board77

The Last Homely Site on the Web

Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.

Post Reply   Page 1 of 138  [ 2748 posts ]
Jump to page 1 2 3 4 5138 »
Author Message
sauronsfinger
Post subject: Weird and Unusual News Stories- Join In.
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 1:41 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 4336
Joined: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 9:28 pm
Location: The real world
 
It seems that almost every day there are news stories which report on events or people which are just plain weird, bizarre or downright freaky. I thought it might be good to have a continuing thread for such stuff that is not heavy or political or controversial but just plain weird. Feel free to add your own stories as you may find them.

So here are two stories.

The first is that lovable muppet ELMO. It seems that Elmo is helping toddlers to be potty trained and there is a book you can get where Elmo makes affirming statements encouraging the child to gain control over their bodily functions. Thats fine. But look what happened when a mother purchased the book for her little one.
Quote:
Toddler's Talking Elmo Book Asks 'Who Wants To Die?'
Company Receives Several Complaints


A mother in Dallas is one of several parents complaining about a new interactive book for toddlers in which Sesame Street character Elmo asks "who wants to die?" according to a Local 6 News report.


Family members said 16-month-old Miranda Boll's new book, "Potty Time With Elmo," was supposed to teach an interactive lesson using voice commands.


However, when the book's buttons are pressed, it reportedly says something it is not supposed to -- "who wants to die?"

"It's a sick joke," mother Angela Bolls said. "If it's a joke then it's a bad one, you know? And it's not necessary. It's inappropriate."

Bolls said she checked another copy of the same book which said "who wants to use the potty?"
Board 77 members need not publicly answser that last question.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

How many of you have gone to one of those Japanese hibachi restaurants where you all sit around a grill and a chef cooks the food right in front of you adding dramatic and hunorous flourishes to entertain you? The last time I did, one of the little tricks was taking shrimp off the grill and flipping it directly onto your plate from a distance of two feet or so. Looks like some chefs are going even further.
Quote:
Family: Man Died After Ducking Flying Shrimp

POSTED: 3:11 pm EST January 12, 2006

MINEOLA, N.Y. -- A shrimp a hibachi chef tossed at a man eating at a Japanese steakhouse ultimately led to the diner's death, his family claims in a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit against the restaurant chain Benihana.

Jerry Colaitis wrenched his neck when he ducked to avoid the shrimp in the chain's Munsey Park restaurant, attorney Andre Ferenzo said in opening statements Wednesday.

Months after the January 2001 incident, the 43-year-old Long Island man died from complications caused by neck surgery he required afterward, the lawyer said.

Benihana lawyer Charles Connick said it was unlikely a chef who works for tips would toss food at customers after being asked not to, as Ferenzo claimed. Even if that happened, Connick added, the cause of Colaitis' death was an infection or neck injury unrelated to the shrimp.

Benihana chefs mix dining with entertainment as they grill Japanese food in front of patrons. Ferenzo said some of them have become more daring in recent years, but Connick said customers enjoy the experience.

"Some customers, especially dads and sons, want to catch the food," Connick said. "The evidence will show that it was part of the show."

Colaitis, of Old Brookville, underwent neck surgery in June 2001, but there were complications, and he had numbness in his arm, Ferenzo said. He died that November, a day after checking into a hospital with a 105-degree fever.



_________________

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. - John Rogers


Top
Profile Quote
Onizuka Eikichi
Post subject:
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 4:21 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 392
Joined: Wed 19 Oct , 2005 9:56 pm
Location: Outside of Causality
Contact: ICQ
 
I'd be less worried about the shrimp-tossing and more concerned about the "Onion Volcano" - my favorite part of any Teppan show. It's pretty much a flamethrower: what if there's a hole in the side and flames come bursting out into your face? Not a good situation. ;)

_________________

冬ながら
空より花の
散り来るは
雲のあなたに
春にやあるらん


Top
Profile Quote
Ara-anna
Post subject:
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 4:37 pm
Daydream Believer
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 5780
Joined: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 11:15 pm
Location: Pac Northwest
 
The US has WMD...beware of ELMO.

