Bridegroom Jailed Over Wedding Bomb Hoax
A British bridegroom made a hoax bomb threat rather than admit he’d neglected to book the venue for his wedding. Neil McArdle called liverpool’s St George’s Hall from a phone booth on his scheduled wedding day, claiming a bomb was due to go off in 45 minutes. His fiancee, Amy Williams, was left standing in the street in her wedding gown while the building was evacuated. McArdle was arrested and admitted that he made the call because he had forgotten to fill out the paperwork for the wedding.
A judge at liverpool Crown Court in northwest England sentenced him to 12 months in jail. Defence lawyer Charles lander said McArdle and Williams are still together. (AP)
Black Student Arrested For Buying A Designer Belt
Barneys New York and the New York Police Department have been slapped with a lawsuit by Trayon Christian, a college student from Queens, who was arrested at the luxury department store in April. “His only crime was being a young black man,” Michael Palillo, Christian’s attorney, told The New York Post.
The Post reports that the 19-year-old was at the store buying a $350 Salvatore Ferragamo belt, but following the purchase, he was stopped by undercover officers that were allegedly called on by a Barneys sales clerk who believed the transaction was fraudulent.
The lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, states that the NYC College of Technology freshman was asked by the cops: “how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive beltIJ” He was then handcuffed and taken to a local precinct.
Despite showing the officers the receipt for the belt, his ID and the debit card used, “Christian was told that his identification was false and that he could not afford to make such an expensive purchase,” Palillo said. (Huffington Post)
Surfer Punches Shark To Escape
A 25-year-old Hawaii surfer and former boxer went toe-to-fin with a shark off Kauai and survived. Jeff Horton was surfing with 10 others near Kilauea when someone spotted a fin in the water. He spotted a dark shape approaching from the left. He thought it was a stingray — dark on top, white on the bottom. “It came flying straight toward me,” he said. He pulled his left leg out of the water and the shark got a mouth full of surfboard. The impact knocked Horton off the board. He rolled onto the shark and grabbed a fin.
On top of the shark, holding on with one hand, he began punching as hard as he could with his other fist. He estimated he landed eight blows. “I finally got one nice punch into the eye,” Horton said. “I put some really good hits on it, for sure.” When his knuckled jammed into the shark’s eye, the shark spit out the board and retreated. Horton scrambled onto his board. With another surfer, he caught a wave and paddled toward shore. The shark briefly followed but did not attack again, he said. (AP)
Argentine scientists tap cow burps for natural gas
Argentine scientists have found a way to transform the gas created by the bovine digestive system into fuel, an innovation that could curb greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Using a system of valves and pumps, the experimental technique developed by Argentina’s National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) channels the digestive gases from bovine stomach cavities through a tube and into a tank.
The gases — which otherwise are commonly known as burps, or “eruptos” in Spanish — are then processed to separate methane from other gases such as carbon dioxide. Methane is the main component of natural gas, used to fuel everything from cars to power plants. “Once you get it compressed, it’s the same as having natural gas,” said Guillermo Berra, head of INTA’s animal physiology group. “As an energy source it is not very practical at the moment, but if you look ahead to 2050, when fossil fuel reserves are going to be in trouble, it is an alternative,” he said.
Each head of cattle emits between 250 and 300 liters of methane a day, enough to keep a refrigerator running for 24 hours. Argentina is one of the world’s top beef exporters, with around 51 million heads of cattle. Gases emitted from those animals account for 30 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. (Reuters)
Party-Throwing Kids get Arrested by Parents
It was just like something out of a TV show, at least at first: Two Connecticut parents returned home from a trip a day early to find their teenage daughters hosting a party at their house. But here’s where it diverges a bit from the script: Mom and Dad didn’t just yell, they called the cops. It was “the right thing to do,” an officer says. The girls, 15 and 16, were arrested and charged with permitting a minor to possess alcohol.
It’s just a wee bit different than what happened two weeks prior in the same town: Christopher Nixon, 49, and his wife, Shawn Nixon, 50, were arrested after their teen threw a party attended by over 100 teens; police found beer, liquor, and a vomiting teen, and picked up the scent of marijuana. The Nixons didn’t supply the teens with the items, but they “turned a blind eye” to all the illegal activity. (Newser)