Weird News of the World Thread

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Bolivian Villagers Punished Thieves with Swarms of Venomous Ants

Near Cochabamba, Bolivia, two men who stole motorbikes from nearby Amazon villagers, were tied up to two trees and tortured ruthlessly by venomous ants.

In a form of punishment that is the stuff to fuel a thousand nightmares, the two men were held for nearly three days until family members came to repay the $3,700 for the stolen motorbikes.

The venomous ants, of the pseudomyrmex triplarinus species, live in symbiosis with the triplaris tree variety. Their venom has anti-inflammatory properties and is used as a traditional cure for arthritis.
Both alleged thieves nearly died from the punishment, and one remains in intensive care.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_BOLIVIA_ANT_TORTURE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

And here I was complaining about the year of probation and community service I had to do a few years back, yeesh

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Will Alaska's Biggest Sled Dog Race Continue Without Snow?

The Iditarod, a 900-mile sled dog race across Alaska, goes on no matter what the weather, which can range from whiteout blizzards to hazardously frosty temps. But what happens when the racers show up and the snows don't? This year, we found out.

When the sled race was run this year, racers and organizers both immediately began noticing that something was missing — and that something was snow on the ground. Now we know just by how much the snow was missing, courtesy of this model NOAA put together.

As you can see, long stretches of both the southern route (slated for next year) and the northern route (which racers followed this year) have either no snow at all or just a light covering.

So, does the race go on even if the snows don't? Pretty amazingly, the sleds can go on over snowless terrain, and they can go pretty fast — so much so that this year's winner Dallas Seavey set a new record for speed. But, along with the increase in speed, the increase in danger to both racers, dogs, and even to the sleds themselves rises too.

There's also the possibility of pushing the route ever more northwards, a strategy that organizers adopted in 2003, when a similarly warm Alaskan winter threatened the race. The trouble, though, is that the race is not simply a sporting event, it's also a historical one.

The Iditarod travels along a historical trail that in Alaska's early years was the best and most reliable method of getting things in or out of the rugged terrain, whether they were bringing mail, medicine, food, or taking out gold and furs to sell.

The racers make the trek along this same route that those supplies once traveled, stopping at towns that have their own historical significance to the trail, before finishing in Anchorage. An Iditarod that didn't follow that route would be a very different race indeed.

http://www.climate.gov/news-feature...-largely-no-show-iditarod-trail-sled-dog-race

Crazy to think after all the snow we got in the mainland that they barely got any. Where are all those crazy no climate change people babbling their nonsense now?

 

[Teelie]

Will Alaska's Biggest Sled Dog Race Continue Without Snow?



http://www.climate.gov/news-feature...-largely-no-show-iditarod-trail-sled-dog-race

Crazy to think after all the snow we got in the mainland that they barely got any. Where are all those crazy no climate change people babbling their nonsense now?

They are looking for some kind of excuse to write it off.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Watch Five Giant Cat Excavators Play the World's Biggest Game of Jenga

[YT]DWc8dUl7Xfo[/YT]

Twenty-seven wooden blocks weighing 600 pounds each? That's no regular game of Jenga—that's a job for a team of five giant, yet agile, Cat excavators and telehandlers to take on. Just some machines having fun.

This is very clearly a promo for Cat, but it's an awesome one. And even though it's a game, it's also a demonstration of the mad skills the operators of this heavy machinery have to have. You think normal-sized Jenga is hard? Try Jenga for giants. Repositioning 8.1 tons of wood is no easy undertaking. Plus, the anxiety of waiting for the inevitable toppling of the wooden tower is, unsurprisingly, even greater than it is normally. Who says work can't also be play?

Mad skills, I can't imagine how hard that would be

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Finland's New Stamps are Drawings of Gay Bondage Porn

I can't remember the last time I even saw a stamp, but then again I don't live in Finland, where their new stamps feature drawings of gay bondage porn.

The drawings come courtesy of the Tom of Finland Foundation, the organization that controls the works of the famous Finnish gay porn artist born Touko Laaksonen. In a statement, Finland's post office praised Laaksonen's contribution to culture.

His emphatically masculine homoerotic drawings have attained iconic status in their genre and had an influence on, for instance, pop culture and fashion. In his works, Tom of Finland utilized the self-irony and humor typical of subcultures.
The stamps will go into circulation in August of this year.

http://www.posti.fi/english/current/2014/20140413_stamps.html

I so want the US post office to follow suit. Would just make me crack up if they pulled this kind of stunt

 

[KevanG]

At first I thought it was by accident and it's even funnier that it's on purpose.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

KFC Is Bringing Back the Double Down

In recognition of America's insatiable craving for chicken, chicken-like food products, and Frankenfoods, KFC is resurrecting its stomach-turning bunless chicken sandwich, the Double Down. The monster was first introduced in 2010, but its availability in the U.S. has been limited over the past few years.

