Bus Stops - November 2

Girl, 9, Facing Four Felonies For Wild School Bus Tantrum, Battering Sheriff's Deputy (The Smoking Gun) 

(A nine-year-old Florida girl is facing four felony charges after she allegedly threw a tantrum yesterday on a school bus, spit on the driver, threw rocks at the bus, and tossed a patio chair at a cop, who she warned, “I will fuckin kill you!” The child, a fourth grader at the Royal Palm School in Fort Myers, was traveling home when the driver told her to stop eating candy on the bus. The girl “became very upset” and started yelling obscenities at driver Robert Middleton, according to a Lee County Sheriff’s Office report.)

Bus Crisis In Detroit Hampers Riders (NPR) 

(A bus crisis in Detroit has some people waiting up to three hours at bus stops, with close to half the city's fleet out of commission. Riders are complaining of losing jobs and having to drop classes because they can't get where they need to go. The problem is especially distressing in the Motor City, where about a third of residents don't have cars. Mayor Dave Bing is promising to do "whatever it takes" to fix the problem. He's accused the city's bus mechanics of a deliberate work slowdown. The union says Bing has laid off too many mechanics — hindering their ability to keep up with the work.)

Ruptured radiator hose burns students on bus on Highway 18 (ABC) 

(Twenty-one junior high students were left with burns and breathing problems when a radiator hose on the school bus they were riding in ruptured and spewed hot anti-freeze. The accident happened just after 8:40 a.m. as the bus carrying 50 students overheated on Highway 18 on its way to Mary Putnam Henck Intermediate School in Lake Arrowhead, authorities said.)

Wellington bus driver praised for train escape (MSN) 

(With the alarms ringing in his ears the driver of a bus stuck on a railway level crossing rushed to usher his seven passengers off before a train crashed into the bus. The southbound freight train took out the back end of the bus, leaving wreckage strewn along the tracks, but no one was hurt in the accident at Paekakariki, north of Wellington, about 10.30pm on Monday.)

Tour bus driver rescued after going for walk in heavy mist (Independent IE) 

(A BUS driver taking walkers to see Ireland's tallest cliffs had to be rescued after deciding to go for a walk himself. The man, in his 50s and from Dublin, had driven a group of experienced walkers from Co Kildare to Slieve League in south-west Donegal.)

Woman jailed for false rape claim against bus driver (STV) 

(A woman who claimed she was dragged to the back of a bus and raped by the driver because she was "feeling unloved" has been jailed for 18 months. It took Charlene Kielty 16 months before she admitted to police that her allegation of rape was a lie. The man she accused of raping her said he was "shocked" and "very upset" at the allegation.)

Police seek Spiderman-clad robber (QC Times) 

(Moline police are looking for man dressed up as Spiderman in connection with a Sunday night gas station robbery. Police say two men, one dressed in a Spiderman mask and wielding a foot-long machete, robbed the Shell Express Lane, 3759 41st St., at 6:56 p.m., according to witnesses. The men fled westbound on 38th Avenue in a light-colored pickup truck, possibly a Ford F series, according to police.)

German 'Yoda' charged with drunk driving (UPI) 

(Police in Germany said a motorist in a Yoda costume was unable to use his Jedi powers to get out of charges stemming from a drunken driving incident. Investigators said the 42-year-old Weiterstadt man, whose name was not released, had apparently been out celebrating Halloween Saturday night, dressed as the "Star Wars" character, and struck a pedestrian while driving home early Sunday morning, the Berliner Kurier reported Monday.)

Halloween party fracas lands two ghouls in Pasco jail (Tampa Bay) 

(Two men dressed as the undead were arrested on charges of assaulting the living, authorities said. Kevin Fearn and his brother-in-law Reynaldo Reyno were decked out in ghoulish attire for the Halloween party at the nudist Caliente Resort and Spa when a fight erupted about 2 a.m. Sunday. A woman complained that Fearn, 47, of Land O'Lakes, had grabbed her. When a security guard asked Fearn to have word with him outside, Fearn threw the 71-year-old man to the ground, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report.)

