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Odd News Archive - May 2010Note: Stories from some news services expire after a few weeks. If you click on a link to the original story it is possible that you will be re-directed to an archives page with the option to access the news item for a small fee. May 31, 2010
The message, he would learn, held the answer to a 66-year-old family mystery. His father, Oscar F. Glomb, had served with the 36th Infantry Division — which today is a Camp Mabry-based Texas National Guard unit — and landed at the Bay of Salerno in 1943....full story from the Austin American-Statesman 'Mini skirt meteorology' used to predict weather: The length of women's mini skirts can be used to predict changes in the weather ahead of announcements from the Met Office, it has been claimed. The rises and falls in the length of skirts are said to be a good way of forecasting what the weather will be like three days in advance, based on research at eBay. Analysts at the company said the length of skirts sold on the website becomes shorter several days before the weather changes for the better, and lengthens when colder conditions are due....full story from The Daily Telegaph (UK) May 30, 2010Driver forced to pay fine after police remove his car 'to stop it being stolen': Marcus Morris was told that police they had taken his VW Polo because the open window - which he had accidentally left down - meant the vehicle was at risk of theft. Mr Morris, 25, had parked the car near to Leeds [England] city centre as he went for a job interview but returned an hour-and-a-half later to find it had gone. He contacted West Yorkshire Police believing it had been stolen but was told they had removed it to protect it from thieves....read more from The Daily Telegraph (UK)
The compendium of ill thought out web addresses, largely from companies who naively slurred their innocent-sounding names into a single word without noticing the resulting double entendres, lists more than 150 "slurls", or slur URLs. Andy Geldman, author of Slurls: They Called Their Website What? said: "In a world without spaces we mentally insert out own. And you might not stick yours where I stick mine." ...full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 29, 2010
The claim comes after the discovery of what is thought to be the oldest human species - a toothy tree swinger named Homo gautengensis. The new species emerged more than two million years ago and died out 600,000 years ago....full story from NEWS.com.au Pub sport banned under Health & Safety: The traditional East Anglian pub sport of “Dwile Flonking” has been banned by a council because it breached health and safety drinking laws, it was claimed. The sport’s inaugural world championships were due to be held on Saturday at the Dog Inn pub, in Ludham, Great Yarmouth. But its future is in doubt after Norfolk [England] District Council outlawed the game because it contravened laws aimed at banning speed drinking....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 28, 2010Approaching space object 'artificial, not asteroid' says NASA: NASA scientists report that an unknown object approaching the Earth from deep space is almost certainly artificial in origin rather than being an asteroid. Object 2010 KQ was detected by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona earlier this month, and subsequently tracked by NASA's asteroid-watching service, the Near-Earth Object Program headquartered at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. According to the NASA experts....full story from The Register Australians 'don't give a XXXX' as they abandon beer for wine: Beer consumption in Australia has dropped to a 60-year-low as the younger generation abandons the "amber nectar" in favour of wine. Think of Australia and the immediate associations are beaches, kangaroos and, of course, beer. The legendary love for lager Down Under has been perpetuated by cultural exports including Barry “Bazza” McKenzie and Paul “Crocodile Dundee” Hogan and reinforced by memorable marketing campaigns including the Castlemaine XXXX adverts featuring the tag-line: “Australians wouldn’t give a XXXX for anything else.”....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Woman who fell asleep on plane sues for 'false imprisonment': A woman left locked alone in a plane asleep for about four hours after landing at Philadelphia International Airport is suing United Airlines for "false imprisonment". Ginger McGuire, 36, is suing for false imprisonment, infliction of emotional distress and negligence, her attorney Geoffrey Fieger said. Mrs McGuire fell asleep on a late-night United Express flight from Washington, DC, to Philadelphia....