WhiteBoard News for Tuesday, January 27, 2004

London, England (Reuters):

A hiking magazine apologized on Thursday after it published a route plan that would have sent walkers striding into thin air off the north face of Britain's largest mountain, Ben Nevis. 

The magazine, Trail, missed out a vital bearing needed to guide climbers off the summit of the Scottish mountain in bad weather. 

Anyone who had followed the magazine's directions would have plunged down a sheer cliff into nearby Gardyloo Gully. 

Editor Guy Procter, himself a keen hillwalker, said that Trail published 200 routes every year and had never made a similar mistake before. 

"I should have picked it up at the final proofreading stage, but unfortunately it slipped through," he told Reuters. The error was spotted by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, which published a warning about the "dangerous bearing" on their Web Site. 

Procter said he was confident his readers always carried maps while hill-walking and would therefore immediately notice the error. 
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Jerusalem, Israel (Reuters):

Israeli police had to close an entire floor of their station because the pungent scent of tons of confiscated marijuana was making them high, an Israeli newspaper said Friday. 

The drugs, smuggled from Egypt, are kept in a storeroom of a police station in the southern town of Dimona. Police have confiscated so much, that the room is filled up almost immediately after its contents are sent to be incinerated. 

"Every time I came to work I felt...like I was high," the Maariv newspaper quoted one officer as saying. "The smell of marijuana was killing us -- it was impossible to work." 

The newspaper said a police medical officer ordered personnel to move to another floor until the drugs could be shipped out. 
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Barrow, Alaska (ADN.com):

After a 66-day absence, the sun is expected to make a brief appearance in Barrow on Friday, something that warms the hearts of the 5,000 residents living in the northernmost city in the United States.
The sun slipped below the horizon on Nov. 18.

"On Friday, the sun will rise at 1:13 p.m. and then set at 2:06 p.m., so it will be a short day of 53 minutes," said Gina Sturm of the U.S. Weather Service office in Barrow. 

But she said there will be a gain of 40 minutes on Saturday, and the gains will continue until May 9, when the sun will rise and not set again until August 2.

So after a good portion of winter in darkness, a good part of summer will be 24-hours a day of sun.

Lots of Barrow residents are ready for the return of the sun, and are eager to see it again.

"A beautiful sight to see, even if it is 17 degrees below zero outside, plus the wind chill factor," said resident Doreen Lampe. 
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Southsea, England (Ananova):

The commanding officer of a navy ship dropped his son off at school in a helicopter and blew out a large window in the process.

When Mark Durkin landed the Lynx helicopter at St John's College in Southsea, the down draught blew out the 12-pane window and its frame in the RE and maths classroom.

The unusual school run from the commander of HMS Exeter was a belated birthday treat for Mr Durkin's son, Edward.

The school yard had been cleared of all pupils and staff as the helicopter descended. Headteacher Nigel Thorne said nobody was in the classroom when the glass broke, reports The News.

Edward's school friends had visited HMS Exeter when it docked in Portsmouth and Cdr Durkin had promised to show the helicopter to pupils as it wasn't on board at the time.

The Sun says the cost of replacing the window will be around £5,000.
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Berlin, Germany (Reuters):

German police stopped a man from committing suicide by shooting him with a gun that incapacitated him with an electric shock, a spokesman said Tuesday. 

The suicidal 37-year-old was holding a knife to his neck and threatening to jump out of a fifth-floor window in central Berlin Saturday when police special forces arrived. 

Police said an officer shot the man with a "Taser" gun, a U.S. weapon that simultaneously fires two darts to send a 50,000 volt current through a person's body. The jolt gave police just enough time to tackle him back to safety. 

The man was later treated for self-inflicted knife wounds. Police said they did not know why he wanted to kill himself. 

Police said they have used Tasers five times since acquiring them in 2001, and saved a life more than once. The stun guns have been used in north America for two decades but are uncommon in Europe. British police fired one for the first time in 2003. 
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Obdam, The Netherlands (Ananova):

An elderly Dutch woman scared a burglar out of her house by repeatedly hitting him over the head with a chamber pot.

The 67-year-old, from Obdam, woke up in the middle of the night needing the toilet and went into the next room where she kept her chamber pot.

But when she got there she was shocked to find herself face to face with the stranger, reports Noordhollands Dagblad.

She grabbed the chamber pot and hit the man over the head with it several times, making such a noise she woke her husband.

The burglar was so frightened that he begged to be allowed to leave the house so the woman opened her front door and he ran into the street. Nothing was stolen.
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Berlin, Germany (Independent Online):

Police in Berlin were called in to deal with a man who has neglected to take a bath or shave for the past 18 years, according to press reports Tuesday.

The self-styled urban hermit, identified only as Mario, also professed to not having changed his clothes since New Year's Day 2001.

Investigating officers, who said they had no reason to doubt Mario's claims about his personal hygiene, were summoned after a chimneysweep reported discovering a "caveman" living in an abandoned apartment.

The chimneysweep was trying to determine the source of smoke blockage in a flue when he happened upon the squatter, who had been using a blocked-off fireplace to keep warm.

"I saw what I thought was a pile of dirty laundry in a corner until I realised it was an incredibly filthy man," the sweep told police.

"When we got there we found the subject as described," officer Toralf Reinhardt told one Berlin newspaper. "He was cowering and shivering with fear like a cornered animal. It was like entering some wild creature's burrow. The stench was over-powering."

After spending a night in a police cell, Mario was placed in a hospital for medical observation.

"We had to call in a team of industrial cleaners to get the odour out of the police car and the cell afterward," Reinhardt said. 
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