Tourist attraction gives free deodorant (UPI) 

(Officials with England's York Dungeon said they are giving complimentary deodorant to visitors after complaints from actors. Mark Pollard, a supervisor at the tourist attraction, said bosses decided to distribute free deodorant to visitors after actors who perform for up to 10 hours a day at the Dungeon complained of being "overwhelmed" by the body odor of audience members, The Mirror reported Monday.)

Sinkhole Swallows Man, 80, As He Goes for Morning Newspaper (NBC New York) 

(An 80-year-old man who went out to get his morning newspaper fell into an 8-foot sinkhole that opened up in his Long Island lawn. Michael Ciron was not seriously injured in his Sunday morning ordeal, and even boasted that he managed to hang onto the papers, according to Newsday. He yelled for his daughter, who woke up and came to his aid by calling police and firefighters to the Oceanside home.)

Students Born To Illegal Immigrants Sue Over Tuition (NPR) 

(A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Miami by Florida residents being charged out-of-state tuition rates to attend state colleges and universities. The students are American citizens — children who were born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants — and they say Florida's regulations violate their constitutional rights. Wendy Ruiz, a 19-year-old sophomore at Miami Dade College with a 3.7 grade point average, has a plan. She expects to graduate later this year with a two-year associate's degree in Biology.)

Two Russian girls switched at birth to live next door to each other (Pravda RU) 

(The maternity hospital of the town of Kopeisk in Russia's Chelyabinsk region is to pay three million rubles ($100,000) to each of the two families, whose daughters were switched at birth, Vesti.ru reports. Neither the doctors nor the obstetrician are going to incur criminal penalties: the statute of limitations on the case expired a long time ago. The parents discovered that they were raising someone else's children only 12 years afterwards.)

Aphrodisiac – America’s Hottest Ice Cream Truck (Oddity Central) 

(Hot is good even when it comes to ice cream, and Aphrodisiac, a unique Miami ice cream truck that comes with smoking hot spray-painted models is the perfect proof. As if ice cream wasn’t tasty enough, Miami photographer Justin Price and Costa-Rican model Jacqueline Suzanne thought it would taste even better if served by scantily clad babes. According to Aphrodisiac Ice Cream’s official site, the concept was born late one night, when Justin and Jacqueline were at a Miami club, drunk and craving ice cream.)

Rail bosses in Holland to give male passengers bags to pee in (Mirror) 

(Railway bosses in the Netherlands have been blasted for giving male passengers bags to pee in rather than providing toilets on 131 new trains. Ineke Van Gent, public transport spokeswoman for the GreenLeft party, told the Dutch parliament: “It is madness that we will soon have internet access on all trains – but no toilets.”)

Two convicted after DNA tests on poop (UPI) 

(Two men who were arrested after Swedish police conducted DNA tests on feces left at a robbery scene have been sentenced to prison. One of the men was sentenced to four years in prison and the other was sentenced to four years and four months Monday after they were convicted of the March aggravated robbery at the Vara home of strawberry farmer Elof Dahlen, 64, The Local reported Monday.)

Teens trapped in shopping cart call cops (UPI) 

(Two teenage girls were joy riding in a shopping cart in Sweden when they found themselves stuck -- both in the cart and in the middle of nowhere, police said. Emergency services in the small tourist town of Ed, in western Sweden, said they were surprised when they received a call Saturday night from two girls asking for help getting out of a shopping cart, The Local reported Monday.)

Man admits switchblade assault in squirrel dispute (Billings Gazette) 

(A Worden teen who threatened a man with a switchblade in a dispute over the teen's attempt to stab a squirrel has admitted to charges in District Court. Lance Joseph Topel, 19, appeared Tuesday before Judge Russell Fagg and pleaded guilty to felony assault with a weapon.)

