Chuck’s Hand-Picked Overnight Weird News for Wednesday
We see by this scan of your brain that you're guilty of murder
Just recently, three people on trial for murder in Maharashtra state in India were convicted with the help of what has been called "brain fingerprinting" or "brain wave science," where electrical activity is measurable in a certain part of your brain only if you have actually experienced what you're being stimulated for (e.g., just reading about it or hearing it doesn't light your scan up). "Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature" requires wearing a cap with 32 electrodes, and obviously, other evidence of the crime is needed in order to fashion precise questions that differentiate what one might experience at the scene from what one merely learned about later. Defendants here, for example, demonstrated experience in buying arsenic, in actually sparring with the potential victim, and in traveling the route that the killer traveled. (News of the Weird reported previously on America's leading exponent of this technology, Lawrence Farwell [NOTW 669, 12-1-2000; NOTW 802, 6-22-2003], which has been put to some uses, but solidifying a murder conviction.seems pretty radical. Times of India // Wikipedia (disputed) // Farwell's website
Comments 'brain_signature'
When they build the hall of fame of satellite-navigation boners, this guy will be there
Syrian driver Needet Bakimci set out on his 18-wheeler loaded with high-end cars from Antakya, Turkey, headed for the UK and instructed his navigator to program his route. By the time he gave up, he had missed his destination by, er, two whole countries, owing to (authorities later guessed) the Rock of Gibraltar's being in UK territory despite its location south of Spain. The Sun (London) [CORRECTION, appended 7-25-2008: It was exactly the reverse: He was headed for Gilbraltar but wound up in a rural area in UK with Gibraltar in the name]
Comments 'satnav_gibraltar'
Britain's Mr. Methane tunes up his ass for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
In the footsteps of the classical French vaudevillian Le Petomane, Paul Oldfield describes himself as a flatulist, able to take in and expel air anally, at will, to which ability he applies himself by accompanying certain music with his finely tuned instrument. He's known around the world ("Flatulence is very much the international language"), beloved on Japanese TV for the unique way in which he smokes a cigarette. He's also noted for his feud with Phil Collins over his request to perform Phil's In the Air Tonight. Other celebrity farters are not in his league: "no depth, no context" to their work, he says. The Guardian
Comments 'mr_methane'
Everything made of metal seems fair game for scrap thieves
Guys stole the 8-ft-high, 1,500-pound brass statue at the entrance of Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, N.J., said to be worth $500k, in order to cannibalize parts for scrap which experts said might be worth less than $4k. One head on the statue has been recovered. Philadelphia Inquirer
Comments 'brass_statue'
What Congress can learn from this Indian Member of Parliament
The legislature is debating how to respond to the proposed nuclear weapons pact with the U.S., and the vote is too close to call, so six MPs who were in jail on various charges were released so they could participate in the debate. However, MP Ateeq Ahmed said he's been listening and studying up but that the issue's just too complicated for him, and he'll thus have to vote no, i.e., if he can't understand why something is beneficial, maybe it isn't beneficial. Hey! Great criterion! Agence France-Presse
Comments 'ateeq_ahmed'
A bad week for dying with dignity
A Polish tourist was killed in London when he took a leak on an unknowingly electrified transit rail . . . . . A 50-yr-old Pennsylvania burglar stuck his head inside a hole in the window but then fell off what he was standing on and snapped his neck (and hung, dead, for two days) . . . . . A 37-yr-old man was rescued from San Diego Harbor by police, then turned on them, and was shot to death . . . . . A 180-lb. burglar trying to squeeze through a two-square foot ventilation shaft in Hollywood, Fla., suffocated . . . . . A 23-yr-old man fell to his death from a tree he had climbed in Sonoma County, Calif., to retrieve his Frisbee.
Comments 'dying_dignity'
Your Daily Losers
Randall Fulton, Michael Wiggins, and Craig Curry, charged with swiping that recliner out of the Goodwill collection bin, loading it in their car, and driving off . . a few feet before running out of gas. Cookeville (Tenn.) Herald-Citizen
Comments 'goodwill_recliner'
Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Daniel Shook, Longmont, Colo., might possibly be an incipient pyromaniac. Denver Post
Comments 'daniel_shook'
More Things to Worry About on Wednesday
Britain's SilentNight mattress company says it has insured (via the carrier Zurich, for £1M) tester Graham Butterfield's butt (because it "isn't like any other" in that he can detect tiny differences in a bed's materials just by sitting on it . . . . . The traditional celebration at this Turkish wedding included slaughtering 70 animals and firing 60,000 bullets . . . . . A Bethlehem, Pa., cop and his wife both got stayaway orders against each other (she allegedly had sprayed bleach in his face; he had loaded his gun and promised a "blood bath") . . . . . One London health care unit is proposing merit-pay bonuses for surgeons if their patients survive. Today's Newsrangers: Jenny Beatty, Scott Langill, Vic McDonald, Paul Music, Bruce Strickland, Jessica McRorie
Comments 'worry_080723'
Just recently, three people on trial for murder in Maharashtra state in India were convicted with the help of what has been called "brain fingerprinting" or "brain wave science," where electrical activity is measurable in a certain part of your brain only if you have actually experienced what you're being stimulated for (e.g., just reading about it or hearing it doesn't light your scan up). "Brain Electrical Oscillation Signature" requires wearing a cap with 32 electrodes, and obviously, other evidence of the crime is needed in order to fashion precise questions that differentiate what one might experience at the scene from what one merely learned about later. Defendants here, for example, demonstrated experience in buying arsenic, in actually sparring with the potential victim, and in traveling the route that the killer traveled. (News of the Weird reported previously on America's leading exponent of this technology, Lawrence Farwell [NOTW 669, 12-1-2000; NOTW 802, 6-22-2003], which has been put to some uses, but solidifying a murder conviction.seems pretty radical. Times of India // Wikipedia (disputed) // Farwell's website
Comments 'brain_signature'
When they build the hall of fame of satellite-navigation boners, this guy will be there
Syrian driver Needet Bakimci set out on his 18-wheeler loaded with high-end cars from Antakya, Turkey, headed for the UK and instructed his navigator to program his route. By the time he gave up, he had missed his destination by, er, two whole countries, owing to (authorities later guessed) the Rock of Gibraltar's being in UK territory despite its location south of Spain. The Sun (London) [CORRECTION, appended 7-25-2008: It was exactly the reverse: He was headed for Gilbraltar but wound up in a rural area in UK with Gibraltar in the name]
Comments 'satnav_gibraltar'
Britain's Mr. Methane tunes up his ass for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
In the footsteps of the classical French vaudevillian Le Petomane, Paul Oldfield describes himself as a flatulist, able to take in and expel air anally, at will, to which ability he applies himself by accompanying certain music with his finely tuned instrument. He's known around the world ("Flatulence is very much the international language"), beloved on Japanese TV for the unique way in which he smokes a cigarette. He's also noted for his feud with Phil Collins over his request to perform Phil's In the Air Tonight. Other celebrity farters are not in his league: "no depth, no context" to their work, he says. The Guardian
Comments 'mr_methane'
Everything made of metal seems fair game for scrap thieves
Guys stole the 8-ft-high, 1,500-pound brass statue at the entrance of Garden State Park in Cherry Hill, N.J., said to be worth $500k, in order to cannibalize parts for scrap which experts said might be worth less than $4k. One head on the statue has been recovered. Philadelphia Inquirer
Comments 'brass_statue'
What Congress can learn from this Indian Member of Parliament
The legislature is debating how to respond to the proposed nuclear weapons pact with the U.S., and the vote is too close to call, so six MPs who were in jail on various charges were released so they could participate in the debate. However, MP Ateeq Ahmed said he's been listening and studying up but that the issue's just too complicated for him, and he'll thus have to vote no, i.e., if he can't understand why something is beneficial, maybe it isn't beneficial. Hey! Great criterion! Agence France-Presse
Comments 'ateeq_ahmed'
A bad week for dying with dignity
A Polish tourist was killed in London when he took a leak on an unknowingly electrified transit rail . . . . . A 50-yr-old Pennsylvania burglar stuck his head inside a hole in the window but then fell off what he was standing on and snapped his neck (and hung, dead, for two days) . . . . . A 37-yr-old man was rescued from San Diego Harbor by police, then turned on them, and was shot to death . . . . . A 180-lb. burglar trying to squeeze through a two-square foot ventilation shaft in Hollywood, Fla., suffocated . . . . . A 23-yr-old man fell to his death from a tree he had climbed in Sonoma County, Calif., to retrieve his Frisbee.
Comments 'dying_dignity'
Your Daily Losers
Randall Fulton, Michael Wiggins, and Craig Curry, charged with swiping that recliner out of the Goodwill collection bin, loading it in their car, and driving off . . a few feet before running out of gas. Cookeville (Tenn.) Herald-Citizen
Comments 'goodwill_recliner'
Your Daily Jury Duty
[no fair examining the evidence; verdict must be based on mugshot only]
Daniel Shook, Longmont, Colo., might possibly be an incipient pyromaniac. Denver Post
Comments 'daniel_shook'
More Things to Worry About on Wednesday
Britain's SilentNight mattress company says it has insured (via the carrier Zurich, for £1M) tester Graham Butterfield's butt (because it "isn't like any other" in that he can detect tiny differences in a bed's materials just by sitting on it . . . . . The traditional celebration at this Turkish wedding included slaughtering 70 animals and firing 60,000 bullets . . . . . A Bethlehem, Pa., cop and his wife both got stayaway orders against each other (she allegedly had sprayed bleach in his face; he had loaded his gun and promised a "blood bath") . . . . . One London health care unit is proposing merit-pay bonuses for surgeons if their patients survive. Today's Newsrangers: Jenny Beatty, Scott Langill, Vic McDonald, Paul Music, Bruce Strickland, Jessica McRorie
Comments 'worry_080723'
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