The Daily Drift

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Carolina Naturally is read in 203 countries around the world daily.   

    
Now, that's a sandwich  ... !

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Today in History

1573   Henry of Anjou becomes the first elected king of Poland.  
1689   French and English navies battle at Bantry Bay.  
1690   In the first major engagement of King William's War, British troops from Massachusetts seize Port Royal in Acadia (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) from the French.
1745   French forces defeat an Anglo-Dutch-Hanoverian army at Fontenoy.
1792   The Columbia River is discovered by Captain Robert Gray.
1812   British prime Minster Spencer Perceval is shot by a bankrupt banker in the lobby of the House of Commons.  
1857   Indian mutineers seize Delhi.  
1858   Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd U.S. state.
1860   Giuseppe Garibaldi lands at Marsala, Sicily.  
1862   Confederates scuttle the CSS Virginia off Norfolk, Virginia.
1864   Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart is mortally wounded at Yellow Tavern.  
1960   Israeli soldiers capture Adolf Eichmann in Buenos Aires.
1967   The siege of Khe Sanh ends, the base is still in American hands

Non Sequitur

Atheism trending - even in the Arab world

Several years ago we bookmarked an article in The Telegraph which highlighted the rising number of atheists and Muslims in the United States.  Citing a Washington Post article, the author noted "how washed out and feeble Catholicism and mainline Protestantism have become."

So 40 per cent of people in Boston have no religion at all, and it's more than half in many counties. As for the 47 per cent of Bostonians who are catholic "participants" – well, there isn't much participation going on come Sunday morning. We're talking about 17 per cent Mass attendance these days... not even the Deist Jefferson would have been pleased to know that, in 2013, America's fastest-growing religious allegiance is "None" – that is, agnosticism shading into atheism... Let's put this simply: America is secularizing just like Europe...

We never posted the information at the time, but will do so now as a companion piece for an article in The New Republic about the rise of atheism in the Arab world.

While Arab states downplay the atheists among their citizens, the West is culpable in its inability to even conceive of an Arab atheist. In Western media, the question is not if Arabs are religious, but rather to what extent their (assumed) religiosity can harm the West...
Large numbers of individuals are tilting away from the rote religiosity Westerners reflexively associate with the Arab world. In 2012, a wide-ranging WIN/Gallup International poll found that 5 percent of Saudi citizens—more than a million people—self-identify as “convinced atheists,” the same percentage as in the United States. Nineteen percent of Saudis—almost six million people—think of themselves as “not a religious person.” (In Italy, the figure is 15 percent.) These numbers are even more striking considering that many Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Yemen, uphold the sharia rule punishing apostasy with death...
Despite such draconian measures, the percentage of people who express some measure of religious doubt is higher in the Arab world (22 percent) than in South Asia (17 percent) and Latin America (16 percent). And that 22 percent is only an average; the percentage goes higher in some Arab countries, from 24 percent in Tunisia up to 37 percent in Lebanon...
Despite the risks and the social and political challenges they’re facing, all the atheist activists I interviewed said they were confident that the future of the Arab world belongs to secularism. Willoughby told me that “atheism is spreading like wildfire” in the Middle East. Brian Whitaker views it as “the symptom of a much bigger thing, which is the battle against oppression.” The booming Arab underground music scene is another example of the irresistible impetus for change that is quietly transforming the Middle East and North Africa. A full cultural revolution will probably take some time. Speaking about his country, Abdel-Samad said, “I think secularism is a certainty, not just a possibility, for Egypt’s future. All that remains unclear is what price the country will pay first. History tells me blood.”

The Day of the Century

How Germans Experienced End of WWII

In a multimedia special with historic videos, photos and interviews with witnesses, herein document the end of World War II on May 8, 1945, showing the suffering and upheaval experienced across Europe and Germany. More

Improve your eyesight college course cancelled after being described as pure quackery

An evening course that promised to teach students how to improve their own eyesight has been pulled by Sweden's largest adult education organization after ophthalmologists described it as "pure quackery". The course, which was scheduled to take place at a night school in Blekinge in southern Sweden, proposed that pupils could learn how to get better eyesight by participating in training exercises, including learning how to read upside down.

