Daily News February 16

Today is Shrove Tuesday, February 16, 2010. It is the 47th day of the year with 318 to go.

Today’s History

In 1959, Fidel Castro became the premier of Cuba.
In 1968, the nation’s first 911 system was inaugurated in Alabama.

Today’s News

Huked On Phonics Werked For Me
If you have a hard time spelling and proofreading, maybe you shouldn’t consider a job where spelling is critical. The country of Chile has fired the director of its mint because he apparently has difficulty spelling the name of his own country. The director is responsible for sending thousands of coins into circulation that said CHIIE instead of CHILE. Officials state that coins with the country’s name spelled incorrectly is an embarrassment and gives the mint a bad reputation. The coins are still in circulation, and they will be honoured at their face value. Numismatists have started collecting the coins because they feel they are rare.

That’s pretty sad. You don’t know how to spell your own country’s name? There’s only FIVE letters in Chile. What if the U.S. Mint sent out coins that read United Stats of America?

Desperate Times…
A 73 year old Florida man has been arrested for robbing three banks in the Tampa area. During each bank robbery, the man managed to get $600 without using a weapon. He would enter the bank and hand the teller a note, requesting $600. Most bank policies state that the teller should give up the money in case the suspect is armed. None of the tellers knew that the man was not armed. When the man was captured, he stated that he intended to repay the money back. He said he needed the cash to pay his mortgage.

…call for desperate measures. He only asked for $600 each time he robbed the bank? At least he wasn’t greedy. He asked for just enough to pay his bills and get on with life. These days, you gotta do what you gotta do. I’m mad that he’s 73 years old though, robbing banks. Luckily, he didn’t have to make a break for it.

Having a Blast
A 62 year old Michigan man is in hospital with severe burns after he strapped a homemade rocket to his back. The man was having his annual sledding party at his home and decided to construct a rocket made of a motorcycle muffler and pipe. He was clearly inebriated when he strapped the rocket to his back and jumped on a sled. The rocket was packed with gunpowder, match heads and gasoline. He asked a friend to light the contraption and as he was sliding down a snowy embankment, the device exploded. The man has second degree burns to his face and will probably face criminal charges.

Okay, so this guy is 62 years old, obviously a grown man, not some dumb teenager (just a dumb old man). If he thought it was safe to strap gasoline, gunpowder and some match heads to his back, then let him. What criminal charges are they bringing: sheer stupidity while intoxicated? It’s lucky that no one else was injured and it’s also lucky he didn’t blow himself up. I would have paid good money to see this. I hope someone caught this on tape. I’ll be looking forward to the straight-to-Youtube release.

Can We Say Malpractice?
A Czech woman will be suing her doctor’s office after she finally discovered the cause of her stomach pain. The woman had gynecological surgery in September, but afterwards she continually complained of intense pain in her abdomen. Every time she went back to the doctor to find out what the problem was, they told her it was just minor complications of the surgery and that soon the pain would go away. The woman finally went to another doctor who discovered a foot long surgical instrument left in her stomach. The surgical instrument is approximately 12 inches in length and resembles a spatula. The clinic that she had originally went to said a series of individual mistakes was the reason no one noticed that she had a spatula in her stomach. The clinic has punished the doctors responsible and will compensate the woman.

Yeah, that’s a big lawsuit. I’m truly annoyed that she walked around with a spatula in her stomach all these months. Every time she went to complain, they kept telling her, “Oh, it’s nothing.” To me, it’s like they knew but they didn’t want to admit to their mistake. What if she never went to another doctor? How long did they think she was going to walk around with a spatula in her stomach? This is precisely the reason why I don’t deal with doctors. Incompetence! And what do they mean the doctors were punished? I hope they mean FIRED.

Today’s Thought

There are two ways to slice easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking. –Alfred Korzybski