Chicago Man Dies Trying To Remove Pacemaker From His Chest (My Fox NY) 

(An autopsy was scheduled Tuesday for a 47-year-old Chicago man who died after apparently attempting to remove his pacemaker from his chest, officials said. Channing Askew, who lived in a group home in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, complained of chest pains Monday night and asked a worker at the home to call paramedics.)

Kevin Smith's 'Hit Somebody' Is 'About So Much More' Than Hockey (MTV) 

(Kevin Smith might have been calling "Hit Somebody" his "hockey movie," but when he chatted with MTV News recently, he was quick to clarify that it's much more than just that. "Now I understand some people are like, 'Dude, one hockey movie is a tough sell. Two?' I call it a hockey movie in the same way I've been calling 'Red State' a horror movie, and then people see 'Red State' and are like, 'That's not a horror movie.' Well, I don't know what else to call it," he explained. "Trust me though, it ain't a hockey movie. It's about so much more.")

Kevin Smith teases second volume of Widening Gyre is ‘half-done’ (MTV) 

(Filmmaker Kevin Smith this morning offered a first look at Walt Flanagan’s pencils for the second volume of Batman: The Widening Gyre, trumpeting that the remaining six issues are “half-done.” The 12-issue miniseries, which debuted in October 2009, reacquaints Bruce Wayne with Silver St. Cloud and introduces Batman to a new partner in his fight against crime in Gotham City. Despite efforts to keep the project on schedule, the first volume met with delays, extending its conclusion to September 2010.)

5 Reasons "Batman: Arkham City" Should Follow "The Dark Knight Rises" (Film Critic) 

(As The Dark Knight Rises continues to film in New York, the buzz for Batman fans is fully on Batman: Arkham City, the acclaimed followup to 2009's video game smash Arkham Asylum. Dense, action-packed, and featuring a storyline written by Batman comic book and animation scribe Paul Dini, Arkham City debuted to rave reviews and more than 2 million copies sold in its first week. With talk that Arkham City is the best Batman video game ever, it's only a matter of time before Hollywood takes notice. Warner Bros. hasn't discussed plans for Batman after The Dark Knight Rises, opting instead to let Christopher Nolan end his trilogy gracefully before planning another reboot. It's safe to say, though, that Batman won't lay dormant for long.)

Lindberg Road bridge reopens, celebrates Halloween (Purdue Exponent) 

(More than 100 neighborhood residents got into costume and attended the long awaited reopening of the Lindberg Road bridge on Monday. In the spirit of Halloween, the christening of the bridge was done by local Batman and West Lafayette Mayor John Dennis. He was the first to roll across the bridge in a black police Charger disguised as the Batmobile while wearing a Batman costume.)

Concerns Are Raised About Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes (New York Times) 

(These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill — their own children. Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.)

Zombie worms found in whale fossil (Telegraph) 

(These mosquitoes are genetically engineered to kill — their own children. Researchers on Sunday reported initial signs of success from the first release into the environment of mosquitoes engineered to pass a lethal gene to their offspring, killing them before they reach adulthood.The millimetre-wide Osedax worms, which means “bone-eating” in Latin, have never been discovered in the Mediterranean. However, researchers from the Natural History Museum in London found examples of what they believe to be their distinctive bore holes in whale bones held by the University of Florence, BBC Nature reported.)

Trees not adapting well to climate change (UPI) 

(More than half of tree species in eastern U.S. forests aren't adapting to climate change as quickly or consistently as predicted, researchers said. Nearly 59 percent of the species examined in a study by Duke University researchers showed signs that their geographic ranges are contracting from both the north and south, a Duke release said Monday.)

Vibrators Boost Sexual Satisfaction, Don't Intimidate Men (Live Science) 

(A sex-toy spending spree by pop singer Rihanna made headlines last week for the $1,500 she reportedly spent in a Parisian shop. But it turns out, the star isn't alone in her appreciation of erotic toys. According to a new national survey of more than 3,000 Americans, most people feel positively about women using vibrators.)

