Parent of the year: Toddler loose in moving car while gas can securely strapped into child car seat

On June 6, 2012 By A.P.In Aurora, child car seat, Colorado, gas can in car seat, safety, seat belt, Stupidity1 Comment

Police in Aurora, Colorado, were shocked when, during a recent seat-belt enforcement campaign there, officers discovered a gross infraction of the law.

A Facebook photo on the Colorado Department of Transportation’s page shows a toddler and gas can sharing a vehicle’s back seat. The gas can is securely strapped into a child’s safety seat. The toddler? No such luck.

Comments on the picture range from “Is this a joke?” to “I’m surprised the “parent” didn’t give the kid a cigarette. What the hell?!!”

A CDOT statement on the photo reads:

We want to make it clear that this photo was NOT staged or altered, except to protect the identity of the child. We take this subject very seriously. We wish this photo wasn’t real, but in fact it is a real photo taken after a traffic stop by Aurora Police Department.

According to 7News, Aurora Police issued the driver three citations.

Bart Jansen turns his dead cat into Cat-Copter

On June 5, 2012June 5, 2012 By A.P.In Amsterdam, Art, Bart Jansen, Cat-Copter, dead cat, Katinka Simonse, Kunstrai art festival, Orvillecopter, PETA, repurposing dead petsLeave a comment

The kitty copter currently burning up the Internet is “half cat, half machine,” Jansen said in a SkyNews interview. Orville the deceased cat, himself named for aviation pioneer Orville Wright, was hit by a car, Jansen said. “After a period of mourning, he received his propellers posthumously.”

While Americans may be as surprised as Orville appears to be, as he soars around, spread-eagled, the repurposing of dead pets isn’t unusual outside the United States.

“This is sort of a European flavor of art making,” explained a bemused Paddy Johnson, the well-known art blogger WTF in a phone interview. Artists outside the United States have a history of finding new uses for expired household pets, Johnson went on to explain. That this dead cat can also fly, however, is somewhat new.

Another Dutch artist, Katinka Simonse, is known (and reviled) for her dead animal art projects — most infamously a purse made from her 3-year-old cat Pinkeltje. Unlike Jansen, Simonse, aka TINKEBELL, didn’t wait for nature, or traffic, to take its course. She claims to have snapped her cat’s neck herself. Yet Simonse says her work brings attention to animal suffering.

Far from endearing, Simonse’s art piece made from her dead cat earned her so much hate mail, she published what she says is just 1 percent of the torrent of anger in a book entitled “Dearest Tinkebell,” which also includes personal info about the hate mailers.

Reactions to Jansen’s “Orvillecopter” are far more favorable. Even the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals can’t quite condemn the Dutch oddity. In a statement provided to msnbc.com, PETA proclaimed: “It’s a macabre way to honor a beloved family member.”

Florida Mall Security Guard Caught 2 Men Killing an Alligator

On June 4, 2012June 3, 2012 By A.P.In Alligator, Crime, Dustin Moore, Florida, Human Behavior, Lake Wales, Rodney Michael, Unlawful Killing of an AlligatorLeave a comment

Two Lake Wales men were arrested Thursday, shortly after police say they caught and killed an alligator on mall property.

Deputies say around 3:45 p.m., Rodney Michael, 41, and Dustin Moore, 28, used a fishing pole with chicken as bait to lure a 9 and a half-foot gator out of a retention pond on the northern property of Eagle Ridge Mall.

After catching it, they shot and killed the animal with a rifle. That’s when they were confronted by a mall security guard.

The men fled the scene, but were located a short time later by a Polk County detective. Investigators say the men confessed to killing the gator so they could make money off of it.

Both have been charged with Unlawful Killing of an Alligator.

Mao Sugiyama Cooks, Serves Own Genitals At Banquet In Tokyo

On June 3, 2012June 3, 2012 By A.P.In asexuality, Cannibalism, castration, Crocodile, Human Behavior, Japan, Mao Sugiyama, Penis, testicles, TokyoLeave a comment

Mao Sugiyama, a self-described “asexual” from Tokyo, cooked up, seasoned and served his own genitalia to five diners at a swanky banquet in Japan last month, Calorie Lab reported.

