Sign language interpreter left little doubt about unparliamentary language from sweary politician

New Zealand Member of Parliament Ron Mark uttered a barely audible swear word in the House, but viewers watching Parliament TV's sign language interpreter were left in no doubt about what was said.

The NZ First MP appears to have momentarily forgotten the cameras were pointed his way when he decided to tell the jeering Government benches to "shut the f*ck up".
Anyone who could lip read could easily catch what Mark muttered, but for those left wondering they need only watch the interpreter making a guest appearance as part of Sign Language Awareness Week.

Full YouTube video.

The faux pas went unnoticed by Speaker David Carter at the time, but Mark voluntarily apologized at the end of Question Time, later saying he did not know it was audible.
Many thanks to Daniil, whose friend is the sign language lady.

How to Swear Like a Brit

YouTube Link

In this twenty-ninth episode of Anglophenia, current host Kate Arnell gets down and dirty, teaching us Yanks to swear like Brits. From show promo:

"Swearing ranks up there with taking tea and discussing the weather as a British pastime. If you’re uninitiated in the colorful world of British swearing, Anglophenia’s Kate Arnell offers you a master class in the latest episode of our YouTube series. Don’t worry: we won’t turn the air blue with the naughtier terms, but here’s a good start if you want to slide in a “bloody hell” or two into your daily conversation."

Natural Gas Report

“Breaking wind,” as the English so politely call it, is a natural and inevitable part of life. So it’s not surprising that farts occasionally make it into the news.

GAS ATTACK
In June 2012, a 72-year-old New Jersey man named Daniel Collins was arrested and charged with assault, unlawful possession of a firearm, and making terrorist threats, when he pointed a .32-calibre revolver at his neighbor and threatened to shoot him in the head. What got Collins so worked up? According to police, he and the neighbor were involved in an ongoing dispute over noise. The feud escalated to its breaking point when the neighbor walked past Collins’s front door and farted so loudly that Collins could hear it from inside his apartment. Collins was later released on his own recognizance without having to post bail. (No word on whether, if convicted, he’ll have to spend time in the can.)
FIELD RESEARCH

Scientists have long known that the farts and burps released by livestock are a significant source of greenhouse gases. But precisely how significant has been difficult to say because it’s almost impossible to accurately measure the emissions of animals out in the fields. In the summer of 2011, scientists at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory announced plans to develop a system for “auditing a herd’s collective flatulence” by shooting laser beams around the animals as they graze (and fart and burp) in their pastures. “We use lasers to interact with the gas,” researcher Alan Brewin told the Daily Telegraph. “The way the light is absorbed tells you what gas there is, how much of it there is, which direction it is flowing, and how fast.”
POP STAR
In November 2012, Britney Spears’s former bodyguard, 29-year-old Fernando Flores, sued the singer, alleging that she paraded around her home in the nude, made “repeated, unwanted sexual advances,” and farted “unapologetically” in his presence. Flores asked for more than $ 10 million in compensation for “psychological trauma, anxiety attacks, depression and insomnia,” despite the fact that he’d worked for Spears for less than six months. “He’s a liar,” a spokesperson for the star told reporters. The case was settled out of court.
OF MICE AND MEN
In July 2012, scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland published a study that found that hydrogen sulfide, the gas that gives farts their rotten egg smell, also lowers blood pressure in mice. Researchers in the United States and China are now studying whether farts— making them or perhaps just smelling them— might one day be used as a therapy to help lower the blood pressure of humans. “The effective dosage could prove difficult to establish due to the difference in size between humans and mice,” said Yao Yuyu, a researcher at Zhongda Hospital in Nanjing.
LAW AND ODOR
Not long after the president of Malawi introduced legislation in 2011 to reform the African nation’s court system, Justice Minister George Chaponda told a radio interviewer that the bill also contained language that would make farting in public a misdemeanor. “Just go to the toilet if you feel like farting,” the minister said, adding that public tooting had been on the rise since the country transitioned from dictatorship to democracy in the early 1990s. So did Malawi really try to outlaw farting in public? Nope: Turns out that the legal language in question actually dealt with air pollution, not farting, but Minister Chaponda didn’t know that because he hadn’t read the bill. By the time he retracted his statement, Malawi’s so-called “fart ban” had made embarrassing headlines all over the world. Solicitor General Anthony Kamanga told the BBC, “How any reasonable or sensible person can construe the prohibition to criminalizing farting in public is beyond me.”

