Friday Snippets and Soundbites

October sure is going by quickly! We hope you're enjoying fall and all the fun that comes with it. And eating candy corn. Because we love candy corn!

Welcome to this week's edition of "Snippets and Soundbites." Remember: if this isn't enough news of the weird for you, check out page 38 of the October (and every) issue of ec.

Ready? Let's go!

Balloon Boy overloads the airwaves
Yesterday, Twitter, online news sites, and even cable news networks were all abuzz with the story of the little boy in the runaway balloon. For much of the afternoon, it was believed that 6-year-old Falcon Heene was riding on a runaway helium weather balloon that had floated away from his family's house in the morning. During the balloon's two hour, 50-mile trek through two Colorado counties, authorities were following its progress and forming plans to rescue the boy they believed to be on board. When the balloon finally landed and the boy was not on it, authorities scoured the plains of Colorado and many sites reported the child had died. But five hours after the whole ordeal began, little Falcon Heene came out of hiding; he'd been in the rafters of the family's garage the entire time. Falcon's remarks in a press conference last night have led to allegations that the family may have planned the whole thing as a publicity stunt, but what exactly happens remains unclear. To learn more about the ongoing story, go here.

Eat more veggies!
In Mexico City, the city officials there's a little bit of a weight problem among the city's police force. So, they're putting 1,300 of their officers on a diet. City officials say that at least 70 percent of the police force is overweight, but that they've focused the program—for now—on the officers with the most serious weight-related health problems. The United States is one of the world's fattest countries, but Mexico is quickly catching up, since nearly half of its population is considered to be overweight. To learn more about the city's diet plan, go here. To learn more about the obesity rates of the world's countries, check this out.

Where is Thurman?!
Before their game last Sunday, the Buffalo Bills unveiled an 8 1/2-foot statue of former Buffalo Bills running back at a parking lot across from the stadium. The statue was a half-ton chain saw carving and was made from a tree that had been toppled in a 2006 snowstorm. It was one of many statues unveiled that day as part of a fundraising effort to raise money for new trees. But sometime after the Bills' game against the Browns on Sunday, the statue mysteriously disappeared. Officials found the missing statue in Canada, where a Bills' fan said he and two friends had taken the statue after rescuing it from an angry mob after the Bills' loss on Sunday. Never fear: the statue returned to New York on Thursday. No charges are expected to be filed. To read more about the story, go here and here.