Strange But True Category
Weird, offbeat and bizarre news from around the world. Funny, strange & odd news stories that make you wince, laugh and fear for humanity.
Eurovision bans ladders and pliers but not Cliff Richard
The Eurovision Song Contest is the trashsy, tacky music show that the UK never wins. Organisers of this year’s show in Portugal have produced a list of forbidden items.
Now take it away, Cliff Richard:
Spotter: BBC
Posted: 26th, April 2018 | In: Strange But True, TV & Radio | Comment
Pregnant woman trips boy and gives him a concussion (video)
Tally ho! When a woman deliberately tripped a 4-year-old boy who’d accidentally flicked her with a plastic door shield as he tore into a restaurant in China to fetch some chopsticks for his parents, people licked their lips and tucked in. The story got better when they learnt that the tripper was pregnant, the boy had an injury with a name (mild concussion) and the incident has been captured on film. Joyous!
Fair-minded people on the Internet have called for the woman to be stripped of her baby, raped, beaten, imprisoned and for her unborn child to be made motherless. Little has been said about the dangers of plastics so close to pregnant women and children running about in a place where hot food is served, but surely that will come. Later we can all turn on the lad’s parents for not instilling discipline in their unruly bairn, and debate the child’s lack of self-awareness and mental capacity. And what of the eatery, and its disregard for the health and safety of its clientele – the restaurant is owned by the child’s parents? They’ll keep for now. We know where they are.
Eventually, the hunt identified the woman with the trigger foot. She went to the law, which gave her a 10-day prison sentence and a fine of 1000 yuan ($160). Locking up a woman for a stupid trip was later viewed as being not all the great for mother and baby, so the authorities let her off.
Luckily the boy who got tripped up – just as we all have at play and at school many times – is okay. The rest of us are satisfied by a chance to display our moral superiority.
Next!
Spotter: The South China Morning Post
Posted: 26th, April 2018 | In: Strange But True | Comment
These standing seats are the plane travel of the grim future
No worries if you didn’t book a seat on your budget airline and don’t fancy the scramble to get one. This is the Skyrider 2.0 saddle seat, positioned by Italy’s Aviointeriors at “the new frontier of low-cost tickets”. The new frontier looks a lot like standing.
On the plus side, travellers sat on something that looks like those plastic mantlepieces you get to ‘rest’ on at bus stops need not worry about deep-vein thrombosis, biting their knees and asking other people to move. The Boston Globe says the Skyrider 2.0 (an upgrade on the Skyrider 0.0 (cross-legged on the floor) and the Skyrider 1.0 (tied by the wrists to the roof)) “makes perfect sense… the design allows a 20 percent increase in passengers per flight. It also weighs 50 percent less than a standard economy seat, lowering the fuel cost per passenger.”
Seats are now just 23 inches away from the row in front. More people can get on the same-sized plane.Smell that? That’s progress – and you stuck in an overstuffed flying tube like a flaying carcass.
Posted: 26th, April 2018 | In: News, Strange But True, Technology, The Consumer | Comment
An incredible photo of racoons waiting to pounce
“Family friend went camping 30 years ago and heard a noise. She stuck her camera outside her tent and snapped this picture.”
Via Awkward Family Photos, Flashbak
Posted: 25th, April 2018 | In: Strange But True | Comment
What do 10,068 radiated turtles in a small home smell like?
What do 10,068 live radiated turtles in a two-floor home smell like? It was the stench that alerted the authorities to the home in Toliara, Madagascar. Soary Randrianjafizanaka, of the country’s environmental protection agency, the home was stuffed with the critters.The smell was “overwhelming”. But not in a lip-licking way – unless you enjoy the stink of urine and worse.
National Geographic has more:
Randrianjafizanaka helped count them as rescuers loaded them onto six trucks that made several trips to Le Village Des Tortues (Turtle Village in French), a private wildlife rehabilitation facility in Ifaty, 18 miles north of Toliara. It took until early the following morning to transfer all the tortoises to the rescue center.
Turtle village?
The majority of the turtles taken to the rehabilitation facility are doing well, now that they’ve been cleaned up, moved into more suitable quarters, and provided with veterinary care. Unfortunately, close to 600 of the turtles have died since being removed from the house, due to dehydration or infection – the result of their long neglect.
Trading in rare turtles is outlawed in 182 countries.
“The rate of hunting of radiated tortoises is similar to the hunting pressure on American bison during the early 19th century, where they were nearly hunted to extinction when they once numbered in the tens of millions,” said Brian D. Horne, turtle conservation coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Species Program.
