posted 10-15-2012 10:40 AM                       

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WICHITA – Warren Theatres owner Bill Warren is pleased with the latest security measure he’s taken at his theaters except for one small glitch.

Warren instituted new measures at his theaters in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri following the theater shootings in Aurora, Colo., this summer.

“We had good security, but we just looked it over after Aurora and said, ‘Is there anything we can improve?’

“You do things to make it a lot tougher,” Warren says. “I mean, I spent $100,000 doing this.”

The new system is a custom-designed system on all exit doors that immediately sends texts to the phones of Warren managers and security personnel when the doors are opened.

“So they always know what’s going on in theaters for safety reasons,” Warren says.

He says it’s working well except for at the Palace West theater near Kellogg and Ridge.

“We’re getting texts from escort services,” Warren says. “Can you believe that?”

He says the texts have messages such as “Bubbles is in room number five.”

“I think it’s hilarious,” Warren says. “I’m not sure what some of my off-duty officers are thinking about some of that.”

Warren speculates that the texts are happening because of hotels in the area.

“I’m going to spend another $10,000 to change the frequency on that one theater,” he says.

It’s a lot of money, but Warren says he has to do it.

“Well, it’s better than having Bubbles interfere with our security.”

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posted 10-15-2012 11:14 AM                    

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“I’m going to spend another $10,000 to change the frequency on that one theater,” he says.

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posted 10-16-2012 04:35 PM                       

quote: The Daily Telegraph

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Police called to break up violent cat fight in Downing Street

Larry the Downing Street cat and Freya, the Chancellor's moggy, go at it hammer and tongs on the steps of No 10.

Police have been forced to step in to break up a cat fight between Larry the Downing Street cat and Freya, First Moggy of the Treasury.

The two felines were separated after engaging in a full-scale cat fight outside No 10, and retreated spitting to their respective political fiefdoms.

Freyer the silver tabby appeared to have the best of the confrontation, when Larry, who has white and tabby markings, was ordered back inside No 10 to consider his behaviour, leaving the street free for his rival to stalk.

It is not known what caused fur to fly between the feline residents of Nos 10 and 11 Downing Street. Relations between their human occupants are far more amicable than when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were prime minister and chancellor respectively.

However, both political pusses do possess a ferocious reputation. Larry was appointed to the post of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office nearly two years ago, after being adopted from the mean streets of south London via Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

In his first few days at No 10 he took a vicious swipe at television reporter Lucy Manning, although he has shown a gentler side with other visitors, reportedly getting on well with United States President Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Freya was reunited with the Osborne family over the summer after going missing from their former home in Notting Hill, west London, three years ago.

She had been living rough and was recognised and returned to the family only after being taken to the vet by a kindly neighbour, where she was identified her from a microchip beneath her skin.

Asked about the apparently frosty relationship between Larry and Freya, a No 10 spokesman said: "They co-exist."

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posted 11-13-2012 04:05 PM                       

quote: York Evening Press

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A PAY and display parking ticket machine worth about £5000 has been stolen in Ripon.

The machine was taken from the St Marygate car park on Sunday night when thieves ripped it from its concrete base, possibly using a vehicle, police said.

PC Leah Champion said: “If you were in the area of the St Marygate car park and witnessed any suspicious activity I urge you to come forward and contact the police or Crimestoppers straight away.

“I also need to speak to anyone who may have seen people paying unusual attention to pay and display machines in the days prior to the theft.

Anyone who can help police is asked to phone 101.

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posted 11-15-2012 01:23 AM                       

quote:

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A home near Victoria had to be demolished after an oil company got its addresses mixed up and delivered a load of furnace oil to the wrong house.

Terry Phillips had recently bought the house on Adelaide Ave. in Saanich, just north of Victoria.

He was in the midst of renovating it when the oil company arrived and started pumping oil into the underground tank. But unfortunately the tank at his house was no longer in service.

