News of the Weird

[English assassin]

It's one of those old man-in-underwear-wrestles-leopard stories ...

Man Clad in Underwear Pins Leopard

By ARON HELLER
The Associated Press
Monday, May 28, 2007; 10:45 PM

JERUSALEM -- A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.

"This kind of thing doesn't happen every day," said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. "I don't know why I did it. I wasn't thinking, I just acted."

Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch's small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.

Shapira said it was probably food that lured the big cat. Leopards living near humans are usually too old to hunt in the wild and resort to chasing down domestic dogs and cats for food, he added.

Du Mosch's pet cat was in the bed with him at the time, along with his young daughter who had been frightened by a mosquito in her own room.

Shapira said the leopard was very weak when park rangers arrived at Du Mosch's home after the surprise late-night visit. He said nature officials would likely release it back into the wild.

Du Mosch said he probably would not have been able to control the big cat were it in better health. As a nature guide, he said, he was familiar with animals and did his best to hold down the leopard without harming it. He said he took it all in stride, "but the kids were excited."

I don't believe Du Mosch really wrestled a leopard. I think he's lion.

[Banquo's Ghost]

I don't believe Du Mosch really wrestled a leopard. I think he's lion.

Well spotted.

[Banquo's Ghost]

The Empire Strikes Back.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Brit cuffed for German towel-torching raid

Coach driver liberates Italian Riviera sun loungers
By Lester Haines
Published Tuesday 29th May 2007 13:59 GMT


A Brit coach driver successfully liberated Italian Riviera sun loungers from foreign occupation by setting fire to the towels traditionally used to denote German territorial sovereignty.

Glyn Bowden, 55, was driver for 55 South Wales tourists at at Viana Marina near San Remo. He yesterday recounted how the Germans "put their towels on the best sunbeds on the private beach and by a nearby pool", much to the chagrin of the British party, The Daily Mail reports.

Following complaints, Bowden told his party to "leave it to me", and duly dumped the towels at the end of the pool. He reported: "The following morning the Germans put them down even earlier so I did the same - with them shaking their fists at me from their windows."

"The next morning about 20 towels were there again so I collected them up, put them on a pile on the beach - and lit them. All the British tourists were cheering. But just a few minutes afterwards three police officers turned up and arrested me."
Indeed, Italian police held Bowden for two hours before the hotel's bosses successfully petitioned for his release. Bowden said: "They were going to charge me with criminal damage but the hotel - which owned the towels - intervened on my behalf."

The unrepentant Brit - who ensured no further German towel manoeuvres for the rest of the trip - declared: "The Germans thought they owned the private beach but I wanted to make sure my tourists got a crack of the whip."

We should note at this point that Bowden did in fact have recourse to international law to resolve the matter without incendiary action. Back in 2005, German lawyer Ralf Höcker declared sun lounger annexation illegal, explaining: "British tourist would be quite within their legal rights to ignore the reservation implied by the towels if there is nobody there."

[English assassin]

Dog bites man? Not weird.

Man eats dog as art? Oh yes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6703423.stm

Performance artist Mark McGowan has eaten what he claims was a cooked corgi in a protest over the Royal Family's treatment of animals.

McGowan, who is a vegetarian, said he wanted his unusual meal to raise awareness about "the RSPCA's inability to prosecute Prince Philip and his friends".

I admire his dogged determination to bring Prince Philip to heel. In fact, I think it's the dog's.


(Ha, and not a hot dog pun in sight)

And further research reveals that Mr McGowan is a rich vein of weirdness. Before he went all commercial on us with dog eating, his stunts included trying to wipe out his student debt by using his nose to roll a monkey nut across London, rolling across London to promote kindness to cleaners and walking backwards with a turkey on his head to fight obesity. (as you do)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3102458.stm

Sure, he could try to get a "job", but where's the fun in that?

[Mikeus Caesar]

>>>Stupid animal activist story goes here<<<

Pillock and hypocrite.

"I'm disgusted at the fact the Royal Family would dare shoot a fox for sport as they have done for centuries, so i'm going to eat a corgi to make a 'statement'. Also because i think it's a right larf, just so long as you don't point out the fact i'm a HUMONGOUS BLOODY HYPOCRITICAL ####!!!"

[InsaneApache]

As an artist he should winalot of prizes for that! It does take the biscuit though. I wonder if he's got a pal he can bounce into the mix?

[ShadesPanther]

Dog bites man? Not weird.

Man eats dog as art? Oh yes

I admire his dogged determination to bring Prince Philip to heel. In fact, I think it's the dog's.

I think he's barking up the wrong tree with that approach.

[Lemur]

My favorite fatwa: It's okay to be alone with a woman, so long as you suckle her teat.

