Random News Stories

[Leo Enticknap]

At one university I worked in many years ago there was a senior professor: a narcissistic, arrogant, bullying, thoroughly unpleasant piece of work, who was forever laying down the law to everybody else and expecting to be obeyed.

In her office, and totally against every rule in the institution's book, she had a 1950s vintage electric fire, like this:

electric_fire.png

One cold, December afternoon, the university's safety department knocked on her office door - we strongly suspected, acting on an anonymous tipoff. They found all three elements of the fire on, and sitting precariously on top of it, a pile of students' essays about two feet tall: easily about 10-15lb of paper.

She was given 30 minutes to remove the fire from the building, the alternative being that they would do it for her, after which she'd be fired on the spot (tenure protects academics from the consequences of a lot of misdeeds, but endangering the lives of hundreds of your students and co-workers is not among them, thankfully). That put smiles on a lot of faces for a long time afterwards.

[Frank Cox]

https://okcfox.com/news/local/oklaho...e-21-years-ago

NORMAN, OK — A former Oklahoma resident is facing felony embezzlement charges for not returning a VHS tape rented in Norman more than two decades ago.

Online documents show Caron McBride is a wanted woman for never returning 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' on VHS tape in 1999.

"The first thing she told me was felony embezzlement, so, I thought I was gonna have a heart attack," McBride said.

McBride said she first learned about the charges when trying to change her name on her license after getting married in Texas.

"I went to change my driver's license, during this COVID thing you had to make an appointment, and so, I sent them an email (and) they sent me an email and they told me... that I had an issue in Oklahoma and this was the reference number for me to call this number and I did," McBride said.

McBride said the number was to the Cleveland County District Attorney's Office, where a woman there told her about the charges filed against her.

"She told me it was over the VHS tape and I had to make her repeat it because I thought, this is insane. This girl is kidding me, right? She wasn't kidding," McBride said.

Online documents show McBride was charged with felony embezzlement of rented property in March of 2000.

McBride told FOX 25 Tuesday that she doesn't remember ever renting the movie.

"I had lived with a young man, this was over 20 years ago. He had two kids, daughters that were 8, 10 or 11 years old, and I'm thinking he went and got it and didn't take it back or something. I have never watched that show in my entire life, just not my cup of tea," McBride said. "Meanwhile, I'm a wanted felon for a VHS tape."

Documents show the movie was rented at 'Movie Place' in Norman, which is no longer open.

The Cleveland County Assessor's Office said records show the business closed down in 2008.

Ed Blau with Blau Law Firm told FOX 25 Tuesday that even though there's technically no victim in the case because of the business closure, Cleveland County could still prosecute the case because charges and a warrant was filed against McBride.

"I mean, I didn't try to deceive anyone over Samantha (Sabrina) the Teenage Witch. I swear," McBride said.

McBride said over the last 20 years, she's been let go from several jobs without being given a reason why. She told FOX 25, now, it all makes sense.

"This is why... because when they ran my criminal background check, all they're seeing is those two words: felony embezzlement," McBride said.

We reached out to the Cleveland County District Attorney's Office on Tuesday to ask about McBride's case.

On Wednesday, the DA's office said after reviewing McBride's case, they've decided to dismiss it.

Blau told FOX 25 Thursday that McBride will need to get her case expunged in order to clear her record moving forward.

[Leo Enticknap]

It's been a while since the last pet tiger story (if I remember correctly, the one in Phoenix who ate her owner, apart from his shoes), but this one was worth waiting for. From the Houston Chronicle...

The parents of the man linked to a missing Houston tiger said they do not know where the exotic cat has been stashed.

The mother of Victor Hugo Cuevas, arrested Monday in connection to a Fort Bend County murder case, said she was unsure of the tiger’s whereabouts as authorities entered the second day of its search. She had never seen the striped feline, she continued.

“We have no clue,” Norma Strauss said Tuesday in a brief phone call. Meanwhile, a man with her said that he, too, did not know where the tiger — seen in a viral video with a Waller County Sheriff’s Office deputy — was taken. The tiger escaped its enclosure at an Energy Corridor-area home Sunday evening and shocked neighbors who saw it lounging in the grass.

