Car bomb in Arkansas

Not much news yet on what exactly has happened, other than a car bomb has exploded in Arkansas

A car bomb explosion critically injured the head of the Arkansas State Medical Board on Wednesday, detonating in his driveway as he was leaving for work, authorities said.

The state will certainly be on high alert, especially to protect others affiliated with the medical board. I wonder if other states will also go on alert or if the DHS threat level meter will move.


Update 2010: Another doctor in Arkansas possessing a “legally owned” grenade launcher was convicted for the bombing, related to his anger about medical board disciplinary measures.

Authorities said Mann was interviewed by federal agents on the day of the bombing and showed them “at least one grenade launcher he legally owned.” However, he was not arrested until a month later, when city employees found partially buried “high explosive rounds designed to be fired from a grenade launcher” in a wooded area of London, Arkansas, authorities said.

Jurors convicted Mann of possession of 98 unregistered grenades and two counts of possessing machine guns, but acquitted him of possessing an unregistered 12-gauge shotgun. Sangeeta Mann was acquitted of lying to a grand jury investigating the unregistered firearms.

Jewel thief alert

The BBC warns that someone is nabbing expensive jewelry across Europe with a slight of hand. It is the case of a thief in headscarf:

A jewel thief dressed as a wealthy Muslim woman has stolen rings worth hundreds of thousands of euros from dealers across Europe, police say.

The woman, wearing a headscarf, coat and gold-framed glasses, is suspected of swapping gems for replicas.

In one incident in Paris, the woman allegedly stole a 5.5 carat diamond ring worth 635,000 euros (£574,000).

The article says it takes a while before staff realize the jewelry has been replaced, and that they often do not have insurance. Classic example of weak controls creating the opportunity for crime. Either the rings are unique and the thief is doing research to replace them with carefully crafted replicas, or these expensive rings are typical examples of bland and uninspired mainstream objects that can be swapped with just about anything and not be noticed.

Deer Season

by Barbara Tanner Angell

My sister and her friend, Johnny Morley,
used to go on Saturdays to the Bancroft Hotel
to visit his grandfather.

One autumn, the beginning of deer season,
the old man told them,

“Used to hunt when I was a boy,
woods all around here then,
but I never went again after that time…

the men went out, took me with them,
and I shot my first buck.
It was wounded, lying in the leaves,

so they told me,
take the pistol, shoot it in the head.
I went straight up to it,
looked right into its eyes.

Just before I pulled the trigger,
it licked my hand.”

Pigeon Smuggler Caught

A strange story from Melbourne’s airport customs describes a man caught with live pigeons down his pants:

They allegedly found in the man’s pocket a multi-vitamin container holding two birds eggs, and a further search revealed he was wearing tights with the two live birds stuffed inside, one in each leg.

Officers also seized a money belt containing plant seeds and undeclared samples of eggplant in the passenger’s baggage before he was handed over to Australian Quarantine and Inspection Services staff.

Eggs and eggplant? You don’t suppose he was hoping to grow more birds? Anything special about these pigeons? The photo is quite disturbing so I won’t republish it here, but you may want to click on the link above and look just to see how someone could carry two pigeons in his pants.