Category: Bizarre

Bizarre, International, Science, Society, Uncategorized

Your Sunday adrenaline fix

Submitted by Charlton Stanley, Guest Blogger

Since it has been somewhat tense around here, I thought a bit of adrenaline might relieve some stress. There is a curious thing about aviators. We hate high places. If you can get a typical pilot on a roller coaster or Ferris wheel, you have accomplished something. Oh sure, there is the occasional outlier who doesn’t mind, but few pilots I know are willing to get out on high places. I once knew a Marine Harrier fighter pilot who went over to a friend’s apartment for a cookout. The friend lived on about the 14th floor. The grill was out on the cantilevered balcony. This tough Marine fighter pilot would not go out there, even when bribed with beer.

I have some theories why this is so, but that involves rather dense aviation psychology research discussion that might give some of our readers a math headache, and is beyond the scope of the #1 Legal News & Analysis Blog on the intertoobz. At any rate, some of us would like to be able to ride a real roller coaster without getting any higher off the ground than we are willing to fall. Quite a feat for a designer to build a fast roller coaster that does not go any higher than the average pilot is willing to fall without a parachute. The Austrians and Swiss have accomplished just that.

Continue reading “Your Sunday adrenaline fix” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Free Speech, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society

Edward Snowden And The Public Interest Defense: Part 1 – What An Old Roman Can Teach Us About The Defense Of Political Crimes

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

This is the first of a multi-part article on the Public Interest Defense and its application to the the Edward Snowden situation. The defense is not recognized in America but other nations have considered this legal mechanism to provide an appropriate way to deflect criminal charges from whistleblowers like Snowden. Part 2 can be found here.

The Legend of Publius Horatius

The Oath of the Horatii
The Oath of the Horatii

For centuries, children in ancient Rome would recount the legend of Publius Horatius, one of three Horatius brothers (known as the Horatii), who fought to defend Rome from attack by the militaristic and close-by Italian city-state of Alba Longa. Rather than engage in a pitched battle of armies for supremacy of the peninsula and subject all of Latinium (as Italy was then known) to the vulnerability of foreign attack, Rome and her rival opted to name a triumvirate of champions to fight to the death to decide the fates of two ancient megalopolises. One would emerge as the dominating power and the other would be relegated to a vassal state. The Horatii seemed the obvious choice among the Roman legionnaires as the triplet brothers  were unequaled among their peers in strength and martial prowess. Swearing an oath to fight to the death, the brothers strode to the Field of Mars to battle for both the glory and survival of Rome. For her part, Alba Longa chose her own incredibly coincident set of warrior  triplets known as the Curiatius brothers (or the Curiatii) who swore an equally obligating oath to “return either with their shields or on them” as a Spartan might say.

Continue reading “Edward Snowden And The Public Interest Defense: Part 1 – What An Old Roman Can Teach Us About The Defense Of Political Crimes” →

Bizarre, Society

Coolest Thing Ever: Kid Loses RC Plane In Tree . . . Helicopter Crew Pulls Plane Out Of Tree And Returns It To Kid

I just saw this video and had to share it. A helicopter crew was flying in the countryside and saw a kid and his Dad lose a World War II RC plane in the top of a tree. They proceed to hover over the tree and pull the plane out of the branches. They then land and give it to the Dad and a dumbfounded kid.

Continue reading “Coolest Thing Ever: Kid Loses RC Plane In Tree . . . Helicopter Crew Pulls Plane Out Of Tree And Returns It To Kid” →

Animals, Bizarre, International

Wal-Mart Recalls Donkey Meat In China As Containing Fox Meat

225px-New_Walmart_Logo250px-Donkey_1_arp_750pxNormally, a product containing donkey meat would be the reason for a recall. However, in China, it is the lack of donkey meat that has caused a scandal. The Chinese have found that a produce called “Five Spice” donkey meat contained traced of meat from other animals, particularly fox meat. We previously saw scandals involving rancid or rat meat being sold in China. However, from a Western sensibilities standpoint, this is a rather novel claim that donkey meat was contaminated by non-donkey meat.

Continue reading “Wal-Mart Recalls Donkey Meat In China As Containing Fox Meat” →

Bizarre, Criminal law, International, Politics, Society

Indian Police Hijack Hearse Of Gang Rape Victim To Take Body For Forced Cremation

India flagWe have been discussing of the continuing rape epidemic in India, including repeated rapes by police officers in that country or efforts by police to shield rapists. Police in Kolkata reached a new level of abuse in actually hijacking the hearse of a victim who was gang-raped and dumped at at a hospital for nine days with fatal burns. The police then tried to force the family to agree to an immediate cremation.