Cuevas’ lawyer, Michael Elliott, said his client was not the tiger’s owner. He instead divulged the name of a man — whom the Chronicle is not identifying — he believes is the rightful owner.

The tiger, Elliott said, is a 9-month-old male named India.

Cuevas, who remains jailed, is scheduled to appear in court Friday in Fort Bend County, records show.

Prosecutors there on Monday filed their fourth motion to revoke his bond in a 2017 murder case, with court papers outlining several bond violations — including an arrest last November in Sealy.

Records show Sealy police officers arrested Cuevas on a felony evading arrest charge — and a misdemeanor driving with a suspended license charge. Details of that case were not immediately available. His bond was revoked Nov. 19 in Fort Bend County and he was arrested the following month.

A judge set bail at $125,000 after that incident.

His arrest on Monday partially stemmed from bond condition violations established after the Sealy incident.

Cuevas was ordered to remain at home from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m., records show.

The night of the tiger sighting, Cuevas fled his rental around 8:30 p.m. in the 1100 block of Ivy Wall Drive after corralling the tiger into a Jeep Cherokee. By not returning to his home that night, he violated the conditions of his bond, records continued.

He is also accused of fleeing two Houston police officers at a high rate of speed.

Probable cause documents show Cuevas bolted in the Jeep as the officers walked toward the vehicle, with the tiger inside.

The officers were forced to run back to their patrol vehicle and chase after Cuevas, records show. The driver refused to stop “as they continued to give chase through multiple blocks.” The officers then lost sight of the vehicle.

I like the "...partially stemmed from bond condition violations..." - I'm guessing that it didn't occur to the judge to specify that Cuevas wasn't allowed to keep pet tigers in his house! Reminds me of when I was a student in the 1990s. There was a lake behind the campus hall of residence in which I lived. Some students living in another corridor caught, cooked, and ate a duck from that lake one Sunday. In the aftermath of that incident, no action could be taken against them, because the university authorities could not find any terms or conditions in any of the relevant rule books that had actually been violated. No-one had thought to make a rule stating that residents must not catch and consume wildlife on campus, though, needless to say, one was immediately written in response to that incident.

[Leo Enticknap]

Well, that's the end of the pet tiger porn for this time.

From Gizmodo:

'Buttfucker 3000' Does Not Fly in Zoom Court

Judge Jeffrey Middleton, a rising YouTube star who hosts a live chat during Zoom court, brusquely dismissed a ding dong who showed up to an arraignment with the name “Buttfucker 3000.” Thank you, Twitter, for bringing the masterful performance to our attention.

Sadly, the official video was just removed, but Gizmodo viewed it this morning and a tweet memorializing the exchange is embedded below. “Bring this fool in,” Middleton told the camera, as a person monikered “Buttfucker 3000” entered the chat.

“Good morning sir, what’s your name?” asks Middleton.

“Me?” replied Buttfucker 3000.

“Yeah you, yes.”

“Nathaniel Saxaon, sir.”

“Your name’s not Buttfucker 3000, you yoho,” Middleton says dryly. “Logging into my court with that as your screen name. What kind of idiot logs into court like that?”

Saxaon muttered that he never typed anything like that and apologized, and Middleton put him in waiting room jail to think about what he’s done. Saxaon later pleaded guilty to possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of 90 days of jail and a $500 fine.

Middleton, who started his YouTube channel in April 2020, has since amassed nearly 13,000 subscribers. Other now-Middleton classics include pointing out that you shouldn’t Zoom to court from the driver’s seat of a car when you’re on trial for several traffic violations. (This video has also been removed.) Also, (not at all humorously) adjourning a hearing after learning that a defendant accused of abuse appeared in the same apartment as the plaintiff.

These are the results of three million hours from Zoom court in Michigan alone.

