Spacewalk needed to fix ammonia leak on International Space Station

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 11:27 AM - 0 Comments

AP/Dmitry Lovetsky

Astronauts on the International Space Station are preparing for an unscheduled space walk to fix leaking ammonia, which is used to cool the power panels on the station.

While Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who is currently commanding the station, won’t be one of two people doing the spacewalk, he will be assisting from inside. Astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn are preparing for the walk.

“The crew is not in danger, and the station continues to operate normally otherwise,” NASA said in a press release issued Thursday. “Work is underway to reroute power channels to maintain full operation of the systems normally controlled by the solar array that is cooled by the suspect loop.”

Crews discovered the leak after they saw small white flakes floating away from the station Thursday, says NASA. Using cameras and data from ground crews, members of the International Space Station were able to determine that the rate of the ammonia leak was increasing. Continue…

Singer from ‘As I Lay Dying’ metal band says he’s not guilty in wife’s murder plot

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 10, 2013 at 10:05 AM - 0 Comments

Tim Lambesis/As I Lay Dying

Tim Lambesis, the lead singer in the Christian heavy metal band As I Lay Dying, has pleaded not guilty in a plot to hire a hit man to kill his wife.

Lambesis, 32, was arrested in Oceanside, north of San Diego on Tuesday after police allege he had a conversation with a man who was an undercover cop. Police say Lambesis paid the undercover cop $1,000 to kill his estranged wife, Meggan Lambesis. He also gave the official details about how to carry out the hit, including photograph, an address, a security gate code and dates he would be with their children to give him an alibi, reports The Associated Press.

Lambesis pleaded not guilty to a charge of solicitation of murder in a California courtroom Thursday. A judge set his bail at $3 million and ordered him to wear a GPS tracking device until his next court appearance.

The couple had filed for a divorce, which had not yet gone through. Papers filed in court showed that the spilt was mainly amicable. Tim and Meggan Lambesis have three children — ages 4, 8 and 10 — who were all adopted from Ethiopia. Continue…

Facebook in talks to buy Waze mapping app for $1 billion: reports

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 1:49 PM - 0 Comments

Paul Sakuma/AP Photo

Reports from three Hebrew-language news outlets say that Facebook is in negotiations to purchase Waze, a mapping application headquartered in Israel.

The move is seen as a bid to increase the social media site’s mobile capabilities, much in the same manner it did when it purchased Instagram for $1 billion in August 2012.

The Waze deal is thought to be worth $1 billion as well, reports TechCrunch. Israeli newspaper Haaretz says the deal would be half in cash and half in Facebook shares.

Previously, there were rumours that Apple was in talks to purchase Waze, but that deal never happened.

For anyone who hasn’t used Waze, the app allows users to share real-time traffic and road information with other users. It also tracks location, which allows people who are carpooling or driving to the same location to co-ordinate.

However, Waze’s location-tracking capacity is already causing some observers to raise alarm about Facebook collecting even more data about its users: “The location data will give Facebook one more point of reference for targeting its increasingly invasive advertisements,” writes The Atlantic Wire.

Ariel Castro appears in court to face charges, bail set at $8 million

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 10:08 AM - 0 Comments

Ariel Castro appeared in a Cleveland courtroom Thursday morning where he was charged with kidnapping and rape and his bail was set at $8 million.

Castro is charged with one count of kidnapping, as well as three charges of rape. The high bail — $2 million for each of his alleged victims — means he will remain in prison until his trial. It is possible he could face additional charges. Castro has not yet entered a plea in the case.

Castro is the owner of the house in Cleveland where three women who had been missing for a decade were found alive, on Monday. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight where reunited with their families. A fourth girl, a child who belonged to Berry, was also found in the home.

Castro’s two brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, had been arrested on outstanding charges, but a decade-old charge against Onil were dismissed. Pedro paid a $100 fine for an open-container charge from 2011 and was released. Police now say there is no evidence to suggest the brothers were involved in the alleged kidnappings.

Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ out of hospital after being hit in the head with ball

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 2:21 PM - 0 Comments

Blue Jays starting pitcher J.A. Happ has left the hospital after being hit in the head by a line drive Tuesday evening during an away game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Sportsnet reporter Barry Davis tweeted that he saw Happ leaving the hospital with a bandage on his head. Davis said he was also on crutches with what appeared to be a damaged right knee, which may have been injured during his fall.

This information was also confirmed by the Bayfront Medical Centre in Florida, where Happ was taken for treatment after he was injured.

Happ fell straight to the ground Tuesday evening, after the ball flew off Desmond Jennings’ bat and hit him on the head. He was taken away on a stretcher and whisked to the Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida to undergo treatment.

Earlier Wednesday, the Jays used their official Twitter account to report that Happ was doing well and had a “head contusion and a laceration to his left ear.”

Silvio Berlusconi loses tax fraud conviction appeal, sentenced to 4 years in jail

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 1:53 PM - 0 Comments

Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images

An appeal court has upheld former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s tax fraud conviction, which carries a sentence of four years in jail, reports The Associated press.

Berlusconi still has another chance to avoid jail time, however. He could appeal to a higher court, the Court of Cassation.

Just days earlier, Berlusconi had tried to get his fraud conviction appeal moved out the Milan court where it was scheduled, saying that he would not get a fair trial in the city. Judges refused his request.

Earlier this year, Berlusconi was found guilty in an unrelated wiretapping trial, which concerned his family’s media business. He was sentenced to once year in jail, which is time he likely won’t serve. Italian courts allow him to remain out of prison during the appeal process and there is a stipulation that says any citizen over the age of 75 who is sentenced to two years or less in jail doesn’t have to serve their time. Berlusconi is 76.

Suspicious package found outside DND headquarters may have contained explosives

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

A report from CBC News says a suspicious package found near an entrance to the Department of National Defence headquarters in Ottawa Tuesday afternoon contained “elements consistent with an improvised explosive devices.”

Ottawa police Insp. Michael Maloney told CBC News than an X-ray of the package showed that it contained what appeared to be a timing device and an electronic trigger.

There was also a denser material on the X-ray that could have been an explosive, Maloney told the Ottawa Citizen. Police would not describe what the package looked like, citing the ongoing investigation.

Police detonated the package using a robot and no one was injured. MacKenzie King Bridge, which runs next to the building and is a major bus route, was shut down, causing traffic backups during the afternoon rush hour.

RCMP are continuing the investigation.

Sir Alex Ferguson retires as Manchester United manager, inspiring more than 1.4M tweets

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 8, 2013 at 8:33 AM - 0 Comments

Jon Super/AP

After 27 years, Sir Alex Ferguson is calling it quits as manager of the Manchester United football club.

Manchester United used its official Twitter account to announce Ferguson’s retirement.

Sir Alex Ferguson retires. #thankyousiralex

— ManUtd_PressOffice (@ManUtd_PO) May 8, 2013

An hour later, there had been more than 1.4 million mentions of the news on Twitter. This included more than 100,000 uses of the official hashtag #ThankYouSirAlex in that one-hour period. The news also took eight of the 10 United Kingdom trending topic spots, and four of the 10 worldwide trends, according to Twitter’s U.K. blog.

This included some tweets from high-profile celebrities, including rival Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany.

Sir Alex, one of the best managers of all time. After 26 years of success in the game, we all owe him a tribute.

— Vincent Kompany (@VincentKompany) May 8, 2013

And British Prime Minister David Cameron, who used the opportunity to give a little support to his favourite team Aston Villa (#AVFC).

Sir Alex Ferguson’s achievement at #MUFC has been exceptional. Hopefully his retirement will make life a little easier for my team #AVFC

— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) May 8, 2013

While Ferguson is retiring from his general manager duties at the end of the season, he won’t be leaving the club entirely. He’s going to move into a new role as a director and ambassador for the team.

