The resulting crunch on the four-lane carriageway near Newcastle's Denton roundabout left five police cars damaged, several cops trapped in their vehicles, and seven of them injured (four remain off work). He later claimed that he'd panicked since his date was carrying drugs. He also told the court that his post-bail arrest at his workplace - his commute flouted a driving ban - had led to his firing. Nonetheless, he will now spend 14 months in a young offenders' institution.
The Chicago Sun–Times is under fire for printing summer-reading
recommendations by someone who had never read the works listed. In
fairness, 10 of the 15 books were unavailable at the time, since they
![[IMG: Artifishy intelligence]](images/ReadingList.jpg)
don't exist. An algorithm had fabricated titles such as The Last
Algorithm by Andy Weir and Tidewater Dreams by Isabel Allende.
The paper published this 'supplement' nationwide shortly after
shedding 20% of its personnel in favour of agencies such as King
Features, whose freelancer Marco Buscaglia was behind the list. He
stated: 'I do use AI for background at times but always check out the
material first. This time, I did not and I can't believe I missed it
because it's so obvious.'
Three years ago, 450-kilo manatee Shantay was released into the care of Florida's Homosassa Springs state park after receiving extensive treatment for back injuries presumably inflicted by a boat strike. Recent work on the park's observatory and camera systems necessitated draining Shantay's pool. One of the periodic checks on Shantay during this process revealed that it has proceeded at unexpected speed: as the water level fell below one metre, her head had caught in a gap below the adjustable floor. She drowned. State wildlife officials' autopsy report terms the probable cause of death 'human related'.
In another case of getting stuck, a German man's attempt to retrieve
dropped earbuds left him stuck under a train armrest. Firefighters
summoned to the Lehrte station expected a straightforward operation;
however, the man's hand had swollen enough that a team of ultimately
11 had to dismantle a luggage rack and seats, saw through the armrest,
then apply hydraulic equipment while the other passengers were ushered
onto an alternative train. After his 1.5-hour ordeal, the rescued man
and his rescued AirPods were handed over to medics.
Fire officials stated that police had to be brought in too - 'to
prevent the gawkers from taking pictures of the trapped person with
their mobile phones', officers cordoned off the area while a rescue
blanket attached to the train's exterior blocked direct views.
Turning to the roads instead, we find the Chicago suburb where an
exploding lorry left clothing and furniture from nearby homes strewn
across the street and around other buildings. According to local news
reports, the small lorry was minding its own business on the way
through Addison, Illinois, when a leaking propane tank in the back
blew up. The driver landed in hospital.
Perhaps other ways of transporting goods are safer...
Further transit fun comes from Lufthansa, with investigation of a
February incident in which a non-diagnosed neurological condition
caused the co-pilot of a flight from Frankfurt to Seville to faint
while the captain was using the lavatory. Cabin crew failed to reach
the stricken man by telephone, and he had been unconscious for 10
minutes by the time the pilot's efforts to open the cockpit door
escalated to entering hijacking-linked override codes.
Aviation authorities' incident report notes that the autopilot
system maintained stable flight despite the co-pilot 'unintentionally
interacting with the controls'.
In Canada's British Colombia, a mangled aeroplane made the journey of 865 km from Mackenzie to Kelowna by helicopter, boat, and finally trailer. Recovery-company workers unloading the wreckage then discovered a porcupine cowering beneath the pilot's seat. A supporting veterinarian with the Interior Wildlife Rehabilitation Society ended up jabbing a sedative into the critter's only accessible spot, its bottom, and then extracted it via the only access point available, the plane's tiny window. The rodent's release is pending.
On a Delta Airlines route from Minnesota to Wisconsin, takeoff
occurred before takeoff: a pigeon took flight in the cabin.
Social-media user Tom Caw recounts that, after passengers told a
flight attendant, the pilot confirmed the bird's presence over the
audio system and said that he'd never handled such conditions. Crew
and passengers failed to capture the bird, so it was ultimately
removed by baggage-handlers back at the terminal.
As the plane was taxiing back to the runway, another avian aviator
took flight. A passenger raised a jacket to block its path while the
pilot's report to the tower that 'there's a pigeon on the aeroplane,
and it won't go away' received the response 'That's a first for me!'.
