News of the Weird - this just in!

[lindosfan1]

Rather them than me......

Tuk tuk world land speed record holder 'over the moon'

A man who has set a new tuk tuk land speed record says he is "over the moon" at the achievement.

Matt Everard, 46, from Billericay, Essex, set a speed of 74.306mph (119.583kmh) at Elvington Airfield near York.

He had been set a target of 68.35mph (110kmh) by Guinness World Records.

Mr Everard bought the three-wheeled 1971 Bangkok taxi on eBay from a seller in Bolton in 2017, as a "fun vehicle to ride around town".

The record for fastest autorickshaw/tuk tuk (prototype) is a new one for Guinness World Records.

It required Mr Everard to have a passenger in the back, so his cousin Russell Shearman, 49, volunteered for the job.

"I'm over the moon, I feel brilliant," Mr Everard said of his world record.

He said the "build-up" to the attempt had been the "exciting" bit and would like to have another attempt to try to hit 100mph.

"We'd like to have done it slightly faster today, but we've got the record and that's all that matters.

"I thought it was going to be more wobbly.

"At a certain speed there was a slight wheel-wobble, but once you went through that speed it kind of evened out again and it was fine. I wasn't scared."

He said the purchase followed a "boozy night" after having a few tuk tuk rides in Thailand.

"I just loved the fun of it, it made me smile.

"When we got back, I was watching a tuk tuk on eBay and I'd had a beer or two.

"My wife went to bed, and I thought 'well, why not? Let's have a tuk tuk'."

He said confessing the purchase to his wife had not been the "easiest conversation".

He spent more than £20,000 improving the vehicle and to justify the expense he had the idea of trying for a world record in the vehicle.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-y ... e-48257785

[Ginjaninja]

^
BRILLIANT!

[Dannie Boy]

I’m sure they have faster ones in Bangkok!!

[Nereus]

Bad hair day: (video at link)
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Driver inches from disaster after 'handbrake fail' during boat launch

https://au.news.yahoo.com/driver-handbr ... 53141.html

A man trying to tow his boat up a ramp has nearly been run over after appearing to leave the handbrake off his car.
Video of what nearly turned into a disaster was shared on Facebook by Josh Bishop. It was filmed at Moody Point in Vancouver, Canada on Wednesday evening.

The man is seen sitting in his boat which is attached to his car. The boat is near the edge of the water.
But he soon appears to realise he has left the handbrake off his car. He leaps from the boat as it and the SUV begin rolling backwards into the water.

“Oh my goodness,” Mr Bishop says.

The man falls to the ground and the car narrowly misses running over his left arm.
Another later video shows the car completely submerged.

Port Moody Police said the man got out of his SUV because the boat’s engine propeller was hitting the ground as it had not been raised properly.
The man did not want the boat’s propeller getting damaged.

Mr Bishop told the Vancouver Sun the man was “flipping out” as his car and boat became submerged.
“He had his hands on his head and he really didn’t know what to do,” he told the Sun.
“Later I saw him limping away with the cops.”

Deputy Chief Kirk Heaven, from Port Moody Fire Rescue, told CTV News crews eventually towed the SUV from the water.

But as crews were towing the SUV away it burst into flames.
"It's caused (by) the battery shorting out with salt water," the firefighter told CTV News.

[handdrummer]

Sounds like a script from a comedy disaster movie.

[PeteC]

Vibrator prize for Spanish squash champion spurs sexism debate

A squash championship in northern Spain has sparked a debate about sexism in sport after female participants were awarded a vibrator, wax and a kit to remove foot calluses.

The top women players of the Asturias championship wrote to the local squash federation to complain about the incident.

It prompted resignations at the club that organised the event.

Contest winner Elisabet Sadó told the BBC that "things have to change".

Ms Sadó was awarded a trophy and a vibrator for getting the top spot in the competition.

The women in second, third and fourth places won an electronic foot file or hair removal wax.

"We were very surprised, very shocked. We think it's very sexist," Ms Sadó said.......(full story at link)

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48348431

[pharvey]

Not entirely sure I will ever think of growing tomatoes "with my Mum" ever again!!!

