snap, Crackle and Pop. What began as a faint popping in a 9-year-old boy’s ear — “like Rice Krispies” — ended up as an earache, and the doctor’s diagnosis was that a pair of spiders made a home in the ear.
“They were walking on my eardrums,” Jesse Courtney said.
One of the spiders was still alive after the doctor flushed the fourth-grader’s left ear canal. His mother, Diane Courtney, said her son insisted he kept hearing a faint popping in his ear — “like Rice Krispies.”
Dr. David Irvine said it looked like the boy had something in his ear when he examined him.
When he irrigated the ear, the first spider came out, dead. The other spider took a second dousing before it emerged, still alive. Both were about the size of a pencil eraser.
Jesse was given the spiders — now both dead — as a souvenir. He has taken them to school and his mother has taken them to work.
“It was real interesting, ’cause, two spiders in my ear — what next?” Jesse said.
5/2/07
Dry cleaner sued for lost pants: $67 million
Roy Pearson, a judge in Washington DC, is suing Custom Cleaners dry cleaner for $67 million because they lost his favorite pants. Pearson claims he experienced “mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort” and wants to get paid for 10 years worth of weekend car rentals to drive his dirty duds to another dry cleaner. According to the plaintiff, it’s the second time the cleaners lost his pants. The dry cleaners, who say that are getting hammered by two years worth of lawyers’ fees to defend themselves, claim they have the pants but Pearson won’t drop, er, the suit. From ABC News:
(Pearson) believes he is entitled to $1,500 for each violation, each day during which the “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign and another sign promising “Same Day Service” was up in the store — more than 1,200 days.
And he’s multiplying each violation by three because he’s suing (Custom Cleaners owners) Jin and Soo Chung and their son.
He also wants $500,000 in emotional damages and $542, 500 in legal fees, even though he is representing himself in court.
He wants $15,000 for 10 years’ worth of weekend car rentals as well.
After enlisting neighbors and fellow customers, he sought to expand the case into a class action suit, but was denied, angrily, by District of Columbia Civil Judge Neal Kravitz.
“The Court has significant concerns that the plaintiff is acting in bad faith and with an intent to delay the proceedings,” the judge wrote in court papers. “Indeed, it is difficult to draw any other conclusion, given the plaintiff’s lengthy delay in seeking to expand the scope of the case, the breathtaking magnitude of the expansion he seeks, his failure to present any evidence in support of the thousands of claims he says he wishes to add, and his misrepresentation concerning the scope of his first amended complaint.”
4/24/07
Man Cuts Off Penis In Restaurant
A man cut off his penis with a knife in a packed London restaurant. Police were forced to use CS gas to restrain the man when they entered the Zizzi restaurant in The Strand on Sunday evening.
A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said the man was aged between 30 and 40 and that his injuries were self-inflicted.
The man was then taken to hospital in south London where his condition is stable. It is understood surgeons were unable to reattach his penis.
A spokeswoman for Zizzi said the man was not thought to have any connection with the restaurant.
She said: “At around 9pm on Sunday, a man walked into the Zizzi restaurant on The Strand, down the stairs to the basement restaurant area and tried to enter a kitchen.
“Members of staff stopped him, at which he ran into a second kitchen area.
“The man then picked up a kitchen knife and slashed himself across the wrist and groin areas before running back into the restaurant, where he continued to stab himself.
“This happened in a matter of seconds and was obviously extremely frightening and distressing for the many customers and staff in the restaurant at the time.”
She added: “Apart from the man, we understand that no-one else suffered any physical injuries.”
4/23/07
North Carolina bank robber busted in Virgina Tech t-shirt
On a day that mourners nationwide wore Virginia Tech’s orange and maroon colors in a show of solidarity for victims of Monday’s massacre, a man wearing a shirt with the school’s logo was arrested this morning shortly after robbing a North Carolina bank. According to police, Robert Kirk Newton, 39, walked into a Carolina Beach branch of First Citizens Bank at 9:05 AM and handed a teller a note claiming he had a gun and which demanded “all the money.” The teller handed Newton $2500 in a paper bag. She also placed a red dye pack in the bag, which exploded before Newton fled the bank. Newton was apprehended within minutes by police, who confiscated a knife used in the robbery. Newton, pictured in the below Carolina Beach Police Department mug shot, was wearing an orange t-shirt with Virginia Tech’s logo in maroon.
Read full story here
3/26/07
Pizza Places To Put Deadbeat Dads On Boxes
Customers at some suburban pizza parlors are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms — wanted posters for parents accused of failing to pay child support.
The idea came to Cynthia Brown, executive director of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency, while she was ordering pizza.
“It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don’t eat out, they order pizza,” said Brown, whose county is north of Cincinnati.
Enforcement agencies across the country use a variety of methods to locate support scofflaws and collect past-due payments. Virginia has issued subpoenas to cellular phone companies seeking addresses and phone numbers. California’s Kern County seizes and auctions parents’ vehicles, with proceeds going to the children, said Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association.
State child support agencies collected more than $23 billion in child support for 17.2 million children in 2005, but the cumulative past-due child support since the agencies were first formed more than 30 years ago is $106 billion, Cullen said.
“While we have made progress, putting the wanted posters on pizza boxes is an example of the innovation and commitment that we need,” she said.
Other Ohio counties put posters on their Web sites and work with local Crime Stoppers programs, and a few contract with companies that can track people through rental and cell phone records, according to the Ohio Child Support Directors Association. Some include fliers in water and sewer bills.
Butler County has printed posters with mug shots of its 10 most-wanted parents, placing them in post offices and other government buildings and sending them to Ohio’s 87 other counties. The lineup, chosen by prosecutors, is changed twice a year.
The Butler County sheriff’s office served 1,224 nonsupport warrants last year, said sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Langmeyer. The county has about 350,000 residents.
Brown approached several restaurants and chains with her idea of affixing the posters to pizza boxes, but so far only three pizzerias are participating.
Since the first pizza posters appeared in August, they have led to one arrest, Langmeyer said. “It’s a good idea any time you can put the faces out there,” he said.
The owner of Karen’s Pizzeria hasn’t heard any complaints about her participation in the poster program.
“Some customers joke about it and say they’re glad they aren’t on it,” Karen Willis said. “Most seem to think it’s a good idea.”
An attorney who focuses on fathers’ rights cases called the tactic “horrible.”
“It’s just a way of shaming people,” said Maury Beaulier, whose firm is in Eden Prairie, Minn.