Here’s Ferguson’s statement about his retirement:

“The decision to retire is one that I have thought a great deal about and one that I have not taken lightly. It is the right time. It was important to me to leave an organisation in the strongest possible shape and I believe I have done so. The quality of this league winning squad, and the balance of ages within it, bodes well for continued success at the highest level whilst the structure of the youth set-up will ensure that the long- term future of the club remains a bright one.

“Our training facilities are amongst the finest in global sport and our home Old Trafford is rightfully regarded as one of the leading venues in the world. Going forward, I am delighted to take on the roles of both director and ambassador for the club. With these activities, along with my many other interests, I am looking forward to the future. I must pay tribute to my family, their love and support has been essential. My wife Cathy has been the key figure throughout my career, providing a bedrock of both stability and encouragement. Words are not enough to express what this has meant to me.

“As for my players and staff, past and present, I would like to thank them all for a staggering level of professional conduct and dedication that has helped to deliver so many memorable triumphs. Without their contribution the history of this great club would not be as rich. In my early years, the backing of the board, and Sir Bobby Charlton in particular, gave me the confidence and time to build a football club, rather than just a football team.

“Over the past decade, the Glazer family have provided me with the platform to manage Manchester United to the best of my ability and I have been extremely fortunate to have worked with a talented and trustworthy chief executive in David Gill. I am truly grateful to all of them.

“To the fans, thank you. The support you have provided over the years has been truly humbling. It has been an honour and an enormous privilege to have had the opportunity to lead your club and I have treasured my time as manager of Manchester United.”

Top U.S. psychiatrist says he will move away from forthcoming DSM-5

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 3:34 PM - 0 Comments

Alex E. Proimos / Flickr

The American government’s top psychiatrist is questioning the forthcoming fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is sometimes referred to as the psychiatric’s bible.

Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, told The New York Times that the manual, which will be published in coming weeks, has a scientific “lack of validity.”

He went on to say that the manual is the best tool that physicians have at this time, but that is doesn’t reflect how complex many mental disorders are. “As long as the research community takes the DSM to be a bible, we’ll never make progress,” Insel told The New York Times. “People think that everything has to match DSM criteria, but you know what? Biology never read that book.”

Insel’s comments to The New York Times come a week after he wrote a blog post, saying that the National Institute of Mental Health will move away from DSM-5 — which he likens to a “dictionary” rather than a bible. Continue…

Psychic on The Montel Williams Show said Amanda Berry was dead. She wasn’t.

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 12:42 PM - 0 Comments

Amanda Berry, right, hugs her sister Beth Serrano after being reunited in a Cleveland hospital on Monday May 6, 2013. (Family Handout courtesy WOIO-TV/AP)

A psychic on The Montel Williams Show told Amanda Berry’s mother that her missing daughter was dead. Amanda Berry was found very much alive Monday, after she went missing a decade earlier.

A story that was first published in the Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer on Nov. 18, 2004, and republished on May 7 after Berry was located, tells the sad story of Louwana Miller, Berry’s mother. Miller appeared on The Montel Williams Show where psychic Sylvia Browne told her: “She’s not alive, honey. Your daughter’s not the kind who wouldn’t call.”

Miller said she believed the psychic “98 per cent” and packed up her daughter’s room. Until then, she had been holding out hope that her daughter was still alive.

“Please don’t misunderstand me. I still don’t want to believe it,” she told the newspaper at the time. “I want to have hope but, after a year and a half, what else is there? It seems like the God-honest truth. My daughter would always call home.” Continue…

Mayor of Montreal position posted on job search website

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 11:14 AM - 0 Comments

CP/Ryan Remiorz

The Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal wants a mayor who will represent the business community well, and it has posted an ad on the job-search website Workopolis to find the right candidate.

That last guy, he didn’t work out so well. Former Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay stepped down in November amid allegations of corruption coming out of the province’s Charbonneau Commission. He has since testified at the commission, saying that his party didn’t take the kickbacks that were routinely required to win construction contracts from the city.

Yes, the mayor’s base salary is $156,128, but whoever the new mayor is, he or she will have to work hard to earn that money. The job posting reads: ”The position carries with it a particularly demanding context of recovery.” Continue…

U.S. East Coast prepares for buzzing cicada invasion

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 10:17 AM - 0 Comments

Gerry Broome/AP

The air over parts of the eastern United States will soon be thick with buzzing cicadas, winged insects that emerge from underground to breed once every 17 years.

An estimated 30 billion (or maybe even more) insects are expected to emerge from the ground in East-Coast sates, from North Carolina up to Connecticut, as soon as the soil temperature hits exactly 17.8 degrees Celsius.

The insects pose no threat to humans, though they may destroy a few young shrubs or trees, reports The Associated Press. “It’s not like these hordes of cicadas suck blood or zombify people,” May Berenbaum, a University of Illinois entomologist told AP. Continue…

Man who rescues three kidnapped women in Cleveland tells his story

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 8:59 AM - 0 Comments

(Scott Shaw/The Plain Dealer, AP)

Charles Ramsey, the neighbour who helped rescue three women who had been held hostage for years in Cleveland, is being celebrated as a hero.

He’s also bound to become an Internet celebrity as videos of his spirited interviews with media make the rounds.

As Ramsey has told several news outlets, he heard a woman yelling from his next-door neighbour’s home and was confused because he didn’t think that a woman lived next door. When he went over to help the woman, she turned out to be Amanda Berry, now 27, who has been missing since she was 16.

Two other missing women: Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were also located inside the home by police. DeJesus has been missing since 2004 when she was 14. Knight is now 30 and has been missing for 11 years, reports Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer. However, Knight’s missing persons case was not as high-profile as the other two women since she was 18 when she disappeared.

Here’s how the rescue happened, in Ramsey’s own words, as told to ABC News:

“I heard screaming. I’m eating my McDonald’s. I come outside. I see this girl going nuts, trying to get out of a house. So I go on the porch. I go on the porch and she says ‘Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time.’ So, I figured it was a domestic violence dispute. So, I opened the door, and we can’t get in that way. ‘Cause how the door is — it’s only so much — and a body can’t fit through it — only your hand. So we kicked the bottom and she comes out with a little girl and she says: ‘Call 911. My name is Amanda Berry.’”

Continue…

Onion Twitter account may have been hacked, Syrian Electronic Army claims responsibility

By Emily Senger - Monday, May 6, 2013 at 5:50 PM - 0 Comments

The Onion‘s Twitter account has been hacked by a group claiming to be the Syrian Electronic Army. Either that, or the satirical news site has delivered a strange and disorienting joke that has fooled at least a few major websites, and many Twitter users.

Strange tweets started appearing from The Onion website’s Twitter account Monday afternoon, some containing anti-Israel statements. Those tweets were removed from the Twitter feed an hour later, but here’s a screen grab of some of them:
Continue…

Google ready to launch paid Youtube channels: report

By Emily Senger - Monday, May 6, 2013 at 11:15 AM - 0 Comments

(Torsten Silz/AP)

Google is getting set to unveil its first series of paid-content Youtube channels, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Sources tell the Financial Times that the announcement will come as early as this week and that it will apply to as many as 50 channels. Subscriptions can cost as little as $1.99 per month, says the source. Continue…

Helen Mirren, dressed as Queen Elizabeth, puts an end to noisy drumming

By Emily Senger - Monday, May 6, 2013 at 9:56 AM - 0 Comments

Matt Sayles/AP

Helen Mirren is making headlines for an impromptu performance she made while dressed as Queen Elizabeth II.

Mirren, 67, has been playing the Queen in the play The Audience, which recounts conversations between the Queen and various former prime ministers. She was on stage Saturday night at the Gielgud Theatre in London when some drummers outside were making so much noise that it was distracting from the performance. It got increasingly worse by the second act, reports The Telegraph.

Out marched Mirren — wearing pearls and a tiara — to yell at the drummers.

