Weird News

[VisibilityMissing]

Another way to make the morning commute more interesting . . .

Oreo spill
Got milk? Crash strews Oreos over I-80

THE BLOTTER | Tribune staff reporter
3:12 PM CDT, May 19, 2008

Several lanes of Interstate Highway 80 were shut down for hours overnight after a truck hauling Oreos crashed into a median, spilling tons of the chocolate cookies across the highway, police said.

The crash occurred at about 3:40 a.m. Monday on I-80 just east of Morris, said Master Sgt. Brian Mahoney of the Illinois State Police.

The truck was westbound, hauling about 20,000 pounds of Oreos, when the driver lost control and the rig hit a median before veering into the eastbound lanes. The impact ripped the trailer open, spilling its cargo across the eastbound lanes of the highway, he said.

The driver was not hurt, but police had to shut down the eastbound lanes for several hours while the cookies were cleaned up, Mahoney said. The wreckage had been moved to the side of the road and lanes had reopened by about 6 a.m.

The cause of the crash was under investigation.

Related links
The Oreo, obesity and us

I wonder if they had to call out a HAZMAT crew for this?

[TyVulpine]

Cause of the crash was probably the driver trying to dunk an Oreo in a glass of milk.

[VisibilityMissing]

Well, there's probably nothing important there, anyway . . .

Man feels fine after being shot in head by nailgun

SHAWNEE, Kan. - George Chandler said he feels fine, even though a nailgun fired a 2.5 inch nail into the top of his head on Friday. Chandler and a friend were doing a project in a backyard when the nailgun hose became tangled, causing the tool to fire one nail.

Chandler said Monday he told his friend he didn't know where the nail went, but he felt a sting on the top of his head.

They discovered that the nail was driven deep into Chandler's head, so they called an ambulance and he was rushed to a hospital.

Chandler said a doctor used a common claw hammer to remove the nail.

He said he feels "very lucky, very, very lucky" to have escaped serious injury.

___

Information from: KCTV: http://www.kctv5.com

[datherman]

It's like Happy Gilmore except in real life!

[VisibilityMissing]

Jul 2, 4:12 PM EDT

New Zealand man puts up his soul for auction

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A New Zealand man has put his soul up for auction to the highest bidder, noting that it is "a merry old soul" rather than a "funk soul brother" but that he would "would like to think there is a bit of funk in there somewhere."

Walter Scott, 24, put his soul up for sale on New Zealand Internet auction site TradeMe, and so far has received more than 100 expressions of interest.

Bids in the auction, which was to close Thursday, had reached $189 late Wednesday.

Scott said he had been thinking about selling his soul for ages.

"I can't see it, touch it or feel it, but I can sell it, so I'm going to palm it off to the highest bidder," he said.

It was in "pretty good nick" except for a rough patch six years ago when he reached the legal drinking age, he said.

Advice from a lawyer was that the winning bidder would not be entitled to anything but Scott's soul and would not be able to own or control him in any way, he said.

The successful bidder will receive a framed deed of "soul ownership," Scott said.

TradeMe business manager Michael O'Donnell said the auction complied with the site's rules because a physical object - the deed of ownership - would change hands.

"I think he has entered into the spirit of the (online) community (and) he's also responded to our request to have a physical thing for sale and he's put together a nice looking deed for ownership," O'Donnell said.

"He's answered the questions in a straightforward manner and with humor and personally. I think it's unlikely that anyone's going to be misled by that auction," he told the Stuff Web site.

In 2001, 20-year-old U.S. university student Adam Burtle tried unsuccessfully to sell his soul on auction Web site eBay.

Bidding had reached $400 before the auction was pulled from the site, with the company ruling something tangible needed to swap hands.

Last month an Australian man sold his entire life including his house and a trial at his job after the break up of his five-year marriage for $383,200.

---

On the Net:

TradeMe Site: http://www.trademe.co.nz

[VisibilityMissing]

Peeps go suborbital . . .

Adler launches a Peep with the right fluff

By William Hageman
Tribune reporter

Until now, the greatest contribution that Marshmallow Peeps made to science was to be blown up in microwaves.

And as commendable as that is, that was their only contribution.

