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.
Australian checks in can of beer on flight from Melbourne to Perth
To Australia where an Australian travelling from Melbourne to Perth checked in a can of beer..
“Sure enough there she was, alone on the carousel proudly making her way around. And there I was in my flanno and RMs to greet her. It was perfection,” said the traveller.
Spotter: Reddit
Posted: 11th, July 2017 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Emery Blagdon and His Healing Machine
In an unheated shed near Stapleton, Nebraska in the late 1950s, visionary artist Emery Blagdon began twisting pieces of old wire into patterns with pliers, attaching aluminum foil, beads, ribbons and an infinite array of everyday cast-off items. His work became part of a unique environment that he created, believing it could generate natural energy from the earth and help people attain better health. Spurred on by personal tragedy, Blagdon’s obsession to create a “Healing Machine” was life-long as he believed people could be cured by his work.
Spotter: PBS
Posted: 11th, July 2017 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
‘Drummer Needed’ flyer is very specific
This flyer for a drummer is very specific:
Posted: 11th, July 2017 | In: Music, Strange But True | Comment
Vet finds turtle still wearing shell he repaired years ago
“Several years ago, a client brought me a box turtle that had been hit by a car,” writes a vet working at Ohio’s Hocking Hills Animal Clinic. “I used fiberglass to repair his broken shell and then released him in my woods.”
“Recently, while walking on my hillside, I spotted an odd pattern in the leaves. To my amazement, there was my old patient with the fiberglass still on… years later! Sometimes, being a vet is the best thing there is.”
Spotter: Bored Panda
Posted: 10th, July 2017 | In: Strange But True | Comment
RSPCA moves to become an unaccountable police force
Your home can be invaded at any tine if you own a pet and a charity suspects all it not well.
The RSPCA wants to be allowed to enter private property to seize pets in England and Wales.
The charity is in talks with the Government and police chiefs to negotiate new powers which will allow it to enter gardens, sheds and outhouses without an officer present.
An private police force in your home is progress?
Under current rules the RSPCA has to contact the local police force and wait for an officer to arrive if they believe an animal is in distress on private property.
Belief should always be questioned. But the RSPA want it enforced.
But if granted special statutory powers, its 33 officers would be able to remove animals from private land without police permission – though the powers do not extend to entering a private home.
First they came for your goldfish…
Spotter: The Indy
Posted: 9th, July 2017 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comment
Ms Sheila Michaels RIP
Sheila Michaels has died. It’s largely thanks to her that people use the term “Ms.” for women. The term was adopted for women without a husband by the New York Times in 1971. The BBC:
“I didn’t belong to my father and I didn’t want to belong to a husband – someone who could tell me what to do.”
Born in St Louis, Missouri, Ms Michaels spent some of her childhood in New York City. She was a lifelong feminist activist, biblical scholar, and collected oral histories of the civil rights movement later in life.
In her professional life, she worked as a ghostwriter, editor, and even ran a Japanese restaurant – but her obituary in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes her favourite job was being a New York City taxi driver.
Posted: 9th, July 2017 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Jacob Rees-Mogg hails new son Sixtus Dominic Boniface Christopher
To man -of-the-people – the man with the commonest of common touches – Jacob Rees-Mogg a child: Sixtus Dominic Bonifcace Christopher:
Posted: 5th, July 2017 | In: Politicians, Strange But True | Comment
How to open a wheel of Parmesan cheese (Video)
You can crack open a wheel of Parmesan-style Trentingrana cheese inside 7 minutes. Carlo Guffanti stars in this how-to do it video guide us through the process. It’s not easy.
Questions later.
Spotter: The Cheese Channel
Posted: 4th, July 2017 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
How not to handle a tank slapper motorbike crash – but survive (with added Peppa Pig)
Youtuber Erica Hoff shares this video of a motorcyclist having a very bad day.
