Eric Pfeiffer

MTA officials in New York City are looking for an unidentified man caught on video taking a dangerous ride outside a subway car:

“The act shown in this video is both stupid and dangerous. We have referred it to the Transit Bureau of the NYPD for investigation,” MTA spokesman Charles Seaton said Tuesday.

The 3 minute video, aptly titled, “Idiot Rides Outside the Subway Car,” was posted to YouTube by the account ViralVideosPlanet. You can watch the full video here.

A Massachusetts couple called 911 asking to be rescued after becoming lost in a Halloween corn maze that the owners say takes the average person 45 minutes to complete: 

After about an hour in the maze, darkness began to fall. The couple, who were there with their 3-week-old baby, were unable to find a way out. As the mosquitoes started to descend, they placed a desperate call to 911 asking to be rescued.

Seven minutes into the call, police were able to track down the couple and their baby. Police have released an audio recording of the 911 call. Here’s a partial transcript:

Woman in tears: Hi,  I just called. I’m still stuck at Connors Farms. I don’t see anybody. I’m really scared. It’s really dark and we’ve got a 3-week-old.

Police officer: Your husband is with you?

Woman: Yes. But my baby…

Police officer: A police officer is on the way. Can you put your husband on the phone?

Husband: I see lights over there at the place, but we can’t get there, we’re smack right in the middle of the corn field.

Woman: I don’t know what made us do this, it was daytime when we came in, we thought if we came in someone would come in and find us… We can hear [the police officers]… Oh, my goodness. The mosquitoes are eating us alive, and I never took my daughter out, this is the first time. Never again.

Woman: This is embarrassing.

Rob Sloan, who placed third in this year’s Kiedler Marathon in London, was forced to admit he accomplished his “unbelievably tough” feat by riding a bus for a large stretch of the race:

“People in cars following the bus saw him get on and off. People saw him run through the bushes — we had him hook, line and sinker,”Dave Roberts, one of the marathon organizers, told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Rob was distraught at having to come clean.”

Suspicions arose when it was discovered that Sloan had won a 10 kilometer race the day before. He said he became exhausted after the marathon’s first 20 miles and spent the final 6.5 miles riding a public bus until emerging near the finish line. Sloan is now scheduled to appear in local court, where he is expected to be banned from competing in future marathons. More importantly, the marathon’s organizers are traveling to Edinburgh to award Steven Cairns his third place trophy:

“I was third the whole way but somehow I crossed the line and was given fourth!” Cairns said on hisFacebook page. “I started to doubt myself as he was adamant he had gone past me. I could understand him taking the goody bag and the T-shirt but to do the press interview claiming he was third…”

There’s another strange golfing story in the news today and this one involves killer sharks that have invaded a golf course in Australia. 

Specifically, half a dozen bullsharks are now living in a lake near the center of a popular Queensland golf course:

The sharks got onto the Queensland golf course when it flooded some years ago after a river broke its banks. They became stranded when the water receded, but now they are thriving and even breeding. “You can’t believe how close you are…just six feet away,” club general manager Scott Wagstaff said. “There’s no drama, it’s become a positive thing for the golf course. They are amazing. I’ve become a shark lover since working here.”

The sharks have actually become a local attraction, with players sometimes tossing in a snack for the sharks, who often can be spotted swimming within an arm’s reach of the lake’s shoreline. 

Local children used to jump in the lake to retrieve lost golf balls, but that’s no longer the case with the 8-10 foot bullsharks on the scene, known as one of the most aggressive and dangerous sharks on the planet.

Watch a video of the lake sharks here.

Yes, that headline is 100% accurate. Someone was arrested yesterday after throwing a hot dog at Tiger Woods.

The unnamed spectator was attending the Frys.com Open in San Martin, CA when he inexplicably raced onto the golf course and threw his hot dog at Tiger Woods during the tournament’s final round. As if the story itself wasn’t strange enough, consider some of the quotes:

“I turned around and the hot dog was in the air,” Woods said, via Reuters. “I guess he wanted to be in the news.

 

According to Arjun Atwal, who played with Woods in the final round, the bun landed by the man and the hot dog flew across Woods’ putting line. “Just the dog flew out,” Atwal said. It was a surreal scene, Atwal said. “That guy could have got shot, the way he ran out with that hot dog,” said Atwal, who fired a 67. “The cops there could have thought it was something else.”

After launching the hot dog, the man immediately surrendered to the police. Sgt. Jose Cardoza described him as “cooperative” though unable to explain his actions:

The man, according to Cardoza, said he wasn’t throwing at Woods, just tossing the hot dog in the air. Although he said he’d had a drink earlier, he was not intoxicated.

Via Washington Post

France has banned the use of ketchup in school and college cafeterias, in what it calls an effort to promote healthy eating habits and to protect its culinary heritage. Not surprisingly, the often xenophobic nation has made one notable exception:

In an effort to promote healthful eating and, it has been suggested, to protect traditional Gallic cuisine, the French government has banned school and college cafeterias nationwide from offering the American tomato-based condiment with any food but — of all things — French fries.

