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.
California’s Marijuana ATM Machine
AMERICANS can ban online gambling, talk about food in terms of carbs and proteins and be prissy, prudish and reactionary. And then it goes and allows the sale of weed in a vending machine:
AVMs are 24/7 machines housed in standalone rooms, abutting two dispensaries and protected by round-the-clock security guards — like ATMs for people combating psychological withdrawal with a physical one.
After cinching up your doctor’s consultation, hit an AVM location to get your prescription approved, fingerprint taken, and a prepaid credit card loaded with your profile: dosage (3.5 or 7 grams, up to 1oz a week) and strain preference (choice of five, including OG Cush and Granddaddy Purple, the mildly hallucinogenic forebear to Prince).
Then day or night, all you do is hit a machine and walk away with enough vacuum-sealed, plastic-encapsulated cheeba to adequately treat your illness, and guarantee your car never smells like new leather again.
Marijuana is pain relief. Legalise it…
Posted: 25th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (7)
Where Fat Workers Work
ANORAK reports that fat people will be offered money to lose weight.
Read:
Firm Workers: Paying Fat Workers To Lose Weight
And then we see the office block of the future….
Posted: 25th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Rebecca Strachan Is Big In South Korea
HELLO Seoul. When you’re big in South Korea:
“A Teenager from Basingstoke has become an overnight pop sensation in the Far East after posting a video of herself singing online.
Rebecca Strachan, 19, from Aster Road, Kempshott, Basingstoke, was catapulted to attention when she uploaded a video of her and a friend singing in Korean on the popular video-sharing website YouTube.
Since it went live in November, the video has received more than 130,000 hits and led to record executives offering the pair the chance to go to the South Korean capital Seoul for a series of gigs…
She said: “I can’t believe the amount of interest we’ve received in Korea and the whole thing seems like a dream. When I posted the video, I was totally unprepared for all the attention.
“I love Korean music and it’s my dream to make it as a pop singer there.
Posted: 25th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Caught Lip Synching
MARCEL Marceau’s legacy lives on in the modern pop act lip synch.
Take it away Posh, Milli Vanilli and Kylie. All together now…:
Posted: 24th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
How To Wait For A Bus
YESTERDAY we learnt how to ‘catch’ a bus.
Today, New Scientist adds some notes based on research by Scott Kominers, a mathematician at
He and his researchers have derived a formula for the optimal time that you should wait for a bus at each stop en route before giving up and walking on.
Says he: “Many mathematicians probably ponder this on their way to work, but never get round to working it out.” This is most likely because they are distracted by looking for the square route of the Number 73, or if three No.10 buses arrive in a row, is the third bus a No. 1000.
The Anorak is useless at maths and was relieved when Ken Livingstone helped us dunces out by rounding up the price of a fare to the nearest two.
The team found that the solution was surprisingly simple. When both options seem reasonably attractive, the formula advises you to choose the “lazy” option: wait at the first stop, no matter how frustrating (www.arxiv.org/abs/0801.0297).
The formula does break down in extreme cases, Kominers says, when the time interval between buses is longer than an hour, for example, and your destination is only a kilometre away.
If you do choose to walk, you should make your decision before you start waiting, he says. You will still reach your destination later than the bus you’d have caught, but it will be much less frustrating than waiting for a while and then watching the bus shoot by. “It certainly has changed the way I travel,” Kominers says.
Brilliant. We have all learned something, chiefly that you don’t have to be all that good at maths to be a mathematician, just able to walk five eighths of a mile in under an hour, at an average speed of, er, slow…
Posted: 23rd, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Life On Mars
LOOK at the picture of Mars taken by the exploration rover, Spirit?
Is is an alien? Is it Osama Bin Laden? Is it Michael Barrymore?
Can you explain..?
Posted: 23rd, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (13)
Japanese Sexual Harrassment Training Manual
ANYONE know what this is about? A traning manual for Oriental peepers and frotters?
Any polyglot Daily Sport readers out here?
Posted: 23rd, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
A Ringside Seat For Fart Man
A RINGSIDE seat for Fart Man:
Britain’s got talent…
Posted: 21st, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)
Woman Coughs Up 10 Pound Hairball
YOUR cat coughs up hair. And it is revolting.
But the New England Journal of Medicine has seen worse.
Doctors say this hairball removed from the stomach of a healthy 18-year-old woman weighed 10 pounds.
