Bus Stops - January 18, 2012

Life-sized Stormtrooper cake is Star Wars-tastic… and delicious (News Lite) 

(At Sci-Fi conventions there are always plenty of Stormtroopers, but they're usually just geeks in costumes… this one is a life-sized Stormtrooper cake. Amanda Oakleaf says when she heard about the Arisia Sci-Fi convention in Boston, one thing which sprung to mind -- creating a edible life-sized soldier of the Empire. Obviously.)

Woman, 85, critical after being hit by falling cat (Mirror UK) 

(A cat hurled from a high window in Buenos Aires, Argentina, seriously hurt a woman, 85, when it hit her on the head. The pet cat was thrown out of the fourth floor window of an apartment block in the Argentinian capital Buenos Aires as a married couple had a blazing row. During their quarrel the husband picked up the family pet and threw it at his wife, who ducked.)

Woman offered sexual favors for Chicken McNuggets, police say (LA Times) 

(A Los Angeles woman was arrested on suspicion of prostitution after she allegedly offered sexual favors in exchange for Chicken McNuggets, Burbank police said. Khadijah Baseer was seen opening customers’ car doors in a McDonald's drive-through on the 1700 block of Olive Avenue late Wednesday night, Officer Joshua Kendrick told the Burbank Leader.)

Jewish man arrested 'after posting swastikas on doors' (Telegraph) 

(A Jewish man was under arrest on hate-crime charges on Monday, accused of making anti-Semitic telephone calls to his mother and other elderly women and putting swastikas on apartment doors, police said.)

Bank foreclosing on O.J. Simpson's Florida home (USA Today) 

(Imprisoned O.J. Simpson is stuck in the big house, and it looks like he's also about to lose his real house. The AP reports that court records in Florida show that in September JPMorgan Chase filed for foreclosure on the fallen football star's home near downtown Miami.)

London Olympics Security Secrets Left On Train by Cop (My Fox DC) 

(A secret dossier detailing plans for policing this summer's London Olympics was left on a train. The file, which could have provided terrorists planning an attack with invaluable data, was lost by a cop. A commuter found it and handed it to The Sun, who returned the file to the police, the newspaper reported Tuesday.)

Man found dead after five days in theater restroom in Fort Collins (Denver Post) 

(Colorado authorities say a man missing for five days was found dead in a locked restroom at a movie theater after suffering a heart attack. George DeGrazio, 66, of Loveland was found Saturday in a family rest room at a theater in Fort Collins, according to Denver's 7News. Deputy Coroner James MacNaughton said DeGrazio was found when theater employees broke the lock on the restroom door to investigate an odor. The coroner's office ruled the cause of death was a heart attack.)

Controversial Steve Jobs Action Figure Pulled from Sale (My Fox NY) 

(The Chinese company behind a controversial Steve Jobs doll is pulling the action figure from sale following "immense pressure" from Apple lawyers -- a decision that is bound to leave countless fans worldwide disappointed. "I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that the original intention for creating the figurine was driven by a fan's admiration of Steve," In Icons said in a statement which was gaining worldwide attention Monday.)

NJ mom gives birth to child on train to NYC (AP) 

(A New Jersey woman got the morning commute of her life when she gave birth to her first child on a PATH commuter train to New York. The 31-year-old woman, Rabita Sarkar, of Harrison, N.J., said she had started feeling contraction-like pains but didn't think they were real because her baby wasn't due yet. She and her 30-year-old husband decided to travel into the city to have her checked out Monday.)

Father-of-14 Sperm Donor: I'm a 36-Year-Old Virgin (Newser) 

(A 36-year-old California man who boasts he's an "organic" sperm donor and has fathered 14 children through his free donations, has never had sex, he has revealed. Silicon Valley computer security specialist Trent Arsenault tells Anderson Cooper today that he's a "donorsexual" who has committed "100% of my sexual energy for producing sperm for childless couples to have babies. So I don't have other activity outside of that." An incredulous Cooper asks: "So you do not have sex?" Arsenault responds: "I will probably be the 40-year-old virgin—except I'll have 15-plus kids.")

Jay and Silent Bob get old at Emerald City Comicon (The News Tribune) 

(The film comedy duo Jay and Silent Bob are headed to Emerald City Comicon in April. The pair, whose real names are writer/director Kevin Smith and actor Jason Mewes, will make a special one night only appearance at 7 p.m. on April 1 (no, this is not an April Fools Day prank.))

Texas school bus crash sends 32 to hospital (AP) 

(A tractor-trailer clipped a school bus full of students Tuesday, flipping the bus onto its side and sending 32 people — 29 of them children — to a central Texas hospital. Police said a 9-year-old boy was ejected through the escape hatch in the bus roof, and the bus driver was knocked unconscious.)