So that it wouldn't be a third for those aboard, an air stewardess
insisted, once the terminal's baggage-handlers had removed pigeon
2, 'seriously, check to see if there are any birds under your seats or
in your bags'.
The plane took off for its hour-long journey about an hour late.
In Camden, Delaware, slightly larger-scale bird transit fared slightly
less well. After a US Postal Service van had remained parked at the
city's mail-distribution centre in excess of three days, staff there
discovered that 12,000+ chicks were within, sans food or water.
Thousands had died. The rest were transferred to First State Animal
Center and the SPCA for care.
USPS stated that they are 'aware of a process breakdown' and have
begun investigating. There is no agreement yet on paying the extra
bird-care personnel required.
Meanwhile, sender Freedom Ranger Hatchery, who raise chicks for
weekly delivery nationwide, stated that late delivery would have made
sense, since the clients are equipped to handle malnourished birds.
Biosecurity concerns precluded a return to sender.
![[IMG: The ship planted in the garden]](images/BoatyMcBoatHouse.png)
Johan Helberg chose to ignore persistent ringing of his doorbell in
the wee hours as a loud noise approached his Byneset, Norway, home.
It was only when a neighbour rang him that he arose and peered through
the window. Framed there was a 133-metre container ship that had run
aground in his garden and laid waste to his heat-pump system.
Helberg said: 'It's a very bulky new neighbour but will soon go
away.' Towing the vessel out to sea did end up requiring multiple
tries, whereas it had managed to escape under its own power when
beaching itself in past years.
Authorities believe they have identified which of the 16-member crew
had left the Cypriot-flagged NCL Salter on autopilot rather than
make a required turn on the way to Orkanger via the Trondheim Fjord.
I'll close these Clippings now, with another transport-related item,
but I hope to have another bunch just around the corner.
A![[IMG: The Spanish NotARoad]](images/SpanishRoadway.jpg)
Rome resident's ostensible plan to get to work early ended when he
found himself unable to drive the entire way down the city's landmark
Spanish Steps. The suit-clad octogenerian had not been drinking
alcohol, while any involvement of a satnav was less clear. A crane
removed his Mercedes A Class sedan from the scene, and the municipal
police are checking whether his driving licence should be removed.
Meanwhile, experts from the Ministry of Culture are checking whether
the steps, built in the 1720s, have suffered damage.
That said, our first item combines the two, thanks to a flight attendant who failed to commence meal-service duties on a plane carrying 470 people from San Francisco to London. Scouring the A330 for him, colleagues eventually found him in a business-class lavatory, dancing, naked. One of them recounted that the man, who apparently had 'popped pills when he was meant to be working', was promptly placed in first-class pyjamas and restraints. He added that 'this job can do ridiculous things to people, but staging a one-man disco in a Club World toilet is a new one on me'.
British Airways reports that the police will handle investigations.
Earlier this month, someone rang the cops to report a woman 'lighting American flags on fire' in Bussey, Iowa. Upon their arrival at the scene, officers quickly spotted the woman in question, Brianna Laird, thanks in part to her conspicuous manner of dress: one of the flags she'd stolen from the city was tied around her head, and she was naked from the waist down. Along with theft, arson, and indecent exposure, Laird, 21, is accused of supplying a false name, hitting one of the officers in the face and kicking the one who was bundling her into the police car, and carrying drugs paraphernalia.
A visitor to Disneyland Paris rang the police to report getting cold
feet after having received a five-digit sum to play the bride's father
in a mock wedding there. His unease stemmed from the bride being, in
the words of one of the 100 French extras recruited as wedding guests,
'a little girl dressed in white with her hair all done up'. This
nine-year-old Ukrainian girl, who had arrived in France two days
earlier, was to be filmed becoming the 'wife' of Jacky Jhaj, a
39-year-old sex offender wanted in the UK.
According to Meaux prosecutor Jean-Baptiste Bladier, Jhaj, who has
filmed many of his escapades over the years, had engaged in identity
theft - posing as a Latvian man named Clyde - for purposes of hiring
the amusement park for his roughly 130,000-euro non-nuptials and been
'made up professionally so that his face appeared totally different
from his own'.
