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aricadavidsonWow, Baton Rouge made odd news today. See the first article.
DNA Tests Ordered for Urine Toolbox Prank Tue Feb 28, 7:04 PM ET
BATON ROUGE, La. - A Baton Rouge hospital, hoping to get to the bottom of an office prank, is ordering 25 employees to undergo DNA testing or be terminated.
Leaders at Woman's Hospital say a man who works in Building Operations returned from several weeks off to find that someone had placed urine in his toolbox.
After hearing of the incident, hospital administrators sent a memo to 25 employees who also work there telling them that DNA testing would be done unless someone came forward admitting guilt. Since no one came forward, the hospital said the DNA testing will begin within the next few weeks.
"We checked with our legal counsel first and this is the next step in using technology to help solve a workplace incident," hospital supervisor Stan Shelton said Monday.
The DNA testing, to be conducted by ReliaGene Technologies of New Orleans, will cost the hospital $25,000, he said.
Attorney Jill Craft worked with litigation involving swabs taken during the investigation into the South Louisiana serial killer cases. Craft fought for the rights of those swabbed during the probe that eventually resulted in the arrest of Derrick Todd Lee.
Craft said she believed the employees' rights are being violated. "It's the intrusion by finding out what your DNA looks like, your unique pattern, which in my opinion, violates someone's right to privacy," she said.
Problems with his pasport...
You might have the best forgery skills in the world, but it is not much use if you cannot spell.
A Cyprus court jailed Pakistani national Fazal Ur Rehman for eight months for forgery after police spotted spelling mistakes on stamps on an Afghan passport he was carrying -- otherwise it was a near-perfect copy, the Cyprus Mail said Wednesday.
"Ministry" was spelled "Menistry" and the first "n" was missing from government, the newspaper said.
"The passport looked perfect and professionally made ... almost deemed original by forensics," a police officer told a magistrate in the Cypriot capital Nicosia.
You can't force cats to do anything... By Claudia Parsons
2 hours, 9 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Russian clown Yuri Kuklachev has a troupe of cats who do handstands, crawl along high wires and balance on balls and he says the secret to training them is realizing that you can't force cats to do anything.
"The Moscow Cats Theater" came to New York in September and did so well at a small theater in the Tribeca neighborhood that it recently moved uptown to a bigger venue near Times Square, where it is close to Broadway giants such as "The Lion King," although not the musical "Cats," which closed in 2000.
Kuklachev started working with cats more than 30 years ago after adopting a stray kitten he named Koutchka. He now has 120 cats in Moscow and has brought 26 of them to New York.
"If the cat likes to sit you can't force her to do anything else," he said, adding that several of the cats in the New York show simply sit and watch the others.
"Each cat likes to do her own trick," said Kuklachev, whose show has not been the target of animal rights protesters. "Maruska is the only one who does the handstand. I find the cat and see what they like to do and use that in the show."
Kuklachev's cats apparently like to be swung precariously around his head balanced on hoops, to be shut up in a cooking pot and to walk on their hind legs pushing a child's stroller.
"I have a cat now that loves to be in the water," he said.
Kuklachev said the breed of cat made no difference to their abilities, although Persians tended to be lazy. He adopts cats from shelters and trains the offspring of the cats he has.
BOOK IN THE WORKS
Sharing his secrets over caviar and blintzes in Brighton Beach, a New York neighborhood known as Little Russia, Kuklachev said he plans to write a book about how to train cats since so many people are asking him.
Kuklachev, 56, said his cat-training method also can be applied to children.
"Parents need to watch their children to see what he or she likes to do and encourage this," he said, adding that it worked for his three children.
One child joined Kuklachev at the cat theater, one is a dancer and one is a painter who paints cats.
"If you do the same thing with your child as you do with your cat, he may not become a genius but he'll do whatever he enjoys doing," Kuklachev said.
He has had about 300 cats in his life and says every one had a different personality. Only one did not want to go on stage because she was already an adult when he got her.
Kuklachev says the show, which also includes his wife Yelena, is a hit because people everywhere love their pets. He chuckles as he recalls a friend who bought a hamster for $10 and spent $300 on surgery when it got sick.
"You're a better person when you love animals," he said.
Boy, 12, Sticks Gum on $1.5M Painting Tue Feb 28, 7:40 PM ET
DETROIT - A 12-year-old visitor to the Detroit Institute of Arts stuck a wad of gum to a $1.5 million painting, leaving a stain the size of a quarter, officials say.
The boy was part of a school group from Holly that visited the museum on Friday, officials say. They say he took a piece of Wrigley's Extra Polar Ice gum out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler's "The Bay," an abstract painting from 1963.
The museum acquired the work in 1965 and says it is worth about $1.5 million.
The gum stuck to the painting's lower left corner and did not adhere to the fiber of the canvas, officials told the Detroit Free Press. But it left a chemical residue about the size of a quarter, said Becky Hart, assistant curator of contemporary art.
The museum's conservation department is researching the chemicals in the gum to decide which solvent to use to clean it. The museum hopes to make the repair in two weeks and will keep "The Bay" on display in the meantime, she said.
"Our expectation is that the painting is going to be fine," Hart said.
Holly Academy director Julie Kildee said the boy had been suspended from the charter school and says his parents also have disciplined him.
"Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behavior and we hold students to high standards, he is only 12 and I don't think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now," said Kildee.
