Robots will be patrolling Japan’s streets, offices, shopping malls and other public places for the safety of the people. Guardrobo D1 is equipped with a camera and sensors to detect any signs of trouble. It will then alert the human guards via radio with camera footage of possible troubles. This is one of the technological advancement vital to the aging population of Japan, where 1 in 5 Japanese are over 65 years old
Three lions reportedly rescued a 12-year-old girl from her kidnappers in Bita Genet, Ethiopia. The girl had been held captive for seven days by men who intended to force her into a marriage. Police say the lions scared off the kidnappers and stayed to protect her — via BoingBoing
A prankster in Sunnyvale, California has been toying with traffic lights across the city for three months. Police say he or she has turned them to face the wrong way, altered the timing, and made them flash red in all directions. There is evidence that whoever is doing it knows what they’re doing,
(city spokesman John) Pilger said. The evidence suggests they’re an electrician or have that background. This isn’t a high school prank
— via BoingBoing
An underground society has emerged among Tokyo’s homeless living beneath the shadows of the capital’s skyscrapers and in its parks. Just recently, there’s been a rapid increase in the number of former yakuza gangsters who’ve become homeless. And they’re really aggressive, flashing their tattoos, scaring passers-by and lording over other homeless as they do whatever they like.
For many Japanese who associate the yakuza with wealth, even if it is the result of ill-gotten gains, the idea of a gangster living on the streets is close to unthinkable. But the number of homeless yakuza inhabiting parks and living under bridges is apparently skyrocketing, especially in central Tokyo — via Warren Ellis
An alleged armed robber has just had the beating of a lifetime, at the hands of nearly 30 women inside a Shreveport beauty school. They all beat him with sticks, table legs and curling irons. Officer Eric Swartout describes what happened, Basically, they’re hitting him with everything that wasn’t nailed down
— via BoingBoing
An executive tried to liven up a dull day at the office by stripping naked to interview a 25-year-old woman. Saeed Akbar, 35, said at first that it was part of his tough interviewing technique
but later admitted that he was bored and wanted a cheap thrill
I have a long and annoying history of attracting the insane on public transport. Of late, my ability to look like a new bestest friend for the loon in the community has waned. Unfortunately, I’ve picked up an online loon instead, but I do get to share him.
Going back almost a year, the lovely Feòrag, of the Pagan Prattle, posted an article about a loon attempting to sell his insane conspiracy theorum on eBay. I commented on the article and, since then, he keeps in semi-regular contact with both of us, usually to update us on his latest bizarro theory or eBay scam.
Although he doesn’t like direct e-mail as a rule and favours communicating via comment forms, which does leave a nicely public trail of insanity in his wake.
Today’s missive from the almighty QuePirate was to reinforce his latest Prattle comments:
reminder to look tonight at sundown — Is the crescent of the moon mostly on it’s back or perpindicular as it used to be? Cheshire Moon or not?
In all honesty, the grammar has improved, but he still makes as little sense as he always does. Still, you’ve got to laugh
Kidnappers
who stole a Dalek from a Somerset tourist attraction have sent its owners a ransom note and the robot’s amputated plunger. The 5ft model, believed to be an original from the cult BBC Dr Who series, was taken from Wookey Hole Caves near Wells on Monday. On Thursday, staff found the plunger arm and a ransom note on a doorstep. The note read: We are holding the Dalek captive. We demand further instructions from the Doctor.
The group, signing themselves Guardians of the Planet Earth, added: For the safety of the human race we have disarmed and removed its destructive mechanism
Pieces of a man’s body fell from the wheel well of a South African Airways passenger plane bound for John F Kennedy International Airport Tuesday and landed in the yard of a suburban home. A South African Airways spokeswoman said it appeared to have been a stowaway attempt. She said the plane had stopped in Dakar, Senegal, on its way to New York. The body parts, which included the right leg, part of the spine and a hip, struck a garage roof of the home in South Floral Park, New York, before landing in the backyard — via Warren Ellis
A scuba diver was swallowed almost whole by a great white shark yesterday in a Jaws-style attack just offshore from Cape Town
Two men have been arrested after shots were fired during a meeting in which it is believed they were trying to sell stolen copies of the next instalment of the adventures of Harry Potter
The suspicious package
that caused Interstate 75 and Daniels Parkway to be shut for more than an hour Monday was not an explosive pipe bomb — but rather wrapped-up plastic foot-long penis. Someone took construction-grade plastic, molded it into a penis and wrapped it with duct tape,
said Lee County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Charles Ferrante. They wrote ‘Happy Father’s Day’ on the duct tape…
— via Warren Ellis
Two WWII-era Japanese soldiers have been discovered living in a Filipino jungle. They knew the war was over, but they still saw no reason to come out of hiding for all these years. According to Japanese media reports, the pair had been living with Muslim rebel groups and at least one of them has married a local woman and had a family. It has been speculated there could be as many as 40 Japanese soldiers living in similar conditions in the Philippines — via BoingBoing
Two Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after apparently trying to make light sabres by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol via Charlie Stross
A man killed and skinned his mother then draped himself in her skin and stepped out to direct traffic. The 42-year-old, identified only as RZ, hit her head with a heavy blunt instrument. He then cut her throat and chopped off both her arms. Then, with a long‚Äìbladed meat knife used for filleting meat from bones, he spent eight hours skinning the 76-year-old. After the killing, the man dressed himself in his mother’s skin and took to the streets of Vlaardingen, Holland. He was seen directing traffic in her skin and dressed in one of her dresses as he recited texts from the Bible — via Warren Ellis
Finland has received what appears to be the first doctoral dissertation on traditional forest trolls. Master of Philosophy Camilla Asplund Ingemark, 30, has researched the subject for six years. She will defend her doctoral dissertation, which is classified as a work on folklore, at the Åbo Akademi University in Turku. The study describes the world of trolls according to the beliefs in the folklore of Swedish-speaking Finns — via Improbable Research
Since the Plesetsk Space Centre began operations in northern Russia forty years ago, tonnes of man-made debris — first stages of rockets mainly — have fallen to earth, generating both a cash opportunity for local villagers, and a source of danger. Some villages survive only on this cosmic garbage, unable to find other ways to make ends meet — via BoingBoing
A small digital camera apparently planted by an unidentified voyeur to shoot up passing skirts caused a brief bomb scare near a Manhattan subway station
The identity of a man found wandering on a beach on the Isle of Sheppey in an evening suit and who will not talk but who expertly plays piano concertos for hours is baffling police
Goliath is the oldest oversized coffin company in the United States, at 2.1m wide it’s certainly the biggest coffin the Goliath Casket Company had ever built. The 2.1m casket was built for a 408kg man who died in Alaska — via Paul Mellen
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