Police recovered gold chain from thief who swallowed it by putting him on banana diet

Police in Mumbai, India have finally been able to recover an 11g gold chain from a thief after making him eat dozens of bananas. The man had swallowed the chain after stealing it from a doctor on board a long-distance train. When the Kalyan Government Railway Police arrested 28-year-old Damu Gupta on December 22 for snatching the mangalsutra of a women traveler on the Vidarbha Express, they were in no hurry to recover the stolen item.

Officers decided to exhibit extraordinary patience after they realized that Gupta had swallowed the piece of jewellery. So they put him on a banana diet and waited. Their patience paid off at around 1am on Thursday when Gupta excreted the precious metal. They then had the relatively easier task of cleaning the necklace. It is now in the custody of the GRP. Gupta, who hails from Gondhava village in Uttar Pradesh, snatched the gold chain from Sheetal Kamble.

As Kamble raised the alarm, other passengers on the train held Gupta and handed him over to the railway police. However, when officers searched Gupta they did not find anything on him. It was then a passenger informed them that he had seen Gupta swallowing the chain. The police first took him a private hospital in Dombivli where an X-ray report proved inconclusive. The next day, they took Gupta to Thane Civil Hospital. A sonography test revealed the presence of the mangalsutra in his body. Doctors then advised that Gupta be put on a banana diet.

Inspector S Nirmal of Kalyan GRP police said, “He must have had more than seven dozens of bananas in the past three days. Around 1 am on Thursday, the jewellery came out with his stool. We cleaned it and kept it in our custody. We will hand over the item to its owner once the case is over.” Nirmal added, “We have also learnt that Gupta faces many cases in his home state. He will be produced in a court on December 30.” Sheetal’s husband Yadav Kamble, praised the police for the recovery. He said, “I am happy that the mangalsutra is now with the police. I was also informed that the chain-snatcher is under the supervision of doctors. I wish him good health and let the law take its own course.”

Former Indian Minister seeks police inquiry after sudden surge of Facebook likes

A sudden surge of 'likes' on his Facebook page has astounded former Indian Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who has approached the police and sought an inquiry.

Suspecting foul play, the Congress MP from Chandigarh has lodged a complaint with the police stating that the number of 'likes' on his Facebook page had shot up from 51,600, on Tuesday to 62,500 on Wednesday.

In his complaint to inspector-general of Chandigarh police R P Upadhyay, Bansal has said he suspected foul play behind the surge in the number of 'likes'. Bansal, who resigned from the railway ministry in May over the Rs 10-crore (£980,000, $1,125,000) 'Railgate', termed it an "abnormal increase".

"This increase happened in just one day and it shows that somebody is doing so without my knowledge and for some ulterior purpose," says the complaint. "Usually, 10 to 20 'likes' are received on my Facebook page every day, but thousands of 'likes' in about 24 hours was alarming," Bansal said. "I'm sure that someone with malicious intentions cooked up these 'likes'." Police forwarded the complaint to the cyber cell for a probe, which will be conducted by DSP Rajesh Kalia.

Ziggy

Subterranean London's Forgotten Pneumatic Dispatch Railway

In 1855, inventor and social reformer Sir Roland Hill commissioned a feasibility study on the construction of a pneumatic tube-based system between the General Post Office and the West District Central Post Office in London, UK.

Developed by the London Pneumatic Dispatch Company, the tube system was meant to transport mail, parcels and light freight between several key locations. But despite favourable reports, the scheme was considered too expensive.

The Icebreakers Of Old

Most of us woke up to presents on Xmas morning. The MV Akademik Shokalskiy ship, on the other hand, found itself trapped in ice up to 10 feet thick on all sides. The research vessel sent out a distress signal, hoping help would arrive as quickly as possible, considering the 74 crew members were currently sitting in the Antarctic sea.

Icebreakers have helped carve paths through frosty seas since the 1800s; of course, the designs of these behemoths have much improved upon the glorified whalers that once sliced through the ice. Here's a look back at the boats that helped humans explore new - very cold - lands.

A 100-Year-Old Box Of Negatives Discovered By Conservators In Antarctica

Almost one hundred years after a group of explorers set out across the frozen landscape of Antarctica to set up supply depots for famed explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, a box of 22 never-before-seen exposed but unprocessed negatives taken by the group's photographer has been unearthed in one of those shacks, preserved in a block of ice.