The teacher who was booked to teach it is an architect and has no previous training in ophthalmology. But she claimed to have "healed" previous students suffering from eye problems such as astigmatism. Jan Ygge, an ophthalmologist and professor at Stockholm-based university, Karolinska Institute, said that the idea was "pure quackery" based on "fake" science. "It's not that a course like this is dangerous but it is terrible to be offering something with no scientific evidence to back it up," he said.
"We have actually got some student research on similar courses coming up. Students took this kind of 'alternative medicine' class and found no difference whatsoever to their sight." The Blekinge college scheduled to run the course is part of ABF, which describes itself as Sweden’s largest adult liberal education association. When contacted, the organization said it was unaware of the locally-organized lessons. Hours later it had pulled the course from its online prospectus.
"The course has been cancelled, not because of the media attention but because the aim of the course obviously doesn't apply to our view of science or care," said Niklas Skeppar, a spokesman for ABF said. "Our local branch in Blekinge didn't have the proper information when agreeing to this study-circle ... but we are an organization that arranges some 65,000 lectures and 100,000 courses every year, so even if an error like this is a bad thing, seen in the broader picture, it isn't a big problem for us," he added.

Arkansas pastor’s wife turns him in after finding ‘tens of thousands’ of child porn files

An Arkansas youth pastor is facing child pornography charges after his wife reportedly found images of underage girls on his computer and turned them over to police.

Arkansas preacher and child porn: The story writes itself

Bewildered Florida Woman Sues State For Marking ‘Sexual Predator’ On Her Driver’s License

Tammy Masters couldn’t figure out why she kept getting all these weird looks every time she showed her new Florida driver’s license.

Read full story

Naked man in lawn chair threatened neighbors with AK-47

A man from Rowan County, North Carolina, was jailed under a $2,000 bond, charged with indecent exposure and communicating threats, and investigators say the man admitted to them that he committed both acts because of a dispute with his neighbor. Brian Tracy Carroll, 45, was booked into the jail just after 7:30pm on Saturday.

The incident was first reported to deputies on Saturday afternoon. A homeowner had called to say that his neighbor was sitting in the back yard totally naked, and that his chair was less than thirty feet from where the homeowner's teenage daughter was riding a horse. When deputies arrived, they found Carroll "completely naked" on the back porch of his home.
The report indicated Carroll had a towel around his neck. When asked why he was naked, Carroll, referring to his neighbor said "he pisses me off so I sat in that chair." Carroll allegedly told deputies that he wanted to be naked and wasn't going to put on any clothes, stating "I don't care."
Deputies asked Carroll if he had threatened his neighbors by saying that he had an AK-47 and "knew how to use it." Carroll said that he did make the statement, then laughed. Carroll, who is listed as "disabled" on the arrest report, was exposing his "private parts" and "other full frontal nudity." Carroll has a court date of June 18.

Man charged with stealing his own lawyer's mobile phone during court appearance

A man has been charged with stealing his own lawyer's mobile phone during an appearance at Bexley Magistrates' Court in south east London.

Bobby Heath, 25, allegedly took the phone at the court on May 1. Heath was appearing in court to plead guilty to charges of possession of cannabis and driving without insurance.
He was fined £65 plus a £20 victim surcharge for possessing cannabis and fined £100 plus £150 court costs and had his driving license endorsed with six points for the motoring offense.
Charges of driving a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, driving otherwise than in accordance with a license and riding a motorcycle without protective headgear were discontinued at court. He has been bailed to appear again at Bexley Magistrates' Court on June 2 regarding the alleged theft of the mobile phone.

Man charged following attack with frying pan

An man from Accord in Ulster County, New York, has been charged with felony assault after attacking an acquaintance with a frying pan, police said on Monday.

William H. Williams, 56, was charged after the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office received a report of an assault, police said.
Ulster County Sheriff Paul Van Blarcum would not specify the gender of the victim or what may have motivated the alleged attack on Saturday at a local residence, citing possible additional charges that may be filed.
"I will say it was not his wife," Van Blarcum said. Williams was charged with second-degree assault, a felony. Williams was arraigned in Marbletown Court and sent to Ulster County Jail without bail. He was ordered to stay away from the victim.
In further assault by frying pan news, Lisa Williams from DuBois, Pennsylvania, has been charged with hitting her father on the head with a frying pan.