She complained of a five-month history of pain and swelling in her abdomen, vomiting after eating and a 40-pound weight loss…
It revealed “a large bezoar occluding nearly the entire stomach,” wrote Drs. Ronald M. Levy and Srinadh Komanduri, gastroenterologists at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois…
“On questioning, the patient stated that she had had a habit of eating her hair for many years — a condition called trichophagia,” they wrote.
The woman underwent surgery to remove the mass of black, curly hair, which weighed 10 pounds and measured 15 inches by 7 inches by 7 inches, the doctors said.
Five days later, she was eating normally and was sent home.
Was it all her own hair?
Posted: 21st, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (4)
Little People Rob Swedish Travellers
SWEDISH newspaper Expressen.se says police suspect that a team of thieves are using small people hidden in hockey bags and placed in the cargo holds of buses to rob passengers ‘luggage.Passengers observe the big hockey bags being removed to waitings cars. Bags left behind ahve vlauabvles missing. (See Shanghai “trunk man”). Link (Swedish) Via
Posted: 21st, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (2)
The Ant And The Parasite Berry
NATURE adapts:
To perpetuate its life cycle, a newly identified parasite morphs its ant victims to such a degree that the infected ants resemble red, ripe juicy berries that birds are more inclined to pick, according to the University of California at Berkeley.
Eggs from the parasite then pass through the unwitting birds when they defecate. Ants consume the waste, become infected, and the whole cycle starts anew.
The transformation from black ant to red berry form represents the world’s first known example of fruit mimicry caused by a parasite. In this case, the victimizer is a parasitic nematode, or roundworm.
Posted: 21st, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
McDonald’s Report Cards And School Bus Adverts
IN FLORIDA McDonald’s Corp. has pulled -voluntarialty – its sponsorship of report-card covers in Seminole County, Fla., public schools.
“This is a good day for parents and children in Seminole County and anyone who believes that corporations should not prey on children in schools,” says Dr. Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “We are pleased that McDonald’s is listening to parents all over the country who believe that report cards should not be commercialized.”
McDonald’s had agreed to sponsor the report-card jackets for the county’s elementary schools. On the covers, McDonald’s was to offer a free happy meal to any scholar with A’s and B’s, two or fewer absences, or good behavior.
Protests were made.
“It was McDonald’s decision to remove our trademarks from report-card jackets in Seminole County, Fla., because we believe the focus should be on the importance of a good education,” said Bill Whitman, a spokesman for McDonald’s USA. “McDonald’s, not the school district, will cover the cost to reprint the report-card jackets.”
Because a corporation using education to advertise looks shallow, greedy and abusive? Becaue Ronald the neon clown gives the children bad dreams? Well:
Regina Klaers, a spokeswoman for the school district, said in December that the school approached McDonald’s for the sponsorship, not vice versa. For the 10 years prior to McDonald’s sponsorship, Pizza Hut had picked up the tab. During that time, Ms. Klaers said, there were no parental complaints.
Thin and crispy. Or stuffed?
Posted: 19th, January 2008 | In: Money, Online-PR, Strange But True | Comment
Paper Airplane Launched Into Space
WILL it carry paper people? “Researchers from the University of Tokyo have teamed up with members of the Japan Origami Airplane Association to develop a paper aircraft capable of surviving the flight from the International Space Station to the Earth’s surface.”
The researchers are scheduled to begin testing the strength and heat resistance of an 8 centimeter (3.1 in) long prototype on January 17 in an ultra-high-speed wind tunnel at the University of Tokyo’s Okashiwa campus (Chiba prefecture). In the tests, the origami glider — which is shaped like the Space Shuttle and has been treated to withstand intense heat — will be subjected to wind speeds of Mach 7, or about 8,600 kilometers (5,300 miles) per hour…
No launch date has been set for the paper spaceplane, but Shinji Suzuki, an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Tokyo, is thinking ahead. “We hope the space station crew will write a message of peace on the plane before they launch it,” says Suzuki. “We don’t know where in the world the plane will land, but it would be nice to send a message to whoever finds it.”
Who would not want to find that?
Posted: 18th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
This Year’s Black: The Blackest Black Yet
BLACK comes in two sorts: last year’s black and this year’s black.
This year’s black is not brown, racing green or Anthea Turner but a black made from tubes of carbon standing on end. It is a black 30 times darker than a carbon substance used by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology as the current benchmark of blackness.
It has a total reflective index of 0.045 percent – more than three times darker than the nickel-phosphorous alloy that now holds the record as the world’s darkest material. Standard black paint has a reflective index of 5 percent to 10 percent.
