Friday Snippets and Soundbites

Welcome to the second Friday of October! "Snippets and Soundbites" is the perfect way to kick your weekend off. At least, we think so!

And, of course, if this post isn't enough strange news and happenings, check out “Snippets and Soundbites” on page 38 of the October (and every issue) of ec. You won’t be sorry!

Ready? Let’s go!

Good Luck Road wasn't so lucky
It happened on Good Luck Road, but we really doubt that Robert Scribner would think so. That's because Scribner, who lives in an apartment off Good Luck Road in Landham, Md., was simply lying in bed one moment and watching a mini-van crash through his bedroom wall the next, landing on top of the bed he'd been lying on. He was OK, except for an injured leg caused by flying debris. Police investigating the incident say that it was all part of a driving lesson gone wrong. A man was teaching his friend to drive that night on Good Luck Road and the lesson ended in Scribner's apartment. Neither man in the vehicle had a driver's license. To learn more about the story, go here. For more safe driving tips, go here.

This is not a robbery!
In the clerks' defense, the convenience store had been robbed—not once, but twice—in recent months. But last week, the attempted robbery was all a big misunderstanding. Apparently, the clerks at Five Star Snacks and More in Waterloo, Iowa, was dealing with a rambling customer who kept his hand in his pocket. Based on past experience and the man's strange behavior, the clerks put money in a bag and threw it at the man. He simply walked away. Without the money. The police say the man was drunk and the whole robbery thing was a mistake. To read the whole story, go here. To learn more about slighty stupid crimes, go here.

The search for water
NASA successfully blasted a rocket into space—and into a crater on the moon—today. Don't worry, the rocket was supposed to slam into the crater near the moon's south pole. The launch is part of an attempt to discover water on the moon. NASA wants to find out if there is water below the moon's surface that astronauts could use on future missions. Four minutes after the rocket made contact, another spacecraft was projected to fly through any dust and debris the impact caused, testing it all for signs of water ice. Scientists in charge of the mission say that it could be awhile before they have a definitive answer. "We're dealing with good scientists," said Greg Schmidt, a research scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, which managed the mission, in a news story in the Los Angeles Times. "They don't want to make a premature announcement." To read all about the mission, go here. If you want to see video from the mission, check this out.