Saturday November 22, 2008
Opinion is split over artistic merit in a Wolverhampton gallery in England after 14 tonnes of coal was piled up as an exhibit by artists Matthew Cornford and David Cross to highlight fuel costs and climate change. Paying customer Lee Rue, 31, said: "That’s not art, it’s a pile of coal."
Friday November 21, 2008
A parrot has been reunited with its Welsh owner after reportedly chirping its name down the phone. The woman who found two-year-old cockatiel Smokey wanted to be sure she was speaking to the owners. So she passed the phone to the bird, and it immediately squawked its name.
Thursday November 20, 2008
Around 8000 council workers were given advice on how to avoid falling over by Renfrewshire Council in Scotland — after one employee slipped on a pile of leaves. Zealous bosses immediately issued tips on a document entitled "Corporate guidance on the prevention of slips, trips and falls".
Wednesday November 19, 2008
Students in Texas have created a genetically modified beer that helps prolong life and prevent illness — the only problem is it tastes awful. "No way would anyone drink this until it tastes better," researcher Thomas Segall-Shapiro said.
Tuesday November 18, 2008
A San Francisco artist wants to replace her missing eyeball with a video camera to record her life. Tanya Vlach, who lost an eye in a car accident, has asked engineers to build her a miniature webcam with a 3X optical zoom, a slot for a 4GB SD card, and the ability to take still photos.
Monday November 17, 2008
An Austrian food producer faces legal action by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, the producer of Viagra, over his blue "Styriagra'' chocolate-coated pumpkin seeds. Richard Mandl says the name is a combination of his Austrian province, Styria, and "agra'', for agricultural product.
Saturday November 15, 2008
The Big Penguin, a three-metre tall tourist attraction in the Tasmanian town of Penguin may be toxic. Asbestos experts are testing the giant bird, which hundreds of thousands of tourists have stood beside since it was erected in 1975 after one of its builders raised concerns.
Friday November 14, 2008
A Ukrainian woman survived a 100-metre plunge from her ninth-floor flat - into a giant vat of grapes. Ludmilla Vasko, 29, fell from the balcony of her apartment into the grapes, harvested from the vineyard below.
Thursday November 13, 2008
A recent Bulgarian immigrant found $US7,500 ($A11,213) in a shoe box on her first day on the job last week at a Goodwill store near St Louis in Glen Carbon, Illinois. Teodora Petrova turned the money over to a manager of the nonprofit charity.
Wednesday November 12, 2008
Police in Germany are hunting a thief with no arms who walked out of a shop with a 24-inch TV. Two accomplices used clamps to fix the TV to his body before helping him out of the store in Munich. Staff did not realise what had happened until they looked back at CCTV recordings.
Tuesday November 11, 2008
A nine-year-old Japanese boy drove a car alone for three kilometres to see his grandmother, saying he was confident at the wheel after playing video games, police said. "I learned from playing video games at arcades and watching my father drive," the boy said.
Monday November 10, 2008
Tours of one of Victoria's more unusual attractions run next week, with Corangamite Shire organising three mini-bus trips around Naroghid landfill, east of Warrnambool. "There's actually a lot that goes on behind the scenes,'' said environmental services co-ordinator Lyall Bond.
Saturday November 8, 2008
US authorities say Galen Winchell set fire to his Georgia home as he cleaned cobwebs from eaves with a blowtorch. He noticed the blaze when he saw smoke pouring from the attic. Though the fire was confined to one area, the entire house had smoke and water damage.
Friday November 7, 2008
Police in Milwaukee say a teenage boy has survived after being dumped into the back of a recycling truck and compacted. The 14-year-old had been hiding in a recycling bin after running away from a boot camp-style school and was discovered at a recycling centre.
Thursday November 6, 2008
A Swiss shopkeeper fed up with scores of requests for parking meter change is making motorists sing for it. "I didn't want to be rude and just tell people to get lost, so I thought up the idea of getting them to do something if they really wanted the money," Rene Jenni said.
Wednesday November 5, 2008
English music graduate George Garratt, 19, has changed his name by deed poll to Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined. The Somerset man, who thinks the new name is "crazy", admits his grandmother is no longer speaking to him.
