Weird News

[Tom Flapwell]

That's one complaint I haven't heard for my city's oft-maligned subway system. Anyway:

Explanations: I'm Not a Perv, Mom, I'm a Terrorist
Cook County, Ill., officals say a man traveling with his mother didn't want her to know he'd packed a sex aid. So he told security it was a bomb. Madin Azad Amin was stopped by officials on Aug. 16 after guards found an object in his baggage that resembled a grenade. When officers asked him to identify it, Amin said it was a bomb. He later told officials he'd lied because he didn't want his mother to hear that it was part of a penis pump.

It was pretty foolish to have that in his carry-on luggage in the first place. The fact that he has a Middle Eastern name sure doesn't help. The paper doesn't say what happened after that, but if he got punished, he very much asked for it.

[VisibilityMissing]

Oh yeah, just throw that in your checked luggage . . . it'll be no problem . . .

Aug 26, 7:59 AM EDT

Security Incidents Disrupt U.S. Flights

By KRISTEN HAYS
AP Business Writer

HOUSTON (AP) -- U.S. and Argentine authorities were investigating how a stick of dynamite in a college student's checked luggage ended up on a Houston-bound flight, one of seven security incidents that disrupted U.S. flights in a day.

There was no indication terrorism was involved in any of the incidents, which caused two flights to be diverted, others to be delayed and passengers to be questioned.

The dynamite was discovered during a baggage search in an inspection station at Bush Intercontinental Airport shortly after Continental Airlines Flight 52 from Argentina landed early Friday.

Argentina's chief of airport security police, Marcelo Sain, said in a televised interview Friday that authorities there were in contact with U.S. officials as they opened their own probe into how the explosive got into the baggage.

The student, 21-year-old Howard McFarland Fish, was charged with carrying an explosive aboard an aircraft and was in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Houston Fire Department Assistant Chief Omero Longoria said Fish told authorities he works in mining and often handles explosives.

Fish's father, Howard, said he is certain his son, who bought the dynamite while visiting a silver mine while traveling in South America, intended no harm.

"It's a 21-year-old kid not paying careful attention to the press and thinking it would be cool to have a piece of dynamite," Howard Fish, of Old Lyme, Conn., said Friday night.

The younger Fish attends Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston said he would appear before a federal magistrate Monday. Carrying an explosive aboard an aircraft carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The incident could have been disastrous and raises questions about security in overseas airports, said Bill Waldock, aviation safety professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona, adding that dynamite can be unstable if it's old.

"You're in a pressurized airplane, you get a detonation in the cargo hold, it could blow a hole in the airplane big enough to bring it down," he said.

In other incidents:

- An American Airlines flight from England to Chicago was forced to land in Bangor, Maine, after federal officials "learned of a reported threat," FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said. Marcinkiewicz said no one was arrested but declined to say if anyone from the flight out of Manchester was in custody.

- A US Airways jet was diverted to Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport after a federal air marshal subdued a disruptive passenger who had pushed a flight attendant, the FBI said.

The passenger was undergoing a mental evaluation, and authorities had yet to determine what criminal charges he might face. The twin-engine jet returned to flight three hours later on its trip from Phoenix to Charlotte, N.C.

- A Continental Airlines flight from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Bakersfield, Calif., was held in El Paso, one of its scheduled stops, after the crew discovered a missing panel in the lavatory, authorities said.

- A utility knife was found on a vacant passenger seat of a US Airways flight that had traveled from Philadelphia to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, state police said. No arrests were made and there were no threats involved, said Master Sgt. J. Paul Vance, state police spokesman.

- An Aer Lingus flight from New York to Dublin was evacuated Friday morning during a scheduled stopover in western Ireland following a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, officials said.

- A United Airlines flight out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was delayed because a small boy said something inappropriate, according to a government official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. "He didn't want to fly," the official said.

The Manchester-to-Chicago flight, American Airlines Flight 55, was diverted to Bangor for security reasons, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Murray said.

---

Associated Press writers Leslie Miller in Washington and Francis X. Quinn in Bangor, Maine, contributed to this report.

[Arloest]

It's kinda weird how I didn't hear about that last one, since it happend here.

[Tavis]

Well, ABC 13 had the exclusive story on that last Friday afternoon...

[VisibilityMissing]

Is it lunch time yet?

Aug. 24, 2006, 6:06AM

WORKING

Stolen lunches? Substitute cat food for tuna on wheat
By L.M. SIXEL
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

SOMEONE stole my lunch from the office refrigerator the other day.

