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Unexplained shower of apples falls from sky over town

More than 100 apples mysteriously rained down upon a small British town on Monday night. The still-unexplained apple shower left 20 yards of city streets and car windshields covered in the cascading fruit just after the daily rush hour.
The news immediately brought up comparisons to biblical tales of raining frogs and whether such reported freaks of nature actually occurred. In this instance, no one has officially confirmed when, how or if the apple storm truly took place as described.
However, Jim Dale, senior meteorologist from the British Weather Services, told the London Telegraph: "The weather we have at the moment is very volatile and we probably have more to come. Essentially these events are caused when a vortex of air, kind of like a mini tornado, lifts things off the ground rising up into the atmosphere until the air around it causes them to fall to earth again."
Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright, a physicist at the Cavendish Laboratory, based at Cambridge University, told the BBC, "Cars and houses have been swept up by tornadoes, so apples are well within the realms of possibility. A tornado which has swept through an orchard will be strong enough to 'suck up' small objects like a vacuum [cleaner]. These small objects would then be deposited back to earth as 'rain' when the whirlwind loses its energy."
Nevertheless, witnesses report that the weather in Coundon in Coventry was reported to be stable and calm at the time of the alleged apple shower. Coventry residents have offered several competing explanations for the event, including a passing plane, roving teenage pranksters--and, yes, witches.
But regardless of the ultimate explanation, the apple storm is no stranger other confirmed, highly unusual forms of precipitation. The BBC offers a roster of pertinent examples:
Frog falls were recorded in Llanddewi, Powys, in 1996 and two years later in Croydon, south London. In 2000, hundreds of dead silver sprats fell out of the sky during a rainstorm in the seaside resort of Great Yarmouth.
There have also been maggot downpours--in Acapulco in 1967 and during a yachting event at the 1976 Olympic Games.
On the sliding scale of inconveniences, an apple storm seems more palatable than maggots. Though, depending on the state of the apples, it's possible that some areas could have experienced both brands of offbeat precipitation at once.


http://ph.news.yahoo.com

[Restaurant Worker Put Pig Meds in Coffee]

Restaurant Worker Put Pig Meds in Coffee

Toledo man said he wanted to kill customers

A worker at a Toledo Big Boy restaurant put pig medication in coffee, but a quick-thinking co-worker stopped him before he could serve it to customers, police said.

Edwin Ledgard, 36, came into the Frisch's Big Boy where he worked Friday, went into the kitchen and dropped two vials of a drug used to treat anemia in baby pigs into a coffee pot, police said. He allegedly poured a third vial into a salt shaker, and then dumped that into the coffee as well, according to the Toledo Blade.

Another restaurant employee saw Ledgard's act and took the vials away. Police responded and later determined the drug was Dextran, also known as Iron-100. The drug is given to suckling pigs' muscles to correct iron deficiency after birth.

Ledgard, who was charged with one count of contaminating a substance for human consumption, told police he had a "delusion" that he should kill customers.

nbclosangeles

The last two days worked at marcia’s studio in Amsterdam on the pasta-carpet. it was always our dream to make a much bigger pasta carpet. so here is pasta carpet...


http://believe-or-not.blogspot.com

Push pin mosaic portraits by Eric Daigh

The artist creates incredibly life-like portraits using coloured pins from noticeboards, and has sold some for thousands of pounds.

The 32-year-old uses only five colours in each picture and it can take him up to eight months to put one together. His biggest portraits are almost 2m high (6ft 6in) and use more than 20,000 pins.

‘Millions of people use them daily but nobody had stumbled upon this before me,’ said Mr Daigh, who holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest push pin mosaic.

How I got as far as getting the first one done is some alchemy of divorce, boredom and idiocy. But after that it was easy.’

Mr Daigh, from Michigan, US, buys the pins in batches of between 75,000 and 100,000.

He said: ‘I worked as a video editor before doing this and it was addictive to have people look at my work and say, “That must have taken for ever” rather than “That took all that time?”.’
http://believe-or-not.blogspot.com

Outrageous Shoe Designs

Straps, rubber soles, white shoelaces - all words that come to mind when thinking about shoes. But how about dog-faces, bananas, and tongues?
Kobi Levi a young Israeli designer creates humorous depictions of real-life objects or people, in the form of a shoe.

Mr. Levi constructs his shoes out of leather, metal, and even wood. However, he insists they can also be worn. He usually creates one to fit his own shoe size because he is curious of how they feel on the feet.
His innovative way of making art come alive is similar to that of the late Alexander McQueen. Mr. McQueen was famous for his "armadillo" shoe, as well as, many other unusual heel shapes.

Lady Gaga's shoes...

Amazing Lyre bird

One of two species of Lyrebird found in Australia the other being the Albert's lyrebird.

