Bizarre News

[asandir]

that's pretty sweet ....

Monster toad captured in NT

Toad busters say the animal is more than 20 centimetres long and weighs more than 860 grams. FrogWatch
FrogWatch says last night's toad bust in Darwin's northern suburbs uncovered what it says is the biggest cane toad ever to be caught in the Northern Territory.

The pest was found at Lee Point along with 38 smaller toads.

FrogWatch organiser Graeme Sawyer says the monster toad is the size of a small dog, measuring more than 20 centimetres in length and weighing more than 860 grams.

"The only bigger cane toad I've seen [is] in a specimen bottle in a museum in Brisbane," he said.

"I reckon I've probably seen 50,000-60,000 cane toads in the last 12 months and there is nothing even remotely close to this thing."

Mr Sawyer says the toad is a huge shock.

"The biggest toads are usually females, but this one was a rampant male," he said.

"He is huge, I would hate to meet his big sister.

"The highly publicised big female caught in the city recently was a little over 15 centimetres, this monster is another five centimetres long and one third heavier."

FrogWatch has organised a series of toad busts in key areas of the Northern Territory to minimise the wet season toad invasion.

This week, called Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) week, there have been low numbers of toads everywhere in city locales, except at Lee Point and Casuarina Coastal Reserve.

[asandir]

New research to solve a windy problem with cows
A national research program is under way, looking to solve a serious issue involving flatulence in cows.

The beef Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) says the nation's livestock herd contributes more than 12 per cent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

That is because cattle produce methane gas by burping and passing wind.

Chief executive officer Dr Heather Burrow says it is a serious issue and the research is looking at reducing methane gas production from livestock and improving feed efficiency.

She says while cows are not the only emitters, the study should help to tackle environmental challenges.

"In terms of the amount of what cattle emit, we believe we can have a serious impact on the emission of greenhouse gases," she said.

"In a worse case scenario, a mature animal can emit about a 44 gallon drum of methane per day."

The CRC says it is aiming to reduce gas output in cattle by 20 per cent.

Dr Burrow says that could mean big inroads into the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

[Caradoc]

FrogWatch? How do I join?

[asandir]

google 'em?

but if my secret sources are correct, you wouldn't be able to help much since this is in NT of Australia

[ThunderTitan]

French Get a Look at Nation's UFO Files

PARIS, March 22 -- On an August day in 1967, two children tending a herd of cows outside a village in central France reported seeing "four small black beings" fly from the ground and slip headfirst into a sphere that shot skyward in a flash of light and trail of sulfuric odors.

The alleged extraterrestrial sighting, described by the French government as "one of the most astonishing observed in France," is among 1,600 UFO case files spanning the last half-century that the country's space agency opened to the public for the first time Thursday.

This image of an alleged extraterrestrial event, or of a natural phenomenon linked to lightning, was among 1,600 files posted on the French space agency's Web site.
This image of an alleged extraterrestrial event, or of a natural phenomenon linked to lightning, was among 1,600 files posted on the French space agency's Web site. (National Center For Space Studies)

The voluntary decision by France's National Center for Space Studies to dump more than 100,000 pages of witness testimony, photographs, film footage and audiotapes from its secret UFO archives onto its Internet site, http://www.cnes.fr, for worldwide viewing is an unprecedented move among Western countries. Most of them, the United States included, consider such records classified matters of national security.

Within three hours of posting the first cases Thursday morning, the French space agency's Web server crashed, overwhelmed by the flood of viewers seeking the first glimpses of official government evidence on a subject long a target of both fascination and ridicule.

The material dates as far back as 1954. Over the next several months, the space agency will post it to enhance scientific research seeking to explain what the French government calls "unexplained aerospace phenomena."

[Caradoc]

google 'em?

but if my secret sources are correct, you wouldn't be able to help much since this is in NT of Australia

I suspect we have frogs here in Texas too. Who is watching them, I wonder.

[asandir]

I think not maybe .... but I hope for your sake they aren't cane toads .... they are not nice!

I'm so not into UFO's ....

oh and TT and Jack Thompson will just love this!!!

Mexicans urged to swap guns for Xboxes
By Michelle Crowther

One of the world's most crime-ridden cities is trying a novel approach to curbing violence, offering computers and Xboxes in exchange for guns.

Police kicked off the gun exchange program in one of Mexico City's most notorious neighbourhoods, Tepito, where last year alone there were 32 murders.

High calibre weapons can be exchanged for computers, while owners can swap smaller guns for Xboxes or food and cash packages.

The new push in Mexico's capital falls alongside President Felipe Calderon's national crackdown on crime.

Since taking office last December he has sent 24,000 police and troops to drug cartel hotspots.

[Caradoc]

It appears that there is a Texas Amphibian Watch that seems to be affiliated with Frogwatch USA. And although we do not have a giant frog, I find we do have a giant toad.

[asandir]

well there you go! now go find some toads!

