News of the Weird - this just in!

[STEVE G]

South African prostitute goes to court over 'unfair dismissal'

A South African prostitute has gone to court, claiming she was unfairly sacked from her job at a Cape Town massage parlour.
The woman, known as "Kylie", alleged that the massage parlour's boss dismissed her for choosing her clients and for spending time with her boyfriend, who did not pay for her services, according to a report from the South African Press Association.

But prostitution is illegal in South Africa, and the judge at the labour appeals court said he was not sure whether a person engaged in illegal activity could challenge a dismissal in court.

"When dismissed you are made to stop with something criminal... but then you say 'please protect me from someone who is stopping me from doing something criminal' - it doesn't makes sense to me," Judge President Raymond Zondo said.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... issal.html

[redzonerocker]

this one is quite amusing apart from the last few paragraphs
should have put it on the anti euro thread

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... heist.html

[STEVE G]

Madrid could add siesta to list of protected Spanish cultural icons

The Spanish practice of napping in the afternoon should be declared a protected art form, Madrid's conservative government has been told.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... icons.html

[Khundon1975]

I wouldn't have to be in Spain to take an afternoon nap.

I have is down to a fine art in any country.

[PeteC]

This is not just weird, it's very sad. Talk about the wrong place/wrong time. When your number is up, it's up. Pete


Mom: Jogger hit by plane was excited to head home
AP

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – A father of two in town on business was jogging on the beach and listening to his iPod when he was hit from behind and killed by a small plane making an emergency landing, officials said Tuesday.

Robert Gary Jones, 38, of Woodstock, Ga., died instantly Monday evening when he was hit by the single-engine plane, which had lost its propeller, said Beaufort County Coroner Ed Allen. The pilot's vision was blocked by oil on the windshield.

The coroner said Jones apparently did not see or hear the plane, which was "basically gliding."

His mother, Pauline Jones, said Tuesday that he was in Hilton Head for work but was supposed to fly home to suburban Atlanta on Wednesday for his daughter's third birthday.

Her son was often out of town for his job with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, where he had been a salesman since 1997.

"Any time he traveled, I would worry myself to death about him," said his mother, who lives outside Tampa, Fla., where he grew up. "I'd call and say, 'Where are you, where are you?'"

Federal Aviation Administration records show the experimental Lancair IV-P plane that hit Robert Jones was registered to Edward I. Smith of Chesapeake, Va.

Smith was on the beach with his plane Tuesday and confirmed he was the pilot. He said he did not want to talk about the crash and offered few details.

"I've got a lot of issues going on right now. I've got a plane that's all torn up. And I've got a young man that I killed," he said.

Authorities said there was also a passenger on board but did not identify him or her.

The plane started leaking oil at about 13,000 feet and tried originally to make it to Hilton Head Airport, said fire and rescue spokeswoman Joheida Fister.

The oil on the windshield blocked Smith's vision and he told authorities the propeller came off. When he tried to land on the beach near the Hilton Head Marriott Resort and Spa, the plane hit Jones and came to rest a little farther down the beach, Fister said.

The plane was still on the beach Tuesday afternoon. Waves lapped against it and the tail was attached to an anchor with a rope so the tide wouldn't pull it out to sea. The waves had washed away any sign of it skidding across the sand.

Yellow crime scene tape stretched from the water to the dunes to keep people away. Tourists walked up to the tape, gawking and snapping pictures. Other than the missing propeller, the plane appeared undamaged.

The plane left Orlando, Fla., at 4:45 p.m. and was headed for Virginia, Fister said. The four-seater plane has a turbine engine, can be built from a kit and can fly up to 370 mph, according to the Lancair Web site. The IV-P model has a pressurized cabin.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating, Fister said.

An FAA spokeswoman referred inquiries to the NTSB.

[Nereus]

Be careful:

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/mp ... or-couple/


A Russian couple having sex in a car parked in a tiny garage have died from carbon monoxide poisoning, Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday.

"A man and a woman retreated to their Volkswagen to have sex," Moscow police said.

"Most likely the lovers turned on the engine to get warm."

During a moment of "intimate closeness," the pair, in southern Moscow, inhaled the gas and died, the source added.

Many Russians keep their cars in box-like iron garages near their homes, which snugly encase their cars.

[STEVE G]

A property tycoon lost his £130,000 Lamborghini sports car because he was too drunk to remember where he had parked it, a court heard.

Glenn Knowles, 35, and the co-owner of the car, Richard Mant, 39, were accused of trying to swindle an insurance company over the disappearance of the vehicle, which has never been traced.

But the jury accepted Mr Knowles’s claim that he had no idea what happened to the car after his drunken night out.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... drunk.html

[redzonerocker]

not really weird but worth a view.

quite possibly one of the most catastrophic accidents at work?

imagine the captioned conversation . . . . .

1st driver backing up to warehouse labourer. . . . "can you drive a forklift?"

warehouse labourer . . . " yeah no problem, i used to drive 'em all the time on my last job"

1st driver . . . . "ok, move that one back out of the way so i can get down there"

[STEVE G]

Now here is a headline you don't see everyday:

Wild 'boxing kangaroo knocks Australian jogger unconscious after assault'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... sault.html

"All my years of playing football and never a fight, and then I have a fight with a kangaroo."

[Khundon1975]

I'm sure this deformity would come in handy, not sure for what though

http://news.uk.msn.com/odd-news/feature ... =152700382

[STEVE G]

LONDON (Reuters) - Defying grim predictions that the economic downturn would clobber specialist books, the annual contest for oddest title has had a bumper year, with the 2009 winner being named on Friday as "Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes."