Man faces charges for trying to shoot raccoon that had been stealing his dog's food

A Florida man faces weapons charges for reportedly trying to gun down a sticky-fingered raccoon on his property.

Joseph Perugia, 55, of Palm Coast, was charged with two counts of reckless or negligent discharge of a firearm on residential property, use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was released from custody on Tuesday morning after posting $4,000 bail.
According to a Flagler County Sheriff’s Office incident report, deputies responded to Perugia’s home just after 9pm on Monday following reports of gunfire. Perugia appeared to be armed when deputies arrived and he initially refused to drop his gun and come out from behind his gate.
When he did, officers noted he slurred his speech and appeared unstable on his feet as if he was drunk. Perugia said he used a .357 Magnum to shoot at a raccoon that had been stealing his dog’s food. Officers recovered the weapon from his property and determined he had fired two shots.

War of words over whether animals can suffer verbal abuse

A case of alleged animal abuse in the far west of New South Wales, Australia, has led to debate about whether sheep can comprehend human speech. It began in September last year, when the New South Wales branch of the RSPCA received a tip-off about the alleged mistreatment of sheep, including verbal abuse, that were being shorn at Boorungie Station, 130 kilometers from Broken Hill. The complaint was lodged by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which had apparently obtained footage and testimony from an undercover operative working at the station. For Ken Turner, who operates Boorungie Station, the complaint itself suggests the sheep could at least understand English. "The basis for the concerns was the rights of the animals, that they might have been harassed by viewing things they shouldn't have seen or verbal abuse by people using bad language," he said. "To my knowledge, there was no actual cruelty on the job.

"The allegation was that bad language was used by an employee on the property in front of the sheep, and that they could have been offended by the use of bad language." Steve Coleman, CEO of NSW RSPCA, said the war over the words began when it was decided, for reasons that remain unclear, that the video footage was not legally usable. "We felt the footage was inadmissible and therefore we relied on what oral evidence came from both parties," he said. "It was conflicting and on that basis we were unable to continue. The evidence that was available basically came down to one person's word against another." While Mr Coleman did not deny that verbal abuse was a factor, he insisted the complaint contained more concerning issues than just bad language. "Certainly there were other concerns well beyond yelling at sheep," he said. While describing claims about verbal abuse of animals as "rare", Mr Coleman said the RSPCA took such allegations seriously.
"If there is an allegation that puts at risk an animal that would cause it unnecessary suffering and distress, we would investigate it," he said. "I don't know if it matters what language is used. An animal is not going to understand it." But Nicolah Donovan, president of Lawyers for Animals, said animals did understand. "I think it is conceivable that verbal abuse of an extreme nature against an animal, whether it be human, sheep or otherwise, could constitute an act of violence," she said. "We have accepted that domestic violence can certainly be constituted by acts of extreme verbal abuse, particularly when the victim of the abuse is especially vulnerable - if they have a low fear threshold or they lack understanding that the verbal abuse isn't going to proceed to a physical threat against them. This might be the case with children or farm animals, and the level of abuse needn't be that extreme to cause that kind of fear in an animal."
Lynda Stoner, CEO at Animal Liberation NSW, agreed. She said animals did not need to understand language in order to comprehend that a human speaker was frustrated or angry. "I'm not sure all animals can understand different dialects," she said. "I don't think they're getting the nuances someone is using. What they will be getting though is the threat inherent in the way that voice is used. I believe they can absolutely comprehend emotion. We all know that animals feel pain and suffering, we know animals remember what's been done to them, and we know they can anticipate brutality if it's come before. I don't think that's placing human emotions on animals. It's simply that all animals, all species, are capable of feeling pleasure, pain, suffering and all those feelings we feel." As for Ken Turner at Boorungie Station, the experience has been an eye opener, but he is not about to watch his words in future. "It made me ask a lot of questions of myself about what we're allowed to do and not allowed to do," he said. "I believe we do things properly. We'll continue as normal."
There's an audio interview with Ken Turner here.

