The Kingwood teenager's story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Houston Police Department senior police officer Jim Adkins did not believe it.
Yet, Kevin Wade Jones Jr., 17, appeared almost indifferent as he relayed the bizarre description of his and two friends' activities at an Humble area graveyard, Adkins said.
"I just doubted it because it's very morbid, and I couldn't see anybody doing something like this," Adkins said Thursday.
Not until police went to the home of another Kingwood 17-year-old, Matthew Richard Gonzalez, did the officer believe the tale.
"He regurgitated in his plate of food when I asked him about it," Adkins said. "So I knew there was some truth to the story."
Now, Jones, Gonzalez and a juvenile whose name has not been released are each charged with abuse of a corpse, a misdemeanor. All three were arrested Wednesday night.
Police said a fourth suspect is wanted for questioning.
Houston police believe the teens disturbed the grave of an 11-year-old boy who died in 1921.
If it's true that the kids stole a skull, could they really have used it as a bong?
Maybe. If the Texas teenagers recovered a skull in ideal condition, they would still have a lot of work to do before they could smoke weed out of it. There are different types of bongs, but any workable model must offer a seal tight enough that water and smoke cannot escape. Assuming the skull was used right-side up, and that the pot-smokers used the brain cavity as their bong chamber, thin fissures in the eye sockets and any other holes would need to be sealed with something like grout to prevent the smoke from seeping out. The teens would also have to cover over the base of the skull, which contains a large opening through which spinal nerves reach the brain. And there are dozens of small nerve holes, called foramina, which might produce a watering-can effect if left unplugged.
I'm sorry, these dudes don't look like grout users to me.
If there is one place in the world that any gadget-electronic freak should go to, that is Akihabara district in Tokyo. Numerous stores bring on fascinating number of products, often first in the world. There are also products which are not so usual, nor you can find them in retail or e-tail in western world.
One of these unavailable products is Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 Toilet edition. Yes, you’ve read it correctly. If Vista is leaving a aftermouth taste like a crappy burger in *insert the name of franchise you hate the most*, you can always clean yourself with this appropriate piece of paper.
Service Pack 1 for Vista Ultimate Edition is an elite piece, three-layer toilet paper that will leave that comfortable feeling. In order to improve the experience, unnamed Japanese maker also printed the list of all new Vista features. Sadly for us westerners, the list of features is listed in Japanese kanji, and calling translators from AltaVista or Google will hardly help.
Police in the northern German village of Güster had their hands full on Monday when they were called out to catch an escaped sheep. "They gave chase in their vehicle but the pursuit didn't prove easy because the animal at times ran at speeds of up to 45 kilometers (28 miles) per hour," police said in a statement.
They finally caught up with it when it briefly got its leg stuck in a fence. "An officer carefully lifted the uninjured animal from the fence and placed in the field. But the sheep evidently didn't like its new home because it made a daring leap straight over the hood of the police car."
Police didn't catch up with the sheep until it had reached the next village where it was persuaded to move into a more comfortable field, police said. They are now trying to locate the owner of the "adventurous animal," the statement said.
In a landmark judgement with far-reaching social implications, Italy's highest appeals court has ruled it is a criminal offence for Italian men to touch their genitals in public.
The judges of the court of cassation stressed that the ban did not just apply to brazen crotch-scratching, but also to what might be termed superstitious pre-emption. Anyone who has seen a hearse go past in Italy, or been part of a discussion in which some terrible illness or disaster is mentioned, will know it is traditional for men to ward off bad luck with a quick grab at what are delicately called their "attributi".
(snip)
The court was ruling on the appeal of an unnamed 42-year-old workman from Como near Milan. In May 2006, he was convicted of indecent behaviour for "ostentatiously touching his genitals through his clothing". His lawyer said it was merely a "compulsive, involuntarily movement, probably to adjust his overalls".
The third penal division of the Rome court was having none of it. It said that public genital-patting "has to be regarded as an act contrary to public decency, a concept including that nexus of socio-ethical behavioural rules requiring everyone to abstain from conduct potentially offensive to collectively-held feelings of decorum".
The judges said such actions risked generating "awkwardness, disgust and disapproval in the average man", unexpectedly perhaps failing to mention the average woman.
