News of the Weird (September 13, 2015)
News of the Weird
Weirdnuz.M440, September 13, 2015
Copyright 2015 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
The Federal Aviation Administration recently granted (likely for the first time ever) an application to fly a paper airplane. Prominent drone advocate Peter Sachs had applied to conduct commercial aerial photography with his “aircraft” (a TailorToys model with a tiny propeller and maximum range of 180 feet), and the agency, concerned with air traffic safety, accommodated by treating the request (unironically?) under the rules for manned flights (that, among other restrictions, Sachs must not exceed “100 mph” and must engage a licensed airplane pilot to fly it, for Sachs is currently licensed only for helicopters). “With this grant,” said the “victorious” Sachs, “the FAA has abandoned all logic and sensibility.” [Forbes.com, 8-27-2015; Popular Science, 8-31-2015]
Questionable Judgments
Because temperatures were in the high 90s the last weekend in August, tourists visiting the historical Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland were greeted by the outdoor sprinkler system’s dousing them near the gates. It was intended as relief, said operators, to keep guests from fainting, but, as one Israeli visitor said, “It was a punch to the gut”--too reminiscent of Auschwitz’s gas chamber. (Jewish prisoners had been marched calmly to their deaths under the pretense that they were only being taken for showers.) [Ynet News (Tel Aviv), 8-31-2015]
DIY dentistry seemed off-limits--until amateur orthodontia got a boost from a 2012 YouTube video in which Shalom DeSota, 17, praised rubber bands for teeth-straightening. DeSota’s family lacked dental insurance at the time, so the would-be actress experimented by looping rubber bands around two front teeth she wanted to draw together. Many painful days later, she succeeded. The American Association of Orthodontists expressed alarm in August by the video’s recent popularity. So much could go wrong--infection, gum-tearing, detachment between tooth and gums--that DeSota, the organization said, had simply been lucky. [Today.com, 8-17-2015]
New World Order
Digital World: (1) The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction announced in July that it would be experimenting with online phys-ed courses for high-schoolers. Students would watch videos on certain activities, then go engage in them, and later self-report their (as the agency calls it) “mastery.” (2) British police warned in August of a brand-new sex crime based on the iPhone app “Airdrop.” The app sends text or photos instantly to nearby Airdrop users (who choose to receive from “contacts” or from “everyone”). Thus, perverts can “flash” strangers by posting nude pictures of themselves to reach Airdrop users set carelessly (or purposely!) to “everyone.” [Charlotte Observer, 7-21-2015] [BBC News, 8-13-2015]
Seems Like the Season of Email Muddles
(1) All Sherri Smith wanted was copies of background e-mails about her son (who has a disability) in the files of the Goodrich, Mich., school system, but the superintendent informed her in June that the Freedom Of Information request would cost her $77,780 (4,500 hours of searching--taking two years to complete). (Michigan’s FOI law was somewhat liberalized on July 1st, and Smith said she may re-file.) (2) After a McKinney, Tex., police officer was filmed pointing his gun at unarmed black teenagers at a pool party in June, the online Gawker Media filed a Public Information Act request for the officer’s records and any e-mails about his conduct. The city estimated that request’s cost at $79,229 (hiring a programer, for 2,231 hours’ searching--plus “computer time”). Gawker said it would appeal. [WNEM-TV (Saginaw, Mich.), 7-1-2015] [Gawker.com, 6-29-2015]
Government Inaction
The streets of Jackson, Miss., apparently have potholes that rival the worst in the country, but without adequate budget to fix them, according to Mayor Tony Yarber. His remedy, offered earnestly to constituents in August: prayer. “I believe we can pray potholes away.” (Yarber, elected in 2014, was pastor of the Relevant Empowerment Church.) [Times-Picayune, 8-21-2015]
Names in the News