Passenger left stranded by budget bus (TVNZ) 

(An Auckland man travelling on a low-cost bus service was left behind after a rest stop in Paihia but the operator will not refund the fare. Pt Chevalier resident Jordan Earl, 19, was on his way to visit his grandparents in Kerikeri earlier this month, travelling with nakedbus.com. He got off the bus to use the bathroom at a passenger pick-up point in Paihia and was shocked to return and find it gone.)

Pepper Spray Discharges on Bus to Gladwyne Elementary (Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne Patch) 

(An Auckland man travelling on a low-cost bus service was left behind after a rest stop in Paihia but the operator will not refund the fare. Pt Chevalier resident Jordan Earl, 19, was on his way to visit his grandparents in Kerikeri earlier this month, travelling with nakedbus.com. He got off the bus to use the bathroom at a passenger pick-up point in Paihia and was shocked to return and find it gone.)

The Dark Knight and the Breakdown of Social Order (Forbes) 

(Taylor Marvin’s musings on the breakdown of social order and the loss of the state’s monopoly on violence in Gotham in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight is well worth the read. I’m not entirely sure I agree, but it’s a smart post either way. Marvin argues that Batman’s vigilantism underscores the loss of the monopoly of violence by the state, that the tension over this loss is what defines the conflict between Batman, the Joker, and the city itself.)

What do Bill Gates and Batman have in common? (EMoney Daily) 

(When you think of superheros, Batman would probably be in your top 5 – but I’m not convinced that Bill Gates would make it into many people’s first century of responses. The question is, why not? He has a huge amount of money, probably has at least one butler…and most importantly has an ‘alter ego’ which saves thousands, if not millions, of lives globally.)

NASA Just Found A Lot More Water On The Moon (Business Insider) 

(NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a spacecraft launched in 2009 with the goal of helping humans get back to the moon, has returned new images depicting regions of the moon that have more water than previously thought (via Time). Images produced by the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) show permanently shadowed regions, or PSRs, that contain water in the form of pure ice crystals.)

Mars meteorite chunks fall to Earth (CBC) 

(Meteorite chunks from Mars fell over Morocco last summer — the first time in 50 years such an event has occurred, scientists confirmed Tuesday. It is only the fifth time newly fallen Martian rocks have been confirmed chemically by experts. Known Martian meteorite falls have happened only once every 50 years or so — 1815 in France, 1865 in India, 1911 in Egypt and the last in 1962 in Nigeria.)

Study: Babies are lip-readers (Macomb Daily) 

(Babies don’t learn to talk just from hearing sounds. New research suggests they’re lip-readers too. It happens during that magical stage when a baby’s babbling gradually changes from gibberish into syllables and eventually into that first “mama” or “dada.” Florida scientists discovered that starting around age 6 months, babies begin shifting from the intent eye gaze of early infancy to studying mouths when people talk to them.)

Ebay sprinter secures Olympics deal (UK Press) 

(A British sprinter who offered himself for sponsorship via an online eBay auction has finally secured a deal to pursue his Olympic dreams. James Ellington resorted to the unconventional method of attracting a sponsor on a site usually known for selling second-hand items after he missed out on fundraising opportunities due to injury.)

Priests, farmers, lesbian truckers tweet for Sweden (Reuters) 

(Sweden is tweeting to the world, and this week she is Hanna, "just your average lesbian truck driver". Officials at Sweden's tourism board agreed to hand over control of their @sweden Twitter feed in December to a different Swedish citizen each week.)

App "If I die" lets you messages on Facebook when you're dead (Courier Mail) 

(FACEBOOK is hosting an app that lets you deliver your last words from beyond the grave. The third-party app called “If I die” lets users record a video or text message that will only be published in the event of your death. Once you install the app you must select three “trustees” from your Facebook friends list to confirm you have in fact died.)

Murder Charges Filed in Homeless Slayings (Time) 

(The Iraq War veteran would carefully stalk each of his victims from among the thousands of homeless living in Southern California. He would then stab them repeatedly with a knife that could cut through bone, authorities say. For his fourth and latest victim, they say, Itzcoatl Ocampo selected a homeless man featured in a Los Angeles Times story about a killing spree that terrorized those living on the streets for weeks.)

Oh, Bother: Brits Say Modern Winnie the Pooh Riddled With Americanisms (Time) 

(Winnie the who? Modern versions of the originally British children’s series has left U.K. fans wondering what happened to their beloved books. Linda Weeks, a British librarian, is leading the pack with complaints about the Disney versions of the books, which she says are riddled with errors and Americanisms that just don’t mesh with the series’ heritage.)

U.S. Obesity Rates Remain Stubbornly High (Time) 

(Despite the recent push to improve our diet and get us exercising (thanks, Michelle Obama), national obesity rates haven’t budged much over the past few years, the latest government statistics show. In 2010, about 35.7% of U.S. adults — nearly 78 million people — were obese. That’s up from 30.5% in 2000, but not much of a difference from 33.7% in 2008. Does that mean our attempts at healthy living — giving up the French fries and sodas, and logging endless miles on the treadmill — have been for nothing?)