This Amazing Bird is not only beautiful but has a naturally strange characteristic. This Bird mimics the calls of other birds, also copy cats any other sound which comes to this bird. i.e. chainsaws, camera shutters, car noises, dogs and other noises are no problem for this excellent imitator. This Clever Bird is one of the most impressive and funny in nature, with unbelivable sounds to match the beautiful pictures.

Lyrebirds, especially males, are generally shy and are more often heard than seen. The male builds a display mound - a low hillock about a metre across - which he rakes up in soft soil. He normally makes a series of these mounds and visits them in turn, stopping at each to sing and display.

Lyre bird Pictures

The 19-year-old girl Tempestt Henderson Addicted To Eating Soap And Washing Powder with a dangerous compulsion. Doctors say it could kill her because of it’s toxic compulsion.
But this 19-year-old girl claims she is hopelessly addicted… to eating soap and washing powder.

My bizarre compulsion: Tempestt Henderson, 19, says she is addicted to eating soap - and can go through five bars a week

A rare medical condition has left Tempestt Henderson, from Florida, eating up to five bars of soap a week – and washing powder too.
‘I remember the first time I dipped my fingers into the washing powder,’ she said.
‘I dabbed the powder onto my tongue and it tasted so sweet, and salty…it just felt so right. I was hooked straight away.’
The nursing student says she knew eating soap was dangerous, but ignored the warning labels on the box in favour of licking the deadly powder daily, from the minute she woke up in the morning.
Soon she had moved onto licking the bubbles of soap in the shower, too, a habit that was getting her through up to five bars of soap a week.
‘In the shower, I like to lather up a green bar of soap, and lick the bubbles. And as the soap disintegrates, I pop a tiny amount of the soap into my mouth and suck it. It’s heavenly.
‘I love the clean feeling it gives me. Eating soap feels so much cleaner than just washing with it.’
After six months of eating soap, unhappy Tempestt decided to be brave and seek medical advice. She was diagnosed with a rare disorder called PICA, which doctors told her is characterised by an appetite for substances that are largely non-nutritive.
Sufferers have been known to compulsively eat metal, coins, chalk, batteries and even toothbrushes. It can often be caused by a mineral deficiency, which explains why pregnant women often crave eating coal when needing iron.
But in Tempestt’s case doctors believed the condition was bought on by stress.
‘Things got really stressful for me when my boyfriend, Jason, split up with me and left for college,’ she admitted.
‘He told me he was going to college in Kansas to study business. I begged him to give the long distance relationship a go, but he told me it was over. I was devastated.’
When Tempestt herself had to leave for college, hundreds of miles away from her family home in Florida, things took a turn for the worse.
‘College was five hours away from my family, and the stress got bigger. With no boyfriend and my family miles away, I got lonely, sad and depressed. I turned to bath soap and laundry detergent and my problem got increasingly worse.’
Dr Barton Blinder, the world’s authority on PICA, says that eating soap in these quantities could seriously affect Tempestt’s health:.
‘With soap, the worry is the problems associated with ingesting toxic chemicals, which are typically alkaline but there are other toxic substances in soap.
‘These can damage someone’s metabolism and cause digestive problems. With soap, you’re also concerned about the acid-base balance of the blood.’
But for Tempestt, therapy got to the bottom of her addiction to soap, and the cause of her PICA.
‘I always knew I loved the smell of washing detergent,’ she explained.
I remember the brand my Mum always used to use – I remember the smell vividly, it was the smell of her cardigan when she hugged me, and the smell of my bed sheets as a child.
‘I used to love smelling the powder, but when life got so stressful I found only eating the soap would help.
‘It is an addiction, I can’t stop, and I have sought the help of a doctor who specialises in addiction. The doctor told me I must empty my house of all washing detergent and soap, anything that triggers my addiction.’
Psychologists have said that Tempestt most likely turned to soap eating as a comforting coping mechanism when she found herself away from her family.
‘We use liquid at home now,’ she said, ‘and for some reason I’ve got no need to eat that.’
The doctor gave Tempestt intensive Cognitive-behavioral therapy, or CBT, to give her replacement thoughts that will prevent her from compulsively reaching for soap.
‘I’m learning to think about positive things when I feel I need to eat soap,’ she said.
She has also been encouraged to go for long walks, avoiding places where soap is present, like bathrooms and laundrettes.
She added: ‘Doctors have encouraged me to talk about my issues, because they think my addiction is caused by me bottling things up.’
And for the teenager who used to take not one, not two, but three bottles of soap into the shower, she hasn’t eaten soap since September 2010.
When her mother found out about her daughter’s addiction, she ordered Tempestt to return home from college. It may have been a smart move as Tempette admitted: ‘I just couldn’t face being back there, alone, with a campus full of soap.’
Today, she faces a long road of recovery, but says she hopes she’ll never have to eat soap ever again.
‘I suppose my Mum is secretly relieved that I was addicted to soap,’ she admited, ‘and not dangerous drugs or something.’

