Wed Jan 30, 2008

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German nudists will be able to start their holidays early by stripping off on the plane if they take up a new offer from an eastern German travel firm.

Travel agency OssiUrlaub.de said it would start taking bookings from Friday for a trial nudist day trip from the eastern German town of Erfurt to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom, planned for July 5 and costing 499 euros ($735).

“It’s expensive, I know,” managing director Enrico Hess told Reuters by phone. “It’s because the plane’s very small. There’s no real reason why a flight in which one flies naked should be more expensive than any other.”

The 55 passengers will have to remain clothed until they board, and dress before disembarking, said Hess. The crew will remain clothed throughout the flight for safety reasons.

full story

Via the AP…

This joy ride was grounded from the start. A sheriff’s deputy arrested a man accused of getting into a small, private plane and doing figure-8’s on the grass. Authorities don’t believe Walker has any flying experience. Walker found the keys inside and started the plane, which eventually ended up nose-down in the grass.

I’m picturing a 3 Stooges episode taking place and only wish that there was video of this.  While the story doesn’t say, it’d be a good bet that drugs, alcohol and/or insanity played a role in this.  Luckily no one was hurt.

Police are trying to trace the owner of 65,400 euros (£44,000) mistakenly sent to a 16-year-old boy who bought a Playstation Two for £95 on eBay.

The cash arrived in a box at the house in Aylsham, Norfolk, with the games console, but minus two games.

Police are holding the money under the Proceeds of Crime Act while the matter is investigated.

An eBay spokesman said the parcel’s contents were “somewhat unusual” and it would help police with their inquiries.

The boy’s parents, who are not commenting, alerted police when the parcel arrived on 20 March.

Family claim Magistrates have given Norfolk Police until September to hold on to the money before the case comes up in court again.

But, if the money remains unclaimed the family could potentially apply for it to be returned to them under the Police Property Act.

Source: BBC news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/6903433.stm

Lulu is now offering printing on rolls of toilet paper.  Interesting idea, but not $90 for 4 rolls interesting.  And definitely not very cost effective unless you’re charging people to use your bathroom.

Posted on Amazon.com….quite a deal I must say!

A missing pair of pants has led to one big suit.

A customer got so steamed when a dry cleaner lost his trousers that he sued for $65 million. Two years later, he is still pressing his suit.

-AP

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/05/03/missing.pants.ap/index.html?eref=rss_us 

85 tool, 110 function swiss army knife, $1,200. Macgyver, eat your heart out!

swiss army knife

You could be a bad parent, if you need this book: Baby Names for Dummies.

http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Names-Dummies-Margaret-Rose/dp/0764543407

How embarrassing…

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Dec 6 (Reuters Life!) - It may be one problem airline security officials never envisioned — a passenger lighting matches in flight to mask odors from her flatulence.

The woman’s actions resulted in an emergency landing on Monday in Nashville of an American Airlines flight bound for Dallas from Washington, D.C., said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman for Nashville’s airport.

Other passengers reported the odor of burned matches, but the woman was not forthcoming when asked about it, Lowrance said on Wednesday.

“Of course, she was scared and embarrassed but all the passengers had to disembark, all the luggage had to be searched, a canine team was brought in, and about three hours were consumed in sorting out the situation,” she said.

The woman was not allowed back on the flight and barred from flying on American Airlines, Lowrance said.

If you love the idea of being a rock star but have no musical ability, apart from looking the part, then the air guitar shirt may be right up your alley.
Dr. Richard and his team have recently put the finishing touches on the prototype of their ‘Wearable Instrument Shirt’ (WIS), which enables its wearer to play an ‘air guitar’, allowing anyone to play the guitar like Jimmy Page or Robert Plant, but without having to go through the bother of years of practice.

Dr. Helmer said that wearers of the WIS could play it by simply moving one arm to pick chords and the other to strum the imaginary instrument’s strings.

Source: click here for more…

You have got to be kidding me…

[photo credit: of all the things to ban…, originally uploaded by Malingering.]

…but they’re not.

The ordinance calls for a maximum $1000 fine and/or six months in jail for use, possession, sale or distribution of Silly String in Hollywood from 12:01 a.m. on October 31 to 12:00 p.m. on November 1.

On a typical Halloween night, up to 100,000 people come to Hollywood Boulevard in search of something to do. Given the lack of a formal event, hundreds of illegal vendors flock to the street and sell Silly String which then becomes the sole source of entertainment for the night.

I knew things were “different” in California, but come on guys! I’m just waiting for the Hollywood Halloween Toilet Paper Ban.

A man accused of biting the head off his pet rooster was arrested Friday and faces up to a year in prison if convicted, an animal protection spokesman said.