Tuesday November 4, 2008
Two young Swedish women tied the knot at the weekend in the first known lesbian wedding at the Taj Mahal, India's ethereal monument to love. The couple, Sandra and Sarah, followed Hindu rituals during the ceremony, conducted by a priest at the Mahadeva Shiva temple.
Monday November 3, 2008
Officials in Wales mistakenly erected a road sign saying "I am not in the office at the moment'' in Welsh. The sign had said in English "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only'', but when Swansea Council sent it to be translated, they used an automated email response .
Saturday November 1, 2008
An alleged armed robber seeking to evade police has been apprehended in Brisbane after unwittingly running into the yard of an off-duty police dog. Police said they had been pursuing a 30-year-old man who had threatened a supermarket staff member with a knife.
Friday October 31, 2008
A Japanese man has enlisted more than 1000 people in a campaign to allow marriages between humans and cartoon characters. Taichi Takashita, who says he feels more at ease in the "two-dimensional world", launched an online petition and aims for 1 million signatures.
Thursday October 30, 2008
Strange but true: the Professional Standards Council of Victoria is based in Sydney. The council, created in 2005 to protect the interests of Victorians dealing with professionals covered by occupational associations, is housed in the Parramatta Justice Precinct Building.
Tuesday October 28, 2008
Catholic bishops meeting in Rome say they want the word of God to be heard through what could be considered an unlikely channel: iPods. The bishops say the printed text i no longer sufficient at a time when communication has been transformed by technology.
Monday October 27, 2008
Scientists have grown purple tomatoes to promote healthy food. The tomatoes include two genes taken from the snapdragon flower to enable them to express a purple compound found in high levels in fruit such as blackberries and cranberries.
Saturday October 25, 2008
A legendary Italian restaurant in New York turned 100 this week - and so did its prices. John's of 12th Street celebrated with a lunch menu costing pennies, the same as it did in 1908. The chicken parmigiana dish went for 75 cents instead of the regular $US14.95 ($A23).
Friday October 24, 2008
A Chinese martial arts enthusiast says he can blow out candles with his eyes. Wearing specially made air-tight goggles, Ling Chunjiang, 35, of Kaifeng, blows air out of his eyes through a hose attached to the goggles and can put out 12 candles in one minute.
Thursday October 23, 2008
A concert violinist has been given a gun permit to protect his $14.65 million Stradivarius violin. Matteo Fedeli, 36, travels all around Italy and has been given police permission to protect the violin with a .357 Smith & Wesson magnum. He also has a team of bodyguards.
Wednesday October 22, 2008
A Chinese elephant that spent three years in rehab after animal smugglers got him addicted to heroin is not able to return to the wild despite being cured. Four-year-old Xiguang became hooked after the smugglers laced bananas with heroin to capture and tame him.
Monday October 20, 2008
Cannabis growers in the Netherlands net $4 billion a year - worth almost half the country's horticultural sector, a Dutch newspaper says. Despite this, the nation's top drug cop says the country still has the image of a small producer that "grows a few plants in the attic".
Saturday October 18, 2008
Ireland's major betting company Paddy Power is so sure Barack Obama will win next month's US presidential election that it paid out 1 million euros ($A2 million) on pro-Obama bets. The company said it was rewarding its customers and acknowledging the inevitable.
Friday October 17, 2008
An Italian council worker has been sacked after he was shot on a hunting trip when he should have been working. Adriano Germano, 56, sneaked off after clocking in to go hunting and ended up in hospital for 20 days when a friend accidentally blasted him with a shotgun.
Thursday October 16, 2008
The world’s first No Star Hotel has opened in Switzerland in a disused atomic bunker. The $A42 rooms have no views, there is limited hot water, no room service, no pay TV and guests might be expected to share with soldiers and emergency workers should a nuclear war break out.
Wednesday October 15, 2008
A New Zealand house-hunter got a viewing more suited to a horror movie when he uncovered a container of body parts, including a left leg and right foot. Christchurch police said investigations revealed the limbs had been removed surgically and nothing sinister had occurred.
Tuesday October 14, 2008
A 2 million pound ($A5.3 million) former gatekeeper's lodge has become the most expensive council house in Britain. A 44-year-old local authority tenant has moved into the listed building in north London while repairs are carried out on her home. Her new neighbours include George Michael and Sting.