This guy merged onto the I-80E (Sacramento, CA) on his motorcycle as we were driving in the fast lane. As he merged, his bike would shake and wobble. He sometimes would only have one hand on the handle bars while it was shaking!! We couldn’t figure out why it was shaking, but we noticed it would only do it once he hit high speeds. We paced him for 5-10 miles after watching him “almost” loose control (about 5 or 6 times), so I got my phone out, thinking “its only a matter of time before he crashes” and I wanted the video as evidence in case anyone else got hurt. Sure enough the very moment I get my phone out, happens to be the time he loses control. We pulled over immediately…..called 911, and help the man (and his bike) off to the side of the road as quickly as possible. He did walk over to the right shoulder by himself. His face was really mashed up (his nose looked broken) and arms covered in blood. Crazy road rash!!! I still wonder how he’s doing 🙁
Oh, and the sirens you hear in the background aren’t because he’s being chased by the cops….my kids were watching peppa pig…..it was just a coincidence 😉
This is called a tank slapper. Nasty.
Spotter: Boing Boing
Posted: 3rd, July 2017 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Stasi Training Video: how to search and apartment in the GDR (1984)
In 1984, East Germany’s Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS) produced this video used to train operatives in how to conduct a secret flat search without being detected.
Parents looking for adolescent contraband, this is how you do it:
Spotter: BoingBoing
Posted: 3rd, July 2017 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Czech nuclear power plant auditions bikini-clad students for internship
The search for Miss Nuclear Power Plant has reached the swimwear section at the Czech Republic’s nuclear facility in Temelin. The winner will secure a two-week internship at the site. All 10 contestants are given a hard hat – safety first! – but lamentably not work boots and a high-vis bikini.
And you get to vote for your favourite worker. The power plant has posted photos of all the candidates on its Facebook page. The one who gets the most votes wins.
But no sooner have the photos gone up then complaints pour on. “We didn’t want to offend anyone,” the plant says in a Facebook post. “The purpose of the competition was to promote technical education. But if the original vision raised doubts or concerns, we are very sorry.”
Fair enough. We live and learn. Technical matters are important. Next time best to include the ladies’ vital statistics.
UPDATE: all 10 finalists were given an internship.
Posted: 30th, June 2017 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
The NRA vows to fight a coming US civil war with a ‘clenched fist’
The NRA will fight the domestic US enemy with a “clenched fist” . And a gun. Lots of guns:
If you want to know the Right Way With Guns, read this.
Posted: 30th, June 2017 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Dog steals the show at outdoor orchestra performance in Turkey
To Ephesus, Turkey, where the orchestra is playing among the ancient Greek ruins when a dog gatecrashes the show. And steals it:
Dog crashes outdoor orchestra performance in Turkey. https://t.co/O0pXTKDQ3y pic.twitter.com/Mjn8VdVQu1
— ABC News (@ABC) June 29, 2017
Posted: 30th, June 2017 | In: Music, Strange But True | Comment
Vermont maple syrups takes like urine? The advert says it does
Vermont maple syrup takes of…
Spotter: OneBakingPanda
Posted: 29th, June 2017 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Carp escapes fishermen by crawling on land
The carp will be the talk of everyone back at base. “You should see the size of the one I got away from,” he’ll boast. Unlike the ergonomic, rhythmic fish, the one the carp got away from was lumpen and possessed of the grace of Donald Trump at a naked yoga retreat trailing a shard of toilet paper from his wobbling seat of power. Fish are from another dimension.
Posted: 29th, June 2017 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Coins and the superstitious to be added to banned items on planes
Add coins to the list of items banned on aircraft. And you can add the superstitious, too. Because a woman boarding a China Southern Airlines Flight from Shanghai to Guangzhou thought it good luck to toss nine coins into the plane’s engine. As she boarded her flight the woman “blessed” the plane by lobbing a handful of coins into the important bits.