FULL Story: - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... composting

Eco-friendly Ending: Washington State is First to Allow Human Composting

"Ashes to ashes, guts to dirt.

Governor Jay Inslee signed legislation Tuesday making Washington the first state to approve composting as an alternative to burying or cremating human remains.

It allows licensed facilities to offer “natural organic reduction”, which turns a body, mixed with substances such as wood chips and straw, into about two wheelbarrows’ worth of soil in a span of several weeks.

Loved ones are allowed to keep the soil to spread, just as they might spread the ashes of someone who has been cremated – or even use it to plant vegetables or a tree.

“It gives meaning and use to what happens to our bodies after death,” said Nora Menkin, executive director of the Seattle-based People’s Memorial Association, which helps people plan for funerals.

Supporters say the method is an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation, which releases carbon dioxide and particulates into the air, and conventional burial, in which people are drained of their blood, pumped full of formaldehyde and other chemicals that can pollute groundwater, and placed in a nearly indestructible coffin, taking up land."

[handdrummer]

And it's only $5,500. Less than a box funeral and 4 x's more than cremation. You'd have to plant a very big vegetable garden, for a number of years, to get your money's worth. What if the body is toxic, does that leach into the soil?

[PeteC]

Queensland snowfall: Icy weather brings warnings in Australia

Maybe it will work its way up here?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-48507582

[Nereus]

E.T. heads off home:
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'What the heck?' Woman baffled by strange figure caught on CCTV

https://au.news.yahoo.com/what-the-heck ... 20022.html

A strange figure has been caught on security footage lurking outside a home at night executing extremely bizarre behaviour.

The odd-looking character showed up on Vivian Gomez’s CCTV footage about 10pm on Saturday outside her home in Colorado, in the US.

Since uploading to to Facebook, hundreds weighed in with varied speculation on what they thought explained the “creature’s” odd appearance and movements.

“So I woke up Sunday morning and saw this on my camera and am trying to figure out...what the heck?” Ms Gomez wrote along with the post.

“First I saw the shadow walking from my front door then I saw this thing....has anyone else seen this on their cameras?
“The other two cameras didn’t pick it up for some reason.”

While many suggested the figure might have been a mischievous child wearing a pair of shorts on his head, others were convinced there was a more sinister explanation.

Some pointed out the figure’s uncanny resemblance to famous house elf Dobby from the Harry Potter movie series.
“Dobby is free,” someone celebrated, while another said: “Dobby came to make sure you are safe”.

Others were convinced it was something extraterrestrial in nature and expressed this through posting small alien heads in the comments.

“They are among us,” someone wrote.

“It’s clearly an alien from another planet,” another wrote in a comment to a version of the video shared to Instagram.

Another person took a pragmatic approach and suggested Ms Gomez send the video straight to the police.

“If it is real it looks like it’s a child! I would be more concerned a small child is in danger than a ghost. The time frame seems too late for any child to be out. The behaviour is really strange too! Send it to the police,” they wrote.

[Nereus]

Kindergarten reopens:
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kindergarten.jpg (48.88 KiB) Viewed 547 times

[pharvey]

Can't say it would be to my taste......

Is it Safe to Drink a Cocktail with a Frostbitten Toe in it?

