WEIRD NEWS

GTA school cancels cross-dressing day

TORONTO - Attention all kindergarten to Grade 8 students: Cross-dressing day is now cancelled.

King City Public pull pulled the plug on the "Opposite Gender Day," when kids as young as six would be allowed to come to school dressed as the opposite sex, following an outcry from parents.

"Opposite Gender Day has been cancelled in the wake of concerns of parents," said Ross Virgo, York Region District School Board spokesman.

"The idea of (kids) experiencing being people of the opposite gender has offended some people in the community, and the school doesn't want to do that."

The chance to dress as the opposite sex was voluntary for students from junior kindergarten to Grade 8, Virgo said.

It was proposed by the school's student council to principal Karen Goan, he said.

"They discussed the fun the day might generate, plus how the experience might help boys and girls understand a bit more what it felt like to be a member of the opposite sex ... that was the plan," he said.

It was Goan who gave Opposite Gender Day the green light, and it was the principal who promptly cancelled it early Thursday, Virgo said. Juan Smith, whose two young daughters are students at the school, didn't like the idea at all.

"Girls are girls and boys are boys," Smith said. "When they grow up, it's up to them. But not at this age."

Dr. Charles McVety, president of Canada Christian College, believes the school's Opposite Gender Day was part of the Ontario Ministry of Education's "greater agenda" of making gender-identity issues a part of school curriculum.

"If this was so innocent, then why did the principal not stop this right away?" McVety said. "This was part of a greater agenda to teach gender identity ... and to confuse our children at a young age, and to tell them they can't be truly happy until they discover their inner (gender) identity."

Not so, said Virgo.

"I've spoken with the principal ... and I am totally reassured that this had nothing to do with that. It was students who initially approached (school) staff about this, and staff said, 'Sure, this sounds like a fun and engaging activity for kids to participate in.'"

Last April, the Ontario government nixed plans to add teachings on homosexuality, masturbation and oral and anal sex to the sex-education curriculum after parents and religious groups voiced loud opposition.
 
Following GPS directions, car crashes into church

BERLIN - Two British seniors landed in hospital in southern Germany after their car
 
Deer breaks into Ontario home

Police in Guelph, Ont., were called to home after receiving reports of an "unwanted entry."

When officers arrived, they found a 1 1/2-year-old doe in the living room.

The home owners were away and a friend who was taking care of the house called police after finding the unwanted visitor around 11 p.m. Thursday night.

When officers opened the door, it startled the deer, which was unstable on the tile floors, police said. The deer caused some damage to the inside of the home.

"Despite being directed verbally to leave the residence, the deer stubbornly refused and was able to close the garden door it had entered," police said in the release. "The deer stood in front of the door staring defiantly through the window at officers."

A technician from the Ontario Veterinary College was called in to help get the deer out of the house. With the help of a large tarp and firefighters, the people were hidden from the deer. Once the deer was comfortable, it left the residence.

The police, who dubbed the deer Bambi, said there was damage to the exterior of the house where a garden window was broken. Inside, a door frame and a number of pieces of furniture were damaged.

The deer did receive a small cut when it entered the home from some broken glass, but "left the area in good health."

Guelph is located 100 km west of Toronto.
 
Sicily couple murdered man with butter

A Sicilian couple thought they had the perfect weapon to get rid of her ex-husband -- a slab of butter which would melt after they asphyxiated him, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Saturday.

But a post-mortem found remains of the butter in the airways of Calogero Lo Cocco and the pair were unmasked, the paper said.

On Wednesday Lo Cocco, 40, had gone back to the marital home he had not visited since his divorce, where his ex-wife lived with her new boyfriend at Campobello di Licata near Agrigente in southern Sicily.

They had set upon him and suffocated him with the butter, before claiming he had arrived drunk and attacked them, forcing them to tie him up, when he had suddenly collapsed and died.
 
Barking dogs land owners in jail

ROME - If you live in Italy and if the barking of your dogs keeps the neighbours up at night, it
 
Third of Russians think sun spins round Earth: poll

MOSCOW - Does the sun revolve around the Earth? One in every three Russians thinks so, a spokeswoman for state pollster VsTIOM said on Friday.

In a survey released this week, 32 percent of Russians believed the Earth was the centre of the Solar system; 55 percent that all radioactivity is man-made; and 29 percent that the first humans lived when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.
 
Man forced to eat his own ear

A gang attacked a man in Ireland early Monday and forced him to eat part of his own ear, police say.

The man, 21, is recovering in hospital.

