Think your job is dull? Check out some of the bizarre things people do for a living in this list of jobs you probably didn’t know existed. You’ll either wish you were doing one of these, or you’ll be thankful for the job you do have. And now, the top 10 weirdest, most ridiculous jobs out there:

Pet Food Taster

Not only do these people eat dog food all the time, some actually enjoy it! It’s kind of like wine connoisseurs enjoying a new wine, except its stuff your dog or cat eats. To each their own…

Gross stunt producer

If you’ve ever seen a show where people have to do disgusting things for money (like wade through rat-infested sewers or eat living bugs), rest assured it’s because someone’s job is to come up with such twisted concepts. A surprising amount of research is necessary to make sure that your ideas are not only gross, but also safe.

Bad Breath Smeller

How else would you figure out if your company’s chewing gum is getting the job done? This also implies there are people whose job it is to chew gum and breathe in people’s faces.

Whiskey Ambassador

Getting paid to drink whiskey- a job college kids everywhere can only dream of. These lucky people’s responsibilities include selecting the best whiskeys and teaching clients how to fully appreciate each whiskey’s nuances.

Ufologist

As the name implies, ufologists are all about the study of UFO’s. History, recent reports, government conspiracies, it’s all included, so if the unknown is your passion this might not be a bad start.

Cryptozoologist

These are the people you see on television explaining so convincingly why Big Foot or the Loch Ness monster are real. It’s all about using your science skills in less conventional ways.

Chicken Sexer

The actual job responsibilities for these guys are relatively mundane- chicken sexers just have to figure out what gender baby chicks are and sort them accordingly. Still, nothing quite spices up your resume like a job with that title.

Pathoecologist

You’d be surprised how much you can learn from…poop. Pathoecologists study feces from thousands of years ago, learning much about the lifestyles and diets of our ancestors.

Foley artist

You probably hear their work all the time and don’t even realize it- foley artists are responsible for making those everyday environmental sounds in movies and shows on television. They often utilize whatever objects they please (from watermelons to flare guns) to accentuate sounds.

Queen Bee Producer

If bees aren’t your thing this is probably the least desirable job out there, as these people work with bees everyday. But not just any bees- they specifically raise the most impressive of them all: the queens.

Source: ezinearticles.com

The characteristics of some wines have been described in many interesting and sometimes unappetising ways.

Would you consider drinking a wine with one of the following olfactory descriptions:

• Dumb: Muted but promising, closed.
• Nutty : Found in mature White Burgundy and Amontillado.
• Wet Wool : When there is too much sulfur in the wine.
• Stewed : Like leaving a tea bag in your mug too long.
• Petrolly : Found in mature riesling.
• Cat Piss : Found in the varietal aroma of Sauvignon Blanc.
• Skunk : Do you need an explanation ?

The lovely Versus White has fresh lime and guava aromas on the nose which is very appetising when it is compared with the other/above aroma notes.

Source: greekwine.gr

Spring day just around the corner and it seems that love is in the air as a few of my mates recently got engaged.

We (the unconventional folks at Versus) was wondering what is the lamest and unconventional ways to get engaged.

Here is a list of the 7 lamest ways to propose marriage.

Can you add a few?

The list:

7. In a Twitter message:  “Dearest Guinevere, U R the luv of my life. Please make me the happiest man in the world and marry me. Text me your answer”

6. On an answering machine:

“Hi babe. I can see you’re not there. Like I was just wondering, sort of, if you fancied getting hitched like on Monday. That is if you haven’t got anything better to do that morning?”

5. On the phone.

“Hi, is this the Lorento’s?”

“Yeh well this is Mike. Could I speak to Mary-Anne please?”

“Oh she’s in the shower”

“Would I like to leave a message? Ehh O.K.”

“If it’s not too much trouble could you ask her if she would like to marry me?”

4. At the deportation office, even though there are plenty of witnesses there to chose from.

3. In your apartment while going over your bills.

“Priscella, I’ve just been going over the numbers and it would seem that if we got married we could save $1500 a month on our taxes. What do you say?”