_________________

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in

Five seconds away from the Tetons and Yellowstone


Top
Profile Quote
ToshoftheWuffingas
Post subject:
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 5:18 pm
Filthy darwinian hobbit
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 6921
Joined: Fri 11 Mar , 2005 12:52 pm
Location: Silly Suffolk
 
:scratch: Do the diners have to snap for the shrimps like a bunch of seals?

_________________

[ img ]
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos

Norwich Beer Festival 2009


Top
Profile Quote
sauronsfinger
Post subject:
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 6:16 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 4336
Joined: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 9:28 pm
Location: The real world
 
Tosh - no, they do not have to... but if they do they may get more shrimps... ;)

Here is one more story
Quote:
Bangkok economics student Panupol Sujjayakorn interrupted his studies in November to defend his World Scrabble Championship in London, one of many non-English-speaking competitors who achieved top-of-the-line ranking by memorizing up to 100,000 words in English without ever knowing their meanings. Like the others, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education, Mr. Panupol learned first those premium words that overuse the prominent Scrabble letter tiles (such as "aureolae"). (Alas, this time around, a native English speaker, Dr. Adam Logan, a number theory researcher, won the title, building actual words like "qanat" and "euripi.") [Chronicle of Higher Education, 11-18-05; Daily Princetonian, 11-23-05]

_________________

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. - John Rogers


Top
Profile Quote
Tinsel_the_Elf
Post subject:
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 8:59 pm
* trolley dodger *
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 723
Joined: Mon 27 Jun , 2005 3:27 am
Location: Fighting the Long Defeat
 

_________________

Omnia Vincit Amor; Et Nos Cedamus Amori

Need a Laugh? Generate a Laugh!
[ img ]
LOTR Caption Competition #24--->Sauron Gives Isildur the Finger.


Top
Profile Quote
Onizuka Eikichi
Post subject:
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 9:11 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 392
Joined: Wed 19 Oct , 2005 9:56 pm
Location: Outside of Causality
Contact: ICQ
 
Indeed. I firmly believe the Vikings were the first "old-worlders" to reach America. That kinda makes the claim that the Chinese got there about 8 decades earlier than Columbus a moot point. Interesting but not jaw-dropping.

_________________

冬ながら
空より花の
散り来るは
雲のあなたに
春にやあるらん


Top
Profile Quote
Tinsel_the_Elf
Post subject:
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 9:23 pm
* trolley dodger *
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 723
Joined: Mon 27 Jun , 2005 3:27 am
Location: Fighting the Long Defeat
 
Vikings, Schmikings. ;) The Irish were here before they were!

_________________

Omnia Vincit Amor; Et Nos Cedamus Amori

Need a Laugh? Generate a Laugh!
[ img ]
LOTR Caption Competition #24--->Sauron Gives Isildur the Finger.


Top
Profile Quote
Onizuka Eikichi
Post subject:
Posted: Fri 13 Jan , 2006 9:30 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 392
Joined: Wed 19 Oct , 2005 9:56 pm
Location: Outside of Causality
Contact: ICQ
 
Bah! Tall tales all of it! :p

_________________

冬ながら
空より花の
散り来るは
雲のあなたに
春にやあるらん


Top
Profile Quote
Dave_LF
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 12:44 am
You are hearing me talk
Offline
 
Posts: 2950
Joined: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 8:14 am
Location: Great Lakes
 
That's got to be one of the unluckiest guys in the world:

-It's unlikely that you'll injure your neck by ducking quickly
-If you do injure your neck, it's unlikely you'll need surgery
-If you do need surgery, complications are unlikely
-If there are complications, they're unlikely to be fatal


Top
Profile Quote
The OG Borry
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 2:13 am
The best things in life are not things
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2136
Joined: Tue 26 Jul , 2005 10:44 pm
Location: here....<_< yeah here thats Ceres, CA for you stalkers
 
Why would anyone want to buy a book titled "Potty Time With Elmo"??
Borry


Top
Profile Quote
elfshadow
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 2:31 am
Kill the headlights and put it in neutral
Offline
 
Posts: 5407
Joined: Tue 09 Aug , 2005 2:27 am
 
Same reason someone would buy a book called "Everybody Poops". Or the not so popular, "Nobody Poops But You". Or if you're Catholic, "You’re A Naughty, Naughty Boy, And That’s Concentrated Evil Coming Out The Back of You".


Top
Profile Quote
Lord_Morningstar
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 2:50 am
Offline
 
Posts: 2420
Joined: Thu 03 Mar , 2005 8:22 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia
 
Quote:
Vampire runs for office

January 14, 2006

MINNEAPOLIS: Minnesota voters, who eight years ago elected a former professional wrestler as their governor, may find a self-proclaimed vampire on the ballot this year.

"Politics is a cut-throat business," said Jonathan "The Impaler" Sharkey, 41, who plans to announce his bid for governor on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.

Like Jesse "The Body" Ventura, elected in 1998, Sharkey was once a wrestler, although he spent his time as "The Unholiest of Kings: Tarantula" on obscure professional circuits.

"I'm a Satanist who doesn't hate Jesus," Sharkey said this week. "I just hate God the Father." He claimed to respect all religions and, if elected, would post "everything from the 10 Commandments to the Wicca Reed" in government buildings.

Sharkey also pledged to execute convicted murderers and child molesters personally by impaling them on a wooden pole outside the state capital. He told the Minneapolis Star Tribune he was a vampire "just like you see in the movies and TV".

"I sink my fangs into the neck of my donor ... and drink their blood," he said, adding that his donor was his wife, Julie.

link
Quote:
Son kept mother's corpse for 3 years

January 13, 2006

ROME: In an echo of Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho, an Italian man kept the dead body of his widowed 71-year-old mother in her bedroom wardrobe for three years, pretending to neighbours that she had become a recluse.

Mirko Sartori's grisly secret emerged when his landlord visited to find out why the rent had not been paid.

The landlord first found Mr Sartori's body, crushed beneath his red Fiat Panda in the garage, and then a note nearby saying "Mother forgive me".

It was not clear whether Mr Sartori had intended to kill himself or whether the car jack had simply collapsed. He had been dead for a fortnight.

The landlord, Antonio Barbasso, called police, who found Mr Sartori's mother in a wardrobe sealed with silicon.

Mr Sartori had continued to collect her pension and her medicines from the local chemist after her death.

Forensic scientists said Anna Pelloni's body was effectively "mummified" inside the airtight cupboard.

Mr Sartori lived alone with his mother at the house in the northern village of Orsara Bormida, near Alessandria.

He was unemployed apart from odd jobs, although he always "dressed smartly and carried a briefcase", the landlord said.

Inside the house, however, the rooms were strewn with rubbish and the walls were covered in writing and drawings.

Some of the writing was rambling and incoherent, but included the words: "For those who find us, my mother is in the bedroom wardrobe. She died on 20 Nov 2002 at 11.30pm.

"I found her in front of the television with her eyes wide open. Nothing had prepared me for such an unhappy and unexpected event.

"When I saw my mother was dead it was as if I had died too."

He said he had dressed her "very carefully in a nice white blouse, the smartest I could find, and a blue suit and shoes of the same colour".

As if addressing his mother, he wrote: "I wanted to leave you in your bed but if I did I would not have been able to come into your room any more.

"I could not permit the odour of death to corrupt the sweet features of your face.

"I combed your hair, powdered your face and tried to make you as comfortable as possible."

He fixed a photograph of his mother holding him as a child on the door of the bedroom.

One of the walls carries a drawing of Christ wearing a crown of thorns and the words "help me".

link
Finally, a picture of a kitten born with only one eye and no nose. It lived for a day.

_________________

[Space for Rent]


Top
Profile Quote
vison
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 3:19 am
Best friends forever
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 6546
Joined: Fri 04 Feb , 2005 4:49 am
 
Elfshadow wrote:
Same reason someone would buy a book called "Everybody Poops". Or the not so popular, "Nobody Poops But You". Or if you're Catholic, "You’re A Naughty, Naughty Boy, And That’s Concentrated Evil Coming Out The Back of You".
:Q :Q :Q :Q :Q :Q :Q :Q :Q :Q :Q :Q

Man, I am LOVING these stories. There is a whole other world out there, is there not?