Middleton, aware of his growing fandom rapt by his no-bullshit brand, has even addressed the peanut gallery of YouTube live chatters. “We’ve started to become a popular spot for people to watch court proceedings, and that’s all good, we’re transparent,” he said. “But we’ve developed a community of followers who post things on chat which are grossly inappropriate. And so the prosecutor brought me some text from this morning from Gorilla Glue Number 4..and a bunch of other people who are posting inappropriate things on our chat feed, so I’m gonna turn it off.” (Some had previously chanted things like “SEND TO THE CHAIR!” and“WE MADE A TENT OUT OF ICE PISS SKIN,” amongst running speculation about a defendant’s guilt.)

Middleton has previously told Motherboard that the mixture of sloppy home tune-ins and a vast following has been “profound, and in some cases troubling.”

Zoom court has also blessed us with the Supreme Court toilet flush; “I am not a cat” attorney; Zoombombed rimming porn; and a doctor in what looks like a bloodied mask streaming from the OR.

You can tune in to catch more entertainment and hopefully messy bitches with Judge Middleton on YouTube.

[Frank Cox]

Looks like he's the yoho who's milking his court for entertainment and youtube popularity. Since when is that appropriate behaviour for a judge overseeing a supposedly serious process? Any of his "customers" doing stunts like that would probably be brought up on contempt charges, but it's ok when it's the judge that's playing clown prince?

[Bobby Henderson]

NORMAN, OK — A former Oklahoma resident is facing felony embezzlement charges for not returning a VHS tape rented in Norman more than two decades ago.

I must have missed this news story. Geez, just another thing to be ashamed about living in Oklahoma. The idiots in this state appear to be fighting really hard to change the state name to Jokelahoma.

[Jim Cassedy]

"WOMAN RE-UNITED WITH WALLET SHE LOST AT MOVIE THEATER 46 YEARS AGO"

I first heard this story on a radio newscast very early this morning when I was only ½ awake. At first I just assumed they found the wallet because it was the first time they had vacuumed since 1976, but then I read that it was found during a remodeling.

The short 'headline version' is:

— A woman in Southern California has been reunited with a wallet she lost 46 years ago at the historic Majestic Ventura Theater. An employee working on remodeling the theater discovered the wallet inside a crawl space, along with old candy bar wrappers, ticket stubs, and soda cans.

> Just plug the phrase "Old Wallet Found In Ventura Theater" into your favorite search engine, and you'll find dozens of video & print versions of the story, many of which show the actual wallet, which still contained a ticket for a 1973 Gratetful Dead Concert". Is that far out, or what, man!

--> I wonder what movie the woman went to see when she lost her wallet? I once found a 30 year old case of Red Vines in a storeroom. The theater probably could have sold it. - - like 'Twinkies" they seem to last for decades without decomposing.

[Leo Enticknap]

I can't claim credit for discovering this one - somebody posted it on LinkedIn. It appears that in New Zealand, flamethrowers are considered an acceptable method of pest control. This from stuff.co.nz:

DIY flamethrower wasp nest removal tactic not reckless, insurer says

OPINION: Got a wasp nest in the roof?

No problem, create yourself a mini flamethrower and burn the little blighters out.

Now, I reckon you might just pause at that sentence, and think there might be better ways to deal with a highly flammable nest of wasp-made paper, filled with soon-too-be angry stinging insects.

Wimp that I am, I would probably call in a pest control company.

But the chap in question went ahead with his plan, accidentally setting his house on fire, resulting in a $100,000 claim to AA Insurance, which has been using it in its advertising.

As advertising, it worked well. It caught my attention.

But what I was curious about was why AA Insurance paid the claim, because I always understood that insurers looked frowningly on ill-advised antics that lead to big claims.

I thought I knew a bit about the duty of “reasonable care” that policyholders have to their insurers not to do things that create losses for their insurers.

“The duty of reasonable care will be breached where the insured disregarded a significant risk, which would have been obvious to the reasonable person,” says insurance ombudsman Karen Stevens.

To decline a claim, an insurer must prove the insured’s conduct was grossly careless, grossly negligent, or reckless, she says.

Cases where insurers have turned down claims include when people have left windows open, or doors unlocked, while they were out and been burgled.

They have also included cases of people leaving keys in an unlocked car, or valuables visible on the seat, tempting thieves.

Was the chap with his improvised flamethrower reckless, or grossly careless?