KFC's parent company, Yum! Brands, apparently ran out of ideas for weird things it could dare Americans to eat after unleashing a pizza crust made of cheeseburgers, the Taco Bell waffle taco, and the fried chicken corsage (hashtag #prom). Besides, they're honor-bound to fire back after Domino's launched a pizza with chicken instead of crust this week.

The Double Down will be back April 21, at which point you will be bombarded with a "Double Down Dare" campaign as Yum! executives feast on actual food cooked over a pile of burning money and give each other high fives.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/popcandy/2014/04/16/double-down-kfc/7770047/

I don't care who knows, that thing is freaking delicious!

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Missing 3-year-old Found Inside Arcade Claw Machine

A missing 3-year-old boy was found playing with the toys inside a claw machine at a bowling alley Tuesday.

A customer at Madsen's Bowling and Billiards in Lincoln, Neb., spotted the toddler and told employees, who called in police and the vending machine company that services the claw to help get the boy out.

Meanwhile, the child's mother, 24, had also called police after realizing her son had escaped through an unlocked apartment door while she was in the bathroom.

The boy was safely freed from the claw machine and returned to his mom, who police say acted quickly and appropriately.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Missing-Boy-Found-Inside-Claw-Machine-255379071.html

I see big things in this kids future

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

4 Dead, 284 Missing After Ferry Carrying South Korean Students Sinks

At least four people are dead and 292 remain missing after a ferry carrying mostly high school students capsized off the southern coast of South Korea on Wednesday. Dozens of rescue ships and aircrafts continue to search for survivors, though officials say the death toll is likely to rise drastically.

The ship set sail from the northwest Korean city of Incheon Tuesday evening for Jeju, a popular tourist destination about 12 hours away. Wednesday morning, at about 9 am local time, the ferry sent a distress signal after it began leaning to one side. Officials still haven't determined what caused the accident.

Local news crews and the South Korean coast guard captured video of the rescue operation as the boat continued to sink.

[YT]BxxxeyQYGWc[/YT]

[YT]aXc6Ud36gaI[/YT]

Of the ship's 459 passengers, 325 were students and 15 were teachers from Danwon High School. The students, most 16 or 17 years old, were on their way to Jeju for a four-day school trip.

From the Associated Press:

One student, Lim Hyung-min, told broadcaster YTN after being rescued that he and other students jumped into the ocean wearing life jackets and then swam to a nearby rescue boat.

"As the ferry was shaking and tilting, we all tripped and bumped into each another," Lim said, adding that some people were bleeding. Once he jumped, the ocean "was so cold. ... I was hurrying, thinking that I wanted to live."
Some passengers said the crew told them to "stay where you are," instead of ordering an evacuation.

"I couldn't [stay in place] because water was coming up on the ship," a passenger named Yoo told Yonhap News. "So I got a life vest and came outside (to the deck). It would have been better if the announcement instead said 'get out quickly.'"

Officials say 164 people were rescued, 55 of whom were injured in the accident.

UPDATE 10:12 am: Officials say the number of missing now stands 284.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2-dead-after-ferry-sinks-south-korean-coast

Well that sucks, it's pretty rare that you hear about a modern ship sinking these days

 

[Teelie]

Missing 3-year-old Found Inside Arcade Claw Machine

Spoiler

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Missing-Boy-Found-Inside-Claw-Machine-255379071.html

I see big things in this kids future

... how did he even get in there?

 

[Teelie]

4 Dead, 284 Missing After Ferry Carrying South Korean Students Sinks

Spoiler

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2-dead-after-ferry-sinks-south-korean-coast

Well that sucks, it's pretty rare that you hear about a modern ship sinking these days

This happens more often than you'd think although usually it's due to incompetence, poor maintainence or hitting reefs, rocks or other hazards (or all of them simutaneously when it's a cruise ship).

 

[Doctor Evo]

Not a scientist but I keep fish which is similar enough I can contribute some. I don't have them air-tight because even with plants in them, the tanks need to be able to exchange gases with the air.

Obviously fish are more complex and this couldn't work with live animals but I'm kind of skeptical too in the part of how the tank is able to self-sustain.

Cork is not completely airtight so it allows some exchange of gases but it probably is enough to sustain the water inside for decades. Kind of like a wine bottle but with water instead. It doesn't hurt he chose a hardy plant to do this with either.

Whether he really has kept it self-sealed and sustained for 40 years is another matter.