Makers of infamous BigDog robot unveil human version - PETMAN (Physorg) 

(Uh oh. Boston Dynamics, makers of the BigDog robot that can haul stuff around for the military has released a video of PETMAN, a human version that looks like a combination of the Terminator and a Cylon from Battlestar Galactica. Maybe even scarier is the fact that it walks like John Wayne; just enough attitude to let you know he's not someone to be messed with.)

E-readers get heavier with more books says boffin (News Lite) 

(A couple of years ago we made up a April Fools story that iPods get heavier with more music -- so we approached this story with some trepidation. But according to respected scientists from University of California, Berkeley, E-readers really do get heavier with each book. Honest. Prof John Kubiatowicz recently claimed that holding more books on your Kindle does make it heavier -- even though each new book is only as heavy as a single molecule of DNA.)

'Potato Bags!': Sleep-Talker's Rants Go Viral (Sky News) 

(A mild-mannered husband's surreal sleep-talking has become a viral hit after his wife started recording his often expletive-filled rants and published them online. In the past five days, around half a million people in over 50 countries have read the hilarious blog Sleep Talkin' Man. Karen Slavick-Lennard said she started logging husband Adam's comments for her own amusement. But after putting them in a blog two months ago for friends to read, the couple, both 36, have been overwhelmed by its popularity.)

iPads used in gaping torso Halloween costume (News Lite) 

(Last week we looked at what we thought could be the best Halloween costume of the year (the functioning camera) but this gaping torso hole is our new favourite. NASA employee Mark Rober used two Apple iPad 2s to create the costume which looks like he has a gaping hole in his torso. The rocket scientist from California says the costume wasn't exactly brain surgery and was as simple as starting a Facetime video chat between the two devices.)

Teen Weight Loss: They're Doing It Wrong (Time) 

(In a recent study of high school students in Philadelphia, researchers found that 14% were obese. The good news is that three-quarters of these obese teens said they were trying to lose weight. The bad news is they appeared to be going about it all wrong. Led by Clare Lenhart, a doctoral candidate in public health at Temple University, researchers looked at data from the 2010 Philadelphia Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which included 43,753 students from the city's public high schools.)

Who's Hungry? Some Florida Schools Serving Lunch As Early As 9:30 A.M. (Time) 

(It might seem like some schools in Florida have confused the concept of brunch. But they're actually just serving lunch as early as 9:30 every morning. While most schools are federally required to organize lunch hours between the hours of 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., the Florida Department of Education waives those hours for certain schools each year. Which means that some students are eating lunch while most of us at work are just polishing off our first cup of coffee.)

Real-Life 'Field of Dreams' to Become Youth Baseball Hub (Time) 

(Quite simply, this is life imitating art. In NewsFeed's opinion, one of the greatest baseball movies ever is Field of Dreams, which starred Kevin Costner as farmer Ray Kinsella who hears a strange voice essentially convince him to build a baseball field for the long deceased (and disgraced) Chicago White Sox team of 1919.)

Gym, Tan, Learn: University of Chicago Hosts 'Jersey Shore' Conference (Time) 

(Stop your fist-pumping and get ready to take some notes. Who would have thought that one day our eight preternaturally tanned guidos and guidettes would be placed in a proverbial academic fishbowl for careful examination and study? Apparently the time has come; last week the University of Chicago held a conference centered around MTV's controversial reality show.)

On Boggle App, 'Queer' Is a Bad Word (Time) 

(When I first downloaded the Boggle app, I was agog over all the unfamiliar words — AAL, AIS, ANE, etc. — the game showed me I could have found in the 16-letter jumbles. But a few hundred rounds later (yes, I'm obsessed), I'm more interested in the words the good people at Hasbro won't let me play. FART and CRAP are off limits. So is SLUT, which seems downright prudish. Stranger still is the exclusion of QUEER and POOF.)