Many circumstances can cause people to get behind in support payments, but that doesn’t make them deadbeats, he said.
Widespread public shaming also can devastate the children, said Michael McCormick, executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children.
“Think how children feel to see a parent on a wanted poster and know their friends might see it,” he said.
Brown said her agency tries to work with parents by trying to help them find work and seeks most payments through civil court. Criminal charges are a last resort. Conviction on a felony count of failing to pay child support brings a prison sentence of up to 18 months, with fines usually set in the amount of the support owed.
“We aren’t trying to penalize these people,” Brown said. “We are just trying to help the kids who have a right to be supported.”
3/23/07
Phone built into cigarette pack
This Chinese phone comes built into a pack of cigarettes and sports a government health warning, an MP3 player, dual GSM radios, a VGA screen and a microSD slot, all for $175 (purchase price includes cigarettes).
3/22/07
Man in hot water over shampoo camera
A man landed in hot water after police say he hid a tiny camera in a shampoo bottle to watch two of his female roommates as they took showers.
A male roommate, curious why the shampoo wasn’t moved for some time, found wires protruding from the back of the bottle, then called police, authorities said.
The camera recorded through a pinhole, and the images were sent to Steven Thibodeau’s television, police said. Thibodeau, 25, had placed the camera to record the women showering and made video of one of them changing clothes, according to police.
Thibodeau was arraigned Wednesday on 15 counts of voyeurism and one count of evidence tampering, which alleges he tried to delete some images.
He was being held in jail on $250,000 bail. The defense attorney who attended his arraignment was out of the office Thursday and could not be reached for comment.
Police said Thibodeau made a compilation video of one of the women, but they have no evidence he transferred the files to the Internet. It wasn’t yet known how long the shampoo had been wired.
3/21/07
Replica Viagra burnt for afterlife sex
CHINESE cemeteries are selling paper replicas of Viagra pills to be burned for dead relatives as a wish to satisfy sex in the afterlife, state media reported today.
Customers are snapping up the paper Viagra, as well as images of condoms and heavily made-up bar girls ahead of the annual Tombsweeping Festival on April 5, the Nanjing Morning News reported.
Chinese have traditionally burned fake money in honour of dead relatives during the festival, when families clean their ancestors’ tombs and graves.
They believe the wealth will accrue to their ancestors in the afterlife.
But China’s move toward a more consumer-oriented society has seen new offerings including paper televisions, mobile phones, cars and other luxury items.
A commentary in the Beijing Morning Post today called for a crackdown on the sex-related “vice” offerings.
However, it said efforts by authorities to halt the sales had been unsuccessful due to high demand.
3/20/07
Couple Sentenced For Having Sex In Front Of Child
A Woonsocket mother and her boyfriend were sentenced to three years probation on Monday for having intercourse in front of the woman’s 9-year-old daughter to teach the girl about sex.
Chief Family Court Judge Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr. sentenced Rebecca Arnold of Woonsocket, and her boyfriend, David Prata, to probation and a three-year suspended sentence after they pleaded no contest to a felony child neglect charge.
The judge said he wanted to spare the young girl, now 11, from testifying, according to Michael Healey, a spokesman for Attorney General Patrick Lynch.
During an investigation by the state child welfare authorities, Prata, 33, said he and Arnold, 36, had sex “all the time” in front of the child and that “we don’t believe in hiding anything.” He told an investigator that they did not force the girl to watch.
The allegations surfaced in December 2004 after the girl went to live with her father in North Adams, Massachusetts, after spending the summer with her mother in Woonsocket.
A teacher called a child abuse hotline to report that the girl said her mother and her boyfriend had sex in front of her. Woonsocket police arrested the couple February 2005.
3/20/07
Woman grows nipple on foot
A 22-year-old woman sought medical care for a lesion in the plantar region of her left foot, a well-formed nipple surrounded by areola and hair. Microscopic examination of the dermis showed hair follicles, eccrine glands, and sebaceous glands. Fat tissue was noted at the base of the lesion. Clinical and histopathologic findings were consistent with the diagnosis of supernumerary breast tissue, also known as pseudomamma. To our knowledge, this is the first report of supernumerary breast tissue on the foot.
These supernumerary breasts can pop up all over the place, including the face, back, and thigh (and foot, obviously). They can be functionally complete, and can even lactate. The authors report some weak and sometimes contradicted associations with other oddities, but no causal mechanism is known. These cases of autonomous self-organization and recruitment of organs are extremely interesting—it suggests that a breast would be a fairly easy tissue to grow in a dish.
3/19/07
British Airways Puts Corpse In First Class
A BRITISH Airways passenger travelling first class has described how he woke up on a long-haul flight to find that cabin crew had placed a corpse in his row.
The body of a woman in her seventies, who died after the plane left Delhi for Heathrow, was carried by cabin staff from economy to first class, where there was more space. Her body was propped up in a seat, using pillows.
The woman’s daughter accompanied the corpse, and spent the rest of the journey wailing in grief.
Paul Trinder, who awoke to see the body at the end of his row, last week described the journey as “deeply disturbing”, and complained that the airline dismissed his concerns by telling him to “get over it”.
“It was a complete mess — they seemed to have no proper plans in place to deal with the situation,” said Trinder, 54, a businessman from Brackley, Northamptonshire.
The woman died during a nine-hour flight on a Boeing 747. Trinder was catching up on sleep when he was woken by a commotion and opened his eyes to see staff manoeuvring the body into a seat.
“I didn’t have a clue what was going on. The stewards just plonked the body down without saying a thing. I remember looking at this frail, sparrow-like woman and thinking she was very ill,” said Trinder.
“She kept slipping under the seatbelt and moving about with the motion of the plane. When I asked what was going on I was shocked to hear she was dead.”
The woman’s daughter and son-in-law arrived soon after and began grieving. Trinder said: “It was terrifying. I put my earplugs in but couldn’t get away from the fact that there was a woman wailing at the top of her voice just yards away. It was a really intense, primal sound.
“I felt helpless. Grief is a very personal thing; it’s not as if there was anything I could do or say.”
Trinder, chief executive of Capital Safety, which makes products for the building industry, holds a BA gold card and travels more than 200,000 miles a year with the airline.
He became particularly concerned about the state of the body. “When you have a decaying body on a plane at room temperature for more than five hours there are significant health and safety risks,” he said.
After the plane landed, those in first class remained on board for an hour before police and a coroner gave the all-clear.
