Life’s Necessities
In January, Taser International introduced the Taser MPH, a combination dart-firing weapon and MP3 music player (that holds 150 songs).

Happy worms
Coll Bell, a New Zealander who invented a composting toilet supposedly superior to a septic system and who wanted permission from the Auckland Regional Council to install one at a campground, said an ARC bureaucrat had queried him on whether the worms he uses would be traumatized by the volume of work required in the annual two-week period of intense campground use. Coll told Agence France-Presse in December that vermiculture expert Patricia Naidu had assured him that the worms would be “happy.”

By Chuck Shepherd

Spectacular Errors

In November, a 77-year-old man in Jacksonville, intending to help his daughter by riding his bicycle to Long Branch Elementary School to pick up her 4-year-old son (his grandson), arrived back home with a kid on the bike but did not realize that he had picked up the wrong boy. Said the picked-up kid’s frantic mother, “(The two boys) don’t even look alike.”

By Chuck Shepherd

Close but No Cigar

The 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard returned recently from extended duty in Iraq, which was reportedly the longest consecutive deployment of any outfit (22 months, counting extensions). However, the Guardsmen still do not qualify for government education benefits. The law allows the benefits only for those on “active duty” at least 730 days, but the Minnesota Guard’s orders (as well as some other outfits’ orders), were specifically written for “729 days.”

By Chuck Shepherd

Fine Points of The Law

Louisiana prosecutors want the death penalty in the first trial for accused serial killer Sean Gillis, but to get that for an individual murder, state law requires an “aggravating circumstance” beyond the murder, such as kidnapping or robbery. At an August hearing, a prosecutor said Gillis had actually “robbed” his first victim, in that he had absconded with one of her arms and part of a leg. Gillis’ lawyer argued that that was not “robbery,” in that those parts were merely “left over” from the homicide.

By Chuck Shepherd

Video Nation

As a 27-year-old woman lay dying from a stab wound incurred at a Wichita, Kan., convenience store, in June, at least five customers stepped over her to enter the store, including one who stopped to photograph her on a cell phone camera.