Turnabouts fair play? Colorado woman gropes female TSA agent!

Lately all the news has been about TSA officials groping everything from babies to 95-year-olds with diapers. Here’s a rather odd case of the tables being turned: 

“Authorities say a Colorado woman who allegedly groped a female Transportation Security Administration agent at Phoenix's international airport is facing a felony count of sexual abuse.

Phoenix police say 61-year-old Yukari Mihamae is accused of grabbing the left breast of the unidentified TSA agent Thursday at an airport checkpoint.

TSA spokesperson Kawika Riley confirmed the altercation to msnbc.com in a statement: "On July 14 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, local law enforcement arrested a passenger for assaulting a TSA officer during the screening process." 

TSA staff say Mihamae refused to be go through passenger screening and became argumentative before she squeezed and twisted the agent's breast with both hands. Police were called and say Mihamae admitted grabbing the TSA agent and continued to argue with officers before she was arrested.”

And the victor in the great LA bike-vs.-plane race is ...

Faster than a jet plane — that would be the bicyclists of Wolfpack Hustle.

Six bicyclists from the group, a loose collective of L.A. cyclists, were trying to see if they could beat a passenger on a JetBlue flight from Burbank to Long Beach, and they succeeded by a wide margin,the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

The "Carmageddon" challenge was born after JetBlue offered $4 plane rides from Burbank to Long Beach to get around the weekend closure of Interstate 405 in the northern part of the metropolitan area. An online article in Slate helped the challenge take shape.

The bicyclists and a blogger left a North Hollywood intersection at 10:50 a.m. The blogger had to drive to the airport for a 12:20 p.m. flight, then get a ride to the finish line at the Long Beach aquarium.

The cyclists took a route along the Los Angeles River, the Times reported, and made it in one hour and 34 minutes. They arrived at the finish just as the JetBlue flight was taking off — a victory for bicyclists trying to get fellow Los Angelenos to get out of the car once in a while to get some exercise on their commute.

Owl imprint on windshield, exorcists meet to tackle vampires, and say hello to the friendly ‘Fracosaurus’

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Grab a cup of Joe while we go through a few headlines this morning:

Ghostly Owl image left on car windshield

An imprint of an owl is left on a window pane after the bird crashed into the window. Sally Arnold returned home to Kendal, Cumbria, and found the huge imprint complete with eyes, beak and feathers on her bedroom window. The silhouette was left by the bird’s ‘powder down’ - a substance protecting growing feathers.

Picture: PA / RSPB

Exorcists meet in Poland, tackle vampires

Vampires, the devil's deceit and mental illness are among the hot topics for some 300 exorcists who flocked to Poland this week from as far away as Africa and India for a week-long congress.

Held at Poland's Roman Catholic Jasna Gora monastery, home to the venerated Black Madonna icon, this year's congress "examines the current fashion for vampirism in Europe and the world-over, schizophrenia and other mental disorders as well as the devil's deceit during exorcism," according to the monastery's radio station.

Gas driller dumps dino-themed coloring book

A natural gas drilling company says it's no longer distributing a children's coloring book featuring a hard hat-wearing dinosaur that's been criticized by a Massachusetts congressman and lampooned by Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert.

Talisman Energy says "Talisman Terry's Energy Adventure" is no longer being distributed following a barrage of criticism.

Critics called the coloring book's depiction of land before and after drilling overly rosy.

 The post-drilling image adds a rainbow and an eagle to the scene where the hydraulic fracturing drilling process took place. U.S. Rep. Ed Markey mocked the depiction of the "friendly Fracosaurus" in remarks last week on drilling safety. Colbert spoofed the book earlier this week.

Time to walk on down the road…

Lighthouse Keepers–a poem by Captain Stetson Turner

Lighthouse keepers have it easy
   All year long their homes are breezy;
Noises don’t disturb their labors,
   For they haven’t any neighbors.
They don’t need big wastebaskets
   For old papers, orange peels, or gaskets;
Just one careless motion
   And their trash drops in the ocean.