A neighbor had complained about a dead rooster near his Manhattan apartment and agents found the body of the beheaded rooster on a fire escape, said Joe Pentangelo, spokesman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The rooster’s head was not located.

Humberto Rodriguez, 52, told agents that he bit the rooster’s head off because he blamed it for injuring a pet pigeon that he also kept in the apartment, Pentangelo said.

Rodriguez is charged with animal cruelty and could face up to a year in prison if convicted. It is also illegal to possess a live rooster in New York City, Pentangelo said.

[Via the AP]

Tokyo, Japan (AHN) - In a demonstration flight for eager spectators on the ground, the first-ever manned plane run by traditional dry-cell batteries soared five meters above the ground. The plane was powered by 160 AA “Oxyride” batteries made by Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Company.

Source…

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A worker accidentally tripping a shut-off switch at a major Ontario plastics plant will cost Nova Chemicals Corp. $11 million in lost profit, the company said on Wednesday, because it won’t be able to fulfill some contracts because of the blunder.

Source

Massachusetts police are investigating the discovery of large quantities of drugs found inside merchandise from two Home Depot stores in Massachusetts, local police said Wednesday.

According to the Tewksbury Police Department, a contractor late last week discovered two 50 pound “bricks” of marijuana wrapped in plastic bags inside a bathroom vanity he had purchased at a Home Depot (Research) store in Tewksbury, said Chief of Detectives Lt. Dennis Peterson.

The estimated street value of the marijuana is around $145,000, Peterson said.

Similar incidents have occurred in other parts of the state. According to the Southwick Police Department, a plumber on Monday purchased a vanity in western Massachusetts in which he later found 3 kilograms of cocaine and around 40 pounds of marijuana, with a total estimated street value of $250,000.
…

Tewksbury Police and DEA officials conducted a search Tuesday of around 12 Home Depot stores statewide and found other bathroom vanities that contained drugs, Peterson said, though he would not elaborate on how many items were discovered.

In each incident being investigated by Tewksbury Police, all of the merchandise boxes originated from a Texas location and were distributed through one undisclosed Massachusetts warehouse, Peterson said.

“I’m sure the packages were being shipped to the distribution center and someone was supposed to intercept them,” Peterson said. “So that person either wasn’t on duty that day or the packages were marked wrong.”

Via CNN

ATHENS - A helicopter landed in the middle of the high security Athens Korydallos prison, picked up two prisoners and flew away in a Hollywood-style escape that has left Greek police stunned.

A criminal on the run hijacked the helicopter Sunday to get his brother out of prison, police said. Vassilis Paleokostas, 40, who was serving a 25-year sentence for kidnapping and bank robbery, and an Albanian convict escaped.

“The guards thought it was a surprise inspection by ministry officials and did nothing,” a police official said.

The helicopter pilot, who said he was forced at gunpoint to undertake the mission, flew the inmates to a nearby cemetery and they made their escape on motorbikes. Greek police have launched a manhunt for the convicts.

Source

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Sick and tired of souped-up cars with loud engines and pulsing music? Barry Manilow may be the answer.

Officials in one Sydney district have decided to pipe the American crooner’s music over loudspeakers in an attempt to rid streets and car parks of “car hoons” whose anti-social cars and loud music annoy residents and drive customers from businesses.

Following a successful experiment where Bing Crosby music was used to drive teenage loiterers out of an Australian shopping center several years ago, Rockdale councilors believe Manilow is so uncool it might just work.

Story here

GARY, Ind. - A male student who has worn women’s clothes to school all year was turned away from his high school prom because he was wearing a dress.

Kevin Logan, 18, went to the West Side High School prom on Friday in a slinky fuchsia gown and heels. He believes officials discriminated against him by not allowing him inside.

“I have no formal pictures, no memories, nothing. You only have one prom,” he said.

Logan, who is gay, received an $85 refund for his prom ticket Tuesday but was not satisfied.

Sylvester Rowan, assistant to Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Steele, said school policy bans males from wearing dresses. Excluding Logan from prom was based on “the dress code, not the student’s homosexuality. That’s his personal preference.”

more…

The Internet has always been a hotbed of wacky but harmless ideas. That’s not the case with the anti-tax movement: These money-saving schemes can cost you everything.

Each April, we remember Benjamin Franklin’s theory on the inevitability of death and taxes. But for those who believe that they can avoid paying income tax through clever loopholes, Franklin’s quote becomes just another government conspiracy.

Paul and Myrna Schuck once tried to convince an Alberta court that the postage stamps they had stuck to their clothes made them equivalent to royalty, and therefore not subject to taxation. Kent Hovind, an evangelist in a Creationist ministry, tried to avoid paying taxes by revoking his American citizenship, claiming to be “a natural sojourner” whose income belonged to God. In August, Royal LaMarr Hardy of Honolulu was sentenced to 13 years in jail for tax fraud and conspiracy. Since 1985, his so-called tax research foundation had convinced thousands of gullible people that filing taxes is
a voluntary decision.

