Stupid people of the week – Round 2

I said there was a lot of stupid lately. My inbox is full, so I need to add an extra helping.

Police: Man trying to steal catalytic converter gets pinned underneath car

A man who apparently tried to steal a catalytic converter was caught over the weekend after getting pinned underneath the vehicle, St. Cloud police reported on Monday.

Police were called around 4:50 a.m. to Yellow Cab on 7th Street North in St. Cloud for the incident.

At the scene, police found a man who was pinned under a vehicle. With help from the fire department, crews were able to free the man, who was transported to St. Cloud Hospital.

After removing the man, police say they found “tools consistent with the illegal removal of catalytic converters.” Officers also found a baggie of white powder that field tested positive for methamphetamine.

“Employees at the business verified that the male did not work there and was not a mechanic doing any legitimate vehicle repair,” police said.

The man, a 34 year old from Hibbing, Minnesota., may face drug and theft charges following his release from the hospital.

Source; Fox 9

Japan school gets $27,000 water bill because teacher wanted to ‘prevent Covid’

A Japanese school has been hit with a $27,000 water bill after a teacher in charge of pool maintenance left a tap on for months hoping to stop coronavirus infections.

The teacher, who has not been identified, thought a constant flow of fresh water into the pool would keep it Covid free and left the tap on from late June to early September.

Normally, chlorine and filtering machines maintain the pool water’s quality, “but the teacher somehow got the wrong idea that pouring new water in would also do the trick and even help prevent Covid,” local education board official Akira Kojiri told AFP.

Other staff members occasionally noticed the running tap and switched it off, but the offending colleague soon switched it back on.

As a result, Kojiri said, an estimated 4,000 tonnes of excess water was used in just over two months — enough to fill the pool 11 times over.

Local authorities in Yokosuka in central Japan’s Kanagawa prefecture are now demanding the teacher and two supervisors pay half of the 3.5 million yen ($27,000) bill.

“We deeply apologise to our residents for causing (financial) damage to our city,” Yokosuka authorities said in a statement.

Source; Hindustan Times

‘Fictosexual’ man married hologram bride, but now struggles to bond with her

She’s not real — but his feelings are.

A “fictosexual” man who wed a fictional, computer-synthesized pop singer four years ago said he’s now unable to communicate with his wife, but is still in love with her.

Akihiko Kondo, 38, was dating Hatsune Miku — depicted in pop culture as a 16-year-old with turquoise hair — for a decade before they had an unofficial wedding ceremony in 2018. Kondo — one of many who identifies as “fictosexual,” or someone who is sexually attracted to fictional characters — spent 2 million yen, or about $17,300, on the nuptials, but his family did not attend.

Now married for four years, Kondo, 38, said his relationship has hit a roadblock: He can no longer speak with Miku due to a technological hurdle, according to Japanese newspaper Mainichi.

While Kondo acknowledges his relationship might be odd — he understands Miku isn’t a real person — it doesn’t change his feelings for her. Since falling in love with her in 2008, Kondo was finally able to interact with Miku for the first time in 2017 thanks to a Gatebox, a $1,300 machine that allowed device owners to interact with characters via holograms and even unofficially marry them.

But now, his four-year marriage took a turn when support for Gatebox software was eliminated, meaning that Kondo could no longer speak with his wife Miku, according to Newshub.

Kono insists it hasn’t lessened his feelings.

“My love for Miku hasn’t changed,” he told Mainichi, which noted he now carried around a life-size version of Miku. “I held the wedding ceremony because I thought I could be with her forever.”

Kondo is far from the only person in the world in a relationship with a character. Thousands of “fictosexual” people in Japan have begun similar unofficial relationships with a variety of fictitious figures, the Mirror reported.