“Elphie”

Christian LeBlanc of Vancouver is an exchange student in Bangkok. He visited an elephant sanctuary in Thailand and was feeding bananas to the elephants when one of the pachyderms grabbed his camera! the result was a selfie taken by an elephant, or an “elphie.”

"I see a sign that for 50 cents you can feed the elephant. So my girlfriend and I go and buy a basket of bananas and we start feeding the elephant," LeBlanc told CBC News.

"The elephant loves the bananas, so it kind of gets a bit nosy — it grabs at your hands, it tries to take all the bananas. And once we ran out, next thing I knew it was it was grabbing the GoPro."

LeBlanc had turned on the time-lapse feature on his GoPro camera, so it automatically took a picture. As you can see, elephants don’t need a selfie stick because they carry their own extension around all the time! You can see more pictures of LeBlanc’s Thailand adventures at Buzzfeed.

Beautiful New Crawfish Species Looks Like It’s Ready to Go to a Rave

)This is the Cherax pulcher. The latter term is related to the Latin adjective for “beautiful.” And indeed it is!
This delicious-looking crawfish has been only recently classified. A German scientist named Christian Lukhaup found it in Hoa Creek, West Papua, Indonesia. It grows up to 12 centimeters long and is noted for its coat of many colors, including shades of blue and purple. There are at least 19 known Cherax species. This one has shown up at local markets since about the year 2000.
I’ll take 5 pounds—extra spicy, please.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

Slacker ...!

 

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Bangladesh - China - Hong Kong - Korea - India - Indonesia - Malaysia - Saudi Arabia - Singapore 
Sri Lanka - Thailand - United Arab Emirates- Vietnam
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Ghana - Morocco - South Africa
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Today in History

1430   Burgundians capture Joan of Arc and sell her to the English.  
1533   Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.  
1618   The Thirty Years War begins.  
1701   Captain William Kidd, the Scottish pirate, is hanged on the banks of the Thames.
1785   Benjamin Franklin announces his invention of bifocals.
1788   South Carolina becomes the eighth state to ratify U.S. Constitution.  
1861   Pro-Union and pro-Confederate forces clash in western Virginia.
1862   Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson takes Front Royal, Virginia.  
1864   Union General Ulysses Grant attempts to outflank Confederate Robert E. Lee in the Battle of North Anna, Virginia.  
1900   Civil War hero Sgt. William H. Carney becomes the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor, thirty-seven years after the Battle of Fort Wagner.
1901   American forces capture Filipino rebel leader Emilio Aguinaldo.  
1915   Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.  
1934   Gangsters Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow are killed by Texas Rangers.  
1945   Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi Gestapo, commits suicide after being captured by Allied forces.  
1949   The Federal Republic of West Germany is proclaimed.  
1960   Israel announces the capture of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

People may sniff their hands for "chemosignals"

YouTube link.

Why do people shake hands? A new Weizmann Institute study suggests one of the reasons for this ancient custom may be to check out each other’s odors. Even if we are not consciously aware of this, handshaking may provide people with a socially acceptable way of communicating via the sense of smell.

Not only do people often sniff their own hands, but they do so for a much longer time after shaking someone else’s hand, the study has found. As reported today in the journal eLife, the number of seconds the subjects spent sniffing their own right hand more than doubled after an  experimenter greeted them with a handshake...

Next, to explore the potential role of handshakes in communicating odors, the scientists used covert cameras to film some 280 volunteers before and after they were greeted by an experimenter, who either shook their hand or didn’t. The researchers found that after shaking hands with an experimenter of the same gender, subjects more than doubled the time they later spent sniffing their own right hand (the shaking one). In contrast, after shaking hands with an experimenter of the opposite gender, subjects increased the sniffing of their own left hand (the non-shaking one). “The sense of smell plays a particularly important role in interactions within gender, not only across gender as commonly assumed,” Frumin says.

At least we're more subtle than dogs.  More information here. 

Bronze Age Princess

Remains of Bronze-Age Priestess Hold Surprise

An iconic Bronze Age girl who was buried in Denmark about 3,400 years ago came from a foreign land, a new analysis of her hair and teeth suggests.

Columbia President Refuses to Shake Rape Victim’s Hand at Graduation Ceremony

On top of all she has been through, the president of Columbia University wouldn’t even shake this brave victim’s hand at graduation.

Read more

Distraught man appeals for return of his father's ashes left in back of taxi following day in pub

A grieving son has issued a plea for help after he left his dad’s ashes in the back of a taxi after spending a day in the pub. James Rice was collecting his dad’s ashes from his aunt, who came up from London three weeks ago. The 23-year-old, from Craigie in Dundee, and his family were collecting the ashes in order to honor his father’s wishes to bury him with his mother at Balgay Cemetery. But, after getting a taxi home having spent a day in town with his family, James left his father’s ashes in the back of the cab, only to realize what he had done the next day.

He said: “When it happened I felt absolutely gutted, it completely slipped my mind when I stepped out of the taxi. I only realized I had left them behind the next morning after I had got up. I’m now desperate to get them back. We were collecting his ashes from all our family members so we could honor his last wishes and bury him with his mum in Balgay Cemetery. The ashes were in four little containers inside a purple floral bag and were left in a silver cab. The cab must have been private hire, as it didn’t have any logos on it.”
Brian Rice died aged 67 on February 16 and was cremated at the crematorium in Ardler the week after. His ashes were then shared between his family.Brian’s sister, Pearl, took the ashes in her possession back to London for a time before returning with them to Dundee so he could be buried with his mother, Catherine at Balgay Cemetery. On Friday April 24, James and members of his family collected his aunt Pearl from the train station, where she had arrived carrying some of his father’s ashes. On her return, the Rice family thought it would be right to celebrate Brian’s memory and went to the pub. At around 11pm, James admits his memory went a “bit blank”.
James said: “I was out with my aunt Pearl, my mum Alison and my two uncles, Rab and Ally. We met at the train station, then went to the Market Bar to celebrate the memory of my dad. He was a lovely father and was the type of person who would help anybody. After coming out of the pub, we went to a takeaway on the Nethergate, then over to the taxi rank in front
of the Steeple Church next to the Overgate. We just jumped into the first taxi at the front of the queue and went back home to Craigie. My mind must have gone blank after that because I just don’t know how I could have forgotten something like that. If anyone could help find my dad’s ashes and hand them in to the police station or to the taxi rank, it would be appreciated so much.”

Ziggy

Hostage negotiator called in to talk two men down from single story roof

Police chiefs called in a trained hostage negotiator to talk two men down from a rooftop just eight feet off the ground. A bemused passer-by captured the moment the hostage negotiator, more often seen at armed sieges, stood within touching distance of the men sitting on a porch roof. The two men, aged 27 and 21, spent 90 minutes on the tiles with their feet in the guttering during the stand-off at a community centre on Anglesey, North Wales. Police were called to a disturbance in the area at 7pm last Thursday after they climbed on the roof. North Wales Police officers called in a trained hostage negotiator after failing to get the men to climb down. The men were brought down after 90 minutes and arrested for using threatening language and causing a public nuisance. But Cllr Peter Rogers, of Isle of Anglesey County Council, questioned whether the response from the police was over the top.
He said there was some suggestion the men would only talk to a negotiator who could speak Welsh. Coun Rogers said: "I have full sympathy with the police and what they do. But I would question the need for a police negotiator for people on a relatively low roof." North Wales Police did not respond to the question of whether the negotiator was necessary. A spokeswoman said: "A trained negotiator was called and shortly after 8.30pm the men were brought to safety."
The 21-year-old man from Caernarfon, North Wales, has been charged with common assault, using threatening behavior with intent to cause fear of unlawful violence. The 27-year-old man from Newborough, North Wales, has been charged with criminal damage, using threatening behavior with intent to cause fear of unlawful violence and causing a public nuisance. Both are due to appear before Caernarfon Magistrates.