“I’m afraid there were a few ‘thespian’ words used,” she told The Telegraph. “They got a very stern royal ticking off but I have to say they were very sweet and they stopped immediately. I felt rotten but on the other hand they were destroying our performance so something had to be done.” Continue…

Justin Bieber attacked by fan on stage at Dubai concert

By Emily Senger - Monday, May 6, 2013 at 8:38 AM - 0 Comments

Paul Stuart/Camera Press/Redux

A fan who attacked Justin Bieber on stage during his Dubai concert Sunday evening was no match for the teen pop star’s security team.

Bieber was sitting at a grand piano when a man — presumably a fan – rushed on stage. He was tackled by bodyguards, who managed to knock over the piano in the process.

Bieber ran to the side of the stage, where reports say he kept on performing just like nothing happened.

A fan recorded the incident and uploaded it to Youtube:

Continue…

Assata Shakur, aunt of Tupac Shakur, first woman on FBI’s most wanted terrorists list

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 3, 2013 at 3:17 PM - 0 Comments

Assata Shakur (FBI handout)

Assata Shakur, a former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army activist who is also the aunt of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, has been named as one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists, making her the first woman ever to make the list.

Shakur, who was born JoAnne Deborah Chesimard, was convicted of murder in 1977 for shooting a police officer when she was pulled over on the Jersey Turnpike in 1973. During the shootout, another officer was injured, a Black Panther member travelling with Shakur was killed, and Shakur was also shot. She was sentenced to life and was serving time when, in 1979, she escaped from the prison with the aid of other activists.

Authorities think Shakur has been living in Cuba since her escape and the FBI is offering a reward of up to $1 million for information that leads to her arrest. The state of New Jersey is adding a $1 million reward as well, bringing the total reward money to $2 million.

Shakur’s addition to the FBI list comes 40 years to the day of the 1973 shooting that led to her conviction. The timing is leading some to question why she appears on the list now. “If Black Panthers continue to be framed as dangerous, violent terrorists, the government’s role in the race war that birthed the panthers can be neatly tucked into history’s unread footnotes,” writes Natasha Lennard at Salon.com.

However, Shakur’s freedom in Cuba, where she continues to speak out against the U.S. justice system, remains a sore spot for New Jersey police. “She continues to flaunt her freedom in the face of this horrific crime,” State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said during a press conference Thursday.

Chinese censors crack down on jokes about phallic-shaped People’s Daily building

By Emily Senger - Friday, May 3, 2013 at 11:34 AM - 0 Comments

An image of the People's Daily building in Beijing from the blogging site Sina Weibo.

The new headquarters for the Chinese state-run newspaper People’s Daily has an image problem: it really looks like a penis.

The platforms atop the under-construction building in Beijing make it look pretty comical and censors that try their best to control online conversations in the country are working overtime as they attempt to remove phallic jokes from the Internet, particularly on Sina Weibo — a Chinese micro-blogging site, similar to Twitter.

Censors have even blocked searches on Weibo for “People’s Daily” and “building” as the 150-metre tall building is erected, reports AFP. But, some comments did make it though the censors. “Of course the national mouthpiece should be imposing,” said one user. And another quote from a blogger read: “It seems the People’s Daily is going to rise up, there’s hope for the Chinese dream.” Continue…

April 15 was the saddest day on Twitter in the last five years

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 11:25 AM - 0 Comments

David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

April 15 was a sad day on Twitter. In fact, it was the saddest day in the past five years, according to measurements used by a team of researchers who post their work at Hedonometer.org.

Researchers who run the Hedonometer monitor a sample of the data posted on Twitter each day and have assigned a “happiness score” of one to nine to each of approximately 10,000 unique words. An average of those scores shows the happiness level on Twitter for each day.

April 15 was the day of the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 250 more near the finish line of the world-class event. On that day, people were tweeting words such as victim, sad and injured, which would be assigned a low happiness score.

Another sad day on Twitter in the past year was Dec. 14, 2012, the day Adam Lanza, 20, shot and killed 26 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The Hedonometer also shows Twitter happiness peaking each year on Christmas Day.

