Tourists who fly to Colorado to try legal pot can forget about buying souvenir boxer shorts, socks or sandals with a marijuana leaf on them at the Denver airport after the souvenirs were banned.
Marijuana possession and any pot-related advertising are already forbidden. Airport executives extended the ban this month after a retailer sought a kiosk to sell the boxer shorts and similar items that played off Colorado’s place as the first state to allow recreational marijuana sales.
Ann Jordan, owner of High-ly Legal Colorado, which makes the souvenirs, asked why airport officials were “so riled up about the picture of a plant”, and she noted that the airport has an exhibit celebrating another adult product: Colorado craft beer.
Humans ‘unusual’ over viruses
Humans have fewer viral remnants in their genes than other mammals because they gave up biting, research suggests.
When our ancestors started using weapons to fight and hunt with instead of teeth they reduced their exposure to blood-borne viruses, scientists believe.
As a result, humans are unusual in not having had any new types of virus embedded in their DNA in the last 30 million years, a team of British and US researchers said in a study published in the journal Retrovirology.
‘Mini-brain’ found in spinal cord
Walking on ice is made easier by a “mini-brain” in the spinal cord, scientists have discovered.
The cluster of spinal neurons integrates sensory information and unconsciously adjusts our muscles to maintain balance and avoid slipping. US researchers, whose findings are reported in the journal Cell, identified the balance mechanism after mapping spinal cord circuits that process the sense of light touch.
Double take on lottery numbers
Michigan Lottery draws had some people seeing double.
The winning numbers for the Midday Daily 4 on Thursday afternoon and the Daily 4 numbers drawn that evening were the same: zero, two, two and nine. Michigan Lottery spokesman Jeff Holyfield says no-one at the lottery could recall the last time that has happened.
He said 540 winning tickets were sold for the midday drawing and 650 for the afternoon drawing. Each winning ticket is worth 5,000 US dollars. The odds of winning one draw are 1 in 10,000. He did not know the odds of the same numbers coming up in consecutive draws, but added those numbers also were picked on December 5.
Bat attack in Arkansas court
There was disorder in the court when 30 bats flew inside an Arkansas courtroom during a trial.
Several people ducked, screamed and ran from the room as the bats swooped into the room at the Sevier County Courthouse in De Queen. One bat tried to bite a deputy who caught it and held it by the wings while onlookers took photos. The bats calmed down after the lights were turned off and court was moved elsewhere.
Circuit Judge Tom Cooper said hundreds of bats live at the courthouse and that their excrement is everywhere. The county’s chief administrative officer, Greg Ray, said hundreds roost in a lift shaft. A pest control expert has been asked to visit the courthouse to propose solutions.
‘Another six weeks of winter’
Punxsutawney Phil, the American groundhog famous for his weather predictions, emerged from his burrow atop Gobbler's Knob in Pennsylvania yesterday and saw his shadow, forecasting six more weeks of winter. Phil saw his shadow at 7:25 a.m. EST in the Western Pennsylvania borough of Punxsutawney, the self-proclaimed weather capital of the world.