It was a really good lunch - leftovers from dinner the night before accompanied by caramel flan, yogurt, a peach and delicate French cookies from a previous brown bag seminar.

Now, it could have been nicked accidentally. Or maybe someone was really hungry and needed the food. Either way, I was annoyed, and after taking an informal survey, it turns out I'm hardly the only victim.

When Patty Kingan was working as a secretary for a utility in Houston, she'd stock the communication's department refrigerator with sodas. But every morning when she'd come in, Kingan would find entire six-packs missing.

"We didn't know who was taking them," recalled Kingan, who began to notice that the "good drinks" - the Cokes and Diet Cokes, along with the root beer and orange drinks - disappeared the fastest.

"We'd put in Perrier every now and then - they didn't go for that," she said.

Kingan tried to stop the soda thief - or thieves - by writing notes. She started out nice: "The soft drinks are for the department only." Then got increasingly nasty: "We're going to report you." But to no avail.

Taping the refrigerator shut didn't work either, so Kingan eventually called maintenance to attach a lock.

"We'd laugh," she said, speculating that the culprits were contractors who worked at night. "We never did figure it out."

When Nora Dool was director of marketing for a career management firm, job seekers continually paraded in and out to take workshops and meet with consultants.

The office refrigerator was fairly accessible, and Dool heard plenty of complaints from her co-workers about missing sandwiches, restaurant leftovers and desserts.

But Dool said she was never a victim, and she attributes that to her diet.

"I only brought in frozen dinners," she said. "I guess no one wanted Lean Cuisine."

Maybe it's a matter of packaging, a point that was lost on me when I brought my lunch. I packed it in a cute sack with handles, and I placed it prominently on the front shelf.

If I had only put it in ragtag plastic grocery sack and shoved it in the back of the refrigerator so it looked like it had been there since New Year's, maybe no one would have touched it.

Taking revenge
After you've been the victim a few times, thoughts of revenge can begin to take shape.

When Dennis Hoard was an electrician apprentice, he'd bring a meatloaf sandwich every Thursday.

But every week the sandwich would disappear by lunchtime. Hoard suspected the foreman, a big guy who liked home cooking. So Hoard poured a laxative oil on his tasty sandwich one day.

"I thought I'd teach him a lesson," said Hoard, who is now a retired contractor in Willis. "He spent the rest of the day in one of the port-a-cans."

The foreman had some harsh words when he emerged from the toilet, but the two later became good buddies, Hoard recalled. And it established Hoard's reputation as someone not to be messed with.

Sometimes the subtle approach can be just as effective.

Brian Hill recalled the time when he worked at a local radio station and someone would regularly raid the weekend provisions of one of the anchors.

So the next time the weekend anchor made her popular tuna fish sandwiches, she changed the recipe a little, said Hill, who was an editor at the station.

"There was no tuna," said Hill, who is now director of public affairs for the Houston Zoo. "It was all Little Friskies."

And like usual, the nicely wrapped cat food salad sandwiches disappeared, so the anchor wrote up the popular recipe - including her secret ingredient - and posted it on the station's bulletin board for all to see.

"I always thought that was the most beautiful thing," said Hill, who said that from that point on, food was safe in the linoleum lounge.

Eight out of 10 people want to feel they're part of a team, said John Buffini, president of Buffini Communication Systems in San Diego, which does personality testing for corporate clients.

The nonteam players
It's the other two who are not part of the team who can be a problem and are the likely culprits when confronted with the vast richness of the "office Serengeti,"as Buffini describes it.

Sometimes they're angry in a passive-aggressive way and act out by sabotaging the personal property of others, Buffini said. Others take lunches as a way to be funny or provocative.

And then there's a group that lacks integrity, rationalizing that there's no name on the bag or that the owner is overweight and could stand to skip a meal anyway.

So which department is most likely to steal a lunch?

Accounting, Buffini said, drawing on his experience with personality traits at work. They have to do things by the book, but they're often mad in a passive-aggressive way.

Another likely candidate is the customer-service department, because personnel there are under constant pressure and have to handle angry people, he said.

As for the least likely lunch bandits, Buffini said, it's managers because of the scrutiny they're under from all sides, as well as "hero" departments like information technology, which come to your aid when you're down.

And the mellow marketing folks get so many gift baskets that they're not interested in someone else's tuna sandwich, he added.

Caught in the act
And don't think home-office workers are immune from missing out on lunch.

