News of the Weird - this just in!

[Nereus]

Waking 'corpse' frightens morgue staff

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/br ... gue-staff/

A 50-year-old South African man thought to be dead woke up in a chilly morgue and shouted to be let out, scaring off two attendants who thought he was a ghost.

"His family thought he had died," health spokesman Sizwe Kupelo told the Sapa news agency.

"The family called a private undertaker who took what they thought was a dead body to the morgue, but the man woke up inside the morgue on Sunday at 5pm and screamed, demanding to be taken out of the cold place."

This caused two mortuary attendants on duty to flee the building in the small town of Libode in the rural Eastern Cape as they thought it was a ghost.

After calling for help and returning to find the man alive, an ambulance was sent to fetch the man who had "been exposed to extreme cold for nearly 24 hours", said Kupelo.

He said the public should not assume that a sick person has died and call the mortuary, the report said.

"Doctors, emergency workers and the police are the only people who have a right to examine the patients and determine if they are dead or not."

[Nereus]

Sex injuries 'a work compo claim'

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wa ... mpo-claim/

A public servant who was injured during sex while away on a work trip is claiming compensation, saying she is entitled to a payout because the injury was sustained during the course of her employment.

News Ltd newspapers report that the woman was injured when a glass light fitting above the bed fell as she was having sex with a man in 2007.

She suffered injuries to her nose, mouth and a tooth, and "a consequent psychiatric injury".

The woman had been sent to a country town to stay the night ahead of a meeting early the next day.

News Lt report her lawyers argue that she should be entitled to compensation because she was "at a particular place" at which her employer "induced or encouraged" her to spend the night.

Her initial claim was rejected and that decision upheld by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, but the case is now with the Federal Court.

ComCare, the Federal Government's workplace safety authority, said the sexual activity had nothing to do with the woman's work but her lawyers argue it is the same as activities such as serious drinking or socialising, injuries from which have been the basis for successful compensation claims.

[Nereus]

South Carolina woman faces trial for fake testicles

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/of ... testicles/

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - The police chief of a small South Carolina town will ask a jury to decide if a woman broke the state's obscenity laws by driving a pickup truck with plastic testicles hanging from the back.

Bonneau Police Chief Franco Fuda ticketed Virginia Tice, 65, in early July at a local convenience store after spying the adornment dangling from her truck.

South Carolina law considers a bumper sticker, decal or device indecent when it describes, in an offensive way as determined by contemporary community standards, "sexual acts, excretory functions, or parts of the human body."

The offense carries a maximum fine of $445 but no jail time, Fuda said.

"This is certainly not a staple of my ticket writing in Bonneau," the police chief told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Charleston law firm Savage & Savage will represent Tice for free, attorney Scott Bischoff said. The trial had been scheduled for next week but was delayed because the defendant will be out of town.

"She's such a sweet lady and she just says 'I don't want to pay the fine.' We'll let a jury decide whether this is really criminal behaviour. I don't want to take away from the importance of free speech, but it's really comical," he said.

Lawmakers in some states have sought to ban the colourful plastic or rubber devices that go by brand names such as Bulls Balls and Truck Nutz.

Fuda said if the fake testicles were a free speech issue, "I don't know what they would be trying to express."

"I went to (a) few websites that said, excuse the expression, 'show your nuts,'" he said. "I didn't see anywhere it said support your local proctologist or farmer."

[migrant]

South Carolina woman faces trial for fake testicles

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/of ... testicles/

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - The police chief of a small South Carolina town will ask a jury to decide if a woman broke the state's obscenity laws by driving a pickup truck with plastic testicles hanging from the back.

Bonneau Police Chief Franco Fuda ticketed Virginia Tice, 65, in early July at a local convenience store after spying the adornment dangling from her truck.

South Carolina law considers a bumper sticker, decal or device indecent when it describes, in an offensive way as determined by contemporary community standards, "sexual acts, excretory functions, or parts of the human body."

The offense carries a maximum fine of $445 but no jail time, Fuda said.

"This is certainly not a staple of my ticket writing in Bonneau," the police chief told Reuters on Wednesday.

The Charleston law firm Savage & Savage will represent Tice for free, attorney Scott Bischoff said. The trial had been scheduled for next week but was delayed because the defendant will be out of town.