Plane steward who smuggled fake passports in his underpants jailed

An air steward who tried to smuggle fake passports into the UK by hiding them in his underpants has been jailed for five years. Shaukat Ali Cheema, a senior steward with Pakistan International Airlines, was arrested at Birmingham Airport in March.

Dozens of passports and driving licenses were found in his underpants. The 59-year-old admitted seven counts of possessing false identity documents at Birmingham Crown Court.
Border Force officers found the documents, which also included passport bio-data pages, in specially constructed pockets sewn into the lining of the underpants.
Dawn Cartwright, from the National Crime Agency, said they were intended for people based in Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Spain and Pakistan. She said fake passports and driving licenses were a serious concern, as they could be used by criminals to avoid detection.

Eight people injured by gun-toting elderly man in dispute over gate not being closed properly

A pensioner in Italy has wounded eight neighbors including three children, after shooting at them during a row over the gate to their apartment building.

Former security guard Marco Castiello, 76, opened fire with a hunting gun after discovering that the gate to the building in Afragola, near Naples, had been left ajar - despite years of pleas for it to be closed properly.
Three children aged seven, 11 and 16 were lightly wounded, as were two men aged 19 and 21 and three women between 26 and 55 years old.
"I'm in the right," Castiello told police who arrested him, while his nephew, who has the same name, said the shooting was "the result of exasperation after seven years of misunderstandings and arguments."
There's a news video in Italian here.

Tourist jailed after patting Dubai policewoman's shoulder while asking for directions

A holidaymaker, who denied molesting a policewoman when he patted her shoulder to ask her for directions to Dubai Mall, has been jailed for three months. The 49-year-old Kazakh tourist, K.B., molested the policewoman by touching her arm and assaulting two policemen at Burj Khalifa Metro station in December. “That is not true. I did not molest her. I only patted her on her shoulder as I wanted to ask her for directions to Dubai Mall … I had no criminal intention at all,” said the defendant when he entered an innocent plea.

On Sunday, the Dubai Court of First Instance jailed K.B. for three months after he was convicted of molestation. Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal also fined the defendant Dh2,000 (£350, $550) over the assault charge. The accused will be deported following the completion of his punishment, according to Sunday’s ruling that remains subject to appeal within 15 days. When asked if he assaulted the two policemen, the defendant said: “I did not assault them.”
Prosecutors said the Kazakh molested the policewoman and assaulted two other policemen when they tried to arrest him. The 21-year-old policewoman testified that the defendant touched her arm while she was guiding the crowds of commuters at the Metro station. “Someone touched my shoulder. When I turned back, the defendant asked me for directions to the mall. I guided him and then asked him why he had touched me. I couldn’t understand his language.
“He touched my hand again. I pulled my hand away, then I asked him to escort me to the police office. He refused. My two colleagues presented their police IDs. He refused to go with them to the police office and, when they tried to take him, he assaulted them,” claimed the policewoman. The two policemen said the accused pushed them and did not want to be taken to the police office at Dubai Mall. The suspect told prosecutors that he patted the policewoman’s shoulder to ask her for directions to the mall as he is a tourist.

12-year-old boy in trouble after being enlisted by his drunk father to drive him home

A drunk father in France has landed his 12-year-old son in trouble with the law after he enlisted him to drive him home following a boozy fishing trip.

Realizing he was too drunk to drive, the 41-year-old father thought the next best option to getting behind the wheel himself would be to ask his 12-year-old son to drive him home. The police pulled over his vehicle on Saturday night in the Loiret departement in central France.
Inside, they found a 12-year-old boy behind the wheel accompanied by his worse-for-wear father slumped in the passenger seat. The father admitted that he had called in the family favor after realizing he had had too much to drink, with police measuring his blood/alcohol content at almost 0.2 percent - meaning he was almost four times over the legal driving limit. France's legal blood alcohol content for driving is 0.05 percent.
Exactly why he asked his pre-teen son to do the favor and not someone a little older, like a taxi driver for example, remains unclear. But his request has landed his son in trouble with the law. The son is under investigation on the suspicion of driving without a license and his father for various driving offenses. The police noted, on the plus side, that the boy appeared to have mastered the finer points of driving, and had even indicated correctly when pulling over to the side of the road.