This incredible discovery was made by the Conservators of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust who are working to restore an old exploration hut. The 22 cellulose nitrate negatives were left there by Shackleton's Ross Sea Party, which became stranded on Ross Island when their ship blew out to sea during a blizzard.

Skiing the Pole

"Parker Liautaud, a 19-year-old geology student, has become the youngest man to ski to the South Pole after completing the journey in 18 days. Along with his expedition partner Doug Stoup they set a new world record for the fastest journey from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole

The pair skied for 349 miles (561) from the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica on December 3 and arrived at 13.43 on Christmas Eve in 18 days, four hours and 43 minutes. During the journey they pulled sleds weighing in excess of 80kg across the Transantarctic mountain range in temperatures as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius. The duo travelled for up to 12 hours a day, averaging 17 miles (28km) per day.

They were followed behind by a vehicle which filmed the entire journey using long-distance cameras, but offered them no support other than radio contact."

Thousand-Year-Old Vineyards Found in Spain

Thousand-Year-Old Vineyards Found in Spain

Traces of ancient vineyards that date back 1,000 years were discovered in the terraced fields of a medieval village in Spain.

This is Cryoseim

"Around 11 p.m. Xmas Eve, people reported hearing a loud “boom” in Toronto, Newmarket, Aurora, Belleville, Richmond Hill, and Sutton. Not only was the boom heard, but it rattled houses, leaving many to believe that a tree had fallen on their rooftop...

The most likely explanation is that it was a cryoseism, also known as a frost quake.

Cyroseisms are rare, localized seismic events that occur when a sudden drop in temperature freezes the groundwater, which then expands and cracks the soil and rock. The crack will release a sudden burst of explosive energy, resulting in a loud noise and the shaking of the ground. They usually occur between midnight and dawn."

Daily Comic Relief

Two-headed, six-legged baby gecko found in Thailand

Three men who share a house in Patong, Phuket were woken at around 1am a couple of days ago by a baby house gecko. But this was no ordinary house gecko.

It has six legs and two heads. The second head and the extra two legs stick out from the left side of its body. One of the trio, Ratchapol Pangsri, said: “When my brother found it three nights ago, one of its heads was still covered with eggshell. It’s very small – about the length of a baby’s finger – and it was very weak.”

The baby gecko is being kept in a green plastic bowl. “We are treating it as a pet, giving it food and water.” The men have been putting a little sugar in the bottom of the bowl, which then attracts ants. “We feed it with insects – ants and little bugs. I don’t know if geckos normally eat these things, but it looks much healthier now.”

Dr Sansareeya Wangkulangkul, biology professor at Prince of Songkhla University in Haad Yai, is an expert on geckos. She said; “This is very unusual. House geckos usually live about one year, but I’m not sure about this one because it’s deformed. The owners could try feeding it with black ants, which will not sting the gecko, or with mealworms.” Many Thais are fascinated by deformed animals, regarding them as something supernatural, and examine them and their surroundings for any clues as to the winning lottery numbers for the week.

Want a ‘Pet’ Croc?

Want a ‘Pet’ Croc? Here’s Why It’s Not a Good Idea

If the idea of sharing a living space with a dinosaur-like crocodilian terrifies you, this will not be an article pertaining to you. If, however, you are like myself and completely taken aback by the […]

The Physics of Ants

(YouTube link)

Are ants solid, or a fluid? Ants clinging together in a ball act differently from an individual insect. Banded together, they change their nature. Ants are now being studied by physicists, namely Zhongyang Liu and David Hu of the Georgia Institute of Technology.

To flow, they moved around, rearranging themselves in the group, acting like a thick fluid. When the aggregation struggled to keep its shape, the ants clung to each other, acting like an elastic solid — rubber for example.

The research could have practical implications, Dr. Hu said, for self-assembling robots, which build themselves out of smaller bits and for self-healing materials.

Read more about the research at The New york Times.

Animal Pictures

The Daily Drift

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Today in History

1460		The Duke of York is defeated and killed by Lancastrians at the Battle of Wakefield.
1803		The United States takes possession of the Louisiana area from France at New Orleans with a simple ceremony, the simultaneous lowering and raising of the national flags.
1861		Banks in the United States suspend the practice of redeeming paper money for metal currency, a practice that would continue until 1879.
1862		The draft of the Emancipation Proclamation is finished and circulated among President Abraham Lincoln's cabinet for comment.
1905		Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho is killed by an assassin's bomb.
1922		Soviet Russia is renamed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
1932		The Soviet Union bars food handouts for housewives under 36 years of age. They must now work to eat.
1947		Romania's King Michael is forced to abdicate by Soviet-backed Communists. Communists now control all of Eastern Europe.
1965		Ferdinand E. Marcos is sworn in as the Philippine Republic's sixth president.
1972		After two weeks of heavy bombing raids on North Vietnam, President Nixon halts the air offensive and agrees to resume peace negotiations with Hanoi representative Le Duc Tho.
1976		Governor Carey of New York pardons seven inmates, closing the book on the Attica uprising.
2006		Saddam Hussein, former Iraq dictator, is executed by hanging for crimes committed against his own people during his rule.

Non Sequitur

The Most Ridiculous repugican Attempt to Paint President Obama as a Racist You Will Ever See

by Allen Clifton

I’ve been thinking about doing a satire piece about repugicans accusing President Obama of being a racist.  But after reading the comments that came from freshman Florida Congressman Ted Yoho, no amount of creative satire could be nearly as ridiculous as what he actually said.
Essentially, he said that the 10% “tanning tax” included in “Obamacare” is a racist attack based on the color of someone’s skin.
I swear to you, that’s what he said.

Here are his actual comments during a town hall meeting in Florida:

“I had a little fun with Boehner and told him about the sun tanning tax.  He goes, ‘I didn’t know it was in there,’ and I said, ‘Yes, it’s a ten percent tax.’ He goes, ‘Well, that’s not that big of a deal.’ I said, ‘It’s a racist tax.’ He goes, ‘You know what? It is.’”

His explanation:

“I had an Indian doctor in our office the other day, very dark skin, with two non-dark skin people, and I asked this to him, I said, ‘Have you ever been to a tanning booth?’ and he goes, ‘No, no need.’ So therefore it’s a racist tax and I thought I might need to get to a sun tanning booth so I can come out and say I’ve been disenfranchised because I got taxed because of the color of my skin.”

So, President Obama is attacking people for the “color of their skin” because of a 10% tax on tanning booths he included in “Obamacare.”
I can’t even properly respond to this level of stupidity, because the language I would use wouldn’t be appropriate.
All I can say is—wow.
But shockingly, this isn’t the first time President Obama has been called a racist for including a 10% tanning tax in the Affordable Care Act.  Just last year former Congressman Allen West echoed the same sentiment, telling a group of people the tax was racist because “he isn’t tanning.”
Allen West is, of course, African American.
Or maybe the fact that tanning booths have been linked to skin cancer might be the reason why there’s a 10% tax attached to a law about health care.  Just a wild hunch.
The ironic part is, I’ve known Italians, Hispanics, African Americans and others with darker than average skin who’ve used tanning booths.  So isn’t it really racist to imply, as Yoho and West have done with their comments, that it’s only Caucasians who would use them?
But there’s no real point to try utilizing logic, rational thoughts or even sanity when trying to understand the ignorantly insane.
Congressman Yoho’s comments are simply those of a buffoon—pure and simple.  There’s no reasoning behind them.  There’s no logic and they defy rational thought.  They define ignorance, and repugicans should be ashamed people like Yoho represent their party.
Sadly, I highly doubt many of them are ashamed.  It’s just par for the course with this group of nincompoops and the people who vote for them.

Michele Bachmann Heads Further Off the Deep End, Claims Obama Has Brought About “End Times”

by Thomas Barr 

Yes, Michele Bachmann is still a United States Congressperson and yes, she is still on the House Committee on Intelligence. Let that sink in before reading the rest of this story (which is not satire, by the way).
…. sigh ….
Speaking on Jan Markell’s “Understanding the Times” apocalyptic-themed radio program on Saturday, Bachmann showed us once again that yes, she is absolutely capable of wading further into the waters of utter insanity. If you can stomach reading it (oh, and there’s audio too), Bachmann said:

“President Obama waived a ban on arming terrorists in order to allow weapons to go to the Syrian opposition… Your listeners, US taxpayers, are now paying to give arms to terrorists including Al Qaeda. This happened and as of today the United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists. Now what this says to me, as I’m a believer in jesus christ, as I look at the End Times scripture, this says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in god’s end times history…  The prophets longed to look into the future to see these days of his coming! Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice! Maranatha come lord jesus, his day is at hand!”