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 27, 2010Bank robbers blow up everything but ATM: Would-be robbers had to flee empty handed after blowing up everything in a German bank except for where the money was, police said. Photos in German media showed a scene of devastation in the north-east village of Malliss, with the bank reduced to a pile of rubble and its roof completely obliterated. Amid the wreckage, only the cash machine could be seen intact....full story from ABC News (AU) X-51 hypersonic scramjet test: Flameout at Mach 5?: US government aerospace agencies have achieved the world's first hypersonic scramjet flight using hydrocarbon fuel. The test did not go perfectly, but further flights will follow; organisers said they were "ecstatic" with progress thus far. The X-51A "Waverider" craft was dropped from a modified B-52 bomber test mothership 50,000 feet above Point Mugu sea firing range off the California coast at about 10am....full story from The Register May 26, 2010'Carpet of frogs' closes Greek highway: THESSALONIKI, Greece — Greek officials say a horde of frogs has forced the closure of a key northern highway for two hours. Thessaloniki traffic police chief Giorgos Thanoglou says “millions” of the amphibians covered the tarmac Wednesday near the town of Langadas, some 12 miles east of Thessaloniki. “There was a carpet of frogs,” he said....full story from CNews Baby survives being hit by train: A 15-month-old boy has survived being hit by a train after his pram rolled off the platform at a Melbourne [Australia] railway station. The baby escaped with little more than a few scratches to his face, despite being dragged underneath the city-bound train for several metres. Black and white CCTV footage of the incident shows the pram rolling quickly towards the edge of the platform before disappearing beneath the oncoming train....full story w/video from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 25, 2010Deadly phone number of doom disconnected: A Bulgarian phone number featuring nine eights has been cut off after three successive owners died in suspicious circumstances. The details come courtesy of the Telegraph, which reports that the first owner of 0888 888 888 died of cancer aged 48, while the next two were gunned down following shady business dealings. Such circumstances surely prove that the number is genuinely cursed, or maybe that criminals in Bulgaria with too much money to spend tend to wind up dead....full story from The Register Crash sets 17 million bees loose on highway: Rescue crews were using fire hoses to douse an angry swarm of bees after a fatal crash that involved a trailer carrying about 17 million of the insects. Authorities say a truck hauling 7,000 bee hives was involved in the four-vehicle crash Monday on Interstate 35 near Lakeville, about 35 miles (56km) south of Minneapolis. It's unclear how many bees got loose, but several emergency workers were stung....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) NY bus drivers get three months' paid leave for being spit on: New York bus drivers are taking an average of three months' paid leave when a passenger spits on them because the behaviour constitutes assault in their union agreement, according to officials. Last year, 51 of the city's drivers reported they had been spat on and took an average of 64 days off – amounting to three months at home. One took 191 days to recover from the ordeal....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 24, 2010Baby born while mom drives to hospital: BEMIDJI, Minn. - A Minnesota couple said their son was born while his mother was behind the wheel of her car en route to the hospital. Amanda McBride, 29, said she left work at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday when she began feeling labor pains and picked up the child's father, Joseph Phillips, 33, on her way to North Country Regional Hospital in Bemidji, the Bemidji Pioneer reported Monday. McBride said she had to drive the car because Phillips suffers seizures, but the couple said Phillips had to grab the wheel when McBride's water broke mid-drive....full story from UPI Secret US spaceplane spotted in orbit by hobbyists: Amateur astronomers believe they have located the X-37B US military unmanned spaceplane, which was launched into orbit on a classified mission a month ago. The X-37B is operated by the US Air Force and its mission, budget and other particulars are classified, or "black". Nonetheless, various facts about the project are known as it began life as a NASA programme....full story from The Register May 23, 2010Wedding dress revenge: A jilted husband has exacted revenge on the wife who dumped him by becoming an internet sensation with a blog on unconventional ways of putting her wedding dress to use. Kevin Cotter was crushed when his high school sweetheart walked out after 12 years of marriage. When she moved out of their home in Tuscon, Arizona, she took all of her possessions except for her lace- and pearl-embellished white wedding dress. She told her soon-to-be ex-husband that he could do with it what he liked....full story w/pic