Man assaulted cousin in disagreement over way she was cooking hard boiled eggs

A Florida man is facing a felony charge after allegedly assaulting a female relative because he “did not agree with the way she was cooking hard boiled eggs,” police report.

Cory Lee Shinkman, 23, was arrested last week following a confrontation in the St. Petersburg home he shares with the victim and other family members.
According to police, after Shinkman argued with his cousin about the boiled eggs, he followed her out the back door “and pushed her against a dresser and scratched her.”
When questioned by police, Shinkman reportedly “admitted the offense,” but said that his cousin “pushed him inside the house first.” A witness, however, contradicted Shinkman’s claim that the woman was responsible for escalating the incident. Shinkman, whose has a prior battery conviction, was freed from the Pinellas County jail after posting $1500 bond.

Bearded man dressed as woman robbed pharmacy

A bearded man dressed as a woman robbed a Walgreens pharmacy at gunpoint on the west side of Detroit, police said.

The armed robbery took place at around 10:50am on Monday. The man was wearing a black curly wig, a purple dress, white shoes and was carrying a brown purse and cane.
Police release surveillance footage on Tuesday of the man as he stood at the pharmacy counter. An employee filled the suspect's purse with an undisclosed amount of US currency before the suspect fled on foot.

YouTube link.Alternative news video.

The suspect is described by police as a black male, 30- to 40-years-old, approximately 6-foot and weighing 250-280 pounds. He has a full beard and mustache. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detroit police.

Non Sequitur

Hog droving

Before motorized trucks became common, nearly all livestock went to market on foot: cattle, horses, mules, sheep, goats, turkeys, ducks, and geese... Hogs, though, ruled the road. Americans raised more pigs than any other type of animal, so naturally swine crowded out other beasts on the turnpikes. The best estimates suggest that in the antebellum South, five times as many hogs were driven as all other animals combined...
A few farmers from the Bluegrass region of Kentucky—pig country before the horses took over—walked their hogs through the Cumberland Gap and all the way to Charleston, South Carolina, a distance of more than five hundred miles...
The start of the journey was especially difficult, for during that stage loud noises could send pigs stampeding back toward their home farms. One solution was to sew up their eyelids: temporarily blinded, the pigs clumped together and kept to the road by feel. At their destination, the stitch was clipped and their vision restored. (The young Abraham Lincoln, charged with driving a recalcitrant drove of hogs aboard a riverboat, pulled out a needle and thread and started sewing.)...
Because pigs could walk about ten miles a day, inns—often known as wagon stands—sprang up at ten-mile intervals along the roads, offering drovers and their pigs food and a place to sleep...
The largest cattle drives, from Texas to Kansas, involved as many as 600,000 cattle a year, but they lasted just fifteen years or so. Hog droving, by comparison, involved hundreds of thousands of animals during peak years and on some routes lasted nearly a century.
Excerpts from Lesser Beasts

Canine-Human Bond

Dogs and Humans Bonded Earlier Than Thought

Two modern dog breeds share DNA with a prehistoric Siberian wolf, suggesting that the ancestry of today’s dogs runs much deeper than previously thought.

Craziest of 2015

Craziest New Animal Species of 2015: Photos

A kinky fish and a cartwheeling spider are just two of the recently named top 10 new species for 2015.

Diverse Plankton

Oceans' Plankton Far More Diverse Than Thought:

Many of the plankton found are new to science and give a unique snapshot of how tiny ocean critters co-exist. 

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

And we have a winner ...!

 

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Pale Goth  ... !