DNA Tests Ordered for Urine Toolbox Prank Tue Feb 28, 7:04 PM ET
BATON ROUGE, La. - A Baton Rouge hospital, hoping to get to the bottom of an office prank, is ordering 25 employees to undergo DNA testing or be terminated.
Leaders at Woman's Hospital say a man who works in Building Operations returned from several weeks off to find that someone had placed urine in his toolbox.
After hearing of the incident, hospital administrators sent a memo to 25 employees who also work there telling them that DNA testing would be done unless someone came forward admitting guilt. Since no one came forward, the hospital said the DNA testing will begin within the next few weeks.
"We checked with our legal counsel first and this is the next step in using technology to help solve a workplace incident," hospital supervisor Stan Shelton said Monday.
The DNA testing, to be conducted by ReliaGene Technologies of New Orleans, will cost the hospital $25,000, he said.
Attorney Jill Craft worked with litigation involving swabs taken during the investigation into the South Louisiana serial killer cases. Craft fought for the rights of those swabbed during the probe that eventually resulted in the arrest of Derrick Todd Lee.
Craft said she believed the employees' rights are being violated. "It's the intrusion by finding out what your DNA looks like, your unique pattern, which in my opinion, violates someone's right to privacy," she said.
Problems with his pasport...
You might have the best forgery skills in the world, but it is not much use if you cannot spell.
A Cyprus court jailed Pakistani national Fazal Ur Rehman for eight months for forgery after police spotted spelling mistakes on stamps on an Afghan passport he was carrying -- otherwise it was a near-perfect copy, the Cyprus Mail said Wednesday.
"Ministry" was spelled "Menistry" and the first "n" was missing from government, the newspaper said.
"The passport looked perfect and professionally made ... almost deemed original by forensics," a police officer told a magistrate in the Cypriot capital Nicosia.
You can't force cats to do anything... By Claudia Parsons
2 hours, 9 minutes ago
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Russian clown Yuri Kuklachev has a troupe of cats who do handstands, crawl along high wires and balance on balls and he says the secret to training them is realizing that you can't force cats to do anything.
"The Moscow Cats Theater" came to New York in September and did so well at a small theater in the Tribeca neighborhood that it recently moved uptown to a bigger venue near Times Square, where it is close to Broadway giants such as "The Lion King," although not the musical "Cats," which closed in 2000.
Kuklachev started working with cats more than 30 years ago after adopting a stray kitten he named Koutchka. He now has 120 cats in Moscow and has brought 26 of them to New York.
"If the cat likes to sit you can't force her to do anything else," he said, adding that several of the cats in the New York show simply sit and watch the others.
"Each cat likes to do her own trick," said Kuklachev, whose show has not been the target of animal rights protesters. "Maruska is the only one who does the handstand. I find the cat and see what they like to do and use that in the show."
Kuklachev's cats apparently like to be swung precariously around his head balanced on hoops, to be shut up in a cooking pot and to walk on their hind legs pushing a child's stroller.
"I have a cat now that loves to be in the water," he said.
Kuklachev said the breed of cat made no difference to their abilities, although Persians tended to be lazy. He adopts cats from shelters and trains the offspring of the cats he has.
BOOK IN THE WORKS
Sharing his secrets over caviar and blintzes in Brighton Beach, a New York neighborhood known as Little Russia, Kuklachev said he plans to write a book about how to train cats since so many people are asking him.
Kuklachev, 56, said his cat-training method also can be applied to children.
"Parents need to watch their children to see what he or she likes to do and encourage this," he said, adding that it worked for his three children.
One child joined Kuklachev at the cat theater, one is a dancer and one is a painter who paints cats.
"If you do the same thing with your child as you do with your cat, he may not become a genius but he'll do whatever he enjoys doing," Kuklachev said.
He has had about 300 cats in his life and says every one had a different personality. Only one did not want to go on stage because she was already an adult when he got her.
Kuklachev says the show, which also includes his wife Yelena, is a hit because people everywhere love their pets. He chuckles as he recalls a friend who bought a hamster for $10 and spent $300 on surgery when it got sick.
"You're a better person when you love animals," he said.
Boy, 12, Sticks Gum on $1.5M Painting Tue Feb 28, 7:40 PM ET
DETROIT - A 12-year-old visitor to the Detroit Institute of Arts stuck a wad of gum to a $1.5 million painting, leaving a stain the size of a quarter, officials say.
The boy was part of a school group from Holly that visited the museum on Friday, officials say. They say he took a piece of Wrigley's Extra Polar Ice gum out of his mouth and stuck it on Helen Frankenthaler's "The Bay," an abstract painting from 1963.
The museum acquired the work in 1965 and says it is worth about $1.5 million.
The gum stuck to the painting's lower left corner and did not adhere to the fiber of the canvas, officials told the Detroit Free Press. But it left a chemical residue about the size of a quarter, said Becky Hart, assistant curator of contemporary art.
The museum's conservation department is researching the chemicals in the gum to decide which solvent to use to clean it. The museum hopes to make the repair in two weeks and will keep "The Bay" on display in the meantime, she said.
"Our expectation is that the painting is going to be fine," Hart said.
Holly Academy director Julie Kildee said the boy had been suspended from the charter school and says his parents also have disciplined him.
"Even though we give very strict guidelines on proper behavior and we hold students to high standards, he is only 12 and I don't think he understood the ramifications of what he did before it happened, but he certainly understands the severity of it now," said Kildee.
