Weird News of the World Thread - Part 1

[Hellion]

The world's largest gathering of snakes looks like a slithering sea

I was told KevanG makes a pilgrimage once year to bask in the sunlight with his beloved snake brothers

For a second I thought I wandered into the Burn It With Fire Thread…

 

[KevanG]

Wow, I had no ideas they made you jump through so many hoops like that. Sheesh.

And I bet you thought guys had it easy being able to do a cushy job like that. Shame on you.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Woman Run Over By Three NYC Subway Trains, Survives Mostly Unscathed

Mary Downey, a 22-year-old Irish woman living in the Woodlawn section of New York, was struck by not one, not two, but three subway trains early Sunday morning and came out mostly unscathed. Downey's only injuries were a broken shoulder and damaged pride.

Downey was reportedly drunk when she fell onto the subway tracks in Times Square at around six yesterday morning as a N train approached. Somehow, she was able to situate her body between the rails as the train passed over her.

According to the New York Post, there were more trains to come in Downey's uncertain future.

After the first train passed over her, Downey continued to lie helplessly on the track bed of the empty station as yet another train operator unknowingly drove over her, too, according to police, who said she was conscious through much of the terrifying ordeal.

Downey wasn't discovered until the third train's operator spotted what he thought was a piece of trash on the tracks. It was actually Downey's hand waving for help, sources said.

The conductor was able to stop the train, but not until it had partially passed over her. Downey was rescued and brought to Bellevue Hospital, where she was treated for a fractured shoulder.

http://nypost.com/2014/06/29/woman-survives-three-trains-rolling-over-her-after-fall/

It's amazing how being stupid drunk gets these people into these types of situations but even more amazing how it ends up helping them survive

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Evacuation Slide Opens in Air

A United Airlines flight from Chicago to California made an emergency landing in Wichita, Kansas last night after an evacuation slide was accidentally deployed mid-flight. No one was injured and the plane landed safely, according to a statement from the airline.

The flight landed in Wichita at 10:36 p.m. local time after taking off from Chicago at 8:18 p.m. There were 96 passengers onboard, one of whom was former University of Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez. According to one passenger, they'll be flying out of Kansas at 9:15 this morning.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/united-air...cy-evacuation-slide-deploys/story?id=24360530

Well as long as the door didn't blow open I guess we are all good

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A One-Bar Town in South Dakota Could Be Yours for $400,000

Swett, South Dakota might not have the most glamorous-sounding name, nor much more than a "bar, workshop, three trailers, and a single house," but if you're in the market for complete town ownership, you can't beat the price. For $400,000, all of Swett could be yours.

The town is currently owned by one man, the enterprising Lance Benson. Benson is ready to let go of town ownership so he can focus more on his other business in traveling concessions.

According to the Rapid City Journal, Swett has shrunk over the years as more residents moved to urban areas.

Like many rural towns in America, Swett has shrunk dramatically over the past century as its inhabitants migrated to urban centers. Once a town of about 40 people in the 1940s — with a post office, a few houses, and a grocery store — the town now stands as little more than a few ramshackle buildings along U.S. Highway 18.

The town's population is only two people: Benson and his new wife. The Swett Tavern, the local watering hole is apparently the beating heart of the area, bringing in rogue cowboys and a little rough Western charm.

One bar, one house, and only a few hundred thousand dollars. Think about it.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/go...cle_411d54e8-9864-5de0-b214-035fe1b87b85.html

Well for me the only fun part about owning a town would be to do a bunch of crazy stuff and have the townspeople talk about me. Seems like that wouldn't be the case here therefore I shall pass

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Utah Mountain Lion Hangs Out At Shopping Mall, Is Tranquilized and Dies

A mountain lion who went roaming around a shopping mall parking lot in Sandy, Utah on Friday was shot with a tranquilizer gun to subdue it from attacking customers. The Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that the mall-crazy mountain lion has now died from the tranquilization.

According to eyewitness reports, the mountain lion was roaming freely in the parking lot of the Jordan Commons Mall. Witnesses initially thought the lion was a big dog.

Via the Salt Lake Tribune:

When the lion, with several bystanders nearby, suddenly jumped and ran, one officer fired a shot but missed hitting the beast.

