Bus Stops - November 8

Matthew Fox Takes Female Bus Driver to Court Over Party Bus Scuffle (E online) 

(If you ask Matthew Fox, she was the one to commit the party foul, not him. The former Lost and Party of Five star is firing back with a countersuit against a female bus driver who sued Fox in September for allegedly socking her in her groin when she denied him entry onto a party bus outside a Cleveland bar. So what's the latest in this ongoing legal drama? Depends on your vantage point.)

Autistic passenger responds to bus driver tirade (CBC) 

(The young autistic man who was apparently the target of an expletive-filled tirade from an Ottawa bus driver says he was reading from a script he had written when the driver lashed out at him. Matthew Taronno, a 20-year-old who describes himself as "mildly autistic," said the script contained some "inappropriate language" and said he went to the front of the bus to apologize. The driver was in no mood to hear it, Taronno told CBC News on Sunday at Algonquin College, where he is studying script writing.)

Narrow escape for 25 passengers as bus plunges into ditch (The Borneo Post) 

(Twenty-five passengers of an express bus narrowly missed the jaws of death when the vehicle plunged into a ditch at the 19km Jalan Ayer Hitam here early yesterday. The Johor Baharu-bound bus was on its way here from Taiping, Perak when it emerged from the Kulaijaya toll junction, only to skid, hit a barrier and come to a muddy end. The crash occurred about 4.40am. Northern Johor Baharu police deputy chief Superintendent Akhir Ishak said three of the passengers were seriously hurt while the rest sustained minor injuries.)

Motorcyclist killed in booze bus collision (SMH) 

(The motorcyclist who died after he was thrown from his bike on an approach to a booze bus has been identified as an L-plater believed to be riding a bike four times his allowable licensed limit. The 24-year-old Bicton man was believed to have been riding at excessive speeds before smashing into the back of a station wagon, which was slowing on its approach to the booze bus, according to police.)

Conrad Murray found guilty in Michael Jackson trial (CNN) 

( A two-year legal battle over who was responsible for Michael Jackson's sudden death came to a dramatic close Monday as a California jury found Dr. Conrad Murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Dr. Murray appeared to show no emotion as the verdict was read by court clerk Sammi Benson, but La Toya Jackson, the late pop icon's sister, let out a loud, but short, scream. A loud celebration erupted among Jackson fans outside of the downtown Los Angeles County courthouse, where emotions ran so high at least one woman fainted.)

White House on aliens: No contact yet, but we're looking (LA Times) 

(The Obama administration's position on the existence of aliens, and whether the people of Earth have had contact with them, can be summed up this way: "Searching for ET, but no evidence yet." That's the title of the official White House response to an online petition signed by 12,078 people that asks the government to acknowledge an "extraterrestrial presence engaging the human race." "Hundreds of military and government agency witnesses have come forward with testimony confirming this extraterrestrial presence," the writers of the petition contend.)

I had my FIVE STONE leg cut off… but now it’s growing back (Daily Mail) 

(A woman who had one of her five stone legs amputated was horrified when it began to grow back at great speed. Mandy Sellars, of Accrington, Lancashire, suffers from a rare condition in which she has gigantic feet and legs but a slim, size 12 body. The 36-year-old was told by doctors that her left leg was infected with septicaemia and could kill her if it was not cut off.)

Spain fines Larry Crowne makers over helmet-free poster (The Guardian) 

(The makers of Larry Crowne, which starred Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, have been fined by authorities in Spain over a poster showing the stars riding a moped without helmets. ThinkSpain said the image violated strict Spanish laws aimed at cracking down on any publicity "in print, audio or video that may incite excessive speed, reckless driving, situations of danger or any other circumstance involving conduct contrary to the principles of the law". Production company Tripictures has now been fined more than £25,000 for the breach, much to its chagrin: the firm's owners initially believed the letter from Spain they had received was a joke.)

How many licks does it take to get chicken pox? Parents trade vaccines for lollipops (The Globe and Mail) 

(For parents who treat vaccines like the plague, chicken pox parties are passé. The latest way to expose kids to the virus is via mail-order lollipop. You read that right: candy on a stick, licked by a stranger’s infected kid. A shipment of suckers tainted with a “fresh batch of pox” cost $50 a pop, Time.com reported. (Or if worried about candy consumption, anti-vaccine parents can order just plain, old spit from an allegedly infected child.))