"She's such a sweet lady and she just says 'I don't want to pay the fine.' We'll let a jury decide whether this is really criminal behaviour. I don't want to take away from the importance of free speech, but it's really comical," he said.

Lawmakers in some states have sought to ban the colourful plastic or rubber devices that go by brand names such as Bulls Balls and Truck Nutz.

Fuda said if the fake testicles were a free speech issue, "I don't know what they would be trying to express."

"I went to (a) few websites that said, excuse the expression, 'show your nuts,'" he said. "I didn't see anywhere it said support your local proctologist or farmer."

Awww nuts!!

[Nereus]

Young dad becomes grandpa at 29

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/of ... ndpa-at-29

After fathering a child at the age of 15, an unemployed man has become one of Britain's youngest grandparents since his teenage daughter gave birth.

Twenty-nine-year-old Shem Davies said he was "incredibly proud" of his 14-year-old daughter Tia, who celebrated the birth of her daughter Gracie recently.

Mr Davies looks so young that nurses at the maternity ward where the new baby was delivered thought "the young grandfather was in fact the teenage father of Gracie", Britain's The Daily Mail said.

"Apparently when he entered the ward they thought the 29-year-old looked so fresh-faced they asked him to prove he was over the age of 16," The Mail reported.

The baby's father, Jordan Williams, is 15 years old.

"She'll be a brilliant mum," Mr Davies said of his daughter.

"At first I wasn't overly pleased that she was pregnant but I soon got over that. Now it's all about being positive."

Seven weeks before her due date, Tia was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.

"The condition, which often leaves expectant mothers with high blood pressure and protein in their urine, could lead to life-threatening symptoms for both mother and baby," The Mail said.

"Tia said the contrast between the carefree fun of the school playground and then the fear of death for her and the baby was something she would never forget."

The teenage mum celebrated her 15th birthday in hospital and said her baby was the best present she could ask for.

Tia, who has been in a relationship with Jordan for the past 18 months, plans to be a hairdresser.

The new mum and baby would stay with Tia's mother, 30-year-old Kelly John - Mr Davies' former girlfriend - while Tia finished school, according to reports.

[Nereus]

NZ woman loses hand in Croatian yacht sex

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wo ... yacht-sex/

A New Zealand woman nearly died after her hand has accidentally severed during holiday sex on a yacht in Croatia.

The 28-year-old woman was having sex with a British man on a bathroom sink aboard the yacht when the sink broke, severing her hand when she fell, the Croatian Times reported.

Police from the island of Hvar said the woman's hand was reattached during a six hour operation by surgeons in Split.

"It appears they were engaged in a passionate act in the bathroom where at some stage the sink broke -- leaving a jagged edge that severed the woman's hand when she fell to the floor," police spokesman Kraljevic Gudelj said.

"The young woman almost died, and was only saved after she was airlifted to hospital where doctors managed to reattach the severed limb. It had only been attached by a small amount of skin."

The couple are understood to have met in Croatia and ended up on a yacht in Palmizana Marina.

Police were now trying to track down the Briton.

"We believe it was probably an accident but the British man has fled and the New Zealand girl is understandably hard to speak to at the moment. We want to track him down to find out his side of the story," Gudelj said.

A spokeswoman for the NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they were providing assistance to the woman and her family.

[Nereus]

Who wants to chip in and make Vilnius a sister city to Hua Hin and then invite the Mayor to come on an exchange visit with the Thai incumbent?

.........................................................................................................

Lithuanian mayor crushes car with tank

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8280948

Drivers in one Lithuanian city may be in for a shock if they continue to take liberties when parking their prestige cars.

The mayor of Vilnius has used a tongue-in-cheek promotional video to tackle the scourge of expensive cars being left illegally in bike lanes.

Rather than increasing parking fines, or employing extra wardens to patrol the streets, Mayor Arturas Zuokas has joked that he has commandeered the services of a tank to crush the inconsiderately positioned cars.

He said the city is riddled with the owners of Rolls Royces and Ferraris who have no regard for the rules, and claims he has "had enough".

Cr Zuokas is filmed asking what the city should do about these drivers, before sharing his own out-of-the-box thinking.

