Odd News: July 2011

[Bungleau]

German police nab runaway elephants at bus stop Reuters By Eric Kelsey, editing by Paul Casciato | Reuters – Tue, Jul 12, 2011 BERLIN (Reuters) - Two runaway circus elephants in Germany surprised passersby and police by showing up at a bus stop during a brief bid for freedom, officials in Hanover said Tuesday. Dunia, a 40-year-old Indian elephant, and her counterpart Daela, a 25-year-old African elephant, were apprehended by police near the western city of Hanover over the weekend nonchalantly munching on tree leaves and looking for all the world as if they were waiting for the bus. The pair had escaped from their enclosure at a nearby travelling circus and walked some 50 metres (165 feet) to the stop, police said. "It was simply an unlucky situation for the circus," Hanover police spokesman Heiko Steiner said. "The two elephants were quite cooperative and peaceful. Everyone was amused." If the two were trying to make an escape, they were not going far, Steiner said. The police station is only a stone's throw from the bus stop, which is out of use during the summer school holiday. (Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Paul Casciato)

Honey, you'll never guess what I saw at lunch!

No, I wasn't drinking... honest!

[Bungleau]

I almost hate to list this, but...

Woman accused of slicing off husband's penis LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California woman has been arrested over accusations she drugged her estranged husband, cut off his penis and ground it up in a garbage disposal before alerting police, authorities said on Tuesday. Catherine Kieu Becker, 48, was taken into custody on Monday night after telling officers who found her husband tied to the bed and bleeding from his groin that he had "deserved it", Garden Grove Police Lt. Jeff Nightengale said in a written statement. Becker is accused of drugging her husband's food to make him sleepy, slicing off his penis with a knife, tossing it into the garbage disposal and turning the unit on, Nightengale said. She then called 911, he added. Becker's 51-year-old husband, who was not identified by police, told detectives he laid down on the bed, believing something was wrong with his food, Nightengale said. He later woke up to find himself tied to the bed with his wife tugging at his clothes before she grabbed his penis and cut it off, Nightengale said the man had reported. Becker was arrested on suspicion of aggravated mayhem, false imprisonment, assault with a deadly weapon, administering a drug with intent to commit a felony, poisoning and spousal abuse and booked into Orange County jail. Her husband was taken to a local hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery and was listed in serious condition. Nightengale said the couple was apparently married but going through a divorce. (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb, Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Ummm... okay. John Bobbet was bad enough, but garbage disposal?

*shudders*

Sweetheart, if I ever do anything to piss you off that much, please tell me beforehand. I promise that whatever it is, I'll stop.

[Bungleau]

South Carolina woman faces trial for fake testicles Reuters By Harriet McLeod 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." (Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Cynthia Johnston)

I've seen these before... I always figured that the guy who had those on his truck was admitting that he didn't have his own any more...

[Bungleau]

City offers to turn dog poo into gold Reuters By Christine Lu | Reuters TAIPEI (Reuters) - A city in northern Taiwan is trying the Midas touch to persuade reluctant residents to clean up after their canines: offering a chance to win gold bars to anyone handing in bags of doggy deposits. Starting from August 1, dog owners and other residents of New Taipei City, bordering the capital Taipei, can hand in waste to government cleaning teams in exchange for tickets to a lucky draw. The prizes: three gold ingots worth T$60,000 ($2,100), T$18,000 and T$12,000. The number of draw tickets is unlimited, and the winners will be named in October, the city government said in a statement. "We are hoping the draw will attract a wide participation, especially as the gold price is rising," said New Taipei City Environmental Protection Department official Chen Chao-ming. The city will give free garbage bags to would-be collectors. It is also beefing up more conventional measures, including rewarding people for photographing dog owners leaving mess uncleaned, and stepping up its own poo patrols in dog haunts. But it will be hoping for better results than the central city of Taichung saw in 2009, when its offer of T$100 shopping vouchers for each kg of excrement collected yielded little more than criticism and ridicule. (Reporting by Christine Lu; editing by Jonathan Standing and Ron Popeski)

I know what you're thinking... and yes, scooping poop in your neighbor's yard is legal.

I wonder how they determined that it was dog poop the first time. I mean, for $100 per kilo, my family would be using an outhouse....

[Firestormalpha]

UFO found on sea floor?

An ocean exploration team led by Swedish researcher Peter Lindberg has found what some are suggesting is a crashed flying saucer. Lindberg's team, which has had success in the past recovering sunken ships and cargo, was using sonar to look for the century-old wreck of a ship that went down carrying several cases of a super-rare champagne. Instead, the team discovered what it claims is a mysterious round object that might (or might not) be extraterrestrial.

full article in the above link.

I think it's presuming too much to claim it's a UFO, seeing as no one has witnessed it flying. It's more of a USO, Unidentified Sunken Object. And even that it's presuming. It could be some type of naturally occurring phenomena, albeit a very unusual one. It is amusing that people jump on the UFO idea though.