Pope’s surprise visit to Rome optician for new eyeglasses
Pope Francis slipped out of the Vatican last week to make a surprise visit to a Rome optician’s shop to get a new pair of eyeglasses, insisting that his old frames be reused and that he would pay for them. Francis was driven to Ottica Spiezia on Rome’s fancy Via del Babuino in the small Ford Focus car he normally uses, drawing a large crowd of curious tourists and Romans outside, footage on Italian TV showed.
The shop owner, Alessandro Spiezia, who has made eyeglasses for the Pope before but always delivered them to the Vatican though aides, said he did not know that the Pope would come to the shop himself. “He had told me to use the old frames again because he did not want to spend much money and insisted on paying for them,” Spiezia said.
The Pope arrived with one of his secretaries and a driver and several plainclothes policemen. He remained inside the shop for about half an hour as Spiezia explained the use of the new eyeglasses to him.
(Reuters)
NYC millionaire leaves $100,000 to cockatiels
A New York City millionaire who died this summer has bequeathed a $100,000 trust fund to care for her 32 pet cockatiels. The New York Post reported that leslie Ann Mandel’s will asks that the small parrots continue living in an aviary at her $4 million East Hampton home. The will names each bird, from Margie and Nicki to Zara and Zack 12. With Mandel’s stepson as trustee, the fund also will care for a cat named Kiki and a rescue dog named Frosty. Mandel ran a fundraising firm and amassed a $5.3 million fortune. She died in June at age 69. Other wills also have provided for pets. Hotel magnate leona Helmsley left $12 million to her dog, Trouble. A judge trimmed the bequest to $2 million.
(AP)
Infrared sink doesn’t recognise black hand, claims youtuber
A visitor to an Atlanta hotel captured video of what he described as a “racist” infrared sink that dispensed soap for a white friend but not for him. The video, shot in the bathroom at the Marriott Marquis in Atlanta and posted to YouTube by user Teej Meister, shows the filmer waving his “black hand” under the soap dispenser, which causes the lights to blink on the infrared sensor but no soap is dispensed.
The YouTuber then gets his friend, larry, to wave his “white hand” under the sink, which causes it to dispense soap. The two men trade off turns, with the filmer’s hand repeatedly failing to get any soap, while larry’s hand quickly receives soap each time.
(UPI)
Hawaii woman announces plan to use dolphin as a midwife
A pregnant Hawaii woman seen swimming with dolphins in a viral video announced plans to give birth using a dolphin as a midwife. Dorina Rosin, who operates a healing sanctuary in Hawaii with partner Maika Suneagle, was seen swimming with dolphins while 38 weeks pregnant in a video posted to YouTube in mid-August and the producers of British TV series Katie Piper’s Extraordinary Births visited Rosin when she announced her intention to use a dolphin as a midwife.
“I found the dolphin people a bit out there but they seemed so happy and the woman was so relaxed,” Piper told The Times of london. “I just thought everybody was wonderful and it was all a bit of an eye-opener.”
Experts warned using a dolphin as a midwife could prove dangerous. “Because of their friendly disposition and common [presence] in aquariums, we tend to think of dolphins as trustworthy, loving creatures,” Christine Wilcox wrote on Discovery Magazine’s website. “But let’s get real for a minute here. Dolphins are wild animals, and they are known to do some pretty terrible things.”
(UPI)
chimp personhood case: NY court won’t hear appeals
An animal rights group seeking legal personhood for chimpanzees won’t get a hearing in the State’s highest court. The Court of Appeals, without comment, declined to hear the appeals by The Nonhuman Rights Project on behalf of Kiko and Tommy.
lower courts had rejected the organisation’s argument that scientific evidence of chimps’ emotional and cognitive abilities should qualify them for basic rights, including freedom from imprisonment.
In December, a midlevel court unanimously denied human legal rights to Tommy, who lives alone in a cage. The three justices said chimps “cannot bear any legal duties, submit to societal responsibilities or be held legally accountable for their actions”. Tommy’s owner said he’s cared for under strict State and federal license rules and inspections. The Nonhuman Rights Project, a nonprofit, was founded in 2007 by Massachusetts lawyer Steven Wise.
When Wise filed the lawsuits two years ago, he told AP: “These are the first in a long series of suits that will chip away at the legal thinghood of such non-human animals as chimpanzees.” If the lawsuits succeed, he said, similar ones could eventually be filed on behalf of other species considered autonomous, such as gorillas, dolphins and elephants.
Tommy, an adult male chimp, was kept by his owner in a cage in a shed in a used trailer lot in Gloversville.
(AP)