And even french fries are only allowed to be served once a week. However, traditional French dishes like boeuf bourguignon, no matter how unhealthy, aren’t falling under similar scrutiny:

“France must be an example to the world in the quality of its food, starting with its children,” said Bruno Le Maire, the agriculture and food minister.

Another more draconian restriction states that French school children cannot bring their own packed lunches to school. They must either eat the cafeteria offerings, or go home to for their daily sustenance. Still, there are more admirable aspects of the program, including the introduction of more vegetables and fruits into the daily meal plans.

Performance boat manufacturer Marine Technology Inc. has built a new speedboat capable of “neck-snapping speeds,” using parts from a Corvette ZR1. Of course, the new vehicle isn’t cheap, with a $1.7 million price tag. 

Aside from the novelty of the engine’s origin, the speedboat itself has been crafted to look like a vintage Corvette, with a sleek, black exterior, taillights and Corvette tags:

But it’s not just the outside that will appeal to Chevy diehards, the interior has been given an equally stunning treatment. After entering through custom gull wing doors, the driver is treated to a true Corvette cockpit, complete with an original shifter and steering wheel. Leather and suede seating provides room for six, and a 8,000 watt sound system ensures that the party never stops.

If you feel like enjoying some quality programming while cruising the open sea, you can switch on the built-in LCD displays which come complete with Apple TV and a mobile wifi hotspot. iPad owners get additional treatment with a custom dock and charging station. The accessories alone are powered by a standalone Fischer diesel motor. The ZR48 has just as much “go” as it has show, and a pair of 1,350 horsepower, twin-turbo Mercury Racing engines deliver speed on demand.

The 48-foot boat even comes with its own custom, “tricked-out” trailer to haul it to and from the marina:

The transporter features a total of 5 TVs, a DVD player, LED display lighting, and matching paint scheme. In transit, the boat is situated sideways on the trailer to avoid the need for special highway permits.

More pictures and details here.

A study published in the October issue of Global Environmental Change seems to confirm what many had already assumed for years: If you’re a white man and self-identified political conservative, you are far more likely to question the science behind global climate change than the overall population at large. Some of the key figures:

- 14% of the general public doesn’t worry about climate change at all, but among CWMs the percentage jumps to 39%.
- 32% of adults deny there is a scientific consensus on climate change, but 59% of CWMs deny what the overwhelming majority of the world’s scientists have said.
- 3 adults in 10 don’t believe recent global temperature increases are primarily caused by human activity. Twice that many – 6 CWMs out of every ten – feel that way

Of course, like any political survey, the results are being met with some resistance:

“My worry is that [the paper] might suggest to people that there is something distinctive about the way conservatives and officially, conservative white men, deal with new information,” said Donald Braman, associate professor of law at George Washinton University, who works on risk perception studies. “The truth is that those same cognitive mechanisms push all of our buttons.”

Read more here, h/t io9

The U.S. Coast Guard investigating a Miami Beach tourism company, RJ Diving Ventures, after two scuba diving tourists were abandoned in ocean waters:

 

The tourists — Paul Kline and Fernando Garcia Puerta — were rescued by a private yacht which found them clinging to a buoy in shark-infested waters.

“The incident is under investigation,” Coast Guard spokeswomanSabrina Elgammal told AFP.

“We got a call that the two people were picked up in the sea and there was no medical harm and they went back to port,” she said.

 

The pair were part of a 30 person voyage to scuba dive on the open waters off the coast of Florida. However, when they surfaced, the boat had disappeared. Though they were technically only on the water for two hours, it was near sunset and even moments alone on the seas can prove fatal: 

“We were in shock,” Kline, 44, told the newspaper. “We could easily have died.”

RJ Diving Ventures has not responded to requests for comments and their company website has either been scrubbed or is just really terrible.

A Papa John’s pizza delivery driver in Colorado called the police on one of his customers after smelling marijuana smoke coming from resident Frederick Smith’s house:

The man was smoking medical marijuana just before the pizza arrived on Friday evening. The delivery driver smelled the marijuana and called the cops. The Papa John’s employee, who was not identified, was concerned because the customer’s 9-year-old daughter was in the house.

Police went ahead and investigated the house, but left without filing any charges. And the irony is not lost on some commenters, who note that pot smoking and pizza often go hand in hand.

Still, Smith said he considering filing charges of “slander” against Papa John’s and the driver, claiming that his daughter was not in the room while he was smoking the marijuana. In the meantime, Papa John’s is standing by their driver, saying he was doing what any concerned citizen would in a similar situation, saying in a statement:

“Papa John’s of Colorado wants to stand behind the decision that this delivery driver made. He was acting as a concerned citizen and for what he believes was the best interests of our community.”

Read the full story here.