2. “Wow I didn’t see that van coming. Are you O.K. ’cause I have  something I want to ask you?”

And the #1 worst way to propose

1. In a McDonald’s with an edible ring hidden inside a double whopper. The guy who actually did this deserved to be turned down.

Source: taitegallery.net

Research shows that people are more superstitious on Fridays the 13th. This day has been seen as a day of bad luck since the eighteen-hundreds and will occur if the month starts on a Sunday.

The fear of Friday the 13th is called friggatriskaidekaphobia, (I have a fear of pronouncing this word in public) and 17- 21 Million Americas are set to be affected by the fear of this day.

I did a little survey among my collogues and it seems that some of the unconventional folks at Versus has friggatriskaidekaphobia.

A UK  survey found that one in five Britons (21 per cent) are more likely to regularly follow superstitions on Friday 13th: from saluting a single magpie to avoiding cracks in the pavement, due to their fear of risking any bad luck in the current economic climate.

According to the research, over a third (34 per cent) of people will act with caution or look out for omens of good or bad luck this Friday.

According to the research, over a third (34 per cent) of people will act with caution or look out for omens of good or bad luck this Friday.

The research, for Warner Bros, also reveals the nation’s main superstitions.

After breaking a mirror, most people would count walking under a ladder as their main concern.

Other fears include opening an umbrella indoors, spilling salt and putting shoes on a table or bed.

Walking on cracks in the pavement and stepping on three drain covers finish the list.

The UK’s top 10 fears, superstitions and signs of bad luck ranked in order of ‘superstitiousness’

1. Breaking a mirror

2. Walking under a ladder

3. Friday 13th

4. Opening an umbrella indoors

5. A black cat crossing your path

6. The sight of a single magpie

7. Spilling salt

8. Placing shoes on the table or on the bed

9. Treading on cracks in the pavement

10. Walking over three drains

Source: telegraph.co.uk

The World Cup is over and now it back to the real world. In the World Cup spirit, many people bought a vuvuzela and little did they know that there is a few alternative and unconventional uses for this South African ‘horn’.

The unconventional folks of Versus Wines thought these are pretty useful post World Cup vuvuzela uses:

1. Use it to blow some life into a slow-burning braai fire
2. Use it as a cheap hearing aid if the batteries on the old one go flat
3. Use it as a poop scoop
4. Use as a self-defence weapon
5. Use it as a toilet plunger
6. Use it to wake up teenagers in the morning
7. Record the sound and use it as your cellphone ringtone
8. Fill with cement and use as a dumb bell
9. Use it if your car hooter has packed up
10. Use to borrow some petrol from your neighbour

Source: yworld.co.za

South Africa is gaining fans as celebrities are using social media sites like Twitter to talk about their love for our great country.

Celebs like Will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas), Alicia Keys, Akon and R Kelly all Tweated about South Africa and they promised to be come back. Will.i.am, of the music group Black Eyed Peas, posted pictures of himself and singer Alicia Keys celebrating South Africa’s first goal at the opening match, and enthused: “20 years ago no one would have never (sic) thought the whole world would come to south africa for world cup…this is historic”.

They were among the litany of celebrities who visited South Africa for the tournament, including British Princes William and Harry, hip-hop artist K’Naan, rapper R Kelly, Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones fame and former supermodel Kimora Lee Simmons.

The model gushed to her fans about the Cape Town, posting pictures of the landmark Table Mountain from her room.

On her departure, Kimora promised to come back and stay longer.

“I am very sad 2 b leaving the gorgeous S.Africa! Thank u 2 all 4 ur luv and kindness! We’ll b back very, very soon! Team Fabulosity SA rocks,” she said.

Singer Akon declared his love for the country and the continent by posting mini-videos shot at different locations around South Africa.

“South Africa rocks, this is the place to be,” the star said on Twitter.

“Thank You S. Africa!!,” said R Kelly on his departure.

The distinctly South African vuvuzela, the noisy plastic horn which has become a signature sound at World Cup matches, has become a trending topic on Twitter.

Even world football president Sepp Blatter has a Twitter account where he enthuses about the games and the organisation of the event.