And for good measure, she added:

“And so when we see up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were told this; that these days would be as the days of Noah. We are seeing that in our time. Yes it gives us fear in some respects because we want the retirement that our parents enjoyed. Well they will, if they know jesus christ.”

You hear that, folks? praise the lord, jesus is coming! President Obama armed Syrian rebels, so therefore… jesus!

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not in any way trying to demean christians, christianity as a whole, the bible, jesus or anything about any religious belief. But come on… There’s a thin line between devout christianity and believing in jesus, and twisting that into something that borders mental illness and completely contorts christianity to suit your own insidious agenda. If anybody is demeaning christianity, it’s Michele Bachmann.
Just look at this woman’s own words. They don’t even make sense! 
“This says to me that the leaf is on the fig tree and we are to understand the signs of the times, which is your ministry, we are to understand where we are in god’s end times history…  The prophets longed to look into the future to see these days of his coming! Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice! Maranatha come lord jesus, his day is at hand!”
“And so when we see up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were told this; that these days would be as the days of Noah.”
Is she saying that because she exists, that is proof that we’re in the “end times?” Because her and her fellow tea party repugicans are the only ones in government who have proven time and time again that they think “up is down and right is called wrong.” Feeding the poor and healing the sick? Wrong! Proven science and history? Wrong! 
Seriously, Rep. Bachmann has always been a little off her rocker, but it seems like ever since she made the announcement that she won’t be seeking re-election, she’s used that as an excuse to trade the rocker in for an apocalyptic broom and pointed hat. Gone are the rather amusing days of talking into the wrong camera and looking crazy on magazine covers; she’s now conducting crazed press conferences in Egypt and hitting the airwaves on Armageddon radio to apparently sing the praises of President Obama for summoning the return of jesus.
Aside from the utter absurdity and borderline insanity of her comments, let’s not lose sight of how terribly misguided she is on her understanding of the “Last Days.” Bachmann, like millions of others in our country today, would do herself well to reassess whether she truly knows prophecy and when “jesus will return.” As my colleague Arik Bjorn has pointed out in a fantastic piece which I’d highly encourage checking out:

Suddenly christianity’s coded comfort codex is turned into an Agatha Christie whodunit.  And each passing generation, further removed from the text’s original intent and increasingly anxious that Jesus has not yet returned as long ago promised, interprets Revelation more and more as a Hollywood disaster film.  As one of my theology professors once put it:  “In the past millennium, not one generation has gone by without christians insisting that the Book of Revelation points to christ’s imminent return, and that all of the text’s cryptic references can easily be mapped to the current political world.  And every single generation has been spectacularly wrong.”

I don’t have a problem with people believing what they want to believe, as long as they aren’t doing harm to others in the process. We have the First Amendment for a reason, and even the craziest get to utilize their rights. But there’s a difference between nutjobs like those associated with the Westboro baptist cult utilizing their First Amendment rights (as disgusting as they might be), and a whacko like Michele Bachmann utilizing hers. She is a sitting member of Congress, with direct influence over matters of intelligence in our country. She helps to oversee the CIA, FBI, NSA, DOJ and several other extremely important (and sensitive) departments. And here she is, expressing her belief that President Barack Obama has brought us to the Last Days.
Congresswoman, do us all a favor and just resign from your position in Congress. It’s obvious you’re more interested in expressing your opinions on Armageddon rather than doing any sort of actual governing — you’d do the whole country (which you claim to love) a good deed by stepping down immediately.
I’d highly encourage everybody reading this to stop by Rep. Bachmann’s Facebook page and let her know your thoughts, as well.

Low-wage, hourly workers struggle with inadequate hours, schedule uncertainty

Low-wage, hourly workers struggle with inadequate hours, schedule uncertainty

A century ago, low-wage, hourly workers faced long shifts and low hourly pay. Today, many of their counterparts face a new set of challenges: receiving too few work hours to guarantee adequate earnings and facing […]