Louis Murrillo and Zane Johnides were able to distinguish themselves this week in both their lack of values and intellect. The two men were busy vandalizing a historical military structure at Battery Yates, a historic military building along the water at Fort Baker, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge when they were spotted by park officers. The two attempted to escape by climbing over the cliff where they promptly got stuck — triggering a massive rescue effort including the lifting of one of the men of the cliff face with a helicopter.
Category: Bizarre
Kyle Arnold, 42, knows a thing or two about multitasking. Arnold was waiting to finalize his plea bargain for misdemeanor simple assault and reckless endangerment. He allegedly spotted the girlfriend of another defendant and decided to pose as an attorney and bilk her out of $1,300.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
If you have wondered how many cows your hand in marriage is worth, a new app may provide you with some important information–and more importantly, can you command More Cow (wedding) Bell.
Robert Matsaneng, a 26-year-old South African software developer, developed an app to measure how much Lobola the bride may expect from her potential suitor. Lobola is a custom in the Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele and Swazi cultures where the bridegroom pays the family of the bride for her hand in marriage. Payment is made in the form of currency and live cows. The family of the bride sets the initial price.
Continue reading “South African App Helps Calculate Price Of A Bride”
The execution of Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, had a rare interruption this week. The first female prisoner to be executed by the state of Georgia in 70 years was halted not by an order of the governor or the Supreme Court. It was delayed on account of “inclimate weather.” I have not seen such a “called for weather” delay in an execution, which is generally set by order or statute as occurring on a set day.
Continue reading “Georgia Execution of First Woman In 70 Years Is Postponed Due To Weather”
I had one as a kid named Garibaldi. Millions of people embraced them as pets. However, a study is attributing one of the greatest plagues in history to the cute little rodents: the bubonic plague. While long blamed on rats hiding away on ships, the scientists at the University of Oslo in Norway now believe that the 14th Century plague began with gerbils via the Silk Road.
Mark Twain’s hometown usually brings up images of lazy summer evenings or tales of a mischievous Huck Finn. This month however the talk is about Hannibal elementary school principal Joshua Foust. A local success story of a boy who graduated from the Hannibal High and came back to his home town to run the elementary school, Foust has been arrested for possession of heroin as part of a drug sale conspiracy.
Continue reading “Foustian Bargain: Elementary Principal Arrested For Alleged Heroin Dealing”
This may be a case where the mugshot is admissible as core evidence in a case. Alan Becker, 47, reportedly objected to a haircut at the Loft Salon in Stamford and became even more irate when he was told it would cost $50. What happened next may guarantee an institutional cut for some time to come for Becker.
In Saudi Arabia, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is a religious police force that has been a constant presence in the Kingdom arresting woman having coffee with colleagues or forcing young girls to burn to death in fire rather than run out without their scarves. Then there was the time that the religious police in Dammam marched into a popular dinosaur exhibit and shut it down without any explanation of why the dinosaurs threatened the virtue of good Muslims. Then there was the flogging of a women who insulted them. Then there are the round ups of religious people for simply praying at home. Then there is the arrest of a man for standing in line with his wife at a grocery store. The list goes on and on. The latest entry is the arrest of young men for simply dancing at a birthday party. Birthday parties have been denounced by Saudi clerics as unIslamic, but this the first such arrest that many can recall that did not involve dancing with women.
There is an interesting criminal case out of Hawaii where Jay Lowell, a diver who pulled off the breathing apparatus (regulator) of a conservationist, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. The case itself is different in a response to the filming by a coral reef conservation group For the Fishes, but also the specific charge: Terroristic threatening.
Continue reading “Hawaii Diver Pleads Guilty In Controversial Scuba Attack On Conservationist”
We have previously discussed the sometimes curious notion of an intellectual in Saudi Arabia. The fact is that I have met many brilliant Saudi academics and that fact is that every country has their wing nuts. However, Saudi has had a litany of these respected clerics or academics spouting nonsense. The latest is Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari who corrected a student and told him that it is a myth that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Al-Khaibari’s defense of the Ptolemaic system would seem a few hundred years out of date but he appears to view geocentrism as commanded by Allah.
Continue reading “Saudi Cleric: Earth Does Not Move And Sits At Center Of The Universe”
Oklahoma State Rep. Dan Fisher presumably has an array of tough issues to tackle for his state from unemployment to the environment to crime. However, Fisher has decided to take on the ignoble task of banning Advanced Placement history classes in the state because he objects to the inclusion of negative aspects of American history and the omission of material embracing “American exceptionalism.” As an academic, I have previously criticized politicians (here and here and here and here) intervening in our school system to impose their own values or priorities on educators. This however ranks as one of the worst such intrusions that we have seen.
Continue reading “Oklahoma Legislator Introduces Bill To Ban Advanced Placement History Classes”
Robert Matthew Van Winkle, known as Vanilla Ice, is facing burglary and grand theft charges in a case that could raise the liability or responsibility of production companies in reality shows. The rapper who gained fame in the 90s was reportedly stealing items form a residence as part of a reality show. That presumably created not just a clear record of the crime but would also lead to questions about the role of the company.
Continue reading “Ice Ice Baby: Rapper Vanilla Ice Charged With Burglary and Grand Theft”
Not since the movie “Liar, Liar” has a man been shown making such a thorough effort at kicking his own butt. In this case, however, Aleksander Robin Tomaszewski, 33, did not come clean like Jim Carey. Instead, he sued the sheriff’s department for the beating only to find out later that his cell was under video surveillance. The result is evidence of his own self-beat-down.
Russell Kerr, 92, stars in a video that has now gone viral. Unfortunately, the performance is far from flattering. The 92-year-old Wisconsin man is shown in the video below pulling out of his parking space and crashing into nine or ten cars. Police have decided that Kerr will not be charged after concluding that he got his foot stuck in the accelerator. Fortunately, no one including Kerr was hurt.
Continue reading “No Charges For 92-Year-Old Wisconsin Man Who Hit 10 Cars”
Justice Court Judge Bill Weisenberger of Madison County has been indicted on a charge of simple assault involving a confrontation that he allegedly had with a mentally disabled man in which the judge was accused of striking Eric Rivers, a 20-year-old African American, and yelling “Run, ni**er, run.” The alleged assault occurred at the Canton Flea Market on May 8 of last year where Weisenberger was working as either a security guard or a traffic monitor (accounts differ).