WEIRD NEWS
Sometimes Eavesdropping is a Good Thing
So 27-year-old Kimberly Bermudez, a first-grade teacher from Chicago, was flying to Florida to see her folks when she and her seatmate struck up a conversation about her job. Kimberly told the man all about how much she loves her job but how heartbreaking it can be to see students at the low-income school going hungry. He took her information and told her his company donates to schools like hers. Then a few more "amazing" things happened. First a man sitting behind her handed her a stack of bills, saying he couldn't help but overhear the conversation and he wanted her to "do something amazing" with the money. Then two other men, one sitting in front of her and one across the aisle, said they didn't have much cash on them-but they gave her what they could. In all, she was handed $530 to help her students. She told the generous passengers, "You have no idea how much this means." She notes that teachers at her school often use their own money to buy things their students need, from school supplies to underwear. She posted the story on Facebook which has been shared over 1,000 times, and says she hopes the kind strangers from her Southwest flight see the post and realize what an impact they made. (Washington Post)
Good News About Teenagers:
Believe it or not, according to a new study, teenagers are becoming less likely to have sex and actually prefer spending time with their families and having romantic relationships online. The survey of 1,000 16- to 18-year-olds by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service also found they were drinking much less. Two-thirds of the teenagers surveyed said they had never had sex and 24% said they had never touched alcohol. The BPAS report said this current generation of teenagers appeared to be more sensible, more focused on their education and future careers and wanted to avoid pregnancy. More than 80% of those surveyed said performing well in exams or succeeding in their chosen career was a top priority, compared with 68% who said spending time with friends was a top priority. Young people were also more likely to view time with their family as of high importance than time with their friends. (BBC News)
Watch Out for Flying Beach Umbrellas!
It was a windy day on the Jersey shore - so windy that wind ripped a beach umbrella from the sand and sent it flying until it impaled the ankle of 67-year-old Margaret Reynolds. A witness reported that the piece in question was one of the frame ribs that the fabric covers, and that the gust of wind that sent the umbrella flying "came out of nowhere." Responders used a bolt cutter to free Reynolds, who was taken to the hospital. Assistant Fire Chief William William Rumbolo said, "I thought I was going to be dealing with a little spoke like on a bicycle tire, but it actually turned out to be three-quarters of an inch by three-quarters of an inch!" Ouch! (Asbury Park Press)
Dude-Stop Arguing with Your Wife!
A new 16-year-study of 373 heterosexual married couples has found fighting with your spouse is bad for your health. Presented at the International Association for Relationship Research in Colorado researcher Rosie Shrout said couples who experienced less conflict in a marriage's early years generally saw health benefits. But too much conflict in a relationship-whether related to children, money, leisure activities, or something else-was found to be "very damaging to health." The study also found the health of husbands suffered the most if the marriage had a lot of conflict and arguments. Psychologist Veronica Lamarche, who was not involved in the study, notes health problems may be linked to "different types of physiological responses, such as increased release of stress hormones, inflammation, changes in appetite regulation, and immune functioning." It's for that reason that "it's important to work on communicating with each other effectively." (Guardian)
Is There a Bee on Me?
True horror for a poor housekeeper in Lake Forest, California. The 48-year-old woman, identified only as Maria, had gone to her car to get cleaning supplies from her car, which she did not realize was parked right next to a huge bee hive. She was suddenly swarmed and when firefighters arrived her face was covered with bees. It was so bad the first responders went against protocol and didn't wait to suit up in protective gear before rushing to her aid. They used carbon dioxide spray in an attempt to get the bees to release and carried her, "barely conscious," from the scene. She received over 200 stings. A paramedic and three firefighters suffered stings themselves, two badly enough to be briefly hospitalized themselves. Maria is expected to survive. A bee company was called who later reportedly "removed buckets full of bees and beehives from the area." The removal company estimated the hive held as many as 80,000 bees. (KTLA)
A Minnesota Designer's Dream: Unisex Skirts!