The problem is that photosynthesis actually results in a net loss of water. So it needs to be generated somewhere else in the system at some point.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

A Bat-Killing Fungus Has Spread Over Half The Country

White nose syndrome, a condition spread by a killer fungus making its way rapidly through America's bat population, has now spread to over half the states in the U.S.

With its confirmed arrival last week in both Michigan and Wisconsin, the total of states with infected bat populations hit 25. As you can see on this map of the syndrome's progress generated by Pennsylvania's Game Commission, white nose syndrome has made rapid inroads in both the U.S. and Canada in the eight years since researchers first detected it. And, as no cure has yet been detected for the frequently fatal syndrome, it's definitely cause for concern.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fungal-disease-fatal-bats-spreads-half-us

Bats are an important part of the eco-system. Bad things will go down if their population is decimated by this

 

[Teelie]

The problem is that photosynthesis actually results in a net loss of water. So it needs to be generated somewhere else in the system at some point.

Good point. I regularly add water to my aquariums because of the loss of water from evaporation but I didn't think about the plants taking away water to photosynthesize. I'm sure it was in my science courses at some point but I hadn't remembered that.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Man Finally Receives Postcard Sent in 1940

Two days ago, an Oregon man named Alan Marion received a postcard sent from Portland. But the postcard wasn't addressed to him: instead, it was meant for his great-grandmother Florence, which makes sense since it was postmarked Feb. 20, 1940.

The postcard actually arrived first at the post office in Butte Falls, Oregon in July of last year, but it took an employee there named Sunny Bryant (with help from a woman named Charleen Brown) almost 10 months to track down a relative of Florence Marion's.

The postcard, which shows a large ship in the Philippines' Manilla Bay, reads:

"Arrived in Portland at 8 o'clock. Having a fine time. Be home sometime Sat. — Blanche."
How it took the postcard 70 years to reach a final destination is unclear, and will probably never be figured out. One postal official theorized that the postcard ended up unopened in a drawer somewhere before being put back into the mail after a housecleaning or garage sale.

So, if you have something you want to say to your great-grandchildren, put a letter in the mail now.

http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/31444951-75/marion-postcard-says-butte-falls.html.csp

No wonder it's called snail mail, that's a long time

 

[Teelie]

I'm not sure I buy the claim it was stuck in a drawer of someone's house before being mailed off. For one thing the stamp would have been worth what, a nickel? That card was lost somewhere in the great cog that is the USPS and very belatedly run through the system.

 

[Ant-manic]

Bolivian Villagers Punished Thieves with Swarms of Venomous Ants



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_BOLIVIA_ANT_TORTURE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

And here I was complaining about the year of probation and community service I had to do a few years back, yeesh

wow. that's incredibly evil. do they only let sadists be judges in the area?

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

France Lost Thousands of Vials Containing the SARS Virus

Somebody's definitely getting fired, after over 2,300 vials containing fragments of the deadly SARS virus went missing from the Pasteur Institute in France earlier this week. Not one or two vials, mind you. Thousands of them.

Don't worry. Everything's going to be okay. Despite the fact that the vials of SARS were stored in a high security lab, the Pasteur Institute says the samples have "no infectious potential." Independent experts thankfully agree, saying the risk of infection is "nil."

That's not really the point, though, is it? After it was discovered in 2002, SARS infected over 8,000 people and killed 775. Maybe the Pasteur Institute ought to keep a closer eye on this virus, right? Where are its samples of ebola? Is the bubonic plague going to show up missing next week? What about all the horrible infectious diseases we don't even know about? You saw Contagion. This sort of thing is dangerous!

The Pasteur Institute looked really hard for the missing deadly viruses. They really did. "We looked for the boxes everywhere," Christian Bréchot, director general of the institute told Le Monde. "We went through the lists of all the people who have worked here for the past year and a half, including interns. We analysed their profiles to check there was no conflict of interest."

But no luck. Again, nobody's going to die from this mishap. What about the next time, though?

http://www.geekosystem.com/scientists-lose-2000-vials-of-sars/

Wtf France? I don't think we should trust them with this kind of stuff in the future

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Congressmen Just Can't Stop Getting Porn in the Mail

Every member of Congress gets Hustler in the mail. No member of Congress can stop it. Who's to say they'd want to?

National Journal's Matt Vasilogambros reports that Hustler publisher and First Amendment celebrant Larry Flynt continues to mail monthly copies of his skin mag to each of 535 congressional offices, as he has since 1983:

The dirty mag comes in a plain manila envelope, fairly undetectable to the poor intern or staffer tasked with opening the mail. And every month, there it is: Hustler, featuring dozens of naked or scantly dressed women, vulgar comics, and articles, some satirical, on politics, society, and sex.

