An odd-looking Canadian coin with a bright red flower was the culprit behind a US Defence Department false espionage warning earlier this year about mysterious coin-like objects with radio frequency transmitters. The harmless poppy coin
was so unfamiliar to suspicious US Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them
A crowd of Guyanese villagers lynched an elderly woman they accused of being an evil spirit who drinks the blood of human babies. Authorities in the South American country said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behavior and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an Old Higue
— the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals
A pregnant cow being chased by police and firefighters caused more than $41,000 of damage on a three-hour rampage through the German city of Hanover. The cow, Uschi, escaped from a farm late on Monday and became increasingly violent as she encountered shocked drivers and pedestrians in the city. Pursued by the farmer, television camera crews and 30 police and firefighters, the Charolais cow lashed out at cars, benches, garden fences and whatever else got in her way during the five-kilometre chase. After more than three hours on the loose, Uschi was brought down by tranquilliser darts, without harming her unborn calf
A man cut off his penis with a knife in a packed London restaurant. Police were forced to use CS gas to restrain the man when they entered the Zizzi restaurant in The Strand on Sunday evening. The man was then taken to hospital in south London where his condition is stable. It is understood surgeons were unable to reattach his penis
Indian police discovered a human bones factory
in an eastern state on Monday and arrested six people for illegally trading in skeletons, a senior officer said. The arrested men told police the bones were sold to medical students and used in traditional medicine. Investigators found dozens of skeletons — treated with chemicals — laid out to dry in the sun when they reached a river bank in Keshia, 200 kilometres north of Kolkata
A 17-year-old rookie plumber has burned down a £5 million ($12 million) waterside mansion in southwest England, after a soldering task during his first day on the job went horribly wrong
An anteater attacked a young zookeeper in Argentina, ripping open the woman’s abdomen and legs with its long claws and leaving her in critical condition. This female anteater apparently attacked her keeper at a Buenos Aires-area zoo to protect her offspring. The unusual attack damaged the zookeeper’s stomach, liver and lungs, Jose Potito, the director of the hospital where the woman was being treated, said
Artist Nadine Jarvis can fabricate pencils from carbon left over by incinerating human remains — it’s part of a larger research project into post mortem
. She notes that 240 pencils can be made from an average body of ash — a lifetime supply of pencils for those left behind
— via Boing Boing
A remote-controlled mechanism to launch tiny, liquid-filled darts into the bellies of horses was found buried under the starting gate of a Hong Kong race track. It was a device worthy of Rube Goldberg, or perhaps Wile E Coyote
— via kottke.org
Four Amway distributors have been ordered to pay Proctor and Gamble over $19 million in compensation. The four had spread rumours that the company was involved in Satanism, and the case has dragged on for over a decade. The judge had earlier decided that Amway itself could not be held responsible for the actions of its self-employed distributors — via The Pagan Prattle
The Pukaki Lagoon Explosion Crater in Mangere, New Zealand, is for sale. Current owners the Pangley family are selling it as aprt of a 62.3 hectare property. According to the realtor, the crater, formerly used for auto racing, would be ideal for a natural amphitheatre — via Boing Boing
Every year, Neil Engelman carefully collects his data, stands before his company’s board of directors and is asked the same question: What caused more outages? The lightning or the squirrels? Four of the past five years, the answer has been the squirrels, says Engelman, vice president of operations for the Lincoln Electric System in Nebraska. Nebraska is not alone. Many states are grappling with a big increase in the number of power outages caused by squirrel electrocutions. Squirrels that fry themselves on power lines and transformers cause tens of thousands of blackouts every year
Serbian vampire hunters have acted to prevent the very remote possibility that former dictator Slobodan Milosevic might stage a come-back — by driving a three-foot stake through his heart — via The Pagan Prattle
2a26ref=”http://uk.gay.com/headlines/11114″>Female koalas enjoy lesbian romps, rejecting male suitors and attempting to mate with each other, sometimes up to five at a time, according to researchers. The cute, eucalyptus-eating wombat-like creatures seem to develop this tendency for gay orgies when they are in captivity. In the wild, they appear to remain heterosexual. Scientists monitoring the marsupials with digital cameras counted three gay interactions for every straight one — via Feòrag
Two circus clowns have been shot dead during a performance in the eastern Colombian city of Cucuta. The attacker jumped into the arena and fired before fleeing. Local reports say the audience of about 20 people, mostly children, thought the shooting was part of the show before realising both men had been killed. Last year, a prominent circus clown, known as Pepe, was also shot dead by a unknown assailant in Cucuta — via Warren Ellis
A 13-year-old girl’s father and stepmother were arrested after the teen told police she had been locked in a room for nearly two years, allowed out only for meals, chores and one-minute timed bathroom breaks. Clint Engstrom, 32, and Lynn Engstrom, 35, were charged Tuesday with one count each of causing mental harm to a child, a felony
A Detroit man with a record of breaking store windows to satisfy a fetish for female mannequins faces up to life in prison if convicted on the latest charge against him
A samurai sword wielding vigilante has come to the rescue of two Police officers when they were attacked by an armed gang in South Shields, England. A group of men had forced their way into a house and were ransacking the place when passing plain-clothes officers were alerted by a woman inside screaming. The criminals outnumbered them and were armed with a hammer, knives and chains and attacked the Police officers. As one of them stabbed at a Policeman with his knife, a mysterious do-gooder appeared from nowhere and attacked him with a samurai sword. One of the burglars began running away but was stopped by the stranger who struck him on the arm with the sword. Two of the criminals were arrested, but in true hero style the samurai disappeared before police could speak to him — via Boing Boing
A typing mistake on an online booking form left a German tourist 13,000km off-course on a journey to meet his girlfriend. Tobi Gutt left Germany in high hopes on Saturday, dressed in T-shirt and shorts for the Australian summer, but instead of heading towards Sydney, Australia the 21 year-old ended up en-route to Sidney, Montana. Initially Gutt reasoned that it was possible to fly to Australia via the United States and it was only as he boarded a commuter flight to Sidney, an oil town that’s home to around 5,000 people, that the terrible truth dawned on him. Up to that point he’d flown to Portland, Oregon and on to Billings, Montana with mounting concern
An article at the Radar lists the ten most dangerous toys of all time, those treasured playthings that drew blood, chewed digits, took out eyes, and, in one case, actually irradiated. To keep things interesting, the editors excluded BB guns, slingshots, throwing stars and anything else actually intended to inflict harm
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