News of the Weird
Chuck Shepherd
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2012 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* The royal family of Qatar, apparently striving for art-world
credibility, purchased a Paul Cezanne painting ("The Card Players")
last year for the equivalent of about $250 million, which is twice as
much as the previous-most-expensive painting sold for. (Qatar is
vying with United Arab Emirates to become the Middle East's
major intellectual hub.) At the same time that Qatar's purchase was
made public, in February, artwork of the probable value of about
$200 million became news in reports of the imminent Facebook
initial public offering. Graffiti artist ("muralist") David Choe stood
to make about that amount because he took stock instead of money
to paint the lewd themes on the walls of Facebook's first offices.
Even though Choe was quoted as saying, originally, that he found
the whole idea of Facebook "ridiculous and pointless," his shares
today are reportedly worth up to one quarter of one percent of the
company. [Vanity Fair, 2-2-2012] [New York Times, 2-2-2012;
Washington Post, 2-4-2012]
The Entrepreneurial Spirit
* Last year, the Cape Town, South Africa, "gentlemen's club"
Mavericks began selling an Alibi line of fragrances designed for
men who need excuses for coming home late. For example, as men
come through the door, they could splash on "I Was Working Late"
(to reek of coffee and cigarettes) or "My Car Broke Down" (evoking
fuel, burned rubber, and grease). [The Times (Johannesburg), 1-19-
2012]
* Bipartisanship: White supremacist Richard Treis, 38, was
arrested in February in St. Louis, along with his alleged partner,
black gang member Robert "Biz" Swinney, 22, and charged with
running a huge methamphetamine operation. The two, who had met
at a prison halfway house, had allegedly meshed their unique
talents--Treis as a meth cook and Swinney as a skilled street seller
who recruited people to buy restricted pseudoephedrine products
from pharmacies. Said a deputy, "They put away their differences
to get the job done." [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 2-17-2012]
Science on the Cutting Edge
* Can't Possibly Be True: "[A] growing number of scientists" are at
work on biocomputer models based on movements of slime, to
solve complex-systems problems, according to a December report
in London's Daily Telegraph. Though slime molds are single-cell
organisms lacking a "brain," said Professor Toshiyuki Nakagaki, of
Japan's Future University Hakodate, they somehow can "organize"
themselves to create the most direct route through mazes in order to
find food. Said Professor Atsushi Tero, of Kyushu University,
ordinary computers are "not so good" at finding such ideal routes
because of the quantity of calculations required, but slime molds
seem to flow "in an impromptu manner" and gradually find the best
routes. [Daily Telegraph, 12-29-2011]
* Medical Marvels: (1) Claire Osborn, 37, of Coventry, England,
was diagnosed in October with an aggressive, inoperable throat-
mouth cancer and given a 50 percent chance of survival. However,
less than a month later, during a severe coughing spell, she actually
coughed out the entire tumor in two pieces. Subsequent tests
revealed no trace of cancer in her body. (Doctors hypothesized that,
fortuitously, the tumor was growing on a weak stalk that was
overcome by the force of the cough.) (2) In January, doctors at
North Carolina State University performed knee-replacement
surgery on a cancer-stricken house cat. Such surgery on dogs has
been done, but because of cats' smaller bones and joints, doctors had
to use micro techniques usually employed on humans. [Daily Mail
(London), 1-11-2012] [Associated Press via Yahoo News, 1-27-
2012]
Fine Points of the Law
* The Houston Funding debt collection company in Houston, Tex.,
had fired receptionist Donnicia Venters shortly after she returned
from maternity leave when she announced that she intended to
breastfeed her child in the office. The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission sued Houston Funding for illegal
discrimination based on "pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical
conditions," but in February, federal judge Lynn Hughes (Mr. Lynn
Hughes) rejected the EEOC's reasoning. The law does not, he
wrote, cover "lactation" discrimination. [Houston Press, 2-8-2012]
Leading Economic Indicators
* In an incident reported in February by the Indo-Asian News