Sandy police Sgt. Dean Carriger pointed out that officers are trained to assess what or who their bullets could hit before firing their guns, and that "there was a concern of imminent danger to the public."

The big cat, after being shot by the tranquilizer gun, was taken away and reportedly never roused from its deep sleep.

Scott Root, an outreach manager for the Division of Wildlife Resources in Utah, said that death can occasionally occur from tranquilizing. "The fact that this cougar was in a highly populated area suggests that something may not have been normal with this animal," he told the Tribune.

The DWR had planned on releasing the female lion back into the wild.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58126744-78/mall-cougar-dwr-lion.html.csp

Sucks that it died but like the article says it doesn't seem like the animal was okay to begin with. These cats usually stay away from populated areas

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Luckiest guy in the world avoids death by stray demolition rock

Witness a man being born again as a huge stray rock—ejected from the explosive demolition of a clothing factory in Czech Republic—swooshes right by his head. A few inches closer and he would have been instantly killed.

[YT]LlePC4yfOlY[/YT]

And that my friends, is why we don't stand close to buildings that are being blown up

 

[Tanin]

Luckiest guy in the world avoids death by stray demolition rock

And that my friends, is why we don't stand close to buildings that are being blown up

The video is gone... just so ya'know.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Well the gif will live forever

 

[Tanin]

Well the gif will live forever

Yay!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Cannibal Cop Conviction Overturned in Federal Court

Yesterday, a federal judge handed down an acquittal on the highest charge against Gilberto Valle, the NYPD officer who was convicted last year for a plot to kidnap, rape, kill, and chow down on several women.

Judge Paul G. Gardephe of Manhattan's U.S. District Court ruled — as Valle's lawyer's argued last year — that the evidence was not sufficient enough to convict the cannibal cop on charges beyond having really dark ideas about what's sexy. From the New York Times:

"The evidentiary record is such that it is more likely than not the case that all of Valle's Internet communications about kidnapping are fantasy role-play," Judge Gardephe said in a 118-page opinion issued late Monday night.

Mr. Valle, who was convicted in March 2013, had not yet been sentenced, and his federal public defenders had asked Judge Gardephe to grant him a new trial, arguing that the Constitution granted people — including police officers — "the right to fantasize about whatever and whomever they like, free from government interference."

A lesser charge against Valle — illegally using a police database to research the totally safe objects of his fantasy, who have no reason at all to fear being cooked over low heat and kept alive as long as possible before their gruesome deaths, because it was all just an innocent fetish, remember? — was upheld.

It's not immediately clear what this means for Valle, who has been in prison since 2012. The kidnapping charge for which he was acquitted could have landed him in jail for life, and the database snooping has a maximum sentence of one year. The judge will hold a hearing on his case today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/nyregion/officers-conviction-in-cannibalism-case-overturned.html

What a horrible precedent for them to set. I bet it won't be long after he is freed that something horrible happens

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Here's what it's like to plummet down the world's tallest water slide

POV footage shows it's a helluva drop so yeah, it's scary. People will pretty much plummet straight down a 168-foot 7-inch tall slide—which makes it the world's tallest water slide—at thigh burning speeds to blast over a massive hill to ride another "mini" 50 feet slide. It doesn't get any sicker than this.

Called the Verrückt at Schlitterbahn Waterpark in Kansas City, Kansas, here's POV footage showing what it looks like to go down the world's tallest water slide:

[YT]7W7YPDU6nrg[/YT]

I think I would do this now that I see there are nets there to keep me from flying off of it

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

You Can Swim In a Secret Pool in the Mojave Desert, If You Can Find It

When it's hot, city dwellers begin to have a certain look of desperation: That single-minded determination to access the sweet summer relief of a pool. Well, here's a public pool that's completely free and available to use—provided you can locate the pool itself, which is somewhere in the middle of a 25,000 square-mile Southern California desert.