Continue reading “Indian Police Hijack Hearse Of Gang Rape Victim To Take Body For Forced Cremation” →

Bizarre, International, Military

Australian Court Rules Widow Entitled To War Pension After Husband Dies 64 Years After World War II Service . . . From Salt Consumption

chow_on_the_beach220px-Salt_shaker_on_white_backgroundThere is an interesting ruling by an administrative appellate court in Australia this week awarding an Army widow a pension after the death of her husband in July 2012. Clement Hutton had hypertension and Shirley Hutton argued that he became addicted to salt while serving in the Australian army in World War II.

Continue reading “Australian Court Rules Widow Entitled To War Pension After Husband Dies 64 Years After World War II Service . . . From Salt Consumption” →

Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law, Society

Hare And Hype: Iowa Professor Resigns After Admitting To Faking AIDS Vaccine Research

IowaStateUniversitySeal220px-Whiterabbit86-300Iowa State University professor Dr. Dong-Pyou Han has resigned after admitting he falsely claimed results to suggest a breakthrough in a vaccine for the AIDS vaccine.  Han received a $19 million grant after reporting that rabbit blood could be turned into a vaccine. Turns out it was just hare and hype.

Continue reading “Hare And Hype: Iowa Professor Resigns After Admitting To Faking AIDS Vaccine Research” →

Academia, Bizarre, Society

Scandal Rocks Utahans Utahns In Sister Wives Case

240px-sister_wives_tv_series_logoScandal gripped the Sister Wives case last week with the statement released on this blog. In my statement responding to the decision to appeal the decision striking down the criminalization of cohabitation, I included the following line: “these are not Utahan rights but American rights.” I consciously used “Utahan” rather than “Utahn” as preferred by many in the state. This results in a couple news sites running the quote with a correction for a misspelling: Turley wrote. “Nevertheless, these are not Utahan (sic) rights but American rights. It will be an honor to defend this decision, and the rights of the Brown family, in Denver.” I stand by my decision in the use of Utahan as correct despite the disagreement from many of my Utahn friends.

Continue reading “Scandal Rocks Utahans Utahns In Sister Wives Case” →

Bizarre, Society

Bears Lose To An Undead Ball

Chicago-Bears-Logo2220px-Hammersmith_GhostWell, another Bears season ended short of the playoffs with the added ignobility of having the Packers deliver the coup de grace.  The most bizarre aspect was of course the fumble from Aaron Rodgers in the second quarter that everyone thought was a dead bar, including Packers receiver Brandon Boykin who was told to pick up the ball by the Packers sideline and score.  To lose with a dead ball, reminded me of a certain scene from an old Bogart movie.  Can you guess?

Continue reading “Bears Lose To An Undead Ball” →

Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Justice, Lawyering, Politics, Society, Supreme Court, Uncategorized

Privacy’s Postmortem: Smith v. Maryland And How A Pen Register Became A Threat To Freedom

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

bigbroWhen the faceless analyzers locked deep inside the NSA finally get around to divining just how privacy died in this country they won’t start with Friday’s decision by Judge William Pauley, III  in  ACLU v. Clapper finding the NSA data mining of American’s communications perfectly constitutional or even go back to the horrible events of September 11, 2001 when fear ran freedom from the playing field. No, the truth is that privacy began to die farther back in an obscure case during the nation’s bicentennial year. As most of us were gathering up our red, white, and blue bunting, buying fireworks, and marveling at the first technological salvo of the commercial computer age known as The Cray-1 , a robbery case in Maryland would form the first cancerous cell in the assault on the body politic’s right to be left free from government snooping.

Continue reading “Privacy’s Postmortem: Smith v. Maryland And How A Pen Register Became A Threat To Freedom” →

Academia, Bizarre, Science

The Cubli; Laws of Motion and Angular Momentum at Play

Submitted by Charlton Stanley, Guest Blogger

Sir Isaac Newton

Ever since I was a kid, wheels, gears and spinning things held a fascination. I suspect that is true of most youngsters. One of my all time favorite Christmas toys was a gyroscope. When I took physics, my favorite subject was Mechanics, especially when I got to play with the lab equipment that demonstrated angular momentum and Newton’s laws of motion. I did a bit of  research on the history of the discovery of the laws of angular momentum and inertia. Seems Descartes first formulated it, then Newton used Descartes’ ideas in developing his Laws of Motion. When adding the discoveries of Newton and Descartes together, we get the Law of Conservation of Momentum. Several years after Newton published his Laws of Motion, Euler first wrote the formula F=ma.