Of course, once upon a time, Westerners loved eating turtle. And if it was a local source of meat, surely many of us would eat them now. This story illustrates how something illegal creates a risky black market.
It wasn’t ever so:
During the Great Depression, gopher tortoises became such an important source of meat for rural Southerners that they earned a new nickname, “Hoover chicken” that honored, so to speak, our president at the time, Herbert Hoover. That species is now federally threatenedin Louisiana, Mississippi, and western Alabama, and is under protection everywhere it occurs. Diamondback terrapins, the beautifully patterned turtles inhabiting brackish waters along the East Coast, were harvested so heavily for food that the U.S. government started to get concerned about their vastly depleted populations more than 100 years ago.
Turtle is food for the masses:
For centuries, the flavor was legendary, and, really, nothing said American democracy like turtle. The poor man could often find a few slow-moving specimens hanging out at the backyard well, even as the privileged man sought out its refined flavor. Two days after voting for independence in Philadelphia, on July 4, 1776, John Adams celebrated with a bowl of turtle soup; when the war was over, George Washington met with his officers at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan for a farewell frolic; and Lincoln celebrated his second inaugural with terrapin stew. Before Aaron Burr murdered Alexander Hamilton, both were members of the elite Hoboken Turtle Club.
More turtles is desirable, then. Let’s get farming…
Posted: 22nd, April 2018 | In: News, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Cincinnati police are looking for a woman caught on video stealing a live Menelaus blue morpho butterfly
To Cincinnati, where police are looking for a perp caught on video nicking a Menelaus blue morpho butterfly from an exhibit at Krohn Conservatory. WCPO notes:
(University of Cincinnati biologist Stephen) Matter and colleague Patrick Guerra said the butterfly was likely dead by Wednesday, given its biological need for a warmer climate than the one Cincinnati has experienced since Sunday.
Round up the usual suspects:
Posted: 19th, April 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
Driver asks police to watch dashcam film after accident; video show driver committing crime
To Royal Palm Beach, where a driver, one Xavier Inocencio Moran, is asking police to review the footage from his dashcam. He’s been involved in an accident and hopes the video will prove it was the other driver’s fault. The police see the video. And they see earlier footage of the 25-year-old drive using a baseball bat to cave in the window of a beauty store and hitting the store’s safe. Moran is arrested.
Two days later, Moran “allegedly threatened to shoot his brother with an assault rifle and pistol”. The Palm Beach Post. adds: “Moran and his brother live with their parents in Royal Palm Beach. During the incident, Moran allegedly pointed the gun at his father and threatened to harm his parents as well as his brother.” Moran then tried to leg it. Clapped in handcuffs, our hero ran. He jumped a fence and hid behind some bushes.
Moran has been charged with “two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count each of battery, resisting an officer without violence and escape”. Last Sunday, Moran was released “under court-ordered supervision.” Which seems fair.
Posted: 17th, April 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
Japan: woman ordered to stop saving man’s life and leave the ‘holy’ sumo ring
To Japan, where Kyoto Mayor Ryozo Tatami is addressing a crowd from the sumo ring. Lumme! He’s only gone and keeled over. It looks a lot like a subarachnoid hemorrhage. People dash to help. A woman administers CPR. But hold on. The sumo announcer has hold of the mic. “Ladies, please leave the dojo,” he orders. Better that the man die than some female sully the sacred canvas.
The Asahi Shimbun explains:
At least two women climbed into the dohyo and administered cardiac massage to Tatami. During the emergency, the women were ordered to leave at least three times in announcements made over the public address system.
The gyoji also said, “Gentlemen, please climb up (to the dohyo),” according to municipal government sources and others.
The Japan Sumo Association chairman says the referee failed to understand the rule about human life being more sacred than a roped-off mat, offering: We would like to offer a profound apology. This instruction was inappropriate under such life-and-death circumstances. The gyoji did it because he was upset.” Yeah, by the presence of a woman.
The mayor is now “conscious and talking”. The rest of us are speechless.
Posted: 5th, April 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
Newspaper obituary of the day: ‘Deaths Are Coming’
Posted: 30th, March 2018 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Man disguised as a bull attempted to burn down ex-lover’s home with pasta sauce
To Florida, where the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office claims Derrick Irving and John Silva, who was dressed as a bull, broke into their ex-boyfriend’s house and tried to burn the place down with spaghetti sauce. It’s alleged that Irving and Silva nicked several items and left pasta sauce boiling on the stove with a cloth close enough to catch light and start a fire. The alleged plot failed because the victim’s security system alerted him.