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Today in History

1246   Henry Raspe is elected anti-king by the Rhenish prelates in France.  
1455   King Henry VI is taken prisoner by the Yorkists at the Battle of St. Albans, during the War of the Roses.  
1804   The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri.  
1856   U.S. Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane for Sumner's earlier condemnation of slavery, which included an insult to Brooks' cousin, Senator Andrew Butler.  
1863   Union General Ulysses S. Grant's second attack on Vicksburg fails and a siege begins.  
1868   The "Great Train Robbery" takes place as seven members of the Reno Gang make off with $98,000 in cash from a train's safe in Indiana.  
1872   The Amnesty Act restores civil rights to Southerners.  
1882   The United States formally recognizes Korea.
1908   The Wright brothers register their flying machine for a U.S. patent.  
1939   Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign a "Pact of Steel" forming the Axis powers.  
1947   The Truman Doctrine brings aid to Turkey and Greece.  
1967   The children's program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood premiers.  
1972   Ceylon becomes the Republic of Sri Lanka as its constitution is ratified.  
1985   Baseball player Pete Rose passes Hank Aaron as National League run scoring leader with 2,108.  
1987   An Iraqi missile hits the American frigate USS Stark in the Persian Gulf.  
1990   In the Middle East, North and South Yemen merge to become a single state.

Old Tool Kit

Sophisticated Tool Kit Predates Humans

The earliest known stone toolkit could write a whole new chapter in the book of human evolution, especially since the tools were not even made by our genus.

Funeral Strippers in China

Why Are There Funeral Strippers in China?

Should death be a cause for sadness or celebration? In some parts of China and Taiwan, it's a celebration that takes a uniquely erotic turn, with strippers coming to dance for the dead.

'Capture bike' used by police to catch thieves was stolen and never recovered

A bicycle used by police to catch thieves was stolen and never returned, it has been revealed. The yellow "capture bike" was stolen from Queen's Medical Center in Nottingham on March 13, 2014, and the cycle has yet to be found.

Phil Matthews, chairman of Nottinghamshire Police Federation, said the thefts are not unexpected and they happen from time to time. He added: "These things happen for a whole host of different reasons.
"It's professionally a little embarrassing but you have to take the rough with the smooth." The theft happened after Nottinghamshire Police positioned 15 brightly-painted bikes around the city, marked with the warning message "Capture Bikes in Operation".
The bicycles were dotted around the city's cycle racks and other bike theft hotspots in a bid to catch thieves in the act. Police and crime commissioner Paddy Tipping said thefts from police officers shouldn't happen.

Man given one year drink driving ban after crashing child's go-kart into friend

A man who crashed a child's go-kart into his friend has ended up with a drink driving conviction. Judge Stephen Doyle said it was an evening of "big boys playing with little toys" which brought Dean John Armiger, 48, of Christchurch, New Zealand, before the Alexandra District Court on Tuesday. He was fined $500 and disqualified from driving for 12 months for driving with a breath alcohol level of 459mcg.

Armiger had been drinking with three friends at a unit attached to the Highlands Motorsport Park in Central Otago on January 31 when they decided to do time trials around the surrounding road on a privately-owned go-kart. They were the only people in the restricted area as the other units were in the process of being constructed or were empty. The judge said the man's actions were irresponsible and no different from a person driving while drinking on a quiet rural road at night. "It really seems to be a case of big boys playing with little boys' toys.
"Clearly, this go-kart was designed for people a lot smaller than yourself and it has kilowatts of 5.5 which (lawyer Russell Checketts) tells me is a lot less than his ride-on mower. It was your turn to do a lap around the road. Your mate decided he would go into the pool room and get chalk and draw a line across the road. As he stepped out on the road to do so, you came racing up and were unable to avoid him and knocked him to the street." The victim suffered bruising to his leg, a cut to his head that required stitches and concussion. He required a night's hospital stay.
Checketts argued the judge should consider the special circumstances including the limited number of people in the area, and the fact it was a social activity involving a low powered vehicle. "It was a combination of most unfortunate circumstances. There are no hard feelings between the victim and himself. They are a little astounded he got charged ... There was no intention in the normal sense of drink driving. This was not a go-kart owned by Highland Motorsport Park and it wasn't being used in the park or in any of their facilities. It was just guys having a bit of fun. I can never see the set of circumstances like this coming before the court again."