"I had disconnected the oil tank and was getting 200 amp service in for electric heat," said Phillips.
Adelaide Drive, Saanich

"They got the wrong address. They filled up the tank. It went into the ground."

More than 300 litres of fuel spilled into the ground, contaminating the yard and under the house.

David Rogers, with B.C. Hazmat Management, the company doing the cleanup, said it was impossible to save the house because of the extent of the spill.

"Quite often we can dig under the house and support it with concrete. Because of the way it is, and the underground oil tank here, we could not support the house and save it."

The cost of the cleanup and rebuilding of the home is being covered by the oil company's insurance.

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posted 11-23-2012 03:02 PM                       

quote: BBC News Website

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Dundee man accused of 'recklessly producing household electricity'

A Dundee man has been accused of "recklessly producing household electricity" with a bizarre home-made transformer.

Charles McKenzie is alleged to have rigged up a "dangerous transformer assembly" at his flat in Dundee's Dudhope Court to generate power.

Mr McKenzie, 55, was not at Dundee Sheriff Court to face the charge of culpable and reckless conduct.

Sheriff George Way continued the case without plea for three weeks.

Suspended generator

The charge alleges Mr McKenzie "culpably and recklessly" produced electricity "with total disregard for the safety of yourself and others".

Sheriff Way asked: "I don't quite understand - how does one culpably and recklessly produce electricity?"

Fiscal depute Laura Bruce said: "The Crown's position is that he had this man-made assembly in his house suspended from the ceiling by thin ropes.

"There was a car battery and cans of petrol nearby."

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posted 12-02-2012 06:16 AM                       

quote: Daily Mail

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Retired couple claim their £800,000 luxury home must be demolished after oil company flooded it with 500 litres of toxic chemical kerosene by accident

A retired couple say they must knock down and rebuild their £800,000 home, after 500 litres of toxic kerosene was accidentally pumped into it - but their insurers refuse to pay the cost.

The delivery of the highly toxic kerosene had been intended for their neighbours but a new tanker driver picked the wrong pipe and sent it gushing into the side of their house.

Now, 11 months after the accident, Trevor and Elizabeth Piggott have filed a High Court claim for the cost of rebuilding the five-bedroom property to eliminate the toxic vapours that still contaminate it.

Retired businessman Mr Piggott, 66, said: ‘We can’t move back in because it remains contaminated. You can still smell the kerosene in every corner of the house.

‘We simply can’t accept that through no fault of our own we should have our home seriously devalued and left stinking of dangerous chemicals.

‘Our only recourse has been to pay our own costs and go to law to argue that to decontaminate it entirely it would need to be demolished and a new property built.’

The couple were preparing breakfast in their designer kitchen on December 29 last year when disaster struck.

'I wasn't even dressed,' recalled Mrs Piggott, 65. 'We were recovering from having 21 family and friends for Boxing Day and it was one of those lazy mornings between Christmas and New Year.

'We saw the oil tanker pull up outside to deliver next door and Trevor said he was going to have a word with the driver because on recent deliveries they had spilt oil into the hedgerow outside causing it to die back.

'Something distracted us and a couple of minutes later this young man was running up our drive shouting, “Where's your tank?”.

‘The answer was that we don’t have an oil tank as this property has been on Calor gas for 20 years. When Trevor went outside to see what was happening, he found himself paddling in oil. It was the start of a nightmare which is still going on.'

The company, GB Oils, have admitted liability for the error which was caused by a new employee attaching the tanker full of kerosene to the wrong pipe at the front of the properties in the hamlet of Little Billington, Bedfordshire.

Inexplicably, he had not seen the pipe on the right which served the Piggott's neighbours and instead blasted in excess of 500 litres of oil through the redundant pipe which led to the side of their bungalow.

Within seconds the oil dispersed into the clay-built foundations of the £800,000 detached bungalow which stands in five acres of land. Worse still, the vapours from the oil permeated every corner of the home and its contents.

