Happy Thanksgiving!

Week before Thanksgiving, city fires 7 workers for signing a birthday card

From Dyer, Tennessee:

Signing a birthday card has cost seven city workers in Dyer their jobs. It has also cost the city its streets department. On Thursday, the Dyer Board of Alderman voted 4-2 to terminate all seven workers because they signed a birthday card for a female resident. They signed it off the clock. The front of the card mentions a "hairy-chested hunk" in a bathtub. But the inside shows a small puppy. According to the mayor, the female complained it was vulgar and inappropriate.

New York Police ask bars not to serve Santa

From New York City:

"He sees you when you’re barfing — and knows when you’re passed out.
"The impending arrival of SantaCon led an NYPD lieutenant to call humbug on the annual, pre-Chistmas pub crawl, urging bar owners in his Manhattan precinct to ban the cockeyed Kris Kringles. The pie-eyed naughty outnumbered the white-bearded nice at last year’s holiday bacchanal, said Lt. John Cocchi of the Midtown North Precinct.

 

“ 'Having thousands of intoxicated partygoers roam the streets urinating, littering, vomiting and vandalizing will not be tolerated in our neighborhood,' Cocchi wrote to the bar owners.

“ 'The negative impact that this event will bring to your community will far outweigh the short-term benefit to your establishment.'

"The ho-ho-hold-on-there letter went out to about 30 bars and clubs in Midtown and Hell’s Kitchen. Local residents had visions of stumblebums dance in their heads after the revelers descended on watering holes in Cocchi’s precinct during the 2012 SantaCon.

“ 'What do you tell a 5-year-old when they see a Santa passed out on the street, or carried by his buddies, or vomiting or defecating in front of the house?' asked Bob Miner, co-chair of the HK 50-51 Block Association. 'We all grow up, but there’s no reason kids have to learn the truth about Santa that way.' ”

Plane passenger who exposed 'pepperminty’ genitals cleared of wrongdoing

From Provo, Utah:

Thursday, a judge found the man not guilty, saying federal attorneys failed to prove that he meant to break the law.

The man’s troubles began Nov. 17, 2012, when according to documents he sat in 25F, a middle seat between two women. The documents say the woman in the window seat saw the man cover his lap with a coat and "continually moving his arm under the coat."

As the flight neared Salt Lake City, the woman leaned forward to put away her glasses and saw that the man was "holding his exposed penis in his right hand." She confronted the man, who apologized.

The woman reported the incident to police when the plane landed.

During an interview, the man later told investigators he had inadvertently put peppermint oil on his genitals. He explained to police that he had a headache before the flight but didn’t believe in using medication. Instead, he applied the peppermint oils to his head in a Minneapolis airport bathroom. While using the bathroom, the oils got on his genitals, which began to burn and feel irritated during the flight.

Naked man in high heels, turban arrested

From Augusta, Georgia:

Deputies had to use force Sunday to subdue a naked man wearing only high heels and a turban after spotting him hiding behind a tree trying to put on pink women’s panties and pantyhose.
The man, identified as 28-year-old Jermaine Lloyd, fled from deputies while trying to pull on the undergarments and carrying a purple bag and sweatpants, according to a police report.
Police had been called to Lake Olmstead Park about 7:45 a.m. after the naked man was reported running in the area.
After cornering the suspect, Richmond County sheriff’s Deputy Jonathan Counts pulled his Taser and told Lloyd to get on the ground. Police said Lloyd ran “in a threatening manner” toward Deputy Austin Shepherd, who hit him below the knee with a baton.
After being handcuffed, Lloyd again tried to run from deputies, forcing them to use leg shackles.

Church elder suspended from parish for transporting rams on a Sunday

From Scotland:

Calum Macleod was rapped by fellow members of the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) (FCC), who oppose Sabbath ferry sailings.
The ram breeder made the Sunday trip back to Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, after missing his Saturday boat home from a market in Ullapool.
The ram breeder reported himself to kirk bosses on his return.
The hardline FCC is among the few churches which claim using Sunday transport to the islands cannot ever be justified. When Sunday ferries to Stornoway began in July 2009, and Sunday flights back in July 2002, it was mainly the FCC which turned out to protest with banners and to sing psalms.
Stornoway FCC minister Rev Graeme Craig, who is also interim moderator for the Knock and Point congregation, confirmed: "After considering the matter carefully and sympathetically, Mr Macleod was suspended from office and membership for one month.

Gotta' draw the line somewhere.

Glimpses of a Journey to Planet Sanity (Video)

Handcuffed man who stole then crashed police car still on the lam

A follow-up story from Syracuse, NY:

Forty-eight hours after he escaped police custody authorities are still looking for Daniel Kantak.
He disappeared around 2 a.m. Friday. Syracuse police said Kantak, 33, of Liverpool, stole a police car after he was handcuffed and placed in the back of that car.
Sgt. Tom Connellan said Kantak is still at large...
Police said the department is conducting an internal investigation to determine whether the officers followed appropriate rules and procedures.

The 'Door to Hell' Has Been Burning for 42 Years (Video)

These are the astonishing images of the very aptly named Door To Hell, a fiery crater caused by a drilling blunder that is baffling scientists after flaming away for more than 40 years.

The 230-feet wide crater, situated near Derweze village in Turkmenistan, was named the Door to Hell by locals, referring to the endless flames and boiling mud that can be found inside.
Originally a level surface, the site was identified by Soviet scientists in 1971 as an area that was believed to house a substantial oil field.

A camp and drilling rig were set up nearby, and, after the Soviets were pleased with amount of gas resources that were believed to be at the site, it was agreed that gas from the field would start being stored.

