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.
Judge Tells Drunk Driver To Kill Himself
MICHAEL Robert Dickey, 20, of Farmington Hills is before the Beak at Missouri’s 52-1 District Court.
Magistrate Judith Holtz hears that Dickey has been stopped by police while out driving.
Says she:
“I don’t mean to be offensive, but you have two Operating While Intoxicated convictions and then you blow a .223 and you’re still not twenty one?
“Here is my suggestion to you, Mr. Dickey, climb up on the roof of your house and jump off. Either that or get in a bathtub filled with hot water and slash your wrists; then you will be dead.
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Posted: 17th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (5)
The Virgin Mary Rock
“I expect to get a lot of money,” she said. “This is a rock. It’s not like it’s a piece of cheese.”
Posted: 17th, May 2008 | In: Money, Strange But True | Comments (6)
Nine-Year-Old Girl Bears Twin’s Foetus
A NINE-year-old girl in Greece had been carrying around her undeveloped twin’s foetus in her stomach since birth.
Medics in the Greek city of Larissa found the two inch-long foetus when the young girl was brought to hospital, complaining of a stomach ache.
“They could see on the right side that her belly was swollen, but they couldn’t suspect that this tumour would hide an embryo,” says Iakovos Brouskelis, the hospital’s director.
Surgeons removed the “tumour”, which was a foetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord, and the girl has made a full recovery.
It apparently occurs in one of 500,000 live births.
- In 2003, doctors in Kazakhstan treated seven-year-old Alamjan Nematilaev, who complained that he felt something moving inside of him. When surgeons operated, they found his “twin”, which had a head, hair, genitals and a partially-formed face.
- In 2006, a Chilean boy was born in the southern city of Temuco with a four-in-long-foetus inside his abdomen.
- And in 2003 Sanju Bhagat’s stomach (pictured) was swollen. Dr. Ajay Mehta of Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai said: “Because of the sheer size of the tumor, it makes it difficult [to operate]. We anticipated a lot of problems.”
A cut:
“To my surprise and horror, I could shake hands with somebody inside,” he said. “It was a bit shocking for me.”
Mehta had removed the mutated body of Bhagat’s twin brother from his stomach…
Posted: 17th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (5)
Voyeur News: Man Boobs Are Not Sexual
IT is legal to ogle a man’s breasts bit not woman’s judges rule:
Care worker Kevin Bassett, 44, was found guilty last year after using a video camera hidden in a plastic bag to take shots of a swimmer.
Yesterday, his conviction was quashed at the Court of Appeal after Lord Justice Hughes, Mr Justice Treacy and Sir Paul Cresswell ruled that a man’s bare torso did not count as ‘private parts’.
The 2003 Sexual Offences Act specifies that “private parts” must be exposed for voyeurism to have taken place. Only women, it seems, have breasts that can be seen in a sexual light.
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Posted: 16th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comment (1)
Bulldozer Fights Bull
IS this fair?
BARBARIC bullfighting bosses have plunged the cruel sport to new depths by calling in a bulldozer to batter a bull for refusing to take on a matador.
Many spectators in the town of Pinar, in Spain’s Andalucia region, even cheered as the ten-tonne terror goaded the terrified beast into charging.
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Posted: 16th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)
Flashing, Kerb Crawling And Drug Dealing With Google View
GOOGLE’s Street View is maintained by men who crawl around in vans spying on you. It offers ground-level, 360-degree views of streets in 30 U.S. cities.
The cameras have so far captured drugs deals, prostitution and now a flasher.
The EU may seek to ban it being allowed over here.
“Making pictures everywhere is certainly going to create some problems,” European Union Data Protection Supervisor Peter Hustinx told a news conference to present his annual report.
Google sees the problem and has taken to blurring people’s faces, meaning it can still you but you can’t see you.
Much better and less sinister…
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Posted: 15th, May 2008 | In: Photojournalism, Strange But True | Comments (8)
Man Jailed For Claiming Tax Credits For 36 Children
IRVIN Fraser, a father-of-two has been found guilty of fraudulently claiming £79,718 in benefits – tax credits – for 36 children.
He was jailed for 13 months at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Says Fraser: “I was claiming child tax credit for my son and just added another name by chance.
“They never asked for any documents. It went on for two years and I got away with it.
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Posted: 15th, May 2008 | In: Money, Strange But True | Comment (1)
Mistletoe And Wine: Music Enhances Your Tipple
RESEARCHERS at Heriot Watt University say that wines are affected by music.
The boffins put it down to “cognitive priming theory”, where the music sets up the brain to respond to the wine in a certain way.