Shoe

Cocaine found in banana boxes at supermarket, again

More than $21 million worth of cocaine has turned up in banana boxes delivered from Colombia to supermarkets in Berlin, Germany. A police spokesman said, "Apparently there was a logistical mistake somewhere along the line." The same thing happened last January too.

Underwater fake skeleton tea party found by authorities

The La Paz County Sheriff’s Office and Buckskin Fire Department responded to a report of “found human remains” in the Colorado River in Arizona on Monday.

At approximately 10am, the La Paz County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to the area of Cienega Springs boat launch. The reporting person stated that he/she was out snorkeling when they noticed skeletal remains at the bottom of the river.
Sheriff’s Office personnel met with members of the Buckskin Fire Department who sent one of their divers down to investigate. The diver took an underwater camera and video recorded the footage as he saw it.

YouTube link.

When Firefighter Foerstner located the alleged remains, he found it to be an underwater tea party with two fake skeletons sitting in lawn chairs. Although the call itself was resource intensive, both the Sheriff’s Office and Buckskin Fire were happy to find that the remains weren’t real and thanked the reporting party for making the call.

Cerne Abbas Giant censored and given new look for comic book

A comic character based on Dorset's Cerne Abbas Giant has had to be redrawn because it showed his genitalia. Eco Comics said it had been forced to alter the ancient naked chalk hill figure in its online comic because some outlets had refused to release it.

The comic said the Cerne Giant's "rather renowned region" would be fully concealed in an alternative version. The giant features in the comic's Englishman series alongside a superhero character based on St George.
A spokesperson for the comic said: "It seems a sad indictment of the times when a legendary landmark like the Cerne Giant - which any man, woman or child can visit any day of the week - must be covered up in a comic book. Through pressure, our hand has been forced. Outlets, particularly in the US, refuse any form of nudity in comic books," the spokesperson added.
The 180ft (55m) tall giant is owned and managed by The National Trust. Helen Mann, the trust's West Dorset general manager, said: "The Cerne Abbas Giant stands out as a unique character in the Dorset countryside and the National Trust has never censored images of him. We like him as he is."

Libyan Desert Glass

The so called Libyan Desert Glass is the purest natural silica glass ever found on earth. The glass is generally yellow in color. It can be very clear or it can be a milky, and even contain tiny bubbles, white wisps, and inky black swirls. Over a thousand tons of these glass are strewn across hundreds of kilometers of bleak desert. Most of these are the size of pebbles polished smooth by the abrasive action of the blowing sand. Others are chunks of considerable size and weight. The biggest piece ever found weighed around 26 kg...
The Libyan desert glass has been dated as having formed about 26 million years ago, which made scientists assume that the glass here was formed when a meteorite struck earth around this time, but the absence of an impact crater pose problems for this theory...
Local inhabitants in the Neolithic period made tools out of the glass, and later the Egyptians used it as jewel. A large piece of carved stone on the breastplate of the famous Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun was identified as none other than Libyan Desert Glass.. More info and photos at Amusing Planet.

Cave-Climbing Fish Found—Is It Evolution in Action?

Filmed shimmying up a cave wall in Ecuador, the catfish is likely a known species with a never before seen behavior, a new study says.

by James Owen

Deep beneath the Amazon rain forest lives a cave-climbing fish—and scientists have captured it on film for the first time.

A team exploring limestone caves near Tena, Ecuador, found the gravity-defying fish scaling near-vertical rock walls some 10 feet (3 meters) above an underground stream.

They later identified the species as Chaetostoma microps, a member of the suckermouth armoured catfish family (Loricariidae), according a study published April 16 in the journal Subterranean Biology.

Although that identification isn't 100 percent certain—for one, the expedition team wasn't authorized collect animal specimens in the caves—C. microps has previously been recorded only in aboveground rivers, where it clings to rocks.

While climbing fish are nothing new, the only other cave climber known to study leader Geoff Hoese is a loach from Thailand dubbed the waterfall-climbing cave fish (Cryptotora thamicola).

This fish is able to climb rapids and waterfalls, but Hoese questioned whether it can negotiate "cave walls outside of the main stream flow, such as we observed here."

Hoese and his team observed C. microps shimmy up cave walls where water streamed down from tiny underground tributaries.

The catfish (seen climbing a 75-degree wall) likely uses water pressure and structures in their mouths and skin to stay attached.