from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Woodpecker alarm clock taps its wake-up: A "woodpecker clock" invented by a 22-year-old student has replaced the annoying clangs and buzzes of traditional alarms with a gentle tapping wake-up. It is the dreaded sound which every nine-to-five worker hates with a passion - yet one from which they cannot escape. But the days of bells and bleeps in the bedroom may soon be over....full story w/pic from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 22, 2010Lawnmower cuts through land speed record: A British lawnmower cut the world land speed record to ribbons with a trail blazing new top speed of more than 86mph. The unique petrol driven mower raced into the record books in front of an ecstatic crowd at Pendine Sands, in west Wales. Rider Don Wales smashed the previous 80.792mph lawnmower land speed record with an impressive 86.069mph on Saturday evening....full story w/pic from The Daily Telegraph (UK) UK Councils use anti-terror powers to check for dog collars: Councils have used anti-terrorism laws to try to catch people donating goods outside charity shops and to make sure dogs are wearing collars. The investigations are among those uncovered in a survey by The Sunday Telegraph into the use by town halls of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000. The legislation, originally intended to combat terrorism and serious crime, gives councils the right to place residents and businesses under surveillance, trace telephone and email accounts and even send staff on covert missions....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 21, 2010
Mr Obama had just begun a Rose Garden statement on his financial overhaul when some kind of rodent dashed out of the bushes to his right, just outside the Oval Office. As photographers snapped away in the garden, the rodent scurried straight past the gray podium with the presidential seal....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Photographs of a strange-looking creature discovered in a remote Northern Ontario aboriginal community are creating an Internet sensation and a raging debate. The photos show a furry animal with a bald white face and huge teeth....full story w/pics from The Globe and Mail Follow-up: New Montauk Monster? This time it’s an otter May 20, 2010Forget dogs, letterboxes now danger for mail carriers: They say the top of a delivery worker's index finger was severed recently by the sharp edge of a spring-tensioned letterbox flap at Keswick in Adelaide. The worker's finger got trapped by the spring-tensioned flap and was pushed hard against a sharp brass edge, severing the top. Australia Post says spring-tensioned letterbox flaps are common in newer models....full story from ABC News (AU) New 'binman BlackBerry' coming to a Biffa garbage truck near you: BlackBerrys, once restricted to the most high flying executives, are coming to a garbage truck near you. Biffa, one of the UK's biggest rubbish collection companies, has given 1,500 of its binmen BlackBerry-type devices so they can "get more done on the move". Vicky Panayiotou, of Biffa, said binmen could use the "rugged BlackBerrys" to collect data from customers, download maps and communicate with head office....full story from The Daily Telegaph (UK) May 19, 2010Mechanic drove three miles with disgruntled customer on top of car: A Northern Ireland garage mechanic who drove for three miles with a disgruntled customer clamped to the bonnet of his car has been cleared of a raft of charges including assault and dangerous driving, the Belfast Telegraph reports. Gerry Brown, 53, was at his yard near Castlewellan in February 2008 when Lesley Quirey and his uncle Philip Quirey turned up to demand a refund on a second-hand car Brown had sold to the former for £350 [US$502]. The vehicle had broken down after a week, and the Quireys were evidently none too pleased....full story from The Register Woman ticketed for picking up wrong dog poop: A great-grandmother in England will not have to pay a fine after she was ticketed for picking up the wrong dog's poop. Pam Robson, 60, was given the equivalent of a $75 fine in January after Sunderland Council wardens said she failed to pick up after her Labrador, Derik, and instead picked up another dog's mess, the BBC reports. Suderland is in northern England....full story from CNews May 18, 2010
Passengers on the London Underground were shocked to see the men and women riding the escalator and Tube without clothes. The foursome, who covered their modesty with handbags and briefcases, attracted stares and gasps but acted as if the nothing was out of the ordinary....full story from NEWS.com.au Delaware man accused of duping Harvard pleads not guilty: A Delaware man who allegedly forged his way into Harvard University with a fabricated record of academic achievement has been ordered held on $5,000 bail after pleading not guilty Tuesday at his arraignment. Adam Wheeler, 23, must stay away institutions involved in the alleged scheme, including Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brown University and Yale University, surrender his passport and remain in Massachusetts, a Middlesex Superior Court judge ruled....full story from Fox News May 17, 2010