It's not like members of Congress haven't tried to stop the magazines from coming. They just can't stop it legally.
Hundreds of legislators filed a complaint against Flynt in '84 to stop the mailings, but a U.S. district court eventually sided with the porn king. "Receiving Hustler once each month would not unduly burden a Member of Congress," the court's opinion read, adding: "We cannot imagine that Congressional offices all lack wastebaskets."

Nor do they lack staffers with access to private washrooms and time to pass between Obamacare repeal votes. Next time you're surfing past CSPAN, just consider that the most interesting motions in Congress probably don't get made on the open floor.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/cong...ongress-gets-a-monthly-porn-delivery-20140417

Larry Flynt, Trolling before it was cool

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

People are Still Getting Sick from Poultry Farm Salmonella Outbreak

An antibiotic-resistant salmonella outbreak linked to a California poultry farm broke out in October. Six months later, it's still getting people sick.

Although regulations dictate that eating salmonella-infected chicken is safe when cooked above a certain temperature, the CDC says that at least 524 people became ill after eating the tainted poultry.

According to the AP:

Though no one has died, the CDC says the outbreak strains have been resistant to several commonly prescribed antibiotics, and 37 percent of those infected have been hospitalized, a higher rate than normal. More than three-quarters of the 524 reported illnesses are from California, according to the CDC.
The outbreak was linked to three Foster Farms processing plants in California—one of which was shut down due to an ongoing cockroach infestation in January. Authorities say the strains of Salmonella Heidelberg are resistant to commonly prescribed antibiotics.

On Wednesday, cockroaches were observed at a sink across from a processing line, with "exposed product" on the slaughterhouse floor, the notice said. On Tuesday, live cockroaches were on a plastic tub that came into contact with chicken. Inspectors also cited the plant for noncompliance on Dec. 28, Nov. 4 and Sept. 14 after roaches were observed during production.
According to the LA Times, USDA officials declined to ask the company to issue a recall. Foster Farms says it has changed its method of handling chicken to reduce contamination rates in the future.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/foster-farms-salmonella-outbreak-continuing-23272375

How farms that get people sick are allowed to continue is beyond me

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Firetruck Crashes Through California Restaurant

At least fifteen people were injured this evening when a firetruck rammed through a Los Angeles dumpling shop.

Around 3:15 pm, two firetrucks responding to a house fire collided in an intersection, sending one truck smashing through the front window of Lu Dumpling House in Monterey Park.

As many as seven firefighters and eight civilians were injured, leaving one person in critical condition, but no deaths have been reported.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/l...gine-truck-crash-monterey-park-255564781.html

Well that sucks

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

The Secret Service Threatened to Kill Mr. Met

Mr. Met, the mascot for baseball's saddest franchise, received a stern warning from the Secret Service in 1997, when President Clinton visited Shea Stadium: "Approach the president, and we go for the kill shot."

Former Mr. Met AJ Mass recounted the death threat in his new book, Yes, It's Hot in Here: Adventures in the Weird, Woolly World of Sports Mascots.

On April 15, Bill Clinton attended the game to honor the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first appearance in the majors. "The holy grail for all mascots — a photo op and meet-and-greet with a sitting president," Mass wrote.

Alas, the mascot would never get his photo op. Mass said Secret Service agents approached him before Clinton arrived and told him to stay away from the president.

"We have snipers all around the stadium, just in case something were to happen. Like I said, do whatever it is you normally do. But approach the President, and we go for the kill shot. Are we clear?" the agent reportedly said, while looking into Mr. Met's "very soul with his blank, unblinking stare."

The agent then repeated himself. "Approach the president, and we go for the kill shot," the agent told Mass. "ARE–WE–CLEAR?"

Mass wrote that agents first grew suspicious when he failed to get Mr. Met's giant head through security without setting off the metal detectors.

http://nypost.com/2014/04/17/the-ti...w&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow

Seems like overkill

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Construction Worker Faces Federal Fine Over 89-Cent Drink Refill

A construction worker faces a large fine for stealing government property after he failed to pay for a drink refill during his lunch break at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital.

Christopher Lewis was ticketed by the Federal Police Force at the downtown Charleston, S.C., hospital because he didn't pay the 89-cent fee to refill his soda.

"As I was filling my cup up, I turned to walk off and a fella grabbed me by the arm and asked me was I going to pay for that, and I told him I wasn't aware that I had to pay for that," Lewis told WISTV.

He offered to pay the 89 cents on the spot, but the man, who identified himself as the chief of police, wouldn't let him. Instead, he was taken from the cafeteria to a back room, given a ticket for $525, and told not to return to the property.

