Weird News Thread ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Injured Biker Proposes at Crash Site

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/...031230NCWIN601

PILOT MOUNTAIN, N.C. (AP) - As soon as a group of fellow bikers pulled the handlebars out of his abdomen after his motorcycle crash, Brian Shipwash wanted to do one more thing in case he died.

So he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box, broken and blood-spattered, with a ring inside and asked Shandra Miller to marry him.

She said yes.

``I said, 'Shandra, the reason we were going to Pilot Mountain today was so I could propose,''' Shipwash said Monday while recovering in his room at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem.


``I said something like, 'I know this is not the best time in the world, but will you marry me?'''


Shipwash, 32, of Lexington, was riding his Harley-Davidson up Pilot Mountain on Sunday afternoon with Miller hugging his back.


As they came to a curve, Shipwash lost control, crossed the center lane and slammed into the side of a pickup. The collision sent the couple flying. The handlebars on Shipwash's motorcycle stuck 6 inches into his abdomen.


``I was crying at the time because of the wreck,'' Miller said. ``But when I saw it (the ring), I just started crying even more.''


Among those who stopped to help were about 10 bikers on Harley-Davidsons who pulled the motorcycle off Shipwash.


Shipwash suffered no injuries to any major organs, breaking his left hand and right leg. He was in good condition Tuesday. Miller, 29, also of Lexington, said she suffered only a sore knee.


Neither the pickup driver nor his four passengers were injured. No tickets were issued.



12/31/03 12:40

[Advertisement]

[the fugative]

Dog Rides Train From Greenwich to Harlem
Associated Press

GREENWICH, Conn. - Animal control officials are looking for the owner of a dog who rode a commuter train from Greenwich to Harlem on Christmas Eve.

The trouble is, officials are unsure whether the dog's holiday trip began in Greenwich or somewhere farther up the Metro North line, which runs as far north as Waterbury.

"He doesn't seem like he's been gone long," Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm told The Greenwich Time.

"He's a sweet little dog," Halm said. "It's hard to understand how it got on the train."

The dog, a neutered 35-pound male spaniel-retriever mix that officials believe is between 4 and 7 years old, was spotted at the Old Greenwich station Wednesday morning. But when officer Vincent Pennatto arrived, the dog was gone.

He also got calls that the dog was at the Riverside station, one stop south toward New York. Again, the dog was gone when Pennatto arrived.

Commuter Helen Faith of Greenwich was on her way to work in Manhattan when she saw the dog walk off the train at the 125th Street station in Harlem, Pennatto said.

Faith caught the dog, returned to Greenwich and drove to the pound.

"She went out of her way to help him," Pennatto said.

Officials will run an advertisement in The Time this week looking for the owner. After a week, the dog will be put up for adoption, Halm said.

[the fugative]

Woman Wins N.Y. Fruitcake-Eating Contest
Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. - A 105-pound woman was crowned Fruitcake Champion after swallowing nearly five pounds of the treat in 10 minutes, beating her closest rival - a man almost four times her weight - by a single bite.

"My jaw is very tired right now," Sonya Thomas said Tuesday after out-eating 405-pound Eric Booker of Long Island by one-eighth of an ounce.

The contest, believed to be a first, was sanctioned by the International Federation of Competitive Eating and kicked off Buffalo's New Year's festivities.

Despite her size, Thomas, 36, is no lightweight on the professional eating circuit.

She's eaten 43 tacos in 11 minutes to claim victory in the World Champion Chicken Taco Eating Contest. She also holds the female world record for eating 24 hot dogs in 12 minutes and for eating 68 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes.

Booker, of Long Island, who holds title to pea-eating and corned beef hash-eating contests, said there were no hard feelings after his close second.

"There is no agony of defeat in this sport," he said.

[chort1313]

'Scuse me if this is a repeat!


Updated Nov. 24, 2003, 10:20 a.m. ET


Smuggler caught with 756 pounds of Mexican bologna

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Border agents last week landed a meaty bust, seizing 756 pounds of bologna arranged into the shape of a car seat and covered with blankets in a man's pickup.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized 81 rolls of Mexican bologna Friday at the Paso Del Norte bridge as the pickup entered the United States.

"It puts the ultimate consumer at risk," said customs spokesman Roger Maier. "Who knows how long these products have gone without refrigeration or without proper handling?"

Children were sitting on top of the illegal load before it was discovered, Maier said. The rear seat had been removed from the extended-cab pickup and the bologna was put in its place.

He said the agency plans to pursue civil penalties against the Mexican man driving the truck. Maier said the agency won't release the man's name until the case goes to trial.

Maier said the bologna goes for about $1 a roll in Juarez. When it is sold to a customer in the United States, it can go for between $5 and $10 a roll , he said.

[chort1313]

...And this one has to be posted here!

