In the midst of a hostage situation in downtown Sydney, Australia, Ayn Rand's favorite car service, Uber, turned on its wildly expensive surge pricing for customers trying to get away from the armed siege. And lest you think this was the fault of an insensitive algorithm that detected high demand, the company tweeted that it was aware of the attack and had raised prices for the fleeing people's own good.

At 3:40 p.m. yesterday, an armed man boarded a school bus in Alabama, shot and killed the driver, and grabbed a young boy. Police are now entering the eighteenth hour of a standoff with the suspect, 67-year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes — holed up in an "underground bomb shelter" with his hostage.

Police in Pittsburgh have cordoned off a downtown high-rise where a hostage situation is currently unfolding.

According to WBAY and others, all 24 hostages were released. On behalf of everyone: Phew.

An unidentified man who burst into a Kansas VA medical center with a gun surrendered after trading his ammunition for a pack of cigarettes. His motives are still unclear. Nobody was injured. [USA Today]