13 Strange U.S. Laws Canadians Should Know

  

 

Heading south of the border? Enjoy your trip and stay out of trouble by studying these strange and wacky laws currently on the books in the United States. On first glance, many travellers may think that Canada and the United States are quite similar. But what is legal north of the 49th parallel, might land you with a hefty fine or a jail term in America. Here are 13 unique laws that could trip you up during a visit to the US. Remember, you’re not at home!

 

1. Watch What You Wear in Georgia

By all appearances, it seems that the lawmakers of Albany, Georgia fancy themselves as the fashion police. If your low-slung pants (or skirts, ladies) sit three inches or more below your hips, displaying your underwear or skin, be prepared to cough up a $25 fine. Do it again, and your clothes won’t be the only saggy sight - your wallet’s balance will plummet by $200, too. Pull up your pants; keep your cash.

2. Sip it Slowly in Texas

It’s a good thing that Texas doesn’t celebrate Canada’s beloved May 2-4 weekend. Their jail cells would be packed to the rafters! In Texas, it’s illegal to sip your beer more than three consecutive times while standing. Texas is home to several strict alcohol consumption laws, so drink carefully while carousing in the Lone Star state.

 

3. Choose Your Shoes Wisely in Cleveland

Who knew that your choice of footwear could cost you big bucks. In Cleveland, Ohio it’s forbidden for women to don patent leather shoes. The reason? The shiny leather could possibly reflect a woman’s – ahem – underwear or private parts for all to see. Canadian fashionistas, take note when selecting your wardrobe’s accessories.

4. Treacherous Tickling in Virginia

The fun police are out in full force in Virginia. Here it’s illegal to tickle a female. Tickling Elmo is okay.

5. Mind Your Own Plate in Oklahoma

Polite Canadians who like to share their meals should be advised to stick to their own plates while visiting Oklahoma. In this state, it’s illegal to take a bite out of someone else’s hamburger.

6. Check Your Legs in New Mexico

Ladies, mind your personal grooming if you plan to visit Carrizozo, New Mexico. It’s against the law for females to appear in public unshaven.

7. Sleep Barefoot in North Dakota

If you’re feeling sleepy in North Dakota, be sure to remove your shoes before dozing off. It’s against the law to lie down and catch some zzzs while wearing footwear.

8. Deep Doggy Doo-Doo in Vegas

If you want to walk your dog in Las Vegas, you have to be an early riser. In March 2012, the Clark County Commission approved an ordinance banning dogs from the famous Las Vegas Strip. It’s only permissible to walk Fido between the hours of five in the morning and noon. It appears that in this desert oasis, your cash is welcome, but your canine is not.

9. Keep It To Yourself in New Hampshire

Lost in music? Be careful when dining in New Hampshire. It’s unlawful to tap your feet, or bob your head in time with music in this state’s restaurants and cafes.

10. No Singing in the Sand in Florida

Canadian bathing beauties frequenting Florida take note – literally. It’s illegal to sing aloud in public while wearing a bathing suit.

11. No Press for the Easter Bunny in Wyoming

It might be safer to celebrate Easter back home in Canada. In Wyoming, it’s illegal to snap a picture of a rabbit between the months of January to April unless you pack a permit. What would the Easter Bunny say?

12. Indiana a.k.a Vampire Central

Forget about dinner and a movie. If you eat garlic in Indiana, don’t leave the hotel for at least four hours. If you head out to catch a streetcar, theatre performance or a movie within four hours of consuming garlic, you could be entertaining a fine.

13. Flirt-free Zone in NY

Start spreading the news! Flirting is illegal in New York City. This old law – still in effect in the Big Apple – states that if a man looks “at a woman in that way,” he could be levied with a $25 fine. If he is a repeat flirting offender, he must don a pair of horse-blinders when he’s out in the city. In Little Rock, Arkansas, the punishment is even worse. Get caught lustfully looking at a female, and you could be thrown in jail for 30 days. Canadian males, flirt at your own peril!



Alaskan Heat Wave Sweeps Land of the Midnight Sun

Jacob Fisher and Jacob Eberhardt work on their skimboarding skills at Sandy Beach in Juneau, Alaska  

If you live in states like Florida, Texas or Arizona, 80 degrees in June sounds balmy. If you live in Anchorage, Alaska by contrast — a city at nearly the same latitudes as Reykjavík (Iceland), Lillehammer (Norway) and most of Siberian Russia – summertime highs in the 80s may sound a bit like that Twilight Zone episode where the sun’s on its merry way to swallowing the Earth.
The average temperature for Alaska’s coastal areas this time of year, near summer solstice when daylight in the 49th state is near constant, runs in the 60s, with highs topping out in the 70s (Alaska’s interior tends to run warmer than its coastal areas). But in recent days, temps have soared to record highs well into the 80s, and in some spots, higher still.

Take Anchorage, technically the northernmost city in the United States: after dealing with an unusually cold spring and snowfall into May, Alaska’s most populous city with nearly 300,000 residents is smoldering at temperatures up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, reports Reuters, leading to runs on stores for fans and swimwear.

The heat’s impacting the local fauna, too, prompting surprise appearances by moose looking to cool off near lawn sprinklers and kiddie pools as well as pet reptiles — usually held in warm indoor areas — that Reuters reports “are making rare public appearances,” including unwanted forays into public parks.
“We don’t have a sign that says ‘No Snakes’,” said Doreen Hernandez, an aquatic superintendent at one of Anchorage’s few outdoor swimming pools, referring to various pets she’s had to kick out, including someone’s iguana named “Godzilla.”

The heat wave appears to be stoking wildfires and floods, too, causing pieces of ice to break off and jam up mountain rivers and triggering lightning-spawned fires spreading due to dry brush. This kind of heat wave has never been experienced in Alaska in any recorded incident before now.

What’s behind Alaska’s record-breaking heat wave? A shift in wind patterns that’s pulled in air from the south and southeast, say meteorologists, who note the high pressure system currently baking Alaskan residents is shifting, and cooler temperatures should eventually return. Baked
Alaskans...compliments of your global greenhouse effect.

WATCH: Men Save Falling Toddler in China

 The lucky girl survived a 5-story fall

 

Apparently, this is the week of catching kids: On Wednesday, the daughter of former Yankees manager, the legendary Joe Torre, caught a 1-year old baby who fell from a store’s awning in New York City. On Thursday, across the Pacific, a security camera in an alleyway in China’s Zhejiang province of Ninghai captured heart-stopping footage of a 2-year-old girl’s accelerated fall. The toddler, Qiqi, was dangling her legs from a building window–reportedly five-stories high–when gravity mercilessly took over. Luckily, a group of mail carriers on the ground were alerted after hearing the toddler’s cries and held out their arms to break the fall.

The child–whose parents claimed they had left alone her while she napped–miraculously landed safely with only a minor scrape to the face. Two of the men who reached their arms out to help catch the little girl were reportedly injured–which isn’t a surprise after doing a back-of-the envelope calculation: Gleaning from the video, the toddler was in midair for approximately 2 seconds, which would have pummeled her into the men’s arms at almost 44 miles per hour.
 

  

Calgary Evacuated as City is Threatened by Floods

Calgary Alberta Is being evacuated as flood levels rise. The latest update is that 100,000 people are being evacuated.

 Many parts of Canada, including Ontario have been suffering unprecedented floods since early spring. Hold hands up...those who still don't believe the global climate is changing.

 

 



Russell Brand Spouts Off on Brit TV

 

 

Whether you like Russell or not....if you can cut through the cockney accent....he makes some sense.


Race to Save Victims of Flood in Uttarakhand...India

 

 

 

 

A massive rescue operation is under way to reach survivors in the flood-hit Indian state of Uttarakhand, where at least 150 people have died. More than 50,000 people are stranded after the floods swept away buildings and triggered landslides.

A large number of them are reported to be trapped around the holy town of Kedarnath, located in a valley. 

Mayan City Uncovered in the Mexican Rain Forests

A National Institute of Anthropology and History worker shows the remains of a building at the newly discovered ancient Maya city Chactun in Yucatan peninsula

A Lost Mayan city has been discovered hidden in Mexican jungle for over 1,000 years - and the stunning find may shed light on the civilization's sudden collapse. Archaeologists have found an ancient city that remained hidden for centuries in the rain forests of eastern Mexico, a discovery in a remote nature reserve they hope will yield clues about how the civilization collapsed around 1,000 years ago.
The team, led by Ivan Sprajc, associate professor at the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, found 15 pyramids - including one that stands 75 feet tall - ball courts, plazas and tall, sculpted stone shafts called stelae. They named the city Chactun, meaning 'Red Rock' or 'Large Rock'.

 

The Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts recently discovered lost Maya artifacts

Archaeologists named the city Chactun, meaning 'Red Rock' or 'Large Rock'

Chactun likely had its heyday during the late Classic period of Maya civilization between 600 and 900 A.D.

 

Sprajc said it was likely slightly less populous than the large ancient Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala, and could have been home to as many as 30,000 or 40,000 people, though further research is necessary to determine an exact estimate.
Chactun likely had its heyday during the late Classic period of Maya civilization between 600 and 900 A.D., Sprajc said.
The team's research was approved by the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History and funded by the National Geographic Society and two European companies. Sprajc said the site — which covers 22 hectares (54 acres) and lies 75 miles due west of Chetumal — is one of the largest found in the Yucatan's central lowlands. 

 

The nearest settlement to the ruins is the small town of Xpujil, around 16 miles away. 'The whole site is covered by the jungle,' he said. While the site was unknown to the academic community, Sprajc found evidence that other people had been to the site as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, but not since.
'Lumberjacks and gum extractors were certainly already there, because we saw cuts on the trees,' Sprajc said.  'What happened is they never told anyone.'

Academics say the lost city was abandoned around the year 1,000, probably due to demographic pressure, climate change, wars and rebellions

Researchers found evidence that other people had been to the site as recently as 20 or 30 years ago

The site covers 22 hectares (54 acres) and lies 75 miles due west of Chetumal

While reviewing aerial photographs taken by the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity 15 years ago to monitor the nature reserve, Sprajc and his team saw suggestions of ruins and marked the coordinates.
They then spent three weeks clearing a 10-mile (16-km) path through the jungle to reach the site.  After mapping the site for six weeks and documenting the monuments, they blocked the path before leaving to prevent access.
The presence of multiple ball game courts is an indication that Chactun was a very important city, Sprajc said.  It was likely abandoned around the year 1,000, probably due to demographic pressure, climate change, wars and rebellions.

Traditional mask at Quintana Roo, Yucatan in Mexico

 

 

The Mayan civilization was one of the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas, known for their architectural and creative feats 

Aerial view of Palenque Mayan site

 

Sprajc hopes the find could shed new light on relations between different regions of the Maya empire during that period. The Maya civilization was one of the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas and ruled over large swaths of the Yucatan, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras at its height.
Tikal, which was first mapped by archaeologists in the late 19th century, had a population estimated at up to 90,000. In December, thousands of people traveled to the Yucatan to celebrate a new cycle in the Maya calendar amidst fears that the Maya had actually predicted that December 21 would mark the end of the world.