Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Monday
Two Montreal shrinks believe they've uncovered a new clinical-grade delusion
Five patients tell them they're certain they're being secretly filmed 24/7 for reality TV shows ("Truman Show Delusion"). We already know about Capgras Delusion (your family's being replaced by lookalike pod people) and Fregoli Delusion (a particular person is dedicated to bringing you down). But veterans in the field say the new one is all of a piece with the old ones. (Capgras was famously in the news last year when former Saturday Night Live actor Tony Rosato was battling the demon.) National Post (Toronto)
Comments 'truman_delusion'
Recurring: Who came up with the idea that one way to become a mom was to carve you a fetus out of a pregnant woman's belly?
Maybe it's one of those things like first coming up with the idea of tying some leaves together, setting them on fire, and putting them in your mouth? Another pregnant woman is dead, in Pittsburgh; another woman who didn't look pregnant a few days ago says she just gave birth. (Bonus: The dead woman lay for days in an apartment, with foul odor, but no neighbor complained. "This is the ghetto. Something always smells around here.") Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Comments 'removed_fetus'
Another one of those executions that you really have to be into capital punishment to defend
Dale Leo Bishop is scheduled to meet His Maker on Wednesday in Mississippi for holding a guy down for a vicious claw-hammer murder. The guy who did the actual hammering got life in prison. Another guy who was there got off, for his testimony. Clarion-Ledger (Jackson)
Comments 'dale_bishop'
Update: The goldfaced paint huffer got caught again
Patrick Tribett's mug shot from his July 2005 arrest for sniffing gold spray paint was all over the Web. They got him again, in Wheeling, W.Va. Said one authority, the toluene in gold or silver paint can be even more addictive than heroin. WTOV-TV (Steubenville, Ohio) (has slide show of his mug shots)
Comments 'patrick_tribett'
Realism way out in front of the "RealDoll": a medic-training dummy that bleeds, sweats, vomits, and much more
But while the RealDoll's price is still in four figures, this one, developed by England's Univ. of Portsmouth, will run you $80K. So far, they're only going to use it for trauma cases, to train medics on quick-think decisions. Consequently, there's nothing here about just how anatomically-correct it is. BBC News // RealDoll (Not Safe for Work)
Comments 'vomiting_dummy'
"I had fun" doing the three murders
The charming Randall Rushing, 25, was charged with killing his estranged girlfriend and two others as a result of her dumping him. In court in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., he yawned as the murder scene was being described and blew a kiss to reporters. Associated Press via Yahoo // Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
Comments 'randall_rushing'
Who knew brooms could cause so much trouble?
In Montreal, a union complained that the city can't let shopkeepers sweep the sidewalks in front of their stores because only we can sweep sidewalks. And in Britain, the health/safety agency is allegedly pressuring shop owners to trade in their brooms for vacuum cleaners because broom-sweeping is, y'know, bad for asthma and might lead to nose cancer. National Post (Toronto) // Daily Telegraph (London)
Comments 'brooms_trouble'
DNA evidence may not be all it's cracked up to be
There's now a war for hearts and minds over what level of improbability it is that two DNA samples can "match." The FBI lab allows numbers like "1 in 113 billion" and "1 in 108 trillion" to be used, but an Arizona researcher, looking at the question in a slightly different way, says that matches are certainly much, much more likely than that (and thus, "matches" in criminal cases should not automatically convict, as they seem to do now). Other researchers are intrigued and want to further study the FBI database. The FBI responds in the way it usually does when anyone questions it: Move along; nothing to see here; shut up. Los Angeles Times
Comments 'dna_matches'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Update: The Columbus Dispatch provides a brief retrospective on the urophilic career of Alan Patton, 56, whom we reported on most recently in NOTW Daily (7-1-2008), for his arrest after laying down plastic wrap in the toilet bowl and placing cups at the bottom of urinals, so he could catch little boys' tinkles for his drinking pleasure. Collecting urine to drink is not illegal in Ohio, but ya can't fool with the public plumbing, and besides he's under a stayaway order for public restrooms. Why, Alan? Well, "to become a part of [the kids'] youth, happiness, and strength." "I love them; it is a shame I have to obtain love from them that way." Columbus Dispatch // NOTW 945 (3-19-2006)
Comments 'alan_patton'
Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Omar Khan, 18, and Tanvir Singh, 18, charged (69 counts!) in Las Flores, Calif., with hacking into their school's computer system to pump up their grades. ABC News
Comments 'grade_hackers'
More Things to Worry About on Monday
Police in Bedford, Pa., intercepted a murder-for-hire plan that was using as a payoff, er, NASCAR collectibles ("[a]fter providing a large trash bag of NASCAR memorabilia" to the undercover cop) . . . . . The St. Louis Post-Dispatch uncovers what looks like a sweetheart deal for the police chief—with the tip-off being that the chief's adult daughter keeps banging up the gift cars . . . . . A Tennessee city's commissioners grapple with the dilemma of who has priority in the water at the city boat launch: boaters or churches doing baptisms (Bonus: The city's name is Soddy-Daisy) . . . . . Lawyers in Iran believe 8 women and 1 man currently face stoning-to-death sentences (despite a 2002 edict against it), all in sex-related cases . . . . . A London physician tells how the 7-7 (2005) subway bombings gave Dr. Stewart Drage the courage to finally become Dr. Michelle Drage. Today's Newsranger: Scott Langill
Comments 'worry_080721'
Five patients tell them they're certain they're being secretly filmed 24/7 for reality TV shows ("Truman Show Delusion"). We already know about Capgras Delusion (your family's being replaced by lookalike pod people) and Fregoli Delusion (a particular person is dedicated to bringing you down). But veterans in the field say the new one is all of a piece with the old ones. (Capgras was famously in the news last year when former Saturday Night Live actor Tony Rosato was battling the demon.) National Post (Toronto)
Comments 'truman_delusion'
Recurring: Who came up with the idea that one way to become a mom was to carve you a fetus out of a pregnant woman's belly?
Maybe it's one of those things like first coming up with the idea of tying some leaves together, setting them on fire, and putting them in your mouth? Another pregnant woman is dead, in Pittsburgh; another woman who didn't look pregnant a few days ago says she just gave birth. (Bonus: The dead woman lay for days in an apartment, with foul odor, but no neighbor complained. "This is the ghetto. Something always smells around here.") Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Comments 'removed_fetus'
Another one of those executions that you really have to be into capital punishment to defend
Dale Leo Bishop is scheduled to meet His Maker on Wednesday in Mississippi for holding a guy down for a vicious claw-hammer murder. The guy who did the actual hammering got life in prison. Another guy who was there got off, for his testimony. Clarion-Ledger (Jackson)
Comments 'dale_bishop'
Update: The goldfaced paint huffer got caught again
Patrick Tribett's mug shot from his July 2005 arrest for sniffing gold spray paint was all over the Web. They got him again, in Wheeling, W.Va. Said one authority, the toluene in gold or silver paint can be even more addictive than heroin. WTOV-TV (Steubenville, Ohio) (has slide show of his mug shots)
Comments 'patrick_tribett'
Realism way out in front of the "RealDoll": a medic-training dummy that bleeds, sweats, vomits, and much more
But while the RealDoll's price is still in four figures, this one, developed by England's Univ. of Portsmouth, will run you $80K. So far, they're only going to use it for trauma cases, to train medics on quick-think decisions. Consequently, there's nothing here about just how anatomically-correct it is. BBC News // RealDoll (Not Safe for Work)
Comments 'vomiting_dummy'
"I had fun" doing the three murders
The charming Randall Rushing, 25, was charged with killing his estranged girlfriend and two others as a result of her dumping him. In court in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., he yawned as the murder scene was being described and blew a kiss to reporters. Associated Press via Yahoo // Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
Comments 'randall_rushing'
Who knew brooms could cause so much trouble?
In Montreal, a union complained that the city can't let shopkeepers sweep the sidewalks in front of their stores because only we can sweep sidewalks. And in Britain, the health/safety agency is allegedly pressuring shop owners to trade in their brooms for vacuum cleaners because broom-sweeping is, y'know, bad for asthma and might lead to nose cancer. National Post (Toronto) // Daily Telegraph (London)
Comments 'brooms_trouble'
DNA evidence may not be all it's cracked up to be
There's now a war for hearts and minds over what level of improbability it is that two DNA samples can "match." The FBI lab allows numbers like "1 in 113 billion" and "1 in 108 trillion" to be used, but an Arizona researcher, looking at the question in a slightly different way, says that matches are certainly much, much more likely than that (and thus, "matches" in criminal cases should not automatically convict, as they seem to do now). Other researchers are intrigued and want to further study the FBI database. The FBI responds in the way it usually does when anyone questions it: Move along; nothing to see here; shut up. Los Angeles Times
Comments 'dna_matches'
People Whose Sex Lives Are Worse Than Yours
Update: The Columbus Dispatch provides a brief retrospective on the urophilic career of Alan Patton, 56, whom we reported on most recently in NOTW Daily (7-1-2008), for his arrest after laying down plastic wrap in the toilet bowl and placing cups at the bottom of urinals, so he could catch little boys' tinkles for his drinking pleasure. Collecting urine to drink is not illegal in Ohio, but ya can't fool with the public plumbing, and besides he's under a stayaway order for public restrooms. Why, Alan? Well, "to become a part of [the kids'] youth, happiness, and strength." "I love them; it is a shame I have to obtain love from them that way." Columbus Dispatch // NOTW 945 (3-19-2006)
Comments 'alan_patton'
Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Omar Khan, 18, and Tanvir Singh, 18, charged (69 counts!) in Las Flores, Calif., with hacking into their school's computer system to pump up their grades. ABC News
Comments 'grade_hackers'
More Things to Worry About on Monday
Police in Bedford, Pa., intercepted a murder-for-hire plan that was using as a payoff, er, NASCAR collectibles ("[a]fter providing a large trash bag of NASCAR memorabilia" to the undercover cop) . . . . . The St. Louis Post-Dispatch uncovers what looks like a sweetheart deal for the police chief—with the tip-off being that the chief's adult daughter keeps banging up the gift cars . . . . . A Tennessee city's commissioners grapple with the dilemma of who has priority in the water at the city boat launch: boaters or churches doing baptisms (Bonus: The city's name is Soddy-Daisy) . . . . . Lawyers in Iran believe 8 women and 1 man currently face stoning-to-death sentences (despite a 2002 edict against it), all in sex-related cases . . . . . A London physician tells how the 7-7 (2005) subway bombings gave Dr. Stewart Drage the courage to finally become Dr. Michelle Drage. Today's Newsranger: Scott Langill
Comments 'worry_080721'
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