Service, a Pakistan International Airlines captain made a revenue-
enhancing decision for his full flight PK 303 from Lahore to
Karachi. Two overbooked passengers would not have to make
alternative arrangements if they accepted seats for the 640-mile
flight in the plane's restrooms. [IANS News Service via The Times
of India, 2-16-2012]
* Real estate reassessments hit Pittsburgh, Pa., like a bombshell in
December when county officials announced enhanced estimates of
property value in order to raise needed tax revenue. In the first wave
of assessments (which engendered criticism countywide, according
to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story), a real estate attorney who lives
in a condominium in the Mount Washington neighborhood was
stunned to find his condominium apartment, previously valued at
$55,000, now "worth" $228,700 and, worse, his private parking
space on the ground floor of the building, previously valued at
$5,000, now "worth" $287,800). [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 12-30-
2011]
* In December, National Geographic lamented that the
number of South Africa's rhinoceroses killed by poaching increased
by a third in 2011, to 443, as a response to the booming street price
of rhino horns. MSNBC reported that the horns' market price
"soared to about $65,000 a kilogram, making [them] more
expensive than gold, platinum, and in many cases cocaine." The
reason for the price is an escalating, though science-free, belief in
Asia that rhino horn powder can cure cancer. [MSNBC, 12-30-
2011]
The Weirdo-American Community
* In February, a jury in Thousand Oaks, Calif., acquitted Charles
Hersel, 41, of molesting children. Though Hersel admitted through
his lawyer that he paid high school students to spit in his face and
yell profanities at him, and had offered to pay them money to
urinate and defecate on him, jurors found that he must have done
those things for reasons other than "sexual gratification" and
therefore, technically, did not violate the statute under which he was
charged. [KTLA-TV (Los Angeles, 2-21-2012]
Least Competent Criminals
* According to prosecutors in Camden, S.C., in November,
Christopher Hutto, 30, needed money badly to buy crack cocaine,
but the best plan he could devise was getting a friend to telephone
Hutto's mother and demand a ransom. Though Hutto, according to
the phone call, supposedly had been beaten up by kidnapers and
dumped in a secret location and was "near death," the "kidnaper"
asked only for $100. The un-eager mother dawdled a bit until she
and the caller had negotiated the ransom down to $60. (The money
drop was made, and sheriff's deputies arrested Hutto running from
the site with the booty.) [McClatchy Newspapers via Sacramento
Bee, 11-18-2011]
Update
* Airbags Save Lives: News of the Weird has previously chronicled
the breast-obsessive Sheyla Hershey, the Guinness Book record-
holder for largest artificially enhanced bosom (size 38MMM). (To
recap, the Brazil-born, Houston, Tex.-area woman had her implants
removed two years ago for health reasons but then, after depression
set in over her "loss," she wanted them back, but no U.S. surgeon
would meet her requirement of 85 fluid ounces of silicone per
breast. Finally, she found a surgeon in Cancun, Mexico, and
received slightly-smaller implants--38KKK.) Hershey, 32, was
charged with DUI as she drove home after a Super Bowl party in
February. Her car spun around and hit a tree, and according to
Hershey, who was not wearing a seat belt, it was likely that her
breasts saved her from injury by cushioning her as she was thrust
against the steering wheel. [Daily Mail, 2-9-2012; Huffington Post,
2-17-2012, 2-20-2012]
Bright Ideas
* Like many cities, Taipei, Taiwan, has a dog-litter problem that has
proved unsolvable, as citizens continue to ignore pleas to pick up
after their dogs and keep sidewalks clean. Finally, city officials
designed a successful program (announced in December): a dog-
poop lottery: Anyone handing in a bag of dog litter would get a
ticket (one ticket per bag) to a drawing with prizes ranging up to
pieces of gold worth the equivalent of about $2,000. (Citizens
would be on the honor system as to whether the "litter" in the bag
came from a dog or from another source.) [Agence France-Presse
via Google News, 12-7-2011]
Thanks This Week to Charles Nicholson and to the News of
the Weird Board of Editorial Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.com,
and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.