Bus Stops - March 19

Sky's the limit: World's first flying car on the market at £800,000 (and it's been in the air since 1946) (Daily Mail) 

(If waiting in traffic jams leaves you ready to explode, the solution is finally here. Drivers can switch from the road to the air in minutes at the wheel of the world's first flying car - which is on the market at a sky-high price of £800,000. The two-seat automobile can reach speeds of 60mph on land and up to 110mph at 12,000 feet, despite being more than 60 years old.)

‘'Dead man's emails from beyond the grave' (The Sun UK) 

(THE friends and family of a man who died last summer have received mysterious emails from him they believe he sent from beyond the grave. Jack Froese, 32, died suddenly last June after suffering from an abnormal heart rhythm.)

‘The Ouija board made me do it’: Teen tells cops the spirits told him to stab his friend (Daily Mail) 

(A teenager charged in the stabbing of his 14-year-old friend told police a Ouija board made him do it. The 15-year-old, from Texas, was charged with attempted murder after stabbing his friend with a 4-inch knife on February 29. He pulled the weapon on the friend in a wooded area behind a high school in Weslaco, a small town along the U.S-Mexico border at the southern tip of Texas.)

'Sausage Rage' Spurs South NJ Store Attack (NBC) 

(Cumberland County police say a convenience store customer attacked a store clerk after learning there were no fully-heated sausages ready for purchase. Police say they eventually had to use pepper spray to subdue 25-year-old Brittany Glanville of Bridgeton after she repeatedly tried to kick out the windows of a police cruiser. She's charged with disorderly conduct.)

German company's ad campaign results in bomb scare chaos (New York Post) 

(A German technology firm's ill-conceived advertising campaign went horribly wrong, resulting in bomb scares and evacuations across the country. Convar Deutschland sent out about 40 packages -- containing alarm clocks glued to hard drives -- to businesses, embassies and a newsroom, the Tagesspiegel newspaper reported Friday. Attached to the parcels was a note that read, "Your time is running out.")

GPS Tracking Disaster: Japanese Tourists Drive Straight into the Pacific (Yahoo) 

(Three Japanese tourists in Australia, misled by their GPS device. Three Japanese tourists in Australia found themselves in an embarrassing situation after their GPS navigation system lured them down the wrong path. The three, who are students from Tokyo, set out to drive to North Stradbroke Island on the Australian coast Thursday morning, and mapped out their path on their GPS system.)

Ben And Jerry Back Gay-Marriage Movement With Ice Cream (Yidio) 

(Nobody makes a statement about anything quite like Vermont confectioners Ben & Jerry do with ice cream. This time the socially conscious ice cream purveyors have taken the gay-marriage acceptance discussion across the pond, according to the Associated Press. The Ben & Jerry's brand has released "Apple-y Ever After" - a repacking of "Oh! My! Apple Pie!" decorated with same-sex wedding figurines atop a wedding cake decorated with rainbows - to voice their support for Britain's gay couples lobbying for the right to be legally wed.)

'Comic Book' man Kevin Smith: 'Bring out the [expletive] chicks'! (Metro US) 

("Comic Book Men," the reality series documenting the transactions and overall geekery that take place at comedian/filmmaker Kevin Smith's comic book store, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, N.J., may be closing out Season 1 tonight, but Smith already has plenty of plans for a second season, should it come to pass.)

Filmmaker Kevin Smith: Podcasting saved my career (CNN) 

(Podcasting saved Kevin Smith's career. So said the filmmaker (and you can throw a few slashes after that title these days) at the South by Southwest festival here on Monday during a panel called, appropriately, "The Business of Kevin Smith.")

Kevin Smith’s New Deal Celebrated at SXSW (New York Times) 

(The director Kevin Smith doesn’t have a movie at this year’s South by Southwest festival, but he does have a movie deal. He was on hand at a party this weekend to celebrate his partnership with the distribution company Phase 4 Films. The Canadian company will release a series of films under a “Kevin Smith and SModcast Pictures Presents” label. Mr. Smith will choose the films and take them on the road for special screenings, much like he did with his last film “Red State.”)