This impressive climbing ability is due to "a number of modified structural elements of their fins, skin, and mouths," said Hoese, a naturalist and speleologist based in Austin, Texas.

"The thin film of water flowing over them as they climb likely provides pressure to help hold them to the wall, and these various structures help keep them from sliding down," he added. "They can then wriggle their way up, or also down, as you can see in the video."

Traveling Fish?

The puzzling thing about the new-found cave-climbing fish is that they don't appear to be adapted for underground life. These fish weren't colorless or blind, for instance, unlike other fish adapted to live in caves.

So what was C. microps doing down there in the darkness?

"This species is known to primarily eat algae, and as there's no sunlight in the caves, there's not much algae, so it seems unlikely that they are there to feed," Hoese said.

"The simplest explanation is that they simply occupy the fullest extent of the range they can reach," he added.

 

Scientists suspect the cave-climbing fish is C. microps, a known species of suckermouth armored catfish.
Hoese noted the fish live in an Amazonian region where rivers are born in springs that issue from caves in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.

Maybe the catfish "just continue up the streams and into the springs, and on into the caves," he said.

Going to the Dark Side

Many fish have a natural instinct to head upstream, in order to breed, for example.

Another possibility is that the climbing catfish mark the beginnings of an evolving species of permanent cave-dwellers.

"Evolution is a process that's constantly at work," Hoese said. "It's interesting to look at examples where there may be changes, such as here, where we have a surface fish exhibiting specific behaviors and occupying an unusual habitat."

A model for comparison is another suckermouth catfish that the expedition team recorded, Astroblepus pholeter. A colorless species with miniscule eyes, it's already made the transition to cave life.

Right now there isn't the evidence to suggest C. microps is going to the dark side, but, said Hoese, "It's an exciting possibility."  

Feeling of déjà vu for police officer who rescued dog in rowing boat for second time in 18 months

A police officer from Wolverhampton in the West Midlands could be forgiven for having a feeling of déjà vu. For the second time in 18 months he found himself jumping into a rowing boat to capture a fleeing felon with four legs, a wet nose and a wagging tail. On a warm afternoon the water at the city’s West Park proved far too tempting for Lexi the dog who decided to go for swim.
But the terriers’ doggy-paddling failed her and she soon got into difficulties. The dog’s plight had been witnessed by a visitor to the park who swam out to help the damsel in distress. But his brave actions left the duo stranded on the boating lakes’ island. So PC Ben Bates and PC Adrian Chandler commandeered a nearby boat to paddle out to pair.
Remarkably it was a similar tale back in October 2013 when PC Bates was called upon to do exactly the same thing, at the same park with the same dog. On that occasion he managed to coax Lexi into a boat before she jumped out and decided to give swimming another try, prompting PC Bates to take the plunge himself.
Thankfully this time Lexi remained on-board for the duration of the journey and she was soon back on the mainland with the man who had initially swum out to rescue her. "They say dogs are man’s best friend - and in the last year or so myself and Lexi have become close - too close for my liking. Thankfully for her on both occasions I have been patrolling nearby and been able to work with park rangers to rescue her," said PC Bates.

Lone dog doing doughnuts in dinghy rescued

A canine rescue service was launched on Tuesday after a dog was spotted doing doughnuts in a dinghy off The Strand in Townsville, Queensland, Australia.

The owner of the dinghy reportedly fell overboard at about 10am, but was quickly rescued by another boat.

YouTube link.

This left his dog stranded on the dinghy, which was still running and spinning around in circles.


The dog's owner then used another boat to approach the out of control dinghy, before jumping aboard and rescuing his friend.
There's an additional video of the doughnut-spinning dinghy dog here.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

True, so true ...!

 

Carolina Naturally is read in 203 countries around the world daily.   

    
Happy Mother's Day  ... !

Today is - Mother's Day

You want the unvarnished truth?

Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told

Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Buenos Aires, Argentina
La Paz, Bolivia
Maraba, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil
Beauharnois, Chelsea, Montreal, Ottawa, Sorel-Tracy, Vancouver and Victoria, Canada
Santiago, Chile
Bogota and Medellin, Colombia
San Jose, Costa Rica
Boaco, Nicaragua
Asuncion, Paraguay
Trujillo, Peru
Pajaros and San Juan, Puerto Rico
Barquisimeto, Venezuela
Europe
Minsk, Belarus
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Glavinitsa, Ruse and Sofia, Bulgaria
Bestovje and Zagreb, Croatia
Limassol, Cyprus
London, England
Calais, Laval, Lyon, Nice, Paris, Rouen, Saint-Julien and Salon-de-Provence, France
Meria, Georgia
Berlin and Giessen, Germany
Athens and Marousi, Greece
Reykjavik, Iceland
Dublin, Ireland
Milan, Prato, Rome and Venice, Italy
Riga, Latvia
Amsterdam, Den Haag and Rotterdam, Netherlands
Oslo, Norway
Katowice and Warsaw, Poland
Costa de Caparica and Lisbon, Portugal
Bucharest, Romania
Moscow, Ryazan and Vladivostok, Russia
Edinburgh, Scotland
Belgrade, Serbia
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Barcelona, Madrid, Reus and Valencia, Spain
Lulea, Sweden
Ankara and Mercin, Turkey
Dnipropetrovsk, Kiev and Odessa, Ukraine
Hook, Wales
Asia
Beijing and Guangzhou, China
Bangalore, Calicut, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Patna, Pune, Raipur,
Shivaji Nagar and Trichur, India
Denpasar and Jakarta, Indonesia
Tehran, Iran
As Samawah, Iraq
Seoul, Korea
Bandar Labuan, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur and Sibu, Malaysia
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Kathmandu, Nepal
Islamabad and Karachi, Pakistan
Gaza, Palestine
Al Wakrah, Qatar
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Bua Yai, Mae Chan and Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Africa
Cairo, Egypt
Rabat, Morocco
Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Secunda, South Africa
Carthage, Tunisia
The Pacific
Brisbane, Homebush, Strathfield, Sydney and Woolloongabba, Australia
Makati, Philippines

Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1285   Philip III of Spain is succeeded by Philip IV ("the Fair").
1503   Christopher Columbus discovers the Cayman Islands.  
1676   Bacon's Rebellion begins in the New World.
1773   To keep the troubled East India Company afloat, Parliament passes the Tea Act, taxing all tea in the American colonies.  
1774   Louis XVI succeeds his father Louis XV as King of France.  
1775   American troops capture Fort Ticonderoga from the British.
1794   Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis XVI, is beheaded.
1796   Napoleon Bonaparte wins a brilliant victory against the Austrians at Lodi bridge in Italy.  
1840   Mormon leader Joseph Smith moves his band of followers to Illinois to escape the hostilities they experienced in Missouri.  
1857   The Bengal Army in India revolts against the British.
1863   General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson succumbs to illness and wounds received during the Battle of Chancellorsville.  
1865   Union cavalry troops capture Confederate President Jefferson Davis near Irvinville, Georgia.  
1869   The Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads meet in Promontory, Utah.  
1859   French emperor Napoleon III leaves Paris to join his troops preparing to battle the Austrian army in Northern Italy.  
1872   Victoria Woodhull becomes first woman nominated for U.S. president.  
1917   Allied ships get destroyer escorts to fend off German attacks in the Atlantic.  
1924   J. Edgar Hoover is appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  
1928   WGY-TV in Schenectady, New York, begins regular television programming.  
1933   Nazis begin burning books by "unGerman" writers such as Heinrich Mann and Erich Maria Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front.  
1940   German forces begin a blitzkrieg of the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, skirting France's "impenetrable" Maginot Line.  
1940   Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister.
1941   England's House of Commons is destroyed during the worst of the London Blitz: 550 German bombers drop 100,000 incendiary bombs.  
1960   The USS Nautilus completes first circumnavigation of globe underwater.  
1994   Nelson Mandela is sworn in as South Africa's first black president.

People don't like atheists because they serve as a grim reminder of death’s finality

More and more people in the United States are casting aside religion and identifying as atheists 

Study: People don't like atheists because they serve as a grim reminder of death’s finality

The Time the Allies Tried to Disarm Hitler With Female Sex Hormones

Did you hear the one about the plot to sneak estrogen into Hitler’s carrots? It sounds like the setup for a joke, but the Allies really tried this one out.

