Quick Takes

Leafy detector

Most know spinach as the leafy vegetable high in vitamins and minerals. But researchers at MIT have a new application for the salad green: bomb detection. Scientists with a biotechnology project at MIT believe they can modify spinach plants with tiny tubes that, when exposed to explosive material, emit an infrared fluorescent light. The researchers, who published their work in the journal Nature Materials, say they’re harnessing the ability of the plants to draw groundwater to their detection devices.

Manly glamour

The Glamour magazine Women of the Year awards has an odd recipient this year: a man. The fashion magazine announced in a Nov. 1 article that U2 lead singer Bono would be featured as one of a handful of the magazine’s Women of the Year. The magazine’s editors said they gave Bono an honorary place in the Women of the Year edition for his “Poverty is Sexist” campaign, which aims to aid the poorest women in the world.

Stump speech

Asher Woodworth may be suffering for his art, but so did some of his unwilling patrons. The Portland Press Herald reports that police arrested Woodworth, 30, for obstructing traffic when he dressed up as a tree and inch by inch made his way through a busy Portland, Maine, intersection on Oct. 24. Woodworth said his act was performance art and was meant to contrast the “energies of economy and efficiency and the energies of slowness and magic.”

Money for nothing

A university executive who spends $7,000 of taxpayers’ money on a conference and expedition wouldn’t normally raise hackles. But recent local media reports of a February event organized by Christopher Dyer, executive director of the University of New Mexico’s Gallup campus, is causing controversy because of its topic: Bigfoot. The university reportedly paid for advertising the event and for honoraria and expenses for two guest speakers. Dyer and other conference-goers also went on a search for Bigfoot but didn’t find any evidence “because of the snow.” UNM President Robert Frank said the event “was not appropriate,” but Dyer said the conference was popular: “It was the largest and most well-attended event in the history of this campus.”

Name dropping

A Minor League Baseball franchise in Florida announced a new plan for increasing merchandise sales: changing the team’s name. Beginning next season, the Jacksonville Suns will become the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, team owner Ken Babby announced on Nov. 2. The Double-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins has had the Suns moniker since 1962. Babby argued that a creative and colorful team name will help his franchise stand out. “There’s something fun and quirky about minor-league team names,” Babby told The Florida Times-Union. “In our league alone, you have the [Pensacola] Wahoos and [Montgomery] Biscuits. When people see this logo and hear the name for the first time, they’ll see this experience is all about fun.”

Life in reverse

A pair of teenage thieves in Seattle managed to steal a car in August, but they needed some help from their victim. According to authorities, a 17-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy approached the unidentified man on Aug. 2 and demanded his vehicle. The victim said the female pulled a pistol on him and he turned over his keys and nearly $600 in cash. After instructing the victim to lie on the ground, the duo got into the vehicle and attempted to back out of his driveway. Unable to find the reverse gear, they exited the car and forced the man to explain the process of putting a car in reverse. Police recovered the car when the girl drove it into a fire hydrant later that night. She pleaded guilty to first degree robbery in November and was sentenced to at least two years in juvenile detention.

Long read

After 42 years, a New York man has come clean. Officials with the Guilderland Public Library outside of Albany, N.Y., disclosed that a man, whom they did not identify, entered the library Oct. 25 and returned a copy of William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that was 15,531 days overdue. Unable to register the return in the library’s system because the book was last checked out in April 1974, the clerk allowed the man to go without a fine. Library director Tim Wiles estimated that, if the library didn’t use a cap on fines, the return would have resulted in a $3,106.20 fee.

Lunch break?

Police in Arizona have arrested a man after an unorthodox car chase around Phoenix. Police began tailing Joshua Adkins in Phoenix on Oct. 26 and pursued him into the suburb of Chandler, Ariz., where the 35-year-old reportedly pulled into an In-N-Out Burger drive-thru lane. Authorities say Adkins appeared to order food, but ditched the line before paying or receiving a burger. Police finally apprehended the suspect about 4 miles down the road when he left his car and tried running into a locked house.

Dangerous lark

A pair of Australian troublemakers fooled North Korean officials and scammed their way into an official golf tournament in the hermit kingdom. Brisbane, Australia, residents Morgan Ruig and Evan Shay say they were in Beijing when they heard about an amateur golf open held annually at North Korea’s only open golf course. Despite their lack of skill, the pair posed via email as accomplished golfers and received invitations to participate. Ruig, who finished the tournament carding a 120 on the par-72 course, said he believes a lack of internet access in North Korea made their claims difficult to check. But Shay said midway through the tournament, held Oct. 8 and 9, his North Korean caddy had grown wise, telling the pair that “we brought great shame upon our families.”