Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Hi-Tech Study Fails to Find Nessie
By SUE LEEMAN

LONDON (AP) - The Loch Ness monster is a Loch Ness myth.

At least according to the British Broadcasting Corp., which says a team which trawled the loch for any signs of the famous monster came up with nothing more than a buoy moored several yards below the surface.

The team used 600 separate sonar beams and satellite navigation technology to trawl the loch, but found no trace of any monster, the BBC said in a television program broadcast Sunday.

Previous reported sightings of a large beast in the gray waters of the lake led to speculation that the loch may contain a plesiosaur, a marine reptile which died out with the dinosaurs.


The BBC researchers said they looked at the habits of modern marine reptiles, such as crocodiles and leatherback turtles, to try to work out how a plesiosaur might have behaved. They hoped the air in Nessie's lungs would reflect a distorted signal back to their sonar sensors. ``We went from shoreline to shoreline, top to bottom on this one, we have covered everything in this loch and we saw no signs of any large living animal in the loch,'' said Ian Florence, one of the specialists who carried out the survey for the BBC.


His colleague Hugh MacKay added: ``We got some good clear data of the loch, steep sided, flat bottomed - nothing unusual I'm afraid. There was an anticipation that we would come up with a large sonar anomaly that could have been a monster, but it wasn't to be.''


The BBC team said the only explanation for the persistence of the monster myth - and regular ``sightings'' - is that people see what they want to see.


To test this, the researchers hid a fence post beneath the surface of the loch and raised it in view of coach full of tourists. Interviewed afterward, most said they had observed a square object but when asked to sketch what they had seen, several drew monster-shaped heads, the BBC said.


There have been reports of sightings of a ``monster'' in the loch since the time of St. Columba in the 6th century. Many who have reported sightings have described a beast similar to a plesiosaur, but experts say it is 65 million years since the last fossil record of plesiosaurs. Loch Ness is only 10,000 years old, so anything living there must be much younger.


BBC TV plans to broadcast a documentary on the investigation, "Searching For The Loch Ness Monster.''




On the Net:


BBC, http://news.bbc.co.uk



07/29/03 20:10

[Jolie Rouge]

Bizarre Phobias

Coprophobia- Fear of Feces

Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.

Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens.

Olfactophobia- Fear of smells.

Anablephobia- Fear of looking up.

Phronemophobia- Fear of thinking.

Tonsurphobia - Fear of haircuts.

Anthophobia - Fear of roses.



That's One Stiff Party Guest

Three New York City teens stole a skeleton from a cemetery, took it to a party dressed as Darth Vader, then dumped it in a drainage ditch. One of the teens, charged as a youthful offender, has been sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty to cemetery desecration, body stealing and opening graves. In addition to the probation, the 18-year-old male was hit with $4,200 in fines and an additional $1,000 fine for an unrelated charge of attempted grand larceny, the New York Post reports. The teen says he grateful for the court's leniency -- he faced up to four years in prison for each of the three felonies.




It Must Be Something in the Water

Two months after a turtle with two heads was discovered in New York's Rensselaer County, three young girls have now found a frog with no eyes in the same county. Ashley, Cierra and Taylor Sweet discovered the eyeless amphibian in a pond and brought it home with them. They put it in an aquarium and note that it doesn't seem to have a problem
finding mosquitoes to eat. State Wildlife pathologist Ward Stone said that the frog's condition seems to be developmental rather than the result of trauma or attack and feels it's unlikely that the damage was caused by chemical pollution.




It's a Sticky Situation

Teenagers Meg Roberts and Tyler Mickley stick together -- literally. The Virginia high school students just won a contest for making the best prom attire using duct tape. The dress and tuxedo, made with white duct tape, are adorned with black, yellow and red duct tape rays to form a sunburst pattern when the pair stands together. They also created duct tape wigs to complete their outfits. After a month and nine rolls of duct tape, the stylish outfits were finished.

The couple agreed that the outfits made for a sweaty night. However, all the toil and sweat was worth it -- the students both won $2500 scholarships from the makers of Duck brand duct tape and also the admiration of their townsfolk.




