annual new jersey Zombie walk falls victim to costs
It seems money is the best medicine to put the undead to rest. The annual New Jersey Zombie Walk has fallen victim to rising costs and growing popularity. The free event began with a group of friends shuffling and groaning their way through Asbury Park seven years ago. It grew in size over the years and raised money for charities.
In 2013, Guinness World Records certified nearly 10,000 zombies were the world’s largest gathering of the undead.
Organiser Jason Meehan broke the news on Facebook recently. He wrote that costs have risen and the decayed buildings that once served as the event’s backdrop in the city have been replaced by new condos and restaurants. Meehan is tentatively planning an October 3 ‘funeral’ on the Asbury boardwalk.
(AP)
Woman bites rider in New York subway
A woman who bit another passenger in a dispute over a seat on a crowded subway was being sought for assault, the New York City police said.
The attack occurred on a Manhattan-bound ‘F’ train from Queens a week earlier, when a 45-year-old woman asked the suspect to remove her belongings from a seat so she could sit, said lieutenant Thomas Antonetti, spokesman for the New York Police Department.
When the rider did not respond, the woman attempted to sit down anyway. “The suspect became enraged pushing the victim, scratching her on the chest, pulling her hair and biting her on her forearm causing a laceration and bleeding,” the NYPD said in a statement.
The suspect fled the train when it stopped at a station but not before the victim snapped a cellphone picture of her baring her teeth, which police shared with the public to help track down the suspect. “Caught in the act,” Antonetti said. The rider was taken to the hospital but has since been discharged.
(Reuters)
marine researchers receive ‘oldest’ message in a bottle
A century-old message in a bottle, possibly the oldest ever found, has finally reached its destination. Tossed into the North Sea sometime between 1904 and 1906, the bottle washed up on the beach on the German island of Amrum, and was found by a couple in April. Inside they found a postcard asking that it be sent to the Marine Biological Association of the UK — which they did.
“We were very excited,” Guy Baker, a spokesman for the group, said. “We certainly weren’t expecting to receive any more of the postcards.” Baker said the bottle was one of some 1,000 released into the North Sea by researcher George Parker Bidder, who later became the association’s president. The bottles were weighed down to float just above the sea bed, and used as part of a study into the movement of sea currents. Inside each bottle was a postcard promising a “one shilling reward” to anyone who returned it to the association, along with information about where and when they found the bottle. Most bottles were trawled up by fishermen and returned decades ago, Baker said.
(Yahoo)
ISS astronaut joins cast of ‘Star Trek’ fan film
A European Space Agency astronaut famous for wearing her Star Trek uniform on the International Space Station (ISS) is headed “where no man has gone before” in a fan film. Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian woman in space, returned to Earth in June after 199 days on the ISS, and the makers of fan-produced film Star Trek: Axanar have now announced she is joining the production in an as-yet unspecified role. “As long as we can work out her schedule (as she will have to fly back from Europe), she would love to have a role in Axanar,” the film’s producers said in a blog post.
Cristoforetti’s affection for the science fiction franchise became clear in April, when she donned a Star Trek: Voyager-style uniform and snapped a series of selfies aboard the ISS.
Star Trek: Axanar is a fan-produced film following the character Garth of Izar, who appeared in original Star Trek episode “Whom Gods Destroy.” The fan film takes place about 21 years before the first episode of Star Trek.
Cristoforetti’s journey “where no man has gone before” follows in the footsteps of NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, who appeared in a small role on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
(UPI)
lawyer skips hearing so wife in labour ‘won’t kill him’
A Pittsburgh defense attorney got a hearing postponed at the last minute after convincing a judge that his wife’s labour was a matter of life — or his death. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Marc Daffner was granted a continuance after filing a blunt request with a Pittsburgh City Court magistrate.
It read: “Defense counsel’s wife went into labour at approximately 11.15 am today, and defense counsel will be killed by his wife if he does not get to the hospital immediately.”
Daffner says the district attorney and judge agreed to the move. His client is charged with receiving stolen property.
Daffner says, “I didn’t have a legal reason for the continuance, but that was the truth.”
(AP)