A court in Buenos Aires, Argentina, granted a petition in ordering the freedom of a Sumatran orangutan from Buenos Aires Zoo. Sandra, age 29, is a \u201cnon-human person\u201d and thus sufficiently advanced in \u201ccognitive function\u201d to be not merely an object that humans can own without obligation. A Reuters report found no similar judgment on record. In fact, there were contrary rulings in New York (regarding Tommy the chimpanzee) and San Diego (finding against orca whales).<\/p>\n
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Man\u2019s Other Best Friends<\/strong><\/p>\n A British man paid a veterinarian $500 to perform delicate surgery on a sick office goldfish. Vet Faye Bethell of North Walsham, England, told the Eastern Daily Press in December that there was \u201cnothing special\u201d about the fish, but that the customer \u201cjust liked it a lot.\u201d In fact, the goldfish likely did not even have a pet name. Bethell spoke of another patient who did have a name \u2014 Cadbury, the skunk. For the fish, Bethell\u2019s procedure involved removing the patient from the bowl, flooding its gills with anesthetic-fortified water, and using a tiny scalpel to remove lumps that were causing it constipation, with the surgery guided by a miniature heart-rate monitor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Iraqi TV Goes Jerry Springer<\/strong><\/p>\n Iraq\u2019s government-run channel, Iraqiyya TV, broadcasts a reality show designed to force captured ISIS fighters to acknowledge the pain they\u2019ve created. One episode of In the Grip of the Law showed family members of car-bombing victims on a street corner in Baghdad haranguing one of the men convicted of the crime. A young man in a wheelchair, who had lost his father in the attack, faced off against the convict, screaming until the jihadist \u201cbegan weeping.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Wait … What?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 On Nov. 6, a couple aged 68 and 65 were hospitalized after spending almost 13 hours locked in their car inside their garage in Alexandra, New Zealand. The night before, they had been unable to remember the details of a salesman\u2019s tutorial on how to unlock their new Mazda 3 from the inside. They had spent the night assuming they were trapped because they had forgotten to bring along the battery-operated key. The wife was unconscious when neighbors finally noticed them, and her husband was struggling to breathe. The door unlocks manually, of course.<\/p>\n \u2014 Undersheriff Noel Stephen of Okeechobee County, Fla., acknowledged that among the public services his office performs is that of supervising parents\u2019 spanking of their children. After two sisters argued on Dec. 29, their father decided to administer a whipping to one. He asked Deputy Stephen to drop by and make sure he stayed within the law. That\u2019s \u201cnot something we advertise to do,\u201d said the deputy. But he estimates he has monitored about a dozen spankings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Government In Action<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 The Government Accountability Office recently issued an emphatic ruling that the National Weather Service could not legally give its workers disposable cups, plates and utensils on the job. Such items are \u201cpersonal,\u201d GAO declared. Most NWS facilities are in remote locations and are staffed by two-person shifts that almost force employees to eat on the premises. \u201cYou can\u2019t run out\u201d and \u201cgrab a burger,\u201d one employee said. Nonetheless, after a lengthy deliberative process, GAO said its decision is final.<\/p>\n \u2014 In a November ruling, France\u2019s minister of housing and minister of ecology jointly announced streamlining of law books, which would remove bulky, out-of-date regulations. Among the regulations eliminated is the ban on installing toilets in kitchens.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Best Recent Foreign News<\/strong><\/p>\n China\u2019s Gxnews.com.cn reported the arrest of a man in Yulin City who was accused of stealing more than 2,000 items of underwear from women in his neighborhood. They were taken within the last year. He hid his stash above ceiling tiles in stairwells in his apartment building. He drew attention when one of the ceiling spaces caved in from the weight of the garments, showering the stairs in an array of colorful lingerie. Within a month of that event, two other men, in Zhejiang and Hubei provinces, were detained for similar crimes.<\/p>\n \u2014 British makeup artist Jordan James Parke, 23, told London\u2019s The Sun how he had fallen in love with the look of U.S. celebrity Kim Kardashian and, as a result, had spent $150,000 on \u201cmore than 50\u201d cosmetic procedures that would give him her \u201cpouty\u201d look. Parke made use of lip and cheek fillers, eyebrow tattoos and laser hair removal. \u201cI love everything about Kim … the most gorgeous woman ever,\u201d he said. \u201cHer skin is perfect, her hair, everything about her.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Recurring Themes<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Police in Phoenix estimate gunfire into the air on New Year\u2019s Eve was down 22 percent from last year. The department received reports on only 206 guns being discharged without concern for where the bullets would land.<\/p>\n \u2014 Authorities in Paris estimated that 12 percent fewer cars were set on fire in France on New Year\u2019s Eve. Only 940 strangers\u2019 vehicles were torched, instead of last year\u2019s 1,067.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Spidey Sense Fashion<\/strong><\/p>\n Among the breakthroughs demonstrated by the computer chip company Intel\u2019s RealSense system is a cocktail dress from Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht that not only senses the wearer\u2019s mood, but also acts to repel or encourage strangers who approach the wearer. Sensors (including small LED monitors) measure respiration and 11 other bodily functions. If the wearer is stressed, spider-leg epaulets extend menacingly from the shoulder to suggest that intruders keep their distance. If the wearer feels relaxed, the legs wave invitingly. The experimental \u201cspider dress\u201d was showcased at January\u2019s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Government In Action<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 Because Congress and presidents often change their minds, NASA continues to build a $349 million rocket testing tower in Mississippi for a \u201cmoon project\u201d that was canceled in 2010. The tower sits down the road from a second rocket testing tower being built for its replacement mission \u2014 an \u201casteroid project.