Why Did This Weirdo Lick A Doorbell For Three Hours?

This weirdo was caught on home security cameras licking a
doorbell for three hours. I'm sure when they catch this
guy some people will want to know why. 

This story has gone viral, and I can see why.

People in Salinas, California, and pretty much everywhere else are wondering why some weirdo was licking a doorbell on a pleasant looking house in that city.

The homeowners had installed video surveillance about a month ago. They weren't home when this happens, but they get alerts on their phone when there's a lot of activity at the house.

They reviewed the surveillance footage, and found this idiot licking the doorbell. For three hours.

The video went viral and this guy now has a nationwide reputation as being, well, EWWWWWW!!

Police said the images on the surveillance video were pretty damn clear, which helped lead them to Roberto Daniel Arroyo, 33, who is the alleged doorbell licker. He could face two misdemeanor charges of petty theft and prowling.

He didn't take anything except for an extension cord, which was later found at a nearby neighbor's house. Arroyo did apparently stop his doorbell licking long enough to take a pee on the front lawn.

The family that owns the house, as you might imagine, spent quite a bit of time cleaning the doorbell with antiseptic cleanser.

Here's the news video, with some footage of the oddball doorbell licker:

Watch This Car Fall From The Fourth Level Of A Parking Garage

Baltimore County, Maryland Police and Fire have just released surveillance footage of a car plunging off the fourth level of a Towson, Maryland parking garage on March 17.

The driver of the car said the vehicle lurched forward when she was trying to park there. Miraculously, she suffered only relatively minor injuries.

Scary Video: Watch Bicyclist Almost Get Smushed By Car, Truck

Watch what happens in this scary traffic crash.  

I don't know if this guy was lucky or unlucky, but a surveillance camera in Russia captured a collision between a truck and a car at an intersection.

A bicyclists passing through at the time comes inches from being run over by both vehicles. Talk about threading the needle!

Watch this guy's escape:

Dog REALLY Rebels Against The Stay Off The Bed Rule

Many households have a rule in which dogs must not get up on the bed.

Our dog Jackson, head resting on a pillow
settles down for an early Sunday afternoon
nap on our bed. At least he wasn't bouncing all
over the place.  

(In my house, we're totally lax in this regard. As I write this, Jackson the Cocker Spaniel is happily asleep on the comfy pillows on our bed)

Anyway, we have the inevitable video with the inevitable security camera that catches the inevitable dog getting on the inevitable bed.

We even have the inevitable "Yakity Sax" playing in the background

But the dog who gets on this bed really seems to be reveling in his rebellion. Bonus points to the vaguely annoyed cat looking on.

The video is definitely good for a Sunday laugh:

Dramatic Surveillance Camera Video of Harlem Explosion Is Beyond Scary

CBS News got its hands on surveillance video of that huge gas explosion that leveled two buildings in Harlem last week, killing at least eight people and injuring many more.    

The scene of last week's explosion in East Harlem.

As you'll see in the CBS report, below, a guy was walking down the street when the first concussion rained debris and broken glass very fast on top of him.

The debris came from the collapsing buildings, and windows blowing out in storefronts and apartments across the street from the blast

No word on who the guy is, but miraculously, it appears he's not hurt too bad.

It probably helped he was wearing a fairly heavy jacket, which maybe partly protected him from the rain of debris.

Here's the incredible CBS report and video. Hope THIS never happens again!

 

How Not To Rob A Restaurant

I admit, the video in this post might be some sort of set up, some staged thing, but I like to think it's real.

It's supposedly a surveillance camera that captured an attempted robbery at a restaurant in Brazil.

The two robbers' plan seems sound enough on paper, but things went wrong, at least, as I said, this isn't some gag.  Still funny, though.

Monitoring Workers To Death?

Apparently, at an Irish grocery chain called Tesco, workers now have monitoring devices strapped to them that examines their every move, making sure they do their work at a frantically fast pace, or else!