A Moooving Protest

Usually when parents are concerned about their child's poor grades, they schedule a parent-teacher conference. When parents of girls at an Indian village school in Calcutta found out their daughters failed their college entrance exams, they stormed into the school followed by a herd of cows. The eight cows, meant to symbolize the low-performing teachers, were brought into the first floor of the school
with signs hanging from their necks reading "This is a cow-shed" and "We will teach here." Surrounded by cows, school administrators admitted the school did not have the required number of teachers. The parents responded to this confession with some hearty mooing.

[Jolie Rouge]

Wallet Is Left at Scene of Crime


SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) - A man accused of trying to steal hundreds of dollars of coins from a church left police a tip as he fled.

James Drag was arrested when he went to the police station to claim the wallet left behind at the scene, authorities said.

Drag, 37, was charged with burglary, criminal trespass, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.

Drag is accused of trying to take $295.50 in quarters and $74.20 in dimes from St. Ann's Basilica in West Scranton on Sunday afternoon. He dropped the money, along with his wallet, while a parishioner chased him, police said.


Police went to Drag's home and told a member of his family that his lost wallet was at the police station.



07/29/03 20:15

[Jolie Rouge]

Bizarre Animal Laws in the U.S.

In Kingsville, Texas, it is against the law for two pigs to have sex on the city's airport property.

It is illegal for hens to lay eggs before 8 a.m. and after 4 p.m. in Norfolk, Virginia.

Ducks quacking after 10 p.m. in Essex Falls, New Jersey are breaking the law.

In Quitman, Georgia, it is against the law for a chicken to cross any road within the city limits.

In McDonald, Ohio, farmers cannot march a goose down a city street. And fowl, particularly roosters, are prohibited from going into bakeries in Massachusetts.

Dogs in Foxpoint, Wisconsin, may not bark profusely, snarl, or make any menacing gestures.

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Taking a Stab at Preventing Parking Violations

Two men were stabbed, another is in jail and his boss was slapped with a $20 million lawsuit -- all over a New York City parking space. Eric Pinzon, 23, on probation for attempted robbery, had just gotten a job at a Brooklyn moving company and mistakenly parked his Jeep in a spot assigned to another company. At the end of his shift the garage was locked so he left his vehicle parked. Employees at the other company were ticked off at the space being taken, called to have the Jeep moved, and when Pinzon arrived, he found his tires slashed. A confrontation ensued, and two men at the other company allege Pinzon stabbed them, while Pinzon alleges five men attacked him, the New York Post reports. Pinzon's employer is being sued for hiring an ex-convict, the Post says.

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Doggone Delicious Delicacies

Customers at Jean Bowyer's bakery in South Carolina enjoy chicken-and-dumpling popsicles, beef liver, and turkey and cheese flavored cookies. This may sound unusual and disgusting, but not when your customers are of the canine sort.

Bower is the owner of K-9 Union Hall & Bakery, which caters to dogs and the owners that love them. Other menu items include turkey muffins and canine sushi. Bower also creates three layered birthday cakes for Fido, baked from corn and flour meal mixed with liver, and smeared with icing appropriate for canines. The Union Hall also offers dogs a better social life with birthday parties complete with dog guests and treat-filled pinatas.



Naked Inmates in Plain View

A mother and her two daughters in Plainview, TX received quite a shock while driving near a prison facility and saw three inmates being strip-searched. The horrified mother said that the naked trio was out there for everyone to see.

According to the assistant warden, the strip search is routine at the jail for new inmates and was only visible to the public because a section of partition had fallen. The mother felt that the searches could have been conducted elsewhere, away from the public eye. She commented, "If I look at a naked man, I want it to be of my own accord."



Risky Business with a Different Cruise

A New Zealand man is building a cruise missile in his garage, just to prove to defense officials he can. Bruce Simpson runs a Web site, not to provide terrorists with the plans for a working cruise missile, but to prove the point that nations need to be better prepared. "I myself knew it would be easy, but I was stunned at just how easy it was," he tells the Australian Broadcasting Corp. He hopes to build the cruise missile with legal, off-the-shelf equipment
for less than $5,000. His last project involved building a jet engine in his backyard and using it to cool his beer. His Web site said at the time, "The risks should be obvious."