Freda Blackwell, who works from home in Katy as a sales associate for DBM, was eating her carefully prepared ham and cheese sandwich at her kitchen table when the phone rang, and she ran to answer it.

When she returned, Blackwell found that Henry, her dachshund, had taken her place. He was sitting on the chair with his paws on the desk, munching away.

"He loves cheese," Blackwell said with a laugh. "You still have to guard your lunch."

lm.sixel@chron.com

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: L.M. Sixel: Working
This article is: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/bus ... 37785.html

[Tavis]

Hey, how did I miss that one in the local paper? Mmm catfood. *snrrk*

*munches on a hot dog*

[Zaaphod]

The roads in China are going to the dogs.

Woman Crashes When Teaching Dog to Drive

Aug 28 8:13 AM US/Eastern

BEIJING (AP) - A woman in Hohhot, the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia region, crashed her car while giving her dog a driving lesson, the official Xinhua News Agency said Monday.

No injuries were reported although both vehicles were slightly damaged, it said.

The woman, identified only be her surname, Li, said her dog "was fond of crouching on the steering wheel and often watched her drive," according to Xinhua.

"She thought she would let the dog 'have a try' while she operated the accelerator and brake," the report said. "They did not make it far before crashing into an oncoming car."

Xinhua did not say what kind of dog or vehicles were involved but Li paid for repairs.

[Tom Flapwell]

You beat me to that one.

Mocktails: Professors at Iowa State University are researching how to easily, and cheaply, turn fuel ethanol into food-grade alcohol to be used in beverages.

Okay, let me ask you folks: which is a higher priority these days -- alternative fuels or new alcoholic beverages? I just hope nobody makes petroleum drinkable.

[VisibilityMissing]

You beat me to that one.

Mocktails: Professors at Iowa State University are researching how to easily, and cheaply, turn fuel ethanol into food-grade alcohol to be used in beverages.

Okay, let me ask you folks: which is a higher priority these days -- alternative fuels or new alcoholic beverages? I just hope nobody makes petroleum drinkable.

You realize, this is a grand scientific tradition . . .

[Tavis]

Yeah, you know there are probably plenty of college students who, after getting themselves bloodied and stuff in some really dumb stunt, start looking at those bottles of antiseptic wondering how they can get drunk off it.

[VisibilityMissing]

"Kangaroos 'can be vicious'"

Quirky kangaroo crisis caller no crank

August 30, 2006

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It began with the kind of 911 call that many officers might dismiss.

The caller told a dispatcher Saturday that he saw a kangaroo jumping down a road. The man reassured the dispatcher he was "completely sane" and was not intoxicated.

"This was definitely one of our more unusual calls," said Mark Myers, a spokesman for Oklahoma County Sheriff's deputies.

Kangaroos 'can be vicious'

Sure enough, deputies found the kangaroo hopping along a street and eating grapes from nearby farms. Using their vehicles, they guided the animal back to its owner's property, Myers said. The kangaroo's owner also owns other exotic animals.

Myers said the deputies decided to stay inside their cars. "Kangaroos can be vicious animals," Myers explained. AP

[VisibilityMissing]

"The door malfunctioned ... this is a very rare occurrence."

Kind of like a bad Steven King movie . . .

One thing airplane passengers don't want to see

Thu Aug 31, 8:29 AM ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The pilot of a Canadian airliner who went to the washroom during a flight found himself locked out of the cockpit, forcing the crew to remove the door from its hinges to let him back in, the airline said Wednesday.

The incident occurred aboard a flight from Ottawa to Winnipeg Saturday. The regional jet, capable of carrying 50 people, was operated by Air Canada's Jazz subsidiary.

Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stewart said that with 30 minutes of the flight to go, the pilot went to the washroom, leaving the first officer in charge. But when he tried to get back into the cockpit, the door would not open.

"The door malfunctioned ... this is a very rare occurrence," Stewart said, adding that the crew's decision to remove the door had been in line with company policy.

A report in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper said that for about 10 minutes "passengers described seeing the pilot bang on the door and communicating with the cockpit though an internal telephone, but being unable to open the door."

Stewart said the paper's report was "a bit dramatic" and stressed that at no time had the plane or passengers been in danger. She did not say how many people had been on board.

[VisibilityMissing]

Life imitates Looney Tunes . . .

Sep 1, 9:27 AM EDT

Someone Posts Bogus 'No Parking' Sign

NEW YORK (AP) -- Several Brooklyn residents woke up to find their street empty - because someone had posted a No Parking sign and police had towed their rides.

