Someone was recently able to recreate and so debunk the mystery of why 30 East Drive had a kitchen door that opened and closed by itself by using the same logic and experimenting with air pressure in the house.
When we had new internal doors fitted we could quietly open and close the front or back door to make all the others slam. Drove the dogs mad.
Good.Security guard endures agonising 'suicide by snake' horror death after cops try and arrest him
A man ended his life by having snakes bite him after authorities discovered he had illegally imported exotic animals, authorities said.
Security guard Marius Joubert, 28, died agonisingly after being bitten by his own snakes following his arrest by police in South Africa. The unfortunate event occurred in Hennenman, a town approximately 100 miles north of the city of Bloemfontein.
Joubert had been under investigation for burglary and theft. Concerns arose when police planned to search his home, suspecting him of illegal activities involving exotic animals. Joubert, realizing the severity of the situation, reportedly opted for a drastic end rather than facing potential long-term imprisonment.
During the police visit to his residence, officers were taken aback to discover over 60 snakes, along with other exotic creatures such as a crocodile, iguanas, monitors, tarantulas, hedgehogs, and ferrets. Unbeknownst to the officers, Joubert used the opportunity to deliberately provoke his snakes into biting him, leading to his death.
A source close to the investigation said: "[Joubert] knew the offences he would be charged with would be much more serious and that many of the snakes and animals he had could put him behind bars for 25 years. He asked if he could feed his snakes and once the cuffs were off he stuck his hands in two cages and was bitten by two snakes in the wrist area and then was restrained.
"We know one of the snakes that bit him was an Indochinese Spitting Cobra which would have put a s****load of venom in him but we don’t know what the other snake was. [...] He was about to be released on a warning until his court date then he started to appear very unwell. Then he collapsed [...] but as the spitting cobra is not native to South Africa there was no anti-venom."
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/security-guard-endures-agonising-suicide-32548620
maximus otter
Here's an episode of the Let's Read podcast with a mention of the murder. It comes up about 1:36:17.
Might have mentioned this elsewhere -
Many years ago I had a Vauxhall cavalier which was my old work horse. Travelling home one Friday evening I had a nice new MR2 up my backside for what seemed like ages, he kept trying to overtake but was held back by oncoming traffic. He took his chance as I entered Falkbourne on a tight left hand bend. The black and white chevrons on the bend never seemed to adequately show how sharp the bend was, hence his brake lights came on just as he passed me, but a little too late to stop him driving into, and mostly through the hedgerow.
There are some real twazzers out there who shouldn't be driving.
With any luck they'll weed themselves out.
Similarly a while ago driving along a back road full of 90 degree bends a young female overtaking me (and straightening her hair in the mirror) just before a blind rise at high speed must have escaped death by a matter of a couple of seconds only as a huge wagon came thundering over the rise in the opposite direction. If she didn't need a change of underwear after she had no perception whatsoever. No sign of her as I went over the rise - maybe she ended up in a field. In one year on 6 occasions I saw the results of female drivers stood by their cars in fields having lost control on that road and ploughed through hedges or fences. Strangely I have never seen a similar incident since with no change in the road layout. I'm guessing blokes who did the same got their cars up and running and scarpered.
I wonder what changed, for the crashes to stop? Often some remodelling will do the trick.
It could be just a matter of making the road markings clearer and not necessarily a change in layout - although I suspect Pete would have noticed this if it were the case.
A spot of re-marking wouldn't stop the boy/girl racers though. If anything it might make them feel safer to carry on speeding.
True.
How long ago was this? If quite recent then I would suspect a Tiktok trend which has now gone out of fashion.
Audlem, a main destination for cyclists. I dunno why as all the roads leading to it are death traps. It's not a place you can pop along back lanes to.
Probably 5 years ago, but I don't see what trend it could have been. Nothing has changed in road layout or markings. It is of course possible that drivers spotting the carnage have taken more care or avoid that particular route altogether. Weird though that it happened in one period of 12 months and involved female drivers - or at least the ones I saw did.
Ironic that the poor woman was killed on hospital grounds. Massive lawsuit to follow no doubt..Steel cylinder breaks free at work site, kills woman walking down Pittsburgh sidewalk
A steel drum weighing thousands of pounds somehow rolled out of a construction site in Pittsburgh and eventually struck and killed a woman who was walking on a nearby sidewalk, police said.
The accident occurred around 10:40 a.m. Friday in the city’s Oakland neighborhood, where the University of Pittsburgh’s new sports performance center is being built.
The drum was either knocked over or dislodged from a piece of heavy equipment, police said. It then rolled several hundred feet as it went down a hill, through a fence and onto the sidewalk where the woman was walking with co-workers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Western Psychiatric Hospital. The drum then went across a road before it came to rest against a pickup truck.
The woman, who suffered a head injury, was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later. Her name has not been released, and no other injuries were reported in the accident, which remains under investigation.
https://apnews.com/article/pittsbur...ruction-site-f09d045c9e9fc11b9bf3b2c2025a0393
maximus otter
No, I hate those kind of roads. Very dangerous, even for vehicles.
Craziness.
Came across this just now.
I find it difficult to understand why this death was initially treated as non-suspicious, when the victim died from a shotgun blast to the chest and neck.
My guess is there wasn't much blood and he was well wrapped up. The police would easily assume an older man dead on a country track died of natural causes. The procurator fiscal would have put him in the fridge until getting round to the autopsy several days later.
I concur. If he'd been there for 8-12 hours full rigor mortis would be present and nothing could be done with the body except store it safely. A post-mortem examination examination would only be able to start at least 24 hours after the death.