Source

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Illusionist David Copperfield magically escaped getting robbed.

After his show at a West Palm Beach performing arts center Sunday, Copperfield was walking with two female assistants back to their tour bus when four teenagers pulled up in a black car, the police report said.

Two armed robbers allegedly got out of the car demanding the group’s belongings. An assistant handed over $400 from her pockets while the other gave up her purse with 200 euros, $100, her passport, plane tickets and a cellphone. Copperfield refused to empty his pockets, the report said.

Copperfield said he turned his pockets inside out to reveal nothing in them, even though he was carrying his passport, wallet and cell phone.

“Call it reverse pic-pocketing,” Copperfield told The Palm Beach Post for its Wednesday editions.

When the alleged robbers left in the car Copperfield read the license plate number to an assistant while she called 911.

Four teenagers were arrested shortly after and the assistants’ property recovered. They were charged with armed robbery and are being held without bond.

[Source: AP]

BEIJING - Chinese weather specialists used chemicals to engineer Beijing’s heaviest rainfall of the year, helping to relieve drought and rinse dust from China’s capital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Friday.

Technicians with the Beijing Weather Modification Office fired seven rocket shells containing 163 cigarette-size sticks of silver iodide over the city’s skies on Thursday, Xinhua said.

The reaction that occurred brought as much as four-tenths of an inch of rain, the heaviest rainfall this year, helping to “alleviate drought, add soil moisture and remove dust from the air for better air quality,” Xinhua said.

Though unusual in many parts of the world, China has been tinkering with artificial rainmaking for decades, using it frequently in the drought-plagued north. Last month, another artificial rainfall was generated to clear Beijing after the city suffered some of the fiercest dust storms this decade.

[Source: AP]

A ferocious feline terrorized a quiet Fairfield neighborhood, to the point that residents are seeking help from the law to stop the so-called “Terrorist of Sunset Circle.”

“I was walking along the sidewalk when he sprang at me. I never saw it coming, but that’s how it often is. He comes at you from behind, springs and wraps himself around your legs, biting and scratching,” she said. “The last time I had three bites and eight scratches and I ended up at the walk-in clinic.

“The Avon lady was getting out of her car when Lewis attacked her from behind,” Kettman said. “She ended up going to the hospital.”

more…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Corp. is suing a division of Walt Disney, Buena Vista Motion Pictures and a film production company for infringing on its trademark in the development and production of “Wild Hogs,” a comedy about middle-aged bikers.

The motorcycle club says in the suit that it never approved Walt Disney Motion Picture Group’s use of its trademark, and that the film studio has repeatedly exploited the Hell’s Angels name as well as its trademark design featuring a helmeted, horned and feathered skull while publicizing the “Wild Hogs” movie.

Read story

OLDEN TOWNSHIP, Michigan (AP) — A man was shot and injured when his hunting partner mistook his elbow for a squirrel, authorities said.

Michigan State Police said George Arthur Sikkenga, 64, of Muskegon, Michigan was wounded Sunday morning in Golden Township, in Michigan’s west-central Lower Peninsula.

Sikkenga was wearing camouflage clothing except for an orange hat, which he had covered with a hood after sitting down behind a tree, The Muskegon Chronicle reported.

His clothed elbow was all of him that was visible when his friend, Gregory Scott Wood approached from behind the tree and fired his weapon, which the Ludington Daily News described as a .17-caliber rifle.

Sikkenga was transported to a local hospital, where he was treated and released.

Police were investigating the shooting.

See story.

Guy who makes art out of used bubble gum…something to chew on eh?

Gallery here…

SHERIDAN, Colorado (AP) — A couple planning to set off their own Super Bowl pyrotechnics accidentally blew up their own car while transporting a balloon filled with an explosive gas.

Norman Frey, 46, and his companion suffered busted eardrums in the explosion Sunday as they drove to a party for Super Bowl XL, according to the Arapahoe County sheriff.

The balloon had been filled with acetylene, a flammable gas used in welding, and it had rolled across the back seat, possibly causing static electricity that ignited the gas.

The explosion broke windows, bent doors outwards and pushed up the roof about a foot.

“Looking at the car closely, it’s amazing that these people weren’t killed,” Sheriff Grayson Robinson said.

Several people reported the explosion, but when a deputy arrived, Frey and the woman had abandoned the vehicle.

The license plate led them to Frey, who faces a felony charge of possession, use, or removal of explosives or incendiary devices. The woman will not be charged, authorities said.

[Via CNN]

PRINCETON, Minn., Jan. 31 (UPI) — Self-described vampire and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jonathan “The Impaler” Sharkey has been arrested on Indiana charges of stalking and escape.

Sharkey is wanted in Indianapolis on the charges on which bond has been set at $100,000, the Princeton (Minn.) Union-Eagle reported.

Princeton police said their search discovered the May 2005 warrants that led to Sharkey’s arrest Monday.

…

Specifics of the Indiana charges against Sharkey were not known immediately.

[see story]

Previous Story

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - A Michigan environmental group is charging that at least part of the so-called “new car smell” is toxic, and that the interior of an automobile has dangerous levels of various chemicals.

The report, “Toxic at any speed,” comes from The Ecology Center, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based group. It reports that PBDEs, used as fire retardants, and phthalates, used primarily to soften PVC plastics, are found in dangerous amounts in dust and windshield film samples.

It called for tougher regulations to phase out the use of the chemicals as well as voluntary moves by the auto manufacturers to stop using the products inside of new vehicles.

It also suggested that car owners take steps to reduce the release and breakdown of these chemicals by using solar reflectors, ventilating car interiors, and parking outside of sunlight whenever possible.

The group says that phthalates are partly responsible for the smell associated with new cars.

[read story]

NORTH VERNON, Ind. — Members of a southern Indiana church say they believe a wooden door there bears the image of Jesus.

People from across Indiana have come to the Reigning Light of the Healing Chapel in North Vernon to see the door. Congregation members say they can see a likeness of Jesus in the wood’s patterns.

Congregation members said the image is similar to that of the Shroud of Turin, a cloth that many throughout the world believe has a likeness of Jesus.

The church’s pastor, Charlotte Pahls, said she sees the image as a sign.

“I asked, ‘Why, Lord, a door?’ And he said, ‘I am the door. If anyone knock, I will come in and sup with them.’ “

[read story]

More than 30 manhole covers have been snatched from Marion County streets in the past week.

Authorities point to the high price of scrap metal as the incentive for thieves, but the missing covers leave caverns as much as 30 feet deep yawning in ambush for drivers and pedestrians.
A replacement can cost from $300 to $2,000, according to officials with the Department of Public Works. Crews are putting up barricades around any hole they find missing a cover and are telling area scrapyards to reject offers to buy a cover.

[read story]

Minnesota voters, who eight years ago elected a former professional wrestler as their governor, may find a self-proclaimed vampire on the ballot for the office this year.

“Politics is a cut-throat business,” said Jonathan “The Impaler” Sharkey, who said he plans to announce his bid for governor on Friday on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.

Read Story.

An Ohio man who claims that he was humiliated by two other participants in an AOL chatroom has sued the two men for causing emotional distress and the ISP for failing to stop the alleged abuse.

Read the story.

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Toronto woman, not content with having merely a dusty demise, has become the first Canadian to donate her body for public display after she dies.

The 30-year-old mutual fund worker said the “Body Worlds” exhibition at the Ontario Science Center, which displays real human bodies, would fulfill her desire to have a posthumous purpose.

“I wanted to donate my body to science, but do something a little bit different, so this was perfect,” said Stephanie Chapu.

Read Full Story

TOKYO (Reuters) - Firemen in a small Japanese town were left red-faced after a party to mark the end of a fire awareness promotional event ended in a blaze that badly damaged their station.

The two-story, wooden fire station in Shimohetsugi, southern Japan, was extensively damaged by the Sunday blaze, a spokesman for the Oita prefectural fire department said.

No one was injured in the fire, which is thought to have been started either by a gas canister used for the firemen’s barbecue or by a kerosene heater.

“It’s very embarrassing that this should happen to people whose job it is to go and put out fires,” the spokesman said.

see story

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — With the help of his kids and neighbors, Billy Ray Powers built more than just a snowman — they’ve dubbed his 16-plus-foot-tall creation “Snowzilla.”

After using up all the snow in the family’s yard, they turned to neighbors’ yards and carried buckets on sleds. They hand-packed the snowman like an ice-cream cone.

“It’s solid ice,” he said. “I put the arms in with my power drill.”

It took a month to complete the project. It was too big to use buttons for its eyes, so Snowzilla gazes over the neighborhood from beer bottles.

[read story at CNN]

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Forty drunken Santas rampaged through central Auckland, stealing from stores and assaulting security guards, the New Zealand Herald reported on Sunday, in a protest against the commercialization of Christmas.

Police said some of the Santas threw beer bottles, one tried to climb the mooring rope of a cruise ship and a security guard was punched during the fracas.

“They came in, said ‘Merry Christmas’ and then helped themselves,” convenience store staff member Changa Manakynda told the Herald, which reported the Santas also attacked a Christmas tree.

The event organizer, Alex Dyer, had warned the antics would only stop when someone was arrested, said the Herald, which linked the incident to “Santarchy.”

Santarchy (www.santarchy.com) and online encyclopedia wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) record protests going back around 10 years in the United States, with participants marking Christmas in anti-commercial manner involving street theater, pranks and public drunkenness.

Police said identification was a key issue as they tried to sort out which of the 40 men and women had done what.

“With a number of people dressed in the same outfit, it was difficult for any witnesses to confirm the identity of who was doing what,” Senior Sergeant Matt Rogers told Reuters.

[via Reuters]

Also, see The Rigister.

TOKYO (Reuters) - An aging Japanese thief felt the gravity of his crime when the weight of his loot tripped him up during his attempted getaway.

The 70-year-old man walked into a post office in the city of Kawagoe, just north of Tokyo, late Friday and poured liquid over the floor, saying he would set off an explosion if he wasn’t given money.

A clerk filled a paper bag the man was carrying with coins worth some 250,000 yen ($2,000) and weighing 22 pounds. As the man ran off, the bag broke under the weight and he stumbled and fell as he tried to pick up the money.

Tsugio Chigira, deputy head of the Kawagoe police station, said the man told police he needed the money to pay back debts.

“He didn’t really want to be a robber, but felt he had no choice.”

[via Reuters]

BOSTON (Reuters) - Are diamonds really forever?

An anonymous gift-giver left a $15,000 diamond engagement ring to the owner of an unlocked car in western Massachusetts with a typed note hinting at a broken heart.

“Merry Christmas. Thank you for leaving your car door unlocked. Instead of stealing your car I gave you a present. Hopefully this will land in the hands of someone you love, for my love is gone now. Merry Christmas to you,” the note said.

The three-diamond ring with a white-gold band appeared on the seat of the man’s car at a train station in Westborough, about 30 miles west of Boston, on December 7, police said. Four days later, the man reported it to police.

[via Reuters]

Two Swiss women who spent a week at a Manhattan hotel have filed a lawsuit saying they had a lousy time trying to sleep there because they were bitten by bedbugs.

Ksenija Knezevic, of Zurich, and Marlies Barisic, of Kreuzlingen, both in their early 30s, say the bloodsucking insects began attacking the night they checked into the Hotel Pennsylvania in September.

…

“They were eaten alive,” Ebanks said Wednesday.

Read Story.

GERMANTOWN, Tenn. - A man wearing only socks was arrested along a busy street after witnesses said he fired a gun at afternoon traffic.

…

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Eddie Cox, who was driving home from the bank when he saw the naked gunman in this Memphis suburb.

Read story.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) — A man arrested for running onto the field during the Philadelphia Eagles’ game against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday told police he was spreading his late mother’s ashes.

Read story.

VERSHIRE, Vt. - A Massachusetts man was shot while using the outhouse at his family’s camp by a boy who was target shooting.

Chris Flanagan, 41, of Holliston, Mass., was standing in the outhouse on Saturday morning when he was hit in the chest by a bullet that came through the door.

Police said the shot was fired from a .22-caliber rifle used by a young relative. They declined to give the relationship between the two.

[continue story…]

MOSTAR, Bosnia (Reuters) - Bosnia’s southern town of Mostar unveiled the world’s first statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee on Saturday, paying homage to a childhood hero of all its divided ethnic groups.

The life-size 1.68 meter (5ft 7in) bronze statue is situated in Mostar’s central park, close to the former front line of Bosnia’s 1992-95 civil war. A decade after the conflict, Mostar’s Muslim and Croat inhabitants remain deeply split.

Unveiled by its initiators, Veselin Gatalo and Nino Raspudic of Mostar’s Urban Movement, the statue portrays the Chinese-American actor, who died 32 years ago, in a typical defensive fighting position.

“This does not mean that Bruce Lee will unite us, because people are different and cannot be united and we will always be Muslims, Serbs or Croats,” Gatalo said. “But one thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee.”

[continue story…]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A young woman robbed four banks in Washington’s suburbs without ever interrupting conversations her cell phone, a sheriff’s spokesman said on Friday.

In the most recent heist, the woman, with sunglasses casually pushed up on her dark hair and a mobile phone at her ear, walked up to a bank teller in Ashburn, Virginia, on November 4 and opened her purse to show a handgun and a note demanding cash, said Loudoun County sheriff’s spokesman Kraig Troxell.

“During the entire sequence, she was on her cell phone,” Troxell said by telephone. “When we compared it with other robberies that have occurred in the area, we determined she was involved in three other robberies. … In those cases, she was also on the cell phone.”