Joe Quarion is a fashion designer from Minnesota who has a dream - skirts for men! Joe says he felt so comfortable the first time he put on a skirt we wondered why there weren't more people making skirts for men. In the end, he started making them himself. Quarion first put on a skirt in 2013, for an ultimate Frisbee match. Team captains would occasionally come up with silly dress-up themes for the players, and this time it was skirts or dresses. Joe put on a skirt he had bought from second-hand store Savers and headed on to the field. It was supposed to be a goofy experience, but he realized that he genuinely liked wearing a skirt. A little research taught him that skirts were actually a unisex clothing item up until around the first century A.D., when pants were adopted by men primarily because they were more practical for soldiers on horseback. So after twenty different prototypes, he finally came up with the Unaligned Skirt, a modern yet rugged skirt made of heavy fabric and featuring deep pockets and belt loops. After posting some photos of his unisex skirt online and getting generally positive feedback, and raised over $16,000 on Kickstarter. That was the beginning of his company, Skirtcraft. So far he's sold around 450 of his unique skirts, mostly to like-minded men. Joe admits that people sometimes do double takes when they see him walking around in a skirt, but he claims no one has had anything negative to say about it yet. And he's confident that there's actually a future for his unisex skirts. (Oddity Central)
Georgia Police Use Coin Toss To Determine If They Arrest a Woman
Two female police officers in Georgia have been suspended after they used a coin toss to decide whether to arrest a 24-year-old motorist they stopped for speeding! The officers stopped the motorist in April when she was running late for work at an Atlanta hair salon and sped past them at around 80 miles per hour on a wet road, according to a police statement and video footage of the incident. The two female police officers then discussed whether to give motorist Sarah Webb a speeding ticket or arrest her for reckless driving. They decided to flip a coin to decide - heads, arrest; tails, release, according to a statement by the Roswell Police Department. And they didn't even have a real coin. Officer Courtney Brown used a coin flip app on her mobile phone and it landed heads. Brown and the other officer, Kristee Wilson, were giggling as they began to write up charges, according to the video. Webb filed a request to see the video and its release led to all charges being dropped against her. Roswell Police Department Chief Rusty Grant said in the statement, "I am appalled that any law enforcement officer would trivialize the decision-making process of something as important as the arrest of a person." Meanwhile the two officers are on administrative leave while an investigation continues. (Reuters)
What the What?
In Los Angeles County, California, sheriff's deputies, the Montrose Search and Rescue Team and some 75 firefighters assisted by a helicopter and K-9 units descended in the area of Kagel Canyon and Lopez Canyon roads after getting a 911 call saying a woman had thrown her baby out of her vehicle and over a cliff near Sylmar. The call was made by the woman's husband who told dispatchers that during a phone argument while the mother was driving, the mother had claimed to have tossed the baby over the cliff. The good news is she was lying and later admitted she had not thrown the child out of her vehicle and that the baby was in fact at a family member's house. (ABC7)
So 27-year-old Kimberly Bermudez, a first-grade teacher from Chicago, was flying to Florida to see her folks when she and her seatmate struck up a conversation about her job. Kimberly told the man all about how much she loves her job but how heartbreaking it can be to see students at the low-income school going hungry. He took her information and told her his company donates to schools like hers. Then a few more "amazing" things happened. First a man sitting behind her handed her a stack of bills, saying he couldn't help but overhear the conversation and he wanted her to "do something amazing" with the money. Then two other men, one sitting in front of her and one across the aisle, said they didn't have much cash on them-but they gave her what they could. In all, she was handed $530 to help her students. She told the generous passengers, "You have no idea how much this means." She notes that teachers at her school often use their own money to buy things their students need, from school supplies to underwear. She posted the story on Facebook which has been shared over 1,000 times, and says she hopes the kind strangers from her Southwest flight see the post and realize what an impact they made. (Washington Post)
Good News About Teenagers:
Believe it or not, according to a new study, teenagers are becoming less likely to have sex and actually prefer spending time with their families and having romantic relationships online. The survey of 1,000 16- to 18-year-olds by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service also found they were drinking much less. Two-thirds of the teenagers surveyed said they had never had sex and 24% said they had never touched alcohol. The BPAS report said this current generation of teenagers appeared to be more sensible, more focused on their education and future careers and wanted to avoid pregnancy. More than 80% of those surveyed said performing well in exams or succeeding in their chosen career was a top priority, compared with 68% who said spending time with friends was a top priority. Young people were also more likely to view time with their family as of high importance than time with their friends. (BBC News)
Watch Out for Flying Beach Umbrellas!
It was a windy day on the Jersey shore - so windy that wind ripped a beach umbrella from the sand and sent it flying until it impaled the ankle of 67-year-old Margaret Reynolds. A witness reported that the piece in question was one of the frame ribs that the fabric covers, and that the gust of wind that sent the umbrella flying "came out of nowhere." Responders used a bolt cutter to free Reynolds, who was taken to the hospital. Assistant Fire Chief William William Rumbolo said, "I thought I was going to be dealing with a little spoke like on a bicycle tire, but it actually turned out to be three-quarters of an inch by three-quarters of an inch!" Ouch! (Asbury Park Press)
Dude-Stop Arguing with Your Wife!