But a pioneering Peep has made sweet history by boldly going where no Peep has gone before: into space.

The Adler Planetarium has told the Tribune that a team from its astronomy department launched it (despite his heroics, the poor Peep doesn't have a formal name) and its space birdhouse as part of a science experiment.

Using a weather balloon--and inspired, they say, by Q's Peeps diorama contest last spring--they sent the Peep up from Koerner Aviation in Kankakee on April 5. The helium-filled balloon and our yellow, marshmallowy hero soared nearly 19 miles high before returning to Earth near New Carlisle, Ind., some 85 miles down range.

"The Peep has been introspective since the flight," Geza Gyuk, the Adler's director of astronomy, said of the sugary trailblazer. "And a little shriveled up."

The 10-person Adler crew has been conducting such experiments for a while. The payload on this launch, Mission 12 of the Far Horizons program, was an experiment by two students at Aurora's Illinois Math & Science Academy who wanted to measure how much brighter it is in space.

Astro Peep just hitched a ride.

"On any mission we like to use a video camera to document the flight," said astronomer Mark Hammergren. "And we said, if we have a video camera, and we have a Peep, why not video the Peep?"

"Against the curvature of the Earth," added interactive visualization developer Julieta Aguilera.

Sheer scientific genius.

Of course, you can't just grab any Peep off the shelf and send him skyward.

"We had to choose a Peep who had the right fluff," Hammergren said.

So candidates underwent rigorous psychological and physical training, as demonstrated in a slide show the group put together. The prospective Peeponauts studied the history of space exploration, they were tested in extreme heat and cold, they took a spin on the centrifuge (a.k.a. a ceiling fan). "And we ran a few tests with a vacuum [chamber]," Aguilera added.

"They taste the same," reported Rivka Rosen, another member of the team.

The video of the adventure shows the helmetless Peep, pinned in place on its duct tape-and-Styrofoam birdhouse, as it is freed from its earthly bonds. The $100 video camera records our brave hero as the balloon takes him to 6,700 feet; 57,000 feet; 89,000 feet and beyond. Below, the Earth gets smaller; above, the sky turns from blue to the blackness of space.

"At that altitude, it's 1 percent of the pressure [on the ground], the sky is black, you see the curvature of the Earth," said Gyuk. "It's fantastic. You're 99 percent into space."

Eventually, at around 100,000 feet, the balloon pops. After a few rough moments--the box containing the students' experiment smashes into and nearly flattens the fearless Peep, who soldiers on--the chute opens and the mission is safely completed.

The Adler crew hopes these experiments are a sort of steppingstone. They once dreamed of launching their own high-powered rockets, but common sense intervened.

"There is the problem of working with high explosives," Hammergren said.

"And working with high school kids," Gyuk pointed out.

So they turned to the high-altitude weather balloons, which you can buy, assemble, launch and recover for considerably less than $500.

The next step, they hope, might be to be part of CubeSat, a consortium of universities and other learning centers involved in space. For about $40,000 you can get your payloads sent up on a real rocket.

Until then, though, they'll continue with the balloons, including at a summer student workshop.

"The workshop will feature high-altitude ballooning," Hammergren said. "Maybe not Peeps, but if they can come up with something...."

"Maybe different colors," Aguilera suggested.

"Or maybe hollow chocolate rabbits," Gyuk said. "Maybe Peeps rabbits. Will their ears freeze while the rest expands?"

Science marches on.

The summer student workshop is full, but click here for more of what's going on at the Adler.

bhageman@tribune.com

[Baconsticks]

http://www.wwmt.com/news/sauce_1350893_ ... vered.html

APPLETON, Wisc. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A couple telephoned police in the middle of the night after finding a man in their basement covered head to toe in barbecue sauce.



"He told the officers that it was urban camouflage," said the homeowner.



This happened in Wisconsin.



The homeowners say they woke up to whistling sounds.



The husband grabbed his shotgun and headed toward the basement where he found the sauced-up intruder.



He held him at gunpoint until police arrived.



The guy told officers he covered himself in barbecue sauce because he wanted to hide from the government.



He now faces burglary charges.

:O

[osprey]

He fails at hiding from the government.

