NewsQuirks 683

Only the Lonely

Voter turnout for a June primary election runoff in Arkansas was not only low, but in two precincts in Garland County, nobody voted. "This hasn't happened in 27 years in any election. There's always somebody to vote," County Clerk Nancy Johnson said. "I've never known not to have anybody."

People who watch certain television programs think they have more friends than they actually do, according to a study by sociologist Satoshi Kanazawa of Indiana University. He said the brain's mechanisms for recognizing friends evolved long before TV was developed, so the subconscious mind regards any face it sees regularly as a real-life friend, even if it's on TV. Kanazawa said women's TV friends appear on sitcoms and prime-time dramas, while men's are on news programs.

Slightest Provocations

Scott Tomlinson, 16, pleaded guilty to killing his 13-year-old sister because he wanted to watch "The Simpsons" on television and she didn't. While the two wrestled over the remote, the boy said he unintentionally strangled her. He then hid her body in a sleeping bag in a storage shed behind the family home in West St. Paul, Minn.

Former Marine Patrick Gott, 43, walked into the terminal at the New Orleans international airport, pulled a 12-gauge shotgun from his duffel bag and fired one shot, which critically injured a passenger and hit an airline employee in the hand. Before he could get off a second shot, bystanders wrestled him to the ground. Gott told investigators that he is a Muslim and opened fire because some people had made fun of his turban.

Squeaky Wheels

Right-wing extremists in Japan, who usually drive in convoys of large black vehicles and blare their political opinions through loudspeakers, often receive discounts on expressway tolls by threatening tollbooth attendants. "I want to make it clear that we are not offering discounts of our own free will," a representative of the Japan Highway Public Corp. said. "The demands can be very forceful, and individuals may be frightened."

Big-Bang Theory

James Suchomski, 25, and Josh Edleman, 26, filled party balloons with acetylene gas and loaded them into a car to take somewhere and set on fire as an Independence Day prank, intending to create a large "boom" sound. Apparently unaware that acetylene becomes unstable under pressure, such as inside a car, the men shut the car doors. Moments later, the balloons exploded, throwing both men from the car, according to one of the men's brother. "When we were inside, the explosion went off," Matthew Suchomski said. "It broke the windows, and the roof was peeled off the car, and police and rescue teams were in the yard. It was an explosion. The car blew up."

Blessing in Disguise

Toxic sludge dumped into the Potomac River actually protects fish, according to a document attributed to the Army Corps of Engineers, by driving them from the polluted areas, thus avoiding capture by fishermen, to lay their eggs upstream. The Washington Times obtained the 1998 document from the Environmental Protection Agency's administrative record, which is part of its lawsuit to stop sludge discharges along the river. The Corps dumps 200,000 tons of "toxic sludge" into the river every year, according to the House Resources Committee. Rep. George P. Radanovich, R-Calif., who chairs the subcommittee on national parks, recreation and public land, called the suggestion that toxic sludge is good for fish because it keeps them from being caught by people "ludicrous."

Little Things Mean a Lot

A German court told a man seeking health insurance funding for an operation to enlarge his penis that his "ailment" didn't qualify. "A small penis can be seen as a normal deviation," the court in Potsdam ruled. "As long as there is no functional defect, there are no grounds for medical treatment." The plaintiff, who was appealing a decision by medical insurers not to fund an operation, has a penis that, according to court documents, is a third smaller than average. The judge did allow that if the plaintiff suffers psychologically because of his shortcoming, the insurance company should cover psychological treatment.