QUIRKY WORLD: Man sues casino after losing 500k because he was drunk
A businessman who lost $500,000 (€360,000) at a Las Vegas casino on Super Bowl weekend is arguing that he shouldn’t have to pay because he was blackout drunk.
Southern California gambler Mark Johnston, 52, is suing the Downtown Grand for loaning him money and serving him drinks when he was visibly intoxicated.
Nevada law bars casinos from allowing obviously drunk patrons to gamble and from serving them free drinks.
Johnston’s attorney, Sean Lyttle, says the Grand, which opened last November, intends to pursue Johnston for trying to shirk his gambling debts. Johnston put a stop-payment order on the markers, or casino credits, the Grand issued, and is also seeking damages from the Grand for sullying his name.
Bring on the rocket cats! Fanciful illustrations from a 500-year-old manual on artillery and siege warfare seem to show jet packs strapped to the backs of cats and doves.
Digitised by the University of Pennsylvania, the unusual, full-colour illustrations recently caught the attention of an Australian book blog and then found their way to researcher Mitch Fraas, who set out to unravel the mystery.
He says the manual’s German text advises military commanders to use cats and birds to deliver explosives to enemy territory. The idea was to capture a cat from an enemy castle or village, attach a bomb to its back and light the fuse. The cat was then supposed to run back home and start a fire.
There’s no evidence the “harebrained scheme” was ever used.
A man who snapped secret pictures up women’s skirts on a Boston subway train — a practice known as upskirting — did not violate the state’s Peeping Tom law, Massachusetts’ top court said.
Massachusetts law prohibits secretly filming or photographing a person who is nude or partly nude, but that does not apply to people who are fully clothed, Justice Margot Botsford ruled.
The man was arrested in 2010 for using his phone to take pictures and video up women’s’ skirts on the subway.
The law “does not apply to photographing… persons who are fully clothed and, in particular, does not reach the type of upskirting that the defendant is charged with attempting to accomplish on the MBTA,” the ruling said.
While women have a “reasonable expectation of privacy in not having a stranger take photographs up her skirt” the law “in its current form does not address it,” the court said.
Investigators baffled by the source of a blaze believe it was started by a cigarette-carrying bird.
Around 20 firefighters were called to the fire in Landor Road, Stockwell, south London, but there was no obvious cause of the fire.
Fire investigation officer Matt Cullen said: “We looked everywhere, but the smoking gun was found when we discovered a partially burnt bird’s nest. Neighbours told us they often saw birds flying in and out of a hole in the roof.
“We believe that one of the birds picked up a cigarette butt that was still smouldering and dropped it into the nest, causing it to catch fire and set the roof alight.”
A cat is recovering after curling up for a nap under a coach — and waking up 100 miles away.
The cat fell asleep on the fuel tank of the 40ft National Express vehicle as it was parked overnight in Westward Ho! in Devon. But when the driver started for the 8.45am service to Grimsby it ended up clinging on for four hours.
It was discovered at Bristol Coach Station that afternoon as driver Andy Muskett unloaded customers’ luggage. Staff named him Diesel and took him back to the depot for some food. Diesel is now in the care of the RSPCA.
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