Charged with choking and punching his fiancee, Mr. Daniel Gentleman, 28 (Prescott, Ariz., May). Charged with killing her husband and burying his body in a manure pile on their farm: Ms. Charlene Mess, 48 (Attica, N.Y., April). Charged with sexual assault: Mr. Huckleberry Finn (Keene, N.H., July). And prominent in the news (confusingly so) when the Food and Drug Administration approved the so-called “female Viagra” drug Addyi in August: FDA spokesperson Dr. Janet Woodcock. [Prescott Daily Courier, 5-19-2015] [Associated Press via KCCI-TV (Des Moines, Iowa), 4-21-2015] [Union Leader (Manchester), 7-29-2015] [New York Times, 8-19-2015]
Least Competent People
“Selfies” continue to take their devastating toll on Americans. On August 30th in Orient, Maine, driver Jordan Toner, 29, attempting to lean into a 7-person selfie among his passengers, crashed into a tree, causing numerous injuries. On August 24th, Alex Gomez, 36, of Lake Elsinore, Calif., tried to take one after draping an angry four-foot-long rattlesnake around his neck. The predictable bite was damaging but not fatal. On September 1st in Houston, Tex., a 19-year-old man taking selfies while clumsily fondling his handgun is no longer with us. [WCSH-TV (Portland, Maine), 8-30-2015] [KCBS-TV (Los Angeles), 8-25-2015] [KPRC-TV (Houston), 9-2-2015]
Recurring Themes
In June, News of the Weird mentioned a drug dealer in Marseille, France, who was distributing loyalty cards to his best customers (fill 10 squares, get a discount). In August, a small-time cannabis dealer in the central France town of Villeurbanne pushed the envelope further by taping 1-gram samples to hand-lettered leaflets (offering home delivery for 100-euro orders, along with his first name and phone number). The man was of course arrested, with the local police superintendent musing about the man’s “very special” business model. [The Local (Paris), 8-28-2015]
More “Slow TV”: Norwegian TV viewers have somehow given strong ratings to a series of seemingly interminable programs (a continuous camera on a salmon-fishing vessel, 12 hours of live log-burning with commentary, five hours of knitters spinning their way to a world’s record, 100 straight hours of chess-playing, a five-day stretch from a cruise ship), and in August were presented another such gift. The Norwegian caviar company Mills said it would livestream, on a YouTube channel, nearly eleven 24/7 months of fish eggs aging in barrels--7,392 hours of “programing.” [United Press International, 8-21-2015]
People With Issues: Alexander Carlsson, 25, was jailed in Sanford, Fla., in August on federal child-pornography charges, but also told agents that he is a “clopper,” which identifies him, he said, as one who masturbates while gazing at figurines and pictures depicting Hasbro’s My Little Pony toys. [Orlando Sentinel, 8-6-2015]
Readers’ Choice
A thief grabbed the purse of an elderly woman shopping with her husband at a Fred Meyer store in Spokane, Wash., on July 23rd and fled through a parking lot. They had no chance to catch the man, but he happened to run right by hospital nurse Heidi Muat, 42, who surmised the situation and started after him. The thief quickly saw that Muat could outrun him, and he gave up the purse, which Muat returned to the couple. Muat later revealed her alter ego: On her “Spokannibals” Roller Derby team, she is known as Ms. “Ida B. ChoAzz.” [KXLY-TV (Spokane), 7-27-2015] [New York Daily News, 8-7-2015]
A News of the Weird Classic (February 2009)
Though India is recognized as a world leader in promoting the health benefits of urine, its dominance will be assured by the end of the year [2009] when a cow-urine-based soft drink comes to market. Om Prakash, chief of the Cow Protection Department of the RSS organization (India's largest Hindu nationalist group), trying to reassure a Times of London reporter in February, promised, "It won't smell like urine and will be tasty, too," noting that medicinal herbs would be added and toxins removed. In addition to improved health, he said, India needs a domestic (and especially Hindu) beverage to compete with the foreign influence of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. [The Times (London), 2-11-2009]
Thanks This Week to Wayne Ballard, David Melcher, and Alice Sullivan, and to the News of the Weird Senior Advisors (Jenny T. Beatty, Paul Di Filippo, Ginger Katz, Joe Littrell, Matt Mirapaul, Paul Music, Karl Olson, and Jim Sweeney) and Board of Editorial Advisors (Tom Barker, Paul Blumstein, Harry Farkas, Sam Gaines, Herb Jue, Emory Kimbrough, Scott Langill, Bob McCabe, Steve Miller, Christopher Nalty, Mark Neunder, Sandy Pearlman, Bob Pert, Larry Ellis Reed, Peter Smagorinsky, Rob Snyder, Stephen Taylor, Bruce Townley, and Jerry Whittle).