[ThunderTitan]

Damn, if i was mexican i'd be at the local gun dealer right now.

[Caradoc]

Damn, if i was mexican i'd be at the local gun dealer right now.

This being Mexico, the guns will be back on the street hours after they are turned in. Best we can hope is that the X-boxes keep the thugs occupied for a while.

[Caradoc]

Michael Jackson wants Vegas robot

03/27/2007 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dotmusic

Michael Jackson is in discussions about creating a 50-foot robotic replica of himself to roam the Las Vegas desert, according to reports.

The pop legend is currently understood to be living in the city, as he considers making a comeback after 2004's turbulent child sex case.

It has now been claimed that his plans include an elaborate show in Vegas, which would feature the giant Jacko striding around the desert, firing laser beams.

If built, the metal monster would apparently be visible to aircraft as they come in to land in the casino capital.

It is the centerpiece of an elaborate Jackson-inspired show in Vegas, according to Andre Van Pier, the robot's designer.

Luckman Van Pier, his partner at the company behind the proposal, claims blueprints have been drawn up for the show and seen by the star.

"Michael's looked at the sketches and likes them," he told the New York Daily News.

On the subject of the robot, he continued: "It would be in the desert sands. Laser beams would shoot out of it so it would be the first thing people flying in would see."

[ThunderTitan]

This being Mexico, the guns will be back on the street hours after they are turned in.

Of course... that way the next round of kids can get xboxes too.

Thar she blows! Dead whale explodes

TAIPEI - Residents of Tainan learned a lesson in whale biology after the decomposing remains of a 60-ton sperm whale exploded on a busy street, showering nearby cars and shops with blood and organs and stopping traffic for hours.

The 56-foot-long whale had been on a truck headed for a necropsy by researchers, when gases from internal decay caused its entrails to explode in the southern city of Tainan.

Residents and shop owners wore masks while trying to clean up the spilt blood and entrails.

"What a stinking mess. This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful," a BBC News report quoted one Tainan resident as saying.

And the interesting part:

Once moved to a nearby nature preserve, the male specimen -- the largest whale ever recorded in Taiwan -- drew the attention of locals because of its large penis, measured at some five feet, the Taipei Times reported.

[Kareeah Indaga]

On the subject of the robot, he continued: "It would be in the desert sands. Laser beams would shoot out of it so it would be the first thing people flying in would see."

And then he goes back to court for endangering airliners. And you thought laser pointers were bad!

[ThunderTitan]

Court?! What court can lay a hand on him once he has a giant robot of doom built in his image?! The answer is NONE.... none i tell you.

GIANT JACKSON MECHA FTW.

[asandir]

Bogans to go under the microscope
A New Zealand university researcher has won a government grant to study the lifestyle habits of head-banging heavy metal fans.

The $75,000 grant over three years to student Dave Snell will allow him to carry out his study, called "The Everyday Life of Bogans: Identity and Community Among Heavy Metal Fans".

Mr Snell says the research will include studying different types of dancing to heavy metal music as well as the importance of tattoos and body piercings.

Japan clocks world's longest concert
Hundreds of Japanese musicians have set a new world record for a non-stop concert, performing about 2,000 tunes consecutively over 182 hours.

The concert began on the evening of Friday, March 23 in the western Japanese city of Omi, with professional and amateur musicians aged between six and 96 taking turns in the relay.

An official of London-based Guinness World Records has attended and approved the new record.

The previous longest concert was 181 hours set in Canada in 2001.

[asandir]

China property dispute home demolished
A Chinese home whose owners caused a national sensation by defying developers in a three-year dispute has been demolished.

Workmen operating an excavator completely obliterated the modest brick house, one of China's most recognisable buildings thanks to widely circulated pictures of it sitting defiantly in the middle of a massive pit excavated around it.

"The stubborn nail has been removed," a night watchman at the construction site in the south-western city of Chongqing told AFP.

Owner Wu Ping, dubbed "Stubborn Nail" by Chinese media for her part in the dispute, said her husband had safely left the house before it was torn down after holding a vigil in the structure and refusing to leave until an agreement was reached.

But Mrs Wu refused to confirm state media reports that an agreement had been reached.

"I can't talk about that now," she said.

When Mrs Wu was told the house was gone, she said simply: "Oh well."

A legal battle has raged since she rejected a compensation offer to move out that was accepted by 280 other homeowners.

Her decision to hold out delayed a major property development on the site.

Mr Wu has accused the Government of collusion with the developer, while refusing to bow to strong-arm tactics to move her out.

Such disputes are rife in China, often involving illegal land grabs by real estate companies allegedly in collusion with the Government, and Mrs Wu's case has generated a lively debate over property rights protection.

[winterfate]

That's pretty interesting...and gutsy too .

[asandir]

especially in china one would think

[ThunderTitan]

Mr Wu has accused the Government of collusion with the developer, while refusing to bow to strong-arm tactics to move her out.

What's China coming to when they don't even kill ppl like that on the spot anymore?!