Pot alarm

Dopey cannabis growers got busted by their own smoke alarm after plugs powering lights overheated. Neighbours on Liverpool Old Road in Walmer Bridge called the fire brigade after hearing the alarm going off in the empty house at around 10pm on Monday.

When firefighters arrived they found plugs for powerful ultra-violet lights used to boost the plants growth had been “overloaded”.

Police, who found two bedrooms filled with plants, have now launched an investigation and are hunting the growers, who were not in the house at the time.

via Lancashire Evening Post.

Only two

Only two living people have had a Chia Pet modeled after them. One was Barack Obama. The other was Mr. T. Now you’ll know the next time someone asks you.

Snakes alive!

“Researchers excavating a coal mine in South America have found the fossilized remains of the mother of all snakes, a nightmarish tropical behemoth as long as a school bus and as heavy as a Volkswagen Beetle.

Modern boas and anacondas, which average less than 20 feet in length and reach a maximum of 30 feet, have been known to swallow Chihuahuas, cats and other small pets, but this prehistoric monster ate giant turtles and primitive crocodiles.”

More at  Los Angeles Times.

Along came a spider, then a lighter, then three firetrucks

A man had to be rescued after setting the front of his house on fire while trying to kill a spider with a lighter.

Firefighters say the man, in his 40s, had been trying to set fire to the spider as it crawled up the front of the semi-detached property

But sparks reached material behind the cladding and caused a fire within the walls, shortly before midnight.

via Man set house on fire while trying to kill a spider with a lighter – Telegraph.

Wanted: UFO traffic controller

The Republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia is in the process of building the world’s first alien embassy according to some local media reports. If these reports are to be believed, the authorities have already allocated a large plot of land in the city of Almaty for this ambitious project. Facilities to be built within the complex will include a guesthouse, theatre and translation service. A purpose built UFO landing pad and checkpoint will be attached to the embassy.

More at  All News Web – Kazakhstan

Where do you find a translator for an off-planet language?

Smoky the Sparrow

A cigarette loving sparrow is being blamed for a fire that caused £250,000 of damage to a shop in Lincolnshire. Paul Sheriff, 48, who runs Crescent Stores in Leasingham, was initially at a loss as to what caused the blaze, reports Metro.

But six weeks on, insurance investigators have told him that they discovered 35 cigarette ends in the roof. Their conclusion was a sparrow must have picked up a smouldering butt to feather its nest in the roof’s eaves, causing the blaze.

via Sparrow’s cigarette

Good news…bad news

The good news is that there may be a way to get rid of asthma and allergies. The bad news is that the cure may be lice. Turns out that our ultraclean life style is  hampering the development of our immune systems.

The idea is that if the immune system is not properly primed in childhood, immune cells can improperly react to harmless triggers such as pollen or bits of dander. Bacterial and viral infections do not seem to be the priming factor, but researchers have been focusing lately on parasites.

More

Follow the yellow brick brown spit trail

Police in Wisconsin say a trail of chewing tobacco spit led them to two men accused of stealing a safe from a pub. The pair have been charged with stealing a safe containing $3,000 in cash and beer tokens from a bar in the island town of Campbell.

Police officers investigating the burglary were able to collect chewing tobacco spit that led away from the tavern. DNA from the spit matched a 21-year-old man, from nearby La Crosse, who was promptly arrested.

via Tobacco spit

Nazi cattle

Cattle brought back from extinction by Hitler have achieved what he never could – by invading England.

A herd of aurochs, legendary beasts seen as symbols of Nazi might, is grazing in Devon, according to The Sun. It is the first time they have set hoof here in 4,000 years when the last ones to roam Britain were killed.

via Ananova

Attn. Spelling Bee officials: Here’s a tie breaker

Embarrassed US officials have been forced to admit that they have been spelling Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg wrongly for years.

The typos in the country’s longest place name were revealed by local newspaper, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, which has been covering the misspelling scandal since 2003.

via Longest place name spelt wrongly.

Not too surprising. there are at least two dozen spelling variants.

Ooops! “Four Corners marker off by 2.5 miles”

Tourists who want to put a hand or foot in each of four states at the Four Corners area are apparently off the mark — by about 2.5 miles.

According to readings by the National Geodetic Survey, the Four Corners marker showing the intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah is about 2.5 miles west of where it should be.

via Weird News.

Casual Friday (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday too)

A German judge has ordered her trials to be held by her bedside after being hospitalised with a broken hip. Karin Walter, 59, ordered lawyers, witnesses and handcuffed defendants to take part in the hearings at St Vincenz hospital in Limburg…

Under German law, all the charges would have been scrapped if the judge had been unable to continue with the trials.

via Judge hears cases in bed.

Tasmania’s wombat poo paper

Wombat droppings are helping an industrial city in Australia fight the effects of the global financial crisis.

Burnie, in the north-west of the state of Tasmania, has been hit by repeated rounds of job cuts. But despite the gloom, one local industry is thriving by producing handmade paper out of a material no-one else wants – wombat poo.

via BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific

Strangest DWI you’ll see today

If you saw a news article that described an incident in which a man was charged with DWI, driving with an invalid license and felony theft, what would you guess he had stolen? I’m guessing you guessed wrong because it was a $180,000 steamroller.

video at myfoxaustin.

So…how do you handcuff a snake?

A Kenyan man bit a python which wrapped him in its coils and dragged him up a tree during a fierce three-hour struggle, police have told the BBC.

The serpent seized farm worker Ben Nyaumbe in the Malindi area of Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast at the weekend. Mr Nyaumbe bit the snake on the tip of the tail during the exhausting battle in the village of Sabaki.

Police rescued Mr Nyaumbe and captured the 13ft (4m) reptile, before taking it to a sanctuary, but it later escaped.

via BBC NEWS | Africa

Taking all your clothes off won’t prevent arrest

A Halsey [Oregon] man was arrested Sunday after a series of erratic moves on Interstate 5, including driving at extreme speeds, throwing a baby’s car seat out the window and stripping naked.

via OregonLive.com.

Darwin Award candidate

A teenager playing hide-and-seek got more than he bargained for when the shed he hid in was booby-trapped with explosives.

The 14-year-old intruder ignored a warning sign in the window and snuck into the outhouse in Hesse, Germany, triggering an explosive charge set by the door.

Owner Hermann Schumann, 78, had set the trap to keep out intruders but has since been charged with firearms offences.

via Daily Star

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.

100 feet in the air…watch that first step

A lorry driver had a miraculous escape in China after an accident left his cab hanging precariously over the edge of a flyover.

The truck appeared to be defying gravity as it dangled 100ft above the ground in Chengdu, reports the Tianfu Morning Post.

via Ananova

But not much

Via Fail.org