Read any unusual news stories lately?
As I don’t get much time to read the papers these days I find I often miss those ‘little gems’ that don’t make front page news but are often more interesting.
So I thought this would be a good place to share those ones we come across.
*Note – my comments are set to accept up to two links. If you want to post more than two then please start another comment.
casa azahar 
The big story here is the impact that bananas can have on interest rates. No, really. The banana crop was almost wiped out by a cyclone earlier this year; bananas are now selling at aroun $20 a kilogram, as compared to $3 late last year…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1699835.htm
Not overly keen on bananas, myself.
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I still have a kid´s fascination of dinosaurs…
Watch out Ivan, soon in a Jurassic Park near you 🙂
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5220784.stm
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Maybe they’ll keep the crocodiles under control…
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Who-da thunk the humble banana could actually affect interest rates in Australia – I agree, Ivan, not keen on them, can’t even remember the last time I ate one. But obviously you and I are in the minority.
Dragonqueen, is there really much difference between dragons and dinosaurs?
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Here’s the biggest story of the weekend. Water.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1700205.htm
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Well, people need to get real here. ALL water is recycled. I’ll bet the water we drink out of our wells and cisterns has cycled through the water cycle about a million times by now.
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I visited the water reclamation plant in Chicago (it’s actually located in one of the southern suburbs; I forget offhand which) in grammar school, and found it fascinating how “clean” that recycled toilet and dish water got.
That said, I do “cheat” a bit, and filter my tap water before drinking. I have a filter on each faucet, and also keep a Brita filtration pitcher in the fridge. Or drink bottled sparkling stuff… how the heck do rocks get water so darn clean?!
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Well, I filter my water before drinking too. I’m not sure how rocks get water so clean. I think it depends on the rocks — around here the water is going through cracks in the karst limestone and so it doesn’t actually get filtered. Plus our municipality feels obligated to chlorinate it to death, which tends to make polychlorinated organics when things get all mixed together.
Water treatment systems are getting better and better, too. Around these parts they have started building artificial wetlands that the water flows through and the sand and the plants filter out all the bad stuff and oxygenate the water and you get beautifully clean stuff at the end. People are still put off by the term “effluent” which is what they call the water that emerges from the treatment process no matter what the method or how clean it is at the end.
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I have no qualms about recycled water. I grew up in Adelaide, which has poor-quality water (salty, and strangely gritty and almost thick, among other things), so I’m used to drinking unpleasant water. Something that’s been treated and purified must be preferable, wherever it comes from.
Here’s a frivolous story. Is it true? http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1700377.htm
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Guess it doesn’t matter how you stop people from thinking, so long as you stop them.
“Keep you doped with religion, and sex and TV…” (or in this case, radio).
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Well, people are easliy fooled…
One of my friends once told me than when she was in high school there was a petition about “getting rid of dihydro oxide from water”. A lot of people actually signed that petiion…
I guess I´m spoiled concerning water quality. Generally up here in the north we have very good tap water, so I don´t understand why people buy bottled water. OK, I do it occasionally. Mostly because I don´t like soft drinks and rather have water with a meal. Sometimes just to get the bottle, for refilling with tap water if I need to bring water a hot day for instance.
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I’m lucky with the water in Canberra; It’s pure, from the mountains.
Here’s the latest on the Toowoomba vote: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1700506.htm
Queensland is the most backward of Australia’s states and territories…
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“Queensland is the most backward of Australia’s states and territories…”
I prefer to think of Queensland as ‘the least forward’. [‘The most backward’ allows the possibility that the remaining states & territories are also backward (albeit to a lesser degree), and we both know that just ain’t so. 😉
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In that case, Tasmania’s the second least forward.
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This just caught my attention, for some reason.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200607/s1700589.htm
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*falls off chair laughing*
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Well, since eels aren´t eatable… *yuk* – why not find a use for the dead ones..?
I even doubt the cats would eat eel…
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Conger Eel Recipes
😉
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Disrespectful to dead eels?? Honestly. Can’t they find something important to worry about? Fell off chair laughing.
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Well yes, I can’t imagine this being any more disrespectul than to what most of them are wearing on their feet – yet another dead animal.
Meanwhile, some of those conger eel recipes looked quite yum!
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Famous chef, Gordon “Fucking” Ramsay has a TV show over here. Last week they were doing eels. They showed you how to prepare one: get it in a tight grip and chop the fuckers head off. Then Jonathan Ross ate the heart while it was still beating. I wonder if they got any complaints? Last night he was boiling live crayfish – apparently American crayfish are taking over British rivers and they’re going for free in huge quantities. I belive that EU law says that you have to kill lobsters before cooking them these days with a knife between the eyes. Now…admittedly it’s a complex neurological/philosophical question whether arthropods feel pain – but I doubt that they have heat pain receptors and I doubt anyone has conclusively established that death by knife is kinder than death by boiling.