They don’t need nine holes or twenty,
   They get exercise aplenty;
One trip up the spiral stairway
   Equals three around the fairway.
Window shades are never needed,
   They can dress or strip unheeded;
Wakeful brats don’t have conniptions,
   Neighbors don’t give long descriptions.

When I’m old and don't need pity,
   I shall leave the sullied city,
Climb a lighthouse, bar the door,
   And trim my wicks forevermore.

                                                                                                                      Photo via Stumbleupon

No surprise to dog owners: study suggest canines/wolves adept at reading people's minds

To anyone who is familiar with the eerily human-like qualities of man's best friend, the news that dogs can read your mind shouldn't come as any surprise.

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I’ve suspected my pug Millie (shown here) has been able to read my feeble mind since she was a pup 8 years ago!

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The latest research adds to growing evidence that dogs can interpret both human body language and general behavior, and use it to their advantage.

"Dogs and [human-raised] wolves are capable of distinguishing between a person looking at them, someone who's paying attention and someone who's not," said Monique A.R. Udell, lead author of a study published recently in the journal Learning & Behavior. "They're more likely to beg [for food] from someone paying attention to them." More here

Marilyn Monroe statue unveiled on Chicago's Magnificent Mile

It's true, Chicago. The top half of the "mysterious" 26-foot sculpture on Michigan Avenue was unveiled Friday to be Marilyn Monroe.

Friday morning's unveiling of New Jersey-based artist Seward Johnson's new sculpture confirmed suspicions.

Marilyn will strike her closed-eye, classic pose until spring 2012, at which time the artist will put up a new statue.

What a nice salute for this icon of American beauty!

source

Bracing for ‘Carmageddon’, Shaq turns sports analyst, and watching giant crocodiles jump

Good Morning Humboldt County!

It’s time to check out a few headlines and to have a cup of coffee, or tea. Relax. You don’t have to face the traffic in LA this weekend.

City of Angels braces for its 'Carmageddon'

The City of Angels is on edge as the hours tick off until "Carmageddon" — the shutdown of a 10-mile stretch of one of the busiest highways in the United States, on one of the city's busiest summer weekends.Will it bring traffic to a standstill like a scene out of a summer disaster movie? Or fail to come to pass, like other apocalypse predictions?

Shaquille O’Neal joins Turner Sports as analyst

The calls came as soon as Shaquille O’Neal(notes) decided to retire, all wanting to hire one of the NBA’s greatest entertainers.TNT’s “Inside the NBA” studio show had been O’Neal’s favorite as a player, so the choice was easy.

Get ready for the Big Analyzer, Big Commentator, or whatever other nickname he takes in the next phase of his career. O’Neal agreed Thursday to a multiyear deal with Turner Sports to become an analyst on its NBA coverage, where he will fold his 7-foot-1 frame into the fourth chair on the TNT set alongside Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This monster croc weighs about 2000 pounds and is 18 feet long!

 

 Jumping Crocs in Australia

The giant croc – his name is Brutus - shown in this video is said to be over 70 years old. He lost one of his front legs in a fight with a shark. He’s 18 feet long, but is not the dominant croc in the area. That honor belongs to the “Dominator” who is over 20 feet long! This is one tourist attraction I’d pass on.

 Time to head on down the road…

Don’t worry boss! I’m on that Foxes scent like flies on feces!

He’s behind you!

Meet the world’s worst hunting dog.

This beagle failed to spot the fox behind him.

The dog had strayed too close to a den containing four fox cubs, but their protective parents stood their ground.

Naturalist and photographer Mircea Costina captured the scene in a forest north of Montreal, Canada.

Picture: Mircea Costina / Rex Features

Somewhere under the Moonbow, down a Maui blowhole, and severe erosion along the West Coast

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Grab a cup of Joe and let’s go. There’s always something different like a moonbow:

Somewhere under the moonbow

Here’s something you don’t see every day — in fact, you can only experience it at night. It’s called a moonbow and if you’re at Yosemite National Park this weekend, you might want to consider staying up late to catch a glimpse.

As the lunar equivalent of rainbows, moonbows are created when moonlight shines on droplets of water. And with its abundant waterfalls and clear, artificial light-free skies, Yosemite is an ideal place to watch for moonbows, especially on July 15 during the next full moon.