Previous benchmarks of blackness are thought to include:
David Beckham
Michael Jackson
The Dark Continent
Black Magic (chocolates)
Sooty
The Black And White Minstrels
Philip (Rising Damp)
Pic: A National Institute of Standards and Technology reflectance standard (left), a sample of the new darkest material (center), and a piece of glassy carbon (right), taken under a flash light illumination are seen in an undated handout photo.
Posted: 18th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (5)
Half Man Peng Shuilin Learns To Move
PENG Shuilin is 78cms high.
He was born in Hunan Province, China.
In 1995, in Shenzhen, a freight truck sliced his body in half.
He survived.
His lower half was beyond repair.
Surgeons sewed up his torso. Skin was taken form his head to plug any gaps.
He now is now able to get around with aids…
Posted: 17th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (8)
Locked In The Casino Toilet With Bellagio Jay
JAY Kwik, aka ‘Bellaggio Jay’, has moved into the Bellagio,
Why? It’s a bet, naturally.
As card player magazine notes, Kwik said believed he could live in a bathroom for 30 days without a problem. Andrew “Good2CU” Robl and Alec “traheho” Torelli offered odds, believed to be 2-1.
The rules for the bet are as follows:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 16th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
Kentucky Fried By Peta’s Acrostic Stephen Pollard
PETA, the human animal rights group, has placed a tombstone with a hidden message in the Louisville cemetery in which the founder of KFC is interred.
“We do not believe in being part of any political message at all,” says Mac Barr, board chairman of Cave Hill Cemetery. “And I think that kind of message is inappropriate for this cemetery.”
A seemingly innocuous poem is inscribed on the headstone. However, when read vertically, the first letter of each line spells out “KFC Tortures Birds“.
Acrostic poems are admirable when pulled off. The protest group Surrend once placed an ad in an Iranian newspaper which looked like a criticism of George Bush but featured a picture of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad above the word “SWINE”.
One of the most famous acrostics was found scratched on a wall in the ruins of Pompeii. It reads:
ROTAS
OPERA
TENET
AREPO
SATOR
It is unique in that it not only reads the same up and down and left to right, it also spells out a passable Latin sentence translated as “The sower Arepo holds the wheels at work”
Ode of Welcome in Irish Society is ostensibly a salute to soldiers returning from duty but which features the message “The whores will be busy”.
But Anorak’s favourite was enacted by Mr Stephen Pollard, now of the Times, who in a commentary on the virtues of organic farming made clear his feelings for the new Express owner, Richard Desmond with a initial “fuck you Desmond”.
Posted: 15th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (2)
A Shark’s Virgin Birth
A SHARK (female) living in a Hungarian aquarium has just given birth without mating.
Says Director Attila Varga: “When I saw the baby shark lying on the bottom of the tank I thought it was a joke. I was amazed when I realised it was a real shark.
“The mother is very protective of her pup, but as soon as we can, marine biologists want to get a DNA sample from both.
“There has only ever been one other example of a virgin birth (parthenogenesis) at a zoo in America when a hammerhead shark had a pup that was killed by a stingray before keepers could remove it from its tank.
“It happened in 2000 but it was only last year that a study of the DNA was complete and indicated the pup was from a virgin birth.
And:
Director Varga added: “We are planning to build her a bigger tank, find her a male and then hopefully next time round she can have a baby properly.”
Posted: 15th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
Chinese School Enforces Pig Rearing
IN China: “A Chinese middle school has ordered children to feed pigs three times a day, angering parents who complained it was denying their children a proper education, state media said Monday amid worries over soaring pork prices.
“Besides raising pigs, the students must also grow vegetables as part of a compulsory class,” the Beijing News says.
This is surely the future. Look out for Jamie’s Pig School and Ramsay’s Classroom Nightmares on a telly near you soon…
Posted: 14th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Woman Aged 30 Passes Herself Off As 13-Year-Old Boy
PLEASE, Sir, can I borrow your raxor: “A 30-year-old woman was arrested yesterday for masquerading as a schoolboy after ‘stealing’ a teenager’s identity.”
Says the Telegraph:
Barbora Skrlova fled to Norway from the Czech Republic and posed as a 13-year-old boy for four months to avoid giving testimony in a 2007 child abuse case, Czech police said.
She was deported back to the Czech Republic and detained after months of fooling teachers in Norway by passing herself off as a boy named Adam. She was enrolled at a school near Oslo in September by a woman who introduced the 33-year-old as her son.
How old? 30 . 33. Even the paper of record is uncertain…
Posted: 13th, January 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Strange But True | Comments (2)
Ant Farming Scheme Cons Chinese
THE LA Times says that up to a million people in China have been undone in an ant farming pyramid scheme run by a company with close ties to the Chinese government.