However, the ground beneath the drilling rig soon collapsed, creating a wide crater that was believed to be releasing large quantities of methane gas, a potential danger to the nearby Turkmenistan villages.
Scientists decided that the most efficient way to solve the problem would be to burn off the poisonous gases - by doing so, it was expected that all of the gas in the crater would be burnt off within days.

More than four decades later, though, the crater is still ablaze - and hundreds of tourists flock to visit it every year.

Stampeding cows trample woman on treasure hunt

From Lincoln, England:

A woman is in intensive care after she was trampled by a herd of cows during a hi-tech geocaching treasure hunt.
Nurse Sarah Leonard, 59, suffered severe injuries in the incident, including broken arms, a broken collarbone, broken jaw and several broken ribs.
​Despite her injuries, Miss Leonard managed to dial 999 herself. But because she couldn't give her exact location, it took emergency services half an hour to rush to her aid. It happened in a field off Church Lane at North Scarle, eight miles from Lincoln city center... Miss Leonard, from Norton near Sheffield, was with her dog Megs when the drama unfolded at 3.25pm on Saturday, November 16.
Geocaching involves hiding a small waterproof box containing a logbook and a pen, recording its co-ordinates and logging its location on a website. Another cacher will see the listing, enter the co-ordinates into their GPS receiver and go in search of it. The Geocaching Association of Great Britain's (GAGB) code of conduct simply states: "Respect property rights and seek permission where appropriate."

Gator-napping

From Albany, Georgia:

Van Hai Tang, of Gainesville, Ga., was charged with taking the 3-foot alligator, which [Flint RiverQuarium] workers recovered about an hour later.
According to APD reports, an aquarium employee, Richard Brown, called police. The report states that Brown told authorities a man had scaled the wall of the RiverQuarium and was seen in the alligator tank handling the reptiles.
Brown said he was later seen by construction workers at the bridge under construction on Broad Avenue carrying the alligator, named “Nubs,” across his shoulders. Brown said he was advised that the man had tossed the alligator into the Flint River. Brown told police he and other aquarium employees then went to the river and retrieved the gator.
Three to four RiverQuarium employees used poles and nooses to retrieve the animal from the river, and the source said one of the men was bitten by the gator during the retrieval process. The reptile then had its mouth taped shut, a bag placed over its head and was walked back to the RiverQuarium.
Since Nubs, who was unharmed during his adventure, was exposed to the Flint River, he is being held in quarantine for the next 30 days. 

Nubs!

Thief a magician, too? Handcuffed man locked in police car back seat manages to steal the vehicle

From Syracuse, NY:

[Daniel] Kantak, 33, of Liverpool, was taken into custody after police responded to a burglary in progress at 320 Ashdale Ave. just after 2 a.m.
When officers got to the home, they saw two men holding down Kantak, police said. The woman who lives in the house told police that Kantak broke into the home. Her brothers were holding him down.
The officers handcuffed Kantak, putting his arms behind his back. The press release notes that officers put Kantak in the back seat of the car. Both doors were locked and the shield between the front and back seats were closed, police said."Even though Kantak was cuffed behind his back and placed in the rear of a patrol car with the shield closed, he was somehow able to slip his cuffs to the front and climb through a small window between the back seat and the front seat and drive away in the car," reads the release...
Several minutes later, they found the police car crashed on Court Street near Assumption Cemetery. It was heavily damaged.
When Kantak crashed the car, he hit a utility pole and knocked out power in the area.
The car was empty. Kantak, police said, ran away from the scene..

Kantak, who is still at large, is wanted for second-degree escape, second-degree burglary, criminal mischief, unauthorized use of motor vehicle, fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, and grand larceny.

He may be dangerous — and may still be wearing handcuffs.

Man arrested for 'airing out' his penis

From Jensen Beach, Florida:

A woman told Martin County Sheriff's deputies Nov. 5 she saw a man identified as William Gibson, 50, in front of a store on Jensen Beach Boulevard with his jeans around his knees. Gibson reached in his undies and fondled his genitals.
"(H)e then removed his hand from his underwear (and) smelled his fingers," records state..
Meanwhile, after the sniffing, a witness statement gives this account of what happened: "Then he jiggled his underware (sic) in the back, as to maybe be hiding something in there. Then all of a sudden he just pulled down the front of his underware (sic), to expose his genitals, fluffing them."
Gibson told a deputy he was "airing out" his penis.

Monkeys to be put on the pill in India

India is planning to put its rising population of primates on the pill to tackle the growing "monkey menace" in its towns and cities, government wildlife officials have confirmed.

Vasectomies and sterilisation programmes are also being developed as part of a broader plan to curb the chaos being caused by troupes of marauding monkeys as urban India expands into their traditional forests.

Thousands of red-bottomed Rhesus Macaques or Bhandar monkeys are the scourge of New Delhi, where they roam through government buildings, chew Internet cables, bite the unwary carrying food and steal from people's homes.

Indian officials are exploring ways to administer the contraceptives and the likely impact of the drugs on primate behaviour before pressing ahead. One official said a mixed approach is likely to be adopted in Uttarakhand, in the Himalayan foothills where thousands of monkeys patrol the main roads and terrorise people in the hill towns.

Monkeys that can be caught will be sterilised while oral contraceptives will be put in food left for those primates that remain at large.

