News of the Weird, March 10, 2013
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Chuck Shepherd
Mar 10, 2013, 10:25:33 AM3/10/13
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WEIRDNUZ.M309 (News of the Weird, March 10, 2013)
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2013 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* A Verizon risk team, looking for data breaches on the firm's
computers, found that a software developer for a Verizon contractor
was basically idle for many months, yet remained productive--because
he had outsourced his projects to a Chinese software developer who
would do all the work and send it back. The contractor
earned several hundred thousand dollars a year, according to a
January Los Angeles Times report, but paid the Chinese worker
only about $50,000. The risk team eventually learned that sensitive
company information was flowing to and from Chinese terminals,
leading the contractor to suspect hackers, but that traffic was merely the
U.S. employee (obviously, "ex-employee" now) sending and
receiving his workload. The U.S. man showed up for work every
day but spent his time leisurely web-surfing. [Los Angeles Times
via Tampa Bay Times, 1-20-2013]
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
* One of Britain's most famous "madams" announced in January
that she was coming out of retirement to set up a brothel exclusively
catering to disabled people and the terminally ill. An ordinary
brothel would be illegal in the town of Milton Keynes (45 miles
from London), but Becky Adams insists that the government could
not shut hers down without illegally discriminating against the
disabled. [Milton Keyes Citizen, 1-11-2013]
* Advances in the Service Sector: (1) In January, the Japanese
marketing firm Wit Inc. began hiring "popular" young women
(judged by the extent of their "social network" contacts), at the
equivalent of $121 a day, to walk around with advertising stickers
on their thighs. (The stickers would be placed on the erotic "zettai
ryouiki"--the Japanese mystical area between the hem of a short
skirt and the top of long socks.) The women must be prepared to
endure men hovering closely to read the ads. (2) According to news
reports in November, New York City physician Jack Berdy was
doing a brisk business administering Botox injections (at up to
$600) to poker players who were hoping to prevent facial
expressions that might tip their hands. [Daily Telegraph (London),
1-17-2013] [Fox News, 11-21-2012]
* Ingenious: (1) London's The Independent reported in January that
Dean Kamen (who famously invented the Segway standing, battery-
powered scooter) had developed, along with a Pennsylvania medical
team, what appears to work as a "reverse feeding tube" that will
vacuum out up to 30 percent of any food in the stomach before it is
digested and converted into calories. After installation of the
stomach "port," the diner could operate the device without daily
medical help. (2) The Polish cosmetics company Inglot announced
in January a nail polish ideal for Muslim women, in that it can
withstand the five-times-daily hand-washing required for prayers.
(Normally, devout women wear nail polish only during their
menstrual periods, when the hand-washing is not required, but
polish thus signals menstruation and therefore embarrasses modest
women.) [The Independent via The Register (London), 1-8-2013]
[New York magazine, 1-23-2013]
Advances in Animal Research
* Scientists from Sweden's Lund University, reporting in a recent
issue of Current Biology, explored the burning question of why
dung beetles appear to be "dancing" on the tops of the dung balls
they roll away. The answer is that the beetles need to roll their
treasures away from the heap as quickly as possible (lest
competitors swipe them) and that they can best maintain a straight
line away by celestial navigation. To test the hypothesis,
researchers actually outfitted some beetles with tiny visors to block
their view of the sky, and those beetles mostly rolled their balls in
irregular routes, whereas the sky-searching beetles moved in straight
lines. [Los Angeles Times, 1-24-2013]
* Intelligent Design: Japanese researchers learned recently that a
species of sea slug may lose its penis after copulating, but then grow
another one and use it next time the occasion arises. Writing in the
British journal Biology Letters, the scientists also found that the
slugs have both male and female organs and in effect copulate with
each other through a simultaneous hook-up. A final breathtaking
finding of the team was that the sea slugs' penis has the ability to
remove competitors' sperm from the female openings of its mate.