I think this is awesome that the word of mouth marketing of social media is improving the image of Mzansi.

Source: sport24.co.za

Someone over at YouTube has the World Cup bug, and must like the sound of vuvuzelas. The site has added an icon (a soccer ball, no less) to some (not all) videos which enables a user to drown out the sound of the video with the blare of vuvuzelas

Although criticized by many, blowing vuvuzelas is a tradition at South African soccer matches. Vuvuzela simulators have even become popular apps on both the Android Market and App Store.

The other day, the unconventional folks at Versus tried to make a vuvuzela orchestra but I must admit it was not in the league of Bach or Mozart.

The placement appears to be random, though I found one on a soccer related video (as shown).

With my football fever reaching fever pitch I investigated a bit to find some weird World Cup stats

The first World Cup was held in 1930 and is held every four years. (It wasn’t held in 1942 and 1946 because of World War II.) Brazil has won a record five World Cup titles, and Brazilian Ronaldo holds the individual record for most World Cup goals with 15. But there are some other facts that aren’t as well-known about the World Cup:

1)      The first goal

The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930. Many believed American Bart McGee scored the first goal in the World Cup, against Belgium in the 40th minute. But a dispute erupted and FIFA determined the first goal was scored by Frenchman Lucien Laurent in the 19th minute against Mexico on July 13, 1930.

2)      The first Red Card

The red and yellow card system was not introduced until the 1970 World Cup. The first player to receive a red card was Chile’s Carlos Caszely in 1974 in a match against West Germany in the 67th minute.

3)      Youngest Player

The youngest player to play in a World Cup match was Northern Ireland’s Norman Whiteside against Yugoslavia in 1982. He was 17 years, 41 days old.

4)      Largest Attendance

The highest attendance for one match was in the 1950 final. The official attendance was 199,854 for the match between Brazil and Uruguay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

5)      Most Consecutive First-Round Eliminations

Scotland holds the record with eight: 1954, 1958, 1974, 1978, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1998

6)      Most cards in a match

 20 Cards – 16 yellow and 4 red cards in the 2006  “Round of 16” match between Portugal and the Netherlands

Source: ehow.com

Google’s animated Pacman doodle game has cost the UK economy at least five million hours of work time and more than a $120 million financially.

 A playable version of the classic video game was created and put on Google to celebrate its 30 years on the 21st of May.

The game has proven to be so popular with Google users that the company has now made it permanently available on its own page at Google.com/pacman.

Rescue Time, a tool that enables businesses to measure how time and attention is being spent, estimated that Google had around 505 million unique users on the day the Pacman Google Doodle went live, and that the game consumed 4,819,352 hours of employee time, costing the economy an estimated $120,483,800.

But the numbers were not too high, as it seems most people did not know that the logo was playable.

To play the game, users must click on the Insert Coin button, which replaces the I’m Feeling Lucky button Google users are more familiar with.

The Pacman game was Google’s first interactive doodle logo.

This unusual move by Google did you go unnoticed by the unconventional brand Versus. We thought it was great idea and congratulations to Google for this out-of-the-box thinking.

Source: tvnz.co.nz

Flight was a great addition to the way people moved around the world. However, suddenly we needed somewhere to land the darn aeroplanes. As planes became bigger and air travel grew commercially, airports needed a lot more space, and that wasn’t always possible. Sometimes cities were so high that the logistics of taking off and landing became trickier. Sometimes the conditions facilitated a need to do things differently.

Well, some airports managed to adapt to what was required, and here are five of them:

Unconventional is our nature and we at Versus salute these the out-of-the-box and unusual thoughts that went into designing these unconventional airports.

1) Gibraltar Airport

2) The Ice Runway – Antarctica

3) Kansai International Airport (Osaka, Japan)

4) Qamdo Bangda Airport (Tibet)

5) Princess Juliana International Airport, Saint Maarten

Read more on gotravel24.com

The other day I lost a bet with a friend. He said a guy married his pillow and I didn’t believe him. Well here is the proof of this outrageously weird event (and now I owe my friend a bottle of unconventional Versus).

True love can take many forms. In this case, it has taken the form of a Korean man falling in love with, and eventually marrying, a large pillow with a picture of a woman on it.

This guy gave new meaning to pillow talk and will he ever have a pillow fight with his wife?

Lee Jin-gyu fell for his ‘dakimakura’ – a kind of large, huggable pillow from Japan, often with a picture of a popular anime character printed on the side.

In Lee’s case, his beloved pillow has an image of Fate Testarossa, from the ‘magical girl’ anime series Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha.

Now the 28-year-old otaku (a Japanese term that roughly translates to somewhere between ‘obsessive’ and ‘nerd’) has wed the pillow in a special ceremony, after fitting it out with a wedding dress for the service in front of a local priest. Their nuptials were eagerly chronicled by the local media.

‘He is completely obsessed with this pillow and takes it everywhere,’ said one friend.

‘They go out to the park or the funfair where it will go on all the rides with him. Then when he goes out to eat he takes it with him and it gets its own seat and its own meal,’ they added.

The pillow marriage is not the first similarly-themed unusual marriage in recent times – it comes after a Japanese otaku married his virtual girlfriend Nene Anegasaki, a character who only exists in the Nintendo DS game Love Plus, last November.

Read more on www.metro.co.uk

I stumbled upon these utterly yet remarkable useless information.

The USA has more personal computers than the next 7 countries combined.

US tops the world in plastic surgery procedures. Next comes Mexico.

22% of American women aged 20 gave birth while in their teens. In Switzerland and Japan, only 2% did so.

American adults have been educated for the longest time.

The women of Iceland earn two-thirds of their nation’s university degrees.

More than 20% of the votes in the 2001 elections in Argentina were invalid.

You can be imprisoned for not voting in Fiji, Chile and Egypt – at least in theory.

One pair of rats has the potential for 15,000 descendants in a year.

The rat has been called the world’s most destructive mammal – other than man.

Rats destroy an estimated 1/3 of the world’s food supply each year.

26% of all electric cable breaks and 18% of all phone cable disruptions are caused by rats.

It took approximately 2.5 million blocks to build the Pyramid of Giza, which is one of the Great Pyramids

Thomas Edison designed a helicopter that would work with gunpowder. It ended up blowing up and also blew up his factory.

McDonalds calls frequent buyers of their food heavy users.

Americans ate eight million more orders of french fries and almost six million more hamburgers this year compared to last.

Source: stunning-stuff.com

A Christmas card, poststamped 23rd December 1914 was posted for a Ms Ethel Martin of Oberlin, Kansas. It was from her cousins in Alma, Nebraska.

After 93 years, it finally arrived at its destination, in perfect shape. Too bad Ms Martin is already dead.

The card in postcard format shows a colour drawing of Santa Claus and a young girl.

As to where it spent the most of the 20th century is still a mystery. Indeed, it’s surprising that it never got thrown away and somehow someone found it and placed it inside another envelope with modern postage for the trip to Oberlin.

The original 1-cent postage stamp, the original cost of postage when it was first sent would not have been enough.

The card is now with Bernice Martin, Ethel’s sister-in-law. After it was featured in the media, she said she’d received calls from as far away as Japan and Iraq, even offers to purchase the card.

Source: kansascw.com

I have heard about weird restaurants but this one is way up there. “Dinner in the Sky” is a Brussels based restaurant that serves dinner for up to 22 people… 50 meter in the air!

The specially-designed table and chairs are lifted by a crane. Dinner anywhere in Belgium will set you back almost 8 thousand euros; other locations are also available. Remember, you must wear your seat belt, and don’t drop your fork!

Source: chettinadusamayal.blogspot.com

It’s a unique concept according to its creators, a hotel in the French town of Nantes is offering the chance for people to become a hamster.

For 99 euros (R1000) a night, you can eat hamster grain, run in a giant wheel and sleep in hay stacks in what is called the “Hamster Villa.”

Maud and Sebastien are the first ones to experience how hamsters live, not afraid at the thought of sleeping in hay or feeding on a hamster fountain and special grain.

It’s a unique experience and, the guests say, just something different. He added that

“To become a hamster, eat seeds, change our way of life…come out of our daily routine”

The owners, Frederic Tabary and Yann Falquerho, run a company which rents out unusual and bizarre places.

“The Hamster in the world of children is that little cuddly animal. Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small,” Falquerho said, dressed as a hamster.

What is next? A night as a dog, chasing cars and sleeping in a kennel?

Source: Reuters

A Chinese woman has reportedly paid a whopping $585,000 (R4 000 000) to buy a new pet dog. The 18-month old dog, a Tibetan mastiff measuring 80cm high, is now believed to be the world’s most expensive dog.

The Chinese woman revealed that her ‘priceless pet’ had been named ‘Yangtze River Number Two’ and added: ‘Gold has a price, but this Tibetan mastiff doesn’t.’

The millionaire said she and a friend had spent a long time searching for an original Tibetan mastiff.

In the town of Yushu they spotted the new dog and decided on the spot to buy it, regardless of price.

The Tibetan mastiff is an ancient breed that originates with nomadic cultures of Central Asia and northern India.

As a flock guardian dog in Tibet, it renowned for being tenacious in its ability to confront predators the size of wolves and leopards.

I bet the dog does not only eat Epol and chop bones for lunch.

Source: luxuo.com

This week’s weird news include over-careful City councils (no hot drinks for grannies), outrageous claims by criminals, a widower selling her husband’s final resting place and someone who is serious about the weather.

Government in action

In June the Peterborough City Council ordered retirees who come together for weekly coffee at the public library to give up hot drinks, in case one accidentally spilled on a child.

In July the Dagenham Pool in Essex, citing (according to the manager) drowning risks, banned swimmers from doing “lengths” and forced them instead to swim “widths.”

In June the Brighton and Hove City Council ordered nature-lover Hilaire Purbrick, 45, out of the cave that has been his residence for 16 years, citing its lack of a “fire exit.”

No way!

In August, Jorge Iglesias petitioned a judge in Madison, Wis., to regain custody of his 66 roosters and hens that police confiscated in a suspected cockfighting raid. Iglesias said he feared that the Dane County Humane Society, temporarily holding the animals, was treating them with “cruel and barbaric” abuse.

Afghan refugee Fridoon Sadiqi filed a lawsuit against Britain’s Home secretary in August after being turned down for political asylum because he had presented a forged passport to enter the U.K. According to Sadiqi, the rejection made him clinically depressed.

Crypt sold

Elsie Poncher decided reluctantly in August to go back on a promise she had made to her late husband. Richard Poncher had purchased a crypt (for himself) just above the one in which the body of Marilyn Monroe rests in a Los Angeles memorial park, but Elsie now needs money and thus offered the crypt for sale in August, planning to move Richard to a less prominent place. Richard had been assured by Elsie that he could spend eternity lying face down “over Marilyn.” [Los Angeles Times, 8-14-09]

People Different From Us

Geography professor Melanie Patton Renfrew, 54, was convicted in Burbank, Calif., in August of violating a judge’s order to stop stalking KNBC-TV weatherman Fritz Coleman. Renfrew had badgered Coleman for two years, via e-mail and telephone calls, about his “error” in terminology, confusing “onshore” winds with “offshore” winds. Coleman, she insisted, needed to apologise. “Offshore” winds blow out to sea; “onshore” winds blow in.

Source: newsoftheweird.com

This week’s weird news includes “upskirt photographer alerts” in Hong Kong, wee in shower to save the forests, stupid thieves and a granny that was too bad for a gangster .

Conquering Upskirt photographs

Hong Kong’s largest political party, the Democratic Alliance for Betterment and Progress, said it was only trying to alert vulnerable women in August when it publicised a list of shopping mall locations in which females ascending stairs or escalators are particularly susceptible to having “upskirt” photographs taken surreptitiously by cell phone cameras. A spokesman said that perverts probably already knew about the locations.

Strange but true

Cussing Is Good for You: A study by psychology researchers at Britain’s Keele University in July showed that people who swear in response to a danger are better able to endure pain than those who use milder language.

Urinate in the Shower to Save the Forests: The Brazilian environmental group SOS Mata Atlantica this summer began encouraging people to urinate in the shower to save the Atlantic Rainforest (one avoided flush per day saving 1,100 gallons of water a year).

Stupid Thieves

The most recent examples of men who decided to steal money only after they had already identified themselves: Jarell Arnold, 34, in line at the Alaska USA Federal Credit Union in Anchorage in August, showed his ID in order to check his balance, took the account slip from the teller, wrote his holdup note on it, gave it back and escaped with $600 (but only briefly).

A long-time customer of Penny Lane Records in Sydenham, New Zealand, picked out a CD in August, asked the clerk to reserve it, and even wrote his name and address on it to make sure they held it. Moments later, he saw an opportunity, grabbed cash from the cash drawer and fled (but only briefly).

Granny to bad for gang member

Admitted gang member Alex Fowler, 26, of Jasper, Texas, was arrested in July and charged with an attempted home-invasion robbery that went bad. Tough-guy Fowler, who has the words “Crip for Life” tattooed on his neck, was chased from the house by the 87-year-old female “victim” pointing a can of Raid insect repellant at him, threatening to spray.

Source: newsoftheweird.com

This week’s weird news includes an over-keen cherry spitter, a fight picker, a nation without a sportsman and lastly a Japanese smile measure machine.

A man was almost killed in Rodgau, Germany when, attempting to show friends he could spit a cherry pit the farthest off of a balcony, made a running start but accidentally toppled over the railing. He was hospitalised with hip injuries.

A 22-year-old man was arrested in Kitsap, Wash., in August after tossing a barrage of rocks at people, leading some to chase him until police intervened. The man explained that he is preparing to enter Ultimate Fighting Championship contests but had never actually been in a fight and wanted experience at getting beaten up.

Thousands of Koreans, and some tourists, uninhibitedly joined in the messy events of July’s Byryeong City Mud Festival, which glorifies the joys of an activity usually limited to pigs. Mud wrestling, mud-sliding, a “mud prison” and coloured mud baths dominated the week’s activities, but so unfortunately did dermatological maladies, which hospitalised 200 celebrants.

National Specialties: In May, Singapore’s Olympic Council, finding no athlete good enough, declined to name a national Sportsman of the Year.

A survey of industrialised nations by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development revealed that Japanese and Koreans sleep the least, while the French spend the most time at both sleeping and eating.

A Tokyo rail passenger company, Keihin, installed a face-scanning machine recently so that employees, upon reporting for work, can tell whether they are smiling broadly enough to present a good impression.

Source: newsoftheweird.com

taxman

This week’s weird news wrap includes a tortoise dashing for freedom, a traffic camera from hell and banker making his house a church to avoid the taxman.

Tortoise made a dash for it

A 114-pound tortoise, part of the Zambini Family Circus performing in Madison, Wis., in July, escaped. He actually made good time on his dash for freedom, covering two miles in six days before being spotted.

Wicked job

Carole Bohanan was hired among 300 applicants by the Wookey Hole tourist facility in Somerset, England, in July to be its witch-in-residence, at a pro-rated annual salary of the equivalent of about $83,000. The witch’s job is to linger in the caves full-time during tourist season, looking like a hag and cackling.

Traffic camera from hell

Officials in Heath, Ohio, might have solved their budget problems. The town (population 8,500) reported in July that its new, six-intersection traffic-camera ticketing system issued 10,000 citations in its first four weeks. Science is on our side

In April, researchers at the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City reported the ability to encase scorpion venom in “nanoparticles” that were somehow able to guide the venom intravenously to the human brain, to attack tumors, potentially doubling the venom’s success rate.

A team from Britain’s University of Warwick announced in April that it had built a speedy, fully functioning Formula 3 race car using biodegradable ingredients in the frame (including carrots, potatoes and soybean foam) and chocolate oils in the fuel.