Top
Profile Quote
elfshadow
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 3:33 am
Kill the headlights and put it in neutral
Offline
 
Posts: 5407
Joined: Tue 09 Aug , 2005 2:27 am
 
Vison, that's a quote from Family Guy. :D

:shock: :shock: :shock: Those two stories were creepy. And the picture of the kitten...*shudders* exactly like Cyclops. This kind of makes me think of the "fascination with the abomination" from Conrad's Heart of Darkness.


Top
Profile Quote
Lord_Morningstar
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 3:59 am
Offline
 
Posts: 2420
Joined: Thu 03 Mar , 2005 8:22 pm
Location: Queensland, Australia
 
Quote:
Cannibal returns to dock

By Deborah Cole in Berlin
January 10, 2006


A SELF-confessed cannibal will face a new trial in Germany from Thursday, as prosecutors seek a murder conviction for the man who killed and ate an apparently willing victim he met on the Internet.

Armin Meiwes, 44, was jailed for eight and a half years in January 2004 for manslaughter but was cleared of murder after the court heard the victim had been seeking "the ultimate kick" when he advertised himself on a cannibal website.

But a federal tribunal last April upheld state prosecutors' appeal, calling the verdict too lenient, and ordered a new trial before the regional court in the western city of Frankfurt. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence.

The judges will have to determine whether Meiwes committed murder or the lesser charge of "killing on demand" in slaughtering and eating a volunteer.

The evidence in the case is lurid and exposed a secret scene of extreme fetishism that shocked and fascinated the country.

"This trial has opened the door to a world that one is tempted to immediately shut again," presiding judge Volker Muetze said when passing the original sentence in Kassel, central Germany.

Meiwes, a computer technician, met Bernd Juergen Brandes after advertising under the pseudonym Franky for someone ready to be killed and eaten.

Brandes, 43, an engineer with a girlfriend, had posted his own ad as a willing sacrifice.

The convergence of their fantasies online in early 2001 led to a meeting in Meiwes's picturebook hometown of Rotenburg, where the two performed and videotaped a gruesome series of rituals at his rambling half-timbered farmhouse.

In March of the same year, Brandes, who had written a will, bought a one-way train ticket to Rotenburg.

He was killed by Meiwes, who dissected his body like an animal's, having studied butchery techniques.

Meiwes eventually ate 20kg of flesh - accompanied by a pepper sauce or wine sauce with potatoes - stored more in a freezer and buried the rest.

Afterwards he continued to trawl for willing victims and was only arrested in December 2001 after a student alerted police.

Meiwes told the court during his trial that he had fantasized since puberty about eating another man.

"I imagined that the one who would be with me should also never leave me," he said, before admitting the killing to the judges.

"I kissed him again and also prayed for forgiveness for him and for me - and then I did it."

The so-called "cannibal of Rotenburg" had 16 computers and 2000 disks full of information about Germany's secret cannibal underworld. He had been in contact with more than 200 people, most of whom wanted to be killed and eaten, or tortured.

Prosecutor Lothar Senge has argued that it is crucial the German justice system ensure that a "highly dangerous defendant" is not eligible for release as early as 2008.

The federal court said when it accepted the appeal that because Meiwes had made a videotape of the act with the aim of producing pornography for himself and others, the killing likely qualified as "murder for sexual gratification".

It said the case would also likely fall under a German law against "murder for the purpose of committing another crime" - in this case, disturbing the peace of the dead.

Meanwhile Meiwes has become a minor celebrity, granting the rights to a television documentary about his life and inspiring a hit rock song.
link
Quote:
Briton crawls miles for love

From correspondents in London
December 27, 2005


A BRITISH man is giving a whole new meaning to begging to be loved as he set off on a 55-mile (88.5km) crawl on his hands and knees to find a partner.

With a sign saying "Could you Love Me?" strapped to his back and 18 boxes of chocolates trailing behind him on string tied to his wrists and ankles, Mark McGowan began his unusual quest to find a girlfriend.

His route will take him from the site of the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, south London, to Canterbury Cathedral, following the pilgrims' trail made famous in 14th century author Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

The 37-year-old performance artist, who said he is also hoping to raise awareness of people left lonely and isolated during the festive period, is hoping to complete the back-breaking task within 30 days.