[VisibilityMissing]

It's amazing what kinds of things you can find on a trip to the ocean . . .

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 0518.story

2 of 5 feet washed ashore in Canada from same body

By Associated Press

3:43 PM CDT, July 10, 2008

VANCOUVER, British Columbia

Two of the five feet that have washed up on the shores of British Columbia over the past year belonged to the same person, but no identities have been determined in any of the cases, police said Thursday.

A spokeswoman said DNA testing determined that a left foot found in June came from the same male as a right foot found in February. She said police are reviewing missing persons files and have eliminated 130 so far.

Authorities have said they have no reason to believe the cases were related or involved wrongdoing, although they aren't ruling out any possibilities.

"There is no evidence that these feet have been severed. There were no tool marks and no visible signs of trauma," Constable Annie Linteau said at a news conference.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer, said that when a body decomposes in water, it is not unusual for its parts to separate after prolonged submersion.

The first three feet washed ashore about 40 miles southwest of Vancouver on islands in the Strait of Georgia. The first was discovered last summer by beachcombers. Days later, a foot was found inside a man's Reebok sneaker. The remains of a third foot were found Feb 8.

The fourth foot was found May 22 on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River, about 15 miles south of Vancouver. The fifth -- and the only left foot found -- washed up about a mile away and was discovered June 16.

A sixth find last month turned out to be a hoax, with an animal paw stuffed inside a shoe.

"Until all of those remains have been identified we are going to explore all possibilities," Linteau said.

Dean Hilderbrand, a forensic scientist working on the case, said officials have not yet contacted Swedish police about a similar foot found near Stockholm two days ago.

[Quantheory]

When it says "Two of the five feet ... belonged to the same person", it somehow seems to me to imply that all five could have belonged to the same person. Which would be a little confusing, even more than feet drifting about in the ocean.

[Tom Flapwell]

Maybe they belong to a human-octopus hybrid!

[Muninn]

Maybe they belong to a human-octopus hybrid!

[optiMITCHprime]

a man in russia was charged with fraud on saturday for claiming to raise the dead. here's the article http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080708/od_ ... 7I5EKs0NUE

[osprey]

It's amazing what kinds of things you can find on a trip to the ocean . . .

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 0518.story

2 of 5 feet washed ashore in Canada from same body

By Associated Press

3:43 PM CDT, July 10, 2008

VANCOUVER, British Columbia

Two of the five feet that have washed up on the shores of British Columbia over the past year belonged to the same person, but no identities have been determined in any of the cases, police said Thursday.

A spokeswoman said DNA testing determined that a left foot found in June came from the same male as a right foot found in February. She said police are reviewing missing persons files and have eliminated 130 so far.

Authorities have said they have no reason to believe the cases were related or involved wrongdoing, although they aren't ruling out any possibilities.

"There is no evidence that these feet have been severed. There were no tool marks and no visible signs of trauma," Constable Annie Linteau said at a news conference.

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer, said that when a body decomposes in water, it is not unusual for its parts to separate after prolonged submersion.

The first three feet washed ashore about 40 miles southwest of Vancouver on islands in the Strait of Georgia. The first was discovered last summer by beachcombers. Days later, a foot was found inside a man's Reebok sneaker. The remains of a third foot were found Feb 8.

The fourth foot was found May 22 on Kirkland Island in the Fraser River, about 15 miles south of Vancouver. The fifth -- and the only left foot found -- washed up about a mile away and was discovered June 16.

A sixth find last month turned out to be a hoax, with an animal paw stuffed inside a shoe.

"Until all of those remains have been identified we are going to explore all possibilities," Linteau said.

Dean Hilderbrand, a forensic scientist working on the case, said officials have not yet contacted Swedish police about a similar foot found near Stockholm two days ago.

This is actually pretty big news here. The cops originally thought it was foul play and I have to agree, because, come on, how common is it for feet to wash ashore in this kind of volume, even if it is just bodies decomposing? And why no other parts?

It's a little unsettling. I'm hoping I never come across one myself.

[A dude named Vince]

It could just be an amazing coincidence, but if not, why would the killer let feet wash up on shore? Maybe he/she is just really morbid and did it to screw with us...... Ew.