Source: The Telegraph

Beaver got a gun

From Maine:

So here’s Nathan Baron’s tale:
Nathan said Saturday didn’t start off as an extraordinary day. In fact, it was pretty low-key: He was sitting in a chair in the woods, hunting, watching as a doe crossed in front of him.
After the doe left, he ate his lunch. Then nature called.
“I had to go to the bathroom but I had no toilet paper,” he explained.
Luckily, he was hunting right across the road from his family’s St. David home.
“I walked out of the woods and got on my four-wheeler and I went home,” he said.
Another thing he did (which, for the record, we’ve got to advise everyone to avoid): He leaned his Remington .30-06 rifle against the tree, next to the chair he had been sitting in.
“And when I got back, I couldn’t find the gun,” he said.
Nathan said he stood up from his chair and began looking around in the woods. Then things got interesting in a hurry.
Nature had called again … in a different way.
“There was a stream that was running about 100 feet away from me. I look, and there’s a beaver hauling that gun into the water,” he said.
Nathan said he really didn’t know what to do at that point. “I was mad, but I started laughing because it was funny,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it was happening, that I was seeing him take my gun into the water.”
So here’s what Nathan did: Absolutely nothing.
“There was nothing I could do,” he said. “The gun was in the water and the beaver went under. That was it.”
The water was deep, and pursuing the beaver was out of the question. The gun was gone.
Nathan said he figures the beaver’s intentions were more innocent. (So much for my image of a lone rogue beaver arming himself against trappers). Instead, Nathan  just thinks the gun was made of some good-looking wood, and Mr. Beaver decided to haul it home.

Cats receive $250K, house in owner's will (Video)

A couple of contented cats in Memphis, Tennessee:

"Leon Sheppard, Sr., left his 4,270-square-foot house and $250,000 for the care of his cats in his will. His will states the money should be used for the care of Frisco and Jake and the maintenance of this house they live in. Leon Sheppard's daughter said by phone that the family did not want to talk about it. According to the will, when Frisco dies whatever is left of the estate including the house can be passed to Sheppard's human heirs. However, Jake must be cared for. The heirs will be allowed to move Jake out of the house."
WSMV Channel 4

'Nymph' insect with troll-like iridescent tuft of 'hair' discovered in South America

Suriname, to be exact:

The 7mm-long creature is golden  and its elongated body is covered in orange dots and stripes. It has hair-like feelers sticking out of its rear which resemble the fuzzy hair of the colourful Troll Dolls, a popular toy in the 1990s. 

The 7mm-wide insect, pictured, was discovered after researchers from the University of Harvard trekked for three weeks to explore the untouched rainforest of southeast Suriname. The unnamed creature is covered in orange dots and stripes. Its feelers are made of wax that protrude from its rear end

Researchers believe the bug is an immature insect called a nymph, possibly fitting into one of four nymph families: Dictyopharidae, Nogodinidae, Lophopidae, and Tropiduchidae.

A nymph is an immature insect. In insects that undergo a gradual metamorphosis, the stage of the life cycle that hatches from the egg is called the nymph. These insects do not pupate like a butterfly.

Often, the nymph looks like a smaller, wingless version of the adult. The nymph may molt several times to reach adulthood.

Insects that undergo simple or gradual metamorphosis, and have a nymph stage, include grasshoppers and crickets, cockroaches, termites and dragonflies.

Dr. Leeanne Alonso, the expedition's leader, said: 'I have conducted expeditions all over the world, but never have I seen such beautiful, pristine forests so untouched by humans.

'Southern Suriname is one of the last places on earth where there is a large expanse of pristine tropical forest.

Mystery humans spiced up ancients’ rampant sex lives

Genome analysis suggests interbreeding between modern humans, Neanderthals, Denisovans and a mysterious archaic population.

New genome sequences from two extinct human relatives suggest that these ‘archaic’ groups bred with humans and with each other more extensively than was previously known.

The ancient genomes, one from a Neanderthal and one from a different archaic human group, the Denisovans, were presented on 18 November at a meeting at the Royal Society in London. They suggest that interbreeding went on between the members of several ancient human-like groups living in Europe and Asia more than 30,000 years ago, including an as-yet unknown human ancestor from Asia.

“What it begins to suggest is that we’re looking at a ‘Lord of the Rings’-type world — that there were many hominid populations,” says Mark Thomas, an evolutionary geneticist at University College London who was at the meeting but was not involved in the work...

The meeting was abuzz with conjecture about the identity of this potentially new population of humans. “We don’t have the faintest idea,” says Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the London Natural History Museum...

Source: Nature

Man steals shoes, says 'must be a Winona Ryder thing'

Gainesville, Florida:

Gainesville police said Michael Maddux was seen by a loss prevention officer stealing a pair of $60 from JCPenney. After being arrested, Maddux told police he did take the merchandise and “didn’t know why … it must be a Winona Ryder thing,” the police report said. He was charged with a misdemeanor charge of petty theft.

Utah town forgets to hold election — again

Wallsburg, Utah

The new recorder in the town of about 275 forgot to announce the opening of the filing period or arrange to hold an election Nov. 5, when voters across the state cast their ballots in municipal elections. By the time the oversight was caught shortly before Election Day, it was too late to field candidates and hold the balloting on the fly.

[Wasatch County Clerk Brent Titcomb said,] "They’re going to have to appoint the current mayor and council for two more years and they’ll advertise and have people elected [in 2015]."

Wallsburg didn’t schedule an election two years ago, either, and the council members had to be appointed then, as well. Those appointed seats should have been up for election in the November election, but were not...

Man accused of murder had handwritten confession note in his wallet (Video)

From Virginia:

Woman deliberately runs over, kills duck after it refused her offer of candy

Karie Lindgren, 36, of Tarpon Springs, Florida, was arrested on one count of felony animal cruelty. Here's why:

About 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Lindgren tried luring the duck with a piece of candy...but when the duck did not approach, Lindgren drove her vehicle across a lawn and ran over it “at a high rate of speed,” according to an arrest report. One witness said Lindgren had “stalked” the duck, the affidavit says.

This Exists: South Africa Occult Crime Unit with membership restricted to Christian police officers

It exists, and University of Cape Town professor Jacques Rousseau calls it out:

Decades after its formation, the Occult-Related Crime Unit (ORCU, founded by Kobus "Donker" Jonker in 1992) continues to waste public resources, misdirect police attention, and stigmatize young people who are by and large more misunderstood than malignant.