While some relationships are just for kicks, Kondo’s is, to him, very real. For a long time, he said he knew a human partner just wasn’t for him due to his intense attraction to characters like Miku, a popular figure in anime and Japanese culture. Created as a synthesized voice using Yamaha’s Vocaloid technology, Miku entered mainstream media as a human, but fictionalized, character in Manga, anime series and video games. Eventually, she became prominent enough to tour with the likes of Lady Gaga on her 2014 Artpop Ball tour.

But Miku isn’t just famous. She’s also helped Kondo with his depression.

Kondo first became familiar with Miku in 2008 after bullying at work caused him to become depressed. Despite finding it difficult to accept his feelings at first, he knew humans weren’t right for him after being met with rejection by others.

“I stayed in my room for 24 hours a day, and watched videos of Miku the whole time,” he told Mainichi.

In 2017, his relationship blossomed with Miku, thanks to Gatebox. The machine gave Kondo the chance to propose to Miku, and he invited his family and co-workers to the ceremony — but none of them came. But 39 people did attend, including strangers and online friends, some of whom are also “fictosexual.”

“There are two reasons why I had a wedding publicly,” he told BBC at the time. “The first one is to prove my love to Miku. The second one is there are many young otaku people like me falling in love with anime characters. I want to show the world that I support them.”

Source; NY Post

Self-driving Tesla crashes into $3.5 million private jet using ‘smart summon’ feature

Pretty sure self-driving your car on the apron is not an FAA approved maneuver.

First ‘plane swap’ stunt unsuccessful as plane spirals out of control in Arizona; FAA investigating

More aviation-related idiocy. This one will likely cost them. Good thing Red Bull has deep pockets.

Aviation history will have to wait but disaster was avoided.

Two cousins, Luke Aikins and Andy Farrington, were unsuccessful in completing the first “plane swap” Sunday night over the Arizona skies when one plane spiraled out of control as the two pilots were thousands of feet in the air.

Both pilots were safe with no reported injuries, according to Red Bull.

The Red Bull-sponsored flight, which took place over Eloy, around 50 miles southeast of Phoenix, began as the two pilots ascended to the skies at about 5:45 p.m. local time.

Nearly an hour later, the two jumped out at 12,100 feet in the air with the airbrake system engaged on both planes. Aikins was able to successfully get into the other plane, but Farrington was unable to.

The plane spiraled out of control as Farrington could be heard saying on-air “blue plane is out of control.” Farrington then deployed his parachute and safely landed in a remote area. The uncontrolled plane had a parachute on it that automatically activated when it got to a certain altitude, and it was deployed before touching the ground.

The condition and location of the plane weren’t immediately known.

The 6-mile-per-hour winds created good conditions for the stunt, the pilots said leading up to the stunt, as the area had faster winds in the days leading up to the event. But Farrington was unsure what happened.

“It just went and instead of stopping in that 90-degree dive, it just kept going and got over on his back,” Farrington said. “It was just not a chance.

“You’re just happy everybody’s here and good and all that stuff, but just disappointed,” he added.

The key to the mission was the custom-made airbrakes, made with the help of Paulo Iscold, engineer and professor at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

The brake was developed and tested multiple times over the air in San Luis Obispo, California, more than 150 miles north of Los Angeles, which allowed the planes to somewhat slow down, as they traveled at speeds of up to 140 miles per hour. [Editor’s note: Human terminal velocity is about 120 MPH, so this stunt was poorly thought out in more than one way.]

Aikins noted they were able to test everything for the stunt but the actual dive. He said the plane losing its center of gravity could have played a role during the nosedive.

“I thought I left Andy a good plane. I’m trying to think of what else I could have done to make it better for him when I left,” Aikins said. “We do what we can to prepare for this stuff and we hope it never happens. This is the best outcome of a bummer situation, really.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement to USA TODAY on Monday the agency will be investigating the incident.

“One of the two single-engine Cessna 182 aircraft used in the stunt crashed after it spun out of control. The pilot landed safely by parachute. The other pilot regained control of the second aircraft and landed safely,” the statement read.

The FAA also said it denied a request for the stunt to receive an exemption from federal regulations on Friday.

