Top Strangeness
Top strange stories of 2005
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051218/od_afp/yearoffbeatstrange;_ylt=ApNInJuwRLudSs_ZlgCTgAKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-]
. There are some good ones in here.
Eric Scheske
Chinese Transplants
Handing out the death penalty for double-parking a rickshaw:
> A Chinese company has begun marketing kidneys, livers and other organs from
executed prisoners to sick Britons in need of transplants. . . .
What could possibly go wrong with that arrangement?
> Some human rights campaigners have claimed the use of
Stop the Neanderthals!
The Western Isles of Scotland have voted to outlaw gay unions, notwithstanding
the Eltonizing of England that started this week. The Western Isles are deeply
traditional and Christian. They want to resist the secularizing forces of the
21st century. Is that okay with the gays, that there is one small
Desegregating California Prisons
I didn't know it, but California has maintained a measure of segregation in its
prison systems. A recent U.S. Supreme Court declared the segregation illegal, so
California is changing it. I liked this quote from the civil rights plaintiff's
attorney who brought the case:
>
Jurassic Me
Far out. What could possibly go wrong?
> The first serious possibility that the woolly mammoth, or something like it,
could walk on Earth again was raised yesterday by an international team of
scientists.
> A portion of the genetic code of the mammoth has been reconstructed and, to the
Art for Art's Sake
> A German art expert was fooled into believing a painting done by a chimpanzee
was the work of a master.
> The director of the State Art Museum of Moritzburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Katja
Schneider, suggested the painting was by the Guggenheim Prize-winning artist
Ernst Wilhelm Nay.
>
Quiet Reminder
As the fever pitch rises, Benedict XVI reminds us
[http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=41323]:
> "During this period of preparation for Christmas, let us cultivate interior
meditation, in order to welcome and safeguard Jesus in our lives," the Holy
Father said at his Sunday
Taking Down Slasher Santa
Good for the marine. Unlawful, but good for him:
> A former Marine took a stab at saving the Christmas spirit yesterday – knocking
over a bloody, knife-wielding Santa that was part of a controversial display
outside a Manhattan home.
> Julius Spohn, 64, of Newark, said he had read
No Prostitutes Here
> German towns may erect 'No Prostitutes Here' signs over fears an army of call
girls are coming for the 2006 World Cup.
Link [http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1653451.html].
Where sin isn't discouraged, it's encouraged. Where it isn't
Thrashing Barbie
Mildly interesting study:
> Barbie, that plastic icon of girlhood fantasy play, is routinely tortured by
children, research has found.
> The methods of mutilation are varied and creative, ranging from scalping to
decapitation, burning, breaking and even microwaving, according to academics
from the University of Bath.
> The findings