Fun_People Archive
28 Aug
Weirdness [340] - 12 Aug 1994

Date: Sun, 28 Aug 94 16:31:57 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: Weirdness [340] - 12 Aug 1994

excerpts from News of the Weird, August 12, 1994
by Chuck Shepherd

* A 1991 federal regulation requires cities to remove at least 30 per cent
of "organic waste" from incoming sewage before treating it.  According to
a Washington Post story in May, the Environmental Protection Agency refused
to exempt Anchorage, Alaska, from the regulation, even though the city has
so little organic waste coming in that its incoming is cleaner than most
cities' outgoing.  Required to comply, anyway, Anchorage solved the problem
by paying fish processors to purposely dump fish byproducts into the sewer
so they city will have enough organic waste to remove.  [Washington Post,
5-18-94]

* According to University of Chicago economist Don Coursey, the amount of
money the federal government spends to save endangered species is largely
proportional to how popular the particular species is.  Among the popular
ones, each saved California condor costs the government $1.5 million, and
each Florida panther costs $5 million.  The also-endangered Utah prairie
dog, which finished at the bottom in popularity, costs $7.81 each to save.
[Chicago Sun- Times, 2-15-94]

* In February, Mary and Clyde Kern were preparing to move back into their
home in Greensboro, N. C., after a hiatus of 11 months, for cleaning.  In
March 1993, a Bain Oil Company deliveryman mistook a basement air vent
opening for the Kerns' oil drum opening and pumped in 680 gallons before
Mary Kern arrived home and stopped him. [Greensboro News-Record, Mar94]

* Tamara Jo Klemkowsky, 32, of Waldorf, Md., was hospitalized with several
broken bones in April after she fell out the window of a chartered party
bus traveling 55 mph.  Klemkowsky had leaned too hard on an emergency window
while mooning a passing car, causing the window to give way. [Washington
Times, 4-12-94]

Copyright 1994, Universal Press Syndicate.  All rights reserved.
Released for the personal use of readers.  No commercial use may
be made of the material or of the name News of the Weird.

© 1994 Peter Langston