Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with possession

What to do when you're broke, in jail and all the local law offices are closed for the holiday?

apis mellifera — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 09:16:21 -0800

My sister's boyfriend is apparently being held in jail without charges. Is this legal? He was pulled over yesterday in Wayne County, MI, probably for a traffic violation. The car is still in my sister's name, but she recently gave it to him because she got a new (used) car for Christmas. They had been planning on transferring the title and getting it properly registered this week, but didn't get around to it. He had an old license plate on it for show, and no registration. The cops searched the car and found (at most) a quarter ounce of marijuana. He is in a jail cell right now (somehow he was able to sneak in his cell phone so he has some limited communication with my sister). He says they haven't charged him with anything and are going to hold him until Wednesday. I've tried calling a couple law offices to ask if this is legal, but they're all closed until Jan 2. The cops have apparently told him that they "aren't done with him yet" and want him to snitch on the person who sold him the pot.

Of course he doesn't have any money for a lawyer, but he seriously needs one. I am concerned that his rights are being violated. Are they? Any ideas on what can be done for him?

The Rogue Hair - Beyond Thunderdome

Witty — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:00:04 -0800

OK, seriously. This may be a bit TMI, but anyway... how is it possible for a 1 - 1.5 inch hair to grow out of one's forehead seemingly overnight? Now, I stood in front of the mirror and brushed my teeth last night before bed... saw NUTHIN'. This morning, BANG, a fine(er than normal) head-hair is jutting out of my forehead, halfway up between my (right) eyebrow and my (receding) hairline. This doesn't happen every day of course, but it ain't the first time either.

Sure, it's possible I missed it last night or the day before... but every time? I just find it hard to believe that I never manage to catch these rogue hairs at the half-inch mark. It's always when the hair is shockingly and disturbingly long.

Is it because I'm fascinated with Dancing With The Stars?

Please help me exorcise my phone.

lilybeane — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:11:05 -0800

Help! My phone is totally unplugged. So WHY does it keep ringing? I know this is totally ridiculous. < / i am not crazy disclaimer.>

A few nights ago I woke up at about 3 a.m. to the sound of my office phone ringing. It wasn't a full ring; it was a fraction of a ring. A spurt of a ring. At first, I thought I had dreamed it, but the phone kept letting out a fraction of a ring every 2 - 4 minutes or so. The phone next to my bed was registering nothing. Finally, I got up to check the office phone--the caller ID didn't register that any calls had come in. Nevertheless, I unplugged the cord from the phone jack in the wall and went back to bed.

It kept happening.

This phone requires batteries or an AC/DC adapter to be plugged in for the built-in caller ID. So I got up and unplugged the power from the phone. But the damned thing kept ringing that tiny fraction of a ring every few minutes.

Then I thought maybe this was a ridiculous feature designed to warn me that the batteries for the caller ID were about to die, like a smoke detector would do. So I scrounged up a screwdriver, removed the battery case cover.... no batteries at all.

I finally went fell asleep after the furnace kicked on and masked the sound. When I woke up in the morning, no ringing. Then it happened again this morning around 8 a.m. and lasted for at least a half-hour.

In the end, there was absolutely no power coming into this phone, yet it kept up with that periodic fraction of a ring. What. The. Hell??

My mac is possessed.

craniac — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 10:27:40 -0800

My Imac (running the latest patched version of Tiger) is possessed. While I watch, the cursor is flipping around, opening the terminal, and typing "wget" with nothing after it. I don't know if this is a bot, hacker, or hardware failure of some sort. The behavior seems kind of programmed. That is, I don't think that someone has a rogue version of VNC running. I've turned off the machine, and am wondering what my next step should be, or if someone has seen this before. Thanks!