[Jolie Rouge]

Million Dollar Nickel Search Successful
By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - The two-month search for a million-dollar nickel ended early Wednesday with a celebration and a big sigh of relief from employees of the former New Hampshire company who fielded phone calls from thousands of would-be millionaires.

``Everybody worked so hard dealing with the different people who thought they had the coin,'' said Paul Montgomery, president of Bowers and Merena Galleries, which has since moved to Manville, La. ``We worked so hard to root this coin out, the fact that we were successful - we are just as excited as could be.''

In a clandestine meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center, coin experts certified that a coin that had been kept in a closet for decades is the fifth 1913 Liberty Head nickel, one of only five ever minted.

In May, the company offered a $1 million reward for the coin. The hope was the reward would help turn up the coin in time for the American Numismatic Association convention that opened Wednesday in Baltimore.


It did.


Word of the reward offer was carried in an Associated Press story, prompting thousands of calls to Bowers and Merena.


``It cripples you,'' Montgomery said.


The company had 12 telephone lines in Wolfeboro, and all were lit up for days, a spokeswoman said in May.


The call that mattered came from the relatives of a North Carolina coin dealer who was rumored to own the coin in the 1960s. They brought the coin to the convention, where they would have the best access to experts.


The Liberty Head Nickel was replaced by the Indian or Buffalo Nickel after 1912. But five Liberty nickels with 1913 dates were minted illegally, possibly by a mint official.


The owners had been told in the early 1960s that the coin they had was bogus, so it had languished in a closet since then.


It will be on display in Baltimore until Sunday. Montgomery said the owners haven't decided yet whether to accept the $1 million or hold onto their prize.


He said it was an unbelievable ending to a celebrated search.


``We certainly dreamed of it happening,'' he said, ``but we thought the search probably was going to be in vain.''


On the Net:


American Numismatic Association: www.money.org


Bowers and Merena: www.BowersandMerena.com


Coin World: www.coinworld.com



07/30/03 10:36

[Jolie Rouge]

Bob Hope's Secrets For a Long Life

When someone lives to be 100, the rest of us wonder how it's done. What's the secret? Good genes aside, is there something Bob Hope did that rest of us could do so we could live a little longer? He once laid it out for New York Post columnist Cindy Adams, revealing his secrets for a long life.

First and foremost, he tried hard not to quarrel with others. "I am not one to widen any quarrel. I actually talk to myself about not getting uptight. I psyche myself. I don't need silly arguments," he once said. "It will hurt me if I'm negative. I don't even want to refuse an autograph because it's bad for me...I try never to get too racked up about anything."

Hope said he went to bed at 12:30 a.m. and woke up at 10 a.m. Breakfast was pretty much the same every day: Stewed fruit--peaches, pears, figs, or strawberries--and oatmeal or Cream of Wheat. The only other food he had until dinner was an apple. "Part of success is energy. That means exercise," he said. For Hope, that meant golf.

But there is more to life than food and exercise. Here are the real words of wisdom from Bob Hope: "My recipe for being alive is simple. I'm an enjoyer."

[Jolie Rouge]

Kerouac bobblehead doll giveaway
Tuesday, July 29, 2003 Posted: 10:59 AM EDT

LOWELL, Massachusetts (AP) -- A homegrown literary icon will be remembered next month with an honor usually reserved for sports figures: a bobblehead doll.

The first 1,000 fans at the August 21 game between the Lowell Spinners and Williamsport Crosscutters of the Class A New York-Penn League will receive bobbing likenesses of Jack Kerouac.

The giveaway, in partnership with the English department at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, is part of "Jack Kerouac Night" at LeLacheur Park.

The eight-inch doll features Kerouac holding a pen and notebook and standing on a copy of "On The Road," his best-known work.

"It's unusual, to say the least, to have a sports team get involved with a literary figure," said Hilary Holladay, director of the Kerouac Conference on Beat Literature.

Before he was a writer, Kerouac was a baseball fan and athlete. He excelled in football and track at Lowell High School, spent the winter of 1942 as a sportswriter for The Sun of Lowell, and played football at Columbia.

[Jolie Rouge]

Hormel Fights to Defend Spam Name


AUSTIN, Minn. (AP) - Hormel Foods has a message for a Seattle software company: Stop, in the name of Spam!

