Deputy who fired shots in wrong house acted 'reasonably and lawfully'
The Dakota County Attorney has concluded that a Scott County deputy's actions were "reasonable and lawful" when he accidentally broke into the wrong house and fired several shots in the direction of a man who had done nothing wrong.
Special-ed kids left during bomb threat
There is controversy swirling around Hays High School after two classrooms of special education students were not included in the building evacuation during a bomb scare.
Mail experiment
What happens when you mail a letter to someone, but instead of putting a 39 cent stamp from the post office, you just tape on some loose change adding up to 39 cents?
Why targeting Michael Phelps is easier than tackling the silliness of our drug laws
Drink and drive and it's grrrrrrrr-eat! Smoke pot and your flakes are frosted, dude. So seems the message from Kellogg's, which has decided not to renew its sponsorship contract with Michael Phelps after the Olympian was photographed smoking marijuana at a party in South Carolina. That's showbiz, of course, but the cereal and munchie company had no problem signing Phelps despite an alcohol-related arrest. In 2004, Phelps was fined and sentenced to 18 months probation and community service after pleading guilty to driving while impaired. The silliness of our laws -- and the hypocrisy of our selective attitudes toward mood enhancers -- needs no further elaboration. Even so, things are getting sillier by the minute.
Where you've been on Net not private, judge rules
An Ontario Superior Court ruling could open the door to police routinely using Internet Protocol addresses to find out the names of people online, without any need for a search warrant. Justice Lynne Leitch found that there is "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in subscriber information kept by Internet service providers (ISPs), in a decision issued earlier this week.
Mysterious number 6174
The number 6174 is a really mysterious number. At first glance, it might not seem so obvious. But as we are about to see, anyone who can subtract can uncover the mystery that makes 6174 so special.
Baby-faced boy is father at 13
Baby-faced Alfie, who is 13 but looks more like eight, became a father four days ago when his girlfriend Chantelle Steadman gave birth to 7lb 3oz Maisie Roxanne. He told how he and Chantelle, 15, decided against an abortion after discovering she was pregnant. The shy lad, whose voice has not yet broken, said: "I thought it would be good to have a baby. I didn't think about how we would afford it. I don't really get pocket money. My dad sometimes gives me £10."
Alfie, who is just 4ft tall, added: "When my mum found out, I thought I was going to get in trouble. We wanted to have the baby but were worried how people would react. I didn't know what it would be like to be a dad. I will be good, though, and care for it."
Starbucks is not your office
This ridiculous image was taken at a Starbucks on 42nd and 9th. Yeah, it's a guy with a Mac Mini and a 15-inch LCD.
Dude, where's my truck?
Police used surveillance video to solve the case of a missing truck. The mystery began when Michael Otero exited a Laguna Beach convenience store to find an empty parking spot where he had parked his pickup truck. Investigators expected to find video of the thief on the store's surveillance video. Instead, the video shows Otero's truck as it slowly rolls from the parking spot in reverse and into a nearby parking structure.
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This is art
When you live with six art students (like Kate in London), you might find that life imitates art more often than you'd like.
Hindus plan cow urine drink to rival Western sodas
A hardline Hindu organisation, known for its opposition to "corrupting" Western food imports, is planning to launch a new soft drink made from cow's urine, often seen as sacred in parts of India.
Thousands of guns U.S. sent to Afghanistan are missing
More than one-third of all weapons the United States has procured for Afghanistan's government are missing, according to a government report released Thursday. The U.S. military failed to "maintain complete inventory records for an estimated 87,000 weapons -- or about 36 percent -- of the 242,000 weapons that the United States procured and shipped to Afghanistan from December 2004 through June 2008," a U.S. Government Accountability Office report states.
At least 8 arrested in attempt to build Phelps drug case
As many as eight people have been arrested on drug charges in an effort to build a marijuana possession case against Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps, an attorney for one of the defendants confirmed this morning. Longtime Columbia attorney Dick Harpootlian said Richland County Sheriff's deputies arrested his client - whom he declined to identify -- in a raid Saturday at his Lake Murray-area home after seizing a small amount of marijuana. "He's sitting there on Saturday, and 12 cops kick in the door with guns drawn, search his house and find 5, maybe 6, grams of pot," Harpootlian said."They never asked him, 'Who sold you the pot?' ... They were asking, 'Were you at the party with Michael Phelps? Did you see him using marijuana?' It was all about Michael Phelps."
A teenage thief picked on the wrong victim when she tried to run off with a bag belonging to pensioner Jean Hirst - a former championship sprinter.
The schoolgirl was surprised to discover her victim, a former All England Schools championship sprinter, still had a turn of pace - at the age of 72. As Mrs Hirst gave chase, she soon began to close on the culprit who was forced to throw down the bag in her desperation to escape. The retired teacher had allowed three teenage girls into her car to help her with directions after getting lost on the way to a theatre. She was straight out of the starting blocks again, however, when one of them took advantage and tried to make off with her bag.
The badly burned koalas who became best friends after surviving Australia's deadliest bushfires
A love story between two badly burned koalas rescued from Australia's deadliest bushfires has provided some heart-warming relief after days of devastation and the loss of over 180 lives.
Kittens inspired by kittens
Kitten book narrated by a weird 6 year old.
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Never Blow Your Nose When You Have a Cold
Blowing your nose to alleviate stuffiness may be second nature, but some people argue it does no good, reversing the flow of mucus into the sinuses and slowing the drainage. Counterintuitive, perhaps, but research shows it to be true.
Facebook Mystery: Who Created "25 Random Things About Me"?
By now you've undoubtedly been tagged at least once for that "25 Random Things About Me" Facebook note that has spread across the social networking sphere like some kind of self-revelatory virus. Love it or hate it, its rapid proliferation is unprecedented in social networking's young history -- Facebook reports that nearly 5 million notes were created by its users during the week of January 26 through February 2, which was more than double the amount from the previous week and more than any other week in the company's history.
But still, no one seems to be able to get to the bottom of who actually started it, or why Facebook users are suddenly so enamored with this particular means of sharing both intensely personal and highly mundane details about themselves with hundreds of friends and acquaintances in their news feeds.
Koala sharing firefighter's water after surviving Australian fire
He said he was in the middle of backburning at Mirboo North when he saw the stricken koala. "I could see she had sore feet and was in trouble, so I pulled over the fire truck. She just plonked herself down, as if to say 'I'm beat'," he said. "I offered her a drink and she drank three bottles."
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Couple wrongly accused of abusing their baby cannot have their children back because it is 'too late', court rules
A judge yesterday ruled that a couple will never see three of their children again even though he accepted they may have been wrongly accused of abusing them.
How I Built a Wind Generator in My Backyard for $150
I stumbled upon a how-to article on building wind generators from treadmill motors and PVC pipe. It sounded easy enough, so I decided to try and design my own. This particular design can be built for $100-$150 if you are thrifty and can regularly generate 50-250 watts (considerably cheaper than a solar panel of similar power output). Here's how I built it for those of you who are interested.
Man appears free of HIV after stem cell transplant
A 42-year-old HIV patient with leukemia appears to have no detectable HIV in his blood and no symptoms after a stem cell transplant from a donor carrying a gene mutation that confers natural resistance to the virus that causes AIDS, according to a report published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.