\u201d Critics blame senators who believe it\u2019s best to keep contractors at work even when the work is pointless because Congress and the president might change their minds about the work. Said a high-profile critic, \u201cWe have to decide … whether we want a jobs program or a space program.\u201d NASA\u2019s inspector general in 2013 identified six similar mothballed projects that taxpayers continue to maintain.<\/p>\n \u2014 A total of 240 of the 351 police departments in Massachusetts claim their SWAT and other specialty operations are not \u201cgovernment\u201d services, but are not-for-profit corporate groups and are thus free from certain government obligations. These \u201claw enforcement councils\u201d refuse to comply with government open-records laws for civilian monitoring of SWAT activities. The latest refusal, by the 58 police agencies of the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, was filed in state Superior Court in December.<\/p>\n \u2014 A Seattle Times columnist suffered a \u201csmash-and-grab\u201d break-in of his car in October, 2014. But he was brushed off by the Seattle Police Department and told to file an insurance claim. He and his energetic 14-year-old daughter located the perpetrators themselves by GPS. They then called for police help, only to be chastised by the dispatcher, who warned that they could get hurt. Only when a local crime-fighting TV show covered the case was the gang of thieves finally pursued and apprehended. They are now suspects in hundreds of smash-and-grab thefts. One of the alleged perpetrators was quoted as saying the thefts were undertaken \u201cbecause we knew the police wouldn\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hapless Bela<\/strong><\/p>\n When Connie Lay died in Aurora, Ind., in November, she left a will that called for her German shepherd, Bela, to be promptly buried with her, even though Bela was still alive. Lay preferred sending Bela to a certain shelter in Utah, but stated that if a friend decided that was \u201cnot possible\u201d or involved \u201ctoo much expense,\u201d Bela was to be euthanized. At press time, the friend still had not decided.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Medical News<\/strong><\/p>\n After 15 months of faulty diagnoses, Pam Pope, 65, got the news that she had a rare, slow-moving cancer of the appendix, \u201cpseudomyxoma peritonei.\u201d The malignancy was so advanced that her only hope was the removal of all organs that she could possibly do without. In a six-surgeon, 13-hour operation in Basingstoke, England, Pope parted with her appendix, large bowel, gall bladder, spleen, womb, ovaries, fallopian tubes, cervix and most of her small bowel. She has endured massive chemotherapy, is on a nightly drip for hydration, and still remains frail, according to a report in London\u2019s Daily Mail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Least Competent Criminals<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 A robber was turned away from a store on East Harry Street in Wichita, Kan., after he demanded cash, explaining to the clerk that he \u201chad six children and needed the money.\u201d The clerk told the man he had too many kids. The man, apparently chastened, fled the store empty-handed.<\/p>\n \u2014 A masked man approached a clerk at Sam\u2019s Mart in New Haven, Conn., and passed a note demanding money while pointing his finger at the clerk. According to police, the clerk grabbed the finger and threatened to break it, sending the man fleeing into the night.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Update<\/strong><\/p>\n Jared Walter, 27, returns to News of the Weird after a four-year hiatus. In December, 2014, he was charged with snipping a woman\u2019s hair while he was in line behind her at a Dollar Tree store in Oregon City, Ore. In 2010, he was imprisoned for cutting the hair of three female passengers on municipal buses in the Portland area. After being released in 2011, he was sentenced again for a similar incident. Walter\u2019s inexplicable history with female hair actually extends back to grade school, reports Portland\u2019s The Oregonian.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What Researchers Do<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2014 The natural enemy of the \u201chawkmoth\u201d is the bat. Thanks to a recent study by biologists at Boise State University and the University of Florida, we know the reason so many hawkmoths are able to avoid their predator. They signal each other by rubbing their genitals on their abdomens. In this way, they mimic bats\u2019 high-frequency sounds, thus jamming the bats\u2019 aural ability to detect the hawkmoths\u2019 locations. Professors Jesse Barber and Akito Kawahara, tethered a hawkmoth to a wire and then tracked a bat, using slow-motion cameras and high-definition microphones, painstakingly examining the results.<\/p>\n \u2014 A team from Britain\u2019s University of Nottingham and Queen Mary University of London found that cows make two \u201cdistinctly different\u201d call sounds to their calves, depending on whether the calves are nearby (low-frequency mooing, with mouth closed) or separated (higher frequency). The team said it spent 10 months digitally recording cow noises, then a year analyzing them by computer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A court in Buenos Aires, Argentina, granted a petition in ordering the freedom of a Sumatran orangutan from Buenos Aires Zoo. Sandra, age 29, is a \u201cnon-human person\u201d and thus sufficiently advanced in \u201ccognitive function\u201d to be not merely an object that humans can own without obligation. A Reuters report found no similar judgment on [&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":[65,661,40],"yoast_head":"\n