“The police even started interviewing me as a potential witness, although I had no idea what had happened to the woman. I just kept thinking to myself: ‘I’ve paid more than £3,000 for this’,” Trinder said.
When contacted by BA about the complaint, Trinder says he was told he would not be compensated and should “get over” the incident.
BA said the dead woman was taken into first class because the rest of the plane was full.
A spokesman said: “When a customer passes away on board it is always difficult and we apologise for any distress caused.”
He said there were about 10 deaths each year out of 36m passengers.
Other carriers use different procedures. Singapore Airlines has introduced “corpse cupboards” on its Airbus 340-500 aircraft. Cabin crews use the locker if there is no empty row of seats to place a corpse.
3/17/07
Authorities locate ’cat lady’ suspected of killing 650 animals
Investigators say that a woman who confessed to killing 650 cats and dogs is expected to return to Columbus to face criminal charges on Monday.
Maureen McLaughlin, 56, apparently had checked herself into a mental-health facility in the Mansfield area by the time authorities went to her North Side apartment on Wednesday, Assistant City Prosecutor Bill Hedrick said.
Hedrick said that a social worker who knows McLaughlin told authorities that the woman has a bipolar disorder.
“I want to make sure our mental-health experts are ready,” Hedrick said.
Investigators from the Franklin County Animal Shelter and the Capital Area Humane Society say McLaughlin has described drowning hundreds of animals in a large trash can filled with water.
Hedrick said McLaughlin told them she got the animals from rescue groups and neighbors. She said she killed them because she didn’t want them to languish in the animal-welfare system.
McLaughlin has been charged so far with one count of animal cruelty.
Two animal rescuers have told authorities that they gave Maureen McLaughlin about 150 animals during the past five years.
Hedrick described the apartment as “meticulous,” with no signs of pets, though neighbors referred to McLaughlin as “the cat lady.”
She had called Columbus police over the weekend telling of her crimes.
When investigators from the Franklin County Animal Shelter and Capital Area Humane Society went to McLaughlin’s apartment, she told investigators that she had killed 650 animals and showed them how: She would put an animal in a crate, then drown it in a large trash can filled with water, Hedrick said.
McLaughlin also showed investigators 16 envelopes that had names and descriptions of animals written on them as well as the dates of their deaths, Hedrick said.
The envelopes contained fur or hair.
On Sunday, Cpl. Joe Rock of the Franklin County Department of Animal Care and Control met McLaughlin and videotaped her confessing to killing the animals.
She then led him to the most recent grave, which was in some woods near her home. He said the remains of a short-haired gray and white cat were inside. McLaughlin was charged with one count of animal cruelty.
Sam Massie, a private security guard and animal rescuer, said he hates to think McLaughlin lied to him all these years.
They met in 2001, and he began bringing dogs and cats to her because she said she was affiliated with an organization that did not euthanize animals, he said.
He estimated he and his wife brought McLaughlin 100 animals.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Massie said. “When we heard, it made us sick to our stomachs.”
The Humane Society, the County Animal Shelter, the Columbus Dog Connection and the Columbus Cat Welfare Association, where McLaughlin volunteered about a decade ago, said they have not taken in any animals from McLaughlin during the past five years.
Hedrick said that building a case might prove difficult. The statute of limitations prevents his office from prosecuting animal-cruelty cases more than 2 years old.
McLaughlin, who got around by bicycle, told investigators she dropped the bodies in parks and different forested areas around the county.
When investigators returned to her apartment at 4331-B Malin Dr. E. with a search warrant Wednesday, the envelopes, crate and trash can were gone.
McLaughlin had left a note saying what she wanted to be buried with.
3/16/07
Photo of $53 million in cash confiscated in Mexico
This money was stashed in a house in Mexico City, presumably a drug lord’s.
The house was guarded by seven people.
3/14/07
Victoria woman sliced man’s penis in self-defense, jury finds.
A woman who slashed a man’s penis with a knife during an intimate encounter was acquitted Tuesday after a jury accepted her explanation of self-defense.
Deanna Quiring was found not guilty of aggravated assault in B.C. Supreme Court. Quiring became sexually involved with Martin Sirois to settle a drug debt, said her lawyer, Maylan McKimm.
“He had demanded a sexual favor for that,” McKimm said. “And in the course of the sexual conduct he began to choke her and in response to that she reached into her purse and retrieved a knife, which she slashed at him with and cut his penis.”
Sirois suffered serious cuts to his penis and chest.
McKimm said the case came down to the jury having to decide who to believe, “whether the version of Mr. Sirois that he was an innocent victim or the version of Miss Quiring that in fact she had been attacked and throttled as a result of which she lashed out at him.”
In his defense, McKimm also argued that Quiring was traumatized from years of abuse as a child.
3/13/07
THE KILLER FROGS OF LILY POND
It’s like something out of an animal horror movie — killer frogs take over peaceful pond, then after terrorizing and eating everything alive, start eating each other.
Only it’s no movie. It’s really happening in Golden Gate Park’s Lily Pond, near the California Academy of Sciences. And after watching the frogs chew through everything in sight over the past several years, the city finally wants to do something about it.
No one knows for sure when the African clawed frogs got into the pond or who put them there. But there they are, and the Toad Warriors have pretty much taken care of the native turtles, frogs and fish.
“They’ve eaten everything they can get their mouths around, and now they’re eating each other,” said Eric Mills of the animal rights group Action for Animals.
Mills worries that the fiendish amphibians — which grow to 5 inches in length and have claws on the toes of their oversize hind feet — may jump the pond and spread their reign of terror across other Bay Area waterways, although so far, none has popped up elsewhere.
“The fear is they will get out,” said Richard Schulke, president of the city’s Animal Control and Welfare Commission.
In 2003, the state Department of Fish and Game was going to drain the pond, but at the last minute, it pulled back. Fish and Game reps didn’t return calls for comment, but Schulke said outrage over the department’s poisoning of pike up at Lake Davis about the same time may have given the state cold feet.
Since then, park workers have used nets and traps baited with chicken to yank about 2,500 adult frogs out of the pond. The frogs are then sent up to Fish and Game in Yountville, where they are euthanized by a special nerve poison.
But the Terminator toads just keep coming back.
“They are cute, but tough,” Mills said. “I saw a heron swoop down and grab one. He had it in his bill for a while, tried to eat it, then just gave up and spit it out.”
In fact, about the only thing known to eat the frogs are crocodiles — but that solution is probably out.
