This Man Would Rather Be in Jail Than at Home with His Wife

A 70-year-old man recently tried to rob a Kansas City bank to allegedly get himself arrested, because being in jail beats living with his wife.

Lawrence John Ripple walked into the Bank of Labor at 756 Minnesota Ave., in Kansas City, and passed a note to the teller, which read “I have a gun, give me money.” According to court documents, the teller complied, but instead of making a quick escape, Ripple simply took the money and sat down in the bank lobby. When a security guard approached him, the quirky bank robber simply said he was “the guy he was looking”. After relieving Ripple of the stolen $3,000, the guard notified the police, who arrived on the scene shortly, considering their headquarters are located on the same block.

During questioning, investigators learned that Ripple had argued with his wife and he “no longer wanted to be in that situation.” In the affidavit filed in support of the robbery charge, and FBI agent wrote that “Ripple wrote out his demand note in front of his wife … and told her he’d rather be in jail than at home.”

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Student Earns Whole Class a Perfect Score on Chemistry with Epic Paper Ball Toss

An Ohio State University student became the most popular kid in school last week after winning his whole class a perfect score on their first chemistry quiz with an amazing paper ball toss.

Every year, Dr. Christopher Callam, an organic chemistry professor at Ohio State University, gives his whole class a chance to ace their first quiz without even studying. He’s apparently a very hands on kind of guy who likes to demonstrate how chemistry works. To help his students better understand acid base chemistry and proton donors and acceptors, he throws a paper ball in to the crowd and if the person who catches it can toss it all across the class and into the trash can, he gives everyone a perfect score on the quiz.

This year, the hopes of dozens of nervous students rested on the shoulders of Vinny Forte, from Richmond Heights, and he more than lived up to their expectations. A phone-recorded video shot by fellow student Rachel Brown shows Forte making the one-in-a-million shot and throwing the entire class into a frenzy.

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New Brand of Vodka Allegedly Protects Your Liver from Alcohol Damage

Bellion Vodka is the world’s first commercially-available alcoholic drink made with NTX technology, which significantly reduces the damage caused by alcohol to our liver and DNA.

While some of us may enjoy frequently consuming high quantities of alcohol, our livers certainly do not. Because our body doesn’t have a way of storing alcohol, it must metabolize it quickly, so the liver has to work overtime to filter the alcohol from the bloodstream and detoxify the body. While it’s being doing that, the liver is not processing anything else (stuff like carbohydrates or fat). According to the Cleveland Clinic, if alcohol is consumed often enough, it can lead to a dangerous condition known as fatty liver, an early stage of alcoholic liver disease which can eventually lead to cirrhosis.

But thanks to the revolutionary NTX technology, we apparently no longer have to worry about the harmful effects of alcohol on our liver and DNA. Developed by Indian entrepreneur Harsha Chigurupati and his team at Chigurupati Technologies, NTX is a “proprietary blend of ingredients” that works by shielding the liver from the harmful effects of consuming alcohol without affecting the taste of the drink itself. It sounds to be good to be true, but during human trails the technology has managed to reduce the negative effects of alcohol on the liver and DNA by 93%.

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This Man Has Spent the Last 22 Years Looking for Bigfoot’s Chinese Cousin

62-year-old Zhang Jianxing has been scouring the ancient forests of the Shennongjia National Nature Reserve for over two decades, in search of the mythical Yeren, or Chinese yeti, and says he will not give up until he comes face to face with the creature.

Zhang began living as a hermit in the 3,200-square-kilometer mountain range in 1994, after becoming fascinated with the Yeren, a 6-foot-tall humanoid creature covered in thick red-brown fur. References of the so-called Chinese Wild Man date back to the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC) in the works of classical poet and statesman Qu Yuan, mentions of its existence in the pristine forests of Shennongjia, China’s Hubei province, have been popping up throughout history ever since.

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German Man Creates World’s Heaviest Bicycle

Using giant tires from an old fertilizer spreader and lots of scrap steel, a German cycling enthusiast recently built the world’s heaviest bicycle.

49-year-old Frank Dose, from Schleswig-Holstein, has been working on his two-wheeled behemoth since March, and reckons he has spent around $4,700 putting it together. Was it worth it? Well, he seems to think so, and his wife, Astrid, definitely agrees. “I think his bike is sensational,”she said during an unveiling event, last month. “I am proud and pleased that he has done it.” As of September 3rd, Astrid has an extra reason to be proud of her husband, after his creation set a new world record for the world’s heaviest rideable bicycle.

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Teacher Installs Cycling Machines Under Students’ Desks to Help Them Concentrate

After noticing that her eight grade students had problems focusing during math class, a North Carolina teacher decided to channel their energy in a different way – cycling.