Amongst all the crimes that we can speculate police in this unit might have seen, there's one we can be sure of - and it's one that they are complicit in. The crime in question is against common sense and morality, and is vested in the reinforcing of a Christian evangelical "Satanic Panic".

In the context of South Africa's constitutionally-protected freedom of religion, restricting membership of a police unit to only Christians - and dedicating that unit to protecting a Christian version of reality - is itself worthy of special attention as an occult-related crime.

Because a unit can't investigate itself, I'd ask the Minister of Police to consider funding a new Occult-Related-Related Crimes Unit, which I volunteer to lead. Our mission? To be ruthless in pursuing crimes related to simplistic, moralizing, and religiously prejudiced views of crime, society at large, and especially the youth.

Even on the very fuzzy definition of "occult" used by ORCU, too few such crimes occur to merit the existence of a dedicated unit. But it is in the definition of these crimes, as well as the background metaphysics and psychology, that ORCU starts to appear just as spooky as the crimes and motivations ORCU exists to combat.

In response (I presume) to a fairly constant barrage of criticism on social media, the South African Police Service (SAPS) removed the web page that gave us our best insight into how a unit in a 21st-century police force is being guided by ideas from the Dark Ages.

But thanks to the Wayback Machine, we can see not only that "Child has an interest in computer" is a sign that said child might be involved in a cult, but also that this and other equally ridiculous diagnostic advice has remained unchanged since September 2004 (the archived page from then - the earliest date the page was captured - being identical to the one that was removed in November 2013):

http://web.archive.org/web/20040922161210/http://www.saps.gov.za/youth_desk/occult/occult.htm

I don't mean to dispute that adolescents, and others, commit crimes in the service of motivations they themselves think of as occult. But when they do so, why is it that this motivation is singled out for special attention? We don't have a jealousy-related crimes unit, or a greed-related, tender-related, BEE-related, or alien-related unit - even though all of these provide possible motivations to commit crimes, mostly with far greater regularity than the occult would.

Then, if we find that a crime is committed because the guilty party thought themselves under some supernatural instruction, we know full well what to do next: arrange for that person to get the psychological help they clearly need, alongside whatever other sentence is appropriate.

Rare teas more than 50 years old up for auction; rare oolong expected to sell for $137,000

From Hong Kong:

The city's first tea auction expects to pull in up to HK$10 million [$1,289,970 USD]  as mainlanders drive up the prices, with one box of tea leaves expected to fetch HK$1 million [$129,001 USD].
Fortune Auctioneers will auction more than 190 lots of tea, teapots and utensils from private collections from Hong Kong, Taipei, Beijing and Guangdong.
Tea expert and auction planner Vincent Chu Ying-wah said the "Sensation of Tea" auction would be the first in the city to sell exclusively tea and tea-related items.
"We have had a tea-drinking tradition for a really long time, just like the French drink wine," he said. "Chinese people have got wealthy and tea is a necessary thing [for us]. This is why the price of tea still keeps going up."
He said he hoped it would be the first of many such auctions.
The prize lot is a 20kg box of narcissus oolong tea bearing the Wu-Yi brand which has been valued at nearly HK$1 million. The tea was exported to Singapore in the 1960s and passed through many hands before being brought back to Hong Kong by a local collector who bought it from a Malaysian-Chinese tea connoisseur from Penang.
Also going under the hammer is a 350 gram cake of pu'er tea manufactured at the highly reputed Menghai Tea Factory in Yunnan province and valued at HK$500,000.
The auction will be held at The Park Lane hotel on November 23 and will be open to the public. A preview will run from November 19 to 22.

Source: South China Morning Post

Man burned friend alive for drinking his last four beers

From Darwin, Australia:

Gary Stewart Miles has pleaded not guilty to murdering Paul John Stamp, 47, on September 19 last year.
The men had been drinking at home when Mr Stamp was warned not to take any of Mr Miles' remaining beers.
He drank the last four. When this was discovered, Mr Miles and his friend Gregory Channing beat Mr Stamp, breaking eight ribs and causing extensive internal injuries.
They dragged him into the car boot and drove to an industrial area, where they planned to "teach him a lesson" by dumping him to find his own way home.
But the car ran out of petrol and when the pair returned with fuel, Mr Miles allegedly poured it all over the car and ignited it.
Channing was found guilty in September of assaulting Mr Stamp and depriving him of liberty and is serving a five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Channing told the Northern Territory Supreme Court on Tuesday that Mr Miles had snapped when they had returned to the car, shouting "I'm going to kill this c---" as he doused the car in petrol.

Woman and father arrested after she bites boyfriend's penis during argument

Athens, Georgia - Clarke County police said they arrested a woman and her father early Monday following an altercation in which the woman allegedly bit her boyfriend’s penis.
Officers responded to a home on Magnolia Terrace at about 12:45 a.m. on the victim’s complaint that he was attacked by his girlfriend and father at the residence where all three live, police said.
The victim alleged that 27-year-old Sade Rene Greene “scratched him in the chest, neck, and also bit his penis through his pants,” according to a police incident report.
During the fight, 52-year-old Ricky Levell Greene allegedly punched the victim in the mouth.
When officers arrived at the residence they found the victim shirtless in the street, with scratches on his body and bleeding from a split lower lip, according to police.
The victim did not say what instigated the fight.

Popular restaurant denies using human feces

Malaysia - The manager of a popular Nasi Kandar restaurant in Ipoh, has vehemently denied the use of human faeces in its dishes after the matter went viral on Facebook.

