Mushrooms not for eating, just looking

A stall in Gurun is making heads turn among motorists on the highway from here to Sungai Petani. This is because colourful “toadstools” of various sizes adorn this modest premises owned by Abdul Naaim Azaddin.The 48-year-old entrepreneur is successfully running a business producing decorative toadstools made of plastic pipes and coconut shells.

via Man’s hobby mushrooms to big business.

New York City streets really are paved with gold

Hewing the border between desperation and genius, a Queens man has turned to panning for gold and diamonds in Manhattan. So far, he’s made about $850. In one week.

Raffi Stepanian, 43, is a freelance gemstone designer who realized that the streets and sidewalks of Manhattan’s Diamond District had chips of diamonds, rubies, platinum and gold that had been unwittingly carried out of its stores. By scraping the mud and debris on the street, or running slurry through a filter in the exact fashion of a California prospector, Stepanian has been able to recover enough precious metals for two sales totaling $819

via New York Post

I hope they let the driver get out first…

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Band Aids not required on male nipples. Well…that’s a relief

Male exotic dancer Ed Cloyd, who goes by the stage name “Total Package” at clubs in Prince George’s and Washington, D.C., will not have to wear Band-Aids over his nipples when he dances close to customers.

via County’s strip club restrictions upheld by judge as unconstitutional.

World’s fattest contortionist

With the ability to press his soles to his cheeks, turn himself into a human dart board, and dislocate his shoulders to escape from a straitjacket, Matt Alaeddine’s resume reads more like a medical examiner’s report.

Couple that with his sizable mass — well over 400 pounds — and the city comic and contortionist has found a ticket around the world, securing him a place in the infamous Jim Rose Circus.

via Edmonton performer claims to be world’s fattest contortionist.

Druids hired to reduce Austrian road accidents (Thanks, Geoff.)

For the past two years Austrian motorway bosses have been hiring a team of druids to build miniature Stonehenge monnuments at the sites of repeated accidents to restore the “terrestrial energy” which the Druids claim has been messed up by cell phone antennas on cars.  The scheme is apparently working so well that a full time team of Druids has been hired to take the program nationwide.

via Nothing To Do With Arbroath: Druids hired to cut road accidents.

Can you do this? And walk afterward?

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You can’t make these up: “Sprouts make turtles flatulent too”

A Norfolk aquarium has taken action to prevent flatulence from a Brussels sprout-eating turtle from triggering overflow alarms. The Great Yarmouth Sea Life Centre has lowered the water level in George the green turtle’s tank, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Staff at the centre give George a seasonal treat of Brussel sprouts at Christmas to provide a healthy dose of vitamins, minerals and fibre.

But turtles, like humans, are prone to heavy bouts of flatulence after eating the vegetables.

via Ananova – Sprouts make turtles flatulent too.

This program was brought to you by your friendly local witch doctor

The Ugandan ethics minister has put a halt to witch doctors advertising their services on the radio claiming that the stations “…are promoting witchcraft-related activities to the detriment of Uganda’s integrity” and are in violation of the 1957 Witchcraft Act.

via www.screenafrica.com

Where are all the feet coming from?

A right foot has been found inside a running shoe on a beach in Richmond, the seventh foot found along B.C.’s coast in two years, RCMP said Wednesday.

More via Foot found on Richmond beach is seventh foot found on B.C. coast.

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.

Here’s a job to make you flush…but not with money

If you are a female about 5 foot 8, 140 pounds and willing to stick your head in a toilet, a northern Wisconsin prosecutor wants your help in a homicide case.

Vilas County Dist. Atty. Al Moustakis plans to recruit volunteers for a second round of controversial tests designed to prove that a woman was drowned by her husband in a toilet — and didn’t commit suicide as he claims.

via Sheboygan Press.

Little folk

According to an article in Vanity Fair … “[a] large number of Icelanders” believe in elves or “hidden people.” This widespread folklore occasionally disrupts business in the sparsely populated North Atlantic country. Before the aluminum company Alcoa could erect a smelting factory, “it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it.” How do you find an elf?

…The ability to see the huldufólk, or hidden folk, can’t be learned; you’re just born with it. To find elves, seers don’t really need to do anything—they’ll just sense an elfin presence. The Vanity Fair article says that elf detection can take six months, but it’s usually a quick process that can last under an hour. And although the magazine claims that a “government expert” had to certify the nonexistence of elves, the Icelandic Embassy insists that these consults are performed by freelancers, not government contractors.

via How do you find an elf? – By Juliet Lapidos – Slate Magazine.

Sounds fishy to me

In an effort to produce the most delicious sushi in the world, the Japanese are now using acupuncture to calm the dying tuna who will experience a new but short afterlife as sushi.

The Osakana Planning Company is responsible for developing and patenting this special acupuncture technique. The idea behind it is that calm tuna results in purer blood and better tasting flesh.

via Weird Asia News.

Aren’t rats sacred some places in India? Apparently not here.

After disposing of 39,650 rodents, a man from Bangladesh has been crowned a rat-killing champion and has been awarded a 14-inch Sony color television for his efforts.

via Weird Asia News.

£10M Tongue…Couldn’t Be A Publicity Stunt, Could It?

The tongue of the chief coffee taster for a worldwide chain of coffee shops has been insured for £10m ($13.95m).

Gennaro Pelliccia personally tastes a sample of each batch of raw coffee beans at its London plant before they are roasted and shipped to its stores.

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Way too much information…about belly button fluff

An Austrian scientist claims to have solved the mystery of belly button fluff. Georg Steinhauser, a chemist, has discovered a type of body hair that traps stray pieces of lint and draws them into the navel.

Dr Steinhauser made his discovery after studying 503 pieces of fluff from his own belly button in a three year study. His observations showed that ‘small pieces of fluff first form in the hair and then end up in the navel at the end of the day’.

“The hair’s scales act like a kind of barbed hooks,” he said. “Abdominal hair often seems to grow in concentric circles around the navel.”

More at  Ananova

Need a job? Fast with your hands and on your feet?

Magnets taped to the heads of captured crocodiles could keep them from returning to South Florida neighborhoods where they’re not wanted, state wildlife officials said Monday.

State biologists are studying the temporary use of magnets to disrupt the internal navigation of federally and state-protected American crocodiles, which have been spotted most often in neighborhoods of Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

“Scientists in Mexico have reported success in using magnets to break the homing cycle,” said Lindsey Hord, crocodile response coordinator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

via State News : TCPalm

Are there crocodiles in Florida? I thought it was just alligators.

Bubble and boil, here comes trouble and toil…

In these difficult times for creditors, a Lithuanian debt collector is offering an unconventional service to retrieve arrears: witchcraft.

The Vilnius-based firm has hired Vilija Lobaciuviene, the Baltic nation’s most famous self-styled witch, to hunt down companies and individuals who are failing to pay their debts amid the credit crunch.

via  CNEWS

Well, there’s your problem. You’ve got a hippo stuck back here.

Actually, this man is cleaning a model crocodile before an exhibit in Manilla.

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