[continue story…]

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia (Reuters) - A hand grenade being used instead of a ball in a game of catch exploded early on Saturday killing three youths in this Bosnian town, police and news agencies said.

Two youths aged 19 and 20, one of them from neighboring Croatia, were killed instantly while a 20-year-old woman died on her way to hospital, police said. Her sister was slightly injured but two other youths suffered serious injuries.

[continue story…]

A British tourist described last night the horrifying moment when he realised his luxury cruise line was under gun and grenade attack from pirates, 100 miles off the coast of Somalia.

“I heard what sounded like a crack from outside [the ship] at 5.50am,” said Norman Fisher, 55, a solicitor from north London, one of 20 Britons on board the Seabourn Spirit which was carrying 312 passengers and crew.

“I looked out the window and saw a small boat with about five people in it, about 20 yards away. Two of them had rifles and one had some kind of rocket launcher. They were firing the rifle and then they fired the rocket launcher twice.”

Mr Fisher said that at least one rocket hit the Spirit, one of the most luxurious liners in the world. The rocket broke through the side of the liner into a passenger’s suite.

“The couple were in there at the time, so it was a bit of an unpleasant experience,” said Mr Fisher. “Fortunately they weren’t hurt, but you can just imagine what it would have been like if they had been standing up, because the cabin was very badly damaged.”

more…

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch dentist who chopped off his finger and then faked a car crash before claiming 1.8 million euros ($2.2 million) from insurers was given a suspended sentence and fined by a court Thursday.

The man, aged 50, mutilated himself and crashed his car into a tree in Belgium in the hope of convincing insurers that the steering wheel had inflicted the injury, the court said.

However, the shape of the cut on his index finger, the level of anaesthetic in his blood and the absence of skid marks on the road suggested otherwise.

“It was not an accident but an amputation he carried out himself, or he had someone do it for him,” a court spokeswoman said.

The dentist was fined 25,000 euros and received a six-month suspended jail sentence with 240 hours community service.

[via Reuters]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Colorado man who had a panic attack when he found he was glued to a toilet seat in a Home Depot restroom has sued the home improvement giant for negligence, saying staff ignored his plight.

Retired electrical engineer Bob Dougherty, 57, said on Thursday he was stuck in the stall with his pants down for about 20 minutes and that two years after the 2003 incident he was suffering from post-traumatic stress, which has triggered diabetes and heart complications.

“I have these nightmares every night where I am locked in this dark room, with no windows, no doors, no fresh air, no route for escape. I wake up in these cold sweats,” Dougherty said.

Spokesmen for Home Depot Inc. could not immediately be reached for comment.

[continue story…]

Scientists digging in a remote Indonesian cave have uncovered a jaw bone that they say adds more evidence that a tiny prehistoric Hobbit-like species once existed.

The jaw is from the ninth individual believed to have lived as recently as 12,000 years ago. The bones are in a wet cave on the on the island of Flores in the eastern limb of the Indonesian archipelago, near Australia.

More…

The naked swimmers were in the water for 14 hours and completed one length of the loch, before high swell and low temperatures forced them to reconsider.

The relay, organised by British Naturism, was scheduled to complete three lengths between Fort Augustus and Lochend, covering 69 miles.

British Naturism president Pat Thompson said the weather was “atrocious”.

The team, which included a writer, a policeman and a housewife, had hoped to raise more than £2,000 for Cancer Research UK.

[continue story…]

A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.

“The biggest treasure in history has been located,” said Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company leading the search. Mr Uribe-Etxeverria estimated the value of the buried treasure at US$10bn (£5.6bn).

[see story]

Perhaps you thought Hurricanes were natural and somewhat random events that have occurred for ages untold. True, but now Hurricanes are angrier, because you won’t stop buying cars and ride public transportation. This particular Hurricane was angry at Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour for not believing in Global Warming, so it decided to attack Louisiana and kill all the people that could not leave because they didn’t own cars and depended upon public transportation.

You see, hurricanes are now clear evidence of Global Warming. And if one hits you, it’s a Republican’s fault. The harsh winter many of us had last year was also clear evidence of Global Warming. As are…

…continue story

LONDON - Caged and barely clothed, eight men and women monkeyed around for the crowds Friday in an exhibit labeled “Humans” at the London Zoo.

“Warning: Humans in their Natural Environment” read the sign at the entrance to the exhibit, where the captives could be seen on a rock ledge in a bear enclosure, clad in bathing suits and pinned-on fig leaves. Some played with hula hoops, some waved.

Visitors stopped to point and laugh, and several children could be heard asking, “Why are there people in there?”

[see Yahoo!]

A Table View man has found a foot at the Milnerton lagoon.

