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Archive through June 19, 2004

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions: 2004 May - July: Free Expressions (ARCHIVES): Unusual News Stories: Archive through June 19, 2004 users admin

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Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Thursday, June 10, 2004 - 2:33 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Mary Poppins stunt lands man in hospital

A man in China ended up in hospital after he tried to use his umbrella as a makeshift parachute.

The man, from Chonqing, western China, is believed to have suffered two broken legs, reports West China City News.

He told police he jumped out of the window because he thought his microwave oven was about to explode.

He had thought that the umbrella would enable him to land safely - like Mary Poppins in the Disney children's film.


Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Friday, June 11, 2004 - 8:01 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Pub 'sorry' for mouse-chewing contest

A Brisbane pub has apologised for staging a mice-chewing contest.

The Exchange Hotel staged the contest in which live mice were chewed up and spat out by contestants to try to win a holiday.

The owners of the pub said they were unaware of the "appalling incident", reports the Herald Sun.

The incident outraged the RSPCA which wants to prosecute the two men involved for animal cruelty.

RSPCA chief inspector Byron Hall said those involved faced fines of up to $75,000 and two years in prison.

The Exchange Hotel issued a statement condemning the incident and promising an end to Jackass-style competitions.

"We are embarrassed this incident occurred at our hotel," said the hotel's senior manager Scott Agnew.

"The offensive part of the promotion was conducted without the knowledge of our senior management and after this incident was brought to our attention we immediately made changes to stop such unacceptable behaviour."



Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 9:14 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Bicycle proves attractive to bees

A 12-year-old girl parked her bicycle to go on a short shopping trip and came back to find it covered with 12,000 bees.

Experts think a queen bee may have rested on Alice Gilmore's bike after escaping from a hive, and had then been followed by the entire swarm.

The bees were clustered under the bike's saddle and on the handlebars.

Alice and her mother Angela had to summon experts help from apiarists, who trapped the bees in a box and took them to another hive in Petersfield, Hampshire.

"I like nature and animals but I wasn't too keen on this," Alice told the Sun.


Sanfranjoshfan
Member

09-17-2000

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 2:41 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
http://www.lowcountrynow.com/stories/102502/LOCmonkeys.shtml

'Show me the monkeys'

Web posted Friday, October 25, 2002

HARDEEVILLE: Dogs and monkeys trained to herd sheep highlight rodeo at speedway.

By Matt Coffey
Carolina Morning News

Herding sheep with dogs is nothing new. In fact, dogs are bred for that exact purpose all around the world.

But rarely are the dogs equipped with saddles. And monkeys. They will be, however, today and Saturday at the International Professional Rodeo Association's rodeo at the Hardeeville Motor Speedway.

That's right, monkeys that ride dogs while herding sheep.

Tim "Wild Thang"Lepard, trainer and performer, said he got the idea for monkeying around -- an act that has been shown on the "Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" -- when he was a kid.

"This old man said, 'Where you going son?' and I told him I was going to a rodeo. And this old man got to talking and he said, 'You know, I was at a rodeo when I was probably about your age and a guy come up there and he had a monkey and it was sitting on a dog. I didn't believe it was a monkey, but that dog sat down right there in front of me and it sure enough was a monkey. I laughed so hard it hurt my side, and you know what, today I'm 76 years old and it still hurts when I think about it.'

"And I said to myself, that's what I want to do. I want to put an act together that people will always remember," Lepard said.

That's exactly what he did. Once you see a tiny screaming monkey tearing around a rodeo arena on the back of a panting collie, it's impossible to forget.

"The thing about rodeo, it's just like anything else, if it's hot, somebody else is going to get on it," Lepard said. "When I put this act together, I thought 'You can't touch this.' I mean, I know what I've been through to train a monkey to ride a dog and if I can train a monkey to ride a dog, I can train a rock to do tricks."

Lepard started 15 years ago with one white-faced, white-throated capuchin monkey and one border collie. His act has grown to three dogs and three monkeys with which he travels the country.

"I experienced that one-dog and one-monkey deal and I started going along and whenever I came up with two dogs and two monkeys, I said 'This is unreal,' " Lepard said. "I never dreamed of three."

The monkeys currently in his show have been with him for 12 years and Lepard said he thinks of them like his children.

"I don't have any kids but I know what those monkeys think," Lepard said. "It's a relationship that I have with them. I know how to calm them down and I know how to make them mad. It's like I know what they want."

Sometimes, they want to stick their fingers up his nose. One did that, once, when he tried to give it a bath. So Lepard does his best to keep them happy, feeding them pices of honey buns as treats.