A study at the time by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA, claimed that on the gender spectrum, Adolf Hitler fell notably near the middle—"close to the male-female line," wrote the OSS’s director of research and development, Stanley Lovell. The Allies thought if they could just tip him over the line into "female" territory, he would lose his hold on Germany and the war would be won.
Sources differ on whether the hope was that a more feminized Hitler would be less aggressive, and thus, less inclined to commit mass genocide, or that if he lost his facial hair and grew breasts he simply wouldn't have the confidence or charisma to allow him to serve as an effectively malevolent dictator.

We know that didn’t happen, but the reasons why are murky. Read about the scheme to feminize Hitler at mental_floss.

Fire station destroyed by fire

A fire department in Williams County, Ohio, found themselves on the other side of the fire after their station went up in flames. Three other fire departments responded to the fire at the Florence Township fire station in Edon Sunday night. Fire Chief Jay Klinger says the fire started in one of the truck bays while some of the firemen were at the building for a meeting. "They dispatched Edgerton, Montpelier, and Northwest Township Fire Departments.

"They actually took care of the fire attack. We just, we couldn't do anything but sit there and watch it burn," says Klinger. "It's hard to be on the other side, not being able to help. when you're used to doing that for people." Luckily no one was injured, but now all five of their fire trucks and nearly all their gear is gone. "A lot of tears shed the last couple days. When somebody puts 20 plus years of their life in to a fire department, it's hard to stand and watch, but we're making it," says Klinger.
But just as the large debris pile and the scorched fire trucks have drawn people to the department, the chief says the loss has also drawn the community together. "I want people to know, our community to know, thank you for helping, for any donations. We're still here for you, we're going to be here for you," says Klinger. And though it may seem like all is lost, the Florence Township Fire Department will continue to serve their community.

YouTube link.

"We've got arrangements worked out. We're still going to respond, we're going to respond as a department. Things aren't going to change, we just won't be as big as we used to be for now, but we'll get back to it," says Klinger. The department does still have their EMS vehicles, but hopes to have a truck on Tuesday. Neighbouring departments will assist the village of Edon, Florence Township, Blakeslee and the Ohio Turnpike until the Florence Township fire station is back on their feet. The cause of the fire is still unclear.

Man started fire in police station by setting light to toilet roll in attempt to dry wet clothes

A man who beat up his girlfriend set fire to a toilet roll in a police station, a court heard. Marc Gibson was attending Scholey Street police station in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on March 11 to answer bail for the assault, which happened on December 7 last year.

When the fire alarm sounded at the station, officers found Gibson locked in the disabled toilet, and banged on the door before finding burn marks on the wall and floor inside. Bolton Crown Court heard that Gibson had decided to use a lighter to set fire to some toilet roll in an attempt to dry his clothes.
The court heard that Gibson had been given a cigarette by a friend on the way to the station, and that he now questions the contents of the cigarette, claiming that it influenced his actions. Gibson, 34, of Halliwell, had pleaded guilty to one count of assault and another of criminal damage at an earlier hearing.
He was sentenced to 18 months in prison following a sentencing hearing on Friday, and must also pay a surcharge of £100. Judge Timothy Stead said: “The assault is a nasty case. While answering bail at Bolton police station you caused damage by fire in the disabled toilet. This case, it seems, is a matter of vandalism. Whatever you were trying to do in there, ordinary decent people do not set fire to toilet roll in police stations.”

Train passengers scared by angry-looking clown

A teenager wearing a clown mask scared rail passengers in Victoria, Australia, on Saturday, prompting questions as to whether disguises should be allowed on public transport. V-Line passenger Karen said the "creepy looking" clown intimidated other passengers and was "menacing towards young females". "I was taking the train down to Southern Cross to have lunch with a girlfriend down there, I sat back expecting the usual relaxing trip, put my ear pods in, I usually doze a little bit," she said. She said the man – wearing a suit, a clown mask and carrying a suitcase – got on the train at either Ardeer or Deer Park in Melbourne's western suburbs. "It was a very scary face, it was a clown mask but a very angry clown," she said. "At first I thought, well surely they're not going to let a man on a train with a mask, because what if he was wearing a balaclava or something like that?"