Weirdnuz.M440, September 13, 2015
Copyright 2015 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
The Federal Aviation Administration recently granted (likely for the first time ever) an application to fly a paper airplane. Prominent drone advocate Peter Sachs had applied to conduct commercial aerial photography with his “aircraft” (a TailorToys model with a tiny propeller and maximum range of 180 feet), and the agency, concerned with air traffic safety, accommodated by treating the request (unironically?) under the rules for manned flights (that, among other restrictions, Sachs must not exceed “100 mph” and must engage a licensed airplane pilot to fly it, for Sachs is currently licensed only for helicopters). “With this grant,” said the “victorious” Sachs, “the FAA has abandoned all logic and sensibility.” [Forbes.com, 8-27-2015; Popular Science, 8-31-2015]
Questionable Judgments
Because temperatures were in the high 90s the last weekend in August, tourists visiting the historical Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland were greeted by the outdoor sprinkler system’s dousing them near the gates. It was intended as relief, said operators, to keep guests from fainting, but, as one Israeli visitor said, “It was a punch to the gut”--too reminiscent of Auschwitz’s gas chamber. (Jewish prisoners had been marched calmly to their deaths under the pretense that they were only being taken for showers.) [Ynet News (Tel Aviv), 8-31-2015]
DIY dentistry seemed off-limits--until amateur orthodontia got a boost from a 2012 YouTube video in which Shalom DeSota, 17, praised rubber bands for teeth-straightening. DeSota’s family lacked dental insurance at the time, so the would-be actress experimented by looping rubber bands around two front teeth she wanted to draw together. Many painful days later, she succeeded. The American Association of Orthodontists expressed alarm in August by the video’s recent popularity. So much could go wrong--infection, gum-tearing, detachment between tooth and gums--that DeSota, the organization said, had simply been lucky. [Today.com, 8-17-2015]
New World Order
Digital World: (1) The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction announced in July that it would be experimenting with online phys-ed courses for high-schoolers. Students would watch videos on certain activities, then go engage in them, and later self-report their (as the agency calls it) “mastery.” (2) British police warned in August of a brand-new sex crime based on the iPhone app “Airdrop.” The app sends text or photos instantly to nearby Airdrop users (who choose to receive from “contacts” or from “everyone”). Thus, perverts can “flash” strangers by posting nude pictures of themselves to reach Airdrop users set carelessly (or purposely!) to “everyone.” [Charlotte Observer, 7-21-2015] [BBC News, 8-13-2015]
Seems Like the Season of Email Muddles
(1) All Sherri Smith wanted was copies of background e-mails about her son (who has a disability) in the files of the Goodrich, Mich., school system, but the superintendent informed her in June that the Freedom Of Information request would cost her $77,780 (4,500 hours of searching--taking two years to complete). (Michigan’s FOI law was somewhat liberalized on July 1st, and Smith said she may re-file.) (2) After a McKinney, Tex., police officer was filmed pointing his gun at unarmed black teenagers at a pool party in June, the online Gawker Media filed a Public Information Act request for the officer’s records and any e-mails about his conduct. The city estimated that request’s cost at $79,229 (hiring a programer, for 2,231 hours’ searching--plus “computer time”). Gawker said it would appeal. [WNEM-TV (Saginaw, Mich.), 7-1-2015] [Gawker.com, 6-29-2015]
Government Inaction