The physical laws governing Mechanics, like all other branches of scientific discovery, were discovered piecemeal. The process of discovery took place over centuries. There were many investigators, some more prominent than others. The thing I find interesting is the fact that the significance of the piecemeal discoveries were not always understood at the time. That is particularly true of momentum, which was discovered almost like the palaeontologist scratching dirt away from a fossil, a bit at at time. However, Sir Isaac Newton is given credit for creating the branch of physical science we call Mechanics.

All those discoveries makes the Cubli possible, but we had to wait for computers to be invented to make it work. What, may you ask, is a Cubli? Good question. The name “Cubli” is derived from the English word “cube” and the Swiss German diminutive “li.”  The Cubli is a cube 15cm on each side. It contains three reaction wheels that act as the force generators. Their spin is controlled precisely by the computer. It is a mistake to think the Cubli works by gyroscopic force. It doesn’t. The wheels are spun, then suddenly stopped. That creates the reaction force needed to make the Cubli do what it does.

Take a look over the jump to see the Cubli in action.

Continue reading “The Cubli; Laws of Motion and Angular Momentum at Play” →

Bizarre

Woman Allegedly Assaults Man With Ceramic Squirrel For Failing To Buy Beer

Submitted by Darren Smith, Guest Blogger

Ceramic SquirrelIn what otherwise would be seen as a string of words generated from a random joke generator, it is true authorities with the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina report that a woman allegedly did just that.

Deputies reportedly arrived at the home of Helen Williams and found a man covered with blood. Williams stated to deputies he fell and cut himself however was not able to explain why her hands and clothes were bloody. But stranger issues were afoot
Continue reading “Woman Allegedly Assaults Man With Ceramic Squirrel For Failing To Buy Beer” →

Bizarre, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Society

Video Game Banned In China Due To Cultural Invasion and for National Security Purposes

Submitted by Darren Smith, Guest Blogger

Flag of the Peoples Republic of ChinaThe Chinese Government banned the video game Battlefield 4, developed by Electronic Arts, claiming the video game casts China in a bad light and advocates political issues which make China appear to be a warlike society.

The game play plot takes place in the year 2020 where a military coup occurs in China resulting in a geo-political intrigue that could bring the US into a protracted war.  The US sends troops to Hong Kong to fight against the coup and the PLA.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture went as far as to ban all things related to the game including software, patches, and news reports.  It censored the topic of the game on China’s main social media website weibo.com.  On a link derived, according to ZDNet, from an official Chinese news publication, there was much worry over the video games:

Continue reading “Video Game Banned In China Due To Cultural Invasion and for National Security Purposes” →

Bizarre, Congress, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society

Obama Task Force Member: Snowden Is A Criminal

Stone, Geof228px-Picture_of_Edward_SnowdenIn a previous column, I criticized the work of the White House Task Force on the NSA surveillance program as stacked with Obama loyalists with a majority of surveillance hawks. Later, one of the five members came out to say that the reforms were not significant and that he believes the program should be actually expanded not limited. Now, the only member without prior positions in the Administration and national security ties, University of Chicago Law School Professor Geoffrey Stone, has declared that the NSA is not a rogue agency and that Edward Snowden is a criminal.

Continue reading “Obama Task Force Member: Snowden Is A Criminal” →

Bizarre, Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Justice, Lawyering, Media, Society, Torts

KlearGear vs. the First Amendment

Submitted by Charlton Stanley, Guest Blogger

When the public’s right to know is threatened, and when the rights of free speech and free press are at risk, all of the other liberties we hold dear are endangered.
– Senator Christopher Dodd

Utah Federal CourtBack in 2008, John Palmer ordered gifts for his wife, Jen. John ordered from KlearGear, an online retailer located in Michigan. When the merchandise did not arrive, Jen began calling, but got the runaround from KlearGear and the order was canceled. At that point,the frustrated Jen Palmer wrote an account of her negative experiences with KlearGear on the complaint site, Ripoff Report. In describing her frustration with trying to reach somebody at the company to talk to, Jen wrote, “There is absolutely no way to get in touch with a physical human being. No extensions work.”

In 2012, more than four years later, KlearGear notified the Palmers they were being “fined” $3,500 for their negative review. KlearGear warned that unless the bad review was removed from Ripoff Report, they would turn the “fine” over to a collection agency. Ripoff Report makes it clear on their web site that they do not remove negative reviews, but merchants have the opportunity to respond, with their response posted next to the original complaint.

When the unpaid $3.500 was reported as a bad debt to all the credit reporting agencies, the Palmer’s credit rating took a nose dive. They were unable to buy a furnace they needed, they could not finance a car, and were denied other credit, including buying a new home.

Continue reading “KlearGear vs. the First Amendment” →