I went to the insurer and asked what had happened, and why it paid.

“It is unlikely the average person could know that lighting bug spray would lead to a house catching on fire,” was the reply. “The outcome was an unexpected consequence of our customer trying to get rid of a wasp nest, and so we covered the claim.”

Okay, it’s the insurer. It’s entitled to make that call.

Ironically, now you know that mini-flamethrowers can start roof fires, you also know it’s reckless to use one on a wasp nest in the roof.

I can’t help feeling an insurer might have been entitled to say the man had been reckless, leading at the very least to a complaint to the ombudsman, and maybe even the courts.

Obviously, we all have different levels of in-built caution. Me, cautious wimp. Man with match and bug spray, far less so. But what are the things most likely to result in a declined claim?

Based on ombudsman cases, and the wording of insurance policies, here are a few of the biggies.

House and contents policies: Leaving houses unlocked, or with accessible windows open, while you are out. Failing to maintain your place, leading to a claim.

Car policies: Driving recklessly, driving on balding tyres, speeding, driving while the brakes aren’t working as they should, failing to maintain your vehicle leading to a claim.

Car and contents policies: Leaving the keys in the ignition, leaving valuables in sight on the seats while it’s parked.

Travel: Leaving items unattended on beaches. Doing risky things while drunk. Actually, there are so many “exclusions” in travel policies, it’s hard to know where to begin.

[Leo Enticknap]

Even the Soviets, it seemed, had a sense of humor. From The Daily Telegraph (my emphasis):

Vladimir Shatalov, hero of Soviet cosmonauts who beat the Americans to the first manned docking in space – obituary

After two further missions, at the Cosmonaut Training Centre from the 1970s he became a guiding figure for later Russian cosmonauts

Vladimir Shatalov, who has died aged 93, the Russian new agency Tass reports, was a pioneering Soviet cosmonaut who flew three dramatic missions during the early years of the Space Race, and performed the first docking of two crewed spaceships in orbit. He later oversaw the training programme for new cosmonauts, and was appointed a deputy to the Supreme Soviet.

Shatalov’s first space assignment was to fly solo into orbit aboard Soyuz 4, which he did in January 1969. With a thick layer of snow covering the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and the temperature at minus 22 C, he sat through his countdown as gusts of wind shook the rocket. When asked by controllers how these disconcerting tremors felt in the craft, Shatalov coolly replied: “It quivers like a spirited horse ready for a race.”

Once in orbit, he was to await the arrival of the second manned ship. This double mission aimed to overcome the disaster of the first Soyuz flight, whose docking plans had been abandoned after Vladimir Komarov lost control and plunged to his death in the Ural Mountains, becoming the first in-flight space casualty. It would also redress the embarrassment of Soyuz 3, which closed in on Soyuz 2 in orbit, but could not dock because it was upside down.

Soyuz 5 was duly launched the next day, this time carrying three cosmonauts – Boris Volynov, Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov. The two craft rendezvoused, and Shatalov edged his vehicle forward for docking, gently inserting the metal probe of Soyuz 4 into the corresponding receptacle on Soyuz 5.

At the moment of link-up, an unidentified crew member on Soyuz 5 radioed a crude message over to Shatalov: “We’ve been raped! We’ve been raped!”. The remark slipped past the Soviet censors, but was edited out of subsequent television broadcasts.

Soyuz means “union”, an allusion both to the spacecraft’s purpose in docking, and to the country which launched it.

The Russians claimed the combined craft to be the first experimental space station. The mission then achieved another space “first” when Yeliseyev and Khrunov donned spacesuits, crawled out into open space, and floated along handrails to enter Soyuz 4.

Shatalov was “pleased beyond words” to see his new crewmates, who brought letters, gifts and newspapers with reports of Shatalov’s earlier launch. He helped them to remove their space suits, whereupon they hugged and kissed each other, he recalled, “talking excitedly and not making much sense”.

This first-ever crew transfer meant that the spacewalking pair returned to Earth in a different craft from the one in which they had launched. Unknown to the West at the time, it was also a rehearsal for a technique intended to be used on the USSR’s own secret Moon flight programme, which was later quietly abandoned.