“The FAA has considered the petition, and finds that granting an exemption from § 91.105(a) would not be in the public interest and cannot find that the proposed operation would not adversely affect safety,” the denial letter sent to USA TODAY read.

As for if the duo will attempt the stunt again, Aikins said “we are going to go back and figure this out.”

FAA denies the stunt and they do it anyway? I fear their pilot’s licenses are getting an expedited expiration date.

Source; USA Today

2 Air Force sergeants accused of stealing ammo from base

Two noncommissioned officers at Fairchild Air Force Base, including one authorities believe made social media threats about seizing the U.S. Capitol in late 2020, have denied allegations they stole thousands of rounds of ammunition from the West Plains military installation.

John I. Sanger, 30, and Eric A. Eagleton, 29, are both named in an 11-page criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in federal court in Spokane. They are identified in the documents as staff sergeants in the Air Force. An FBI agent with the Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force, working with the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations, accused both men of taking the ammunition for personal use at a shooting range near Fishtrap Lake at least twice in March.

Authorities tied Sanger to two social media accounts making antigovernment statements in the months between the 2020 presidential election and the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to court documents. He appeared in a federal courtroom Wednesday afternoon following his arrest Tuesday, where a denial of the charges was entered on his behalf by U.S. Magistrate Judge James Goeke.

The government alleges that in a comment posted Dec. 2, 2020, one of the accounts linked to Sanger said in response to a question about what “taking our government back” looked like, “I think the capital needs to be seized … No trial or chance to escape,” according to court records.

Four days later, the same account wrote, “They defrauded our election system and are getting away with it. That means this system has run it’s course. People have to die,” according to a sworn statement from FBI Special Agent David M. White.

No mention of the online comments was made in court Wednesday. Goeke appointed a public defense lawyer to represent Sanger, and set a hearing for Thursday to determine if he should remain in jail. Prosecutors indicated they’d file a formal indictment against Sanger and Eagleton in the coming days, and had executed a search warrant in connection with his arrest.

Eagleton appeared in court Tuesday, where Goeke also entered a denial of the allegations against him. His detention hearing is scheduled for Monday.

A spokeswoman at Fairchild said the base is aware of the arrest of base personnel and was “working closely” with federal authorities on their investigation. She directed further questions to the branch’s Office of Special Investigations.

An email message to the office seeking comment on the sergeants’ current status was not immediately returned Wednesday.

The terrorism task force had been investigating Sanger after linking him with the social media accounts, according to court documents.

An undercover agent working with the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations began chatting with Sanger, who “told the (agent) he is actively recruiting in hopes of forming a local cell of like-minded individuals.”

Last month, the undercover agent and Sanger met Eagleton at a truck stop before going target-shooting. The agent was wearing a recording device, and Eagleton told the agent that members of the base’s Combat Arms Training Management section routinely stole ammunition, “up to 3,000 rounds in a day,” and distributed it among members of the training section. The undercover agent was also shown a suppressor that lacked a serial number.

During the meeting, Eagleton also discussed “his anti-Semitic views and dislike for Jews,” according to the sworn affidavit.

Air Force Office of Special Investigations agents observed the men shooting ammunition taken from cans that appeared similar to those used for combat arms training. The packaging contained numbers that a check of base records showed had been expended on-base in training exercises months earlier, according to the affidavit.

Both men face charges of conspiracy to commit theft of government property and possession of stolen ammunition. The felony offense can carry up to a 5-year prison sentence.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington Vanessa Waldref commended FBI and Air Force investigators for working together to build the case.

“So many of those who serve at Fairchild Air Force Base are career public servants who sacrifice their time, energy, and even their lives to keep America safe,” Waldref said. “When individuals put their own interests ahead of others and abuse the public trust, those individuals dishonor the countless public servants who dedicate their lives to government and military service.”

Source; American Military News

 

Category: "Teh Stoopid", Crime, Stupid Criminals