German accused of cannibalism on trial

KASSEL, Germany (AP) — A computer expert accused of killing, dismembering and eating another man who allegedly agreed to the arrangement over the Internet went on trial for murder Wednesday at a court in central Germany.

Prosecutors in the city of Kassel accuse Armin Meiwes of killing a 43-year-old from Berlin, identified only as Bernd Juergen B., in March 2001, by stabbing him in the throat at his home in the town of Rotenburg.

Prosecutors say the killing was carried out with the victim's consent. But they classified it as murder, not - as the defense argues would be appropriate - a form of mercy killing, arguing that the evidence indicated it was carried out at the suspect's initiative.

Meiwes, 42, who has confessed to the killing, could face a life prison sentence if convicted of murder. Prosecutors say the killing was sexually motivated.

Dressed in a dark suit, Meiwes appeared relaxed as he sat down next to his lawyer at the Kassel state court Wednesday.

The suspect allegedly chopped the body into pieces, deep-froze parts of it and buried the rest, capturing the crime on a videotape which is being used as evidence. Police who searched his home found human flesh and bones.

Police tracked down and arrested Meiwes in December last year after a student in Austria alerted them to an advertisement the suspect allegedly placed on the Internet seeking a man willing to be killed and eaten.

A verdict from the court, which is scheduled to hear 38 witnesses, is expected in February.

[Jolie Rouge]

U.S. Spacecraft Survives Close Encounter with Comet

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...=20040102NY110


PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - A U.S. spacecraft survived a wild ride inside the tail of a comet on Friday, catching stardust from the streaking chunk of rock and ice that could give clues to how the solar system, and even life on Earth, began.

The stardust, or particles from the tail of the comet, Wild 2, will be returned to Earth in 2006 for study by scientists.

The control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena erupted in cheers and clapping at 11:40 a.m. PST (2:40 p.m. EST) as monitors showed an uninterrupted flow of data from the Stardust spacecraft during its closest encounter point with the comet.

"We've flown through the worst of it and we're still in contact with our spacecraft." JPL project manager Tom Duxbury said moments after the encounter. "We're still exuberant. What a deal."


Duxbury said the bookcase-sized spacecraft performed flawlessly during the intense, eight-minute hailstorm of particles inside Wild 2's coma, or tail.


The historic "fly-by" happened 242 million miles from Earth after a five-year journey when Stardust passed within 188 miles of Wild 2.


Initial data from the encounter showed that the spacecraft's systems functioned as planned -- snapping pictures of the comet's nucleus and scooping up dust particles destined to be the first cometary samples returned to Earth for study.


A capsule carrying the samples will ultimately separate from the spacecraft and reenter Earth's atmosphere for a landing in the Utah desert in January 2006, while Stardust veers back into space.


Scientists say the dust samples, containing particles gathered by the comet since its formation at the dawn of the solar system and during its own ancient interplanetary wanderings, may hold clues to how the solar system, and even life on Earth, began.



01/02/04 16:52

[Jolie Rouge]

I'm Sorry.

(Why That Sounds Good!)

Receiving an apology when you've been wronged does a body good.

It not only makes you feel better emotionally, it impacts how you feel physically. Or so say researchers from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond who have scientific proof to back up their claims. "The data suggest that apologies and restitution can have an immediate, positive impact on physiological and subjective responses to transgressions," VCU's Dr. Everett L. Worthington Jr. told Reuters.

Sixty-one undergraduate male and female college students were told to imagine they had been robbed. Each was then told one of the following: the robber had afterwards apologized; restored to them the things that had been stolen; apologized and made restitution; or did none of these. When it was imagined that the robber gave a strong, guilt-ridden apology and made restitution for the stolen items, the students experienced lower heart rates, showed less muscle tension in their face, less stress, and lower blood pressures.

The apology also made the students feel more forgiveness, gratitude, and empathy, as well as less anger, fear, and sadness. The apology also gave the students a greater feeling of control. "If someone apologizes, it makes it easier to give some measure of forgiveness because it reduces the gap of injustice," Worthington told Reuters. "Justice can only take you so far, but if you forgive--that can take you all the way to closure." The findings were presented at the Society for Psychophysiological Research.

[Jolie Rouge]

THIS WEEK'S HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE goes to Tung-Yen Lin.

Born in Shanghai, Lin trained as an engineer. His passion was bridges, and to make them better he used prestressed concrete, which uses steel cables to allow more economical and better-looking building techniques. During his career, he oversaw the constructions of thousands of bridges, including a thousand in China alone.

His ideas spread when he turned to teaching: he was a professor at the University of California in Berkeley from 1946 to 1976 -- his alma mater (he got a graduate degree there in 1933). He also designed an elevated roadway into San Francisco International Airport. When President Ronald Reagan presented Lin the National Medal of Science in 1986, he shocked the President by presenting him with a design for an "Intercontinental Peace Bridge" across the Bering Strait, linking the U.S. with the USSR. "You spend money on bombs, and in 10 years they're out of date," he said later. "But you build bridges, they last forever."

He died November 15 at home in El Cerrito, Calif. He was 91.

IF YOU LIKE TRUE's HONORARY UNSUBSCRIBE, see http://www.HeroicStories.com
for TRUE's sister publication, an H.U. spinoff about cool people that
*don't* have to die to get their stories told!

[Jolie Rouge]

Study: These Men Have High Heart Risk

It may be a lot easier now to quickly and accurately identify men who have the highest risk of developing heart disease and diabetes thanks to new research from the Glasgow Royal Infirmary in Scotland. Reuters reports that the Scottish doctors have created a system involving five easy-to-get measurements:

1. Unhealthy fat, which can be assessed by simply measuring the waist circumference
2. High triglycerides, which is a component of cholesterol
3. Low levels of HDL or "good" cholesterol
4. High glucose
5. High blood pressure

Taken together, these five measurements can be used to define metabolic syndrome or "syndrome x," which can tell primary care physicians who is most in danger of heart disease and is most in need of drugs, weight loss, and exercise.

Led by Dr. Naveed Sattar, the Scottish researchers examined data from 6,447 men taking part in a larger study of heart disease in the Glasgow area and determined that 26 percent of them had metabolic syndrome. Over a five-year period, the men who had four or five features of metabolic syndrome had 3.7 times the risk of coronary heart disease and 24.5 times the risk of diabetes compared to those with normal blood pressure, cholesterol, and insulin levels, reports Reuters. This study is significant because it is the first to show a simpler formula for determining metabolic syndrome and the first to offer a way to calculate diabetes risk. The study findings were published in this week's issue of the journal Circulation.

[the fugative]

Dead Man's Dangling Legs Greet Couple


SANTA FE, N.M. (Reuters) - A New Mexico couple returned home from a week-long vacation to find the legs of a dead man dangling from their ceiling, police said.



The man was identified as Carl Smith, 81, and he was the former husband of the woman who lived in the home, said Trish Ahrensfield, a spokeswoman for the Albuquerque police.


"He was stuck in an air conditioner duct," Ahrensfield said, adding a cause of death has not yet been determined.


Police said it appears the man was trying to break into the home from the roof and died while attempting to get in through the air conditioner duct.


The couple, who were not identified, said their home was cold when they returned on Tuesday and they went to the bathroom to see if the heater had been shut off. When they looked up, they saw the legs hanging from the ceiling.







Weird and Wacky Reigned Supreme in 2003



LONDON (Reuters) - From the Polish undertaker caught smuggling cigarettes in a hearse to a pair of one-legged Brazilian prisoners skipping jail, the weird and wacky reigned supreme around the world in 2003.



Oddball tales abounded with Canadian prisoners being offered fruit-flavored condoms, Cambodians being urged to eat more dogs and China axing hemorrhoid TV ads during meal times.


Tales of love gone sour were plentiful. A Filipino housewife wreaked revenge on her hapless spouse by cutting off his "root" while he slept, after she discovered text messages from another woman on his mobile phone.


Not to be outdone, an Italian pensioner beat her husband to death with a scrubbing brush because the couple had never had children.


Vasectomies caused some truly weird headlines.


In London, a vasectomy brought train services grinding to a halt. A trainee driver fell out of his cab after fainting over fellow workers' graphic descriptions of the operation.


A Brazilian man who went to a clinic to have an aching ear checked ended up having a vasectomy after mistakenly believing that the doctor had called his name.


In Tanzania, a man cut off his genitals in an attempt to win sympathy from friends and relatives after squandering the money they lent him on prostitutes and alcohol.


POSSUMS ON A POWER TRIP


The animal kingdom invariably raises a smile and 2003 was no exception.


Possums on a power trip in New Zealand sparked a blaze when they climbed a pole and short-circuited the electricity line.


Queen bees now have to slum it under new European Union rules which only allow a retinue of 20 bees to accompany the queen on her voyage.


A French hunter was shot by his dog after he left a loaded shotgun in the boot of his car with two dogs, and one accidentally stepped on the trigger.


Cambodian canines had to run for cover after people in Phnom Penh were urged to eat more dogs as part of a crackdown on stray mutts wandering around the capital.


A German man who taught his dog Adolf to give a Hitler salute by raising his right paw was charged with violating Germany's anti-Nazi laws.


German humor was once thought to be as scarce as tasty British food, charming French waiters and punctual Italian trains, but a new generation of Germans have developed a taste for the offbeat.


A priest in Duisburg used an old washing machine to brew beer, a stumbling bank robber in Giessen forgot to cut open eye slits in his mask and 937 Germans set a mass yodeling record.