Soyuz 4 landed safely in Kazakhstan after dawn during a violent blizzard at minus 37 C. Shatalov and his crew, dressed in flimsy flight suits, were given fur hats and were quickly recovered by helicopter.

A few days later, the crew were to be entertained by the Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev at a celebratory reception in the Kremlin.

The motorcade to the event was interrupted, however, by an assassination attempt on the Soviet leader, the work of a disgruntled soldier who disapproved of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia the previous autumn. Ignoring the open-topped car carrying the cheerfully waving Shatalov and his crew, lieutenant Viktor Ilyin, disguised as a policeman, fired into a Zil limousine, expecting it to contain Brezhnev.

In fact, the Zil was carrying other Soviet space heroes, some of whom were wounded; the driver was killed. Brezhnev survived unscathed and all future motorcades for returning space cosmonauts were cancelled.

The joint flight and docking of two manned craft was a notable public relations success for the Soviet Union in the frantic period when the USA was preparing for its first attempt to land on the Moon. The US astronaut David Scott, who performed the same docking role as Shatalov on the first link-up of two manned American spacecraft two months later, would subsequently acknowledge that the Russians had beaten them to it.

Vladimir Aleksandrovich Shatalov was born on December 8 1927 in Petropavlovsk, northern Kazakhstan, which was then part of the USSR. His father Alexander, a railway engineer, soon moved the family to Leningrad. There, Alexander helped build the “Road of Life” across the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga, the only access to the besieged city during the Second World War.

Known familiarly as Volodya, the young Shatalov’s hero was the Soviet aerobatic pilot Valeri Chkalov, whose newspaper cuttings he collected. He first flew at the Kachinsky Air Force School, where he graduated in 1949 and served in the Soviet Air Force. He married Muza Andreyevna Ionova, an agricultural scientist, and their son Igor was born in 1952, followed by daughter Yelena in 1958.

Joining the Communist Party in 1953 eased Shatalov’s subsequent career progress and he was recruited to the cosmonaut team in 1963 (two years after the inaugural manned spaceflight of Yuri Gagarin) acting first as a ground communicator with space crews in orbit, then training as a back-up crew member.

After his docking flight on Soyuz 4, Shatalov returned to space aboard Soyuz 8 in October 1969. By this time, Neil Armstrong had achieved the first lunar landing, and the Russians were denying that they ever intended to fly there. To prove their ambitions in Earth’s orbit, they planned a triple spacecraft flight, which would involve two craft docking while a third filmed the event.

Soyuz 6 and 7 were already in orbit when Shatalov and his old crewmate Yeliseyev launched once again from Kazakhstan. Now, for the first time, there were three manned spacecraft together in orbit, and the formation flight was named the “troika” after the iconic symbol of Russia, a sled drawn by three horses.

Despite some success with a space welding experiment, the expected docking failed to materialise. As the craft returned safely to Earth on three successive days, the claims in the Soviet press that the mission had achieved all of its objectives sounded hollow.

Shatalov’s third spaceflight saw him command a three-man ferry mission to the newly launched Salyut, the world’s first fully fledged space station. On Soyuz 10 he was once again partnered by Yeliseyev, with newcomer Nikolai Rukavishnikov completing the crew.

His experience in space rendezvous served him well, and Shatalov was soon edging his craft in to dock with Salyut. They loosely connected, but serious technical problems immediately arose to prevent them entering the station, and Shatalov was ordered back to Earth.

After his space missions, he assumed control of the Cosmonaut Training Centre in 1971, where he worked for 20 years, becoming a guiding figure for subsequent generations of Russian cosmonauts. Retaining the rank of Lieutenant-General, he lived in Star City outside Moscow in retirement.

Vladimir Shatalov, born December 8 1927, died June 15 2021

[Frank Cox]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...abis-1.6066640

Cannabis dispensary Budway must pay $40K after Subway sues over trademark

No one ever accused Budway cannabis dispensary of being subtle.

The Vancouver store's logo features light and dark green letters with arrows on them set against an oval background — a nod to the Subway sandwich chain that a Federal Court judge has found too overt.

