The Local News Thread

[alles ist gut]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/accused-drunk-boater-poops-water-arrest-article-1.2471318

 

Accused drunk boater poops in water, throws pot overboard during arrest

 

Well, that's one way to avoid arrest.

 

A Florida plumber caught drunkenly boating through a manatee zone pooped in the water and threw his marijuana overboard when a deputy tried to arrest him, deputies said.

 

James Christian Bates threatened to beat up his arresting officer when he was taken into custody off the coast of Port Charlotte Sunday, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office.

 

A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer spotted the 60-year-old speeding through a manatee zone without his boat’s lights on, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported. When the officer pulled the boat over, Bates appeared to be intoxicated.

 

As the officer began to climb aboard Bates’ vessel to arrest him, Bates defecated over the side of the ship, deputies said.

 

The accused drunken boater also hurled three marijuana blunts into the water. The officer struggled to arrest Bates, who became increasingly combative, and eventually pepper-sprayed the perp, according to an arrest report.

 

“Also, Mr. Bates made a comment that he should have, ‘beat my ass and left me there and no one would have known,’” the officer wrote in the report.

 

Bates failed a sobriety test when the officer finally got him back to shore, deputies said.

 

Bates was charged with a felony count of tampering with evidence and a slew of misdemeanors: dumping raw human waste, boating under the influence, marijuana possession, drug paraphernalia possession, resisting arrest and interfering with a wildlife officer.

 

The arrest report lists Bates' occupation as a plumber.

A clear life lesson here, kids; don't interfere with manatees while you're smokin' your best shit in your boat.

[alles ist gut]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-22/nicholas-cage-revealed-as-mystery-owner-of-stolen-dinosaur-skull/7047856

 

 

Actor Nicolas Cage agrees to return stolen skull of dinosaur Tyrannosaurus bataar to Mongolia

 

 

Hollywood actor Nicolas Cage has agreed to turn over a rare stolen dinosaur skull he bought for $US276,000 ($382,000) to US authorities so it can be returned to Mongolia. The US Attorney in Manhattan filed a civil forfeiture complaint on Wednesday to take possession of the Tyrannosaurus bataar skull, which will be handed to the Mongolian Government.

The lawsuit and a press release from the Attorney's office did not specifically name Cage as the owner, but the lawsuit described the skull as having been bought at auction from Beverly Hills gallery I.M. Chait in March 2007 for $US276,000.

The details match those of Cage's purchase, which made headlines after the actor encountered financial difficulties in subsequent years. The actor is not accused of wrongdoing, and authorities said the owner voluntarily agreed to turn over the skull after learning of the circumstances. Authorities would not confirm the identity of the owner, and a lawyer and Cage's publicist did not respond to requests for comment.

Cage outbid fellow movie star Leonardo DiCaprio for the skull, prior news reports said.

The I.M. Chait gallery had previously purchased and sold an illegally smuggled duck-billed dinosaur skeleton from convicted palaeontologist Eric Prokopi, whom US Attorney Preet Bharara called a "one-man black market in prehistoric fossils".

The gallery has not been accused of wrong-doing. A representative did not return a request for comment.

It was unclear whether the Cage skull was connected to Prokopi, who pleaded guilty in December 2012 to smuggling a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton out of Mongolia's Gobi desert and was later sentenced to three months in prison.

As part of his guilty plea, Prokopi helped prosecutors recover at least 17 other dinosaur fossils. The Tyrannosaurus bataar, like its more famous relative Tyrannosaurus rex, was a carnivore that lived about 70 million years ago. Its remains have been discovered only in Mongolia, which criminalised the export of dinosaur fossils in 1924.

Since 2012, Mr Bharara's office has recovered more than a dozen Mongolian fossils, including three full Tyrannosaurus bataar skeletons. "Each of these fossils represents a culturally and scientifically important artefact looted from its rightful owner," Mr Bharara said last week.

 

My worry would be that there might be a film script in this.

[Anubis]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-22/nicholas-cage-revealed-as-mystery-owner-of-stolen-dinosaur-skull/7047856

 

 

My worry would be that there might be a film script in this.

That's National Treasure 3, right there.

[cloggypop]

So Nicolas Cage used to have a Mong skull?

[Sugar Ape]

Couple that caught my eye recently so to speak.

 

 

 

And the sheer fucking shame of this.

 

 

[lifetime fan]

I'd spent the night in her hotel room.

 

http://m.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol-teacher-Downend-School-spent-night/story-28490292-detail/story.html

[Anubis]

I'd spent the night in her hotel room.

 

http://m.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol-teacher-Downend-School-spent-night/story-28490292-detail/story.html

Lacey, who resigned after being suspended by the school following the incident, must now wait to see if she will be struck off by the Education Secretary.