"It seems that a tank is the best solution," he said.

In the video, Cr Zuokas is seen riding atop a six-wheeled military machine as it flattens a Mercedes-Benz.

"That's what will happen if you park your car illegally," he said.

He then shakes the hand of the apparent owner of the car — which was junked before the staged crushing — and offers the friendly advice: "Next time, park your car legally".

Authorities are hoping the city's worst parking offenders get the message.

[STEVE G]

Australian farmers say wallabies are getting stoned on poppy plants and making crop circles as they hop around in an opium-fueled stupor.

The bizarre behavior was reported to a state parliamentary hearing on the security of poppy crops in the southern island state of Tasmania, the BBC reported.

State Attorney General Lara Giddings said the furry marsupials were getting "as high as a kite" and running, or hopping to be more accurate, amok in the state's opium fields.

"We have a problem with wallabies entering poppy fields, getting as high as a kite and going around in circles. Then they crash," she told the hearing.

"We see crop circles in the poppy industry from wallabies that are high."

She said the phenomenon was "one interesting bit that I found recently in one of my briefs on the poppy industry."

About 50 percent of the world's legally-harvested opium, used to make morphine and other painkillers, is grown in Australia, the BBC reported.

Opium is derived from the black resin of the poppy flower. In a more refined form it becomes heroin.

Tasmanian poppy farmer Rick Rockliff said the wallabies were not the only party animals making headaches for producers.

"There have been many stories about sheep that have eaten some of the poppies after harvesting and they all walk around in circles," he said.

Retired Tasmanian poppy farmer Lyndley Chopping described watching wallabies, smaller versions of kangaroos, grazing in his field and then hopping away.

"They'd come back again and they would do their circle work in the paddock," he said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Network.

Rockliff said poppy seeds, commonly used on bread, were nutritious and harmless. It's the seed pods that contain alkaloids which might be intoxicating the wallabies, he said.

"They are, after all, a narcotic and ingested in big amounts it can have an effect," he said.

University of Tasmania animal welfare officer Barry Wells told the ABC said the phenomenon needed to be examined more closely.

But he agreed that if the wallabies are becoming addicted to poppies there would be changes to their behavior. "They might stagger about, they might walk in circles," he said.

But he also cautioned: "They might just be acting in what would appear to be a lethargic way and certainly out of character from what you would expect with wild wallabies."

[STEVE G]

Swede admits home-made atom experiment was 'crazy'
(BBC.com)


A Swedish man who tried to set up a nuclear reactor in his kitchen at home has admitted his plan was "crazy".
Richard Handl said he had just been "curious" and wanted to see if he would be able to split an atom.
Police were called to his flat in Angelholm in southern Sweden after he got in touch with Sweden's radiation authority to check if what he was doing was legal.
Mr Handl said he would stick to reading books about physics from now on.
Mr Handl, who is 31 and unemployed, told the BBC World Service he had bought the radioactive materials on the internet and from Germany.
He had been working on the experiment for around six months and posted regular updates on his blog.
He was questioned by police, who confiscated his nuclear materials as well as his computer.
"I had it under control, it was not so dangerous," he told the BBC.
But he added: "It was pretty stupid."
It is unclear what will happen next in the police inquiry. Mr Handl said he expected a fine.

[sandman67]

Polygamist Sex Freak Masturbates 15 Times a Day in Jail

Polygamist Sex Freak Masturbates 15 Times a Day in JailHow is polygamist leader and convicted rapist Warren Jeffs dealing the knowledge that he will spend the rest of his life in jail, never again to feel the sweet caress of his harem of child brides? With constant exhibitionist masturbation, according to an intrepid report from The Daily:

According to one of his former jailers, the convicted child rapist masturbated more or less continuously while in custody. Rick Bradley, a guard at the county jail where Jeffs was kept in the weeks prior to his trial, told The Daily that the 55-year-old seemed to be suffering from sexual withdrawal and pleasured himself "a lot." What does that mean, exactly—five times a day? More, Bradley said.

Fifteen times? "Sometimes more than that," he told The Daily.

The guard said that the prisoner—who was not permitted conjugal visits—often played solo in full view of his guards. "We could see him," Bradley said.