In most cases, “asexual” is a word used to describe a person who is non-sexual. Sugiyama, however, embraces it as a way to show that he does not affiliate with either gender.

Sugiyama sparked a firestorm of interest on April 8 with one tweet:

“[Please retweet] I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen …Will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location.”

Just days after Sugiyama’s 22nd birthday, the artist underwent elective genital-removal surgery, divvied up the severed penis shaft, testicles, and scrotal skin between five people, and garnished it with button mushrooms and Italian parsley.

On April 13, five of six diners who signed up for the $250-a-plate feast, sat down to dinner. The sixth person was a no-show.

The next day, an organizer posted a blog — subsequently deleted — containing pictures of the event. Images showed dozens of people who attended the event just to catch a glimpse of the rare treat.

The extra diners were served crocodile-based dishes while Sugiyama cooked up the exclusive meal.

The story went viral in Japan. Some showed even more interest, while others complained. But Calorie Lab called Japanese authorities, who deemed the banquet legal because there is no law against cannibalism in the country.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/asexual-mao-sugiyama-cooks-serves-own-genitals_n_1543307.html#s=1018957

Thanks Ellen, for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Fisherman loses prosthetic arm, which is later recovered in fish caught by someone else

On May 31, 2012 By A.P.In Florida, Jack Wiseman, prosthetic arm, Wounded WarriorsLeave a comment

Every fisherman has a story about the one that got away. But Jack Wiseman’s tops them all.

“It went quick and the captain tried to throw in another hook to cross the line,” said Wiseman, who was taking part in the Professional Tarpon Tournament Series at Boca Grande Pass this weekend.

But Wiseman isn’t a professional fisherman. Instead he’s an amateur. One of eight Wounded Warriors invited to fish with the professional teams during the Memorial Day Weekend Tournament. And this story isn’t about a fish.

“We watched it happen,” said Rudy Salas, one of Wiseman’s friends, “and we said ‘did you see that, his arm’s gone.'”

Wiseman has a prosthetic arm and Saturday morning he was reeling in a tarpon when the fish proved too much.

“All of a sudden the hand snapped off the prosthetic device, still hooked to the rod, and the rod and the reel and the hand went down into the water,” said Wiseman.

But unlike most fishing stories, this one has a happy ending.

“Somebody else hooked that same fish and our rod, with my hand, was still attached and they brought it back to us. So that’s my fishing story.”

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=256952

Kansas boy buys polaroid camera at garage sale and finds out it contains picture of his dead uncle

On May 30, 2012 By A.P.In Addison Logan, Beyond the grave?, Black Logan, Jeff Logan, Kansas, Lois Logan, Polaroid camera, Scott Logan, WichitaLeave a comment

Addison Logan, 13, probably wouldn’t have gone to the garage sale Thursday if he hadn’t broken his arm in a dirt bike accident a couple of weeks ago.

He probably would have been riding the bike.

Instead, Addison, who likes garage sales, was driving around to some of them with his grandmother, Lois Logan, in west Wichita. After three stops, he finally found something he wanted to buy. It was an old Polaroid camera at a house about a mile away from his grandmother’s house. He thought the camera was “pretty cool,” he said. He bought it for $1.

Back at his grandmother’s house, Addison got on the Internet to find out how to take a picture with it. When he removed the cartridge and opened it, he found an old photograph inside. He took the photo to his grandmother.

Lois Logan said she looked at the photo and saw her son, Scott, who died in an auto accident 23 years ago.

The photo showed Scott sitting on a sofa with a high school girlfriend, Susan. Lois guessed it was taken in 1978 or 1979, about 10 years before his death. She didn’t remember the photo, but thought it must be one of her old ones.

When Addison told her he found it inside the camera he’d just bought at the garage sale, she thought he was kidding.

“It was really weird,” she said.

Nobody else in the family could believe it, either.

“I’m just shocked,” said Scott’s brother, Blake Logan, on Friday. “The more time that passes, the more in disbelief I am. So many things have to come together for that to happen. It just seems supernatural.”
Blake and another brother, Jeff Logan, have speculated that Addison finding the photo might be a sign from Scott.