Smith: Willis an ‘emo-b—ch’ (Toronto Sun) 

(Outspoken filmmaker Kevin Smith has reignited his feud with his one-time leading man Bruce Willis, branding him the toughest person he's ever worked with. Smith directed Willis on 2009 comedy Cop Out but claimed soon after the film's release that he had a hard time working with him on set and labelled the Die Hard star a "f**king d**k".)

See Insectavora thank indie filmmaker Kevin Smith for agreeing to review Chatham filmmaker's movie (New Jersey.com) 

(It took more than a year, but independent filmmaker Jim Riffle’s feature film will be reviewed by Kevin Smith. It’s been a long road for Riffle, who first appeared in the pages of the Independent Press in December 2010 in a story about his search to have the film “Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Flesh-Eating, Crawling, Alien & Zombified, Subhumanoid Living Dead, Part 5” reviewed by a celebrity.)

Bus drivers share £38 million Euromillions jackpot (Telegraph) 

(They have spent their lives trundling in bus lanes but now 12 bus drivers are more likely to be behind the wheels of sports cars after scooping a £38 million lottery jackpot. The drivers, based in Corby, were woken in the early hours of Saturday morning to be told they had each won just a share of just over £3 million of the Euromilllions prize.)

Towel found in Metro Transit bus 'suspicious' package (CBC) 

(A suspicious package found on a Metro Transit bus late Friday afternoon contained just a towel, according to Metro Transit. The bus was cleared to resume service to its scheduled route just after 7 p.m. and Barrington Street was reopened to traffic and pedestrians. Lori Patterson, spokeswoman for Metro Transit, told reporters at the scene that someone anonymously called police to inform them about a package on a bus, then hung up.)

London Bus Driver Clears Passengers From Double-Decker Moments Before It Explodes (Huffington Post) 

(Thanks to the sound instincts and quick thinking of their bus driver, dozens of passengers riding a double-decker bus in South East London Saturday morning were were saved before the bus burst into flames, the Daily Mail reports. Around 8 a.m. on March 17, the driver of the bus traveling through the densely-populated area of Brockley in South East London saw sparks fly. Immediately, he ordered everyone to evacuate the vehicle as quickly as possible, the paper reports.)

'Batman' brings order to southern Slovak town (Calgary Herald) 

(His utility belt might not be as well-equipped as the TV version and he hasn't had to fight Penguin's henchmen yet, but Zoltan Kohari has nailed the superhero look and grit needed to fight evil in the southern Slovak town of Dunajska Streda. Dressed in his homemade, all-leather Batman costume with the bat symbol proudly displayed on his chest and pointy ears on his cowl, Kohari, 26, cleans the streets, helps old people out and calls the police when he sees something suspicious.)

Comic-book giant Moebius dies (Canada.com) 

(Moebius, the French comic-book artist whose spectacular science fantasy-based work wrought its magic on Hollywood classics such as Alien and Tron, has died after a long illness. He was 73. "He died this morning following a long illness," a friend and colleague said on Saturday.)

‘Pussycats’ inspiration dies (Toronto Sun) 

(osie DeCarlo, the inspiration for singer-guitarist Josie McCoy of the 1970 Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon series “Josie and the Pussycats” and its successors, has died in her sleep. Her age was not immediately available. The blog Big Cartoon News filed the first report on her death, quoting cartoon and comics historian Mark Evanier. He said that Josie was drawn to resemble her by her husband, comic book legend Dan DeCarlo, who died in 2001 at 82.)

Children whose minds wander 'have sharper brains' (Telegraph UK) 

(Children whose minds wander might have sharper brains, research suggests. A study has found that people who appear to be constantly distracted have more “working memory”, giving them the ability to hold a lot of information in their heads and manipulate it mentally.)

Thai billionaire who founded Red Bull dies at 89 (MSNBC) 

(The self-made Thai billionaire who created the renowned Red Bull energy drink three decades ago has died, state media in Thailand reported Saturday. He was 89. Thai state television broadcaster MCOT said that Chaleo Yoovidhya died of natural causes on Saturday. It cited an executive at the Thai Beverage Industry Association. The Bangkok Post reported that he died at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn Hospital.)