 Karen said the man entered the train's front carriage a few stations later, walking down the aisle slowly and silently. "He slowly walked along the isle until he got to the driver's door, stood, stopped, turned around and just watched all of us, stared us all down, everybody in the carriage," she said. She said all sorts of things were running through her mind. "What do I do? What's he got in the bag? What do I do if he pulls out a gun? It was a bit like being in a horror movie to be honest," she said. Karen said she was surprised that the man was not confronted by staff when the train pulled up at Southern Cross. She said he walked through the gate onto the concourse where he was "menacing towards young females". "The strange part was that he was never pulled up, nobody stopped him, nobody said 'hey mate, take off the mask'. It sort of makes you think, what sort of security is there?" V-Line spokesperson Colin Tyrus said the train's conductor had investigated reports of a masked person after being alerted to his presence at Sunshine.
"The clown man at this stage was just standing near the toilet and seemed to be just minding his own business," said Mr Tyrus. "There was no threat that the conductor could perceive from this particular gentleman." He said he understood that other passengers could have found the masked man unnerving; however, when the conductor saw him he was "just standing there". "People might have, I think it's called coulrophobia, a fear of clowns," he said. He says all V-Line staff are trained in the principles of security and police are called whenever a passenger is considered to be disruptive or threatening. "We report anything that is suspicious," he said. He encouraged rail passengers to alert the conductor whenever they felt threatened. "On the modern trains... there's a duress button in every carriage where the conductor can be alerted," Mr Tyrus said. He said there was nothing in the transport regulations, to stop people wearing masks or disguises on public transport.
"We often have, actually, people with masks traveling on trains; in fact, I got on a metro train the other weekend and there were a few zombies on board," he said. A review of transport regulations is underway and public comment is being called for. "If anyone wants to suggest that masks or other disguises be banned from public transport, now is opportunity for everyone to have their say," Mr Tyrus said. Later on, a man named Andrew said the person in question was his 14-year-old stepson. "He goes to NICA [circus school] over in Prahran and does circus arts, and on the weekends he's working on his different clown personas and costumes," Andrew said. "He's six-foot-three... but he's only 14 so he's probably not quite aware of the impact it may have on other people." Andrew said he "had no idea" that his stepson was wearing his mask on the train. "I think that his teacher will be having some words with him, and I know we will as well," Andrew said. "He likes the attention, and so the issue now is going to be how to push upon him the seriousness of it without him going off going 'wow, this is really cool'."

Road rage incident led to fight involving sword and homemade flail

Police in Austin, Texas, arrested 34-year-old Kia Cameron Paya-Akhavan for attacking another man following an alleged road rage incident, a sword fight and an attack with a homemade flail. According to the arrest affidavit, a man spotted Paya-Akhavan driving his Mercedes recklessly in Southwest Austin just after 3:45pm on Friday.

The man, also driving a Mercedes, was upset about Paya-Akhavan's reckless driving near a daycare, decided to take a picture of Paya-Akhavan's car and licence plate at an intersection. This was followed by a heated exchange between the two men after which both men turned in different directions. Paya-Akhavan then made a U-turn and followed the man in his car.
When the man got out of his car, Paya-Akhavan hit him with a water bottle before punching him in the chest, ending in an altercation on the street. After a neighbour broke up the fight in the street, Paya-Akhavan followed the man to his house and pulled up behind him, blocking his driveway. According to affidavit, Paya-Akhavan then attacked the man's car with a metal sword, attempting to chop down the driver's side of the door.
The man backed his car into Paya-Akhavan's in an attempt to get away. Paya-Akhavan then drove away, only to come back a few minutes later, attempting to run over the man in the street twice before eventually attacking the man with a homemade flail. Paya-Akhavan left shortly after the two had another physical altercation. Police charged Paya-Akhavan with two cases of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as well as aggravated assault with a motor vehicle.

Pizza delivery driver who was stabbed in back still managed to drop off order before collapsing

A pizza delivery driver in Louisville, Kentucky, was stabbed and carjacked, but managed to drop off the pizzas before collapsing. Willow Rouben, regional manager for Spinelli's Pizzeria, said Josh Lewis, 25, left the restaurant on his way to Norton Hospital.

Police said Lewis was attacked when he arrived at the hospital at around 2:45pm on Sunday. "As he was taking the pizzas out of his car and walking to deliver the pizza, he was stabbed in the back. Believe it or not, he got his pizzas delivered and collapsed in the ER,” Rouben said.
Investigators said the suspect, described as a black man in his 40's, jumped into Lewis' black Jeep Cherokee and took off. Rouben said Lewis was rushed to nearby University Hospital and into surgery with a collapsed lung. "He was coherent. He's just an amazing kid and we're all praying for him. We haven't stopped thinking about him," Rouben said.