The streets of Jackson, Miss., apparently have potholes that rival the worst in the country, but without adequate budget to fix them, according to Mayor Tony Yarber. His remedy, offered earnestly to constituents in August: prayer. “I believe we can pray potholes away.” (Yarber, elected in 2014, was pastor of the Relevant Empowerment Church.) [Times-Picayune, 8-21-2015]
Names in the News
Charged with choking and punching his fiancee, Mr. Daniel Gentleman, 28 (Prescott, Ariz., May). Charged with killing her husband and burying his body in a manure pile on their farm: Ms. Charlene Mess, 48 (Attica, N.Y., April). Charged with sexual assault: Mr. Huckleberry Finn (Keene, N.H., July). And prominent in the news (confusingly so) when the Food and Drug Administration approved the so-called “female Viagra” drug Addyi in August: FDA spokesperson Dr. Janet Woodcock. [Prescott Daily Courier, 5-19-2015] [Associated Press via KCCI-TV (Des Moines, Iowa), 4-21-2015] [Union Leader (Manchester), 7-29-2015] [New York Times, 8-19-2015]
Least Competent People
“Selfies” continue to take their devastating toll on Americans. On August 30th in Orient, Maine, driver Jordan Toner, 29, attempting to lean into a 7-person selfie among his passengers, crashed into a tree, causing numerous injuries. On August 24th, Alex Gomez, 36, of Lake Elsinore, Calif., tried to take one after draping an angry four-foot-long rattlesnake around his neck. The predictable bite was damaging but not fatal. On September 1st in Houston, Tex., a 19-year-old man taking selfies while clumsily fondling his handgun is no longer with us. [WCSH-TV (Portland, Maine), 8-30-2015] [KCBS-TV (Los Angeles), 8-25-2015] [KPRC-TV (Houston), 9-2-2015]
Recurring Themes
In June, News of the Weird mentioned a drug dealer in Marseille, France, who was distributing loyalty cards to his best customers (fill 10 squares, get a discount). In August, a small-time cannabis dealer in the central France town of Villeurbanne pushed the envelope further by taping 1-gram samples to hand-lettered leaflets (offering home delivery for 100-euro orders, along with his first name and phone number). The man was of course arrested, with the local police superintendent musing about the man’s “very special” business model. [The Local (Paris), 8-28-2015]
More “Slow TV”: Norwegian TV viewers have somehow given strong ratings to a series of seemingly interminable programs (a continuous camera on a salmon-fishing vessel, 12 hours of live log-burning with commentary, five hours of knitters spinning their way to a world’s record, 100 straight hours of chess-playing, a five-day stretch from a cruise ship), and in August were presented another such gift. The Norwegian caviar company Mills said it would livestream, on a YouTube channel, nearly eleven 24/7 months of fish eggs aging in barrels--7,392 hours of “programing.” [United Press International, 8-21-2015]
People With Issues: Alexander Carlsson, 25, was jailed in Sanford, Fla., in August on federal child-pornography charges, but also told agents that he is a “clopper,” which identifies him, he said, as one who masturbates while gazing at figurines and pictures depicting Hasbro’s My Little Pony toys. [Orlando Sentinel, 8-6-2015]
Readers’ Choice
A thief grabbed the purse of an elderly woman shopping with her husband at a Fred Meyer store in Spokane, Wash., on July 23rd and fled through a parking lot. They had no chance to catch the man, but he happened to run right by hospital nurse Heidi Muat, 42, who surmised the situation and started after him. The thief quickly saw that Muat could outrun him, and he gave up the purse, which Muat returned to the couple. Muat later revealed her alter ego: On her “Spokannibals” Roller Derby team, she is known as Ms. “Ida B. ChoAzz.” [KXLY-TV (Spokane), 7-27-2015] [New York Daily News, 8-7-2015]
A News of the Weird Classic (February 2009)
