Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Wednesday

World's luckiest murderer
Kenneth Moore pleaded guilty to a 1995 killing, admitting that he shot a pal in the head during a beer bender. Then, he changed his mind and appealed, and won because his trial lawyer had ignored some evidence that undermined the prosecution's proof. At a subsequent trial, the prosecutor simply didn't have enough evidence, and Moore was found not guilty. And now the Ohio Court of Claims, pretty much following the letter of the law, has just approved Moore's demand for $600k in restitution for having "wrongfully" locked him up. Crime pays. Big. Columbus Dispatch
Comments 'kenneth_moore'

Update on Haiti's food crisis
News of the Weird reported in March [NOTW M051, 3-30-2008]:

In the worst slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti (where 80 percent of the people live on less than $2 a day), rice now sells for 30 cents a cup (double the price of a year ago), according to a January Associated Press dispatch, leaving the poorest of the poor to subsist mainly on “cookies” made with dirt. Choice clay from the central plateau is at least a source of calcium and can be baked with salt and vegetable shortening. However, recently in the La Saline slum, the reporter noted, the price of dirt, too, has risen about 40 percent.

It's worse than ever now, according to London's Guardian, which has a photo that looks like a field of ceramic pieces baking in the hot sun but, no, they're mud cakes, i.e., food. Guardian
Comments 'haiti_mud'

Second doctor's opinion? Check. Third opinion, fourth, fifth? Check, check, check. They're all wrong
A cautionary tale out of Arizona: A physician sought out a dermatologist for a major-turbo-itching problem; fancy treatment; got worse; another dermatologist; fancy treatment; got worse; immunologist; got worse; infectious disease person; got worse. Try one more dermatologist, who was Dr. Howard Luber, who instantly, correctly diagnosed the problem (and in fact, his nurse instantly, correctly diagnosed it before he did): scabies, a Dermatology-101 condition. Chuck's not a doctor, but he's sure you can learn something from this. Washington Post
Comments 'second_opinion'

Oregon Health Plan rationing hits the screen
They've got this "5 percent/5-yr" rule: State won't pay for any cancer treatment that doesn't offer at least a 1-in-20 change of survival for at least 5 yrs (or, more generously, they'll pay for it even if the chances are 95 out of 100 that you're doomed). Barbara Wagner is caught in the screen. And her family's ticked off that the state will, without regard to percentages, provide end-of-life palliative care, instead. The Oregonian [NOTE: I was not able to verify the link today]
Comments 'oregon_health'

More evidence from the gene pool that some people are destined to lose their money
A total stranger convinced a man in Murfreesboro, Tenn., to let him hold, on one of the flimsiest pretexts imaginable, $7k out of his bank account for just a couple of minutes (which was all it took, of course). The larger question is how a person that stupid was able to amass $7,000 to begin with. Almost as large a question is why a person like that would want anyone (such as the police) to know about it. "Pride"'s supposed to be a big thing. The Tennessean
Comments 'murfreesboro_scam'

It's ice cream season again in Tokyo, with "ox tongue" the flavor du jour
Mainichi Daily News used to have two slide shows, "The Wacky World of Japanese Ice Cream" and "The Wackier World of Japanese Ice Cream," with photos of the packaging for such flavors as cow tongue, cactus, and sardine, but appears to have taken them down (along with most of its other archives). You can see individual shots of one or more of the packages at various Internet sites and blogs by searching the above two "wacky" titles, using quote marks. Mainichi Daily News
Comments 'japan_icecream'

Your Daily Loser
We don't know his name, but he's the guy who pulled off the latest negative-cash-flow robbery (at Joe's Café in Metairie, La.). As a ruse to get a clerk to open the cash register, our guy dropped a Lincoln on the counter to pay for two donuts, and, with the register then open for change, pulled a gun and said, Gimme all of it. But then the clerk went nuts, screaming, and our guy got scared and fled, without his donuts or his $5. (Bonus: For a disguise, he was dressed, extremely clumsily, as a woman.) Times-Picayune
Comments 'joes_cafe'

Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Ricky Dale Spears, 42, already in jail for kidnaping a teenage girl from a skating rink, might also be one of the two guys who escaped from lockup in Milton, Fla., by squeezing through a 12-inch by 12-inch vent in a recent-vintage facility. Northwest Florida Daily News
Comments 'ricky_spears'