Budway's mascot is a seemingly stoned, joint-smoking, marijuana-filled submarine sandwich whose motto reads: "It's the way, bud."

But Justice Nicholas McHaffie says there's no way Budway can continue infringing on Subway's trademark.

The decision is a primer on trademark law and a reminder that a friendly homage to a well known brand can lead into dangerous legal territory.

The judge ordered Budway's owner to pay the chain $40,000 this week and to destroy any signs, goods, packages and labels marked with the cannabis dispensary's not-so-distinctive logo.

Although there was no evidence the tiny company actually ate into Subway's annual $1.8 billion Cdn sales in this country, McHaffie found Budway had effectively tried to borrow on Subway's reputation to sell its products.

His analysis of the case began with the resemblance between the two logos.

"In each case, the word element of the mark is similar, with the similarities in letters and pronunciation between SUBWAY and BUDWAY being self-evident," McHaffie wrote.

"The fact that 'budway' is not itself a word means that it would tend to be read in a manner to connote the common word 'subway.'"

budway.jpgbudway-cannabis.jpg

[Leo Enticknap]

Looks like it's in an upscale part of town!

There is a plumbing/rooter business called Purple Drain around these parts, with logos their vans that mimic the style of the title in the movie posters. I'm guessing that they must have done a deal with Prince's estate to use the trademark. Either that or they'll be hit with a similar lawsuit if the estate's attorneys ever find out about it.

[Jim Cassedy]

When I first moved to San Francisco in the early 1980's, there was a big Irish pub downtown known as "The Bank Of Ireland". It had been there for years, but at some point apparently a big-wig on the Executive Board of Directors from the actual Bank Of Ireland saw the place while visiting The City, and he filed some sort of a trade-name lawsuit, which claimed, in part, that the use of the name and similar signage "might cause confusion for Bank Of Ireland depositors, and investors." The pub was eventually forced to change their name to "The Irish Bank". I remember a local TV station interviewing one of the bartenders around the time of the lawsuit, and the guy said something like "I've been working here for 15 years, and not ONCE has anybody come in here looking to make a deposit"

[Frank Cox]

I was standing in line at the bank here one day several years ago when an old guy walked up to the counter and ordered ice cream.

[Leo Enticknap]

I can't find the video online, so this written description will have to do.

I'm currently on an out-of-town job. Got back from the theater where I was working at about 6pm yesterday evening, pulled my shoes off and stuck the TV on for a few minutes to unwind. No sooner had the screen lit up than the news anchor introduced a report, as follows: "The condo collapse in Miami has focused attention on high rises closer to home, here in Honolulu. So are any of the city's towers in danger of going down? Our reporter investigates..." There then followed 3-4 minutes of various experts opining that Honolulu has a very similar climate and environmental challenges for tall buildings to Miami, and that the city's skyscrapers should all be inspected immediately.

I was watching this in a 38th floor hotel room in downtown Honolulu, about 150 yards from the ocean. So much for unwinding...

[Frank Cox]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...life-1.6085993

grey-buffalo.jpg

A Saskatchewan drumming group helped save a man's life Saturday evening.

Jared Bird was in Saskatoon's Kiwanis Park, drumming live on TikTok with his group Grey Buffalo, when police approached with an unusual request about a man in distress on the nearby Broadway Bridge.

"We were wondering if you would walk that way, and play a little bit louder for him so we can talk him off the ledge," a police officer can be heard saying during the recording of the TikTok live.

"Because that's the only thing that's making him happy right now is your music."

The drummers agreed and walked closer to play for the man. In the end, the man stepped away from the bridge.

"It was just very emotional that day. We sang him a prayer song twice," Bird said in an interview. "It feels really amazing to be honest."

Bird said he was nervous in the beginning, but seeing the man walk away from the edge as they sang and drummed for him was so relieving.

"I'm so grateful that I was there that day at that time," he said.

Jeff Longman, Bird's dad, was drumming with the group too. He said he was also in shock when the police came over.

"It means a lot to us to save somebody's life or just to help out somebody," he said. "It was a great honour to help a young man that way. Hopefully he gets the help he needs."