"Hey Buddy, I've got this great idea for making lots of easy money on the side, let's set up a snowmobile chop shop. We should steal people's snowmobiles and drive them here to our garage."
"Drive them huh? You mean steal 'em and put them on the back of a flatbed truck and drive them here?"
"Uh, why do that when we can just scoot across the snow from there to here?"
Police say the man discovered Saturday that his snowmobile was missing from his home in Van Buren County's Arlington Township in southwest Michigan.
The man, whose name was not released, called police and set out on a borrowed snowmobile following tracks in the snow for about 10 miles through fields and along roads.
Relatives and friends followed by car as he trailed the tracks to a home in Bangor Township.
"The tracks that they had followed led right up to a garage door," Michigan State Police said in a news release.
Inside the garage, police found the man's snowmobile, already disassembled, plus three others and many snowmobile parts.
Despite decades of listening to loud heavy metal, I still manage to hear well enough for day to day conversation. Still, sometimes at the fast-food restaurant drive-thru window, I feel like I'm having a conversation with a noise box instead of a person.
Now imagine the same experience if you're deaf... and have three deaf kids in the car... and you just want a milkshake.
After picking my youngest son up from school, we decided to grab some shakes at the local Steak and Shake before heading over to the middle school to pick up Lauren.
I went through the empty drive through and drove past the speaker. After waiting a few minutes at the window, I finally honked the horn and waited some more. After a second honk a few minutes later, a young man appeared.
"Hi! I didn't order back there as I can't hear," I said, pointing to my ear. "I'd like two small shakes, one vanilla and one chocolate."
"You'll have to drive around again so I can take your order through the speaker," the guy said.
"I can't hear back there, so I'll need you to take my order here," I explained.
"No, it's our policy. You'll have to just drive around and tell me your order and then I can take your order."
"I can't use the speaker, which is why I'm at the window giving you my order here!" I started raising my voice a little, as I was getting frustrated at the hoops he was putting me through.
So I told him about the Americans with Disabilities Act and I explained that taking orders through the window is an accommodation that I need because I can't use the speaker to place an order.
So at that point the guy, a manager and trainer, says okay, let me get your shakes right? Wrong.
I sat there flabbergasted. I was getting more upset by the minute. All I wanted was the dang shakes! Then another car pulled up behind us.
"Look, if you're not going to take my order, I'm going to file a complaint and let the corporate office know about this."
"Well, I can call the cops on you for disrupting the business and holding up the drive thru."
"You're going to call the cops on me? I'm just trying to get service here!"
"I'm done with you." He abruptly shut the window, threw up his hands and walked away.
She finally gets him back to the window... when he makes it clear he doesn't believe she's deaf.
So I lifted up my hair and showed him my hearing aids. The look on his faced changed a bit. I guess it started to sink in that even though I speak well, I wasn't kidding about being deaf. You would think at that point, he would graciously return to "serve the customer" mode and take my order.
He still didn't. I explained to him that I was going to call the corporate office and let them know that I was being refused service. "Go ahead, call them," he said. "You will need to leave, you are holding up the line."
And he closed the window again.
Steak and Shake, you'll be hearing from me.
As outrageous as this is, to me it's just another example of the evils that have come from our "zero tolerance" world where people don't have to think, they just have to "follow policy."
I took my fight for Matthew to KRON4 television in San Francisco today:
----------------------------------------------
Update2:
I just wrote Matthew through his MySpace to congratulate him on getting to transfer. With his permission, I'm quoting his response to me.
Thank you Brian. Even though I am attending another school that will
allow me to have my hair down, or up, which ever I prefer, I will still
fight against Kerens. What they are doing is wrong. There is a prison
in Texas that allows prisoners to have long hair...Kerens has stricter
rules then a prison. To me, that's down right wrong. Teachers and
admin. are supposed to show us how to accept different people, not tell
them "Your different and because of that, you won't be as successful in
life." I had a teacher who I really liked, I was helping direct the
play, and was the lead in it, the teacher told me if I didn't conform
to what Kerens wanted, I wouldn't get any recommendations for
scholarships or colleges because of all this. Nice to see how people
can turn. I thank you for your support Brian, I will continue to fight
for the right that us kids and adults deserve.
I have a feeling we're going to be hearing good things from Matthew in the future. Good for him.