Social Pool is the work of artist Alfredo Barsuglia, who created the minimalist sculpture to nod to other monumental works of desert-bound land art, like Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty on the Great Salt Lake. The eleven-by-five-feet wide pool is hardly a destination in itself—it's closer to the size of a hot tub—but like most art which requires a pilgrimage, it's more about the journey. As Barsuglia tells the Los Angeles Times, the pool "is about the effort people make to reach a luxury good."

GPS coordinates can be obtained, along with the key, by visiting the MAK Center for Art and Architecture in West Hollywood, where the Austrian-born Barsuglia was a fellow last year. You can't call to see if the key is there, and you can't reserve it ahead of time. Of the destination, the artist will only say that it requires "several hours of driving from Los Angeles, plus a willingness to walk a long distance to reach the pool from the nearest road."

A video tutorial provided by Barsuglia shows how swimmers need to unlock the pool and fold out the cover into a sundeck. The pool itself stays cool and blue thanks to a solar-powered filter and chlorination system and there's even a skimmer on-site to fish out errant tumbleweeds. In addition—and this might be a deal-breaker for some—every visitor is required to bring a gallon of water to replenish the almost-certain evaporation of the pool during usage. (That's in addition to all the water you'll need to bring just to stay alive on the walk to and from the pool itself.)

What's most intriguing is although it is a "public" pool, there is no way to access it without having the proprietary information which must be acquired at the museum, and entering into a kind of social contract that you'll care for the pool and won't reveal the location. Imagine stumbling upon this by chance, discovering with delight that a pool is inside, then realizing the key is 90 miles away at a Los Angeles museum. Will someone figure out a way to smash the lock and go pool hopping? Or will the pool be left unlocked and the coordinates shared publicly, turning Social Pool into a slimy Vegas-style pool party?

Although the pool's "season" is listed as beginning May 1, the installation only opened this past weekend, so if you've got a reliable GPS and the determination to go traipsing through the 100-degree desert, you might be one of the first to dip your toes into this sparkling blue hidden oasis.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...-middle-of-mojave-20140626-column.html#page=1

Seems like it would be a pretty easy trip with a Jeep

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Weird Pattern On this Girl's Eyeball Is From an Airbag

Airbags certainly do save lives, but getting hit in the face at 200 mph—even by a bag of air—is not without its consequences. A teenage girl in Michigan got a real eyeful when an inflating airbag actually left its mesh pattern on the surface of her eye.

In this case, the airbag inflated so fast that she didn't even have time to blink. As the nylon fabric of the airbag slammed into her eyeball, it imprinted its canvas pattern on her right eye (A in the photo above) and tore the surface of her left (B). Doctors examined her injuries using a fluorescent dye that shows scratches on the cornea under blue light.

The girl's injuries actually healed after a couple of weeks, and her eyesight was totally unaffected. But there are rare, unfortunate cases where the retina detaches or eye tissue ruptures and patients can even go blind. Most eye injuries from airbags are ultimately rather minor, and the consequences of not using an airbag are usually far worse. Just try to shut your eyes before the airbag inflates. You usually have, oh, about 0.04 seconds.

http://www.livescience.com/46577-car-airbag-eye-injury.html

Trippy

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Stuxnet-Like Malware From Russia Is Attacking U.S. Power Plants

Security researchers confirmed on Monday that a vicious new cyberattack has compromised the computer systems of over 1,000 organizations in 84 countries. Dubbed "Energetic Bear," the Stuxnet-like malware is largely targeting energy and utility companies. It's almost certainly from Russia.

This is scary stuff. Not only has the attack been going on for 18 months, it appears to be focused on targets in the United States and Europe. According to the Financial Times, the malware "allows its operators to monitor energy consumption in real time, or to cripple physical systems such as wind turbines, gas pipelines and power plants at will." This is exactly the type of attack that the government's been (very vocally) worried about lately.

The malware's capabilities give us more reasons to be worried. The two main components of the attack include the use of remote access tool type malware that gives the attackers the ability to access information on the victim's computer networks as well as to steal data, collect passwords, take screenshots, and even download and run files. In effect, it sounds like they could take control over entire utility systems. Symantec, the makers of the Norton suite, says the malware's "main motive appears to be cyberespionage" but doesn't mention any major shutdowns. The company now has fixes in place for its customers.