Michael Royce Sparks, a resident of California's Olive Dell Ranch
nudist resort, detested the noise of his neighbours' generator and
their comments on him being 'sinful', but he snapped only when they
bought him a hot dog. Weeks later, a prison inmate relayed his
confession that the insult of a $1 wiener had led him to invite the
couple, in their 70s, to the bunker beneath his trailer - for
killing.
A detective sent to investigate had just detected a foul odour there
when colleagues shared text messages wherein Sparks, 62, replied to a
relative's 'I am watching news. Something going on where you live.'
with 'It's me. Committing suicide today. Take care. Bye.' and then the
clarification 'Chopped up my neighbors'. The detective's presence
sparked a genuine suicide attempt, but the rifle jammed.
While Dan and Stephanie Menard's body parts were found in black
plastic bags and Sparks's orange bucket, their dog could not be
recovered: after killing Cuddles, Sparks had flung the body to the
coyotes. He has not yet spoken in court, whereas another resident of
the nudist colony who offered the excuse 'My dog ate my hearing aid'.
Some clever ideas strike people who use methamphetamine. Alligators may strike them too, if the idea involves an early-morning swim in Lakeland, Florida. This is where Timothy Schulz, 42, who had completed a meth-related jail stint six days earlier, ended up with a bitten, bleeding arm - and worse. First responders alerted to his plight were met with stolen garden shears and a brick as Schulz went on what sheriff Grady Judd termed a rampage. Two stun-gun deployments proved insufficient to halt his efforts to snatch officers' sidearms. Then he managed to enter a running patrol vehicle and reach for the weapons within. Troopers' gunshots and Schulz's demise followed.
The pace was rather more relaxed for law-enforcement officers in South
Carolina. A few minutes after seeing a piece of treaded construction
equipment cross US Highway 78 in the wee hours, officers received a
burglary report from a business sporting heavy bruises from a tractor
excavator. With sirens blaring, several North Charleston Police
vehicles pursued the excavator in an hour-plus chase that reached
speeds of nearly five kilometres an hour.
Upon becoming stuck at the county fairgrounds, the 53-year-old driver
attempted a faster mode of escape, running off. He was still arrested.
The Czech police recently derailed a family business that had earned
the equivalent of 160,000 euros over two years from operating out of
the family's home in Havlíčkův Brod.
There, the mother, a 50-year-old nurse, assisted her son with
such procedures as tooth extractions, using prostheses crafted by the
44-year-old father. For all the dental work, the son, 22, relied on
the Internet rather than dental training. Until, according to regional
newspaper Denik, one of the faux clinic's dozens of patients
approached a genuine dentist for treatment of complications.
All three have admitted to running an illegal business, illegally
producing and handling narcotics and poisons, and even attempted
bodily harm. They face up to eight years in prison.
An Orthodox Christian monk recognised as an official Mount Athos
groundskeeper was admitted to a hospital in Thessaloniki for cuts and
bruises to his face and ribs after fellow monks - affiliated with the
area's unofficial Esphigmenou Monastery - attacked him with gardening
tools while he was working outside an administrative building.
His abbot, Father Bartholomew, reported that the police have been
formally enrolled, while the rival group in the monks' decades-old feud
stated that it is 'a well-known tactic for these perpetrators to play
the victims'. The rebel monks' statement online claims: 'They feigned
injury in a performance worthy of an acting class.'
Finally, we have the tale of April Schmitt's engagement ring. Driving home from the Pittsburgh airport after a business trip, Schmitt noticed that the ring, from 1992, was missing its diamond. She remembered that, during retrieval of her luggage, 'my hand got stuck between the suitcase and the edge of the carousel; it pinched my hand, so I pulled my hand back really quickly'. Rushing back to the airport, she was joined in her search by engineer Tom Riordan, electrician Steve Turkaly, and two other maintenance workers. She gave up after 90 minutes but was summoned back four hours later: the maintenance staff reported success after having removed panels from the carousel and scraped through the floor-level dirt with taped-together paint-stirrers. Schmitt said: 'It restored my faith in humanity.'