I don't know who's more likely to go blind from this, Jeffs or the guards. That said, should this guard really be tracking prisoners' masturbation habits and leaking it to the press? And of all press to leak it to, The Daily? Does he have any idea how great New York City newsstands would be today, if he'd gone to the Daily News and the Post?

http://gawker.com/5829542/polygamist-se ... pular=true

[migrant]

Polygamist Sex Freak Masturbates 15 Times a Day in Jail

Polygamist Sex Freak Masturbates 15 Times a Day in JailHow is polygamist leader and convicted rapist Warren Jeffs dealing the knowledge that he will spend the rest of his life in jail, never again to feel the sweet caress of his harem of child brides? With constant exhibitionist masturbation, according to an intrepid report from The Daily:

According to one of his former jailers, the convicted child rapist masturbated more or less continuously while in custody. Rick Bradley, a guard at the county jail where Jeffs was kept in the weeks prior to his trial, told The Daily that the 55-year-old seemed to be suffering from sexual withdrawal and pleasured himself "a lot." What does that mean, exactly—five times a day? More, Bradley said.

Fifteen times? "Sometimes more than that," he told The Daily.

The guard said that the prisoner—who was not permitted conjugal visits—often played solo in full view of his guards. "We could see him," Bradley said.

I don't know who's more likely to go blind from this, Jeffs or the guards. That said, should this guard really be tracking prisoners' masturbation habits and leaking it to the press? And of all press to leak it to, The Daily? Does he have any idea how great New York City newsstands would be today, if he'd gone to the Daily News and the Post?

http://gawker.com/5829542/polygamist-se ... pular=true

They should put him in a cell with a couple 300 lb guys that will "help" him out

[PeteC]

Frozen squirrels have been used for criminal purposes.

While even a cursory study of criminal behavior will uncover instances of animals having been employed as weapons (e.g., snakes used in holdups), in
a couple of unusual cases not only have squirrels been wielded by the ill-intentioned, but the critters were frozen ones at that.

In 1994 in Lorain, Ohio, frozen squirrels were listed among the tools of trade used by two men and a teenager in their attempts to steal tire rims from a parked car. The trio would fling said frosted rodents at barking dogs to distract the canines from raising the alarm as they worked.

In 1991, frozen squirrels were used to bludgeon a woman in Sacramento, California. Kao Khae Saephan, an immigrant from Laos, repeatedly struck his wife with six frozen squirrels he retrieved from the family freezer, rendering the poor woman unconscious. (As to why the couple had these rodents in their freezer, it's because squirrel meat is a component of some Laotian dishes.) The irate husband was jailed on suspicion of spousal abuse, and Mrs. Saephan filed for divorce.

Iced squirrels, by the way, are a menace even when not being used in criminal endeavors. In 2005, British insurance company Norwich Union paid off on a claim for damage done to a vehicle by a frozen squirrel that had fallen from a tree — the iced rodent crashed through the windshield and landed on the passenger seat.

[Nereus]

Diver's body found after 17 years

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wo ... -17-years/

The remarkably well-preserved body of a scuba diver who sank and vanished 17 years ago in Lake Tahoe has been found on an underwater ledge deep in the mountain lake, according to authorities.

The body of Donald Christopher Widecker, 44, was pulled from Lake Tahoe on July 27, four days after a group of divers stumbled across it while exploring a granite cliff 270 feet below the surface.

Mr Widecker sank into the frigid lake on California's border with Nevada on July 10, 1994 after apparently suffering a medical or equipment problem. He had not been seen since.

Tahoe is the second-deepest lake in the United States, reaching depths of 1,645 feet.

"This group was doing just a routine planned dive and it was literally a needle in a haystack. This diver went in the water in 1994 and they just happened to find him," El Dorado County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jim Byers told Reuters.

"He was wedged in a crevice in the rock or he'd have gone all way to bottom and we'd never (have) found him," Byers said.

The group, which could descend further than conventional recreational divers by using more sophisticated mixed-gas equipment, discovered Widecker still wearing a wetsuit and buckled into his scuba gear and air tank, Sgt Byers said.

"They immediately recognized that this was not a diver who should be down there," he said. "Very obviously he was deceased. They surfaced and contacted us."

Authorities were able to locate the ledge using a remote-controlled mini-submarine and recovered Mr Widecker's body, which has undergone an autopsy to determine what caused his death nearly two decades ago.

"Here we have a diver in 270 feet of water that stays at 36 to 38 degrees constantly, doesn't change much," Sgt Byers said.

"Because he had wetsuit on he was protected from the elements and was just remarkably preserved. From a pathological standpoint it's pretty incredible," he said. "Literally, it's a little spooky."

Mr Widecker was last seen in 1994 by a friend and dive partner, who reported seeing him sinking quickly in the lake, his respirator out of his mouth. The friend was unable to save him at the time.

Byers said that in 2001, a group of divers came across Mr Widecker's body and tied a buoy line to it, but the line snapped and authorities were unable to find the spot.

Mr Widecker's body still had the broken buoy line attached to it when it was recovered, Sgt Byers said.

[STEVE G]

Australian man convicted for driving motorised cool box while drunk

Chris Petrie has lost his licence for 10 months and been fined £320 after being caught driving a portable cool box while three times over the legal alcohol limit.
The 23-year-old Australian from Noosa, in Queensland brought the motorised cool box from eBay for AUD $600.00 (£383).
After assembling it with some friends while having a few drinks he could not resist the temptation to take it out for a spin near his home.
"By the time we built it was quite late. So we thought we'd go for a bit of a test run," said Mr Petrie.
He was stopped by police driving the along Noosa Parade just before midnight on June 16 and breathalysed.
As well as being unable to produce a licence, the breath test found him to be three times over the legal alcohol limit.
Despite Mr Petrie’s lawyer arguing his client was not aware that the cool box was classified as a vehicle, the court found him guilty yesterday and fined him AUD $500.00 (£320).
He has also been suspended from driving for 10 months.
The portable cool box, or esky as they are called in Australia, is powered by a 50cc engine and can reach speeds up to 12.42 miles. It can hold 48 cans of beer.

[Nereus]

Model in bid to be world's fattest woman

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/wo ... est-woman/

A woman who gorges on over 20,000 calories of food per day is hoping to reach 730kg by her 42nd birthday.

Susanne Eman currently weighs 330kg, and plans to reach the halfway mark of her goal by the end of the year, the Daily Mail reported.

The 32-year-old has already surpassed the world's former heaviest mum, Donna Simpson, who weighed in at a paltry 317.5kg.

susanneeman.jpg (14.98 KiB) Viewed 717 times

It takes Eman eight hours to fill six trolleys at the supermarket during her monthly shopping visits, and plans to get even more food to reach her goal.

"I'd love to find out if it's humanly possible to reach a ton,’ she said. ‘A previous record holder was 1,600lbs (730kg) , so I have to be at least that.

"My next goal is to be 57 stone (362kg) by the end of the year.

"At my current rate of growth, I should be 115 stone by age 41 or 42."

Despite the incredible calorie, fat and sugar count in her daily diet, Eman believes she can remain healthy on her weighty journey.

She added: "The bigger I get, the better I feel. I feel more confident and sexy. Why shouldn't I push the limits and see how fat I can get and stay healthy?"

Eman says a failed battle with natural weight gain led her to change her tactics.

'Two years ago I hit 35 stone because I was losing my battle against weight gain,’ she said.

‘I noticed I actually started attracting more men, and it made me feel good.’

Eman is unemployed due to her weight, but tries to maintain her health through regular exercise and regular visits to the doctor.

"I go for a waddle and do stretches and exercises every day," she said. "My muscles need to hold up to my weight, so I have to stay strong.

"I take my blood pressure once a week, and every day, after I exercise, I take readings of my other vitals. I use a pulse oximeter to measure the concentration of oxygen in my blood stream.

"And I take my blood sugar levels just like a diabetic. If either of the readings go above a certain level, I'll immediately contact my doctor for advice.

"If I was to get sick, I've arranged for my sister to take care of my kids.

"I haven't gone near the danger zones yet though."

Despite doctors warning her of the dangers and threat of death by following her current course, Eman is determined to reach her weighty goal.

Dr Patrick Flite said: ‘She's really playing Russian roulette with her life with this goal. There are well-documented complications that come with morbid obesity.

‘I would never encourage anyone to be doing what Susanne is doing.’