What other options are there?....full story from Sportress of Blogitude Lasers, iPods, for a Singapore funeral of a lifetime: SINGAPORE - Death need not be a grim affair, especially for the living, and at a new columbarium in Singapore, the deceased can depart, rock concert style. Unlike most traditional Buddhist funeral ceremonies that follow cremation, there is no incense and no monks offering prayers at the Nirvana Memorial Garden columbarium, where the urns holding the remains of the dead are stored. Instead, curtains draw automatically to reveal the deceased's urn which is placed atop a pedestal, machine-generated smoke fills the prayer hall and a booming recorded voice, accompanied by chants, speaks words of comfort and talks about death....full story from Reuters UK Britain's remotest pub up for sale: The remotest pub on the British mainland, which can only be reached by boat or by walking 18 miles from the nearest road, over 3,500ft hills, has been put up for sale. The Old Forge on the Knoydart peninsula in northern Scotland has been put on the market by Ian and Jackie Robertson, who have lived on the island peninsula for 20 years, inviting offers over £790,000 [US$1,147,810]. Despite its location, estate agents said there are five “serious” potential bidders including a family in Montreal, Canada, and others from the US and London....full story from The Daily Telegaph (UK) Using laptops or iPads just before bed 'increases risk of insomnia': Computer users should turn their laptop or Apple iPad off at least two hours before going to bed if they want a good night’s sleep, scientists say. American researchers have discovered that human brains and sleep patterns are confused by devices that emit bright lights. Consumer electronics, such as laptops, deceive our minds that it is still daytime, preventing sleep and increasing the risk of insomnia....full story from The Daily Telegaph (UK) May 16, 2010Royal Navy 'does not keep sea monster sighting archive': The Royal Navy may hold records about possible sea monsters but it does not collect them centrally, it has revealed. Sailors can note unusual sightings on the ocean waves in their ship's logs, the Navy said. But they are not required to do so and none of the information is assembled in a central archive devoted to sea monsters....full story from The Daily Telegaph (UK) Gust-blown pup survives 5-floor fall: He's a real-life Underdog! A mild-mannered Manhattan pooch turned into a flying furball when a gust blew him up, up and away off his owner's 11th-floor terrace in TriBeCa and sent him five stories down and 30 feet east to a rooftop. Alfie, a 4-year-old, 10-pound silky terrier, miraculously walked away from the flight with just a few bruises and scratches and a cut lip....full story w/pic from the New York Post May 15, 2010
The man with what appears to be very modern sunglasses seems to be wearing a stamped T-shirt with a nice sweater, all the while holding a portable compact camera!....full story from forgetomori What a waste: taxpayers fund musical loo: Taxpayers shelled out $250,000 for a talking-musical toilet under Royalties for Regions - while the West Australian Government has been trying to shave 3 per cent from state spending, including hospitals. Four days before the Barnett Government hands down what is being tipped to be a frugal Budget, numerous examples of questionable funding under the Royalties program have been uncovered....full story from NEWS.com.au May 14, 2010
The peacock, who sleeps in a tree and spends the day in the family's garden in South Normanton, Derbyshire, has begun exploring the kitchen when the back door is left open. The stray male, named Sheru by Bhajan Pabla and his wife Kulwinder, briefly went missing last week but has since returned after being found roaming the streets....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Amorous kangaroo hits on joggers: A kangaroo in the mood for love has made advances towards several female joggers in an Australian outback town, prompting a flood of complaints to police. Officers in the Northern Territory have received reports of the amorous kangaroo stalking residents in the Honeymoon Ranges near the township of Tennant Creek, including one woman on her morning walk. "There was no doubt about what he wanted, the randy old thing," the woman told the Northern Territory News. "I turned around and saw this big kangaroo behind me, so I hastened my steps," she said....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 13, 2010