China Southern Airlines told reporters that passengers were reminded to comply with civil aviation laws and regulations, which prohibit behaviour that could jeopardise the safety of the flight.
Best to slip the coins into the little paper bags they pass around passengers for charity collections, or, as superstition dictates, investing in lucky heather from a woman who looks like she’s very much down her hers despite having bought armfuls of the stuff.
Spotter: SCMP
Posted: 29th, June 2017 | In: News, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Teenagers put glasses on museum’s floor and people thought it was art
When we saw Brooklyn Beckham’s terrible photography being passed off as a talent for anything other than parody, we recalled another example of meaningless nonsense being passed off as art. In 2016, two pranksters placed a pair of spectacles on the floor at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. Before long the glasses were being viewed as a telling and important piece of art.
The hoaxers, @TJCruda and @k_vinnn, would doubtless be delighted to realise that their artwork fared better than other proper arty things. Tate Britain once threw away a Gustav Metzger installation, a bag of paper and cardboard.
Meanwhile, my own artwork, Vomit In Sock, has been touring the country’s music festivals. Catch it where you can.
Is it art? Dunno. What do you care? It is if it looks like it is.
Spotter: Bored Panda
Posted: 28th, June 2017 | In: Key Posts, News, Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
Kurdish YPJ Sniper almost hit by ISIS Sniper inside Raqqa. She just laughs it off.
Kurdish YPJ Sniper almost hit by ISIS Sniper inside Raqqa. She just laughs it off.
Kurdish YPJ Sniper almost hit by ISIS Sniper inside Raqqa. She just laughs it off. pic.twitter.com/G49lJAlpwR
— Lalo Dagach (@LaloDagach) June 27, 2017
Spotter: LaloGagach
Posted: 28th, June 2017 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Jeremy Corbyn: the tot Trots named Corbyn
Would you call your child ‘Corbyn’? The Daily Star says you might if you drink enough scrumpy cider with your magic mushrooms.
The paper says parents are “flocking” to name their “tots” after the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. No, not Trots, tots. No typo. But are parents really massing at council offices to demand their children are named and renamed after Jeremy Corbyn? The Star says Corbyn’s “cool” was “boosted after appearing on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage”. I’d spin that round and say that Glastonbury was stripped of cool when it invited a leading politician to address the crowd and build a personality cult around a man who wants more State control, favours Brexit and has worked for Iran’s theocratic regime.
The fact is that in 2015, 15 children were named Corbyn (source: Office for National Statistics). The Star reasons that if “festival nookie” results in anything other than a nasty rash and regret, “thousands” more children could be named after the Labour leader.
They could also be named Theresa, if they shagged in a field of wheat.
Posted: 27th, June 2017 | In: News, Politicians, Strange But True | Comment
Children’s cigarette dummies are smoking’s new taboo
Richard Littler spots this warning on cigaret packets in Germany. He tweets: “My powers of judgement are totally shot. From this image, I can’t tell if smoking is a good or bad thing.”
First one to spot this in novelty gift shop, et us know.
Spotter: the excellent Richard Littler
Posted: 27th, June 2017 | In: Strange But True, The Consumer | Comment
American life: the most popular pastime when your old is being alone
According to Dan Kopf’s study ‘Who Americans spend their time with‘, the sixth most popular pastime for Americans is being alone. Of course, being alone might be enforced, something formed by circumstance rather than choice. But, then, so is spending time with your family and co-workers:
Spotter: Quartz
Posted: 26th, June 2017 | In: Strange But True | Comment
This is why we hate the word ‘moist’
Words I do like and words I don’t like are many. I like “twat”, “spoon”, “bingo”, “slash”, “bins” (when referring to spectacles) and “pastry”. I don’t like “schedule” when it’s pronounced with the hard Americanised ‘k’, “cockwomble” and “moist”. On the last prejudice I’m no alone. In 2012, The New Yorker asked readers to nominate a word to remove from the English language. ‘Moist’ was the clear winner. Not that any words should be censured, of course. Better we make up better ones and recognise the hatred and loading when saying things are ‘moist’. (This might explain the furore over Dapper Laughs, the British comedian who aimed to teach losers how to “moisturise” women – get ’em “proper moist”. Dapper wasn’t nuanced enough to be in on his own joke; his act was not based on self-deprecation. But the use of “moist” in any catchphrase gave him limited appeal and shelf-life. Generally, in my experience, men who use the word “moist” have something to hide and would make a decent case study for any budding psychotherapist.)