Izzat Atiyaa had issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, offering his bold suggestion as a way around the prohibition in Islamic religious law against a woman working in private premises with a man who was not her close relative. Breastfeeding, he argued, would create a familial relationship under Islamic law.

Dr Atiyaa explained to the Egyptian newspaper al-Watani al-Yawm that: "A man and a woman who are alone together are not (necessarily) having sex but this possibility exists and breastfeeding provides a solution to this problem (by) transforming the bestial relationship between two people into a religious relationship based on (religious) duties."

In Islamic tradition, breastfeeding at infancy establishes a degree of familial relationship between nurse and child even if there is no biological relationship.

Dr Atiyaa argued in his fatwa that if an adult male was nursed by a female co-worker it would likewise establish a familial bond that would permit them to work side by side without raising suspicion of illicit sex.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Well, that's certainly interesting news Lemur.

It seems it has already been retracted though.

CR

[ShadesPanther]

Yeah, he milked the publicity for all it was worth though.

[Gregoshi]

The teatchings of Islam, like most religions, is a little vague in spots.

[English assassin]

A man and a woman who are alone together are not (necessarily) having sex

Bloody wishy washy liberal.

[InsaneApache]

Firefighters in Greater Manchester are facing disciplinary action over claims they slept on a station floor instead of their new reclining chairs.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...er/6707509.stm

but this is the clincher...

The service bought more than 300 of the chairs last year after chiefs decided to remove beds from dormitories across the region.

But firefighters were not allowed to sit or lie on the devices before reading a four-page health and safety manual.

The country's gone potty.

[Marshal Murat]

In the event of the chair collapsing on itself, dial 911 and ask for the fire department.

[Banquo's Ghost]

The service bought more than 300 of the chairs last year after chiefs decided to remove beds from dormitories across the region.

But firefighters were not allowed to sit or lie on the devices before reading a four-page health and safety manual.

If I was a firefighter, no way would I take that lying down.

[InsaneApache]

I'm reclined to agree.

[Gregoshi]

Well, the chief reason for not using the chairs would be that, being firefighters, hose going to want to get into a hotseat?

[Hosakawa Tito]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...er/6707509.stm

but this is the clincher...





The country's gone potty.

Recliner chair injury, something many of us weekend warriors can relate to...being able to claim it on workman's compensation as a work related injury...priceless.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Something in the air.

The concentration of drugs was heaviest in the air around Rome's Sapienza university, though the National Research Council's Dr. Angelo Cecinato warned against drawing conclusions about students' recreational habits.

Recreational??? No, no, it's scientific research... yeah, that's it, scientific research...stop bogarting that bong and cut me another line

[Hosakawa Tito]

Chili sauce to die for... or go to jail for. Must be good.

[Banquo's Ghost]

Chili sauce to die for... or go to jail for. Must be good.

And here I thought only journalists protected their sauces.

[Gregoshi]

And here I thought only journalists protected their sauces.

That was delightfully awful.

[English assassin]

I've been thinking (always leads to trouble, that), and I'e realised we have been missing a trick. This thread is news of the weird, but where does it say that the weird has to be in the news?



Accordingly, just because I can, I give you, the British Lawnmower museum: http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk/

THRILL to lawnmower racing (did you know Striling Moss won the British Grand Prix for lawnmowers in 1975 and 1976? Nor did I) GASP at Hilda Ogden's lawnmower, and other Lawnmowers of the Rich and Famous. LUST after the lovely Nora.

This is the stuff that makes Britain great.

[InsaneApache]

Ok that's weird, why on earth would Hilda Ogden own a lawnmower? She's only got a paved yard and a ginnel at the back.

I've just had a thought! You don't suppose it was Stanley who drowned in his bucket a page or so back?

[Gregoshi]

Sorry, but it has to be said: I checked the link, and aside from Nora the tour guide, that lawnmower museum is about as exciting as watching grass grow.

[Banquo's Ghost]

You know, that museum has something sad, almost for-lawn about it.

[Pannonian]

I wonder how many of these lawnmowers were hand-meadowns?

[English assassin]

Sorry, but it has to be said: I checked the link, and aside from Nora the tour guide, that lawnmower museum is about as exciting as watching grass grow.

Oooh, cutting.

[Gregoshi]

I know what you mean. Nudge nudge, Say no mow.

Cue the music (sing to the tune I Fought the Law):

Mowin' grass in the hot sun
I fought the lawn and the lawn won
I fought the lawn and the lawn won
I needed some gas, 'cause I had none
I fought the lawn and the lawn won
I fought the lawn and the lawn won

[Lemur]

Must be nice to have all of those mowers -- at root, I guess I'm green with envy. But it's growing on me.