Derick van Vuuren said he had found it while out walking.

“It was just floating around in the water,” he said after making the find on Sunday.

“The cops reckon it’s a shark attack victim. But there have been no attacks on the West Coast. The last attack I remember is the one in Simon’s Town. Perhaps it was the foot that went missing from the Salt River mortuary some time ago. But that one was sawn off, apparently. This one looked like it was chewed off.”

Police spokesperson Billy Jones said the foot had been severed above the ankle. An inquest docket had been opened.

[from IOL]

A man falls to his death while preparing one of Kansas City’s haunted houses for the Halloween season.

Police said they received a call last night that a man had fallen down an elevator shaft at the Catacombs. It is one of several haunted houses that are located in old warehouses and industrial buildings in an area west of downtown.

When police arrived, the man was dead. A police spokesman said the man’s death has been ruled an accident. His name has not been released by authorities.

[via WIBW]

POLICE in Mashonaland Central Province have warned traditional healers, mostly known as Tsikamutanda, that they risk being arrested for causing an upsurge in assault and murder cases in the province.

This comes after police received reports of several family members that were killing and assaulting each other after witch-hunting ceremonies conducted by traditional healers in the province.

[see allAfrica]

A US OUTFIT is offering a service that will allow bloggers to beam their online diaries into deep space.

[see The Inquirer]

The Icelandic tradition of believing in elves is so strong roads have been rerouted to avoid disturbing rocks where they might live, a report said.

Polls consistently show most residents of Iceland either believe in elves, or aren’t willing to rule out their existence.

[see WebIndia123]

A 40-year-old housewife, Jaya Majumdar, has allegedly been branded a witch and assaulted by her neighbours in Lake Gardens.

[see The Telegraph]

ODESSA, Sask. — A Saskatchewan family is trying to put their lives back together after a twister destroyed their farm, carrying away 30 lambs.

[see The Winnipeg Sun]

Raipur, July 11 : A 54-year-old widow was paraded naked and then clubbed to death after being branded a witch at the instance of a village panchayat in Chhattisgarh, police said Monday.

Around 35 villagers took part in the gruesome incident in Parsatolo village, 122 km from here, in Rajnandgaon district Sunday, police said. Thirty-one people, including the village head, on charges of killing her.

[via Webindia123.com]

PITTSBURGH (AP) - James Henry Smith was a zealous Pittsburgh Steelers fan in life, and even death could not keep him from his favorite spot: in a recliner, in front of a TV showing his beloved team in action.

Smith, 55, of Pittsburgh, died of prostate cancer Thursday. Because his death wasn’t unexpected, his family was able to plan for an unusual viewing Tuesday night.

The Samuel E. Coston Funeral Home erected a small stage in a viewing room, and arranged furniture on it much as it was in Smith’s home on game day Sundays.

[link]

Deakin University has set up Victoria’s first “dead pig farm” as part of a new project to study body decomposition.

Pigs break down at a similar rate to humans and will be used to test new methods for investigating suspicious deaths of people.

[via Geelong Info]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City school teacher apologized and resigned on Friday after admitting he pursued a career as a professional wrestler when he had told his boss he was on leave to care for a sick relative.

Matthew Kaye, a social studies teacher at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Queens, had his mother call in sick for him last Dec. 16.

[via Reuters]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian astrologist who says NASA has altered her horoscope by crashing a spacecraft into a comet is suing the U.S. space agency for damages of $300 million, local media reported Monday.

[via Reuters]

SONKAJARVI, Finland (Reuters) - Estonia reigned supreme once again in the wife-carrying world championship on Saturday, as Margo Uusorg sprinted home to win the Baltic country’s eighth straight title in the offbeat competition.

Forty couples from 10 countries gathered in the remote Finnish village of Sonkajarvi to complete a 253.5-meter-long obstacle course. A man must carry a woman, not necessarily his spouse, through a pool and across hurdles.

The few rules require a minimum weight of 49 kg (108 lb) for the “wife” and state that all contestants must have fun.

[via Reuters]

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government launched a series of tough anti-cigarette adverts Friday with the message that smoking is bad for your sex life because it makes men impotent and women ugly.

[via Reuters]

The state police and state fire marshal’s office are reminding sellers and consumers that the only legal fireworks in Connecticut are sparklers.

According to state law, sparklers are non-explosive, non-aerial devices that contain less than 100 grams of pyrotechnic mixture. They can only be used by people 16 years or older.

Novelty items such as party poppers, snakes, snappers, smoke devices and anything that emits a flame are not legal for private use in the state.

It is illegal to purchase, sell or possess fireworks, which are defined by law as “any combustible or explosive composition prepared for the purpose of producing a visible or audible effect by combustion, explosion, deflagration or detonation.” Violation of the law could lead to a fine of up to $100 or a sentence of up to 90 days, or both.

