Bottom of the News… Friday, October 12, 2007

Good morning! Well, my fellow Rotarians, let’s take a look at some of the weird and crazy things that are happening in our world…


Seattle, WA – The Do It Yourselfer… Last week when a man went through the self-checkout station at a Home Depot store in Seattle, Wash., he accidentally punched the button for the computer to talk to him in Spanish. After several attempts to get the machine to revert back to English, the man apparently became very "frustrated” that the machine continued speaking Spanish to him regardless of what buttons he pushed, according to the police report.

The first item the man was trying to buy was a pry bar and as his frustration reached a breaking point he used the bar to smash the computer at the store. After beating on the machine for what seemed like several minutes, according to store employees, the man dropped the pry bar in his shopping cart and walked out.

The result was $10,000 damage to the checkout station and the man still has not been found by police. Good thing he wasn't buying a chainsaw!

Denver, CO – Something Fishy Here… The state of Colorado and the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have been working since the 1970’s to restore the official Colorado State Fish, the greenback cutthroat trout, to rivers in the Rocky Mountains.

After 30 years of working on this project, the University of Colorado decided to do a study (at a cost of $300,000 by the way) to see how they're doing. The result… you guessed, they have been stocking the wrong fish! DNA analysis shows that the fish being stocked in the rivers for the past 30 years isn't the greenback cutthroat trout, but rather the Colorado River cutthroat trout.

One Colorado legislative member, after learning of the 30-year mistake, decided it would be easier and cheaper to simply change the state’s official fish rather than spending the untold hundreds of thousands of dollars to restock the right fish. The senator has introduced a bill to change the state’s official fish to the Colorado River cutthroat trout.

London, UK – To Protect and Serve… "I was just walking along the pavement and heard the police car siren coming behind us," says Daniel Horne, 28 of Beddau, Wales. Horne was walking on the sidewalk in his neighborhood when a police car jumped up the curb off the roadway and hit him.

"The car hit my right leg and knocked me over” and Horne’s foot was crushed under the front wheel of the patrol car. The police offer was very apologetic and told Horne he felt terrible! He took Horne to the hospital, stayed with him for three hours as his foot was put in a cast and then gave him a ride home.

As it turned out, Horne's ordeal wasn't over. That same afternoon, the officer pressed charges to Horne for "criminal damage" -- denting the police car, which resulted in a fine of 80 Pounds (US$160) fine. Horne as since hired a lawyer to fight the fine and to sue the police department. The only comment from a police spokesman was that they had… "Received a complaint from Mr. Horne and we are looking into it."


And as your Rotary Reporter, this is the bottom of the news for October 12, 2007.

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