Good deed on I-94 quickly repaid as stricken driver is resuscitated by driver he helped (Star Tribune) 

(A Canadian motorist who suffered cardiac arrest while driving in western Wisconsin is alive today, in part, because of a good deed he had done for a stranger with a disabled car just a few minutes earlier. Victor Giesbrecht, 61, of Winnipeg, was driving east Saturday evening on Interstate 94, about 9 miles east of Menomonie, where he stopped to help two women in a car change a tire. His good deed accomplished and just moments after getting back behind the wheel, Giesbrecht was stricken. His wife, Ann, at his side helped bring their pickup truck to a stop.)

Clearwater police: Mom hid crystal meth in daughter's diaper bag (Tampa Bay News) 

(She kept crystal meth in her 3-year-old daughter's diaper bag, police said. Serena Ann Thomas, 30, of Clearwater was pulled over by police at 8:27 p.m. Saturday on suspicion of driving under the influence, according to an arrest report. With her in the white 2007 Chevrolet Impala were her 3-year-old daughter and Jamie Marie Davie, 26, of Clearwater.)

That's a bit rude! Hayden Panettiere upstaged by male streaker at the MTV Europe Music Awards (Daily Mail) 

(Not many people can take the spotlight away from Hollywood starlet Hayden Panettiere. But she was well and truly upstaged last night when a streaker ran up beside her at the MTV Europe Music Awards. The Heroes actress was about to present the award for Best Song - which eventually went to Lady Gaga - when a naked man appeared on stage who we can exclusively reveal is David Monahan.)

Girlfriend Assaulted Trying To Stop Beau's Overdose On "Fred Flintstone Vitamins" (The Smoking Gun) 

(A Florida man is facing a domestic battery charge after he allegedly pushed and shoved his girlfriend to the ground as she attempted to stop him from overdosing on what turned out to be “Fred Flintstone vitamins,” police reported. During an argument with his girlfriend--who had announced her intention to break up with him--Aaron Hostetler, 21, made “an attempt to make it appear as though he wanted to commit suicide.”)

Anti-bacon billboard to go up in Des Moines (Desmoines Register) 

(Motorists driving along the 6000 block of Douglas Avenue near Merle Hay Mall in northwest Des Moines will be told, via a billboard, that eating bacon can lead to rectal cancer. Des Moines is, of course, not only the capitol of the nation’s largest pork producing state, but also the home of the annual Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival that has become such a hot ticket that it is expanding from Capitol Square to the State Fairgrounds Varied Industries Building for its February, 2012 event.)

Japan’s Pig Rodeo – Animal Cruelty or Just Plain Fun?(Oddity Central) 

(Although pigs aren’t exactly known for their speed and stamina, the people of Mikame, in Japan’s Ehime Prefecture seem to think they’re the perfect animals to ride. Ehime Prefecture has been known as Japan’s pork production capital for a long time, and 25 years ago someone thought it would be a great idea to celebrate by riding hogs in a unique event known as Pig Rodeo. Part of the annual Seiyo City Mikame Summer Festival, the crazy event has been a popular tourist attraction, but to most of the western world it remained a mystery until 2009, when a YouTube video was picked up by a number of media outlets. There was a lot of controversy surrounding pig rodeo, at the time, and someone even started an online petition to get it banned, but in the last two years there were hardly any stories written on the subject.)

First-Time Filmmaker Shoots Film for Under $300, Gives it Away Online Free for One Weekend Only Beginning 11/11/11 (Market Watch) 

(First-time filmmaker Shawn Holmes joins the ranks of such forward-thinking filmmakers as Kevin Smith and The Polish Brothers. His debut film 'Memory Lane' is a rare truly independent film shot for only $300 and given away online free.)

Batman And Bane Take Over Manhattan (MTV) 

(Because we know you're as obsessed with all things Batman as we are, we're kicking off The Weekly Rising, a brand-new column that will cover everything "The Dark Knight Rises," from news roundups to rumors and analysis. Every Monday, we'll give you the lowdown on the week in Bats and prep you for the big release next July. Spoilers are inevitable, and we'll be sure to do our best to give you the heads-up when you might need to start covering your ears and saying "Na na na na na na na na Batman!")

The Evolution of The Joker: Still Crazy After All These Years (Comic Alliance) 

(Batman's Rogue's Gallery is a twisted trip through the darkness and horror of modern life; for every anxiety that plagues us, there's a Batman baddie to personify it, accumulating the most impressive array of villains in comics. And standing out like a knife glinting in the darkness is the Joker. With a new metamorphosis in the works in the 52 and the HC edition of The Joker: A Visual History of The Clown Prince of Crime now in bookstores (remember them?) it seems like a capital time to look at the various interpretations of the Joker throughout the years.)