Apparently in Spain there’s a dispensation that allows them to be thrown from church towers on feast days.
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No, that used to be donkeys but they’ve stopped doing that now.
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http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topnews&storyID=2006-08-04T063002Z_01_PEK327465_RTRUKOC_0_UK-OLYMPICS-ENGLISH.xml
Sorry that’s such a long link… and such a short article at the other end.
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Short but very sweet! 😀
Nothing like a good belly laugh first thing in the morning. Reminds me of the Bill Bryson book Mother Tongue, which often had me in stitches.
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After your recent Norton anti-virus problems, Ivan, I thought you might enjoy this.
Virus program incurs church wrath
“As Christians, we’re used to not always getting answers to our prayers immediately, but this seemed to take the biscuit,” said the spokesman.”
😀
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*rolls around on floor, roaring head off*
Oh, that’s beautiful… But why do these people need software? Doesn’t it all happen through divine intervention?
Back in the real world, here’s the latest in technology for the blind: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1707581.htm
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I dunno. . . when I had the bat nest out on the balcony those guys were not only flying into my living room but also constantly bashing into the walls.
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Presumably that’s because they weren’t wearing shoes.
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Ha!
Interesting news story from 124 years ago.
The Sleeper of Hospital Beaujon
I also like the eloquence of the writing.
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That is a strange story; it also highlights the decline in journalistic standards. [grumpy old codger smiley]
Here’s an odd modern story: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1708771.htm
For those who don’t know Glenelg, which I’m prepared to bet is all of you – to get a car onto the jetty, a driver (presumably a bit on the drunk side) would have to dodge through the tram terminus, scale either a set of steps or the wheelchair ramp, avoid the obelisk that commemorates the first landing of European settlers in 1836, and then cross the foreshore to get to the jetty. The article doesn’t say why anyone would try to drive onto the jetty…
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This story made me giggle a bit.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5256424.stm
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Awwwwwww. . .
Undercover Kitten Killed By Car
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Re: the tiger story – can you imagine what his place must have smelled like?
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Training a tiger to use a litter-tray must be quite a challenge.
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I’d hate to be the one who had to scoop it out.
Poor kitten. I’d heard about his undercover sting. Poor little guy.
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Filipino ‘Dwarf’ Judge Loses Case
“the Supreme Court said dalliance with dwarves would gradually erode the public’s acceptance of the judiciary as the guardian of the law, if not make it an object of ridicule”
Gradually??? 😀
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Does that cover *all* dwarves, or only mystical ones?
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Being serious for a moment – how much coverage does East Timor get overseas? It’s our next-door neighbour so it’s very much a subject for concern here, but I’ve no idea how much attention it gets elsewhere.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1719069.htm
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😦
I hadn’t heard anything about this before.
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East Timor rarely gets any attentio, No oil wells for the yanks to claim…
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Nothing, az? I’m not completely surprised – even the BBC is a bit sketchy when it comes to Timor. *sigh* The place has been going through hell since 1975 when Portugal pulled out and Indonesia invaded, with an intensification of hell in the late 90s that included a massacre in a cemetery, and then even more hell in the lead-up to independence, and now it appears that Someone is trying to destabilise the country…
But yes, it’s a small place, and there’s no oil for the yanks to claim. We’ve claimed it already, I’m ashamed to say.
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This one is seriously weird!
Serial Killer Groupies
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Words elude me at the moment…
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We had a “famous case” here in 1988 (which has been made into a movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101542/ and an episode in a danish police thriller series “rejseholdet)
A young finnish couple murdered a family at a cementery in a village not far from were I live. After a nationwide hunt they were caught in Denmark. The man, who committed the murders, was sent to his native Finland to do his time in jail. He has married, at least, another woman durin his time in prison. Obviously he was getting a lot of attention from women shortly after he was arrested.
Weird is the word of the day.
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Here’s a novel project, using fish to stop kids taking up drugs. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1721293.htm Um. I’m not sure how I’d have responded to an offer like that.
And here’s the latest on attempts to curb the menacing gangs that roam Canberra… http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200608/s1721200.htm
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I think the fishing idea has some merit, but why stop there? Why not add learning to play a musical instrument, putting on theatre productions, diving and skiing lessons, etc. All those things can help build a kid’s confidence and get them interested in other stuff.
Re: the Roo Gangs … how will they make sure the same roos are taking the drugs on a regular basis?
And this one. Well, this one is actually front page news atm … but what’s with the headline? Do you think it was done on purpose? 😕
-Two Dead in Fresh Turkey Blast
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I reckon it’s deliberate. Past offences include ‘Dozens Injured in Turkey Collapse’ an ‘Turkey Goes to the Polls’.
