‘Fountain lady’ faces criminal charges

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Rule one: before hinting at a lawsuit, make sure you don’t have any outstanding felony charges yourself.

Fountain Lady, who became an Internet sensation last week after walking into a mall fountain while texting, said on Good Morning America Thursday that she might sue the mall where she fell.

I guess malls have to plan ahead for visitors who abstain from watching where they’re walking.

Fountain Lady’s lawyer told ABC News he intends to “hold the responsible parties accountable” for the incident, though it’s unclear whether this references that no railing prevented her from falling in the fountain, that nobody responded to the incident after she fell or that a video of her fall was released.

But it turns out that “Fountain Lady,” also known as Cathy Cruz Marrero, faces legal charges herself — charges even more serious than assuming that pedestrians can avoid large structures on pathways.Marrero was charged in late 2009 with running up bills of more than $5,000 on a coworker’s credit account at Target and Zales, according to ABC News. She was supposed to repay the money but never did, and will appear in court for sentencing in April.

We can only hope her lawyer will give her a two-for-one discount.

Meanwhile, Fountain Lady is complaining that none of the mall staff helped her out of the fountain or even asked her if she was okay.

Regardless of whether this is grounds for legal action, there is no denying that the video is still hilarious.

Categories: General

Paul the Octopus gets his own memorial

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Paul the Octopus gained global notoriety last summer when he correctly predicted the winners of the World Cup. But, sadly, he died soon thereafter, in October.

Now fans of the tentacled oracle can honor him at the new Paul the Octopus memorial, unveiled Thursday at his old home in the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany. It features a 6-foot plastic replica of Paul wrapping his eight arms around a soccer ball.

Inside the ball is an octopus-shaped urn containing his ashes. RIP Paul.

Paul successfully predicted the outcomes of Germany’s World Cup games last year, and correctly picked Spain to beat the Netherlands in the final. He did it by choosing one of two boxes — containing a mussel and marked with a country flag — that were placed in his aquarium tank.

Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images

Stefan Porwoll, manager of Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, Germany, looks at the new memorial for Paul the Octopus on Thursday.

Categories: Sports

Lion tacos complete the circle of life

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ABOVE: Mmm…tacos.

A Tucson taqueria is taking orders for African lion tacos as part of their “Exotic Taco Shop Wednesdays” promotion.

Having made cow-eye tacos a couple of months ago, I consider myself somewhat adventurous when it comes to Mexican food, but this is kind of ridiculous.

Legally, the FDA says this is all kosher (not the meat, of course) but that doesn’t necessarily make it a good idea. Plus they are $8.75 a pop.

AZStar.net:

According to the Food and Drug Administration, lion and other game meat can be sold as long as the species isn’t endangered.

For the lion, diners will build their own Sonoran street-style taco. They can add cabbage, guacamole, pickled red onions and diced cucumbers and any of the six house-made salsas to the tacos. (read more)

The restaurant, Boca Tocas y Tequila, is piggybacking on the success of another Arizona lion meat publicity stunt.

Don’t forget the guacamole, it masks that gamey lion flavor.

Categories: General

Rush Limbaugh thinks Chinese people talk funny

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Rush Limbaugh thinks Chinese people talk funny. But mostly, he’s just an idiot.

Categories: General

NYT: Home cooking for dogs and cats

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Photo by Vanessa Ho

How do you know when the whole organic, seasonal, local, grass-fed, hand-picked, home-canned eating thing has gone to a place where parodies live?

When you start doing it for your dogs and cats. Animal love is a beautiful thing, but The New York Times chronicles a movement among some people who devotedly prepare unprocessed, organic meals. For their pets.

Example No 1.: A dog named Orion, whose dinner consisted of “ground raw chicken necks and livers, red cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, berries, garlic and parsley, formed into tidy patties,” according to the NYT.

Orion’s owner is a Warwick, N.Y. woman who grinds up 40 pounds of pasture-raised chicken necks, tosses in giblets and carrots, and uses it to feed her two dogs and three cats every 10 days or so.

The story follows other pet owners suspicious of mass-produced food, people who felt bad about eating organic while their cat ate from cans, and high-end butchers who specialize in fresh pet food.

Read the full story here.

Categories: General

Radwanska Loses Her Racquet

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Talk about losing your head during a match.

Polish tennis player Agnieszka Radwanska tried a return to opponent Kimiko Date-Krumm at the Australian Open on Tuesday only to have her racquet split at the neck. The head hurled across the court, and she remained with the grip in hand, a priceless (and hilarious) look of complete bewilderment on her face.

Apparently the 21-year-old had been hitting her racquet on the ground out of anger during the match until it finally reached its breaking point.

But she won the match and advanced to the next round only three points later, so perhaps we shouldn’t expect to see her seeking a new release for her frustration.

Categories: General

Pay for Starbucks with your smartphone

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In what may be the ultimate expression of conspicuous consumption, Starbucks says you can now pay for the company’s products with selected handheld devices.

That’s right. Your overpriced cell phone, connected to the Internet thanks to an overpriced data plan, will be able to reimburse Starbucks for its overpriced coffee. A trifecta!

Starbucks has been testing payments via smartphone at stores in Seattle, New York, parts of California and in the Starbucks stores found in Targets. The New York Times says  the program is going nationwide, covering more than 7,500 stores.

The program uses an app that can be downloaded by BlackBerry, iPhone or iPod Touch users. You’ll need a Starbucks account and a physical Starbucks card. Enter the number found on the back of the card into your phone.

Once that’s done, you can load your Starbucks card with cash from a credit or debit card, and the amount will show up on the phone. When you’re ready to pay, tap a button and the phone displays a barcode that the barista will scan.

The app also can show you nearby Starbucks stores that are participating in the program, and will keep track of your rewards points.

Not all Starbucks will participate, however. Store that don’t normally accept the cards – such as those inside Barnes and Noble bookstores – won’t take the app. Check with your friendly neighborhood barista to see whether the app works there before flashing your smartphone around.

Update: It turns out there also is an Android app that will let you pay at a Starbucks. It’s not an official app, but rather a widget created by a third-party developer. It’s free, and requires at least Android 1.6.

Categories: General

Scientists to try to clone a woolly mammoth

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It’s been 10,000 years since the Earth last saw its hairiest beast, the woolly mammoth.

Woolly mammoth

Comeback for Ice Age critter?

But if a team of Japanese, Russian and American scientists are successful, one could soon be lumbering around, shedding all over the place.

The researchers, led by Prof. Akira Iritani, professor emeritus of Kyoto University, hope to clone the animal using tissue obtained this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian laboratory. The nuclei of mammoth cells would be inserted into an elephant’s egg cells from which the nuclei have been removed to create an embryo containing mammoth genes.

The embryo would then be planted in an elephant’s womb.

Frozen mammoth skin and muscle tissue have been collected before from Siberia’s permafrost, but most cell nuclei were irreparably damaged by ice crystals. In 2008, however, Japan’s Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama figured out how to clone a mouse from cells that had been kept in a deep-freeze for 16 years.

Using Wakayama’s technique, Iritani’s team thinks it can extract mammoth nuclei without damaging it.

If all goes as planned, a baby mammoth could be born in five or six years.


Scientists aim to bring mammoth back to life
Daily Yomiuri

Categories: General