The canned-meat company filed two legal challenges with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to try to stop SpamArrest from using the decades-old name Spam, for which it holds the trademark.

SpamArrest, which specializes in blocking junk e-mail or ``spam,'' filed papers to trademark its corporate name early this year. Hormel then sent the company a warning to drop the word ``Spam.'' SpamArrest refused.

``If you ask most people on the street, they're going to say junk e-mail as opposed to the luncheon meat as their first description of what spam is. I think they're overstepping their bounds,'' said Brian Cartmell, SpamArrest's chief executive.


Cartmell says his company's use of the word has nothing to do with Hormel's product, first produced in 1937. Hormel officials disagree, arguing that the company has carefully protected and invested in the brand name, and that the public could confuse the meat product with the technology company. It filed its challenges in late June.


Hormel acknowledges that its brand name has taken on new meaning, and it outlines on its Web site what it considers acceptable uses of the word.


It says it doesn't object when ``spam'' is used to describe unsolicited commercial e-mail, but it does object when pictures of its product are used in association with the e-mail term.


Douglas Wood, who practices intellectual property law in New York, estimates Hormel has only a 50-50 chance of prevailing. He points to a recent case involving Victoria's Secret and a male adult novelty shop called Victor's Secret. Victoria's Secret sued, using the trademark infringement argument. But Wood says ultimately the company lost in court.


``The court in that case was saying, even though they may have a famous mark, Victoria's Secret, and may have a particular association as soon as you hear it, Victor's Secret was not enough - the confusion or potential damage to their mark - to constitute infringement,'' Wood said.


The case will be heard by the Trademark Trial and Appeals Court in Washington, D.C., probably next year.


On the Net:

www.spam.com

www.spamarrest.com

07/30/03 10:03

{{ Be sure and shop the gift store. I have a lovely bobblehead Spam -- a gift from SP****

[Jolie Rouge]

Witch Doctor Charged with Having Human Skull


LAGOS (Reuters) - A Nigerian witch doctor has been charged with possessing a human skull for rituals, police said Tuesday. Police recovered other fetish items like cowries and horns from the man's shrine in the city of Benin, about 180 miles northeast of the commercial hub of Lagos.

The witch doctor, 80, was suspected of using human parts for rituals.

"He said the skull was part of his trade, but it is an offence for anybody to be in possession of human parts," Edo state police spokesman Tunde Showole told Reuters.

Ritual killing is common in some parts of Nigeria where many people believe they could become millionaires after sacrifices with vital human organs.


In London, British police said Tuesday they had arrested 21 people, 19 of them thought to be from Benin city, in connection with the murder of a Nigerian boy whose headless and limbless torso was found floating in the river Thames in 2001.



07/30/03 11:08

[Jolie Rouge]

Penn & Teller: Living it up in Sin City
Duo riding high with live show, TV work
By Todd Leopold CNN
Wednesday, July 30, 2003 Posted: 10:19 AM EDT

Penn & Teller may look reasonable, but don't like the dapper dress fool you: these magicians will go to the edge.

(CNN) -- Penn & Teller are proud to work in Sin City.

This may not come as a surprise to fans of the illusionist duo. After all, these are two guys whose tricks have included catching bullets in their teeth, threatening to impale one member on spikes and appearing to put a bunny through a wood chipper, all to the rhythm of Penn's carny-barker patter and Teller's stoic, silent irreverence.

Las Vegas -- the Desert Gomorrah -- would seem to be a perfect fit.

But it has surprised the pair, despite the fact they've maintained homes and a business office there for several years.

"I used to be snobby about Vegas," says Penn Jillette, the taller, talkative half of the duo. He believed the place had come a long way down from its heyday in the Rat Pack era, when "Vegas was hip," he adds.

But times -- and Vegas -- have changed, he says. The Strip's hotels are now full of the edgier, New York-style entertainment and rock acts it once scorned -- and that's partly thanks to Penn & Teller's success.

The duo packed houses at Bally's when they first set up shop in the city, and began an extended residency at the Rio last fall that should run well into 2004. In their wake, Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil, and several rock shows have come into town.

Audiences are welcoming the change, Penn believes. "I think people under age 55 come to Vegas with a certain sense of irony," he says in a phone interview, and initially try one of the old-style shows for kicks. But then, he suggests, it's "let's see something that's not Vegas."

