Bizarre News

[winterfate]

Methinks, a momentary lapse of sanity.

[asandir]

because they thought he was in the ocean I imagine, but who really knows

Daredevil Robbie leaps into record books

Australian motocross star Robbie Maddison has leapt into the record books by jumping his motorcycle more than 98 metres over the length of an American football field in Las Vegas.

Maddison beat the old record of 84 metres when he rode his bike off the jump at more than 150 kilometres per hour and reached a height of more than 18 metres.

"Conditions weren't perfect but I'm happy with the result," Maddison said in a statement.

"In rehearsal I went 350 feet (106 metres) and I knew 360 feet (109 metres) was achievable. We did all we could but the winds played a bigger factor than we planned.

"This is just the beginning," he said.

Maddison, who hails from Kiama on the New South Wales south coast, has two additional world records for the longest jump on a 125cc motorcycle - 67 metres - and the longest jump with a trick - 80 metres.

Maddison dedicated the jump to daredevil stunt rider Evel Knievel, whose family were in the audience in Las Vegas.

Youtube link be here

[The Mad Dragon]

Wow....awesome.

[Elvin]

Impressive I say

[The Mad Dragon]

Definitely.

[Pol]

Definitively

[jeff]

Is that the Geico guy in a new suit?

[darknessfood]

Hehehe, nice picture

[Elvin]

Motorist banned after driving 10 mph on motorway

[asandir]

NZ man held by ankles to snap shark: reports

A New Zealand man risked life and limb by dangling upside-down in the sea to take close-up pictures of a circling great white shark.

Builder Gary Porter asked friends to hold him by the ankles from their small boat as he dunked his upper body in the water to snap the four-metre predator less than two metres away.

"I just wanted to get some photos of this amazing creature," Mr Porter said.

"I've got a few regrets about not hopping in with it and having a good swim with it."

Mr Porter was on a diving expedition with three friends near Kapiti Island, near Wellington, on Saturday when they first spotted the huge shark as they were about to enter the water.

The shark circled their 6.5-metre boat continuously, apparently attracted by the outboard motor.

"He'd go around the back of the boat and then circle it and come right up to the side of the boat. You could touch him if you wanted to," Mr Porter said.

Emboldened by the shark's apparent lack of aggression, Mr Porter dipped his arm in the sea to take underwater photos with a waterproof digital camera but could not get a good shot.

So his friends grabbed him by the ankles as he dunked the top of his body in the water to get the shots he wanted.

The shark was less than two metres away as Mr Porter snapped away and luckily there was no snapping back by the great white.

"We threw him a fish but he wasn't really interested in it, he was a pretty docile shark," he said.

and

'Subprime' named US word of the year

Linguists in the United States have named their most interesting new words of 2007, those deemed to have best caught the public mood in the past year.

The winning word is one that has increasingly sent shudders through financial workers and home owners alike - 'subprime'.

The word is an adjective that describes a risky or less-than-ideal loan or mortgage.

The American Dialect Society says 'subprime' was chosen because it was a rare example of a word from the banking sector that has become part of everyday conversation.

The title of most creative word went to googleganger, derived from doppelganger, a German word for a double, or namesake.

[Omega_Destroyer]

Man Sees 'Mark of the Beast'; Cuts Off, Microwaves Hand
Wednesday, January 09, 2008

HAYDEN, Idaho — A man who believed he bore the "mark of the beast" used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called 911, authorities said.

The man, in his mid-20s, was calm when Kootenai County sheriff's deputies arrived Saturday in this northern Idaho town. He was in protective custody in the mental health unit of Kootenai Medical Center.

"It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived," sheriff's Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. "He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn't bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad."

It was not immediately clear whether the man has a history of mental illness. Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson would not say whether an attempt was made to reattach the hand, citing patient confidentiality.

The Book of Revelation in the New Testament contains a passage in which an angel is quoted as saying: "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink the wine of God's fury."

The book of Matthew also contains the passage: "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for you whole body to do into hell."

Wolfinger said he didn't know which hand was amputated

More? Ye want more?!

Man Gets Probation for Mailing Cow's Head to Wife's Lover
Tuesday, January 08, 2008

NORRISTOWN, Pa. — A man who mailed a bloody cow's head to his wife's lover has been sentenced to probation and community service.

Jason Michael Fife "understands that in a civilized society a person cannot send a severed cow's head to anybody," said his defense lawyer, Henry Hilles.

Authorities in Lower Pottsgrove, northwest of Philadelphia, arrested Fife and charged him with stalking, terroristic threats, disorderly conduct and harassment after he allegedly sent threatening messages and pictures to the victim between May and September 2006.

The victim received a package containing a cow's head with a puncture wound in its skull on June 1, 2006.

Police said Fife, 31, got the cow's head from a butcher's shop, claiming he wanted the dried skull for decoration. Instead, he mailed the head frozen, so as not to alert parcel carriers to the contents, police said. The box became bloody after sitting on the victim's doorstep on a warm day.

Police were able to trace the package and threatening e-mails to Fife, court documents indicate.

"My client did step over the line here, but one can certainly understand his frustration, given that the victim was carrying on an affair with my client's wife," Hilles said.

Fife, of Hunker, southeast of Pittsburgh, was sentenced Friday to a program for first-time offenders in which he must complete two years of probation and 50 hours of community service. If he successfully finishes the program, his record will be cleared.

Fife and his wife, who have a young child, later reconciled, Hilles said.

[Ceres]

All bloody. I pity the cow...

[Omega_Destroyer]

Yeah. If you are going to send a head, it should a horse's head.

[asandir]

and they reconciled huh??? weird!

[Elvin]

...

[asandir]

now this is just beautiful

Couple divorces after running into each other at brothel

A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees.

Polish tabloid Super Express reports the woman had been making some extra money on the side while telling her husband she worked at a store in a nearby town.

"I was dumbfounded. I thought I was dreaming," the husband told the newspaper.

The couple, married for 14 years, are now divorcing, the newspaper reported.

[ThunderTitan]

Links dammit...

So why exactly did they separate?! It's not like they'll be faithful next time...

[Kalah]

Reuters: Twins separated at birth met and married

LONDON (Reuters) - A couple discovered after they had married that they were twins who had been split up at birth and adopted by separate families, according to a member of Britain's House of Lords.

British peer David Alton recounted the story to parliament last month to support his argument that artificially conceived children should be told who their biological parents are.

Alton said he had heard the story of the separated twins from a High Court judge who had dealt with the case.

"This did not involve in vitro fertilization: It involved the normal birth of twins who were separated at birth and adopted by separate parents," said Alton, an independent member of the Lords. "They were never told that they were twins."

"They met later in life and felt an inevitable attraction, and the judge had to deal with the consequences of the marriage that they entered into and all the issues of their separation," he said.

"I suspect that it will be a matter of litigation in the future if we do not make information of this kind available to children who have been donor-conceived," he said.

Alton could not immediately be reached for comment and no further information was available about the twins or where they were from.

"I think it's a very tragic story for the people involved," said Pam Hodgkins, head of a group that helps adults affected by adoption.

"It is a lesson that we need to learn and apply to the situation of donor-conceived children," she told Sky News.

[Elvin]

Crap, wonder if it would be better if they never knew. As for the actual occurence what were the chances?

[Kalah]

Well, if its true (if), their children would not have a very beneficial gene pool.