Here’s a much better way to sign off for the night

Dolphin asks for help, and gets it.

Undoubtedly the best story you’ll see today!
While the diver Keller Laros was filming stingrays in Hawaii, out of nowhere appeared a dolphin that was with a hook and fishing lines coiled in one of his fins. Surprising the diver, the dolphin stayed there almost as if he was asking the diver:
“Friend, help me get this hook and this fishing line off, please.”

Incredible video !

I hope it was a suicide attempt and I hope he’s revived

 

Die hard

Cheshire rapist Steven Hayes discovered unresponsive in his cell. An attempted suicide would indicate that Mr. Hayes is unhappy in his circumstances, which is good, and a successful resuscitation will ensure that he can continue in his discomfort for years to come.

Flood zone contract

6 Heusted Drive

Hmm – 6 Heusted Drive, Old Greenwich, reports a contract. Asking $1.075 million. That’s about what a small house in OG would have fetched before Sandy, so I guess buyers don’t care.

I note that “Improvements in 2012 include: New roof and siding, new gas furnace and hot water heater, rebuilt chimney, new 200 amp electric service and panel.” I wonder if those were made because Sandy’s winds and salt water prompted them or just because the owners felt like it? I’m not being facetious here – I really don’t know.

 

30 Heusted Drive went up in altitude, if not in price

How wily can they be if they’ve been caught?

 

Busted

Texas: Two Wylie teens arrested for murder of classmate.

Have I mentioned how much I hate what the Greenwich Association of Realtors has done to us agents?

Not only is the new search function unwieldy and frustrating – click for detail on one property, for instance, and you lose the entire search results, but by wiping out the sales histories it’s no longer possible to easily see what was paid, and when. Yes, in theory what someone paid for a property is irrelevant to its current value, up or down, but it’s critical information for negotiating and even shaping an initial offer.

The new system has clearly been designed to push buyers back into the blissful days of ignorance, when brokers were the keepers of all information, to be dispensed as they saw fit. The internet freed buyers from that monopoly and still does, but clearly, the GAR longs for those days, and has tried to stifle its own members when they act as buyers’ representatives. It won’t work, but the GAR has clearly declared war on half its members – who do they think sells the listings anyway?

UPDATE: How about limiting us to being able to send only self-expiring listings to our clients, thus forcing them to Zillow or Realtor.com? Suicidal stupidity.

Another spec house limps off the market

15 Dearfield Lane, originally asked $3.945 million, sold for $2.725. At that sum, York Development Corp might have broken even, barely, but not a shred of profit. Very nicely built home, but with no yard whatsoever. Perfect, perhaps, for a down-sizing couple or a pair of newly-wed New Yorkers, but otherwise, a limited buyer pool, as Nick Bareli of York discovered.

Well she’s no dumber than the average American high school graduate

British lass wonders via tweet why Britain’s president Barraco Barner was getting involved in Ukraine, and the world responds harshly.

Poor girl’s tweet goes viral.

Does she wish she knew more about politics — and has this experience changed her?

‘Definitely,’ she says. ‘I would like to get educated [about Ukraine] now and I’ll definitely make more of an effort to watch the news. People are saying to me “Go back to school”, but even at school we never learned about politics and current affairs.’

Sad that this child thinks she’ll educate herself on world affairs by making an effort to watch television news, but that’s the main source of “news” for most Americans; we’re in the same perilous state as England.

The libertarian answer to dealing with the insane: self-selecting asylum

Miss Velma Lyrae relaxes in her tinfoil-lined pup tent

“Radio-allergic” fruitcakes flock to radio-free mountain town.

A small remote town where Wi-Fi is banned has become an unlikely haven for people claiming modern technology has been making them ill.

The so-called ‘Wi-Fi refugees’ are flocking to the tiny settlement to escape painful symptoms including burning skin, chest pains and acute headaches.

The sufferers argue the affliction – a condition known as Electromagnetic Sensitivity – has been eased by the move and report feeling much better.

Many have relocated to Green Bank, West Virginia, from across America to avoid mobile phones, Wi-Fi hotspots, TV and radio transmissions. As of 2013, 36 people have relocated to Green Bank.

One, Diane Schou, travelled nearly 1,000 miles from her former home in Iowa to join the isolated town of just 147 residents.

Diane said: ‘I used to be sick all the time when I lived in Iowa. I was in constant pain.

‘If anyone came near me with a cell phone or a device with Wi-Fi I would be in agony.

‘But since I’ve moved to Green Banks the illnesses have cleared up.’

50-year-old [Californian Deborah Cooney] said her symptoms developed after hundreds of Wi-Fi enabled smart meters were installed next to her home in 2011.

Deborah said: ‘It began with a constant ringing in my ears. I couldn’t sleep in the house anymore and felt sick all the time.

‘Any food I brought into the house would make me feel ill. I got heart palpitations.

‘It was like I was slowly being poisoned.’

Even her pet cat Mimi, a purebred Himalayan, became ill from the harmful radiation she believed had been emitted from the smart meters, she added.

Deborah added: ‘Mimi went from being a typical house cat to one that would never stay home and eventually she ran away and never came back.’

My guess is that Mimi was running for her life from her owner, but whatever works.

Greenwich Republicans, national style

Greenwich Selectman Peter Tesei (R) with unidentified athletic  supporter

McConnell vows to “crush Tea Party everywhere”.

Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted the GOP establishment will destroy conservative insurgents attempting to unseat a trio of incumbents in an interview with The New York Times published Sunday.

“I think we are going to crush them everywhere,” McConnell said. “I don’t think they are going to have a single nominee anywhere in the country.”

McConnell is one of three establishment Republicans who are facing primary challengers backed by Tea Party conservative groups. The Senate Conservatives Fund, The Madison Project, and FreedomWorks are supporting Matt Bevin, McConnell’s rival, in Kentucky. All three groups as well as the anti-tax Club For Growth are also throwing their fundraising weight behind Chris McDaniel’s run against Republican Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran. The Madison Project and the Senate Conservatives Fund are also spending to support Milton Wolf, who is challenging Kansas Senator Pat Roberts.

McConnell told the Times he’s confident the challenge from the conservative base will fade out after its first few losses. 

Delusional? I think this quote sums it up: “I know this: Politics doesn’t like losers,” McConnell said. “If you don’t have anything to point to, it is kind of hard to keep it going.”

What, precisely, does the Republican Party have to point to that’s any different than what their Democrat “opponents” offer? At least in Greenwich, Tesei and Campbell can point to their huge wining plurality and claim that residents prefer their brand of ineptitude and smug contempt for taxpayers. Nationally, the GOP doesn’t even have that.