“It’s almost like he’s reaching out to us, saying he’s still with us,” said Blake, who is Addison’s father.

The Logans said they don’t know the people who were having the garage sale. The man who sold the camera to Addison told them he goes to a lot of garage sales, and he couldn’t remember where he got it, Lois said. They can’t think of any connection to the house.

Jeff Logan thought Susan, who long ago married and moved away, may have lived somewhere in the neighborhood in those days. But Blake said that neighborhood didn’t exist back then.

Other than that, they have no clue how the photo turned up there.

“Who knows, really?” said Lois Logan, whose husband died about 12 years ago.

Scott Logan was 28 when he died. He was a single dad selling vacuum cleaners door to door to make some extra cash before he started a new job with an insurance company.

He was driving on I-70 on business when he fell asleep at the wheel. The car left the road and flipped, ejecting him, Lois Logan said.

Scott’s son was 4 when Scott died. He now lives in Independence, Mo. Blake Logan posted the photo on Facebook and sent it to him Thursday. He wrote back Friday.

“Wow,” his message said.

Seven years before Scott died, another brother, Brian, died in a car accident at 19. A friend was driving him home from a back-to-college party in Wichita, Lois said. The car left the road and flipped, ejecting Brian.

Both sons died of broken necks, she said.

Jeff, 53, the oldest brother, was a year older than Scott, and very close to him. They played a lot of golf tournaments together. Every time Jeff plays in one, he thinks of Scott.

“Is that miraculous, or what?” he said about the photo turning up the way it did.

“When you get something like that, that’s almost like a sign telling us, ‘Hey, everything’s all right, I’m still here,’ ” Jeff said.

Lois Logan has no doubt about it.

“I think both of them are looking out for all of us,’ she said. “I’ve always felt that.”

Newly-discovered grapefruit-sized organ helps whales lunge-feed

On May 29, 2012 By A.P.In Nature, WhalesLeave a comment

A new sensory organ has been discovered in the jaws of giant whales that may help them “lunge-feed” to swallow huge numbers of crustaceans and small fish.

The grapefruit-sized organ has protrusions filled with nerves and is suspended in a gel-like material.

Scientists believe it responds to jaw rotation when a whale opens and closes its mouth, and expands its vast throat pouch to take in water, but they are still trying to understand precisely how this lunge-feeding mechanism works.

“We think this sensory organ sends information to the brain in order to co-ordinate the complex mechanism of lunge-feeding, which involves rotating the jaws, inverting the tongue and expanding the throat pleats and blubber layer,” said lead researcher Dr Nick Pyenson, from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

Rorqual whales, which include blue, fin, minke and humpback whales, feed by lunging forward and gulping more than their own body weight of water.

Millions of krill, tiny crustaceans, and small fish are then filtered out in a process that takes seconds.

Co-author Professor Bob Shadwick, from the University of British Columbia in Canada, said: “In terms of evolution, the innovation of this sensory organ has a fundamental role in one of the most extreme feeding methods of aquatic creatures.

“Because the physical features required to carry out lunge-feeding evolved before the extremely large body sizes observed in today’s rorquals, it’s likely that this sensory organ – and its role in co-ordinating successful lunging – is responsible for rorquals claiming the largest-animals-on-Earth status.

“This also demonstrates how poorly we understand the basic functions of these top predators of the ocean and underlines the importance for biodiversity conservation.”

http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/grapefruit-sized-organ-helps-whales-swallow-big-mouthfuls-1.1304478

Miami police kill naked man while he was eating victim’s face

On May 29, 2012 By A.P.In antisocial personality, Cannibalism, Cocaine psychosis, Crime, Florida, Human Behavior, MiamiLeave a comment

