News of the Weird (12-4-2012)

News of the Weird

San Diego: La Jolla Cove is apparently a majestic, quaint oceanside cliffside vista-community--but . . . spoiler alert! Seagulls have discovered it, and California’s showcase environmental regs make it super-complicated to keep the cove clean (since it’s caked in very unpleasant seagull DNA). New York Times

Zurich: The whorehouse of the future is a bunch of car-park cubicles, opening next August, to keep hookers off the streets and the streets moral. Huffington Post

In the Middle East: Plastic surgeons claim sales are up for implants--moustache implants (an equivalent-$7k procedure where follicles are transplanted for increased bushiness). (In olden times, they say, a man of honor swore “on my moustache,” and vanquished fighters had theirs shaved off as marks of disgrace.) CNN

London: Former undercover cop Mark Kennedy sued the department for the equivalent-$160k for making him go too deep undercover and even “allowing” him to fall in love with one target, which caused post-traumatic stress and divorce. (But wait! There’s more! Ten woman are also suing the department for being thus tricked into having sex with undercovers, including 3 of Mark’s bang-ees.) The Guardian

Brentwood, England: In response to a freedom-of-information demand for documents on a government construction contract, the Brentwood Council submitted 425 pages, each one completely blacked-out (“privacy,” “trade secrets,” y’know). Daily Telegraph

Detroit: Caleb Sosa, 19, is about to collect $1.1m from the city (Ha! As if!) in a civil-rights lawsuit--by default, which means: Sosa’s lawyers served papers to Detroit, several times, but Detroit’s lawyers said, “La-la-laaa, We can’t hear you, La-la-laaa.” AP via American Bar Ass’n Journal

China: Liu Xianping, 72, has quite a gig. His granddaughter is a women’s clothing designer, and he’s her top fashion model. Actually, it works. New York Daily News

The F State: Unclear on the Concept are those anti-Obama Floridians, who signed an agrammatical secession-from-the-U.S. petition. Other states have also submitted them, but who really believes the rest of America views Flori-duh as a national treasure? Florida Today via WTSP-TV

Like Chocolate?: This might cure that. Gizmodo.com

Subtle Rant #1

When Crowdsourcing Gets Full of Itself: Associated Press editors are in trouble with the politically-correct because their stylebook prefers the phrase “anti-gay” instead of calling it “homophobia.” Gay activists: It’s ”homophobia.” Everybody who hates us must be mentally ill. AP Editors: We can’t use that word; we’re not doctors. [ed. Reporters rarely get real science right. Don’t let them start making up science.] AtlanticWire