Ziona Chana Has World’s Biggest Family Ever


Ziona Chana, He is head of the world’s biggest family – and says he is ‘blessed’ to have his 39 wives. Ziona Chana also has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law and 33 grandchildren. If you are good at math you will find 181 members in this family which is considered as the biggest family in the world.

World's Biggest Family | Entire Family Of Ziona With All 181 Members

They live in a 100-room, four story house set amidst the hills of Baktwang village in the Indian state of Mizoram, where the wives sleep in giant communal dormitories.

Biggest And Largest Family Home in Baktawang, Mizoram, India

“I feel like God’s special child. He’s given me so many people to look after.” Mr. Chana said.
Also he says that, “I consider myself a lucky man to be the husband of 39 women and head of the world’s largest family.”

Mr Ziona Chana poses with his 39 wives at their home in Baktawang, Mizoram, India

The Chana’s family which is the biggest family in the world, is organized with almost military discipline, with the oldest wife Zathiangi organizing her fellow partners to perform household chores such as cleaning, washing and preparing meals.
One evening meal can see them pluck 30 chickens, peel 132lb of potatoes and boil up to 220lb of rice.

The senior ladies of the Chana family show what it takes just to make a meal

Coincidentally, Mr Chana is also head of a sect that allows members to take as many wives as he wants.
He even married ten women in one year, when he was at his most prolific, and enjoys his own double bed while his wives have to manage it with communal dormitories.
He keeps the youngest women near to his bedroom with the older members of the family sleeping further away – and there is a rotation system for who visits Mr Chana’s bedroom.
Rinkmini, one of Mr. Chana’s wives who is 35 years old, said: “We stay around him as he is the most important person in the house. Also he is the most handsome person in the village.”
She says, Mr. Chana noticed her on a morning walk in the village 18 years ago and wrote her a letter asking for her hand in marriage.
Another of his wives, Huntharnghanki, said the entire family gets along well. The family system is reportedly based on ‘mutual love and respect’
And Mr. Chana says, he has not stopped looking for new wives.
“To expand my sect, I am willing to go even to the U.S. to marry” This is what he said.
One of his sons insisted that Mr. Chana, whose grandfather also had many wives, marries the poor women from the village so he can look after them.
Ziona Chana lives with all of them (180 members of family plus himself) in a 100-room mansion.
His 39 wives take it in turns to share his bed.
It takes 30 whole chickens and 220lb of rice just to make dinner.

Source: All India

South Koreans Revolutionize iPhone Market with Sausage Meat Stylus


As of March 20, 2010, winter is officially over for the northern hemisphere, but have we learned anything at all from it? Southern Korean iPhone users certainly have: when it’s too cold to operate your iPhone with your fingers, use a Korean sausage meat stylus instead!

Winter is a chilly season in South Korea. Average January temperatures in Seoul, South Korea, typically range somewhere between 16°F and 21°F, although they have in the past plunged as low as -7°F. (Korean History Project).
And as any survivor of winter knows, cold weather typically renders one’s fingers rather numb, thereby making it awfully difficult to handle small devices, let alone operate an iPhone.
The tech-savvy citizens of South Korea have decided to combat this pesky situation by turning ‘Maxbong’ sausage finger snacks from CJ Corporation into inexpensive meat styluses.

According to Engadget, the sausages are “electrostatically compatible with the iPhone’s capacitive touchscreen.” This means that you can use the sausage to dial calls, launch apps, and even write lengthy text messages. It’s essentially a super cheap iPhone stylus pen.
The key to using these snack sausages is to leave the wrapper intact. However, that doesn’t mean that any unwrapped sausage can be used as an iPhone stylus.
While speaking to iPhoneSavior, America iPhone developer Elam Nikserof confirmed this fact, saying, “Nothing has worked while keeping the wrapper on like the Korean meat stylus.” Apparently there’s something special about Korean sausages. He added, “I’m looking into importing the sausage as an exclusive U.S. carrier.”
Turns out that Evan is too late, though, as Case Crown, a US-based company dedicated to producing the “best quality carrying” solutions for mobile devices, is now offering iPhone sausage styluses to American users for just $.99 per pop.
Anyone care for a sausage? Just make sure you don’t use it while inebriated, because you might just accidentally end up eating it in a rage of hunger!

weirdasianews.com

35 Years +100,000 Toothpicks +3,000 Hours = One Amazing Sculpture

Toothpick sculptures are not unusual - Many artists have created some amazing masterpieces using these delicate wooden sticks. However, San Francisco artist Scott Weaver has taken it to a new level with his recently revealed 'Rolling though the Bay' sculpture.
The 9 feet tall 7 feet wide toothpick masterpiece of San Francisco and its surrounding areas is not only amazingly detailed, but also, kinetic - Which means that it has moving parts. In this case Scott has created pathways through which ping-pong balls navigate to different neighborhoods of the city, providing the viewer with a virtual tour of its most important landmarks.

What makes it even more unique is that Scott, a fourth generation San Franciscan, has created his rendition of the city, with fun little tweaks like hiding the Golden Gate Bridge under China Town and building the city's two famous landmarks - Transamerica Pyramid and Coit Tower,the same height.
In addition to that he has added some highlights of his personal life to the sculpture. Among them are a now closed winery and saloon owned by his great-grandfather in downtown San Francisco, a clock set to the time his son was born and a heart placed inside the Palace of Fine Arts to commemorate the venue of his wedding.

Incredibly, this delicate looking sculpture has survived an earthquake, four house moves and an attack from Scott's Great Dane, who caused the most damage when he destroyed the Golden Gate bridge with just a swipe of his tail.
The artist, who built his first toothpick sculpture when he was just eight years old, says it all began with a kinetic replica of the Golden Gate Bridge and the curvy Lombard Street. He enjoyed rolling around the ping-pong balls so much, that he decided to add to it. While 35 years seems like a long period of time, the artist says he has worked on the project quitesporadically, sometimes taking off as long as two years, to focus on other things.


He estimates that so far he has used about 100,000 toothpicks and spent 3,000 hours on his masterpiece - However, he is not done yet. He not only continues to tweak it, but is also planning to add to it, because while this is the world's largest kinetic toothpick sculpture, it is not the world's absolute largest - And that, is Scott's ultimate dream. Simply amazing!


Resources:inhabitat.com, huffingtonpost.com, fastcompany.com

Girl Gets 152 Facebook Friends Tattooed on Her Arm

f you thought a smartphone was the ultimate way to take your Facebook friends with you wherever you go, think again. A woman from the Netherlands just covered her right arm with tattoos of her 152 Facebook friends profile pictures. Just yesterday I posted an article about a young German girl who forgot to set her Facebook birthday invitation as private and wound up with 1,500 unwanted guests in front of her house, and now this…This whole Facebook social stuff is really getting out of control. Anyway, the social networking addict known only by her YouTube username, Susyj87, spent four months going to the tattoo parlor to have her friends’ Facebook profile photos inked into her skin. Luckily, she only has 152 friends on the popular online network, otherwise who knows, she might have needed a full body tattoo.
Susyj87 probably got this shocking social tattoo to feel close to her friends even when she’s not online, but I wonder what’s going to happen when they change their profile pictures, or when she has a falling out with one of them?

oddditycentral

Addis Family Simply Cannot 'Lego' This Christmas Tradition!

Many families have fun traditions during this time of the year. Some decorate the tree together, while others bake cookies. For the Addis family it involves building giant Lego structures, a ritual that began 18 years ago, when their first son Tom was born.

Over the years, the family who lives in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, have built a giant Santa Claus, an angel, a church, a group of choir boys and even, a Victorian postbox. However this year, the family which now includes 15-year old Holly and 13-year old Christopher has deviated from their Christmas theme and instead, created a Dalek - An extra terrestrial mutant from the British scince fiction television series, Dr. Who. To make it appear a little less ominous they did add a Santa hat to their version,

While the structure may have not been in line with their usual Christmas theme, the amount of effort it took to build was the same - Over seven weeks of painstaking Lego stacking. And, while Mike and Catherine did the bulk of the construction, spending more than 100 hours each, their three kids did their bit too - adding a couple of rows to the structure each evening, as part of their chores.

Mike and Catherine, who add to their collection by buying Lego bricks by the kilo (2.2 lbs) from EBay each year, estimate that their collection of over half a million Lego bricks is worth over $15,000USD.

Besides being a fun family project, the Lego model also provides the perfect background for the family's Christmas picture every year and, a great memory for future years.

That's because come January 6th, the Addis family and a number of their friends will have a have a stacking party where they will knock the Dalek over, painstakingly take apart the bricks and store them into neat piles, until next year!

 Source:DailyMail.co.uk, cambridge-news.co.uk

Lady Gaga's shoes...

panu kea isuot yan?

Christine ‘The Duchess' Walton has set a new record for having the world's longest fingernails and she is entered into the 2012 Guinness World Record book, winning, for the Las Vegas resident, the top spot for human fingernail growth. In total, her nails measure a whopping 19ft, 9in long. The nails on her right hand are 9ft, 7in and her left hand boasts fingernails measuring 10ft, 2in. Christine has been growing her nails for 18 years and the effort and inconvenience have finally paid off.