Instead, the city is thinking of stepping in where the state stepped back. Although they were warned the cost could be exorbitant, members of the Animal Control and Welfare Commission voted last week to ask the Board of Supervisors for money — whatever it takes — to drain the pond once and for all and send the remaining frogs to the big lily pad in the sky.
“I admit it’s an unusual thing for an animal-loving group to do,” Schulke said.
But hey, that’s life in the food chain.
Burp.
3/12/07
Swedish conglomerate Umea Energi plans to burn dead chickens to generate electricity.
The company approached the nation’s egg farmers with the proposal, which calls for the roasting of up to 9,000 chicken carcasses along with other flammable waste products each year. A company spokesman called the chickens “just the right size” for the operation.
Meanwhile, Swedish engineers have figured out a way to transform alcohol confiscated by customs officials into something better than a hangover.
They’re turning that booze into, you guessed it, fuel — biogas to be exact.
“Because of its high energy content, alcohol is fantastic for the production of biogas,” Samar Nath, a spokesman for Svensk Biogas, told the Local.
Customs officials mix the confiscated alcohol together and add water till the alcohol content reaches about 10 percent, the paper said. It’s then transferred to a biogas facility where it’s converted into fuel for a fleet of 64 buses that service the city center of Linköping.
3/9/07
Man Takes A Chainsaw To His House
BERLIN (Reuters Life!) - A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck.
Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said on Friday the trained mason measured the single-storey summer house — which was some 8 meters (26 feet) long and 6 meters wide — before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls.
“The man said he was just taking his due,” said a police spokesman. “But I don’t think his wife was too pleased.”
After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove to his brother’s house where he has since been staying.
3/8/07
Bullet-proof raincoat
This raincoat is also body-armor, bullet-proof and stab-proof. As ShinyShiny notes, if you’re wearing this to avoid iPod muggers, you might have to contend with jacket muggers who want to rip off your $2,000 coat.
The armor protects against 9mm Full Metal Jacket Round Nose (FMJRN) projectiles, with a weight of 8gm (124gr) at 430 m/s. Full Metal Jacket Round Nose (FMJRN) type DM11A1B2 (DN or MEN) projectiles with a weight of 8gm (124gr) at 415m/s. 44 Magnum jacketed Soft Point (JSP) type Norma 11103/61103 projectiles with a weight of 15.6gm (158gr) at 390 m/s. 44 Magnum Jacketed Hollow Point (JHP) projectiles with a weight of 15.6gm (240gr) at 430 m/s. Eastern European Tokarev LC 7.62 x 25mm steel core projectile with a weight of 5.5gm at 455 m/s.
This jacket also protects against stabs, cuts, slashes with sharp and blunt edged weapons like hypodermic needles, ice picks, knives and broken bottles up to 25 Joules according PSDB (2003).
3/7/07
Iraqi man with magnet in rectum causes bomb scare at LAX
An Iraqi national with a half-inch magnet coiled in wire hidden inside his body drew a bomb-squad response and a terrorism investigation Tuesday when he tried to pass through security at Los Angeles International Airport.
Federal investigators later said the man, identified as 35-year-old Fadhel al-Maliki of New Jersey, appeared to pose no threat. He was being held and questioned by immigration officials because his green card may have expired. A mental evaluation was planned.
But airport security agents initially considered the odd assortment of objects in al-Maliki’s rectum alarming enough to order an extra search of the flight he was scheduled to take. The plane had already taken off by then, but diverted and landed in Las Vegas; agents pulled off two bags checked by al-Maliki but found nothing suspicious in them.
Al-Maliki told investigators the objects have therapeutic properties, and that he had forgotten to remove them before reaching the security checkpoint. They were described as a magnet wrapped with a piece of gum in a napkin and then coiled with wire; and some kind of round, polished stone.
“I believe we’re about as confused as you until we finish the investigation,” said Ethel McGuire, the assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.
3/6/07
NWA Worker Ejaculates On Passenger
An off-duty Northwest Airlines employee was arrested after a woman on a flight from Seattle complained that the man had ejaculated on her.Copy of the complaint filed by, interestingly enough, an FBI agent assigned to the International Terrorism Squad, inside. Apparently, there might be some concern that a squad of these fellows could take over a plane with ejaculate. Think about it, the entire plane could be incapacitated by a clutch of capable gents, especially if they were violating the 3 oz rule.
This is really disgusting. NWA should fire the worker, he’s only been suspended so far, give the lady a profuse apology, and a fistful of free tickets.
3/5/07
Head and liver delivered to wrong address
Franck and Ludivine Lamande of Cascade Township, Michigan, unwrapped a special DHL delivery on Thursday and found a bubble-wrapped human liver and part of a head. Shipped from China, the items were meant for a research lab. And apparently there may be more out there. From the Associated Press:
Authorities believe 28 more bubble-wrapped human organs and body parts could be dispersed across the country, the newspaper said. Two of five packages headed to the northern Michigan lab broke open, scattering their contents.
“There will definitely be a shock to people if they see these things, but there is no hazard to health,” (police Lt. Roger) Parent said.
3/5/07
Poor Charlene, a clerk at Jamba Juice typed “DYKE” onto her receipt instead of her name. If you’ve never been to Jamba Juice, the clerk is supposed to ask for your name when you order and type it into the register. It then appears on your receipt. Unless you’re Charlene. Then your receipt says, “DYKE.” From CBS13:
“It was one of those things that you just sit and you’re like wow, the world can be that ignorant sometimes,” Pabro told CBS13. “It’s really tough to go and thing that if I go in this establishment I wonder what name they are going to call me today.”
Jamba Juice has fired the employee and the CEO says he’s going to call Charlene personally to apologize. That conversation would be fun to listen to: “Hi, Charlene. Sorry we hired a complete douchebag. Have some free smoothies?”
3/4/07
400 lb. Woman Does Not Know She Is Pregnant Until Delivery
April Branum went to her local emergency room Monday night complaining of stomach pain and emerged with the biggest shock of her life. She was pregnant with a full-term fetus.
Doctors, who discovered the baby when they took X-rays of her abdominal area, immediately sent Branum to UCI Medical Center in Orange for prenatal testing.
The fetus’s lungs were fully developed, the heartbeat was strong, and no defects were detected. The baby was ready to be delivered.
Two days later, the first-time mother gave birth by C-section to a healthy, 7-pound, 7-ounce boy named Walter Scott Edwards III.
“Usually you can tell if you’re pregnant, but with me, I couldn’t tell,” the 39-year-old Garden Grove resident said Thursday, pointing to her belly and explaining that, at about 420 pounds, she was so large that no one – including herself – could tell she had carried a baby to term.