Monday October 13, 2008
Hundreds of voters in New York have been given absentee ballots to vote for "Barack Osama" for the US presidency. The ballots spelled rival John McCain's name correctly. Commissioners for the Rensselaer County Board of Elections say they regret the error.
Saturday October 11, 2008
Madrid has banned human billboards, calling them an "assault on people's dignity". Employers who use them face fines of up to 3000 euros ($A6117). Most human billboards in Madrid consist of ``sandwich men'' who wear signs on their chests and backs.
Friday October 10, 2008
A British couple who met on a dating website turned out to be neighbours who had lived only a few houses apart for 17 years. Teacher Julie McIlroy began emailing electrician Allan Donnelly after seeing his picture on a dating website. The couple are planning to marry.
Thursday October 9, 2008
A 15-year-old girl has been forced to move schools after reportedly giving hash cookies to teaching assistants. Two assistants at a Leeds school suffered from dizziness and headaches after eating the cakes. They were taken to hospital where doctors diagnosed cannabis ingestion.
Wednesday October 8, 2008
A Church of England priest has been ordered to remove comments from his blog calling for gay men to have their backsides tattooed with a warning about sodomy. Reverend Peter Mullen 66, insisted his remarks were light-hearted jokes and satirical.
Tuesday October 7, 2008
Two million Britons dread going to work because they can't stand their colleagues. A study has found 8% despise fellow workers, while a quarter tolerate them because they are paid to. Nearly a third have quit jobs because of the animosity.
Monday October 6, 2008
Relatives beat a Malaysian couple to death in a ritual apparently meant to help the man to stop smoking, police said. The couple died of head injuries after being beaten with broomsticks and motorbike helmets during a family gathering at a Kuala Lumpur home
Saturday October 4, 2008
A Californian inventor has been granted US patent No. 7,428,788 for a coin-operated bidet designed to be used in public restrooms. Hyug Park says his design also includes a warm air blower.
Friday October 3, 2008
Times have been tough for banks everywhere, but a San Diego-area Wells Fargo branch in California had an especially difficult day this week. The branch in La Mesa was robbed twice in one day, by two different bandits three hours apart.
Thursday October 2, 2008
A US man admitted to hospital with abdominal pains was told by doctors he was pregnant. John Pippen received this news as he was sent home with painkillers. Staff gave him a note saying: ``Based on your visit, we know you are pregnant." Computer error was blamed.
Wednesday October 1, 2008
A one-legged man needing a $90,000 bionic limb to walk again got one free after popping into a pub. David Huckvale was sipping a beer when he was tapped on the shoulder by a US surgeon who said had a spare leg in his office - and he could have it for nothing.
Tuesday September 30, 2008
A US cyclist was knocked down by a car and, six hours later, by a train. Robert Evans, 46, of Boulder, Colorado, was first hit by a car, taken to hospital and released. He was on his way back to town when he was hit by a train while walking his bicycle across a bridge. He survived.
Monday September 29, 2008
Two fast-food addicts in Norwich, east England, celebrated their marriage with their dream wedding cake — a 20-kilogram cheeseburger. Tom and Kerry Watts’ mammoth burger was nearly half a metre wide and weighed the equivalent of about 100 quarter-pounders.
Saturday September 27, 2008
An 80-year-old US man has been jailed for five years for his part in a bank robbery 18 years ago even though a court declared him legally dead while he was on the run. The Chicago Tribune reports Carmine Jannece went into hiding 12 years ago and his family believed he had died.
Friday September 26, 2008
A Japanese company has unveiled a wearable airbag for the elderly that pops out if they fall. The bag looks like a traveller's waist pouch but inflates in a fraction of a second when sensors detect the wearer has taken a tumble. It protects the back of the head and the buttocks.
Thursday September 25, 2008
A British woman is seeking compensation after police said she looked like a man. Pauline Synnott admitted speeding in a letter, but officers viewing the speed cam era photo believed the driver was a man and wrote to her partner, who owns the car, to confirm who was driving.
Wednesday September 24, 2008
A large unidentified lump of a greasy substance that washed up on a New Zealand beach sparked a bizarre ‘‘gold rush’’ among locals after word got out that it could be ambergris — a valuable excretion from whales used to make perfume. It was later found to be lard.
