Good Morning and Welcome To MOT-Morning Open Thread
Casual Friday is a collection of odd, strange or weird news stories from the week along with some jokes, tweets, and other assorted funnies. Keep an eye out however, because not all the news stories are entirely on the up and up.
* Provided I remember to add the html code, all the links will open in new tabs.
Nearly 19 feet! Longest Burmese python captured in Florida!
University of Florida scientists line up next to the record-breaking snake (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
A Miami man wrangled and killed the longest-ever Burmese python to be captured in Florida, wildlife officials announced Monday, May 20. The 128-lb snake measured 18 feet, 8 inches long.
Jason Leon spotted the python poking out of the roadside brush late on May 11 as he was driving in a rural part of southeast Miami-Dade County, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
Leon, who had previous experience with Burmese pythons as a pet owner, apparently got out of his car, grabbed the snake behind its head and dragged it out of the brush. People who were with Leon came to help when the snake started wrapping around his leg. The man eventually used a knife to kill the snake and reported the incident to authorities, the FWC said.
Gak...Eeek...I hate snakes...and almost all of them live in Florida...Eeeek!
Man finds 1938 Superman comic in wall of house
A Minnesota remodeler said the comic book -- Superman's first appearance -- he found in the walls of a home is worth 10 times what he paid for the house.
David Gonzalez said he purchased the Elbow Lake house for $10,100 and discovered a copy of Action Comics No. 1, a June 1938 comic book featuring the first appearance of Superman, among the old newspapers used to insulate a wall the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Wednesday.
Gonzalez said he put the comic book up for auction at comicconnect.com, earning a high bid of $107,333 as of Wednesday. The auction ends June 11.
Brother's house painted pink during honeymoon
A British man said he painted his honeymooning brother's house pink with white spots in revenge for a similar prank six years ago.
Russell O'Rourke, 35, said his painted the Southend, England, house while his brother, Steve, 32, and his bride, Hayley, 31, were on their two-week honeymoon on the Greek island of Rhodes, The Mirror reported Wednesday.
Russell reported that while he was on his own honeymoon six years ago, Steve built a 4 foot high brick wall across his driveway.
"What you reap is what you sow," Russell said. "The neighbors were coming out asking what I was doing painting their house. I reckon there were hundreds of people stopping and taking pictures. Even the police were slowing down to take a look."
The two brothers figure they can bury the hatchet long enough to join forces since their older brother, David is scheduled to get married next year.
Dolphins persuade Navy trainers to dredge up 130 year-old torpedo
The U.S. Navy doesn't yet exactly know how a 130-year-old brass torpedo got to the bottom of the Pacific off the coast of San Diego, but they have a couple of dolphins to thank for rediscovering the rare weapon.
The find was so unexpected that the humans didn't believe the dolphins at first.
The marine mammals have been trained by the Navy's Space and Navy Warfare Systems Center Pacific, or SSC Pacific, to hunt for underwater mines and mark their locations. Divers place mine-shaped objects on the sea bottom, and then they teach the dolphins to find them. "It's all part of training to show the dolphins what they're going to be exposed to when they're on real-world missions," SSC Pacific spokesman Jim Fallin told NBC News on Monday.
During an exercise in March, conducted not far from California's historic Hotel del Coronado, the trainers sent a dolphin down to look for the pre-positioned target objects. The dolphin dove down, came back up — and gave the trainers a signal they didn't expect. "It had found something where we knew something shouldn't be," Fallin said.
The training team dismissed that first signal as a false positive. But when the same team went back to the same place with a different dolphin, the location was flagged again, Fallin said. That's when the trainers started taking the animals seriously.
A piece of naval history
SSC Pacific worked with recovery divers and bomb disposal experts to check out what the dolphins had found. At first, they thought the object was merely an old tail section from an aerial drop mine. They quickly changed their minds.
"It was apparent in the first 15 minutes that this was something that was significant and really old," Christian Harris, operations supervisor for the SSC Pacific Biosciences Division, said in a news release. It turned out to be the tail section from one of the first self-propelled torpedoes developed and used by the U.S. Navy, known as the Howell torpedo.
More sections were brought up and submerged in water for preservation. Eventually the torpedo will be flown to the Naval History and Heritage Command at the Washington Navy Yard for more thorough study. "What's missing at this point is the nose, and we're not sure where that is," Fallin said.
Phoenix police go to kindergarten graduation of fallen officer's daughter
The daughter of Officer Daryl Raetz, who was killed in the line of duty over the weekend, graduated from kindergarten today. Because her father couldn't be there, her Phoenix Police Department family showed up to stand in his stead and celebrate Tatum.
"She had 300, 400 parents up here for her this morning," Officer James Holmes said. "It was absolutely amazing. It was bittersweet and it was a bit overwhelming for all of us."
Officers lined the sidewalk clapping for Tatum and congratulating her as she and her mother walked into the school for the graduation ceremony. Inside the auditorium, it was standing room only with a sea of blue in the back and along the side of the room.
A video, a photo gallery with 77 photos and numerous tweets can be viewed at the link.
Hundreds of Phoenix police officers converged on a Valley school Wednesday morning in a show of support for one of their own. The daughter of Officer Daryl Raetz, who was killed in the line of duty over the weekend, graduated from kindergarten today. Her Phoenix Police Department family showed up in force to cheer her on.