Mohd Nihmathullah Syed Mustafa said, the closure is due to cleanliness issues and not related to the use of faeces as alleged.

“All our customers from all over Malaysia know about the matter. What had been posted on Facebook has nothing to do with us, it’s merely a misunderstanding,” he stressed.

Oh, it's only due to cleanliness issues – what a relief!

Read more at: http://english.astroawani.com/news/show/popular-restaurant-denies-using-human-faeces-25511?cp

Pumpkin flavor breaking records

"The flavor called pumpkin is surging toward a record season in processed foods, with Mars introducing Pumpkin M&Ms, Planters dusting “pumpkin spice” on its almonds and Starbucks bringing back its annual Pumpkin Latte. Sales of last year’s pumpkin offerings climbed nearly 20 percent to more than $290 million, Nielsen reports, and people in the flavor business say the trend has a powerful demographic wind at its back: strong popularity among millennials."

Source: New York Times

A room with a view that's different at underwater hotels

Snake, crcodile and dugong abuser fined in Australia again

His name is Beau Daniel Cleland Greaves and on Friday he was fined fined $6000 for hugging and sitting on a dugong in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. This comes after being fined in May for wrestling a crocodile.

The latest incident occurred in August 2011 when Greaves, 23, was working on a crayfish trawler in Princess Charlotte Bay and jumped into the water to pose for photos with the animal. He later posted  images on Facebook and other social media sites that showed him hugging the dugong, swimming with it and sitting on its tail.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority frowns on such things, so after receiving a tip about the photos, launched an investigation which led to last weeks court case and fine.

Last May, Greaves was fined $4500 after he posted photos and a video showing him wrestling a crocodile on Hicks Island near Lockhart River. In that incident, which also took place in 2011, a 21-year-old friend by the name of Theodore Peter Hewish also received a fine, this one for $1000, for filming Greaves wrestling the croc.

Greaves was described to the court as a serial offender, who had also previously been in trouble for taking pythons and sea snakes and posing with them in photos.

Although it seems he has removed, or at least made private, Facebook pictures of himself with the dugong and crocodile, a photo of him with the python remains, as you can see above. It has a caption that reads: "don't play with big snakes they bite harder."

The photo of a naked and bloodied-looking Greaves below appears on the Facebook page of a friend, with a comment from Greaves that explains (?!), "thats the work of our friendly little pet grogsy he loves biting naked drunk people."

Woman bitten by recluse spider, ear rots, doctors recreate it with rib cartilage

From Holland:

One woman's Italian vacation took a turn for the worse when she woke up with pain in her ear one night. She had no way of knowing then that she'd just been bitten by a Mediterranean recluse spider, and that a chunk of her ear would soon be liquefied by the spider's venom. But that's exactly what happened, according to a recent report of her case.
The 22-year-old woman soon sought treatment for her pain in an Italian hospital, where doctors prescribed an antihistamine. But the swelling in her face and pain in her ear didn't get any better. Once she was back home in the Netherlands, the ear got worse, and portions of it turned black — a clear sign that the skin and cartilage cells were dead.
The dead tissue made it clear to doctors that the woman had been bitten by a Mediterranean recluse, a spider whose bite is known to destroy skin and underlying fat, causing "sunken-in" scars or "a disfigured ear, if you are very unlucky," said Dr. Marieke van Wijk, a plastic surgeon in the Netherlands involved in the woman's treatment. In this case, van Wijk and her colleagues removed the dead tissue, and recreated it using cartilage from the woman's ribs.
Recluse spiders rarely bite people, and when they do, the bites don't usually inflict serious damage or large scars. Most bites occur when people roll over onto a spider while asleep, or when they put their foot into a shoe in which a recluse is found. It's difficult to diagnose a brown-recluse-spider bite, and many suspected bites actually come from stinging insects, or are caused by other things, such as bacterial infections.

Model uses fake photos in on-line ad for wife (Video)

A male model who went online to find a wife has been outed by netizens as using doctored photos to depict himself in his post.

In a post last week to Wiebo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, Liang 'Laurence' Chao described himself as a 30 year-old with an annual income of 700,000 yuan, or about $115,000 USD, seeking a wife under 30. He added that the lucky woman would receive a monthly spending allowance of 10,000 yuan, or about $1,650 USD. The post included multiple photos of him wearing fashionable clothing in various countries.

He has received many messages from prospective brides, but it was soon discovered that his photos were fake. Somehow netizens found out that the photos were taken from fashion magazines, with Liang's head photoshopped onto bodies of western models, including one of a Black model baring a washboard stomach -- the racial difference disguised by converting the photo to black and white.

Although Liang has not admitted or denied the accusations of photoshopping, he did write a new post in which he said rather than spending time learning how to edit photos commenters should instead take advantage of being able to do it.

Some believe Liang knew he would be found out and posted the photos anyway in order to attract attention.

Bolivians seek blessings for their human skulls

From La Paz:

Every year in early November Bolivians crowd local cemeteries to display the human skulls they keep at home, seeking to have the beloved craniums blessed.

Part of a centuries-old tradition, many here believe they represent the souls of the dearly departed. If treated kindly and with respect, the skulls will protect families and businesses, and grant wealth and a healthy life. Stout Andean women wearing long skirts and bowler hats were among the crowd taking their skulls into the cemetery chapel for a blessing.

"I brought her so that she can hear mass and receive a blessing for the favours that she granted us," a woman at a La Paz cemetery chapel told AFP as she carefully clutched her skull, decked out with flowers for the event.

Many were ensconced in a bed of colourful petals in display containers that ranged from simple, open-boxes to fancy glass boxes or wood displays with glass windows.