I’m not sure how roos will be encouraged to come back for more drugs. They’re clever animals, and I can’t see them volunteering.
Once upon a time, the mob of roos that lives at the Governor-General’s house got out of control, so most of the males were caught and vasectomised. It didn’t work; male roos from the other side of the lake took to swimming across to take advantage…
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Good grief
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/05/blind_drivers_dangerous_shocker/
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All of which raises the very basic question – WHY???
Why the hell would a blind person even want to drive? And how did he convince someone else to get in the car with him???
Somehow I am reminded of Stevie Wonder on Saturday Night Live playing tennis … anyone remember that one?
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A youth hood friend of mine, now deceased, was blind and a daredevil. There were few things she refrained to do just because of her blindness. She had a lot of common sense and integrity though, and I doubt she ever even considered driving.
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I had a blind friend in Winnipeg who used to like ‘driving’ on occasion … with a friend for guidance and in a totally unoccupied shopping centre parking lot – this was before Sunday shopping became the norm.
So they’d have the whole wide open space to themselves, no other cars or people anywhere, and he could drive a bit. Gave him a kick – he lost his sight when he was 5. I could actually understand that desire.
But he never drove on public roads.
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I can understand the appeal/challenge of trying to drive. Maybe (even especially) if they have been sighted before.
The BBC 2 T.V. programme Top Gear has a section where various celebs try to drive an ordinary family saloon car around a track in the best possible time (the format changed slightly for the last series but never mind).
A few series ago a blind guy wrote in and asked if he could have a go. He was actually able to do it faster than the slowest of the times that were on the board!
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Fish Kills Spear-fishing Diver
Kind of says it all, really. But what a way to go! *shudder*
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Also came across this one …
Electric Man Electrocuted
🙄
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Noggin has suggested that the latter guy might be a good candidate for the Darwin Award 😉
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http://tinyurl.com/ehzou
Natural remedy?
(would appreciate a mail with instructions of “how to make links” – none of my attempts after RTFM worked…)
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I tried sending an email yesterday, but it came out all wonky after sent. Try this. 🙂
Posting Links
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Thanks 🙂
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religious fundamentalists
…and the scary thing is that he got followers – and this fuels racism
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“As a mufti, a jurist who interprets Islamic law, Shahi Mehdi is in a special position of authority as a Muslim scholar.”
Yeah well, he’s also totally nuts in the head.
This sort of extremist outpouring tends to have little or nothing to do with Islamic law in itself – just a vile personal interpretation being used to promote someone’s prejudiced opinions which ends up giving Islam a bad name.
I’m sure many Muslims are just as upset about these sort of remarks as many Christians are when their Pope makes an arse of himself in public.
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Could it be true???
“One of the saddest things I have seen in my lifetime has been the decline in Australian male culture,”
“Australian mates and good blokes have been replaced by nervous wrecks, metrosexual knobs and toss-bags.”
Australian Blokes Face Up To Change
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Well, I surely wouldn´t miss an “australian bloke” – macho men don´t attract me. Intelligence is sexy – I´d rather take Spock than Crocodile Dundee.
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What a silly article. But then again, I suppose ‘Australian men feel able to be themselves without conforming to some stupid stereotype’ wouldn’t be much of a headline.
*yawn*
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it´s never too late to get married
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Well, of course it ws a silly article, Ivan! Kinda the point here . . . though your suggestion actually would have made MORE of a headline in terms of extra words. 😉
Off to read dragonqueen’s link .. .
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The best excuse I’ve seen for not making my bed. 🙂
Untidy Beds May Keep Us Healthy
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Who needs an excuse?
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Here’s one for Dragonqueen;
Dino-Era “Sea Monster” Found on Arctic Island
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061006-arctic-reptiles.html
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This one’s for Nog;
PUBS CLOSE AS FUNERAL FIGHTS ERUPT
Mass fighting broke out across a town centre after a funeral.Fighting happened across Llanelli as the funeral wake went on for more than 12 hours after the actual service.
Click Here
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Ha! What’s the betting half the “mourners” didn’t even know the guy? Not that surprised, though. What else is there to do in Llanelli?
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Wouldn´t like to meet such a lizard when taking a swim…
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shudder!!!
Cockroach-eating contest bugs animal group
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And in case you’ve never seen a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach …
I’m not sure what’s stupider – wanting to eat these things or protecting them from being eaten.
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Excellent article on Tom Waits in today’s Observer magazine.
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Something to rival the ‘Electric Man’.
Bite Kills Malaysia ‘Snake King’
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1810983.htm
Large snake found in potentially problematic location, in plumbing…
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6178671.stm
Belgium is, apparently, splitting. Makes for a truly dull headline, doesn’t it?