It doesn’t sound like the most common thing to do during math class, but Bethany Lambeth, a teacher from Wake County, says that ever since she installed cycling machines under her students’ desks, the quality of their work has improved greatly, they are more focused, and, most importantly, they are no longer fidgeting all the time.

“Before, they were drumming on their desks, they were touching other people, they don’t do that anymore. Their feet are getting the movement out,” she said. “There has been a huge increase in the quality of our student’s work and a decrease in the amount of missing work.”

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Aspiring Model Gets $10 Nose and Chin Job, Ends Up Regretting It

A Filipino teen who once paid just 500 pesos ($10.74) for cosmetic procedures on his nose and chin has been regretting his decision ever since, as the intervention left him disfigured.

Ever since he was 16 years old, Ellowe Alviso had been using his good looks as a source of income, by landing various modelling jobs. About three years ago, he decided to increase his chances of being selected for modelling gigs by enhancing his facial features. However, he also wanted to save some money, so instead of going to a certified plastic surgery clinic, he got in touch with Kasheca Magallanes, a transgender nurse who was allegedly well-versed in cosmetic procedures. She agreed to work on his face for just 500 Philippine Pesos, which was apparently too good an offer to pass up. Unfortunately, Ellowe would live to regret his decision. Read More »

Alabama Library to Enforce Jail Time for Overdue Books

Returning a book late at the local library usually gets you a scolding by the librarian, or maybe your permit revoked for repeat offenses, but failing to turn in a book on time at one Alabama library could actually land you in jail for 30 days.

With over $200,000 worth of overdue books to recuperate, the Athens-Limestone public library in Athens, Alabama, is taking extreme measures to deter patrons from returning borrowed books and DVDs way later than they should. Executive Director Paula Laurita announced that the library will be enforcing a new policy that includes fines of up to $100, a city jail sentence of 30 days, or possibly both. She added that the seemingly exaggerated rules were necessary to stop people from effectively stealing from taxpayers.

“We have too many outstanding books that haven’t been returned. People with several hundred dollars worth of library materials that are sitting at home,” Laurita told WAAY31. Sometimes we hear, ‘I lent my library card to my cousin’. I just want to ask, ‘Would you lend your cousin your credit card? If they go and get $700 worth of clothing and you’re responsible for the bill, would you do that?'”

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Man Tired of Driving to Work Builds Himself an Airplane

Tired of wasting 14 minutes driving to work every day, a crafty locksmith from the Czech Republic managed to cut his commute time in half by building himself an airplane and flying to work.

45-year-old Frantisek Hadrava, from the south-western Czech village of Zdikov, used to drive for 12-14 minutes for his 6 a.m. shift at Drevostroj, a small factory in the town of Ckyne, but he thought that was too long. So he spent the last two years building himself an ultralight plane based on the U.S.-design of Mini-Max planes. Now, whenever the weather permits it, instead of hopping in his car, he gets into the open cockpit plane and flies to his workplace in just seven minutes.

“It takes me about 12-14 minutes by car,” Hadrava told Reuters. “By plane, it would take around 4-5 minutes if I flew directly, but I take a bit of a detour so that I don’t disturb people early in the morning. So it takes about 7 minutes.”

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Researchers Use Wastewater to Grow 240-Hectare Forest in Egyptian Desert

Located near Ismailia, about two hours from Egypt’s capital, Cairo, Serapium Forest is nothing short of an environmental miracle – a 240-hectare forest of both native and non-native trees thriving in the middle of the desert.

Advancing desserts have become a serious problem throughout the African continent, but a team of German and Egyptian researchers has come up with a very efficient way of stopping desertification and even reclaiming land from the dry sands. While forests have been used to stop the spread of deserts into fertile land for a very long time, the absence of rainfall makes nurturing the trees and keeping them healthy an almost impossible task in most African countries. But it turns out we don’t have to rely on water falling from the sky, as waste water works even better for plants and trees not intended for human consumption.

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Indianapolis Pizza Shop Offering Patrons a Free XL Pizza in Exchange for a Gun Off the Streets

After making some of the most delicious pizza on the east side if Indianapolis for the last three decades, the owner of D & C Pizza has come up with anew recipe that he hopes will take guns off the streets and reduce the high crime rate.

Donald Dancy wants to offer a free extra-large pizza to anyone who turns in a gun at his shop. It may seem like a strange tradeoff since pizza is relatively cheap while guns sell for hundreds of dollars on the street, but the pizza shop owner says he has lots of customers who carry illegal guns and would be more than glad to take advantage of the unusual promotion. His plan is to hold the guns in a safe place until police officers arrive to pick them up.

“I can see kids 14 through 18 coming in here and buying a pizza and their guns fall out,” Dancy said. “When you pass here right off of 36th and go all the way down to 25th street and over, it is like a war zone. It is not getting any better.”