Trimuph, makers of other eccentric, gimmick bras that include one with a sushi set and another that comes with solar panels, said it came up with the "rice bra" because of the growing popularity of farming among city dwellers in Japan. Growing concerns over food safety and the environment, and the ideal of a laid-back rural lifestyle, are attracting more urbanites to agriculture, once the mainstay of Japan's economy. Rice is also the nation's staple food....full story from Reuters UK Chinese scientists find use for cigarette butts: Chemical extracts from cigarette butts -- so toxic they kill fish -- can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found. In a paper published in the American Chemical Society's bi-weekly journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they identified nine chemicals after immersing cigarette butts in water. They applied the extracts to N80, a type of steel used in oil pipes, and found that they protected the steel from rusting....full story from Reuters UK May 12, 2010Indian prison offers offshoring services: An Indian outsourcing firm is working with prison authorities to set up a 200 man unit to handle back office and data entry functions for businesses worldwide. The prison governor told the BBC an area had already been found for the computers. The main focus for their work is expected to be back-office functions for banks....full story from The Register High school basketball star exposed as 22-year-old man: A US high school that inspired a nostalgic film about a sporting team is at the centre of an identity fraud after the young star of the basketball team was found to be a 22-year-old man. Education chiefs in Texas have admitted they were fooled by 6ft5in-tall Guerdwich Montimere. He claimed to be only 16 years old when he was selected for the basketball team at Permian High School in Odessa, Texas....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Marquis to be exhumed in feud over gin empire: The body of a Spanish nobleman, the Marquis de Larios, is to be exhumed after an orphaned trumpeter claimed he was the heir to his wealthy dynasty and entitled to a share in the famous family gin company. A judge has ordered tests to be carried out on the corpse of Jose Antonio Larios Franco, whose father founded the Larios gin brand in the 1920s, after Jose Collado, a trumpeter in an orchestra in Marbella, claimed to be his illegitimate son. Mr Collado claimed he was the result of an affair between the marquis and one of the cooks working at his ancestral stately home and hopes that DNA taken from the exhumed remains will prove that he is the rightful heir to the gin fortune....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 11, 2010Playboy flashes 3D centerfold: The June issue of Playboy will feature added substance in the form of 3D centerfold Hope Dworaczyk - a first for the men's mag, which is trying to cash in on the success of Avatar and the like. The magazine's founder Hugh Hefner reportedly asked: "What would people most like to see in 3D?" "Probably a naked lady," came his own quick reply....full story from The Register New York stripper pole tax for education: New York strip clubs will soon have to shell out tax money on the door fee funds brought in by their stripper poles. As outlined by the New York Law Journal, a decision holds that a pole stripper is not actually an artist, and therefore the act of pole dancing does not qualify for a sales tax exemption. This finding is substantiated by the two-person Tax Appeals Tribunal, which effectively overturned a judge's ruling that nixed a pole tax....full story from Associated Content Tiger Woods and the 'bulging d---': An American television reporter made the ultimate Freudian slip when she announced that Tiger Woods had to withdraw from a golf tournament because of his "bulging d---". Win McMurray made the error as she tried to explain why Woods, who caused a scandal with his numerous affairs, had pulled out of the Players Championship in Florida this weekend. The golfer had blamed a "bulging disk" in his neck, but McMurray, from the Golf Channel, was left red-faced when she describe the condition as a "bulging d---"....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Internet approaches addressing limit: In less than 18 months there will be no more big blocks of net addresses to give out, estimates suggest. Predictions name 9 September 2011 as the date on which the last of those tranches is released for net firms and others to use. Everything connected to the net needs an "IP address" to ensure data reaches the right person or device....full story from BBC News Twitter software bug 'caused by Turkish hacker': Twitter, the microblogging site, was targeted by a Turkish hacker who caused a security glitch that left users, including many celebrities, with no “followers”. The bug, believed to have been started by a hacker called Bora Kırca, caused millions of users’ accounts around the world to temporarily lose the list of people who followed them on the social networking site. The glitch, which was fixed late on Monday, allowed any Twitter user to force another to follow them without permission....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 10, 2010
