MUNCIE, IND. — A parrot who likes to imitate sounds helped save a man and his son from a fire by mocking a smoke alarm, the bird’s owner says.
Shannon Conwell, 33, said he and his 9-year-old son fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie. They awoke about 3 a.m. Friday to find their home on fire after hearing the family’s Amazon parrot, Peanut, imitating a fire alarm.
“He was really screaming his head off,” Conwell said. “I grabbed my son and my bird and got out of the house.”
The fire destroyed the dining room, kitchen and bedroom, fire officials said. It remains under investigation.
DNA expert Watson retires after controversy
NEW YORK — James Watson, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, announced his retirement Thursday after controversy over comments he made suggesting black people are less intelligent than whites.
“The passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue,” he wrote in a statement about his departure from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Long Island, which he joined as director in 1968 and helped build into one of the world’s leading genetic-research institutes. “The circumstances in which this transfer is occurring, however, are not those which I could ever have anticipated or desired.”
Watson, 79, was quoted Oct. 14 saying that he is “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.” He subsequently issued a statement saying, “There is no scientific basis for such a belief.”
Over his career, Watson had become known for making offensive public comments. In 2000, he said at a lecture at Berkeley that heavy black people have more sex drive than skinny white people.
More recalls over lead paint
CHICAGO — The Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday announced six more recalls of products tainted with lead paint or metal, raising the total of lead recalls in October to 25 – the highest monthly total of such recalls in the 30 years that the agency has been policing the banned toxic metal.
The 25 recalls this month are more than have been announced in any single year over the past three decades.
Thursday’s recalls ranged from 38,000 “Go Diego Go!” Animal Rescue Boats manufactured in China for toy giant Fisher-Price Inc. to 80,000 bobblehead cake decorations with green bases featuring 15 professional football teams, including the Denver Broncos. Both items contain lead paint.
For a full list of recalls, visit or call 800-638-2772.