First brain image of a dream created (Science News) 

(The contents of a person’s dream have been revealed by brain scan for the first time, scientists report in the Nov. 8 Current Biology. By monitoring the brain of a man who has unusual control over his dreaming, the accomplishment brings researchers closer to understanding how the brain spins its nightly yarns. “It’s really exciting that people have done this,” says sleep researcher Edward Pace-Schott at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “And it also brings back lucid dreaming as a very powerful scientific tool.)

The evolution of deceit (Salone) 

(New discoveries show that fibs and self-deception are central to our evolutionary strategy. An expert explains. Not long ago, a young man drove onto Robert Trivers’ Jamaica property. Suspicious of the man’s sudden appearance, and convinced he was intent on either extorting money from him or robbing him, Trivers, a Rutgers professor, confronted him about his identity. His first name, the man said, was Steve.)

Skateboarders rock physics (Science News) 

(Skateboard freaks know some righteous physics, dude. That’s because their hair-raising rides provide body-based insights into slope speeds that often elude those without a need for thrills and spills. A ball travels faster down a relatively long incline that angles steeply downward in two sections separated by a flat stretch compared with a shorter incline that angles downward modestly but without changing slope.)

French Hijackers Make Off With $1M Worth of 'Call of Duty' Game (My Fox NY) 

(In a heist worthy of any video game, brazen French bandits stole more than $1 million worth of copies of the new blockbuster first-person shooter "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," newspaper Le Parisien reported. Two trucks containing thousands of copies of the game -- due to hit stores Tuesday -- were hijacked within an hour of each other Saturday morning in the suburbs of the French capital, with the value of the loot estimated at €780,000, or a little over $1 million.)

Google TV Goes Full-On ‘Boob Tube’ With Porn App Debut (Wired) 

(Sex sells, and Google is adding more of it to its product lineup. No, no — not on Google image search. This porn appears directly on Google TV. Seasoned smut peddlers Vivid Entertainment launched its Vivid for Google TV app on Monday, the first TV application to bring X-rated flicks to Google’s set-top box. “It is a central part of our making Vivid available everywhere concept,” said Steven Hirsch, Vivid co-founder and co-chairman, in a statement.)

Disney To Produce Original YouTube Content (NPR) 

(YouTube and Disney are starting a small venture together for Disney to produce original content for YouTube. The big video streaming services, such as YouTube, Hulu and Netflix are moving into the area of professionally produced original content. Guy Raz speaks to NPR's Laura Sydell for more.)

The 22-Year-Old Who Led the Charge Against Bank of America (Time) 

(When Bank of America announced that it would charge customers a $5 monthly debit-card fee in late September, it probably did not count on a 22-year-old woman standing in its way. But for Molly Katchpole, a 2011 college graduate who works two part-time jobs in Washington, D.C., and lives paycheck to paycheck, the annual increase of $60 was just plain unacceptable. "I heard the news about the fee and was like, 'That is it. I'm sick of this,' " says the daughter of a Rhode Island machinist and a physical therapist. "On the one hand, they are running a business, but on the other hand, it is people's money they are working with, and some people don't have a lot of money. It's not like they are just selling toothbrushes — it goes much deeper than that.")

Fast Food's Biggest Customer: Not the Poor, But the Middle Class (Time) 

(Contrary to popular wisdom, eating at McDonald's isn't exactly cheap, costing some $28 for a family of four. Which might help explain the results of a recent study from the University of California, Davis, which found that people's visits to fast-food joints increased along with their incomes, and that poor people were spending fewer dollars on fast food than lower-middle and middle-income Americans.)

Grandson of Chicago cop charged in her death (Yahoo) 

(Prosecutors say a Chicago police officer was fatally stabbed by her 15-year-old grandson after she caught him skipping school. Keshawn Perkins is charged as an adult with first-degree murder and armed robbery in the death of 55-year-old Hester Scott. Scott, an officer for 25 years, had adopted Perkins.)

Big Cajones: Man With Giant Testicles Seeks Medical Help (Weird News) 

(My friend Jonah Falcon, the man with the world's largest penis, often talks of how his massive member has been as much a curse as a blessing. But Jonah on his worst day can't top one Vegas man's struggle with a massive organ -- because Wesley Warren Jr. isn't trying to manage life with a big penis. He's extra big just below -- suffering from a 100-pound scrotum due to a condition called scrotal elephantiasis. That makes his sack a literal sack he needs to carry everywhere.)