 

Originally misread that as '...must now wait and see if she will be sucked off by the Education Secretary.'

[VladimirIlyich]

I'd spent the night in her hotel room.

 

http://m.bristolpost.co.uk/Bristol-teacher-Downend-School-spent-night/story-28490292-detail/story.html

You havent already?

[Champ]

 

Originally misread that as '...must now wait and see if she will be sucked off by the Education Secretary.'

 

And I just misread it as '...vulnerable 11 year old boy.' 'What 11 year old isnt vulnerable', I'm spluttering (including CT's)

 

How old is a Year 11...not that it makes any difference, well, it does, but you know wht I mean

[Champ]

I love the way local news manages to find that local angle on national and international events...

 

Who knew that Bowie stayed in Edinburgh for a time and may have been influenced by a local mime artist to experiment with make up for the first time

 

'A SCOTS musician pal of David Bowie has revealed the star’s Ziggy Stardust character originated in Edinburgh.

James McDonald Reid - who lived with the Life On Mars singer in a tiny capital basement flat in the early 1970s – admits Bowie was “extremely influenced” by celebrated mime artist Lindsay Kemp

 

Kemp owned a small, dingy two-bedroom flat in the capital’s Drummond Street and allowed Bowie and his then-wife Angie to move in while he was in Scotland. And within days of arriving at the Kemp’s home Bowie began wearing the extravagant make up he was soon to be famous for.

 

..Edinburgh Evening News 12.01.16

[Mook]

Pretty sure it was the 60s Bowie stayed in Newington (Edinburgh), could be wrong though.

 

I see a couple from my home town (Hawick) have won £33m on the Lottery, maybe they'll be able to move somewhere nicer now, like Beirut.

[lifetime fan]

And I just misread it as '...vulnerable 11 year old boy.' 'What 11 year old isnt vulnerable', I'm spluttering (including CT's)

 

How old is a Year 11...not that it makes any difference, well, it does, but you know wht I mean

16, or as good as.

[KMD7]

 

Was supposed to read 'massive jobs blow for belmullet'

[Champ]

Pretty sure it was the 60s Bowie stayed in Newington (Edinburgh), could be wrong though.

 

I see a couple from my home town (Hawick) have won £33m on the Lottery, maybe they'll be able to move somewhere nicer now, like Beirut.

Were you very abused as a child, Mook?

[Jairzinho]

16, or as good as.

 

Not sure this holds up in court, mate.

[Jairzinho]

 

Was supposed to read 'massive jobs blow for belmullet'

 

"The Mayo advertiser"?

 

"Massive summer splash"?

 

Was it really an error?

[Mook]

Were you very abused as a child, Mook?

No, just a wee bit abused.

[rubble-rouser]

Stoned manatees. There's a thought. 

[KMD7]

"The Mayo advertiser"?

 

"Massive summer splash"?

 

Was it really an error?

 

Ha ha

[Dougie Do'ins]

Meant to post this at the time but forgot. No so much local news because the story went national but here it is for those who may have missed it. I know what it's like to lose a pet but FFS, almost £70k to have a dead dog cloned.

UK couple have dead dog cloned in South Korea

A British couple has flown to South Korea to await the arrival of two puppies due to be born over Christmas after having their dead pet cloned.

Laura Jacques and her partner, Richard Remde, from Yorkshire, are the first UK customers to employ the services of the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, which offers a dog cloning service for $100,000 (£67,000) per canine.

The couple’s boxer dog, Dylan, died in June, leaving Jacques bereft. “I had had Dylan since he was a puppy,” she said. “I mothered him so much, he was my baby, my child, my entire world.”

Sooam, the leading laboratory in the world for dog cloning, has produced more than 700 dogs for commercial customers. The technique involves implanting DNA into a “blank” dog egg that has had the nucleus removed. The egg is given electric shocks to trigger cell division and is then implanted into a surrogate female dog.

The two puppies due to be born in the next few days will have identical DNA to Dylan, are likely to resemble him physically and share some of his personality.

Jacques heard about dog cloning from a documentary about a competition Sooam ran for one UK dog owner to have their dog cloned free of charge. Rebecca Smith was the winner and her dachshund, Winnie, who is still alive, was successfully cloned.


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David Kim, a scientist at Sooam, said the birth of the two cloned dogs was exciting for the laboratory because samples were taken from Dylan 12 days after he died. “This is the first case we have had where cells have been taken from a dead dog after a very long time,” he said. “Hopefully it will allow us to extend the time after death that we can take cells for cloning.”

There are currently no regulations on the cloning of pets, though the cloning of human beings is illegal, and in August the European parliament voted to outlaw the cloning of farm animals.

Woo-Suk Hwang, one of the leading researchers at the Sooam laboratory, is a controversial figure. In 2004 he led a research group at Seoul University, in South Korea, which claimed to have created a cloned human embryo in a test tube. An independent scientific committee found no evidence of this and in January 2006 the journal Science, which had originally published the research, retracted it.

His work with animals also has its detractors. Helen Wallace, director of Genewatch, has called for a ban on pet cloning and said it was disturbing that the practice is unregulated. “Cloning for mammals is not normally successful. One of our concerns is that commercial cloning companies can exploit grieving pet owners,” she said. “We think that cloning for pets should be banned. There is no justification for it.”

The RSPCA is also critical of dog cloning. A spokesperson said: “There are serious ethical and welfare concerns relating to the application of cloning technology to animals. Cloning animals requires procedures that cause pain and distress, with extremely high failure and mortality rates. There is also a body of evidence that cloned animals frequently suffer physical ailments such as tumours, pneumonia and abnormal growth patterns.”

Kim said: “We follow animal ethics for the laboratory. We have a third-party inspector that comes from the government and a board of advisers. There are set regulations that they check for. We do not use the surrogate mother dogs who carry the cloned puppies more than once.”

Jacques, a dog walker, and Remde, who manages Heritage Masonry & Conservation, lost Dylan in June after the pet was diagnosed with a brain tumour. The couple obtained the DNA samples themselves, and Remde flew them to South Korea twice – the DNA samples didn’t grow the first time round.

When the cloned pregnancies were confirmed, the couple were overjoyed. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Jacques. “We were shocked and ecstatic, my legs turned to jelly. They said that the first puppy was due on Boxing Day and the second one a day later.”

The couple have flown out to South Korea to await the births. “It will be like five Christmases coming all at once,” said Remde.

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/index.php?/topic/107345-the-local-news-thread/page-11&do=findComment&comment=4365415
 

[Lee909]

Sick shit

[General Dryness]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/mid-canterbury-selwyn/75916768/fire-and-wind-causing-havoc-in-canterbury

 

Apparently they're just killing time until Earth turns up.

[SammyAftershave]

South Carolina woman Sondra Earle-Kelly accused of beating husband with nunchucks because he wouldn't have sex with her

 

 

http://www.zerocensorship.com/t/uncensored-south-carolina-crime/219990-south-carolina-woman-sondra-earle-kelly-accused-of-beating-husband-with-nunchucks-because-he-wouldnt-have-sex-with-her

[SammyAftershave]

North Carolina man Robert Neal misinterprets sign language for gang signs, stabs a deaf man

 

 

http://www.zerocensorship.com/t/uncensored-north-carolina-crime/217911-north-carolina-man-robert-neal-misinterprets-sign-language-for-gang-signs-stabs-a-deaf-man

[alles ist gut]

Woodchuck Winnipeg Willow dies days ahead of Groundhog Day

 

Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre cancels Groundhog Day events following Willow's demise

 

 

A lovable woodchuck known for her nose-to-the-ground weather predictions has died just days before Groundhog Day.

Winnipeg Willow, a five-year-old groundhog orphaned as a baby, died Friday night, the Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre said.

"We are in complete shock and sadness with tears coming down our face," an organizer with the centre said in a post on Facebook. "She was acting her normal self [Friday] morning and eating a carrot, but came in this evening to find her gone."

As part of Groundhog Day every year, Willow gave predictions about when spring would arrive based on whether she saw her shadow upon emerging from a hole.

Woodchucks like Willow normally live between four and six years in the wild, the centre said, adding she served as an important wildlife education ambassador to the public. 

"She loved her sweet peas and her kale greens, she had her vegetables while she was at school, which taught the kids to eat their vegetables too."

Sheila Smith, who worked with Willow for many years, said the woodchuck had been very active in recent days and the death comes as a surprise.

"It was so sudden — we're all taking it really hard right now," Smith said. "It was something we were not expecting."

Smith said the woodchuck often gets a bad reputation, but getting to interact with Willow helped make people realize they aren't always pests.

"A lot of people don't like woodchucks in their yards, farmers don't like them," she said. "But when you meet her and you see her personality ... she does make you think, 'Oh, she's cute.'"

Willow led a comfortable life, ate kale greens whenever she liked and could nap for days on end without interruption from staff at the centre, Smith added.

"She had her grumpy moments," Smith said. "When it was really cold and she just wanted to sleep, she would go in her den and take a nap."

Willow's untimely death has prompted the centre to cancel its usual Feb. 2 Groundhog Day event this year.

"We loved trying to predict the upcoming forecast and I think we only got one season right," the centre said in a post on Facebook.

"From her current behaviour this past winter, we were going to predict an early spring as she was eager to head outdoors."

Spring predictions in the province now fall solely on the bristly shoulders of Manitoba Merv, the other local weather prognosticator. Unlike Willow, Merv is a puppet.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-willow-dies-groundhog-day-1.3426922