A new 16-year-study of 373 heterosexual married couples has found fighting with your spouse is bad for your health. Presented at the International Association for Relationship Research in Colorado researcher Rosie Shrout said couples who experienced less conflict in a marriage's early years generally saw health benefits. But too much conflict in a relationship-whether related to children, money, leisure activities, or something else-was found to be "very damaging to health." The study also found the health of husbands suffered the most if the marriage had a lot of conflict and arguments. Psychologist Veronica Lamarche, who was not involved in the study, notes health problems may be linked to "different types of physiological responses, such as increased release of stress hormones, inflammation, changes in appetite regulation, and immune functioning." It's for that reason that "it's important to work on communicating with each other effectively." (Guardian)
Is There a Bee on Me?
True horror for a poor housekeeper in Lake Forest, California. The 48-year-old woman, identified only as Maria, had gone to her car to get cleaning supplies from her car, which she did not realize was parked right next to a huge bee hive. She was suddenly swarmed and when firefighters arrived her face was covered with bees. It was so bad the first responders went against protocol and didn't wait to suit up in protective gear before rushing to her aid. They used carbon dioxide spray in an attempt to get the bees to release and carried her, "barely conscious," from the scene. She received over 200 stings. A paramedic and three firefighters suffered stings themselves, two badly enough to be briefly hospitalized themselves. Maria is expected to survive. A bee company was called who later reportedly "removed buckets full of bees and beehives from the area." The removal company estimated the hive held as many as 80,000 bees. (KTLA)
A Minnesota Designer's Dream: Unisex Skirts!
Joe Quarion is a fashion designer from Minnesota who has a dream - skirts for men! Joe says he felt so comfortable the first time he put on a skirt we wondered why there weren't more people making skirts for men. In the end, he started making them himself. Quarion first put on a skirt in 2013, for an ultimate Frisbee match. Team captains would occasionally come up with silly dress-up themes for the players, and this time it was skirts or dresses. Joe put on a skirt he had bought from second-hand store Savers and headed on to the field. It was supposed to be a goofy experience, but he realized that he genuinely liked wearing a skirt. A little research taught him that skirts were actually a unisex clothing item up until around the first century A.D., when pants were adopted by men primarily because they were more practical for soldiers on horseback. So after twenty different prototypes, he finally came up with the Unaligned Skirt, a modern yet rugged skirt made of heavy fabric and featuring deep pockets and belt loops. After posting some photos of his unisex skirt online and getting generally positive feedback, and raised over $16,000 on Kickstarter. That was the beginning of his company, Skirtcraft. So far he's sold around 450 of his unique skirts, mostly to like-minded men. Joe admits that people sometimes do double takes when they see him walking around in a skirt, but he claims no one has had anything negative to say about it yet. And he's confident that there's actually a future for his unisex skirts. (Oddity Central)
Georgia Police Use Coin Toss To Determine If They Arrest a Woman
Two female police officers in Georgia have been suspended after they used a coin toss to decide whether to arrest a 24-year-old motorist they stopped for speeding! The officers stopped the motorist in April when she was running late for work at an Atlanta hair salon and sped past them at around 80 miles per hour on a wet road, according to a police statement and video footage of the incident. The two female police officers then discussed whether to give motorist Sarah Webb a speeding ticket or arrest her for reckless driving. They decided to flip a coin to decide - heads, arrest; tails, release, according to a statement by the Roswell Police Department. And they didn't even have a real coin. Officer Courtney Brown used a coin flip app on her mobile phone and it landed heads. Brown and the other officer, Kristee Wilson, were giggling as they began to write up charges, according to the video. Webb filed a request to see the video and its release led to all charges being dropped against her. Roswell Police Department Chief Rusty Grant said in the statement, "I am appalled that any law enforcement officer would trivialize the decision-making process of something as important as the arrest of a person." Meanwhile the two officers are on administrative leave while an investigation continues. (Reuters)
What the What?
In Los Angeles County, California, sheriff's deputies, the Montrose Search and Rescue Team and some 75 firefighters assisted by a helicopter and K-9 units descended in the area of Kagel Canyon and Lopez Canyon roads after getting a 911 call saying a woman had thrown her baby out of her vehicle and over a cliff near Sylmar. The call was made by the woman's husband who told dispatchers that during a phone argument while the mother was driving, the mother had claimed to have tossed the baby over the cliff. The good news is she was lying and later admitted she had not thrown the child out of her vehicle and that the baby was in fact at a family member's house. (ABC7)
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