The book won 42 percent of the vote run by TheBookseller.com to emerge a comfortable winner.

The top six were as follows: 1. Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes 2. What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua? 3. Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich 4. Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter 5. Governing Lethal Behaviour in Autonomous Robots 6. The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Horace Bent, The Bookseller magazine's diarist, said "Crocheting" was always the front runner.

"It defended its poll-topping position despite strong support for the spoon-carrying Third Reich, once again attempting to muscle in on someone else's territory."

Bent added: "I confess that when the credit crunch began to bite British publishing, I feared for the future of this most prestigious of literary awards.

"Surely oddly titled books would suffer in a climate that was prompting publishers to focus on more bankable works -- like frankly lamentable biographies of Z-list "celebrities' and those depressing white books with doleful children on the cover."

"I believe Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes is a worthy champion to stand alongside the likes of 'Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers' and 'Living with Crazy Buttocks' as winners of this distinguished award."

Philip Stone, The Bookseller's charts editor, said the magazine had received more than 4,500 votes, which had been a reflection of the oddest and therefore strongest shortlist in the 32-year history of the prize.

[hhfarang]

While attempting to go to Hua Hin After Dark I found got another link and found that HHAD has another meaning...

From the Urban Dictionary:

HHAD - A step above KOS (Kill on Sight); the acronym stands for "hunt his ass down".

[lindosfan1]

All of these stories are true according to the BBC
1. Coastguards in Falmouth, Cornwall, picked up a distress signal call from a ship named the MV Titanic in the Caribbean. Three people were on the ship which was taking on water and suffering from electrical failure.

2. Chilli grower Woody Woods, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, is laying claim to the world's hottest variety of pepper. Tests carried out by Warwick University rate the Infinity chilli at 1,067,286 on the Scoville Scale, which is used to measure the heat of peppers - hotter than the Bhut Jolokia variety which is used for crowd control by the Indian Army.

More details (the Sun)

3. Tucking into a fried breakfast of sausages, eggs, bacon, beans, mushrooms, black pudding and tomatoes is a healthier way to start the day than a bowl of cereal, according to a study in the International Journal of Obesity.

More details (Daily Star)

4. The UK's first sustainable cat food will go on sale later this year, allowing owners to feed felines their favourite fish with a clear conscience. People are becoming increasingly concerned about sustainability and the provenance of the fish they feed their pets, says Mars Petcare, manufacturers of the new food.

More details (Daily Telegraph)

5. A couple from Devon staged a Flintstone-themed wedding that saw the groom dressed as Fred Flintsone, the bride as Wilma, the best man as Barney Rubble and... you can guess the rest. They sealed their vows with the promise "Yabba dabba, I do".

More details (Daily Mail)


Grille-ed duck - big on survival instinct
6. A British van driver who hit two ducks while driving home through Belgium discovered one of them alive, wedged under the bonnet, when he stopped to inspect the damage at a motorway service station on the M1. He took the duck to a rescue centre which said it had a broken wing, but should make a good recovery.

More details (Daily Telegraph)

7. A 300-page book of Gordon Brown's best speeches, called The Change We Choose; Speeches 2007-2009, has been published by "popular demand".

More details (Daily Telegraph)

8. Cabin crew who say they are owed up to nine months' wages by a Spanish airline have posed nude for a calendar to highlight their plight.

More details (Daily Mail)

9. Etiquette arbiter Debretts is publishing a guide to polite motoring which includes tips such as avoid spraying perfume while in a car and keep conversation light in order to avoid in-car arguments.

More details (Daily Mirror)

10. Rumours - and so, perhaps, April Fools jokes - spread as rapidly as flu, thanks to a test carried out on the internet. Researchers from Rome's La Sapienza University posted a message on Twitter only to see it appear in a newspaper 17 hours later.

More details (Daily Mail)

[STEVE G]

Man rams car into parked plane in Nigeria.

CALABAR, Nigeria (Reuters) - A man who claimed to have been sent by Jesus to punish sinners rammed his car into a parked plane at an airport in southeastern Nigeria , an aviation spokesman said Thursday.

No one was hurt in the incident Wednesday and the spokesman said Nigeria had no problem with security.

The United States put Nigeria on a list of countries needing to improve security after Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was arrested on suspicion of trying to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner in December using explosives hidden in his underwear.

"There is no problem at all at our airports, no cause for alarm, as we have the necessary security on the ground," said Akin Olukunle, spokesman for the Federal Airport Authority.

He said the driver had broken through two security gates at Calabar international airport and rammed his car into the Arik Air plane before soldiers arrested him.

The suspect was heard yelling that all Nigerians were sinners and must repent or perish, a reporter who was at the airport said. The man, who is from Nigeria's southeastern state of Akwa Ibom, said he had been sent by Jesus Christ.

Authorities were questioning him in Calabar.

The crew of the plane, which had arrived from Lagos and was on its way to the capital Abuja, were not injured and no passengers were on board at the time.

[STEVE G]

A German pensioner was fined €14,000 (£12,000) for repeatedly performing cannonball dives at a public swimming pool, according to reports.

A 74-year-old retired teacher, identified only as Axel G., was accused of terrorising a local pool, where cannonballs, or Arschbomben, (literally "ass bombs") are forbidden, according to a report in The Local.

He appeared before the Alzey district court this week to appeal the fine. According to The Local, the pensioner had been accused of terrorising fellow swimmers for years with his explosive dives, spitting in the water and even dunking a young girl underwater.

Axel G. initially denied all of the charges, but CCTV footage of the pool revealed evidence of the disruptive diving.

He has since withdrawn his appeal, and has agreed to pay the fine.