Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Our Wacky World—4/26/2011

It's Easter in the Philippines again:
"Every year on Good Friday penitents - mostly men - are taken to a rice field in San Pedro Cutud and nailed to a cross using two-inch stainless steel nails soaked in alcohol to disinfect them. The penitents are taken down when they feel cleansed of their sins. Other penitents flagellate themselves using bamboo sticks tied to a rope."
PhilStar


Flying car for sale:
"No detail was spared in her creation. Built on a custom ladder frame chassis, many old world forms of car building were employed, and modern technology stepped in to create a vehicle which was both accurate enough to fool veteran and classic car experts, when held under the scrutiny of 70mm cinema cameras, and durable enough to withstand everything from driving in sand, cobbled streets and down staircases."
icollector


Another paranormal fraud bites the dust:
"This fumbling sleight-of-hand artist dazzled his believers with an amateur and definitely non-mystical trick in which he claimed to produce an ashy substance he called vibhuti [holy ash] and sometimes scraps of food and cheap bits of jewelry – usually finger-rings bearing tin lithographed likenesses of himself. An occasional wrist-watch was “manifested” as well for especially-generous worshipers, each strangely bearing a factory-imprinted serial number…"
JREF

There are numerous videos on Youtube featuring his bad magic show. I won't even bother to link to them.

"Eyewitnesses said the stuntman was fired up to 50ft in the air as part of Scott May’s Daredevil Stunt Show. But the recoil from the massive barrel, which is attached to a 7.5 ton lorry, appeared to make his safety net collapse...onlookers were stunned and confused by the accident as they did not know if it was part of the show."
Mail Online (includes photo sequence)

"Lying on his family room floor with assault weapons trained on him, shouts of "pedophile!" and "pornographer!" stinging like his fresh cuts and bruises, the Buffalo homeowner didn't need long to figure out the reason for the early morning wake-up call from a swarm of federal agents. That new wireless router. He'd gotten fed up trying to set a password."
AP

"A man was found dead in his apartment draped in spider webs and more than 200 spiders, several snakes, thousands of termites, and a gecko were feasting on his corpse."
The Telegraph  (not for the squeamish)

If that link doesn't work try here.

"An army of termites munched through 10 million rupees ($222,000) in currency notes stored in a steel chest at a bank"
CSM

"The newest dieting fad in Hong Kong? Swallowing parasites. This radical form of weight loss has become popular enough that the Hong Kong Health Department issued a warning in February that these worms — which are sold on Chinese websites — can cause abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea and even death."
USA Today

"...the entire apartment smelled of paint fumes and Kelly was found sitting on the couch with his shirt off, and his hands, mouth, nose and chin covered in silver paint."
WSBT (great mug shot)

"Under his plan, foster children would receive gift cards that could only be used at places like the Salvation Army, Goodwill and other second hand clothing stores."
Michigan Messenger

"The Mill St. Pak 'n Save in Hamilton, New Zealand should have been shut for Good Friday, but the godless computer system overrode a manual command to shutter up, and flicked on the lights and threw open the automatic doors at 8am despite a complete absence of any staff."
The Register