That`s the question Craig Brown of Carlton faced today. For Brown, the answer was easy, as he happened to be driving a few blocks away the McMinnville Fire Station when smoke started to fill his cab....full story from The Student Operated Press Man dressed as Snoopy in 'worst attempted jail-break ever': A man who tried to break into prison to free an inmate while dressed as the cartoon character Snoopy is being held under the Mental Health Act. Prison wardens were baffled when they were confronted by the character from the Peanuts cartoon trying to break down a staff door while apparently waving a gun. The man and an accomplice, who were attempting to free a relative from HMP Isle of Wight [UK], went on to hurl concrete missiles at prison officers’ cars....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Colorado man convicted of shooting himself in groin: A COLORADO man who claimed he was trying to defend himself from a mugger when he shot himself in the groin has been convicted of illegal discharge of a firearm. Investigators said there was no evidence to substantiate David Leroy Blurton's self-defence claim and jurors convicted the 50-year-old last week. The shooting happened at the parking lot of a grocery shop in Dillon, Colorado, on May 2009. Prosecutors say Blurton had been drinking....full story from NEWS.com.au May 9, 2010'Murdered' Chinese man reappears after 10 years: A Chinese man who was supposedly hacked to death in a fight has reappeared in his hometown after 10 years, state media said, raising questions about police torture to extract a confession from the alleged killer. Zhao Zuohai, the supposed killer, was acquitted of the crime and released by a Henan court on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua said, citing a court press conference on Sunday. He had served 10 years of a 29-year sentence after confessing to killing Zhao Zhenshang in a hatchet fight in central China's Henan province, the China Daily reported this weekend....full story from Reuters UK May 8, 2010
Thomas Busby's haybale imitation of the English landmark, a favourite destination for Druids, caught the attention of more than one motorist cruising near Egmont Village. The eerily realistic-looking photo concept was dreamt up by the 24-year-old Inglewood photographer, who was looking for a winning snap for the Inglewood Camera Club's monthly competition....full story from the Taranaki Daily News Painful passion: thousands nursing secret sex injuries: Hundreds of thousands of embarrassed Britons are suffering in silence every year after injuring themselves during sex. A survey found that around a third of the adult population – about 18 million people – has suffered an ache or strain either during or after bouts of passion. Pulled muscles emerged as the most common complaint, followed by back injuries, carpet burns, cricked neck and bashing an elbow or knee....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 7, 2010South African police chief 'prays' US knocked out of World Cup: South Africa's police chief is "praying" that the US football team are knocked out of the World Cup early on in order to avoid a visit by President Barack Obama. A visit by the US president - which could happen if the team makes the knockout stage - would be a nightmare, General Bheki Cele told MPs in a briefing on security for tournament, which starts on June 11. "Our famous prayer is that they don't make the second round," he told the parliamentary police committee....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Judge frees suspects to go fishing: A judge has lifted a curfew order on two alleged drug dealers who want to go carp fishing at night while awaiting their trial. Christopher Robinson and Paul Kiley - who are accused of being concerned in cocaine supply - have been subject to strict bail conditions including an 11pm-7am nightly home curfew. But they complained to Gloucester Crown Court that having to be home every night stops them indulging in their sport at three ponds in Essex, [England] where they also work as fishing bailiffs for the owner....full story from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Online tools promote amateur sleuthing: With help from an arsenal of websites offering sleuthing tricks and the proliferation of social network postings, America is becoming a society of amateur spies. The bar's hopping. The guy's hot. She's curious. He's mysterious. She decides to go gumshoe on him. The bathroom stall becomes her office, the smartphone her secretary. And using a tech tool like DateCheck that can scope out a potential partner's background in a Philip Marlowe minute, she's cleared him for a romantic go-ahead....full