The attack occurred in Newbridge. Police said the gang dragged the man down a lane and beat him with a hammer and a metal bar.

The suspects cut off part of the man's ear and forced him to eat it, police said.

He also suffered injuries to his head, jaw and leg.

No arrests have been made.


Good thing Mike Tyson wasn't there. ;D
 
Thieves steal man's leg

WELLAND, Ont. - Jay Baird had his leg stolen. Now he wants it back.

Thieves broke into the Welland, Ont., man's home late Friday night while he and his two children were asleep and stole his prosthetic leg, wallet, medication and work bag.

Fortunately, Baird had an old prosthetic that he can use until the other one can be found or until he gets fitted for a new artificial limb.

The 50-year-old said he didn't even hear anybody come into the home, as he took a sleeping pill before placing his leg by the bedside and going to bed for the night.

At 2 a.m., his 15-year-old son woke him up.

"I realized right away that my leg was gone," he said.

Baird lost part of his leg when at the age of 14 he was run over by a train. The cost of the prosthetic was about $10,000, but it's unlikely it could fetch anything close to that on the black market.

"What are they going to do with a leg? It doesn't make sense," he said, sitting on a couch in his living room with his dog and cat.

"You've got the money, you've got the pills. But I would like all my ID back. I'd like to have the leg back, too. I'm just a single father raising my two kids by myself."
 
Manly space beer ready for testing

A small Australian brewery has just whipped up the world's first batch of beer for the next frontier, and it all happened because a space engineer loves his local watering hole.

Jason Held, director of Saber Astronautics Australia, has long been a regular at a pub owned by 4 Pines Brewery in Manly, Australia.
 
British shop sells breast milk ice cream

It may not be to everyone's tastes, and that's a good thing, because there's not much to go around.

A London, England, ice cream parlour has introduced a new dish they're calling the Baby Gaga: ice cream made from the milk of people, served with a shot of liquid nitrogen and, if you so please, a cocktail.

The breast milk comes from willing donors who are paid for their trouble, the U.K. Daily Mail reports. The first woman donated about 30 ounces (just over 800 ml) and was paid just over 45 pounds (about $70).

"I saw the advert offering to pay women to donate breast milk on a forum and it made me laugh," Victoria Hiley told the newspaper. "There were so many comments and people were having a debate on whether it could be genuine. So I thought I'd find out."

The ice cream is served in a martini glass for 14 pounds per serving, or about $22 for us Canucks.
 
Woman goes 'ballistic' over lack of cupcakes

A woman in South Wales ravaged a bakery upon learning they were out of her favourite cupcakes, according to British media reports.

The shop's owner, Sally Dodd, 43, told the U.K. Daily Mail the woman threw herself on the floor "ranting and raving" when she found out they were out of the popular "sweet tooth fairy" cupcakes.

"The woman went absolutely ballistic when she was told we didn't have the cupcake flavour she wanted," Dodd told the British tabloid. "She didn't even wait for us to tell her that if she waited we could bake some fresh cupcakes for her."

The woman reportedly ran around the counter, grabbed Dodd by the hair, and proceeded to smash all the glass display units, causing more than in $600 damage.

"You expect a certain amount of risk running a bar or a pub but not in a cupcake shop," said Dodd.

Police are hoping video surveillance footage will help them find the culprit.
 
American gives up sobriety for lent

J. Wilson says he will subsist on nothing but beer and water for 46 days.

The home brewer and beer blogger vowed to give up all food and drink for lent with the exception of beer and water.

"The idea came to me a couple years ago, and it didn't really make sense then, my wife quickly pointed out," the 38-year-old Iowa man told the Chicago Tribune.

But now, apparently, it's more logical.

Wilson bulked up an extra 20 lbs. and brewed a special beer to help keep himself alive during lent.

The 12-ounce servings each contain about 300 calories and are roughly 6.7% alcohol. He'll drink four of them per day.

He told the newspaper that he plans to consult a doctor regularly during his fast and doesn't intend to be drunk at all during the 46-day stunt.
 
Huge lobster saved from the pot

LONDON- One of the biggest and oldest lobsters ever caught in Britain has been saved from the pot and will live out the rest of its long life in an aquarium.

The massive crustacean measures close to one metre in length and weighs more than 4 kg.
 
Refused a kiss, 92-year-old shoots house

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla - Helen Staudinger, 92, wanted a kiss, and authorities say she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

The central Florida woman fired a semi-automatic pistol four times at her 53-year-old neighbor’s house after he refused to kiss her, police said Tuesday.

