newsquirks
© Myron Campbell
Mayonnaisehem!
It’s like mayonnaise but with mayhem
by Roland Sweet
A load of mayonnaise that fell off the back of a truck in Japan’s Hyogo prefecture caused an eight-vehicle pile-up that injured three people. “What probably happened is that cars travelling behind the truck squashed the bottles of mayonnaise, spreading it on the road,” police official Masaaki Miyazaki said, adding that the dressing’s eggs, vinegar and oil make it “more slick and dangerous than snow.” (Agence France-Presse)
HOTEL WITH A HEAT BEAM
Solar rays bouncing off the gleaming glass of a Las Vegas high-rise hotel can severely burn people lounging at the pool below. Local media, as well as some staff and guests at MGM Resorts International’s Vdara hotel and condominium refer to the reflection off the building’s concave side as the “death ray,” although MGM Resorts officials prefer the term “solar convergence phenomenon.” “My back and the back of my legs started burning, and I ran under a nearby umbrella,” said William Pintas, 49, a Vdara condo owner who first encountered the death ray after a dip in the pool. “And I’m under the umbrella, and there is no shading from the light or heat.” Pintas, who happens to be a lawyer, said he could even smell his hair starting to burn.
Not everyone is unhappy about the situation, MGM Resorts official Gordon Absher reported. On cooler days, he has seen sunbathers deliberately lay their blankets on the convergence spot for additional warmth. (Reuters)
HOLY LOOPHOLES
Coffee-loving Jews observing Yom Kippur in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighbourhood skirted restrictions on the intake of food by using caffeine suppositories. “It helps,” said Baruch Hersfeld, who owns a bike store there. “You know, it’s hard to concentrate when you’re fasting and also addicted to caffeine.” Asked whether the rectally inserted pills are true to the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, Rabbi Simcha Weinstein advised against them. “We want to keep Jews in the synagogue,” he explained, “and not in the bathroom.” (The Brooklyn Paper)
NO LIBERTARIANS IN A FOXHOLE
When a fire threatened his house in Obion County, Tennessee, Gene Cranick called the nearest firefighters, located in the city of South Fulton. The city charges county residents $75 to provide services. The emergency operator informed Cranick that he hadn’t paid the fee and so wasn’t entitled to fire protection. Cranick promised he would pay the firefighters as soon as the fire trucks arrived, whatever it cost, to stop the fire before it spread to his house. No dice. The fire burned for hours as Cranick fought to control it with garden hoses. Only when the fire spread to a neighbour’s field did firefighters arrive. The neighbour had paid the fee. Cranick asked the fire chief to make an exception to save his house, but the chief refused. Even an appeal to the mayor of South Fulton fell on deaf ears. Cranick’s house ultimately burned to the ground. “I thought they’d come out and put it out, even if you hadn’t paid your $75, but I was wrong,” Cranick said. (Paducah, Ky.’s WPSD-TV)
LIGHT BUGS
Using artificial lighting at night increases the risk of insect-borne disease for humans, according to Brazilian researchers, who observed that light pollution alters human and insect interactions. The scientists concluded that nighttime lighting lets people stay outside longer, increasing their exposure to disease-carrying insects attracted to artificial lights. (Environmental Health Perspectives)
AIRPORT INSECURITY
Colorado’s Adams County, which is immediately east of Denver International Airport, announced its intention to build a $7.5 million public shooting range next to a planned airport runway. Despite concerns by the Transportation Security Administration “regarding the use of automatic and large-caliber rifles at the public facility,” Adams County officials promised they’d take precautions to prevent stray bullets and inadvertent discharge of firearms that might endanger low-flying planes. Both the U.S. departments of Homeland and Justice agree that a public shooting range might pose a threat to airport security but county officials insist the facility is needed to meet demand for a public range in the Denver metro area. (The Denver Post)
LOUD LARCENY
Albanian authorities arrested two men trying to drill a passageway into a bank vault from a store they had rented above it. The noise from the drilling alerted authorities, Tirana police chief Tonin Vocaj said, noting, “We moved in when they were in the last stages of finishing the tunnel.” (Reuters)
Compiled from mainstream media sources by Roland Sweet