More Things to Worry About on Wednesday
A quite-quite-large New York City woman incorrectly disembarked from her gym's abductor machine (the thing that you squeeze your thighs together on), and her pants caught, and she was "sling-shot" across the floor (and had to be hospitalized, taken away by paramedics using a "Stokes basket" instead of a stretcher) . . . . . There is such a thing as a voracious fish that looks part-gar, part-snake, and part-gator, right there in that lake near Tempe, Ariz. . . . . . The scrap-metal market grows: A guy was arrested in Miami, Fla., with a 40-ft municipal street lamp tied to the top of his car, headed for a recycling center (People gotta "do what they damn need to") . . . . . Complications in the family tree: A California lesbian couple each bore twins, 22 days [CORRECTION: 22 hours] apart, with the same donor's sperm, and one of the moms' eggs, so they're quads? . . . . . Shikukawa, in the center of Japan, celebrated its annual belly-button (i.e., center of the body) festival last weekend, with people drawing funny faces on their tummies and dancing through town.
Comments 'worry_080730'

Editor's Notes
Reminder: You can get Chuck's Hand-Picked Overnights by e-mail, free, every morning by joining the Google Group DailyWeird at this link: http://groups.google.com/group/DailyWeird?lnk=gschg
(Hyperlinks to the original news stories will show up in your copy if your e-mail platform is set to accept html.) No other mail, comments, spam, etc., will be sent to the Group. Today's Newsrangers: Aaron Geiger, Charlie Cummins, Karl Olson, Amber Mances
Comments 'editors_080730'

The Snowglobes of Thomas Doyle

Thomas Doyle offers this description of his art:


Here's one of his works titled "The reprisal":



And another titled "Clearing (UXO)":

Gamucci Electronic Cigarettes

Perhaps it's because I've been a non-smoker my entire life, but I really don't understand the point of the Gamucci electronic cigarette. From their website:


So basically it's a miniaturized fog gun that you hold in your mouth. Sounds like a swell way to join the revolution!

Jetpack Dreams

That most silly and pointless and inutile, yet much desired of flight mechanisms, the jetpack, is back in the news. You can read a New York Times piece about the latest model here.



And a review copy of this book recently arrived in my mailbox, portending lots of fun.











Yet such mechanisms pale before the magnificently insane accomplishment of Yves Rossy, who, a couple of years ago, basically turned himself into Iron Man. Watch his jet-powered flight below.

Follies of the Mad Men #6

[From The Saturday Evening Post for January 29, 1966.]



Of course, the very first thing you'll load aboard your interstellar ship is a new Frigidaire. What's that you say? These women are not astronauts, but rather futuristic housewives, and the Fridge remains earthbound? Then why are they wearing those bubble helmets? Future pollution? But what about the helmet that features a cutout? And the slit glasses? If only the geniuses who created this ad were still around, we could ask them to explain....

Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Tuesday

DNA comes through again: The murderer swore he never raped her, and he didn't!
David Steffen is on death row for the aggravated murder of an Ohio woman in 1982, with the aggravated part being that semen was found on the probably-a-virgin victim. He admitted the killing, but vehemently denied the sex, and, of course nobody believed him. Then Kenneth Douglas was arrested this past March for drug trafficking, and a routine DNA test on him matched the murder victim's semen, and, yes, yes, Douglas used to work for the county coroner! And, yes, Douglas was, er, that kind of guy! (Well, according to police, he was.) (Steffen might still be screwed, though, because at trial, in an attempt to create an aura of candor, he admitted that he wanted to have sex with the victim but held back, and capital murder includes "attempted" rape, too, so he's still on death row for now.) (Bonus: The victim's parents were ecstatic at the news . . because it means, ahem, their little girl was a virgin all her life.) Cincinnati Enquirer
Comments 'david_steffen'

Sounds Like a Joke: Praying for cheaper gas, and now, fasting against gang crime
The "Midwest co-chair" of the "Pray at the Pump" movement said God seems to be working for them, with the recent, slight drop at the pump. (Bonus: They actually gathered at a St. Louis Mobil station and sang "We Shall Overcome.") (Seriously) In Salinas, Calif., the mayor, exasperated that his city has suddenly become a haven for gang shoot-outs, is leading the town in a fast until gangs go away. "People say that fasting couldn't possibly work," he said, "but the evidence suggests otherwise." Associated Press via Yahoo // Los Angeles Times
Comments 'praying_fasting'

