News of the Weird: Week of Jan. 20, 2022

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Bogus, Dude!

At the Tabor, South Dakota, Senior Center, a regular card game got a little weird on Jan. 4 after players enjoyed some brownies supplied by the mother of 46-year-old Michael Koranda. KTIV-TV reported that Koranda, an elementary schoolteacher, had recently traveled to Colorado and brought back some THC-infused butter, which he used to make a batch of brownies. His mother unknowingly shared half the treats with her fellow card players, which resulted in multiple calls to county officials about a possible poisoning. Sheriff's deputies spoke to Koranda and took the remaining brownies as evidence, charging him with possession of a controlled substance. He is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 25.

Unclear on the Concept

On Jan. 7, the California Court of Appeal ruled that the Los Angeles Police Department was justified in its firing of two officers in 2017 after they ignored a robbery call to play Pokemon Go, the Los Angeles Times reported. On April 15, 2017, Louis Lozano and Eric Mitchell were assigned to patrol the LAPD's southwest division. But when a call for backup came over the radio, Lozano and Mitchell were captured on their in-car video responding, "I don't want to be his help" and "Screw it." Instead, they continued their hunt for a Snorlax and Togetic Pokemon, eventually meeting up with their sergeant at a 7-Eleven. When he questioned them about the robbery call, they said they hadn't heard it because they were responding to another call, leading their supervisor to review the dashcam footage. After the officers were fired, they sued, saying that the video captured their "private communications" and that they were improperly questioned. Five years later, the courts disagreed, and Lozano and Mitchell have plenty of time to hunt for Snorlax and Togetic.

Family Values

Cypress Falls High School teacher Sarah Beam took her 13-year-old son to a Houston-area COVID-19 drive-thru testing site on Jan. 3, KHOU-TV reported. When a worker there approached her car, Beam told her that the boy was in the trunk because she didn't want to be exposed to the virus. Police were alerted, and Beam was arrested and charged with endangering a child. While he was not hurt, officials said in the event of an accident, he could have been. But the Cypress Falls community has shown support for Beam, posting messages outside her home to say they "have her back." She was released on bond and put on administrative leave, the school district said.

Awkward

"Ms. Wang," 30, of Zhengzhou, China, agreed to a blind date arranged by her parents ("I'm getting quite old, so my parents arranged more than 10 blind dates for me," she said) and went to the man's home for dinner on Jan. 6. But during the meal, they learned that his community had gone into a rapid lockdown because of COVID-19, and she wouldn't be able to leave for several days, the BBC reported. She posted on WeChat that the situation was "not ideal" -- while he did cook for her, "he doesn't speak much," she noted. "I feel that apart from him being reticent like a wooden mannequin, everything else about him is pretty good." Wang said she thinks his friends alerted him to the posts, so she removed them. "I think it has affected his life."

Boundaries

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in the United Kingdom on Jan. 10 removed the medical license from Simon Bramhall, a transplant surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, The Washington Post reported. The action stemmed from an incident in 2013 in which, after finishing up a transplant, Dr. Bramhall used an electric beam to burn his initials into the patient's liver before closing her up. The flourish might not have been discovered, but the liver began to fail the following week and another surgeon discovered the signature. Bramhall said at the time it was something he did to relieve stress during long, difficult operations. In 2017, he was convicted of assault and fined about $13,000. In 2021, he submitted a letter arguing that he was again fit to practice, but the latest ruling has denied him the right to do so, noting that his actions "undermined" people's trust in the medical profession.

Keeping Up With the Times

In Aksaray, Turkey, one family has been raising cattle for three generations, Oddity Central reported. Izzet Kocak believes their success is linked to their willingness to keep up with modern technology. To that end, the farmer is testing virtual reality goggles that make his cows think they're standing in a green field of grass in the summer. Kocak says the average yield per day from his cows is 22 liters, but "We had two of our cows wear virtual reality glasses and watch vast green pasture all day, and the daily milk production increased up to 27 liters." He said the quality of the milk also increased. He has ordered 10 more pairs of VR goggles, and if results are similar, he plans to order them for all of his 180 cows.

Inexplicable

Need something to do during a snowstorm in Queens, New York? One person had an idea: Around 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 7, someone rode up on an electric bike to a speed camera in Howard Beach. The camera caught the action, Pix11-TV reported, as the person calmly stopped the bike, aimed a handgun and shot multiple rounds at the camera (which did not appear to be damaged), then put the gun away and rode off into the snowy night. Police released the video in hopes someone can identify the shooter.

Recurring Theme

Zane Wedding, 40, of Auckland, New Zealand, went swimming on Jan. 7 and thought he got water in his ear, United Press International reported. He saw a doctor the next day, who suggested he use a hair dryer to evaporate the moisture in his ear. But on Jan. 10, as the sensation persisted, he saw a specialist. "She said, 'I think you have an insect in your ear,'" Wedding said. It took the doctor only five minutes to extract a cockroach, and Wedding felt instant relief: "I felt a pop as soon as the doctor pulled it away." He also noted that a fumigator was scheduled at his home for Jan. 14.

Awesome!

In Baltimore, David Bennett Sr., 57, became the first person to receive a heart transplant using a donor heart from a pig, The Washington Post reported. The eight-hour surgery took place on Jan. 7; Bennett was so sick that he could not qualify for a transplant from another human. Dr. Bartley Griffith, who performed the surgery, said, "It's working and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don't know what tomorrow will bring us. This has never been done before." Scientists have worked to genetically alter pigs so that human bodies would not reject their organs, in an effort to supplement the supply of donor hearts from other people. Bennett, who was convicted of battery in a 1988 stabbing that left a man paralyzed, spent six years in prison. Before the surgery, he admitted, "I know it's a shot in the dark, but it's my last choice." His son said Bennett wished to "contribute to the science and potentially save patient lives in the future."

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