Branum says she never had morning sickness and did not feel the baby kick, at least not until after doctors told her what was inside her womb. “If he kicked, I didn’t feel him kicking,” she said.
The layers of fat padding her belly likely insulated the baby’s movements, said her physician, Dr. Afshan Hameed.
“When she moved or laid down, she had so much weight of her own that the tiny movements of the baby didn’t register as well,” said Hameed, a UCI obstetrician-gynecologist and cardiologist.
Branum, who lives with her fiancé Walter Edwards II in the Garden Grove house where she grew up, gave up hope years ago of having any children with him. She stopped having a menstrual cycle about two years ago – likely a complication of her obesity – and had grown accustomed to her lifestyle working as a baby sitter of six children.
Meanwhile, she was struggling with an unsuccessful gastric bypass surgery she had about seven years ago. The surgery did not help her lose as much weight as hoped, her doctor said.
Branum and Edwards, who plan to marry by the year’s end, met in a Costa Mesa karaoke bar about four years ago and have been engaged for 2 1/2 years. They have adopted four dogs together, including their puppy Junior, which they added to the family in September.
“I was blowing money on dogs,” said Edwards, 46, who installs home theaters for a living. “You need the money most when you’re having a baby.”
The timing of little Walter’s birth couldn’t have been worse for Edwards, who also was wrapping up the purchase of $30,000 worth of music equipment to open his own recording studio.
His son’s birth, at 2:15 p.m. on the last day of February, was the day Edwards was supposed to finalize the deal and pony up the cash.
“My son is born on the same day as the biggest business deal of my life,” an incredulous Edwards said Thursday afternoon from his fiancée’s hospital room, still making frantic phone calls to try to extend his deadline by a day.
The challenges are not over for the couple, who learned they were having a baby less than 48 hours before his birth. Branum had a scant 24 hours to give notice that she would be giving up her baby-sitting job. And little Walter has no nursery, no clothes and no diapers.
Friends and neighbors already have come to the couple’s rescue, offering a crib, a changing table and other baby accessories. But fashioning a nursery from the couple’s computer room will take about a month, they said.
“We’re just glad to have an extra room,” Edwards said. “The baby’s going to stay in the master bedroom with us for a month.”
Although Branum is a professional baby sitter, she’s not expecting motherhood to be easy.
“I’ve been baby-sitting since I was 14, but it’s going to be totally different because it’s our own,” she said.
“It’s going to take two to three months to recuperate from the shock.”
3/2/07
Placenta…yummy!!!
Cindy Crawford’s husband Rande Gerber was so hungry after the birth of the couple’s son he almost ate his wife’s placenta by mistake. Crawford delivered baby Presley at home in 1999 and her midwife placed the afterbirth in the family refrigerator for safekeeping - so the supermodel could have a spiritual planting ceremony upon her recovery.
The bar owner and entrepreneur Gerber mistook the labeling on the Tupperware dish and almost ate the placenta. Crawford recalls, “My son was 10 days late so I had someone prepared to cook for us right when I had the baby, but she’d been cooking for us a week already. She’d been labeling ‘Cindy’s lunch’, ‘Rande’s lunch’, ‘Cindy’s dinner’… so, after I had the baby, Rande was hungry… and he goes out to the refrigerator and he sees the Tupperware that says ‘afterbirth’ on it and he thinks, ‘Oh, this is what I’m supposed to eat after birth.’
“He didn’t eat it, but he opened the Tupperware and there’s a big placenta, which looks like a big piece of liver, laying in there and I hear the shriek from the kitchen. I put it in a Ziploc (bag) and put it in the freezer, where it stayed until I finally got around to burying it.”
2/27/07
Judge says local suspect will stand trial for sodomy
Bay County Circuit Judge Joseph K. Sheeran ruled Friday that even though Michigan law does not explicitly define sex with a dead dog as a crime, charges against a Saginaw man will stand.
Sheeran set a trial date of May 8 for the trial, when Ronald E. Kuch, 45, of Saginaw will face charges of sodomy, indecent exposure and resisting and obstructing an Animal Control officer. If convicted of either of the first two charges, Kuch will then have a hearing on May 30, at which Sheeran will determine whether Kuch is a ‘’sexually delinquent person.” If so, the judge could sentence Kuch to prison for any amount of time, from one day to a year, on top of the sentence from the initial charges, which carry up to 15 years in prison.
Kuch’s defense attorney, Kathryn Fehrman, argued that Michigan’s statute on sodomy and bestiality is vague and does not outlaw sex with a dead dog. Kuch is accused of sexual contact with the carcass of his girlfriend’s dog on Oct. 20, about a week after the animal had been hit by a car. The alleged crime occurred near the Forest Day Care Center, 2169 W. Midland Road, on a school day. The teacher was leading an Animal Control officer to the dead dog so he could dispose of it when the pair discovered Kuch, who allegedly scuffled with the officer before fleeing into the woods.
2/26/07
I am not sure what is going on here, but this activity is not legal in the US, except for a few states. *wink*
PETA will not be happy with this!
2/23/07
Make your own “Dharma Initiative” snacks
The kind folks at Insanely Great Tees have PDFS that you can download to make your own Dharma Initiative food labels (from the TV show Lost)
2/21/07
Man mistakes porn DVD as woman’s cries for help
Instincts took over, James Van Iveren says, when he rushed out his door to the sound of a woman being raped in an apartment above.
“It was a woman screaming,” he recalled Tuesday. “She was screaming for help.”
Sword in hand, he bounded up the stairs, kicked in the door and confronted a man who turned out to be alone - watching a pornographic movie.
“Now I feel stupid,” Van Iveren said.
Worse yet, police seized his sword - a family heirloom - carted him to jail and referred the case to a prosecutor who charged Van Iveren with three criminal counts.
“This really is nothing,” Van Iveren insisted, “nothing but a mistake.”
Van Iveren’s “mistake” unfolded on the morning of Feb. 12 when Van Iveren, 39, of Oconomowoc, was listening to music in the apartment he shares with his mother behind Red & Bunny’s Diner on S. Main St.
Suddenly, according to Van Iveren, the distinct cries of a woman pleading for help could be heard coming from the apartment above him. He tried putting them out of his mind at first, but when they persisted, Van Iveren decided something had to be done.
“I don’t have a telephone,” he said. “I couldn’t call the police.”