The system does have a few flaws: it only measures tweets in English and it judges sentiment by measuring only certain words. Also, the measurement tools are a challenge for complex emotions. For example, on the day that Osama Bin Laden was killed, the Hedonometer rated a very low level of happiness. “While we do see positive words such as ‘celebration’ appearing, the overall language of the day on Twitter reflected that a very negatively viewed character met a very negative end,” the site explains in its Frequently Asked Questions section.

Chris ‘Mac Daddy’ Kelly of Kris Kross fame dead at 34

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 10:27 AM - 0 Comments

Chris Kelly, the rapper best known for his childhood role in the group Kris Kross, was found dead in his home in Atlanta Wednesday night, in what police say may be a drug overdose.

Chris Kelly and Chris Smith made up the duo Kris Kross and their hit song “Jump” stuck in the No. 1 spot on the Billboard top 100 for eight weeks in 1992. They also opened for Michael Jackson that year on his Dangerous World Tour, reports CNN.

Kris Kross was also responsible for a short-lived trend of wearing clothes backwards, as demonstrated in the “Jump” music video.

Continue…

What we know about 3 new suspects in the Boston bombings

By Emily Senger - Thursday, May 2, 2013 at 9:39 AM - 0 Comments

A courtroom sketch shows defendants Dias Kadyrbayev, left, and Azamat Tazhayakov. (Jane Flavell Collins/AP)

There were new developments in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation Wednesday, as police announced they had three additional suspects in custody after the two bombings near the finish line of the marathon on April 15. The bombs killed three and injured more than 250 others.

Until Wednesday, police had named only two suspects: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed during an altercation with police on April 18, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who remains in a federal prison. Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death.

The three new suspects: Azamat Tazhayakov, Dias Kadyrbayev and Robel Phillipos appeared in a Boston courtroom Wednesday to face charges.

Here is what is know about the men: Continue…

Three more suspects in Boston Marathon bombing to appear in court

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 11:18 AM - 0 Comments

Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters

Three new suspects have been implicated in the Boston Marathon bombings and were set to appear in a Boston courtroom Wednesday afternoon.

Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev are charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly disposing of a backpack and laptop computer connected to one of the alleged bombers after the attack on Apr. 15, which killed three people and injured more than 250.

Robel Phillipos is charged with making false statements to investigators. All three were to appear before a federal court judge at 3:30 pm.

Earlier in the day, Boston police announced that three additional suspects had been taken into custody in Marathon bombing case. Police said there is no additional threat to public safety and that they do not have additional information to release at this time.

Until now, police had identified only two suspects: Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed during an altercation with police on April 18, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The younger Tsarnaev brother was transferred to a federal prison where he remains.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death.

The Boston Globe quotes a source who says that those arrested were college friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. All three attended the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and are accused of helping Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after the bombing, a source tells the Globe.

The announcement comes after reports that a third person’s DNA was found on the material used to make at least one of two bombs that was detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The DNA was said to belong to a woman. Reports Tuesday said it was too soon to tell whether the additional DNA indicated that another person was involved.

Man spends life savings on carnival game, wins stuffed banana with dreadlocks

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, May 1, 2013 at 9:11 AM - 0 Comments

Henry Gribbohm eventually won a prize at a carnival game, but not before spending all of his savings — $2,600 in total — to do it.

Gribbohm went public with his tale of woe, telling Boston news station WBZ-TV that he attended the carnival in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he started playing a game called Tubs of Fun with the hope of winning an Xbox Kinect.

He quickly blew through $300 and then went home to get more money. He lost another $2,300, in an attempt to win his original $300 back. He came away with a giant stuffed banana sporting dread locks and a rastacap.

“It’s not possible that it wasn’t rigged,” Gribbohm, 30, told WBZ-TV. “You just get caught up in the whole ‘I’ve got to win my money back.’”

The next day, Gribbohm complained and got $600 back. Police are investigating to see if the owner of the carnival game committed fraud.

Besides the banana, Gribbohm’s tale of gambling woe has also gained him international notoriety — at least for a couple of days. His story has been picked up by news outlets across the U.S., as well as on tech site Boing Boing and at the U.K.’s Daily Mail.

Here’s the original report that garnered all the attention: