TODAY'S COUNTRY PUZZLER IS WORTH FREE TIX TO BULLNANZA, FEATURING THE WORLD'S GREATEST PRO BULLRIDERS, AUGUST 22 & 23 AT THE LAZY E. LISTEN TO WIN AT 4:30!
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WEIRD BUT TRUE NEWS:
Two practical jokers are behind bars for setting their passed-out drinking buddy's crotch ablaze while boozing in Grover Beach, California. Matthew Craig Pillers and Jack Brent Nicholas Keiffer pleaded no contest to a felony great bodily injury charge. Prosecutors say the 22-year-old Pillers, a parolee, was sentenced to two years in prison and the 19-year-old Keiffer got 45 days in San Luis ObispoCounty jail. Elliot Tuleja was passed out when the men poured cologne on the man's groin and set him on fire on January 18th. Tuleja had second-degree burns on his testicles.--Originally reported by The San Luis Obispo Tribune.
A New Jersey man trying to exterminate insects in his apartment blew it up instead. Isias Vidal Maceda was unhurt in the incident, but 80-percent of his apartment was destroyed. The accident occurred as Maceda was spraying for pests in his kitchen. Somehow the bug spray ignited a blast that blew out the apartment's front windows and triggered a fire that quickly spread.--Originally reported by The New York Daily News.
Dogs will lead the way in British air raids after being parachuted in to spy out rebels for troops. Fearless German Shepherds are being trained to jump from aircraft at 25-thousand feet wearing their own oxygen masks and strapped to special forces assault teams. Once down in hostile terrain in Iraq or Afghanistan, the dogs, with tiny cameras fixed to their heads, will be sent in first to seek out insurgents' hideouts. The cameras will beam live T-V pictures back to the troops, warning of ambushes or showing enemy leaders' locations. The dogs will be used in a highly skilled technique called High Altitude High Opening, jumping as much as 20 miles from their targets and gliding towards them for up to 30 minutes. Dogs were first trained to parachute in the Second World War by the British on rescue missions.--Originally reported by The U-K Sun.
Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your tootsies in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away. Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the D-C area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months. John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said five-thousand people have taken the plunge so far. Ho said, "This is a good treatment for everyone who likes to have nice feet." He said he wanted to come up with something unique while finding a replacement for pedicures that use razors to scrape off dead skin. The razors have fallen out of favor with state regulators because of concerns about whether they're sanitary. Ho believes his is the only salon in the country to offer the treatment, which costs 35-dollars for 15 minutes and 50-dollars for 30 minutes. The spa has more than a thousand fish, with about 100 in each individual pedicure tank at any given time. --Originally reported by The Associated Press
LISTEN TODAY, AND YOU COULD WIN FREE TICKETS TO PRO BOXING AT REMINGTON PARK TOMORROW, INCLUDING UNDEFEATED OKLAHOMA BOXER NOAH ZUHDI, AND OTHER TALENTED FIGHTERS.
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WEIRD BUT TRUE NEWS:
A package of baby diapers yielded an unlikely load in Mexico on Friday, according to the defense ministry -- nearly half a million dollars in cash. Soldiers conducting a routine check "found in a tractor-trailer a packet of diapers containing 490-thousand, 300 dollars," the ministry said in a statement. It said that the cash was likely a stash of narco-dollars destined for money-laundering, as the truck had come from Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state in Mexico's northwest, a region known for trafficking by major drug cartels. The driver of the truck was arrested. --Originally reported by Agence France Presse.
A man in India who took an impersonator to court to get a divorce faces legal action after his real wife found out. Sanjib Saha presented a woman as his wife in a lower court in the eastern city of Kolkata this month. Both said they sought a mutual divorce, something the court granted immediately. Saha's real wife was then asked to leave the marital home. She has since appealed the ruling at a higher court, charging her husband with cheating, and the original divorce was suspended.--Originally reported by Reuters.
Until last week, Carl Kopsho had no idea that the man who collected 800-dollars from him every month was not legally his landlord. Deputies say a man pretended to own a house in Silver Springs Shores, Florida and rented it to Kopsho, 34, and his girlfriend, Heather Peteck, 23, without the knowledge of the owner, who lives in New York. In January, Kopsho needed a new place to live. Tyrone Grain told him he was in the process of a divorce and wanted to rent out his house. It was close to where Kopsho was already living, so he signed a lease, paid the first and last months' rent and, in early February, moved in. Grain refused to accept checks, saying he had been ripped off in the past, and collected the cash in person at the beginning of each month. According to a sheriff's office report, the deed-holder, Sebastian Wagner, called authorities last week to say he suspected someone was living at his Marion County property, which was supposed to be vacant. Deputies are still investigating the case and have not located the man who called himself Tyrone Grain. --Originally reported by The OcalaStar-Banner
A Longmont, Colorado couple has been arrested on suspicion of drug and child-abuse charges after police discovered evidence of about a dozen marijuana plants in their basement and found the couple's seven-year-old son's schoolwork in the grow room. According to the arrest report, "Numerous items relating to Michael and Brittany Wild's child were located inside the grow room area, [including] school paperwork and other educational material." The Colorado Department of Social Services was notified, and the boy was placed in the care of relatives.--Originally reported by The Boulder Daily Camera.
LISTEN AT 4:30 TODAY FOR ONE LAST CHANCE TO WIN TIX TO THE IFYR, THE INTERNATIONAL FINALS YOUTH RODEO, WHICH CONTINUES THROUGH SATURDAY AT SHAWNEE'S HEART OF OKLAHOMA EXPO!
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WEIRD BUT TRUE NEWS:
A Modesto man was hospitalized in serious condition after gang members broke into his home, stabbed him, then apologized and said they attacked the wrong person, police reported. The incident happened about 6:15 a-m. Four men kicked in the victim's door while he was sleeping. They kicked and punched the 32-year-old man and stabbed him in the upper right side of his back. Three other adults were upstairs when the attack started. They heard the commotion downstairs and went to see what was going on. At some point during the attack, the men realized they had the wrong house and told the victim they were sorry. The men left in an older gray car.--Originally reported by The Modesto Bee
A British man spent 15 years piecing together two-thousand fragments of love letters to his late wife which she tore up when she caught someone reading them. Ted Howard, 82, wrote 98 letters to Molly during the seven years he spent traveling Europe as a farm worker. When she found someone reading them in 1953, she tore them up. Howard began putting the pieces back together in 1993 and has just completed the notes, three years after his wife died. He wrote the love letters on hotel writing paper as he traveled the U-K, Ireland, France and Holland in the late 1940s and early 1950s. But his wife tore each one into more than 20 pieces creating more than two-thousand fragments, some smaller than a thumbnail. He started by separating corner and center pieces and progressed, putting them together spending about an hour every day over 15 years. Howard said, "I still miss Molly terribly but having the memories helps me through. The letters brought back so many good times." He now plans to write a book based on the letters, which will be dedicated to his wife.--Originally reported by The B-B-C.
Orchids, gorgeous and elegant, are also some of the most deceitful flowers, having evolved sometimes elaborate ruses to lure pollinators. In a new study of the most brazen of these botanical cheats, the species that entice pollinators with false promises of sex, scientists have discovered that one group of orchids has taken the art of manipulation to shameless heights. Sexually deceptive orchids, as biologists have long known, look and can even smell so much like a female insect that males will try to mate with the flower in a sometimes vigorous process that can result in pollination. But scientists now report that the tongue orchids of Australia are such thoroughly convincing mimics of female wasps that males not only try to mate with them, but they actually do mate with them, to the point of ejaculation. Anne Gaskett, the lead author of the study, says, "It's always been described as pseudocopulation. But it looked like true copulation to me."--Originally reported by The New York Times.
Kimberlee Ann Cole, an 18-year-old Florida woman, allegedly assaulted her boyfriend with a toilet seat after finding him smoking crack in a bathroom of their home Friday afternoon. Cole told cops she battered Joel Goldsmith, 24, after he "refused to give her the drugs," according to an arrest affidavit. Goldsmith "refused to stop smoking the drugs and Ms. Cole hit [him] with the toilet seat," the affidavit notes. As the couple -- parents to an eight-month-old boy -- scuffled in the bathroom, Goldsmith dropped a cocaine rock in the shower and Cole tried to wash it down the drain. Responding to a 9-1-1 call placed by a female roommate of the pair, police found blood on the bathroom's walls, floor, and toilet. They also recovered a broken toilet seat, though the affidavit does not indicate whether it was broken over Goldsmith's head or was in disrepair prior to the incident. In the shower, investigators found a "small amount of a substance" which field tested positive for cocaine. Cole and Goldsmith were charged, respectively, with domestic battery and cocaine possession.--Originally reported by The Smoking Gun.
TODAY'S PUZZLER PRIZE IS A 4-PACK OF FREE TIX TO SEE THE INTERNATIONAL FINALS YOUTH RODEO, CONTINUING THROUGH SATURDAY IN SHAWNEE. LISTEN AT 4:30 FOR A CHANCE TO WIN!!
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WEIRD BUT TRUE NEWS:
Dozens of partygoers at an outdoor rave near Moscow last week have lost partial vision after a laser light show burned their retinas, Russian health officials said yesterday. Moscow city health department officials confirmed 12 cases of laser-blindness at the Central Ophthalmological Clinic and said another 17 were registered at City Hospital 32 in the center of the capital. Attendees at the July 5th Aquamarine Open Air Festival began seeking medical help days after the show, complaining of eye and vision problems. Attendees said heavy rains forced organizers to erect massive tents for the all-night dance party, and lasers that normally illuminate upwards into the sky were instead partially refracted into the ravers' eyes.--Originally reported by the daily newspaper Kommersant
A veteran worker at the Denver Zoo suffered a hand puncture yesterday when a hippopotamus chomped down during routine dental training. The woman keeper was bitten in the outdoor hippo exhibit as she and colleagues were doing desensitizing training on Mahali, a five-year-old male, to make dental work more comfortable for the hippo. Zoo spokeswoman Ana Bowie says, "Mahali was doing this training where we ask him to hold his mouth open and while he holds his mouth open another keeper will tap on the teeth or do something to kind of desensitize the animal...For unknown reasons, Mahali decided to close his mouth while one of our keepers had her left hand in his mouth." Fortunately a smaller tooth -- not a large tusk -- inflicted the injury, because the keeper's hand was in front of Mahali's mouth. Bowie said zoo officials will review the accident to see if there's a way to improve procedures.--Originally reported by The Rocky Mountain News
AND I'LL GIVE AWAY FREE GEORGE STRAIT MUSIC AT 4:30 WITH THE COUNTRY PUZZLER!
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WEIRD BUT TRUE NEWS:
A 21-year-old Antrim, New Hampshire woman is recovering after being struck by lightning. The bolt hit her feet and came out through her nose ring. Jessica Lafreniere was hit while she was walking through her family's garage. Her mother, Danielle Taylor, told a local television station, "It was like a red flash that came from her feet and she was thrown into my arms. She was blue and purple, and stiff as a board." Jessica and her mother had been out filling up water balloons when the storm came in, so they went inside. Danielle said Jessica decided to go back out to shut off the hose when the flash hit her. Jessica was back to work hours later. Taylor said her daughter is feeling better, although the top of her lip and the tip of her nose are numb.
--Originally reported by C-B-S News.
WEIRD NEWS: Dog, It's Not for Dinner!(Posted 3:00 AM, 7/14/2008)
Canine cuisine is being sent to the doghouse during next month's Beijing Olympic Games. Dog meat has been struck from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants, and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs. Waiters and waitresses should "patiently" suggest other options to diners who order dog. Dog, known in Chinese as "fragrant meat," is eaten by some Chinese for its purported health-giving qualities. Beijing isn't the first Olympic host to slap a ban on the dish. South Korea banned dog meat during the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
--Originally reported by The Xinhua News Agency.
WEIRD NEWS: Metal, It's What's for Dinner!(Posted 3:00 AM, 7/14/2008)
Doctors in a coastal town in northwestern Peru have rescued the innards of a 38-year-old man by removing 17 metal objects -- among them nails, a watch clasp and a knife -- that he ate. Luis Zarate was taken to the regional hospital of Trujillo by his family after complaining of sharp stomach pains. Doctors took X-rays of his chest that showed his insides littered with screws. Doctor Julio Acevedo, one of the surgeons who operated on Zarate, said, "There were 17 strange objects found at the level of his stomach and colon." The black-and-white scans showed Zarate's skeleton interlaced with things like bolts, barbed-wire and pens. Doctors said Zarate was mentally ill but it was not clear why he ate the metal.
--Originally reported by Reuters.
WEIRD NEWS: Nude Barbies on the Dashboard!(Posted 3:00 AM, 7/14/2008)
New Jersey state police have charged a Cape May County man with using his car to display pornographic materials at a Garden State Parkway rest area. Police said Robert Joseph Martin, 47, was placing the materials in visible locations on the dashboard and seats of his 1989 Lincoln when he parked it in a commuter area at the Ocean View Service Area. State Police Sergeant Gerald Lewis Junior said motorists and patrons of the service area have complained for the past several weeks. Lewes said the pornographic materials include naked Barbie dolls, woman's panties on a platter, magazines and music discs with lewd images. Asked if Martin did this on purpose, Lewis said, "Absolutely."
--Originally reported by The Press of Atlantic City.
(Posted 3:00 AM, 7/14/2008)