It gets worse, though. Symantec says that the attackers—who they call Dragonfly—is almost certainly "based in eastern Europe and has all the markings of being state-sponsored." Markers in the malware, like timestamps and Cyrillic, suggest that it originated in Russia. Like we needed another reason to be mad at Russia…

http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/dragonfly-western-energy-companies-under-sabotage-threat

Scary stuff, seems like Cold War 2.0 is popping off

 

[Teelie]

It's also struck a lot of European infrastructure. And it's a literal day job for them too, 9-6, Monday through Friday.

Called Dragonfly, the hacking group managed to install one of two remote access trojans (RATs) on computers belonging to energy companies located in the US and at least six European countries, according to a research report published Monday by Symantec.

[...]

Fingerprints left inside the malware show the attackers mostly worked Monday through Friday during a nine-hour period that corresponded to 9am to 6pm in Eastern Europe, leading Symantec researchers to theorize that was the region where the most Dragonfly members worked.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Bear Cub Rescued After Getting Head Stuck in Cookie Jar

A bear cub who had his sights set on some delicious cookies got into quite a struggle on Friday when his stupid bear head got stuck in an animal cracker jar. The bear was in New Jersey, where the cookies are good and the bears are hungry.

NBC reports that the 6-month-old cub found the jar in Ringwood on Friday night:

As the 28-pound animal tried to eat what remained in the jar, he apparently pulled the jar over his head and it got stuck.

The cub became spooked when approached and went up a nearby tree, but got wedged about 40 feet up.

To add insult to injury, the bear-in-jar was now bear-in-jar-in-tree.

Authorities from the Environmental Protection Department came to the rescue, tranquilizing it, after which the jar was "gingerly" cut from its head.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loca...265426571.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_NYBrand

Right out of a storybook haha

 

[Hal_Jordan]

The Weird Pattern On this Girl's Eyeball Is From an Airbag

http://www.livescience.com/46577-car-airbag-eye-injury.html

Trippy

That's actually one of my biggest somewhat irrational paranoid fears. Not just an airbag blasting me in the eye, but what if I have my hand in front of my face, or God forbid, picking my nose...

I'd be like Rusty.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Anti-Drug-Cartel Vigilantes Arrested on Gun Charges in Mexico

Jose Manuel Mireles, the leader of a network of vigilantes who fought against Mexican drug cartels in Michoacán, was arrested for gun possession this week, according to law enforcement officials. Before his arrest, Mireles had reportedly refused to formally ally his group with a new rural police force.

From the Associated Press:

The "self-defense" movement sprang up last year to confront a drug cartel, and Mireles is the only founding member of the movement who hasn't joined a new rural police force set up by the federal government to regain control of Michoacan.

"There was a warning that every person who after May 10 was caught carrying an unauthorized weapon would be arrested," Castillo said.

Mireles and 83 other members of his network were taken into custody on Friday after a sting led by the new police force.

As the BBC notes, Mireles recently survived an airplane crash and "disappeared from view" for a few weeks.

Mireles has frequently appeared in the international spotlight, and has been outspoken about his lack of trust for the central government or the cartels. The BBC reports that Mireles "chose instead to continue to operate outside the law."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28069086

Can't really blame the guy with how common it is that the police are on the cartel's payroll

 

[nogolf33]

Cannibal Cop Conviction Overturned in Federal Court

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/nyregion/officers-conviction-in-cannibalism-case-overturned.html

What a horrible precedent for them to set. I bet it won't be long after he is freed that something horrible happens

Ugh. This ought to be in the awful news thread.

 

[Anubis]

It's kind of a shame cuz they said they made him jailhouse cook and he was pretty damn awesome at it. Also a few snitches went missing around that time.

 

[charl_huntress]

Luckiest guy in the world avoids death by stray demolition rock

And that my friends, is why we don't stand close to buildings that are being blown up

I like how everyone, but the guy with binoculars moves.

 

[Mike_D202]

Man bends door frame to save another man from burning vehicle

https://gma.yahoo.com/good-samarita...n-burning-223643721--abc-news-topstories.html

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Ya that's crazy stuff Mike. The things humans can do when it's life or death is truly amazing

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

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