 

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Mexican Farmers Fight Drought with Solid Rain

You may not of heard of it before, but Solid Rain has been helping Mexican farmers fights severe droughts for over a decade. The miracle powder is actually a super absorbent polymer that can soak up water up to 500 times its original size and keep it in the ground for up to a year.

The story of Solid Rain began in 1970, when the United States Department of Agriculture developed a super absorbent product made from a type of starch known as “super slurper”. In the U.S., it has mainly been used in disposable diapers, to help keep baby bottoms dry, but a Mexican chemical engineer saw this magic powder as an opportunity to effectively fight the drought plaguing his country.

Sergio Rico Velasco developed and patented a different version of potassium polyacrylate that could be mixed with soil and slowly feed water to plants over a long period of time. His company, Solid Rain, has been quietly selling the product to Mexican farmers for over 10 years now.

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Homeless Man Returns Designer Wallet, Gets Rewarded with a Job and His Own Home

Woralop, a 44-year-old homeless man from Thailand, only had nine baht (¢25) to his name when he found a Hermes leather wallet with 20,000 baht ($579USD) and several credit cards. It was more than enough to buy him food and even a place to stay for weeks, maybe months, but he chose to return it. The kind gesture would soon prove to be life-changing.

You’ve probably been asked what you would do if you found a wallet full of cash, at least once in your life. Would you keep, it, turn it in to the police, ask for a reward? This question always tests a person’s moral values, but for someone who has hit rock bottom, the answer seems pretty clear. And yet Woralop claims he didn’t even think about keeping the wallet, and even ran after the owner to return it, after seeing him dropping it by mistake. He couldn’t catch up with the man, but he went straight to the nearest police station to hand it over.

See SWNS story SWHOME; A homeless man who handed in a designer wallet full of cash was rewarded with a JOB and a new FLAT to live in. Good-hearted Woralop (corr), 45, had just nine baht (0.20p) to his name when he spotted the Hermes wallet with 20,000baht (£440gbp) and credit cards on the street earlier this month. Despite having barely eaten, he trudged to the local police station and gave police the expensive brown leather wallet with all the money still inside. Owner Niity Pongkriangyos, 30, was so thrilled when cops tracked him down that he offered destitute Woralop, who has no surname, a job at his metalwork factory in Bangkok, Thailand. Read More »

This Smart Self-Locking Handbag Aims to Curb Shopping Addiction

The iBag2 is a digitally programmable handbag designed to flash and vibrate when “danger spending zones” are hit and even self-lock if these discreet warnings are ignored by shopaholics.

Launched by personal finance website Finder.com, the iBag2 is the result of a joint effort from a female-led team of engineers from robotics firm Colmac Robotics Ltd in Ireland and renowned New York-based fashion designer Geova Rodriguez. The first were in charge of the robotics of the accessory while the latter came up with the couture design. Finder claims it has created the unique products to help monitor and curb impulsive spending and avoid buyer’s remorse.

The iBag2 comes with a series of built-in features that remind shoppers of their spending goals whenever they reach for their wallet and even self-locks when it believes that they are most vulnerable. For example, the GPS tracking feature lets the iBag2 know when you are approaching one of your pre-programmed vulnerable spending zones, so it can warn you via flashing amber lights. An RFID system connected to LED lights and vibration motors also sends discreet warnings whenever you reach for your wallet, to remind you of your spending goals. But perhaps the most notable feature of this smart handbag is the self-locking mechanism. A magnetic field is used to snap two steel plates together to lock the bag whenever the built-in timer signals your most vulnerable spending moments during the course of a day or when you enter one of the vulnerable spending zones mentioned above.

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Over 300 Reindeer Killed by Lightning in Unusual Natural Disaster

The Norwegian Environment Agency has recently released a series of haunting images of at least 323 dead reindeer – 70 of them calves – killed in what has been described as one of the deadliest lightning strikes ever.

It is unclear exactly when the natural disaster occurred, but the hundreds of dead bodies were discovered on Friday by a group of hunters in a remote area of the barren Hardanangervidda plateau, in central Norway. Spanning some 8,000 square kilometers, Hardangervidda is the largest high mountain plateau in northern Europe and the largest national park in Norway, with a population of 10,000 to 11,000 wild reindeer.

While the specifics of the mass death will probably never be known, experts say that animals tend to huddle together in extreme weather, which makes it easier for lightning to pass through their bodies. Norwegian officials say that multiple animal deaths caused by lightning strike is not very uncommon, but the scale of this event is definitely unheard of. “We are not familiar with any previous happening on such a scale,” Kjartan Knutsen of the Norwegian Environment Agency said. “Individual animals do from time to time get killed by lightning, and there are incidents where sheep have been killed in groups of 10 or even 20, but we have never seen anything like this.”

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