The unimportant news thread

[Lethevich]

11 Students Plotted To Kill Third-Grade Teacher

WAYCROSS, Ga. -- Eleven students got together and plotted to kill their teacher, even going so far as to bring handcuffs and a knife to school, Waycross police said.

One of the teacher's relatives said each child at Center Elementary School in Waycross had a job to do, including one assigned to wipe up the blood.

The plot unraveled over the weekend when a student tipped off police, Local 6 reported.

School officials said they never imagined that some of the 8- and 9-year-olds boys and girls at the school would think of bringing physical harm to a teacher, WJXT reported.

"A plan had been developed amongst several of our third-grade students to allegedly do harm to their teacher," said Theresa Martin, of Ware County Schools. "It's shocking that they would think of this at their young age. I think that is probably the most shocking part for all of us," Martin said.

In addition to the knife being found, the school officials said other students had duct tape, handcuffs, ribbon and a heavy crystal paperweight.

The police chief in Waycross said that he believes the plan may have been developed because one of the students was punished with some sort of time out. However, that theory remains under investigation.

"I can't believe that -- because he's a third-grader. You know, I cannot believe that. Especially, for here," said parent Doris Rowland.

The children could face expulsion and criminal charges pending the investigation.

[Lethevich]

...and as sex fits very well alongside death:

The teens call their public orgies ponceo. On a typical Friday afternoon in the Chilean capital of Santiago, hundreds gather in a leafy urban park for a few hours of sexual experimentation.

[knight66]

Both of these stories make me wonder what adults will be like if I am around when I am 80....probably I will have been done in by then for being unattractive, or for asking some younger person to not stand on my foot.

Evolution...what is the opposite? We seem to be in for a dose of it.

Mike

[MN Dave]

Evolution...what is the opposite? We seem to be in for a dose of it.

Are we not men?



We are DEVO!!

[BachQ]

What's worse: to be arrested for possession of cocaine or death?

Man swallows baggie with suspected cocaine, dies
Star Tribune

April 2, 2008

By PAUL WALSH
A passenger in a car that was stopped by police in downtown Minneapolis swallowed a plastic baggie of suspected cocaine as an officer tried to remove it, and the man died, police said today.  According to the release:  The officer pulled over a vehicle for failure to signal. A male passenger was removed from the vehicle, and police saw that he had a plastic baggie with suspected crack cocaine concealed in his mouth.  The officer attempted to remove the baggie, but the man swallowed it and "immediately went into respiratory arrest." An ambulance was called to the scene, and the man was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. He had emergency surgery to remove the baggie. He died Tuesday.  The officer was placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard policy. Police homicide and internal affairs investigators are handling the case.

[Lethevich]

Both of these stories make me wonder what adults will be like if I am around when I am 80....probably I will have been done in by then for being unattractive, or for asking some younger person to not stand on my foot.

Evolution...what is the opposite? We seem to be in for a dose of it.

Mike

Brave New World was non-fiction

[BachQ]

Man crowded out of home by collecting passion
Wed Apr 2, 2008 11:35am EDT

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German man was such an avid collector of weapons and other paraphernalia that he ran out of space at home and had to sleep in a hotel, neighbors said following the 71-year-old's death.
Executors found an arsenal of weaponry and assorted goods at the man's two-story home in the western city of Aachen, police said on Wednesday. 

"The house was stuffed to the rafters," a reporter said. "By the end, the neighbors said he had to sleep in a hotel sometimes because there was no more room."  One neighbor sometimes handled up to 14 deliveries of goods a day for the man when he was out, he added. "At some point she got fed up with it."

[MN Dave]

Toddlers Can No Longer Marry in Ark.
April 03, 2008 7:46 AM EST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Arkansas' marriage-age crisis is over. A law that mistakenly allowed anyone - even toddlers - to marry with parental permission was repealed by a measure signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Mike Beebe, ending months of embarrassment for the state and confusion for county clerks.

Lawmakers didn't realize until after the end of last year's regular session that a law they approved, intended to establish 18 as the minimum age for marriage, instead removed the minimum age to marry entirely. An extraneous "not" in the bill allowed anyone who was not pregnant to marry at any age with permission.

The bill read: "In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage."