"British endurance athlete Nick Griffiths has sent his severed digit to Canada where they will be served in a Sourtoe shot. But is it worth trying?
rder a gin and tonic at any bar and you will probably be met with a series of choices: which gin, what flavour of infused tonic, what garnish. If you are at the Artesian in London, the four-time world’s best bar, your glass is also likely to come adorned with a floating pillow filled with aromatic smoke, to be pierced as you take your first sip. What you probably shouldn’t expect is a human toe in your drink.
The news on Thursday that British endurance athlete Nick Griffiths was sending his frostbitten and amputated toes to the Yukon in Canada to be sipped in a cocktail, the Sourtoe, will turn the stomachs of most. Yet it is a long-known and notorious tipple, reportedly founded during prohibition when a pair of rum-running brothers were caught in a blizzard and kept a frostbitten toe in whiskey for preservation. The jar – complete with toe intact – was then found in 1973 and, for reasons only known to Captain Dick Stevenson, he had a taste. Stevenson then decided to form a Sourtoe Club, where members are initiated once they have drunk a shot of the whiskey and the dead toe has touched their lips.
The whiskey has since changed, as have the toes, owing to thefts; in 2013, one man even swallowed the digit on purpose. Griffiths’s toes will reportedly be kept in salt for six weeks before they are served, but British GP Ben Tschobotko cautions against the Sourtoe’s safety. “I certainly wouldn’t do it myself,” he says. “I would worry about drinking it because I don’t know what pathogens might come from a severed toe. While it might be basking in alcohol, it is reused by multiple drinkers so sanitary problems could also arise from there.” Tschobotko says you can only be sure of its safety if each toe is tested in a laboratory."

Full Article: - https://www.theguardian.com/food/shortc ... -toe-in-it

[PeteC]

‘DROWNED MAN’ RISES, STARTLES RESCUE WORKERS

Photos at link.....

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/news/crim ... e-workers/


CHAI NAT — Police officers and rescue workers were in for a surprise Thursday when a “dead body” they were supposed to retrieve opened his eyes and greeted them instead.

The man, who said he got drunk before passing out at 3am, was spotted in a canal in Chai Nat province by onlookers who reported the apparent drowning to police. It was only when rescuers approached him to bag his body that Amnat Fannang came to his senses.

“When I reached Mr. Amnat, I found him waking up and opening his eyes,” rescue worker Nipon Panyathorn said. “But I wasn’t shocked, because I was just joking before I went into the canal about what would happen if he opened his eyes!”

Amnat, 30, turned out to be enjoying a drunken sleep in the canal, with only his nose visible above the waterline. Nipon said he had never seen anyone sleep like that throughout his career retrieving dead bodies.

“Usually when I see someone lying like that, they’re definitely dead,” Nipon recounted. “In my 10 years of work, I have never seen anything like this. This is the first case. He was very still for two, three hours.”

Speaking to police officers – some of whom were already collecting evidence and setting up a crime scene prior to his “resurrection” – Amnat said he went out drinking with his friends in Suphanburi province until 3am last night and got roundly intoxicated (like a true Suphanburian).

The man recalled taking a bus to a rest stop to wait for another bus home, but felt the need to lie down. The weather was hot, and he didn’t want to disturb other passengers, so he did what he thought was the best solution: sleeping in the nearby canal.

With the water almost up to his nose, Amnat slid into a blissful sleep until Nipon was about to put a body identification tag on him. As he blinked at the sunlight and rose, a crowd of onlookers cheered in relief to see that Amnat wasn’t dead after all.

“I was afraid his ghost would haunt me!” one resident said.

Amnat was given a ride to his home in Manorom district by one of the onlookers.

[PeteC]

Any new Thai system they better encase sensitive controls in bomb proof concrete or steel to keep the critters living here out of it.

Rogue slug blamed for Japanese railway chaos

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48729110


A power cut that disrupted rail traffic on a Japanese island last month was caused by a slug, officials say.

More than 12,000 people's journeys were affected when nearly 30 trains on Kyushu shuddered to a halt because of the slimy intruder's actions.

Its electrocuted remains were found lodged inside equipment next to the tracks, Japan Railways says.

The incident in Japan has echoes of a shutdown caused by a weasel at Europe's Large Hadron Collider in 2016.

When the weasel took a fatal chew on wiring inside a high-voltage transformer, it caused a short circuit which temporarily stopped the work of the particle accelerator.

In Japan, local media on the trail of the slug report that it managed to squeeze through a tiny gap to get into a load disconnector.

A British cousin of the ill-fated mollusc achieved notoriety in 2011, The Guardian reports, when it crawled inside a traffic light control box in the northern town of Darlington and caused a short circuit, resulting in "traffic chaos".

[dtaai-maai]

There are a couple of places this could go, but News of the Weird seems appropriate...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-48821306

Mexico hail: Ice 1.5m thick carpets Mexico's Guadalajara