That's where Penn & Teller and the others come in. "We're counterprogramming," adds Teller in a separate call. "We're there for people who want to see people do amazing stuff."

Talk and don't talk

The duo prepare to catch bullets -- shot from a gun, of course.
Penn & Teller have been doing "amazing stuff" for more than 25 years now. They first teamed up in New Jersey in 1975; at the time, Penn was a street performer, Teller a high-school Latin teacher who performed magic on the side.

The roles they chose -- Penn's jokey bluster and Teller's silence -- were naturals, Teller says.

"I hated patter," he says. "It was usually redundant stuff -- 'Here I am holding a red ball' -- all of which I regarded as personally insulting." Silence, on the other hand, got an audience's attention, particularly in places like frat parties.

As for Penn's loquaciousness, it's always a means to an end, says Teller.

"Penn's fundamental gifts are his respect for the audience and his intelligence," Teller says. "He combines vocabulary words that wouldn't seem to belong together -- a word out of rap and a word from a physics textbook -- so a lot of images collide."

By 1985 the two had their own off-Broadway show; two years later they moved to the Great White Way itself. They appeared on several TV shows and published three books, "Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends," "How to Play with Your Food," and "How to Play in Traffic." Teller also wrote a memoir with his father, "When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours."

And the pair recently concluded a season of their Showtime TV show "Bulls**t!", which was nominated for two Emmys. A DVD of "Bulls**t!" is due out shortly.

Now that they're staying in town the two are constantly working on new stuff, which is easy to do since they live nearby.

"Right now we're doing a bit that's four minutes long that we rehearsed for a year," Penn says. "When you're working at that glacial pace, it's nice being in one place."

"Life is extremely easy," says Teller. "Here we have a 5,000-square foot office, shop and rehearsal space. In New York, life was an apartment in a building full of hookers."

Playing around

The two also play around with their act a little more. In addition to the stunts and illusions, there's a jazz performer, Mike Jones, with whom Penn performs before a show.

Jones also takes part in the magic. At one point, Penn is transformed by Gorilla Girl, a mind-reading woman-turned-gorilla. "It has to be narrated carnival-style. Mike does that at the piano with the whole schtick," says Teller.

Playing a regular show in Vegas is different from touring, Penn observes. For one thing, a Vegas audience is spur-of-the-minute; on the road, they may get to a city seldom enough that "it's an event," he says.

Also, an unfamiliar road audience, primed for their appearance, "explodes," Penn says -- even though the pair may be putting on the same show every night.

But a Vegas audience has more of a show-me attitude.

"I prefer Vegas," Penn says. "I feel like we have to really work."

[Jolie Rouge]

Stranded Rower Phones Mom for Help


BOSTON (Reuters) - A Frenchman attempting to row across the Atlantic called his mother for help as he sat atop his capsized boat in rough waters 100 miles off Cape Cod, the head of the Ocean Rowing Society said on Tuesday.

Emmanuel Coindre, who set off for France from the coast of Massachusetts last week, capsized early on Monday due to inclement weather and used a satellite phone to call for help as the boat took in water.

"After five hours (trying to right the boat) he phoned his mother in France who called the French coast guard who called the U.S. Coast Guard," Kenneth Crutchlow, executive director of the London-based Ocean Rowing Society, told Reuters.

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued him on Monday and brought him ashore.


"We are recovering from hours of anguish since yesterday," Sylviane Coindre, the rower's mother, said in an e-mail to Reuters. "As parents we never lost hope."


Coindre has crossed the Atlantic from east to west twice and last year became one of only a handful to row across the ocean the other way.


"Last year he landed in a pretty bad storm," Crutchlow said. "Frankly he got in just in time."


He completed the crossing in 87 days, failing to beat countryman Gerard D'Aboville's record 72-day journey. He set out last week for another crack at the record.


Plans to break the record this year and become the first to cross the Atlantic alone three times seem lost as the row boat is now missing at sea. Coindre spent Tuesday on a fishing vessel searching for his craft.


"It's very unlikely he will find it," Crutchlow said. "I'm not saying it's impossible, but the only way they're going to find that boat is by sheer luck."



07/30/03 11:06