One man was shot to death by Miami police, and another man is fighting for his life after he was attacked, and his face allegedly half eaten, by a naked man on the MacArthur Causeway off ramp Saturday, police said.
The horror began about 2 p.m. when a series of gunshots were heard on the ramp, which is along NE 13th Street, just south of The Miami Herald building.
According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away.Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.
The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots.
Miami police were on the scene, which was just south of The Miami Herald building on Biscayne Boulevard. The naked man who was killed lay face down on the pedestrian walkway just below the newspaper’s two-story parking garage. Police have requested The Herald’s video surveillance tapes.
The other man was transported to the hospital with critical injuries, according to police. Their identities were not released.
The incident, which came as crowds descended upon South Beach for the annual Urban Beach Week hip-hop festival, snarled traffic on the causeway for several hours.
In a text message, Javier Ortiz, spokesman for Miami police’s Fraternal Order of Police, said the officer who fired the fatal shots was “a hero.”
“Based on the information provided, our Miami police officer is a hero and saved a life,’’ he said.
Sergeant Altarr Williams, supervisor of Miami police’s Homicide Unit, said a man doesn’t have to be armed to be dangerous.
“There are other ways to injure people,’’ Williams said. “Some people know martial arts, others are very strong and can kill you with their hands.’’
Investigators believe the victim may have been homeless and laying down when the crazed man pounced.
Police theorize the attacker might have been suffering from “cocaine psychosis,” a drug-induced craze that bakes the body internally and often leads the affected to strip naked to try and cool off.

Skinny jeans may be bad for your health

On May 28, 2012 By A.P.In Christine Barnabic, high heels, Karen Boyle, meralgia paresthetica, nerve damage, skinny jeansLeave a comment

It’s a fashion trend that we’re seeing everywhere, at the mall, at work, and at school. We’re talking about skinny jeans.

They can be flattering, but if you’re not careful, they can also be harmful to your health.

Christine Barnabic is a fan of skinny jeans. She has a collection with various colors, various fabrics, but they all have a simliar look. She loves how skinny jeans can spice up her wardrobe.

Barnabic says, “You can wear the boots over them. It’s really nice in the winter and even during the daytime you can wear them with flats or jazz them up at night.”

But the one thing Barnabic doesn’t love is how difficult they can be to put on. She says, “They can be hard to get on because you’re trying to obviously pull them up.”

Doctors say you have to be careful and really weigh the price of looking good, to the price of good health. If they’re too tight, they can cause nerve damage.

Dr. Karen Boyle with GBMC says, “This disorder is called meralgia paresthetica and it’s a disorder that occurs when one of the nerves that runs in the outer part of a thigh gets compressed. The pressure on it causes symptoms of tingling, numbness and pain in the outer part of the thigh.”

Dr. Boyle says one woman described it as a floating sensation. She says that when she was walking. She felt weak and got pain in her thighs. The problem can be made even worse if your jeans are too tight, and you’re wearing high heels.

Dr. Boyle says, “When you wear high heels the axis of your pelvis changes and what happens is your pelvis tilts and your buttocks kind of kick out a little bit and your legs are longer looking. This is why women like to wear stilettos. But because the pelvis tilts some, it further accentuates the pressure that’s caused on those nerves. It can make the symptoms worse.”

To alleviate the pain, doctors suggest you wear jeggings or skinny jeans that have some stretch in them.

Barnabic says, “I feel like if you try something on, try it in different sizes up or down to see the best kind of fit and how the looks is. Then, also take into consideration the whole stretch idea to make it look comfortable and feel great.”

Dr. Boyle says if you feel tingling and numbness in your leg, stop wearing skinny jeans and the symptoms should go away. If you ignore the pain and continue to wear tight jeans, it could lead to more permanent nerve damage.

City of Pied Piper fame again faces rat problem

On May 27, 2012 By A.P.In Germany, Hamelin, Pied Piper, RatLeave a comment

The German city of Hamelin may be in need of another Pied Piper – it seems the rats are back.

City officials say a popular fountain has been put out of service after the rodents gnawed through a power cable, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

The Lower Saxony city is where, legend has it, the Pied Piper led all the rats out in 1284 with his magic pipe into the Weser River, where they drowned.

But more than 700 years later, city officials say such drastic measures may not be necessary. The fountain was due to be permanently closed anyway because of the high upkeep costs.

And the solution in the fictitious Piper story isn’t practical anyway: rats are actually pretty good swimmers.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_ODD_GERMANY_PIED_PIPER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT