Bizarre News

[okrane]

omg he's back... top posters hide... he's gonna post us all to hell and back...

welcome back tMD

[The Mad Dragon]

Thank ya. I'm glad to see that I was missed ^_^.

[Elvin]

Hehe welcome back. Was it hard to find the way?

[asandir]

omg he's back... top posters hide... he's gonna post us all to hell and back...

this is good news innit?

Japan's defence minister braces for aliens

As Japan takes a more active role in military affairs, the defence minister has more on his mind than just threats here on Earth.

Shigeru Ishiba became the second member of the cabinet to profess a belief in UFOs and said he was looking at how Japan's military could respond to aliens under the pacifist constitution.

"There are no grounds for us to deny that there are unidentified flying objects [UFOs] and some life-form that controls them," Mr Ishiba told reporters, saying it was his personal view and not that of the defence ministry.

Mr Ishiba, nicknamed a "security geek" for his wonkish knowledge of defence affairs, noted that Japan deployed its military against Godzilla in the classic monster movie.

"Few discussions have been made on what the legal grounds were for that," he said with a slight grin, drawing laughter from reporters.

Due to the US-imposed 1947 constitution, Japan's de facto military is known as the Self-Defence Forces and has never fired a shot in combat since World War II.

But Japan has gradually sought a greater global military role, sending troops to support US-led operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.


Contingency plans

Mr Ishiba said he was examining different scenarios for an alien invasion.

"If they descended, saying 'People of the Earth, let's make friends,' it would not be considered an urgent, unjust attack on our country," he said.

"And there is another issue of how can we convey our intentions if we don't understand what they are saying.

"We should consider various possibilities. There is no need at all to do this as the defence ministry, but I want to consider what to do by myself."

But the growing debate on UFOs did not appear to reach a cabinet consensus. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, asked about UFOs, told reporters: "I haven't seen one myself."

Mr Ishiba's remarks came after the government this week said it had no knowledge of UFOs, prompting a surprise rebuttal from the top government spokesman.

"Personally, I absolutely believe they exist," Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said on Tuesday.

The government was pressed to take up the issue after an opposition lawmaker, Ryuji Yamane, asked for the first official comment on UFOs.

He argued Tokyo should try to confirm what UFOs are as many people have said they have witnessed them.

"The government has not confirmed the existence of 'unidentified flying objects believed to have flown from outside the Earth'," said the government statement, which was formally endorsed at a cabinet meeting Tuesday.

[The Mad Dragon]

Perhaps they should wait for proof first that there are aliens out there and then find out if they are hostile if they are out there.

[asandir]

nah .... shoot first

[The Mad Dragon]

That's what Bush did...look what happened. I'd rather not take the shoot now ask later approach. Tends to get messy. And when things get messy, I hide.

[asandir]

well I was joking

[The Mad Dragon]

Ah, ok. At least you have a sense of humor.

[asandir]

Snaky smell helps squirrels stay safe

It is scary being a little, tasty squirrel, but some species of the rodents have come up with an intimidating camouflage: snake smells.

California ground squirrels and rock squirrels chew up rattlesnake skin and smear it on their fur to mask their scent, a team at the University of California Davis reported.

Barbara Clucas, a graduate student in animal behaviour, watched ground squirrels and rock squirrels chewing up pieces of skin shed by snakes and then licking their fur.

The scent probably helps to mask the squirrel's own scent, especially when the animals are asleep in their burrows, the researchers wrote in the journal Animal Behaviour.

[The Mad Dragon]

Wow....now thats smart. And who says them squirrels aren't smart?

[asandir]

Chinese city bans public Christmas trees

A Chinese city has beaten the Grinch at his own game, banning Christmas trees from shopping malls, restaurants and other public places because they pose a fire hazard, a newspaper reported.

Chen Ying, deputy mayor of Zhuhai, a city of 1.3 million people in southern China, said restaurants, malls, grocery stores and other entertainment venues had to remove trees and other "flammable decorations" immediately.

"Those that fail to rectify the situation will be subject to legal measures like suspension or closure," the Southern Metropolis Daily quoted Mr Chen as saying.

The crackdown on Christmas trees was part of a three-month campaign to boost fire-prevention standards that started this week in Zhuhai, directly across from the Chinese gambling haven of Macau.

The Zhuhai ban came the same day that President Hu Jintao "reached out" to religious believers in China, where commercial Christmas trappings have become increasingly ostentatious in recent years.

[Elvin]

That's crazy.. Why don't they bad the blankets and beds too?

[asandir]

it's pretty miserable really

Foam blast tames 3.3m anaconda

Finnish firefighters called to help a pet owner with his agitated and aggressive anaconda succeeded in taming the dangerous beast by spraying foam on it.

The 3.3-metre long reptile, which was apparently hungry after fasting for four months, attacked its owner as he tried to remove it from its terrarium to move to a new apartment.

The anaconda also attacked a veterinarian who tried to inject it with a sedative.

The firefighters cooled the snake's temper by emptying the contents of a fire extinguisher into its terrarium.

Minutes later, the placated snake was easily lifted into a bag and moved to its new home.

[The Mad Dragon]

Well, thats one way of dowsing a fiery temper.

[asandir]

Russian railways seek help from dancing robots

Russian railways want tiny robots to replace humans in difficult maintenance work, and they want Russian-made androids that can dance and talk.

According to a statement from Russian railways, prototypes of tested Russian robots "surpass foreign-produced robots with their technical characteristics".

They have bought eight Russian robots for testing. Seven are 35 centimetres high, and the eighth is 1.4 metres tall and weighs 70 kilograms.

The statement said the plan is to "build special robot models that can replace humans in particularly difficult work for railways."

Rail official Roman Timofeyev says the robots can inspect parts of trains that are difficult for humans to access.

Russian television showed the robots dancing on tables in front of amazed members of the public.

One robot said "Hello" and a few words on its capabilities.

[Elvin]

LOL!

Paris loses out: Hilton fortune pledged to charity

Apparently grandpa Hilton did not like Paris's actions and decided to donate 97 percent of his $2.3 billion fortune to charity.

[Ceres]

97%?! That's really big!

[Ethric]

Oh I'm sure she'll survive anyway.

[Elvin]

Yeah she'll starve a bit but I think she will make it.