[BBC News, 2-12-2013]
Leading Economic Indicators
* In January, the National Hockey League labor dispute ended, and
players returned to work, but as usual, some owners resumed
claiming that players' high salaries were killing them financially.
The Phoenix Business Journal reported in December that the
Phoenix Coyotes, for example, only stood to turn a profit for the
2012-2013 season if the lockout had continued and wiped out all the
games--indicating that, based on the team's projections, the only
way for it to make money was to never play. [Phoenix Business
Journal, 12-26-2012]
* In the Czech Republic, per-capita beer consumption is twice that
in the United States, and competition is such that some beers are
priced lower than any other beverage, including water. (The
brewery Pizensky Prazdroj delivers beer in tanker trucks that in the
U.S. might deliver gasoline, and delivers it to pubs' storage tanks
just as U.S. gas station have storage tanks.) Recently, concerned
about overconsumption, the country's health minister proposed to
prohibit restaurants and bars from offering a beer as the lowest-
priced drink, per ounce. [Wall Street Journal, 1-24-2013]
* In January about 1,000 workers at Shanghai's Shinmei Electric
Company held 18 managers captive at the plant from Friday
morning until nearly midnight on Saturday in protest of recent
employee rules. The workers dispersed when parent company
officials promised to reconsider the policies, which included a fine
of the equivalent of about $8 for being late and a limit of two
minutes per toilet break. [Associated Press via Yahoo News, 1-21-
2013]
Job Prospects Dim
* Willie Merriweather, 53, was detained in February by police in
Aiken, S.C., after an employment agency reported that, when he
was sitting for an interview, he exposed himself (allegedly telling
the interviewer that "it fell out," that he "must have forgotten" to zip
his pants). Police said Merriweather had been accused of a similar
incident at a different employment agency a few days earlier. [Aiken
Standard, 2-6-2013]
Religious Symbolism
* (1) On January 27th, Pope Benedict XVI released two doves in St.
Peter's Square at the Vatican's end-of-prayers ceremony, but almost
immediately, a gull flew over and attacked one. (The faithful were
rewarded, though, as the dove, though wounded, managed to elude
the irreligious predator.) (2) On February 11th, only hours after
Pope Benedict had announced his imminent retirement, a rare
winter thunderstorm hit Vatican City, and an Agence France-Presse
photographer snapped a photo of one powerful lightning bolt from
the heavens appearing to strike St. Peter's Basilica (as if offering a
dissenting opinion to the Pope's decision). [MSN.com, 1-28-2013]
[USA Today, 2-12-2013]
Least Competent Dogs
* (1) A Palm Bay, Fla., police officer was sent to the hospital in
February after a supposedly highly-trained K-9 bit him in the crotch
during a burglary investigation. A trainer attributed the lapse to the
dog's natural "intensity" during searches. Apparently, all was
forgiven, and both "officers" returned to work. (2) In Cottages
Row, England, firefighters were called in January when a metal
lamppost was reported as smoking because of an electrical short,
which was discovered when a Labrador retriever lifted his leg. That
species is regarded as quite intelligent, but the dog, after being
knocked back by the shock, moments later attempted to engage the
lamppost a second time, with the same result.) [WFTV (Orlando),
2-12-2013] [Sunderland Echo, 1-25-2013]
Readers' Choice
* A 31-year old woman, seven months pregnant with twins, suffered
a heart attack arguably because Thomas More hospital in Canon
City, Colo., delayed in treating her. The woman and the twins died,
and the family is suing church-affiliated Catholic Health Initiatives,
the owner of the hospital. CHI's lawyers, until January, were
defending the malpractice lawsuit as to the twins' death by using
Colorado law, in which a "person" is not created until birth. After
church officials in Colorado and the Vatican learned of CHI's
strategy, they ordered it abandoned, in that it is of course contrary to
the teachings of the church. [ColoradoIndependent.com (Denver),
1-23-2013]
Thanks This Week to Roy Henock, Bruce Leiserowitz, Eric
Prebys, Marshall Pixley, and Russell Bell, and to the News of the
Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.net
(almost daily), and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2013 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* A Verizon risk team, looking for data breaches on the firm's
computers, found that a software developer for a Verizon contractor
was basically idle for many months, yet remained productive--because
he had outsourced his projects to a Chinese software developer who
would do all the work and send it back. The contractor
earned several hundred thousand dollars a year, according to a
January Los Angeles Times report, but paid the Chinese worker
only about $50,000. The risk team eventually learned that sensitive
company information was flowing to and from Chinese terminals,
leading the contractor to suspect hackers, but that traffic was merely the
U.S. employee (obviously, "ex-employee" now) sending and
receiving his workload. The U.S. man showed up for work every
day but spent his time leisurely web-surfing. [Los Angeles Times
via Tampa Bay Times, 1-20-2013]
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
* One of Britain's most famous "madams" announced in January
that she was coming out of retirement to set up a brothel exclusively
catering to disabled people and the terminally ill. An ordinary
brothel would be illegal in the town of Milton Keynes (45 miles
from London), but Becky Adams insists that the government could
not shut hers down without illegally discriminating against the
disabled. [Milton Keyes Citizen, 1-11-2013]
* Advances in the Service Sector: (1) In January, the Japanese
marketing firm Wit Inc. began hiring "popular" young women
(judged by the extent of their "social network" contacts), at the
equivalent of $121 a day, to walk around with advertising stickers
on their thighs. (The stickers would be placed on the erotic "zettai
ryouiki"--the Japanese mystical area between the hem of a short
skirt and the top of long socks.) The women must be prepared to
endure men hovering closely to read the ads. (2) According to news
reports in November, New York City physician Jack Berdy was
doing a brisk business administering Botox injections (at up to
$600) to poker players who were hoping to prevent facial
expressions that might tip their hands. [Daily Telegraph (London),
1-17-2013] [Fox News, 11-21-2012]
* Ingenious: (1) London's The Independent reported in January that
Dean Kamen (who famously invented the Segway standing, battery-
powered scooter) had developed, along with a Pennsylvania medical
team, what appears to work as a "reverse feeding tube" that will
vacuum out up to 30 percent of any food in the stomach before it is
digested and converted into calories. After installation of the
stomach "port," the diner could operate the device without daily
medical help. (2) The Polish cosmetics company Inglot announced
in January a nail polish ideal for Muslim women, in that it can
withstand the five-times-daily hand-washing required for prayers.
(Normally, devout women wear nail polish only during their
menstrual periods, when the hand-washing is not required, but
polish thus signals menstruation and therefore embarrasses modest
women.) [The Independent via The Register (London), 1-8-2013]
[New York magazine, 1-23-2013]
Advances in Animal Research
* Scientists from Sweden's Lund University, reporting in a recent
issue of Current Biology, explored the burning question of why
dung beetles appear to be "dancing" on the tops of the dung balls
they roll away. The answer is that the beetles need to roll their
treasures away from the heap as quickly as possible (lest
competitors swipe them) and that they can best maintain a straight
line away by celestial navigation. To test the hypothesis,
researchers actually outfitted some beetles with tiny visors to block
their view of the sky, and those beetles mostly rolled their balls in
irregular routes, whereas the sky-searching beetles moved in straight
lines. [Los Angeles Times, 1-24-2013]
* Intelligent Design: Japanese researchers learned recently that a
species of sea slug may lose its penis after copulating, but then grow
another one and use it next time the occasion arises. Writing in the
British journal Biology Letters, the scientists also found that the
slugs have both male and female organs and in effect copulate with
each other through a simultaneous hook-up. A final breathtaking
finding of the team was that the sea slugs' penis has the ability to
remove competitors' sperm from the female openings of its mate.
[BBC News, 2-12-2013]
Leading Economic Indicators
* In January, the National Hockey League labor dispute ended, and
players returned to work, but as usual, some owners resumed
claiming that players' high salaries were killing them financially.
The Phoenix Business Journal reported in December that the
Phoenix Coyotes, for example, only stood to turn a profit for the
2012-2013 season if the lockout had continued and wiped out all the
games--indicating that, based on the team's projections, the only
way for it to make money was to never play. [Phoenix Business
Journal, 12-26-2012]
* In the Czech Republic, per-capita beer consumption is twice that
in the United States, and competition is such that some beers are
priced lower than any other beverage, including water. (The
brewery Pizensky Prazdroj delivers beer in tanker trucks that in the
U.S. might deliver gasoline, and delivers it to pubs' storage tanks
just as U.S. gas station have storage tanks.) Recently, concerned
about overconsumption, the country's health minister proposed to
prohibit restaurants and bars from offering a beer as the lowest-
priced drink, per ounce. [Wall Street Journal, 1-24-2013]
* In January about 1,000 workers at Shanghai's Shinmei Electric
Company held 18 managers captive at the plant from Friday
morning until nearly midnight on Saturday in protest of recent
employee rules. The workers dispersed when parent company
officials promised to reconsider the policies, which included a fine
of the equivalent of about $8 for being late and a limit of two
minutes per toilet break. [Associated Press via Yahoo News, 1-21-
2013]
Job Prospects Dim
* Willie Merriweather, 53, was detained in February by police in
Aiken, S.C., after an employment agency reported that, when he
was sitting for an interview, he exposed himself (allegedly telling
the interviewer that "it fell out," that he "must have forgotten" to zip
his pants). Police said Merriweather had been accused of a similar
incident at a different employment agency a few days earlier. [Aiken
Standard, 2-6-2013]
Religious Symbolism
* (1) On January 27th, Pope Benedict XVI released two doves in St.
Peter's Square at the Vatican's end-of-prayers ceremony, but almost
immediately, a gull flew over and attacked one. (The faithful were
rewarded, though, as the dove, though wounded, managed to elude
the irreligious predator.) (2) On February 11th, only hours after
Pope Benedict had announced his imminent retirement, a rare
winter thunderstorm hit Vatican City, and an Agence France-Presse
photographer snapped a photo of one powerful lightning bolt from
the heavens appearing to strike St. Peter's Basilica (as if offering a
dissenting opinion to the Pope's decision). [MSN.com, 1-28-2013]
[USA Today, 2-12-2013]
Least Competent Dogs
* (1) A Palm Bay, Fla., police officer was sent to the hospital in
February after a supposedly highly-trained K-9 bit him in the crotch
during a burglary investigation. A trainer attributed the lapse to the
dog's natural "intensity" during searches. Apparently, all was
forgiven, and both "officers" returned to work. (2) In Cottages
Row, England, firefighters were called in January when a metal
lamppost was reported as smoking because of an electrical short,
which was discovered when a Labrador retriever lifted his leg. That
species is regarded as quite intelligent, but the dog, after being
knocked back by the shock, moments later attempted to engage the
lamppost a second time, with the same result.) [WFTV (Orlando),
2-12-2013] [Sunderland Echo, 1-25-2013]
Readers' Choice
* A 31-year old woman, seven months pregnant with twins, suffered
a heart attack arguably because Thomas More hospital in Canon
City, Colo., delayed in treating her. The woman and the twins died,
and the family is suing church-affiliated Catholic Health Initiatives,
the owner of the hospital. CHI's lawyers, until January, were
defending the malpractice lawsuit as to the twins' death by using
Colorado law, in which a "person" is not created until birth. After
church officials in Colorado and the Vatican learned of CHI's
strategy, they ordered it abandoned, in that it is of course contrary to
the teachings of the church. [ColoradoIndependent.com (Denver),
1-23-2013]
Thanks This Week to Roy Henock, Bruce Leiserowitz, Eric
Prebys, Marshall Pixley, and Russell Bell, and to the News of the
Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.net
(almost daily), and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
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