The three monkeys, Wrangler, Suzie and Dillon, along with the three dogs, Hoss, Bo and Ted, are all named for famous cowboys, a brand of cowboy boots or a brand of jeans. The monkeys are also used in school programs.

Events at the rodeo include bull riding, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, team roping, steer wrestling, calf roping and barrel racing.

Gates open tonight and Saturday at 5 p.m. with exhibition and pre-event activities at 6:30 p.m. and the rodeo at 7 p.m. Ticket prices for general admission are $12 for adults with reduced rates for seniors, military and children.

monkeyroundup.jpg

Beachcomber
Member

08-26-2003

Saturday, June 12, 2004 - 4:11 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I wouldn't pay money to see this, but would probably watch it on tv! LOL

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Sunday, June 13, 2004 - 9:02 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Man outruns horse for first time

A marathon runner became the first human to win a horse against man race in the event's 25-year history.

Huw Lobb, 27, won the annual Man v Horse race at Llanwrtyd Wells in mid Wales and claimed the £25,000 prize.

He completed the 22-mile cross-country course in 2 hrs 5 mins 19 secs, some 12 minutes ahead of the nearest horse.

He told the Daily Express that the first thing he would do with the prize money would be 'buy myself some decent training shoes'.


Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Monday, June 14, 2004 - 6:45 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Singer Lenny Kravitz says he kept a marijuana joint he'd shared with Mick Jagger, for a year as a tribute.

Kravitz said he'd kept the joint because he was such a fan of the Rolling Stones frontman.

However, the remainder of the valued souvenir went up in smoke a year later after he ran out of dope.

Kravitz told Croatian magazine Gloria: "We were performing on the same stage once, and he invited me to go to his place afterwards.

"We talked the entire night, and smoked marijuana. We shared a joint, and I kept the rest of it for almost a year. It was a sign of respect."

Kravitz said his respect though great was not enough - and his souvenir of Jagger went up in smoke.

"At one point I had no grass at home, so I smoked the rest of the joint I shared with Jagger," he added.

Kravitz is scheduled to give a concert in Velika Gorica, Croatia, on June 23, promoting his new album "Baptism".



Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 2:42 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Doctors say a man who swallowed a three-inch knife to avoid charges of possessing a weapon is lucky to be alive.

Mao Kyan, from Chendu in China, ended up having the weapon stuck in his throat for eight months.

The 36-year-old swallowed the knife as police raided his flat searching for drugs.

He had not wanted to be charged with possessing a weapon as well as possession of drugs, Russian news website Pravda.ru reports.

Believing he had swallowed the knife completely and that it had been somehow dissolved in his stomach, he went to the hospital only eight months later after feeling a pain in his throat.

Doctors who examined him were amazed to find the knife stuck in his trachea, and immediately operated on him to remove it.

They said it was a miracle he had survived and that the knife "could have killed him at any second".



Maris
Member

03-28-2002

Tuesday, June 15, 2004 - 4:33 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
I guess Asians dont want to be prosecuted. Could you imagine what would happen if CEOs in the US reacted the same way if they were being investigated:


Food company boss leaps to death after rotten dumplings sold, police say

Mon Jun 14,12:09 AM ET


SEOUL, South Korea (news - web sites) (AP) - The head of a food company jumped to his death after a government investigation found that his company sold dumplings made with rotten ingredients, police said Monday.

A witness said he saw the man jump from a bridge in Seoul's Han River on Sunday, a police official said. Police have yet to find the body but found his identification card and a recently written will.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1821&e=12&u=/cpress/skorea_dumpling_scandal

He was identified in media reports only by his family name, Shin - the head of Vision Food, a dumpling company.


Last week, South Korea's Food and Drug Administration (news - web sites) announced that at least 12 companies had been using rotten radishes in their frozen dumplings and ordered the dumplings pulled off the shelves.


The government has confiscated 20 tons of what the local press dubbed "garbage dumplings."


In his will, Shin said that he faced economic difficulties with creditors following the dumpling scandal, the Yonhap news agency said. He wrote his dumplings were harmless to people.


No illness have been reported from the dumplings. But department stores have said that dumpling sales have dropped by up to 90 per cent.








Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 1:06 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
A German woman walked 60 miles home from a motorway service station after thinking her husband had driven off without her.

However, the woman had just failed to spot the family's car in the car park.

Police were alerted by the woman's husband after she failed to return to the car. She was exhausted by the time she arrived home to the central German city of Luedenscheid 15 hours later.

