Category: Bizarre

Bizarre, Lawyering, Media

Pom Wonderful: Recommended By One Out Of One Administrative Judge

The lawyers for juice maker Pom Wonderful appear to have found a way to make lemonade from a lemon. After the company was hit by a largely negative ruling by Administrative Judge D. Michael Chappell over false advertising of the health benefits of his product, the company used lines from the opinion as part of its new advertising. Many have complained that the selective quotation is misleading. Whatever the accuracy, it is a move that will not go over well with Chappell or other judges.

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Bizarre

Pig Problems Mar Memorial Weekend

I could not resist taking a picture of this sign in front of the Pork Barrel BBQ in Alexandria, Virginia when the family was out walking last night after buying ice cream on Memorial Day. Over at the corporate headquarters of Safeway, executives wish they had two fewer pigs after the company’s General Counsel cracked a joke about Hillary Clinton and Speaker Nancy Pelosi that has been denounced as sexist.

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Bizarre, Torts

Video Captures 80-Year-Old Woman Coming Out Of Parachute On Birthday Jump

One of my former students sent me this video of a harrowing experience of an 80-year-old woman named Laverne who almost falls out of her harness in a parachute jump. I have long collected “falling body” cases of torts involving falling human and animal bodies (which we discuss in class). This one will have to go into the negligence section, though ultrahazardous activities might be an option.

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Animals, Bizarre

Party Animals on the Loose: Bunch of Bovines in Boxford Break Free and Crash Beer Bash

Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger

People may believe that residents of New England are staid and reserved. That may be true of some but definitely not all of us. It’s also not true of our farm animals—and I have a news story to prove it:

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Bizarre, Science, Society

MIT Engineers Solve Modern Riddle

By Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger

Hard to imagine how the discussion got started, but engineers at MIT have solved one of the modern age’s most pressing problems: How do you get stuck ketchup out of the bottom of the bottle? Foolish waste of time you say? No, the inventors of the special coating claim it will save 1 million tons of the perfectly usable — but inaccessible — condiment.

The research was led by doctoral candidate, Dave Smith, whose team of researchers employed nanotechnology to invent LiquiGlide. The spray-on coating, composed of FDA approved materials, has many applications according to Smith which include food packaging for mayonnaise and ketchup as well as other industrial uses like lubricants for oil and gas pipelines and even car windshields.

LiquiGlide is unique because it’s “kind of a structured liquid,” Smith said. “It’s rigid like a solid, but it’s lubricated like a liquid.” Here’s the stuff in action:

Now, can they please start to work on keeping all those subscription cards from falling out of the magazines.

Source: msnbc

~Mark Esposito, GuestBlogger

Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering

Woman Admits That She Falsely Accused Convicted High School Student of Rape After He Serves His Time In Jail . . . Woman Keeps $1.5 Million Award As Rape Victim

Brian Banks was a former high school football star when he was accused of rape by Wanetta Gibson. Gibson’s name was sealed as a rape victim while Banks was publicly accused as a rapist despite his insistence that it was consensual sex. It was his word against hers and prosecutors threatened him with life imprisonment if he went to trial, so he pleaded guilty to a rape that he did not commit. He spent five years in jail. When he was released he was surprised when his “victim” asked to befriend him on Facebook. She later admitted that she made the whole thing up but did not want to give back the $1.5 million that she won in a judgment against the school district for her alleged rape. She retains the money despite admitting to lying about the rape.

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Academia, Bizarre, Criminal law

Harvard Apologizes For Publishing The “Awards” of Ted Kaczynski as “Eight Life Sentences”

Harvard alums received a bit of a surprise when reading the status of graduates for the class of 1962 in anticipation of the 50th reunion. One graduate decided to respond and list his current profession as “prisoner” and his “awards” as “eight life sentences.” The alum is unabomber Ted Kaczynski.

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Bizarre, Politics, Society

Will The Last Person To Leave Detroit Please Turn The Light Off?

We have been following the political and economic demise of Detroit for years. Its leading officials from city council members to the former mayor to judges to lawyers in the city have been the source of endless scandals. They have coupled a shrinking economy with expanding levels of corruption and cronyism. Now, the city is planning to simply turn off half of the street lights to try to force citizens into a small living area — leaving much of the city abandoned and dark. We previously saw how the city’s fire chief suggested just let many buildings burn down to save the cost of firefighting.

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Academia, Bizarre, Science

Location, Location, Location: Scientists Find Planet Being Slowly Vaporized By Heat Of Star

It would be just my luck. I find a nice planet near a warm balmy star and purchase a place as my retirement spot. Next thing I know, all of my real estate is being sucked into space in the ultimate depreciation disaster. That is what scientists caught recently (sans the retiree) when it found the first known case of such a planet vaporized by its nearby star and gradually being sucked away.

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Bizarre, Religion, Society

The Evil of “Unadulterated Freedom”: Roughly 40,000 Orthodox Jewish Men Gather In New York Stadium To Denounce The Internet

We previously saw how Orthodox Jews in New York prevailed upon the government to get rid of bike lanes in their neighborhoods to protect them from the sight of women on bikes. Now almost 40,000 men gathered in Citi Field to call for an end to the Internet as a danger to their faith. Women of course were not allowed to attend because that would also be an affront. They were allowed to watch . . . you guessed it . . . on the Internet.

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Bizarre, Media, Military, Politics, Society

Top Ten List: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Drone”

It appears that the “Drone people” have decided that they need an extreme makeover to change the image of drones from authoritarian killing machines to something more like a really really smart toaster. Company officials are about to launch a publicity campaign to change the public perceptions of drones after conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said recently that the first person to shoot down a surveillance drone on U.S. soil will be a “folk hero.” It is not clear when this ” How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Drone” will start.

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Bizarre, Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Supreme Court Declines To Review Outrageous $650,000 Fine Against Student Who Downloaded and Shared 30 Songs

We have been following the outrageously abusive fines being imposed on citizens for downloading and sharing songs — obscenely large fines allowed by Congress under laws written by lobbyists for the music and movie industries. Law firms have been targeting even people who try to inform citizens of their rights. Now, in one of the most abusive cases involving a former Boston university student, the Supreme Court has refused to review a $675,000 fine against Joel Tenenbaum, 28, for downloading and sharing 30 songs. Despite the general condemnation of these actions, Congress is cowed by pressure from the industry lobby. The most abusive litigation is directed by the Recording Industry Association of America.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Science

New York Sergeant Caught In Tirade On Videotape Screaming Vulgarities and Condoning Crime

NYPD Sergeant Lesly Charles is the center of a controversy this morning after the release of a video showing him in a tirade where he speaks of the giant size of his penis and says that committing crimes is okay with him. He was just upset that someone double parked their car.

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Bizarre, Criminal law

Mommy Issues: Brooklyn Man Sentences For Dressing Up As Dead Mother In Fraudulent Scheme

Thomas Parkin, 52, of Brooklyn was sentenced to 13 years and 8 months in prison for a bizarre crime where he dressed up like his dead mother in a red cardigan and lipstick. Breathing through an oxygen tank, he claimed to be Irene Pruskin who died in 2003 at 77. This would seem to take the Oedipus complex to a whole new level.

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