Make your house a church for the taxman

Chicago banker George Michael, seeking to avoid $80,000 a year in property taxes, decided to call his $3 million mansion a “church” and apply for tax exemption as pastor, and in July 2008, his application was somehow preliminarily approved by the Illinois Department of Revenue. According to a Chicago Tribune report, the application included a photograph of the “church,” which was just a shot of an outer wall of Michael’s house with a large cross on it, except that the cross was later discovered to have been merely placed on the photograph in marker pen. In July 2009, a state administrative law judge finally reversed the earlier approval.

Source: newsoftheweird.com

This week’s weird news includes World Peashooting Champions, combating gang crimes and a sleep walker who was strapped by his girlfriend.

World-Class Adolescent Endeavours:

Japanese engineer Takuo Toda’s paper airplane was certified in May as the Guinness Book record-holder for the longest flight from a single folded sheet of paper: 27.9 seconds. And in Witcham, England, in July, Jim Collins won the World Peashooting Championship, using a “traditional” instrument blowing at a target 12 yards away, but noncompeting ex-champion George Hollis once again drew the most attention with his homemade, gyroscopic-balancing, laser-guided peashooter, with which he won three previous championships.

Anti – Gang Crime campaign

Relatives of two British convicted murderers, claiming a breach of “privacy” under the European Convention on Human Rights, filed lawsuits recently against the Greater Manchester Police over a crime-prevention campaign. High-profile gangbangers Colin Joyce, 29, and Lee Amos, 32, had been sentenced to long prison terms, and the GMP, trying to turn youths away from gangs, created computer images on billboards of the two men as they might look when they are released, sometime after the year 2040. Their families were outraged. (GMP reported that gang-related shootings are down 92 percent since Joyce and Amos were caught.)

Failed Defenses

A woman in Kansas City, Mo., told police in June that the reason she had stabbed her sleepwalking 24-year-old boyfriend in the face was that she feared he would hurt her if she didn’t wake him up. (She said the man had also just finished urinating in her closet.) In Britain’s Chelmsford Crown Court in July, Sultan Al-Sayed, 40, was convicted of peeping under the next stall in a department-store changing room despite his claim that the only reason he placed his face on the floor was to relieve pain from a toothache.

Source:newsoftheweird.com

An American widow is selling her husband’s burial spot directly above film legend Marilyn Monroe so that she can pay off her mortgage.

Elsie Poncher has put an advert on eBay to auction off the tomb in Westwood Village Memorial Park, Los Angeles.

“Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe,” says the advertisement.

“In fact the person occupying the address right now is looking face down on her.”

The burial plot is currently occupied by the late Richard Poncher, described by his widow as an entrepreneur who bought two tombs from baseball player Joe DiMaggio, Monroe’s ex-husband, as the pair were divorcing in 1954.

Monroe died at the age of 36 in 1962. Poncher died at the age of 81 in 1986.

Bidding for the plot

Elsie Poncher said she would move her husband’s remains over one spot into a crypt intended as her final resting place if the sale was successful and she would be cremated instead when the time came.

Bidding for the plot opened at $500 000 and had reached $2.5m by Sunday. No one from eBay was immediately available to comment on the bidding process or to give more details.

Poncher told the Los Angeles Times that she hoped to raise enough money to pay off the $1.6m mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.

“I can’t be more honest than that,” she told the newspaper. “I want to leave it free and clear for my kids.”

The Westwood Village Memorial Park is home to many celebrities, including Dean Martin, James Coburn, Roy Orbison, Truman Capote, Natalie Wood, and, from this year, Farrah Fawcett. Playboy’s Hugh Hefner bought the crypt beside Monroe in 1992.

Source: news24.com

This week’s weird news of the week includes a underwear dress code for municipal employees , a politically over-correct translating policy and old classic.

Dress code: Underwear compulsory

The city council of Brooksville, Fla., by 4-1, adopted an appearance policy in June that requires all municipal employees to wear underwear while on the clock and to make sure it is not visible.

Politically over-correct

An investigation by the U.K. TV channel More4 revealed in June that local U.K. councils spend the equivalent of R600 million a year translating their documents into dozens of languages in the cause of “fairness,” even obscure languages that few residents speak, and even given evidence that, in dozens of cases, no one has ever tried to access the documents. Translations were found in Albanian, Bengali, Kurdish, Somali, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sierra Leonean Creole, Karen (eastern Burma) and Ga (Ghana), among others.

