Editorial: Casual Fridays 3/1/13

In-furby-ated

According to an article in the New York Daily News, when Ashley Trimmer, of Moon Township, Pa., became angry with her boyfriend, she threw a Furby at his head. According to a filed criminal complaint, the life-like toy hit the right side of his face, and his girlfriend then threw a remote control at the left side. For everyone who ever thought Furbies were dangerous, here’s proof.

Hello, Dolly

In Trilby, Fla., reported the Tampa Bay Tribune, a 24-year-old man named Scott Eastman was charged with grand theft and burglary when he broke into a shed in his neighbor’s yard, where the woman kept a collection of vintage dolls. The man stole two Barbie dolls, worth a total of $1,800. When asked by authorities if he still had the vintage Barbie dolls, he replied that he had given them as a Christmas present to his 2-year-old daughter, and that she had since destroyed them. Given each reality show’s individual success and the alleged thief’s relevance to each, Eastman might be a prime pick to turn his bizarre situation into a reality show combining the best elements of “Hoarders,” “Storage Wars” and ”Police Women of Broward County.”

In defense of 24-hour library time

According to an article in The Telegraph, a homeless man had been living in the library at Saint John’s College in Cambridge, England, for six weeks before he was discovered earlier this month. Investigators think that he might have followed in students who used their ID cards to swipe into the building late at night. Students reported the man to a porter ­— a college security guard — who asked him to leave. Clearly, the porters were too busy drinking tea and eating crumpets to search the library for six weeks.

Psych 101

Two rats separated by thousands of miles were trained to work together by telepathic communication aided by implants in their brains, NBC news reported Thursday. In the study, conducted at Duke University, electrical signals from one rat’s brain were sent into the other rat’s brain. When the second rat received the signal, it was trained to press a lever. The Duke researchers imagine that they could link a network of rats by telepathic communication, and that other mammals might also be capable of such communication as well. Someday, it seems, undetectable cheating on exams might be much harder to curtail.

Tiger Dad

A senior executive in Qianjiang, China, outsourced his 12-year-old daughter’s homework to the employees of his company, according to The Huffington Post. One of the employees spent three days doing one of the girl’s homework assignments. For the class project, students were asked to either draw a picture, make a video, take photographs or write an essay. The boss made his employees (including a professional photographer) complete all four homework options. Perhaps we’ve found a solution to unemployment in America — one that could simultaneously lower high levels of student stress.