watching out for your safety.

Thank Goodness we have people in higher places who care about our safety. What would we do without them? For example, here are two items from this week's news:

The administration at Anglia Ruskin University in England has saved graduates possible injury by banning the throwing of hats at graduation.

The university website tells graduating seniors that they are not to throw their hats in the air, "...as this not only causes damage to the hats, but can also cause injury if the corner of the hat hits the graduate or others who may be nearby."

And.... in Portsmouth, England, a 47-year old mother of three was told that she must empty her 2-foot-deep inflatable kids swimming pool (see picture) because she does not have a life guard or swimming-pool insurance.

(Fortunately, after an official intervened on her behalf, the city council reduced their mandate to requiring only adult supervision... and insurance, which doesn't exist.)

Since we can't take care of ourselves, it is so good to know that there are others who want to do it for us.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1022007/The-paddling-pool-police-Health-safety-zealots-puncture-youngsters-fun.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2041973/Students-told-not-to-throw-mortar-boards-due-to-safety-risk.html

Man, am I glad to be alive. I've been living-on-the-edge this whole time and never even knew it.

valuable coupons: clip and save

stupid but lucky gameshow contestants

the evidence will be here soon.

Earlier this week, 25-year-old Jose Rigoberto Cruz Sales of northern Mexico, stole a gold bracelet from an 8-year-old girl. Fortunately, there were witnesses and police were able to identify and locate Sr. Sales.

Realizing that he was about to be caught with stolen goods, Sr. Sales panicked and decided to swallow the bracelet.

Undeterred, policed dragged him to a place where he could be x-rayed. Sure enough, they could see the bracelet in his stomach. So, they started Sales on a program of laxatives to hasten the retrieval of the evidence.

Sr. Sales faces robbery charges and could get from 6 to 15 years in prison, depending on the value of the bracelet, which had yet to be determined.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=153259&in_page_id=2

I say he is going to go free-- because that bracelet isn't worth a thing now.

more unfortunate name combinations for engaged couples.

for previous posts of unfortunate name combinations, see "my pointless tags" on the sidebar-- select "engaged to wed"

driving down the River Nar

Last month, a taxi driver in England was instructed to pick up a fare in Castle Acre, near King's Lynn, Norfolk.* As usual, the driver followed the directions of his GPS device to get to the pick-up spot.

As you probably know, GPS devices (or Sat-nav) are amazing devices that will give a driver turn-by-turn instructions on exactly where to go.

Well, usually.

While on his journey, the taxi driver came to a place in the road where he had a choice. If he turned, he would follow a road. If he went straight, he would drive the taxi into the River Nar.

Oddly... the GPS device told him to go straight. Now, what should he do? Should he trust his eyes and avoid driving into a river... or trust the GPS device?

For most normal people, the answer is clear. This driver, however, chose to believe his GPS device... and promptly drove the taxi into the river. Still not understanding that his GPS had failed him, he tried driving along the river for awhile.

As you might expect, the taxi got swamped and eventually had to be pulled from the river.

Incidentally, it is not the first time this has happened. In January, a man in South Wales drove his Audi into 4 feet of water... because his GPS device told him to. (The picture above is from that incident).

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=144292&in_page_id=2
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=82975&in_page_id=34

*I have no idea where this place is... but it sounded important to me. :)

Parents: instead of saying the proverbial, "if all your friends jumped off a cliff... would you jump off a cliff?" We should say, "If your GPS device told you to drive into a river....."

adopt a pet... or not.

This is how they appeared in the newspapers. I don't know which one of these pets scares me more.

Pruthviraj Patil: one poor kid.

Pruthviraj Patil is an 11-year-old boy who lives in a village near Bombay, India. In many ways, he is an average kid: he is healthy; he likes sports; he is popular with kids his age.

However, (as you can see by the pictures) Pruthviraj has a very rare condition known as hypertrichosis (aka Werewolf Syndrome). The condition not only produces excessive facial hair but hair all over the body. It is estimated that there are only 50 people alive who suffer from this condition.

He and his parents have tried all sorts of remedies, from ancient Indian remedies to modern laser surgery. Nothing works. The hair just keeps growing back.

Pruthviraj has been in the news lately because he has publicly asked doctors to help him find a permanent cure for his condition.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1958178/%27Werewolf-boy%27-begs-for-cure-to-rare-conditon.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1960632/Werewolf-boy-What-is-hypertrichosis.html

note: both pictures are of Pruthviraj. The one to the left was apparently taken after a treatment.

