Eideard

A North Carolina couple is suing AirTran Airways, alleging that cockroaches crawled out of air vents and overhead carry-on bins during a flight from Charlotte to Houston in September.

Attorney Harry Marsh and his fiancé Kaitlin Rush say the insects appeared soon after takeoff, and when Marsh pointed them out to flight attendants, they did nothing to help…

The couple accuses AirTran of negligence and recklessness, infliction of emotional distress, nuisance, false imprisonment and unfair and deceptive trade practices, and is suing for more than $100,000 plus the price of their tickets…

Harry Marsh and his fiancé Kaitlin Rush say the cockroaches made them sick…

CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin predicted the case would never go to trial.

“This is a case that’s going to settle. Bottom line, I foresee a lot of free flights for this couple if they want to get back on AirTran,” Hostin said.

“It’s certainly not a pretty picture. The roaches were out long enough for them to take video and photographs, so that’s exhibit A.”

Sunny Hostin is right. Cockroaches on a plane appearing above a lawyer with a camera. AirTrans is doomed.

Dooomed!

Inspectors have found infestations of German cockroaches in or near the cafeterias or kitchens of 22 Orange County public schools.

Students at many of the schools are eating cold lunches prepared in a central kitchen while the facilities are cleaned and debugged. While the cafeterias are closed, students at 12 of the schools have been eating under outdoor tents or in their classroom, said district spokeswoman Kathy Marsh…

“Unacceptable” levels of bugs at 22 schools were found during nighttime inspections of all 188 Orange schools Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Most infestations were in the kitchen, the cafeteria or both, but a few schools had bugs in a storage room or bathrooms near the cafeteria…

The school district began the inspections after WKMG-Channel 6 in Orlando took administrators an undercover video of cockroaches at Pineloch Elementary. Principals began sending Connect Orange messages about the bugs to parents his week. Rock Springs Elementary had to postpone its sock-hop dance so the cafeteria could be debugged.

Admittedly, critters like this are always tough to deal with completely and successfully in southern climates. It’s their natural turf. But – still – it ain’t impossible, folks.

A Chandler man reportedly high on meth put his young toddler son in the freezer for several minutes while he fixed himself a meal, police said.

Chance Kracke told Chandler police he was on methamphetamine when he placed his 7-month-old son in freezer drawer as he prepared a meal at his apartment in the 600 block of East Commonwealth Avenue, said Sgt. Joe Favazzo, a police spokesman.

Kracke told police he placed his son in the freezer because the “kitchen floor was too dirty” and let him out after two or three minutes because the baby began crying. The child was fine, except for a cut and lump on the boy’s forehead, possibly from the freezer door, Favazzo said…

When police spoke with Chance and Leann Kracke, they admitted to smoking meth over the past month and a half, police said…

On Aug. 18, police searched the Krache’s home and were met with a “strong odor of feces and urine” and cockroaches “in the hundreds,” according to the statement…”Overall, the apartment was filthy with trash, dismantled electronics, sharp objects and alcohol within reach of the children.”

“X-rays showed the 19-month-old ingested a screw that was expected to pass,” according to the statement. Chance Kracke admitted to having anger issues and that he squeezed his son’s stomach one time because he wouldn’t stop crying, police said.

Chance Kracke was arrested on suspicion of four counts of child abuse, two counts of possession of paraphernalia, and one count of animal cruelty for kicking the dog.

Leann Kracke was arrested on suspicion of two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of child abuse.

Throw the key away. Please! Don’t let them near children or dogs.

When animals die, their corpses exude a particular “stench of death” which repels their living relatives, scientists have discovered.

Corpses of animals as distantly related as insects and crustaceans all produce the same stench, caused by a blend of simple fatty acids.

The smell helps living animals avoid others that have succumbed to disease or places where predators lurk.

This ‘death recognition system’ likely evolved over 400 million years ago…

We still know very little about how animals use smell to sense danger. For example:

Various mammals, including deer, groundhogs and rabbits will avoid the smell of blood. They also avoid the smell of various soaps, which are largely comprised of fatty acids

Further work by another research team showed that a very primitive type of insect called a collembola also uses these same fatty acids to recognise dead kin.

New experiments by Professor Rollo’s team have also now confirmed that the phenomenon is used even more widely.

“In fact, as we describe, fatty acids are reliably and relatively rapidly released or exposed from cells following death.”

“Evolution may have favoured recognition of such cues because they are so reliable and exposure to risks of contagion or predation are so important.”

RTFA. Lots of details, common clues, analytic equivalents. Fascinating stuff.