Though India is recognized as a world leader in promoting the health benefits of urine, its dominance will be assured by the end of the year [2009] when a cow-urine-based soft drink comes to market. Om Prakash, chief of the Cow Protection Department of the RSS organization (India's largest Hindu nationalist group), trying to reassure a Times of London reporter in February, promised, "It won't smell like urine and will be tasty, too," noting that medicinal herbs would be added and toxins removed. In addition to improved health, he said, India needs a domestic (and especially Hindu) beverage to compete with the foreign influence of Coca-Cola and Pepsi. [The Times (London), 2-11-2009]
Thanks This Week to Wayne Ballard, David Melcher, and Alice Sullivan, and to the News of the Weird Senior Advisors (Jenny T. Beatty, Paul Di Filippo, Ginger Katz, Joe Littrell, Matt Mirapaul, Paul Music, Karl Olson, and Jim Sweeney) and Board of Editorial Advisors (Tom Barker, Paul Blumstein, Harry Farkas, Sam Gaines, Herb Jue, Emory Kimbrough, Scott Langill, Bob McCabe, Steve Miller, Christopher Nalty, Mark Neunder, Sandy Pearlman, Bob Pert, Larry Ellis Reed, Peter Smagorinsky, Rob Snyder, Stephen Taylor, Bruce Townley, and Jerry Whittle).
Comments
FAA- And yet we see near miss incidents and crashes.
Auschwitz- They were trying to keep people from getting heat sick but chose an unfortunate way of doing so considering where they were. It was not with malicious intent.
virtual phys ed- Yeah cuz teens are so good at self motivation and telling the truth.
air drop- Just what the net needs, another way to send dic pics.
school files- Schools have been hiding what is in student files from parents since it was an analog endeavor. In fact some friends and I toyed with stealing our files to read them in middle school because we found out that if parents requested to see it the school could take 24 hours to remove anything they wanted to first. We did not end up trying but we talked about it a lot.
Police info- In the current climate that decision will never stand.
Prayer- Pray potholes away? Maybe the city churches could fund some repairs.
names- Do names forge who we become?
'nother new law- Now we need a law against taking selfies while driving because we have to legislate on each new stupid that turns up. NO DISTRACTED DRIVING PEOPLE!
TV- I could see someone putting the tv on the fireplace channel for ambiance or a fish tank channel for the calming effect but I do not get some of the others. I guess if it is getting viewership then some people get something out of it though.
My Little Pony pervs- The dark side of bronies.
Super Nurse!- She's a Badass!!!!!!
Pee Pop- Really? Disgusting!
Auschwitz- They were trying to keep people from getting heat sick but chose an unfortunate way of doing so considering where they were. It was not with malicious intent.
virtual phys ed- Yeah cuz teens are so good at self motivation and telling the truth.
air drop- Just what the net needs, another way to send dic pics.
school files- Schools have been hiding what is in student files from parents since it was an analog endeavor. In fact some friends and I toyed with stealing our files to read them in middle school because we found out that if parents requested to see it the school could take 24 hours to remove anything they wanted to first. We did not end up trying but we talked about it a lot.
Police info- In the current climate that decision will never stand.
Prayer- Pray potholes away? Maybe the city churches could fund some repairs.
names- Do names forge who we become?
'nother new law- Now we need a law against taking selfies while driving because we have to legislate on each new stupid that turns up. NO DISTRACTED DRIVING PEOPLE!
TV- I could see someone putting the tv on the fireplace channel for ambiance or a fish tank channel for the calming effect but I do not get some of the others. I guess if it is getting viewership then some people get something out of it though.
My Little Pony pervs- The dark side of bronies.
Super Nurse!- She's a Badass!!!!!!
Pee Pop- Really? Disgusting!
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 09/13/15 at 02:28 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Category: