Brickbats

Early one morning in Newport, England, a speed camera snapped a photo of Tom Matthews' 12-year-old cab. He later received a notice informing him he'd exceeded the 30-mile-per-hour speed limit—by about 390 miles per hour. "I drive an old Cavalier—not a jumbo jet," Matthews told the London Sun. "According to this, I've broken the land speed record."

Yvette Bavier made it through the first 60 years of her life without getting into trouble with the law. That record ended on a recent lunch break. She was tossing birdseed to sparrows when two New York City police officers stopped her. She says it took them 20 minutes to figure out what to charge her with, but she eventually received a ticket for littering. A police spokesman says the officers were responding to a complaint that someone was endangering pigeons by feeding them raw rice.

England's Rugby Borough Council has ordered David Bavington to remove a one-inch-wide wind chime from his back garden or face legal action. In response to a complaint that the wind chime tinkles too loudly when the wind blows, the council determined the chime to be a "statutory nuisance."

The coaches of many women's basketball teams believe that practicing against men makes women better competitors. But the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics says such practices violate the spirit of Title IX, the federal law that mandates equality for school athletics. The committee recommends that the NCAA ban all male practice players from women's sports.

Teresa Langbord found what appeared to be 10 rare 1933 "double eagle" gold coins in a safe deposit box belonging to her late father. She and her family turned them over to the U.S. Mint for authentication. The mint has refused to give them back, claiming the coins must have been stolen because they were never circulated.

In Utah a 13-year-old girl has been declared both victim and offender for the same sex act. The girl became pregnant after she and her 12-year-old boyfriend engaged in consensual sex. Both were found guilty of violating a state law prohibiting sex with anyone under 14.

British police have almost 3 million DNA profiles on file, covering about 6 percent of the U.K.'s population. But that's not enough for Dave Johnston, head of the Metropolitan Police's Homicide and Serious Crimes unit. He wants samples taken from all babies. "We have 300,000 unsolved cases where we have taken a profile at a crime scene but have not yet matched it," he said. Johnston did not say how many babies he suspects may have committed those crimes.

Authorities in China's Fumin County have painted a barren mountainside green, and no one seems to know why. The Xinhua news agency reports the effort cost more than 470,000 yuan, which local villagers noted could have paid for grass and trees to be planted on the mountain.