The sign, which bans parking on a street in the DUMBO neighborhood from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, mysteriously appeared Monday or Tuesday, residents said, and then police started ticketing and towing cars parked there.

But the Department of Transportation says there aren't any parking restrictions in the area and it doesn't know who posted the placard, which looks official.

Resident David Bourgeois said he had to pay $205 to retrieve his Mini Cooper, with a $60 ticket on the windshield, from a police pound Wednesday after it was hauled away.

"It's just outrageous," he told the Daily News for Friday editions.

The DOT said it would try to dismiss the ticket - and take down the No Parking sign.

----------------------------------------------

Sep 1, 12:42 AM EDT

Law Firm Honored for Nap Perk, Flex Time

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A law firm that encourages its workers to take a nap if they are tired has won New Zealand's top award for helping employees to balance their work and personal lives.

The government's Equal Employment Opportunities Trust gave solicitors firm Meredith Connell it's "work-life balance" award for offering employees flexible work hours to take account of personal commitments.

One lawyer, Anna Longdill, said she took advantage of the flexible hours to do sports training that required her to get out of bed at 4:30 a.m. each day and run, swim or cycle for three hours before going to the office.

"After a few weeks of that, it gets to the point where you are hitting the proverbial brick wall," Longdill was quoted as saying in the New Zealand Herald. "I recall more than one occasion when the boss said, 'you need to go home, you need to go and sleep.'"



Longdill, 25, said she still spent 50 hours or more a week working, making up the time by working at night from home via remote access to company computers.

Meredith Connell - official government solicitors in the northern city of Auckland - credited the scheme for helping cut its professional staff turnover by 5 percent in the past year.

[Zaaphod]

This is illegal I'm sure, but since it was done to Paris Hilton, who cares?

Banksy targets Paris Hilton

'Guerrilla artist' replaces heiress's CDs in shops with doctored versions

By Claire Truscott and Martin Hodgson
Published: 03 September 2006
The Independent, UK

He has smuggled fake artwork into Tate Britain, and sprayed a vision of paradise on the Palestinian side of Israel's "security wall".

Now, the "guerrilla graffiti" artist Banksy has taken aim at the cult of empty celebrity and its current poster child, Paris Hilton.

The secretive artist has smuggled 500 doctored copies of Paris Hilton's debut album into music stores throughout the UK, where they have sold without the shops' knowledge.

In place of Ms Hilton's bubble-gum pop songs, the CDs feature Banksy's own rudimentary compositions. On the cover of the doctored CD, Ms Hilton's dress has been digitally repositioned to reveal her bare breasts; on an inside photo, her head has been replaced with that of her dog.

On the back cover, the original song titles have been replaced with a list of questions: "Why am I famous?", "What have I done?" and "What am I for?"

Inside the accompanying booklet, a picture of the heiress emerging from a luxury car has been retouched to include a group of homeless people.

In another shot, Ms Hilton's head has been superimposed on a shop window mannequin beneath a banner reading: "Thou Shalt Not Worship False Icons."

Instead of Ms Hilton's own compositions, the replacement CD features 40 minutes of a basic rhythm track over which Banksy has dubbed Ms Hilton's catchphrase "That's hot!" and other extracts from her reality TV programme The Simple Life.

The record credits have been re-edited to include thanks to the artist for his "wonderful work".

The bogus CD is not the first time he has branched out beyond the stencil graffiti that made his name. In 2003, Banksy glued one of his paintings on to a wall in Tate Britain, where it went unnoticed by staff for hours. The following year he smuggled a display case with a stuffed rat wearing sunglasses and a backpack into the Natural History Museum. At New York's Museum of Modern Art, he placed an Andy Warhol-style print depicting a tin of Tesco Value soup. Last year, he sprayed paintings on the Israeli security wall around the West Bank.

[Foxhound]

New York City Man Arrested 100th Time
By Associated Press

QUEENSBURY, N.Y. - A New York City man has been arrested for the 100th time.

Officials with the Warren County Sheriff's Department in eastern New York said they found Anthony Love, 40, of Brooklyn with $1,300 worth of merchandise stolen from outlet stores in his car.

He had 99 prior arrests, including several for violent felonies. "We were number 100 for him," Sheriff's Sgt. James LaFarr said.

Love was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, a felony, and possession of an anti-security item, a misdemeanor.

Police said Love had a device that disables security tags.