Some lawmakers called for a special session last year, saying the error would make it easy for pedophiles to take advantage of the law. Gov. Mike Beebe said he didn't see any imminent crisis and said the chances of children marrying under the law were slim.

Legislators, however, had the chance for a do-over this week when Beebe convened a special session to consider a hike in the state's severance tax on natural gas. They repealed the botched law, and reinstated 17 as the minimum age to marry for boys and 16 for girls.

Rep. Will Bond, the sponsor of the botched 2007 law and its correction, apologized for the error and asked his colleagues to "throw me a rope and bail me out here."

"I always thought if you put your name on a bill, you should be ready to take the blame if you're willing to accept the credit," Bond said Wednesday.

Bond, a Democrat, said there hadn't been any reports of young children attempting to marry under the 2007 law.

[karlhenning]

All this kerfuffle over a tyro typo . . . .

[MN Dave]

5th-Grader Finds Mistake at Smithsonian
April 02, 2008 9:11 PM EST

ALLEGAN, Mich. - Is fifth-grader Kenton Stufflebeam smarter than the Smithsonian? On a winter break trip with his family to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, the 11-year-old southwestern Michigan boy noticed that a notation, in bold lettering, mistakenly identified the Precambrian as an era.

Since it opened in 1981, millions of people have paraded past the museum's Tower of Time, a display involving prehistoric time. Kenton was the first to point out the error.

Kenton, who lives in Allegan but attends Alamo Elementary School near Kalamazoo, said his fifth-grade teacher, John Chapman, had nearly made the same mistake about the Precambrian in a classroom earth-science lesson before catching himself.

"I knew Mr. Chapman wouldn't tell all these students" bad information, the boy told the Kalamazoo Gazette for a story published Wednesday.

So Kevin Stufflebeam took his son to the museum's information desk to report Kenton's concern on a comment form.

Last week, the boy received a letter from the museum acknowledging that his observation was "spot on."

"The Precambrian is a dimensionless unit of time, which embraces all the time between the origin of Earth and the beginning of the Cambrian Period of geologic time," the letter says.

The solution to the problem would not involve advanced science but rather simply painting over the word "era," the note says.

While no previous visitors to the museum had brought up the error, it has long rankled the paleobiology department's staff, who noticed it even before the Tower of Time was erected 27 years ago, said Lorraine Ramsdell, educational technician for the museum.

"The question is, why was it put up with that on it in the first place?" Ramsdell said.

Excited as he was to receive the correspondence from museum officials, he couldn't help but point out that it was addressed to Kenton Slufflebeam.

In Allegany.

[karlhenning]

5th-Grader Finds Mistake at Smithsonian

Great!

While no previous visitors to the museum had brought up the error, it has long rankled the paleobiology department's staff, who noticed it even before the Tower of Time was erected 27 years ago, said Lorraine Ramsdell, educational technician for the museum.

"The question is, why was it put up with that on it in the first place?" Ramsdell said.

Bureaucratic inertia.

[greg]

...and as sex fits very well alongside death:

The teens call their public orgies ponceo. On a typical Friday afternoon in the Chilean capital of Santiago, hundreds gather in a leafy urban park for a few hours of sexual experimentation.

fascinating.....

[Benny]

CENTRAL ISLIP, New York (AP) -- A court has issued what could be at least a local first: an order of protection for a duck.


Ducks are not normally protected by court orders, according to officials in Suffolk County, New York.

A Suffolk County judge approved the measure Thursday, telling a man accused of shooting a family's pet duck to stay away from the bird and her owners.

Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Chief Roy Gross says he can't recall a previous court case involving cruelty to a duck.

Owner Janet Lippincott says a group of young people bounded over her backyard fence and swarmed the yellow-billed Pekin duck with pellet guns on March 17.

The bird, named Circles, has recovered after a bullet pierced her voice box.

The 21-year-old suspect pleaded not guilty Thursday to felony animal cruelty charges.

[Lethevich]

A court has issued what could be at least a local first: an order of protection for a duck.

[Benny]

This one is old and unimportant news. Bull Terrier vs. Porcupine! And the winner is......!


Nope. The other guy!

[BachQ]

Flintstones' car beats court challenge

TORONTO, April 4 (UPI) -- A Toronto judge dismissed charges of unsafe vehicle operation against an artist's car powered by Flintstone-like foot-paddling.  Last October, the driver of a hollowed-out Buick was fined by Toronto police for being behind the wheel of the "Shared Propulsion Car," which had no floor, engine, transmission or signal lights, the Toronto Star reported.