Because La Paz can be bitter cold at 4,000 meters (13,100 feet) above sea level, many of the skulls sported wool watch caps, berets and chullos, an Andean cap with earflaps. To protect against the high altitude's bright sunlight, others wore dark glasses, baseball caps and fedora hats. Many had cotton in their eye sockets and cigarettes in their mouths.

"This tradition has a pre-Hispanic origin," said Felix Mendoza, a professor of Andean theology at the Indigenous Tawantinsuyu University.

Christmas star mistaken for swastika by Swedish television.

For some, it was a different picture that Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) published to accompany its weekly recipe on Sunday.
Under the heading 'Have a pastry for' the entry was meant to tempt readers with 'homemade favorites' for the upcoming Christmas holiday. But to Swedish Television (SvT) the neatly laid out photograph appeared to show pastries in the shape of swastikas.
The photo has since gone viral on social media with SvD reportedly receiving many comments on its publication – which may explain why the article can no longer be found on the paper's online site.  
After SvT picked up on the story it asked a staff member of the paper what she thought about the image leading to thoughts of things other than holiday treats.
"We never thought of these as anything other than cookies, Christmas stars. But now that I look at the picture, I can see how you might see that,' Stina Cederholm, features editor at SvD, said.
The broadcaster pressed further:
SvT: How did you come up with it?
Cederholm: "To me, this is a cultural item from another world, a piece of cooking history. If you'd never seen stars, maybe you'd think, 'Oh, what a weird shape.' But our idea was just to show great cakes from the past.'
Svt: Great cakes from, say, the 30s?
Cederholm: "No. Just a pastry. I've got to laugh. It's funny. I do not know what to say. Our goal was just to give our readers delicious cookie recipes for Christmas."
The story soon spread to neighboring Finland, where people wondered what all the fuss was about. Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat observed that a few Finns gave SvT some feedback on its Nazi angle, including one commenter who pointed out, "This is not a new creation, but the most common and traditional pastry offered in almost all Finnish homes at Christmas for the last hundred years, if not more. No one in Finland has ever seen it as a swastika."
Indeed, the Nordic Recipe Archive website has a page devoted to these sweets. Check it out: Star-Shaped Christmas Pastries.

Vancouver bans doorknobs

Not Vancouver, Washington – Vancouver, Canada:

In Vancouver, the doorknob is heading into a setting sun. Its future has been date-marked, legislated out of existence in all future construction, a tip to society’s quest for universal design and the easier-to-use lever handle.
And as it goes in Vancouver, so will it go in B.C., Canada, and perhaps even the world.
Vancouver is the only city in Canada with its own building code, so the changes made here are often chased into the B.C. Building Code and Canada’s National Building Code, and then put into practice in cities and towns across Canada. Vancouver’s influence is wide. And as go the codes, so too goes the construction industry.
Remember the regular toilet? Try to find one. Low-flush is all there is to be had. The incandescent light bulb? Sorry, just energy-saving fluorescent or LED now in most stores.
The change has crept up on us silently and without fanfare. Look at any new condo building. Any new office door. Any door to a public washroom that doesn’t have pneumatic hinges and a push-pad. There they are, these silver, black or brass-coloured levers that can spring a door open with even a forearm when hands are filled.
And, as doorknobs go, so too will go those other ubiquitous knobs, the ones that turn on and off water faucets. For they too are being legislatively upgraded to levers more conducive to the arthritic, gnarled or weakened hands we earn with age.
In September, Vancouver council adopted new amendments to its building code, effective next March, that, among other things, will require lever handles on all doors and lever faucets in all new housing construction.
It is not like the doorknob will disappear entirely. Like many inventions, it will hold its own for a long, long time. There are, after all, a few people who still use typewriters instead of computers. Vancouver’s rule is not retroactive to existing homes. But over time, the effect will become magnified as housing is replaced.
Vancouver has already signalled how serious it was about this change. Last year, before the amendments were proposed, city maintenance workers quietly removed most of the Art Deco doorknobs from the public doors in the heritage-listed City Hall, which was built in 1936. Where once the public, politicians and bureaucrats alike grasped ornate brass knobs with a stylized face embossed with “VCH” — for Vancouver City Hall — they now find utilitarian gold-coloured levers.

Jury finds girls, parents liable for calling teacher 'perv', 'creeper'

From San Jose, California:

Two years after San Jose schoolgirls branded a teacher as a "perv" and "creeper" who inappropriately touched kids and peeked into their restroom, a civil jury Friday found the children and their parents financially liable for defamation in a case that pitted the rights of the accused against the aim of reporting perceived abuse.

The jury awarded $362,653 in compensatory damages to former Catholic school physical education teacher John Fischler after finding the families spread false statements about him that damaged his reputation. The 49-year-old broke into a huge smile Friday when he heard the favorable verdict, which his lawyer characterized as "complete vindication."
"I'm grateful the jury was able to see through the smoke screen and the truth came out." Fischler said in a choked voice outside the courtroom. "There's always going to be a scar. But the jury saw through the deception."
The Santa Clara County Superior Court panel also found that one of the girls -- who was 11 years old at the time -- acted with malice and is liable for punitive damages. The jury will decide how much during the second phase of the trial, which begins Monday.
The unusual case began in 2011 when administrators at Holy Spirit school in Almaden Valley were told that teacher John Fischler had inappropriately touched their 10- and 11-year-old girls and peeked in a girls' bathroom. School officials and police cleared Fischler of sexual misconduct.But the teacher, claiming the ordeal had indelibly stained his reputation and ruined his teaching career, declined to return to what he called a poisonous atmosphere at work and filed a lawsuit seeking nearly $1 million in damages.
The lawsuit contended he was the victim of a "conspiracy" by "classic parent bullies" and their daughters, including a popular girl he described as having a "gang-leader-like personality," to get him fired from the private Catholic school where he was an at-will employee.

Rare albino kangaroo sighted in Australia (Video)

From Down Under:

Lazing in the middle of a kangaroo mob just a half hour drive from city suburbs is a truly incredible tale of survival, rarely seen in the animal kingdom: an albino kangaroo that has survived beyond its perilous childhood.
Its pure, almost dazzling white coat strikes an amazing contrast against the lush greens and bush greys of the valley floor in the ACT’s Namadgi National Park.
The kangaroo, an eastern grey, is believed to be two years old. Experts said this is old for an albino kangaroo, which stands out against the Australian bushland and therefore attracts more predators such as wild foxes and dogs. Albinos are also apparently more susceptible to skin cancer and sunburn and are more likely to have sight and hearing difficulties.
The albino, first captured on film last weekend by a park ranger at the Namadgi national park near Canberra, stands in stark contrast to the family of grey kangaroos with which it roams.
Surrounded by its extended family of grey eastern greys, this young kangaroo looks alert but at ease. It appears to notice the clicking of a camera, and moves with its mob as we near.Since it was first captured on film in a fuzzy shot by a ranger on Sunday, the park has received reports of at least two other albino kangaroos in its vast expanse in the ACT’s south.

Meanwhile, YouTube user Frenzix posted a video on November 5th, with the notation, 'spotted an Albino Kangaroo in Country South Australia.'

The show must go on! Guest marries bride after groom no-shows

In what sounds like the plot of a Bollywood musical, The Times of India reports that a 30-year-old man who came to witness a wedding ended up marrying the bride himself in what the paper describes as 'a kind gesture as the bridegroom-to-be failed to turn up to tie the knot on Wednesday.'

The blushing bride Ponradha, 23, was supposed to marry  Sithiraivelu, 35, but he reportedly skipped out after quarreling with his in-laws-to-be on Monday. Apparently this wasn't the first time he'd gone missing after an argument with them, as the Times describes the family 'expecting him to come back as usual, [but] he did not return." Understandably,  "the bride's family went into a frenzy, as a stopped marriage would affect the girl's future."

"The news spread around the town of Lakshmimanagaram like a wildfire when Sivakumar, a relative of the bride [!] who had come to take part in the wedding, agreed to marry Ponradha after his relatives persuaded him to do so. The wedding then took place as per the schedule, much to the relief of the family."

Well, at least with this catch of hers the age difference is only 7 years as opposed to 12. Hopefully her new found husband is only a distant relative!

The mystery of Scotland's dog suicide bridge (Video)

Studies have shown that since the 1950s or 1960s numerous dogs have have been jumping off a bridge near Overtoun House in south-west Scotland at the rate of about one dog per year -- and no one knows why.

Overtoun House is a 19th-century country house and estate in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. It is located on a hill overlooking the River Clyde, in between the village of Milton and the town of Dumbarton. Built between 1860 and 1863 for James Black & White, a retired lawyer and a co-owner of the J&J White Chemical Works, the house and the estate were given by a descendant of his to the people of Dumbarton in 1938. It was then converted into a maternity hospital, and now houses a 'center for hope and healing.'

In a recent article, Ned Donovan wrote, "The area has long been thought to be haunted, and in 1994 a father threw his child off the bridge, claiming the infant to be the Anti-Christ before himself attempting to jump off the bridge. In fact, the sinister background of Overtoun can be traced directly back to Celtic mythology: it is said to inhabit an area of Scotland which is 'thin', i.e. where our world crosses with that of heaven, allowing spirits to cross over into our Earthly domain.

Dogs that leap over the bridge parapet fall 50 feet (15 m) onto the waterfalls below. Some dogs that survived the drop have jumped again. The only linking factors for this unexplained event are that dogs mostly jump from the same side of the bridge, in clear weather, and they are breeds with long snouts.

As to why, Donovan observed, "Over the years it has been argued that dogs are sensitive to supposed paranormal activity and could be naturally drawn towards the spiritual barrier that may exist on the bridge, a barrier we cannot detect.

"The locals in the area believe that the cause lay nearby at Her Majesty’s Naval Base Faslane, where the United Kingdom’s nuclear deterrent resides. Residents believed that secret naval communications emitted a sound only heard by dogs and caused them to jump off the bridge. Others placed the blame in the sound of the waterfall next to the bridge where the dogs land after their jump.

"The most emotionally charged explanation is that the dogs are simply depressed, and that Overtoun Bridge is for them what the Golden Gate Bridge is to humans."

In 2005 the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sent an animal habitat expert to investigate the causes as to why dogs kill themselves at Overtoun Bridge. Initially Dr David Sands examined sight, smell and sound factors. After eliminating what a dog could potentially see and hear on the bridge, he eventually focused on scent following the discovery of mice and mink in undergrowth on the side of the bridge from which dogs often leaped. In a test, the odors from these animals were spread around an open field. Ten dogs were unleashed - representing the most common breeds that jumped off the bridge. Of the dogs tested, only two showed no interest in any of the scents while nearly all the others made straight for the mink scent. Sands concluded that, although it was not a definitive answer, the potent odor from male mink urine was possibly luring the dogs to their deaths. His theory is that curiosity killed the dogs.

At the time Dr. Sands appeared in a TV documentary about his study of thee phenomenon and he has since updated that report for National Geographic in 2010 and then again for William Shatners 'Weird or What' in 2012. Watch video clips from these below:

Sources: Wikipedia, The Kernel, The Animal Behaviour Clinic, The Herald Scotland and Overtoun House.

Groom surprises bride by performing Broadaway tune with wedding party (Video)

This video is so joyful.

A groom named Lin surprised his wife Vanessa at their wedding reception with an ensemble performance of L'Chaim from Fiddler on the Roof. Friends and family rehearsed in secret for a month before the wedding.

Doves Released for Wedding Promptly Captured and Eaten by Residents of Chinese Town

Stomachs win out over sentiments.

A Chinese news site is reporting that on November 13 wedding photographers intending to take pictures of loving couples surrounded by doves had their plans disrupted by some hungry citizens in the town of Hefei. It seems nearly 100 white doves were purchased and released on the ironically named Swan Lake, in order to create a magical background for wedding photograps. However, the majority of the birds were quickly snapped up by locals, leaving only a few to serve as photo props. A resident explained, “This is an edible dove; it can be eaten."

Thieves steal chicken wings, get caught eating the evidence a few blocks away

Pennsylvania:

"A driver, who works for Italian Pizza Village in Belle Vernon, told police he was approached by three men who demanded money. The driver told detectives that the men searched his pants pockets and vehicle for money, but found nothing. The driver said the men took off with the his chicken wings, valued at almost $18, when he pulled out a gun. Police said the driver was able to give a detailed description of the suspects. Tyler Hall, 18, and Dorian Ellis, 18, were arrested a short time later while they were eating the wings on a street corner. The third suspect, a juvenile from Donora, fled the scene on foot. He was later arrested in Ohio, police said."

Child Protective Services worker arrested for handcuffing son to porch with dead chicken around his neck

It happened in North Carolina.

WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC

Armed and dangerous samurai sword attack suspect on the run

Grants Pass, Or.

"Oregon State Police say Preston Sweaney, 23, was in a motorhome with his brother, 21-year-old Nathanial Sweaney, and another relative, 18-year-old Christian Burnison, when an argument broke out between the brothers at around 1:30 a.m.

"They say Preston Sweaney grabbed the sword and cut Nathanial’s side and arm, and that Burnison’s hand was cut when he tried to break up the fight.

"The OSP said Sweaney was last seen running away from the motorhome and is considered dangerous."

Singing in the Rain: A Benefit Concert for the Victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines

Good intentions. Questionable taste.

Source: Harvard University Asia Center 
Related: The Harvard Crimson..

World Wildlife Fund announces sighting in Vietnam of Saola, the ‘Asian Unicorn’

Hanoi, Vietnam – The saola, one of the rarest and most threatened mammals on the planet, has been photographed in Vietnam for the first time in the 21st century. The enigmatic species was caught on film in September by a camera trap set by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Vietnamese government’s Forest Protection Department in the Central Annamite mountains.

“When our team first looked at the photos we couldn’t believe our eyes. Saola are the holy grail for South-east Asian conservationists so there was a lot of excitement,” said Dr. Van Ngoc Thinh, WWF-Vietnam’s Country Director. “This is a breath-taking discovery and renews hope for the recovery of the species.”
A cousin of cattle but recalling an antelope in appearance, the critically endangered saola, dubbed the Asian unicorn because it is so rarely seen, is recognized by two parallel horns with sharp ends which can reach 50 inches in length.
“This is a monumental find and comes at a critical moment in time for saola conservation,” said Dr. Barney Long, Director, Species Conservation Program, WWF. “It’s a huge reward for decades of tireless work by the provincial government who established the saola reserve, community snare removal teams and WWF biologists. Now it’s time to double our efforts to recover this iconic species.”
The last confirmed record of a saola in the wild was in 1999 from camera-trap photos taken in the Laos province of Bolikhamxay. In 2010, villagers in Bolikhamxay captured a saola. The animal subsequently died.
“In Vietnam, the last sighting of a saola in the wild was in 1998,” said Dang Dinh Nguyen, Deputy Head of Quang Nam Forest Protection Department and Director of Quang Nam’s Saola Nature Reserve. “This is an historic moment in Vietnam’s efforts to protect our extraordinary biodiversity, and provides powerful evidence of the effectiveness of conservation efforts in critical saola habitat.”
In the area where the saola was photographed, WWF’s Preservation of Carbon Sinks and Biodiversity Conservation (CarBi) Program has implemented an innovative law enforcement model in which Forest
Guards are recruited from local communities, and co-managed by WWF and Vietnamese government counterparts, to remove snares and tackle illegal hunting, the greatest threat to the saola’s survival.
“Saola are caught in wire snares set by hunters to catch other animals, such as deer and civets, which are largely destined for the lucrative illegal wildlife trade,” said Dr. Van Ngoc. “Since 2011, forest guard patrols in the CarBi area have removed more than 30,000 snares from this critical saola habitat and destroyed more than 600 illegal hunters’ camps. Confirmation of the presence of the saola in this area is a testament to the dedicated and tireless efforts of these forest guards.”
The saola was discovered in 1992 by a joint team from Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and WWF surveying the forests of Vu Quang, near Vietnam's border with Laos. The team found a skull with unusual horns in a hunter's home. Proven to be the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years, the find was one of the most spectacular species discoveries of the 20th century.
Twenty years on, the animal’s elusive nature has prevented scientists from making a precise population estimate. At best, no more than a few hundred, and maybe only a few tens, survive in the remote, dense forests along the Vietnam-Laos border.
The saola is an icon for biodiversity in the Annamite mountains that run along the border of Vietnam and Laos. The area boasts an incredible diversity of rare species, with many found nowhere else in the world. In addition to the discovery of the saola, two species of deer, the large-antlered muntjac and the Truong Son muntjac, were discovered in the Annamite’s forests in 1994 and 1997 respectively.
The saola sighting confirms the species’ persistence in Vietnam’s Central Annamite mountains and will help WWF and partners in the search for other individuals, and in targeting the essential protection needed. WWF is also providing alternative livelihood options for communities bordering the Saola Nature Reserves to help reduce poaching and provide much needed income to villagers. This work is a critical complement to law enforcement and protection efforts, and will help wildlife across the Central Annamites recover.