Police arrived at the peoperty in time to find Irving and Silva driving away. Silva was behind the wheel. Irving was in the passenger seat dressed as a bull. Police also noted in the car: a marijuana grinder, a vacuum, a window air conditioning unit, a flat-screen television, a heater in the back seat, and an empty jar of Ragu sauce.
Says the alleged victim: “He was trying to make it look like I left the stove on but who gets up 2am and fixes skett. It started out as a relationship, that lasted about a week. I’ve let him use my car for four months, maybe he’s angry about that. Or maybe he’s angry because I gave him $150 to fix his teeth.”
Both men have been charged with unarmed burglary, grand theft and arson.
Posted: 22nd, March 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
Married couple appear in same random photo 11 years before they first met
When Mr. Ye and Ms. Xue met in Chengdu, China, they fell in love, and in 2011 married. Fast forward to 2018, and Mr. Ye is flicking through old photo albums. He notices a 2000 photograph of his wife in Qingdao. And then he notice a teenager in the background. It’s him. “When I saw the photo, I was taken by surprised and I got goosebumps all over my body,” he says, “that was my pose for taking photos. I also took a photo, it was the same posture, just from a different angle.”
Petapixel has more:
Ms. Xue had visited Qingdao to help her mother relax after undergoing an operation a few months earlier. Mr. Ye had been visiting May Fourth Square in Qingdao because his mother had taken ill after booking herself the trip and asked her son to go in her place.
Qingdao and Chengdu, cities of 9 and 14 million people (respectively), are separated by over 1,100 miles and it takes over 20 hours to drive between the two cities.
Spotter: Boing Boing
Posted: 20th, March 2018 | In: Strange But True | Comment
YouTube killer gets 180-day prison sentence for fatal stunt
YouTubers Monalisa Perez and her lover Pedro Ruiz III had a plan for fame and fortune. Perez would fire a bullet at Ruiz, who would cheat death by holding a hardcover book (an encyclopaedia) across his chest. They found the weapon: a .50 caliber, semi-automatic Desert Eagle, a powerful handgun. It features the largest legal caliber allowed for a handgun in the U.S. Would the book stop a bullet that could piece armour?
Perez and Ruiz thought so. Stood just a foot apart. Two cameras rolled. Around 30 people, including the couple’s 3-year-old daughter looked on. Perez fired once. The book failed. Ruiz was shot dead. Ruiz called 911 and told the operator what had happened. Last December, Perez admitted second-degree manslaughter. The Star Tribune surveys her punishment:
Monalisa Perez’s punishment, as outlined in an agreement to plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter, is a 180-day jail term, and lifetime bans on possessing a firearm or receiving payment for telling the story of the June shooting of 22-year-old Pedro Ruiz III outside their home in the northwestern Minnesota town of Halstad.
The sentence falls below state sentencing guidelines that would have sent her to prison. Norman County Attorney James Brue said that was proper under the circumstances for the 20-year-old mother of two.
She keeps custody of her two children – and can serve the sentence in 10-day slices.
Is that a tough punishment? Hasn’t she suffered enough?
Posted: 17th, March 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
People struggling to walk up an icy hill in Swanage (Video)
A walk up a hill in Swanage is mundane enough not even to be one of the Top 5 things to do in the supine seaside town in bucolic Dorset. (The current Top Five to do for local thrill seekers are: leave, leave, leave, leave and eat in an actual Wimpy bar.) But when the cold snap turned the streets icy, the slippery hill became a lot of fun.
Posted: 16th, March 2018 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Juxtaposition fail: Irish Herald flogs wardrobes by a dead woman’s body
“And the winner of the 2018 most inappropriate product placement in a newspaper goes to the Irish Herald,” tweets Tony Groves.
Posted: 19th, February 2018 | In: Strange But True | Comment
An incredible photo of a single atom visible to the naked eye wins science prize
Wonder no more what an atom looks like. David Nadlinger, a physicist at Oxford University, has taken a photo of an atom suspended in an electric field. The incredible thing is that this atom is visible to the naked eye. Well, we can the light emitted from it.
The image, “Single Atom in an Ion Trap”, won Nadlinger top prize in UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) science photo and imaging contest.
If we zoom in, you can see the atom – it’s the small dot in the centre of the photo.
The EPSRC reports:
‘Single Atom in an Ion Trap’, by David Nadlinger, from the University of Oxford, shows the atom held by the fields emanating from the metal electrodes surrounding it. The distance between the small needle tips is about two millimetres.
When illuminated by a laser of the right blue-violet colour the atom absorbs and re-emits light particles sufficiently quickly for an ordinary camera to capture it in a long exposure photograph. The winning picture was taken through a window of the ultra-high vacuum chamber that houses the ion trap.
Laser-cooled atomic ions provide a pristine platform for exploring and harnessing the unique properties of quantum physics. They can serve as extremely accurate clocks and sensors or, as explored by the UK Networked Quantum Information Technologies Hub, as building blocks for future quantum computers, which could tackle problems that stymie even today’s largest supercomputers.
“The idea of being able to see a single atom with the naked eye had struck me as a wonderfully direct and visceral bridge between the minuscule quantum world and our macroscopic reality,” says Nadlinger. “A back-of-the-envelope calculation showed the numbers to be on my side, and when I set off to the lab with camera and tripods one quiet Sunday afternoon, I was rewarded with this particular picture of a small, pale blue dot.”
Posted: 16th, February 2018 | In: News, Strange But True, Technology | Comment
Woman takes first breath after double lung transplant (video)
Doctors often misdiagnose conditions. Jennifer Jones had been told over and over that her suffering was down to allergies and asthma. But, as ABC 6 News reports, after Jennifer gave birth, medical realised she had had Cystic Fibrosis for years. Something had to be done.
“Last year in October she went in and it was getting so bad they put her on oxygen full time,” said Jennifer’s fiancé, Rob Ronnenberg.Jennifer was put on a transplant list for new lungs in June, which is when things really got bad. In mid-October Jennifer’s lung function was a little over 10%.
But good news was headed their way.
“The nurse comes in the room and says hey you’re going to get a phone call and then the phone rang and we’re like okay, that’s never happened so what’s going on? Well, all of a sudden she goes are you for real, are you serious? Is this really happening? And that was it that was the call,” Rob said.
Jennifer was given a double lung transplant. Now watch as he takes her first breath:
Spotter: Twisted Sifter
Posted: 14th, February 2018 | In: Strange But True, Technology | Comment (1)
How they do the weather on Sky News (video)
And now on Sky News, the weather….
"…and here's the weather" pic.twitter.com/g3ZoEfmCmk
— Andy (@alreadytaken74) January 21, 2018
Spotter: AlreadyTaken74
Posted: 4th, February 2018 | In: Strange But True, TV & Radio | Comment
Man found with arm inside cow’s anus banned from every farm in the country
John Curno, 80, has been found guilty of two counts of outraging public decency. Last summer, Mr Curno was seen “talking” to a herd of 150 cows and masturbating in meadows at Park Lodge Farm in Uxbridge. Susan Howie, who runs the farm with her husband Ian, told Uxbridge Magistrates Court that on two occasions she spotted Curno molesting her cattle. Other witnesses claim to have seen Curno push his entire left arm into a cow’s rear end before masturbating.
“The cows are left unattended in the field especially in the summer we leave them in there day and night,” said Mrs Howie. “I went out in my white pick up truck and the gentleman was with a cow, he had his left hand interfering with the cow and his right hand on a part of his lower body, his shirt was covering it. He was masturbating you could see it moving up and down and his trousers and his boxer shorts were at his ankles. He stopped and looked up, he grabbed his boxers and his trousers and ran to the stile. I was disgusted, we gave nobody permission to touch or interfere with our cows, it might seem funny to you but they are family they are not just cows.”
How does one gain permission for such things? That’s moot.
Of another time, she recalls: “It was 8.30pm and we were running a bit late with the milking. It was the same field as before, this time he had had his whole hand in the cow.”
“I’m not a violent person, I have a weakness with animals,” Curno reportedly told police when arrested.
At Uxbridge Magistrates Court, Chair of the Bench Michael Akers told Curno that sentencing had been adjourned until next month. In the meanwhile, Curno is banned from every farm with animals in the country.
Posted: 3rd, February 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
The eBay Bandit! Rob Wolchek and the great story of Kelly’s stolen camera
Great telly from the USA in the shape of Rob Wolchek of Fox 2 News Detroit. This is a great toy about professional photographer Kelly, who found the geezer selling her stolen stuff on eBay.
Posted: 29th, January 2018 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
A weird anti-masturbation video: beyond parody
This Jehovah Witness anti-masturbation training video contains parts reportedly from Watchtower, the sect’s magazine. It’s brought to us by former Jehovah’s Witness Lloyd Cedars. He notes:
Ever since realizing at the age of 30 that I had wasted decades of my life in a harmful, abusive cult, I have tried to channel my anger and frustration in positive ways – by creating content that can help those struggling with Jehovah’s Witness indoctrination begin thinking for themselves (preferably more quickly than I did)!
He says this about the video:
Two extremely sensitive videos have been leaked from inside Watchtower – one for men, and one for women. Both seem to be intended as induction videos for new “bethelites,” or workers at Jehovah’s Witness branches globally and the headquarters in New York.
Presented by Governing Body helpers Ralph Walls and Gary Breaux, the videos perfectly illustrate the extent to which Witness sex lives are policed, and give a glimpse of the religion’s growing paranoia about homosexuality.
The rebuttal for these videos is in production, and will be released on Saturday, January 27, 2018. There will also be an article about the videos on JWsurvey.org.
Please note: yes, the clips of Walls and Breaux are real! The only thing I’ve added is the music, the captions, and the stock footage. 🙂
Spotter: Boing Boing
Posted: 28th, January 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
Cocaine snowball fights worry locals in County Tyrone
To County Tyrone, where the Tyrone Herald has news of cocaine fights:
My God, they're throwing the stuff at each other now. pic.twitter.com/trejYgOll8
— Alistair Coleman (@alistaircoleman) January 24, 2018
Posted: 25th, January 2018 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Data proves that owning a bulldog is for idiots
Thanks to David McCandless we know which dogs make the best pals. Considering six facts – intelligence, costs, longevity, grooming, ailments, and appetite – McCandless crunched the numbers and concluded that bulldogs are not worth the effort an expense.
Spotter: Knowledge Is Beautiful
Posted: 23rd, January 2018 | In: Money, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Durham’s mini police bring their own sarcasm
The spirit of Pavel Morozov is evoked in Durham, where the local constabulary have created a ‘Mini Police’ force. A platoon of uniformed nine to 11 year olds is on patrol.
Durham police outline the mission: “The objective is to introduce these children to a positive experience of policing and to get them involved in the local community.”
And you will all be inducted:
A digital platform also encourages schools to embrace the Mini Police concept in their environment covering topics such as lesson plans, finding neighbourhood policing teams and sharing good practise.
If your kinder believe in the State’s every law and want to see them all upheld, sign up here. Failure to do so is not a hate crime – yet.
One of life’s great “experiencences“
The Mini Police project within Durham Constabulary is a fun and interactive volunteering opportunity for 9 to 11-year-old children. The Mini Police support the force priorities, through participation in community engagement events. Those involved can look forward to developing a confident voice through enjoyable experiencences [sic].
Children who become part of the programme help to tackle local issues, as highlighted by their own communities. By assisting the police service, they also carry that ownership and pride back into the community they live in.
What do these new community owners do?
Police really are getting younger.
Posted: 22nd, January 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
Kazakh oligarch’s $179,000 wedding cake doubles as a starter home
To a wedding in Kazakhstan, where guests are touring the $179,000 wedding cake that doubles as a starter home for newly weds Amirzhan, grandson of Shymkent oligarch Serikzhan Seitzhanov, and Aruzhan, daughter of Kairat Satybaldy, a Kazakh businessman, nephew of the country’s president. Built by Renat Agzamov, a former Russian boxing champion, the cake is well appointed, with master bedroom, basement polo studio, games room and living quarters for umpteen servants.
The icing on the cake is that, according to the World Bank, the GDP per capita for Kazakhstan is US$7,715.
Posted: 19th, January 2018 | In: News, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Master embroiderer performs wing transplant on Monarch butterfly
Romy McCloskey used not little skill to transplant a new wing onto a Monarch butterfly. “I am a professional costume designer and master hand embroiderer,” says Romy. “This was right up my alley.”
Equipped with a coathanger (wire), a towel, a wire hanger, a toothpick, cotton swabs, scissors, tweezers, quick-drying cement, talcum powder, Romy set about using a dead butterfly’s wing to give flight to a newborn.
No anaethetics were used. Apparently, Monarch butterflies do not feel pain in their wings.
“The patient: this 3-day-old little boy was born with torn upper and lower wings. Let’s see how we can help!”
“The operating room and supplies: towel, wire hanger, contact cement, toothpick, cotton swab, scissors, tweezers, talc powder, extra butterfly wing”
“Securing the butterfly and cutting the damaged parts away. Don’t worry it doesn’t hurt them. It’s like cutting hair or trimming fingernails”
“Ta-da! With a little patience and a steady hand, I fit the new wings to my little guy”
“The black lines do not match completely and it is missing the black dot (male marking) on the lower right wing, but with luck, he will fly”
“FLIGHT DAY! After a day of rest and filling his belly with homemade nectar, it is time to see if he will fly”
“With a quick lap around the yard and a little rest on a bush, he was off! A successful surgery and outcome! Bye, little buddy! Good luck”
Via Romy McCloskey on Facebook; Bored Panda
Posted: 11th, January 2018 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