3 protest signs that didn't go well

we our sick and tyred of peeple hoo don't respect are country.



but do you have a dictionary?



well, um, yes, actually, we did... 1936

the sunburn song (a warning for Memorial Day)

for other rhett and link videos, see "my pointless tags" on the sidebar

still more from the police blotter

for more police blotter clips, see "my pointless tags" on the sidebar

memorable class picture

stevie starr, professional regurgetator

This guy just weirds me out. It isn't a trick. He does just what he says he is doing. I have seen him on several programs but this is from the Letterman show a couple of years ago.

getting an edge on the competition.

Business is tough these days. Restaurant and motel owners must do whatever they can to get an edge over their competition. For example... consider this ad from a Thai restaurant:



and this ad for an Inn in Mountain Park Ranch...

Maine moves to Oregon. West Africa moves to South America.

Back when I lived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I had a college student ask me, "New Hampshire... isn't that near Altoona (Pennsylvania)?" When I told her that New Hampshire is a state. Her reply was, "oh really?"

A friend of mine was at a gas station in California. Upon seeing his Maine license plate, the gas station attendant said, "Maine. Isn't that in Florida?" My friend replied, "No. Maine is a state in the northeast." The attendant said, "Oh, up near Oregon?" My friend, just smiled and said, "yeah."

I don't expect that international readers of this blog would know (or care) where Maine is... but people the US seem to have a problem with our geographical understanding. I offer these two further examples:



...an advertisement for a globe that shows children that Boston, Massachusetts is in India.



...a travel brochure that places West Africa on the west coast of South America.

slideshow: workplace safety again

thanks again to Jan for sending these to me.



to see previously posted pictures, find the "pointless tags" on the sidebar and select "workplace safety"

albino moose spotted in Whitefish, Montana

An albino moose is extraordinarily rare. These are real pictures. Unfortunately, they have been erroneously sent around the internet as having been taken in Boscawen, NH. They were actually taken in Whitefish, Montana.

Either way... what a beautiful animal. My thanks to Matt Goodwin for pointing me in the right direction.



http://www.ktvb.com/news/localnews/stories/ktvbn-feb1108-albino_moose.b08ac946.html

for the Concord Monitor article on the erroneous Boscawen NH story, see:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080320/NEWS01/803200393

some new pictures

...if you didn't notice, I finally posted a new slide-show on the top of the sidebar...

the best defense is a good offense??

Let's say you are on trial for assault. Unfortunately, the trial doesn't seem to be going your way... and it looks like the jury is going to convict you. (The fact that you are guilty doesn't matter at this point.)

What would seem to be your best choice?

a. sit in court and try to look innocent.
b. ask your lawyer to plea bargain
c. beat up your lawyer in court

This week, William E. Lehman chose the third option in a Minnesota court.

It seems that Mr. Lehman was on trial for assault. He believed that his court-appointed defender, Mark Groettum, was doing a less-than-satisfactory job, so, he requested that the judge give him a new lawyer.

The judge refused because he could find no reason to do so.

That is when Mr. Lehman put a little crimp in his own case. He grabbed his lawyer and got him in a headlock. Then, he proceeded to punch him repeatedly in the face. All this took place in front of the judge and jury.

After that, it didn't take much to convince the jury that Mr. Lehman was quite capable of assaulting someone. He is now serving 14 years in prison with an extra 6 months added for contempt of court.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=148323&in_page_id=2


After I posted the above story, I came across this video. It is a different case with a similar theme.

a somewhat stupid but wonderful dog

if we could talk with the aliens.

Maybe he is right after all. (?)

Earlier this month, I reported the story of a legislator in Denver, Colorado who wants his city to form an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission... just in case a alien spacecraft someday collides with a school bus.

Strange? Apparently not. It seems that the University of Wyoming is offering a course that addresses the same sort of concern.

The university is offering a credited course to its English students entitled "Interstellar Message Composition." The course, which is sponsored in part by NASA (!), investigates how humans might be able to communicate with aliens someday.

The course tackles such vital issues as:

• would aliens be able to hear?
• would they be able to speak?
• if not, how could we communicate with them?
• if we say something, what should it be?
• would they be able to translate what we say?

"We’ve thought a lot about how we might communicate with other worlds, but we haven’t thought much about what we’d actually say," said Professor Jeffrey Lockwood in an interview with ABC News.

Douglas Vakoch, director of the program adds, "It’s really critical to have people start thinking about it and it makes sense to start with writers. These are people who are really trying to express the human condition."

Fortunately, progress is being made into this new field. For example, Dixie Thoman wrote a poem in "mathematically harmonious order" that speaks about menstruation. No other alien-enlightening works have been reported.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/1989062/Nasa-sponsors-course-on-how-to-talk-to-aliens.html

okay. let's see. we contact aliens and one of the first things we give them is a poem about menstruation? hmmmm.... good thinking. give her an A.

still more from the police blotter

stupid men become enlightened

Kevin Lee Lytle, 27, and Daniel Jay Basinger, 24, of Confluence, Pennsylvania, were smart enough to realize that copper is worth money.

They were also smart enough to know that wire is often made of copper.

So, putting their collective genius together, they realized that if they stole some copper wire and sold it as scrap, they could get some extra money.

Armed with this knowledge, Kevin and Daniel hatched a plan-- they would climb a utility pole and steal the power lines. After all, what better place is there to find wire but on top of a utility pole?

Unfortunately, apparently the men didn't know that wires on a utility pole are almost always live -- with lots of power.

Their theft, as you might imagine, did not go so well. Both men succeeded in getting electrocuted, put the area in the darkness for five hours, and created $1,500 in damages.

Daniel and Kevin have both been charged with attempted theft. Unfortunately, only one of them is well enough to attend the arraignment. The other continues to recover in the hospital.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080517/ap_on_fe_st/odd_power_line_theft

imagine if they decided to start stealing car tires.

utility pole gallery

The story of the "utility pole bandits" (above) inspired me to post this collection of utility poles... each pole with its own problem--

42-year-old found 42-years-too-late

Hedviga Golik was reported missing back in 1966. The Croatian woman would have been 84 this year.

No one saw Hedviga leave her home. No one could locate her. So, everyone came to assume that she had simply moved out of her home in Zagreb and left no forwarding address. Her place was left unattended and no one ever moved in.

Hedviga found this week-- 42-years after she was first reported missing.

She was found in her own apartment. Her mummified remains were still sitting in a chair in front of a black and white TV set, with tea cup next to her chair.

It appears that Hedviga made herself a cup of tea back in 1966, sat down to watch TV, and died.

Authorities had broken into the small apartment to find out who owned it. It was then that they found Hedviga's body.

"So far we have no idea how it is possible that someone officially reported missing so long ago was not found before in the same apartment she used to live in." said a police spokesman.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2854938.html?menu=news.quirkies

waiting for the cable guy...

how not to sell a ladder

it's an older clip... but still worth the watch...


and reminds me of the man who mistook a moth for a horse

more from the police blotter

could be. did he have a burrito?

darth vader receives suspended sentence

Some stories are strange on a lot of levels.

In Holyhead, Wales, there is a group of people who call themselves the Jedi church. As you might imagine, the "church" is made up of around 30 people who find inspiration from the Star Wars films.

Founded by Barney Jones (aka Master Mormi Hehol), this group believes that the Star Wars films give us insight and knowledge and serve as "a guide to living a better and more worthwhile life."

They are serious. They have regular meetings to exercise their beliefs.

Unfortunately, Darth Vader (aka Arwel Wynne Hughes) found out about a Jedi meeting (where a Jedi promotional video was being made) and decided to punish the insurrectionists.

After finishing most of a 2.5 gallon box of white wine, Hughes donned his Vader costume. Then, wearing a black plastic bag as a cape, he attacked members of the church as they practiced a light-saber duel.

Video tape shows Hughes yelling "Vader!! Jediis!" as he approached and attacked the hapless Jedi knights with a metal crutch.

For his attack, "Vader" has been given two months of jail but the sentence has been suspended for a year. In addition, he has to pay each one of his victims $195 plus court costs.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24604338/?GT1=43001
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=147412&in_page_id=34

showing at last that a light saber is no match for a metal crutch

am I missing something??

marital rating scale

This chart was developed by Dr. George W. Crane back in 1939. Dr. Crane was a marriage counselor and wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column entitled "The Worry Clinic."
(clicking on the image should make a little clearer)



Dr. Crane tried to be "scientific" when he created this test. He interviewed 600 husbands about their wives positive and negative qualities. He then listed the most frequently mentioned merits or demerits. (really?? red nail polish was one??)

However, Dr. Crane admittedly used his own personal bias in creating the order of the test. This is only the first page of the test. Since there were 50 items on the test, I am looking for the next four pages... and for the Husband's Chart.

I gave this test to my wife a minute ago and she --OUCH. Hey! put that DOWN! dang. what's the matter with you??? Geezzzzzzzz-that just missed my HEAD. STOP IT!!! ...that stinking HURTS

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/05/13/1939-marital-rating.html
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/05/marriage.html

workplace safety (part 5)

again, thanks to Jan for sending these... still more to come.



link for previous workplace safety posts

inspired to stand tall

Have you ever seen soldiers who seem to stay in perfect form and precise posture? In China, they employ some unique devices to make sure that their soldiers learn the right way to stand... and now, we know why they won't look down or turn to the side.





http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2008/05/07/i-am-not-spartacus/
http://blogs.reuters.com/oddly-enough/2008/05/12/and-the-penalty-for-slouching-is/

teachers: having trouble getting students to stand in line?
parents: want your kids to sit up straight at the dinner table?

get them now, while supplies last.

look up in the air! it's a bird. it's a plane. it's a car.

Homeowners understand that unusually bad weather may bring damage to their roofs: wind, lightning, hail, falling trees, flying cars.

Last week, in Yanbain city China, a driver encountered a strong windstorm and a fast corner at the same time. The combination of the two launched his car off the road and onto the roof of a nearby house.

The driver of the car told the China News Network, "Before I realized what was happening, my car had landed on the roof..."

The high winds created a lot of damage. One repair shop said that they had to replace 30 windshields in one day-- the windshields had not been broken by wind-blown objects, but simply blown-in by the force of the wind.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2846891.html?menu=news.quirkies&no_cj_c=1

warning: some diet sodas may cause mutations.

Another horrible Photoshop job.

With a quick glance... I just didn't see the problem with this Fanta advertisement. Apparently, the ad agency missed it, too. However, the close-up shows that the graphic "artist" used Photoshop to create a mutant.




http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2008/05/fanta-you-really-dont-wanta.html

man saves self with kitchen surgery

This story is amazing... but it will probably give you the creeps.

Earlier this week, Steve Wilder of Omaha, Nebraska woke up just after midnight and found that he couldn't breathe. He knew that his windpipe had swollen shut.

At that point, the 55-year-old Wilder realized that he needed to act quickly. He believed that the ambulance would arrive too late if he called 911. So, Wilder did something truly remarkable.

He went to his kitchen and took a steak knife in hand... and gave himself a tracheotomy-- that's right-- he inserted the steak knife into his own neck and opened up his windpipe.

"|I| got a knife and located it and pushed in and blood went gush... I think I closed my eyes, but fear or something took over. I didn't feel no pain or nothing." The blood was squirting everywhere, but his lungs were inflating with air.

Wilder (pictured above) then called 911 and was taken to the emergency room. He is expected to recover without any complications.

Wilder is not a doctor nor was he trained to do this sort of surgery. He does have a scar on his neck where a previous surgery was performed.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/18751459.html

part of me says, "oh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
another part of me says, "wow, what courage"
still another part of me thinks of the money he saved on a surgeon

parking rage

aren't moms great?

sing, sing, -hic- sing, sing, everybody's -hic- gotta sing

Twenty-four year old Christopher Sands is a professional singer who resides in Timberland, Lincolnshire, England.

Unfortunately, Christopher can't sing much these days... because for the past year, Christopher has had a case of the hiccups.

He contracted the hiccups a year ago and has been hiccuping ever since. Constantly. That, of course, has made his singing career almost impossible.

The situation is so bad that he is planning to have surgery to fix the problem. Said Sands, "Any relief would be amazing."

That's bad... but Christopher has no problem compared to Charles Osborne. According to the Guinness Book of World Records. Charles Osborn holds the record for longest bout of hiccups.

Charles started hiccuping in 1922... and didn't stop until 1990.

Charles hiccuped at the rate of up to 40 times per minute for 68 years. It is estimated that he hiccuped 430 million times in his life. Fortunately, he lived a normal life and actually ended up becoming famous for his hiccups.

and fyi... the average human hiccups about 2,300 times in his lifetime. (Who figured out that stat????)

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=146338&in_page_id=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Osborne

world record Lego tower

Lego blocks have been around for 50 years. In honor of the birthday, the world's tallest Lego tower has been constructed. It stands 100 feet tall and contains 500,000 Lego bricks.




http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=146120&in_page_id=34
http://gizmodo.com/387742/worlds-tallest-lego-tower-reaches-100+foot-mark

goldfish: not just for bowls anymore

Tired of that lazy, do-nothing goldfish? Bored with the same circle around the same bowl? Wish you had a dog that could fetch or play ball instead?

How would you feel about a goldfish that can fetch, play basketball and even slalom?

Dr. Dean Pomerleau, from Los Angeles claims to have developed a sure-fire method for training ordinary goldfish to do spectacular things. He claims to have taught his own goldfish, Comet, how to limbo, fetch, play soccer... and more. See the video below... see what you think of the amazing Comet.

Dr. Pomerleau (who apparently has nothing better to do than spend hours training his goldfish), is even offering a kit so that you can train your own.

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2842710.html?menu=news.quirkies&no_cj_c=1

looking for a job? help is here.