Woman spotted flossing teeth while driving on busy motorway

A woman has been photographed flossing her teeth with both hands while driving at 100km/h (62mph) down one of the busiest roads on Australia's Gold Coast - and police are not impressed. The woman was snapped flossing her teeth with both hands while driving down the M1 at Yatala in Queensland at about 2.40pm on Monday.

Arundel local Derek Flett was a being driven home from work when he saw the driver cleaning her teeth. “We beeped the horn and asked what she was doing and she just looked at us as if to say, ‘I’m flossing, what do you think I’m doing?’” he said. “There were no hands on the wheel which is really dangerous.
“She was having a real go at it.” Mr Flett said she flossed for about 10 minutes. “The M1 is dangerous enough with both hands on the wheel, let alone picking at your teeth,” he said. Gold Coast Chief Superintendent Des Lacy said the woman’s behavior was a “fatality waiting to happen”.
“That just defies belief because she would have to be holding the steering wheel with her knees and would only need one event such as something coming out from the side of the road, or a vehicle changing lanes, for things to go bad,” he said. “How people can think they possibly have control of a vehicle while driving with their knees is beyond belief.”

Man broke into girlfriend’s house and wrote 'Cheating cow' on carpet with brown sauce

A man from Rhyl in north Wales who broke into his girlfriend’s house and wrote “Cheating cow” with brown sauce on her carpet is to be sentenced in Crown Court.

At Prestatyn magistrates’ court Martin Roberts, aged 34, pleaded guilty to burglary at the house on May 9.
Prosecutor James Neary said that Roberts and his girlfriend had been out drinking in Prestatyn and when she left to go to a party with friends he went to her house.
He was angry when he found she wasn’t at home. Roberts will appear in Mold Crown Court for sentencing on June 4.

Man shot with bow and arrow at wedding

A man was left with an arrow stuck in his head following an incident during a wedding in Madhya Pradesh, India, recently.

The man Prakash was rushed to a nearby hospital immediately. The incident took place during the wedding of a cousin of Prakash in the Alirajpur district.
While the bride was being adorned by traditional silver jewellery, two of Prakash's neighbors, Arjun and Pratap were left burning with jealousy at the amount of money the family had.

YouTube link.

Pratap then handed a bow and arrow to Arjun who shot it at Prakash. A case has been lodged by the police and a search for the culprits has been launched.

15-year-old boy shot dead by friend after throwing pebbles at his window to wake him

The Yellowstone County Coroner's Office in Montana have identified a 15-year-old boy who died of a gunshot at about 2:30am on Sunday as Mackeon Schulte, a Senior High sophomore. Meanwhile, police are still piecing together exactly what occurred and have completed its preliminary investigation.

Non Sequitur

Man blamed dog for indecent exposure

Police say a man from Jonesboro, Arkansas, accused of indecent exposure blamed a dog for his actions. Just before 4pm on Sunday Officer Francisco Matos was called to a property.

According to his initial incident report, Kale Markeith Redden, 37, told Matos he had seen a dog urinate in a yard. Redden reportedly said he continued to walk down the road.
When pressed, however, Redden told the officer he “pulled his penis out and tried to urinate because the dog urinated, but was unable to.” When asked why he did that, Redden did not answer, the report said.
While Matos was interviewing Redden, another officer spoke with the man who called in the report. The victim told the officer he and his 9-year-old daughter observed Redden's actions. Matos issued Redden a citation for indecent exposure then released him.

Candlelit vigil to be held for escaped cow shot dead by police

A community is to stage a candlelit vigil in memory of an escaped cow which was gunned down by armed police. The animal was shot dead by officers after breaking loose from a country park in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, on Sunday afternoon.
Northumbria Police took decisive action after deeming the fugitive bovine 'a significant risk to members of the public and motorists'. "The decision was made for the animal to be destroyed by firearms officers at the scene," police said.
But some members of the local community are angry the animal was not spared. Over 6,500 people have now joined a Facebook group, named RIP Wallsend Cow, which has organized the vigil.

The organizers have invited people to wear cow onesies and bring candles to the field where the animal, which they have called Bessie, met her end this coming Friday at 6.30pm. Two other cows which also escaped were safely rounded up, following a huge emergency response which included a police helicopter.