These ants were far more than uninvited picnic guests, [investors] were told. When ground into a powder, they become an aphrodisiac, a kidney purifier and general cure-all, the Yilishen Tianxi Group declared. The ants would earn them a 30% annual return.In reality, critics say, the ants apparently were little more than the bait for a vast pyramid scheme. Over an eight-year period, the company recruited as many as 1 million would-be ant farmers, collecting about $1.2 billion. In mid-December, it filed for bankruptcy…
The company hired as its spokesman Zhao Benshan, a famous comedian and actor who specializes in playing a hick. He has since dropped out of sight.
The boxes at the heart of the ant farming business are made of cardboard with a 2-inch-square plastic window and a small feeding hole framed so badly with duct tape that they look like the work of a careless teenager with a box cutter.
In return for their money, ant farmers were given the boxes, ants and a list of strict instructions: The ants need a spritz of water mixed with white sugar or honey at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day. They should be fed cake and egg yolks every three to five days. And they should be kept indoors.
In return, the company would come and pick up dead dried ants every 74 days. Under no circumstances were the ant farmers to open their boxes and look inside, they were told, to ensure that the special Yilishen ants weren’t mixed with inferior ants.
Posted: 12th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
Firecrew Rescue Bird From Tree
ON the Anorak Forums:
A BIRD which had become trapped in a port town tree was rescued by fire-fighters last night, says the Echo in rival town Darlington…and they must have enjoyed reporting this one.
A full crew from the Headland Station in Hartlepool were called to nearby Durham Street to deal with the incident around 6pm.
They used a short extension ladder to reach the bird and cut the branch off with the bird, its feet caught up, still attached.
BY AGW
Posted: 12th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Boy Turns Polish Tram System In Giant Train Set
PLAYING at trains in Poland:
“A teenage boy who hacked into a Polish tram system used it like ‘a giant train set’, causing chaos and derailing four vehicles.
The 14-year-old, described by his teachers as a model pupil and an electronics ‘genius’, adapted a television remote control so it could change track points in the city of Lodz.
Twelve people were injured in one derailment, and the boy is suspected of having been involved in several similar incidents…
Miroslaw Micor, a spokesman for Lodz police, said: “He studied the trams and the tracks for a long time and then built a device that looked like a TV remote control and used it to manoeuvre the trams and the tracks.
“He had converted the television control into a device capable of controlling all the junctions on the line and wrote in the pages of a school exercise book where the best junctions were to move trams around and what signals to change.
“He treated it like any other schoolboy might a giant train set, but it was lucky nobody was killed. Four trams were derailed, and others had to make emergency stops that left passengers hurt. He clearly did not think about the consequences of his actions.”
It takes a team of thousands to make the London Underground run badly…
Posted: 11th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment
Smokers Of The World Rejoice
SMOKERS of the world rejoice! Thomas J, the owner of 10-person German computer company has sacked three non-smoking workers after they requested a smoke-free environment.
Germany introduced non-smoking rules in pubs and restaurants on January 1, but Germans working in small offices are still allowed to smoke.
“I can’t be bothered with trouble-makers,” says Thomas. “We’re on the phone all the time and it’s just easier to work while smoking. Everyone picks on smokers these days. It’s time for revenge. I’m only going to hire smokers from now on.”
I am smoking a fag…
Posted: 10th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comments (3)
The Meanest Mum In The World On Drink And Driving
AS reported: “It was early last month when Jane Hambleton of Fort Dodge found the bottle under the front seat of her 19-year-old son’s pride and joy.
Her next move was a call to The Des Moines Register’s classified advertising department:
“Totally uncool parents who obviously don’t love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for 3 weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet.”
The son soon found himself on foot. And the meanest mom on the planet became the target of accolades from across Iowa and beyond.
Hambleton, 48, a disc jockey, said she has fielded more than 70 telephone calls from emergency room technicians, nurses, school counselors and even a Georgia man, who wanted to congratulate her.
“The ad cost a fortune, but you know what? I’m telling people what happened here. I’m not just going to put the car for resale when there’s nothing wrong with it, except the driver made a dumb decision,” Hambleton said. “It’s overwhelming, the number of calls I’ve gotten from people saying, ‘Thank you, it’s nice to see a responsible parent.’ So far, there are no calls from anyone saying, ‘You’re really strict. You’re real overboard, lady.’ “
Posted: 10th, January 2008 | In: Strange But True | Comment (1)
