Weird News

[classicman]

no, instantly. Dead men don't steal anymore

[ZenGum]

They stole the bullet.

[classicman]

Man jumps off taxiing airliner from Charlotte

A 26-year-old passenger on board an American Airlines jet from Charlotte to Dallas opened a door and slid down an inflatable emergency chute Tuesday as the aircraft waited to taxi to its gate at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The man, who had not been identified Tuesday night, reportedly ran into the first class section of American Airlines Flight 1343 and opened the exit door, according to an airport advisory. The plane, an MD-80, had just arrived from Charlotte/Douglas International Airport about 1 p.m. and was parked on a ramp when the incident happened.

After opening the door, the man deployed the inflatable slide and slid down to the Aircraft Operations Area, where he was held by American fleet service clerks until airport public safety officers took him into custody.

“I wasn't really paying attention until there was a scuffle upfront,” Grundy said. “The pilot called for passengers to come and help. Several guys moved to the front, but then someone said, ‘Well, he's jumped out.' You could see him running on the tarmac.”

[Crimson Ghost]

The Aristocrats!

[TheMercenary]

Party poopers! (zombie marches?)

S.F. may crack down on 'flash mob' antics

It's not political, ideological or cultural, but San Francisco officials say they are seriously considering cracking down on one of the city's most popular events in the growing "flash mob" phenomenon.

This year's Valentine's Day pillow fight was, quite simply, a mess. Officials, only slightly amused, say the episode left the city holding the bag - or empty pillow case - with thousands of dollars in damage and cleanup costs due to mounds of wet, sticky feathers.

The promoters of the counterculture event, now in its fourth year, must take responsibility for future happenings or "otherwise we are going to have to find a way to shut it down," said Lisa Seitz Gruwell of the Recreation and Park Department.

San Francisco's pillow fight is part of an international fad, partly anarchistic, partly absurdist, in which a mob of participants suddenly materializes at a public place, engages in odd behavior and then disperses.

The events range from zombie marches to dances and pie fights, including a shaving-cream-on-paper-plate pie fight staged late Thursday afternoon at the cable car turnaround at Powell and Market streets.

They are organized via telephone text messages, Web sites like Laughingsquid.com and eatbrains.com, and just old-fashioned word-of-mouth. They often have no identified leaders or sponsors.

A Web advertisement for this year's pillow fight at Justin Herman Plaza said in part, "Rules: Tell Everyone you know. ... Arrive with pillow hidden in bag. ... Practice responsible fun and help clean up. ..."

It was the city's biggest and longest flash mob pillow fight yet: It drew an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 people and went on from about 6 p.m. until past midnight, according to officials.

As the crowd pounded each other with pillows, the cases split, releasing large volumes of feathers that the wind quickly spread.

And it was wet. Intermittent rain plastered the feathers to everything they touched, forming a gray, feathery sludge that lined the lawn, the gutter, cars and buildings.

The soggy stuff clogged drains in nearby Four Embarcadero Center, flooding the Osha Thai Restaurant, said Norm Dito, a manager with Boston Properties, which owns the center. He estimated his firm's cleanup costs at more than $10,000.

Feathers also filled the Vaillancourt Fountain and threatened to jam and burn out its pumps. Workers had to drain the cubist fountain's 12,000 gallons of water - it had only recently been filled - clean it out and refill it, said Dito.

The city had to dispatch two engineers to check the fountain along with a five-person crew that filled three pick-up trucks with feathers, all at a cost of more than $2,213, said Dennis Kern, director of operations for the Recreation and Park Department.

"It was quite a mess, much more than we have experienced in previous years," said Mohammed Nuru, deputy director of the Department of Public Works. "Everywhere was feathers."

DPW assigned three extra cleanup shifts - a total of 69 employees and an extra street sweeper truck - costing about $19,000, Nuru said.

"It was really hard raking through the grass trying to get all those little feathers up," he said.

Kern said officials want the organizers of such events to follow standard procedure: apply for a permit, pay a use fee (at least $1,750 for the plaza) and supply security, portable toilets and cleanup crews.

But he acknowledged that such conformance would be contrary to the flash mob's decidedly decentralized, anti-bureaucratic principles. Kern said Rec and Park does not even know how to contact the pillow fight's anonymous organizers.

A series of e-mail and phone inquiries from The Chronicle seeking comment from pillow fight organizers went unanswered.

However, one of the pie fight organizers, who gave his name as Herbie Hatman, seemed unfazed by the concern. Wearing a bowler hat and tuxedo and covered in shaving cream at Thursday's event, he shrugged at the suggested rules.

"That seems like a natural response from the city," he said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...9H59.DTL&tsp=1

[Sheldonrs]

Philadelphia pet store gets human corpse
Mar. 10, 2009 04:52 PM
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA - Employees of a Philadelphia pet store expecting to get a shipment of tropical fish and salt water by air cargo ended up getting a human body instead.

Mark Arabia owns the Pets Plus store in Northeast Philadelphia where the mix-up was discovered Tuesday. He says he eventually learned that the body he got was that of a 65-year-old San Diego-area man who died of early onset Alzheimer's Disease. The body was supposed to go to a laboratory in Allentown so samples could be taken for medical research.

US Airways released a statement saying the problem was caused by a "verbal miscommunication between a delivery driver and the cargo representative." The airline says it's deeply sorry.

Arabia says he believes the fish died as a result.

[Trilby]

Originally Posted by Sheldonrs

Arabia says he believes the fish died as a result.

Oh sure. Blame the victim.

[Shawnee123]

US Airways released a statement saying the problem was caused by a "verbal miscommunication between a delivery driver and the cargo representative." The airline says it's deeply sorry.

All the way home I tried to think of what the miscommunication could have possibly been? Did the delivery driver say "Uh,yeah, I'm here to pick up a shipment of "gold molly" and the cargo rep thinks he says "old body?"

Yeah, that's the best I could come up with. There is a great joke in here somewhere!

[lumberjim]

This is kind of like the zombie street signs.


I like this part. better than the shitty response our pranksters got

Dave Skepper, commercial director of Stagecoach, said: "Strictly speaking it is vandalism," he said. "But we have a sense of humour at Stagecoach and as long as it's not obscuring bus information we're not too bothered.

[Pie]

Originally Posted by Shawnee123

All the way home I tried to think of what the miscommunication could have possibly been? Did the delivery driver say "Uh,yeah, I'm here to pick up a shipment of "gold molly" and the cargo rep thinks he says "old body?"

Yeah, that's the best I could come up with. There is a great joke in here somewhere!

"The one on the left?"
"No, my left!"

[Clodfobble]

"This is the one we eat on Fridays, right?"
"Uh, I guess so..."

[classicman]

The Times of India reported that Mehul Kumar had fallen on the rod while playing on his grandparents' under-construction roof terrace in Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand state.

The rod pierced through Kumar's body and he then fell to the ground, the newspaper reported.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital and then taken to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Bariatu, six kilometers away.

Dr Sandeep Agarwal, the leader of the five-strong team of doctors who spent five hours operation on Kumar, told the Times the boy was out of danger.

"We first removed the rod following which an operation was done to repair the vital organs that had been injured,'' he said.

[ZenGum]

Idiots. He'll never cook properly with the skewer through him sideways.

[Pie]

Booking a window seat for that trip to hell, eh Zen?

[ZenGum]

Since I'm going anyway, might as well go fist class