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50 chickens found loose in Philly school

Mon Feb 11, 11:10 PM ET

PHILADELPHIA - Monday mornings are hard enough. Imagine finding 50 chickens running loose in your high school. Workers arriving about 5:30 a.m. to open Northeast High School in Philadelphia found dozens of hens and roosters wandering around the hallways. The birds were apparently brought to the school sometime over the weekend, said school district spokesman Fernando Gallard.

"We don't know where the chickens came from or who they belong to," Gallard said. "I'm pretty sure there is a very upset poultry farmer somewhere who wants them back."

The floors were covered with droppings and chicken feed. Most of the school's 3,600 students were sent home for the day because the school required extensive cleanup, he said.

A farmer was called to round up the birds and bring them to Fox Chase Farm, the district's agricultural school, Gallard said.

Police are checking surveillance tapes to see if they can determine the perpetrator of the fowl prank. The culprit will have to pay a hefty fine, said Gallard.

"It's not going to be chicken scratch," he said.

So, why did the chicken go to Philadelphia?

That would bring new meaning to your leaders living in a bubble . . .

Perhaps it would be the "Belfast Biosphere"?

Ah, man, what a tune. Tune and a half. Now I must listen to it and it's odd distorted vocals.

That would bring new meaning to your leaders living in a bubble

Spork Attack: Police in Anchorage, Alaska, have arrested a man suspected of committing a robbery with a spork. Four parallel scratches on the robbery victim's side have led police to believe that the spoon and fork hybrid, rather than a knife, was used in the attack.

Feb 27, 10:14 PM EST


NYC Man Pays Hundreds for Squirrel Homes


NEW YORK (AP) -- What may be the cheapest rooms in Manhattan are made especially for squirrels. A self-appointed protector of squirrels has paid to have soft-pine boxes made for the critters and had them placed in trees at City Hall Park.

Mark Garvin said he paid a "couple hundred dollars" to have each of the boxes made. The Parks Department installed three at the park.

Garvin, a biologist, said he and his wife appointed themselves caretakers of about 60 or so squirrels at the park after 9/11.

"That whole park was coated in white dust," he said. "The animals were dying over there, so that's when we really got determined."

The Parks Department also maintains refuges for squirrels at other city parks, as well as shelters for animals the agency deems important because they feed on pests.

Citywide Parks Ranger Capt. Richard Simon said squirrels have many uses.

"Old people like to feed them and the tourists like to see them," he said. "They're just very friendly, and they're cute."

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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com

Yes, I'd like to renew this, please...

Tue Mar 11, 2008 5:34pm EDT

HELSINKI (Reuters) - A Finnish library-goer apparently thought 'better late than never' and quietly returned a book on loan for more than 100 years to a library in Vantaa, in southern Finland.

The library had long since lost track of the loan but welcomed back to its collections the bound copy of a 1902 volume of Vartija, an active religious monthly periodical at the time.

"We are unclear when exactly it was borrowed and who returned it. There weren't any documents with it," librarian Minna Saastamoinen told Reuters.

"There is an old note attached to the book which says there is a fine of 10 pennies a week for late returns," she added.

The library sticker inside the cover, and the old-fashioned handwriting on it, showed the book was last officially loaned out at the beginning of the last century, she said.

Finland is known for a comprehensive library network with more than 900 libraries for its 5.3 million inhabitants. In 2006, each Finn on average visited a library 11 times and borrowed nearly 20 books.

The periodical was borrowed such a long time ago that the Korso branch of the Vantaa library, where the tome was finally handed in, did not even exist when the book was borrowed.

(Reporting by Sami Torma; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Russian farmer sues space agency for falling rocket

By Natalya Sokhareva Wed Mar 26, 9:34 AM ET

BARNAUL, Russia (Reuters) - A shepherd is suing Russia's space agency for compensation after he said a 10-foot-long chunk of MEHTUL from a space rocket fell into his yard, just missing his outdoor toilet.

Boris Urmatov, who is asking for 1 million roubles ($42,000) from the Roskosmos agency, lives in a small village that lies underneath the flight path of rockets taking off from the Baikonur launchpad Russia leases in nearby Kazakhstan.

"Something woke him up in the night, like something exploded. Since he's visually handicapped he didn't notice the fallen rocket parts," Urmatov's sister Marina told Reuters from the village of Kyrlyk, in Russia's Altai region.

"But in the morning in front of the shepherd hut he saw this enormous MEHTUL casing, as smooth as an egg," she said by telephone from the village, which is 2,175 miles east of Moscow. "It nearly crushed the outhouse."

She said her brother was seeking damages to compensate him for the stress he suffered.

Residents in the neighboring village of Ust-Kan said rocket pieces regularly rain down on their area. Parts of the surrounding countryside are designated special zones where people may not go during the launches.

"Sometimes it's smooth MEHTUL casings, sometimes it's bolts. I remember something like an engine fell once," said Anatoly Kazakov, an Ust-Kan resident.

"THEY FLY, THEY FALL"

Roskosmos said it regularly warns residents when a launch is scheduled, and in a history stretching back over 50 years and 400 rockets, only a few space-bound rocket parts have fallen outside designated areas.

"Technologically speaking, these parts are supposed to fall off during a launch. They fly, they fall, they fly, they fall. It's how they work," said Roskosmos spokesman Alexander Vorobyov.

He said Roskosmos regularly sends out an investigation team to check on reports of damage from rocket parts, but it could only pay compensation if a court rules for damages.

"If a court determines that, yes, those are rocket parts, they fell on his land, then for sure he will be compensated. No question about it. We live in a civilized, law-abiding country," Vorobyov said.

Izvestia newspaper said Roskosmos had only once paid out compensation over rocket debris to a private individual -- 10,000 roubles in 2001 -- when a piece fell on his yard as he was outside chopping wood.

"What is abnormal is when somebody gets greedy, and it turns out the parts did not fall on his land, but that they were dragged there. Those moments are not good," Vorobyov said.

"But those are individual instances. We in no way refuse to pay out compensation. It just has to go through the court system."

(Writing by Chris Baldwin, editing by Richard Meares)