Odds and Ends – Friday August 4- August 10, 2017

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See this? Doctors find 27 contact lenses in woman’s eye

London (AP) – Doctors intending to perform cataract surgery on a 67-year-old woman in Britain found something rather unexpected: 17 contact lenses mashed together in her right eye. In a case report published Monday in the journal BMJ, the doctors said that the woman had worn monthly disposable contact lenses for 35 years; she had “deep set eyes” and poorer vision in that eye, which they said might have contributed to a failure to remove some of the lenses. The doctors said the 17 lenses were bound together by mucus. A further 10 were found by the surgeon using a microscope. Rupal Morjaria, a specialist trainee in ophthalmology, said the “large mass” would have caused quite a lot of irritation. The patient had chalked it up to old age and dry eye, Morjaria said.

Flood destroys entire cash contents of Wisconsin bank vault

Burlington, Wis. (AP) – Flooding last week destroyed all the cash in the vault of a southeastern Wisconsin bank. Fox River State Bank president Keith Polleck refused to disclose how much money was ruined, but said the Federal Reserve will have to replace every dollar. Polleck told WISN-TV that the vault at the bank in Burlington, 35 miles (55 kilometers) southwest of Milwaukee, is water resistant but not waterproof. As the Fox River rose above flood stage, water flooded the bank, rising up to 21 inches (53 centimeters) deep inside the facility. Now that the river is back below flood stage, restoration crews have started to clean up. Carpets have been ripped out. Drywall is being replaced. The bank’s documents are drying, though most are backed up electronically.

London Zoo welcomes a new kind of visitor: Robotic dinosaurs

(AP Photo/Caroline Spiezio)
(AP Photo/Caroline Spiezio)

London (AP) – London Zoo is welcoming a new star attraction this summer: robotic dinosaurs. Visitors will see robotic replicas of Mesozoic-era dinosaurs, including T. Rex and Triceratops, which lived approximately 65 million years ago, at a “time travel safari” exhibit named Zoorassic Park. The robots make sounds and motions that mimic the real-life dinosaurs. Some even drip water out of their mouths or spray it at passers-by. Information about the dinosaurs’ massive extinction is dispersed throughout the display at the zoo in north London. At the end, visitors are “transported” back to modern times with a video on endangered species, recent extinctions and conservation efforts. The exhibition opens Saturday and runs until Sept. 3.

Cops: Customer threatened to shoot someone over bad sandwich

South Euclid, Ohio (AP) – Police in suburban Cleveland say a fast-food restaurant customer angry about the way his sandwich tasted and looked threatened to shoot somebody over it. The South Euclid Police Department reported receiving a call Tuesday about a man storming into the Steak ‘n Shake restaurant “acting crazy,” saying he had a gun and was going to shoot someone. Police say the 20-year-old man complained that the egg on his sandwich was runny and slimy and looked like spit. He was in custody Wednesday pending a court appearance on an aggravated menacing charge. Police say he didn’t have a gun. Police posted on the department Facebook page tips for better ways to deal with restaurant dissatisfaction. Police added in the post that they don’t take special orders at “hotel SEPD.”

Police officer with stun gun sets naked man on fire

Manitowoc, Wis. (AP) – Police say an officer using a stun gun to restrain a naked man accidentally set the man’s chest hair and beard on fire. Officers found the 32-year-old naked man standing in the street in Manitowoc (MAN’-ih-toh-walk), Wisconsin, on Sunday evening. They say the man yelled that he wanted to harm people living nearby. Officers suspected he was impaired by drugs and placed him in handcuffs, but the man struggled and refused to enter a squad car. That’s when one officer deployed a stun gun, striking a lighter in the man’s hand. The lighter fluid and electricity combined to spark the fire in his beard and chest hair. As officers extinguished the blaze, the man punched one of them in the face. Manitowoc is 40 miles (65 kilometers) southeast of Green Bay.