"I can remember one Christmas I wasn't in a relationship and didn't want to spend it with my family," McGowan said.

"I ended up cooking two fish fingers. I'm sure a lot of people have had that experience."

"Some people can spend Christmas in utter desperation and misery and find it difficult to cope with. I hope this encourages people to maybe invite someone over."

McGowan, from Peckham, south London, is no stranger to bizarre stunts or being so close to the tarmac: in 2003 he spent two weeks rolling a monkey nut with his nose seven miles to Downing Street to protest against student debt.

Earlier this year he attempted to cartwheel 57 miles from Brighton to London to highlight the problem of people taking stones from beaches to decorate their gardens. He was forced to give up with a twisted back after four days.

And in 2002, he rolled across London singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" in an attempt to get people to be nicer to cleaners.

On May 5 this year - polling day for Britain's general election - he planted 100,000 kisses on a laminated picture of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

McGowan is single.

link

_________________

[Space for Rent]


Top
Profile Quote
The OG Borry
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 4:38 am
The best things in life are not things
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 2136
Joined: Tue 26 Jul , 2005 10:44 pm
Location: here....<_< yeah here thats Ceres, CA for you stalkers
 
McGowan likes seeing his name in the paper I think
Borry


Top
Profile Quote
sauronsfinger
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 2:40 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 4336
Joined: Mon 28 Feb , 2005 9:28 pm
Location: The real world
 
These stories are great! Pushing a monkey nut with your nose for several weeks?!?!?!

Here is one abouta boy, video games and a doctor.
Quote:
Doctor Bans Boy From Playstation To Stop Head Twitching

POSTED: 1:40 pm EST January 13, 2006
UPDATED: 3:11 pm EST January 13, 2006

A 9-year-old boy in California who suffered from uncontrollable head jerking movements after long hours of video game playing stopped the twitching after his doctor banned him from playing PlayStation, according to a report.

Nicholas Lavin said that he played PlayStation constantly over the holidays at his home in San Diego and began to notice that his head would jerk back and forth.

"I would do funny things with my head," Nicholas said.

Lavin's mother said her son began to twitch so badly that she took him to the family's pediatrician.

The doctor told her he was not allowed to play PlayStation anymore. Once he stopped playing PlayStation, the twitching stopped, according to the report.

"All the head jerking is gone and his eyes are completely back to normal," Barbara Lavin said. "I think it's a direct connection to the PlayStation and the amount of time he spent on it."

The San Diego Epilepsy Foundation said some video stimulation at certain frequencies can cause epileptic-type seizures or body jerks.

Doctors said to set time limits for games, keep lights on in the room so it's bright, and make sure children stay at least two feet way from the screen.

An MRI ruled anything else out, so for at least the next month, Nicholas will not play PlayStation, according to the report.

We are awaiting a response for the video game industry.

_________________

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. - John Rogers


Top
Profile Quote
Onizuka Eikichi
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 4:16 pm
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 392
Joined: Wed 19 Oct , 2005 9:56 pm
Location: Outside of Causality
Contact: ICQ
 
sauronsfinger wrote:
We are awaiting a response for the video game industry.
You don't hold them resposible do you? I don't. The mother noticed something was wrong, saw a doctor, and found a solution to the problem he was having. The fact the the source of the problem was Playstation is irrelevant. The parent (gasp) showed some responsibility.

If the source of the problem was the La-Z-Boy chair he was sitting in, would we be awaiting a response from La-Z-Boy? Hehe, that sounds silly.

_________________

冬ながら
空より花の
散り来るは
雲のあなたに
春にやあるらん


Top
Profile Quote
vison
Post subject:
Posted: Sat 14 Jan , 2006 4:43 pm
Best friends forever
User avatar
Offline
 
Posts: 6546
Joined: Fri 04 Feb , 2005 4:49 am
 
Video Games are Spawn of Satan. :devil:


Everyone knows that. :D


Top
Profile Quote
Display: Sort by: Direction:
Post Reply   Page 1 of 138  [ 2748 posts ]
Return to “The Symposium” | Jump to page 1 2 3 4 5138 »
Jump to: