I’m pretty sure I don’t like the 21st century

A new “Mosquito” device at the street level of the Metro entrance at 7th & H Streets in Chinatown is emitting shrill noise at 18 KHz, a high frequency that only young people can hear.

Similar devices have been installed in Britain with the same purpose of discouraging young people from congregating outside shops. According to Councilmember Jack Evans, the founder of the Gallery Place development had the device installed on his company’s Gallery Place building.

Greater Greater Washington

America’s real school-safety problem

Last fall, a Delaware student was suspended from school after bringing a knife into his classroom. Because of his school’s zero-tolerance weapons policy, he was suspended for 45 days and forced to attend an alternative school. Swift justice? Perhaps — except that the student, Zachary Christie, was a first grader at the time and the “weapon” was his Cub Scout-issued fork-spoon-knife tool.

A researcher and author argues that we are teaching kids to take a police state for granted; that there may be better and certainly less draconian ways to prevent violence.

Strangest news lede of the day

“A man in Las Vegas has spent the last four months searching for his missing wife, not having any idea that her body was actually buried amidst the clutter of their home.”

TIME NewsFeed

Her husband, Bill, and police had reportedly searched the house on several occasions, even using police dogs to help locate the woman. Apparently, the sheer volume of clutter in the house prevented even the dogs from tracking the scent of the missing woman.

It wasn’t until last Wednesday when Bill James spotted a pair of feet poking from beneath a “floor-to-ceiling pile of junk,” that he released his wife had actually been in their home the whole time.

Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal

“A special analysis of the data shows that 73% of Americans believe in at least one of the 10 items listed above, while 27% believe in none of them. A Gallup survey in 2001 provided similar results — 76% professed belief in at least one of the 10 items.”

Gallup

Strangest line of the day

“Kenyon Cotton, a former Baltimore Raven running back, died Friday following complications after surgery to repair a torn Achilles’ tendon.”

NFL FanHouse

He died from ankle surgery?!?

He was 36 years old!

And saddest line:

“Cotton leaves behind two sons, ages 13 and nine.”

I don’t like toll roads either

. . . but this is not a good idea.

An omen?

A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.

The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

Salon.com

Oh, quit complaining about the school bus

For Daisy Mora, 9, and the rest of the people in her village, a steel cable flying fox is the only way of getting to the outside world, the Daily Mail reported.

Despite her youth, Daisy is expected to travel down the flying fox at speeds of up to 62km/h with her younger brother attached beside her in a sack.

It’s a high pressure journey, with a 400m drop into the Rio Negro river facing her if the pulley system gives way.

Children take flying fox to school

Every big sister’s dream. Her little brother in a sack.

Photo is cropped from larger photo. Follow the link — there are four photos.

Redux post of the day

First posted here six years ago today

Man treated after attempting to nail himself to cross

NewMexiKen wasn’t going to post this lunacy until I saw the money quote:

When he realized that he was unable to nail his other hand to the board, he called 911,” Boucher said.”

Read the story from the Portland Press Herald [link no longer valid].

I was not aware

… that humans could mate with giraffes. But apparently so.

Oh, for crying out loud

Have these people never heard of veal?

Bah! Humbug!

A robber who claimed to “hate Christmas” made off with a red kettle full of donations for the Salvation Army on Saturday night outside The Andersons store on Illinois Avenue in Maumee, according to Maumee police.

The unidentified man approached the volunteer bell ringer about 6:25 p.m. He grabbed the kettle and tripod from which it was hanging. The bell ringer grabbed the chain, and the two fought for the kettle, according to Maumee police reports.

Maumee Police Sgt. David Tullis said the robber pushed the volunteer, and pulled the kettle away from her. He put the kettle and tripod in the back of a pickup truck after telling her, “I can’t stand you and your bell-ringing. I hate Christmas.”

Toledo Blade

Air travel already pisses me off, but this is too much

All Nippon Airways (ANA) claims that empty bladders mean lighter passengers, a lighter aircraft and thus lower fuel use.

Airline staff will be present at boarding gates in terminals to ask passengers waiting to fly to relieve themselves before boarding, The Independent reported.

ANA hopes the weight saved will lead to a five-tonne reduction in carbon emissions over the course of 30 days.

Mail Online

Damn criminals

Last March, Sally Harpold bought a box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband, then a few days later bought a box of Mucinex-D cold medicine for her grown daughter. That put her over the limit for how much pseudoephedrine-laced cold meds you can buy in a week in her small Indiana town, so she was arrested along with 16 other potential meth makers earlier this month.

Consumerist

Hey, life is unfair, see ya’

“A North Carolina Honeybaked Ham store manager was shot in an attempted store robbery in April, and has been recovering on worker’s compensation since the shooting. Now that his benefits have run out, the store very thoughtfully has terminated his employment.”

Consumerist

Idle thought: Who would rob a ham store?

Lions and Tigers and Bears are nothing

Watch out for those spruce trees!

Tricky gets a vanity plate for his new ride

Great photo of Nixon at Disneyland.

Do you know me?

“Did you hear about the identity thief in Seattle who tried to open a JC Penney credit card account with one of the very women whose identity she had stolen?”

Consumerist has the details.

The story originated with the Seattle Times Newspaper.

Line of the night

“A Vincent Van Gogh drawing stolen from a Santa Fe home in May was recovered Thursday from a consignment shop in Raton, where it was on sale for $250, police said.”

Santa Fe New Mexican

What is it about South Carolina?

“S.C. man accused of sex with horse — again”

On Deadline – USATODAY.com

If you were smart would you work there?

Guy: I’d like the two-for-one sundae deal.

Employee, agitated: It’s not two-for-one!

Guy: It’s not?

Employee: It’s “buy one, get one free”!

–6th St & 1st Ave

Overheard in New York

Doesn’t anyone JUST get married anymore?

We Are Gathered Here Today To Take It To The House

Redux post of the day

A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap that measured his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later received in the mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car.

Instead of payment, he sent the police department a photograph of $40.

Several days later, he received a letter from the police that contained another picture, this time of handcuffs.

He immediately mailed in his $40.

Top Idiots

Follow the link. There are several good stories.

First posted on July 22, 2007.

Was President Barack Obama wearing ‘mom jeans’?

“We can finally stop talking about the first lady’s penchant for showing off her toned arms and the national conversation can turn to something substantive: her husband’s unflattering, baggy blue jeans.”

Ellen Warren — Chicago Tribune

Hey, it’s hard to wear tight jeans (let alone throw the ball) when you’ve got on kevlar underwear.

New assignment

A reserve soldier who said he should not have to go to Afghanistan because Barack Obama was never legally eligible to be the president has had his deployment orders revoked, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported Wednesday.
. . .

Cook believes that Obama was ineligible to become president and commander-in-chief because he was is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, the paper reported. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

ajc.com

Here’s hoping his next deployment is to Leavenworth.