The cries seemed to be coming from the apartment of a tenant he barely knew, but that, Van Iveren said, didn’t matter.
“It had nothing to do with him,” he said. “I didn’t even know if he was there. It was the woman. I thought there was a woman.”
The woman, according to a criminal complaint, was on a DVD being watched by the neighbor, who later played part of the movie back for police to point out what he figured Van Iveren heard downstairs.
To Van Iveren, the neighbor’s film sounded like a rape in progress.
“So I grabbed the cavalry sword and ran upstairs,” he said. “I intended to hold it behind my back and knock.
“But I froze and instead, what happened happened.”
According to the criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning, damaging the frame and lock in the process.
“Where is she?” Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the 39-inch sword at the neighbor, according to the complaint. “Where is she?”
The neighbor told police that Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he’d heard a woman being raped. With the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone, according to the complaint.
Van Iveren said it wasn’t nearly that dramatic.
“I walked in the front room and looked around,” he said. “When I saw there was no woman, I left.
“I went downstairs and when I looked out the window, I saw the police had come, so I went out to tell them what happened.”
Van Iveren insisted that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword.
“I had the sword extended,” he said. “But that was all.”
The neighbor wasn’t home when a reporter visited the building Tuesday, and he could not be reached by telephone.
For his effort, Van Iveren was charged with criminal trespass while using a dangerous weapon, criminal damage to property while using a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct while using a dangerous weapon, all criminal misdemeanors that carry a maximum total penalty of 33 months in jail.
“All of them are going to be dismissed,” he predicted. “They have to.
“This was all just a big mistake.”
The prosecutor who issued the charges could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Van Iveren, who was released on a signature bond when he was charged last week, is due to appear in court March 5th.
2/19/07
Man Grabs Shark With Hands; Blames Vodka
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A man who caught a 4-foot shark with his bare hands off an Australian beach said on Friday he only tried the feat because he was drunk on vodka.
Phillip Kerkhof was fishing off a jetty at Louth Bay, a town on South Australia state’s Eyre Peninsula 870 miles west of Sydney, when he spotted the bronze whaler shark swimming in the shallows, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
“I just snuck up behind him, and eventually I went for the big grab and I fluked it and got him,” Kerkhof said.
“He was just thrashing around in the water … starting to turn around and try to bite me and I thought ‘well, it’s amazing what vodka does’,” Kerkhof said.
The shark bit a hole in Kerkhof’s jeans, but he was uninjured.
“It’s not something I’d recommend to do. When I sobered up I thought about it and I said, ‘I’m a bit of an idiot for doing it’,” Kerkhof said.
Many species of sharks are common in Australian waters, and there are an average of 15 shark attacks per year in the country - roughly one person each year is killed by a shark.
Last month, an abalone diver had an incredible escape after being almost swallowed head first by a huge shark off the New South Wales state coast.
2/19/07
Bullshit Detector Watch
This is a novelty watch, but when you put it on, it’s not as cartoony/goofy as you might think. It’s got a gunmetal case with a silver ring around the face and a black rubber band. The face is a wine red (darker than it appears in this image). On the face is a cartoon bull taking a tremendous, steaming dump. But because the background red is dark, the bull doesn’t stand out that dramatically – until you light ‘er up and the pooin’ starts.
The watch case has two buttons, one typical one for setting the time, and one for the BS Detector. There’s also a little speaker grille on the case, When you press the button, the bull starts mooing, three times, as an LED below the poo pile flashes to illuminate the whole face red (from the bottom, up). After the moos comes a very satisfying raspberry that removes all doubt about the message behind the watch.
2/16/07
Jesus statue shoots sparks
A artist’s sculpture of an angry Jesus is reportedly shooting miraculous sparks from its eyes. The artwork, Cleansing Of The Temple, by Brian Burgess, has been drawing crowds to the Liverpool Academy of Art.
(Academy manager June Lurnie said): ‘Some people have said the portrait is evil and they can see sparks in Jesus’s eyes. Others actually kneel down and go into a trance convinced they are connecting with God.’
Sculptor Burgess said: ‘It began when one woman who saw the statue fell to her knees and began praying.
‘She was transfixed for more than thirty minutes and when she came out of the trance she said she had witnessed sparks coming from the eyes of the Christ figure.
2/15/07
Woman ties up lover, drinks his blood
Tiffany Sutton apparently wanted to drink up her lover on Valentine’s Day - literally, authorities said.
Police early this morning arrested Sutton, who they believe may have tricked her acquaintance into having “kinky sex” so she could drink his blood.
The victim, 45, and Sutton, 23, were lying in bed naked at early Wednesday when Sutton asked if he wanted to be tied up and he consented, police said. advertisement
But that’s when Sutton reportedly pulled out a knife and cut the victim’s leg, police said.
Sutton reportedly told him that she “likes to drink blood” and made several cuts to his upper body, police said.
He also said Sutton drank a “little bit” of his blood, police said.
He was able to break free, run out of his home, but Sutton reportedly followed with a pickaxe, police said.
The victim passed out before his friend found him covered in blood called the police, police said.
The unidentified friend also saw Sutton covered in a blanket with no injuries, police said.
“She made very few statements, alludes to the fact that it was a very consensual encounter,” said Sgt. Mike Horn, a Tempe police spokesman. “He admitted they were drinking and doing drugs.”
The victim and Sutton were good acquaintances. Sutton is a transient who had been staying with the victim for two days in the 1000 Block of South Lola Lane, near Apache Boulevard and Loop 101 in a shed behind an unoccupied residence, according to what he had told police. Sutton told police she had been living there.
The victim was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries and Sutton was booked into Maricopa County Jail on suspicion of aggravated assault, police said.
2/15/07
Laptop takes a bullet for US soldier in Iraq
A Panasonic CF-M34 Toughbook lived up to its name when it took a bullet for the U.S. soldier who was carrying it in Iraq. That soldier made a habit of carrying around his notebook as he carried out his duties for the 82nd Airborne Division. As most soldiers do at one time or another, he got too close to folks who had live ammunition and were not afraid to use it and found his body curiously unaffected by the bullet that had headed directly for him.
2/14/07
The window from which Lee Harvey Oswalk shot (or didn’t shoot) JFK is up for auction on eBay. Current bid is a little over $3 million — and the winner has to arrange item pick-up. From the auction listing:
Up for auction for the first time, the actual window and frame from the shooter’s nest on the 6th floor of the Dallas Texas School Book Depository where Lee Harvey Oswald fired off those fatal shots that took the life of our 35th President of the United States - John F. Kennedy. Here is your opportunity to own a piece of history. This window and frame was on display for over ten years at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, Texas. The window and frame has been picked up by it’s owner Caruth Byrd and is now in his possession. This valuable historical artifact is now being offered for sale to an avid JFK collector by Caruth Byrd, whose family owned the Texas School Book Depository at the time of the assassination, Nov. 22, 1963. Also included in this auction is a leather booklet with all the official documentation and contracts related to the window and frame’s authenticity.
2/12/07
Truck spills 40 tons of cow intestines
SHEBOYGAN, Wis. - About 40 tons of cow intestines and bones spilled onto a major highway after a truck driver became distracted by his digital music player and his semitrailer tipped over, officials said.
Authorities closed parts of Interstate 43 for about two hours Thursday while the beef byproduct was cleaned up, said sheriff’s Sgt. Blaine Spicer.
The accident happened in the town of Mosel when 25-year-old Ryan Engle’s truck veered off the road as he adjusted his MP3 player, Spicer said.
Engle, of Kenosha, was cited for inattentive driving and taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, Spicer said.
The truck had to be towed from the scene. It is owned by Birchwood Transport of Kenosha.
2/7/07
Snakes used in massage treatment in Israel
Spa owner Ada Barak gives a snake massage treatment, where she lets loose the reptiles on the body of customer Liz Cohen, at her spa in the northern communal village of Talmey El’Azar Feb. 1, 2007. Barak uses California and Florida King snakes, corn snakes and milk snakes in her treatments, which she said were inspired by her belief that once people get over any initial misgivings, they find physical contact with the creatures to be soothing.
2/7/07
Woman took wrong bus, missing for 25 years
Twenty-five years ago, Jaeyaena Beuraheng, a Malay woman living in southern Thailand, stepped onto the wrong bus and then another wrong bus, and finally ended up more than 1,000 miles north (she thought she was headed south) apparently unable to get home. Beuraheng, now 76, does not speak, read, or write Thai, and survived as a beggar in the city of Chiang Mai. In 1987, she was arrested and has been in a center for the homeless every since until this week when she was reunited with her family.
She was finally reunited with her eight children — who were told she had been run over by a train — after three students from Narathiwat came to work at the centre and spoke to her.
“It was only when the students in Muslim clothes visited her and she started chatting to them that we realised she wasn’t mute,” centre director Jintana Satjang told Reuters.
The woman had been known as “Mrs. Mon” because centre staff thought her mutterings sounded like Mon, a tribal language in neighbouring Myanmar, she added.
2/6/07
An initiative filed by proponents of same-sex marriage would require heterosexual couples to have kids within three years or else have their marriage annulled.
Initiative 957 was filed by the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance. That group was formed last summer after the state Supreme Court upheld Washington’s ban on same-sex marriage.
Under the initiative, marriage would be limited to men and women who are able to have children. Couples would be required to prove they can have children in order to get a marriage license, and if they did not have children within three years, their marriage would be subject to annulment.
All other marriages would be defined as “unrecognized” and people in those marriages would be ineligible to receive any marriage benefits.
“For many years, social conservatives have claimed that marriage exists solely for the purpose of procreation … The time has come for these conservatives to be dosed with their own medicine,” said WA-DOMA organizer Gregory Gadow in a printed statement. “If same-sex couples should be barred from marriage because they can not have children together, it follows that all couples who cannot or will not have children together should equally be barred from marriage.”
Supporters must gather more than 224,000 valid signatures by July 6 to put the initiative on the November ballot.
Opponents say the measure is another attack on traditional marriage, but supporters say the move is needed to have a discussion on the high court ruling.
2/5/07
Can’t find a sofa or chair to fit in your house or apartment? Check out this bizzare chair that forms into several shapes.
HOWTO open a Mazda with a tennis-ball
You can open the door of a Mazda 3 with a tennis ball — just burn a small hole in the ball, line it up over the lock mechanism, then push it as hard as you can. The ball forces air into the locking mechanism, which causes it to spring open. See the video for more.
2/4/07
Scratch ‘n smell phone is born
You’ve seen the advert and heard the jingle. Now prepare yourself for the “odour logo”. Electronics manufacturers, airlines and banks are commissioning unique fragrances for use in their stores and on their products.
Sony and Samsung are both testing signature scents, while Sony Ericsson, the mobile phone company, has launched a handset that releases a faint smell as it is used. The marketing ploy has emerged as research from Oxford University shows that it is possible to train people to associate smells with particular experiences or objects. Dr Charles Spence, an experimental psychologist at the university, is carrying out brain-scanning experiments while presenting people with new and recognisable smells to assess the response they invoke. He said: “We are finding that, although we thought our sense of smell was very bad, it in fact plays a huge role in our lives.”
While smell has been used for years to help food sales, such as wafting the aroma of freshly baked bread or brewed coffee through supermarkets, it is increasingly being used to sell products and services that normally have no odour of their own.
British Airways has revealed that it releases the faint smell of freshly cut grass into its lounges to create a pleasant atmosphere while Sony has run trials of a unique combination of vanilla and orange in its SonyStyle stores in America and has also launched a new phone in Japan that gives off a fragrance designed to calm users.
Samsung has used honeydew melon in its stores, while its Korean competitor, LG Electronics, has used a chocolate fragrance in packaging for its “Chocolate” range of mobile phones.
2/3/07
Unruly Chewbacca impersonator head-butts tour guide
In front of the famous Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd, dozens of people make a living by dressing up in costumes and asking tourists for money to have their photo taken with them. You’ll find Elmos, Supermans, Jack Sparrows, Darth Vaders, and Chewbaccas sidling up to tourists from all over the world and then demanding money when a photo is taken.
On Friday, a 6-foot-5 man in a Chewbacca costume allegedly head-butted a tour guide after the guide chastised him for being mean to two female Japanese tourists. He was arrested.
Tourists have complained that some costumed characters turn abusive when they refuse to pay them to pose for pictures. Two years ago, actors dressed as superhero Mr. Incredible, Elmo the Muppet and the dark-hooded character from the movie “Scream” were arrested for aggressive begging. More recently, an actor portraying slasher movie favorite Freddie Krueger was taken into custody for allegedly stabbing another man, although no charges were filed.
“The city will do something eventually. Yesterday’s incident probably shortened that time span,” said Thomas Fox, wearing a pirate’s suit reminiscent of Capt. Jack Sparrow in “Pirates of the Caribbean.”
“Things like this happen around Chewbacca all the time. I saw him in a fight with a music vendor. They knocked over a baby stroller,” Fox said.
2/1/07
Now you can get your daily calcium requirement and your buzz all at once with the new beverage that combines two of the world’s favorite liquids: milk and beer.
A Japanese brewery has succeeded in creating a combination drink known as “bilk” which was designed in part to help use up surplus milk, reported Mainichi Daily News.
“Bilk” reportedly has a fruity taste which manufacturers hope will be appealing to women.
The idea emerged when milk manufacturers had to throw out a lot of extra milk last year.
Since milk has a low boiling point, the brewery made sure to control the temperature during the process so the milk wouldn’t boil over.
After they added beer yeast and hops and began the fermentation process, the beverage looked and smelled like tea with milk. However, when fermentation was finished and the drink cooled, it had the same color as beer.
The drink got approval from 30-year-old resident Kaori Takahashi, who took part in a taste test.
“It’s got a fruity taste, so it will probably go well with sweets as well,” she said.
Smokable pain killers
No, not heroin. Alexza Pharmaceuticals is developing new “smokable” painkillers that apparently deliver relief as soon as you take a toke. The drug delivery system is a battery-powered pocket inhaler that heats the drug rather than burns it, not unlike a marijuana vaporizer. From Reuters:
The company’s lead product is a vaporized version of an old drug called prochlorperazine, which Alexza is developing for migraine headaches but is currently used in liquid, oral or suppository form to treat severe nausea.
While it is sometimes given intravenously in hospitals to treat patients with acute migraines, the drug is inconvenient to deliver…
The company plans to release initial results of a mid-stage clinical trial of its (smokable) migraine drug by the end of March. If all goes according to plan, Alexza could file a marketing application with U.S. regulators in 2010.
The company is also testing inhalable drugs for pain and anxiety, and for agitation in schizophrenia patients.
1/27/07
Woman saves husband from mountain lion attack
65-year-old Nell Hamm and her 70-year-old husband Jim were hiking in Humboldt County CA when a mountain lion pounced on Jim and clamped its jaws on his head. Nell was able to fight of the mountain lion and take her husband to safety.
Jim Hamm, who was trying to tear at the face of the cat, told his wife to grab a pen from his pocket and stab the cat in the eyes. She did, but the pen broke.
“That lion never flinched,” she said. “I just knew it was going to kill him.”
Nell Hamm picked up the branch again and this time slammed it butt-end into the cat’s snout. The lion had ignored her until then. Finally, she had its attention. The cat stepped back, and glared at her with its ears pinned back.
“I thought he was going to attack me,” she said.
Instead, the cat slipped into the ferns and disappeared.
1/25/07
Outrage Over Texas College MLK Day Party
Event featured Aunt Jemima, gang apparel, fried chicken, malt liquor
Students at a Texas college threw a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that featured attendees wearing gang apparel and Afro wigs, carrying malt liquor, handguns, and fried chicken, and even one woman dressed as Aunt Jemima. Photos of the January 15 event were discovered on a Facebook.com page by a Tarleton State University sophomore who heads the school’s NAACP chapter. A selection of party photos can be found on the following pages. When he discovered the images, Donald Ray Elder told TSG, he sent an e-mail to Tarleton student Jeremy Pelz, on whose Facebook page the photos were placed in a folder titled “MLK.” In a reply e-mail, Pelz told Elder that he would rename the folder in which the photos were placed “so it does not bring any disrespect to Mr. King.” Pelz noted that the party was started a few years earlier “because one of best friends is black or African American, whichever you deem politically correct, to be his day not to dishonor him.” He added, “So I do apologize if you felt any disrespect because none was intended.” School officials have launched an investigation into the party and the university’s president, Dennis P. McCabe, has denounced the photos as despicable. In a subsequent post, Pelz–who has yanked the party photos from his Facebook page–stated that the party was not meant to be “racist or discriminating.”
(Check out photos)
1/19/07
No-Spank Bill On Way
The state Legislature is about to weigh in on a question that stirs impassioned debate among moms and dads: Should parents spank their children?
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Mountain View, wants to outlaw spanking children up to 3 years old. If she succeeds, California would become the first state in the nation to explicitly ban parents from smacking their kids.
Making a swat on the behind a misdemeanor might seem a bit much for some — and the chances of the idea becoming law appear slim, at best — but Lieber begs to differ.
“I think it’s pretty hard to argue you need to beat a child 3 years old or younger,” Lieber said. “Is it OK to whip a 1-year-old or a 6-month-old or a newborn?”
The bill, which is still being drafted, will be written broadly, she added, prohibiting “any striking of a child, any corporal punishment, smacking, hitting, punching, any of that.” Lieber said it would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail or a fine up to $1,000, although a legal expert advising her on the proposal said first-time offenders would probably only have to attend parenting classes.
The idea is encountering skepticism even before it’s been formally introduced. Beyond the debate among child psychologists — many of whom believe limited spanking can be effective — the bill is sure to face questions over how practical it is to enforce and opposition from some legislators who generally oppose what they consider “nanny government.”
“Where do you stop?” asked Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who said he personally agrees children under 3 shouldn’t be spanked but has no desire to make it the law. “At what point are we going to say we should pass a bill that every parent has to read a minimum of 30 minutes every night to their child? This is right along those same lines.”
One San Jose mother of three said she believes spanking is a poor way to discipline children, but she also wondered whether a legislative ban makes sense. Should a mom who slaps her misbehaving kid in the supermarket, she asked, be liable for a crime?
“If my 6-year-old doesn’t put his clothes in the hamper, I’m not going to whack him. He just won’t get his clothes washed,” said Peggy Hertzberg, 38, who teaches parenting classes at the YWCA. “I think instead of banning spanking, parents need to learn different ways of disciplining and redirecting their children.”
Lieber conceived the idea while chatting with a family friend and legal expert in children’s issues worldwide. The friend, Thomas Nazario, said that while banning spanking might seem like a radical step for the United States, more than 10 European countries already do so. Sweden was the first, in 1979.
Nazario said there’s no good rationale for hitting a child under 3, so the state should draw a “bright line” in the law making it clear.
“Why do we allow parents to hit a little child and not someone their own size?” asked Nazario, a professor at the University of San Francisco Law School. “Everyone in the state is protected from physical violence, so where do you draw the line? To take a child and spank his little butt until he starts crying, some people would define that as physical violence.”
It’s unclear how a s