An old Classic

In early 1995, Chesapeake, Va., inmate Robert Lee Brock filed a $5 million lawsuit against Robert Lee Brock — accusing himself of violating his own religious beliefs and his own civil rights by getting himself drunk enough to engage in the various crimes that put him behind bars. He wrote: “I want to pay myself five million dollars (for being made to suffer from this breach of rights) but ask the state to pay it in my behalf since I can’t work and am a ward of the state.” (The lawsuit was eventually dismissed.)

Source: newsoftheweird.com

This week’s weird news includes stupid criminals, a navy chief without a ship or sailor and a weird Real TV show.

World’s Toughest Job

Farah Ahmed Omar was appointed recently as chief of Somalia’s navy, which ordinarily would be on the front lines against the throng of pirates operating off the country’s coast. Omar’s job is difficult, though, because the Somalian navy has not a single boat nor a single sailor, and Omar himself has not been to sea in 23 years. However, he told a reporter he was optimistic that the piracy could be stopped.

Least Competent Criminals

A Polynesian man in his 20s was being sought as the robber of the Black Diamond Equipment store in Salt Lake City in June. He made off with some gear from the ski and climbing accessory store, but had originally demanded jewelry, as he apparently thought he was knocking off a “diamond” store.

Motorist Zackary Johnson was arrested in Athens, Ga., in June after pulling over a passing police car to inquire whether he had any warrants outstanding against him. No, answered the officer after a computer check, but he noted that Johnson’s driver’s license is under suspension, and he was arrested.

Turkey – Real TV

Apparently believing that religious competition in the Middle East is not exciting enough already, the television station Kanal T in Istanbul, Turkey, is preparing a reality game show for September release in which 10 certified atheists try to resist conversion by a priest, a rabbi, a Muslim imam and a Buddhist monk. The exact rules have not been disclosed, but the “winning” convert will receive an expense-paid trip to the holy land of the most persuasive religion (the Vatican, Jerusalem, Mecca or Tibet). According to a July Reuters report, Turkey’s Islamic Religious Affairs Directorate, not surprisingly, had vowed never to co-operate.

Source: newsoftheweird.com

The least competent criminals and IT-challenged fireman  are the main weird news stories of the week.

Least Competent Criminals

Questionable Judgments: Christopher Lister, 21, pleaded guilty to a home burglary in June in Leeds (England) Crown Court. He and two pals had attempted to steal a plasma TV in broad daylight last year, but witnesses easily identified Lister. He is 7 feet tall and lives only a few doors down from the crime scene.

Markeith Webb, who was wanted by police for a bank robbery in Easton, Pa., in June, left a string of indignant phone messages at a police station, angry that cops had released his photograph to the media. Just for that, he said, he would make sure they never caught him. He was captured six days later.

More Sci-Fi Movie Ideas

Researchers in Japan and Spain found recently that Argentine ants, normally highly aggressive and territorial, are actually one huge global colony with three expanding centers: a 3,700-mile-long stretch in Europe, a 560-mile strip in California, and a swath of Japan’s west coast. Researchers hypothesized the kinship because, when members from those groups were thrown together, they became docile. [

A June article in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases reported the worldwide reach of incidents of tapeworms that grow inside humans to nearly 40 feet in length. The most serious carrier, according to a Scientific American summary, is salmon sashimi. (Anthony Franz’s 2008 lawsuit against a Chicago sushi restaurant, for a 9-foot-long tapeworm, is still pending.)

Can’t Possibly Be True

Until Mayor Sharon McShurley changed the protocol this year, fire stations in Muncie, Ind., had been delivering reports to department headquarters downtown by dropping them off in fire engines. McShurley ordered the department to learn how to send reports by e-mail.

In June, the New York Police Department spent $99,000 on a typewriter repair contract, which will take on increasing importance since last year NYPD bought thousands of new typewriters, manual and electric, costing the city almost $1 million. The NYPD still is not even close to computerizing some of its daily-use forms, such as property and evidence reports.

Source: newsoftheweird.com