Fairy tales

In the foothills of the North Cascades, where the veil between dimensions is said to be thinnest, inhabitants of this world gather once a year to co-exist with fairies in theirs.

About 250 people came to the Methow Valley June 26 through 28 from as far away as Europe and Hawaii to participate in the ninth annual Fairy and Human Relations Congress, an outdoor festival in a secluded mountain meadow called Skalitude.

via Our Strange World.

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…pigs?

…While not generally known, Berghorn said UFO sightings in New England date back to 1635 when two men fishing on the Charles River claimed to have seen “flying pigs.”

When examined by contemporary criteria, he said the seemingly odd claim makes perfect sense because the men, who were in fact pig farmers, described something unusual from their own perspective.

“We shouldn’t be surprised when people in 1635 try to explain the unknown in terms of what they know,” Berghorn said. “We’d do the same thing today.”

Lots more at  Our Strange World.

You want DIY fries with that?

Police in Germany are hunting a gang of British conmen who passed off a bag of spuds as a hoard of iPods.

They convinced gullible bargain hunters to hand over the equivalent of £600 for what they believed to be a bag of MP3 players.

The swindlers had shown their customers electronic goodies, including laptops and mobile phones, before agreeing the price for a bag of second hand iPods.

But, after the deal was done in Braunschweig, they later opened the bag to find they had been passed off with about 2kg of potatoes.

via Ananova – iSpud conmen.

Looking for a job? How does $80K a year sound? (Bring your own hat.)

Fancy 80,000 dollars a year on a stress-free job with flexible working hours and no need to wear a suit?

Well, grab your black pointy hat, take out that rusty black hessian drape from the back of the wardrobe and refresh your memory on how to turn your grumpy neighbor into a mouse. Somerset tourist attraction Wookey Hole caves is advertising for a “witch” and has already received 100 applicants since the beginning of the week.

via Try casting a spell – Yahoo! News.