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Well, here’s a headline you wouldn’t see every day…
Swedish ‘goat’ defies arsonists
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😀
That’s been a biggie here in the North. I think it’s the first time the straw goat has survived. Every year there are people betting on how many days it will last.
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Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain
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Storm in US over chocolate Jesus
Ummm … duh?
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Update …
Chocolate Jesus exhibit cancelled
Grrr…
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Biting The Hand That Feeds
Slideshow news photo article about the rescue of a vet’s arm, bitten off by a crocodile.
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I wonder how much functionality the reattached hand will have?
Weird photo of the croc with the hand sticking out of the side of its mouth.
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‘Ghost yacht’ found off Australia
“The engine was running, the computers were running, there was a laptop set up on the table which was running, the radio was working… and there was food and utensils set on the table ready to eat,” said Jon Hall, a spokesman for Queensland’s Emergency Management office.
“It was a bit strange,” he added.
Understatement award?
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ZZZAP!!???
*imagines UFO with “beam me up ray” above yacht”
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Or a suicide pact?
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Or an insurance claim?
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Eep! It don’t get much weirder than this…
Man cuts off penis in restaurant
*ouch*
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A curious juxtaposition of BBC news headlines was noticed by Dan over at the Samovar… 😀
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Drunk German deposits horse in bank for night
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Spider venom could boost sex life
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“Small, egg-shaped and promising ‘divine’ vibrations, a UK sex toy has been deemed a threat to Cyprus’s national security.”
The sex is OK, it’s just the frequency
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Isn’t Cyprus the birthplace for Aphrodite/Venus?
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Canadian Spy Coins!
🙄
(thanks Mudhooks!)
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Would have been quite handy when the hatchlings were teens and not made it home to curfew
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Okay, this isn’t a ‘weird news item’ as such, but I find the whole story rather weird. Here is a recent article about it…
Madeleine police under spotlight
A three-year-old girl has gone missing after her parents, apparently both doctors, left her alone with her two-year-old twin siblings in a Portuguese holiday apartment while they went out for dinner.
While they went out for dinner!!!
Who the fuck does that??? Who would go out for a meal in a foreign country and leave three small children aged three and under not being cared for?
What’s weird about this whole thing to me is that nobody seems to be questioning this.
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[rescued this comment from spam by back-paging and copy & paste – sorry, I missed it when I was clearing out my spam file – az]
Well – as far as I can tell, a number of people are questioning it, but very much under their breath at the moment, so as not to distract from the efforts to get the kiddy back.
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Doctor Finds Spiders Living In Boy’s Ear
Gaaaaaaa!!!
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We never left our kids on their own when we went on holiday in this country az, and everyone here is talking about it.
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Well, the initial reports said the parents were dining somewhere nearby and went back to check on the kids every hour. Every HOUR??? Subsequent reports have changed that to them dining just a few metres away and constantly checking in.
But still, who goes out and leaves three small children unattended? Especially as the place they were staying offers a babysitting service.
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It does seem incredible doesn’t it.
You wonder how many people do that sort of thing and get away with it.
I suppose there could be risks I have taken as a parent, that other people wouldn’t have. Thing is, I don’t know what they are, as I have gotten away with them.
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Perth girls get life for murder
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Not that I needed another reason not to ever eat there…
Chewed gum found in Big Extra burger
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Just another reason to not spend a lot of money on certain stuff
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Not so much a weird news story as a bizarre headline…
Police shoot dead woman waving gun at officers in car park
🙂
~ seen over at raincoaster’s ~
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US town set to ban saggy trousers
🙄
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(waves back to Az)
I saw this one, and nearly posted it here.
It certainly made me laugh – not sure that that was the intention though.
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Whoever would have expected the Fashion Police in Louisiana?
Can we add sandals with socks to the list?
And….
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visible thongs?
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Australian drivers hit below belt
Apparently because disturbing images of road crash deaths and injuries don’t work? Ummm…
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Wouldn’t be that surprised if it worked. Men seem to be obsessed by the outdoor part of plumbing.
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…or is “obsessed of” grammatically more correct?
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Belgian guest finds frozen bodies
😯
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Grumpy old men can’t help it
Grumpy old men may not be able to help it, as age could affect their sense of humour.
(az, if the link doesn’t work, please fix it *grovel* )
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Link works just fine, dq – must be your lucky day. 😉
What? That stupid ‘call me a doctor’ joke is considered modern??? Besides, it was never funny in the first place.
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Found: the giant lion-eating chimps of the magic forest
eep!
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8) apes
Just wait until they smash the Statue of Liberty…
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Yes, it’s been awhile, but this one is really weird!
Pet camel kills Australian woman
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