Student Buys Bottled Water, Gets Thrown in Jail

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Photo Credit: dotjay

Photo Credit: dotjay

When a half-dozen men and a woman in street clothes closed in on University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly, 20, she and two roommates panicked.

That led to Daly spending a night and an afternoon in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Her initial offense? Walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream just purchased from the Harris Teeter in the Barracks Road Shopping Center for a sorority benefit fundraiser.

A group of state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents clad in plainclothes approached her, suspecting the blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water to be a 12-pack of beer. Police say one of the agents jumped on the hood of her car. She says one drew a gun. Unsure of who they were, Daly tried to flee the darkened parking lot.

“They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform,” she recalled Thursday in a written account of the April 11 incident.

“I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were … terrified,” Daly stated.

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Study: TV’s Newest Obsession Is Serial Killers

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Photo Credit: Hollywood Reporter

Photo Credit: Hollywood Reporter

In the wake of mass killings at Sandy Hook elementary school, a movie theater in Colorado and the Boston Marathon, some have sought to blame — partially or in full — the glorified violence on film and television. Seeking to add momentum to that theory is an analysis due out shortly that ridicules TV’s latest obsession: serial killers.

The analysis, obtained exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, says that seven new shows glamorizing serial killers were added at networks this season, bringing the total 20.

The analysis also quotes Hollywood insiders either defending or criticizing their own product, and it cites instances where real-life murderers said their crimes were inspired by TV shows, linking to news stories in each case. Showtime’s Dexter, a show about a serial killer who kills serial killers and which will ends its eight-season run this year, comes under particular scrutiny.

Besides linking to a Dexter kill list that enumerates 125 gruesome deaths, the study says “at least three brutal murders and one attempted murder have been inspired by the show.” In each case, the study includes a quote from the real-life murderer. Example: “I made a few attempts to chop her up like Dexter with Masters power tools but I was afraid it was too loud and it sucked at cutting flesh … I thought … it would be simple, like Dexter,” said a San Diego woman who confessed that Dexter showed her how to murder and mutilate a woman in 2012.

The analysis also excoriates The Following, a Fox show where Kevin Bacon plays an FBI agent on the trail of a serial killer portrayed by James Purefoy; Bates Motel, an A&E series that is a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s film Psycho; and Hannibal, an NBC series based on the Hannibal Lecter character, the brilliant cannibal featured in the best picture Oscar winner The Silence of the Lambs and its follow-ups.

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Three Years After Texas Woman’s Suicide, a Question Lingers: Who Was She?

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

To her husband, she was Lori Kennedy. But to a dogged federal investigator, she is “Jane Doe,” a Texas mother who killed herself three years ago in her family’s driveway after spending decades using stolen identities to erase a past that remains mired in mystery.

For two years, Social Security investigator Joseph Velling has been working to uncover the real identity of Lori Erica Ruff, who was Lori Erica Kennedy before marrying into an East Texas family in 2004. Prior to that, she was known as Becky Sue Turner, an identity forged with the birth certificate of a long-dead child. Velling, a seasoned government sleuth, has been stumped in figuring out the true name and background of this Jane Doe, who took on aliases with spy-like sophistication.

“She created a false identity for the sole purpose of getting lost in America,” Velling told FoxNews.com. “It must have been for some horrific reason…either she was running away from a crime or an abusive family or relationship.”

“She wanted a complete break from her past,” said Velling. “By changing her name, she created a clean identity – a person with no past.”

The mystery surrounding Jane Doe’s identity begins in May 1988, when the unknown woman requested the Bakersfield, Calif., birth certificate of a 2-year-old girl, Becky Sue Turner, who died in a 1971 house fire in Fife, Wash., Velling said.

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What’s the Secret to Magician’s ‘Bus Levitation’ Trick? (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

A British magician working with Pepsi Max wants people to “live for now” and witness the “magic that’s all around us.”

In order to capture their attention, the magician who goes by Dynamo performed a “bus levitation” trick. While the double-decker rolled along London streets, Dynamo appeared to be floating in the air alongside the bus with nothing more than what seems to be his arm holding him up.

Naturally, onlookers were amazed, but the first thing they do, as you can see in the video, is whip out their phones to take photographic evidence.When you watch the clip, see if you can count how many people have their phones out to document the trick.

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A Man Killed a Leopard in His Yard in Indiana the Other Night (+video)

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

An unidentified southern Indiana man shot and killed a leopard on his property just outside Charlestown, Indiana late Thursday night.

The man and his also-unidentified girlfriend had allegedly been on guard because of a recent spate of unexplained attacks on local cats and dogs, reports Louisville FOX affiliate WDRB. The couple owns several cats and feared the pets might be mauled, or worse.

“She’s got cats that are basically her family,” said Donna Duke, the local resident who alerted WDRB about the feline fracas.

The concerned couple got in touch with a local wildlife official. He theorized that a bobcat might be on the loose and suggested that the couple look out for one — particularly at night.

During the couple’s vigilant watch on Thursday night, they spied an unidentified beast lurking in the shadows not far from the backyard pool. The man got his gun and shot the pacing creature.

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Death-Defying Wallenda Daredevil Crosses Colorado River Near Grand Canyon 1/4 Mile up on Tightrope

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Aerialist Nik Wallenda completed a tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile over the Little Colorado River Gorge in northeastern Arizona on Sunday.

Wallenda performed the stunt on a 2-inch-thick steel cable, 1,500 feet above the river on the Navajo Nation near the Grand Canyon. He took just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the rope swayed.

“Thank you Lord. Thank you for calming that cable, God,” he said about 13 minutes into the walk.

Wallenda didn’t wear a harness and stepped slowly and steady throughout, murmuring prayers to Jesus almost constantly along the way. He jogged and hopped the last few steps…

Winds blowing across the gorge had been expected to be around 30 mph. Wallenda told Discovery after the walk that the winds were at times “unpredictable” and that dust had accumulated on his contact lenses.

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The Daily Smart Pill that Can Remember All Your Passwords: Tablets Can Transmit Personal Details to Devices as They Pass Through Body

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Photo Credit: Alamy

Photo Credit: Alamy

For forgetful types, it promises to be a new wonder pill.

But far from boosting the memory, the tiny swallowable capsules contain a minute chip that transmits an individual’s personal details.

Electronic devices will be able to read the unique signal, ending the need for passwords and paper forms of ID, such as passports – and freeing users from such mundane tasks as recalling countless codes and security answers.

Already approved by the both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European regulators, the ingestible sensor is powered by a battery using the acid in the wearer’s stomach.

Each pill is designed to move through the body at the normal process of digestion, and according to engineers working on the device, it can be taken every day for up to a month.

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Google Glass Has Now Been Used During Surgery

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Photo Credit: webpronews

Photo Credit: webpronews

Here’s one of the many firsts we’ll no doubt be hearing about regarding Google Glass as more and more people get their hands on the device. A doctor, Rafael Grossmann, MD, FACS, used Google Glass to record a procedure in which he inserted a feeding tube into a patient. This was streamed via Hangout.

Dr. Grossman, who is in Google’s Glass Explorer program, blogged about the experience, saying, “By performing and documenting this event, I wanted to show that this device and its platform, are certainly intuitive tools that have a great potential in Healthcare, and specifically for surgery, could allow better intra-operative consultations, surgical mentoring and potentiate remote medical education, in a very simple way.”

“The patient involved needed a feeding tube (Gastrostomy) and we chose to placed it endoscopically, with a procedure called PEG (Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy,” he writes. “You can Google that to learn more…). Being the first time, I wanted to do this during a simple and commonly performed procedure, to make sure that my full attention was not diverted from taking excellent care of the patient.”

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Doctors Report Major Progress Toward ‘Artificial Pancreas’

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Doctors are reporting a major step toward an “artificial pancreas,” a device that would constantly monitor blood sugar in people with diabetes and automatically supply insulin as needed.

A key component of such a system — an insulin pump programmed to shut down if blood-sugar dips too low while people are sleeping — worked as intended in a three-month study of 247 patients.

This “smart pump,” made by Minneapolis-based Medtronic Inc., is already sold in Europe, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing it now. Whether it also can be programmed to mimic a real pancreas and constantly adjust insulin based on continuous readings from a blood-sugar monitor requires more testing, but doctors say the new study suggests that’s a realistic goal.

“This is the first step in the development of the artificial pancreas,” said Dr. Richard Bergenstal, diabetes chief at Park Nicollet, a large clinic in St. Louis Park, Minn. “Before we said it’s a dream. We have the first part of it now and I really think it will be developed.”

He led the company-sponsored study and gave results Saturday at an American Diabetes Association conference in Chicago. They also were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Robot Bird Mimics Flight of Actual Bird, May be Used for Surveillance (+videos)

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Several weeks ago, Professor SK Gupta of the University of Maryland finally had a breakthrough in design on a robot bird that he and his students had been working on for eight years. The end result is a flying robot that is almost indistinguishable from a bird.

Professor Gupta explains:

Our new robot is based on a fundamentally new design concept. We call it Robo Raven. It features programmable wings that can be controlled independently. We can now program any desired motion patterns for the wings. This allows us to try new in-flight aerobatics that would have not been possible before. For example, we can now dive and roll.

The new design uses two actuators that can be synchronized electronically to achieve motion coordination between the two wings. The use of two actuators required a bigger battery and an on-board micro controller. All of this makes our robotic bird overweight. So how do we get Robo Raven to “diet” and lose weight? We used advanced manufacturing processes such as 3D printing and laser cutting to create lightweight polymer parts to reduce the weight. However, this alone was not sufficient. We needed three other tricks to get Robo Raven to fly. First, we programmed wing motion profiles that ensured that wings maintain the optimal velocity during the flap cycle to achieve the right balance between the lift and the thrust. Second, we developed a method to measure aerodynamic forces generated during the flapping cycle. This enabled us to quickly evaluate many different wing designs to select the best one. Finally, we had to perform system level optimization to make sure that all components worked well as an integrated system.

Robo Raven will enable us to explore new in-flight aerobatics. It will also allow us to more faithfully reproduce observed bird flights using robotic birds. I hope that this robotic bird will also inspire more people to choose “bird making” as their hobby!

Robotic birds (i.e., flapping wing micro air vehicles) are expected to offer advances in many different applications such as agriculture, surveillance, and environmental monitoring. Robo Raven is just the beginning. Many exciting developments lie ahead. The exotic bird that you might spot in your next trip to Hawaii might actually be a robot!