Within hours, GB Oils had sent out a 'spill team' followed by an environmental rep from their insurers with a meter to test for dangerous fumes.

'Wherever he went in the house be it the conversion upstairs or downstairs, his meter was glowing red,' said Mrs Piggott.

'He just said, "This is extremely serious. You can't stay here. You must go to a hotel". The fumes were just overwhelming.

'All the Christmas decorations were up, the fridge was full of food and drink for New Year but we ended up fleeing to a hotel.’

The next day, the spill team fitted an extractor fan to a hole punched through the foundations and told the couple to close the doors and windows to allow it to work effectively. They left at 4pm on Friday, telling them they would be back after the long New Year weekend.

'I remember trying to cook us a meal,' said Mrs Piggott, 'but the fumes were too much. I felt nauseous and had a headache. My husband, who has had a bad heart, was sick and started getting palpitations.

'Despite making endless calls, no-one got back to us until the following Tuesday so we were left to cope with this appalling situation on our own. We ended up retrieving what we could and going to our daughter’s house.’

When their own insurers, Lloyds, sent a loss adjustor to assess the damage, the Piggotts were told that it could be ‘remediated’.

Large trenches have been dug at other end of the property in an attempt to flush out the oil and the Piggott’s have been told that there is no more that the insurance companies are willing to do.

So, 11 months on, the home that had been the hub of their family life, looks like a crime scene with warning tape stretched around it, large holes leading into the foundations and its interior covered in polythene sheeting. The heady smell of chemicals remains.

The Piggott's High Court papers claim damages ‘in excess of £300,000 from the oil company and their home insurers, Lloyds TSB including £60,258.05 for the contents of their home which were ruined in the accident along with losses for personal injury, and costs.

‘Our experts have said that kerosene contains some volatile components and if you can smell them there is a risk to health,’ said Mr Piggott.

‘To decontaminate the house entirely it would need to be demolished and a new property built. Their remediation has not gone far enough.

'At least they should have excavated the entire downstairs, removed the contaminated soil and installed a vapour membrane in the damp proof course.’

The trauma has triggered bouts of insomnia in Mrs Piggott, a mother of four and grandmother of nine.

‘We just woke up one morning and lost our happy home of 14 years,’ she added. 'It is our major asset, our retirement fund and was our pride and joy.

‘You would hope that insurance companies would be there for you. All we seek is a fair and just response to this dreadful incident from those responsible.’

A spokesman for Lloyds TSB said: ‘We are confident that Mr and Mrs Piggot’s home can be restored to its original state with no requirement for demolition, based on the advice we have received from oil spill remediation experts.

‘We appreciate this is a stressful time for our customers and are committed to supporting them through the period of their claim.’

A spokesman for Warrington based GB Oils said: 'All parties are working to ensure an appropriate resolution for those involved. As the case is now a legal matter it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.'

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posted 01-05-2013 03:26 PM                       

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Guards thought there was something suspicious about a little white cat slipping through a prison gate in northeastern Brazil.

A prison official says that when they caught the animal, they found a cellphone, drills, small saws and other contraband taped to its body.

Alagoas state prisons spokeswoman Cinthya Moreno says that the cat was caught New Year's Eve at the medium-security prison in the city of Arapiraca.

The incident took place at a jail in Arapiraca city, 250 kilometres southwest of Recife.

The O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported Saturday that all of the prison's 263 inmates are suspects in the smuggling attempt, though it says a prison spokesman said "It will be hard to discover who is responsible since the cat does not speak."

The items could be used to help someone escape or for communicating with criminals on the outside, said officials.

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Thieves break into office at Microsoft and steal the Apple Ipads, don't bother to take Microsoft products

posted 01-18-2013 11:00 AM                       

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Some botanists are shaking their heads at the new polymer bills because they say the money features a maple leaf from Norway, and not Canada, although that's not how the Bank of Canada sees it.

The Norway maple came to North America in the 18th century, imported by a Philadelphia merchant and peddled as a garden adornment. But lately it has been turning up in all kinds of places, including the official logos of Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., and the FIFA under-20 World Cup of Soccer.

The Canadian Television Fund and the Alliance of Natural History Museums of Canada have also made maple leaf errors, according to botanists.

Sean Blaney, senior botanist of the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre, said he never expected to see the Norway maple leaf on a $20 bill.

"It's a species that's invasive in Eastern Canada and is displacing some of our native species, and it's probably not an appropriate species to be putting on our native currency," Blaney told CBC News.
A 'stylized blend' of Canadian maple species

The Bank of Canada, which makes the banknotes, denied the bills include a Norway maple leaf. A spokesperson said the leaf is a stylized blend of different Canadian maple species.

'This could not be confused with a native species of Canada.'—Julian Starr, plant identification expert

But Blaney argued it looks nothing like any of the 10 maples native to Canada.

"It seems a bit like an after-the-fact explanation to me. The bottom line is that, the image on the bill looks exactly like a Norway maple, however it was derived," he said.

University of Ottawa Prof. Julian Starr, also a research scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, specializes in plant identification and classification.

He has been consulted by the Royal Canadian Mint about the botanical accuracy of its coins, but he was not shown this maple leaf.

"This could not be confused with a native species of Canada," said Starr. "It basically looks like a Norway maple."

There are 400 million bank notes already in circulation, including $20, $50 and $100 bills. There are plans to print another 1.2 billion more bank notes, including $5 and $10 bills.

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posted 02-08-2013 12:03 PM                       

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Police in Victoria, B.C., say an accidental pocket dialing incident caused problems for 911 operators and one worried local mom this week.

Const. Mike Russell says Victoria's 911 communications centre received a call from a frantic mother who got a call from her daughter’s cell phone and heard terrified screams.

It turned out the daughter was at a horror movie and had inadvertently called her mother.

"And all she could hear on the other end of the line was screaming and yelling. It sounded like a very big struggle going on,” Russell said.

“So we actually had to have our … staff try to get a hold of the daughter, and with so many pocket dials and abandoned 911s, it's certainly creating an extra burden for our officers and for our communications centre staff.”

Russell says Victoria police have had to deal with 828 accidental calls to 911 in the past six weeks.

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posted 03-04-2013 06:41 PM                       

quote:

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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — A central California retirement home is defending one of its nurses who refused pleas by a 911 operator to perform CPR on an elderly woman who later died, saying the nurse was following policy.

“Is there anybody that’s willing to help this lady and not let her die,” dispatcher Tracey Halvorson says on a 911 tape released by the Bakersfield Fire Department aired by several media outlets on Sunday.

“Not at this time,” said the nurse, who didn’t give her full name and said facility policy prevented her from giving the woman medical help.

At the beginning of the Tuesday morning call, the nurse asked for paramedics to come and help the 87-year-old woman who had collapsed in the home’s dining room and was barely breathing.

Halvorson pleads for the nurse to perform CPR, and after several refusals she starts pleading for her to find a resident, or a gardener, or anyone not employed by the home to get on the phone, take her instructions and help the woman.

“Can we flag someone down in the street and get them to help this lady?” Halvorson says on the call. “Can we flag a stranger down? I bet a stranger would help her.”

The woman was later declared dead at Mercy Southwest Hospital, officials said.

The executive director of Glenwood Gardens, Jeffrey Toomer, defended the nurse’s actions, saying she did indeed follow policy.

“In the event of a health emergency at this independent living community our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives,” Toomer said in a written statement. “That is the protocol we followed.”

Toomer offered condolences to the woman’s family and said a “thorough internal review” of the incident would be conducted.

He told KGET-TV that residents of the home’s independent living community are informed of the policy and agree to it when they move in. He said the policy does not apply at the adjacent assisted living and skilled nursing facilities.

A call to the facility by The Associated Press seeking more information was not immediately returned.

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