A direction home: Bob Dylan album returned 48 years late
Ohio (US), June 2: After nearly five decades of blowin’ in the wind, a double Bob Dylan album finally has a direction home: A man living in San Francisco has mailed the vinyl back to an Ohio library 48 years after it was supposed to be returned.
Howard Simon recently sent the album along with a letter to Heights Libraries apologizing for his tardiness, according to a news release from the library system outside Cleveland.
Simon checked out Dylan’s “Self Portrait” album in 1973 as an eighth-grader at a University Heights middle school. Simon says he found it between two other Dylan albums in his personal vinyl collection.
“As a recent retiree, I am taking the opportunity to turn my attention to some of the many vignettes of life that by dint of career and family have been neglected these many years,” Simon wrote.
“I am returning with the letter an overdue item by my count, approximately 17,480 days overdue as of this writing.”
His letter says the album cover is a little battered after traveling with him from University Heights to San Francisco with various stops in between, but the library says the records themselves remain in “great shape.” Simon also sent the library a $175 replacement fee for “Self Portrait” along with an album he recorded, “Western Reserve,” for possible inclusion in the library’s collection.
The library bore no hard feelings, or sense that Simon wasted their precious time, essentially telling him in the press release don’t think twice; it’s all right.
“The funny thing about this is that we don’t charge overdue fines anymore–as long as we get the item back, we see no need to penalize people,” branch manager Sara Phillips was quoted as saying.
“We’re grateful that Mr. Simon returned the record. I’d said we can now call it even.” (AP)
Teen shoves bear that swatted family dog in California yard
California, June 2: Hailey Morinico didn’t hesitate when she saw a large bear facing off with her family dogs from the top of a wall in their Southern California backyard.
The 17-year-old ran outside and shoved the bear away, then rounded up the dogs and went back inside her house in suburban Bradbury, east of Los Angeles.
Home surveillance video aired by the ABC 7 television station shows the mother bear perched atop the wall, swatting at a large black dog on the ground. Two bear cubs are seen behind the bear while four smaller dogs bark and dart around the yard.
Morinico sprints toward the bear, uses both hands to push the large bear off the wall and picks up one of the smaller dogs. She and the other dogs then run out of the video frame.
The bears disappear over a wall into a neighbor’s yard.
“Honestly, the only thing I had in mind was to protect my dogs,” Morinico.
The teen said she escaped with only a sprained finger and a scraped knee but wouldn’t advise anyone to follow her example.
She was only thinking about protecting her dogs, Morinico said. “Do not push bears and do not get close to bears,” she told KCAL-TV. “You do not want to get unlucky. I just happened to come out unscathed.”
Bradbury is a foothill community on the edge of Angeles National Forest. (AP)
2 Russian crew do spacewalk at International Space Station
Moscow, June 2: Two Russian cosmonauts ventured out of the International Space Station Wednesday on a spacewalk to prepare for the arrival of a new Russian module.
It’s the first spacewalk for both Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, who arrived at the space station in April, and it’s expected to last about 6 1/2 hours.
The two needed to get the space station ready for the undocking and disposal of the Pirs docking compartment, which will be replaced later this year by the new Nauka (Science) multipurpose laboratory module.
They have already replaced a fluid flow regulator and also need to replace biological and material science samples on the exterior of the Russian modules.
The two Russians currently team up at the space outpost with NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide; and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet. (AP)
China tries to keep elephant herd out of city of 7 million
Beijing, June 2: A herd of 15 wild elephants that walked 500 kilometers (300 miles) from a nature reserve in China’s mountain southwest were approaching the major city of Kunming on Wednesday as authorities rushed to try to keep them out of populated areas.
Chinese wildlife authorities say they don’t know why the herd left a nature reserve last year near the city of Pu’er, a region known for tea cultivation. The group was 16 animals, but the government says two returned home and a baby was born during the walk.
Authorities have blocked traffic on roads while the elephants crossed and were setting up barriers and using food as bait to try to keep them away from Kunming and other populated areas.
On Wednesday, the herd was in Yuxi, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Kunming, a city of 7 million people, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
It said images taken by drones used to track the herd show six female and three male adults, three juveniles and three calves.
Chen Mingyong, an Asian elephant expert cited by Xinhua, said the incident was the longest-distance migration of wild elephants recorded in China. Chen said it was possible their leader lacks experience and led the whole group astray.
A task force of 360 people with 76 cars and nine drones was tracking the elephants, Xinhua said. (AP)