“Wine manufacturers could recommend that while drinking a certain wine, you should listen to a certain sort of music,” says a Prof North.
The site of a wine waiter slinking up to table is enough to have diners blanching; equip him with a snooty DJ and the trials of going out to dinner cannot be overstated. Helpfully, the research comes with a set of recommendations:
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Posted: 15th, May 2008 | In: Celebrities, Strange But True | Comment
My Fatwa Trumps Your Fatwa
IN the Daily Times – “Your right to know – a new voice for Pakistan” – eveyone is talking at once and knowing increasingly little.
A Pakistani cleric has prlciamed a fatwa on an Indian fatwa:
An Islamic scholar in Pakistan has warned that a fatwa on slaughtering cows issued by an Indian Muslim cleric will “encourage Hindu beliefs” in Indian Muslims.
A few days ago, the mufti or head cleric of one of India’s biggest madrassas, the Darul Uloom Deoband (DUD), Mufti Habibur Rehman, said that Indian Muslims should take care when slaughtering the cow that is considered sacred by Hindus. He pointed out that the slaughter of the cow is prohibited under Indian law and thus it was not right to use its meat secretly.
In response, the head of Darul Ifta wa Al-Qazzath of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JD) Pakistan, Mufti Abdul Rehman Al Rehmani, said that the “fatwa” should be withdrawn immediately and justified. “The fatwa encourages Hindu beliefs,” Al Rehmani said while talking to Daily Times on Tuesday. His official stance was published on the JD website the same day.
Does by head look fatwa in this?
Posted: 14th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
Wrinkle Test For Smokers
DOES Nicole Kidman smoke?
We ask in the spirit of scientific endeavor on hearing news of a cigarette-vending machine that can identify underage customers just by looking at them.
As the Guardian reports, these machines are equipped with a digital camera that can compare users’ facial characteristics with a database of more than 100,000 people.
They can duly spot “sagging skin, wrinkles around the eyes and other signs of maturity”.
Anorak has presented the machine with pictures of Lulu (accepted), Michael Jackson (nose – pass; chin – fail; hair – fail) and Jimmy Krankie (fail).
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Posted: 14th, May 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comment
Australian Driver Seatbelts Beer But Not Child
AUSTRALIAN police were “shocked and appalled” when they pulled over the car south of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory and found a 30-can pack of beer strapped down between two adults in the back, and a five-year-old child unrestrained on the floor.
Of course, what the police meant to says is that they were delighted and relieved that among all the yoga-practising, alcohol-abstaining, veggie-munching, self-righteous, tree-huggers in the land Down Under they found a true stereotypical Aussie.
The driver was handed a fine of A$750 (US$709; £362) for failing to ensure a child was wearing a seatbelt. The driver was driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.
Says Constable Wayne Burnett, using words that will sound like nectar to the Australian Tourist Board trying to bolster a flagging image in the face of some much sanctimony: “I haven’t ever seen something like this before.
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Posted: 13th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (6)
Kerb Crawling With Google Street Maps
GOOGLE street maps – pick a hooker without leaving your PC…
Posted: 13th, May 2008 | In: Photojournalism, Strange But True | Comment
Dead Babies Mistaken For Christmas Decorations
A CLACK of marmalade-coated tongues as Mail readers learn: “Bodies of two babies hidden in a box for 50 years were mistaken for Christmas decorations.”
It’s 1956, Winifred Atwell is No. 1 in the hit parade. Egypt seizes the Suez Canal and rationing has only been a few years gone.
Tough times. And just how tough we can deduce from the aforesaid headline, as dead babies are used as Christmas decorations.
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Posted: 13th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
A Strange Monument Of An Eagle In Russia
DO different nation’s see colours and design differently? It’s something the Anorak thinks of whenever he sees hideous German football kits.
Here’s a picture of a new statue that’s been erected in a Russian city. Could it ever happen here?
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Posted: 13th, May 2008 | In: Photojournalism, Strange But True | Comments (3)
Rhett Lamb Hasn’t Slept For Three Years
A FLORIDA TV broadcast highlights 3-year-old Rhett Lamb has a rare medical condition that prevents him from sleeping:
Rhett has never taken a nap or gone to sleep at night, forcing his parents to keep watch day and night.”(My husband) has the day shift and I kind of have the afternoon shift,” mother Shannon Lamb said. “We share the night shift because no one can sleep in the house when he is up anyway.”
Lamb said she is working extra to pay for Rhett’s large medical bills. She also said her husband, David, has given up his job to care for their child.