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Rouben said Lewis is a college student from Detroit, Michigan. She said he's worked off and on for Spinelli's for the last six months. Rouben said they're currently working on a way to help Lewis and his family. "He's just a sweetheart. He's a sweet kid and we're just so sad that this happened to him," Rouben said. "Our hearts are broke. We just want him to be OK."

Man on meth broke into family’s apartment then stole doughnuts and marshmallows and left

Police have arrested a man after he allegedly went into a family’s Salt Lake apartment, while the children were inside.

Todd J. Kingston Jr. took doughnuts and marshmallows and then left.
Police said when Kingston was asked what state he was in at the time he told them he was high on methamphetamine.
Kingston is now facing charges for burglary and public intoxication in the incident that happened at about 7pm on Saturday.

Man robbed Subway shop then crossed street to buy sandwich from competitor

Police say a Chicago man robbed a Subway sandwich shop with a knife and then crossed the street and bought a sandwich at Subway's competitor, Potbelly, where he was arrested.

Fredrick Warren, 43, was still eating his Potbelly sandwich when police arrived just before 5pm on April 26, police said. About 20 minutes earlier, Warren had walked into the Subway shop and held up the cashier with a folding knife, police said.
A customer who walked in mid-robbery told investigators she saw Warren leaning over the counter and grabbing cash from the register. Investigators caught Warren's trail by watching Loyola University Police surveillance video, according to Chicago and Loyola police departments.
It showed Warren walking south, crossing the street and then walking back north to Potbelly. There was no sign of him leaving the Potbelly, so they went inside and found him eating near the back of the shop, his gold coat draped over his seat. He was arrested and police found $186 in cash and a silver-bladed folding knife with a black handle on him, police said. Warren was charged with armed robbery.

Non Sequitur

Microwave Oven Baffled Astronomers for Decades

Astronomers at the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, Australia, have been noticing strange signals coming through the radio telescope since 1998. These signals were designated as perytons, and were observed maybe twice a year. No one knew where they were coming from, but lightning was proposed as the cause. Of course, we’d all prefer it to be aliens. A new receiver installed this year picked those signals up even stronger at 2.4GHz, which led the scientists to suspect the facility’s microwave oven.

Immediate testing of the oven failed to detect any perytons -- until they opened the microwave door a few seconds before it had finished cooking. Johnston told The Guardian: "If you set it to heat and pull it open to have a look, it generates interference."
Although the telescope, known locally as "The Dish", is operated largely remotely, a few operational staff who maintain the facility would use the microwave oven to heat their lunch in the daytimes. Moreover, the interference would only occur when the telescope was pointed in the oven's direction, making the cause even harder to pinpoint. The findings have been published in the notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

So much for aliens trying to contact us. But it’s nice that the 17-year mystery has been solved.

Angry Birds balloon seagull deterrents are working but keep being stolen

Angry Birds have been recruited to frighten seagulls in Rhyl, north Wales, but people keep stealing them. Scare balloons featuring characters from the popular video game franchise have been attached to traffic cones and dotted around the high street in a bid to stop the pests stealing food from shoppers. The idea was thought up by Denbighshire Council who say it works well until people take them.

A council spokeswoman said anyone who knows Rhyl knows there are problems with seagulls causing a nuisance in the warmer months and making an "incredible mess" of the streets. She said: “We continue to try everything we can to tackle the problem, including cleaning down the streets every morning but obviously, they are back to the same condition by the evening and so the process goes on and is quite costly.
“Yes, we know these weird Angry Bird type scare balloons look a bit daft but they do seem to work and we have had good feedback from businesses on the high street since we started using them. The only problem is that, while they may scare the seagulls away, not so for people who take a fancy to them and take them home with them.” The spokeswoman added: “Gulls don’t like bright, scary owl faces on masks or balloons.
“They have excellent eyesight and are spooked by unexpected visual signals or predators but any deterrents need to contain some element of change and movement within them but also be able to be moved at regular intervals - birds quickly acclimatise to a static deterrent. The feedback we’ve had is that, the birds were still around on the roofs but were not coming down to ground level. We’ve been back to the premises helping us out with the trials and they have said they will bring them in each night so we will continue with it.”

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