WTF Stories of the Week

[Kevy Baby]

From a link in GD's link above: Crickets invade San Antonio, TX.

NSFBTD and NSFDP


Although my reps would be in heaven

[alphabassettgrrl]

The little teeny scooter is cute! Great piece of equipment for those of limited mobility, but likely to increase the obesity factor among the lazy.

[lashbear]

I don't see the ASIMO Stool being suitable for anyone over 220 lb. I'd be afraid of coughing and having it disappear...

[SzczerbiakManiac]

...and becoming a different kind of stool?

[Kevy Baby]

I have oft thought of starting a Stupid Criminals thread. Until I do, I shall post this story here.

Thief Temporarily Makes Off With iPhone During GPS Tracking Demo

The San Francisco Chronicle relates the story of a thief who earlier this week briefly made off with an iPhone snatched right from a woman's hand in the city's South of Market neighborhood, not knowing that the phone was being used in a demonstration of real-time GPS tracking. The thief was apprehended about ten minutes later with the help of the location tracking.

Kahn said he had asked an assistant, Jordan Sturm, to take his phone out on the sidewalk so he could track her location on his laptop. Seconds after she left, though, a curious thing happened. She appeared -- according to Alert & Respond -- to be running at high speed down the street.

But Sturm no longer had the phone. After she hurried back into the office, she called police and the company relayed the phone's ever-changing location to officers.

Alert & Respond is a product from Covia Labs designed for first responders such as law enforcement agencies to enable real-time location tracking and to permit officers to share various communication methods across mobile device platforms and agencies.

Source

[Ghoulish Delight]

I found this absolutely beautiful. Something about the pace of it all, and the certainty. I bet he really enjoyed that bottle of wine.

[Kevy Baby]

When the lava, moving at a pace of 254 feet every 24 hours, reached the house, it ignited Sleik’s staircase.

254 feet every 24 hours ≈
10.58 feet per hour ≈
2.1 inches per minute

Only cuz I was curious

[alphabassettgrrl]

I can only imagine the emotions going through the head of that guy. Does he keep the property ownership? What happens to his home loan?

I hope it was a really good bottle of wine.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

There must be some way this is dealt with in HI...Brad?

[Alex]

You still own the land (assuming the rules haven't changed in the last decade or so and you owned it in the first place, a lot of Hawaii property is leasehold meaning you own the house but lease the land), it will just be difficult for you to do anything with it for a very long time (though there are parts of the 1990 eruption that are already being developed over). If I'm remembering correctly, it is somewhat common for people who's land is lost to lava to donate it back to the county/state in order to get away from paying property taxes.

As for the property losses, you can get homeowner's insurance that covers damage and loss of use. There's a regular debate about how much the state should do to encourage/discourage development in risky areas. It's pretty much like the debates you see in flood prone areas and just like the Federal Flood Insurance Program is criticized as encouraging risky development there's a state insurance program in Hawaii that does the same thing for people who aren't able to find private insurers for their property.

At least that's the way of it as I remember from when I lived there and discussed it with classmates who lived on the Big Island. I'm sure Brad will set me straight if needed.