Matthew Lopez-Widish, one of five students suspended from Kerens High School for not cutting their hair, has transferred to another high school that will allow him to wear his hair down.
After a disciplinary hearing at the Kerens ISD campus today, Matthew will attend Trinidad School, which is in another school district and about nine miles east of his current high school in Navarro County.
"They actually said he could wear his hair down," said Linda Lopez, Matthew's mom.
Whatever punishment Kerens ISD hands down, Trinidad School will have to honor all or part of it, Mrs. Lopez said. Kerens ISD Superintendent Kevin Stanford said last week that the students could face alternative school until they cut their hair.
Another student who was suspended, Derek Divetta, said he was thinking about following Matthew to Trinidad School. He still was considering the decision with his dad Wednesday night.
"I'm going to say that there's a good chance that I will transfer," he said.
Okay, here's a story that's really making me mad. Have we really not accomplished anything over the last 40 years when guys are still getting suspended from school for having long hair?
We need to start a movement to show support for Matthew Lopez-Widish and his friends in Kerens, Texas... not too far from Corsicana, home of the world's largest fruitcake factory. I ain't makin' this up.
KERENS, Texas – Matthew Lopez-Widish hasn't cut his curly brown hair in four years, and he doesn't plan to despite an ultimatum from high school administrators.
Matthew Lopez-Widish was told by Kerens officials to cut his hair before returning to classes, per the policy that forbids male students from having hair that extends past the collar.
A few days before Christmas break at Kerens High School, about 15 miles east of Corsicana in a tiny town known as the birthplace of Big Tex, the straight-A student and at least four other students were called into the principal's office.
Cut your hair by the time you return to school in January or be sent to alternative school, be removed from all extracurricular activities and risk not graduating, Matthew said the principal and assistant principal told him.
Classes in the Kerens district resume today.
"I told them that I'm not going to cut my hair," said Matthew, 18, whose hair, when uncurled, reaches the middle of his back. "It may seem kind of stubborn, but to me, it's part of who I am."
Matthew says that his rights are being stripped and that he's going to take his concerns to the school board meeting Monday.
"I just want the school board to notice that just because I have long hair doesn't mean I'm going to quit learning or obstructing people from learning," Matthew said.
From his Myspace Page, it appears he's an AC/DC fan.
If you think this sucks as much as I do, contact the Kerens High School District. at:
Kerens Independent School District P. O. Box 310, 200 Bobcat Lane Kerens, TX 75144-0310 Telephone: (903) 396-2924 Fax: (903) 396-2334 webmaster email admin@kerens.k12.tx.us
Seriously folks, of all the challenges facing American education today, why are we even talking about long hair other than schools are still more about power play mind games with kids than about actually educating them.
With its winding country lanes and parish church, its 18th-century cottages and sleepy allotments, life is gentle and agreeable in this bucolic southeast English village. Or at least it was until the truck drivers started coming through.
First there was the Slovenian driver en route to Wales with a load of paper who took an improbable detour and ended up wedging his juggernaut into a tiny lane. It was stuck for two days.
Then there were the 10-wheelers that wheezed their way up Butcher's Lane, a thin ribbon of a road constructed with horse and cart in mind. One made a mess of the roof on Ena Wickens's cottage, which lies flush to the lane. No sooner had it been repaired than another truck snorted its way up the roadway and crumpled part of the roof again.
"It's such a worry," says Ms. Wickens as she putters around the garden behind her cozy Jane Austen cottage. "This last time, it was lucky I was in, otherwise he would just have driven off. There is a sign at the bottom of the road saying 'Unsuitable for large vehicles,' but still they come."
Why, exactly, do they come? The answer is to be found in the satellite navigation kits (satnav for short) that are handy for getting motorists from one location to another, but not always judicious in selecting the most appropriate routes.
(snip)
Satellite navigation has turned one country lane in Wales into a virtual gill net, ensnaring almost every truck that comes along: One could only be set free recently by knocking down a stone wall. And last month, a Lithuanian lorry driver was stuck for four days after his vehicle became wedged on a rural roadway more suitable for sheep than trucks.
They have head shops in Texas, or at least they did when I lived there.
If you haven't already regurgitated in your food at the thought, Slate's Explainer takes a look at how tough it would be to turn a skull into a bong, er water pipe, officer.
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