For example, they face potential penalties for taking a bathroom break or a sip of water.

Every company has to monitor employees.
But when does it go too far?  

Well, if machines don't take bathroom breaks, why should humans?

Reports The Independent of Ireland:

"A former staff member has claimed employees are given marks based on how efficiently they work in a bid to improve productivity and can be called in front of management if they take unscheduled toilet breaks."

Tesco said the armband devices eliminate the need for workers to carry around pens and paper when logging deliveries or shipments, according to the Independent article.

But former employees say the devices are more sinister than that. According to the Independent:

One former employee said the device provided an order to collect from the warehouse and a set amount of time to complete it. If workers met that target, they were awarded a 100 per cent score, but that would rise to 200 per cent if they worked twice as quickly. The score would fall if they did not meet the target.

If, however, workers did not log a break when they went to the toilet, the score would be “surprisingly lower”, according to the former staff member, who did not want to be named but worked in an Irish branch of Tesco. He said that some would be called before management if they were not deemed to be working hard enough. “The guys who made the scores were sweating buckets and throwing stuff around the place,” he said." 

 According to Salon, which picked up the Independent article, this micro-monitoring of employees has been building steam for some time now. Keystrokes are monitored in the customer service department. Call center conversations have time limits, and at some places, if employees take too long, watch out!

All this might end up backfiring on companies which are trying to boost productivity.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a report on job stress, has this to say:

"Some employers assume that stressful working conditions are a necessary evil-that companies must turn up the pressure on workers and set aside health concerns to remain productive and profitable in today's economy. But research findings challenge this belief. Studies show that stressful working conditions are actually associated with increased absenteeism, tardiness, and intentions by workers to quit their jobs-all of which have a negative effect on the bottom line."

It also affects the product or service we the consumer get:

Citing research by John Gillion and Torin Monahan, Salon notes:

"For example, nurses are no longer taking the time to get to know their patients because hospitals make more money when more people are hustled through. In the past, nurses had ways to circumvent hospital pressure. Now, electronic tracking of patient movement means that medical profressionals will spend far less time with you when you are sick."

Obviously, we all want to be productive. There are lazy people out there that need to be prodded, but generally most workers do want to get things done and have a sense of accomplishment.

I also think it's more than OK to encourage and push employees into better productivity where possible. But I worry a few companies just think of employees, especially the low level, poorly paid ones, as little more than draft animals or machines that can be goosed and revved up to beyond maximum capacity.

And then, when these overworked and overheated human employees burn out, toss them in the Dumpster with the rest of the broken machines and get a new one, then repeat the process.

Seems to me this rather inhumane business model is great for short term profits, but not long term viability. Who wants to work for a company that treats you like a slave, and who wants to buy stuff from a company that treats people like that? Not only because of the ethics involved, but can we really trust hyper-exhaustive, resentful employees to make a quality product or service?

Scary Video: Tornado Hits Mobile Walgreens

Up here in Vermont, we're expecting a big snowstorm tomorrow. We'll probably get more than a foot of snow from the storm, which is coming up from the Gulf Coast and will turn into a nor'easter.

For Vermont, the big snowstorm is probably more good than bad. The ski areas aren't complaining about it, given the fact it's the Christmas vacation week, and a lot of tourists and locals have been jonesing for a good powder day.

A tornado sweeps through Mobile, Alabama
on Christmas Day.

The price paid for this snow is the same storm system that is giving us this dump of white spun off a bunch of tornadoes in the Deep South.

Surveillance video of one tornado as it hit a Mobile, Alabama Walgreens just came out. One interesting thing is you notice is how the people there go from curious, to awestruck, to terrified as the storm approaches.

Luckily, nobody gets seriously hurt, though some people got cuts and other injuries from flying glass. It looks like the interior of the store stayed largely intact, which means the people who wisely ran to the back of the store, away from the windows were able to ride the thing out OK.

It is a pretty fascinating video. Watch: