\u201cSelfie fever\u201d has begun to sully the sacred Islamic pilgrimages to Mecca, according to scholars who complained to Arab News in September. What for centuries has been a hallowed journey intended to renew the spirit of Islam has come for some to resemble a trip to Disneyland, with visitors to the Sacred Mosque texting friends the evidence of their piety. Another scholar complained in a New York Times opinion piece that Mecca is often experienced as a tour packaged by marketers and centered around Mecca\u2019s upscale shopping malls rather than religious structures.<\/p>\n
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The New Normal<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Just in time for California\u2019s new law requiring explicit consent for students\u2019 sexual activities is the free iPhone\/Google app Good2Go, which developer Lee Ann Allman promises will simplify the consent process and even document it. As described in a September Slate.com report, Good2Go requires the initiator to send the prospective partner to at least four smartphone screens, wait for a text message, then provide phone numbers \u2014 all before the mood evaporates. It took the tech-savvy Slate writer four minutes to navigate the process. After she finished, she was still unclear which sexual activities had been consented to, since those specifics aren\u2019t referenced in the process. The app has since been pulled from the market.<\/p>\n \u2014 New York Giants tight end Larry Donnell manages his own fantasy league team by \u201cdrafting\u201d NFL players for virtual competitions based on their real-life statistics of the previous weekend. Donnell lamented to New Jersey\u2019s The Record that he had benched the virtual Larry Donnell on his fantasy team the week before because he thought his other tight end (Vernon Davis) would do better. In reality, Donnell had a career-high game, with his three touchdowns leading the real Giants to a 45-14 victory. However, Donnell\u2019s fantasy team lost badly because virtual Larry Donnell (and his weekend statistical bonanza) was on Donnell\u2019s bench.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A Perfect World<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 In August, the Tampa Bay Times reported a dispute between 12-year-old lemonade-stand operator T.J. Guerrero and his adult neighbor, Doug Wilkey, who was trying to close him down as an unlicensed entrepreneur, in spite of T.J.\u2019s plan for using his sales money to assist his favorite animal shelter. Of course, T.J. was quickly inundated with donations, media praise and lemonade sales. Wilkey, however, is under investigation by the city after a tipster revealed that Wilkey himself may be operating a home-based financial services business that is not properly licensed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Campaign Trail<\/strong><\/p>\n Roger Weber, who is running for a Minnesota House, is being sued by a neighbor over a property-line dispute near Nashwauk. Rather than working with an arbitrator or mediator, or letting the legal process run its course, Weber took a chainsaw and cut in half the large, two-car garage that Weber says sat halfway on his property and halfway on the neighbor\u2019s.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sensitive in\u00a0Vermont<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Lianne and Brian Kowiak of Waterbury, Vt., complained to Ben & Jerry\u2019s in September that its new ice cream flavor, \u201cHazed & Confused,\u201d was \u201cshocking\u201d and \u201cupsetting\u201d and should be changed immediately. Most customers recognize the name as a play on the 1993 cult movie Dazed and Confused. But the Kowiaks insist that they should never be reminded that their 19-year-old son died in a college hazing incident.<\/p>\n \u2014 In Winooski, Vt., the local eatery Sneakers Bistro earned public advertising space by beautifying one of the city\u2019s flower beds. Managers used the event for an ad with the tag line \u201cYield for Sneakers Bacon.\u201d After one woman complained that the sign was disrespectful toward those who do not consume pork, Sneakers took it down.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Foreign Press<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 An 18-year-old woman was admitted to Bishkek Hospital in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, with severe stomach pains, which doctors discovered were due to her long-standing habit of chewing both discarded hair and her own. Doctors removed a hairball that weighed 8.8 pounds. A Yahoo News report had a photo.<\/p>\n \u2014 The family of Kai Halvorsen of Lillestrom, Norway, planned a holiday in Thailand. The family feared that its bulldog, Igor, would be traumatized, having never been left alone. Halvorsen and a friend arranged with Labben Kennel to make a replica of the family living room to calm Igor\u2019s anxiety. The two men painted the walls the same shade of gray, brought in the family couch, built a replica coffee table, and moved in Igor\u2019s bed, carpet, pillows and blankets. However, Igor spent much of the holiday cavorting outside with his new friend, Helga, the St. Bernard.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Perspective<\/strong><\/p>\n Prosecutors in Killeen, Texas, are seeking the death penalty for Marvin Guy, who in May shot one SWAT officer to death and wounded three as they conducted an unannounced (\u201cno-knock\u201d) drug raid on his home at 5:30 am. Guy believed hoodlums were breaking in. He grabbed his gun and started firing. The tip given to police was bogus; no drugs were found. In December, 90 miles away in another Texas county, another SWAT raid victim, Henry Magee, killed an officer under similar circumstances. Magee actually had some marijuana. But he was cleared in the shooting by a grand jury\u2019s acceptance of self-defense. Guy is black; Magee is white.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Creme de la Weird<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Palm Beach County, Fla., sheriff\u2019s deputies searching the home of child-pornography suspect Douglas Wescott, 55, stumbled upon 50 dead cats stored in four freezers. There were another 30 to 35 live cats.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Least Competent\u00a0Criminals<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 William Dixon, 21, was arrested in Brentwood, Tenn., when he fled from a Best Buy store after arousing suspicion. According to the police report, Dixon, who was on foot, ran across all lanes of Interstate 65. The chase ended when he collided with a tree.<\/p>\n \u2014 In October, a man snatched a bottle of wine from the shelf of a Sainsbury\u2019s supermarket in East Grinstead, England, and dashed for the door. However, he ran into a shelving unit and knocked himself unconscious.<\/p>\n \u2014\u00a0 Walter Morrison, 20, a United Parcel Service baggage agent at Phoenix\u2019s Sky Harbor airport, intended only to swipe random parcels. But in one package, he came upon a diamond worth about $160,000. Police said he traded the diamond to a friend for a gram of marijuana (worth $20).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Weird News Classic\u00a0(Nov. 2010)<\/strong><\/p>\n Sixty-two percent of the 12 million people of Mumbai, India, live in slums. But the city is also home to Mukesh Ambani\u2019s 27-story private residence (60,000 square feet, 600 employees serving a family of five), reported to cost $1 billion. According to a New York Times dispatch, there are \u201cfour-story hanging gardens,\u201d \u201cairborne swimming pools\u201d and a room where \u201cartificial weather\u201d can be created. Ambani and his brother inherited their father\u2019s textile-exporting juggernaut. They spend much of their time in intra-family feuding. A domestic worker who lives next to the house told the Times she makes the equivalent of $90 a month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cSelfie fever\u201d has begun to sully the sacred Islamic pilgrimages to Mecca, according to scholars who complained to Arab News in September. What for centuries has been a hallowed journey intended to renew the spirit of Islam has come for some to resemble a trip to Disneyland, with visitors to the Sacred Mosque texting friends [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[65,535,40],"yoast_head":"\n