Tourists saw Calif. man fall into Maui blow hole

Witnesses who watched a Northern California man get sucked into a Maui blow hole to his apparent death say that the tourist was dancing around and frolicking in the sprays of water moments before a wave knocked him down.

In this Saturday, July 9, 2011 photo provided and shot by Rocco Piganelli, Piper Piganelli, Marley Meyer, and Maddie Meyer, lower left, pose for a photo Piganelli says was taken moments before a man, in the spray at right, fell to his apparent death in a blow hole at Nakalele Point in Maui, Hawaii. Piganelli, of La Jolla, Calif., told The Associated Press that he watched the man spiral down the blowhole, pop up briefly before disappearing when the next wave hit. The 44-year-old man, identified as David Potts of San Anselmo, Calif., has not been found since Saturday afternoon. (AP Photo/Rocco Piganelli)

Battered West Coast a lesson on warming, study finds

Severe erosion along the West Coast during the winter of 2009-2010 offers a look at, and lessons for, a warming world with rising sea levels, a new study finds.

A natural El Nino cycle that warms the Pacific Ocean produced those severe conditions, but computer models suggest that similar damage could come from sea level rise tied to human-caused greenhouse gases.

"If these trends continue," U.S. government and academic experts wrote in their study, "the combination of large waves and higher water levels, particularly when enhanced by El Ninos, can be expected to be more frequent in the future, resulting in greater risk of coastal erosion, flooding, and cliff failures."

Lead author Patrick Barnard, a coastal geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told msnbc.com that the study serves as a platform "to understand the broad coastal impact of conditions we are likely to experience more frequently in the future."

Time to walk on down the road…

Comments on some of today’s headlines…

I read where a grief-stricken Hamid Karzai climbed into his assassinated brother's grave this morning. I have one observation to make, “Someone should have hurriedly filled it up when he was in there! 

I’m not thrilled with the Fed's new money policy: 'Wait and see'

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke was on Capitol Hill today testifying on the central bank's latest strategies for getting the economy back on a stronger footing.

Is it just me, or does this sound like a scene out of “Fantasy Island” where everything magically works out by the end of the episode?

File me under, “Paranoid to fly these days.” When I see things like Scientists questioning cancer risks from exposure to full-body scanners, I add that to a growing list of concerns.

Budget talks between President Barack Obama and his GOP rivals are at a frustrating standstill, leading a top Republican to launch a long-shot proposal to give Obama sweeping new powers to muscle through an increase in the government's debt limit without the approval of a bitterly divided Congress. If that happens I’ll start believing in the Easter Bunny and The Great Pumpkin.

Watching the Murdoch empire crumble has been the highlight of the week thus far for me. Now investors are asking what might be the broader impact on Murdoch’s global News Corp. empire, which includes the Fox broadcast network, cable channels such as FX and Fox News, television stations, the 20th Century Fox movie studio and newspapers around the world, including The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Sun in the U.K.

"This is going to have ripple effects over in the U.S., too, but it may take a while for it to all play out," predicted newspaper analyst Ken Doctor of Outsell Inc. Republicans throughout the country are probably really concerned their going to lose their “Voice,” on national TV (Fox execs are hiding beneath their desks waiting for the outcome) under the guise of a real news affiliate.

Can you imagine what would happen if Justin tried putting a move on Cpl. De Santis when she wasn’t interested? She’d kick his ass all the way down the Halls of Montezuma!

Not to be outdone, a female Marine wants a date with Justin Timberlake

After Justin Timberlake nudged Mila Kunis into accepting a Marine's invitation to be his date for the Marine Corps Ball, another Marine had a similar idea: put Justin Timberlake on the spot, too. Cpl. Kelsey De Santis, currently serving as the only female at the Martial Arts Center for Excellence at Marine Corps Base Quantico, has made a YouTube video inviting Timberlake to be her date for the Ball, taking place Nov. 12 in Washington, D.C.

Can you imagine what would happen if Justin tried putting a move on Cpl. De Santis when she wasn’t interested? She’d kick his ass all the way down the Halls of Montezuma!