Also, our dislike of “moist” might be down to what the word does to our faces:
A separate possible explanation not tested in the current studies, but which the author acknowledges, is rooted in the facial feedback hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that facial movement can influence emotional experience. In other words, if facial muscles are forced to configure in ways that match particular emotional expressions, then that may be enough to actually elicit the experience of the emotion. On this explanation, saying the word “moist” might require the activation of facial muscles involved in the prototypical disgust expression, and therefore trigger the experience of the emotion. This could explain the visceral response of “yuck” people get when they think of the word. Separate research has identified the particular facial muscles involved in the experience and expression of disgust, but no research as of yet has tested whether the same muscles are required when saying “moist.”
There might be something worse than moist. Something could be ‘like, moist’. Or, perish the thought, “M.O.I.S.T”, the word spelled out to give it added repulsion.
Posted: 25th, June 2017 | In: Key Posts, News, Strange But True | Comment
Poop doping: one woman’s DIY faecal transplant and how turd implants can improve performance
How full of the brown stuff are you? One cyclist is into poop doping. What’s that, then?
The madwoman behind “poop doping” is Lauren Petersen, a postdoctoral microbiologist at the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine. Petersen has been racing bikes all her life, but as she told The Scientist earlier this month, she’s struggled with chronic Lyme disease since her teen years. She finally rid herself of the disease in 2013, but the intense course of antibiotics she took had ravaged her system and left her with chronic fatigue and stomach problems.
Eventually, she learned that her microbiome (the colony of microbes in her body) was dangerously unbalanced and was not functioning as it should. She was not breaking down any food, and she learned that she was not eligible for a potentially beneficial fecal transplant. So she simply did one herself. As she said, it was a fairly dangerous DIY procedure and it wasn’t fun, but it worked better than she thought it could:
In February 2014, with the support of her family, she recruited a donor and did it herself. “I just did it at home. It’s not fun, but it’s pretty basic. It costs like six bucks to do.” (The $6 being for the drugstore enema kit.) The do-it-yourself solution worked. “Within two months I was a new person,” Petersen says. “I had no more fatigue. I could ride my bike hard three days in a row, no problem.” She started racing four months after her fecal transplant, and was winning races at the pro level soon after that. “Everything changed,” Petersen says.
Petersen’s donor was a fellow elite cyclist, and after analyzing the sample and those of other riders, she discovered an unusually high prevalence of the bacterium Prevotella, which helps synthesize amino acids that help in muscle recovery. Petersen’s analysis of her friends’ craps also showed an abundance of M. smithii, which performs a complementary function. The science is complicated, but in short, a healthy amount of both bacteria types in one’s gut means you can more efficiently process food and then deal with debilitating byproducts like carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
Spotter: Boing Boing
Posted: 25th, June 2017 | In: Strange But True | Comment
All aboard the Betty Bus where boys are looking at a sad girl on her period
The Betty Bus aims at “encouraging open and honest conversations about periods with girls and boys aged 8-12”. What will the boys learn about periods? Well, here’s a picture of boys looking at a sad girl on her period. Pity her and her suffering.
And it’s got a slide.
The Betty Bus has a slide. Your period is an adventure playground. Which way to the (mood) swings? It is a slide, isn’t it – not an applicator?
Spotter: Joanna Williams
Posted: 23rd, June 2017 | In: News, Strange But True | Comment