story from SiliconValley.com Fart blanket 'the new Snuggie': Military-grade Better Marriage Blanket a sure bet for suppressing Ground Zero guffs. A viral ad for a blanket made with activated carbon fabric to completely and quickly absorb the odour of flatulence has become a hit on YouTube. MyFOXny.com reported that the campaign for the supposed Better Marriage Blanket is not on TV but has been viewed more than one million times online since March 31....full story w/video from NEWS.com.au May 6, 2010What a McIdiot! Student throws away $1m prize: A hangover has cost a student almost $1 million. Richard Newman, 35, found one half of a winning Monopoly sticker when he and his girlfriend called in at McDonald's after a boozy night out. However, the PhD philosophy student from Sheffield, England, had no idea what it was for and simply threw it away, The Sun reported....full story from NEWS.com.au
Police Sgt Jack Knish says officers got a call about 4am on Wednesday that the pup was crossing a street in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego. Knish says an officer parked his car in the middle of the road and went to investigate. That's when the sea lion came out from under another car and scuttled under the patrol car....full story from Stuff.co.nz May 5, 2010Cash, drugs rain from apartment: SARNIA, Ontario - It was like pennies from heaven. Make that bills and blow. Residents of a Sarnia, Ontario, apartment building were surprised to see a safe fall from a third storey window on Friday, and even more surprised when it broke open, spilling cash and drugs on the ground. Police say they were executing drug search warrants at the building when suspects in one of the apartments threw a safe from a bedroom window....full story from CNews New Zealand offers migrants courses in how to understand Kiwi accent: t is often the butt of jokes, but for migrants starting a new life in New Zealand, getting to grips with the Kiwi accent is no laughing matter. The flattened vowel, which turns "fish and chips" into "fush en chups", and a host of colourful colloquialisms can make communicating in Kiwi vastly different to speaking any other kind of English. Now, in an attempt to make the transition easier, puzzled new arrivals are being offered a course in how to understand the "kay-weay eksent"....read more from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 4, 2010Paris trouser ban for women could be lifted: A law banning women from wearing trousers in Paris may finally be lifted more than two centuries after first being enforced. The curious rule was first introduced in late 1799 by Paris' police chief, and stipulated than any Parisienne wishing to "dress like a man" must seek special permission from the city's main police station. This makes the laissez-faire French capital theoretically more hardline than Islamic states like Sudan in the fashion stakes....read more from The Daily Telegraph (UK)
They decided to renovate the building, which had been a public lavatory for nearly a century before it was closed in the 1990s, when its lease came up five years ago. The £35,000 [US$53,360] project is now finished and the couple have settled down in their new home, which they have named The Lookout....read more from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 3, 2010Beautiful women can be bad for your health, according to scientists: Just five minutes alone with an attractive female raise the levels of cortisol, the body's stress hormone, according to a study from the University of Valencia. The effects are heightened in men who believe that the woman in question is "out of their league". Cortisol is produced by the body under physical or psychological stress and has been linked to heart disease....read more from The Daily Telegraph (UK) Blackberry predicted in 1909: The Blackberry was first predicted more than a century ago, by Nikola Tesla, the electrical engineer, it has been claimed. Tesla, a pioneering American physicist, made the prediction about the portable messaging service in the Popular Mechanics magazine in 1909. Tesla, whose name lives on at Tesla Motors, the electric car manufacturer, saw wireless energy as the only way to make electricity thrive....read more from The Daily Telegraph (UK) May 2, 2010Ninety-year-old UK woman hits hole-in-one: A 90-year-old woman from West Yorkshire has amazed her fellow golfers by hitting a hole in one. Mary Tattersall made the 181yd (165m) shot on the second hole at Shay Grange Golf Centre in Heaton near Bradford. The pensioner, who has only been playing golf for two years, said she felt amazed and stunned to have achieved the feat....full story from BBC News BA caught short as all airliner's toilets fail: Passengers on a British Airways flight from Heathrow to the Cayman Islands were told not to drink for two hours because none of the plane’s toilets were working. The 169 passengers and nine crew aboard the Boeing 