She admitted she'd been angry after thinking her husband had left her at the service station.


Denecee
Member

09-05-2002

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 1:21 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Wow! That woman should joing our exercise thread with those miles!

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 1:36 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Lmao...they didn't give her age but 4 m.p.h...she's the energizer bunny!

Babyruth
Member

07-19-2001

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 2:20 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
LOL- I did the same thing when I was 14, and out shopping with my Mom and brothers, but that's only because she'd forgotten me twice before! However, in my case it was only four miles (but the last mile was uphill all the way...ugh!)

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 2:22 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
And that turned you into a long distance walker...right? :-)

Babyruth
Member

07-19-2001

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 2:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
No! I did discover hitchhiking into town and back, though! :-)

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 2:26 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Roflmao! Yeah...guilty here too but back then it didn't seem so dangerous.

Hey I didn't know you were close to my age...I figured late 20s-early 30s and btw...your piccies in your profile are adorable! :-)

Babyruth
Member

07-19-2001

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 2:34 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Thanks! Yeah, I'm an old fart. :-)

That's one of the coolest things about the internet...getting to know people without age as a common barrier to discovery.

Babyruth
Member

07-19-2001

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 2:39 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Ha! I just re-read that and realized I called you an old fart too, by association...sorry!

Catch ya later...I'm off to get a hairdo.

Maris
Member

03-28-2002

Wednesday, June 16, 2004 - 4:52 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    





Panda pregnant after watching sex videos
Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Posted: 6:14 PM EDT (2214 GMT)



BEIJING, China (AP) -- American-born panda Hua Mei is pregnant, just months after she settled into her new home in southwestern China, state newspapers reported Wednesday.

The 4-year-old panda, whose name means "China-America," was the first foreign-born panda to return to its ancestral homeland. She arrived in February from the San Diego Zoo, where she was born to two pandas on loan from China.

Chinese veterinarians, concerned that she had little knowledge of sex after living only in captivity, showed her videos of mating pandas to prepare her for a series of "blind dates."

That education appears to have paid off. Hua Mei became pregnant by natural means and is due in September, the Beijing Morning Post reported, citing researchers at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection Center in southwestern China.

China has poured considerable resources into protecting the giant panda, its unofficial mascot. While China's panda population has risen, the animal remains endangered by heavy logging of its habitats. Also, groups of pandas live far from each other, making breeding difficult.

The government said last week that the number of pandas in the wild in China has jumped by more than 40 percent to 1,590. The World Wildlife Fund cautioned that the spike may be attributable to more reliable surveying methods and not necessarily to a real increase in pandas.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/06/16/china.panda.pregnant.ap/index.html



Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Thursday, June 17, 2004 - 8:03 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
A German man who faked his death so he could leave his family for a younger woman has been fined £9,000 for wasting police time.

The man had to admit to staging his own death in a motorbike accident after deciding to return to his wife and family when his fling ended after just a month.

Heinz Welsinger, 54, left his motorcycle lying on its side with the engine running on the bank of the Lippe river in Germany. That prompted fears he'd fallen in the river and been swept downstream.

Police divers scoured the riverbed and after several days found the man's motorcycle helmet, but no body.

A month later, Welsinger returned to his wife and family in Paderborn, northern Germany, according to the Westfalen-Blatt newspaper.

A spokesman for the local emergency services was quoted as saying: "We don't think other taxpayers should be liable for this, nor was it fair of him, there never was any accident, and someone has to pay."



Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Friday, June 18, 2004 - 9:19 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Scientists say they have found how to change promiscuous wayward males into attentive home-loving husbands.

Nature magazine reports that the breakthrough has been achieved with voles but has implications for humans.

By altering one gen in the brain hormone chemistry, scientists made a promiscuous meadow vole faithful - just like its prairie vole cousin.

After mating, male prairie voles "fall in love", choosing to stick close to their chosen one, guard her jealously and help her raise their young.

Closely related meadow voles, on the other hand, mate with several females and pay little attention to their babies.

A hormone called vasopressin encourages pair-bonding in prairie voles. Scientists noticed that meadow voles have fewer vasopressin receptors and decided to try giving them more.

The results were remarkable. The meadow voles changed their ways and suddenly fixed on one female, choosing to mate with only her - even when other females tried to tempt them.

"We think what happens is when the voles mate, vasopressin activates the reward centre, and it really makes the animals pay attention to who they are mating with," co-author Larry Young, from Emory University, Georgia, told BBC News Online.

"It makes the voles think: "when I'm with this partner I feel good". And from then on, they want to spend their time with that particular partner."

The strings of human behaviour might be pulled by similar hormones and similar pathways.

"We know that vasopressin is released when humans have sex," said Professor Young. "Sex is probably involved in maintaining the bond between humans and vasopressin may play a role in that."


Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Saturday, June 19, 2004 - 6:37 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Police in Germany have confiscated a dog after its owner starved it so it could fit in her hand luggage.

A police patrol in Nuremberg noticed the woman, identified only as Gerda M. walking her dog Leonie in the city centre.

The large mixed-breed dog, named Leonie, only weighed 12kg. It should have weighed more than twice that.

The dog was taken to a pet shelter. The owner told Bild: "I have seen many miserable things - but never something this cruel. This dog should be weighing at least 25 kilos," he said.

He said the owner told him she was trying to get the dog down to 5kg in weight so she could take it on a plane as part of her hand luggage.

But Gerda M. claims she hasn't done any wrong. "I always looked after it well", she said.

The dog is now being nursed back to health by staff at the shelter.

It's not reported if the dog's owner will face any charges arising out of the incident.



Sanfranjoshfan
Member

09-17-2000

Saturday, June 19, 2004 - 3:52 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/story.htm

September 10th, 1945 finds a strapping (but tender) five and a half month old Wyandotte rooster pecking through the dust of Fruita, Colorado. The unsuspecting bird had never looked so delicious as he did that, now famous, day. Clara Olsen was planning on featuring the plump chicken in the evening meal. Husband Lloyd Olsen was sent out, on a very routine mission, to prepare the designated fryer for the pan. Nothing about this task turned out to be routine.Lloyd knew his Mother in Law would be dining with them and would savor the neck. He positioned his ax precisely, estimating just the right tolerances, to leave a generous neck bone. "It was as important to Suck-Up to your Mother in Law in the 40's as it is today." A skillful blow was executed and the chicken staggered around like most freshly terminated poultry.
Then the determined bird shook off the traumatic event and never looked back. Mike (it is unclear when the famous rooster took on the name) returned to his job of being a chicken. He pecked for food and preened his feathers just like the rest of his barnyard buddies.

When Olsen found Mike the next morning, sleeping with his "head" under his wing, he decided that if Mike had that much will to live, he would figure out a way to feed and water him. With an eyedropper Mike was given grain and water. It was becoming obvious that Mike was special. A week into Mike's new life Olsen packed him up and took him 250 miles to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. The skeptical scientists were eager to answer all the questions regarding Mike's amazing ability to survive with no head. It was determined that ax blade had missed the jugular vein and a clot had prevented Mike from bleeding to death. Although most of his head was in a jar, most of his brain stem and one ear was left on his body. Since most of a chicken's reflex actions are controlled by the brain stem Mike was able to remain quite healthy.

In the 18 MONTHS that Mike lived as "The Headless Wonder Chicken" he grew from a mere 2 1/2 lbs. to nearly 8 lbs. In a Gayle Meyer interview Olsen said Mike was a "robust chicken - a fine specimen of a chicken except for not having a head." Some longtime Fruita residents, gathered at the Monument Cafe for coffee, also remember Mike - "he was a big fat chicken who didn't know he didn't have a head" - "he seemed as happy as any other chicken." Mike's excellent state of health made it difficult for animal-rights activists to garner much of a following. Even now the town of Fruita celebrates Mike's impressive will to live, not the nature of his handicap. Miracle Mike took on a manager, and with the Olsens in tow, set out on a national tour. Curious sideshow patrons in New York, Atlantic City, Los Angeles, and San Diego lined up to pay 25 cents to see Mike. The "Wonder Chicken" was valued at $10,000.00 and insured for the same. His fame and fortune would earn him recognition in Life and Time Magazines. It goes without saying there was a Guinness World Record in all this. While returning from one of these road trips the Olsens stopped at a motel in the Arizona desert. In the middle of the night Mike began to choke. Unable to find the eyedropper used to clear Mike's open esophagus Miracle Mike passed on.

Now, Mike's spirit is celebrated the third weekend in May.
(May 14th & 15th 2004) in Fruita, Colorado. Don't miss it!

mike_headlesschicken.jpg

Rupertbear
Member

09-19-2003

Saturday, June 19, 2004 - 4:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Josh! lol lol lol

Sanfranjoshfan
Member

09-17-2000

Saturday, June 19, 2004 - 4:10 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post    
Btw, Mike is running for president - http://www.miketheheadlesschicken.org/

:-)