Offbeat - News April 19, 2011

See Offbeat Weather

South Carolina cat comes down after spending 9 days in tree, owners upset with local officials (The Hartford Courant)
Buster has finally come down from a 150-foot pine tree in northwestern South Carolina after nine days, but the cat's owners aren't happy with local officials.

Woman freed from jaws of python by policeman (WGNO)
A Kansas woman faces a charge of harboring a vicious animal after her pet python grabbed onto her neck and would not let go until a police officer intervened.

NYC man slapped with 643 summonses (KXAM-TV Austin)
A New York City man has been mistakenly hit with 643 summonses totaling $48,000. The Sanitation Department issued the tickets to 72-year-old Levy Zelishovsky for illegally posting fliers around Brooklyn advertising a moving company.

Moonwalking lawmaker told to put dance shoes away (Kansas City Star)
A moonwalking politician might not be the best reason to pay attention to Romanian politics, but the antics seem to be working.Edmond Talmacean, a 40-year-old Bucharest politician, has inspired national headlines with his Michael Jackson-inspired moonwalk on a television show and his impersonations of the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

Nesting birds attack Florida shoppers (WOODTV)
It's a real-life version of Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds" in South Florida.

Mansion linked to 'Great Gatsby' razed (WLUK-TV Green Bay)
A 25-room New York mansion that some scholars believe inspired "The Great Gatsby" is being razed for a subdivision.

Viral YouTube hit iTr3vor gets the NMA News treatment (examiner)
iTr3vor (or Trevor) goes into his local Apple store and records videos of himself dancing to the songs, using publicly usable Macs. Sometimes, Apple store employees and customers even participate. He's got 22,226 subscribers to his YouTube channel, and his own website.

U.K. nuclear submarine secrets revealed by human error (examiner)
Human error led the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) to expose secret information on the Internet about the U.K.'s nuclear powered submarine force. The error was done by blacking out, or redacting parts of the information, but in such a way that it was easy to still read it.

Jailbird confesses to more crimes to stay in jail away from family (weirdwebtoday)
A Chinese prisoner opted to confess to previously unknown crimes so he could stay in jail and away from his estranged family.

Oops! White iPhone 4s briefly for sale at 3, until web page pulled down (examiner)
The white iPhone 4 went on sale on Monday, April 18. Unfortunately, it was only for a short period, which means the web page was probably published accidentally. Still, it's another sign that the mythical unicorn that is the white iPhone 4 will soon be real, not fantasy.

Judge rules against lawyers' wigs (KASA-TV Albuquerque)
A judge has asked lawyers to shed their wigs next time they appear before her at the International Criminal Court.

Pet pig returned to Pa. couple by town officials (The Modesto Bee)
A wayward pet pig whose residency was challenged by Pennsylvania township officials has been returned to his owners.

More Offbeat News...