Driver Dean Baldwin challenged the charges and won, the report said.  The vehicle was originally a work of art by Montreal artist Michel de Broin, designed to be a four-seater bicycle or powered by passengers using their feet for propulsion, as in the classic Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series "The Flintstones."  One of the issue prosecutors argued unsuccessfully was that the car used tea candles as headlights, the Star said.

[Benny]

Flintstones' car beats court challenge

TORONTO, April 4 (UPI) -- A Toronto judge dismissed charges of unsafe vehicle operation against an artist's car powered by Flintstone-like foot-paddling.  Last October, the driver of a hollowed-out Buick was fined by Toronto police for being behind the wheel of the "Shared Propulsion Car," which had no floor, engine, transmission or signal lights, the Toronto Star reported.

Driver Dean Baldwin challenged the charges and won, the report said.  The vehicle was originally a work of art by Montreal artist Michel de Broin, designed to be a four-seater bicycle or powered by passengers using their feet for propulsion, as in the classic Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series "The Flintstones."  One of the issue prosecutors argued unsuccessfully was that the car used tea candles as headlights, the Star said.

I can see why the cops would be all over this art work!

[MN Dave]

Baby With 2 Faces Born in North India
By GURINDER OSAN (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
April 08, 2008 9:11 AM EDT

SAINI SUNPURA, India - A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.

The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. Except for her ears, all of Lali's facial features are duplicated - she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes.

"My daughter is fine - like any other child," said Vinod Singh, 23, a poor farm worker.

Lali has caused a sensation in the dusty village of Saini Sunpura, 25 miles east of New Delhi. When she left the hospital, eight hours after a normal delivery on March 11, she was swarmed by villagers, said Sabir Ali, the director of Saifi Hospital.

"She drinks milk from her two mouths and opens and shuts all the four eyes at one time," Ali said.

Rural India is deeply superstitious and the little girl is being hailed as a return of the Hindu goddess of valor, Durga, a fiery deity traditionally depicted with three eyes and many arms.

Up to 100 people have been visiting Lali at her home every day to touch her feet out of respect, offer money and receive blessings, Singh told The Associated Press.

"Lali is God's gift to us," said Jaipal Singh, a member of the local village council. "She has brought fame to our village."

Village chief Daulat Ram said he planned to build a temple to Durga in the village.

"I am writing to the state government to provide money to build the temple and help the parents look after their daughter," Ram said.

Lali's condition is often linked to serious health complications, but the doctor said she was doing well.

"She is leading a normal life with no breathing difficulties," said Ali, adding that he saw no need for surgery.

Lali's parents were married in February 2007. Lali is their first child.

Singh said he took his daughter to a hospital in New Delhi where doctors suggested a CT scan to determine whether her internal organs were normal, but Singh said he felt it was unnecessary.

"I don't feel the need of that at this stage as my daughter is behaving like a normal child, posing no problems," he said.

[Keemun]

Man 'targeted by aliens'

A Bosnian man whose home has been hit an incredible five times by meteorites believes he is being targeted by aliens.

Experts at Belgrade University have confirmed that all the rocks Radivoje Lajic has handed over were meteorites.

They are now investigating local magnetic fields to try and work out what makes the property so attractive to the heavenly bodies.

But Mr Lajic, who has had a steel girder reinforced roof put on the house he owns in the northern village of Gornja Lamovite, has an alternative explanation.

He said: "I am obviously being targeted by extraterrestrials. I don't know what I have done to annoy them but there is no other explanation that makes sense. The chance of being hit by a meteorite is so small that getting hit five times has to be deliberate."

The first meteorite fell on his house in November last year and since then a further four have smashed into his home. The strikes always happen when it is raining heavily, never when there are clear skies.

He said: "I did not know what the strange-looking stones were at first but I have since had them all confirmed as meteorites by experts at Belgrade University.

"I am being targeted by aliens. They are playing games with me. I don't know why they are doing this. When it rains I can't sleep for worrying about another strike."

[Lethevich]

Not world news, me news (I have to vent). Amazon UK just tried to charge me £18 to deliver a pack of guitar strings and 6 picks first class...

*seeks somewhere better*