Update: The latest stop on the Virgin Mary's World Tour
(an appearance on a disgusting-looking floor drain of a restaurant undergoing renovation in the aforementioned town of Salinas) KGTV (San Diego)
Comments 'virgin_mary'

School sued for making it too easy for trespassers
The teenagers decided to climb on the roof of the elementary school in Port Jervis, N.Y., one night in January, and one fell through a skylight to her death, and now, obviously, the parents say that's the school's fault because there were milk cartons sitting there, and everybody knows that when kids see milk cartons lying around, they want to use them to get up on the roof. Times Herald-Record (Middletown, N.Y.)
Comments 'school_trespassers'

The F State's signature academic institution
The University of Florida was named by Princeton Review yesterday as the best college in the entire United States of America . . er . . for partying (and also for not having to study much). However, this scholarship-belittling accolade is undermined by a report that the school is in the academic vanguard, in that it offers a graduate concentration in . . comics (for English majors). So there. Mixed signals. Miami Herald // Christian Science Monitor
Comments 'university_florida'

Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Ben Hawkins, 44, charged in Cincinnati with an elaborate (yet still tacky) scheme to get to fondle little girls. Cincinnati Enquirer
Comments 'ben_hawkins'

More Things to Worry About on Tuesday
A canned eel drink went on sale in Japan this month, and eel is so popular that authorities are worried about "eel fraud" cases [Ed.: Like, what, is somebody substituting slugs for eel? What's lower than eel?] . . . . . Motorist Darrell Favorite, 39, crashed into a house, and since he wasn't wearing a seat belt, he, personally, landed on the roof . . . . . A British cosmetics company introduces Guy-liner and Manscara, and says it's not just for transvestites! . . . . . Vice President Cheney said he couldn't give a speech to the Disabled American Veterans convention in Las Vegas unless they all got their prosthetics on and were in their wheelchairs with their bladders evacuated two full hours before his arrival (Security, you know).
Comments 'worry_080729'

Editor's Notes
I was too subtle yesterday in referencing the Museum of Sex's chief consultant on the odd-mating arrangements of animals. Fascination with critter copulation is only one facet of Joan Roughgarden's bio. She's a Harvard Ph.D, and a serious Christian, and has challenged the specifics of the natural theory of sexual selection, and, for 52 yrs, was Jonathan Roughgarden. Today's Newsrangers: Scott Langill, Karl Olson, Ronald Shimek
Comments 'editors_080729'

Dakota Joe

Have a gander at Dakota Joe. He and his dog Digger are the mascots for a national Vacation Bible School Camp program. Because, you see, ultra-rationalist archaeology professors who believe fervently in the scientific method, despite having encountered various paranormal phenomena which themselves contradict Gospel, are the perfect spokepeople for Biblical inerrancy.

Seriously, though, shouldn't Spielberg & Lucas be suing the pants off these guys?

Fuller’s Fog Gun

Buckminster Fuller was great at dreaming up inventions that, he hoped, would help humanity by making people's lives easier and less stressful. However, most of them never caught on. One of his ideas was the fog gun.

The basic concept was to combine the cleansing effects of wind and heavy fog. His system used compressed air, atomized water and liquid soap. Standing in the blast of this "fog gun" for approximately ten minutes would completely clean a person. From buckminster.info:


The best part was that you could leave the fog gun running for an hour, and it only used a pint of water. And, "If fog gun bathing were done in front of a heat lamp, all the sanitary & muscle-relaxing effects of other types of bathing could be effected without the use of any bathroom."

Fuller described the fog gun in his first book, Nine Chains to the Moon, published in 1938, the title of which referred to the idea that if all the people in the world stood on each other's shoulders, they would form nine chains to the moon. Back then the world's population was about 2 billion. Now we're at over 6.6 billion, so presumably we're looking at about thirty chains to the moon.

Micronations

The concept of micronations is a fascinating idea. I utilized the notion in one of my recent stories, the title piece from The Emperor of Gondwanaland and Other Stories. But I hardly began to exhaust the narrative possibilities of the idea.










Here's a recent article on one such place, the Republic of Molossia.

Plants With Eyes

A strangely disturbing video. The computer graphics are so hyper-realistic that it's easy to think these plants are real. I was uncertain for a while until I did some research and learned that it's a video created by animation studio 1st Avenue Machine. Their website states that they create "high end design work by employing 3D in ways that blur the line between what we perceive as real and impossible." The music is "Sixes Last" by Alias.

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