767 to Grand Cayman via Nassau last Wednesday had been forced to share two toilets – including one in the exclusive Club World cabin – for most of the 12-hour flight after four others were closed owing to blockages....full story from the Daily Mail May 1, 2010Fat Americans a 'security threat': Rising rates of obesity among young Americans could undermine the future of the US military, two retired generals have warned. More than a quarter of young Americans are now too fat to fight, they said. Writing in The Washington Post, the ex-commanders said the fat crisis ruled out more potential military service recruits than any other medical factor....full story from BBC News 'Dead' patient checks himself out of hospital: A hospital in Melbourne has offered an apology to a patient for declaring him dead. Peter Thornton was admitted to the Alfred Hospital in early March for a severe bout of gastro. He checked himself out after he says he was left lying on a trolley for 12 hours....full story from ABC News (AU)
Volunteers posed for Spencer Tunick, the American artist, in a park in Salford [UK] as he aimed to reflect the work of LS Lowry in a large-scale installation. Naked figures, male and female, young and old, spread out across Peel Park as Tunick gave them instructions through a loudspeaker....full story w/larger pic from The Daily Telegaph (UK) US women stage another topless protest: A forecast of sunny skies in April seems like the perfect time to put the top down. But a drive in a convertible isn't what some Maine women had in mind. Nearly two dozen of them marched topless through this college town to protest what they call a double standard that allows men to take off their shirts on a hot summer day. Many men joined the women, taking off their shirts and marching side by side. Joining the scrum were gawkers snapping photos....read more from Stuff.co.nz Note: Stories from some news services expire after a few weeks. If you click on a link to the original story it is possible that you will be re-directed to an archives page with the option to access the news item for a small fee. |
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Italian sends Texas G.I.'s dog tags home 6 decades later: Last month, Steve Glomb got a message on his answering machine at his Buda home. The caller spoke in a thick Italian accent, but Glomb could make out the words "metal detector ... dog tags ... Oscar Glomb."
Our oldest human ancestor a cannibal: Many people will admit to having the odd rogue ancestor, but now scientists believe we may all be related to cannibals.
Mystery rodent upstages Obama: Barack Obama was upstaged by a mystery rodent in the midst of his battle with Wall Street.
Canadian 'monster' sparks Internet speculation: Is it a muskrat? An otter? Or perhaps a monster?
Naked staff turn rush hour into blush hour: Four workers managed to liven what would have been just another dull commute yesterday by travelling naked.
51% of Englishmen would pass on Cheryl Cole if it meant winning World Cup: According to some poll by British milkshake Frijj, more than half of those asked claim they would rather see England win the World Cup than experience a night of sexual bliss with British pop star hottie Cheryl Cole, which leads me to believe one of two things:
Time traveler caught in museum photo? It’s the short description for the photograph shown at the virtual Bralorne Pioneer Museum, from British Columbia, Canada. The image can be seen specifically on this page (click on link and scroll down to the middle), among other items of the online exhibit. Did you notice anything out of place? Or perhaps, out of time?
Peacock moves into family home: A peacock has become tame enough to enter a family home after becoming accustomed to living in the garden and eating bird seed.
Rice bra supports Japan's farming fad: TOKYO - Female urban farmers keen to keep their agricultural hobby close to their heart can now grow their own rice in a special bra designed by Japanese lingerie maker 
Man drives burning truck to fire station: MCMINNVILLE, Ore. – "What`s the best place to go when smoke starts to billow out from under the hood of your pickup truck?
Haybale haven for ruminating Druids: Everyone's heard of Stonehenge, but Taranaki [NZ] drivers may have been surprised by the brief appearance of a unique haybale henge this week.
Growling sea lion pup keeps cops at bay: A sea lion pup has finally been captured after hiding under a US police car for four hours in the middle of a road.
Couple set up home in disused public lavatory with sea view: Tracy Woodhouse and her partner Graham Peck spotted hidden potential in the dilapidated Victorian WC on the picturesque North Bay of the seaside town of Scarborough, North Yorks [UK].
Volunteers strip naked for art: Hundreds of people shed their clothes and their inhibitions, baring all in the name of art.
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