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Posted: 11th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (13)
Grains Of Sand Are Art
EACH grain of sand is an art masterpiece…
Posted: 11th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (19)
Houston Teens Get Off Someone’s Heads On Weed
THE Houston Chronicle reports on three teenagers who have been arrested and accused of digging up a secluded grave and removing a skull in Humble, a city north of Houston.
Kevin Wade Jones, 17, and Matthew Richard Gonzalez, 17, both of Kingwood, told Houston police that around March 15 they and a 16-year old juvenile dug up a grave, removed the skull from the coffin and converted it into a “bong,” a device used to smoke marijuana, according to court documents.
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Posted: 10th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (7)
Michelle Duggar Pregnant With 18th Child: Caption It
SAYS Michelle Duggar: “Our goal is for each one of our children to be best friends, and everybody working together to serve each other makes that happen.”Michelle is due to give birth to her 18th child.
Michelle and husband Jim Bob Duggar’s oldest child, Josh, is 20, and the youngest, Jennifer, is nine months old.
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Posted: 9th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (85)
How To Put On Your Jeans
THIS is how Tony Blair gets dressed:
Posted: 7th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (6)
Sands In Time: The Hiccupping Metronome
CHRISTOPHER Sands has hiccupped for 15 months.
He hiccups once ever two seconds, for up to 12 hours a day, at which point, one assumes, he goes to sleep.
The Mirror says Sands calculates that he has hiccupped 9,828,000 times since February 2007.
Sands has tried everything to stop, and now hopes an operation to repair a damaged stomach valve can stop his talent.
Indeed, Sands may not see it as such, but he is billed as a singer, and we have plenty of those already. But we have only one hiccupping singer.
Can Sands do for the hiccuppers what Gareth Gates did for stammerers?
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Posted: 7th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comment (1)
Woman Raped Over The Phone
A TUNISIAN family alleges their daughter was raped during a telephone conversation with a man.
The 30-year-old man said he never touched the young woman. But he acknowledged he heard her scream while they were “totally into” an erotic telephone conversation — and that she reported bleeding, Al Arabiya reported.
Maha al-Metebaa, a lawyer representing the family, told the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabs the case needs careful investigation because of its unprecedented allegations. He said a medical examination had determined that the woman, 20, was no longer a virgin.
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Posted: 6th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (27)
How To Fingerprint A Soweto Woman With No Arms
HOW do you fingerprint a woman with no arms?
Spokesman Vincent Moaga said the commission was concerned the department had requested that a woman with no arms could not get an ID unless she was fingerprinted.
Victoria Modise, 37, of Diepkloof Zone, Soweto, who lost her ID last year, applied for a replacement but was told she needed to be fingerprinted.
Posted: 5th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Nuclear Holocaust: Russians Would Not Bomb Wales
THE Mail is making preparations for Armageddon, as ever it should.
It has seen a report from the Defence Plans Division, released by the National Archives, and what the Government of 1955 “assumed” would happen in the first two weeks of a nuclear war.
“The tea position would be very serious,” notes one civil servant. “With a loss of 75 per cent of stocks and substantial delays in imports and with a system of rationing, it would be wrong to consider that even 1oz per head per week (enough for about 12 cups) could be ensured.”
To the Mail the tea shortage is headline news. But surely the bigger story is what the Russians deem worthy of annihilation, and if the plan takes into account a post-apocalyptic Britain, and which places the invading Russians would feel most at home in.
The top five targets of the Soviets were London, Birmingham, Merseyside, Manchester and Clydeside.
In addition, 14 less powerful atom bombs, “similar to the one dropped on Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War”, were to fall on Tyneside, Teeside, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull, Derby, Southampton, Portsmouth, Bristol, Plymouth, Cardiff, Coventry, Belfast and Purfleet in Essex.
Indeed, dear reader, Red Russians hell bent on destroying all that is good/bad in Britain deemed Wales worthy of saving.
Or else, not worth a bomb?
Posted: 5th, May 2008 | In: Strange But True, Tabloids | Comments (17)
EBay: P-Nut For Trader Joe’s Cashew No.4 Art Work
FOR sale on EBay: Steven’s “Trader Joe’s Cashew #4” sculpture & print 1/1 – once in a lifetime piece up for auction:
I don’t know why I stopped at this particular cashew as I was eating my Trader Joe’s sweet, savory & tart trail mix, but as an artist the unexplainable happens often. My body is a vessel of creation and expression in tune with everything around me, including what you would see as “just another cashew”
No, something about the shape of this particular cashew reflects the shape of our society. As the artist, I have split and re-glued the cashew as an expression of the “cracks” that have been “glued” in modern life. It is a complete work of art in every way. Famed art critic Richard Barokavov had this to say about the piece:
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Posted: 2nd, May 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