But no corner of the earth was off-limits for the bizarre.

Fijians apologized to descendants of a British missionary killed and eaten by their ancestors more than 130 years ago.

Moscow's Bolshoi Theater sacked an ice-cream-loving prima ballerina, saying she was too heavy and too tall for most of her dance partners to lift.

Six British schoolboys were rushed to hospital after taking the erection-enhancing drug Viagra at lunchtime for a dare.

But at least they were spared the constant embarrassment of a British couple who were forced to change houses because of the shame caused by the name of their street -- Butt Hole Road.

[chort1313]

(Truly weird, but I guess it's from the $$$$ he has.)




GALVESTON, Texas — Lawyers for Robert Durst could not have been facing a steeper hill when they began picking jurors Aug. 25 for the eccentric millionaire's murder trial. Somehow, however, they made it to the top and down the other side.



On the defense: Robert Durst, right, flanked by his lawyers Michael Ramsey, far left, and Dick DeGuerin, left, as the verdict is read


Durst, 60, carelessly left a trail of evidentiary crumbs in his wake after he dismembered the body of his 71-year-old neighbor, threw the pieces in Galveston Bay and fled this Gulf Coast community with $600,000 to finance his brief life as a fugitive.

So how did the defense prevail? How was Robert Durst, the defendant whose own lawyer says he is working with a compass that "doesn't point north," able to be declared not guilty?

Seven of the 12 jurors who deliberated Durst's fate for 26 hours provided some of the answers when they spoke to reporters after the verdict. They dodged questions about whether they thought Durst actually murdered Morris Black but spoke in perfect harmony when they opined that prosecutors did not prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.



Juror Chris Lovell: "We know that Morris Black didn't wipe the fingerprints off that gun."


"Based on the evidence, it wasn't there. We cannot convict him based on our thoughts and beliefs," said juror Joanne Gongora.

But that's only part of the answer.

Durst's acquittal can be credited to a high-powered defense team that picked a risky legal strategy, after eliminating others, and then stuck with it faithfully.

If Durst was to have any chance of being acquitted, defense lawyers believed, they had to select jurors who said they could understand how a person like Durst could be panicked enough to do something as horrible as cutting up a body.



Juror Joanne Gongora: "Based on the evidence that was presented to us there was reasonable doubt."


Lead defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, one of Texas' top criminal defense lawyers, must have stressed three dozen times during the trial that Durst was not on trial for dismembering Morris Black or jumping bail after he was charged. Reporters from Durst's native New York smiled every time DeGuerin argued that position, but jurors took it to heart.

"This jury was able to put in proper perspective the evidence they had," DeGuerin said. "These people all told us during jury selection that they could separate the issues and they kept them separate. I congratulate them."

One juror, Chris Lovell, gave the defense credit for sticking to one story from the very beginning of the case and not wavering, as prosecutors did. Lovell noted that, during testimony, prosecutors tried to show that Durst shot Black from close range but later asserted in closing arguments that he shot Black from a distance.

"They gave us two different stories," Lovell said, describing it as a situation of "we're going to find Robert Durst guilty, you pick the reason."



Juror Robbie Clarac: "We looked at the flight thing, but flight is something Durst has done his entire life."


Galveston District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk spoke with jurors privately but, graciously, did not bicker with the verdict later. "We are not the jury. We remain disappointed, but we accept the verdict," Sistrunk said. "We've done our job."

Though it is generally considered risky to put a defendant on the stand, Durst had no choice but to testify if he was going to convince the jury of self-defense. And he testified without apparent emotion, often claiming he could not remember the events following Black's death.

Interestingly, jurors said they largely discounted his testimony because of inconsistencies and past lies. Regarding Durst's claim that he never cleaned the gun, for example, juror Lovell said dubiously, "We know Morris Black didn't wipe those fingerprints off that gun."

However, jurors consistently said that they believed Durst's story that he panicked when he decided to cut up the body. And ultimately, a lack of evidence presented by the prosecution seems to be what swayed them, rather than anything Durst did or didn't say.



Juror Deborah Warren: "I didn't think you could have a case without the head. I thought you needed the whole body."


Finally, Durst clearly benefited from his millions. He was able to hire some of the brightest lawyers around and pay them $1.2 million, plus hundreds of thousands of dollars on experts and expenses.

It would not be right, as one reporter suggested during the post-verdict press conference, if Durst could buy a not guilty verdict in light of the evidence against him.

"Bob Durst didn't buy his way to freedom It wasn't money that influenced this jury. It was the facts, or lack of the facts," DeGuerin replied.

But one has to wonder if Durst would be going through orientation at a Texas super-max prison now if he had been a cab driver from the Bronx, instead of a multimillionaire heir to a Manhattan real estate empire.