[via The Advocate]

I’m not moving to Connecticut any time soon. I love the law in Indiana…sign a piece of paper saying you’ll take them out of state or shoot them off at certain locations with firemen present and you’re good to go. Not that many people do that or that it’s even legal in our surrounding states, but hey, it’s “on the books” that way.

According to The Mirror, the words “Holy Ghost” will be dropped from religious lessons because they scare children, and the body and blood of Jesus Christ will not be described as Eucharist because it seems too cannibalistic.

[via NewKerala]

For $10,000 and a brighter future for her son, Kari Smith on Wednesday became a real life pop-up ad for a virtual casino.

…

“I really want to do this,” she said. “To everyone else, it seems like a stupid thing to do. To me, $10,000 is like $1 million. I only live once, and I’m doing it for my son.”

Brouse didn’t understand it, either.

In his 24 years, he’s turned away a lot of customers who want to get tattoos that can’t be covered up with clothing. He and his staff spent nearly seven hours Wednesday trying to talk Smith out of it.

Her resolve won out. The one thing Brouse could do with inch-tall letters in the prominent spot was to make them less so by keeping them as close to her hairline for those occasions when bangs or a hat might be the more appropriate message.

[via Deseret News & The Salt Lake Tribune]

What is wrong with people? I don’t think I’d do that for a billion dollars, let alone the chump change of ten grand. But I guess she always has a future in the carnival.

FARMLAND, Ind. — Seven women who usually gather to play cards plan to strip down for a calendar as part of the fight against plans to tear down Randolph County’s 128-year-old courthouse.

The women ranging in age from their early 70s to older than 90 will pose nude — with strategically placed miniature replicas of the courthouse in front of them — in the fund raiser for the Save the Courthouse Fund.

“I don’t know how we’re going to look, but we’re going to pose,” 85-year-old Garnita Amburn told The Star Press of Muncie for a story today.

[via The Indianapolis Star]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The mourning parents of a traffic accident victim who visited their son’s grave near Antwerp Friday evening were shocked to find the local gravediggers enjoying their annual barbecue at the graveyard.

Workers at the cemetery in Merksem had music playing and their children were running around near the graves, De Morgen newspaper said Wednesday.

[via Reuters]

NEW DELHI - Women in an eastern Indian forest are stripping naked to distract police and to help a criminal gang avoid arrest while illegally chopping down trees, the Hindustan Times reported Tuesday.

[via Reuters]

A Halloween committee has been established for Coles County, which will try to bring in more business to the area during the spook season.

During the last six months the committee has been working hard trying to get local business’ support with the upcoming Halloween festival, according to Scott Kelly, a committee member.

“We are trying to get as many people involved as we can,” said Kelly. “Our goal is to make Coles County the Halloween capital of Illinois. Our job as a committee is to advertise the festival to as many people as we can.

“Currently, Arcola’s Broomcorn Festival is the largest Halloween festival around here,” said Kelly.

[via The Daily Eastern News]

John Fiedler, a stage and screen actor, who grew up in Wisconsin and won fame as the voice of Piglet in Walt Disney’s Winnie-the-Pooh films, died from cancer, according to his brother, James Fiedler.

He was 80.

Fiedler died Saturday in New York; a day after the death of Paul Winchell, 82, who created the lispy voice of Winnie the Pooh’s animated friend Tigger in the Disney films.

[via EiTB24]

It may not have the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, nor of the area called the Devil’s Sea by Japanese and Filipino seamen, also known for inexplicable disappearances.

But on a busy road in the shadow of the Pentland Hills lies the Covenanters’ Wood, an area that appears to possess the same magnetic characteristics. There have been eight road accidents in 12 months at exactly the same spot on the A720 Edinburgh bypass.

[via The Herald]

In Alaska, thousands of mysterious lakes are all the same shape and have grown steadily for thousands of years, the geological record shows. They are the fastest growing lakes known in the world.

Scientists have tried various ideas to explain the steady growth — the lakes expand up to 15 feet every year — and the lakes’ consistent shape and orientation, but no theory has held up.

[via MSNBC]

Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.

“It’s only natural that Charlie Carlson would write a book on Florida oddities, because he can spend all day telling tales of the bizarre.”

[via The Orlando Sentinel]

Once while in Dallas I had a couple ask me to take their picture on the “Grassy Knoll”, which I though was odd at the time. Maybe the area is prone to oddness…if you know of any other stories, let me know.

Anyway, yet another odd eBay purchase by the casino.

[via The Dallas Morning News]

“Shower Jesus” sold on eBay…to the usual winner of odd auctions.

[via The Post Gazette]