That leaves Lewis out of a job.

"I'm done there, at the VA hospital. I'm not allowed to go on the premises anymore. I asked him can I still work on the job site and just bring my lunch and not got to the cafeteria and he said he wanted me off the premises," he said.

The hospital's side of the story is that Lewis stole government property, ignored signs about the price of drink refills that were posted around the cafeteria, and became "aggressive" during the confrontation with police.

In a statement, the hospital wrote, "Shoplifting is a crime. The dollar amount of the ticket is not determined by VA as it is a Federal citation. The citation may be paid or the recipient may choose to appear in Federal court to contest it."

Lewis does plan to contest it.

"I want everybody to know that I made a simple mistake, that I'm not a thief, that I'm not dishonest. I'm trying to do the right thing," he said.

http://www.wistv.com/story/25269079...eral-fine-after-he-doesnt-pay-for-soda-refill

$0.89 for a refill is freaking highway robbery. VA don't mess around

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Texas Parents Angered by Fourth-Graders' Bizarre Adult-Themed Homework

The parents of El Paso elementary schoolers are still trying to figure out why their kids got a strange take-home assignment that involved reading several bleak passages in which a child possibly gets abused, a wife discovers her husband is cheating, and a mother learns of her son's death at war.

The fourth-graders at Pasodale Elementary School were asked to draw inferences from the passages as part of a class reading exercise—but when some students took the work home to finish it up, their parents found that "the subject matter was distinctly adult," according to KTSM-TV.

It was also a hilariously dark commentary on the meaninglessness of domestic life, in the style of a Raymond Carver short-story collection. Here were some of the passages and questions in the assignment, provided anonymously to KTSM by one of the parents:

"Tommy!" Mom called out as she walked in the front door. "Tommy," she continued shouting, "I sure could use some help with these groceries. There was still no reply. Mom walked into the kitchen to put the grocery bags down on the counter when she noticed shattered glass from the picture window all over the living room floor and a baseball not far from there. "I'm going to kill you, Tommy!" Mom yelled to herself as she realized that Tommy's shoes were gone.

What happened to the window?

Why did Tommy leave?

Ruby sat on the bed she shared with her husband holding a hairclip. There was something mysterious and powerful about the cheaply manufactured neon clip that she was fondling suspiciously. She didn't recognize the hairclip. It was too big to be their daughter's, and Ruby was sure that it wasn't hers. She hadn't had friends over in weeks but there was this hairclip, little and green with a few long black hair strands caught in it. Ruby ran her fingers through her own blonde hair. She had just been vacuuming when she noticed this small, bright green object under the bed. Now their life would never be the same. She would wait here until Mike returned home.

Why is Ruby so affected by the hairclip?

How has the hairclip affected Ruby's relationship?

Valerie opened up the letter from the military department. She felt the pit of her stomach drop to the bottom of the earth before she even opened it. She knew it was news about John. As she read the first line, she thought of all of the lunches she had packed him and all the nights she tucked him in his bed and warded off the nighttime monsters. The man carrying the flag put his hand on her shoulder. She thought of the day that John signed up for the military. Her tears wet the letter. She stopped reading after the first line.

What does the letter say?

What is Valerie's relationship to John?

The parent who passed the assignment on also told KTSM that the fourth-graders in question happened "to be the class of Mr. Hector Perales, the father of a Chapin High School football player who was tragically killed in November as he traveled to watch his son in the Texas High School playoffs in Amarillo," suggesting that this was now probably the most jaded bunch of nine-year-olds ever to walk this cold, lonely earth.

The school district has apologized to parents for what it called "an unacceptable assignment" and vowed to investigate.

But as the El Paso news station pointed out, not all the parents were troubled by the situation. As one put it on Facebook: "s this material appropriate? No, I don't think so but neither is letting them play violent video games, letting them get fat nor allowed them to dress like 'thugs' and listen to gangster music [sic]."

http://www.ktsm.com/news/school-yar...-parents-question-bizarre-homework-assignment

That some pretty heavy stuff for 4th graders man. No wonder they had to take it home to get help, kind of dark stuff to expect them to infer

 

[Hotwire]

Texas Parents Angered by Fourth-Graders' Bizarre Adult-Themed Homework



http://www.ktsm.com/news/school-yar...-parents-question-bizarre-homework-assignment

That some pretty heavy stuff for 4th graders man. No wonder they had to take it home to get help, kind of dark stuff to expect them to infer

That's messed up stuff! Also, why does a fourth grader have such poor spelling and handwriting? My kindergartener writes better than that.