“If my head would have been over just a little bit further, (a bullet) probably would have hit me in the back of the head,” the neighbor, Dwight Bettner, told Reuters.

Staudinger was in jail Tuesday, a day after being arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into a dwelling.

According to a police report, Staudinger told deputies she went to Bettner’s house in Fort McCoy, Florida, and refused to leave until he gave her a kiss.

When he said no, they argued and she left angry, the report said.

Bettner said he was on the phone with his father moments later when he heard gunshots. One bullet went through a window, spraying him with glass.

The former law enforcement officer said his elderly neighbor had seemed attracted to him since he moved in six months ago.

“I’ve taken her trash out for her, just neighborly stuff,” Bettner said. “I guess she just took that as something else.”
 
Arkansas bans saggy pants

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Students living in the state of Arkansas who love their sagging pants will soon have to leave them at home.

Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe signed a bill this week that bans students from wearing clothing that exposes “underwear, buttocks or the breast of a female.”

Arkansas educators have long complained about the drooping attire, such as young men wearing saggy jeans that expose the top of colorful boxer shorts.

“We feel the bill can improve the learning environment in schools,” said Donna Morey, president of the Arkansas Education Association.

One concern of the General Assembly was that “student competition over the manner in which clothing is worn could lead to violence and injuries during school hours,” according to the legislation. Lawmakers also said that students should learn to dress in a way that is acceptable in the workplace as they prepare to enter it.

The new law does not outline how school districts will punish students who wear such clothing.

“School boards will have to look at existing school dress code policies and make sure they are in compliance with this new law,” said Kristen Gould, staff attorney for the Arkansas School Boards Association, a non-profit. “Many of them may well be, and if not, they will have to incorporate it into their current policy and design punishment in accordance.”

Josh Cunningham, a research analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said that he was unaware of any other state with a ban of baggy pants in schools, although some cities have been successful in enacting such laws.

Florida is considering a similar bill.

In Arkansas, the bill had little public opposition, although several legislators voted against it.

“Individual expression is important to young people and dress is an especially strong statement of expression, and I don’t think legislators should meddle with that,” said Sue Madison, a Democratic state senator from Fayetteville, Ark.
 
Family finds worm in box of Kraft Dinner

A Montreal-area family was shocked when a worm emerged from their box of Kraft Dinner.


Nalini Marquez, a mom from Chateauguay, Que., said Friday she took a picture of the worm and called Kraft Canada to report the problem.
A few days later, Marquez received a letter from the mac and cheese maker with a cheque for $1 -- the value of the box of pasta.


"I felt like they were laughing at me," she said. "It's not much money for all the disgust that was created."
Marquez's 18-year-old daughter found the worm while pouring the noodles into a pot of water on June 7.


"I heard her scream in disgust," Marquez said. "Then I quickly ran to see what it was. There was a worm floating in the boiling water, and part of the package of noodles had been transformed into white powder. "

Kraft Canada spokeswoman Kathy Murphy said the company maintains high quality standards, though problems can arise during the production process.
"From the factory to the merchants' warehouses and the grocer's shelf to the consumer's cabinet, there may be several reasons how an insect could get into the box," she said.


"For small merchants, for example, the storage conditions are not always ideal," said Murphy, who also suggested Kraft might not even be responsible for the worm.
"We cannot verify the environment of each kitchen cabinet."


Regarding the $1 cheque, Murphy said Kraft's compensation policy is to reimburse an amount equivalent to the value of a product.
As for the Marquez family, their taste for Kraft Dinner isn't what it used to be, she said.


"(We won't) eat macaroni and cheese for the rest of our lives."
 
Navy Dolphin Finds Rare 130-Year-Old Torpedo...


dolphin-torpedo.webp

Members of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific Marine Mammal Team pose May 15, 2013, with one of the Navy's specially trained Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins. The team, along with the dolphin, are responsible for the discovery and recovery of the Howell torpedo.

CREDIT: Alan Antczak


A Navy dolphin training to look for mines off the coast of San Diego found a museum-worthy 19th-century torpedo on the seafloor, military officials said.

The brass-coated, retro wonder of technology was one of the first self-propelled torpedoes used by the U.S. Navy. Just 50 of these so-called Howell torpedoes were made and only one other example has been recovered; it sits in the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, Wash., outside of Seattle.

The 130-year-old, 11-foot-long (3.3 meters) weapon was discovered back in March during a mine-hunting exercise that the Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) was conducting with bottlenose dolphins.
 
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