SYDNEY (Reuters) - Sick and tired of souped-up cars with loud engines and pulsing music? Barry Manilow may be the answer.

Officials in one Sydney district have decided to pipe the American crooner’s music over loudspeakers in an attempt to rid streets and car parks of “car hoons” whose anti-social cars and loud music annoy residents and drive customers from businesses.

Following a successful experiment where Bing Crosby music was used to drive teenage loiterers out of an Australian shopping center several years ago, Rockdale councilors believe Manilow is so uncool it might just work.

Story here

ATHENS - A helicopter landed in the middle of the high security Athens Korydallos prison, picked up two prisoners and flew away in a Hollywood-style escape that has left Greek police stunned.

A criminal on the run hijacked the helicopter Sunday to get his brother out of prison, police said. Vassilis Paleokostas, 40, who was serving a 25-year sentence for kidnapping and bank robbery, and an Albanian convict escaped.

“The guards thought it was a surprise inspection by ministry officials and did nothing,” a police official said.

The helicopter pilot, who said he was forced at gunpoint to undertake the mission, flew the inmates to a nearby cemetery and they made their escape on motorbikes. Greek police have launched a manhunt for the convicts.

Source

Imagine going to the grocery store only once every 6 months. Imagine paying less than a dollar per meal. Imagine never washing dishes, chopping vegetables or setting the table ever again. It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

But can a human subsist on a constant diet of pelletized, nutritionally complete food like puppies and monkeys do? For the good of human kind, I’m about to find out. On June 3, 2006, I began my week of eating nothing but monkey chow: “a complete and balanced diet for the nutrition of primates, including the great apes.”

The blog

Massachusetts police are investigating the discovery of large quantities of drugs found inside merchandise from two Home Depot stores in Massachusetts, local police said Wednesday.

According to the Tewksbury Police Department, a contractor late last week discovered two 50 pound “bricks” of marijuana wrapped in plastic bags inside a bathroom vanity he had purchased at a Home Depot (Research) store in Tewksbury, said Chief of Detectives Lt. Dennis Peterson.

The estimated street value of the marijuana is around $145,000, Peterson said.

Similar incidents have occurred in other parts of the state. According to the Southwick Police Department, a plumber on Monday purchased a vanity in western Massachusetts in which he later found 3 kilograms of cocaine and around 40 pounds of marijuana, with a total estimated street value of $250,000.
…

Tewksbury Police and DEA officials conducted a search Tuesday of around 12 Home Depot stores statewide and found other bathroom vanities that contained drugs, Peterson said, though he would not elaborate on how many items were discovered.

In each incident being investigated by Tewksbury Police, all of the merchandise boxes originated from a Texas location and were distributed through one undisclosed Massachusetts warehouse, Peterson said.

“I’m sure the packages were being shipped to the distribution center and someone was supposed to intercept them,” Peterson said. “So that person either wasn’t on duty that day or the packages were marked wrong.”

Via CNN

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A worker accidentally tripping a shut-off switch at a major Ontario plastics plant will cost Nova Chemicals Corp. $11 million in lost profit, the company said on Wednesday, because it won’t be able to fulfill some contracts because of the blunder.

Source

WEST VANCOUVER, CANADA — It was a real-life version of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”–only in reverse–when a woman came home to find a young bear eating oatmeal in her kitchen.

The bear apparently entered through an open sliding glass door, broke a ceramic food container and started eating, West Vancouver police Sgt. Paul Skelton said.

“It sounds like a nursery rhyme, doesn’t it?” Skelton said. “At least we have a health-conscious bear on our hands.”

Three officers who went to the home Thursday couldn’t get the bear to budge, so they let it finish its meal.

“The bear didn’t appear to be aggressive and wasn’t destroying the house, so they just let it do what it was doing,” Skelton said. The bear finally left.

Source